Knitting Suffered

Knitting has suffered this week.

Bathroom Redecoration

I worked on steaming the wallpaper border off the upstairs bathroom.  It took longer for the steamer to heat up than it took to remove the wallpaper. Go figure!  The paint has been bought and all the holes in the walls have been repaired. I won’t get a chance to paint until next week as I have two conferences to juggle this weekend. All the hooks, handles, drawer pulls and towel racks are being replace with shiny new chrome ones. The light fixture will also be replaced as soon as I find one I like.  Should only be a few more days of work. Luckily, this is the guest bathroom, so no one is inconvenienced.

Meeting & Conference Preparation

Hours, this week, have been spent preparing for two conferences, a book club meeting, a women’s retreat planning meeting and an investment club meeting. Silly me! Facilitating the book club and one of the conferences and being the investment club treasurer. Why don’t I learn to say no?! One of the conferences is a board of directors conference for Habitat for Humanity. I just go and listen and learn. Yeah!   The other conference involves women from around the state meeting for food, fun, two service projects (one putting together packets for a prison; the other assembling newborn layettes for a local pregnancy center), a tour of the pregnancy center followed by more food, and ending with a ball (dinner and dancing.) Yes, more food!

Knitting Progress

Not much.

Scarves - I only have 66 rows left on each of the two color scarves that I am making for two of our grandsons. The boys chose their colors. Logan’s is brown and beige; Holden’s is blue and gray.  Now, our other grandson, Thomas, wants one in green and black.  Maybe next month.

La Vie de Bois Socks - I have finished the heel and have knitted a pattern repeat and half of a second one. One more to go and then the cuff and the first sock will be done. The pattern is well written and the design is beautiful. I just can’t seem to get into a rhythm knitting the lace. I have to keep the chart close at hand and constantly check it. My goal is to finish the sock this next week.

Red Socks - I cast on the toe of a red sock. Just a red sock. Plain sock. I needed something small to carry in my purse for the occasions when I am waiting. The projected needed to be simple. So, a sock. If I feel adventurous when I get to heel flap, I am going to add a white heart in intarsia. We’ll see.

KnittingProposed

I would like to finish the scarves so that I can cast on a baby sweater or cap. At some point, I plan to swatch for a green alpaca cardigan.  The yarn arrived two weeks ago and is still in the package. I am looking at a Kathy Zimmerman pattern. Don’t know if I am ready for all the cables yet.

Family

Three grandkids have birthdays this week. They are growing up so fast! Not babies anymore. Husband, Tom, spent 4 days in Washington, DC but is now home. Since I don’t sleep well when he is traveling, we are both exhausted. Don’t see much time in the near future to catch up on sleep.

However, it is 11 pm now so I am going to give it a real try. Goodnight!

Friday

Good morning!  At least it is morning when I am typing this.  

The last few weeks have been trying. Lots of traveling around the state with hubby’s volunteer job. He is the equivalent to the state president of the organization. 

In between traveling I have been undergoing allergy testing as I have a new allergist (Old one retired. How dare he?!), and it has been 6 years since I have had them. Because I reacted very strongly last time by having a major asthma attack, the new doctor divided the test. This meant that I had 1/3 of the test each week for 3 weeks. Yuck!  I reacted to the same old stuff. Allergy shots will still continue. 

I also had a flu shot and a TB test. Then on the way to the last appointment, I had a back tire blow out. No injures to me or the car, but the tire had to be replaced which involved a tow truck across state lines as I wasn’t near the tire repair center and the lug nuts had to be cut off.

Yesterday was much better.  Very uneventful. Except for the fact that the La Vie de Bois sock I am working on got the foot finished and the heel turned.  I have started the leg and have about an inch of the lace pattern finished. Looking at the beautiful sock emerge on my needles makes me want to hug Heather (boutrosbabe on Ravelry) for designing such a great pattern.  (If you haven't joined Ravelry yet, you need to!)

I am hoping to finish this sock this weekend. Hubby, Tom is out of town traveling to DC. I might have a chance.

Since I rarely ever have second sock syndrome, I plan to cast on the second sock as soon as the bind off is finished.

I also plan to start a pair of plain vanilla socks (that is - mindless) to have as car and wait knitting. The La Vie de Bois socks have a different chart for the front and back of the sock, so it is easier to knit when I am uninterrupted. 

For my vanilla socks, I am thinking red yarn on size US 2 (2.75 mm) needles. Maybe I will add a heart to the leg below the cuff and call them my valentine socks.  Then I could join one of the podcast KAL.

Still working on the grandsons’ scarves. They are about 2/3 done!  Mindless knitting, but  they are getting rather large to schlep around!

I am heading for my comfy chair with a cup of tea to pick up my needles and knit, knit, knit.

Hope you have a great Friday!

Prize

Don’t think I ever mentioned that when Dramaticknits, Steve, had a contest to destash, I won a prize by knitting up 38 skeins of my stash over the summer.  My prize was a gift certificate from Keegan Lane Yarns for their Toasty Sock Yarn. Unfortunately, it was a wool yarn and I am very allergic to wool. 

I contacted Melissa from Keegan Lane Yarns. BTW, she and her honey have a great videocast.  Melissa agreed that since none of their yarns are wool free that she would make me a Christmas ornament instead. I received it before Christmas and it held a place of honor on our tree. The ornament contains a mini skein of yarn with the note: In case of emergency, break glass. She used her specially dyed yarn in green, white and red. I love it! I just forgot to show pictures of it. Here they are.

I would recommend her company as she was so generous to offer the prize and then she worked with me to find a prize that I could use. What service!

Keep knitting. 

Productive Day

Today was very productive. 

First, I opened my new Breadman bread machine. I have been trying for years to make a good gluten free bread with my old machine. The Breadman comes with a gluten free cycle. It only mixes once and has only one rising before it bakes. From start to finish bread from a mix is ready in 1 hour and 19 minutes. Woohoo!

It looks like bread, it smells heavenly, is soft and tastes great. If you have ever tasted gluten free bread you would understand the excitement. Most of the bread is so dry that the only way to eat it is to toast it. Sound contrary doesn’t it. Take something dry and make it drier.  Go figure.

Second, I was asked by a family friend to make more of the Cran-Apple Nut Chex Mix. So I spent the morning nuking, stirring, nuking, stirring over and over again. The smells coming from the kitchen was intoxicating.  

I am going to have to start Jillian Michael’s “Shred” again soon!

I even got some knitting done today.  I cast on Heather from Highland Handmades, La Vie de Bois Socks using Berroco Comfort Sock in the Invercargill on two size US 2 circular needles. According to Heather, La Vie de Bois is a saying in Maine that means “That’s life in the woods”. I think that Invercargill is a good choice as it is green and brown like the woods with some teal for the sky. 

The pattern is lace that is going pretty well so far. Each repeat  doesn’t take long at all. I hope to be at the heel of the first sock tomorrow. The yarn is nice and soft. These should be a great sock without being too thick to wear in shoes. These will fit the bill as I need some more handmade socks because store bought socks never fit and I only knit a few pair for me last year.  Some of those are too thick for regular shoes.

So back to my knitting!

12th Day of Christmas - Epiphany

Happy 12th Day of Christmas -- the traditional celebration of Epiphany. The day the wise men arrived to give gifts to the Christ Child. Throughout the world, this day is also the day that Christmas presents are exchanged. It is the day that our wise men arrive at the nativity scene in our home. They have been wandering all over the house for a month.

Christmas has been good this year. I received the trip to NYC and Pennsylvania, a new cookbook, an Our Lady of Guadalupe pendant and a knit kit and yarn from Indigodragonfly.

The knit kit includes a stitch counter, tape measure, thread cutter, scissors, stitch markers, crochet hook, darning needle and point protectors all in a small case.

The yarn from Indigodragonfly is the December shipment of her Nut-Free Sock Yarn Club. Nut-Free because she works with your allergies and dyes beautiful yarn that doesn’t trigger allergic reactions.  This allows knitters with allergies to knit with her great colors. Kim does have the most unique names for her yarn colorways. 

December Yarn Club Shipment including pattern, yarn and cute Splityarn notion bag  

Young Helpless Damsels in Damp Climates Colorway. Yummy!

Back to knitting!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2012!

We are home from NYC and Pennsylvania. We took the Amtrak train early in the morning of December 26th. We got a sleeper compartment and 15 hours later we arrived at Penn Station in NYC.  

Knitting December Socks on the Train

It was great seeing our daughter and her family. She had to work during the mornings of the week after Christmas, so her husband, Michael, their sons and Tom and I walked all over New York for 4 mornings. Joanna joined us for lunch each day and then we all walked to new and exciting places in the afternoons. We walked most of Central Park and most of Riverside Park. 

Central Park & Belvidere Castle

New York Skyline from Central Park

The Rock

FAO Schwartz Entrance and Doorman

Eating Lunch overlooking skating rink at the Rock

Enjoying the Windows on 34th Street

Window on 34th Street

Times Square

Statue of Liberty

After Sept 11th

Blowing Bubbles in Central Park

T-Rex

We visited several museums: Natural History Museum, Bible Society Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The food was great all week. New York pizza, delis, Fishtag Restaurant and Cafe LaLo’s for dessert. Cafe LaLo is where Tom Hanks met Meg Ryan in “You’ve Got Mail”. The Creme Bulee was de-lish!

The weather in NYC was mild with no snow. Great walking weather. And yes, across the street from their apartment was the Yarn Company. I stash enhanced some worsted weight alpaca from Blue Sky Alpaca. Plan to make a shawl out of the crimson and to use the brown in my Alpaca Iceland Yoke Sweater.

On New Year’s Day, we rented a car and drove through New Jersey to Pennsylvania to visit our son and his family. On Monday, Jan. 3 it started snowing as we were heading out of town. It snowed some in Virginia. Just enough to be pretty but not enough to be treacherous.

Son's house in Pennsylvania - Built in 1830

Snow!

We had a great time and it is also great to be home.