Starting anew, like it's the New Year!

Arriving home, and yearning for my stash after a 3 month absence, I had serious start-itis.

A sweater for me:

Socks, probably for me... to be completed in Iceland.

The yarn is Loopy Legends by Carol (who we met at the Spring Fling).

A hood-less hoodie for granddaughter.

And a light-weight (fingering) sweater for C.

And one last thing...a tea cozy.  

All of these are taking a rest for the next month.  The Hood-less Hoodie is finished.

Almost Spring Fever!

Where do the weeks go? I know where the next few months will go:

1. Teaching a crash course from now until May,
2. Planning a REAL tour of Norway for my friends,
3. Packing for trip to Norway in May,
4. Packing for the hub who will be visiting Norway in April,
5. Yard work,  and 
6. Startitis!  I finish one and start two. 

Beaded Elegance Socks:

 Finished Striped Thaw Socks:

 On needles: Noro Socks

 Some colors to choose from:

 And the cuff of what I'll use them for:

Friend, EML, contaminated my environment with shared two gorgeous Norwegian knitting books. Full of colorful Norwegian non-traditional patterns. (See above cuff.) Sigh!

A month ago, I made a non binding  pact with myself that I would finish some beautiful projects on needles, and I worked really hard on a pair of socks that were only a toe for 2 years...FINISHED! I alternated with a vest that soon has a 2nd anniversary, and for which I ordered more yarn...and now...I've started two other pairs of socks, and a child's sweater from EML's book. It's a beauty!  Using leftover fingering weight yarn. 

Weaving/loom stands in the corner, patiently.

Tomorrow I have to deal with the time change. 

Resolutions... As if!

I write things and often occasionally regret it.  A few days ago, my "no new year resolutions" post, looks and feels wrong once I got to read it published... I certainly don't mean that there's nothing to "fix" in my life, it's just that I'm hesitant to be optimistic about fixing things.  I guess if I haven't fixed things by now, it must be OK. Please!  Don't put up with my behavior!
As far as knitting, I'm not changing... in fact, before I got the last post published, I did this:

Look familiar?  It should... it's my KAL shawl from earlier this year: Part One and Part Two. That's the shawl (Polaris) all bundled up in the netting.  As I unravel it and re-knit it, I'm trying to capture the beads as they are set free.  The purpose?  I'm making a second attempt at a LOOOOOSE cast on.  I use three different cast-0n's and I have NO idea which one I used.  Lace weight... really difficult to see (so why do I bother?).

Tip for me and anyone else:  if you are taking notes about your projects, make a note about what type of cast-on you use.  

It has been quite frustrating to find that it wasn't stretchy enough for beautiful points at the bottom of the shawl, and I discovered a strange phenomenon*:  My cast-on stitches slide around.  Hard to describe but on the two shawls I knitted this year, I discovered that I could pull the stitches from side to side, like they are sliding on a single strand of yarn.  Some day I'll figure out what that's all about, in the meantime, it's no good for forming points on shawls.

Before I started for real, I did a little swatch/trial run of three different cast-on methods.  One is my normal cast-on that I learned from day one which involves a finger, a needle and a long-tail.  I suspect that this is the cast-on I used.  Then I tried a stretchy cast-on that a friend recommended, and I have never used before.  She found it here in video form.  It IS very stretchy but since I haven't seen it before, it might be a bit... ummm, too stretchy, and odd looking.  So I tried out number three which is a stretchy cast-on that I saw Nancy Bush demonstrate (Estonian?) for the top of socks.  I've used it a lot, and it's very pretty!

Estonian double cast on

And it won... So I finished Row 1, which is really the second row after cast-on and now I remember why I knitted right along on this project:  The beads!  I love to see them, and and and... well, hopefully I will stay motivated.

*Another phenomenon:  I have discovered that I've been mispronouncing "phenomenon" and therefore can't spell it without looking it up in google.  I always start with "phenomenom" and wonder what's wrong!  Never too old to learn to speak and spell!  happy new year!!

Sayonara, Sojourner!

False start:  Cast on March 28, 2011.  I was apprehensive about the size:  Such detail to size in this pattern.  Instead of sizes, there were measurements that corresponded to the size of the bottom circumference (read:hips).  How demoralizing to have to measure one's own hips to start a project, let alone measure (or ask) someone else's.  Alas, I took the plunge, measured, and found, of course, I was between two sizes.  I opted for the larger, since it was only an inch larger than my measurement. Working a few inches, I loved the pattern, and the yarn, and Ravelry!
I decided to do the smart thing:  On Ravelry, ask others who were finished what they thought of the sizing.  One person said she made hers too big.  It should have fit, but she ended up adding darts to give it some shape.  That made me re-evaluate my sizing.

I remeasured myself, I took the 3-1/2" off my needles and measured... It's 4" more than the pattern size I'm following...  so it's un-ravelry time!  And plans to cast on in the near future before I forget what I'm doing.  I know that if it's too small, I have someone in the family who would welcome it, and I can still appreciate it!

No Pics!

In all my rage last night, I left no evidence:  No pictures to remind me of the event.  I guess it will go into the past tense, and I'll make the same mistake again... and again.

Knitting again, folks, so you non-knitters can tune out and go read something else.

Yesterday I thought of my impending trip home and wanted to plan my hours of knitting for the journey.  I'm precariously close to finishing my second sock (Sunshine aka Windward) and thought I might leave the rest of it for the trip.  I cast on a new project last evening to watch a little TV and occupy my hands for the next day or so.  I bought a great book of patterns in Bergen, with C's encouragement.  It's Rowan's organic cotton kid's collection.  What caught our eye was "Sonia, the Cow".

A "must have" project, don't you think?   But instead, I decided to try the "Princess" top for my little girl.  I can't find a picture of the pattern, but the book looks like this:

 Isn't that the cutest top right there?  Not in small enough size for me...
And the yarn is not Rowan, since I couldn't find it in NINE shops... (another story)

Back to last night!  I looked at the pattern, read the first bit, decided to do it in the round rather that back and front as in the pattern, discovered I should leave off the first and last stitch of the front and back to accommodate the stitch pattern (k2, p2, k4 (sometimes cables), p2, k2), and cleverly cast on 120 stitches.  I didn't even use my usual long-tail cast-on, so I didn't have to cast on 3 times (which is my average).  P is sitting across the room knitting away on her East Putney Aran for Grandchildren.

Notice the unwound technique... It was later wound into a ball to fit into her new yarn jar.

I digress (again).
Admiring my work, I thought, hmmm, how is this going to fit?  It certainly wasn't as big as I thought it should be so I started to check the gauge.  (I was a good girl, this time, and had previously made a swatch of stockinette, although the pattern gives gauges for both stockinette and cable.)  I was miffed.  My gauge was big and certainly if I used smaller needles, I'd end up with a smaller garment!  In the past I would call, email or skype my friend, P, for HELP!  This time, she's sitting in the same room, and she's reading the pattern ALOUD to me.  I'm STUNNED!  She says:  Cast on 143, 143, 162, 162, 162 (for all of the sizes, and I say:  Tell me you didn't say 162!  She says indeed: 162.  How many times do we read patterns incorrectly and wonder why they are crazy wrong?  I confessed:  I cast on 60 per side, ignoring the 100, and taking 2 off for the side stitches...  Good night, I say!  And no picture of the frogged hours.  I blame "America's Got (NO) Talent".  Gotta blame something!

But we had the best sweet corn in the world!

Mennonite grown "Fantastic".

Airport Travel

I'm the expert!  Yessiree... 5 airports in 24 hours.
Farmington
Friendly personnel! At the ticket counter I heard an employee of Great Lakes Airline ask the man in front of me if he had been to Denver airport before, and when he said no, she took him aside, asked him if he was right or left handed (? don't know the point) and drew him a map showing how to transfer to another terminal.  Farmington is so tiny that even the TSA people speak with you. I like it because they open the bags and hand check everything.  I checked the backpack from Hxxx. There are 11 sets of buckles, 6 zippers, and several loops. (I'm sure they are cleverly placed, and I could use a user's guide. My bags are underutilized.)  I would completely understand if it arrived with straps ripped off, and sections of it missing, and always am completely surprised that I see it all at my destination.  Maybe gray and orange is difficult go astray? When I arrived, an hour before my flight, there were 2 people in front of me, the atmosphere is relaxed, the flight to LasVegas took off with 2 passengers, and I pulled out my yarn and cast on.  I had time for exactly the Estonian cast-on of 64 stitches for my sock.

 A 19-seater with a dozen passengers somehow makes for camaraderie and someone asked our pilot (who is also the flight attendant) if his father was the pilot.  We all chuckled nervously. Yes, he was young, and spoke up to ask if it was the passenger's first flight.  The pilot then added that it was his first, too. It was the smoothest flight over the Rockies I've ever been on, with a bit of turbulence on the approach at DIA.  This was the flight experience of the 50's which ends with a walk across 100 yards of parked planes to the gate in a section barely attached to the terminal.

Denver
Completely different atmosphere with thousands of people doing thousands of things, grouped into areas to wait, eating and shopping.  I didn't see anyone knitting...  Heading to the gate with a 3 hour wait, I detoured to the second floor to find the Paradise Bakery.  Seemed worth a visit, but I was only scoping it out for lunch since it was 9 AM.  I found the bakery, which had sandwiches and a long line, and... AND... I found the perfect knitting spot.  My body just doesn't like to sit yoga style on the floor, even in those rows of seats at the gate.  And here around a corner were lots of people quietly camped out in soft easy chairs, with addition (detached) side tables and most of them had great lighting!  Knitting Knirvana, I tell you!  The hours sped by, and suddenly I was ready for lunch and happy with my progress.

PS  It was light here (Bergen) until 11 PM tonight.  Oops I nodded off thinking of something else to say...

Day 4 - Learning something new!

I like to be surprised...and I guess I get so obsessed with knitting projects that it's only occasionally I stumble upon the fact that there's another way to do things.


Today I'm totally surprised at how awful my cast on USED to be.  Here's a sample: (Click on it for enlarged picture.)

Such is the case with the "Estonian Cast-on". It's beautiful and stretchy. (Think SOCKS!)
I happened to see it in my Knitting Daily email, and now I use it all the time almost all the time!  It's a bit more complicated, since I have to look it up to make sure I'm doing it correctly, but when I do----- It's gorgeous!

I learned from the best: Nancy Bush.  


Then in March, I found a pattern for "cuffs" and it started with Liidia's Braid Cast-On.  It blew me away!  

Who knew that after 50 years of casting on in exactly the same way, there would be such a radical shift in the universe!   (By the way: Have you seen the Stephen Hawking programs about time travel and aliens?  I'm still blinking my eyes with amazement.)

Famous People

I can't help it!  I do everything to avoid watching the Oscar's then something falls in my lap like a great parody.  Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is another one of my obsessions and they were there, and commenting so quickly!  See the Stars here!
Please take the Daily News Quiz today or any day!
Knitting News:

I learned something new!!  Liidia's Braid cast-on.  WOW! A real braid!  Thanks to Nancy Bush!

My Olympics!

Who has time to join with the Knitter's Olympics?  I'm too busy knitting!

I didn't intend to cast on anything, and then... Miss Marple came along and snagged my needles.  Cast on first sock on Saturday, and today cast on the second one.  Knitted as mosaic on the leg and heel (one color at a time), and lace on the instep.  

It looks super funky and misshapen until I put it on. Lovely warmth!