One birthday gift done... on time!

Well, the camera is still out in the Great Unknown somewhere, so I'm digging through pictures to see if anything strikes me. I was hoping the camera would turn up by now, though.

I finished Edison's birthday gift. He asked me to make him a blue dinosaur with a long neck. After much digging I settled on the Bronty pattern I found on Ravelry. I showed him the pattern and he gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up. I used slightly less than one skein of Plymouth Jelli Beenz in colorway 0133 (it's a deep royal blue plied with one strand of a rainbow variegated yarn.) The variegated strand looked really prominent when I was working, but it knits up as flecks of color, very nice.

I tweaked the pattern just a little, I changed the first decrease on the tail each time to look smoother and I moved the eyes a little further back on the head. The yarn I chose kind of hid the eyes, so at 3:30 in the morning, I was learning how to make a French Knot. If I had discovered this earlier, I could have had Mom teach me, but I didn't think she'd appreciate my waking her up in this case. Thank goodness for the internet. All in all, the pattern was very nice. It was easy to follow and the dino was simple to assemble, a little fiddly getting the legs on, but I think that was a user issue. I'm not a big fan of seaming and sewing up, but since I want to eventually make a sweater, I guess I'd better suck it up and deal with it. In the meantime, I have to figure out just how to wrap this little guy for my little guy...

In Search of...

You know, I used to love watching that show, "In Search Of". It was so neat with Leonard Nimoy hosting (sorry, always Mr. Spock to me) as they searched for evidence of the mysteries of life, UFO's, poltergeists, Bigfoot. That show may have been singularly responsible for my closet light staying on all night on a regular basis! Anyway, I'm on a search of my own. I'm still in search of my camera. I've hunted through the cars and bags and am in the process of turning the house upside down. There is a slim chance it was lefet behind at the derby, so I'm putting a couple calls in tomorrow to see if anyone turned it in. I'm counting on the general goodness of folks and the Universe to help me out here. In the meantime, I can't stand having a photoless blog, so I'll just have to post about things for which I already have shots.

My eldest really enjoys knitting. He's currently working on a scarf, two inches down, twenty-eight more to go! We had gone out to dinner and everyone but the husband and the baby had knitting to keep us occupied. Turned out to be a good choice. We went to Outback and got there in the middle of the dinner rush.


As you can see, he is definitely my child. He carries his knitting everywhere. It gives him something to do on road trips and we never ask him to turn its volume down. Knitting- 2, Gameboy- 0.

Inching along

I'm still working on Gran's sock. I'm not as far along as I would prefer, but I'm farther along than I thought I would be. Playing Florence Nightingale doesn't leave as much time for knitting as I would like. Fortunately, my mom has come up to help shuttle everyone around and dispense medications, hugs and smooches. Everyone was feeling a bit better and Mom was here to help cover all the bases, so she encouraged my husband to take me out for a quick bite. Because my life's schedule and my knitting schedule are refusing to synch up, I had Gran's sock with me. (I am knitting like a mad fool.) I made up my mind to get over my fear of the dark, well really it's more of a fear of knitting in the dark. I just know I'm going to be moving right along making record time and then while showing off my amazing progress, discover that there is a huge error two inches back, (Don't ask how I know this can happen. This is not the season for such a tale of woe and despair,) but I digress.

I was working on the sock while we waited for our drinks. I was knitting while we waited for our appetizer. I was still working when the entree came out. It was too much for our server. He could contain himself no longer. He refilled our drinks (again... I love that!) and asked, "So what is that you're weaving?" I smiled and told him it was a sock I was knitting for Gran. (I feel compelled to gently correct the slightly mis-informed youth.) I waited for his non-committal, "oh, that's nice" reaction. He looked at me and with a big grin said, "That's so cool!! So is it going to be a sock with a heel in it, or just a tube? She's going to like those." We spoke for a bit about how difficult turning the heel would be (not terribly) and how close I was to the deadline (terribly). He assured me I could make it and I mentally adjusted his tip a bit higher.

In lieu of having actual pictures of the second sock, I'll recycle the shot of the first sock. I debated using the rest of the first skein and pulling to the right spot to make the stripes match. Then I thought about it a bit more. I have to use both skeins anyway, so why match stripes up twice. I popped open the new skein matched up starting points (very nearly) and went to work. The benefit of this is that I can reference the first sock to show you my progress.

The second sock is currently at the first bright blue band (I've actually knit two rows of the bright blue.) I had to estimate where to begin, so the green part of the toe is a smidgen bigger on the second sock, but at least it gives you an idea.

I was enjoying my meal and entertaining the prospect of actually ordering dessert when it hit me.... my eldest's class party was today. Some genius had volunteered me to bring not just cookies, but brownies as well. (Just call me Einstein.) That's OK though, cookie batter and brownie edges make a fine dessert and I subscribe to the theory that goodies which are broken or used for quality assurance, have no calories. Now if I could just figure out how to bake and knit at the same time...

Right on track

Today, I celebrate... well just a little. It's not like I'm actually finished with Gran's socks, but I have cast on the second one. I showed the first one to Mom and it got her stamp of approval and I got the OK to declare it finished. Of course, in my true style, I have simply left the stitches "live" just in case I decide the leg should be longer. (This decision has resulted in my using the yarn for my provisional cast-on as a stitch holder for the leg stitches, so I now have three balls of yarn involved. What can I say? I apparently enjoy living on the edge.)

My brain feels bruised from working on a PTO agenda (two copies, one with notes and one without.) It's an issue every month, but is doubly important this time as I won't be running the meeting. I'm feeling a bit better after the procedure, but not well enough to tackle that. My throat still gets sore pretty quickly (My kids seem to be enjoying this a wee bit too much. I may have to come up with some extra housework for them.) Add to that the time spent creating a card for the students to stick a Polaroid inside (I hate fighting with my software to get it to do what I want it to do instead of what it will allow me to tell it to do. Aaaaargh.) and I'm ready for a big bubble bath and a giant bar of chocolate. Oh well, in lieu of that , I'll take a snuggly quilt and a few hours of sleep. Tomorrow, onward and upward with the second sock...

The answer is, "$434 439.41"

The correct question is, "How much money will knitters give to Doctors Without Borders/Medicines Sans Frontiers when challenged to give $250,000?" For those who may not know the history, Stephanie Pearl- McPhee issued this challenge on her Yarnharlot blog a while back. It began innocently enough when she simply asked folks to give whatever amount they could spare, the price of a skein of yarn or so. In true knitterly fashion, the community went well above and beyond what was requested. To the tune of the aforementioned $434 439.41!!! All I can say is "Knitters Rock!" When asked what the new goal chould be, an overwhelming number of commentors replied, "A million dollars, of course."

I'm now trying to figure out what my next step should be. I really want to open a local yarn shop. I love where I live. It's a fairly small town, but it's growing. The local leaders are trying to revitalize the area and are currently encouraging craft based businesses (think pottery and quilting shops and the like.) Right now, there are no yarn shops in the area. The closest ones are nearly an hour away and while they are quite nice to visit, with gas prices being what they are and with no public transportation between here and there, it's a bit challenging to frequent them. My husband and I have discussed it, looked at it, talked it over, thought about it and darn near analysed it to death with the end result being that I believe it could really work. Now I just have to decide if the timing is right to go for it. What I would really like is to have the shop up and running and be able to donate some Karmic Balancing Prizes (KBP) for Knitters Without Borders. Any thoughts?

While I ponder the best course of action, I'm spending most of my free time working on my grandmother's Christmas gift, a pair of stripey socks knit from Wendy's Toe-up Sock pattern. I'm using Regia sock yarn in a kind of jewel tone colorway (Sorry I don't have pictures at the moment, but the camera got left in the car and it's freezing out there.) I still have one and a half socks to go. (I'm almost ready to turn the heel and then move up the leg.) I don't have Grandmother's measurements, but I inherited my lower limbs from her. Her feet and legs are not only the same size but the same shape as mine, so I get to try them on as I go. Of course the guy who runs the garage raised an eyebrow when I stripped my foot bare to try on the sock for a fitting, but I had just given a glowing recommendation to a potential new customer, so he just smiled. Trust me, a woman peeling off shoes and socks to try on a half a sock with needles poking out of it is not even close to being the oddest thing you'll see around here. I love our little town!