Cottage46 Knitter

Sewing projects

Now that I've collected all these sewing machines, doesn't it seem like I should, hmmm... sew?

First project: My leetle bag  I made this about a month ago.  I was so proud that I just gazed at it for several days.

Then I took a beginning sewing class where we made an apron.  You may want to shield your eyes.  It's really purple.

Dork wearing her purple apron:

This may actually be the first time I've ever actually worn an apron.  And you can be dang sure I won't be wearing it to do anything messy. 

This weekend's project was a handy tote bag from Sew Mama Sew. 

It's even lined!

What you can't see from this angle is that the striped on the other side are horizontal.  Oops.  I find the whole cutting out aspect of sewing a bit frustrating.  Of course there were lots of things that were frustrating about knitting when I first started.

I'm ready to start the finishing on Cabaret Raglan, speaking of knitting. 

I just read The Thirteen Tale which is the first book I've read in a weekend in a long time.  It was interesting, but maybe a little too V.C. Andrews.  I've got the first two Geraldine Brooks books to read next.  I can't decide which to read first, plague or Civil War.

But right now I have a cat DEMANDING attention.  When Kiki meows, it sounds a lot like, "Me Now!  Me Now!" 

Unimpressive progress

I'm plugging along on St. Brigid's front.  Notice the nicely (correctly) mirrored side cables.  I'm about half a repeat from beginning the armhole shaping.  Finishing SB is going to be my Knitting Olympics project. 

I've also been working on Cabaret Raglan from the Summer 2004 Interweave Knits.  I'm just getting to the lace pattern on the bodice, so the pictures are pretty stockinettey.  But hey, it's not purple!
The back:    The front: 

We had a nice 4th of July weekend.  We worked on cleaning out the junk/sewing room and the shed (which was exhausting BTW), in part to make room for this:

It's a Singer Model 99 from 1928.  It's electric but I'm planning a motorectomy and a hand crank conversion operation.  And a refinish for the bent wood case. 

I have a couple of sewing projects nearly ready to show off.  I'll wait until next time though since I just accidently posted this.  Aaargh!

Knitting retreat... It's a good thing.

It's wonderful to spend time with like-minded knitter types.  My LYS has a knitting retreat every year for both machine and hand knitters.  The hand knitters took classes from Lorna Miser, founder of Lorna's Laces.  Here she is:

She made us promise to elongate any photos of her that we posted, but honestly it's just not necessary.  I should have lots of other pictures from the retreat since my camera was in my knitting bag.  But I didn't remember to get it out until we were cleaning up after the last class.  Duh.  You know how I kinda go for the purple thing?  Lorna takes the love of purple to a whole new level.  She has purple luggage. 

The classes were great!  I learned how to knit set in sleeves from the top down.  This is a very good thing! Here's my little sample.  A thing of beauty, me thinks.  St. Brigid's sleeves will be done this way.  Yay!

We also had a button making class.  I was a little ambivalent about this one because I'm really, REALLY not creative.  But it turned out to be so much fun!  The results:

We have Shrinky Dinks (remember those?), polymer clay, painted little wooden shapes, and glass beads that you can get at the craft store to go in the bottom of floral vases (my favorite).  We just moved from station to station and played.  My grandma used to do a lot of crafts with my cousin and me and it reminded me of all the afternoons spent at grandma's. 

It's been a good weekend.  I'm going to go sit outside and knit. 

How long have I been knitting swatches?

I started the TKGA Master Hand Knitter Level 1 adventure in 2004.  Yes, FOUR years ago.  I've worked on it off and on since then.  Somewhere in the middle they changed the program so I basically started over.  I finally got serious and knit a bunch of swatches last weekend.  One more swatch to go, a hat and some written stuff and I'll be sending it off either this month or next (depending, of course, on my current indexing project).  I've learned a lot!  Of course when I started I'd only been knitting about 18 months so that's to be expected.

I finished the back of St. Brigid.  About halfway up I realized that I wasn't doing the right &^%%^& chart for one of the cables so my side cables aren't mirrored.  CarrieK had the unfortunate experience of emailing me during my meltdown.  Being the good woman that she is, she talked me down and helped me to rationalize, I mean realize, that it's the back and who's gonna notice.  I have been very careful to do it correctly on the front. 

I often say at the beginning of project that it's my favorite project EVER.  This usually fades pretty quickly.  But here I am at nearly the halfway point and St. Brigid is still my favorite project EVER. 

I'm heading to knitting camp this weekend.  I'll be taking classes from Lorna Misner, originator of Lorna's Laces.  Speaking of which, I better get my homework knit up. 

I've always known that Zoey is the coolest, but this just proves it.  I'll let you just guess how happy she was at this moment. 

I do love spring

Because we get to see the heron.  Here he is sitting on the end of our dock.  This could be one of many herons of various genders, but we choose to think it's just one and he's a guy.



And we have the obligatory flower shots.  Note that there is only one overwhelmingly purple shot.  Personal growth, I say.



I got to spend the entire day at a budget workshop today.  Oy.  These things generally cover the same thing from year to year.  But we had a lot of legislative changes this year, so I went.  It's broadcast over the web so while you can hear the speaker, you can only see the power point presentation on the screen.  The exact same one I have printed out right in front of me.  We also got to hear lots of loud paper russling (sp?) in the microphone.  Sheer bliss, let me tell you. 

The upshot however is hours of nearly uninterrupted knitting time.  I had about half an inch of this sock started last night.  The rest I did today during the workshop.  On #0s.



Progress on St. Brigid continues.  It goes very smoothly once the first repeat is under your belt.  I have decided to change it to have set in sleeves.  I've never done anything remotely like this, so prayers would be appreciated.  I had seen a couple with set in sleeves on Ravelry so I PMed Larisa (whose St. Brigid is gorgeous) and she sent me a link to a wonderful series of Jenna Wilson articles on Knitty about set in sleeves. 



And Sitcom Chic #2 is done except for blocking and the cool spiral clasp that I'm waiting for.  This one doesn't fit quite as well as the first one.  Something is a little different about the neckline.  But I still like it.  I hope the clasp comes soon.  It's going to be too hot to wear it soon.



I watched the PBS documentary about FDR over Memorial Day weekend.  I just love that guy.  He's always been my favorite president, faults and all. There were wonderful video shots of him laughing and playing with kids in the pool at Warm Springs.  And one 4-second shot of the "walk" that he developed with braces on his legs and holding the arm of one of his sons.  To think that if his paralysis would have been known he wouldn't have been elected.  But it was the experience of polio that made him the perfect president to lead the country through the Depression and WWII. 

Then I happened to watch the Waltons episode that had FDR's death.  At the end, the Waltons all go to Charlottesville before dawn to watch the train carrying FDR's body back to Washington go by.  His casket was in the last car, the only car lit, with four soldiers standing guard around the casket. 

I don't know what my point is here other than that they just don't make presidents like they used to.

St. Brigid + Cascade 220 Heather = Love

After one repeat:

 

New WIPs and St. Brigid yarn

Sitcom Chic #2 is coming along nicely.  I have one sleeve done and the other one is about halfway.  I ordered a sweater clasp for it instead of a button, but it hasn't arrived yet.

I went on a little cast on binge at knitting group.  First, Lupine Lace socks from Fiber Trends in ONline Supersocke cotton.

And then Branching Out from Knitty in Dream in Color Smooshy.

I haven't touched either project since then.

My St. Brigid yarn arrived!  It's Cascade 220 Heathers, Colorway 9463.  It's a little less pinkish than shown in the picture.  More burgandy.

Although it was in the house all last weekend, I did not touch it until my Economics index was done.  So I wound all 10 hanks last night and Actually. Swatched.  Got gauge with #5s and happily cast on, carefully placing my stitch markers between cable sections.  On the first row I realized that there 2 sections where I hadn't cast on enough stitches. Duh. So I ripped it out and will try again tonight.  Evidently it takes at least 2 tries for a 5-years-of-knitting-experience knitter to cast on the right ^&$*!%& number of stitches.

I also picked up another hank of Smooshy.  The colorway is Pansy Golightly.  I love that.

Brigitte tagged me for a meme!  (Appropriate to be tagged by Brigitte on my first St. Brigid post.)

 

The rules: Posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer. Play nice, children.

 

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Hmmm... working at the same library, but as a part-time circulation clerk. And commuting 3 hours round trip to Kalamazoo's Western Michigan University for my history masters.  Glad gas wasn't $4 a gallon then.

 

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today - in no particular order? Cast on the appropriate number of stitches for St. Brigid, run library payroll, read some more of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (great writer, great book), avoid the chocolate cake in the staff lounge, pick up some groceries.

3. Snacks I enjoy - potato chips, popcorn (not microwave), pretzels, really anything covered in salt.

4. Places I've lived -Indiana and Michigan.  Well that's just sad.

5.  Things I would do if I were a billionaire - Set up various friends and family for life, travel, add a few hundred square feet to the cottage, adopt several children, try to reduce the number of kids in the world who starve to death or die of stupid treatable disease.

 

6. Peeps I want to know more about - Skipping this one since most knitters have been tagged by the time I get around to doing memes.

Monday is Memorial Day in the U.S.  I'm looking forward to a 4-day weekend.  (I see no reason to work Friday.)  It's supposed to be in the upper 70s which will be nice since it's been pretty cool.  Sunday will be the running of the Indy 500.  This is the only car race that we watch and we both get weepy when they sing Back Home Again in Indiana.  "When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash, then I long for my Indiana home."

There will be much knitting and reading; hopefully we'll get the kayaks in the water too.

Sock love

Finally, an FO about which I have no criticisms whatsoever.

Pattern: Celtic Braid by Lynda Gemmell
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Into The Mystic colorway
Needles: KP #1
Comments: I think Smooshy may be my new favorite sock yarn.  Wonderful stuff, and it's called SMOOSHY.  I didn't make the cuffs too long, but I'm surprised to find I have enough yarn leftover for another sock.  Maybe I'll knit a new cozy for my ipod.

I got a message on Ravelry last week asking if I might part with a skein of Treking in my stash.  Happily I obliged a fellow knitter, but what to do with the $18 the transaction put into my Paypal account?   ETSY!

Yummy!  The colorway is Muddy Garden.  I have a muddy garden and it is in no way this pretty.
I'm going to wind it tonight.  I'm thinking maybe a simple 3x2 ribbing sock?

I also received an order of Cotton Ease from knitting-warehouse.com which I neglected to photograph.  Blue for another Sitcom Chic, pink for Spring Forward, and yellow for perhaps Cabaret Raglan.   

We had to cut this willow down this weekend.  And by "we" I mean our neighbor who is a magician with a chain saw.

Now it looks like this.  We hated to do it, but we were afraid it was going to fall down. There used to be 2 of them, both huge.  Between various lightning strikes and tornadoes and high winds, the one that was left was in pretty bad shape. 

   

The economics index is coming along v-e-r-y slowly.  It was supposed to be due today, but I still don't have all the chapters.  Happy to have the knitting time though!

 

Comfy and Pilly, Together

I have nothing but love for Sitcom Chic.  It's an easy knit that creates a cute sweater.  I'm feeling considerably less love for Knit Picks Comfy (75% cotton/25% acrylic).  It was pilling by noon.  Aaaaarrrrgh.  It's really soft though so it will make a good around the house sweater once it's too pilly to be worn to work.  I think I'll knit myself another in some other yarn and make one for my mom for Christmas. 

Pattern: Sitcom Chic from Knitty
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy
Needles: #8s

And there are socks.  If I spent a little more time on these pictures I might get the sock on my left foot on straight.  They are not as wonky as they appear.

Pattern: Garter Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Socks that Rock, Farmhouse colorway
Needles: #1s
Comments: They fit well, but the pooling... enough said.

On the up side of knitting, I finished the first Celtic Braid sock.  It's the most perfect fitting sock EVER.  And no pooling.

Like many knit bloggers, I compose fantastic posts at night as I'm falling asleep.  Most of them are maniacal, yet well-reasoned, political rants.  Luckily for all involved, most never see the light of day or the blog.  But after watching the news tonight, I just have to ask:  Why does it take WaPo reporters or a dad with video recorder and YouTube to get the fricking military to provide decent living quarters for soldiers?  Honestly!  Where does all that defense budget money go that they can't get 60-year-old plumbing fixed, slap up some paint, and call in an exterminator? 

When did the U.S. become the Keystone cops of empires?    Well, I have a pretty good idea of when that happened but I'll stop so as to prevent my head from exploding.  [As an aside, while I recognize that the U.S. is an empire, I'd prefer that it weren't.]

 

Must Have revisited

Remember Must Have No. 1?  (I ended up using the square buttons, BTW.)  I love it, but the sleeves are way too long and the body is just a little too short.  I ripped one sleeve back with the intention of reknitting a cuff a couple of inches shorter.  This, I can assure you, is a monumental pain in the ***.  This is why it has gone no further and I didn't get to wear it at all this winter.

And it was a fun sweater to knit so I'm doing it again.  This one is in Paton's Classic Wool.  She's perking right along. 

I went to knitting today at the LYS and picked up some summer sock yarn:

And some great stitch markers made by Haley, daughter of Lea-Ann, owner of Knitting Today.  Industrious young lady, that one.

            

Although it's supposed to get cold and stormy, the last few days have been springtime-in-the-Midwest gorgeous.  The hyacinth are blooming!  (And I love, love, love my new Canon PowerShot A570.)