Tuesday, May 29

When the knitting's done, there is still work

And I don't mean the cuffs and collar. That's still knitting. No - assembly. Sewing up. The asymmetrical sweater has the barest minimum sewing that is probably possible - well, maybe the Dale of Norway sweater will have the least sewing because that is just 6 stitches under each arm but THAT's not going to happen any time soon - even so, I am dragging my feet.

Two days to sew up one side



And I am speaking very firmly to myself about finishing the other side tonight.



I like to knit socks



Do you think that top part looks like train tracks?

Thursday, May 24

But you forgot the sock yarn!

I've heard this story before. I sat at the kitchen table imagining Station Master Mike and his buddy putting the suitcase on the bus, taking it off the bus, then putting it back on the bus, every day promising that the suitcase will be with loved ones that night. And Marc driving back and forth between the cabin, the dorm, the bus station, the dorm, and then Fort Ticonderoga because the kids have to have fun too! That was the version I got last summer. Knowing the suitcase was still at Union Station makes me enjoy the story even more today.

I love a lost-luggage story with a happy ending.

I lost a suitcase once but it never came back. Somewhere between Atlanta and Belfast NI (UK), the suitcase we borrowed from the MIL/DM went missing with the camera, the library book, the walkman, new clothes, handmade gifts for our hosts, my prescription. I'm sure the contents were sold for a tidy profit in Alabama; we paid dearly for the loss.

The camera also belonged to the MIL. She didn't hold it against (her son) that it was lost. No, the library book was scholarly from Regenstein. Flat $50 charge. At a time that we could have used the money for groceries. New clothes that cost money but more dear was the time and effort to get DH to buy them. The walkman - OMG - would that never be fully mourned! But mostly in the daily phone calls DH insisted I make from the phone booth at Queens University, to my favorite customer service agent who practically had the suitcase in her sight but couldn't forward it on my say-so. To Europe and back again with my purple dress (and what I bought). We loaded ourselves onto the return plane with many plastic shopping bags that we both declared most emphatically that we would not like to check.

Julie forgot to say she visited Patternworks while she was in NH. At the end of her tale, which made me laugh harder and harder (maybe outloud because I am just that kind of friend), she showed me what she got. I picked out



and got its mate for Christmas



Since I could finish the asymmetrical sweater in one sitting, I was just thinking about starting a pair of socks instead. I will call them "Train to New Hampshire."

Wednesday, May 9

Knitting pictures

I guess no one else is going to update this blog but me so I better take the time. This and that from the past month:


Ballband warshrag - faster than socks, it's easy knitting to do in the museum. Stash Sugar and Cream. I might give it to my MIL on Sunday. It is Mother's Day. My friend April visited last weekend. She paid our way into the Art Institute of Chicago so we could hold a knitting camp in the cafe while DD#3 took notes on some sculpture. I think people were laughing at us. April just needed some encouragement on the increases for the sleeve of her first sweater - it's fabulous. She took possession of the slouch socks on Saturday night. Darn, no picture!



Asymmetrical sweater, Knitting Nature. Quite possibly my favorite project of all time. Stash Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran from Stitches and Scones. I have put it aside in order to take care of some other projects but what fun! Instant feedback what with 4.25 st/inch on size 9. I thought I knew the pattern so I made a couple repeats without looking at the chart only to find I forgot to off-set the hexagons. No matter - it's asymmetrical. This sweater meets my renewed rule that there will be little to no assembly. Each side is knit bottom up, with graduated increases to make the sweaters (horizontally) and then joined at the back of the neck where some stitches are cast-on to join the two halves and then the back is knit top down (so there are just side seams - the cuffs and collar are knit on). I think if I make this sweater again, I will start at the back and then work my way to the bottom of the fronts.


A little crafting for others: crocheted squares in the colors of Virgina Tech to be donated to Mosaic Yarn for blankets to be made for families of the victims of that terrible day.


The best reason in the world to knit: most of the Knitted Sweater and Hat (Leisure Arts booklet) for Amy. Stash Plassard from Chix with Stix. I have known Amy the third longest of all the people I stay in contact with. She gave birth to little baby Margaret on Sunday so I have to finish this up and get it in the mail. With the afghan I made for her when she married John in . . . 2001??

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