Caren Knits

I'm Off To Eat Chili

You will recall I mentioned making umpteen gazillion pounds of chili last weekend? Well, we're off first thing in the morning to head out to my folks' place in the Berkshires and prepare to partay! Back early next week with photos, etc. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Photos At Last

Here are the photos I promised!

Red Top up to the armholes:

Classic Elite Flash for the Cape Cod Pullover:

Silk/Merino for the Leaf Lace Shawl:

And the obligatory tease:

Had a fantabulous time in Boston with Judy and Lucille yesterday. Two yarn shops, Italian lunch and pastries in the North End, and lots and lots of trolley-riding and walking. More about our trip as soon as I find the extra camera battery so I can post photos of my latest acquisitions.

No Photos After All

So here I was, all ready to post some photos, and add some text to the Leaf Lace Shawl Knitalong button. Wouldn't you know it? Typepad doesn't seem to want to upload my pictures at the moment. Sigh...

Well, if I were able to upload photos, here is what you would see:

1) Red Top up to the armhole separations.
2) Stash enhancement #1 in the form of magenta/blue Class Elite Flash intended for the Cape Cod Pullover from this summer's Cast On Magazine (see link at left).
3) Stash enhancement #2 in the form of purple/pink/blue Silk & Merino intended for the Leaf Lace Shawl. This is the stuff I bought at New Hampshire Sheep & Wool from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm (see prior blog entry for links).

I didn't get much knitting done this weekend. Saturday evening we attended a get-together with some buddies. Red Top is getting a little too big to haul around, so I got started on the first sleeve. I did remember to bring the pattern, but unfortunately I forgot my tape measure. When I got to the approx. measurement where I needed to start increasing, I had to stop knitting until I got home to measure it.

Sunday, my sister Amy came over, and we made six (yes, 6!!) crockpots of chili. My folks are having a big party next weekend and I volounteered to be the chili-chef. Little did I know at the time, we'd be expecting somewhere between 70 and 80 people! Oh and did I mention the 120 mini corn muffins? The house sure did smell yummy while all that was cooking, let me tell ya.

Amy browned the 15 lbs of hamburger meat, while I chopped 6-7 lbs of onions then sauteed them all up. Some canned tomatoes and a few envelopes of chili mix later, we had 'em all stewing. I snuck a bit for dinner last night, and it was terrific. If anyone needs a good crock pot chili recipe, just give me a holler! (I promise, I'll reduce it to one crock-pot's worth at a time for you non-70-person-party chili chefs out there. heh heh)

Tonight is Stitch & Bitch at 7:00 at Border's in Nashua, NH. Come One Come All! We're looking forward to hearing all about Kat's new boyfriend... :-)

Armhole Happiness

Red Top lower body is done. I've bound off the "armhole decreases" under the arms and am continuing back and forth up the front. The back is on a string holding the stitches. I know I promised pictures. Mea culpa -- soon, I swear!

Also, I'm planning to start a Knitalong for the Fiber Trends Leaf Lace Shawl. You can view the pattern at Fiber Trends. Folks can start at any time. I've done a little test cast on and completed the first 7 or 8 rows, just to see how it comes together. I'll be using a hank of 50% silk 50% merino fingering weight YUMMINESS that I bought at the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool festival from the nice folks at
Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm. I'll have to check on the name of the color. It's a gorgeous mixture of pinks and purples, with some blues and grays.

I've set up the Knitalong group at Yahoo and put a link over on the right for folks to join. Drop me a comment to let me know you're interested, and I'll approve you right away. I haven't decided on a start date yet, but of course we want people to have a chance to get the pattern and their choice of yarn. Once we start getting some interested folks, we'll pick a start date together.

To tide you over until I can post some more knitting pictures, here's a slightly oldie but a goodie. This is Mike and me in Puerto Vallarta for our 10th anniversary in March, 2003. You can see we're a little sunburnt from our day out on the scuba/snorkle boat. But that is a real honest-to-goodness NOT touched-up sunset, folks. This restaurant was way up on the hillside looking over the whole bay and the whole city of Puerto Vallarta. The view was as romantic as could be, and the food was fabulous!

Here are the fireworks we were (coincidentally) able to view during dessert. Perfect timing!

Red Top Continues

I've been knitting away on Red Top for several hours a day. I'm reasonably sure this one is finally going to be the keeper.

I sometimes get a bit discouraged that it's not going faster. I have to keep reminding myself that since it's in the round, getting to the armhole decreases is a much bigger accomplishment than if it were just a back or a front!

Pictures tomorrow!

I won two ebay auctions today for some yummy stuff. But you'll have to wait to see it until it arrives. (heh heh -- I'm such a tease!)

In the meantime, I present for your amusement, the following:

Isn't it great when something just works?
(Note: Flash6 is required to view it.)

They say it took 605 takes to get it right. Trust me - it'll knock your (hand knitted of course) socks off!

Confession Time

You're probably wondering where the heck I've been lately! The truth is I've been very annoyed with my knitting these last few days and I didn't want to post negative nelly knitting failure talk.

On the other hand, I really don't know why I would be so silly about it. Goodness knows I've read enough blogs discussing problem projects, etc. So I might as well just fess up and get to posting regularly again.

Here's the problem, you see. I had to restart Red Top again. Not that big a deal, you say? Yes, you're probably right. Heck, I've been working on the latest incarnation for about a week now and I'm already past where I had gotten on the last one.

What happened, you ask? Well, as you know I recently completed Coral Dream Pullover. My gauge turned out to be just a teensy weensy bit looser than it should have been and the thing ended up being a bit large. As in, it had about 8-9 inches of ease rather than 2-3. Kind of tent-like. Also, I was so worried about it being too short and my tummy peeking through from the tops of my jeans, that I lengthened it by 4 inches. Big mistake, should have added only 1-2. Now I'm thinking that the more I wear it, the weight of the fabric will pull it longer and turn it into a something more tunic-like, which would be OK.

The point of all this is that it gave me an excellent lesson in how the measurements of a piece of the sweater (back, sleeve length, etc.) actually translate to a garment on my body. This is a "good thing."

Back to Red Top... I recall a discussion floating around recently (I believe Wendy was the first to mention it), that we tend to make garments in a larger size than we really need because we perceive ourselves to be bigger than we really are. And when you're an ample knitter like me, I suspect that perception can be even more skewed.

So I started off making Red Top in the largest pattern size (finished 60"). However, My largest measurement (which is actually my middle, not my chest) is only about 52 1/2". So it would have been knitted tent #2 had I continued. (Of course, after all those gauge samples and testing, at least my gauge isn't too big this time!) Also, I figured out how to eliminate the selvedge stitches correctly to do the sweater body in the round from the beginning. With no purling, the lace pattern at the bottom went even faster this time. So I started again 2 sizes smaller to a finished size of 52".

What about ease, you ask? Well, with the adoption on the way and everything, I figure this 37 yr old mom to be is going to be needing a bit more energy if she's going to keep up with a new wee one (or two). So it's a new exercise bike for me and (hopefully!) smaller knitting pattern sizes for my needles. I think I'm really going to love Red Top when I finally finish it. Making it a size smaller than my current size gives me something to shoot for without being a ridiculous (can anyone say size 8?) unattainable goal.

Wish me luck!

NHS&W Tomorrow

Red Top is coming along very nicely. I'm up to about 7 or 8 inches. And let me tell you, going in the round for a size XXL, at 300 stitches per round is not the fastest knit in the world. But it's mindless stockinette, which makes it perfect for car knitting...which I'll be doing a lot of tomorrow!

Looking forward to my first ever New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival tomorrow. Mike (DH) and I will drive up in the morning and spend a few hours browsing, shopping, sheep-viewing, etc.

Then it's home to pick up Heidi and on to visit my parents in the Berkshires. We're taking my mom out for a fancy brunch at Cranwell on Sunday. It's about a 3 hour drive each way.

I Did It! I Did It! I Did It!

The Coral Dream Pullover is DONE! I wore it to knitting club at Ewe'll Love It today and got lots of complements. Now it's probably going in the closet until next fall because it's a bit warm for a summer sweater. Perhaps on a cool evening.........

Red Top is starting to come along. I finished both sleeve borders and both bottom (front and back) borders. In order to avoid as much purling as possible now that I'm officially Continentalling, I joined the bottom borders to do the main body of the sweater in the round. Can you say miles and miles of stockinette? Really, though I don't mind. It's a great social knitting project since there's no concentration required.

Here are some more in progress photos. The full round:

And in detail:

Last but not least, a too-cute picture of Heidi, along with my folks' dog, Rufus:

Red Top Progress At Last

Seems I've fallen behind in the blog fads of late. For example, this thing from a couple of weeks ago:

Grab the nearest book, page 23, 5th sentence, etc...

If you're a left-hander, and you cannot master either the English or Continental method, you can use an alternate technique which will be discussed later in the chapter.

Anyone recognize it? Of course! Vogue Knitting -- The Ultimate Knitting Book

There you go. I'll try to be better about keeping up with trends in the future!

I'm very pleased to finally be able to show you some actual real progress on Red Top. I've finished the lace borders for both sleeves, and I'm about halfway through the border for the back. I'm doing all the borders first so that I can then connect various pieces and work all the mindless stockinette in the round.

I've also made a bit of progress on the Double Trouble socks. I'll post a pic of those when I'm further along.

Tonight is Stitch & Bitch at the Borders on DW Highway in Nashua, NH at 7:00. Come one, come all!