Happy Day

Nothing more exciting than getting a good deal.

Principles of Knitting
Having read so much about this famous knitting reference, I've always been interested in seeing what it was like. Last night, a coworker and I arrived at the restaurant for dinner about an hour before our reservation, so we decided to walk around. After 30 mins of walking, we were back at the restaurant, so I suggested browsing at a used book store near the restaurant.

Making a bee-line for the crafts section, I found dozens of needlepoint books, but there were only two knitting books. Luckily, one of them was "Principles of Knitting" by June Hiatt. Hard-cover, and in excellent condition, I couldn't find a price (except the face-value price of $35.00).



I brought it to the sales counter, and asked, figuring the prices would be astronomical.

$6.50

Yes, that's right, six dollars and fifty cents.

Suffice it to say, I bought it immediately.

On checking eBay this morning, there are two copies of this book listed currently, one with a bid at around $50, and the other with no bids starting at $125.

eBay Listing

I'm not planning on selling it, but it was nice to see I got a phenomenal deal.

FiestaWear Pullover
My knitting the last couple of days has been careless with a few mistakes. I had to reknit one of the cuff ribbings, and restart the first row of color blocks on the other one. I guess I need to pay more attention to my knitting right now.

I'm almost done with the first row of color blocks on both sleeves, and hopefully I'll make some good progress this weekend. I'll post a picture once I've gotten enough of a change to show.

New Baby Project Suggestions
Thanks for your great ideas for baby projects. I think I've come up with a great idea, but I can't discuss it, because Janis reads the blog, and I want it to be a secret.

Marilyn (the Knitting Curmudgeon) gave me the idea, and I fell in love with it. Now I just have to see about executing it. While I love the duck and frog designs, that wasn't the direction I wanted to go (although I may consider making those for some other baby). I also got many offers of vintage pattern books that readers have in their stash.

The kind charity of knitters that read this blog is sometimes overwhelming.

Travels

As most readers know, I'm currently stationed in Albany, New York for work and I drive three hours up here each week from my house in Pennsylvania. The drive can be absolutely beautiful.

Upstate New York at 80
At 80 miles an hour, that is. A couple of weeks ago, as I started on my drive home, I realized I had the pocket camera I got for my birthday in my shirt pocket, and I had no pictures stored on it.

Which meant, I could take 53 random photos of my drive through the upstate New York countryside, and not even care if they came out or not. I ended up taking random pictures as the car was moving, and almost lost the camera twice as I held it out the window. I wasn't expecting much.

None of them turned out to be exquisitely beautiful, but here are a few examples of my drive home that day anyway.






Mini Chock-a-Block
First of all, based on Amy's great suggestion (with a minor change) I am renaming MCaB to FiestaWear. I liked her idea, but didn't want to confuse anyone with the name of a couple of yarns that go by Fiesta. I also didn't want to make people think it was at all Mexican looking.

Plus I like the little pun with ware and wear.

As far as knitting progress, I started out the week by leaving my pattern graphic at home and having to ask Thaddeus to read off the seventeen colors I was using in this sweater over the phone to me.

During the interim, I was knitting the ribbing at the cuff. I also realized that because of the intarsia blocks, I could easily knit both sleeves at the same time, so I did both cuff ribbings. I also made a little progress (very little) on the first row of blocks.



New Baby Project
I recently found out that my knitting pal Janis is having a girl.

I need to come up with something quite extraordinary as a knitted gift for her new daughter-to-be. For my non-knitting friends and family, any pattern will do as long as it has a certain wow-appeal to it.

But for Janis, it will need to be truly fine and look great. I'm considering designing a garment. Either a little dress or a jumper in interesting colors. Any suggestions would be gratefully considered.

Overbooked

On Thursday, someone asked me what I had planned for the weekend and I responded that I didn't think I had anything. Boy was I wrong.

Full Weekend
We made it to the flea market twice, went out for dinner, saw a movie (Whale Rider which I loved, Thaddeus hated), shopped for a housewarming gift, when to a housewarming party, saw a play and ran multiple errands outside of what I normally do on a weekend.

Mini Chock-a-Block
Despite all of our running around, I did get a chance to do the collar and the shoulder seams for MCaB.



It's almost traditional that when I get to this point in the sweater that I try it on. Despite the fact that this sweater is full of colors that I don't typically look good in, it's a very flattering sweater for me. I'm looking forward to finishing this one.

I was daydreaming last week about showing this sweater off at Stitches East later this year, so I guess I really am proud of it.

I still have to fix the color mess up.

Flea Market Purchase
Thaddeus and I always look for very specific items when we go flea marketing.

He looks for fiestaware and mushroom-related things. And I look for yarn, knitting needles, knitting books and buttons. I found both knitting needles and buttons this week. The needles I hated, so I didn't buy them, but a few cards of buttons caught my attention. Both will make perfect button sets for sweaters, especially the larger, lighter ones.



Earflap Cap
A while ago, I designed and knit up a few different versions of an earflap cap that I based on one Thaddeus saw in a movie and liked. I was going to let Simply Knit sell it as part of a kit, but they didn't think it would do very well, so I've decided to offer it to anyone who would like it.

Click Here for Earflap Cap pattern

I apologize in advance as I used MS Word to create this document and also there may be errors in the pattern, because it hasn't been tested overy thoroughly. If you find any, feel free to let me know, and I'd be glad to correct them.

Where the HELL are you?

When it came down to trying to catch up on my knitting or writing about it, the knitting won out.

Knitting Progress
I know they're only self-imposed deadlines, but I like to push myself to get as much knitting in as possible. I've been focusing a little more on my knitting this week than blogging. Now that I've made some good progress, the blog will hopefully be a little more regular.

Mini Chock-a-Block
I finally finished the front of the MCaB, and I'm still very pleased with how it's coming out.



You'll note I decided on the shallow v-neck. Next, I'll bind the right shoulder seam, and knit the collar. Then I'll bind the left shoulder seam. Finally, the sleeves and the side seams. Another two weeks if I stay on track.

That's the good news. The bad news is that I made a mistake in two of the blocks on the front of the sweater. It's hard to see in the picture of the full front, but in the 7th row, second and third block from the right (the left side of the sweater), there are two blue blocks that are similar, but different colors of blue.



If you look very carefully, you'll see I reversed the two colors halfway through the row of blocks.

I know I need to fix the mistake.

I know how to fix the mistake.

I'm not looking forward to correcting this "knitting in dark rooms" mistake. Damn those hotel bedside lamps!

For those of you wondering, I will insert a needle in the first row of knitting where I reversed the colors, insert a needle in the bottom row of the two squares above the mistake, and unknit the two incorrect halves. The hardest part will be where I wrap the yarn between colors.

If I can, I'll document the correction with pictures.

Zachary Blanket
I also picked up the pace on the baby blanket for Zachary.



It's looking very cool, although I bled on it a little bit yesterday. I cut myself while slicing beets for lunch, and the cut reopened when I was knitting. I'm pretty certain I can remove all trace of the blood, there wasn't very much.

Reader Questions
Judy asks:
How many stitches did I cast on for the baby blanket.

Answer:
With US3 needles and baby-weight yarn (Patons Baby Beehive), I cast on a total of 191 stitches. The pattern stich calls for a multiple of 12 stitches, plus 1. I also had to include ten stitches for the border (five on each side).

Thanks everyone for the encouragement on the niece's "invention for foot warmers, and the correction on the number of Jamieson books by Unicorn. There are two published so far, and a third on the way. There is one Simply Knit book and another on the way as well.

Fiber Sense

Understanding fiber and fabric and color is a something that someone seems to either have an aptitude for, or doesn't. Maybe Fiber Sense is the sixth sense..."I see dyeing people."

Knitting Integrity
These thoughs started with the knitting niece when she "invented" foot warmers. While foot warmers will never make it big in commercial or knitting circles, I was impressed that she found a use for these useless tubes we got out of the Barbie Knitting machine. I was also impressed with how she decided she liked the reverse stockinette instead of the "correct" side. I agreed with her that the reverse stockinette showed a much more interesting patterning.

Knitting Integrity
Another thing that sparked this entry was a comment in Amber's blog about how she's combining colors for her current City of Light project. Not only does she subject herself to the standard rules of color combination, but she also maintains that other factors must be considered when combining the mill-ends of yarn she's using. Such as who gave her the yarn or what project it was from. I've always thought that the only thing important in design is what you declare to be important. I like when brave knitters like Amber elect to declare interesting aspects of knitwear design important, and then stick to those declarations.

Al Roker has a blog?
So it seems.


Al's Journal

I've never been a big fan of Al's, despite the fact that "Today" is my morning show of choice during the week. But I have to admit, his blog lets me see a little bit more personal view of him, and I like him a little better after having read his writing.

Mini Chock-a-Block
Well, I finally finished the eight row, and now I just need to decide on when to start the neck shaping. It should be soon. It's going to be crew-neck or a very shallow v-neck (because that's what I look good in). I think I'll just start where I am and just fill in as much as I have to with a collar treatment. It will make the remainder of the front knitting easier.