A Perfect Ten

March 2, 2005 By Carole

Yippee! I finished Dale’s blue socks this morning! I had them almost completed last night but just ran out of speed and set them aside. Today I couldn’t fall back to sleep after Dale left for work so I grabbed the socks and finished the toe decreases, kitchenered the seams and voila, a completed pair of socks.

As I was trying to drift back to sleep I was counting the socks I have made in my head. I haven’t made very many since I can still track them without writing them down, but I believe this finished pair makes 10.

Now I can start on the Koigu PPPM socks for me. First, of course, I have to wind the hank into a ball, but then I’m ready to go.

In other knitting news, the clapotis (remember, rhymes with cup-o-tea) is coming along nicely. I have finished the increase section and I’m not ready to start dropping stitches. The idea of deliberately dropping stitches is a little daunting but I’m confident that if I follow the directions, I’ll be just fine.

Traveling to Yarn Shops is Fun!

February 23, 2005 By Carole

Okay, I have shopping AND a finished object to report. I went to The Wool Patch on Friday and picked up the yarn I needed to finish the Alien Illusion Scarf. I managed to finish it on Sunday morning. I blocked it and added the fringe and my husband wore it to Boston on Monday. It looked terrific with his new wool coat but I think he was disappointed that no on spied his aliens!
While at the Wool Patch I asked Miriam what she had that was new and she showed me some awesome Cascade 220 Quatro in variegated colors. I bought 3 skeins of a green/black/blue combination to make the Clapotis from knitty.

Saturday I headed out to Sturbridge with my daughter, Hannah and my friends Wendy and Sarah. We went to Wrights Trim Factory where I bought a bit of trim and fabric for a new Civil War day dress. We had a terrific lunch at Soup to Nuts Cafe and then went to Knit Witts yarn shop in Brookfield. It was sure out in the boonies but not hard to find and the owner was very friendly. I bought some Koigu KPPM and some other handpainted sock yarn and can’t wait to start those socks! From there we traveled back to Uxbridge and hit the Yarn Shop. I didn’t buy anything but she does have some beautiful novelty yarns. Not really my thing these days but I know a lot of new knitters like it. She is moving up the street to a bigger shop and I’m hoping when she has more space that she will expand her line of wools and sock yarns.

We went to watch the 25th MVI finish their drill camp and while waiting for my husband I finished sock #1 of the blue worsted weight pair I started for him. I immediately cast on for sock #2 (it’s the best way I know to avoid SSS [second sock syndrome]) and have finished the cuff and am working on the leg.
Sunday I was able to start the clapotis and it’s fun. Definitely a pattern to pay attention to at first but once you get the pattern in your head it’s not hard at all. I look forward to working on this one!

I started a fingerless mitt in black out of Brown Sheep Nature Spun but it’s too small and I will have to rework it so it’s bigger. But since I love the pair I made with the leftover Classic Elite Bazic I think it will be great to have black ones to go with my red coat.

Picture of all this great stuff – finished objects, new yarn, etc. coming soon!

Socks and shopping, oh boy!

February 18, 2005 By Carole

So Wednesday night I skipped quilting because I was beat from this cold I’ve got. Stayed home and watched the movie Ray (it’s almost Oscar time, yay hooray) and worked on Dale’s sock.

I’ve actually made a bit more progress since I took that photo, I’m now doing the toe decreases and should have it finished today.
Hopefully I’ll be stopping at The Wool Patch in Middleboro on my way home from work today to pick up another skein of green and black to finish the Alien Illusion Scarf.

Tomorrow is a big day. Dale is attending a drill with our Civil War group and my friends and I are going to Sturbridge to visit Wrights Trim Shop and also Knit Witts. Woo hoo! Fabric and yarn shopping all in one day! I’ve got my list ready and hope to find yarn for the moebius scarf and the clapotis from knitty.com
I’ll post again when I’m shopped out!

Windy City Scarf

February 17, 2005 By Carole

The finished Windy City Scarf and Mitts!

Best Laid Plans

February 16, 2005 By Carole

When last we met I was about to finish the alien illusion scarf. Alas, 6 rows from completing the sucker, I ran out of green yarn. Man alive, was I aggravated! I had planned on going to the yarn shop the next day to pick up another skein of green but, sadly, my mother-in-law passed away that morning. Needless to say, yarn shopping has not been a priority this past week. Once there’s an opportunity, though, I’m hot-footing it over to Middleboro to get what I need to finish Mr. Roswell.

In the meantime, I had to have something to knit so I cast on the Windy City scarf from Stitch ‘n Bitch. It went pretty quickly, although I ended up making it longer than the pattern stated. I still had leftover yarn so I made a pair of fingerless mitts to go with it – mismatched stripes and all. They came out cute except that the second one was shorter than the first because the yarn ran out. So, I frogged part of the first one and now they match. Sort of. It’s close enough, anyway.

Once I got those out of the way I picked up Dale’s socks and I’ve now finished the heel and gusset descreases and am making may way down the foot. Progress feels so great!

Pictures of the finished scarf and mitts tomorrow!