Other Things You Weren't Taught in Kindergarten

1. Don't knit or seam a white sweater if you have itchy allergy eyes and are still wearing navy eyeliner, not waterproof, and black mascara, waterproof and flakes off in little specks.

2. Even if you carefully move said white sweater away from the hot dogs with chili, you will invariably get some on it. (It's only a little speck, but gee whiz!)

3. Seaming white is almost as hard as seaming black. Duh, snow blindness.

4. Sometimes nearing the finish line is almost as good as crossing it.

For a brief moment I had my doubts. Mainly attributed to lack of focus, too much college basketball, project envy and being overworked on the job. And as much as I despise Dick Vitale, part of the college basketball thing, I can't help but shout a good ole --- "Yeah baby!!!"


Parasol Lace
The lace pattern is beautiful. Yesterday evening I seamed the shoulders and pinned the side seams to try it on. I’m so glad I added an inch. The extra length makes the lace float around the hips instead of sitting on the top.


The sweater isn't a done deal. In about another 1 1/2 - 2 hours I'll be finished. I still have the sleeve and side seams to finish and several loose ends to weave in. I'm not all that pleased with the i-cord trim around the neck and my biceps, more like flabceps, could use a little more sleeve room, but tomorrow this baby will be nicely packed in my suitcase and heading to Las Vegas.

This is my first out of state trip and first vacation since August 2004. I'm thrilled to finally take off work for fun. In the past 14 months I've used all vacation time, all sick leave and 5 months of lwop (leave without pay) convincing doctors that I wasn't crazy, having surgery and then rehabilitating my neck, left shoulder and arm. The rehab's an ongoing process, but life has greatly improved.

Tomorrow I will change my voice mail and e-mail messages. If anyone has problems in any of the software areas I support, good luck. This analyst is signing off the clock ‘til next Wednesday!

We interrupt this program...

Sometimes I try to force myself to learn a technique that is not intuitive or comfortable. Knitting two sleeves at the same time is one of those techniques.

I’ve attempted to knit both sleeves at the same time on most of the sweaters I've knitted. Each time I’ve abandoned the attempt for the following reasons:

1. I forget that I have two sleeves and keep knitting across the second sleeve as I watch TV or talk. I thought the solution to this problem was to place a marker between the two. Nope. I always lose the marker between the sleeves.
2. I forget that there is a second sleeve and continue to knit back and forth on the first sleeve.
3. It’s a much slower method for me than knitting one sleeve at time for the reasons listed above. Which makes me wonder why I thought I would like knitting two socks at the same time?

At this moment, I have nearly completed one sleeve and have more than enough yarn for the second. I thought I’d get a lot done today but staying up until almost 3:00 AM Friday night totally squashed that plan. Around 2:30 this afternoon I found myself completely exhausted. It probably was a combination of a serious lack of sleep earlier this week; my sleep disorder has not been cooperative even with the change in meds, and the mountain of stress I’ve been dealing with at work.

One thing is certain. Anytime I take a nap and it lasts longer than 2 hours, I’ve passed the napping stage. That’s the time when I enter the "dead zone". Absolutely nothing arouses me from sleep. I slept for over 3 1/2 hours. So much for staying up late to catch up. Later this evening I incurred an additional time penalty when we went to Wally World to pick up ingredients for an Oriental themed meal. The meal didn't happen either.

In light of these events I’ve reached a compromise with myself. If I finish fine, if I don’t at least I’ll have a nice Spring/Summer sweater to wear when I get back.

Off Schedule

I'm a tad behind my schedule for knitting the Parasol pullover. Some days I haven't knitted at all, very little or focused on the socks that are currently on the needles. My allergies have completely blindsided me this spring. There have been several days of weeping and burning eyes, swelling and constant aggravating nasal drip. We haven't been getting much rain but my nose has been a river.

The back and front of the pullover are complete. I finished the front before I left for the knitting guild meeting last night. Cast on the sleeves at the meeting and finally finished the lace portion this evening and started the rib section. If all goes well I'll finish and block the sweater this weekend. I'm not sure if I'll have enough for both sleeves and my LYS is only open Thurs - Sat until 3:00 pm at the lastet. This means that I'll have to do some marathon knitting tomorrow and Friday in case I need get more yarn. I plan to take this with me when we go to Las Vegas on April 8th, so time is running out.



I cast on another sock! Temptation finally got the best of me and I couldn't resist the Online Supersocke 100 Fun (color 765) that was marinating in the stash since October. The Bearfoot socks are sharing time with Lilac Lace. I'm using the same needles for both socks.

I'm in limbo as to what the next project will be.(Socks do not count.) Lately I've been perusing shawl patterns. Whatever is chosen, it will be another stash project.

*** Yesterday was the 9th week of being smoke-free. ***

Summertime's Calling Me

If you've every traveled to Myrtle Beach you'll recognize the title as part of the refrain from The Catalina's beach music hit The Summertime's Calling Me. This time of year I expect to find nice spring or summer knits in the seasonal issues of major knitting publications. The current issues of Interweave Knits, to which I've recently subscribed, and Knitter's feature so many sweaters with wool content or cool weather in mind that it verges on the absurd. (I didn't even bother to check Vogue Knitting. I let that subscription lapse last year and I hope they've finally stopped sending me offers. If the model looks like she's suffering from some type of severe orthopaedic disorder, there's got to be something terribly wrong with the fit of the sweater she's wearing.)

We've already had several very high 70's or low 80 degree days in Columbia SC. Wearing a wool sweater or fingerless gloves is the last thing on anyone's mind. After the Fall and Winter sweater blitzes, I look forward to seeing cute and inspirational summer sweaters. Or maybe, just maybe, I've got it wrong.

Should I knit wool sweaters when it's warm so that I can wear them when it gets cold and vice versa? That is so not going to happen. At 40+ and definitely perimenopausal, sitting under the ceiling fan to re-knit the Silver Thaw cardigan quickly lost its' humor. I'd paint you a pretty picture, but believe me it ain't that pretty! In the meantime, the cardigan is on hiatus until I cool down,which is not likely to happen anytime soon, or the ac comes on.

Looks like I'll be pattern busting and stash busting at the same time. Once again, the 'Fickle finger of fate' has conspired to rid me of another addiction. Pattern/book/magazine hoarding. (I was in the lys today for almost 4 hours. No yarn, no books, only a shawl pattern and that was because I had to find something for an exchange.)

When old habits die, they really die hard!!!

I've hit the trifecta. No smoking, yarn stashing or pattern hoarding.

Parasol Progress

I've been making good progress on the Parasol Pullover. The 4 lace repeats are the fun part. Now I'm chugging along on the k1 p3 body section. I'm hoping it doesn't get really boring because the back and front are made alike. My mother is treating "the girls" to a few days in Vegas next month. That means that I have about 3 weeks to get this finished.(It's a little dulled out from the flash and low lamp light.)


There are also 3 very lonely single socks waiting for their mates. Actually, not quite 3. I cast on and started the second foot of the Baby Cables and I'll cast on the Lilac Lace before I turn in tonight.

Late Sunday I asked my brother Charles, receiver of the Maze socks, to try on the completed Baby Cable sock so that I could check the fit. (They're for an older brother who lives out of town.) He wanted to keep them and told me that I should knit another pair for OB. While it warms my heart to know how much he cherishes hand knits, I don't relish the idea of knitting socks that are sizes 12 and 13. I never thought my brothers would ever wear hand knit socks!!!

This has thrown a big wrinkle in my knitting plans. For a brief moment, I thought I was shortening my permanent knitting list when actually I've only removed one person and added two more.

Peri's Parasol

Friday I began my first spring/summer sweater. Normally I don't have a problem knitting with cool weather yarns, but since my internal thermostat changed last year I'm finding it to be most uncomfortable. Sock yarns don't bother me since they are so thin and light. My newest project is Peri's Parasol Pullover from The Pleasures of Knitting.



Late last knit I completed the 4 rows of lace at the bottom and now I'm working on the upper body. The front and back are made alike and the sleeves have one row of the scallop lace detail. I'm using the yarn called for in the pattern, Tahki Cotton Classic.

The socks haven't been abandoned. I completed one foot of the Garter Ribs on Thursday. My goal is to complete the second foot of the Baby Cables and then cast on the second sock for the Lilac Lace and the Garter Ribs. Eventually, I'll clean up some of the older projects from WIP list or frog those that I have no interest in completing.

The stash reduction is going along very slowly.I haven't purchased any more yarn but I did buy Faroese Knitting Patterns by Marilyn van Keppel. It was only $15.00 vs the original $49.00. Little Knits was having a sale on their sock yarns which was tempting but after refreshing my memory ...







This is just a sample. but it illustrates clearly why I can't buy anymore sock yarn!

Stuck on Socks

I've completed one of the sleeve redo's for the Promise of Spring cardigan. There must be some gremlins in the house because I can't find the other one. I've got the rest of the sweater but I searched yesterday and can't find it anywhere. It's definitely in the house somewhere. Look likes I won't get to wear it any way as the weather here in SC has definitely turned springlike. In the meantime, I've cast on another pair of socks.

These are the Garter Ribs from Sensational Knitted Socks. I'm using Mountain Colors Wild Raspberry Bearfoot and size 1 Inox dpn's. My hands have been itching to make socks from this yarn since Oct '05 and I've finally bitten the bullet.


I'm calling this pair Lilac Lace. They are mine own design. They yarn is Froelich Wolle Special Blauband. These are on hiatus while I make the Garter Ribs. My other set of size 1's are in the black Baby Cables. I've got other brands in size 1 but these are the socks I want to work on at the moment.

I usually have one pair of socks in progess at a time, so this is highly unusual. Especially since they all have some type of patterning. What I'm doing is switching between socks and the sweater. A little rotational thing going on here.