Las Vegas Knitting

I couldn't knit on the flight out or the flight back.  We took Southwest but our boarding group was C and so we were last on the plane.  This meant that we had center seats between strangers.  On the way out, we were separated by 10 rows.  On the way back we were in the same row on different sides of the aisle and the people who each had the aisle seats were co-workers so they chatted and understood us chatting over them.  My sister was my guest on this trip; we have family in Las Vegas.  My aunt was crying she was so happy to see us.

Anyway, I did a lot of knitting for Camp Loopy at the conference.  Insurance accounting is not as critical as say, a medical conference, so I can multitask.  I mean, I can listen to Peyton Manning talk for an hour and get 7 rows on the chart done.  Can't think of a better way to pass the time.

This is where the sox were at the end of the conference.  I am pleased.  This also meant I took 10 dpn through airport security twice and lived to tell about it.

Tonight my daughter and I drive up to take an early flight out of O'Hare in the morning to Puerto Rico.  We are going as a group with many students in the district for a Spanish language excursion.  I hope to do the heels, which are in navy, on the flight down.  I already told Renee that I get the aisle and she takes the middle and no one will get hurt.

In quilty news, I am #8 on the queen's list and I have a king to bind.  I hope people take their time so I can get it bound in time.

Camp Loopy!!!

Yep, I am a proud camper this year!  Last year I tried and it didn't work out, but this year I was committed. 

All 3 projects are for me.  So there!

The first one is the Skoosh Shawl.  The criteria was to be inspired by a favorite book, movie, etc.  Using the line ‘never before have we clothed strangers in the garb of our people’ from Lord of the Rings, I made this shawl.  And in orange not green, because I could.  It lives at work in my cube for days when the A/C is going too strong in one building or room or another.

The second one is the Lincoln Cardi.  This one was to be about a vacation.  I was going to start it on vacation, so I was thinking something to do with either Laura Ingalls Wilder or Mount Rushmore, but oh no.  My family stepped in and said Washington DC, pandas and cherry blossoms.  OK, then.  So I hunted and found this pattern in a book called Capitol Knits and thankfully you can buy just the one pattern.  I made it in pink from a yarn by Lorna’s Laces that is named Galena, which is where General Grant is from.  Did I tell you I’m from Illinois?

The third one is Leaf Top.  This one was to be in your favorite colors, but I already did that with the Lincoln Cardi.  So this time, I took a cue from the Preppy Handbook, and went with useful (‘Useful” is used as often as “cute” in a girl’s wardrobe.).  A cream colored short sleeve sweater.   The first 30 rows were the design, so I took that one row at a time.  The rest was plain TV or car knitting and that went fast enough.

So it was a successful Camp Loopy.

And I finish just to find out about Loopy Academy.  ZOMG!

Still. Cannot. Stop. Knitting.

Yes it's true, I cannot stop knitting.  I am enjoying it so!

Today is the start of the first challenge for Camp Loopy.  I am making a shawl that is very simple and very bright.  I want it to stay at work for those times that the building folks cannot regulate the building temp correctly.  This happens more than you know.  And if I got back to the ITS building, that place is a meat locker year-round.

I have also set a yarn challenge for myself for this year.  I want to finish 12 items this year, so about 1 per month.  I have a manageable stash right now and I'd actually like it to reduce by half, if not more.

So here are the first 3 finishes.  I'm very excited!

These are handmitts for a girlfriend on her birthday.  Renee is modeling them.  Yarn is The Loopy Ewe's solid series in barn red.  Pattern is Kujeillen.

These are my handmitts, which are larger in diameter because I'm a larger person.  Yarn is The Loopy Ewe's Loopy Legends series in Tamra's Day Brightener.  How can you go wrong with a yarn called Tamra's Day Brightener?!?!?!  Same pattern, but I put a braided cable in my pattern section.

And here are some socks. Same yarn.  Pattern is Basic Ribbed Socks.

In the queue for June:

More socks in that red yarn up there.  I finished them today but the sock blockers are in use.
A mandala for Attic24.
Camp Loopy June project.

That would get me to 6 projects completed in the first 6 months of the year, which makes me right on track.  So yay!

(And yes, there has been some quilting going on too...)

Cannot. Stop. Knitting.

I just can't stop.  It's like there's 20+ years of pent up knitting going on.  I'm not going to argue with it; I am making things that come in pairs, so if this makes sure both items get made, I'm good with that.

Anyway I've made one pair of fingerless mitts from the Tamra's Day Brightener yarn and now I am on the second sock.  Something that small and portable is so easy to knit on during lost / found time.  For example while waiting for pasta water to boil, I can get 5 needles knit - not quite 2 rounds.  Today we are heading north to celebrate a birthday and Mother's Day, so I will refrain from knitting until I am in the car.  And since the pattern, which is free on Ravelry, is a PDF, I was able to download it to my phone and open it with my Kindle app, which means it's with me all the time and I didn't have to print it.  Technology is amazing.

I've decided to buy another set of size 1 dpns, so I can cast on both socks (or mitts) at once and work the same section on both.  I like that idea better.  With a Hobby Lobby coupon, it's a cheap investment.

I also did a lot (whoo boy a lot) of online shopping this weekend.  I went ahead and ordered yarn and a needle for Camp Loopy's first project, which is June.  The second project is July and I hope I can make that while on the vacation I have yet to plan.  The third is August and that month is hard but I am determined to find a way.  My goal was to make 12 yarn projects this year.  I have 2 done.  #3 is in progress and #4 is queued up. the Camp Loopy order had yarn for 3 projects in it, so that will get me to 7.  I have a worsted weight acrylic afghan started (actually 2 of them - different patterns) and I hope to knock at least one out this year.

My yarn stash is about 2 laundry baskets and I'd like it down to one, so that is the goal.

Other online shopping included Market Day (last order that has to last me through the summer), Essential Bodywear (they had a sale), (stupid Oxford comma) and Penzey's Spices.  And an order and Amazon for coffee.  It was a lot of money spent in a really short period of time but I'm good for a while.

No sewing.  Haven't had the strong urge to go back, but hopefully this week.  Gotta get 2 girl quilts done in as many weeks.  Plus I have to finish up my YBR, which I have stalled out on.  Not big deal; it will all get done.

On the Needles 02/28/14

I'm still working on the first sock.  I'm not really impressed so once I cast off, I will try it on and I may just rip the whole damned thing out and start over top-down.  Toe-up sucks, man.

I do love the yarn and I am pretty sure I will love the sock.  The last time I knit socks was, ahem, 30 years ago.  That means I was in junior high.  Yes, that is accurate.  However, I was knitting with crappy acrylic yarn then and I could not stand the feeling on me feet.  My feet are super-sensitive; it took my DH 3 years to be able to touch my feet to rub them, only to find that the problem was that there was so much tension in my feet, it explained all the pain.  Now my feet are much happier and I am overall much less sensitive, so I decided to give socks a go again with way better yarn.

There's also something else on the needles, but that's super-secret.

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.

Sunday Knitting Update

Here is the sock, Sunday evening.  I started it Saturday evening, so this is 24 hours later.  I am maybe 40% through the foot.  Everything after the first 1.5 inches was done 15 minutes here, 5 minutes there.  Stir the roasting veggies, knit for 14 minutes.  You get the idea.

My goal for this work week is to determine how long the foot part needs to be.  I need to stop making the foot part and make the heel, so I really need to know when to stop the foot part.

Knitting wise, the goal is finish the foot part.  Then I can do battle with the heel starting over the weekend.  

The yarn is called Tamara's Day Brightener and it was a Loopy Legend at the Loopy Ewe.  Needles size 2.  

Socks, an experiment

On Friday, I looked through my new Sock Knitting Companion book and determined I wanted to do toe-up socks with a plain toe, no wraps, etc.  I then saw I needed waste yarn for the provisional cast on, and thus ended Friday night.

On Saturday night, I cast on and got through the toe (badly) and started a few rounds.  However, whatever I did, I have to purl everything instead of knit.  Le sigh.

On Sunday morning, I put the sock next to my living room TV to be knit on when I have free moments.  This morning, it was watching This Week with George S.  I had 20 minutes and so I knit.  I watch the evening news most nights, so I hope to get in at least 15 minutes a day during the mindless part of the sock.

When it becomes time to pay attention again (the heel), I will dedicate time to the effort.  I am hoping that by using this found time, I will get 1 sock done per month.  Which means I should have new Easter socks I guess.

Knitting

Warning, this is not a fun post about knitting.  This is an emotional post about knitting.

I bit my nails as a child.  So when I was 10, and Kim was 17, our mother signed us for knitting lessons one town over.  She even let Kim drive us there and back but of course we had to call and check in.

So I learned how to knit.  I liked the rhythmic aspect of it.  Kim is more free-form and she didn't take to it.  That's fine; our mother thought it was a life skill like typing and sewing and so we learned.  It also helped me stop biting my nails.

So I knit my way through 5th through 8th grades.  I went to a Catholic school and made a sweater for my uniform.  I made gifts and loved to knit.  As some of you may know, we had no freedoms as children, and so while reading was Kim's escape, knitting was mine (at that time).

I entered high school and still knit.  I also could sew and I made some of my clothes.  I had unique things and I grew up in the era of Pretty in Pink, so people got the concept of self-designed clothing.  I made my first quilt in the summer of 1986, after breaking up with my boyfriend.  (As an aside, we have reconnected via social media and he has just learned to quilt.  I remind him to enjoy the process.  He can be hard on himself regarding his art.  He is, as he is with all his art, talented.)

I entered college and I was a train commuter student doing the reverse commute from Chicagoland to the far western suburbs.  I continued to sew, modifying styles (more pants, less skirts) for commuting.  I quilted more and knit less.  I had moved into afghans; I was done with sweaters for a while.   I will state that with the exception of the sweater I made as part of my school uniform, all the yarn I had was acrylic.  100% acrylic.  No good stuff.

So I am in my last year of college.  My father had left, my sister had left (more like driven away in both cases) and I was left with my now dying mother.  She was never a very nice person and made it very clear as time went on that her life had been a big waste and all of us were to blame for that.  I would like to note that my father has NEVER impeded anyone from pursing their dreams.  This was even noted in his eulogy, how strong this trait was in him.  So anyway, I reach Christmas 1991.

Christmas has never been a fun holiday.  As a child I remember the one sided screaming machine of my mother being upset having to see my dad's side of the family.  I remember her desire for the holiday to be perfect and so we had to stay up past midnight every Christmas.  I vividly remember being sick half of my Christmases (which has been confirmed by Kim) and Kim opening my presents (a source of humor now).  I *hated* Christmas.  2 weeks at home cooped up with an angry woman.  She forbade Kim and I to speak to each other, because we would gang up on her and she wasn't having that.

So we are at Christmas 1991.  I know my mother's time on this earth was measured; I worked like mad to make her an afghan.  I figured I could cover her with love.  And I did finish it.  And a few days before Christmas, she said,

"I didn't get anything for you for Christmas, so you can't give me anything."

She knew.  And she ruined it.  Shortly thereafter she said the only reason I knit was to draw attention to myself, to show off what I had made.

And thus ended my knitting.  I stopped cold.  She made me learn a skill, funded the stash, accepted my gifts, wore them, and in a fit of upper-handed rage, cut me down.  It cut me to the core.

I do not want to hear she suffered from mental illness, I don't want to hear about cancer.  I want everyone to know she knowingly said hateful things to her children because she got off on making people feel horrible.  I have lots of examples.  This one pertains to knitting.  People like to tell me it wasn't her speaking; it was the disease.  I really don't care.  I WANT MY FEELINGS VALIDATED.  I am entitled to those feelings and they hurt.

So I packed up my yarn and my needles and moved it all 3 times.  When I arrived here in central Illinois, I went through the stash yarn and donated it all.  I kept the tools - needles, etc.

In spring 2011, just after I finished my MBA, I took a beginning crochet class.  I loved it.  I went and bought yarn and yarn and yarn and sets of hooks.  Yes, it was 100% acrylic stuff, but it was wonderful to be happy with yarn again.  I've made some afghans and potholders.  One class assignment was a set of different potholders in various shapes.  I gave them to my dad for his apartment.  He loved them.  I made some fashion scarves and some winter scarves.  I was working with yarn again.

And then I found Ravelry.  Whoo boy.

And I decided that I would knit again, but only the good stuff.  Unique stuff.  Good yarns, quality workmanship, stitched with love.  I bought some nice stuff from The Loopy Ewe.  Some red, some fun dyed stuff and some other fun dyed stuff.

And now I am trying to make some socks.  Man, it's been a long time.

And while Christmas this year was hard because we knew it was Dad's last, I finally have begun to enjoy Christmas again.  I give full credit to my husband and my child who have worked with me through all of this.

And off I go.  I have no idea what a provisional cast on it, but I need some waste yarn to do it.  So off I go.