Mama does Entrelac

One of my buddies, Susan, at Thursday knit night is a teacher at LYS. I signed up for her Entrelac class, as I’ve been curious about entrelac. The first class was Saturday. We are making a scarf, using size 9 needles, and Trendsetter Tonalita yarn. While the yarn is pretty, very pretty actually, it is a tad itchy and very fluffy. It seems similar to that SWS yarn…just a tad itchy.

I’ll admit I had a hard time concentrating on the entrelac class, because I am so jazzed about my sock in progress. I spent Sunday working a little on the sock and a little on the entrelac. Which only seemed fair!

Proud Mama Announcement!

It is hard to believe that my first born son will be graduating from college this May. We are so proud of him! He not only is graduating in exactly four years (which is rare these days) but he is also the first person on both his father’s side and my side of the family to get a bachelors degree.

Son, your future is bright!

The University of Northern Colorado

announce that
knit Mama knit’s Son #1

is a candidate for the degree of
Bachelor of Science
with a major in Earth Sciences and

a concentration in Environmental Studies
on
Saturday morning, May tenth
Two thousand and eight
at ten o’clock
Nottingham Field
Greeley, Colorado

 

Sensational Knitted Class Sock

Thanks to Carly, one of my buddies from Knit Night, I successfully finished the class sock! I read and reread the instructions for the heel turn I can’t tell you how many times. Carly deciphered the instructions and I was on my way with my tiny sock. Thank you, thank you Carly!

I knit the cuff and leg of my first adult sized sock while in Steamboat Springs last week. I was confused by the instructions and didn’t want to mess up the work I had completed, so I started the Class Sock above. Here is the cuff and leg of my first real adult sized sock. Now that I know what I am doing, I’ll get started on the heel this weekend!

Hemlock Ring is bound off….now it just needs blocked. It appears that blocking this one is tough. I may take the advice of other knitters on Ravelry and take it to the cleaners and have them steam block it. The center star just makes me smile!

Here is a picture of our super awesome dog, Sandy. We’re getting grey together!

Spring Break

The Hemlock Ring throw is 95% done! I need to finish off the cast off row, then block. It will have to wait, because…

We are off to Colorado for spring break! Hubby and the boys will be hitting the slopes and I’ll be cozying up to the lodge fireplace with my ipod and knitting. I’m taking sock yarn, double points and this book.

Will I become an obsessed sock knitter? We shall see!

Colinette Jitterbug, colourway Jay 85

Della Q small project bag. Love these bags!

Hemlock Ring Update

Up to row 57 – Hemlock Ring Throw

Mystic Light

I joined my first ever KAL….the Mystic Light Shawl KAL.

Here is the yarn I will be using.

The Jolly Ewe, 100% Superwash Merino fingering Weight, “Fire”

The skein has 980 yards. My little yarn winder will not handle such a big skein, I will need to visit a friends home to use her larger ball winder. The KAL doesn’t start for a couple of weeks, when the first part of the pattern will be released. A portion was released this week so that you could swatch. Since I don’t have my yarn wound yet, I went ahead and knit up the swatch in some leftover yarn I had from an old project. It’s going to be a beautiful shawl indeed!

SIGN UP FOR LACE KAL
The pattern will be made available for a knitalong, starting March 26.
It will be distributed to the members in five consecutive pieces, once a week on Wednesdays.
The last part of the pattern will be released on April 23, at which point it will be made available for sale.
Sign ups will close on March 25.

This arrived this week! An awesome postcard from New Zealand!

There have been more cables. And another baby sweater started.

Carol Burnett Show outtakes – Tim Conway’s Elephant Story

OMG, they just don’t make comedy like this anymore! LMAO!

Hemlock Ring Adventure

First, I want to thank Beverly, fellow blogger you can find here, for coming to my rescue with my lost stitch in the Hilton Lace Pillowcase pattern. I was indeed dropping the first YO in row 2. I can’t tell you how many times I worked and reworked these 3 rows!

I got tired of trying to figure out what I had done in the Hilton Lace pattern and decided to take on the famed Hemlock Ring pattern. I knew that I wanted to be able to see my stitches well, since I am new to lace knitting, so I chose cotton yarn. Last summer, I purchased several HUGE skeins of Lily Sugar n Cream cotton yarn for $5! When I say HUGE, I mean HUGE…710 yards in one skein! I figured I wouldn’t miss any of the yarn, should I totally mess up knitting the Hemlock Ring. No sense in using my coveted yarn, I figure.

Son #3 wanted to hang out with some kids at the mall, so I plopped my HUGE skein of yarn into my knitting bag, 5 double pointed needles, stitch markers and the pattern and made myself comfy in the food court of the mall and got started.

All was going well. I got to the 14th round, and this is where the fun came in. Seriously, it was so much fun doing the work 9 sts into the next YO that I did not realize that the next k1 needed to ALSO be in that YO, and just skipped it. I found this out hours (okay the next day I figured it out) later, after ripping and shaking my head…how could I be short 8 stitches?!?!

I finally gave up and just went on knitting the pattern, since I did not bring any other knitting with me, and I knew that Son#3 would not get out of the movie for well over an hour. I knit right up to Round 29. Where I realized, those 8 stitches ARE going to make a difference. Soooooooo, I simply bound off the stitches, and was done with it. Now I have this cute little cloth.

Today comes along, and I am determined to get round 14 completed with exactly 88 stitches. So, first, I downloaded the notes from the Ready, Set, Knit podcast. They are brilliant! Every line that will have a new number of stitches is charted for you. Get the notes prior to starting if you are going to make this!

So, I start the pattern again. This time I realize that I need to do the last K1 stitch INTO the YO, PRIOR to the K2, drop 1 YO in the pattern. And wahlaaaaaaaaaaaa I have 88 stitches in row 14.

I might have just strutted around the house humming “We are the champions, my friend.”

more to come!

19 Different Kind of Sheep

Son #1’s girlfriend is studying in New Zealand this semester.

Do you know what there is in New Zealand? Sheep!

Girlfriend informed me that there are 19 different kind of sheep and she’s shared pictures to prove it!

She got to see them shearing a sheep.

Girlfriend even had her picture taken with one of the NZ sheep.

Sheep are cute…but girlfriend is adorable!

Silly girl, pet the sheep, don’t eat the hay!

City girls! heh heh

I can’t wait to see more pictures of her adventure!

Help me before I go mad!

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HELP!!!

Knitting lace has been on my mind a lot the past few days. I found this fun pattern Knit Hilton Lace Edging for Pillowcases by Nancie Wiseman here.

I cast on and ran into trouble in row 3, not having the correct number of stitches, I end up with 18 sts. I frogged, cast on again. I repeated this several times, and even changed yarn and needle size, thinking the yarn or the needles were causing me to be off. I slowly and I mean SLOWLY tried to work row 3. I cannot get 19 sts. If anyone else has the time, I’d love to know if you can get 19 sts in row 3. It is driving me mad!!!!

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I finished one of the mittens I was working on! As I exclaimed with glee at knit night on Thursday, “I just love cables!” I do! I really, really, really love them! There were 6 people at knit night this week…it was fun to meet fellow knitters in the area! If you live in the area, we meet Thursday nights at Kaldi’s in the valley. Thanks to Marji for showing me how to do a m1 without leaving holes!

I am really intrigued and want to make the fingerless Rovaniemi mittens found in the January/February 2008 Piecework magazine.