As I live and breathe - an actual sunny day!  They’re getting so rare, I scarcely recognize them when we do have them!

You all have heard me talk about the mohair blanket I’ve been wanting to make?  Funny thing - I found the yarn last Saturday when Bron and I were gallivanting around but I still didn’t quite know what I was going to do with it.  Then, Monday I found the Sampler M Knitalong which will share many lace stitch patterns.  They come from a white, cotton sampler knitted by a young, probably Dutch girl around the turn of the last century.  This is perfect!  Talk about serendipitous!  I won’t be making the sampler but I will be using these lace patterns to make panels (or pieces - I haven’t quite decided yet) for my blanket.  I can hardly wait to start :)
You’ve heard the old adage about how when the student is ready, the teacher will appear?  Perhaps it’s like that - when the yarn is ready the pattern will appear!!  Heheh…

Cloud hat is finished:

The pattern is here and, just as dear Ryan promises, it is easy, attractive and thick!  Every time I pick it up my fingers think they’ve accidentally gotten hold of two hats!  There will definitely be more of these - maybe even one for myself :)

I’m a little embarrassed to report that Picovoli has been frogged.  What is it with sweaters?  I didn’t like the way the yarn was working out and I got to the point where working on it was actually repellent to me.  If it had been for someone else, I suppose I would have soldiered through but for me?  Nope, not going to do work I don’t enjoy.  See Colleen?  That’s one way to deal with the endless round-and-round of stockinette :)

Wednesday evening, the lacey sock finally crystallized in what passes for my brain and I got started.

The yarn is the fingering weight merino I dyed with the Easter egg colors and which I have dubbed (the color, that is) Tea Rose.  It’s very nice to work with - even on size 1 (US) DPNs.  I’m very happy with the look so far but am trying to figure out what to do when I get to the foot.  The bobble flowers and the embossed leaves won’t feel so good enclosed in a shoe, I’m thinking, but I would rather not leave the top of the foot plain.  So my brain is ticking over possibilities for that.  I also got entangled in the one-more-row trap and wound up knitting until three in the morning!  It was worth it though :)

Knitting Chatters was great fun last night, as always and the time change seemed to work out well for everybody.

Now I’m going to get dressed, have some breakfast, and go out and enjoy this gorgeous day.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Knitting Chatters!

New and improved!

Now later and 14.28571% longer!

Drop in if you have a minute - it would be great to see you!

First, thank you all who participated in the Knitting Chatters poll.  The results were unanimously in favor of changing the time.  So starting this Thursday, the chat will start one half-hour later at 8:00PM EST and run for an extra half-hour until midnight.  This will be a permanent change and, hopefully, will allow more latitude for current participants and be more encouraging for others who might like to join the virtual SnB :)

I admit it, I am an emotional person.  I don’t like to appear that way but it’s the truth, never the less.  I rooted for Niles and Daphne for the entire eleven year run of Frasier.  I feel the loss of Romeo as keenly as Juliet and the Wicked Witch of the West scares me to pieces.  Every time.

So on Monday, when Ryan reported the latest Dulaan figures, I laughed and cried.  Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow brigadiers - that’s better than 1500 pieces more than this year’s goal!  Yee-friggin’-hah!!!

Well, that was more than inspiring, so this week, I’ve taken a vacation from larger projects and spent some time on smaller things - specifically, items for Dulaan 2007.

A couple of hats in similar style, one variegated and one bi-colored.  I can’t seem to cure myself of the top-knot and braid - they’re just too much fun :)





The first sock for the bag - second to follow presently :) Got to think up some different stitch patterns to use this year...well...except for lace.  At -40ºF, lace loses its beauty.  Maybe something cabled which means I’ll need to figure in more stitches to compensate.  Heheh - something to work out!





Finally, about six inches of Ryan’s Dulaan Cloud Hat with a strand of iris colored DK weight merino and a strand of shaded purple and blue mohair.

Frankly, I’ve been having fun :)

Friday, I hope to have something in the way of an adult sock to show you.  In the meantime, enjoy your knitting!

My Saturday with Bron couldn’t have gone better - what a great day!  I picked her up at her hotel and we headed for our first stop - the Classic Elite mill shop where we both did well. 

I believe Bron found both some Sand and some Provence.  I found a whole pile of La Gran mohair for which plans change on a moment-to-moment basis :)





I am enchanted with the idea of a mohair blanket or throw because it would be so light and warm - but there seem to be quite a few other ideas running around in my head too - not that there mightn’t be enough yarn to execute several ideas!

From there we headed north to New Hampshire to look around the high end place.  Beautiful, beautiful stuff they have, with price tags to match.  There selection of needles is unparalleled however so they are a wonderful resource.  I did notice that they had some nice lace weight that I could afford without maiming my finances too badly and I’ll probably check that out eventually.  Also, and it took Bron to point this out to me, they have quite an eclectic and esoteric selection of buttons.  Some were puzzling but most were beautiful and I had never even noticed they were there!

Finally, we wound up at McDonald’s because it seemed to both of us that salads would be a good idea and McDonald’s, contrary to everything you might expect, has excellent salads.  And there we roosted and knit and chatted for the rest of the afternoon.  Only through the blog-world, could you meet a friend whom you had never seen in person before.  We had a wonderful time :)

See this?

Bron knits fast.  I practically had to ask her to slow down so her hands would be more than a blur in the picture.  Well, not really, but man - she zips!  And she doesn’t have to look at it either!  Me, I knit like I type, reasonably well, but I have to watch what I’m doing most of the time and, as you all know, a speed demon I’m not :) Bron knitting is an awesome thing to see!

I’m going to leave the poll up (in the sidebar under the Knitting Chatters banner) through tomorrow.  It seems that most folks would find the slight change in time acceptable and a good thing.  I’ll let you all know what the outcome is on Wednesday.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and that your collective Mondays don’t weigh on you all too heavily :)

Knitting Chatters went smashingly last night, as always :) I have been thinking about changing the times a little though.  Up till now, I’ve been opening up at 7:30 PM EST and closing at 11:00 PM.  I’ve been wondering about opening up at 8:00 and then staying open until midnight.  I haven’t done a poll before, but it seems appropriate for this :) It’s located on the sidebar, just beneath the Knitting Chatters banner.  I’ll leave it up for a few days and would really appreciate your input :)

I mentioned I was working on a sock design.  I cast on a few stitches and just kept knitting through ideas as they occurred to me until I had something I liked.  I believe I read about this process in Zimmerman’s The Knitter’s Almanac and you know?  It’s pretty neat, simple, able to be picked up at any time in any odd moment and small enough to be portable and easy to handle.  This is what I came up with:

And these two motifs are what I decided on:





The overall appearance will be of wide ribs with the eyelet flowers in the stockinette portion and the embossed leaves in the reverse stockinette part.  This was fun to work out and I think (I hope!) the sock will be pretty and feminine :) I got started last night:





As you can see, I tried the four-needle thing.  Usually I stick to three but because of the way the pattern(s) work it seemed four needles might be more useful.  I find them a little awkward but I suppose that’s just a matter of getting used to them.  Unfortunately, I realized this morning that the numbers are off (I’ve been having a hell of a time with math this week!) so what you see will be ripped and re-started.  Not really a problem, just annoying :) Why couldn’t I get it right the first time?

Finally, there’s this which I have been working on feverishly all week.

It’s a scarf version of Dragon Wings done in sport-weight cotton on size 4 (US) needles.  The cotton yarn really spotlights the texture of the pattern nicely and I’m pretty happy with the results.  I wanted to have it complete by tomorrow - any bets? Heheh....

I just got notice that we’re supposed to get much cooler weather and more heavy rains over the weekend.  In fact, we’re back under flood warnings!  Not satisfied with having put spring under water, the monsoons have invaded summer as well!

Stay dry folks and have a great weekend:)

Come, bring your knitting, relax and enjoy!

The wonderful Bron should have arrived in Boston yesterday and we have a day planned on Saturday.  I am looking forward to this very much as we have been corresponding and reading each others blogs for years!  There will be pictures so, I suppose I will have to behave myself and not make faces at the camera :) Welcome to Massachusetts dear Bron!  I hope you’re having a wonderful time.

I ran across a pattern for socks last night.  It’s called Rib-Bits, based on a nice simple and very pretty lace pattern.

That was first :)

Second, as I was rendering the chart for the above lace pattern on graph paper, it occurred to me to flip the chart and work that right over the unflipped version to yield an eyelet-outlined oval or lozenge.  Cool, right?

As you can see, my chart musings are anything but neat as I try to count consistently - something I was having real trouble with last night!  Also I have issues with trying to keep my mind focused on what I’m doing instead of rambling several steps ahead and doing its usual what happens if I do this? shtick.

I noted that the lace pattern was worked across seven stitches with the addition of a purl stitch to either side.  And I remembered that there was a seven stitch leaf pattern I’d seen...where the heck was that?...aha - in Stanfield and Griffiths’ Encyclopedia of Knitting.  So I retrieved the book from the pile of knitting books and magazines under the coffee table - yep! - there it was (in the picture above, the leaf chart is the upper right of the three).  And just as I remembered, the leaf is seven stitches across at its widest point.  This is where I got into trouble :)

I then reasoned that I could alternate columns of lozenges with columns of leaves (and wouldn’t it be cool to stagger them?).  Would that be a pretty sock?  So I sat down and tried it, figuring 7 stitches of each of the two patterns with a two or 3 stitch purl gutter between them.  Eh...but the leaf should sit on a reverse stockinette background to get the most out of it and...well look at this!  It isn’t seven stitches wide at all!  All those leaf stitches are worked from one stitch, increased out in the beginning and decreased back down in the end!  Doh!

So I scrapped that effort and cast on for another swatch.  Warning, the swatch is as messy as the charts :)

At the left is the lace lozenge which is only okay.  I want to fool around with that some more and see if I can’t get something a little more feminine looking.  Of course using Red Heart and size 9(US) needles doesn’t contribute to a delicate appearance either :) In between motifs there are pairs of twisted stitches with purls on either side.  I couldn’t make those work (that is I couldn’t get their appearance to suit me) and eventually abandoned them, as I abandoned the lozenge.

The leaves were another matter though - those worked out beautifully.  Well, the first on did (the bottom one).  The second two suffered from my desire to mess with the pattern.  They look sloppy and they are - but I think I have it out of my system now.  The leaf pattern will be used as is...probably :)

So this is my thought as of 10:12 AM.  I’m not sold on the lozenges but they’re still possible.  If not them, then some other simple, not too wide, lace pattern to be worked in stockinette.  Columns of this lace pattern would alternate with columns of leaves on a reverse stockinette background.  Together, they would function like ribbing to give the sock some staying-up power.  The difference is that instead of the standard purl gutter just sitting there doing nothing but drawing the fabric in, it would be decorative as well.  Think that would work?

I’ll continue to look at lace patterns (and play with them, no doubt) until I find something I like, but I like the idea.

And I’m off to do the shopping.  It’s a beautiful day, reasonably dry and with moderate temperatures so shopping shouldn’t be too onerous a task.  I will probably break out the sandals though :)