Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes

Some of you will remember The Summer Mash when I took elements from several of the Summer Squares Projects and mashed them up together to create a lap blanket, that come to think of it promptly went home with someone else! Can't keep a blanket around here to save my life!

Well, it looks like I have done it again.

But I needed a different name, can't have two mash ups!

So instead we have Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes....

And I am far from finished.

Only me, I am the only one who would join all 15 squares using garter stitch rows between them and a quick three needle bind off. Only me would then pick up all 850 plus stitches around the outside edge and decide that what this blanket needs is a border or two and then edging.

And certainly, only I would be dumb enough to do all that when it is 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside! I have 13 balls of yarn left, I hope it is enough!

~M

Mystery Shawlette well darn it

Wendy, of Wendy Knits, published the next section of her Summer Mystery Shawlette on Thursday, but Thursdays are not the best day for me to pick up a new knitting chart or my needles, so I didn't touch it until late Friday.

She promised a larger clue to hold me through the holiday weekend here....but like many knitters I pulled the "just one more row" before mowing the lawn,


and "one more row" before mopping the floors, and "one more row" before hitting the farm market for fresh food.And before I knew it I had only "one more row" before the end of the clue!

Now I have to wait until next Thursday to get the final one and block this baby to shape and size! Well darn it! What shall I work on until then?

Bev, in answer to how do I find these patterns, well I read Wendy's blog and have really liked some of her other patterns. The last two shawlettes that I knit somehow ended up in TDQ's hands and have not been seen apart from in passing as she heads out the door for school since!

Jeri, do you have any good ideas on how to sign and date a baby blanket?

~M

WWW

As unblurry, shaky, as I can get.

In which the knitter remembers

I hope you brought a snack, this is the longest post I have written in a while!

Way back when, when Summer Squares was the current knit along for Bad Cat Designs, this knitter messed up!

I know, shocking idea that something using needles and thread would lead to errors (hah!) but this knitter had Dark Star failure! In that case it was a failure to count rows properly and instead of knitting the even number required to bring her back to the right side of the work for patterning, she accidentally knit an odd number of rows and had one section facing the wrong way.

If I recall several people couldn't tell the mistake from the picture, but I could see it.

But anyway....

I finished two more squares on the latest incarnation of the Summer Squares project.

Harp (14) and Leaf (15) :

And then measured them roughly against the bed that they will go on and decided that maybe it was time to join the squares together and figure out which edging I wanted to use!


Hmmmmmm

Maybe not the brightest of ideas!
Maybe you can tell if you click to "embiggen" (side note, I love that word and steal it from the Yarn Harlot whenever I get the opportunity!)

Yep, one lonely square upside down.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Now I am back to having 15 squares sitting on my desk, crying to be a bedspread while I ignore them.

Knowing that an entire blanket was going to be too hot to work on when the temperatures start to creep steadily upward I cast on another blanket today.

Yes, another one.

Baby blanket this time so it should be cooler to work on, and I might have decided to work another Summer Squares project for it. Golden Eye, now know as the Wilson Welcome Wrap (to be known for the rest of its in progress time as the WWW) is going to be two tone and is off to a good start. I would show you pics but I can't seem to hold the camera steady enough right now, maybe tomorrow right after work I will get some for you.

Which brings me to another idea, another stolen idea actually, I seem to be borrowing things from a lot of people lately!

Someone I know recently had a baby and for this baby, her first, there was a blanket that had been knit by I believe it was a great-grandmother before she died and stored safely away until the right moment. I liked that idea so much that even though I am not a grandmother, or a great grandmother, that I think that once I am finished the WWW I will start a collection of my own. Plenty of room in a safe deposit box at the bank to store them if I knit a lot and one day, when the time is right and I am no longer around maybe a great-grandbaby will get a handed down through time hug from me.

~M

Things to do while being still

A friend of mine and I have been talking about this off and on for a while now, the joy that can be found in just being still.

Staying put for a while and letting the things that are meant to be unfold around you.

And while that doesn't work to well for me at home, three children, too many cats, a dog, a yard, laundry, cooking, cleaning all clamor for their attention, at work we decided it was easier to do. More importantly what we are meant to be doing right now.

Knitters are very good at waiting, waiting in waiting rooms, emergency rooms, sometimes in line at the bank (although I haven't actually seen that in person I hear that the Yarn Harlot does it!) And while I have been still and waiting some things have jumped on and off my needles....

First up is the Mystery Shawlette that Wendy Knits is hosting.








That was the third cast on......the first time through for the set up I worked the charts all the way across and neglected to put in the center!

The second time I miscounted my repeats and had 6 on one side and 8 on the other, so a very asymmetrical shawl.

The third time, just like Goldilocks and the porridge it was just right.


I changed things up just a little, and all of my double decreases are centered.
Just in case you are wondering, one of my favorite yarns begged to be this project. That is Land O Lace, Steffi in Andover.

There will be more on that later!

I am still working my way through squares for TDQ's blanket. Here are 11,12 and 13.





I think that when I have 15 I will try joining them in three rows of 5 squares and see where we are for sizing. Terribly bad planning on my part as the summer weather has finally made an appearance, I will have an entire blanket stretched over my lap in 80 degree weather!

Clue #2 was posted for the Mystery Shawlette today, another 12 rows and I have already completed them. The nice thing about a bottom up shawl that starts with you casting on many, many, many, stitches is that the rows get shorter as you go!


Even unblocked she is awfully pretty!

And now she is in a ziploc bag until Thursday when Clue 3 comes out!

The down side to being still? The weeds have overtaken the garden, but I can still enjoy some of the flowers!
Miss Kim smells wonderful!

~M

She's done!

And this is probably as close to a modeled shot as you will ever see, unfortunately.....

One of the best things about the Winter Project from Bad Cat Designs called Metamorphosis is that very early in the process there is a wonderful measurement worksheet that allows you to customize the fit of your sweater so that it fits JUST RIGHT. No playing Goldilocks and the Three Bears, this one is too big, this one is too small with sizing,

Like a good little knitter, I worked my way through the worksheet and came up with some measurements and played with gauge until I got the fit that I needed and I proceeded to knit, then stop, then knit again.

In the meantime my size changed.

A lot.

So now my sweater is too big. :( And no amount of blocking it longer will make it thin enough.*

But, I am thrilled with how she turned out anyway and maybe one day soon I will fill her appropriately!

So the obligatory stats are :

Metamorphosis Raglan Sweater Version 3
Patons Lace Yarn in Patina, less than 3 skeins
US Needles size 4
I worked Charts A, B, C and E
"If I could do it all again..." I would match the sleeves a little better! I thought I had hit the right point in the color repeat when I started the second one, but obviously I missed.

As it is not yet time for the next Bad Cat Knitalong, I might have cast on this one.

I am still working on squares, TDQ doesn't know it yet, but eventually they will be a new bedspread for her. She keeps commenting that she wants whatever they will be, but so far I have avoided telling her!

~M

*Someone out there is thinking, Cry me a River and Get Over It. I am sure.

Random Picture Sunday

Oopsie

I meant to post this first thing this morning, so I will have to change the wording a little.


Let me be the last person today to wish you a.....

A bit at a time

In keeping with the "knit little bits of things" theory, I am working on squares right now. So far I have six complete, number 7 is on the needles right now!

I can't tell you anything about the yarn, other than it is cabled and I scored a huge bag of it...hopefully enough to turn the little bits of things into a blanket/throw for TDQ's bed.


The observant among you will recognize the pattern. It is Summer Squares from BadCat Designs, which was our summer knit along in 2009.
I am planning on having all the squares be the same color with a lighter but complimentary joining thread and edging.


Right now I don't even know how many squares I will need, or will be able to get out of the yarn that I have!

Once I have a few more done I will block them and measure to see!


Just a few months ago I would have been much further along in this project with a week of knitting in, but I am pleased that so far I am sticking with it!

Who knows, I might even get it together enough to switch back to the sweaters in the next day or so.

~M

Odds N Ends

I should be working on two sweaters, one a stripey, lace affair, the other a plain colored, very serviceable cable design...neither has been in my hands for a while now. Both are fabulous patterns, and neither one is holding my interest!

So what do you do when the knitting mojo abandons you?

Well, I can tell you what I did, or rather what was done unto me. :)

Small little projects, the kind I used to be able to finish in an evening or just on my (occasional) lunch breaks, so what if now they were taking a week or more to knit, it is knitting and let me tell you beats the heck out of the side effects of those drugs that well meaning doctors prescribe.

First up : another small test of yarn. There will be a bit of a wait for this one, so all you get is teasers. Coming soon to a retailer, from one of my favorite hand dyers :

This yarn is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO soft, and a certain teenager in my life has absconded with the socks themselves so I can't tell you from personal experience how they feel on the feet. I will let you know when and where the yarn is available, I think, no I know, I want more of it!

The pattern was a mystery sock from Sock Knitters Anonymous, now officially named Cadence Socks. Nifty pattern, more on that later....

There was a little bit of yarn left, so I was encouraged to knit something even smaller.

Itsy, bitsy baby slippers! The pattern is very well written, and even better it is free! Thanks SockPixie for the inspiration to use up some ends.

And for the more about that nifty pattern above?
Blue mitts that were supposed to go to a birthday party last week, unfortunately they were not finished in time so they will head into the "gift basket" for the next party. They include a small section of that sock pattern, only on the tops of the mitts.

So who, you might ask, done unto me?

The Drama Queen was the instigator, she needed gifts for birthday parties and insisted that my hand knits were the only things that would do!

Now maybe, if it would just stop raining and give me some blue sky and sunshine I might get some more of my mojo back!!!!

~m