Take Two

After knitting about 4 inches all around on the Kureyon 95 pullover, I reconsidered my plan. It’s now a top-down design. The last few nights have been filled up - preparing petition packets at Hillary Clinton’s national campaign headquarters, working in the clothing room at ECHO - but this weekend should allow a little time to sit.

All four of us are driving over the mountain tomorrow morning to visit my mom for her 80th birthday celebration. We are taking her out for lunch, then dinner and cake will be at my sister’s place. I am really looking forward to finally giving her the feather and fan shawl. We are going to have good weather and the leaves should be turning colors up north.

The other big excitement this week was actually meeting Hillary Clinton in person. I attended an event at the Carnegie Institute of Washington, where she gave a science policy speech. She spoke about putting facts before ideology, creating a research institution for renewable energy, restoring NASA’s mission of protecting the planet - it was very inspiring to hear her talk.

 

one stitch at a time

Last night I met a Ravelry person 3D! Rich and I went to Wolf Trap to hear Nancy Griffith and Judy Collins. Two rows in front of me I saw a woman knitting socks - and using yarn that I have already knit into a pair of socks that I love. Imagine! We chatted briefly during an intermission. On the way out to the parking lots we met up again and struck up a bit more conversation. It was nice to meet another knitter. We discussed the finer details of what counts as stash - yarn for charity projects does not count, sock yarn does not count. As I stated that “ebay yarn does not count” I realized that Rich was indeed listening - teehee. I am sure that I will have a chance to remind him that model train cars purchased on ebay take up as much room as train cars from other sources.

After at least four false starts, some with considerable amounts of knitting accumulated, the shawl for my mom is growing and I love it. It is warm and so soft, lightweight but snuggly. I devised a method for keeping track of my repeats (modified spreadsheet scribbled on an index card) and that has eliminated the need to unknit, finally. It was only a week ago that I started the version that is the keeper. The stitch detail:

The flickr version of the photo has notes showing the yarn details.

Rich’s sweater pieces are completed. A Red Scarf is underway and I have swatched two other stitch patterns. With any luck, all three of these projects will be completed before Oct 6, when we visit my mom.

 

knitting: perfect antidote for a working weekend

On Friday at 5 I found out I would working part of the weekend. It’s all good.
The weather is breezy and not too warm, so I have been taking breaks out on the deck with my knitting. Yesterday evening I finished the back of Rich’s sweater. The stitch pattern is not terribly visible in this photo. The basketweave makes a subtle contrast in the shading of the yarn.

While we were at the beach I fooled around with yarns and gauge on my mom’s shawl. I finally added two plain yarns. Intermittently I am varying the number of rows with each color. It’s a very soft and springy fabric.

The sweater due date is mid-August, and the shawl is early October, but I find myself knitting on both of them when I should probably concentrate on the sweater first. I find myself browsing lace patterns and knitting little swatches. While we were at the beach I made several. Love those Barbara Walker books.

 

beach knitting coming up

We are headed to the beach for a few days. YAY! The beach knitting is ready to go.

My mom requested brown and heavy for a shawl. Much as I want to make her happy, I can’t knit a rug when I was planning to knit lace. My compromise is that I will knit something with a dk-weight, not make too many holes in it, and find something in the brown/tan family that I can look at. An important requirement is easy washability, but I wanted mostly wool. I spent time at Uniquities after mulling over several possibilities. I came home with this:

and also some Lamb’s Pride Superwash. I started swatching with two strands held together. When I liked what I had, I used the ball winder and now I have this very portable little project:

The yarn repeats cover my horizontal rows nicely, the solid yarns match perfectly with the Trekking, and I have a dk weight. Mom’s birthday is not until October so I will have a great headstart on her gift. Bonus, the weather will not be too sticky for knitting outdoors.

This is probably not going to the beach:

I hope to finish up the back today. I started armhole shaping last night. I ripped out the entire back after my last photo because I hated the stockinette that was between the ribbing and the main pattern. I also knit two rows yesterday morning while I was waiting for the coffee to be ready and did not find my pre-caffeine mistake until many rows later. dang.