Finishitis vs. Startitis

There's been some talk lately on blogs and in person with knitters who identify themselves as having "startitis" or "finishitis." My goals last year centered more on finishing items, but I've had a bit of startitis lately. Luckily, it has mainly been fed by small projects. During the run-up to Christmas, I could start a new sweater every other day, but not start a new one until I'd finished the first one -- my miniature sweaters (aka "knitting candy"). I've moved from there to slightly bigger projects: hats and mittens. There, too, I'm able to finish one before I start another (pretty much -- Ill admit to having a new pair of Fiddlehead Mittens on the needles).

Well, I'm taking the urge to finish a bit farther at the moment, and hope that inclination continues. I've had a sweater almost completely done, but in pieces, in my bag of things that need to be blocked and since my blocking board was out yesterday, I decided to block those pieces with the intention to seam the sweater together this coming weekend. Once seamed, I'll need to knit the button bands on, but they are only about 12" long, so that shouldn't prevent me from finishing the sweater. Here are the first three pieces on the blocking board (sleeves and collar are next):


Last night's TV knitting (we watched the Steve Martin/Carl Reiner film "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid) got me about half-way through the lining of the first Fiddlehead Mitten:

It snowed fat, lazy snowflakes all day yesterday and so there is a lovely white covering over all the dirty snow this morning AND the sun is shining. Sounds like I better enjoy it today as another "big storm" is on its way for Wednesday (I think this will be the 4th Wednesday when we've either had a storm or at least a threatened storm). I only wish I got snow days!

Good Progress

Friday night was an alone with my cats evening as DH had basketball games at the high school. I concentrated on finishing up the thumbs on the Fiddlehead mitten. Then I stayed up late reading "Alice I Have Been."

Saturday was an errand-running day which we began with a nice breakfast with my parents. I think eating breakfast out is my favorite meal to eat in a restaurant. From there we went to LL Bean in Freeport, and managed to find 6 shirts for DH on sale and one for me. On the way home we did a few other errands but got home in time for me to pay a visit to my LYS for more mitten yarn and start a new pair last night. Then I stayed up late reading "Alice I Have Been."

Then, I got up early this morning to finish reading "Alice I Have Been." Thank goodness I finished it, so I can get more sleep this week!

The insides of my Fiddlehead Mittens, before hiding the ends.

The Saroyan Scarf soaking before being blocked.

The scarf and mittens on my blocking board -- the scarf was a bit longer than my blocking board which is why the board is on the floor instead of on the twin bed. It didn't need to be pinned, so it was easy to block.

The results! The leaves look great.

And the mitten looks great. Now to knit the liner.

I'll have TV knitting to report tomorrow after our Sunday evening TV time :)

No Pictures, But Some Knitting

I left my camera at work yesterday because I hadn't yet had a chance to download the photos from the Dessert event on Wednesday night, so I don't have any knitting photos this morning. But, I did get some knitting done last night.

After yoga, I had a bite to eat and then decided I'd be most comfortable if I slipped into bed to read and knit. I got a book weight from Levinger for Christmas --
and decided to try knitting and reading at the same time. I'm reading 'Alice I Have Been,' a historical fiction based on the relationship between the little girl, Alice, who inspired the book 'Alice in Wonderland' and Lewis Carroll which I had started the night before. I chose to work on the Saroyan scarf because 2/3 of each row is knitting I can do without looking at my work -- I just had to turn to the chart each time I got to the leaf part of the row. The book weight worked great! I read about 100 pages and finished the middle part of the scarf before going to sleep. Now I will start the decrease section which is just 6 leaves/repeats long and will be able to block it and see if the leaves pop the way I hope they will. I also hope the soaking and blocking will soften the hand of the yarn a bit. I'm going to try to finish it tonight, along with another chunk of this compelling book.

Weird Clock

You, my one or two readers, may have noticed, as I just did, the crazy times listed as when I posted my blog notes -- I think this morning's was something like 3:56 a.m.! I am NOT posting blogs at 3 or 4 in the morning. Usually I post while eating breakfast between 6:45 and 7:45, in case you were worrying about my getting enough sleep.

Jan Plan Ends With a Bang

Colby's January term, called Jan Plan, officially ends today. Essentially, we all cram a semester's worth of learning and events into four weeks, with just a brief pause before launching the spring semester. This year, I worked with the college physician and a physician from one of the local hospitals to create a Jan Plan course that connected 14 students with 16 physicians for 80-hour observational shadowing experiences in local clinics and hospitals -- everything from ER to psychiatry to family medicine (and lots more). Students also had to work on a project that would be helpful to the physician. Last night, the students had a chance to present what their project involved with 3-minute "sharings" at a Dessert Reception that included many of the physicians along with some others from Colby. Overall, the program was a great success, and one that we now hope to offer every January. I slept really well last night.

Yesterday's other success was getting to my 5% goal at Weight Watchers. 5% more to go and I'll meet my goal. I've recently been particularly grateful for the weight I've lost -- it made room for the long underwear I've been wearing all week to work! And, I really do feel healthier. It does feel like a slow process, though -- my leader joshes me about how I tend to lose only about .2 or .4 pounds each week, but as long as I keep going in the right direction, I'm happy.

The only knitting I got done yesterday was one leaf repeat on the Saroyan scarf while at my lunch meeting -- but I did knit!

Car Woes

Car challenges continue. It turned out that we needed a new starter in the car that had died, but the service dept. at the dealer has been so busy with cold-related complaints that they didn't complete the work by the end of the day yesterday. Luckily, they loaned us a car (with heated seats!) so we were able to take the van to the other dealer for service we had scheduled last week. So, I haven't written any checks yet, but it ain't goin' to be cheap! However, I place a huge value on reliable transportation and we don't have any car payments, so I guess it will be OK.

My batteries died in my camera, and I don't have time to go looking for some this morning (I suppose I could be doing that instead of writing this, but then I wouldn't have a reason to use the camera... hmm... there's a philosophical question in there, I'll bet). I did get almost all the way through the green stripe last night, so made a bit of progress on the mittens.

Tonight is a big event night -- the reception to finish out the Pre-Med Academy Jan Plan. I don't know if I'll get any time to knit tonight, though I may need a bit of yarn time to help settle down after what I'm sure will be an energized evening!

Color Fun

Yesterday was COLD. So cold that one of our cars wouldn't start in the morning, causing a quick regrouping and ferrying of DH to work (he goes earlier than I do). It still wouldn't start in the evening, even though it had "warmed up" so we tried to jumpstart it with no response. I was beginning to despair when I remembered that we have a AAA membership! I placed the call, had a very nice conversation with the representative who first checked to see if we were OK, and then Kenny from Arbo's showed up about an hour later. We bundled up, anticipating having to follow it to the dealer's (where, luckily, I had called to inquire about replacing a headlight and had made plans to bring it in today anyway), but Kenny very nicely offered to put the key in the drop for us so we could stay home and warm. It was a much easier process than we anticipated. Our trusty 13-year old Toyota Sienna is still running, though. But it is due to go in for some work tomorrow, so we're juggling vehicles this week.

I managed to get some knitting time after dinner and got through the second color stripe on the Fiddlehead Mittens. I don't want to wait and knit on these over the weekend as I'm a bit afraid my gauge won't match and I'll end up with different sized mittens. Hopefully I can finish the thumb gusset and next color stripe tonight.

I'm already imagining other color combinations and feel a mitten-jag coming on. My next pair will be similar to these, except I'll use the dark purple as a stripe color and yellow as the contrast color for the swirls. Then, I want to make a pair with various blue stripes and yellow swirls -- college colors for one son. And, the other son's favorite colors -- black, green, red, and yellow -- would make another interesting pair. Purples with white swirls would be great to have to wear to hockey games the next time the high school is in the playoffs (those are the only high school hockey games I go to). Who knows if I'll ever get them all made, but I love to dream!

Miles of Knitting

I had a wonderful knitting weekend! I spent the morning puttering around at home, reducing the piles of stuff in various places (though I still didn't venture into the piles on my desk -- I'll have to do that before paying bills at the end of this week, I'm afraid, and need to sort things out to start getting ready to do the taxes). It was sunny and bright, but only got to a high of 32 degrees, so it was lovely to simply stay home.

In the afternoon, I ventured out. I first headed to the grocery store, but the shopping center parking lot was absolutely jammed with cars (think, Christmas Eve shopping day) and I simply turned around and headed downtown... to the yarn store. I bought some Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport weight in 6 bright colors so I could make Fiddlehead Mittens:
As you can see, once I got started, I couldn't stop! I finished all but the thumb of the first mitten before going to bed on Saturday. Then, I got up early on Sunday and got a little bit of the second mitten going before our early church service (it was Annual Meeting Sunday, so choir members had to be there by 8:15).

After church I went to visit my parents, who live just under an hour away. It was again a lovely, sunny, cold day, so it was nice to be out and about. I was home by 5:00, in time to watch some Sunday evening television with my husband. Currently we're in season 3 of the sci-fi comedy "Eureka" and I knew he was going to want us to watch multiple episodes, so I pulled out knitting more conducive to watching TV -- the Debbie Bliss sweater sleeves. I made excellent progress on those:
And, a picture doesn't do it justice, but I also finished off my first skein of yarn for the Saroyan scarf. I've only got 8 more repeats to finish it and can't wait to block it to see if the leaves pop the way I hope they will.

To top off a great fiber weekend, I also finished the binding on the star quilt! All that is left is to make and put a label on it and to give it a first light wash and dry. Mom's quilt top is done, and I need to call my machine quilter this week to get it over to her.

So, it was a lovely weekend -- just the right combination of accomplishment and rest.

Happy Dances

This has been a pretty happy week for me. I didn't have a lot of time to think about it until I was in yoga class on Thursday evening. Usually I get there, lay down and cover my eyes with my hands until class begins, trying to become as calm as I can and put aside the busy-ness of my usual week. This time, as I lay there, I felt a distinct welling-up of ... happiness. No, life isn't perfect for me. I've got many things I long to do but can't, plenty of things I have to do that I don't really want to do, and any number of things that are being asked of me that are frustrating, boring, even exasperating. But, most of the time, lately, I find myself feeling at least quietly happy. And sometimes I find myself "doing a happy dance."

As far as the quietly happy, I think it is partly that my nearly 10-year struggle with low-level chronic depression has lifted (the best I can guess, it began one year when there were a string of difficult things happening, ranging from a medical issue to war breaking out to a murder on campus to what can only be described as a toxic co-worker). I've been depression-free for about 3 years now. I can't say for sure what made it finally go away, but I actually felt (and still feel) like a weight has been lifted off my heart. I was never depressed the way people in the drug ads in magazine look -- it was a quiet, gnawing weight that never went away. I still could feel happiness and sadness and the whole spectrum of positive and negative emotions, but that gnawing weight was still always there. It is such a relief to live without it.

And, the happy dance syndrome appears mostly at work. I find myself, for the first time in many, many years, whispering to myself, "I love my job!" I haven't said it out loud, but it creeps into my mind unbidden sometimes when I'm driving to work or finishing up a meeting with a student. Apparently, though, it has been noticed. At our student affairs division staff meeting the other day, the Dean described a new award he and the student affairs leadership had decided to give out occasionally. He described it as not much more than a public "pat on the back" and said there were actually two he wanted to give this first time. Well, the second one was for me! Along with being a very gratifying indication that my hard work and talents are appreciated (frankly a public message that doesn't get said to employees at my place of work very often), it was represented by two $25 gift cards. My favorite part of that gift, of course, is thinking about what I might spend it on -- oh, the anticipation itself brings on a happy dance!

Here's a quietly happy picture.

Two More Leaves

I have nothing to take a picture of today, but did complete two more leaves last night. One leaf is one complete repeat of the charted pattern -- there were 6 leaves in the increase section, there will be 10, or so, leaves in the center, and another 6 decrease leaves to complete the scarf. I'm anxious to complete it and block it to see how the leaves really look.

Yesterday I found the next pattern I want to try -- a lined mitten pattern called Fiddlehead Mittens. I hope to take advantage of the LYS January yarn sale to pick up some fun colors. I figure I can mix and match them and get a few pairs -- who wants mittens? If I just had a snow day like my DH does, I'd get all kinds of things finished today :(

By the way, there's a great article on using the ball winder over on the TechKnitting site. She talks about winding and re-winding and whether using the winder adds extra twist to the yarn. Very interesting.

And, a fun site to play with (whether you are a fiber fanatic or not) is Silk. You click and drag a line and then a lovely piece of silk fabric unfurls. Keep going and you can fill the page with color and then replay it from the beginning. Lovely.

Swatching Helps - Even After Beginning the Project

I'm enjoying knitting the Saroyan scarf, but didn't like the way the garter stitch edge rolled severely under the body of the scarf. I had a tip-off that this would happen from reading the project notes on Ravelry, but my personal annoyance with it grew as the scarf started to grow and I decided last night that I needed to do something about it.

I'll admit that I'm not much of a swatcher. When making a sweater, I usually make a swatch to check my gauge, but I always figure that gauge for a scarf isn't terribly critical so am more apt to cast on and go. But, I took the second ball of my yarn and another pair of needles and cast on about 20 stitches and experimented with ways to make the garter stitch edge behave better and came up with something I can live with. I found that making the first stitch of the stockinette stitch body a purl stitch before going to all knit stitches, should help. It doesn't completely cure the curl, but it looks like it will be able to behave once blocked and, for a scarf, which is always being scrunched up anyway, that should be fine.

So, fitting knitting in around dinner and choir practice, I'm done with the increase section and ready to cruise on the middle:

The leaves will open up and be prettier once this is blocked, but you can get an idea of what they are like here:

New Person to Knit For

One of my sons brought his very brave girlfriend to meet "the family" over the weekend (and, as you know, this was the whole family, minus only one grandchild - Nate's brother). Even his parents had barely met her. I'm happy to report that she settled right in and was a delight to have around. So, of course, I must knit something for her! Nate reports she has a lot of mittens, and we agreed that maybe a scarf would be a good item to knit. I spent my lunch hour on Monday searching through Ravelry and other resources for knitting patterns and found a number of possibilities. But, I landed on the Saroyan scarf -- a tapered scarf with a lacy edging made up of leaves. I found a lovely red heather in Berroco Ultra Alpaca and am off and running. Here are photos from last night's beginning:
Here are the skeins I picked up at lunchtime at my LYS: The Yardgoods store. I was tempted by some other possibilities, but this really is a pretty heather in the color family that was reported to be the recipient's favorite.

My swift -- one of my favorite tools. It is a lovely wooden piece and resides in a box in my dining room. It was a great investment and I use it often.
And, the ball winder that goes with it. I originally bought this piece for my mother while I was living in Montana nearly 30 years ago. I'm pretty sure I got it at a small yarn shop in Missoula.
And, here it is, four repeats into the tapered end. The leaves are hard to see -- the light is terrible (we've got a gray start to the day at the tail end of a snow storm) and they are all scrunched up at this point. It will be beautiful when it is blocked. There are 2 more increase repeats, 10 non-increase repeats, and then 6 more decrease repeats for the whole scarf with a new leaf created in each repeat. I think it is going to be a quick project. I didn't start any of what I've shared with you until after 7:00 last night as we were adventurous in the storm and took our neighbors out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. It was snowing hard, but just snow (not freezing rain or sleet) and we had discount coupons that expired yesterday. Kath and John are in their late 80's, though you'd guess they were in their very early 70's if you met them. Despite a few health issues, they are in incredibly good shape and fun to talk to. I can only hope someone will say the same about me when I'm in my 80's! Just one more reason to keep knitting -- keeping my brain and hands healthy.

Just a Little Knitting

I worked late last night, giving an evening Resume Writing Workshop on campus, so didn't have much time or energy for knitting last night. I did, however, manage to cast on for the Debbie Bliss sweater sleeves and knit about 5 rows -- it now looks about like it did several days ago, but with the correct number of stitches. A 4-stitch deficit doesn't sound like it is worth getting upset about, but it was equal to a little more than a half-inch, which can make a big difference in sizing in knitting (and in piecing a quilt). I'm much happier knitting on them than I was before -- and peace of mind is an important part of knitting for me when other parts of my life are busy.

My Director asked each of us to contribute a word that describes what we think is important to us at work. He told us to think about it for a while, but the word that immediately came to mind is the one I'm going to offer: balance. Maybe it is because I'm a Libra (the scales), I don't know, but I am always seeking balance and to be on an even keel. It is easier, most of the time, now that I'm not living with teenagers -- it usually seemed like their goal was to keep me continually off-balance -- but still a work in progress. And, promoted by knitting less anxiously.

I Had Help

On the knitting front, I frogged the sleeves for my Debbie Bliss sweater -- I don't want to knit them and all the while be questioning whether they will work, so it was easier to pull out the few inches I'd already done. The 4 missing stitches add up to a half-inch or even 5/8 inch, which is a lot when you are sizing things. They'll go quickly once I start them again.

Instead of casting back on for the sleeves, I worked on the quilt binding. I was so tired that I had to quit and go to bed last night -- less than 20" from being done! I admit, though, to having some help making that progress:

This is Pandora, our older cat. She is well-trained to sit on my lap while I'm working on projects (she doesn't grab the yarn or the needles and I can lay things on her back), but this is a first. Our other cat prefers to sit on whatever part of the quilt is hanging onto the floor, or climb in underneath where my feet are. Here she is sitting on the radiator behind me while the photo above was being taken:
It is lovely having such nice friends.

Catching Up

This weekend was about catching up in several ways. All four of my siblings were together for the day yesterday -- we ate, we joked, we ate, we told stories to each other and to the grandchildren, we ate, we played games, and we ate some more. Oh, and we shared an experience with the one grandchild who wasn't able to be there (one of our two sons) by watching the Baltimore-Pittsburgh football game. He was watching the game in PA with his rabid Steelers friends while we were watching with relatives who live in MD. Steelers won -- now we can only hope that the Patriots will end up beating them in the SuperBowl. (This might make it seem that I am a football fan. Let's just say that I start to pay a little bit of attention at this time of year and only if it is put right in front of me as it was yesterday.) A rousing game of Pit was played at the same time as the football game, so you can imagine how loud it got at times!

My parents were thrilled to have everyone together. Mom's dementia, however, did play into the weekend and required some serious conversations with the grandchildren and my sister-in-law. I think my brother from MD, who usually sees my parents at their best, may have gotten a bit of a view of what those of us closer by see more often. After posting this blog today, I'm going to order copies of the book My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing "Slow Medicine," the Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved Ones by Dennis McCullough for each of my siblings -- I'm finding the description of stages of decline in health in an elderly parent to be very helpful and am sure it will help us frame difficult discussions to come.

The weekend also provided some catch-up time on the knitting front. I finished the hat I was working on with, literally, inches to spare. In a perfect knitting world, all projects would end that way and knitters wouldn't be left with leftovers. I try to corral all of mine in a big glass jar (actually it is a large vase), but am already running out of room. The hat wasn't a good or flattering fit for Don, but looked great on Nate, our other son, who was able to join the party on Saturday and brought his brave girlfriend to meet the family (she was absolutely delightful, by the way). So, the hat is done and has already found a home.

I was also able to pick up and work on the Debbie Bliss sweater, which I haven't touched in a couple of weeks, I think. I finished the front and cast on for both sleeves. I did find out, after knitting the ribbing and 8 rows of the sleeve after the ribbing that I had cast on 4 fewer stitches than needed. But, I have very skinny wrists, so am going to proceed and just work in two extra increase rows along the way to catch up before decreasing for the sleeve cap. I'd love to get this done before the Amy Herzog class in late February in case it doesn't fit the way I think it should, I'll be able to get some advice on how to fix it.
Today is about catching up in other ways. A little grocery shopping to prepare for the week, some cleaning off of my desk as a start to preparing for bill-paying and money management and tax/financial aid season, seeing friends at church, learning some new music in choir since we missed choir due to a snowstorm, and probably going to bed early to catch up on sleep lost by being up later than usual the past two nights (but absolutely worth it -- it is so much fun to be with family!).

Yoga Instead

Last semester, I made a personal commitment to attend a yoga class once a week. I could do this for free at Colby, but the classes are during the lunch hour and I rarely can wrap the morning up in time to change clothes and get down to the gym in time. Plus I hate the thought of having to rush back to work after a calming class.

I've been taking classes at a local yoga studio where they offer a Level 1 class on Thursdays at 5:30. I can head there right after work without going home and changing my mind (especially at this time of year when it is dark and cold), and it has become the signal for me that the weekend is near. The Level 1 class is calm and relaxing -- not a power yoga or hot yoga or flow yoga. Just right for me.

I missed several weeks over the holiday for a number of reasons (particularly because I was quite sick for 1 1/2 weeks). Even though I wanted to renew this commitment, I admit I was reluctant to go back. Inertia does have its own appeal, I guess. After all, I've got things to do at home: knitting, quilt binding, eating, sleeping...

Happily, I did go. Class was lovely and I felt very content with myself afterward. But, I didn't do much of anything else last night. I knit about 3 rows on the leftover hat, just so I could keep saying I knit every day, but little else. So, I have no pictures. But, I did take a moment to measure the hat this morning and have found that I've gotten to the point of starting the decreases. The knitting will go like lightning from here on out -- I bet I'll finish it tonight!

Oh, and the other highlight of yesterday was snowshoeing at lunch time -- it was cold and windy, but we walked into the Arboretum on the edge of campus and it was gorgeous!

Snow!

The "BIG STORM" did come, and was even bigger than predicted for our area. I woke up yesterday morning, expecting to see the ground covered, but it didn't begin until just after I got to work - and when it started, it went from nothing to blizzard in moments. DH had the day off, at least from school. He spent about 4 hours clearing the driveway in the afternoon -- finishing as I got home at 4:30 and just as the storm began to slow down. Colby almost never has a snow day and rarely sends anyone home early. I had a 3:00 workshop scheduled with over 20 students registered, so I knew I'd want to stay until after that, but did head home about 30 minutes early to allow me to clear my car and parking space and drive home before dark.


Our backdoor wreath - completely decorated with blown snow.

Happy driveway clearer with his favorite tool -- the scoop!

While the snow slowed somewhat after 5, the wind was still quite wild and and the roads iffy, so I decided to lay low and stay home from choir. I got a bit more done on the leftover hat, using the darker color:

You can see that I still have my holiday tablecloth on the table -- it is one of my favorites, so I hate to put it away.

And, I got a few feet of binding done on my sister's quilt. I'm now officially more than half-way around as I turned the second corner last night -- see how neatly it is going together:

The top layer is the finished one - the next layer is an unfinished one. Lydia helped me out by sitting on the end of it where it draped onto the floor off of my lap and was really quite peeved with me when I had to fold it up and go to bed. Nice to know a quilt has cat approval.

More Sleep, Less Knitting

Yes, I got a much better night's sleep last night -- I was so tired from the mid-night knitting session the night before. But, I didn't get much knitting done. I got another inch or so done on the hat from what is left of the Eco Duo in browns. I finished up all the lighter color and "spit-spliced" the end with the darker brown. I should be able to get another 2" and still be able to have enough to decrease to the end. If not, I'll have to tink back and find whatever length I need to finish it.
I expected to wake up to snow on the ground as a "BIG STORM" was forecast to start during the night. Instead, I found not a flake has fallen yet, but DH is home for the day. School was canceled in anticipation of a "BIG STORM." Hopefully I'll have snow tales for you tomorrow.

Sleepless Knitting

I didn't think yesterday would be as productive, knitting-wise, as it was, but I managed to slip a bit of knitting in a couple of unexpected places. First, I stopped home at lunch for a couple of things and while I boiled some eggs, I finished the mittens:One, it turns out, is slightly shorter than the other -- I'll either add a couple of rows to that one or shorten the first. We'll see.

Then, after dinner, I rewound what was left of the Eco Duo and started knitting another hat:
Two knitting friends at church on Sunday had hats they were making out of the black and white Eco Duo and the color patterns were quite interesting using just one strand (I alternated strands of two different colorways in my son's hat), so I thought I'd see what I got with my leftovers. I think the colors are close enough that I can switch to the second one when the first runs out, but it looks like I'll have enough for a whole hat.

And then, I was up for a while in the middle of the night, worrying about something that I shouldn't worry about. I knew that I could just lay there for over an hour and worry, or I could get up and read or knit and get my mind calmed so I could go back to sleep. I chose to knit. I picked up a project that is perfectly designed for picking up and putting down -- my new Jojoland Melody Swirl Shawl. It is a series of hexagons knit together, knit one at a time, in a yarn that magically changes colors by itself so that each hexagon appears to be from a different skein of yarn. It is so pretty and unexpected! I must, however, start weaving in the ends after knitting each hexagon or I'm going to be very unhappy when this shawl is complete.

I Break for Quilts

I've also been known to brake for quilt shops, but this is a break from my knitting to work on a quilt. I noted in my New Year's post that I finished a quilt top for my mother on New Year's Eve. I've also had a quilt for my sister that was even further along, but guilt about how long it has taken me to do this quilt for Mom prevented me from working on my sister's quilt. All that is left to do on hers is the binding - a hand-sewing task that is really enjoyable at this time of year because you are warmly wrapped up in the quilt while you work on it. I made enough progress that I'm nearly half-way done:
I did, also, get almost done with my son's mittens -- just half of one thumb left to do. You'd think I could have stayed up and finished just that little bit last night, but after watching two episodes of "Eureka," I had laundry to finish and just never sat down again to finish. I'll have the delight of finishing a project to look forward to after work today.

Now for Mittens

I intended to blog every day this year, but missing yesterday keeps me from getting to the point where I anxt over breaking a perfect record sometime later in the year. Phew!

We were up early and out the door yesterday to take our son to the airport for the return trip to college. Between here and there, we stopped for breakfast with my parents -- our son has a job lined up on campus for the summer and is likely not to be home again until next fall when there is a family wedding to attend, so we wanted to give his grandparents another chance to visit with him. We'll undoubtedly get to visit him at college sometime before fall, but his grandparents aren't able to travel that far.

Things were a bit tense as he packed up on Friday night (should we ship a box to him or pay for a second suitcase to be checked with the airline was just one of the "issues" discussed, money another). Although it is normal for there to be tension in preparation for a transition, I have to say it isn't as negative a feeling (on both sides) as it was when they were younger -- it used to feel like they had to create bad feelings in order to separate from us and it doesn't fee that way anymore. He was happy to return to his own life, we were happy to return to ours, even though we do miss him and his brother more often than they might imagine.

I managed to get a couple of inches of mitten cuff done on Friday -- that is what I would have shared with you yesterday morning if I'd stayed on schedule. The car ride to Portland and back gave me lots of good knitting time, though, so I was able to finish one mitten before getting home and start the second. I took a quick photo this morning before I did any more knitting and here is what I have to show for the past two days:I'm knitting the second pair with the thumb increases on the end of the rows instead of at the beginning because the switch in colors, where I pull the new color under and around the previous row's color, leaves a slight ridge on the inside and I don't want to have one ridge on the top of the hand and the other on the palm for the wearer to notice. It isn't hard, just a bit different after using this pattern to knit literally dozens of pairs of mittens over the years. This pattern comes from a very old book that my mother had when I was a child. Some time ago I inherited the same book from an aunt. I also still have the paper where I hand-copied the 4-needle mitten pattern to take to college with me -- it is that old!

By tomorrow -- finished mittens!

Hat Complete

Yesterday was another busy day at work, full of ups and downs. The biggest up was attending the Jan Plan course I helped create -- the students we've got doing observational internships got to talk a bit about their experiences and hear from the instructor doctors and a PA trained to lead reflection groups for physicians. I told the doctors afterwards that I was "jumping up and down inside" throughout the class as I saw exactly what we hoped would happen unfold before me. The doctors are terrific teachers. It was fabulous.

So, I definitely needed a bit of calming down after work. I went out to dinner (Asian Cafe) with my son who will return to college on Saturday, and then finished his hat. The pattern had two decrease-to-finish options and I tried the first, but we found it was a bit too short, so I pulled out those 10 rows and re-did it with the other option, which is 19 rows long. It doesn't take long, and it was nice to have it finished. Now for some mittens and then to see what is left that I can use to make a tassel or pompom (son's request).

The Eco Duo has held up pretty well in the knitting, frogging, knitting, frogging, knitting process. As yarn, it showed some wear, but knit up it looks fine. I think the tighter this is knit, the better it will wear, but it will definitely develop a "halo" of fibers and probably pill some. But they will be very warm.

Long Day

12 hours, 5 presentations to over 165 students later, I got home last night around 8:30. You'd think I'd be too tired to knit, but a half hour of knitting helps me to calm down after a long day of having to be on my toes both physically and mentally. I made a bit more progress on the hat -- I haven't measured it, but am probably within an inch of needing to start the decreases and once I do that, it is a fast knit to the end.
You can see from the photo that once I'm back at work fulltime, other things start to slide into disarray -- like our dining room table.

Hat on Track

Last night was a late one at work -- kicking off our career planning program for first-year students -- so there wasn't much knitting time or energy. Tonight is another late night too. Slow and steady will be the progress on the hat, which is the only thing I'll be knitting until it is done.

A Little Progress

Yesterday was back to normal for my husband and I. Don returned to teaching at the high school where they have just about 2 weeks left of the semester before mid-term exams. My college has a January term which started classes yesterday. Not all students are on campus, but enough that it is lively again. I started out the day at one of the local hospitals with 14 students who are in a Jan Plan course I created called the 'Pre-Med Academy.' Each student is going to spend 80 hours over the month shadowing a local physician, doing a project (research, writing, data-gathering) for that physician, and attending a weekly class led by the college physician and a physician/administrator from the hospital. My role has been logistics and it was very exciting to see it come together and then hand it over to the instructors for the month. Yesterday morning was orientation at the hospital and a tour, which I participated in. I'll also get to sit in on the class meetings to hear what the students are experiencing. And, I'm still involved in the logistics of a dessert reception/ experience sharing event at the end of the month. Fun!

On the knitting front, I actually made a little progress -- and more than you can see in the photo. I pulled out the hat I had knitted, re-wound the skeins on the ball winder, and cast on for the next version:
This is going to fit much better! I should be able to get the hat done before Zeben goes back to PA on Saturday, then will start the mittens. Love this yarn, though it will be interesting to see how well it wears.

Nothing to Show

At my LYS there is a knitting instructor who is known as 'Roberta the Ripper' for her encouragement of students' taking apart knitting that has mistakes in it. New knitters are often fearful of un-knitting (also known as TINKing -- 'Knit' spelled backwards) and hate to see their hard work pulled out -- even if it means they would be totally dissatisfied with their final product if they kept going. I probably take second place to Roberta, but I don't hesitate to take things out if I'm not happy with them.

Last night was a night of start-overs, so I have nothing to show for my efforts yesterday. Zeben's hat proved to be too big -- I'll frog it (rip it, rip it) tonight and start over with the smaller version in the pattern and size 6 needles. No real loss there -- the yarn is luscious to knit with and I'll enjoy having it in my hands longer. Also, it will take less yarn, leaving a better chance of my getting a pair of mittens out of the rest.

I also started a new "candy" sweater. I got my new Knit Picks Harmony Wood dp needle sets (4"-5"-6" small sizes) before Christmas and tried using the size recommended in the pattern, which was 2.5 mm. I've been using 2.25 mm needles on all of my others and the one I started last night was coming out bigger than my others. It may be the size expected in the pattern, but I like the smaller ones better, so frogged it before I went to bed. These are such fun, though -- I like each new one better than any that came before!

I did, however, get a slight problem worked out on the Skew socks and knit a couple of rows -- nothing that would show up in a photograph, but progress nonetheless.

The most exciting knitting news from yesterday was finding out that Purl Diva is having Amy Herzog give another 'Fit to Flatter' workshop in February. I was cruising blogs before church and noticed that. I mentioned it to two knitting friends in choir and before you could say Christopher Columbus we had a knitting boondoggle planned! After church, we called Ellen and signed the three of us up for the class (there is only room for 6 in the class, so we had to move fast!). Then we realized that it is the weekend of Spa, Knit, and Spin in Freeport, so Cathie is going to look into getting us a hotel room for Friday and we'll spend Friday at that event. Woo-hoo! I love having something to look forward to at this dark part of the year!

Starting Out the New Year on a Relaxing Note

New Year's Day was a relaxing one at our house. We slept a bit late, lounged our way through the morning, and then went to see the Voyage of the Dawn Treader Narnia movie in the early afternoon. Once home, I finally made English fruitcake -- the ingredients have been sitting on the sideboard for weeks. Our neighbor is from England and his wife used to make it every year, but since being diagnosed with celiac disease and diabetes, she's stopped. It is something we can do for them, plus we like it ourselves. There are lots of fruitcakes I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot-pole, but this tastes like the fruitcake I had when I lived in Scotland and I love it.

Some knitting got done too.

Zeben's hat is progressing:
The green dot is a cute little marker that was in a gift from a knitting friend. The stripes are from alternating two different "colors" of the Eco Duo yarn. They are distinctly different, but blend nicely. Here are two skeins that I wound into balls -- same "color" and dye lot, but they look quite different:
I finished the red and white "candy" sweater, but haven't woven in the ends:
I mentioned that I have three sock projects on the needles and got photos of two of them this morning:
These are the Monkey Socks by Cookie A that have been a huge hit in Knitty. Their popularity spurred Cookie to publish two sock knitting books -- I have one of them and love it.
And these crazy things are the Skew Socks, also from Knitty. It is a bit hard to tell from this photo, but these rows are all at funny angles, especially around the heel. They've been an interesting challenge to work on -- I was happy to have been doing my usual knitting both at the same time (instead of sequentially) as they are mirror images of each other.

I was thinking about my knitting yesterday and realized that there are two other types of projects that I need to tackle. I have a bag of items to be felted down in my basement -- felting intimidates me, for some reason. I just need to tackle it one of these days. The other thing I need to do is blocking. I have a basket full of things that need to be blocked, including two beautiful circular lace shawls, my large Maplewing shawl (finished just before Christmas), and a sweater! Blocking needs space, so it will have to wait until Zeben goes back to college so I can set up my blocking board on his bed. It always seems to hurt my back, too, which makes me want to avoid it. But, being able to use my finished products should make it worth it, so I'll get to it soon (Zeben leaves next weekend).

Today is the last day of vacation -- I can tell I'm ready to go back to work as things have been creeping back into my consciousness about upcoming projects and events and I'm feeling the energy related to moving forward with those things. But, at the same time, I long for just a few more days of the relaxed pace at home. I LOVE being home with my cats (and husband), working on my various projects, listening to good music (yesterday I pulled out a Greg Brown CD that I haven't listened to for a while) or podcasts, and having time to cook. I really need to move forward on my New Year's goal of engaging a financial planner to see how we can move toward my retirement -- in the meantime I guess I just need to keep building my stash of knitting and spinning and basket weaving and quilting projects and materials so that I'll have plenty to occupy my time once I do retire!

Holiday Knitting

Starting the year off, let me review my holiday knitting.

I finished a Cobblestone Sweater for Nate in brown -- the same sweater that Zeben and I made a year ago. I actually finished it in time to give him for Christmas!

I also made a hat and 5 pairs of mittens for the mitten tree at church, using up all of the Galway wool I purchased last January.

In November I ordered a Knit Picks holiday kit and have been making knitting candy every since. The pattern includes several versions of a miniature (ornament-sized) sweater and 8 colors of their Palette yarn. I've started to revise the pattern and develop my own color-work (the yellow, brown, pink, striped, and red/white one in progress are all my own variations) and adapt the pattern in other ways. The blue, red, orange, and green sweaters are from the Knit Picks pattern without adaptations. Not all of the colors are my favorites, but I'm still having a ball combining them in all kinds of ways and here are the results:



I started knitting these at Thanksgiving and doubt I'll stop until all of the yarn is gone! I've given away all but one of the completed sweaters and the one in-progress and promised to keep these two for our own tree.

I am working my way through the Cable Vent Sweater by Debbie Bliss:

The first photo is closer to the right color: Classic Elite Classic One-Fifty, which I'm loving but have been disappointed to find out has been discontinued. This is the back. I've got one front completely done and am nearly done the second front. Just two sleeves to go and I plan to work on those in tandem so they'll be done at about the same time. I actually wore an indentation in one of the Knit Picks Harmony Wood needles I'm using, so had to order another pair and now have three good ones in this size, so have a plan for going back and forth using separate cables.

And, started while celebrating New Year's Eve with friends (no kids, for the first time ever - so we were home by 10:30 - yay!), is a hat for Zeben with mittens to match to follow:
Cascade Eco Duo, a baby alpaca and merino wool blend in all natural/undyed colors that is unbelievably soft -- a delight to touch and knit with. The striping is due to using alternating rows of two different color skeins. This reminds me of the cashmere yarn Don gave me for Christmas last year -- I loved knitting with it so much that I wished I didn't have to finish the project. My LYS has LOTS of this yarn and are having their annual yarn sale, so I'm sure there is more of this in my future (and it is way less expensive than cashmere).

I've got a few other projects going: 3 sock projects, and a Jojoland hexagon scarf, and will share those with you in another post.

Happy New Year!