Mystery Shawl 3 -- Clue 5

I finished Clue 5 a couple of days ago but hadn't taken the time to post a picture. I'm now in the middle of Clue 6. I haven't decided whether or not I like the wing, but it does add a lot to the shawl. It's not the wing so much that I'm not sure about but the join. On the other hand, the join is just a small, almost invisible part of the shawl. Today the last clue (Clue 7) comes out.

(The red line at the join for the wing is red crochet thread. I used it to mark ends of rows. Crochet thread makes a good marker. It's thin but sturdy and comes in a large variety of colors. It doesn't shed or bleed.)

I'm still working on the Festive sweater from the last post. I'm still happy with it. Though, some times I wonder whether I really want to do all those purl stitches. Next time, I'll probably make it in cotton and a trellis pattern that involves mostly knit stitches.

While moving pictures off of Yahoo, I came across this one which reminds me of my 2 DSs and a Holy Grail line that they quoted when seeing the statue: "Just a flesh wound."

It also reminded me of a trip we took around Great Britain before we knew we were going to move there. To keep everyone happy, we saw a huge variety of attractions. We saw football stadiums in Leeds, Newcastle, and Liverpool. We saw Hadrian's Wall and Loch Lomond. We visited the Cavern where the Beatles got their start. And we visited some Monty Python locations (from a map of film locations). In Scotland, my DD and I went into a little souvenir shop to ask where the Bridge of Death was. They didn't know where or even what it was. But, after explaining that it was from a Monty Python movie, they directed us to one of the castles in the movie.

Festive pullover

After much knitting and frogging, I finally discovered that Arbor couldn't be made in worsted weight acrylic yarn -- or, at least, I didn't have the skill to do it. The k3tog's just were too thick. Plus the yo's didn't add anything. (The blue yarn marks sections of 10 sts.)

But, I liked the i-cord cast on. And I liked the idea of doing a non-raglan pullover.

(To join the i-cord in the round, I picked up a loop at the starting edge and knit it together with the third st in the ending steps for the cast on.) I ended up casting on 110 sts -- 11 groups of 10 or 22 groups of 5. That gave a nice sized neckband. Then I knit around once and then decided that I liked the reverse side of the cast on better than what may or may not have been the right side. So, that gave me an i-cord cast on plus a round of purl sts.

I wasn't too sure that I had enough white yarn for the sweater and so decided to use some green left-over yarn as a decorative touch. After trying several variations to the Arbor pattern, I looked in my stitch book and settled on a trellis design. To change colors, I knitted around in the new color (in the reverse direction from before since the wrong side was now my right side). By making pfb's (purl front and back) in the first trellis pattern round, the repeat of 5 became a pattern repeat of 6. In a subsequent round, I made a pair of pfb's to get a pattern repeat of 8. It looks as if I'll have to make another pair of pfb's to get a pattern repeat of 10, which will give me enough sts for the rest of the garment. By accident, I have 4 pattern repeats for the sleeve section, 7 pattern repeats for the front (and back), and 1 pattern repeat to cast on for the bottom of the sleeve opening -- or 160 sts around for the garment itself and 50 sts around for each sleeve opening -- which is just about perfect, I hope.

I've called this a Festive pullover because it sort of reminds me of a Christmas tree. Though, if it were done in different colors, it would be equally cheery.

Sorry about this being such a technical post. I wanted to get the details and development down so I wouldn't forget. I'm also really happy how the sweater is turning out.

Mystery Shawl 3 -- Clue 4

It took a lot of work. Clue 4 is finally finished -- just hours before Clue 6 comes out. Evidently, the stole is over half done now. I think the center back falls about 4" in from the needle. Next come short rows and feathers.

And, surprisingly for me, I've followed the pattern exactly.

Tomato finished -- Sweater #6

My tomato sweater is finally done. It's my sixth sweater for the year. This one gave me a lot of trouble. I'd originally made the yarn (KP Swish Superwash) into a v-neck on size 5 needles. It became too tight after washing. Plus, it was too warm for a short sleeve sweater -- because it was so tightly knitted. So, I finally frogged it. Then the Tomato pattern came along. So, I decided to use the yarn with that pattern (since the wider neck plus my using larger needles, size 7 this time, would make the sweater less warm).

Well, I miscounted on the number of stitches to set aside for the sleeves and didn't notice it until I was ready to start the sleeves and wondered why one sleeve was bigger around than the other. So, I had to frog to the underarms (and also undo the colorwork). It's finally done. I was worried that I'd have some yarn left over to remind me of my misadventures. But, luckily, there was absolutely no navy yarn left over whatsoever.

I guess that another reason it's taken so long to finish the sweater is that I hadn't figured out what to knit next. I started the Arbor-Pattern Sweater in some left-over DK yarn, but then decided that I really didn't want to try making an i-cord cast on for the first time with that weight yarn. The pattern calls for an applied i-cord as a last step, but I like to be finished when I'm finished. Plus, I'd have a better idea of the neck size and how long to make the garment top this way. To make a long story short, I decided to frog a white acrylic sweater that was too bright for me in the pattern I had knit it in, a ribbed boat-neck. I wasn't too sure which side was the right side for the i-cord cast on. But, I liked the underside better and so did a wrap and turn before starting the sweater itself. I haven't gotten far enough along to figure out whether or not I'll like it. But, it is fun just to start knitting and hope for the best.

I've finished the August dishcloth KAL but don't have a picture. I finished it the evening before my DH was to leave for a business trip to California. Our DS1 lives there, and so my DH is staying an extra day on the west coast. He also took along 4 finished dishcloths in addition to some clothes our DS1 left here before his move. It's the first time either one of us has been out to visit him. The only trips we've taken have been when my DSister has flown out from Oregon to stay with our mom while we were gone.

Finally, I've got great hopes of finishing Clue 4 on the Mystery Shawl before Clue 6 comes out on Friday. The cat paw prints for Clue 4 are really lovely, and now I know that they represent the pas de chat from the ballet. Cute. Really cute. I like leaps of imagination like that.

Mystery Stole 3 -- Clue 3

I'm making great progress on the Mystery Stole. I've now finished Clue 3. And even better than that, it seems to be approximately the same length as the creator of the stole had for hers (about 25"). I've never made anything like this before and probably wouldn't have if I hadn't joined the KAL after reading about it on one of the message boards and hadn't seen how lovely the shawls of some ladies in the knitting group I attend had turned out. There's no way that I'll finish Clue 4 before Clue 5 comes out. But, at least I'll be only one clue behind. I'm still not sure when or where I'll ever wear the stole. I really can't see myself wearing a stole around the house or to the store. But, maybe I can give it to my DD. And, if she doesn't want it, I might be able to give it to my DS1's girl friend for Christmas. But, it's worth making just for the beauty of it.

I haven't yet given my DH the socks I made for him recently. One of our cats (Tripper) likes to lie atop them.

It strange how perceptions change. About 6 months ago, I was having trouble finding sock patterns that I hadn't already knit and that looked fun. Now I have more sock patterns to knit than time or yarn (though it will be easy to change that latter). I've just finished test-knitting a sock pattern for Chrissy and am looking forward to making the second sock (even though it's not needed for the test knitting process).

Then the Project-a-Month KAL has decided to make socks for August and has chosen a cute pattern from Knitty. Finally, the sockamaniac_sockalong Yahoo group had an interesting mystery pattern for July that I would love to knit into a sock (but didn't mainly because of the shawl KAL). And there's an August KAL for the group which looks really interesting and fun to knit.

I never finished the July Project-a-Month KAL, a biscuit blanket -- mainly because I have issues with biscuits. -- I can't make them despite having lived in the South for quite a few years many years ago.

Mystery Shawl 3 -- Clue 2

After getting back from London, I've been busily working on the Mystery Shawl 3 -- among other knitting projects. Here's a picture of my progress -- to the end of Clue 2. It's lying atop of an afghan made by my MIL many years ago. I hope to finish Clue 3 in the next day or two, but I doubt whether I'll be able to finish Clue 4 before Friday. -- And, I don't even have the excuse of reading the newest Harry Potter book.

Two of my grown children have read the book, and we all went to see the latest movie. I was thinking about reading the HP books, starting with the first book on the trip back to the US. However, my DD said she wanted to reread the books, and so I gave my DS1's collection of HP books to her. I can always check them out from the local library. I read the latest edition of Analog, a science fiction magazine, on the plane. I was going to read a Dresden Files novel instead but brought along the wrong book in the series.

Yesterday, I knit the mid-July KAL dishcloth in its entirety. It took me less than 3 hours. (I left out the edging because a moss stitch dishcloth doesn't really need any edging.) The dishcloth looks good from both the WS and the RS. It's in navy, which showed up lighter in the photo.

Unfortunately, the reason that I had so long to knit at one stretch was that I was waited for our car (a Pontiac) to get its regularly scheduled oil change and tire rotation at the dealership (in Union, NJ). My DH's name was on the work order -- even though I was the one to bring the car in -- and so they never thought to tell me that the car was ready. I gave them my name after about 3 hours, but nothing happened. So, I ended up waiting for 5 hours before I got worried because I was the only one in the waiting room. I guess that in this part of the country, one has to bug people about when something is going to get done. Though, I'm not sure it would have helped. I was the one who finally found the car in the parking lot. They told me that it was probably out on a road test. I spent the rest of the time reading Analog. (They hadn't left a message on my cell phone, my DH's cell phone, or our home phone either.) That will probably be the last time we go back to that dealership. They were nice enough, however, to refund the price of the service. I'm not good at voicing my displeasure at lack of service, but my DH is.

From reading this post, I guess I should have titled it "Nothing is going quite right for me". But, the knitting, at least, is turning out well. I've almost finished Clue 3 of the Mystery Stole; I've almost finished the sock I was test-knitting, I've almost finished Tomato (after having to frog most of it); and I'm up to date on dishcloths for the dishcloth KAL (and really like how they've turned out).

I "got rid" of some of my dishcloths by giving several of them to my dear sister. This a picture of her, standing in front of our house. She came out here from Oregon to stay with our mom while my DH and I were in England. She's a lot better looking than I am. -- Our house is in the background.

London

We spent last week in London to attend our DD's graduation last Wednesday. Here she is after the ceremony looking at pictures on her camera while I took a picture of her with mine.
It was a nice ceremony. The university staggered ceremonies through the week. The afternoon of my DD's graduation, there were only 2 departments graduating students.
That evening we went out to an Italian restaurant in GX and also met her boyfriend for the first time.
We're not sure whether he's from East Anglia or Essex. Though, if he were from Essex, he would be unlikely to admit it. People from Essex have the probably undeserved rep of not being too smart.
I guess it's sort of like just after we moved to NJ. I told people that we lived near Newark -- even though we live 20-30 miles from Newark. I later found out from New Jersey-ans that I should say Northern NJ. People from elsewhere in the country are ok with the Newark description.

I bought along socks to knit. In fact, I finished the pair of socks for my DH. A picture of the socks is posted to SAM3.

I also started on test-knitting a sock for Chrissy. She designs such nice cabled socks. I forgot to bring a cable needle along and so had fun cabling without a cable needle. It isn't as hard as I thought. I used the method in which one leaves all the stitches on the RHN until done with the cable. (For a left-leaning cable, one first needs to slip knitwise each st onto the RHN and then slip them back purlwise before knitting the sts through the back loop.) Chrissy, of course, assumed that whoever was making the sock had a cable needle and/or would take the time to buy one. (And, yes, there are cable needles in London. But, I didn't see the need to buy one. I had a perfectly good one at home, and it was interesting looking at techniques for cabling without a cable needle.) I left my other projects on hold.

Shortly after getting back, I resumed my other knitting. Here is a picture of the July KAL dishcloth. I have yet to start the mid-July KAL. I also started working on the MS3 again and the Tomato. But, at least, I have a pair of socks finished -- just in time before the end of July.

While in London, we also went to the British Museum -- one of my favorite places. The area for the Mausoleum had been redone -- more befitting one of the Wonders of the Ancient World. We also saw the London Zoo for the first time.

To get to London and back, we tried out Zoom Airlines, a Canadian discount airline. It was a decent airline -- with a few caveats. The price in the ad is only part of what one pays. The amount we finally paid was about twice the advertised price since that price didn't include taxes, fees, and a fuel surcharge. It took a long time to leave JFK. We sat on the tarmac for a couple of hours before the air traffic controllers finally noticed us waiting to take off. Then, when we left from Gatwick, we found out the UK/EU regulations had changed and one was allowed only one carry on, including a purse or computer case. So, I dumped the contents of my purse into my carry on. However, the airline had a 5 kg limit on carry ons, and so I had to dump things like books from the carry on into one of our checked bags. At least, the lady at the counter was nice about it and did allow us to rearrange bag contents. She even suggested it so that we wouldn't incur an excess baggage fee. -- But, if one thinks about it, a 5 kg (11 lb) limit isn't much for something like a laptop and computer bag.

Mystery Shawl 3

I'm a little late in joining the MS3 KAL. I joined just before the deadline (after reading about it on one of the knitting boards). I ordered my yarn last Thursday and got it Tuesday. Then I needed to wind it into balls (I got 2 skeins.) and swatch. Here are the first 49 rows.

Unlike most people in the KAL who posted needle size used for KP lace-weight bare, I decided to use size 5 needles. (I also got my first KP needles -- which are nice.) The beads are size 8/0.

Putting beads on the yarn isn't nearly as hard as I had imagined. And knitting with such thin yarn is nearly as hard as I had imagined, either. Though, I was expecting the yarn to be even thinner than it is.

Frogging a Tomato

I don't think my navy KP Swish Superwash yarn wants to be made into a sweater. I knit it into a v-neck last October on size 5 needles. Then this spring, I decided that size 5 needles made a fabric that was too thick. So, I frogged it and decided to use size 7 needles on whatever I decided to knit with it next (probably another v-neck).

Then Knitting Daily came out with its Tomato. I loved the U-neck. Plus the colorwork looked interesting. I'd never done colorwork before. So, after a couple of false starts, I got the neckline done. The raglan increasing went well. And the colorwork went surprisingly well. Though, I have a new respect for English/American style knitters. I don't understand how they are able to let go of the needle each and every stitch. I did the colorwork by holding the main yarn in my left hand and the contrasting one in my right hand. Well, I finished the garment bottom k1p1 ribbing and finished it off with a p2tog k2togtbl bindoff. Then I started on the sleeves and discovered that one sleeve was a few sts wider around than the other. So, after taking the picture here, I frogged the sweater to the armholes. I'll restart it when the yarn dries. (I've become good at rinsing frogged yarn, drying it (The air conditioning vents are nice for that.), and then winding it into balls. Generally, I wouldn't post a picture of a sweater about to be frogged, but I'm proud of how the colorwork turned out. The contrasting color is KP Capri Swish Superwash, which I had to make another still undermined sweater. I bought one more skein of that than of the navy since I was thinking of doing a sweater with 3/4 length sleeves.

Before starting on the Tomato, I did one of my own patterns, the Summer Square in KP wave Shine Worsted. This is my Sweater # 6 for the year. So, I'm still on schedule to finish 12 sweaters in a year for the sweater KAL.

I can't follow my own pattern any better than I can someone else's pattern. This one has a slightly different neckline. I like this sweater a lot. The cotton blend has a nice feel to it.

I've finished sock number 1 of the Number 1 Husband socks. In my last post, I said they were ecru. They're actually in fawn. I should have made them into toe-up socks. But, it turned out ok. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish. But, I had a 1" round ball of yarn left over after finishing the toe. They look nice if I do say so myself. I'll publish a picture when they're done.

I've also joined the Mystery Shawl bandwagon. I've never made a lace shawl before, but I have made lace socks and lace dishcloths. I ordered lace-weight yarn from KP last Thursday, which I hope will arrive shortly. (At last look, it was in a sorting center in Edison, NJ.) Then I get to knit the test swatch to find out what needles to make. Or, maybe I'll just start with size 4 needles -- since a lot of people knitting the stole with this yarn are using that size needle. I may just knit a swatch to see how lace on lace-weight yarn looks. I think I'll blame my joining the group on a lady at the knitting group I attend. She makes lovely lace shawls.

My DD is back in London now. It was really nice having her visit us for a couple of weeks. She is missed already -- especially by the cats who both adore her. We adore her and miss her as well.

Perfect Crime

This past weekend we went into NYC to watch a matinée play. We were debating which play to watch when a couple of the people there said why not go to the play "Perfect Crime." Another person chimed in that she thought it was one of the best plays she'd ever seen. So, not seeing anything that struck our fancy on the half-price board, we took a flier and went to the box office to get the cheap tickets to the play. As we walked there, we tried to decide whether or not the third person was a plant.

Since we had time to spare, we went looking for a place to eat. There was a place right next to the theater which looked a lot like an English pub. It was actually in the process of becoming an Irish pub. The newer parts of the decor were basically Irish, the older parts cowboy/Western. The food was good. Plus, there probably aren't many places around here where one can get bangers and mash. We should have had beer with our lunch (It probably would have made the play more intelligible.) but decided on something nonalcoholic. As we left, we each got a free pen advertising the restaurant (on West 50th St near the Snapple Theater). That's the first time we got a pen for dining at a restaurant.

The play was something else. We still haven't figured out the why -- including why it's supposedly the longest running mystery play on Broadway.

To change the subject to knitting:
At the right is the mid-June KAL dishcloth from the Yahoo! dishcloth group. I think it turned out nicely -- if I do say so myself.

For my next sweater, I'm working on Tomato from Knitting Daily. I love the U-shaped neckline. My choice of colors isn't quite tomato-y, and my choice of yarn doesn't exactly fit the hot summer season when tomatoes grow best. I chose navy in KP Swish Superwash on size 7 needles. I had made a different sweater with the yarn on size 5 needles, didn't like how it turned out, and so frogged the whole thing (after wearing it a couple of times). This sweater seems to be turning out well. Luckily I had some Swish in a light blue that I was planning on making another sweater with. So, I used that for the contrasting color. (I'd purchased an extra skein of the second color just in case I wanted to do something different.)

I don't see how people knit English/American style. I decided to do the colorwork on Tomato by holding one color in each hand. I knit the main color Continental and the contrasting color English. ---
One has to let go of the right-hand needle to throw yarn English style!!!

For my July socks for SAM3, I've started on Number 1 Husband Socks in KP Essential ecru. My DH had been wearing the first and only pair of socks I knit for him around the house recently. So, I took that for a sign that he might like another pair.

Diagonal Rib Sock

These socks, the Diagonal Rib Socks from Knitting Daily, were fun to make -- for quite a few reasons. The first reason is that they're quick -- even with the twists. The second is that they're squishy. The third is that I wanted to learn how to do twists, and this was a perfect project. Another picture of the socks is here.

The socks are knit in KP Essential on size 1 circs. I made a few changes. The pattern, as written, is too big around for my foot. (I like negative ease.) So, I ended up making one fewer repeat of the pattern around the leg and extending the diagonal ribbing panel by 2 sts -- to make a sock 30 sts around. Then, since I had only 4 twisted rib panels, I thought it would be a wonderful idea to practice left twists as well as right twists. So, the sock has 2 right twist diagonal rib panels and 2 left twist diagonal rib panels. This is a wonderful link on how to make left twists that look the reverse of right twists. (I used the method in the middle of the third paragraph in the link.)

Twists are slight different from cabling 1 st over or under another. Because of knitting 2 sts together as part of the twist, they stick out more from the background than a regular cable would.

I couldn't decide on what kind of heel to make (plain, eye of partridge, etc.). And so, I just kept working the pattern down the back of the heel. IMHO, this looks nice. Though, if I were to make it as a men's sock (which I think would be nice), I would use a plain or padded heel.

Then, I decided to experiment by making the heel flap have a knit st edge instead of a slipped st edge. So, I knit the first and last st on each row of the heel flap, which produced purl bumps on the sides of the heel flap. The picture on the right shows these bumps picked up and ready to be knit. I like this just as well, if not better than the traditional method. The seam lies flat, and there are no holes on the side. What's left are some "decorative" bumps along the right side of the seam. The inside is smooth.

Finally, I get the Lion Brand email newsletter, which had a kitty bath mitt pattern as one of the suggested projects. I couldn't resist it. Here's an in-progress picture. I didn't want to wait to order Cotton Ease and so bought some Cot'n at our local store. The circs are size 7.

It's notable since it's the first time I've ever used a stitch holder, and this one has all three of my stitch holders on it. (I bought them years and years ago but never used them.) The base of the thumb is on one stitch holder. The base of the other ear is on the other 2. I cast on 33 sts instead of 44 and made the rest of the widths as 3/4 of the suggested widths. (I'm working it in the round because I try to keep away from seaming whenever possible.)

Finally, I don't know whether or not I should be allowed in the garden. I ordered several plants mail order, including some asparagus. I couldn't decide which side was up. So, I planted them so they looked nice. After looking on the internet for pictures of asparagus (I'd never grown it before.), I discovered that it was planted upside down with the roots sticking up from the soil like the top of a decorative grass. They've since been replanted the proper way.

Shawl finished

My shawl for the Yahoo! Project of the Month KAL is finally finished. It's made with size 10 needles and HomeSpun Prairie. I've never made or worn a shawl before, and so I'm not sure if it turned out right. (I'd also never knit with HomeSpun or size 10 needles before. It was a nice change of pace.) The pattern I was using, a wave and shell shaw pattern said that the shawl should be about 24" wide and 60" long. My first effort gave a shawl about 20" wide and finishable with about 2 skeins of HomeSpun. So, since I'd already bought 3 skeins, I frogged it and made it one panel wider. It's a bit wider than 24" and a bit longer than 60". This is the result.

I thought a garter stitch edging made the shawl gather together too much on the edges, and so I modified it. On WS rows 4, 8, 12, and 16 of the pattern, I did "k1, p to last st, k1". But on WS rows 10 and 14, I changed the first p5 to k5 and the last p4 to k4.

For SAM3, I'm making the diagonal rib socks from Knitting Daily. Ever since I frogged a whole sweater in part because I didn't like how my left and right twists looked, I've been looking off and on for an easy pattern to practice on and also a good way to make the twists. There are quite a few links for the right twist. This link gave me the best-looking and easiest way to do a left twist. (I used what the author said was her preferred method for making a left twist when both left and right twists appear.) The pattern from the Knitting Daily website doesn't have any left twists in it, but I altered it so I could practice them.

Sweater 5

My fifth sweater for the year is now finished. (The picture doesn't do it justice.) It feels so nice. Patons 100% Wool merino is really soft.

This sweater is my version of the knitty.com pattern Bob. However, the only similarities between the two patterns is the final result. This one is knit from the top down and in the round. I've knit this (my) pattern twice before. The major change this time, from the last time I knit it, is to use a simple narrow k1p1 ribbing at the bottom of the sweater in order to take away interest from the hips. The bind offs are decrease bind offs, which are fairly stretchy.

I just looked at my old version of the pattern from the May 2004 archives of my aol journal. That pattern is slightly different to the pattern for the sweater in the picture (and slightly different from the pattern in the April archives of my aol journal). Here is the revised pattern. I can't believe that I've been blogging for that long. The 2004 version was the first short-sleeve sweater I'd ever made.

One time I asked my daughter why things turn out so much better when we cook/bake something together as opposed to when I cook/bake alone. She pointed out that I always change the recipe -- even my own -- and that she "forces" me not to make too many changes on the fly. With knitting, one can make changes on the fly. If it doesn't work out, there's always frogging. With cooking, the best options are sometimes to start over or to live with it.

I've already started on sweater #6, a summer sweater from another of my patterns, Summer Square. I'm using KP shine worsted in a light blue for the sweater and have finished off one skein of yarn already. The skeins are smallish.

I restarted the shawl I was working on. I decided to make it wider. So, now, it's one pattern repeat wider than it was in the picture in the last post. I still like Homespun. It's kind of fun to knit with. I'm already thinking about other projects that I might make with the yarn. (I'm also thinking about other projects to make with Patons -- probably a long-sleeve sweater.) I'll probably make a fitted shawl for my mom with Homespun next, the Fitted Shawl from KnittingDaily. I almost always end up making changes to patterns, even my own. However, I don't think I'll end up making too many changes. Though, it would be nice to add a couple of pockets. ...

The dishcloth is the midMay KAL dishcloth from the Yahoo! dishcloth KAL group. It's an interesting pattern. I haven't decided what it reminds me of in its orange yarn which I'm still deciding whether or not I like.

Shawl

The project for the Yahoo! Project of the Month KAL is a shawl. Actually, it's the project for both May and June. I'm making a wave and shell shawl with Homespun Prairie yarn. I don't know why, but I'm having no problems knitting with it. I probably should be using a needle larger than the size 10 one I'm using. But, I had the needle from some project that I never even started and wanted to use it for something.

Also, I've posted an easy-to-make pullover pattern on my other knitting blog. It's a knit-from-the-bottom and seam-up-the-sides-and-top pullover. In writing and rewriting the pattern, I've gotten the urge to make it again -- especially since the pattern as it now stands is so much better than the one I originally used. But, I've got a couple of sweaters to knit before buying yarn for this one. I debated (and am still debating) on whether it would be better to have a slip-stitch edging or a knit-stitch edging (knit at the beginning and end of every right-side and wrong-side row). I opted for the knit-stitch one (since I saw on one episode of Knitty Gritty how easy it was to sew up seams with that king of edging). Then I thought about how to pick up stitches with a knit-stitch edging. So, I picked up stitches off of one of my dishcloths and liked the look.

So, my next philosophical question is why haven't I found any sock patterns in which the heel flap doesn't have a slip-stitch edge. It seems to me that a knitted edge would give an edge that is just as easy to pick up stitches from. (Pick up a stitches between bumps.) Plus, it might lie flatter and be less likely to leave gaps. I haven't tried it yet. But I most likely will on my next pair of socks.

Finally, I've started knitting the mid-May KAL dishcloth. I started over on it because it's one of the times that, to me, variations of the ssk won't do. It's looks so much better with slip 1 knitwise, slip 1 knitwise, knit the stitches together through back loop.

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. All three children called to wish me a happy day. It was really nice hearing from them. My oldest and my DH both sent/got me flowers.

My DH and I also went to a soccer game at Giant's Stadium. Evidently, there were over 7,00 people there, but it doesn't look like it. We got to see, Angel, a player that we'd watched quite a few times on British tv. This was his first game playing for a MLS team. Angel and Mathis are in white near the top of the box.

I've finished my Baudelaire socks. I'll post a picture of them on the SAM3 KAL page later. I've finished half the body for my next sweater in Patons Merino. The yarn is really soft. It behaves like I thought 100% wool would in its springiness, but it doesn't behave like I thought it would shrinkwise. Since I'm surprised its lack of shrinking, I've soaked it a couple or more times on the needles already, wrapped it in a towel, and then blocked it. It still hasn't shrunk. And I'm still getting 4 sts and 6 rows per inch.

Sandy Hook

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in New Jersey. So, my DH said let's go for a drive and that I should pick out a place to go. So, I used mapquest and entered "beach" as my intended destination. After looking at the list of possibilities, I entered a state, NJ. On page 2 of the possible destinations, there was a beach that looked interesting and fairly near. So, I printed off directions.

A road trip wouldn't be a road trip without me getting lost. So, when US 9 and NJ 36 divided, I told my DH to follow US 9. I hadn't gotten to the NJ 36 part of the directions yet -- although evidently the car had. Then quite a few miles later, probably about a third of the way to Atlantic City, I told my DH that he should start looking for NJ 36. He said we'd passed it quite a while back. So, I looked at a NJ map, we turned toward the coast, and started going north on NJ 36. It's before Memorial Day and so we were able to visit Sandy Hook for free. We got to see seagulls! Seagulls are in the foreground of the picture and NYC is barely visible in the distance on the horizon.

We traveled all the way to almost the northernmost part of Sandy Hook. There are battlements there that were constructed during the War of 1812 to protect the NYC harbor and the entrance to the Hudson River. It was surprising to me that the lighthouse was so far from the shore. But, it's a nice looking lighthouse. And, even with the getting lost part, it wasn't too bad of a drive. Plus, it was nice to see the ocean and seagulls. (I miss the seagulls we used to have in our back garden in Broadstairs.)

As to knitting, I'm halfway done with my second Baudelaire sock. I've finished the May KAL dishcloth (of a daffodil in bloom). And I've restarted the sweater I've been working on. -- Paton's Merino Wool doesn't shrink much, if at all. It's also fairly stretchy. But, so far it's holding its shape and feels soft. So far, it's working out to 4 sts and 6 rows per inch for me with size 7 needles -- my usual for worsted weight yarn.

Sweater 4

Finally, it's finished -- just in time for the warm weather we're having now. :) This is the last sweater for quite some while that I'm going to make on size 3 needles. But, at least, I've finally found a pattern for this yarn and have used up some of my stash. The yarn is Robin Double Knit, which I purchased at a post office when we were living in Kent. It's knit from the top down. The neck is garter stitch in first red, then a knit and then a purl round of the main color, then a knit and then a purl round of red again. The basket-weave stitch itself is k4, p4 for 8 rounds then p4, k4 for another 8 rounds. The sleeves are finished with 4 rounds of garter stitch in red (starting with a knit round), then a knit round in the main color, followed by a set-up round and then by k1, p1 ribbing. The bottom of the garment is finished off the same way (except for the change in color -- no need to emphasize the hips). I made double decreases every 16th round on the sleeves and also decreased evenly around before both the garter stitch and ribbing finishing. (To decrease for the ribbing, I did k1, p1, k1, p2tog for the sleeves. For the garment, *k1, p1* 4 times, k1, p2tog. Next time, I do ribbing I'll replace the k1's by slip sts in this set-up round.)

For the next sweater, I'm going to make a simple top-down boat-neck short-sleeve raglan in Patons Merino denim with size 7 needles. I've never knit with this yarn before. So, it will be a bit of an adventure. To make it more exciting, I'm not going to swatch. Instead, I've knit 4 rounds of the neckline and washed it while it was still on the needles. (So, I guess I really am doing a swatch.) I'm going to let it dry and then see whether or not I'll have to frog and reknit in order to get it over my head. I've made this pattern a couple of times in acrylic. It's a basic try-on-as-you-go pattern.

My DS is now back in London. His flight left last night. We had a really nice visit. The cats miss him, as does the rest of the family. I hope he'll wear the socks I knit for him around the flat. They're Thuja socks in Sassy Stripes and size 3 needles.

Now, I'm on to getting the second Baudelaire sock finished. To finish the first, I bought my first set of cable needles. I had been using DPs for cabling but didn't have any small enough.

Chocolate standards

I just read a Washington Post article that the FDA might change the requirements for what can be called chocolate. It seems that they are thinking of relaxing the requirement that chocolate have cocoa butter in it to be called chocolate.

The Washington Post article has a link to DontMessWithOurChocolate.Guittard.com. Evidently, this company is leading the campaign against the change.

Trees

One of my favorite Clint Eastwood songs is "I talk to the trees." Well, it seems, in this case, that the trees were eavesdropping on a conversation my DH and I had about them. I was telling my DH that the 3 trees seen in the picture hadn't had more than 10 leaves at a time from when they suddenly dropped all their leaves last April and that, if they didn't get any leaves this spring, we'd have to cut them down. (I'm guessing that when the previous owners of the house had someone come in to kill termites that the poison affected the trees. I had trouble growing annuals next to the wood that was treated.) Well, it seems that the trees overheard the conversation and got scared that they might get cut down. They were some of the first trees to leaf out this year. I hope they don't mind being anthropomorphized. ;)

I've finished the mid-April KAL dishcloth with the Yahoo dishcloth group. It's done in hot pink in Sugar 'n Cream. It took a while to get it finished because I kept forgetting yo's.

I've started on the second sleeve on the basketweave pullover and hope to have it done in the next week or so -- just in time for the hot/warm weather. Maybe I'll have to use the rest of the yarn in a short-sleeve pullover.

I've put my second Baudelaire sock on hold since my DS2 said he wouldn't mind me knitting a pair of socks for him. I'm making him Thuja socks. He has big feet, but the socks are going along nicely since the Thuja pattern is so easy to knit up. I hope to have them finished by the time he returns to university.

We went to a Rockies-Mets game yesterday evening. It was a fun game. I even got some knitting done there. We've yet to see the Rockies win a game even though we used to go to approximately 1 Rockies game a year when my DS and her family lived in Denver.

Tulip Bud dishcloth

This must be my year for joining KALs. The latest KAL I've joined is a Yahoo! group project of the month KAL. The first project is a dishcloth, the one at the left. It's done mostly in garter stitch. One unusual part to the pattern is that the tulip bud itself is raised. The dishcloth is on top of a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle that we recently completed.

I'm almost done with one of the sleeves of the basketweave sweater. I finished off the main part of the garment with 4 rows of garter stitch (the middle of which contains a decrease of about 10% spaced evenly around -- on a knit rnd) and then 10 rnds of k1p1 -- all in the main color. I'm planning on making the sleeve cuff match the neckline in some way.

I'm also continuing work on the Baudelaire socks. I've had to redo the heel a couple or more times because Fleegle's no-hassle sock heel doesn't come up high enough on the back of my ankle. (I have a high arch.)

I've finished off one ball of crochet thread for the curtain I'm still making and have started on another ball of thread. I'm glad it's for a small window. Though, by this time, the pattern is second-nature to me, and I can knit it even while watching tv. (I like to have several projects going at once. That way, if I need to stop and think about how to proceed with one project, I can work on another. Plus, it's nice to be able to switch from one needle size to another.)

On the weather front :) , we've had a nor'easter for the last couple of days (produced when a low forms off the New Jersey coast). We're fine. Though, a lot of people living in low-lying areas experienced flooding.

Finally, the picture on the right is of Mel Stottlemyre, a former Yankees pitcher. He was at the book store last Friday signing copies of his new book. He was there for a couple of hours. While waiting in line, my DH and I discovered that the person behind us in line works for the same company that my DH worked for -- though at a different location.

PT Cruiser

We learned a couple of miscellaneous things this long weekend. The first is that if you go to the car rental counter and say that you don't care what kind of car you get, prepare to be surprised. My DH and I did that and got a Chrysler PT Cruiser. From the outside, it looks like a London cab. It drove nicely; it had the first in-car analog clock I've seen in quite some time; plus we had no problem at all finding it in parking lots. It's the car in the picture. -- Colorado Springs is beautiful even in an ice storm.

Second, online motel reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt. We booked a motel using aol travel. Then a day later, I read reviews of the motel. They were a bit scary. The only consolation that I had was that although the reviews gave the motel a maximum of 3 stars, the average rating was 3 stars. We stayed there 2 nights (our entire stay in the town) and had no complaints at all about the motel. In fact, we liked the motel a lot. It was a pleasant surprise.

Lace curtain

I'm slowly making progress on the lace curtain for my DD's bathroom window. (I realize that I'm going to great efforts to get rid of the Venetian blinds there. But, right now I'm in the lace making mood.) I've frogged it several times so far -- once to change the pattern and to change from knitting from the top down to knitting from the bottom up; once to change the width and the edging. I've gotten far enough now that I probably won't do any more frogging. At least, I'm past the 4" mark, which seemed to be my favorite length to frog at. Though, it's still up in the air whether it will make it to the window. I'm using size 5 needles and size 10 crochet thread. (The thread plumps up a little when washed. -- I've washed it a couple of times on the needles to check washability.) The pattern is what Stanfield and Griffiths call "Candlelight." The edging is the wrong side of what they call "Shadow Rib." The bumps on the edge are created by ending each row with a purl st and starting each one with a slip (with yarn in front) st. (My other blog has details on the edging.) I'm hoping that I won't have to put a separate edging on it. My plan is eventually to have the Shadow Rib across the top and to fold it over to fit around a curtain rod. -- But, that's a long way off.

I've finished the main part of the garment for the basketweave pullover that I'm making and have started on a sleeve. It looks so weird with no sleeve on one side and part of a sleeve on the other that I'm going to wait to post a picture.

Finally, for my April socks, I've started on Baudelaire socks. I'm planning on using the heel from Fleegle's no-hassle sock pattern.

My First Tribble

While looking through posts for the monthly dishcloth Yahoo! group, I saw a link for a Tribble Scrubbby. It looked easy to do and would use up left-over cotton yarn. And it was and did. I used another type of increase than the kfb and also did something akin to a 3-needle bind off to bind off and attach the 2 ends at the same time. I haven't used it for its intended purpose yet. It's too pretty. The two pics are the finished product and the scrubby before the bind off.

I've also finished the March Monkey socks that I'd been working on. A picture is here.

The sweater I'm working on is working out nicely. It's a top-down raglan. I've gotten to the bottom "hem", which, right now, is in moss stitch. And, I've detached the red ball of yarn that was used on the neckline. In other words, I like the way the sweater is turning out well enough to make the step of detaching yarn.

And, finally, since I'm intrigued by lace at the moment, I'm trying to knit a curtain for my DDs bathroom here to replace the Venetian blinds that are there now. I'm not ready to post a picture yet since I'd hate to post a picture of something that may be frogged at any minute.

In other news, my DS1 has a car now. (He had been walking to work -- a 20 minute walk, and still may be.) But, it was probably time for him to get a car. He lives in California and works at a car dealership.
My DD has a summer internship.
And I just received my last issue of the Atlantic! Before it changed its name, it had really interesting articles. But now it has articles that one can find just about anywhere.

Sweater 3

I'm one of those people who do not have "second sock syndrome". In fact, when I finish a sock, I can't wait to work on the second one to see whether it will turn out the same (ie, to check reproducibility). The same is true for sweaters. So, here is sweater #3 for the Sweater KAL. It's the almost the same as my second sweater except in black and with more stripes and with bell sleeves.

The other picture is from the dishcloth KAL. It's supposedly a bunny. My best guess is that the picture is right side up here and that the bunny is facing away so that one can see its tail. It was fun to do a diagonal dishcloth.

Thanks to knittyboard.com, I've started watching Knitty Gritty on HGTV. It's a fun show. On another tv subject, I'm disappointed that we don't get the cable station that carries the new BBC version of "Robin Hood". I'd seen an episode or two in the UK last fall and had been looking forward to seeing the series here.

Finally, despite my best intentions, I'm working on Monkey socks for my March socks. I had started them toe-up a couple of times. They didn't look quite right. Then I joined a Yahoo sock KAL so I wouldn't have to worry and/or think about which sock to choose and decided to do whatever sock was chosen for a particular month -- at least, for the time being. Well, the choice for this month is the Monkey sock. So, I'm doing my first cuff-down sock for a while and finding out that it's fun to follow a pattern almost exactly for a change.

mid-February lace dishcloth

The Yahoo dishcloth KAL has such lovely dishcloths. Here is the most recent one. The ones at the beginning of the month are usually knit/purl pictures. The ones mid-month are usually lace or cables or bobbles. This is obviously a lace one.

I've finished my feather lace socks for February just in the nick of time. A picture is on the SAM3 KAL. An in-progress close-up of the sock is in the Feb 8 post here. I'm glad that I didn't give up on it. And I'm glad of Fleegle's post on left-leaning k2tog's. It's made those k2tog's so much easier to do and so much better looking.

I've finally figured out what to do for my next sweater. But that wasn't until after I'd frogged 1 finished sweater and another that had been in progress for years. The yarn for this new sweater is from the sweater that I'd had in progress for years. I liked the pattern the sweater was knit in but not the yarn. I started the now-frogged sweater with size 5 needles, then switched to size 4, and finally reached size 3 needles. This is going to be a crew-neck raglan with a reddish garter stitch "collar" and with knit and purl rectangles to keep up my interest, all done with size 3 needles. The picture is of the yarn ball and the back of the sweater. (I haven't detached the red yarn yet just in case I decide that I don't like the sweater and decide to start over. I've already changed the size of the raglan seam to fit the pattern.) This is basically a make-it-up-as-you-go sweater. If it turns out, I'm planning on giving it to my mom (who lives with us). Though, her short-term memory is bad enough that she probably won't know where the sweater came from. (She's had several heart attacks and strokes.) I just hope she'll like it.

Washington's Headquarters in Morristown

On the spur of the moment, my DH and I decided to visit Washington's Headquarters in Morristown, NJ. (We were driving by, saw the sign, and decided to stop in.) Luckily, we got there just as a tour was starting. We were surprised at how interesting it was. It's a largeish house, but, at one time, there were 70 people living there. They had guards at every door, both interior and exterior.
None of the furniture in the house was Washington's. He had to move his furniture there from Virginia when he moved in. (The owner of the house moved most of their furniture into the attic -- though they did keep a couple rooms for themselves.) Then he moved his furniture out of the house when leaving. Pictured is the bedroom where he and Martha slept plus some furnishings of the time. Martha spent her time mending shirts and knitting socks. (I didn't notice the knitting until after uploading pictures from my camera.)
On another subject, my California DS sold his first half car!
Finally, on the subject of my knitting, I discovered this morning why one should knit in good light. I was redoing stripes on my next sweater when I discovered that I needed a little bit of yarn to finish the stripe. It wasn't until this morning that I discovered that I had finished the dark navy stripe with black yarn. I'm considering leaving it as it is as a reminder. But, I'll probably redo it. I've knit and reknit that sweater so many times.
I'm also having trouble deciding what to make for my February sock for SAM3. A lady at the knitting group said that the socks I'm currently working on would look good as knee highs. However, if I did that, the socks wouldn't be finished until March. So, I'm going to put them aside and knit the mystery pattern from the Sockamaniac sock-along Yahoo group. The February pattern looks interesting.
added the next day:The February pattern is nice. However, I decided to use the advice that I gave to someone else who was worried about finishing socks by the end of February. A pattern knits up faster the further along one is. So, I now am going to finish the socks I was working on before beginning socks in the mystery pattern. -- And I redid the sweater's stripe.
On another subject, my DS in Calif just sold his first whole car!

Feb sock started

I started my Feb sock for SAM3 with the intention of making the Monkey sock from knitty.com. However, I couldn't get it to look like the picture. Plus, I wanted to make it a little narrower. I made a half-hearted effort at another sock, which looked good. But, I couldn't get my heart into it. Then finally, I thought: I've got a whole book of knitting charts that I've been wanting to try out. Why not try one out with a sock? -- So, I picked out something called feather lace. Here is how far I've gotten. I'm debating on whether or not to try to make it into a knee-high sock. My one try at knee highs didn't turn out.
Earlier this week, I went to my first knitting get-together. It was really fun. I'm looking forward to going back.

Sweater 2

Happy Groundhog Day! I heard that Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow, and so the winter will end in 2 weeks instead of 6.
I've finished my second sweater for the year for the Sweater KAL. It's a 3-color variation of Tubey with a square neck bordered with garter stitch. The sleeves are a little over 3/4 length and have cuffs in garter stitch. There is a narrow stripe at the elbow with a change of color after that. The sleeve is basically straight. The only striping for the lower garment is in the 5" or so under the front neckline. Details are here. It's also linked in the side bar under the name TSquared. And this is a picture of me taking a picture of myself modeling the pullover. I'm obviously not good at taking pictures of myself. ... And this is the best of the lot.
I've now frogged my old Tubey and am going to remake it in this style. The four balls of yarn are from the sleeves, the upper garment, and the lower garment. It will have more stripes than the one just finished, but the last stripe for the tube part will be at my waist. (I tried it on as I was frogging it and discovered that if the stripes ended at my waist, it looked a lot better on me.) And I'm planning to make bell sleeves as in the original. I'm also planning on making it smaller around.
I was planning to make the first of my SAM3 socks in KP Essential using the Monkey pattern from knitty.com. However, the yarn I was going to use (the Peruvian) doesn't show lace as well as the (Italian) Essential that I used for Zokni. So, I'm debating whether to find a pattern more suited to the yarn or to use a different color (from the Essential skeins I have of it that were made in Italy). I wonder which is the "new" Essential. Oh well, part of knitting is finding what pattern the yarn wants to be knit into.

Blocking Adventure

After thinking about it, I remembered that I had blocked things before. Many years ago, when I would crochet a doily, I blocked it by washing it in hot water with Dawn detergent, rinsing out the soap, pinning it to a towel on top of something that pins would stick into, and spraying it with spray starch. More recently, I've started knitting dishcloths. I block a dishcloth by putting it in hot water with vinegar added to set the color, wringing it out to get rid of excess liquid, and then placing it on the back of a sofa.
So, for the sweater that I'd just finished (which is half wool and half alpaca), I put it in the sink with a bit of detergent in tepid water, rinsed it in cold water and vinegar, squeezed the liquid out without wringing, and then wrapped it in a towel to get even more liquid out. By then it was just damp. So, I put in on the back of our sofa. One of my kitties helped with the blocking. Here is an unblocked picture of the sweater. Details and a better picture of the sweater are here on my other blog.
The Tubey that I'm currently knitting is coming along -- without too much frogging and reknitting. I thought that it would be done by today. But, I decided it would look better if I made some changes to the order of the stripes.

Sweater number 1 finished

I've finally finished my smocked top-down raglan based on the Smock it to me pullover in Knitty.com. Mine is knit in the round with Mystic Inca forest green wool/alpaca yarn and size 3 needles. (I bought the yarn on ebay.) Detailed details on how I made are here. It has a garter stitch crew-neck neckline. It looks a little bit long in the picture. But due to the nature of smocking, it will be shorter in real life. It also looks a lot better when worn. The sleeves have a little bit of puffiness, which I like. This is sweater number 1 in the sweater a month KAL. I still need to block it. I've never blocked a sweater or anything else for the matter. So, we'll see how it turn out. At least, this time I did swatch before starting.
I've already got great plans for my second sweater. I love Tubey, but there are a couple of things that I don't like about it -- namely the fit around the neck and the fit around the arms. I was about to frog my old Tubey and knit something else from the yarn when I thought: Why not make the shrug part with an underarm seam? There's nothing in the basic construction of Tubey that says it would ruin the look. My second thought was: Why waste all that yarn around the neck when it just gets rolled under? So, I've got an idea of how to proceed.

green pullover

Well, I'm almost done with my green smocked raglan pullover based on Smock it to me in knitty.com. It's done with some yarn -- 50% wool, 50% alpaca -- that I got over eBay from Mystic Inca. I thought it would be very tedious knitting a sweater with size 3 needles, but it went fast, as least I considered it fast. The smocking pattern in the lower half of the garment and the lower half of the sleeves gives it interest. I'm knitting it top down and have now started the smocking on the second sleeve. Though, I may go back to the main part of the garment to make it a bit longer. I've already made the first sleeve a little longer than I had planned in order that the smocking would cover the top of my hand, if desired and if cold. If it's warm, I can push the lower half of the sleeve up to make a 3/4 sleeve.
I thought I was almost done knitting a pair of socks. The pattern for the socks is one of Chrissy Gardiner's. The heel is Fleegle's. I was test knitting the pattern for Chrissy with some yarn that I didn't particularly care for and decided to try out Fleegle's heel at the same time. (The yarn is KP Essential in pumpkin. I like the yarn but don't know what I was thinking when I ordered that color.) To make a long story short, I liked the pattern so well that I'll have to a second skein of the yarn in order to finish the second sock of the pair.
Finally, I'm knitting dishcloths as they appear on the Yahoo monthly dishcloth KAL.
My Sony camera is in the shop again, and I'm using my daughter's Sony camera. She gave it to me when she got a new (non-Sony) camera for Christmas. Her old camera takes pictures except that you can't see them on the screen until after you've taken them.
I have plans to start making Monkey socks soon. I hadn't heard about them until I finally decided to upload all my Turkey pictures to my yahoo picture albums. I took a lot of pictures and so the album is quite large and took a long time to upload. While they were uploading, I decided to read through past Yahoo sock group posts and found that a lot of people were making those socks.
We were in Turkey for over a week. In addition to a magnificent solar eclipse, we saw quite a bit of Turkey: Istanbul, Troy, Antalya, and Cappadocia. (The interesting rock formations in Cappadocia were where the pod races were filmed for Star Wars.) Troy was the most interesting. Cappadocia was the most beautiful.

Happy New Year

I'm really behind on posting.
Christmas and catnip
We decided to get our two cats catnip for Christmas even though they usually play with it for a couple of hours and then basically ignore it. This Christmas it was different. One of our cats opened her catnip present Christmas morning -- and she did open the one with her name on it -- before the rest of us got up. And then the two of them played with it and the other catnip present for the rest of the day and a lot of the following days.

The Nutcracker
My DH and I went with our two DSs and the oldest son's girlfriend to the Nutcracker presented by the New York City Ballet. We were underwhelmed by it all. Most of the dancers seemed to be just going through the motions.

The actor who plays Monk
My oldest son and his girlfriend went to a Broadway play featuring the actor who plays Monk on tv. They were quite surprised to say the least. My DS likes Tony Shalhoub and has seen him in quite a few movies including Big Night and also Galaxy Quest. Nothing prepared them for the role he played in the play. My DS thought the change of pace from Shalhoub was funny. They saw more of him and heard a more varied language than they were expecting, even though they were on the wrong side of the theater for the "best" view. At least, they got in for cheap $15 student seats. I assume though that the acting was good. It's not clear, however, whether the play will make it to opening night.

An empty feeling house
Two friends of my DD went back to Ohio last Wednesday. My oldest DS and his girlfriend went to California on Thursday. And my DD and other DS went back to London on Saturday (after their Friday flight to Chicago and then London was cancelled). So, now it's just me, my DH, my mom, and the cats.

2 here, 1 to arrive later

The house is starting to feel more lived in now. We picked up 2 of our children at the airport Thursday night. The plane was delayed because of fog here. The flight was scheduled to arrive at JFK from London around 10:30 -- but the estimated arrival time was changed to just before midnight. So, we drove to JFK's terminal 8 and timed it so we would get there just as they were clearing immigration and customs. When we got there, we were surprised that less than a dozen people were waiting for an international flight. Well, we stayed in the lounge for a while (over half an hour) and visited with a lady who was waiting for the same flight and had been there longer than we had. Finally, I walked over to the AA desk and asked when the flight was going to arrive. The lady said it was arriving at terminal 4 since the international portion of terminal 8 closes at midnight (the immigration and customs people stop working at that terminal then). (As far as we know, there were no announcements to that effect. If I hadn't asked, we would have been there for a long time.) So, we drove over to the other terminal and arrived about 15 minutes before our children (home from college) came into view. We didn't get home to NJ until 2:30. But, at least, the traffic was good.

I'm starting to knit a scarf for my other DS's girlfriend. She's arriving here the day after Christmas. I'm using my usual scarf pattern, which my DD likes. My DD has the three previous scarves I made with the pattern. She says it's so soft. It's also very easy to make. I'm using a navy colored worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles and cast on 30 sts because I wanted to make it a bit wider than the other ones I've made. After starting it, I wondered about my directions for the slipped st edging. (I didn't know the "correct" way to do a slipped st edging back then. I hadn't realized there were so many online resources. So, after trying different ways of doing one, I settled on slipping the first st with the yarn in front.) It gives an edge that faces out instead of lying flat as the usual edging does and which I like better than the usual one.

a version of Smock

I'm happy. The version of Smock that I'm making is turning out nicely -- after a couple false starts. Here is an in-progress picture. I think I stood too close for the flash on the camera. The hanger turned out white instead of a light brown. The smocking is turning out well. The biggest difficulty is counting to 6.
For the sweater, the first decision I made was to use a garter stitch neckline instead of a ribbed one. (I think it looks nice with this sweater.) I also decided to make it into a top-down raglan with a k3 raglan seam. My false starts relate to the type of neck. I started it with a boat neck and then decided that I really didn't want the front of the sweater rubbing against the front of my neck. Then I restarted it with my usual crew neck pattern (which I keep changing). Then I thought "why am I doing it this way?" So, I frogged it back to the neckline and proceeded with a new plan (which is slightly more pleasing to me than the old one). Details are in my other knitting blog.
-- When I get around to it, I'm going to change the directions for the men's v-neck tweed linked to in the side-bar of this blog to reflect my change of mind regarding how to make a crew or v neck. It's just a minor change. I decided to start wrapping and turning with the backmost sts of the front raglan seams instead of the middle.

I'm happy because the children are coming home over Christmas break. Two of them are coming home at the end of the week. The other is coming here Christmas eve. Plus, a very good friend of his, whom we all like a lot, is coming the day after Christmas. It will be nice to have a full house. (We'll be having other friends of the children coming by as well for a brief stay. None of them lives in NJ.) I don't know how my mom, who is living with us, will take the change. But, I guess, if I write it all on her calendar, she'll be ok with it.
On another note, I finally got up the courage to wash my KP shine worsted pullover. It came out wonderfully. It was damp dry coming out of the wash machine. I then decided to try putting it through the dryer. It came through all of this with flying colors.

alpaca/wool blend

The yarn I bought on ebay from MysticInca is really nice. Contrary to my usual practice, I even swatched it (5.5 st, 9 rows per inch with a size 3 needle). I first washed it by hand in cold water. The gauge didn't change much (6 st, 8.5 rows per inch). Then I hand washed it in hot water and soap. The st gauge didn't change, but row gauge did, but only a bit (6 st, 8 rows per inch). Then, because I had always thought that wool shrank, I put it in with my regular laundry on a warm setting. The gauge stayed the same from the hot-water wash, and there was minimal felting, if any. The only thing all the washing did that I could tell was make the fabric a bit thicker.
So, now I'm considering making Smock out of the yarn. As I'm basically incapable of making a pattern as written, I'm making it in the round, from the top down, as a raglan, with a garter stitch neck. I haven't gotten to the point in Smock where the smocking begins -- so I can still change my mind. The smock pattern begins on the sleeves at the elbows and a bit under the armholes on the main part of the garment. The fabric feels a little too flimsy now, but I have great hopes that after washing it will be less so.
On another front, I accidentally put my v-neck in KP Swish into the wash with my regular laundry. I didn't notice that I had done that until I was getting clothes out of the dryer. Luckily, there was minimal shrinkage. Though, next time I use Swish, I'll use a size 7 needle, as recommended.