Ho Hum

Nothing too exciting here, not even a finished project. This is the best I can do for today's post. One Spiral Eyelet Sock is complete, but not washed or blocked, and the second is to the point where I start the heel flap. As I said, ho hum.

I've been at my parents house for the past ten days, so that my mom and I could do Diet Boot Camp. Diet Boot Camp is our name for the first two weeks of the South Beach Diet which are really hard to stick to if you do it alone. In ten days I lost 4 lbs. which is not great, but I'm sure it would have been more if I had not gone out to dinner at an Italian restaurant with my Gourment Group buddies on Saturday night, and out to lunch to celebrate my birthday on Sunday. I did not, however have a birthday cake, which I thought was very restrained on my part! And no wine in the evening except on Saturday night. My daughter, her husband and the two grandkids are arriving this afternoon for the weekend, so it will a little harder to be good than when I'm at Mom's house. But Weight Watchers for sure next week. I've done their program before and like ti better than South Beach.

Gotta go and stock up on groceries before the gang gets here! Happy Fourth of July to all of you out there.

The Day God Spilled the Paint

Taken by Barbara Matthews on May 14, 2005
The east side of Carrizo Plain, in the Tremblor Range about 50 miles due west of Bakersfield, CA.

A slow spiral

Here's the progress on the spiral eyelet sock. Not much to look at, is it? I'm about half way through the heel flap.

Look what I bought at the LYS yesterday! There are some really beautiful children's knits in this book.

I would like to knit this one someday for Katy, but I think I had better work on something for Jack first. As a "grammy" you can't play favorites.

Hopefully after the weekend I've have a bit more knitting to show than I have today. Bye

A pattern for Katy's sweater

I have been looking through my knitting books and magazines for a flowered pullover sweater pattern in children's sizes for Katy. And the two finalists are:

























DAISY on the left and ROSA REEF on the right. A thank you to LeAnne for suggesting Rosa Reef. I was racking my brains trying to think where I had seen a flowered Zoe Mellor pattern, and she came up with it! I was able to find it on the Rowan website. Daisy is a Kim Hargreaves design from her book Pipsqueaks. Now Daisy would be perfect, except, as you can plainly see, it's a cardigan. But I think I could convert it to a pullover without too much trouble. (Famous last words.) Daisy is knit with Rowan Cotton Glace and Rosa Reef is knit with Rowan Handknit Cotton DK. The Cotton Glace is a lighter weight, so might be better for summer. I suspect I will probably end up knitting both sweaters, it is so hard to choose.

Today's heron count = two.

Nature Notes

The Spiral Eyelet sock is coming along very slowly as it is being knit on size 1 needles. I'm still working on the leg and haven't reached the heel flap yet. I knit on it while watching Scent of a Woman on HBO last night. I hadn't seen it before and I liked. I'm an Al Pacino fan.

Yesterday while driving to work I passed a small lake locally known as "the Duck Pond" and saw seven great blue herons fishing. Seven! In spite of living in an urban area, Shaker Heights with its mature trees and landscaping attracts quite a lot of wild animals and birds. I usually do see one and sometimes two herons at this particular lake. But seven is really amazing. I was very tempted to stop and take a picture, but had a business meeting to get to. I looked again this morning, but there were only four today. I also do some birdwatching from my office window. I'm on the second floor, overlooking a small courtyard. There is a large ornamental cherry that was just gorgeous this Spring when it bloomed. Now it is laden with tiny cherries, to the delight of the robins and cedar waxwings who are feasting on them. The tree is right outside my window, so I get a birdseye view of it all.

Ok, I'll quit with the bad puns. Bye.

Socks that don't slouch

As promised here are the former slouch socks reincarnated (or something).

I just cast on 60 stitches on size US 2 needles, knit a 2x2 ribbed cuff,

Then a round heel,

And a banded toe (I think that's what it's called. Whatever.)

There you have it. A simple sock to smooth my feelings over the slouch disaster. And I have started a new sock. It is the Opal Sock of the Month Club pattern for June. It's called Spiral Eyelet Sock. The yarn is Opal Petticoat #1296, and the sock is knit on Size US 1 needles. Here's what I have done so far:

It has a picot top band followed by 2x2 ribbing. Then you start the spiral eyelet pattern. I didn't think I was going to like this yarn when I saw it in the skein, but the colors are lovely as they knit up.

Tootles.

Knitting on the Road

I just spent a three day week end in Gaithersburg, MD visiting my daughter and her family. Yes, knitting did occur, but not actually on the road, as I had to drive the car. I finished a pair of socks, which have been washed and are blocking, so no picture today. My granddaughter Katy, told me that she has outgrown all her "grammy sweaters", so could I make a new one? She is requesting " a yellow sweater you pull over your head with pink flowers on it". I believe the flowers are supposed to be on the sweater, not her head. But you never know...














A PIZZA!! And a FROG!!

Not to be outdone, son-in-law Tom has a LOBSTER on his head!



These photos were all taken in a hat shop in Annapolis, MD. We drove to Annapolis for lunch on Saturday and had a great time.











My parents, who were also visiting, are in the background. My daughter and her husband are in the front of the picture, and you can see the grandchildren behind their dad. It was a perfect day, sunny and cool. We had lunch at Pusser's on the waterfront. The food was delicious, I think all the adults had crab soup. I had a crab salad that was wonderful. Didn't take picture of that though!





Katy and Jack really enjoyed watching all the boats entering and leaving the harbour.











On my return trip home, I got off the PA Turnpike at Ligoner to visit Kathy's Kreations Yarn Shop. It was a nice side trip though the beautiful Laurel Highlands, but alas, Kathy's Kreations was closed on Sundays. I knew that it might not be open, but I thought I'd risk it. I did gaze in the shop window at some beautiful sweaters and yarn. I just wish I could have bought some! Maybe I'll stop there some day on the way to Gaithersburg.
Adios for now. Sock pictures tomorrow.

Knit and Learn

Yardage needed for Slouch Socks: 430 yds.
Yardage in 2 balls of Steinbach Woolle sock yarn: 328 yds.
Gauge for Slouch Socks: 7 stitches/inch
My gauge: 8 stitches/inch.

Doh! There you have it. Stay tuned.

It's been a while

Where does the time go? Rhetorical question of course. The weather has gone from temperatures in the 50's in Northeast Ohio to the 80's and the last week has been hot and humid. I knit less in the hot weather, since I don't have air conditioning and my hands sweat. After two hours of thunderstorms last night, it has cooled off to a more seasonal temperature. Hopefully, I'll get some knitting time tonight.

The Opal Rodeo Socks are finished.





















They were just a generic sock pattern, from Katherina Buss' Big Book of Knitting. I used US 2 double points. The yarn was Opal Rodeo, but I don't know the shade number. I think I threw out the ball band from the 100 gm ball.

Next on the needles is another (surprise! not.) pair of socks. They are the slouch socks from the book Socks, Socks, Socks.

But there is a problem, can you guess what it is?

See that teensy ball of yarn? That is what is left of a 50 gram ball of yarn. I have, oh, maybe another two inchs before reaching the toe decreases. There is no way I will have enough yarn to finish this sock. And I have only one more 50 gram ball of this yarn. What could have been the problem here? Listen my children and learn from the error of my ways. I didn't check gauge. I know, I know! It's a sock, ok? My method with socks is to try it on as I knit and if it fits, I keep going. This usually works fine. Usually. How to fix this particular problem? Well, here are the options:

1. Go to the LYS and buy more yarn. The problem with this option is that I bought this yarn a year ago and I bought the only two balls on the shelf. It's possible they might have another tucked away somewhere, but I don't think this is likely. Besides this yarn shop is 45 minutes away from my house, which means spending $2.65 /gallon gasoline to drive there and back and spending an hour and a half in the car. Note that I don't have a problem with time spent in the shop itself searching for yarn or any money actually spent on yarn while there. :0)

2. Frog the entire thing and reknit. I could shorten the a cuff at least a half an inch and maybe eliminate one of the slouch ridges. I could measure gauge before I frog and if I'm really off, maybe even just going up a size from US 1 to US 2 double points would do it. I'm sure it would be more fun than beating my head against the wall.

3. Frog and knit an entirely different sock. This yarn would probably make a nice simple stockinette sock with pretty stripes. I could try a toe up sock, and I could cast off when I run out of yarn. If it's an ankle sock, then it's an ankle sock.

Ok, I'm leaving now to think on it.