Wild Card!

They did it! The Ravens are in the playoffs as a wild card! WooHoo!!!

Knitting has been going on here today. I did some spinning yesterday and was able to finish up some deep blue fiber I had been working. Next I have to finish up the purple wool/silk blend and ply it. I need the bobbins to ply the blue fiber, so the purple has to be finished first.

I blocked my scarf. This is the 198 yards of heaven scarf that I completed a couple of weeks ago. I love it even more now that it is blocked - the lace shows up so much more and it feels softer than before, also.


A close up of the stitch pattern:



And a close up of the edge. Very nice, I think.

Here is the He Gansey a couple of hours ago - this is some of the front of the sweater. I have since finished the front and joined the shoulders. Next up - picking up around the arm for the sleeves.

I have been swatching for a KAL I will be leading at my LYS in February - the Mondo Cable Pulli/Cardi from Chic Knits. The swatches were knitted a while ago but I had not blocked them. Now they are blocked and measured. The gauge is very close - I can use any of the yarns for the sweater. These are my choices:

On Line Linie 208 nature-wool (not tweedy but not a smooth yarn, either, I like the texture)

Rowan Harris Aran ( a little tweedy and very nice)
Kathmandu Aran (possibly a little too tweedy?)
Which do you thing will work best for this sweater?

A newly opened amaryllis to end the night.

Expectations surpassed

I had my doubts. We've had snow predicted before and it either didn't develop at all or we had a dusting instead of the several inches they were predicting. This snow, however, flew right on by my expectations! We had (officially) 21 inches in the Baltimore area. According to this site Bel Air had 16.5 inches. It was impossible to measure with the wind making drifts all over. The snow drifts were wonderful - beautiful snow sculptures, some defying the laws of gravity, it seemed. Graceful swirls, huge piles, overhangs from roofs, and blankets of snow on the evergreen trees - it was all so wonderful.

Bob and I went out on Saturday, about mid day, to do some shoveling. We knew that it would be covered again but thought a) it would be fun to be outdoors in the falling snow and b) we might divide the shoveling in half.


We were right about a and totally wrong about b. Blowing snow drifted over the driveway and sidewalk, leaving about the same amount of snow on our property as that of those who were not out shoveling. It didn't matter. We had fun. Sunday saw snow angels appearing in our yard along with the clear paths.

We fed the birds on the deck. I so enjoy providing the birds with food during the snowfall. They seem to enjoy a place to snack. We put the food under the table on the deck. The birds have shelter and we have a great view of the feeding.


Sometimes there are fights, sometimes just posturing, but it is a big part of my enjoyment of snowfalls. The cardinals are the most striking to watch but I love the dark eyed juncos. They do this little hop or dance to move snow away from the food underneath and it's so funny to watch. Hop hop, peck. Hop hop peck.

The tree was decorated - red lights, red and gold balls - and I like it a lot.

The presents are all ribboned and looking great under the tree. A lot of stuff was moved out of the room we are putting Mom in, but the bed still has to be set up. I have a few more things to stop at the store for but that can be done once Mom is here. Tonight will be all about getting her room cleaned and the bed set up and ready. Hopefully there will be no fallout from the weekend storms and her plane will leave as planned tomorrow.

Some kitting happened despite everything else. I have started on the front of the He Gansey - I am in the double moss stitch stage still, but it's progress. Eldest son's hat was ripped again and I am back to the stockinette after the colorwork. this is my last attempt. If this fails, I will buy him a hat. : ( I did some swatching for younger son's hat. I still haven't settled on a plan. I'd like to knit it with the yarn doubled to show off the colorwork pattern better (the alpaca is pretty fine) but the stitch count doesn't work as well for that. I have a 46 stitch repeat. We'll see. Maybe an idea will occur to me when I am not sore and tired.

Today was back to work, but it's an abbreviated week. I work today and a few hours tomorrow, then i am taking off for the holiday. I will be back on Wednesday, the 30th. That sounds good. ; )

ETA I didn't get back to post this and forgot all about it with everything going on. Here it is, a little late but accurate just the same.

Perseverance

I am not sure, actually, whether I have perseverance or I am stubborn, but I will not give up on the He Gansey. I didn't get much knit last night, but hope to get at least 2 inches knit tonight. There is no point in taking photos - you've seen it before and it's smaller now than the last time you saw it. ; (



I was able to knit a few rounds on the sunshine socks during my meeting yesterday and once I got home I decided to knit for a while on the second Spiraling Coriolis. I had forgotten that I had about 2 inches of stockinette to knit on that one before the ribbing and changing needle sizes. It was just the thing to knit on last night since I was tired and feeling sort of fuzzy from the sinus stuff.

ETA since I started this post I have managed to complete the stockinette section and am ready to change needles and knit ribbing!



I love football but couldn't really get into the game last night. It was a good game (at least the first half) but I like to have a team to cheer for while watching football and I couldn't bring my self to cheer for either one of those teams. LOL.



Spinning - I did some spinning over the weekend. I am not sure if it was thoughts of Nancy's soon to arrive wheel of just that I haven't spun in so long but I was excited to spin and did. Speaking of Nancy's wheel, she has it in hand, so to speak and is trying her hand at spinning. I can't wait to see her at it!

Uh-oh. I missed a few days

I was making an unofficial (undeclared) attempt to "post every day for a month". I missed.

Nancy and I did not get to the Mannings on Friday for our field trip. They were holding a spinning class (it's a good thing Nancy thought of it and we called ahead) and they advised us to come another day. Instead we went to Cloverhill Yarn store since they are local and also sell spinning wheels. It wasn't totally wasted, but they only had 3 wheels on site. I am not sure that it was worth the trip to the other side of Baltimore on a rainy day. At least Nancy was familiar with the route for the next day's spinning class that she took there. Today she is headed for the Mannings to do that spinning wheel test driving that we had planned for Friday.



While at Cloverhill Yarn Shop, I bought some Galway yarn in beige for DH's warm hat. (I couldn't go to a yarn shop and not buy anything, could I?) I was so proud of myself for keeping with the color (actually a non-color - beige) that he told me in the past he wanted for a hat. He has changed his mind, now, and doesn't mind color (Grrrr). I have permission to add stripes of color as long as the pompom (we've heard the term Man Tassel recently) is beige. I knitted about 3 inches but had to start again, making it larger. That's what happens when you don't make a swatch.






I worked on the thrummed earflaps over the weekend but am not 100% satisfied and so I will keep working on it. The hat looks good, though.



Bob's He Gansey back is finished! I think the anchor looks awesome! I started on the front yesterday and have completed the double moss stitch area, am just about ready for the textured designs on the upper chest.





I have a dilemma with this sweater knitting. It is winter now, almost Thanksgiving. I think I can finish DH's white cotton sweater in a week or so. Certainly by T-day. Should I do that and get it done or, since it is winter, should I put the cotton one aside and knit on the wool sweater. It's going fast. I think I can get the front finished this week or by the weekend for sure. Then I will have 2 double moss stitch sleeves to go - surely that can be done in a couple of weeks. Maybe he needs the wool sweater more, despite the fact that I'd like to have the cotton one done and off my list. What do you think?



I met with younger son yesterday to discuss patterns and colors for his earflap hat and we settled on something we are both happy with. I will be knitting with alpaca again. : ))



The Sunshine sock in the purple yarn is looking good. It won't be a fast knit but it will be entertaining.

My new travel project (I am wearing the previous travel socks today) is the Chocolate Cherry Spiraling Corialis socks. The ribbing has been started and I think I can finish these off by Thanksgiving, too, assuming the normal traffic and waiting at appointments. That would be awesome!



Speaking of awesome, DH goes to see the audiologist tomorrow to get his cochlear implant activated (hopefully)! I can't wait to see what it does!



I made a bad choice re fishing this weekend. Sunday was wonderful and I had opted to stay home. Blegh! Oh, well. I did get to enjoy the sunshine and I got almost all of the clothes dried on the line. That's worth something, I think.



On Saturday, DH and I picked out new glasses. It is hard for him - without his glasses on, he can't see the frames he is trying. He had to go mostly by my opinion and that of the store clerk, and since he is looking to get bigger frames (he needs all the area he can get with the vision assistance) but not look like a bug-eyed fool, he was nervous. Why would he think that I would be willing to walk around with a bug-eyed fool? I do tend to like the more rectangular frames and he doesn't, so there is that, but once he told me how he felt about them, I did (reluctantly) put those aside. Well, choices were made and we get new glasses in 2 weeks.

new sock

I finished the hat for eldest son, but have not yet worked the earflaps. When he tried it on just after the colorwork section was completed, it seemed to fit well (the second knitting of that section) but last night it seemed a little loose. I think I will try to felt it a little to both shrink it and also to make the fabric tighter for more wind protection. I think if I try to remove another 24 stitches to drop another pattern repeat, it will be too small. So, felting is the plan for this weekend. I also plan to work the earflaps then.

I told my husband last night that I was going yarn shopping for a new pair of socks. He looked very relieved when I told him that I meant to shop in my own stash. : ))

I chose a semi solid deep purple colored yarn - almost an eggplant color. I purchased it last year at MD Sheep and Wool. The yarn was dyed by Sandra at Dragon's Stash. Pictures in a day or so.
With that yarn in mind, I chose the Sunshine pattern from Sock Innovation. I think this will be a good combo and I am looking forward to some cabling action (though it's not very much cabling, so it won't slow down the progress of the sock). I have not yet finished the travel sock, so I just did the cast on and 2 rounds to get it started. Since I can't anticipate when the travel socks will be finished (progress depends on waiting time and traffic) I like to have my next sock ready to go. I am now prepared. ; )

I knitted a few more rows on the He Gansey and hope to make lots of progress on that tonight. It's knit night at the LYS. Yippee! Nancy won't be there tonight : ( but others will and I love to see what other projects are in the works. You never know what might inspire you ....
On the other hand, with all of the projects I have in mind and on the needles, I don't seem to need inspiration. Well, socializing is great and that I will get tonight.

Tomorrow Nancy and I are going on a field trip to the Mannings. Nancy might be getting a spinning wheel for Christmas from her family and she will be taking some (most) of the wheels for a spin. giggle. I fully intend to encourage her. I can't go to the Mannings and come home empty handed, of course, but I do hope to limit my purchasing to something small - yarn for a hat for DH, possibly. He needs a nice warm hat that fully covers his ears when he is on the boat in the fall and winter weather.

05:50 is darn early

The Broncos let me down. Big time. It was not a good football weekend.

I managed to stay wake until the 3rd quarter before deciding that my need for sleep was stronger than my need to watch the rest of the (bad) game. I am really glad that I did not loose more sleep over that game.

KnitPicks interchangeable needle sets have given some people fits. I have had a few problems but not many. Last night made up for it, though it didn't have the disastrous consequences that it could have. The cables on two of my projects separated from the connector with stitches on the needles. Two. In the same night! Luckily for me, no lace was on those needles. Both the He Gansey and Rob's earflap hat were affected. I didn't lose any stitches, though, since I noticed it right away. Today there will be superglue application. I would say that I will start buying other needles and get rid of these, but I have quite a few - several Options, two new acrylic tips and a full set of the harmony needles. In order to not loose the use of all of those tips, I will use superglue and periodically replace the cables, I think. BTW, I like the acrylic tips.

So, the decreases on the top of Rob's hat were begun, and the He Gansey has reached the length specified in the pattern for beginning the arm gusset. We need an assessment to evaluate whether additional length is needed before we move on. I am exited because this is the beginning of the interesting part of the sweater.

Addendum - the length is good. On to the gusset.

One more inch of ribbing on the travel socks will finish this pair off. I have to choose another sock to work on since my LYS has not yet gotten the additional Chocolate Cherry Claudia's sock yarn in. I can't finish that pair until I have the extra skein of yarn. I still haven't decided whether the next sock will be stockinette (possibly in Ravens colors) or a Cookie A design.

It's time to go use the superglue.

No boating today

The winds conspired against us. Winds that, 2 days ago were forecast to be 5-10 knots were, this morning, forecast to be 10-15 with gusts to 20 knots. I opted out, DH decided to give it a try. Once he arrived at the marina, though, he changed his mind. Other boaters who had been out (at this time of year there are not many, and they are the true diehards) were coming back in. The wind had truly picked up. DH decided he would stay in.

My knitting projects today included trying on the part of eldest son's earflap hat that I had knitted only to discover that, as I suspected, it was too loose. I frogged it and have re-knit it on 24 fewer stitches. I tried it on my head and it fits - I think it will do for eldest son, also. It looks good.


I worked on DH's He Gansey after I wove in the ends of the Elemental Boatneck. The finished garment will now go into the washer on the delicate cycle for blocking purposes. I will knit lots of He Gansey stockinette stitch. ; )


I sat in the sun on the deck for a while this afternoon and it was wonderful. As soon as the shade started to take over, though, I was cold and had to go inside. That makes me wonder about boating tomorrow. I had thought that I might give up watching the Ravens tomorrow so as to spend time with my honey doing something he loves. If I got cold in my yard at 2:30, what will happen on the water? Hmmm ... Warmth, sitting comfortably in my living room, watching TV and cheering the Ravens on vs. sitting outside, probably in the sun, spending time with DH, freezing my fingers off. I have a decision to make.

Another new project started

I cast on for eldest son's earflap hat. I am winging this design because I couldn't find a pattern that was just right. The yarn is Cascade 220.

Thisis the beginning of the hat. Since I am winging it, I decided to knit the cap first and pick up stitches to add the earflaps.

I took a pattern from the book I won at Knitters Day Out and then changed it up a little so that the lines of the design were thicker. We wanted the red yarn to be more significant.

It looks pretty good, I think. Now I have to hope that it fits. I had to add some stitches for the pattern repeat over what Ann Budds book of patterns said to cast on. I hope the fact that it's stranded color work will help. If not, it will be frogged and one less repeat included. I am no stranger to frogging, that's for sure.

The He Gansey is a little longer and will be worked on tomorrow on the boat.

Yes, it is just about winter and it's rather chilly outside now. It's supposed to get to 30 degrees tonight, but the forecast high for tomorrow is about 60. Hope springs eternal. We plan to go fishing tomorrow. That is, Bob will fish and I will knit and try to stay warm. It should be fine in the sunshine. It's later in the day, as the sun starts to go down that I will be cold.

If I am not frostbitten by the time we come in, I will fill you in on the days events. ; )