Knitting at Cub Scout meetings...

It has been an exciting week here at home.  We had 2, count em, 2 cub scout meetings this week.  We also had a long anticipated play date with the kiddo's good friend Dora for a Wii tennis tournament.  We also had a violin lesson with grandpa in tow.  I am really glad that we have no real commitments this weekend.  We even get to have dinner, all together, at one time, eating the same food!  I could get used to that!  

In knitting news, I just sent off my first pattern submission to knitty.com.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be accepted.  It is a lovely fair isle stocking.  We will have to see if the folks at knitty.com like it as much as I do!  Now it is back to the design drawing board to do something for the next issue of Cast On magazine.  

I made mittens a couple of weeks ago.  They are stunningly lovely mittens.  I got them finished a couple of days before my oldest friend in the world's birthday.  They whispered in my ear that they really belonged to her.  They are made out of Lumpy Bumpy yarn in greens, yellows and browns.  They look like a Monet painting from up way too close.  Of course, I listened to that little whisper and mailed them off to my lovely friend, Jen.  She is an intrepid mitten wearer in a world that seems to love gloves.  Now I am making a matching pair for myself since I bought way too much Lumpy Bumpy a few years back!

The blast of summer

Well, it has been a long time since I posted. It has been a blur this summer. The kiddo finished first grade with flying colors, we spent 2 weeks in the pacific northwest, did football camp and CSI camp, spent a week at the beach in Rhode Island, and now we are getting ready for school to start back up!


The trip to the northwest was wonderful. We got to reconnect with some old friends and make some new ones at Oregon Suzuki Institute. The kiddo had a great time playing and learning with a ton of other Suzuki violin kids. When Institute was over, we went to Mt. Rainier for a couple of days and got to do some hiking and exploring. It was really fun.

We just got back from a week at my aunt and uncle's beach house in Little Compton, Rhode Island. We had a fantastic time. The entire Kelsey family was there... My sister, Aunt Caroline, Uncle Peter, his wife and 2 teenagers, and the 3 of us. We ate good food, swam in the ocean, played bocce on the lawn and collected a lot of rocks on the beach. A good time was had by all.













This week was a momentous week for me. I won first prize at the county fair for my kauni sweater and second prize for a shawl that I made for Ben's mom for Christmas. The prizes were $6 and $4 respectively! Oh, what will I do with my $10?

Christmas time is here...

Well, all the holiday knitting is done, save one mitten thumb. Ah, the joy of accomplishment. Of course I still have to wrap everything. At least the big thing is done. I made a large shawl for my MIL and it is done! It is not dry, but it is DONE! It is the Muir from the fall issue of Knitty.com. I love it! It will be dry soon!

The letter to Santa went out in the mail today. The kiddo asked for slot cars, a stuffed indian and a storm trooper. I miss the days when all he wanted was a new violin and some gummy worms, but I think that DADDY will love the slot cars almost as much as the kiddo! My sister is coming to visit for the holiday and that will be great. I don't get to see nearly enough of her and it is nice that she gets to stay for almost a week!

The amazing SOAP-MAN!!!

Well, it has been a while since the last post. Our house has been consumed with costumes for Halloween, and just for fun, but mostly we have been enjoying the continuing adventures of Soap-Man! Soap-Man is a superhero straight from the kiddo's imagination. He wears a white suit with a hood, shoots out soap and bubbles at his enemies, and is generally a great guy to have around. Since the sewing machine was out for costume projects, we figured why not make a "real" Soap-Man...

The kiddo designed him, I sewed him and we both worked on the decoration (that is sharpie marker on white muslin!) Soap-Man is very snuggly, but not particularly soapy in fact. He has been sleeping with the kiddo every night this week...

Speaking of knights... For Halloween, we had an appearance of St. George, the dragon slayer! The costume was fun to make and the kiddo loved showing off his dragon. Thank heaven Ikea had such cool dragons! He had a blast trick-or-treating in this one!

At school the assignment for Halloween was to recite a nursery rhyme and the kiddo was assigned:

Dickory, dickory dare,
The pig flew up in the air,
The man in brown,
Soon brought him down,
Dickory, dickory dare.

The kids had to have costumes to accompany their rhyme, so we have the pig!

All in all, Halloween was a raging sucess at our house. The kiddo had fun, we have enough candy to last us until next year (almost 3 1/2 pounds!), and we have some great dress up costumes to play with too!

As Soap-Man says when confronted with evil: Lather! Rinse! Repeat!

And Now We Are Six...

Last week brought the kiddo's birthday. He is totally into knights and all things medieval at the moment so he had a chocolate Castle Cake!

Instead of a traditional birthday party with all of his friends and relations, he opted for a trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival with just one friend in tow. We had a great time. The kids got to watch a few shows, ride ponies, eat ice cream, try out bows and arrows, watch jousting, get their faces painted and ride an elephant! The kiddo's face looked great with his knight on it!

Also in the news this week, I started working on Christmas gifts. The first in the pile is a bunch of dishcloths (some are the Ball Band Cloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting) and one is the beginner dishcloth pattern that we used at Boersma's. I think these will end up being gifts for teachers and such...

I also started a sweater that will be for one of the kiddos... I just have to see what size it turns out first! (I love not checking gauge too well!) It is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in a really nice navy blue. Should look great on one of the small boys I know! Of course, my kiddo decided he didn't like this color... He wants green!

A string bag

I got some groovy yarn in Rhode Island in August and made some of it up into a string bag. I really like how it looks. It should be pretty tough too! The yarn is Noro Ganpi Abaka (apparently this is tree bark or something...) and it was in the sale shed at Sakonnet Purls in Tiverton, RI for $4 a skein! I had to have it even though I had no idea what I was going to do with it! Now I know!

I ran out of the yarn before I got to the handle so I used some black Aunt Lydia's Crochet thread from my stash to finish it. It looks pretty groovy to me! I have enough yarn to make a couple more too! These will be way cool for the farmer's market... And maybe for christmas gifts too...

The New Old hat is done...

Here it is in all of its glory!

Now I am on to a cardigan for me made of Manos del Uraguay wool in a groovy brown/golden multi colorway. So far I have ripped out the bottom edge at least 3 times. I think I have settled on a yoke style with a stockinette body (with purls somewhat randomly placed for a bit of texture) and a bit of random garter stitch in the yoke. The idea is from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. Pictures once it looks like something!

It is DONE!

The Jockey Sweater is offically done! It looks great with shark print pajamas too! Now we just have to wait for fall...

Wired knitting

Last night I started playing around with knitted wire again. Here are the results...

This bracelet is from Nancy Wiseman's book Knitting with Wire. It is actually pretty easy to make, but a bit hard on the finger tips. I like the color coated wire a lot. As soon as my fingers heal up a bit, I will make another one!

The green monster

Well, this one is called the green monster. Of course, every kid will be jealous of it... The kiddo dyed the yarn himself in Kelly Green Wilton Icing Color. He told me that he didn't want stripes. I suggested half and half on the front, he countered with quadrants so it would look like a jockey (he really got into the Kentucky Derby). He even wants me to put numbers on the sleeves. You never know!

I also finished the blue and green socks for the kiddo this week. They look good and he likes them...

Finished socks!

These lovely socks are finally done! They have been my "car project" for quite a long time. I actually worked on them on trains on the way to and from NYC over spring break and quite a bit last weekend at the "Relay for Life" event. They were very good company in our tent between laps on the track.

They are Mountain Colors Barefoot, my favorite sock yarn of all (of course, I haven't knit up any of my home dyed stuff yet either...) They will have many friends in my sock drawer. They will also enable the retirement of some of my first Barefoot socks that have gotten a bit too felty through years of washing!

I started on a new pair of socks for the kiddo. He chose the yarn on our last trip to the yarn store in Fredericksburg. It is really nice, cotton, bamboo, and lycra blend. So far it is knitting up nicely, but the socks look big to me. Kiddo will have to try on the cuffs before I go too much further!

Introducing... The cardigan...

It is all finished! I finished tucking in all the loose ends last night while watching Grey's Anatomy (a guilty pleasure...) The knitting gods must be smiling because today it is 55 degrees out and a perfect day for a cotton cardigan! The fit is just right although I suspect that the sleeves are a bit too long. We will have to see how it does after a washing or two!

Of course, the big question is... What next?

The bag is finished!

The recycled bag is complete, and the kiddo has claimed it as his own! It works well for him. I think I will make the next one bigger now that we have proof of concept!

Now I just need to buy a lot more stuff that comes in plastic bags... Wait, that's not the point! I guess I will have to wait for natural accumulation!