Ah Success

Finally. I made a hat that fits. You'll have to trust me on the fitting part--he did not want to wear it for the camera. (Give it a month for the temps to dip down a bit...)

Pattern: Very Warm Hat by Elizabeth Zimmerman (a hand-out from Knitting Camp 07)
Motif: A modified "We Call Them Pirates" chart provided to me by Stacee (knittingelephant)
Yarn: Cascade 220 (.4 skeins of blue and gold)

Blue and gold were chosen because those are the colors of the boy's coat. Not for any team affiliation. I grew up in Ohio and had to say this *first thing* to my mother, who still believes if you wear blue and gold you are, even if you don't mean it, rooting for Michigan.

Try, Try...Try Again?

This is my second attempt with this hat. I tried it last year, as well.

This time it's too big. And it's made with a large seam that's designed to cover the ears with double the fabric. I like the idea in theory, but in practice it means that there's a big, chunky seam running right through the pattern. And you can see it, especially since it's too big for his noggin.

So, ever emboldened (?!), I've decided to try again, but this time I'm using Meg Swansen's V. Warm Hat (Rav link) that I got at Knitting Camp last year, and N has chosen the motif from the We Call Them Pirates hat. Should be interesting! At least this one is completely lined..it's basically two hats, one knit inside the other. I hope it'll work. It has to..it's the third time.

New Start

I know we were asking for it, but starting in the first grade instead of Kindergarten turns out to not be the most seamless experience on the planet. But he has stepped up and has taken the whole thing in stride.

Tuesday when he started school it was 92 degrees. Today, two days later, it won't even hit 60. Things are just very weird here, overall. The whole school experience and weather wackiness have left me feeling a bit unmoored.

But I did finish a baby cardigan for a baby shower I'm attending in a few weeks. It's the Easy Baby Cardigan by Knitting Pure & Simple, made with stash yarn: Sheep's Gift from Joslyn's Fiber Farm. It's very lovely and there was plenty in one skein to make this sweater. I might even crank out a hat to match, since I already bought pink Robeez for the little one, who is due in October. She'll need a wool sweater, if today is any indication of the Fall and winter that are ahead of us.

The Summer Away

It appears as if I took the summer "off" from blogging. The truth is there are a whole lot of reasons why I haven't. And they seemed to overwhelm the reasons why I should. And that is all.

We still haven't sold our house. I'm convinced at this point that we'll spend the rest of 2008 here and a good portion of 2009. We have about 40 days left on our listing, and after that we are not relisting it until after the holidays. Who wants to spend Nov & Dec keeping their house immaculate for showings? Not I, said the fly.

So it works out Ok. Really it does. Thankfully my husband is his own boss in his new venture and he has been working from our house since July 1. He can continue to do that, with semi-weekly commutes to Boston.

Our son starts school tomorrow (!) and if we don't have to move him immediately to a new school, I think that's what we prefer at this point. Some may remember he's due to start kindergarten, but we inquired with the principal about whether or not he has made leaps of progress so as to sit well in first grade. A few weeks ago he was tested by a first-grade teacher who deemed his skills to be more than adequate for first grade, so off to first grade he goes. He'll be the young one, but we're confident that he'll do well. (And when he gets older, we can tease him about never learning to share because he "skipped" kindergarten.)

As for me, well...I'm just trying to ride the sea of change, for lack of worse imagery. Our daughter most likely will be home with me all the days because we didn't enroll her in preschool because we thought we were leaving. It's a difficult place to be in...leaving but on hold. Going but staying. But I think I've mastered it by now--we've been in a holding pattern for quite awhile.

Ear Cozies by Fiber Trends

I haven't blogged, but I have knit! Earlier this summer I churned out a few hats for the Iowa flood victims. There is still time to provide items for them, although now I suspect with the hurricanes in LA, MS and TX, Iowa's flood victims might get "lost". They are taking:

• mittens
• caps
• scarves
• afghans
• prayer shawls
• baby blankets
• dishcloths
• socks
• infants, children’s and adult sweaters
  

Everything should be sent by November 1 to:

Post office address:
Cottage Creations
At the Farm on Deer Creek
Carpenter, Iowa 50426

UPS or Fed Ex address:
Carol Anderson
4562 Zinnia Ave.
St. Ansgar, IA 50472

I have matching mittens in the works. It'd be so nice if you could churn something out to warm a little head in Iowa this winter. Many people there lost everything in the floods of June.

Superstitious

I try not to be superstitious. I inherited a few from my parents, though. When the salt spills I have to throw a bit over my shoulder, for instance. Innocuous, for the most part. However, the past two times I've blogged, I've come down with a big illness shortly thereafter. What's up with that?

I'm actually still sick. Low-grade fever and possibly heading toward another sinus infection. I'm trying to head it off with a neti pot. Thankfully husband is in town this week and has been picking up my slack.

Monday was the last day I was out and about. Here's a colorful photo of M, who is growing up so quickly lately. We had to take her to the ER last week with croup, but she has recovered.

Doing her best to beautify our house while it's for sale

Over the weekend, our son really got the hang of riding his bike without training wheels. Santa brought this new bike for Christmas, and it didn't come with training wheels, so there has been some motivation to ride it. Seeing as Santa also took the other bike that had training wheels. Santa's ways are mysterious, for sure.



Like about a billion other people, I started the February Lady Sweater. I'm using Araucania Nature Wool and although I had to fiddle with the numbers because my gauge is off, it's working up nicely. I don't know what those people at Araucania were smoking when they got 18 stitches for 4 inches on size 6 needles--the gauge on the label. I like this wool at 6 stitches per inch.

I've also decided to write up my diaper cover/wool soaker pattern and sell it on Ravelry. I have uploaded a total of three hat patterns on Ravelry for free, and they seem to be going over well. I like my diaper cover, because the design is very clean and has an adjustable waistband, too. We'll see how it goes. Right now I'm just trying to recover from this virus and make sure it doesn't go all bacterial in my sinuses. I'm sure blogging about it won't help, eh?

Published

I forgot to share that I finally published my Cherie Beret pattern (free) on Ravelry. You can find it here!

"I don't know where you went..."

I've been here the whole time, Internet. Just not feeling like blogging. When I have nothing but complaints, whines and moans, I usually refrain from posting. So that makes me a very intermittent blogger, at best.

But then a blog pal left a comment and said "I don't know where you went..." and it made me feel a little badly for not updating lately.

Let's see. Shortly after that last post, I had a vicious stomach flu that took a week to get over. I did finish my mom's socks for Mother's Day and they were semi well-received, although a week later she still had not tried them on. And I haven't asked about them since.

After that, I needed a sure-fire project to pick me up, so I knit my first lace: a Shetland Triangle Shawl for my oldest friend. We go back to the 4th or 5th grade, when she moved to my school. Somehow we keep reaching out to each other from time to time and I truly believe we will be connected throughout our lives. She's a very special person to me.

Project: Healing Shawl (Shetland Triangle Shawl from Wrap Style)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy Sock in Gothic Rose
Modifications: 10 repeats, but I'm pretty sure I could have done 11
Received: Extremely well. Better than expected. Happy.

After that, I knit a cabled pillow, but I have yet to sew it up, so that'll be for the next post. I also caught the February Lady Sweater fever, and cast on in 100purewool's 3-ply. It's turning out lovely.

100purewool 3-ply in Azul Profundo

On a continuing personal note, our house has been on the market for just over a month. We are hoping to move before school starts, but we're not counting on it. The housing market, if you haven't heard, isn't great. But we are buoyed by the fact that a few houses in our neighborhood have sold in the past few weeks.

I continue to spend way too much time on Ravelry, and CESOB in particular. I've met some great friends there and would like to give them a shout-out. We just had a stitch marker swap, and these are ones I received from Lynnea. I'll post photos of the others in another post. I promise to post again in June. Although I can't promise it'll be upbeat.

Lovely stitch markers from Lynnea