Month: October 2005

Knitting is actually being accomplished here at Missouri Star, just little time to take photos and post about it. Izzy goes to bed at 7:00 and most of my knitting is accomplished after that. Sweet little baby smiles are enough to lure all but the cold hearted away from the knitting needles. There has been some secret Christmas knitting – let’s just say I won’t be up on Christmas Eve weaving in ends. Most everything is finished. And I’ve been working on Peacock Feathers:

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I’m on Chart 5. It’s really hard at this point to get a good photo. I’m a tad nervous about whether it will be as big as the pattern. Not that it really matters – it is a shawl, after all. And, at the outset I repeated my mantra (“Gauge? We don’t need no stinkin’ gauge!”) and just cast on and started.

I have to echo everyone’s enthusiasm for Fiddlesticks patterns – they are very clear and easy to follow and my aging eyes love the large charts! The only downside now is that the rows are getting so
L – O – N – G! The “just one more row” excuse doesn’t hold unless you’re willing to wait at least 15-20 minutes.

It’s time to start thinking of the next project. I have three (yes, count ’em, three) Dale of Norway sweaters in mid knit, so I really ought to get cracking on at least one of those. One is for Izzy, so I suppose I should get to that before she outgrows it. My enthusiasm for knitting for her has waned a little – how many sweaters can she use in Florida? Will have to think this one through.

And check out this T-shirt on Anne’s website. Isn’t it a hoot? She didn’t have a source for it, so I googled “Hot grannies knit”, but with a great deal of trepidation – who knew what I would find? It wasn’t as bad as I expected, most WERE knitting sites, but no T-shirt. She’s promised to let me know if she ever finds the source.

And this one’s for you Dad:

“Roly poly, pell mell, tumble bumble.” Do you still know it by heart? Thanks for a lifelong love of reading. Here’s to the next generation!

Precious little knitting has been done this week. I’ve been a little busy:

While not gazing rapturously upon sleeping babies, we have been having tea:

And the little knitting that has been done has been cute little hats for cute little heads:

I’ve been trying to keep up on my classes and have done ok so far on my semester based class (the one with deadlines), but have just about given up on my flex class. This one doesn’t have deadlines and I have two semesters in which to complete it. I am trying now to spend all the time I can with my family. Good news – Ben has a job already. Bad news (at least for us) – it’s in Florida. I am putting it in perspective – that’s 5 hours closer by plane than London and we could actually drive there if I didn’t want to fly. I’ll probably get to see them far more often than before and with any luck, they’ll be back in the Pacific Northwest eventaully.

I have accomplished a few more rows on the Peacock Feathers, but not enough for a photo – just look at the last one and imagine it an inch longer! This is one of those knits that starts with 3 stitches and goes like gangbusters at the beginning and then slows down exponentially as you add more and more stitches. I like the Shadow – it’s a nice basic yarn, but it’s certainly not “luxury” and I hope will do justice to the beautiful pattern.

And I have to post one more picture:

Not everyone can be lucky enough to marry their soulmate. Thanks sweetie for a wonderful 33 years – here’s to 33 more! I love you.

Q: What can turn a room full of adults into gibbering idiots?

A: This:

And yes, that is a new sweater that her Nana made for her. The pattern is from Toddler Sweaters From the Neck Down. It has a whole host of cute little sweaters in size 1-6, both basic and more elaborate. And the best part – no sewing, which as you all have guessed is NOT my favorite part of the process.

As I mentioned, my daughter-in-law is a new knitter. Here’s her first project:

I think she and her poncho are both way cute! She’s even offered to make one for me. No one’s ever knitted me anything! That’s the trouble with being a knitter – everyone just thinks you can make it yourself. But who better to appreciate all the trouble someone has gone to?

On the knitting front, I have frogged the Unst Stole. I got about one center panel repeat into it and realized I was not having a good time. I kept telling myself I needed to do this to prove that I could. Well, yes, I can. I did a whole repeat without a single mistake. But what’s the point if you’re not enjoying it? So the cobweb is put aside for the time being. I think at some point I will probably design my own Shetland Shawl, but for now I need something less intense.

So, I have started Peacock Feathers:

Now this is fun! I am really enjoying this knit. The yarn is Shadow from KnitPicks in the Jewel colorway. The yarn is very nice and the picture doesn’t do justice to the color. This is proving to be nice knitting for my busy life right now – enough challenge to be interesting, but not so much that it takes all of my concentration. And it has nice “rest” rows so I can be completely mindless (which some would assert is my normal condition).

Would you like to see what one happy Nana looks like? Like this:

I finally have all my ducklings on the same continent! It wasn’t a easy day for anyone. The airline zonked them with a huge unexpected expense for shipping the dogs – at check-in no less when it was too late to do anything about it. Because of the delay there they had to run for their gate. The plane was almost an hour late coming in and by the time we got out of the airport, Izzy was tired and hungry. At the border we all had to get out of the car and get in the immigration line and they would not let us out to either feed or change her. Very interesting – Abby handed the agent her immigration papers and his exact words were “What am I supposed to do with these?” She politely told him that she didn’t know – she thought he was supposed to! In the end, they figured it out and let us cross the border. Her permanent green card should be in the mail. By this time Izzy was howling (we encouraged her, hoping it would speed the process!). She would not be consoled, but finally fell asleep when the car started moving again. By today she was in much better spirits and obviously LOVES her grandpa:

And her Uncle Allen:

And great news – my daughter-in-law is a knitter. Today she finished knitting a Rowan Kim Hargreaves sleeveless turtleneck for herself and I taught her how to seam it together. I was going to get a picture, but Izzy got fussy again and Abby took her over to the apartment to put her down, so the picture will have to wait until tomorrow. As for my knitting – I’ve learned that knitting can soothe an anxious spirit, but that doesn’t always make for accuracy. On the drive to the airport and while waiting, I knit and frogged the same 5 inches three times!