slog and other random things

I think I got sick of ribbing and garter stitch. That last sweater I made may have looked like a cable nightmare, but those cables are 16 rows apart. So it was a lot of ribbing.

I’ve been on my saffron cables blanket for the Mason-Dixon Slogalong. Yep, just in time for summer. I’m on ball 2 of 18.

I’d gotten stuck around row 25 or so for a while. I ripped back multiple times and I went down to 19 the other day and now have a mistake free (I believe) project. I’m up to row 26 of 225. There’s only 141 yards in a skein, so I’m wondering if I could knit a skein a day and still have time for my other projects. (That baby is probably getting too big for the outfit already. NEVER make newborn sized clothing.) And I’ve got some sewing to do on Lizard Ridge. And I want to make the second perfect fitting sock. I’m on the toe.

feet, yarn pr0n and cake

Some feet for Jen La’s contest.

knitters gone wild at the mall

Over 500 (that’s my rough guess) knitters ran wild this weekend at the Mall of America for the Knit Out. The Knit Out was sponsored by the Minnesota Knitter’s Guild and featured knitting and crochet lessons, book signings, displays of the latest knitwear, speed knitting competitions, and a dog sweater fashion show. Knitters of all ages were spotted standing in half-hour long lines for free crochet hooks, coupons, knitting needles (Clover in various sizes), yarn (from Michael’s) and other swag (sometimes known as Stuff We All Get).

One or two people found the event disruptive. A non-knitter was overheard remarking that the mall was overrun and it made parking and shopping difficult. On the whole, people enjoyed the event. In particular, the doggy sweater fashion show and the speed knitting competitions were well attended.

The models (Abby depicted above) were provided by the Animal Humane Society and are licensed therapy dogs. They serve as ambassadors for the Humane Society and frequently travel to cheer up the sick and the elderly. Many different types of animals are licensed therapy pets; more information can be found here.

If you are interested in learning more about knitting for your dog, check out Dog Gone Knit, a Squidoo site. It’s a sort combination of a blog/catalog about knitting for your dogs and has some free patterns. I have a cat myself and there’s no real knitting for cats. They’ll sit on or play with all of your knitting.

Now for the sickeningly cute part. I asked if I could photograph the models and addition to being allowed to post the photographs on my blog, I got to pet everyone too! I’m sure my blood pressure dropped a bunch.

thanksgiving cabins and yarn sales

But, first a quick Sock Wars update. I just didn’t have time yesterday. Heraldis won! In the spirit of fairness, the Yarn Monkey changed the rules for the final round. Rather than being targeted with a pair of socks, she had people send her a note, postcard, or other mail. In a stunningly brilliant move Heraldis used Interfloral to tag the Yarn Monkey. Congratulations to all the Sock warriors out there. Everyone else out there should be finishing up their last pair of socks so that everyone gets a pair of socks out of sock wars. Not bad. I know mine are keeping my feet toasty.

On the way up to our friends’ lakeside cabin, we went stopped the 3 Kittens Needlearts Yarn sale (formerly known as Three Kittens Yarn Shop). All I can say is OMG.

That sale rocked!

twin cities knitter’s picnic / day of knitting

Rose Garden, Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, MN

For those of you who don’t already know, there are tons of knitting groups available online. Joining them is a great way to meet new people and advance your craft. That being said, I went to the Twin Cities Knitter’s Picnic today and had a blast. I met at least 30 other Twin Cities area knitters out by the Rose Garden at Lake Harriet. It was a beautiful day for a picnic and our host got us a great fountainside spot in the shade.

I passed a pleasant couple of hours in a shady spot, listening to the gurgling fountain, knitting and oggling everyone’s projects. One woman had an incredible looking shawl. I did a little more work on my second Baudelaire sock. That’s right, the SECOND sock. I finished the first one yesterday, but without a photograph it seemed pointless to bring it up, but whatever. I can throw the photo in here later.

I also went back to work on the Conwy socks and I’m doing the toe for the first one tonight. It’s wonderful in the Bearfoot and everyone admired the yarn. I thought they were a bit dense at first, but someone said something today that reminded me that they will wear well (unlike my Baudelaires which aren’t at the best gauge in the world at 6.5 stitches to the inch). Obviously they’ll be warm too. I’d actually forgotten all about how socks wear. I think in the back of my mind I know that I usually lose socks well before they even have a chance of wearing out. Part of this is my lack of concentration and part of this is because I have a wonderful cat who loves to dig around in my sock drawer, remove the socks, and transport her sock babies around the house in her mouth. I look under the bed every couple of weeks and rescue 80% of them. I find the others behind the dryer when I move and in other strange locations.

I met several fellow bloggers at the picnic. It was very exciting to match up faces with blogs. Among the bloggers were, Christy from Purling Away, Knitty Mama along with the adorable knitty baby, Nancy from Clicking Sticks and Tipper, from Daily Fiber Therapy. Rina took the picture shown above. She took more and they can be seen here. One blogger, Chris of Stumbling Over Chaos, even had her own blog card. I’m jealous and I think I’ll have to make up a few before I go off to see Stephanie. I want to impress, but I’m sure she has her own card.

I can’t remember everyone’s names and blogs but I’m sure I’ll get my hands on a more complete list soon. When I do, I’ll be putting up links on the newly created Minnesota page. I realized that my sidebar was rapidly becoming a mess and that the best way of coping with it was to give Minnesota resources their own page.

The Knitter’s Palette

I also went by the Knitter’s Palette on my way home from the picnic. I had thought about doing this earlier, but had not managed to organize myself enough to download directions. Fortunately, Betsy had. (To the best of my knowledge, Betsy does not have a blog so I can’t include it here.) The Knitter’s Palette is a relatively new shop in Lakeville and it hosts a knitting group from 1:00pm to 3:00pm every Sunday.

I thought it was a very nicely laid out shop and full of wonderful yarns like Lorna’s Laces, Trekking XXL, Andes, Rowan Big Wool, They have a decent seating area.

I bought some pretty blue Trekking XXL. I had to.

As a bonus, they are next door to Kowalski’s market, so I picked up a couple of treats to take home. My husband was pleased because he scored a can of his favorite brand of caffe espresso coffee, Caffe Nero’s Medaglia D’oro. He’s been rather unhappy since it is not available at Cub, Just Food (our co-op), or Whole Foods.

I had a lot of fun today, but I paid the price in exhaustion when I got home and had to have a two hour nap. The latest cold that I had caught is still stuck to me by a thread. I get wiped out very easily and I’m planning to head to the doctor’s office to make sure I haven’t got another sinus infection. I honestly thought I was well enough to hang out with people; clearly I haven’t been getting up very much lately. I hope it wasn’t contagious. There was an adorable baby there, but I did not handle him if that helps.
Word Press and Badges

Somehow, I just figured this out today after a dicussion at the picnic and some exploring in the help files. I still think an actual tutorial is needed, so here you go.

To insert a badge into your blog on wordpress.com go into the sidebar widgets section of your presentation page. Drag a text widget into your sidebar and customize it by double clikcing on the widget. Common code includes <a href=”the link here”> <img src=”your image link here” width=# height = #</a>.

Here’s an example.
<p><a href=”http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kotr-sock-kal/”><img src=”http://threefates.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/kotrbutton2.gif”></a></p>

Center the entire thing by enclosing it with <div align=center> and </div> and you are off and running.

For the image link, the best thing to do is to save the image to your desktop by right clicking on it. Open up the post page and upload the image. Drag it into the post, select the image and click on the little image picture. A window containing the link will pop-up. Copy the link and ditch the post.

*It is not polite to link the image back to the source. This is called stealing bandwidth and is highly uncool.*

I think my battery comes tomorrow, so look for images then. They will likely go straight into the posts they belong in.

countdown

Estes Park, Colorado

I should have started a countdown nine days ago. Tomorrow the movers come and take our stuff and hopefully show up with it sometime soon in Minnesota. My computer is going to go in the truck while my husband’s computer is coming in the car. He’s got a nice portable lap top and it has his life’s work on it so he gets priority that way… So this is going to be my last post for a bit. I’m not sure how long it will take to get internet access in the new apartment, but I’m sure I will get some knitting done in the sixteen or seveteen hour trip to Minnesota. (I added a couple of extra hours for eating and pit stops).

I finished the embossed leaves socks this afternoon while having the oil changed in my car. It’s always good to get a car with 169,000 miles on it tuned up before you drive it across the country. It’s not dead yet though, it’s a Honda Civic after all. For some reason the second sock took me longer than the first. I just kept missing yarn overs. They don’t match perfectly, but it’s close enough for me!

While out on Tuesday, I found some more Mountain Colors for my ostritch plume scarf/shawl and the perfect book for my trip, Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush. I haven’t picked out what to knit on the road, but I promise to show you what I did when I get computer access again.

The following lists contain personal opinions and I hope everyone takes them that way.

The Top 5 Things I will miss about Colorado:

1. All the new friends we made
2. 300 days of sunshine a year, beautiful scenery, incredible wildlife, and the lack of mosquitos.
3. Short driving trips to New Mexico and other places of scenic beauty.
4. Wonderful bookstores
5. Decent Mexican Food

The Top 5 Things I don’t regret leaving behind (Warning: Personal politics listed below):

1. The Christian Right, G.W. Bush Stickers on every other car, the fear of being political and other inflexible, close minded attitudes towards life, the universe, and everything.
2. The lack of water (which causes among other things dry, itching and flaking skin), rain, and foliage. Hail in July, high winds and other weather weirdness.
3. Insane drivers and other things that have caused accidents, near broken bones and other bodily injuries.
4. Large trucks parked in compact spaces. I’m talking about trucks with an extended cab and extended bed.
5. All the information I learned about helicopters, machine guns and everything technical I know about the Army (I hope.)

Top Five Things to be Concerned About in Minnesota:

1. Winter: “Forty below keeps out the riff-raff.”
2. Summer: The mosquito is often referred to as the state bird.
3. We know two people in the entire state.
4. It’s the Midwest.
5. I don’t have a job yet.

Wish us luck. Minnesota here we come.

packing

I’ve noticed that I’m having a very hard time closing up the many boxes I have dedicated to my knitting projects and yarn stash. I’ve got nine days until the moving company comes and puts everything into their van and drives off to Minnesota. When they come they plan to tell us how long they think it will be before they show up at the house with all out crap stuff. They have a maximum of three weeks to get it to the house. The reason the number is so high, they say, is because they only make promises that they can keep. The implication is that other moving companies, who promise to deliver within ten business days, are lying. The margin here is small since it is supposed to be unlikely that the movers will take the full fourteen business days (which at least include Independence Day in the US). So putting the yarn in a box to be moved means that I may not see it again until July 20th.

Another issue is figuring out what can I do in the last nine days before we move and I’m ambitious. Actually, I don’t make choices well if presented with too many. I’ve got nine days to make good on my promise to finish up two more projects and I could probably get the sleeves done on my sweater pretty easily if I would just go ahead and start. I’ve also got a lot of lovely tempting sock yarn lying around and so I don’t wish to close those boxes either.

Solution: I’ve used most of the clothing in my dresser as packing material so I put the sock yarn in the dresser. Then I can get at it any time I want before the moving company comes. I can also rearrange it to my heart’s content. Yeah accessibility!

That leaves two open boxes for knitting projects. They contain knitting needles and accessories and all the projects I promised to do.

I’ve noticed that I’m having a very hard time closing up the many boxes I have dedicated to my knitting projects and yarn stash. I’ve got nine days until the moving company comes and puts everything into their van and drives off. When they come they plan to tell us how long they think it will be before they show up at the house. They have a maximum of three weeks to get it to the house. The reason the number is so high, they say, is because they only make promises that they can keep. The implication is that other moving companies, who promise to deliver within ten business days, are lying. The margin here is small since it is supposed to be unlikely that the movers will take the full fourteen business days (which at least include Independence Day in the US). So putting the yarn in a box to be moved means that I may not see it again until July 20th.

The other issue is what can I do in the last nine days before we move. I’ve got nine days to make good on my promise to finish up two more projects and I could probably get the sleeves done on my sweater pretty easily if I would just go ahead and start. I’ve also got a lot of lovely tempting sock yarn lying around and so I don’t wish to close those boxes either.

Solution: I’ve used most of the clothing in my dresser as packing material so I put the sock yarn in the dresser. Then I can get at it any time I want before the moving company comes. I can also rearrange it to my heart’s content. Yeah accessibility!

Though – I’m not supposed to be knitting – I’m supposed to be packing!

What should I knit in the car? It’s a fourteen-fifteen hour drive. This is nearly the length of time for the Knitting Olympics, so if I knit constantly I could even start and finish a whole project. Granted, my fingers will probably cramp up. Color knitting will probably make me car sick. Lace knitting will probably make me car sick.

1. Sweater sleeves or hood (assuming I haven’t done them already)
2. A new sweater that I have all the yarn for but haven’t really started yet. It’s the Pearl Buck inspired sweater from this winter’s Interweave Knits.
3. A new sock pattern (provided I can memorize the lace pattern so I won’t have to read in the car).
4. Something I pick up at the Brown Sheep factory when we stop in Nebraska on the way. Keep in mind Brown Sheep is about four or five hours from here so I will need to do something on the way.

Let me know what you think.