A Little Yarn On The Side

There's nothing like a little winter vacation to give your knitting meaning. Surrounded by this: knitting seems almost mandatory. The Kauni cardigan is almost ready for armholes a secret project is 95% done, the stamped cross stitch baby blanket sucked up several hours and looks pretty much like it did in the last picture (am I missing some important information about a stitchery space/time continuum or what?), and because the best thing to do when one has 5 quilts in process already is to start another one..... And I am happy to report that it only took one block with tree-alignment issues to figure out that all the blocks would need to have all the trees GOING THE SAME DIRECTION. I have given up on the possibility of figuring things out ahead of time , and am now just aiming for "Before it becomes necessary to bury it in the back yard." Progress is progress. Someone likes the new quilt, but isn't speaking to me just yet. Apparently he wouldn't even play tape ...

Only for a week, but the sweater and I are heading to McCall for a few days. No computers, no internet, just wool and snow and fabric (the sewing machine is coming along too). The gift bags aren't, as one is finished: and the others are just waiting for handles: Overall I'm pleased with them, but while these are actually more useful than these, I still like these better. Are wine bags that would have trouble holding bottles of wine really so bad????? I haven't told my sidekick I'm leaving him for a few days. It will be interesting to see if he gives Andy the 4:00 AM wakeup treatment while I'm gone, or if that privilege is reserved only for the Most Favored Human. Frankly, I'm willing to share that status--especially as Theo caught the time change more easily than I did.....

Tonight I decided to check out upcoming events at the Egyptian Theater--one of Boise's few independent theaters and the only one listed as an historic landmark--because it always seems to have really great events. Last month we went to see a couple silent movies as a fundraiser for the Treasure Valley Youth Symphony, and we've been to several lectures there. I was surprised to see that on March 18, the THIRD ANNUAL Fly Fishing Tour will be held there. Now I might be easily impressed, but how many hobbies have their own film festival? Andy does woodworking, and they certainly don't have a film festival (although that might actually be because there are few titles the wood working world could use that couldn't be misappropriated by the porn industry). I knit, and while the knitting world has its own social networking site and our own conventions, I don't know of a single film about knitting. (You can bet, though, that if we did have a film festival, we would leave so...

Two days ago, I was bored with knitting. Not knitting itself--just everything I was knitting. The lace scarf was disappointing, the Warm Up America blocks were boring AND not using up stash, the January Aran was scaring me with its threat of steeks, and I had restarted the Kauni cardigan for the fourth time using the alternating colors on every-other row and while it wasn't rolling I just wasn't crazy about the way it was looking I was SOOOOO close to ripping it back...but then I discovered that what I had initially read as 3 inches of ribbing was only 3 centimenters, and after ripping back about 6 rows I decided to plunge ahead. There are a lot of steps between bored & obsessed, and other knitters might be able to visit them. I, on the other hand.... Did you notice the lack of content on yesterday's post? That's because I can't type while knitting. I am OBSESSED with this sweater. I LOVE IT!!! If the wool weren't so darn scratchy I would sleep wit...

....wanted to cast on something new and been unable to decide what to cast on? Today I have that New Project urge, and yet none of the yarn is really calling to me, and I'm not lusting after any particular pattern. I can't even narrow it down to sweater, scarf, lace, stockinette, simple, challenging--nothing. Just NEW. I suspect it's because the January Aran--which I have been loving ever since I figured out the twisted stitch pattern--is creeping closer and closer to THE DECIDING MOMENT. When I brace myself and cut those darn steeks....or decide that I am too much of a coward to go anywhere near my knitting with sharp scissors and doom it forever to the Bin of Shame. I finished the first sleeve today, so that only leaves the second sleeve between me and The Steeks! Are there support groups for this????

The Kauni cardigan and me....well, and Theo.......we're trying it AGAIN. My last attempt looked okay color-wise, but the ribbing was rolling, so this time I'm striping only on every-other row of the ribbing. No idea yet if that will still look striped or if it will stop the ribbing, but I did learn a couple things yesterday: 1. Unless you rip back both yarns simultaneously, the alternate stripes function as double knitting and it can be really hard to figure out what row either one of the colors is on. 2. This might increase frustration, and when one is frogging and realizes that one will have to rip everything out and start over, one might get annoyed enough to pull a little too hard, thus breaking the yarn. Thank heavens I have other, better behaved knitting projects. The scarf is zipping along And the first sleeve for the January Aran is almost done! Theo was obviously enjoying playing "Vanna" this morning. You can see the fur on his leg still hasn't compl...