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Knitting for a TALL Kid

Knitting for a kid that is 6' 4' is keeping me busy.  Here is a picture of the back in all it's glory.  I must admit I am LOVING this sweater and all the cables.  Even on size 10 needles, it took a few weeks to knit.  I did take 1 week off to knit the "Big Headed Man Hat"  (at Mind of Winter) for Kyle's friend Sam who is also freezing his buns off in St. Louis at Washington University.  What are these west coast kids thinking?  Kyle was a little miffed when I told him I took a hat break but I needed to do something else besides cables in rough yarn.  Aurora 8 by Karabella is like BUTTER in your hands--love this yarn and it is perfect for this hat. When finished with this I will try to put the pattern together for whoever needs a very large hooded sweater.  I am piecing it together from the Atmosphere sweater in the Rowan Plaid Collection book but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. I'm taking Lisa and Ali to Disneyland for a few days after stopping in Moro Bay so I am anticipating lots of knitting time.  I'm not a huge fan of crowds and life sized Disney characters--creepy.

Swatching Kyle's Sweater

This is the sleeve for Kyle's sweater.  The Rowan pattern I'm using is quite baggy, so my gauge is bringing it in quite a bit.  It really looks great and I love the idea of swatching on a sleeve so if it doesn't turn out, I'm not ripping out half the back of a sweater.  More to come.

 

Knitting Kyle's Sweater

About 11 months ago Kyle found a picture of a bulky knit, heavily cabled and hooded sweater in the Sunday NY Times College section and asked if I could make him a sweater like that.  This was before we  knew which coast he would end up on for college and I didn't want to jinx anything by knitting a sweater he could only wear where the winters were unbearable.  So now that he's in Baltimore and the weather is turning on him, he wants his sweater.  What knitting mother can say no to that?  We actually bought the yarn a while ago (Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky) and I started swatching it a few days ago.  I'm piecing it together from a Rowan pattern, an EZ book and my imagination.  So far, so good.  I think I can get it finished by the time he leaves on the 19th.  Nothing like knitting on size 10 needles.

The "Brown Thing" Is Finished!

Dick started referring to the shawl I was knitting for Susan (Mom, Mormor) as the "brown thing" after it reached 3 feet.  It turned out so much better than I imagined and it is one of the few things I have made for someone else that I haven't wanted to give away.  But gifted and received it was and I think she loves it as much as I.  I used 5 skeins of Lana Grossa Babykid is color 015 and knit it on size eight Addis.  The pattern and yarn colors can be found here called the Lana Grossa Shawl   This is mindless knitting at its best BUT you need to look at every stitch or you'll miss a few along the way.  Mohair is beautiful to wear and a pain to knit with.  This shawl took on a life of its own after 3 feet and could no longer leave the house--it became too unruly.  And silly me--I'm making another one for Moster Nolle for her 70th birthday.  I told her not to hold her breath.
I need a mohair break.

Happy Hen

I'm a happy hen again. All my chicks are in the nest if only for 6 nights.  What fun it's been to have all 4 of us together.  After a while you forget what it's like when everyone is around.  Lisa is so quiet--we don't even hear her coming down the stairs.  When Kyle is home, you always know where he is.  There are shoes, socks and sweatshirts everywhere.  And let's not forget the wet towels on the floor.  Lisa has done a great job watching football with Dick but let's face it--it's not the same as watching with a guy.  She really knows the game and the players but her voice doesn't carry the way the male version does. <p>

We've loved hearing about everyone's college experience.  Roommates especially.  There's the roommate whose mother calls him every morning to make sure the kid gets to class and then they have a half hour phone call every night as well.  Talk about hovering.  Thank God Kyle knows how to get himself going in the morning.  Then there's the roommate who has only showered 6 times since the beginning on school and he's on the rugby team!  Poor Eric--this is a kid who has been surrounded by friends who always smelled like chlorine and were squeaky clean.  He apparently has a new appreciation for Febreeze.<p>

We went to the Elite Cafe for dinner last night.  This may become a new tradition.  It's such a fun place and the food is consistently good.  We decided next time the meal would consist of oysters and biscuits.  Susan brought a great bottle of red wine from her trip to Oregon--Zerba.  Yummy, smooth red wine.  Lisa even enjoyed the small sip she had.<p>

This is just what we all needed.  In a few more weeks, there will be more stories, food, drink and noise.  I wouldn't want it any other way--bring on the wet towels.

Nasty Cat and Knitting

World's Meanest Cat

Idaho duped us at the pound.  Sweet, cuddly, he even purred.  Then we got him home and he stopped taking his psych meds and turned on us.  There isn't a day that goes by when this cat hasn't bit, scratched or pounced on someone in the family.  He even terrorizes Archie--which is actually pretty entertaining as the dog is so cute but incredibly dumb.

So here I am the other night all set up to watch episode 8 of Season 1 of the "Wire" when I look over and the cat is sitting on my markers and my pattern.  Brat.  It took me 5 minutes of cajoling, pleading and then I finally tricked him into giving me my markers.  He knew damn well what he was doing but in the end, I won.  And that's all that really matters.

All Knitting is Impulsive? Not.

I read some comments on Nona's blog in response to my impulsive knitting resolution and someone (maybe two) said, "Isn't all knitting impulsive?"  What?!  Most knitters I know plan for or at least think about projects they want to knit.  They have them earmarked in some book or magazine, the yarn purchased in some drawer and they are waiting to finish their current project.  About 1/3 of the way through they are thinking about the other 4-8 things they want/need to knit all the while not really enjoying the project in hand.  You've seen them.  Knitting while longingly looking at someone else's project saying, "Oh, I have to knit one of those but I need to get to the blue sweater for so and so."  Our Open Knit Night at the LYS is like a feeding frenzy.  We can't help ourselves.

You know I'm right. I talk to enough knitters to know of what I speak. Therefore, I maintain that most knitting is not impulsive (maybe compulsive) and my goal is to "knit impulsively" for 1 year and see what happens. I'm tired of feeling overwhelmed by all the yarn I have and projects that loom.  I want to knit in the here and now--for at least one year.

The Year of Impulsive Knitting and Choosing a Dishwasher

My New Year's resolution this year was to buy no new yarn (nope--couldn't do it) and to knit no sleeves (this was was easy).  Next year's resolution is going to be to knit on impulse.  Here's how this would work:

Give away all stash yarn that has been begging to be knit into something fabulous or assigned some project seen long ago.  Start with a clean slate, empty drawers, from nada.  Then only knit that which grabs my eye, turns me on, makes my heart skip a beat.  I would drive quickly to the lys (local yarn store) in anticipation of finding just the right yarn, cast on that evening and sit back in knitted bliss.

My other thought is to work on only one project at a time.  What?!!  And not have multiple bags around with projects in all states of disarray?  I'm willing to try it for one year--starting Jan.1, 2007.  In the meantime, I have a shawl, the dreaded baby blanket and hateful Debbie Bliss sweater to finish. 

Here is where all this started:  About 8 years ago, we remodeled our kitchen.  During that process, we had to visit the Appliance Store.  Easy enough--look at stoves, diswashers and refridgerators and pick a few, right?  Wrong.  Here's what happens to me in that situation--I get completely overwhelmed, clap my hands over my ears and repeat over and over, "Good bye, good bye, good bye."  Show me 5 dishwashers and let me pick one.  Whose idea of a bad joke was it to line up 30 and ask me to make a decision?

It's the same with yarn.  I look at all the yarn in my drawers, and I want to slap my hands over my ears.  I'm on yarn overload and it must end.  Hence my idea of impulse knitting.  It's either that or medication and therapy.

Works In Progress (Wips for short)

A few weeks ago my friend Carolyn of nonaknits  came by for lunch and an HTML lesson.  It turns out I needed to learn a new language if I wanted my blog to look a certain way.  I am fairly clever with languages but this is entirely different.  Let's just say there is little rhyme or reason to this but I am slowly figuring it out.  I'm a nurse not an computer engineer for good reason.

I have several WIPS that I know I should be working on but I couldn't resist my latest project that I can't mention because it is for someone who reads this regularly.

Here are 2 of them:

The hateful pink baby blanket knit from Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton.  Everyone but me loves this yarn.  This started as a sweater, was worn twice then ripped and now has a life as the pink blanket that stares at me each day begging to be finished. 

The even more hateful Debbie Bliss sweater knit in a beautiful merino/cashmere blend Susan bought for me in Italy that is knit on 2s at 6 stitches to the inch.  Her patterns ALWAYS knit up too big.  Knit down a size or 2 then block it bigger if needed.  I knit half this sweater before realizing it was too big and then I--yep, ripped and re-knit.  I will finish this sweater if it kills me.

With any luck, my pictures and text are centered.  Happy HTMLing!

Nothing to Knit? Say it isn't so.

So it's not so.  I always have plenty of things I can knit, but few things I want to knit.  There is a list of things I need to finish but those things rarely come to mind when I finish a project and the excitement of starting a new one happens.  I bought some fun apple green yarn when Dick and I were in Georgetown a few weeks ago and it's been sitting on my table in my "room"--the new surfboard storage area.  I look at it a few times a day and nothing came to mind.  Then it came to me--mittens.  Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting book has so many fun, quick ideas.  I knit the mittens for Uncle Mo's birthday in a brownish color by Manos and they turned out great and I made the cuff longer because I don't like having cold wrists--horror.  So I am no longer bummed out because I have nothing to knit--bring on the mittens!