First FO Since Starting the New Blog

I have finished the Cascade Fixation socks that I made from the Socks a la Carte book. I like the pattern and I like making them ankle length, but I'm not so certain I like the busy-ness of the colorway. It looked so lovely on the skein. :(

The next socks are ready to go on my needles. They come from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson. The pattern is called Sheri's Posies Socks.

When Pat and I were in Olathe Monday we stopped at Knit Wit. Being my first time to go to the store, I didn't know they were closed on Monday. :( Fortunately one of the owners was there. She let me in and sold me some Happy yarn by Wendy. (Wonder if it's the same Wendy? It appears to be an English? or at least European yarn.) The yarn is called Aquarius and is 75% bamboo, 25% nylon.

The hand of this yarn is more like the merino sock yarn I used to make socks for Reyes. The Cascade yarn, being cotton, is far denser and not as soft to the touch. I believe I'll enjoy this pair even more than the Cascade socks when they are finished. The swatch I made to check gauge let me see how the colorway tracks. It a lot less daunting than the turquoise in the Cascade yarn. That's good. I'm not certain what I'll be able to wear with the other socks!

What, No Dish Cloths?

How did this happen? Making dish cloths is one of my favorite "no brainer" projects. The other day, I went to the dish cloth/tea towel drawer in the kitchen and there wasn't a dish cloth to be found! Have Brownies been here? I found a few in the clothes dryer (affectionately dubbed "the other bureau"). Still -- I used to have so many dish cloths they attacked when you opened the drawer. Looks like it's time to take the socks out of my purse and insert cotton yarn. I'm on a mission to restock! And it lets me stash-bust a few balls of cotton yarn, too. Pat and I drove to Stark, KS today to find an upholsterer who could fix the bucket seat of his pickup. I rode along because he had never been to Stark, and I had been there thanks to library functions in the next town over, Savonburg. (You see, Savonburg is too small to have any eateries, so we would go to Murphy's Merchantile in Stark for sandwiches after visiting the Savonburg library. Ah, the hidden benefits of being a regional library consultant!) We took the long way (via Burlington) so it was about an 80 mile drive out and a 65 mile drive back. I nearly made an entire dish cloth while we traveled. Since we seem to run around a lot (and no place is closer than 45-60 min. away), and since Pat rarely lets me drive, I should get restocked on dish cloths in no time. By the way, if you are trying to get to the dishcloth pattern, click on the highlighted link "Grandma's Dishcloth" in the tag cloud.

2008 Projects

It's the end of the year and time to think about what I accomplished.

Well, the big one was -- I RETIRED!!!!! I've been officially retired for about a week and 2 days. It hasn't sunk in yet, but I could get used to staying home. The house is already cleaner and I'm cooking more. Hm... preparing for 12 to eat here for Christmas does lead to cooking more... and housecleaning.

On the family side, both of our daughters (and their kids) moved to Kansas this year. My daughter and her two kids moved to Iola from Dallas, Texas in the summer. Pat's daughter and her three daughters moved to Burlington from Batesville, Indiana right before Christmas. We have five of nine grandkids within driving distance. How much better can that be?

As for my knitting, socks were my main accomplishment. I finished the 5 pairs of grandkid socks I had planned to make. Reyes and Lala, living in Texas, didn't want socks. (They are rethinking that decision now that they are in Kansas where we actually have WINTER!) They wanted scarves. Reyes got a Harry Potter scarf; Lala got a pink hat/scarf set.

Now they have moved to Kansas, so I cast on socks for them, too. Lala got hers in Sept. I have about 2 inches left on Bear's socks. Should finish them tomorrow when Pat and I make a road trip to Indiana. Why Indiana? Our other daughter, JJ, and her 3 girls are also moving to Kansas. We're helping with the move. The drive to Batesville, Ind. is longer than the drive to Dallas, so I should finish Bear's socks and the pair I am working on for myself as well. (Pat never lets me drive.)

I finished the 3 sections of Pat's vest, but found out they were all different lengths. I've ripped them back to the same point and will finish it soon. I need to be in a place where I can concentrate on the pattern when I bring it back together.

I have a baby blanket on the needles for one of Jen's friends. Of course I've made several dish clothes along the way. They are ubiquitous. Love 'em. Don't want to wash dishes with anything else now that I've learned to knit my own.

I have big plans to knit more in 2009. I will also be sewing. I gave everyone gift certificates from Grandma Iris' Boutique this Christmas. I will be sewing clothes for grandkids, kids, and Pat, as well as myself. You can see that I'm going to enjoy being retired.

I hate being sick!

I don't even look THIS good. My best guess is that I have bronchitis. In about an hour I'll go to the PA and find out for sure. Glands are swollen; I ache everywhere; when I cough, I'm sure my toenails are coming up with the cough... you know the drill.

Yesterday Pat put me to bed and made me stay there all day. (Was he taking care of me or defending his right to watch 8 hrs of football uninterrupted?)

It was great -- except when I was awake. Most of the time I had the electric blanket on high and was talking about being cold. Even at that, Pat said I didn't have a fever. I managed to crawl out of bed today and soak in the shower for a while. The back side of the house is so cold that I'm baking a cake just to have an excuse to have the oven on. I have also closed off the south bedroom and my old bedroom. That way the heater doesn't have to warm those two rooms.

Hm... I checked Weatherbug. It's just above 34 degrees, so it isn't all that cold. Must be me.

At least, if I stay awake, I can knit. I have 3 projects in the works. The one closest to finished is a green scarf that matches the watch cap I made Pat. He found his blue doubleknit hat so I get to keep the green one. That's good. I have a couple of coats that don't have hoods. It will be nice to have a hat. And a scarf.

Then there is Sue's doubleknit hat. I'm worried there won't be enough of her primary color to complete the hat. I was about 3 inches into the hat and noticed the yarn was about half gone. So I ripped it out and started over with bigger needles. May be the same number of stitches, but they should cover more territory. (I hope.)

And -- I have started (again) Pat's Oregon vest. It's made with the Chunky Wool-Ease this time. It's working smoother and looks better that it did in Homespun. I will get this one finished.

What did I make in 2006?

This was my first full year of non-stop knitting. What did I make? Hm... it seems there must have been more than this. I guess packing and moving took more of my knitting time than I realized. I also taught Jen, Lala, Becky, and Kelly to knit and taught JJ and Kayleigh, Lala and Reyes spool knitting on the Knifty Knitter looms.

In 2005 I started knitting around Halloween.

I made 9 scarfs for Christmas and taught Julie to knit.

2006 Finished:

4 baby blankets

2 stocking hats

2 drawstring knitting bags (one small, one medium)

1 knitted belt (that should have been a tie)

too numerous to count : dish cloths

1 cell phone bag

1 soap bag

5 shrugs

1 Barbie shawl

Started but not finished:

Pat's tie

Pat's vest

Blue socks

Oregon Vest

I'm starting the Oregon Vest from Oat Couture for Pat. He chose a tan Lion Brand Homespun yarn for it. The picture above is from Oat Couture's catalog.

Since I knit like I read books (book for the bathroom, book for the bedside, book for the purse, and then there's the one I'm REALLY reading...) , I have other projects in progress as well. I finished the double knit hat I was making Joe. That one was fun!

I'm finally making a scarf for myself of The Cat's Meow Paradiso. It looks like fleece cut thin and given a serged edge. The yarn is shades of violet to purple and I'll wear it with the fleece hooded cape I made.

There is always a dishcloth lurking in the background. It's my favorite no-brain knitting project.

And then there are those Barbie clothes... I may never get all those little pieces completed and sewn together. Size 2 needles are so slow... (Couldn't be the knitter's motivation, could it?)