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July 28, 2005

Moving Right Along

Knitting lace is great. It's challenging, it's fun and the end result is a beautiful . . . something. I know this because I have finished the Leaf Lace Shawl. (waah hoo - throw me a party) It took nearly two months and it was my first lace project and I'm pretty happy about the whole thing. Except. It needs to be blocked. I have wandered through my whole house with this thing in my hand and I have now come to the realization that I don't have a suitable place for blocking a shawl of this proportion anywhere in my house. Between the dog, the cat, the husband and the kids, there's just nowhere to spread it out and leave it and know it will be safe. So, the shawl sits in a heap in the sewing room for the moment. The only place I can think of to block it is on the pool table in the garage. And, as soon as they all stop playing pool, that's what I'll do.

In the meantime, I did some shopping. This is the stuff that came today from Jimmy Beans Wool. I ordered it on Tuesday and it traveled from Nevada to Massachusetts in two days and that's what I call pretty good.

We have Ann Norling fruit cap patterns. C'mon, you know that Ambrynn needs some of these. A pumpkin hat for Halloween, how cute will that be?! We also have T-pins for the blocking of the shawl. And we have Rowan #34. Birch, anyone?

After a project like the Leaf Lace Shawl a little instant gratification is in order. I got it knitting this.

That's a Flower Washcloth made out of Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille. The pattern comes from the book Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick and it took about a night and a half to whip up this little cutey. You make the 5 petals and then join them together and knit the center. The chenille makes for a great washcloth even if it did hurt my hands while I was knitting it.

Tomorrow we're off to the great state of Vermont for a reenactment here. If I bump into Norma, I'll say hi for you guys.

Posted by Carole at 7:34 PM | Comments (2)

July 27, 2005

No Cream In My Coffee

I Am a Plain Ole Cup of Joe But don't think plain - instead think, uncomplicated I am a low maintenance kind of girl... who can hang with the guys Down to earth, easy going, and fun! Yup, that's me: the friend everyone invites. And I'm dependable too. Both for a laugh and a sympathetic ear. What Kind Of Coffee Are You? Take This Quiz :-)

Hunh. Well, I don't know if I, myself, am a plain ole cup of Joe, and I sure as hell ain't low maintenance (just ask Dale) but I do prefer plain ole Joe over any fancy-type coffee drinks. Black, no sugar, please. Go ahead and take the quiz, it's sort of fun.

You want some knitting content? The Feather and Fan socks are done. This is good news as I really didn't enjoy this cotton yarn. (Don't ask me what it is, this is the yarn that fell in the pool and the label disintegrated.) It didn't actually make my hands hurt but it felt stiff and awkward. The pattern, however, I liked very much. It's from the book Socks Socks Socks edited by Elaine Rowley. Here's the finished product, being modeled by the Lovely Hannah, the recipient of the socks.

The crossed foot pose has nothing to do with me trying to distract you from the mismatched stripes. It's just the way she was sitting. Yup, she always sits on the deck with her feet balanced over a pot of petunias. Really. I swear. And, while those mismatched stripes bug me, they don't bug me nearly as much as they would if these were my socks. Just saying.

Posted by Carole at 8:07 AM | Comments (10)

July 25, 2005

Where It All Began

The sock and I spent the day yesterday at what we fondly call the "family beach." It's actually on the opposite side of the pond from where Dale's Boy Scout troop goes to summer camp and I have spent many, many happy hours there over the years.

In the summer of 1999 it's where I learned to knit. At that time I was between library jobs and working part-time at a local fabric/yarn store and was completely obsessed with learning to knit. I kept fondling all this lovely wool and really wanted to make Hannah a sweater. My friend Lois, who can do absolutely anything, told me she'd teach me to knit. Now, I love Lois like a sister and one of the reasons I do is because she is THE eternal optimist. Here are some excerpts from actual conversations we have had:

Carole: Lois, can we start and finish a quilt in a weekend?
Lois:Sure, we can!

Carole: Lois, can we make Hannah a Halloween costume in an afternoon?
Lois: Sure we can!

Carole: Lois, can we make a Civil War reproduction ball gown in a week?
Lois: Sure we can!

Carole: Lois, can you teach me to knit?
Lois: Sure I can!

You get the idea, right? The word "can't" does not come out of this woman's mouth.

So, when Dale and I set off on a two-week camping trip at the "family beach" Lois and I decided she would come visit for a couple of days and teach me to knit while she was there. Now, me being the totally obsessed, anal-retentive person that I am, I didn't want to learn to knit by making a scarf - I thought I would be bored. Lois assured me that starting with a sweater would be fine. And, while it's great to have a friend that's optimistic about her own abilities - perhaps she was a little overly optimistic about mine. Nevertheless, I picked out a pattern for a cabled pullover sweater (Carole: Lois, can I learn to knit with this pattern? Lois: Sure, you can!) and bought all the necessary supplies before we went camping. Lois came and we hung out on the beach and she taught me to knit. It wasn't pretty. There was throwing of yarn. There was gnashing of teeth. There was swearing. And that was just while I learned to cast on. Just as I started to maybe get the hang of things, Lois had to go home. Without Lois there to do it for me show me the way, I was completely lost. The sweater got shoved in a closet in the camper and that was the end of that.

I might have been in over my head with that pattern, but I was bitten by the knitting bug that week. It was another year before I tried again and this time I made myself knit a scarf first. I went from that scarf to my first pair of socks and I haven't looked back. As for the cabled pullover sweater? I never did finish it. Too many bad memories.

Yesterday, though, on that beach? It was all about good memories and happy knitting and butterflies!

Posted by Carole at 11:27 AM | Comments (7)

July 21, 2005

Will We Ever Need Things To Keep Us Warm Again?

So, do you think I blew it? Or do you think I kept the faith of the "Wednesdays are for Quilting" rule? Here's a hint.

That's 36, count 'em 36, Log Cabin blocks with the first light and first dark sides completed. So, I must have stuck to the rules, right?

Well, ummmm, not exactly. I actually worked on the blocks last weekend, so last night when Dale suggested we go out while Hannah was at a birthday party, I was able to say an emphatic, yeah, baby. And I didn't even feel guilty about it because I'd already met my quota for the week.

Okay, so I might have felt a little guilty about not quilting on the very first Wednesday following the creation of the "Wednesdays are for Quilting" rule. But you all know how hot it is around these parts. And Cassie put it best when she wrote about the absurdity of working on things to keep us warm when it's hotter than the hinges of hell. Honestly, though, I'm not complaining. Stephanie said it quite eloquently a while ago -- you can't complain about winter and summer. Pick one and hate it more. I pick winter! C'mon, guys, remember winter? The cold and the snow and the shoveling and the heating bills and the kids (and husband, in my case) home from school unexpectedly? That sucked! In the meantime, though, the creation of things to keep up warm just feels a little silly right now.

That's why I'm perservering with socks (and so's Margene!) and tiny quilt squares instead of Einstein Coats and Leaf Lace Shawls. Yup, that's why. It's got nothing to do with the fact that the Einstein Coat is a sweltering mass of garter stitch or the fact that I don't understand the bind off instructions for the Leaf Lace Shawl. Not a freakin' thing to do with those issues at all.

You guys are buying this, right?

Posted by Carole at 11:03 AM | Comments (4)

July 20, 2005

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

The leg of the second Feather & Fan sock is about done. I'm going on record now and saying that the stripes don't match and it's not my fault. Really. This yarn creates stripes in a random - but not random - way.

See what I mean? Sometimes I get two stripes of a color interspersed with the blue, sometimes I get three. And the order of the colors seems to be random as well. Green, yellow, red, yellow, red, green, yellow, green . . . green, yellow, green, red . . . makes no sense to me.

But there are other things in the world that make no sense and they're more important than stripes on a sock. Like terrorism. Have you guys seen this? Go ahead and take a look, I'll wait.

Is that cool or what? Here's what they say about their website:

We are not afraid to ride public transportation.

We are not afraid to walk down a crowded street.

We are not afraid of each other.

We are not afraid to say that terrorism in any form is never the answer.

We’re not afraid is an outlet for the global community to speak out against the acts of terror that have struck London, Madrid, New York, Baghdad, Bazra, Tikkut, Gaza, Tel-Aviv, Afghanistan, Bali, and against the atrocities occurring in cities around the world each and every day. It is a worldwide action for people not willing to be cowed by terrorism and fear mongering.

The historical response to these types of attacks has been a show of deadly force; we believe that there is a better way. We refuse to respond to aggression and hatred in kind. Instead, we who are not afraid will continue to live our lives the best way we know how. We will work, we will play, we will laugh, we will live. We will not waste one moment, nor sacrifice one bit of our freedom, because of fear.

We are not afraid.

You all know that I haven't used this blog to say much politically, but this seems like something the knitbloggers could get behind. Let me know if you post something there, okay?

And, for those of you asking, here's the latest and greatest from Ambrynn. Her future is bright and we owe it to her and all the other babies in the world to protect that future. We're not afraid.

Posted by Carole at 8:05 AM | Comments (8)

July 18, 2005

Harry Potter Rocks

Despite the fact that ten copies of the new Harry Potter book sat in my office for over a week, my personal copy didn't arrive until Saturday afternoon at 3:00 pm. This is how I spent most of the weekend.

The Einstein Coat will be getting lots of attention while I read Harry Potter. See you in 652 pages!

Posted by Carole at 8:01 AM | Comments (5)

July 14, 2005

A New Rule

Some people have "rules" about what they do on certain days of the week. You know them - it's the "Tuesdays are for spinning" folks. I think this is a good idea, ya'll know how I like rules to keep my projects in line. This rule doesn't work in my world, howevah, due to one tiny problem - I don't spin. And, a note to you bunnycrack spin addicts, don't even try to get me started with spinning, I'm all set with hobbies.

So, my most neglected hobby lately is scrapbooking quilting. I used to be completely addicted to quilting. I couldn't go a day without sewing some patch to another patch. Then knitting entered my life and, well, you know the rest, you've heard it all before. However, I still love quilts and to get quilts I have to actually quilt now and again. Duh. Therefore, I have made a new rule. (insert imaginary drumroll here, please)

Wednesdays are for quilting!!

The results of this rule will be tremendous. I might actually will finish the Morning Star quilt for my bed before the weather gets cold again. I might actually will finish the Pinwheel quilt for the dining room table. I might actually will start AND finish a new Log Cabin quilt. Best of all, I won't have to hear any crap from the Hungry Quilters about knitting at quilt night.

I even have a picture to show you that I'm serious about this new rule.

That, my blog readers, is a Longaberger Small Serving Tray (did I mention that my new baskets had come in?) filled with 2" strips ready to become a Log Cabin quilt. I actually went to quilting last night and spent my time ironing and cutting these scraps. I also helped Lois sew the binding on a quilt she made for a church raffle. I figure this way she'll owe me and have to want to help me with my quilt since this is a wedding gift and I need it done by September 10th. I think I'm off to a great start and I'm charging my readers with keeping me honest and on track with my commitment to quilting once a week. If I drop the ball, feel free to dope slap me.

Want to know something else? The real reason I've been quilting and knitting and working like mad is to provide me with a distraction from this! It's been sitting in my office since last Tuesday and I still have to wait 2 more days before I can open it. The Harry Potter fans out there feel my pain, I'm sure. The torture is almost unbearable. Knitting and quilting are my only sources of relief.

Speaking of knitting (yeah, cuz, Hi! this is a knitting blog) I haven't touched the socks since Tuesday because what little knitting time I had yesterday was devoted to the never-ending Leaf Lace Shawl and, starting the Log Cabin quilt because, after all, Wednesdays are for Quilting. But, I have to show you how cute the sock looks in this basket. It's the perfect size for a carry-along sock project, doncha think?

Posted by Carole at 9:04 AM | Comments (6)

July 12, 2005

Knitting? Not So Much.

Monday was hot and sunny and the sock was complaining about the heat so we took it to Nelson Beach in Plymouth. It was beautiful! Breezy and warm and the water was just cool enough to be refreshing - but not so cold that it made your feet cramp. Of course, the real reason we like this beach is because the parking is free.

After hanging out at the beach for a while - without refreshments because I didn't plan well - we headed over to The Cabby Shack for a beer and something to eat.

Back at home, I sat on the deck with some ice-cold lemonade and Dale and paid some attention to the Leaf Lace Shawl. I'm up to 15 repeats of the pattern now. That's something like 339 stitches across and it takes forever and a day to complete a row! I'm stopping after 17 repeats so the end of this part is in sight, at least. I may even have pictures to show one of these days. In the meantime, I'll keep writing a travelogue even though this is supposed to be a knitting blog!

Posted by Carole at 7:53 AM | Comments (1)

July 11, 2005

Guess Who's Coming to Dinnner?

Another Saturday, another party. This one was at my co-worker Amy's house and we had a great time. There was loads of food and a truckload of beer and even jello shots, too. Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm.

Just down the road from the party we spotted an Eastern Box turtle trying to cross the road. Dale pulled over and I jumped out and grabbed her and we brought her with us to Amy's. I thought perhaps I could pass her off as a hostess gift but that didn't work. There were a lot of interested kids there, though, so Dale put her in a plastic tub, hoping she would come out of her shell so they could get a look at her before we returned her to the woods. She finally came out and in my continuing attempt to show the sock a good time, I let her have a go with it. Ya know what? Turtles apparently don't have a gift for knitting. She got, like, nothing done.

Isn't she cool looking, though? If you want to read more about Eastern Box turtles, check out this.

Posted by Carole at 8:02 AM | Comments (2)

July 9, 2005

There's No Place Like Home

Just a quick note to let ya'll know that Brant, Heather and Ambrynn came home this morning. Heather's blood pressure has lowered and she has been sprung. They are thrilled beyond measure!

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes, it really made a difference.

Ambrynn wishes you all a safe and peaceful weekend.

Posted by Carole at 12:47 PM | Comments (3)

July 7, 2005

Welcome, Little Princess

Please join me in welcoming our newest grandchild and first granddaughter, Ambrynn! She arrived on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 at 1:45 pm and weighed in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. Here she is on her birthday. Isn't she lovely?

And here she is yesterday. Growing already! She kept stretching when I was holding her and I told her to knock it off because stretching would make her grow and I'd like her to stay small - at least for a little while!

Ambrynn is doing great but her mother, Heather, has been having blood pressure issues since the birth. She came home from the hospital last Saturday but was readmitted on Tuesday of this week because her blood pressure had gone up again. This has created some rather complicated family issues. Heather is nursing and therefore needs to have the baby with her. However, Ambrynn is not a hospital patient and hospital policy dictates that Heather cannot care for the baby alone while she is a patient - another family member has to be with the baby in case Heather needs treatment. Brant has taken time off work to do this but has had to leave to get food for himself and clothes and diapers for the baby. Dale and I spent most of yesterday at the hospital and, while I am sorry that Heather is having these problems, holding the baby for several hours is certainly not a hardship!

We will be at the hospital again this afternoon and when I'm not holding Ambrynn I'll be knitting. As you can see, the Feather and Fan Socks are appreciating the attention.

This pattern, from the book Socks Socks Socks edited by Elaine Rowley is very simple and knits up very fast. I was knitting on the couch last night while we watched National Treasure and Dale looked over with surprise on his face and said, "am I hallucinating or are those socks going really fast?" I was surprised that he noticed, but I think after the eternity of knitting the Dublin Bay socks, these do seem rather quick. - even to my family!

Please say a prayer to whatever higher power you believe in, and wish for a quick recovery for my daughter-in-law and a speedy return home for the entire family.

Posted by Carole at 11:16 AM | Comments (11)

July 5, 2005

Knitting and Swimming Just Don't Mix

There was not a whole lotta knittin' going on for most of this weekend. There was, instead, cookouts and pool parties, and band concerts. I'm not complaining, after all, I did start a new pair of socks. Here's Dale and Hannah, floating in Barry's pool, and holding the sock.

Right before I handed the sock to Dale so I could take the picture I said to him, "now, you can not drop the yarn in the pool." Can you guess what happened next? Yup, I proceeded to drop the yarn in the pool. Luckly it's a cotton/something blend (I can't tell you what because the label disintegrated in all that chlorine)and it survived it's dunk just fine. I must admit there's wasn't much knitting done after this. It was only because the yarn was wet. It had nothing at all to do with the margaritas and beer I drank. Really. It didn't.

Yesterday Dale had 3 jobs with the band - a parade in Plymouth in the morning, the VA Hospital in the afternoon, and a really cool outdoor concert in Sandwich at night. I stayed home for the first two and worked on the Leaf Lace Shawl. I think I'm up to 12 repeats. Sigh. It's coming along - it's just slow. And I still don't dare invoke the wrath of the knitting gods and admit that I might just have the hang of the pattern. I did bring the sock with me to Sandwich and managed to knock off a few rounds before the margaritas took over. Again. This weekend partying is killing my knitting.

Hannah has gone to Cape Cod with her grandparents for a week or so. There will be knitting but it might be slower than normal since there will be more "dates" with Dale. Life is such a trade off, isn't it? Just saying.

Posted by Carole at 4:18 PM | Comments (3)

July 2, 2005

Happy Independence Day!

As we celebrate together over this holiday weekend, I hope we all remember that freedom isn't free and pause for a moment to remember those who fought and continue to fight for our country.
May your burgers be smothered in cheese, your hot dogs be covered with mustard, and your potato salad be loaded with mayo. And may all your yarn be red, white and blue.
Happy Birthday, America!

Posted by Carole at 11:48 AM | Comments (1)