Better, this time!

Could I really do it?  Frog a whole lace shawl?  You betcha!
At the top is the first attempt, finished November 1, 2011.  Why, WHY!!  Why couldn't I get points to appear at the bottom edge?  The second attempt which I started December 30, has a purposely stretchy cast-on.  What a difference!
The pins:  In both pieces, the pins in the bottom edge are at every second bead.  Can you see that the top one is pinned at four beads, and the bottom is pinned at "almost" three beads.  That one stretchy cast on!

 In fact, the pattern looks...

 bigger, too!

 But I assure you, I used the same needles... It's the cast on.  The greenish blue needle is the one I used on both projects.  I know because it turned greenish blue from the first knitting.  Here are more needles from the same set to show how they started out.

It was with a sign of relief that I pinned these out and discovered I don't have to cast on AGAIN!    Time to start thinking about a life-line...

another knit nite of fun and laughter

Everyone is busy:  We skipped a week and met after a 3 week hiatus, which put everyone into a talkative mood, with little progress from last time.
Here are some finished projects!

Cell phone warmer!

Hobo mitts, becoming a habit!  How many now?

 Some projects that aren't finished:

Little Violet's Yeti

Someone else's Yeti, TBA

Beadwork on the short end

Never ending scarf.  

And New Year projects:

Yet again, MORE fingers

and using up leftover yarn.

One sock, same yarn, second pattern.

Same crazy conversations, and wonderful company!

Someone Else, Please!

I've invited my daughter to write a blog, but, alas, she's too busy...  It's OK, as long as she spends her time booking vacations for US!  LOL
In the meantime, she had a few days off at Christmas and look what she did!

 The pattern was a Christmas gift.

 Her official name is Cindy.

Isn't that hair delicious?
Pattern is by "Arne and Carlos", and when I looked at their other books, I realized that the dolls on the cover of the book are really meant to be Arne and Carlos.  Fun!
Here's the original book.
and Here's the Doll Pattern book.

Make 2

What's wrong with this picture? This is an example of "make 2" and the shocking realization and re-counting where it could have gone wrong... And which one is correct? Answer: The larger one. It's the body of Robert, the bear.

Two pieces for body of bear: Seams down middle front and back.  Darts at top for shoulder shaping.  Darts at bottom for bottom shaping.

I sat stunned as I put them together to admire...  I knitted the one on the right first, then up to the top points on the one on the left.  Really, I had compared them earlier, but... it wasn't until late in the game that I saw the difference.  I counted each one, several times, and found that I had skipped a section and mis-counted on the first one.  No worries.  Except:  (1) This is a trial for a class I would like to teach in March.  How frustrating for knitters who don't knit all the time!  I guess it tells me that I'll try to keep everyone on the same page, doing the increases and decreases at the same time, etc. to avoid having to count and re-count. (2) What if there had been only "one" of these?  How many other projects are crazy WRONG? LOL
How to avoid these mistakes?  Suggestions are welcome. Maybe lots of markers are necessary to keep track of progress.  This is a learning experience for me!

Finishing and Starting

Halie's Slippers:   HEART this pattern

Felted Slippers  by Midnattsol from Midnattsol's Blog

Starting a bear:

Robert by Sandra Polley from The Knitted Teddy Bear

Pretty adorable already!

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!!

Counting Accomplishments

So many things happen in a year.  And how well we tally them...? Not so well.
Here are a few stabs at counting up where the year has gone.  Maybe you can do some math, too!  You can either make me look like a slacker or OC(D).

1. First, and last is knitting:  According to knitmeter.com I've used up almost 10 miles of yarn. (I know: There's only 9.14 and you are wondering about my 'rounding' skills... I rounded up because there are two sweaters more than half finished which are not included in knitmeter.) I think it's surprisingly little!  That's less than a mile a month!  Shame on me...
2. Knitted projects:  48 projects!  Now, that's scary...
3. Of those, knitted socks: 7 pairs, (2 for my daughter, 1 for granddaughter, 4 for "ME")  Maybe some of those will move to Norway, permanently, in February. Somehow, my daughter magnetizes them and they stick to her!
4. Projects for granddaughter: 14.  (over 25% of my FO's)
5. Yarn bought or acquired:  33 'items'  or 102 skeins/balls  (I'm not up to spending the rest of the day figuring out how many miles of yarn that is, and then calculating if it's even close to 10 miles...It would be nice to think so!)
6. Books read:  0  That's right!  There's room for improvement here.
7. Books listened to:  First 3 Harry Potter books.
8. Geocaches found:  18.  Surprised?  I'm not... and I know of plenty of geocachers who do that every month!  See?  I'm not 'so bad'...
9. Countries visited:  4 or maybe more... those Caribbean Islands...
10. States:  3 plus Puerto Rico
11. Trips to Albuquerque:  0   That's something to celebrate!
12. Trips across the Atlantic: 2 (one round trip)  HA!  I bet there are people out there that thought there were more! LOL
13. Church services played: 90;  that equals (roughly) 270 hymns, or 675 verses
14. That also equals approximately 150 solos, and probably 250 accompaniments for soloists and choirs.
15. Not counting weddings and funerals.
16. There are a number of hours I volunteered at the museums in town.  They keep a record of that.  Report on that at another time.
17. Blog posts:  227  (How many hours would THAT be!)
18. The rest?  The usual.