Sock Bag

I haven't been working on my Emerald Green cardigan for the past few days. Instead, I've been working on a Sock bag. It is out of some lovely pale blue cotton yarn sent to me as the "extra" with my monthly Sock Yarnista shipment from 3 Irish Girls Yarns. The pattern for the sock bag was part of the "extra." I am very pleased with it, but have no pictures to post yet because I threw it in the washer as soon as I finished with it earlier this evening, and it is still there.
DD#2 bought herself a boxer puppy so we have been playing with him and keeping him close to us so that we can keep an eye on him and try to house train him. In doing this, I have discovered that he likes yarn and knitted items (oh, how fun this is going to be!) I will be knitting him some playthings that I can substitute for MY playthings whenever he decides he needs to play with yarn. I am also trying to finish a pair of knee socks for same DD before I put them down and completely lose interest in them. I am turning the second heel right now then have to finish the feet on them. And then I will get back to the Emerald Green cardigan soon after that. Pictures on all items mentioned will follow soon.

Emerald Green - Nov. 12, 09 update

I knitted the remaining 20 rows under the lattice cable pattern tonight then the first 2 rows of the lattice cable. This doesn't appear to be a very difficult cable pattern, and should be pretty simple to memorize. It is a 16 row repeat, but it looks to be pretty intuitive, so it shouldn't be a problem. No progress pictures tonight. I'll wait until it actually looks like progress.

Emerald Green - Nov. 11, 09 update

Well, I knitted the 10 inner rows, then the turning row, then I knitted the 10 outer rows. Then came the hardest part - undoing the provisional cast on one loop at a time to slip each one of those 224 stitches onto a spare needle. That took almost as much time as it took me to knit 2 or 3 rows. T E D I O U S ! ! ! Anyway, got that done, then knit the front stitches together with the back stitches to make the hem. Now it looks like a long tube. I've added 2 more rows on top of the tube, and am stopping for the night to go to bed. Here are progress pictures thus far:

These pictures show the entire hem laid out. In a couple of them, I have lifted the end up, so that the "tube" is visible. And in another, I am trying to point out the purl turning row.

Emerald Green

I was hoping to hold off on casting on for this sweater until after Christmas. But it kept calling to me. And CALLING TO ME! So I cast on for it last night. All 224 stitches of it. It is knit all in one piece, so that’s good, but it makes for some LOOOOOOONNNGG rows. I got 5 rows done last night then had to quit because it was time for bed. I hope I love the pattern as much as I love the yarn!

Socks, a Scarf, and Some Yarn

It's been far too long since I've posted. I've got so much to post about that I hardly know where to start. I took pictures of DD wearing her convertible:
It looks so much better on her than it did on me in my REO Speedwagon t-shirt.

I also finished the purple socks. Way back on July 9th. Boy I am behind.


A couple of days ago I got in some great yarn from Cables and Lace! Poe Collection, Fall of the House of Usher.



And yesterday I finally finished my possum yarn scarf. This was some great yarn that I had received in a swap. My swap partner was from New Zealand, and they are known for their possum yarn. I was so excited about it because I had been discussing possum yarn with friends of mine prior to that and was even actually considering trying to find a way to procure some for myself. When I scored it in a swap, I was beyond excited. I held onto it for a long time trying to find the perfect project to do with it, and I think I succeeded. This scarf looks great if I do say so myself.

Convertible is Finished (completely)

DH went to WalMart yesterday. I sent him with specs on shank buttons and jump or split rings. He found the buttons but couldn't find the rings. He called and I told him to just buy some jewelry wire. He got home with great buttons, and I had to figure out how to connect the buttons to each other with the jewelry wire. Of course I couldn't find needle-nosed pliers anywhere around the house. I know we have them, I just couldn't find them. It really is time to straighten up. Anyway, I got them connected. The ends are woven in, the buttons are put together, and Convertible is ready to go!

Convertible is Finished (well almost...)

So the Convertible for Coryn is finished being knitted. It does need to be blocked, and I need to buy buttons and sew them on it. But other than those other minor little details, it is finis.
Ok, I listen to a lot of knitting podcasts, and I read a lot of knitting magazines. I've heard and read a lot of people discuss their preferences of charts vs. written instructions. I always thought to myself, "Eh, I can do it either way," because I have done it both ways. I've followed written instructions, and I've followed charts. This evening; however, I discovered that I do have a preference. I'm working on the Opulent Raglan from the Fall 2008 issue of KnitScene. The instructions are written out, but they are not written out line by line. Most of the time, that is not a problem. You know, Knit in st stitch until the body is x inches, etc. But this pattern also includes a cable in there, that is not written out. It isn't a difficult cable, it only crosses on the 13th and 19th round, but I found that I was very confused by this pattern. I trucked my little (ok, BIG) bootie over to the computer and created a cable chart for that pattern. Not so self-righteous now, are we, hmm?

OnGoing Projects

I thought perhaps I needed to write down a list of all of my projects that I am currently working on. The one project that I am still carrying around with me but that I haven't actually done anything on in quite a while is my possum yarn scarf. I AM going to finish this for 2 -no -3 reasons: It is a Gorgeous color, I love the cable in it, and DUDE, it's Possum Yarn! Okay, it's been on a back burner, but it is still being dragged around with me. Then there are the seemingly never ending socks. They seem to others to be never ending, but that is because I only pull them out and work on them at knit night. At home I am working on other more bulky items that I don't want to pack up and haul around with me.
At home I am currently working on a convertible shawl for my daughter who always seems to be cold, an opulent raglan sweater for myself, a linen jacket for myself, and a pair of toe-up socks for myself. The socks are small enough to carry around with me, but they are being done on size 00 needles, and I kind of need meticulous concentration for that. I may bring them some day. I have also just started a steering wheel cover because I am tired of blistering the palms of my hands on my steering wheel in my car when I get in it in the early afternoon heat. I'm convinced it has to be at least 120 degrees inside the car when it is so hot outside.

Sunday Trip

Instead of trying to rewrite everything that happened along the way while we were on our trip, I just copied all of my tweets and pasted them here. I am also adding in some extra comments as well, so ...
10:30AM
Decided on the linen jacket with the wheelie thrown in for good measure. And off we go to see what we shall see
{Instead of going south along River Road, we decided to go East into the Great Unknown. We've been down River Road towards New Orleans before and enjoyed it, so we had originally thought we might do that again. Instead we decided to head in a direction, or rather on roads that we hadn't taken before. We stayed off of the Interstate and just went east.}
12:30 PM - Pontchatoula, LA
A German restaurant! Yes! Lunchtime!
{Having spent the first 2 years of our marriage in Germany (22 years ago!), we are always on the lookout for German restaurants.}
~3:00 PM
Just passed through a town having a crab festival. In Louisiana! In Summer! 105 degrees at least 80% humidity! Make sense?
{Somewhere in here we stopped at an Antiques store. It had a sign out front that said, "We buy old stuff!" Pulling off the road to turn around and go back to it, my DH said, "how fortuitous, so do we!" We scored 4 ladderback chairs for $15 a piece. I almost also bought a mannequin, but thought that rather than spend $80 on it there, I'll see if I can find one cheaper that a dept. store is throwing away.}
~3:30 PM
Spent 5 minutes walking around an outdoor flea market then had to leave because we both had sweat pouring from us.
~4:30 PM
Waveland, Mississippi. I think we're gonna call this our destination, dip our feet in the gulf, and head back home.
~4:45 PM
Almost every building and house in Bay St. Louis and Waveland looks new. Cat 5 hurricane will do that to a town.
~6:00 PM
Two brand new spans are being built alongside the I-10 twin-span bridge. Will it then be called the quadruple span?
6:45 PM
Back home now. Eight hours after setting off on our little jaunt. Fun trip! We needed it. We used to do it a lot when the kids were little. Of course it was always on a Sunday, and tourist attractions were usually closed. We used to joke and tell the kids that when they grew up they could tell people that they saw every tourist attraction in Louisiana - closed.

I got about 4 inches done on the back of my linen jacket.

Drive

DH and I are going for a drive today. We haven't done that in a long time. We may go down towards New Orleans, maybe along River Road. We'll see where the whim takes us. Now I have to decide what knitting to take along. The purple socks, the Opulent Raglan, the Linen Jacket, or the Steering Wheel cover. I think the purple socks are out because I am doing them on size 00 needles, and I just can't see trying to do that in the car. I'm leaning more towards the Linen Jacket, and I really don't know why. Ok, off to finish getting ready. ...