Yarn Along - Cheating on My Knitting

 Sleeve number one for what will be my new Spring Cardigan.

Now, I'm not a monogamous knitter, but I was really hoping to be with my Branches and Buds sweater.  There is only a sleeve and about 4 inches of body to go, but the dark navy blue is dragging me down after so many cloudy, dark days in a row.  I resisted as best I could, but that meant I wasn't knitting anything at all, which is bad.  So, I succumbed to the CoBaSi plus yarn in my stash in it's beautiful bright shade of indigo blue.  The pattern is for a cardigan called Silver Creek by Andrea Sanchez.  Maybe going from a sweater to a sweater is not the smartest move.  Maybe knitting up a quick accessory would be the thing to do, but I actually need some sweaters so here we are.  For once I am using the yarn called for in the pattern and got gauge bang on nose with the recommended needle sizes US 7/4.5 mm and US 8/5 mm.  The larger needle sizes are lulling me into the belief that this sweater will fly off the needles, as my Branches and Buds sweater is on US 4's. Time will tell.

This pattern is pieced and sewn together at the end of all the knitting.  I think this will play in my favor as finishing each section of the sweater can be an accomplishment in and of itself.  They have you starting with a sleeve knit in the round.  Now, I like DPNs but I get ladders, not between the stitches spanning the gap, but from 2nd to the last stitch on each needle that gets pulled out of shape i.e. I pull too tight.  I just can't seem to get the right tension.  Since I don't want ladders running up my sleeves, instead of DPN's I now use ChiaoGoo's 12 inch circular knitting needles.  I simply love them!  This solution wouldn't have worked it this was a full length sleeve, but being a 3/4 length loose fitting sleeve it was perfect.

This week finds me again without a book of my own so I will write about the book I am reading to my son.  It's called Time of The Dragons by James A. Owen.  It's from the Teen Fiction section of our library, not so much for content I think, but for the writing which can be challenging at times.  The book is quite a hefty tome at 772 pages, but the action is such that my son's interest hasn't waned in the least.  There is a lot of history and historical literary figures, mythology and legends used as well as his own vision of course.  You could spend a year with this book, which is the second in the series, looking up all the references.  In fact, we did spend quite a lot of wikipedia time on the 1st book as well as watching all the Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio movies (my son didn't like watching Disney movies when he was little what with the parents always dying off in the beginning and all.)  My only real complaint is there are no female characters, even in the background (the first book did have 2 female secondary characters.)  Just men, men and more men.  Even the talking animals have all been male.  This doesn't bother my son at all, but I find it incredibly ridiculous seeing as we women make up half the planet.  It's just a book of course, but you can bet I did point this out to my son.

Well, that's that for this week's very belated Yarn Along post.  I wish you all a relaxing weekend. 

May The Force be With You

Being a Star Wars fan since the original movie was released in the 1970's I simply had to knit The Force Awakens Hat pattern by Mrs. Luedeke when it popped up on Ravelry.  It's a free pattern, but I would have paid for it.  It's a fair isle stranded knit hat with a band of Empire Tie fighters, a band of wording (which I left off as my husband didn't care for it) and a band of crossed light sabers and Storm Trooper helmets.  There was also some fair isle patterning in between the motif bands which I left out or replaced.   You can see my mods and notes here.  It's a fast knit which I found very enjoyable.  My husband loved it and has seriously been wearing it ever since - even inside the house (hmm, maybe I should turn up the heat?)  He has a Star Wars buddy a work who oddly is not another computer geek like himself, but a woman in the HR department (now, that might seem a bit sexist of me, but really the odds are clearly in the computer geek sector don't you think?)  Anyway, she flipped when she saw the hat, and since it's a fun fast knit I told her I'd make her one too.  She did give my son an R2-D2 kitchen timer after all ;)  So, the gray version is my hubbies and the blue in progress one is for his Star Wars buddy.  Now, my son Sam wants one too to match his dad.  Good thing I like the pattern huh?

As for books, I'm on to reading book two of the Percy Jackson series The Sea of Monsters to my son.  We're really enjoying it thus far.  This time around instead of stopping a World War Percy must save Camp Half Blood, the only spot on earth safe for the half blood children of the gods.  No small task.  This week I'm even squeezing in some time for my own reading and since my interests are turning towards Minimalism that's exactly what I'm reading about.  Minimalism, live a meaningful life by Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus.  I like parts of it and not others.  To risk sounding sexist again it's a little bit single male in tone, but they are guys without wives or kids so what do I expect? Actually, I'm noticing a lot of minimalists seem to be men.  Not sure why, but now I'm on the look out for some Minimalism books by women.  If you know good one leave the title in the comments would ya?  Thanks and I hope you're all having a great week!

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.

A Wee Break

I needed a break from my Banded Turtleneck as the sleeves are giving me trouble and thus annoying me to no end.  So, I turned to my bin of WIPs and picked out one I thought I could actually complete in a short time and came up with the above Arika cowl by Jane Richmond.  It's very much like wearing a poncho without all the bulk.  There are two yarn strands used to "create" a bulky weight yarn in my version as I had no bulky yarn that the pattern calls for when beginning this project.  The first strand is Flax Down by Purl Soho which consists of Alpaca, Merino and Linen fibers and is so light and s-o-f-t.  The second strand is Tilli Tomas's Raw Silk 100% silk sport weight yarn. The effect of the two shades of yellow I find very pleasing as it creates more depth of texture.  Tying on all the fringe was fun and it does go all the way around the back in case you were wondering.  A very satisfying knitting project, but oddly too fast as I am not ready to go back to my sweater just yet.  Maybe it's time to go back to the WIP pile or cast on something new?

As for reading my son and I are still enjoying The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan.  It's the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series and it really does hook you in as a first book should.  I'm hoping to finish reading it today to find out who was the instigator behind it all.  As for adult reading, I have been reading mainly on lots of blogs/websites lots about Minimalism.  We are wanting to downsize to a smaller home and as I go along in the process of shedding possessions I need some inspiration to keep me going.  Theses guys are my favorite.  I'm writing about our process to live better with less on my other blog called Small Simple Dreams.

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Turtleneck With a Capital "T"

The past few days have me cruising along on my Banded Turtleneck sweater by Kathy Merrick.  And, when I say turtleneck I mean TURTLENECK!  Wow, did it come out big!  Even when I made it a whole two inches shorter than specified in the pattern.  What do you think?  Is it too much?  I'll definitely be warm wearing it and with the sub zero Fahrenheit temps we've been having in Minnesota I better hurry up and finish it.  The body and neck are completed and I only have the arms left to knit.  Will see how it goes, but so far it's slow as increasing while keeping in pattern I find a bit difficult. 

I noticed something while knitting the arms that I find dismaying and humorous at the same time.  Look at the above swatch and see if you can see it.  In the first row of blue there are squares of the oatmeal colored yarn and on the top blue band there are dashes.  Now, the first is correct and the second is not.  So, which row style did I knit the whole sweater in so far?  The dashes of course!  Yup, I just glazed over that row in the chart over and over and over again.  There is really nothing wrong with changing the pattern, but I do prefer the look of the squares to the dashes. With so much already completed though, the dashes with continue on the arms as well.

My son and I finished the Blackwell Pages' last book Thor's Serpents by K.L. Armstrong and have moved on from the Norse Gods too reading about the Greek Gods in the hugely popular Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan.  We are on book 1 The Lightning Thief and enjoying it thus far.  It's a bit sillier, faster paced and more humorous than the Blackwell series which I think I preferred, but it's a bit too early to judge.  I gave my son the DVD of the movie based on this book as a treat to watch after we finish reading the book.  What books are you reading now?

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along

Dark Days = More Knitting Time!

The days are getting darker here and with daylight savings time beginning this weekend it'll be dark by 5:30 pm each night.  In December it is dark by 4:00 pm.  And while this bums me out a bit, it is the best time for knitting and boy am I back into my knitting!  This week I finished the Kate Davies Cochal cowl to match my Baa-ble hat and mittens.  I modified the length to only 10 inches high (was supposed to be 15), to keep it from covering up my whole face.  It's circumference is only 21 inches so it is a snug cowl.  There is one blue contrast row of honeycomb cells where I used that scant 3 grams of Jamieson's Shetland Heather Aran yarn I had leftover from the Baa-ble mittens to help tie it in to the other pieces.  Now, I'm all set for the cold and hopefully some good sledding when we get snow.  

The next knitting project I'm tackling is another pattern by Kate Davies from her Seven Skeins Club called Buachaille Baffies.  Basically, they are what I'd call slipper socks.  They are stranded knit in two colors and while I plan to make another pair in the Buachaille yarn they are designed for, this pair I knit in an angora gray yarn and a black merino wool.  I wanted to make them extra warm (angora is 7 times warmer than wool as it's a hollow core fiber) as they are meant for a very good friend of mine who is going into the hospital for major back surgery.  I thought they'd keep her feet nice and toasty while she's in the hospital and home recovering.  I don't know what it is about hospitals but I always find them to be cold places.  

She lives in Washington DC and I will be flying out to help her during her recovery for about a week.  She's single and very independent, but I convinced her she will need help as they don't completely know what they are going to find that is causing her so much pain.  When I told my son I would be gone for a week and that his dad would be home with him (we homeschool so Dan has to take vacation time to cover for me) he got this huge smile on his face which he then quickly tried to hide and said "That's too bad Anna doesn't feel well.  I hope she feels better soon."  Uh, huh.  What was really going on in that little brain of his is PARTY with DAD!!!!  It will be Mac 'n Cheese, computer gaming and guy fun for a whole week.  I feel no guilt in leaving them.

I will be sad though to miss our story time each day as we are currently reading a great book series called The Blackwell Pages.  The first book was Loki's Wolves and the second, which is the one we are currently half way through, is Odin's Ravens and the last is Thor's Serpent.  They are written by Kelley Armstrong and as you can probably guess by the titles they are based on Norse Mythology.  My son really likes the Norse Myths and of course young kids being descendants from the Gods who have to save the world from Ragnarok - what could be better?  Or, as my son would say "It's so epic Mama!"  They are indeed. I like them too because of the myth history as well as that there are both strong girl and boy characters who need each other to succeed.  Which I feel is true in real life as well.

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Picot Sock

Having always knit socks toe-up after my 1st and 2nd pairs ran out of yarn on the second sock toe, I find myself knitting cuff down for the first time in years.  The class "Grok the Sock" taught by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is the reason for this switch.  It was the heel technique she used in class that swayed me as it would fit my instep a lot better then the short row heel socks I've been knitting as of late.  The class also has me back into using DPNs in lieu of 2 circulars mainly due to this technique Stephanie taught for getting rid of ladders.  Seriously simple.  It really is a first, or near first, time for many things with this barely begun pair of socks:  I'm knitting in the picking style (continental some call it),  using a formula and not a pattern, using a picot trim instead of ribbing, DPNs, knitting cuff down, ladder ridding technique, I will be knitting a new to me heel flap and lastly I plan to decrease like you would for a hat for the toes.  All this means I'm progressing at a mighty slow pace.  Well, that and I'm knitting these at 10 stitches/inch (crazy I know, but that's what this yarn looked best at and a denser knit sock will last longer.)

As for books, my son and I are now reading Loki's Wolves by Kelley Armstrong.  It's about the modern day descendants of the Norse gods who happen to be young kids (middle school aged) and how they must band together to prevent Ragnarok - the end of the world.  My son really loves Norse Mythology having read D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths last year as well as some graphic novels on Thor.  The book is very action oriented with a fair amount of fight scenes, but still brings up the Norse myths, their characters and meanings. 

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.