Frustration

I started a sock. I stopped a sock. I started the Janis project. I stopped the Janis project. I went to start the Fair Isle. I didn't have the pattern.

Sock Knitting
I challenged Lisa to a speed knitting contest. Suffice it to say, she's winning (or has won, if she's finished already).

I ripped out the striped sock. It was too wide. I can't imagine I forot how many stitches to use for my foot, but it was way off.

I started a different Regia yarn, and messed up the toe. I threw it down in disgust.

I restarted a new sock in Regia, and while I'm not liking the colorway too much, I'm finding the knitting satisfying nonetheless.



Ronas Hill Fair Isle
I figured I might as well start this beautiful vest so I could at least show some picture of knitting progress. I realized I didn't have a pattern in the so-called "kit". I called Yarns International and I was told that the pattern is in a book, and no one told me I needed to buy the book separately. Christ...$194 for a vest pattern, and I have to pay for the book separately.

The book is winging it's way here now (hopefully).

Weavette
I did get to use my new Weavette this weekend with some coned, cotton yarns. I experimented with two different colors on each of these 5" squares.



I was quite pleased with the result.

Janis Project
I found a prototype pattern for one part of this project, and started work on it. I'm not overly happy with how it's starting. I may have to rip out a few hours work.

I may just decide to try to salvage it, but I'm not sure yet.

Knitting Magazines
I found both Vogue Knitting and Family Circle Easy Knitting in the grocery store yesterday. Of course I had to buy both.



Of the two, I found that Vogue Knitting was worth the purchase price of $5.99, and Family Circle Easy Knitting wasn't (same price).

VK has a great zippered jacket done in a honeycomb pattern using a Filatura di Crosa yarn. Designed by Rosemary Drysdale, the design is quite nice. Valentina Devine has two items with amazing color combinations. I'm not fond of the garments, but I love the colors.

Norah Gaughan has a beautifully sophisticated jacket done in mitered squares. I would never knit it, but it's quite well designed.

Finally, VK had a small article on Knitting Blogs. No surprise that QueerJoe's blog wasn't
mentioned...lol. Sorry Marilyn, yours is a little too controversial too, I think.

Two of my favorites were mentioned, however. Congratulations to Wendy and Ivete.

FCEK had a good article on mosaic knitting. They showed how combining certain colors in a mosaic knit blanket could make for interesting differences in the overall look of the fabric.

Believe it or not, I also like a crochet coat designed by Lily Chin. It has some interesting cross-stitch-like graphics at the bottom hem. Probably one of my favorite designs I've see by Lily.

Other than those two pieces of the magazine, it was pretty ghastly.

Log Jam

I have so many things I want to start. I have very little energy.

Knitting Plan
I've decided I need to focus on two things with regard to my knitting:

1. Start working on the Janis project
2. Do the second child's sweater for the neighbor girl Rebekah

The first on sucks because it's secret and I can't disply my progress here. Fortunately, it's baby size, so it will go quickly, and once I give it to Janis, I can show off my handiwork.

The second one should also move quickly, but I'm not sure what I should do with the yarn. It a three ply, cotton yarn with festive colors. I'm thinking about doing a very simple cardigan. Perhaps even raglan sleeved. Maybe top-down.

Other Projects
The mandatory projects won't be overly satisfying for me, so I know I will need a couple of other things to work on as well.

I plan on starting the Ron Schweitzer Fair Isle design I got at stitches.



I was fortunate enough to meet Ron at Stitches, and he is a very sweet man. We had a lengthy conversation about how he started designing for Yarns International, and how he can be so prolific with such complex and time-consuming knit designs. The answer in short is, he just does it.

He's also very artsy, in that he finds inspiration for his designs everywhere he goes. Since many of his Fair Isle patterns are very exact, I was thinking he was perhaps a more logical man, than creative. I was wrong.

In addition to the Fair Isle vest, I plan on working on socks as well. The striped Regia sock I was making is turning out way bigger than I wanted. I'm going to have to unravel the entire sock and start again.

I think I'll work on some different yarn instead for my sock project.

NJ Ride for AIDS
I got an extremely nice e-mail from Karen, thanking you all for helping her raise money. She went on to say that the ride was the most difficult and life-altering things she's ever done. It made me glad that I had helped in a small way, so I wanted to pass those thanks on to you, as well

Post Stitches Let Down

After all the last minute hectic knitting getting ready for Stitches, and then the exuberance of the actual event, I've cut way back on my knitting this week.

One Last Stitches Blog Entry
I didn't want to sound conceited in my post about Stitches yesterday, but something else happened to me while I was in Atlantic City.

The picture is awful, and it makes me looking like a crazed beauty queen, but yes, Bert Parks did crown me Ms. America while I was there.



Current Project
I know I have to finish Rebekah II (the body's done, but I still have to do the sleeves). I also have a lot of projects in progress, such as the Hemp sweater from Lana Knits and the Alpaca Bedspread/Grave blanket. I also have to get my ass in gear with the baby item for my friend Janis.

I just couldn't stand to face any of those projects, so I brought a sock project with me this week.



It's simple, and mindless, and I'm enjoying the colors.

NJ Ride for AIDS
Thanks to the generosity of many of the readers here, Karen was able to almost reach her goal by contributing about $1,300 to the AIDS charities.

Congratulations to her great work and thank you all for letting me ask for your help.

Reader Comments/Questions
Geane asks what I mean when I say she was exactly as I had expected her to be.

I forget sometimes that my feelings for people aren't obvious to readers. In my opinion, Geane's blog is written in a very casual, smart and easy-to-read manner. She comes across as very personable and witty.

She turned out to be all of those things, or at least that's how I assessed it in our brief meeting and conversation.

Richard offered a web source for Bergere de France for Barb who asked about inexpensive, good quality synthetic yarn. He wasn't sure if he was breaking a rule by doing it.

Not at all. If I find folks are leaving spam in their comments, I will delete it. I considered Richard's comment helpful and responsive to Barb's inquiry. Not spam at all.

The Best Stitches Yet

This year, Stitches reminded me of my first year, except BETTER!!!

Blog Readers
I was amazed and pleased to have gotten to meet about twenty or so blog readers at Stitches.

Everywhere I went, I ran into folks that recognized me from my blog pictures and just wanted to introduce themselves. I have to say it was way cool to meet so many folks who read this blog.

In addition to folks like Kathy and Marilyn, with whom I had scheduled to meet, I met Ivete of Knotology blog fame. And then I got to meet Geane, another co-blogger. What a treat, she's exactly as I'd expecter her to be from her blog writing.



I also met way too many folks to mention by name (even if I could remember them all).

Thank you all for taking the time to say "hi" and introducting yourselves. It was truly a pleasure.

Market
I only do two things when I go to Stitches:

1. Shop
2. Chat with friends

Shopping this year was a lot of fun, and I spent quite a bit of money. I was glad to see a lot less novelty yarns in the market this year, and vendors going back to some of the more basic yarns and designs.

Here's the inventory of what I bought:

Sock yarn from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks - Hand dyed sock yarn in beautiful muted tones of blues, tans and browns that they call Sandalwood



Fortissima Socka Yarn in three different muted/manly shades.



A new Weavette, in a larger size (6" square). I liked the smaller one, so I bought the larger one, as well as a weaving pattern book.



And finally, I splurged and bought a Fair Isle vest kit from Yarns International. It's a Ron Schweitzer design, called Rona's Hill. The colors and pattern design are splendid, and I'm looking forward to knitting this garment more than anything at the moment.



I still blame Wendy for this sudden surge to do a second Fair Isle garment, but at least this one is just a vest.

Stitches Awards
First, I thought I'd give the "Worst Of" awards:

- Ugliest Sweater goes to this contestant who used a hideous color and big loops to create a design that I wouldn't donate to a homeless shelter.



- Most Garish Sweater goes to this amazing mixture of over-bright novelty yarns that would make Twiggy look as puffy as the Michelin Man.



My Booth Awards go to the following booths:

- Best Small Booth - Rosie's Yarn Cellar
Their booth always has a cozy, family feel to it, and they carry a large array of high-quality yarns. I always feel warmly welcomed when I go there.

- Most Improved Booth - Simply Knit
In the last few years, Simply Knit has had a couple of tables with sweater kits and a rack of sweaters that customers could try on. This year, they had a very professionally done booth with yarn, kits, books and tons of their great designs for customers to try on.

- Best Overall Booth - Habu
Amazing yarns, amazing designs, and great people. I loved this booth.

While I didn't find anything that I could make for myself or friends or family, I loved their designs. They are unique, and the yarns or the coolest blends of natural fibers like hemp, raffia and paper, along with wire-cored threads. The colors are more than amazing



Reader Comments/Questions
Thanks everyone for the tips and translations of the Foreign Blog reference. The blog was indeed Finnish.

It appears that Blogger.com (the folks that host my blog), somehow showed my blog to anyone that went to Henry's web site (can you imagine their surprise to find Henry's new blog site title?). Henry personally wrote to me to let me know, and he said most of his readers found it funny.

Also, with regard to the Massage Therapy picture. That is just a random picture I found on the web. It is neither me, nor my massage therapist in the picture. Although my massage therapist is very cute, he's not California buff with a pony tail.

World Wide Web

It's always nice to be reminded, blog writing does go out to a world-wide audience

Web Lesson
For those of you who have never created a web site with a "Counter" feature (the box in the right column of my page that tallies the number of hits my site gets), some of the counter softwares provide additional features.

For example, my counter software lets me look at not only the number of hits to the site, but also where those hits come from. So for instance if someone like Wendy puts a link to my site on her blog, anyone that clicks on that link will show up as originating from www.wendyknits.net.

International Blog Mention
Yesterday, I was browsing through my counter software, and I noticed a hit from the following link:

http://ihmissuhteet.blogspot.com/?pamaus=1250-30092003

Since the blog was in a foreign language (sadly, I don't even recognize the language), I did a search for Queer on it, and here's what it said:



It was posted by Henry, but other than that, I couldn't begin to tell you what he says about me (I'm assuming Henry is a man's name in that country too). I'd go to the Babel Fish website to try to translate if I even knew the language.

Anyone care to tell me if Henry hates me or likes me?

Knitting Progress
Today's entry is a short one.

I got no knitting done last night or this morning, so there's no progress. Instead I had 90 minutes of pure, unadulterated indulgence last night.



I also haven't had the opportunity to do the gallery pictures of Passing Lane.

Readers Comments/Questions
Rachael asks "You must be tired of people telling you "It'd be faster if you learned to pick the yarn.""

I have to say, in all my years of knitting, I have never had anyone tell me that I should change how I knit. Honestly, I think it's because I'm a man, and whereas knitters have the nerve to tell a woman she should change how she does her knitting, they don't have the same gall with a man.

At least that's my theory.

And for me, speed isn't the goal. It's enjoyment. I knit at a decent speed, and I turn out sweaters pretty quickly because of the time I allocate to my obsession, but I'm not concerned about increasing my speed.

Barb asks if anyone knows of a decent synthetic worsted weight besides Canadiana?

Canadiana is a pretty inexpensive option at under US$4.00 for 100 grams/228 yards. Especially since my favorite synthetic that I've used is Plymouth Encore. It's not completely synthetic (75% acrylic, 25% wool), and there are a bazillion colors to choose from. It retails for just under US$5.00 for 100 grams/200 yards. Folks tell me it wears like iron, and there are lots of sources on the web to order it.

Sorry, that answer probably doesn't help at all, and I loved the story of your Great-Granny.