Pumpkin

For Isaiah.



Pattern: Pumpkin from A Treasury of Rowan
Yarn: Sirdar Legend DK
Needles: 3, 6 Colonial Rosewood
Size: 5
Started: August 30, 2007 Finished: February 27, 2008

Mods: Omitted the hood.

Wow this took a long time! This project kept getting sidetracked for other things I was working on. It's an easy pattern. I hope he can still fit it this fall.

Monday I was ordered to loose weight. Knitting for me will take a backseat for a while until I rid myself of at least 25-30 pounds. This past summer I successfully lost about 20 pounds only to have a medication change and put over 30 back on.

I'm going to finally devote myself to completing MK Level II. Projects are getting caught up and finished so there's no time like the present. It's almost as if things have to reach critical mass before I'll commit to getting them done and once that happens they just fly off the needles.

Goodies from the beach weekend...


A couple of Lantern Moon bags






and a little stash enhancement.

Skyline, Pumpkin and the Alps

Whew! I've been busy entering projects, books and stash on Ravelry and investigating the different groups. I'm trying desperately not to completely neglect my knitting pursuits.

I completed the last sleeve on the Pumpkin hoodie for my nephew Isaiah and rescued my long forgotten Hanne Falkenberg Skyline kit and casted on today. I've been unable to find a kit with this exact color scheme. Mine seems to have the teal, which looks more aqua in the picture, substituted for the orange. So far I've been pleased with the progress and will try hard not to get completely bored with the garter stitch and put it aside in the hope that we will have enough cool/cold weather to actually get some use out of it.



Tonight I casted on mom's Alpine Knit Scarf which took a trip to the frog pond a few months back. It's her Christmas present for last year and I can't let Christmas sneak up on me again without getting it finished. It doesn't appear that I'll be making most of my presents this year. I may get a few hats made, but at this late stage in the game it's not worth it.

Progress has been painfully slow on the Chain Rib socks. I'm doing the ribbing for the first sock, but working on them always gets deferred for another project. Even though my participation in the Summer of Socks was terrible, I'm participating in Socktoberfest. My pressure project is finished and even though I'm still driven to get things accomplished it feels less stressful.

Everything's Rosie

The collar kicked my butt on the first try. I was closer on the 2nd attempt. Thank goodness it made the rather obtuse instructions very clear upon visual inspection and every thing clicked for the third attempt. It was a breeze except for the sleep monkey that jumped on me at 2:00 AM Sunday night and made it impossible for me to knit the last 4 rows.

Blocking is in full force and the sweater will probably take a few days to dry. I'm still on the fence about the zipper. I thought about widening the front bands and adding buttons. The sleeves grew more than I expected with blocking and since I added an additional 1 1/2" I'm hoping that they aren't too long.


It's getting cold again so I'm crossing my fingers, eyes and toes in the hope that this cold snap won't blow over before I get to wear it.

Pumpkin has been rescued from the unfinished basket and has some nice sleevage going on. I've been trying to visually adjust to seeing these very short arms on a sweater that has a disproportinately long body. The only knitting remaining is the hood so I should have another FO by the weekend.


There's been a little stash enhancement over the past 2 weeks due to the lys' inventory sale.


Gold Hempathy for a sweater for Mom.


Huge honking cone of Zephyr to knit shawl for VFW Ladies Auxillary raffle.







I'm undecided about the last three. I'm contemplating using the knitting machine to knit the cottons now that I've gotten re-acquainted with some of the functions and accessories.

I also picked up Knitting Nature by Nora Gaughan. It's a wonderful book and I can't help thumbing through it and marveling at some of the designs. Much to my disappointment it is loaded with errors. Here's a link to some of the errata Knitting Nature Knit-Aong errata.

Color Blocking

This afternoon I finished the back of Pumpkin. I decided to rip out on Thursday and make the size 3/4. I've opted to to do it in colorblock instead of a solid color since I don't have enough skeins of navy. My intention was to do a Fair Isle or intarsia. With that in mind, I bought 5 skeins of Sirdar Legend in navy and 2 each in green, red, gold and white.


I'm going to do one sleeve in red, the other in gold and the hood will be green. The colors are bold but not overwhelming. Besides, I love seeing kids in colorful clothing.

The Bamboo Color socks have officially changed to the Openwork Rib socks. The pattern is from SKS. I used the PGR short-row heel and made them a half size larger in the foot than my size. They fit mom perfectly. I was hesitant to finish them while she was in Reno for fear of having the ankle and the leg too small.

I steam blocked all the pieces of Rachel. Every once in a while things do go according to plan.


I purchased a Jiffy Steamer from an estate sale last year and this was my first time trying it out. Being a firm believer in the power of wet blocking, I've never given steam blocking a try. The fiber content of Linet requires that you steam block. Even though it was a slow tedious process having to block each piece individually on a card table, I have one thing to say about steaming. Convert me baby!

So far I've finished all the seaming and the single crochet trim around the sleeves. I was looking forward to borrowing it from mom. That hope was dispelled when I tried it on. The sleeves are about 2 inches too short and given that me wearing it wasn't part of the original plan it fits her perfectly.

At this moment, I'm trying to avoid the sound of Trekking, Shepherd Sock and Bearfoot calling my name. It wafts ever so gently saying ... Knit me Beverly, knit me Beverly. I will be steadfast, until tomorrow.