Sock-it-to-Me Gloves

Remember these?

I finally got around to sizing them out and writing out the instructions. You can download (free) them here, or on the sidebar. 

What is on your needles? I haven't had time to knit for the last couple of days, all week really, and I am going into withdrawal. I was working on these glove instructions! 

Designs are swirling in my head, and I hope to wind some hanks into balls today. I think it's going to be a fairly quiet weekend, so I am hoping for quality knitting time.

A Weekend Away

When opportunity knocks we have to take advantage, right?

DD17 and DS15 spent the long weekend in Colorado wearing themselves out on the ski slopes. That gave DH and I the opportunity to head in the other direction, accompanied by our four-legged friends. We rented a cabin on the White River near Mountain Home, AR and escaped our normal routine for a couple of days. DH has been waiting patiently (sort of) for the flood waters from last spring to recede enough that the river would be low enough to fly fish. He likes to wade when he fly fishes and the Corps of Engineers has had a tough time managing the lake levels without flooding everything downstream. It took until December to get back to "normal" lake levels and hydro-electric generation.

This was the view from our front porch. The cliffs across the river are 600 feet high. It's a great place to yell and hear your echo come back, if you are so inclined!

This is DH doing his best impersonation of Brad Pitt in 'A River Runs Through It". Ha Ha! If you look in the bottom right corner of this pic, you'll see our black lab. She waits for DH to catch a trout, and sometimes he gives them to her. She likes to eat them raw (gross!), but sometimes they get away. It was about 40 degrees, but the chill didn't seem to bother her. She was worn out from swimming and romping!

Not to be left out, this is our hairy landlubber dog. He barely gets his paws wet at the river's edge. Rather, he would prefer to run circles in the field, no doubt rounding up imaginary sheep!

As for me, I don't fish. I just knit. I finished the Chalk Stripes scarf in the car on the way there and even wore it! I had enough leftover yarn to make a matching hat which I finished in the car on the way home. Check back for a pic of that.

All in all, it was a relaxing weekend for us. It was great to get away. When we checked in, the hostess asked me if I fished. I told her no, I just knit. She was supposed to send her DD by for some knitting help, but I guess she was bashful. I wish she would have stopped by.

I have lots of blog reading to catch up on. I am contemplating my next project. Have a great week!

Snowballs or Balls of Yarn

Mr. Weatherman is threatening snow again. 

I prefer balls of yarn to balls of snow. 

A walk in the snow might be OK, but a fire in the fireplace and time spent knitting sounds much more appealing. I say let it snow!

Antique Knitting

For the past few days, I have been wandering around with my new Canon G10 camera in front of my face, snapping pictures of unsuspecting victims. I took lots of pictures of DH and the kids, more of the poor defenseless house plants, and mantel decor. It's a pretty deluxe point and shoot camera for people like me who don't understand all that F-stop and aperture stuff.

This knitted doll blanket is multiple generations old... it was made by my great-great-great grandmother and my mother played with it as a child. I wish I had put a coin in the picture so that you could see how tiny the stitches are. i also have to learn what is the best resolution to save these pictures in. Bear with me... there's a learning curve here and it's Monday!

The thread is similar to bedspread weight crochet cotton, knit at a very tight gauge. The camera even picks up the discoloration (which will remain since I am afraid to wash it). I am having fun with my new toy! 

I didn't take a picture of my knitting progress. The Chalk Stripe scarf has grown to 36", so I am just past the halfway point. 

Hopefully there will be knitting time this week for all of us!

Chalk Stripes and Intarsia Snaggles

I haven't made much progress on my Chalk Stripes scarf, but last night was a Bunko night (no, I didn't win), so at least I was having fun, even if it wasn't knitting. 

I thought I would share the technique I am using to keep the yarns from tangling. I learned this years and years ago at a TKGA convention. I don't do a lot of intarsia, but this really does work to keep your yarn straight.  This time, I took an old shoe box, cut slits for each color into the top of the box. On the inside, I made separate holes for each color (I used an old soda carton for this). I fed each color through its hole and started knitting.

Here's key #1: keep the yarn still. Once you have set your yarn in position, leave it there! 

Here's key #2: at the end of every RS row, turn the needle clockwise to begin the next row; at the end of every WS row, turn the needle counter-clockwise to begin the next row. The yarn untangles itself after every WS row. 

I have seen people use this technique with plastic butter dishes that are glued down to a piece of cardboard, old metal coffee cans, and 2-liter soda bottles. You could improvise with a lot of different things, depending on the size of your skeins and what you have lying around.

One last thing, if you are giving any thought to making this scarf, check out this cool site where you can test out your colors for the scarf. 

Have fun knitting!

January Scarves

Happy January! What is on your needles? After the flurry of Christmas knitting, I settled into a couple of small scarf projects. First, I dug into my stash for this Jasper to make a scarf to go with my black dress coat. I had originally bought this yarn to make a hat for DS, but the red varies so much from maroon to fuschia, I knew he would never wear it. It's fine for me though! This color is Capao Bonito -- I like the name! 

I decided it would be nice to have a scarf to go with my ski parka, too, but nothing in my stash worked for that, so off to my LYS I went. I wanted to make Chalk Stripes, but not quite as wide. I settled on a combination of yarns: the solids are all Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk (Water Lily, Cuddle, and Plum) and the variegated is Mirasol Chirapa in the Crystal Ocean colorway. (yep, there I go with South American yarn again!). I am using lighter weight yarn than what the pattern calls for, and also, I am only doing 6 stripes. Progress pictures soon. 

Also in this picture is a neat little needle case that was a surprise gift from Marie Grace. I think she must be super woman... 4 active kids still at home, home-schooling, designing knitwear, and she still finds time to sew.  ::sigh::

My camera debacle will resolve itself on Wednesday when Mr. UPS delivers a new one to my door. I can't wait! In the meantime, I snagged DD's for a couple of shots. 

For now, it's back to routine... DH is back at work and the kiddos are in school. I have a mile-long list of things to do, but hopefully I will steal a few minutes to knit along the way.

I hope all is well with all of you. Happy Knitting!