O is for Owls

The project I chose for the Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics....

the wildly popular Owls sweater by Kate Davies. I actually finished an entire sweater in 17 days! Splee! It's not near perfect, the yarn's a bit busy, it makes me look a bit like a linebacker and, apparently, I'm not nearly as short as I think I am.

And. I. LOVE it!!

I wanted to make it with some Malabrigo Worsted I bought last year off someone's Rav destash. It's the Charrua colorway which is pretty busy for a sweater but I had an idea to tone it down a bit. I also used this great equation from Ann Budd for the Knitting Math needed to convert the sweater gauge from Bulky to Worsted.

I like the look of a busy yarn edged with a solid color so I got a skein (or two) of Malabrigo Worsted in Thistle color (which, I was assured, was the blue used in Charrua and my sources were correct!).

I cast on with the Thistle, did one row, switched to Charrua; did this for the body and the sleeves. I also learned that if a sweater has long sleeves, I like to do them first and get them out of the way. I did that with this sweater and it made sweater knitting much better for me! I did the sleeves two-at-a-time Magic Loop. I also planned on using the Thistle for the owls section and the BO's and I love how it came out.

I took measurements of my arms and the length that I wanted the sweater but everything came up about 3" short!

Anyway, here it is....

Back shot...

Here's a close-up of the Owls. You can also see where my short rows went horribly wrong...

There's 30 owls! In the original pattern, you're supposed to put buttons on the owls "eyes". I don't think I will. I'm going to put eyes on one or two in the front, right owls (brooch-like). I think if someone has sixty buttons on one piece of clothing they should be teaching preschool or something.

In any case, I'm going to do some serious frogging with this sweater. The waist shaping is in the exact right spot so I'm going to cut off the lower ribbing, add 3" to the body, do the ribbing, BO with Thistle. I was going to do the same with the sleeves but I really need to go back and fix those crazy short-rows. Also, I did gauge adjustment for everything except the underarm grafting bit so the underarms are right up in my armpits and it's a bit uncomfortable and I know that with wearing, it'll felt there and I don't want that! So I'm going to rip all the way down to the yoke and separate the sleeves again, then I'm going to add 3 or 4" to the sleeve length and redo the whole yoke bit. Eep! Not sure when this will happen, maybe this summer.

Now for Dave's sweater...

Back shot...

The flash makes it look lighter then it actually is. It's a lovely deep charcoal color with dark red stripes. It's a sweater from Debbie Stoller's Son of a Bitch book (the actual name of the sweater escapes me at the moment). It's a really easy knit but mind-numbingly boring stockinette in the round FOREVER!

The yarn is a dream! It's Alpaca With a Twist's Baby Alpaca Jumbo Hank. Soooooo soft. Felts instantly so I've already instructed Dave many times to let me take care of washing it. Took me forever to finish it because I'd get bored and throw it in the corner for a few months at a time. I gave it strict instructions to think on it's boringness and become more interesting but it never listened. Stupid sweater.

Two FO's and now I'm at a loss as to what to knit next. That's a first for me! Lots of ideas, just getting a bunch of small stuff out of the way first.

Sweaters ahoy, Ruth!

Drusilla

How about another FO today? I finished this pair of socks for myself in September. The yarn is from my friend Skeindalous and it's the Drusilla colorway.

First, here's proof that there is a PAIR of socks...


I knit them top down, two at a time, Magic Loop on 2.75mm Knit Picks metal needles.

No pattern. Generic sock pattern, mock cable every other rib, every 4th row...


Notice the lovely sweeping heel and the wee stripes on the stockinette bits...


And how's this for my first Kitchener stitch? Not bad, right?


Top down socks went well. They stay up better then the toe-ups I did for Dave but I'm not giving up on toe-ups yet.


I know people have definite opinions about their knitting (what type of needles to use, what type of cast-on/bind-offs to use in different situations, etc.). I try not to make grand proclamations about knitting. I remember when I discovered Garnstudio's free patterns I proclaimed I'll never buy a book, mag, pattern ever again! Yea. Right.

I use the word "prefer". I prefer Magic Loop over DPN's . 98% of anything I knit in the round, I Magic Loop it. I prefer cable cast-on. I use cable cast-on for everything! I find it keeps me from having a too tight CO. I also prefer doing socks two at a time. But I know when I tackle something complicated (looking at you, Cookie A!), I'll do them one at a time.

Yep, I definitely try to avoid making sweeping, definitive statements about my knitting.

If only I could apply this to the rest of my life, Ruth!

A World of Color

I keep hinting that I have FO's to show you. The wait is over my imaginary friends!

I've also confessed to a weakness for sock yarn. As I've said before, I have enough sock yarn to make over 200 pairs of socks. Two hundred.

98% of that sock yarn consists of beautiful, sometimes actually stunning, hand painted sock yarn. I'm a sucker for the hand paints!

So, with all that bounty of color and beauty to choose from, what color did I pick to make my first ever pair of socks?

That's right, folks. Plain vanilla white. sigh.

Dave never wants me to knit anything for him. Then he sees the handmade socks Donna made for Daren (the couple we hang out with) and turns to me and says, "Why don't you ever make me a pair of socks??" Are you kiddin' me?? I've been wanting to knit something for him forEVER.

About a year ago, I talked him into finally picking a sweater that I can make just for him. It's a simple affair which makes it slogalong dull to knit and is still in the works. I made a pact with myself that when watching Husker football with him (his favorite team), I could only work on that sweater.

Dave is not color adventurous. Not. At. All. And he only wears white, cuffless, ankle socks. So I got some Berroco Comfort Sock in white and using a generic toe-up, magic loop sock pattern, I got started. I did ribbing for the top of the foot to give it some hug and used a short row heel. Halfway up the toes, I had him stick out a foot so I could see how many more increases I'd need and I tell him, "By the way, these are socks for you." He looks at them and says, "How come I don't get fancy ones like Daren?" I almost stabbed him with a needle. In the eye.

I plug along and finish them anyway - both of them. One at a time. Finished somewhere back in July! Discovering things along the way...

Do you see how tiny the stitches are?

Turns out, on the label, Berroco Comfort Sock calls for a needle size of 3.25mm, not the 2.75mm I randomly pulled from my needle case. These socks are 80 tiny, itty, bitty, stitches around. Eighty! And Dave wears a size 11 shoe! The next picture gives you a better look at the tiny stitches.

It also turns out that I have no idea how to end a toe-up sock properly. First bind-off was super tight and he couldn't get them on without breaking the BO. Second bind-off was super loose and useless. Third bind-off, I bought some Cascade Fixation (which is a very stretchy yarn) and bound off again and that seemed to make it better. (Hence the color change on the cuff.) Even so, you can see that it is still too loose and he can only wear them around the house because putting them in shoes drags the cuff under his heel within minutes.

One of the classes I took at Sock Summit was a one hour wonder about stretchy toe-up bind-offs with Chrissy Gardiner. Great class! Now if I can just find the handout before I finish my next pair of toe-up socks. sigh.

I've got another pair, toe up that I'm working on for him (the DNA looking one from the book Eclectic Sole), a pair of toe-up in Colinette that I'm designing as I go, a pair of Nutkins that are giving me fits (the perfectly well-behaved skein is in time out after a second frogging), and a couple others on needles that are cuff-down. All these (including the cuff downers) are two-at-a-time magic loop.

Still deciding which I like better, Ruth!

X is for Xenia

This will be a random Thursday post...

Another day, another hank of yarn. Splee! I got the latest shipment from Nefarious Yarns over a week ago. I'm posting the pic's at the end of this post, so if you are in the Club and don't have yours yet, be warned...

I also an FO to share! I know. Don't fall down, I do knit and, occasionally, even finish stuff!



Notes:

Pattern: Retro Redux Shrug from the book Lace Style
Modeled by the ever-lovely Donna, this project was fairly easy and quick. My mom picked out the pattern before I took her on a yarn crawl. It gets a bit tedious around the middle but it’s so fast that the tedium is short-lived.

Yarn: Lonesome Stone's Fraser Flats

The yarn was a huge disappointment. It’s some of the yarn my mom picked out (and bought) when I took her on a yarn crawl in 11/2007. First off, I think the color is hideous! It’s like an Easter egg threw up. Also, in the first skein of Fraser Flats, there were SO many cheater knots, I stopped counting at 20. Over 20 in 325 yards. I’ll never buy this stuff! The yarn is 2 singles plied together (she says with no spinning knowledge) and most of the cheater knots were just in one single or the other. The riotous color combined with the lacy stitch pattern, I didn’t bother cutting/rejoining around the knots. You can’t see any of them!

I used one whole skein and about a tenth of the second skein. I'll definitely be making this little gem of a shrug for myself someday!

I actually finished this around Mother's Day but wanted to wait to post about it as my mom stops in occasionally.

Yesterday was Davis' last day of Kindergarten. sigh. They had a little class party and there was a slide show of the kids and most of the moms were tearing up at the music combined with the slide show. My little guy is going to be in first grade! Dave commented the other day, "Remember when they were babies and they started to lose that baby face and get that little boy face?"

Me: Sadly, yes.

Dave: Have you noticed that T doesn't really have that little boy face anymore?

Me: I know! (starts tearing up)

Dave: They'll be moving out soon... (laughs while I'm punching him for making me cry)

Speaking of crying,

I read The Last Lecture. Cranked it out in a day. Which means I spent most of that day (last Sunday) bawling. Great book but, damn, it makes me cry!

I also finished The Mists of Avalon. I think my limit on interest in a book is around the 600 page point. I loved this book, it was so amazing and so well written! BUT it was 875 pages! And around 600 I was thinking, "OK, I get it. They all love someone else they can't have and they've all been manipulated by their elders and, in turn are manipulating those around them." For me, it was sort of like watching the Sopranos series - it was an excellent, compelling story told with a type of writing I can only dream of doing but in the end, no single character was particularly likeable. They all became distinctly unlikeable as the book progressed but I couldn't stop reading it! And when it's all said and done, I just felt sad for every character involved. Except Gwenyfhar (that's Gweneviere to you and me, Rusty) - hated that bitch. She lived her life in a state of constant fear and spread her mental illness to those around her. On the other hand, the only reason she had those fears was because of the stupid way she was raised.

I think my favorite part of this book was how the author approached religion and how it was changing at the time period of the book. Very cool and endlessly fascinating to me!

I don't know if I'll plunge into The Forest House next or skip it and move on to the Hobbit. I found out that Forest House isn't even a true sequel - it's a prequel and doesn't seem to have much to do with anyone in The Mists. In my quest for sequels (and since I'm a bit behind - should've finished Mists and Forest by now!), I may save it for later and see if I have time at the end of the year.

Also, I needed a break from the Middle Ages and before I plunged into Middle Earth, so I read that Last Lecture book and am taking another small detour.

I'm reading The Shack now. Those who know my views on religion might be a bit shocked. I've been assured this is an interesting take on God and am curious about it. I've just finished the first chapter and I'm already annoyed. I think it's annoyance of my own contrivance. The guy got his little note (if you're unfamiliar with the synopsis of this book, check the link) and just fell and whacked his head a good one in the driveway. Then went into his house with a possible concussion. So. If this book ends with the "it was all just a dream" due to a concussion with the added banality of him receiving the note before the head injury so then "but who knows, maybe..." kind of thing..... I'm going to have to slap someone. Hard.

I've got 5 WIP's and my usual 15 UFO's on needles. I heard the difference being a WIP is something you are actively working on and a UFO is something that's been stalled for more then a month.

There's a big spider crawling towards me across the ceiling and now down the wall behind my desk. I have a deal with spiders - if they are outside or out of my reach, their fine. This one's about to die. He's dead.

OK... as promised, here's the pic's of my new yarn pron....

Isn't it gorgeous!? It's called Xenia after the killer femme fatale from the movie Goldeneye. I usually don't like yellow. At all. But this stuff is so pretty!

Warming up to the yellow, Ruth!

Pass The Sauce

A week ago, I realized that, with the exception of my MIL's hat, I've done nothing but rib-knitting for over 4 weeks now. There was the never-ending edging on the Pimlico Shrug. Then I made a rib hat for my FIL and these awesome rib slippers for the boys...

They look like little Whoville shoes!

Pattern: Ribby Slippers

Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Highlander (doubled for foot, single for cuff)

Needles: US 11 and US 8

mods: I did a provisional CO, starting where the toe increases would've stopped (18 sts for D2, 24 sts for T) and made the slippers from there on up as directed. Then I came back to the provisional sts, used the contrasting slipper cuff yarn and made the toes down to the tips. This way, theoretically, when they grow out of them, I can just take off the toe and extend the foot!

This yarn pills like KUH-razy but I don't think it would in a sweater. At least I hope it doesn't since it's the same yarn I used to make D'Lynn's Pimlico! It's warm as all get out but not intended to be slid around on kitchen floors with! (BTW, D'Lynn called last night saying she got the Pimlico. She loves it! She was raving about it and I had to admit to her that it was hard as hell for me to put it in the mail after working so long on it. But at least I know it went to a great home! I'll have to ask her in the future if it pills at all.)

Anyway, more ribbing making these same slippers for the inlaws and my husband (all feet finished, just waiting for cuffs - more ribbing). I made my FIL's first foot one as instructed but all the rest, I used a provisional CO from the start - it's a lot easier to shut the toe hole that way.

After a rib hat for T's main teacher and I finally found something non-ribby to make. For T's other teacher, I'm doing the Not Lace Scarf from Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair. (D2's teacher knits a bit so she's getting a gift certificate to Purls Of Wisdom.)

Can I just say that I love rib knitting. I really do! I know people who hate it - I've always really enjoyed it. But I think I'm done for awhile, or I will be once all this xmas knitting is finished. (I still have a rib scarf I'm making for my step-brother and a hat with rib edge for my bio-bro.)

In fact, I'm naming January the Month of Knitting Lace. I'm going to try to finish the Icarus I started this past March, and a vest I'm designing with a knit panel in the center, and finally working on the edging for the Hateful Bed Jacket and maybe even work some more on my single Baudelaire. (Which will probably make February "Garter Stitch Month".)

Contemplating BBQ'ing all these ribs, Ruth!

P.S. If someone could tell me why Blogger doesn't allow breaks between paragraphs... WTF? It's only every now and then and it's always maddening.

ETA: Thanks Trek - it worked! Also, forgot to say - 2X2 ribbing in all those Traveling scarves.

Pimlico

The Pimlico Shrug - she is finished. And, dudes, she is HUGE!

Here's my friend Donna (who is not huge) modeling it for me....
Front...


Back....

Pattern: Pimlico Shrug from Knit2Together
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Highlander (7 skeins D'Lynn bought plus 2 more I bought to finish the edging)
Needles: Whatever was called for in the pattern (US 9 and US 7's I think)
Modifications: none

This thing is so warm and big, it's like wearing a really pretty, incredibly soft blanket. If you don't pull the back down over your tush, it has this big, unattractive bubble of knit fabric bagging around the back.

The pic's in the book have this piece as much shorter. I made it to specs and I'm sure it's probably a gauge issue on my part. The thing is, there's no real way to tell until you've done about 12" what it's going to look like when you're done. And the way it's shaped/sewn up, by the time you get to 12", you ain't froggin'.

I was so happy when D'Lynn picked this pattern and even happier when she picked the Highlander yarn. I've been wanting, for quite some time, to use that yarn and make this pattern. 2 birds with one stone! I was thinking about making one of these for myself as well but after finishing this, I know I won't. The main body of the piece is a 16 row repeat - it's actually the same 8 rows and the second set of 8 is just moved over 4 sts. It's interesting.... for awhile. You're supposed to repeat those 16 rows for 34". I remember measuring around 17" and almost crying. It's never ending and gets really dull. The 500+ stitch edging Bind-Off took me an hour.

The yarn is a dream. I have acquired much more of it and see no signs of ever knitting with any other yarn. (hah! I can't even say that with a straight face, but am still seriously loving that yarn!) The finished product that is Pimlico is lovely. But I won't be making another.

I'm mailing this tomorrow. I'll be borrowing it tonight to wear to my PTO meeting (it's snowing here, I want to wear a blanket!). The sleeves are a bit tight - my finishing skills aren't the best. I'm mailing it with some Eucalan, very explicit instructions on washing this thing (it felts within seconds which is great for spit-splicing and no-end-weaving but a bit scary for washing), and the number to D'Lynn's nearest LYS in case she wants someone to do a better job with those sleeve seams.

The FO parade marches on, Ruth!

FO Parade

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. In the tradition of Holiday Parades, I've put my own together.....

Pattern: The Harlot's Unoriginal Hat

Yarn Malabrigo Chunky (don't know the colorway but it's a rich brown with pale blue highlights)

Here's a better pic that Dave took. (I took the blurry one above.)

I made this hat twice. The needles the Harlot's pattern calls for don't exist in America. It's btw a US 10.5 and US 11. I first went with the 10.5 because I've got a tiny head. It was too small. I'd put it one and it would pop off like a cork. I pulled it apart, spit-splice the yarn and remade it with the 11's. It's still a little small. It tends to slide up my head and looks odd. My friend Donna says to block it but I think I'll probably just pull it apart again and make it on 13's.

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Moebius Vest

Yarn: JJ's Montage (again, don't know the colorway)

Needles: US 9 (I think)

When my mom visited awhile back and picked out patterns and bought the yarn for me to make her things I was elated. New yarn! In trying to pick simple things, she ended up picking things that are deadly boring. This is miles of garter stitch. Miles. Countries. But I think it came out very nice. Pooling seems to make some people crazy. It's never bothered me, I rather like the way it looks!

I joined YarnThing's Holiday KAL-CAL. My list includes a hat each for my brother, my MIL, and my FIL. Slippers for the boys and the in-laws. And now I've added a scarf and some Peekaboo Mitts for my MIL. And a bathmat (crocheted) for my BIL/SIL.

The thing is, it's so cold here in Denver that the gifts for the in-laws and the boys will be given the minute they are off the needles.

Pattern: Robin's Egg Blue Hat

Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Highlander

Needles: US 9

mods: No button on the flap. Didn't have one that my Chibi would go thru the holes to sew it on.

Pattern: A Hat Fit For A Boyfriend

Yarn: Baby Alpaca Grande

Needles: US 10.5

Another hat made twice. Made it (casting on 72 instead of 100 due to the difference in gauge btw called for yarn and what I used), put it on my husband who pronounced it a bit snug and too short. My FIL has a very large head so if the hat was snug on Dave.... Frogged and remade using 80 sts. When it was done, I put it on FIL's head, he pronounced it perfect so I took the needles out of the top and finished it off.

Despite the Freudian nature of making a hat fit for a boyfriend for my FIL, it's an excellent pattern. Go to the Rav link and see a much better pic of the clever decreases!

And can I just say that I am now in love with hats - even making them twice, they are so fast! Well, except this one...

Pattern: YeeHaw Lady

Yarn: Kitchen Cotton - Black

Crochet Hook: J (I think, I never keep track of these things - I used what was called for in the pattern)

Yet another one that was done pretty much twice. I made it with some help. I can't seem to figure out flat rounds in crochet. You do 7 flat rounds and then start in-the-round rounds to make the crown. The flat rounds are like ones you would do if you were making the soles of slippers. I can never get those right. I never end up at the beginning of the round where I'm supposed to. I'm always short or overshot on the beginning of the damn round. After 5 tries, I took it to Purls of Wisdom and Jen (the owner) did that part for me. (Thanks Jen!)

I went home and made the rest of the hat. Tried it on before I did the wire edging. Too. Damn. Big. I pulled out to the flat part and made it again with less increases. It was still a bit big but I did the wire edging and 2 hours later wore it to the costume party I'd made it for. Here's my cowgirl outfit...

I didn't really like the hat. At all. I felt the crown was too high. And the wire edging was a true bitch to finish. And you could see the green florist wire around the edge. (Halfway through the party, I went to the bathroom and looking in the mirror, I thought, "You know? It's not that bad!" Then I realized I was beer goggling my own hat. I'm such a dork.)

If I ever make this again, I'll use even less increases and maybe one less round of the decorative stitches in the crown. But I really don't see me making this again. It's currently waiting to be frogged and made into a bath mat for my BIL/SIL for xmas.

And y'all thought I didn't knit, Ruth!

Reunion

I went to my 20 year high school reunion on Oct. 11. I graduated from Clovis High School in Clovis, CA - Class of '88 - Go Cougars! It's a small town (or at least it was small) outside Fresno. Redneck California. It's all orchards, vineyards and cows. We used to joke that Clovis and Fresno were 2 or 3 hours from anywhere you really wanted to be (the beach, mountains, San Francisco, LA, etc).

Anyway, I didn't plan on going. I never cared for high school and while I had lots of friends and even with a graduating class of over 600, everyone pretty much knew everyone else - still didn't care much about going back. But my best friend since we were 13, Nikie, was very persuasive. We used to see each other every 3 years or so (she lives in Georgia) and I was in her wedding and she was in mine, but we hadn't seen each other since my wedding in 2000.

So we convinced another friend of ours (Chelsea) to go and we all met up on Saturday night for the shindig. My husband bet me how many lines I could sneak in from Gross Pointe Blank - one of our favorite movies (it's a hilarious movie about an assassin who decides to go to his high school reunion). I got in about 6. My first opportunity was when we checked in and they handed us our stick-on name tags with our Senior picture on it. I looked at Chelsea and said, "Oh, it's a fresh kind of hell" which is the line Cusack says when they gave him his sticky label with high school pic on it. It was actually pretty helpful though since, out of the roughly 40 people who showed up, only 4 looked exactly the same as they did 20 years ago. And one of them was a cheat as he was one of the 6 black kids in our entire graduating class.

Another reason I didn't want to go was they chose a black and white dressing up theme for the party. Really?? We couldn't just have an equally lame luau theme and at least be comfortable??

I bought my dress a couple of days before for $6 (gotta love the clearance rack at Kohl's) and my shoes, make-up, nylons - pretty much everything I had on me had to be purchased since I don't dress up.

Here's a pic of Nikie, me and Chelsea...


Chelsea, I have to point out, is wearing a dress that she wore to a Winter Formal when we were in high school. Still fits her! (Her dad had kept it all these years.)

And yes, that is my finished Juliet! I'll give more details, better pics, and the story of that project in another post.

So it doesn't take a real keen eye to see that I had changed clothes during the evening. After dinner, when the dancing started, I went up to my room and changed to be comfortable. (BTW, the 3 story hotel didn't have any elevators. Haven't there been elevators since, like, 1810? Fresno.)

There was drinking. Lots of it. I kept telling Chelsea, "I don't know how you're facing this sober!"


Dancing


Group shot. The guy in the front row holding up his drink is the only teacher that showed up. It was kind of funny, because as I remember, this guy got in trouble for partying with the students 20 years ago! Apparently, he's still at it.


I don't know if I'm doing that old lady shrink thing already or what but all the guys seemed about 6" taller then they were when we graduated. It was weird.


The whole thing was surreal. I went by myself which was a bummer. I really wanted my husband and kids to be there (there was a reunion family picnic on Sunday). If for no other reason then to be able to use them as a distraction. As in, "Look, shiny children! Pay no attention to the fat girl behind the curtain, look at the shiny children and gorgeous husband!" The thought of facing my crazy family and former classmates by myself was giving me nightmares for awhile before I went.

But in reality, I had the best time!! (I'm sure the alcohol helped). Really, though. I had so much fun and everyone was really cool and laughing and having a great time as well. We were all filling in the gaps for each other with all the "Remember when" and "ohmigod, I'd totally forgotten that!" One of the women who showed up with her husband lives in Colorado now, one town over from me!

Sunday morning, I had breakfast with Nikie and her family before they headed off to Disneyland. Nikie had gone to the ten year reunion and she said it was so different because people still had attitudes and cliques and something to prove but at the 20 year, everyone was over it and was just there to have a great time.

Also, Nikie's daughters were breaking my heart. At 6 and 3 they are so beautiful and adorable, it just made me miss my babies so much!

On Sunday, I went to the picnic and hung out with Stacy (a friend from elementary school) and Chelsea. It was really laid back and other then one girl's insistence that we play softball, it was really mellow. No one wanted to play ball and I think everyone was just chillin' and recovering from the previous evening's revelry.

After the picnic, I stopped to see an old friend who had refused to go to any of the reunion festivities. In fact, her exact words were, "Awww, you're cute! Not going." I sat in her kitchen with her and her wife and we talked and laughed our asses off for almost 3 hours! It was so great to see her. I was teasing her that she is one of those people who's dog looks just like their owner. She's got this big, burly Akita. Looks really intimidating but is actually a teddy bear. Veronica is the same way. She looks like a short, burly, intimidating Samoan man but is actually about one of the sweetest, kindest people I know. I wish I brought my camera to take a pic with her but I forgot it at my mom's house.

On Monday, I went to my old high school to see some teachers. My friend Tiffany, works as the registrar at the school now and she told me not to check in first - she said if I checked in, they probably wouldn't let me go see anyone. She told me to call her in the morning and she'd tell me when/where to go to see the 2 teachers I wanted to see. I went to Mr. Menendian's class to say hi but he was out for the day. Then I went to see my dance teacher, Mick. She was such a huge influence in my life. She was a strong, stable woman and that was something I never had much of growing up. She was always so patient and kind and made us feel like we were worth a million bucks.

I went to the locker room to see her and the moment I laid eyes on her, I started tearing up. I swear, I had such a hard time pulling it together to tell her how much she meant to me. I kept starting to tear up and blubber like an idiot! I don't know where it was coming from but I got so emotional. What the hell! She was really cool about it and we got to talk for about 15 minutes before she had to go start her class. She's still the best! Here's a pic of us under the Dance Yourself Silly sign she still has over the door after all these years.


I walked across campus to the amphitheater. Sat on the edge of the stage like we always did at lunch way back when. Swinging my legs and wondering why such a land-locked town has seagulls flying everywhere around the high school (just like 20 years ago). Some woman who works at the schools walks up to me and standing not a foot from me and looking dead into my face snaps, "What are you doing?? Don't you have class to go to?" I looked at her and smiled, "um, 20 years ago." After she figured out I'm an adult, she was all smiles and sweet, "Oh, just visiting then? Well, have fun!" Some things never change.

I walked to the admin building to see Tiffany and take my pic under the mangy, stuffed cougar that's still on the wall there. Do you see his missing toe (it's the little white spot on his hind foot)? I wonder who snapped off that souvenir. People always get all bent about that cougar being there but the thing's been dead for over 40 years. It wouldn't be alive now even if it hadn't been killed and stuffed by some hunter so long ago. And we all know that back then, these things were more acceptable. Plus, as I've mentioned, Clovis isn't exactly forward thinking. So it's still there.



Clovis now has a population of over 94,000 people. That blows me away. It was like 30,000 when I left in 1991. When I was in 8th grade, there was this huge open field in one corner of the main crossroads in Clovis. Someone put up a sign that said, "Future Home of the Sierra Vista Mall. When I left 8 years later, that sign and empty field were still the same. The only thing they'd built was the movie theater in the field behind it. Now that mall is actually there. Shocker!

It's so changed and yet still so the same. The highway 101 is still a dead end. Usually when you see a sign that says, "Highway ends, 100 feet", it means that the highway turns into some random road. Not so in Fresno. In Fresno, it means, "No, Bitch, the highway ENDS. You best find the next exit." Otherwise, you'll be barrelling through wooden barricades and hitting a mountain of dirt. Ahhh, Fresno. How I've missed thee. (not really)

On Monday, I also went to see my high school sweetheart, Drew. We started dating when I was around 16 and were together for nearly 3 years. The first two years were great, that last one was mutual torture and drama. When I moved out of the house when I was 17, we lived together for about a year. We've always been friends and keep in touch by phone every year or so.

His family owns a big auto machine shop in Clovis and they all run it together. His dad (whose retired but still shows up everyday, because, really, what else is he gonna do?) is still there, Drew runs it now, and his oldest sister still runs the admin side of it. His little brother (who was about 6 years old when I left town) is all grown up now and is working there as well. (They have 2 other sisters, one is a teacher in Las Vegas and his littlest sibling, Sally Marie, is getting her Master's at Fresno State - she was about 3 years old when I left. I'm old.) His mom got paralyzed (waist down) in a car accident about 10 years ago (99 car pile-up in the fog on one of California's highways). She sometimes comes to the shop still, too but wasn't there when I visited. It was great to see them! I was a little nervous about seeing him in my current shape (or lack thereof) but I needn't have been. He got fat, too! We were laughing about our weight and the old times and the current times. We crack each other up, still!

His girlfriend showed up and they are having some drama. I was at the other end of the counter and I guess she told him, "Why don't you go start talking to her, then!" and left. He told her I was with the other guy standing at the counter (who is another old friend of ours, but apparently one she didn't know very well). I told him he should've said, "That? Man, she was 20 years ago!" Like I said, some things never change. Drew's not happy unless he's with a woman whose making him miserable. That includes me - 20 years ago, I was a total basket case! Thank Dog for therapy!

I also got to meet some of my "imaginary friends" (as my husband calls the bloggers). I had dinner with Quail Hill Knits (but forgot my camera again). She has the best stories! Like the fact that, recently, the police recovered a motorcycle that was stolen from her husband... 20 years ago!! Awesome.

And I got to have breakfast with and a ride to the airport from ChickenKnits. She's so funny and cool! I wished we live closer together!


I'd get into the drama that is my family but even I'm bored with it at this point and this post is overly long enough as it stands.

More fun then I'd ever imagined, Ruth!

Fetch

Here's a coupla FO's. I know, I'll give you a moment to recover. Not only actual knitting content but real FO's???



I've fallen for Fetching. Hard.



I made this pair for a friend who says she works in the Antarctic of air-conditioned offices.



The yarn is Classic Elite Waterlily. 100% merino. It took about a ball and a half on US 6 DPN's. Very soft and lovely. A bit splitty when cabling without a cable needle (thanks to Kelly for re-showing me how!). Also, the yarn is darker in real life and the cables aren't as noticeable.



This set was for a private swap and the recipient requested mis-matched mitts. Apparently there's this whole movement where you wear mismatched socks, mitts, etc. I think my recipient wanted them to be completely different but, due to my being a bit more anal then I'd anticipated, this was the best I could do...




The orange is Berroco Ultra Alpaca and the other color is Rowan Wool DK. Recipient requested orange and some other color. I was quizzing my husband, the sports fanatic, about orange. I couldn't think of a single color that orange goes with that isn't associated with a sports team! Neither could he! I had this orange in my stash and when I came home with the other color (wine? dark mauve?) he said it didn't look like any team colors.



Fetching is a SUPER quick project. Especially when you learn to cable w/o a cable needle. If you don't already know about knittinghelp.com - you gotta check it out. I'm the type that when taught, I go home and promptly forget! That site is an audio/visual knitting teacher 24/7. Brilliant!

Last year, everyone got scarves or bath mats for Xmas. This year, Fetching for all the girls!

Love playing Fetch!

Showing no signs of stopping, Ruth!

Actual Fiber Content

I know, don't fall down. I told you I've been working on stuff! The thing is, two of the things I've finished (seriously, get up) are super-secret knitting.

Here's some other FO's...

I've finished a scarf. This one but in magenta.

I also joined a Morbid and Macabre swap and made these...

That second picture is supposed to be these ghosties. They came out of the washing machine looking like snakes! I tried to knit them but the needles kept falling out (DPNs. Not my strong suit.) so I made a crochet version using the same numbers used in the knit version. hmmm. Didn't quite come out the same. sigh. All 3 ghostsnakes and the skull took a little under 2 hours to make!

So that's actually seven FO's! But only 3 that I have pictures of.

Then there's this...

My first ever custom made yarn! I'm such a geek that I had some yarn made to match my favorite bag. But only because I was also buying this DPN holder that also matches!

Red Corset Designs rocks! She makes custom color yarn and gorgeous needle holders. The DPN roll was only $15. My only irk is that it holds my 6" DPN's perfectly but my 8" ones are still roaming free. But the thing's so pretty, who cares!

Feeling pretty, Ruth!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Here's a pic of my Mason-Dixon After Dark Nightie in progress....

See anything wrong?

How about now....

Nothing? See, that's what I thought, too. I've had skeins in the past that aren't the exact yardage stated on the ball band. One will have a little more or less then another. Happens all the time!

OK, look here...

I gave a tip in the past about casting on two pieces at once and how much faster things go. With all the stress lately, I forgot to pay close attention to which "side" I finished with and ended up knitting on one side more then the other. I know the pic is dark and hard to see, but I have around 10 extra rows on one side.

OK, let's look at something else....

Looks like a furry placemat, right? It's supposed to be a scarf. Back when I learned how to knit, I was selling a LOT of my stuff. This was a very popular scarf (2003, also known as The Year of the Eyelash) and this was my third time making it. You'd think after making 2, I'd remember that I was to cast on 13, not 25. Clearly, I'm insane.

Here's what it's supposed to look like (on the left)...

I actually finished this scarf while watching this guy....

He's Anthony R. Byrne and he made a series of videos on recruiting in 1988 (the year I graduated high school!). If you can get past the goofiness of the guy's look, he really knows his stuff. There's 8 videos and I've watched the first 3 (while finishing the furry scarf). The videos are so old (and two are missing) that the tracking's off. My husband said, "You're supposed to be working, not knitting." I told him I was doing both and that I couldn't actually watch the videos as it would give anyone a huge headache (or an epileptic fit!) and that I could only listen to them. So there!

So at least I have an FO. Don't have any idea what I'll do with it. I'd've taken a pic of it, but you can see what it looks like in the second furry pic above. It's like the scarf on the left, just much longer.

The second to last day of Trev's school, Davis got a sticker from the front desk ladies. He ran over to me and said, "Here Mommy, this is for you!" and stuck it to my hand...

sigh.

Off to the Frog Pond, Ruth!