Spring, Where are you?

I started the Rusted Root shirt over the weekend. I picked up some Lion Brand Cotton Ease Friday. It's half the price of Brown Sheep Cotton fleece so I thought I'd give it a try. The yarn calls for US size 8 needles, the pattern calls for US size 6 needles, and I got gauge with 5. We'll see how this turns out.
Here's what it looks like this morning...



I have about four more inches left to knit for the body then on to all the finishing ribbing on the neck, sleeves, and bottom. I went with the medium size as I plan on wearing it over a tank/cami.

My husband has been wondering what the heck I have been working on with a 2' X 4' piece of homosote board from the hardware store.





Now he thinks we're ready for a picnic on the floor but really it's a blocking board. Simple things like this make me smile. It took me a couple of stores before I found the right fabric with a 1" square. For about $10 in materials I finally have a dedicated board to block my knitted items.

There's a little podcast called Lime & Violet. They're hosting a sleepover the weekend of June 16th in Omaha. I mapquested it last night, about 6 hours from here. So I was thinking....

Which one will it be?

I don't have much patience this week.
I've been wanting to start on another sweater/shirt/tank top since I finished up the cardigan but I couldn't decide which pattern to pick. I originally decided on Picolovi, then I thought it would be nice to try out a new pattern(one I haven't knit up yet).
I must be craving lace in my knitting diet because I ordered some new CotLin from KnitPicks last week to start a lacy tank from Interweaves Summer 2006 magazine. Still no notice of a ship date though and it's been a week. My impatience is starting to surface.
I decided to order the "Rusted Root" pattern from Zephyr Style. It's a cute lace panel t shirt like knit. I was hoping to cast on for this one today after I pick out more cotton blend yarn. But guess what? It's been over 12 hours since ordering the pdf downloadable pattern and still no pattern in my inbox. Getting more impatient now! I'm about 3 weeks late in starting this one to join the other Sexy knitters. Seeing all the other in progress and completed shirts definitely motivated me to join in.
While waiting to make up my mind on what shirt to knit up I started a fair isle hat a couple days ago. I'm at the crown decreases so I will probably finish this one up today or tomorrow. It still feels a bit wintry here despite the date on the calendar and I may get to wear it yet this year. This one will more than likely become another donation hat as it's really large. I like fair isle because it forces my left hand to continental knit.



I found the pattern here. There isn't much explanation as to the decreases and I did the liner portion first instead of last so I didn't have to sew it up at the end. Here's a picture of the comfy cozy liner on the inside.



FYI-If you K2tog from the outside to the inside liner you won't see the liner showing through to the outside of the hat. I'd still be knitting garter stitch dishcloths if it weren't for my trial and error method of knitting.

Friday the 13th

My knitting color choices this week have been greatly influenced by the dark chocolate m&m's hanging out on the dining room table.

Please go away.

This is a request from my 5 year old, "Please Mr. Winter, GO AWAY!"
I'm seriously having doubts about this global warming epidemic. It's April 11th, three weeks into Spring and it's snowing. My fountain is frozen......



It has been one of those days where I should have made the executive decision to stay in bed. At 8:30 this morning the eldest child exclaimed that he hates me and can't wait to go back to public school next year because home schooling sucks. Both kids have been fighting with one another and it will take a miracle if they make it through this extended winter without broken bones.
"Knitting take me away!"

My niece will be "3" in a couple of weeks. My first instinct was to cover this girl in hand knits. A nice pink sweater or cardigan perhaps? That would be pretty boring for her though so I knit up a couple of puppets. One for her and one for Mom or Dad.


My boys love them and have put in their request for more.

The second Jaywalker is complete. This was one of those small quick projects I felt would never be finished.

I like the idea of a portable project but with my huge foot it seems to take a lot more yarn than the average female knitter.
For some reason I can't seem to get Wendy's toe up pattern to work for me. I've used short rows in other projects but when I try it on sock toes it doesn't end up looking right. This weekend I came across a Cookie A. toe up lace pattern that uses a figure 8 cast on. I tried it out today and was able to complete the toe portion in about 15 minutes. Not bad for my dyslexic pattern reading skills.

I ventured over to the burbs last night to hear Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It was fabulous. This was my first time seeing her in person and expected a little different setup. I figured she'd pull up a chair and knit while she spoke/answered questions etc. She was behind a podium for the "speech" part and read off her notes. She was still very funny. She is a big list person so she started with a list of things to worry about as a knitter. "Imagine what would happen if there was a wool blight. See that huge stash doesn't look so ridiculous now does it?" It was so cozy to be surrounded by other knitters who "get it". Everyone clicking away on their projects getting along with one another.
If it weren't for Kathy I would have been standing in the very back of the store probably unable to see the entire thing. She secured a seat for me in the front. Thank You very much Kathy. Kathy also presented her with a shirt from our town. Here is Stepanie's reaction to my explanation of what exactly Dekalb Genetics is all about.

I'm used to that look. Dekalb Genetics is the reason I'm here in Illinois. My husband gave me the same look when I announced 13 years ago that I accepted a job with this company and we'd be moving to Illinois.
If you are a knitter and are in a city where Stepanie is speaking go see her. The experience is something you won't forget.