I think I've recovered

From school vacation week, that it is! One of the best parts of vacation was escaping to my in-laws for the weekend and discovering a new yarn store in Sturbridge!


The Mt. Laurel Yarn Boutique is a cute little gem of a store.

I spent some time looking around and talking to the owner's daughter (who admitted that she wasn't a knitter, but had an index card file full of cheat sheets!). The store is only about three months old, and looked like it was doing great business. There was a lot of fun novelty yarns, mixed in with what looked like every single color of Lamb's Pride worsted weight wool, some absolutely gorgeous Manos Del Uruguay.

I did break my yarn fast, but it was worth it. I picked up a few skeins of Chester Farms cestari, which is wonderfully soft, and several of Silky Wool in the moss color. And I have been told that the owner is very amenable to order requests.

So next time you're out Sturbridge way (and if you haven't made a trip to Old Sturbridge Village in a while, isn't it time?), stop by and check the Mt. Laurel Yarn boutique out! It's right on Main St, the main drag, AKA Route 20, right next to Basketville. What are you waiting for? Go! Go!

{edit:one of these days i will learn to use spellcheck before i post something!}

Well, Pbththththththththth!

There I was yesterday morning, knitting away, trying to avert any more disasters and appease the Knitting Goddess, when I realized that I had made a mistake.


See the cable at 'a'? It's suppose to look like the cable at 'b', but I twisted in the wrong direction. Fortunately it was only four rows back, so I just dropped the stitches down there and reknit the cable. (I took pictures as I did it, but they turned out really yucky looking, so I'm not going to force them on you)

I ended up not getting that much knitting done yesterday (school vacation, trying to amuse a five-year-old, and all that); but my tall guy has taken today off so we can have some family fun. So I started my day by knitting several rows before I even crawled out of bed. Ah, glorious!

Chelee asked yesterday for suggestions about doing cables, because they look kind of scary. They're not, really! I find them to be a lot of fun.

Knitting is, from my perspective, all about manipulating the stitches. Working cables is just another way of manipulating them, saying "No, I'm not going to knit you yet. You go wait over here until I'm ready for you" I think that it helps that my first sweater ever was kind of cabled, so I just dove into doing them without even really thinking about it.

So my suggestion would be to grab a book of knitting stitches, sit down, and just do some test swatches. It doesn't take long to figure out that it's really a lot easier than it looks! If I'm working with a chart I tend to take the time to write it out row by row. Writing it out also gives the option of easily checking off the rows so I can figure out where I left off once I've put it down.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for doing cables?

So far today...

Coffee grounds have been spilled on the kitchen floor. Used coffee grounds. I knocked over my cereal onto the floor. I whacked my coffee cup with my elbow and created a lake on the table. The cat ate something that diagreed with him, and I had to clean up the results.

I firmly believe that this run of bad luck is connected to the fact that I've only knit four rows of anything in the past three days. Now, should I push my luck and go and take a shower, or should I sit and knit a half dozen rows first in hopes of breaking the cycle?

Yaah! I get to do Inishmaan in red! It's a happy thing. :)

Swatches done

So today I get to take these to work for Katie to look at and figure out which one she wants. Personally, I'm voting for inishmaan in red.

click for bigger

Closer still



One more sleeve, a few buttons, a couple of ends to weave in... I'm so close I can almost taste it!

And, ya know, it wasn't untill Marg pointed it out that I noticed the colors in the sweater and the flower pictures are almost the same! Intentional, it wasn't.

I have my next project lined up. A friend at work has hired me to make a sweater for her (I could get another job just making sweaters for co-workers at this rate. Now if only I could actually make a living at it!) She didn't even blink when I told her how much I would charge her for it. Ahhh, to be 21 and have a disposible income again!

Right now she's trying to decide between Inishmaan and another cable pattern from a Paton's booklet. We picked out a few color possibilities yesterday, and I'm working up some pattern swatches to see which one she likes better. I'm personally hoping she chooses Inishmaan. It looks like the more interesting, and challenging, of the two patterns.

Is it soup yet?

No, not quite


I'm getting anxious to wear my sweater! It's going to be incredibly warm, which sounds good after having the coldest January in over 100 years. But I'm becoming afraid that we're going to have the warmest February to balance it, which means that a heavy wool sweater won't be an option. (For me, at any rate, because I generally don't wear sweaters. I'll put a mock turtleneck on if it's really cold)

One more button band, and then the sleeves. And as I only have one more skein of black left, I'm sensing knitting stripes in my future...

Since the groundhog has predicted six more weeks of winter, I thought a blast of color might come in handy. It really does help, being able to go to work and see things like this when I get there.

YEEEHAAA

Now *that* was a game! Not the runaway for the Patriots that people had been predicting, a real nail biter! I literally had my eyes covered when Adam Vinatieri kicked that last field goal. OK, I was peeking through my fingers. Great, great, great, great,great, great game!

I heard that work productivity goes down 25% the day after the Super Bowl. I know that mine is going to be majorly lacking!

Kids...

Just when you think that they've driven you so crazy that running in front of a speeding bus looks like a really good option...



Have a fun Super Bowl Sunday!
GO PATS!!!