Whittling Down the Queue

Now that the Secret Knitting and my reward socks are done, I'm trying to whittle down the knitting queue to a reasonable length. I had to start with some baby knitting because my dear friend, Maryanne, is expecting her first grand baby in May. And besides, who can resist some baby knitting? This baby is due in May, but she'll be born in England so she'll need a summer sweater and a fall coat.

First off the needles this week was my riff on the 5-Hour Baby Sweater. I've done the 5-Hour Baby Sweater in the past and it really does only take about 5 hours. This one? Well, it was a little more like 15 hours. This one is Red Heart Soft Yarn in cream and a lovely mossy green; both colors apparently discontinued.

I didn't do the lacy part at the top; instead I opted for concentric purl ridges and contrasting garter edges which took up considerable time to twist yarns, mess about with bobbins (after I decided knitting from two skeins of yarn at the same time was just plain ol' crazy). Then because I didn't have full skeins, I was afraid I'd run out of yarn, so I knit up the sleeves before doing the body. And never one to leave well enough alone, I scrounged up some little bits and bobs to crochet some purple and pink flowers. Hmm, how to attach those? Some cheery yellow french knots in the center, leaving the tails to be pulled through and square-knotted on the back was the solution. It's been steamed and is drying so it can be delivered later this week, along with the little fall coat I'm working on.

On the needles currently is that old standby, Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. This one should be about a six-month size; I'm using random acrylic and a size 7 circular needle. I pulled out three solids (turquoise, blue, and purple) and found a small ball of two different variegated yarns to coordinate. I think I have some blue buttons in my stash; if not, I'll ask ToolMan to make some pretty wooden ones.

I'm a little more than halfway through this one. A quick spin through the washer and dryer to soften it up and both will be ready for delivery to the expectant grandma later this week.

I'd nearly run out of stash yarns for the premie hats, when I saw a post on Ravelry that Mokihana was needing yarn donations for her charity knitting group. And the same night, Fantomeq (Ravelry link) delivered a bag of premie hats to me on Wednesday night. I posted on Ravelry that I would take donations on the west side for both Mokihana and me. Little did I know how many donations I was going to get!

Look at that! A big bag plus two shopping bags on the bed, a big shopping bag and a laundry bag on the floor, and I haven't even been through my stash yet! I will keep a bag of the small balls, odds and ends, for premie hats; the larger amounts and full skeins will go to Mokihana for blankets. I'm still open for donations, and should have a good amount to deliver later. Puts a whole new spin on "spring cleaning".

Good things come to those who wait. . .

Ana (sadly blogless) waited until the end of the challenge to turn in her hats (she knitted 10 of them), and she's getting the second prize! There is a copy of Knitty Gritty Knits and a pair of bamboo needles working its way through a handful of knitters to her. Ana has to wait for her prize, but it'll get there!

When Ana dropped her hats off at my new office, Mamie (one of my co-workers) asked what they were for and asked if I'd take crocheted ones. I said of course I would; those babies need hats! Since she's going "above and beyond" by making 10 hats, I rustled up a copy of Crocheted Hats and a crochet hook case for her. Mamie has to wait for her "not a prize" until after she produces the hats.

I had to wait for ToolMan to finish my winding station. But what a great payoff in the end! Here's a picture once he got it finished:



It has pegs on the bottom for cones of yarn (I popped the spool of string I use for drive bands and leaders on one), two metal rods for spools, a vertical reel (which makes a 2-yard skein) on one side, and plenty of room on top for my ball winder and swift to clamp on. He's going to add a couple hooks on one side for hanging my orifice hook and WIP tool, and a pocket or basket on the other side to hold a bottle of oil, rag, etc. If you're interested in having him build a winding station for you, either like mine or to your specifications, leave me a comment with an email address and ToolMan will contact you directly.

To give you some idea of the size, here's a picture next to my spinning wheel.



This is where I spent the better part of Saturday afternoon; next to the big sliding door enjoying the sunshine, soft jazz on the radio, a dog lying in the sunspot on the carpet, and spinning.

Here's a picture of the tag ToolMan put on the winding station. I'll overlook that he spelled the name wrong; actually I think I'm going to leave it on forever.



Today, I had brunch with the girls from my old office. We did potluck: quiche, chicken salad, fruit, cheeses, crusty bread, chocolate cake, Mimosas and coffee. This is the first time we've all gotten together since the office closed in July.

We got to talk about what we've each been up to and got to hear about weddings, children and grandchildren, kids getting driver's licenses, kids going off to college, job searches, and how each of us is doing. It was like no time had passed at all; we picked up just where we left off.



I am so glad I know these women. We are, for each other, the sisters we wish we had.




These are women for whom I would go to the ends of the earth and once there, walk through fire to help them. And the best part is, I know they would do the same for me.

My head is spinning . . . .

First, from all the premie hats that were gathered (and they're still coming in!) and handed over to Duffy yesterday. ToolMan and I braved the beginning of Pacific Northwet (no, that's NOT misspelled) rainy season by MAX and Streetcar to the Pearl District, where we met up with Duffy, and Melissa, for a couple hours. Aimee came across town with her daughter, Emily, to lay claim to the Booty Bag. And MonicaPDX braved the daylight hours to come knit in public, too. Although, considering the small amount of knitting she actually did, I'm not sure if it was the knitting or the frappucinos that lured her out. Go look at their blogs for pictures, I completely space out bringing my camera. We all sat at tables together and laughed and chatted and knitted, and well, you know by now how we are when a whack of us get together. ToolMan, being the intelligent guy he is, found a nice comfy overstuffed chair across the way to enjoy his newspaper, but he did eventually come over to meet everybody. He proved his identity by showing them his socks:



I've been spinning my little fingers to the bone this week. I may turn out like Barbara, who says she learned to knit only to have something to do with all the yarn she makes. By the way, go look at her blog; she has a post about something I consider absolutely horrific and we ALL need to go sign that petition. I can't say here what I'd like to do to that so-called "artist" but let's just say it involves tender parts, rope, and flagpoles.

OK, mini-rant over. Here are the yarns I spun and plied last week:



These are all from that big wad of Dragon Waste I bought at OFFF. I love being able to play with mixing colors by combining the colors either in singles or by plying. From right to left, they are: fuscia single and brown single plied together; yellow and brown mixed singles plied together (remember that banana chocolate roving, yeah, that's it); alternating yellow and white in each single and then plying together; and small amounts of each color spun in sequence in singles and then plied together. With all this color and combinations and techniques to play with, I'm like a kid in a candy shop. Here's what I did this week, all plied and skeined and ready to be plunged into the hot water to set the twist:



More of that Dragon Waste. I decided to knit a Faroese-style shawl from the neck down out of my learning yarns since they're all superwash and complementary colors, and I kept thinking I needed to spin that whole lot before I started on my shawl. Then I remembered that I bought TWO POUNDS of this stuff. Since it's all coming out about like fingering yarn, that would be one humongous shawl! Kind of like Judy's big mobius. So, as soon as I finish the warm scrunchy shawl I'm working on, I'll start one with my own hand-spun. Here's the one I'm working on now:


A mix of left-twist cables, coin lace, and right-twist cables on a background of purl stitch, with garter stitch edges to prevent rolling. This is yarn reclaimed from a Goodwill sweater; the tag said handknit alpaca and silk, but I'm thinking probably not, unless it was really abused because this yarn has almost no twist or springiness left. But it's natural color and is really defining the stitches nicely. I wanted something neutral and warm for the office, and since I only paid $3 for the sweater, it fits the bill nicely.

ToolMan's been in the garage most of the day, working on the winding station he's designing and building for me.



Today's our anniversary; 19 years ago today we walked into the courthouse in Huntsville, Alabama and were married by a judge. We passed a milestone several years ago: our marriage has lasted longer than both our first ones combined. I'm not sure, but I think as of this year, our marriage has lasted longer than all of our ex's marriages, combined. After 21 year together, would I do it again? YOU BETCHA!

My apologies . . . .

I know I promised to get the results up on Monday and I didn't get it done. So flog me. To quote Cindy, "My 'give-a-damn' is broke", or AimeeInLegal, "I have a big WAY and everyone's in it!" This hasn't been the most productive week for me. In fact, it's been downright aggravating and frustrating. To make a long whine short, I'm still gathering numbers from delinquint hat knitters. And I have seen on some blogs that people are knitting hats and haven't emailed their numbers to me. And my cohort in crime, Duffy, and I have had a hard time coordinating our calendars for a rendevous. Then, I had problems (boy, do I have problems!) posting the info on here.

SO, at long last . . . .

A bunch of the PDX Knit Bloggers will be meeting up at Starbucks at NW 23rd and Overton on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. I'll be gathering premie hats (and relating the new job escapades) for the challenge I issued on my blog; Duffe (FiberQat) will bring along the Booty Bag (AimeeInLegal better show up to collect her prize!); Melissa (Days of Tea and Knitting) needs to be pampered; hopefully MonicaPDX (Animorphia) will be joining us (I know it's early, but hopefully she's had time to recuperate from OFFF). And ToolMan has decided to come hang out with us. Come join us; I promise that hats will be gathered, prizes will be handed out, laughs will be had, knitting will probably not be done, and kawfee (or frappicinos) will be supped.

Just one more thing . . . .

That's a favorite saying of the attorney I'm working for this week. We've told her that should be her epitaph, "Just one more thing . . . "

Well, here's my "one more thing" for the Booty Bag:

A pair of Clover bamboo needles, US size 5, 3.75 mm, 8 inches long, in a black silk brocade case.

And now, for details on how this Premie Hat Challenge ends:

The challenge goes to midnight on Saturday, October 13, 2007, so on SUNDAY (and not a minute before midnight) send me an EMAIL telling me how many hats you've knitted, and include a picture if you want. My email address is: bobbie_wallace AT comcast DOT net. Then, I'll compile a list of who knit how many, who wins the Booty Bag, and who gets Honorable Mention.

Honorable Mention???? Oh, I didn't tell you about that before? Well, there the 2nd and 3rd place winners get prizes, too!

On Monday, I'll post the winners, the list with pictures, and details of a get-together to collect hats and hand out the Booty Bag and Honorable Mention Prizes.

Now, what are you waiting for, the contest doesn't end until midnight Saturday? GO KNIT PREMIE HATS!

So here's the deal . . . .

There is now one week left in the Premie Hat Challenge, so I'm going to give everybody a fighting chance to snag the Booty Bag.

Lots of people said there was no way they could catch up to the number of hats I already had knit. So here's the deal: Whoever knits the most hats wins the Booty Bag, as long as it isn't me. I issued the challenge to get people to knit for a very worthy charity. It's hard to get a new charity started, and this one seemed to need a jump start.

So, in case you haven't heard, what's in the Booty Bag, here's a picture, as it is right now:



That's two skeins of Socks That Rock, a pink and red ceramic mug filled with various Stash Teas and Chais, and two Moonstruck chocolate bars all stashed in that cute retro bag on the right (which would make a great knitting or lunch bag, by the way).

In order to get the needles clickin' for this project, I'm going to add goodies periodically over the next few days until the deadline on October 13th. And here's what I'm adding tonight:



Ten (I thought there were 12, but I was wrong) antique black mother of pearl buttons. They're about the size of a penny, which I forgot to add for proportion. Word on the street is that at least one pair of Clover bamboo needles in a silk needle case may be added before the end of the week.

People came by my house on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to pick up yarn and patterns and were just getting started then. So even if you haven't started yet, and you're a pretty fast knitter, you probably have a pretty good chance of capturing the Booty Bag.

Now, what are you waiting for? Go knit Premie Caps!

And Away We Go . . .

Remember last week I promised not to knit premie hats and dared you to out-knit me? You have until October 13 to beat my number (currently 15) and try to win the prize package which consists of, to date: 2 skeins of Socks That Rock in positively delightful colors, a large pink ceramic mug with red hearts completely filled with various flavors of Stash tea, and some Moonstruck chocolate. I'll be adding to the prize up to the last minute, so get those needles working! Those babies need hats!

Since I couldn't knit premie hats, I practiced some more on the spinning wheel which I borrowed from Chrispy, and made these:



On the right, a pretty decent sport weight; in the middle is some thick/thin similar to Colinette, and on the left is a very small skein of almost sock weight. Not too bad. So I decided to pull out that little bundle of navy heather roving from Woodland Woolworks. It only weighed about 1 1/2 ounces, but after spinning two singles and plying, I got this:



186 yards of navy heather sport weight. I don't know if I'll actually make anything with this, but I like the way it looks in this chair the guestroom, with the blue walls and the Pendleton blanket.

Then, on Saturday, it was OFFF. The day had barely gotten started when the Kidnapped Can Opener made it's appearance. If you don't know the back story, go to the link and read up on it; I'll wait.



It was a fiber festival, after all, so Kidnapped Can Opener acquired his own knitting project; see his little scarf in progress and ball of yarn?



He also posed with Judy and the PDXKB sign.



Then on to other fiberly pursuits; like seeing what everybody's working on and what they just bought.



We had beautiful weather; mostly sunny, not too hot, and just a little breeze now and then. People stopped by our area to ask about the sign or what we were working on, and occasionally someone came by to introduce themselves because they'd been reading our blogs. So some of us handed out blog cards and collected business cards.



Then, we had a visitor without a blog card or a business card. Instead, she was handing out these:



It was our own Marta McCall, handing out postcard with that great bag on it. I've totally had a crush on that bag since she published the pattern, but I haven't wanted to tackle it because I think I'd cry when I put that knitting in the washing machine. (I didn't notice until I was writing this post, that I bought all the colors of roving to make that bag. It must be a sign.)

It was great being on the lawn in the middle of it all. We were surrounded by buildings with vendors of all things fiberly, the tents outside full of more vendors, the spinning competition right in front of us, and the kids activity tent right beside us.



If you really want details, then go read MonicaPDX, or Cindy, or Judy, or Duffy's blogs because they wrote about it way better than I can. I just enjoyed a whole day of knitting, gabbing, laughing, and buying fiber for spinning.

On Sunday, I decided to photograph my treasures and put it all away in plastic bins until I'm ready to spin it. Of course, doing this with a Parson's Jack Russell terrier in the house usually poses a whole new set of problems.


"Here Mom, let me help you unpack the goodies."



"Inspected by Number 37"

Andy Rooney really liked the polworth roving that Barbara brought me, along with the spinning wheel. He kept putting his head in the bag and inhaling deeply. ToolMan called it "dognip."



Andy stayed close by while I unpacked bags, set up pictures, and marked stuff for storage. See how happy the wool fumes make him?

The first thing I bought was this superwash top from Butternut Woolens. I fell so in love with this that Shelly had to remind me to pay for it before leaving her tent!



It's snuggling up to those sock blockers (courtesy of ToolMan), 'cause that's what I intend to make with it. I just love these sock blockers; he made them of western red cedar, about 3/4 inch thick, then he cut out the free-form holes and rounded all the edges with his router. He's going to add about a foot of rawhide between the them so they'll hang over the deck rail or shower curtain rod to dry.

Then Barbara told me about this great buy on roving at Ronnie's Handspun. Ronnie is sadly without a website, but if you want her contact info, ask me and I'll share it. The light one is a little too yellow for me and the darker one is a little to "blah", but I think if I ply the two together, I'll come out with plenty to make a sweater coat.



Then, I found what I considered my find of the day. At the tent for Mountain Shadow Ranch, there was a laundry hamper labeled, "Dragon Waste, $14/lb." Mixed superwash fibers in beautiful colors that you pick through and choose whatever you want.



I bought two pounds; mostly for socks, but who knows what else will come out of that 2 pounds. I really liked that yellow and brown twist; we all said it reminded us of some candy from when were were kids that was banana and chocolate but none of us could remember what it was called. If you know, then please leave me a comment with the name; you might be rewarded with some handspun. ;)


"What do you mean 'That big ball doesn't belong to you.'?"

ToolMan has been saying he'd like to have an alpaca cardigan, so I bought that pound of natural-colored alpaca from Mountain Shadow Ranch for the main body and 6 ounces of heathered roving from Aurora Colony FiberArts to do some fair isle or mosaic patterning on the yoke area.

I also bought this Colonial top from Aurora Colony. I don't know what it will be yet, but I couldn't resist the coloring. You can't really see it in the pictures because it's got a slight shine, but it's peacock colors: blue, teal, green, purple, and burgundy. I think it needs to be done in some fair isle patterning.



I thought Andy was behaving pretty well while I was busy doing all the photographing and stashing. Until I looked over and saw this:


"I totally don't know why you think I've been in your roving. Why would you think that I'd do a thing like that?"

Yessiree, that's my boy; Mama's little helper.

I double dog dare you . . . .

I've been knitting premie hats for Aunties in Stitches for the local hospitals Neonatal Intensive Care Units and issued a challenge on the PDX-Knit-Bloggers Yahoo Group and want to repeat it here. I've knit 15 hats so far (they only take about an hour each) and dare anyone to knit more hats than I do by the deadline of October 13, 2007. I want to show the NICUs the power of knitters by burying them in premie hats.

Duffy of Aunties In Stitches came to knit night at Streets of Tanasbourne tonight and handed over custody of a large bag of donated baby yarn so if you're in the Portland, Oregon area and need yarn to make them, let me know and I'll make sure you get some. The hats need to be made out of washable very soft baby yarn, any color; they should be k2p2 rib with no pompoms; they should fit any size from a small tangerine up to a grapefruit. Just cast on 40 to 70 stitches and work in rib for about 6 inches, then decrease down to about 10 to 15 stitches and tie off. Nothing difficult, just easy mindless knitting for a good cause. So you have NO EXCUSES for not making premie hats. (Insert my evil laugh here.)

The bait, er . . . prize for the challenge (which is in a really cute green and turquoise retro print gift bag, by the way) currently has two (yes two!) skeins of Socks That Rock yarn in two different colorways, and a pink and red ceramic mug which is stuffed full of assorted Stash teabags (including herbals, English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and Chai). And just to ensure that it will be possible to beat my current number of 15 hats before the deadline of October 13, I have promised not only to NOT knit premie hats until September 22 (come on, you don't really expect me to follow something with a pattern at OFFF, do you?) but also to add to the prize bag periodically between now and deadline.

Come on, people! I double dog dare you to beat me at premie hat knitting.