A Wee Bit Busy!

I've been so busy the past few days... Working on the little furry jacket, cleaning out closets (a fulfillment of one of my new years resolutions), and in between, reading my newly arrived book, "Outlander", (awesome book, gstq2002, I can't put it down! Thank you so much for suggesting it). Last night, after a busy day, I curled up in bed (ah, the beauty of having a portable DVD player :), to watch the first part of "Elizabeth I", with Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons. Helen Mirren's portrayal is fantastic, she is simply wonderful! Disc 2 tonight and I can't wait.

The little "Manteau Gari" is coming along well, with much thanks to cast-on tips from Donna for the sleeves. A little messy on the sleeve edge, but really not too bad, and seaming will make that irrelevant anyway.

Update photo of the back of the jacket, needing a couple more inches of knitting to finish that part, then on to the left front. I knew it would be difficult to capture a good photo, colorwise and due to the fuzziness of it (I keep resisting the urge to comb it out)! LOL ...but here it is:



Not too much to look at for the moment, but with more progress on it I'm sure it will look a bit more interesting. :) Last week I bought a couple of yards of a cream colored velvet and a pattern to make little overalls to go under it. Perhaps I'll dust off my embroidery skills to embroider something on the overall bib to coordinate with the color of the jacket, just to tie them both in together.

Hope all are having a wonderful day! Sunny here and 23 degrees, a heat wave for us!

Zero Degrees

...with a wind chill of minus 13! I wouldn't mind if I didn't have to jump in my freezing cold car and drive to the supermarket today. Definite bundling up weather!

I worked a long time on the new project yesterday, and already up to the cast-ons for the sleeves. Which has me in a panic, because I find it really difficult to cast on in the middle of a pattern. :(
I believe there's a video for it at knittinghelp.com, so after this post I'll go check it out...and pray a lot! :D

The weekend will be fairly quiet, so with all the heavy housework being done today I should have a free weekend to get a lot of knitting done, with the nights free for reading. I love weekends like this! But today will be busy, so I'd better get on with it.

Have a great weekend... (And best of luck on the Celtic Festival, gstq2002)!

Mission Accomplished!

The Blueberry Chenille Scarf is on its way to France, and I've already started on this:

The pattern is from an Anny Blatt pattern book that I sent to France for, and it's considered "easy" enough for beginners -- let's hope they're right! The yarn that it called for was ultra-expensive, so I found a suitable (and very soft) substitute for it at the LYS when I was there last Saturday, in a very soft sage green. If I had used the Anny Blatt yarn in the pattern, it would have been nearly *gulp* $100.00 to make, which is just a wee bit pricey! LOL

Yesterday I found a package at the front door. Yes, the Knit Picks Options which I ordered with part of the gift card I received for my birthday! I had thought about them for awhile, they've received such great reviews, but as I haven't started knitting with circulars I kept deciding to wait until I was a bit more experienced. But then I read that you can use them as straights with the end caps they supply, and with a gift card to pay for them, I just did it! And I LOVE them! Super light-weight, incredibly smooth -- I think my knitting has picked up a little speed with them! I might even be able to catch up to Donna! LOL

Will post photos as the "Manteau Gari" jacket progresses. Off to work on it a little while longer before I have to start dinner...

Snow Day

...but not a lot of snow, just flurries with little or no wind so it's falling so softly. :)

Yesterday the mail brought an addition to my ever-growing yarn stash with a box of Anny Blatt Flirt'Anny cotton/linen blend yarn in a soft and very pretty peach color. It will make a lovely summer-weight baby blanket with a matching sweater set. Tomorrow I'll search through my books or online for suitable patterns with this yarn weight, because today I will be finishing the incessant Blueberry Scarf! It must be shipped off to France no later than tomorrow, so I will be hard at work on it today.

Later today I will also be driving down to the village to register for my next course of art classes, which begins on February the 1st. Just to give you an idea of how rural an area I now live in, one course offered is "Blacksmithing"! LOL

Blueberry Scarf time!

Ouch...

Oh, that game hurt! The Pats lose it 38-34, a Tom Brady interception in the last minute giving the win to the Colts. Even with the Pats leading by a large margin through most of the game, I didn't feel they had it tied up at all. With the third Patriot touchdown in the second quarter, I nervously thought that it was too much, too soon. C'est la vie... But three Superbowl championships in the last five years makes this loss much easier to bear, and they played a great season!

And now there's gstq2002's Bears to cheer on in the Superbowl!! GO BEARS! :)

Knitcentricities

I have a few "knitcentricities", do you?

• I can't knit without a ring on my right ring finger, to help keep the yarn wound over that finger for proper tension; just as I could never crochet without a ring on the ring finger of my left hand. Without the ring in place, the yarn always slides up my finger, usually falling off at some point!


• My favorite place to knit is sitting cross-legged on my bed, (usually with both cats curled up on either side of me and my dog at my feet)! I try to knit sitting on the sofa, but it's just not comfortable and I always end up back on my bed.


• I always listen to music when I knit, and the music runs the gamut from classics, to Beatles, to Jacques Brel, to Broadway musical scores. I have a selection of all my favorites and set it to random on my iPod so that each song is a surprise. (I guess it is a bit strange to go from Concerto for Violin Op. 61 to Yellow Submarine in the space of a minute! LOL


• I love coffee but for some reason when I sit down to knit or to read, tea is the only thing I can even think of having.

I had a fun day today. In spite of the bitter cold, I finally made it to the yarn shop (with the gift certificate that I'd received on Christmas burning a hole in my pocket)! I didn't have any particular purchase in mind, so I drifted and browsed and eventually made my way up to the sale loft (where I happily discovered that during the month of January everything up there was 40% off)!... There I found two beautiful balls of Jaeger 100% silk 4-ply in a soft silvery green, and 5 balls of a soft fur type yarn which feels just like angora, On Line Linie 67, Como in a soft sage green. I guess that tells you that green is my favorite color!

I resisted the impulse to start on a new project with one of the two yarns, instead working for awhile on the blueberry scarf (which I'm happy to say is nearly finished); and then I spent a few hours after dinner to finish my latest book Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, by Sena Jeter Naslund. Next will be a book I just ordered online which should be delivered this coming Monday, Great Tales from English History: The Truth About King Arthur, Lady Godiva, Richard the Lionheart, and More, by Robert Lacey. This is more my cup of tea, so I'm really looking forward to getting it in my hands!

4:20am and I must be off to bed. Eeek, the game tomorrow!: go Pats!! (and gstq2002's Bears)!!

PS: Donna, I did get on my treadmill yesterday, and Friday too! I'm being very good! ;)

Brrrrrr!

My God, it's freeeeezing here today! Sunny, but only 3 degrees, with a wind chill of -11! Not a drop of melting in the ice-bound outdoors. The driveway is an ice skating rink and yesterday I couldn't even try to maneuver it to get to the mailbox out by the road. My car is just a big ball of ice, the ice about 1/4 of an inch thick on every outer surface. And this all adds up to another day at home today, and oh dear, I'll just have to suffer through another day of knitting. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it! ;)

Short post today, must get the housecleaning done so I can settle in to work on the neverending blueberry chenille scarf...

No LYS Trip Today : (

Today's weather is bleak, to say the least. It actually started yesterday with a drizzly freezing rain. Both dogs fell on the steps (luckily both unhurt) going out last night, the first we realized that it was an icy world outside our door. Today is more of the same, (arrgh, I think our power is starting to go! Will try to finish this post before it's out completely :( ...

Second try. We did lose power but it came right back...hopefully to stay!

Up-to-the-minute weather photos:

1. Iced house...


& 2. View from the dining room window.


Poor birch tree, all bent over from the weight of the ice...

I was up until nearly 4am this morning, an afternoon nap yesterday keeping me wide awake last night when I should have been sleeping. But the happy result of my sleeplessness was the finishing of the "Thin Blue Line" knitted cap for policeman Joe, probably one of my quickest projects, and a nice break from the ongoing and forever "Blueberry" scarf!



A bientôt!

Go Pats!!

The last 10 minutes of the game and I couldn't take it. I couldn't sit in front of the TV, I fled to the kitchen where all I could do was pace and try to breathe! Down to a field goal attempt by the Chargers in the final seconds to try to tie the game, and impossibly, he missed it! What a game! Pats to Indy next week, I hope my heart can take the next one!



I've discovered that I knit much faster under the nervous excitement of a Patriots playoff game! I'm working on a request from a police officer family member for a black knit hat, with just one thin blue stripe... I only began to work on it last night, and for just a couple of hours at that, so not much progress -- until tonight's game, and knitting faster than I've ever managed to do before, it's nearly finished! I'm just starting the decreases and it will be done. :) Must make a note to bring all my WIP's to finish off during the game next week! LOL

Yummmmmy!

Dinner was delicious! It was so hard to choose an entrée with so many yummy choices, but I eventually decided on Chicken Farcito; chicken stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella, sautéed with mushrooms in a sherry wine sauce...delicioso! A couple of gin & tonics, and dessert (it would have been a cannoli, but then they brought out the dessert tray overflowing with the most amazing cakes and pastries!) was a chocolate & vanilla mousse cake... Yes treadmill, I'll be there in a minute! LOL Donna, I shared the mousse with you, I hope you weren't too disappointed that it wasn't a cannoli!

I could only eat half of my dinner, so the rest is waiting downstairs to be my lunch... heaven continued! :)

Busy day today; I just showered and dressed for a trip to the supermarket to get what I need to make my famed corn chowder for the party tomorrow...and then a run to the post office, and a quick stop at CVS. I don't think there's time for knitting today, but I'll do my best to get an hour in if I can!

Have a wunnerful day!

Today is...

...my birthday! (Shhhh, tell no one!)

I'm going to dinner tonight to an Italian restaurant that I hear is just wonderful, and it will be my first time there. Happy me! Saturday will be the family party, with everyone here. ...and chocolate cake! Yes, this of course means more time on the treadmill! ;) I've been very good so far, missing just one day since Donna unknowingly inspired me to get back on it! :)

Still working on the "Blueberry" scarf, making slow but steady progress -- Photos to follow when it's done... which I hope is soon! It's lovely, but I'm a bit tired of plain st st. :(

A bientôt!

Another Rainy Day

...and so a perfect day to organize my yarn stash! It's been growing by leaps and bounds since I started knitting, and I think I have enough yarn to qualify me as my very own LYS! It started out reasonably enough with two plastic bins for yarn storage, but that's now woefully inadequate. I've been browsing through IKEA's online store for a better solution, and have several ideas to turn 'mon petit bureau' into a well-organized, de-cluttered marvel! :D My poor little office, home to my webdesign business, my yarn warehouse, sewing central, art studio, genealogy file room, as well as the 'nursery' for my two darling Himalayan cat brothers! Oh, but I need so very much to get organized!

I think a trip to IKEA this coming weekend is very much in order!

On the knitting front, I only had a few hours to spare during a very busy weekend so haven't made as much progress on the chenille scarf as I'd hoped. Hopefully there'll be time for it later today after the house is in order. Optimistic me! :D

The Pats won yesterday!!

Where's Winter?

The weather here in New England is more like spring than winter. Most people, I'm sure, are thrilled at the lack of snow, and frost on the windowpanes, but this unseasonal warmth has me feeling unsettled and uncomfortable. Winter is my favorite season, and snow is one of my favorite things, so I'm saddened at finding a ladybug (a ladybug!! ..in January!!), tracking a slow progress across my window. The grass is an unseasonal green; and if it weren't for the bare trees I'd swear it was late May!

I think that Northerners, who have lived all of our lives in a climate that feels all the extremes of each season, have an internal thermostat which must be utterly thrown off-kilter without regular snowstorms and wintry Canadian blasts, the norm at this time of year.

I have yet to wear a coat. Each trip outside is in a sweater and jeans; my gloves and scarves haven't been worn since last winter!

I can only hope for snow... a few feet of it would be nice! ...and soon!

Blueberry Chenille

Having finished the needle case and a few other things - plus swatching several stitches from "The Knitter's Bible" yesterday, today has been devoted to working on the chenille scarf that I started before Christmas craziness slowed down my work on it.

I've added 4 inches to it so far today and still have several hours more to work on it before dinnertime. :)

Here's what I have:



I just realized how colorful this is compared to all the neutrals and pastels that I seem to always gravitate to ...It makes for a nice change!

No pattern, just a simple stockinette st scarf, with garter stitch borders to give it a firmer edging. The yarn is Blue Heron Chunky Rayon Chenille, colorway Blueberry: glorious shades of purples, deep blues, magenta, and a touch of aqua. I'm working it with US size 4 straight needles. Long way to go, but it must be completed with enough time to arrive in France for a birthday at the end of January, so I think I'll be sticking to this without other project diversions until it's finished!

Now if I can only get rid of the song in my head:
I found my thrill,
               With blueberry chenille...

Ha! I'm such a goof!

Heart Be Still!

When I saw the box on my doorstep yesterday afternoon I was so excited! I expected that it was The Knitter's Bible that my blogging friend, Donna, had recommended. My slight disappointment when it turned out to be another book, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, an historical fiction, showed me just how much knitting has become a happy passion for me. Before, any history-related book would have me dancing in the street when it arrived! lol

But I knew that I didn't have too much longer to wait. I have been tracking my books like an over-eager hawk since they were ordered, the three in this post, as well as The Knitter's Bible. Delivery was imminent for the latter, and the other three weren't expected until somewhere between January 6th and the 11th, so I was THRILLED to find, not one, but TWO boxes on the doorstep this afternoon. Yes, all FOUR books!!! *faints*

Donna, just thumbing through The Knitter's Bible I can see that this is exactly what I needed, to show me the how-to for numerous stitches and the answers to so many questions! I can't thank you enough for pointing me to it, I'd give you a huge hug if I could! :D

The other three look fabulous too...and though I'd just made myself a cup of tea and settled myself in for a few uninterrupted hours of reading about Marie Antoinette, I'm now heading to my yarn stash to grab something colorful and play with some swatching!!

I love days like this! Now all I need is a ton of snow falling outside my window...

..and yes Donna, I treadmilled for a half hour this morning! Yay us! :)

Needle Case... Finished!

The needle case is FINISHED! I decided to follow the McCall's pattern pretty much as it was, though I did shorten the length by about 3" to better accommodate my 9" bamboo needles. Finished size: 5½" x 13", closed; fully opened: 15" x 18".



The body of the case is done with a golden brown Dupioni silk, the front contrasting band and ties, along with the inner pocket is a multi-hued brocade. It's lined with a lightweight fleece to give it body and greater protection for the needles.



The only difficulty was the infernal unraveling of the silk edges and the brocade as well (pesky fabrics)!, which I solved by overcasting all edges after stitching the outer seams...Overall, I'm very pleased with the result, and future ones will be of my own patterning to include pockets for circulars and such...



It's such a great feeling to complete a project!! :)

EDIT: I had originally used one tie with a dot of velcro to close but didn't like the asymmetrical look of it, so I made another tie and closed with a simple knot. Much better!