One sleeve

I've been concentrating on the baby sweater the past couple of days and finished a sleeve this morning. I was up early to go and watch the closing activities of the Relay for Life on campus, but they finished up early and everyone was gone by the time I got there at 6 a.m. I walked a few laps last night but have to admit I'm a fair weather friend and when it started to rain and get dark, DH and I headed home. I'm very proud of the students who participated - it was fun to see them joyfully giving their time and energy to a good cause.

So, I came home and got an hours worth of knitting in before the girls and I started breakfast. I had started the sleeve two nights ago and then knit on it last night while watching Monarch of the Glen, so it wasn't hard to finish the sleeve this morning. One more sleeve to go!


This weekend's goals are to block the Debbie Bliss sleeves, take the quilt for my Mom to the machine quilter (finally), get my hair trimmed, pay the bills, and, with Don, get the garden boxes ready for planting. The sun is shining -- feels like I can get it all done and more!

Bonus picture -- I get a chuckle when the girls mimic each other in body position -- this is a bit dark, but you can see how they were situated the other day when I left for work. This is what "parallel play" looks like at our house these days:

Bit by Bit

Back to work, there has been little time for knitting this week. The end of the academic year is always full of special events and fun activities that occur in the evening, including a wonderful event I attended on Wednesday evening that kicked off the Colby Research Symposium. Over 250 students participate in the 3 days of posters and presentations with three faculty keynote speakers who share information about their research and how students participate. It was fascinating to hear about research on mink frogs, African American jockeys in 1895-1930, and music that has been transcribed from manuscripts that have been largely untouched for 300 years. Students and faculty do such interesting work!

I have worked on the baby sweater -- seamed the shoulder and knit on the neckline and button/buttonhole bands. This weekend I hope to be able to start the sleeves, for which I'll pick up the stitches on the side of the front and back and knit down to the cuffs.

I also did the shoulder seams for the Debbie Bliss sweater and tentatively tried it on -- I think it is going to fit! I used an "invisible" seam from Knitter's Companion and it looks great. I have not yet blocked the sleeves -- hopefully this evening, so I'll be able to seam the whole thing on Sunday.

That's it!

Back to Work

Vacation is over. I could have used another week, but now I'm back in the trenches and we're sprinting toward the end of the semester with graduation the finish line on May 22.

Last night I managed to finish the front of the baby sweater I'm working on: Caleb in Berocco's Comfort DK in sky blue (the photo is someone else's version in grey). Next I'll sew the shoulder seam, do the neck band and then the button bands on the other shoulder. After that, the pattern calls for picking up the sleeve stitches and knitting down to the cuffs -- when those are done, all that is left is the side seams. The baby this is intended for won't be born until July, so I think I'll be OK :)

That's all for today.

Happy Easter

We had a lovely Easter Sunday, beginning with the 8:00 service. It was a joy to hear the "alleluia" ring out in the church again (in the Episcopal Church, we put that word away for Lent) and to sing it in several of the hymns. I think that the Easter music is even more dear to me than Christmas music -- possibly because I don't hear my favorite hymns turned into musack in every store or elevator for months leading up to the holiday. They are still very closely connected to the particular experience of being at church for the holiday itself.

I grew up RC, and attending Good Friday service was always important. Since changing churches, I find the Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday in the RC, which has also had a renewal of the importance of this service) mass to be the most moving of the Triduum. The service invariably ends in the dark, with a silent stripping of the altar area of everything except the furniture and rug. It is so sad to watch. But makes the joy of coming to a re-assembled and decorated altar on Sunday morning all the more meaningful.

After the 8:00 we had breakfast (our parish puts on a breakfast for anyone who wants to attend) and then back to work for the 10:15 (I'm in the choir, so had to be at church at 7:20 and sing at both services. Then, off to my sister's house, about a 1 1/2 hour drive, and a fun afternoon with a good portion of my family (though we missed those who couldn't be there and there was enough food for more than were there).

It was a good knitting day. I worked on Sprössling, finding when I picked it up as we left home, that I had made a goof on one side. That is the possible problem with knitting the fronts at the same time (on the same needles) -- it is possible to get turned around and make a mistake on one side. Luckily I caught it, but it took most of the ride down to get it sorted out to my satisfaction. Knitting a bit at my sister's house and on the ride home, I have about 4 inches done above the start of the armholes. Not too much farther to go before I start the sleeves and am on the home stretch.

This photo doesn't do it justice, of course, because it is lace knitting. It looks like it will never fit me, but needs to be blocked and stretched to show it's lacy loveliness.

I've also finished one of my skew socks. I need to add about 14 more rows to the second one, do the short rows and then the top cuff and I'll be done with another pair of socks! Organizing my yarn (or, as Brenda Dayne on the Cast On podcast puts it, the "airing of the stash") has shown me that I have way too much sock yarn and need to do something with it. I like Harlot's idea about pairing sock yarn with patterns in self-made "kits." She was very good about doing a pair a month last year, but that is not likely to be possible for me. Maybe six in one year?

At the moment, though, my thoughts need to be turned toward our vegetable garden project. We are following the Square Foot Gardening guide this spring. We've settled on the size and location of our raised bed and then spent Saturday scouring local garden centers for the ingredients of the soil mix (even though it was snowing at one point on Saturday!). Chickadees are checking out the birdhouse in the apple tree in front of our house -- it is really spring!

One (or Two or Three ) Projects Off the List

The past two days have seen progress on a number of fronts. The wedding stole is finished! The Debbie Bliss sweater pieces are done and the fronts & back are ready to take off the blocking board (I hope it fits -- I was well underway before taking the Fit to Flatter class and probably should have made the next size down). Nate's sweater was undone near the bottom and nearly 2" added -- I'm about half-way around grafting it back together (it turned out just a bit too short for my 6' son when I gave it to him at Christmas).

And, drumroll, please....
This is my stash (OK, most of it -- there is more, I'll admit), reorganized with the able help of my father! Yesterday, he and I created the divider panels for these cube shelves -- mostly we made X's, but also had a few singles (bottom right two boxes). I had my yarn on these shelves already, but jumbled and tumbled. When I put the dividers in and put the yarn back on, I actually had room for more yarn than had been on these shelves before! Here's the longer view:
These "cube" shelves have been very handy throughout the years. The two that are painted white were in our kitchen for years, before renovations, when we had very little cupboard space. I remember the cereal living in them so that the boys could get their own breakfast when they were little. Then the tall one lived in our mudroom, turned horizontally for our shoes and boots. And the most recent use, before yarn, was in one son's room where he used them in a variety of ways, but mostly as a substitute for a chest of drawers. At one point, he even used them under the ends of his bed to "loft" it. Now, they've found their true calling :)

We've also started working on a vegetable garden. Barely, but started. I bought raised bed corners from Gardener's Supply in their end-of-summer sale last year. When picking up the hard-board for the dividers, I also bought some lumber for the garden. Yesterday we dealt with the all-important task of siting the garden. Here's DH in the yard, contemplating where to assemble the garden:
We're using the "All New Square Foot Gardening" book as a guide and the next step is to obtain the ingredients for the mixture he recommends for the box. We'll use one of our big tarps and work the various ingredients together and then, voila! put the mixture in on top of a weed barrier and we'll be off to the races. Well, as soon as we decide what we want to grow. Luckily, we live near one of the best seed providers, Johnny's Selected Seeds, and can just go to the warehouse shop and pick up our seeds, instead of having to order them and wait.

On the knitting front, I'm trying very hard to finish up loose ends. In other words, instead of casting on for something new (Dianna keeps calling), I'm trying to finish up projects that have been stalled. I'm working on my Skew socks -- doing the short rows at the top of one and almost ready to do the ribbing. I'll try to finish Sprössling next. I'll start seaming the Debbie Bliss sweater and block the sleeves today. In general, I'm trying to clean up the piles of things around my knitting chair, which is the next big area to organize with the help of my Dad. He's building an "entertainment center" to replace the table where our stereo system is stacked and where all of my "must have close by" odds and ends of knitting stuff is out where everyone can see them. I'll be able to put all of that behind doors and in drawers sometime this summer.

Add in 10 hours of sleep last night and I'm feeling good!

Rainy Day at Home

I had it in my head that I had 2 1/2 repeats left on the main part of the wedding stole, but it turned out that I had 3 1/2 left. That is only 20 more rows, but it felt like a setback. But, I knit my way through it yesterday and now have just 1 repeat left, plus then about 17 rows of the edging. The end is in sight! I wanted to get it done as soon as possible in case I run out of beads and need to get back to Augusta to pick up more, but it is looking like I'm going to have just enough.

Besides the wedding stole, I got the toes of the Monkey Socks grafted. And, I prepared for a project I'm going to tackle today -- adding an inch to the sweater I made for my son for Christmas. I've got to return it to him on Sunday, so need to get it done. I did this once, many, many, many years ago when I was living in Scotland. I cut the sweater a few inches up, picked up the stitches on two needles, knit on one of the pieces, and then grafted the two pieces back together. I prepared by finding the pattern and figuring out what size needle I need, and found the leftover yarn. This rainy day is going to be a good one to sit and work on this project (and finish the wedding stole!).

Along with that, we ran a few shopping errands. Nate complained about all of his clothes falling apart and having had to go to a secondhand store to buy a pair of jeans, which has caused his father to want to buy him some new clothes. We checked out Marden's, the go-to-for-deals store in Maine and found a pair of jeans and a couple of shirts. Then we did a bit of grocery shopping -- the refrigerator was rather empty after being away for the weekend.

Today is rainy and gray, but I'm less tired than I was yesterday and looking forward to a nice day at home with the girls.

April Vacation!

Ahhhh. Vacation. A whole week, which is already nearly half gone. But the first half, spent visiting my in-laws, was a great way to start. Work has been incredibly busy and a bit more stressful than usual due to the timing of a major event that took a lot of my time and got me completely backed up on my own regular work. I crammed as much into last week as I could to get caught up so I could go on vacation and not have to do work from home. Going away for the weekend gave me an actual break from the usual routine and it was lovely.

Lots of knitting time was part of the deal. Here's the round-up. I wanted to complete the front of the blue baby sweater, but forgot the other size of needles needed, so got part-way done. I picked up the swirl shawl, which I'm doing in a purple/aqua/green/grey combination. I had put it down for too long and needed to re-learn what I was doing. I managed to get one whole row done and then three hexagons in the second row so I can finally see what it may, eventually, look like. And, yesterday I worked on my Sprössling sweater fronts and got up past all of the increases/decreases -- it is time to start the armholes and then the neckline. Knitting both together has been brilliant and I plan to knit the sleeves simultaneously too. Then, last night, after getting home, we watched a couple of episodes of the Monarch of the Glen and I worked on the sleeve caps of the Debbie Bliss sweater. Great progress!

While in Rhode Island, I visited a knitting store I've never been to before. I think I've noticed it on several past visits but just didn't get there until this trip. It was a lovely little shop, The Knitting Corner and Beadery, in Middletown, and there was a yarn crawl going on, so everything was on sale. I discovered a sweet pink, green, and white crazy Zauberball that distinctly called my name, so that is what a brought home with me. I did some exploring on Ravelry last night and found a shawl that I'm going to try. It is Dianna, and I'm smitten. I've wanted to do entrelac for a long time and to combine it with lace and a color-changing yarn? Perfect. I anticipate it will be challenging, to say the least.

Before I start on Dianna, though, I'm too close to finishing a bunch of things and will make myself do that first -- Debbie Bliss, bamboo socks (just need to graft the toes), baby sweater, Sprössling, and, of course, the wedding stole. But, I may be detoured just a bit this week by a pattern I picked up for knitted Easter eggs out of left-over sock yarn :)

And... I've got a long list of other tasks I'd love to get accomplished this week. Odds and ends of things that, once completed, will make my life easier and nicer. Like painting the baseboard on the porch so we can finally fill up the bookcase and get that room cluttered up enough to feel like home but not so much to feel cluttered :) Stuff like that.

Still Knitting, Just Not Blogging Much

Well, I started off the new year blogging regularly as intended, but this last month has really slowed me down. I'm taking time off next week, so hope that will get me back on track in oh-so-many ways. First, there are piles of stuff throughout my house -- the dining table, the sideboards, my desk, my bedroom, my sewing room, next to my knitting chair -- that just need a little time to go through and eliminate (or, more likely, redistribute). Second, the snow is almost all gone (I can see some under the bushes in front of my neighbor's house across the street) and we never really cleaned out all of the gardens last fall, so that is waiting for attention. Plus, we plan to have a small vegetable garden this year and need to get that set up. Third, I have a long list of other things that would be nice to do, such as read a book. How much of that list do you think I can accomplish?

And that doesn't even touch the knitting!

I've been knitting away a little bit each night on the Tibetan Clouds Stole that I call the Wedding Stole for my sister-in-law-to-be for the wedding in September. I'm just 4 1/2 repeats away from being very close to finishing. I'm afraid I'm going to run out of beads, so may have to make a trip to Augusta for another vial of beads. I also got some of the front of the baby sweater done while waiting for a movie to begin on Monday. We had a chance to see a free showing of the movie "Sweetgrass" which is about sheepherding in the Gallatin Forest near Big Timber, MT. Don and I both lived in Montana and enjoyed spending a couple of hours in the wilderness of a state we both loved living in (but, to be honest, I love Maine more).

So, two more days 'til vacation -- can't wait. Two years ago we traveled for the week, but last year we stayed home and worked a lot on cleaning out our basement. It was so satisfying to feel like one small part of my life was organized that I'm really looking forward to just having a week at home again this year.

Traveling and Knitting

As mentioned in my last post, life has been a bit more complex and overwhelming lately. Along with being a particularly busy time of year at work, my parents' health issues continue to dominate the thoughts and concerns of me and my four siblings. Mom fell out of her chair the other night and they had to call 911 to get someone to help her up -- that kind of thing. I also had two conferences to attend, back to back, last week, and travel, while fun, is always a hassle I could do without. Travel went smoothly, however, except for the nasty cold I developed a few days into the week.

I was in Baltimore, MD for the first half of the week and started off that part of my trip with a couple of days with my brother's family. It was a real treat to spend time with them and I even got to go with them to take my niece back to college after her spring break and see where she goes to school (working in higher education, I'm always happy to visit yet another campus!). That little jaunt gave me the chance to complete the back of a baby sweater I'm knitting for a colleague who is having a little boy in July:
I've started the front, but have stalled a bit. This is "Caleb" in Comfort DK.

The conference in Baltimore was for ACPA, a national student affairs organization. I've probably attended this conference 20 times over the course of my career, but very infrequently in the past few years. This was, for many years my professional home away from home. I got to go this year because a new staff member in our office is now doing all of the things I used to do -- serving on the Commission for Career Development, etc. She had proposed a program and it was accepted, so I got to go along and present with her (which went very well). In some ways, it was a bit sad for me -- I used to be very "connected" at this conference, and on this trip I only saw a few people I knew. However, those people were wonderful to see -- especially one grad school classmate that I haven't seen in at least 20 years, another who shared an office with me at BG, and two of my professors.

From there, on to Newport, RI to attend the Pre-Health Advisors regional conference. In Newport, I stayed on the other end of the island with my in-laws. It turned out to be a rather boisterous place -- my niece and her 3-year-old son were visiting from North Carolina, and my brother-in-law, his wife, and his two teen/young adult daughters arrived the day after I did. And, it was my mother-in-law's birthday AND my father-in-law retired from his job on Friday that week. It was nice to see all of them, though I was leaving before they got up each morning and returning around 7 pm (or later) each night. By then, I was seriously sick with my cold, so I wasn't a lot of fun, I'm afraid.

The conference was excellent, however. This is my 4th year attending this conference and, for the first time, I finally felt like I know the job pretty well. In the past, my head would start spinning on the first day with things I needed to learn and understand. This year, I brought a faculty member who advised pre-health students over 13 years ago and is going to partner with me starting this summer to advise students. It was gratifying to see that his head was spinning by the end of the first day :) We've got lots of ideas on programs, improvements to advising, etc. and I'm glad to have a partner to do them with.

Along with the baby sweater, I managed to finish a pair of socks (all except the grafting because I didn't bring a darning needle with me)! They are Cookie A's famous Monkey Socks in Panda Superwash bamboo by Crystal Palace. I love the colors and softness of the yarn, but did find that it was easy to snag between the separate plies and had to pay attention to my needles. I started these last fall when I went to Boston on a business trip, and finished them on a second business trip.
I'm afraid the photo doesn't do the yarn justice -- there are some beautiful hints of green in with the blue. And, so soft!

Back at home, I find myself picking up the wedding stole every chance I get. I've completed 2 of the 8 1/2 repeats on the second side of the stole. Steady progress is gratifying, and I'm so looking forward to blocking it and seeing how it turns out. Much of the beading, without blocking, appears to fall to the back of the piece, so I want to see how the blocking pulls those to the front and brings the whole thing to life.

And, we're off to visit my parents and attend a memorial service for a family friend who succumbed to old age and Alzheimer's this week. Driving time is great knitting time!