Lookie!

My niece sent me a text as I was pulling into Hancock Fabric's parking lot. "He's here, I can hear him crying!" So I picked up the two lousy skeins of floss that I drove a total of 70 miles to get ... that IS freaking ridiculous, isn't it? For seven little stitches?

But I NEEDED them. I am really pleased with the way it came out!!

And look at what ELSE I have to show you:

(Dang, that is a schnoz!!)

I present Brandon, Le Nephew!!!  I have NO idea what the middle name is.

A pregnant pause

All right, here it is. It's cute enough. I am a leetle worried about the sizing. As in, it may be too tight-especially in the arms. So worried, in fact, that I decided not to sew on the buttons, and figured I would just tuck them into the package. I'll mail it tomorrow, and hope.

Yarn used Berroco Mosaic (railroad) and Elann Bag Wool (single ply bulky). 1500 yards.

The project that ate my time!

I finally finished a project. I say finally, but really, I have knit it one and a half times (at least), frogged it, and it spent a lot of time in time out-that was several short time outs, not one protracted time out. It's Shirley Paden's cardigan from VK S/S 2004, #11, knit in Elann's Camilla yarn.

To make this easier for you, I recommend-

1) Photo copy the chart and put it in a document protector. Use a Post-it to move up the chart as you work. Write down each row as you finish it. As soon as you finish it. Store the pen in the document protector so you don't have to look for one at the end of the row.

2) Buy deluxe post-its. The super sticky kind. This is no time for shoddy bargain post-its.

3) Mark the "right side of the garment" with a safety pin, a scrap of yarn, SOMETHING.

4) Since the entire garment is knit by the charts, I found I did better when I was alone.

5) Knitting the sweater body takes about 250 stitches a row. It could be that 2 rows may be all you can manage in a session, and then you have to put it away! This is why good record keeping is essential.

6) There were times when I picked it up and could not understand where I was in the pattern. Some days it took me 10 minutes to see it. If you can't see where you are in the chart, just sit with it in your lap. If you can't see it in 15 minutes, just put it down. It is not your day to work on it. I had trouble reading right to left, and then left to right on the pattern. This is true lace!

7) This is not a forgiving pattern. It's extremely linear, and a stitch out of place SHOWS. Fudging doesn't work well. Since the pattern changes every row, I found it difficult to memorize.

8) There is a big paradigm shift on the facing. Study the chart before you begin, and notice how it differs from the main chart-look at how the diagonal travels, and what happens in the wake of the stitches. (Yes, I reknit this portion.)

9) I knit facing A and facing B separately up to the slant points. Then I photocopied charts A and B and taped them together. Then, I worked them concurrently, using markers to designate the increase sector (which I just worked in rib).

10) It might be easier to knit the sleeves in the round. I think I would like it in wool.

Edited to add: I slipped the first and last stitch of every row on the collar and front opening to give myself a springboard for a 3 needle bindoff to attach the collar. It worked great.

I did the same thing at the under arm, and that about killed me. The jacket had a very narrow armscye (is that the right word??), and the sleeve top was fairly wide. I just about screwed myself there.

I'm deluded.

I like to pretend I am very cosmopolitan, but every so often, something utterly East Cupcakian happens, and there's no denying that I live in BFE. On Sunday, we were going to go fire at the range. We drove out to the range, unlocked the gate, drove in, locked it back up. We drove down the rutted dirt road, got to the tables and.....Oh, I guess not! They looked insulted by the very idea!

We met another truck as we were leaving. We told them about the obstacles on the range. They invited us to a (eye twinkling) barbecue.

On the knitting front-still slugging the damned albatross. Did a little easy knitting-another pumpkin hat and a 160 yard scarf.

Another damned hat-

Yeah, ok, I got an armload of new circs in from Discontinued Brand Name Yarn, and I picked up a few balls of Karoke (on sale) while I was there. More on the needles later this week.

I'm not sure what I think about Karoke. It can't make up its mind-you can spit splice it like wool, but it hangs like a cotton. I was just messing around with this, and made a hat for DGD. I used one ball, and I yanked some of the yellow out, just to make it easier to mix into her wardrobe. Just a fun little something.

Come out and Play-yay

DH and I went on a wine tasting tour today. It was fun. Texas is the second largest wine tourist destination in the country. (I can't believe the Columbia River Valley let that one slip by.) I don't know that wine tourism is that much FUN (I tasted both good and ungood today), but it helps that the country's top waterpark AND one of the top shopping destinations in the country are both nearby. The outlet malls ARE this state's number one tourist destination.....but I digress. These days, there are dozens of wineries throughout the state.


I bought the tickets for Valentines. We'd heard there were a lot of wineries in the Hill Country (north of San Antonio, west of Austin, south of Waco) but we've never been. Mind you, we've been in the state for 13 years, and the oldest winery we visited was 20 years old. As we found out, it wasn't necessary to have a tasting ticket for the wineries, but toting the ticket got us a little "extra" at every stop. If we hadn't bought the tickets, we probably wouldn't have gone, so I think that was money well spent. We went to the Fredricksburg Winery (downtown Fredricksburg), Grape Creek Vinyards and Torre de Pietro (right next to each other on Hwy 90) and Sister Creek Vinyards in Sisterdale.

I am not a HUGE fan of reds. I'm not wild about the tannic taste. I found it VERY helpful to taste and smell back-to-back-to-back. It helped me winnow out what I liked and what I didn't. (I had a NASTY Pinot Noir-tasted like vinegar to me!) My pick? Grape Creek and Torre de Pietro are right next to each other, and Grape Creek's wines were very enjoyable. Torre de Pietro kind of set me back on my heels, pricewise. They were pretty proud of their Petit Shiraz. It was 100.00 a bottle. I am sure I am not qualified to drive THAT snob bus. At any rate, if I was only going to make one stop, it would be Grape Creek. We picked up a port, and a sweet white that I thought would be a perfect little "prezzie" wine to have on hand. I just looked at wine awards, and hey, that little 12.50 bottle won a Silver medal in recent competition. I can be the 12.50 snob, ok?


We stopped at Sisterdale because it was kind of in the homeward direction, and they specialize in reds, which DH thinks are wunnerful. DH loved their self-tour (it's in an old cotton gin), and he loved their flavors. (It also helped that there was a large farm of rusting Chevies right next door.) He pointed out the big plastic cork tapped into the side of each barrel. "They call that a bunghole," he announced gleefully and not too quietly. See what I mean about licenses to drive the wine snob bus??


I finished a "punkinhead" hat this weekend. I first made this Ann Norling hat about 5 years ago, and decided I needed a few for baby presents. I am shocked at how easy it was to do this hat-much easier than it was 5 years ago!! So it's done. I need to do several more, because there are a lot of women expecting. EVERYONE loves the pumpkins.

If I hand knit a hat, I can just throw it in a wine bag, right? I am so NOT kidding about that!

Hat Attack 2008 Hat

is done. The pattern's been out less than 24 hours, so I wonder if the hat was difficult enough; there are a number of people (I guesstimate more than 10%) of the participants who are already done.

About the pattern-eh. My project looks like it's supposed to but there's a few bits of weirdness going on in the pattern. I know it's not easy to write one, but if things gave ME pause, I know they really goofed up jeep knitters.

The pattern is based on binary code sequence (01100 and such). I wish it were more balanced. Yarn is Soft Angora, 80%merino, 20% angora, about 130 yards (1.25 balls), color raspberry

I finished, I finished! My first FO of 2008!!!

Well, almost-I have underarms, some ends, a little Euclann bath and a big //holding my breath to see if it actually fits him// DH try on and photo session. Hope it all goes well. I gotta say, I really like it, now that it's done. Gosh, I hope it fits.

If you make this, the Cobblestone yoke is freakin' endless. I made it a little deeper than suggested for a guy, because guys need roomy pits. (Who knows why?) I made added the depth after the initial decreases, because I was really not sure I had enough yarn. Somehow, I haven't really mastered totally invisible wrap-and turns, and that bugs me. I modified the neck a little, because DH likes ribbing, and I don't like knitting garter in the round.

I used Tahki Lima and CTH laceweight. I tried out the wooden Options on this, and I liked them.

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