How did we end up here? We've lived in Northern Illinois for 29 years. Way too long for this vegetarian! Thankfully, we're only 90 miles from Madison,WI.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Wednesday Work

Come on, I can't call knitting work. It's too much fun to be work. Here's what I had on the needles until I cast off last night.



I've had fetching on my to do list for a year and I finally came across a yarn that wanted to be knit up as these fingerless mitts. The yarn I chose was Malabrigo in the autumn forest(224) colorway. My LYS conveniently carries this yarn and I picked up a skein last week.

I've made a couple of different fingerless mitts in the past year but this pattern is my favorite so far. I'm not sure why the cable cast on for my right mitt looks wonky but it's sure to be operator error not the pattern's fault.
For the previous mitt patterns the thumb opening involved placing a certain number of stitches on waste yarn where your thumb hole would be and picking up stitches later around the thumb opening. In this pattern you use waste yarn but continue to knit above it so when you're ready to work the thumb you place live stitches on two needles for the top and bottom of the thumb hole.





I want to send a HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY out to my Mom today!! We'll have to go out and celebrate this weekend when you're in town visiting.


So what are you working on for this first Wednesday of Autumn?

Thursday, September 20, 2007

I skipped a day.

Do you ever miss a day in the week? Wednesday came and went so fast I forgot to post my work in progress yesterday. I've paused a bit on my Rogue sweater. I finished the main body and am ready to separate for my sleeves. I'm on pause because I can't figure out which stitches I need to put on waste yarn and which I need to place on separate needles to start back and forth knitting.



I cast on clapotis over the weekend. I'm using Malabrigo yarn and it's so soft and yummy. I'm not crazy about the pattern and the dropped stitches don't want to drop very easily but this yarn is so nice to work with.


I picked up a skein of Malabrigo autumn forest yesterday to cast on for Fetching. One can never have too many works in progress. It keeps my knitting side of life nice and interesting.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Vacation time

We headed back today from our week long trip to Boston. Before we arrived in Boston we spent a day in Washington D.C. The temperature was close to 100 degrees and our train was over 3 hours late arriving but I tried to show them a few of the monuments.


The kids and I went to the science center, spent time at their aquarium and went on a 3 hour boat ride to whale watch. The weather wasn't perfect but we were able to see quite a few humpback whales.



We did all the "tourist" activities like a harbor cruise, a trolley tour, a "duck" tour, and took part in a reenactment of the Boston tea party on a tall ship.



It was really neat to see history up close. It's the first vacation in a very long time where we wanted to stay longer.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Another Wednesday

I cast on for my Rogue sweater over the weekend. I'm using Cotton Ease yarn again as it's inexpensive,I really like the way it knits up and I can throw it in the washer and dryer without worrying about ruining hours of knitting. I'm only about 30 rows into the body portion. So far, so good.



I was a bit hesitant to start this pattern when I realized it is 19 pages long. I love the pictures of the completed sweaters I've seen so I went ahead and cast on.

What do you have on the needles today?