Road Trip

Tomorrow morning at 5AM, Rose and I will be leaving Texas and going on a cross country adventure. We will be gone for two weeks. I almost think that we're insane for trying this. Tomorrow we will be headed towards Tennessee. The only official stop we are making is Memphis to see Graceland. Then it will be on to Nashville where we will crash for the night. The next day we'll be on our way to Central Pennsylvania where we'll spend 4 days with my relatives. I haven't been back there in about 10 years so it should be quite interesting.

The next leg of our 2 week excursion will be through Ohio and Michigan where Rose's family lives. Then through Chicago-where we'll spend a couple days. After that, we'll be headed back to Texas via Branson, Missouri. We aren't sure why we're going but we're going to stop there anyway.

I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing during the next two weeks but keep checking in. I know I'll be posting some pics of our trip to my flickr page by special request from my dad.

You never know...some knitting might actually get done too!

Bon voyage!

Bubble stitch bag

Bubble stitch bag
Originally uploaded by hedgie97.

Yesterday, I worked on completing some bags. The clutch I was working on from One Skein is knitted but I need to felt it. I've never felted before and I'm a little hesitant about doing it.

This bag is from a pattern by Jessica Fraser. She posted this on the Craftster forum and I fell in love with it. It's knit with 2 balls of Noro Kureyon. I don't remember which colorway it is(Maybe 159??). Once I figured out how to do the bubble stitch, it was super easy! Imagine, dropping stitches on purpose- kind of a scary thing but very liberating once I worked it.

I still need to line the bag. I don't have any fabric right now. I will update later when I have lined it. I'm still not sure what kind of fabric I should use.

I ordered 6 more balls of Noro so that I can make 3 more of these bags. I'm obsessed!! So sad really...

Update on knitting and life

Ester is finished! Hooray!!! Here she is blocking. As soon as I can get someone to take my picture wearing it I will post. I also need to buy a shawl pin or something to keep it shut in the front. If it were cool enough I would be able to wear it but as the weather is quite warm here in Texas in June, I probably won't be wearing it for awhile. The Cascade 220 yarn is soft and warm. It's also not too heavy so I think the drape of it is very nice. This is the first wearable item I've made so I'm pretty happy about it. I had been working on a sweater from a Knit.1 magazine from last year and gave up on it when it was giving me a headache. Some of the directions seemed unclear to me. Basically, my patience ran out with it.

Yesterday, my friend Kandi came over to pick up a table (so I can get a new one!) and she brought her son, Chance. Chance and I have a special bond since he was born on my birthday. I haven't seen him in a few weeks and wow has he grown! He's almost 5 months old and very advanced for his age. So, here are some pics we took of Chance yesterday. We (Kandi, Rose, and I) think he's the cutest baby ever! We had dinner at a sushi place. Chance was very interested in what was going on outside on the patio.

Next knitting project: Well, the next one was going to be entrelac, right? Right! Well, I'm not getting it. I need detailed pictures. I'm very visual. If anyone knows a good resource please let me know.

So, I'm moving on and trying to a clutch or purse from the book One Skein. I love this book! I made Chance the Baby hat. However, he can't fit into the baby hat anymore. So, in all my infinite free time I will be working on this. Now, which yarn in my stash will I use...


OH!!! I almost forgot! I now have a blocking board. Yes I do! This makes me all the more eager to work on projects that need to be blocked. Is that a weird statement? Joann.com was having a sale on their Sew E-Z Boards (and btw still are!). I bought the 33"x51" board. It came yesterday. If I had only had this while I was blocking Ester, I think it would have been a lot easier on me. Anyway, I think it was a great deal. I also took advantage of the "20% off one item" special that they had on that particular day. Right now they are having a coupon for Free Shipping on $35 or more.

Ester(with Socks' help)

Ester(with Socks' help)
Originally uploaded by hedgie97.

Ester progress!!!

I'm almost finished with Ester. Yesterday I finished all the cables. Thank God!! I am a fan of cables- LOVE them. However, after this project I must say that cables every 7 stitches and every other row was a bit much. I have 8 rows remaining and then I will be blocking this shrug. I don't think I'll be wearing it until November or December since I live in Texas. Maybe I can turn the air way down and wear it around the house. Hmmm...

The yarn I used for this project is Cascade 220 in The Heathers. I substituted this for the Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran. When I went to the yarn store I didn't like the scratchiness (is that a word?) of the yarn. Oh, and the price of $16.95 per ball also was a turn off since it required 4 balls. There are some yarns I would gladly pay money for and there are some that I won't. Scratchy yarns-no matter who makes them- will never make me shell out $17/ball.

I used almost 3 hanks of the Cascade 220 at $6.95/hank. I don't know if the yarn substitution will be right on until after I block and seam it up since there's no way of trying it on right now. We will have to wait and see what it looks like.

Next project: Entrelac
I believe I will use some of my stash Noro to work on an entrelac scarf. I've never done entrelac but have seen some beautiful knitting work done with it.

Ester

06052007204
Originally uploaded by hedgie97.

I started Ester yesterday. The pattern comes from knitty.com and appears to be a fairly easy pattern- so far. From the pic, you can see how much I've done in one day.

After throwing my needles away, I went to my LYS and bought some new needles and some new yarn. I bought new needles (Addi Turbos) in sizes 7-10. The woman who was checking me out asked if I were teaching a class. I told her that I had thrown my needles away during our move. She kept repeating over and over "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." I don't know what I would say if someone told me that!

Purging is good, right?

My husband and I moved into a new apartment last week. We are still settling in and completing the unpacking process. Today I thought I would sit down and do a little knitting while I wait for my parents to come over for a visit. I went to get out something to knit (I'm tired of the baby blanket!!!) and realize that I have hardly any knitting needles. I think I have 2 size 7s (circular) and 2 size 9s (circular), both 16". What am I supposed to do with this??? Where did all my needles go???

It was then that I thought back to the crazy weekend before we moved that we packed and purged many of our things. Including my knitting needles and a TON of yarn. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Well, this will be less we'll have to move. I don't really need this. Of course, it was less to move. It was also less to unpack. However, now that I want to do something (knit) with some other needle sizes and circular lengths, I'm unable to since I threw them away. I can't believe I threw them away. As I look at those words I am dumbfounded at my stupidity and the reality that I'm going to have to go and buy new. The only good thing that I see with this is that I can go buy some really nice needles. I guess tomorrow I'll be making a stop at the LYS.

School's out for summer!

Today was the last day of work for a glorious 3 month hiatus! I think I was more excited about going this morning than I have been since we started. I love what I do and what I do with the kids but I need a break every now and then. Hopefully, now that I have a ton of free time I'll be able to spend it knitting and updating my blog. I plan on blogging at least once a week in the summer. Maybe I'll even get to knit daily. These are my biggest plans for the summer. I don't think I have to do anything special to enjoy my time off.

Thank you to everyone who has commented about Nelly. I saw her last Monday. We spent some quality time together. She was so excited to see me and I gave her all the love I could. My mom told me that when her pain medicine runs out she will be putting her to sleep. I completely agree. She's not herself anymore. Her left shoulder is all bone because of the muscle atrophy. She's lost a ton of weight and she can't seem to get comfortable when she's down or up. Bone cancer is a horrible disease and she would be suffering even more without the medicine.