knitabit

Do this!

This was interesting - you should do it.

In response to a comment, No, I did not make it to Estes. Dang it. This is the third year straight that I have had conflicts. Someday I'll get to go...

No new sock progress to report. We're headed up to the cabin over the weekend, perhaps I will finish the first sock while we're driving.

Summer of Socks

This is my blog after all, so I shouldn't have to feel compelled to apologize for not posting to it. For any readers that might still be hanging in there: "I'm still here, and I'm still knitting!"

I abandoned the Peace Fleece project until a future date when I can sit down and think rationally about gauge, fit, etc. I'm sure it will result in ripping up the knitting that's already been done and starting over again completely. Oh well. It's lovely yarn and someday it will be a lovely sweater.

In the meantime, I have declared this to be the "Summer of Socks" and I present to you Sock #1:

This is a Bearfoot yarn - one that I had earmarked to sell on eBay, actually. The day before I left for Wyoming, I went to my favorite yarn store in Loveland to get me some Lorna's Laces and they're closed on Mondays! Waaahhh! So I did some stash diving and came up with this Bearfoot yarn. I'm doing my basic, plain vanilla sock pattern.

I left for Cody on last Tuesday morning at returned at 1 a.m. on Friday morning. Tomorrow we have a team meeting to figure out our schedule for the balance of the summer. I'm sure I'll be up there at least twice more, maybe three times. I'm going to restrict myself to just socks this summer because I have neither the time nor the brain reserves necessary to do anything more complex.

The whole summer thing is working out surprisingly well. My oldest son has a full-time job at the dairy next door, doing odd jobs. He has an excellent work ethic (not inherited from me) and has already endeared himself to his boss. The other two are helping with the irrigating on the family farm. So every four hours or so they pry themselves away from the video games to do two hours of physical labor. My daughter is perhaps getting the raw end of the deal this summer, but her grandma and aunt have pledged to rescue her from the tedium on a fairly regular basis. So I am putting in all these hours on a nearly guilt-free basis.

Finally, I should note that last weekend I actually wore out an Addi Turbo circular needle, size 1. The needle just popped off the end of the cable. I guess their average sock expectancy is about 15 pairs. I can live with that.

p.s. My old banner is back!

p.s.s. Comments are working!!

Vacation Knitting

Oh, hello there. I'm still around, still knitting - just not posting very often. I am on vacation, after all.

I'm writing to you this afternoon from a campground near West Glacier, Montana. In the last 10 days, we've been in the following states: Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Idaho (again) and now Montana. And let's not forget the one-day foray into Victoria, B.C.

I've been working on a Peace Fleece cardigan during the road trip portions of our vacation.

That's the back (completed) and a right front. Pattern of my own design - which I'm worried might be a little snug-fitting. I've had lots of problems with gauge and measurement - I do so much better at home where I have room to lay things out, lots of rulers and calculators and note pads and so forth. I'm just winging it in the front seat of the Ford Expedition and I'm afraid I've not been as careful as I would otherwise be. I wish I'd had time to more carefully plan this project before we left.

Ah well, it's been nice to have something to do on the long car days.

Back to regular postings in a few days.