Blanket for the beach house...

So here is my (most recent) dilemma...
I am crocheting an afghan for my grandmother's condo in St. Augustine, FL. She gave me a piece of fabric from the couch and I found the most perfect yarn. It is Red Heart super saver in Summer Breeze and it matches nearly every color in the fabric sample (and I can get it for $2 a skein). The pattern I am using calls for 30 oz. or 1500 yards of yarn. When I purchased the yarn, I bought 15 oz. Yes, instead of 30 oz. or 1500 yards, I flaked and bought 15 oz. Three days later, when I realized what I had done, I went back to the AC Moore where I originally purchased the yarn. Guess what happened then... that's right, they were sold out. I put in a special order request and just got the call that Red Heart is discontinuing this color so the store cannot get anymore. Sigh. Here is a picture of the afghan in its current, two-skeins-done, state.

Grandma's Afghan
Now I have to troll the Internet and all my local yarn stores to see if I can find enough to finish the afghan. Did I mention that the variegated yarn from Red Heart is dylotted?

In other news, the Husband's second sock cuff is almost completed. I am off to Mexico on Sunday (yes, I get to spend the 4th of July in Mexico City doing work) so that means lots more plane knitting time. I decided that while I don't do much KIP, I do A LOT of KOP (knitting on planes). Hopefully I will get to do some blogging later this week.

Cheers.

At last, my blog has come along...

At long last, I have a few minutes to update my blog and share with you all the things I have been working on lately. For starters, I have been on the road for work pretty much constantly. Sometimes I get to go to interesting places, mostly I spend my time between hotels, dark focus group rooms, and airports.

However, on a recent trip I got to go to Gothenburg, Sweden. Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden and in June, it is daylight for over 20 hours a day. I actually had a little time to check out the city center and stumbled across a charming little yarn store called Strikk where I found this:

Handspun Linen from Sweden
Pure linen, handspun for this store and only available in Sweden. It is a creamy white color and has a very crispy feeling. I think I am going to make a light spring/fall scarf with it.

Next up, I have been knitting away on Kirsi. This past weekend I finished all of the knitting. Presented for your perusal, pictures of the knitted and (sort of) blocked sleeves, back, and front.
The back and sleeves...

Kirsi's Back and Sleeves
And the fronts...

Kirsi's Fronts
I have really enjoyed knitting her. The yarn is soft and has great stitch definition. Plus, it was easy enough to knit quickly but interesting enough to, well, keep me interested. Next up, the dreaded finishing. I am not really that experienced with finishing so if anyone has good finishing tips, please pass them along. I have never finished any kind of garment with set in sleeves but I am well armed with Nancy Wiseman's Finishing Techniques, so hopefully things will go smoothly. Once the finishing is done, I get to do some crochet edging... something to look forward to. Unfortunately, I am not going to get to it until this weekend. I am spending another week on the road, this time in Philadelphia, PA and Charlotte, NC. At least I finally get a little time to blog.

For all of my travels, I have equipped myself with the necessary means to make a pair of socks for my husband. For some reason, he has no interest in me knitting anything for him. Socks are the only thing he seems to respond to, so socks he will get. As a bonus, they are super portable and great for plane knitting (unless I accidentally drop a dpn). So far I have one sock completed and the second sock cuff started. Check out the completed sock, knit with Schoeller Stahl Limbo Mexiko:

Husband's Sock #1
I hope to have the second sock finished by the end of the week. No second sock syndrome here, travel is the best motivator ever!

That's all for now. I have a few more pictures to show but I figured I would wait until later... not unload all of my goods at once.

Have a great night all!
Cheers

Coming soon to a blog near you...

A new entry, one replete with pictures and tales of all of my recent travels. As soon as I am home for more than 24 hours I will update with what has been going on. There is lots to tell including a nearly finished (with the knitting anyway) Kirsi, a few rows of a crocheted afghan, a newly started sock, and tales of a yarn store in Sweden where hand spun 100% Swedish linen yarn was purchased!

Cheers from Chicago

I need to share...

This morning, as I was counting stitches on Kirsi, I realized I had too many. After all of my decreases around the armhole were completed, I still had 7 extra stitches. After a bit of searching, I finally figured out the problem. I casted on 89 stitches instead of the requisite 82. Yes, the problem was over 12 inches away in the cast on row. That sound you hear is the combination of crying and ripping as I take the whole sweater back down to nothing. I hope this is not indicative of the kind of day I am going to have.
The silver lining, I have a 6 hour car ride today. At least the back is all counted out in terms of decrease and increase rows and row counts for certain measurement points. That means it will be easy to work on in the car.
Cheers!

Pictures I Promised

Here are a couple pictures of the bags I wrote about yesterday. This pink and black striped one is going to my sister.


Pink and Black Stripe Felted Bag

The purple bag, with removable flower pin, is going to my mother as a belated Mother's Day present (shawl, what shawl?).


Purple Felted Bag and Flower

I am headed home to NY this weekend for my mother's college graduation and then off to Sweden next week for a business trip. Most likely, there won't be much time for blogging so I will talk to you all next week.

Cheers!

Bonus

Froggy on the Fence

This is just a little something that made me smile. This frog looked like a stone sitting on the fence around my yard. His colors were perfectly matched to the fence post!

Sex on Toast (aka the U2 Concert)

Tiffany, this title's for you!

Last Thursday I had the extreme pleasure of attending the U2 concert in Boston. In late January, I managed, by some miracle, to score four tickets off the Ticketmaster website to this most amazing concert. For those of you not in Boston, tickets for three shows sold out in under 10 minutes. This highlights the extent of the miracle that was me getting tickets! After months of anxious waiting, I finally got my nirvana (the spiritual place, not the Kurt Cobain band).

The concert was outstanding. U2 is fantastic live and there is nothing more exciting than seeing 20,000 people all hanging on every word of this man called Bono. They played lots of good stuff... Sunday Bloody Sunday, One, The Fly, Love and Peace, Where the Streets Have No Name, and the list goes on. They played for two hours and did to encores (7 songs). At one point, Bono pulled a young woman up on stage, hugged her for at least 2 minutes, and then took off his sunglasses, looked into her eyes, and danced with her. Melting... my girlfriend and I were melting (and supremely jealous). I don't care how old, married, sweaty, or short Bono is, to me all he has to do is sing and he is sex on toast. Fabulous. Anyone have tickets to the October show that I can buy??

Now for a little knitting talk...
I was a busy knitting bee this Memorial weekend. My husband had a lot of work to do so we spent most of the weekend hanging around the house. After the crazy past couple of weeks, it was exactly what I wanted! I (finally) felted a bag that had been knitted over 3 months ago. I crocheted and hand felted a couple of flowers that I am going to pin to said bag. I knit and felted a second bag (pink and black stripes) and finished the shrug from the free Interweave pattern.

Finally, on Monday I started the cute short sleeve wrap-like shirt from the Cinnabar & Spice section of the Spring/Summer 2005 issue of VK. I avoided swatching (bad girl) and started with the sleeves. Got it right on the first try baby... both stitch and row count. That never happens to me. Even when I swatch properly, which I do most of the time, my row count is almost never right. Needless to say, I was very pleased. Thus far it is a quick and enjoyable knit. In a few days I have completed both sleeves and the back up to the armhole shaping. I have some work travel on the schedule for next week and I am looking forward to taking the fronts along for the ride. I am knitting the whole thing in some old stash Caron Simply Soft Brites. Normally, this is not something I would pick for a garment but it is very pleasing to touch, the stitch definition is really lovely, and it is a fabulous shade of bright salmon pink. Perfect for summer. For the purpose of giving my sweater a life (because things can't exist without a name), I am going to christen her Kirsi (a Hindi name meaning amaranth blossoms).

That's about all for today. Pictures of said knitting items to come (as soon as my lazy camera spits them out).

Cheers