Monday, October 09, 2006

Be sure you always stretch before knitting...

Dear Laura:

Ha! I guess Lauren ratted me out in the comments! I had a wild and crazy knitting-marathon weekend....


Saturday, I (finally) remembered to buy bias tape to finish the baby sweater for Lydia (my great-niece.) She was born last spring, but the sweater ended up being too big to fit until fall, so there was not a "sense of rush." However, snaps and buttons are installed and it is ready to be worn. None-too-soon since they are predicting the possibility of snow in a few days!


Then I sat down to watch baseball (
YAY CARDINALS!) and knitted a block of the Lizard Ridge blanket from the latest Knitty. I love that pattern - I told Lauren that if my next niece didn't pick it as her graduation blanket, I'm going to knit it for myself! (She didn't pick it, so I'm going to start collecting squares!) This first square, however, was knit using Noro Silk Garden (from my stash!) instead of the Kureyon that it calls for. I'm sending this to the "Knit a Square for Grandmother Purl" that Lauren and I signed up for. Hers is already done, so we're going to combine and save postage!

Two ballgames later, that square was finished, so I did a quick gauge swatch and then cast on for a Criss-Cross Scarf. I've done this with fingering weight yarn, but this time I used worsted weight...again from my stash, thank you! It's a crimson color from Blackberry Ridge - I love the tonal variations. It is cast on the long edge, and alternates between Garter Stitch and then criss-crossing wrapped stitches. I took it along to my youngest brother's 40th birthday party, which was a bonfire. I was able to knit the first 5 rows in the dark! (How did he get to be 40? He used to be almost 8 years younger than me, and now he's 12 years older??? How did that happen?? Oh, that's right, I gave up birthdays....)



Sunday I worked at the Wool Barn. They are usually not open on Sunday, but there was a festival downtown, so we opened up. It was a pretty day, so we sat in front of the store and knitted. That and another ballgame in the evening (YAY CARDINALS!) and that scarf is finished. I'll block it tonight and add fringe.

All of which I would post pictures of IF my computer was back and I had a way to move them off the camera. Not that I'm bitter.....


And boy can my arms feel that I knitted for 2 days straight! I was icing them down during the last couple of rows of the scarf. (And you might also have noted that I did not report doing anything like cleaning bathrooms or sweeping up the carnage of dead spider bodies that litters my floor. I've memorized their positions, so when I see something dark without my glasses, I know if it's a dead one or one that needs to be dead....)

Oh, and the brother who just turned 40? Announced around the bonfire that they are expecting their 5th child at the end of May!!! Yippee!! Nieces and nephews rock! (She's due within a couple of weeks of their oldest child's high-school graduation. (My brother says since they're starting to leave the nest, they've got to start filling in with new ones!)

Now, I have GOT to find those baby knitting books that I lost in the move....


Keep knitting!!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

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