Major Knitter

Easter Traditions

My Mom had her favorite cookie from her town's little community cookbook.  It probably only had 50 pages or so and was 8 1/2 x 5 1/5.  One page on that cookbook was stained and well worn.  It was the one with the recipe for Uncooked Cookies.  These should have been labeled Unbaked Cookies... as they were actually cooked on the stove top.  At Easter, Mom would add three small colorful jelly beans in the center and turn them into birds nests.  While I was never a fan of jelly beans, I still love seeing these cookies (Russell Stover started selling a candy version shortly after my Mom began making them).  They never fail to bring a smile to my face.

So if you're looking for a chocolatey, quick and easy holiday treat, give this one a try.  Check out the recipe on my side bar HERE.

Happy Easter Mom.  Thanks for all the great holiday memories.

Shhhh, I'm Counting

Secundogeniture learned how to count to 100 in kindergarten.  It goes something like this.  

One, two, skip a few, ninety-nine, one hundred

Neat, huh?  I wish the counting had gone that easily for the 400+ sts I just picked up for the edging of the Faery Ring.  

Here's the schematic for the Faery Ring and the 404 sts I picked up.

Cuff         24
Skirt        50
Bodice     72
Hood        56 
Hood        56  
Bodice     72 
Skirt        50
Cuff         24

TOTAL    404 sts

The only problem I see is that, since there are no instructions for the hood in my size, I had to wing it.  Unfortunately, one size smaller than mine recommends picking up 430 sts.  I already picked up more than 80% of the sts for the edging which is far more than I usually do (which is roughly 70%).  I think if I were to pick up any more sts, my edging would buckle and bow.  So I now begin the slow, slow task of knitting 11 rows in stockinette (with the 6th row being purled to facilitate the folding over).  Just thinking of knitting 4,444 sts is a little overwhelming.  So instead of thinking of all those sts, I'm focusing on how many days until the edging is complete.

My new mantra is:  Slow and steady does the job.

 

May The Force Be With You

I finished the hood on my Faery Ring.  I'm so excited I'm doing the "FO in sight" dance. 

Now I have to pick up 400+ stitches for the button band/edging; figure out and finish the sleeve cuffs; soak and block this epic project and it will be my first Epic Finished Object.  I really can't tell you how thrilled I am.  Changing the pattern so that it's knit all in one piece was key for me.  I hate sewing things together.  I prefer picking up the sts as I think I personally get a much better finished look.  I know.  This is probably a sign that I should work on my seaming skills to advance, but why mess with a good thing?

Isn't this picture a hoot?  I think I look like Darth Vader's cousin.  I guess the force is with me.  At least something is helping me along with my epic project.  

Now back to the FO dance.

Project Spectrum - Back to the Basics

Lolly is at it again.  And I mean that in a good way.  She's resurrecting Project Spectrum this year with a whole new blog - aka Project Spectrum Central

Project Spectrum 5:  The Basics will go for six months and focus on the technical side of color.  Apparently I have a lot to learn, so this will be a good thing.  I didn't even know there was a technical side to color.  Anyway, here are the colors for the next few months:

May - Red ::
June - Green ::
July - Blue ::
August - Pink ::
September - Yellow ::
October - Cyan/Aqua ::
November - Black/White/Grey ::  

The colors can be knitting, photographs, objects, discussions, etc.  It will be great fun and add some creativity into the mix.  Thanks Lolly!

Weekend Warrior Battles the Unruly Faery Ring

I am true to my word.  Whenever I have a free weekend at home, I am fully dedicating my knitting time to my Faery Ring Jacket.  This weekend was just such a weekend.  No campouts; no boys; only a half day of Scouts; and some fun visitors for the weekend.  But the rest of the weekend was focused on making progress on my Faery Ring.  The reason I can only work on this at home on the weekends is that its sheer size makes it a bit unruly.

Trust me, this thing is a beast!  The jacket comes down to the mid-thigh, plus it's got long sleeves and a hood.

In fact, the hood was my weekend warrior focus.  I picked up 134 sts along the right front, back and left front and proceeded to knit just over half the hood.  It's mostly stockinette punctuated by the cable on each edge of the hood.  I've already knit 7.5 inches of the 12 necessary for the entire hood.  I am really excited about this.  I might spend the rest of this week abandoning my weekday knitting so I can finish the hood on this puppy.  It's so gratifying to be making significant process on the UFO.  I started it 17 months ago.  I really want to be finished with this so I can move on to other projects.  With my luck, I'll have it done just in time for summer.  At least it has a hope of a 2011 debut.  That's what matters most.

How about you?  Did you do any weekend warrior knitting?

Are You Talking To Me?

My friend Lynn sent me this great snapshot of her handknit hen staring at a ceramic hen pitcher.  Too cute!

Did you get a hen?  Please send me a picture of your hen in its new habitat.

Three Little Kittens Have Lost Their Mittens

Well, technically, these are socks, but you get the idea.

I have three pairs of socks going at once.  Why?  You thought I had already got my sock addition under control.  But there's a reason.  I swear!  

I started on the purple Jaywalkers by Grumperina.  I was working diligently on them when I took them into the city.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the pattern, but figured I could wing it.  Not so much.  I made a mistake and have been loathe to correct it.  So they got shoved into the bag and forgotten.  

Then I cast on for some Mock Wave Cable Socks by Ann Budd using some lovely MacKintosh Yarns - Celtic Sock Yarn in the Witching Hour color.  These are going fabulously and I'm up to the heel.  The only problem is I must focus and pay diligent attention to the pattern.  These are not social socks.  A girl should really have some social knitting for when the need to knit and chat arises.

Which brings me to my final sock.  A basic, no-nonsense, stockinette sock in Melienweit's Lana Grossa Wave which allows for complete chattering and zero concentration.  

So there you have it.  Not a single finished object in sight this Friday, but plenty of knitting in the works.  This weekend I'm going to give my body a rest from the US Size 1 needles and do my Weekend Warrior knitting on the Faery Ring.  Let's give it up for the Faery Ring.  Woot!  How about you?  What are your weekend knitting plans?

 

This Can't Be Good Press

Did you see the news today?  Normally I don't go for sharing news, but this was so peculiar I had to share it.  Honestly I'm scared.  This woman was stabbed with knitting needles?!

What will this mean for the future of knitters? Will knitters be banned everywhere?  Will we be shunned?  Does this mean no more travel knitting?  I might have to implement a moratorium on airplane knitting if that were to happen.  I have always loved road trips...

Check out this article HERE.

I really cannot imagine being stabbed with knitting needles.  Here's hoping the young woman makes a full recovery.

Mother Hen

I sent a yellow hen to my friend Mary.  When she saw my peep, she begged oh-so-nicely for one to go with one she had from way back when.

She was kind enough to send me a picture of the new and the old.  I think it looks like a mother hen and her chickadee.

Peep!  Peep!

 

Happy 7th Blogiversary! or Blessed By Blogging

Wow!  Seven whole years of blogging.  How did that happen?  At this point I'm not sure I remember what it was like NOT to blog.  It's become an extension of who I am.  In keeping with Norma and Margene's 7th blogiversary posts of last month, I offer you the following humble statistics:

• 1,320,223 views (avg 517 views per day)
• Lost somewhere in a Typepad change several years ago were the 3,500 daily views I was getting on my Free Pattern pages that were never incorporated in the overall blog statistics (I never understood the separate numbers)
• 2, 474 posts (which is nearly daily posting since inception!)
• 8,587 comments (less than 4 comments per day)

I guess I won't try and beg for my 50,000th comment as Norma did.  I think she even attained her goal (I helped by commenting - did you?).  How does one get more comments?  Probably by being a diligent commenter and responder to comments.  I probably only comment on my virtual buddies' blogs about 2-3% of the time.  I also get a bit overwhelmed responding to all the comments on my blog.  Heck - I have a hard enough time responding to the emails on my personal account which require action in my daily life.  

Blessed by blogging - so let me tell you how many wonderful things have happened in my life because of blogging.  I've made some great friends.  Some of them have become real friends that I've had the opportunity to meet in person for knitting or when traveling and get to them them in real life via yarn crawls or lunch or just plain fun.

• Jane
• James
• Jean
• Lorette
• Marcia
• KathyB
• Karen
• Mariko
• Rebecca
• Shanti
• Estella
• Elizabeth
• Betsy

I'm sure I'm forgetting some.  Some friends from the early days no longer blog.  Others I've met at the LYS and have become my closest knitting friends.  I've been in Westport for 8 years and most of my friends come through knitting (or Scouting).  I'm not sure what I'd do without either group.

So, in honor of my blogiversary, and on my quest for more comments, I'm going to give a surprise gift package to the person who is my 10,000th commenter.  That means I need over 1,500 comments.  When will that happen?  At the rate I'm going, with only 4 comments per day, it will be sometime in April of NEXT year.  How about if we try to ramp that up?  Please comment and you'll be in the running for some great sock yarn, accessories, and other fun things that I find.  Heck - I might even throw in a handknit chicken!I hope you'll play.