Surprise!

Nothing like the last minute. I finished the jacket yesterday at 4pm. The baby shower was today.

The yarn is Gloss DK and the color is King Cole Cornflower.

Now to finish that squid hat and I can move on to knitting for fall.

Speaking of knitting in the fall, that could only mean one thing... it's time for the annual Knit-A-Thon!!!!!

Saturday October 6 from 10am-4pm (or later!) we will once again take over the Lakeside Cafe and knit for charity. I've already been making some hats for the babies. This year we also will be taking pet blankets for those cute homeless furry friends in Howard County.

Not only will there be door prizes this year, but contests as well! A prize for most charity items donated, best pink scarf, best baby hat, and best pet blanket will be awarded.

If anyone would like to donate door prizes to this great event, please let me know. Things keep popping up and I have a feeling I will be having a lot less time to plan this year's event than last year. Help is always appreciated.

Also, I know some of my favorite knitters will not be able to make this year's event. Please know that you can still donate your hand knit items before or after the event. If you donate ahead of the event I will make you eligible for the contests, but you must be present to win a door prize.

Hope to see you there!

Pictures!

Let's start off with the 'Clap' that I knit from Brooks Farm 'Four Play' wool/silk blend yarn purchased from 2007 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. Half way through knitting it, I knew I would be giving it to my mother. I gave it to her on Wednesday, and I think she has just now finished crying. She was so happy!



I also wanted to throw in some pictures of my trip to Pittsburgh. We visited Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens and got to see the Butterfly Forest exhibit,



as well as the Dale Chihuly glass exhibit that was simply breathtaking.

My first week with the camera has been fun. Thank you to Large Marge and Big Head for sharing their old camera with me so that I can add some pictures to this spot to show that I really do knit and occasionally even finish some things.

I'm off to seam the shoulders and put on the buttons of the EZ Baby Jacket. Tomorrow I'll work on the collar and get some pictures of it before it goes to the baby shower on Monday.

Happy Knitting and Spinning!

Back from a trip to Pittsburgh, I open my mailbox to see the latest colorway of Socks That Rock in my mailbox. 'Flower Power' is very reminiscent of the tye-dye era. I'm certain I won't be using it for the enclosed pattern for lace cuff anklets, but it's a fun yarn. Also included in the package were temporary tattoos (cool!) and fun facts about socks. I'm going to share a great website with those of you not in the STR Club. The Bureau of Missing Socks is a website devoted to everything about missing or lost socks. Have fun checking it out!

On to business!

Are you aware, my fiber loving friends, that your local public broadcasting stations have multiple knitting shows available to them to schedule into their weekly programming? (Some such shows are Needle Arts Studio and Knit & Crochet Today.) Are you aware that every local public broadcasting station programs it's own schedule? Are you aware that the Maryland/Virginia/DC public broadcasting stations choose NOT to schedule these shows for our viewing pleasure at 4am or any other time? Are you aware that MPT schedules a show on how to play GIN RUMMY instead????

Here's how to help! Click to voice your opinion (If you are reading this and are not in our television viewing area, please locate your local public station and raise havoc if you are left out in the cold as well.) Send them e-mails telling them we want our knitting shows and we want them THIS FALL! Hey- it worked for MTV when we were kids, it can work for us now.

Next up... actual pictures. Large Marge has given me a duck taped camera and I'm not afraid to use it!

Happy Knitting and Spinning!

This week, I have proven that you do not need other people at your sit 'n knit in order to really mess up your knitting and have to rip out all of your work.

How sad is this?

I knit alone on Tuesday afternoon and ripped out 5 rows afterward.
I knit alone on Wednesday afternoon and ripped out 2 rows afterward.
I knit with 16 other people on Wednesday night and got tons accomplished and ripped out nothing.
I knit with 6 other people tonight and ripped out about 30 stitches.

Apparently, according to this information, I must knit with the masses for productive knitting. Interesting.

Off to knit more of my Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket. The Baby Shower is on the 27th, and I have Back to School shopping interrupting my knitting time.

Happy Knitting and Spinning!

Yesterday was a great day for a drive to the farm, and that's exactly what we did. The kids and I piled into the car armed with yarn, food, and kitty treats and headed for East Berlin, PA.

The folks at The Mannings have the ability to predict the weather, so it was far better than could ever be believed. 88 degrees with no humidity! Wasn't it 102 in the shade just this last Wed.? The weather for the Spinning Seminar in June was perfect as well, so it must be the great people at The Mannings doing it.

A new litter of kitties kept young and old alike occupied while not knitting, and cookies and beverages were supplied by our hosts. As if it couldn't get any better there were goodies by fellow knitters as well. Homemade Chocolate Banana Bread (so good one of the grown cats stole the last piece) and the thinnest asparagus ever were two of my favorites.

After a day of knitting, I felt like a new person! After we overstayed our welcome and finally packed to leave (not my idea- I was staying forever) it was off to the UTZ outlet store for unhealthy unneeded snack food. Popcorn will be provided at guild this week! These bags look normal in a warehouse, and then you get home and realize you need to add an addition to house the stuff.

Speaking of The Central Maryland Knitting Guild, this Wed. marks my one year anniversary of attending the guild. We are working on the Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket as a knitalong this month. I'm very proud of myself, I just cast on and using the longtail cast on, and I had two inches left on my tail at the end of the 160 stitch cast on. Yeah me.

I wanted to thank all who wrote in and showed support for my job offer. Lack of knitting time is the least of my concerns with the job. Lack of time with the kids when they will be entering middle school for the first time this year is the main issue. The job will require night and weekend hours, and I'm just not sure that that is a great combination right now. A year from now, I think it would be a great job. Right now, it's a tough tough call. I still have a couple more days to think it all through.

Once again thank you for your comments. Keep them coming until Wednesday.

Happy Knitting and Spinning!

Tomorrow is The Mannings Knit In, and I soooooo need a day in the country with my knitting! The kids are coming along, so I hope they will have enough things to keep them occupied and let me knit. My sanity depends on it after today at work.

I've been offered a huge promotion at work, which would mean a drastic decline in knitting time (Not to mention a reduction of Knitting for Mental Health Days). Money to buy the yarn I want, and no time to use it. Isn't life a kick in the butt. Knitters-unite and talk some sense into me before I accept this job next week!

I thought I had some order to the chaos that is my list of what I am knitting and how soon it is to be knit. Then the babies started coming. Early. Twins. AAUUGGHHH!

Twelve weeks early and in need of preemie hats. At least their heads are small! (Before I get booed for insensitivity, they are in great shape for being this early) I work with their Nana, and she had originally wanted Christening gowns. I guess in the long run I'm off the hook with the hats.

Better get knitting. I'm using the Oh My! yarn. This stuff is slippy. (Yes, I grew up in Pittsburgh. It's slippy, not slippery)

Happy Knitting!

The dog days of summer can only mean one thing- it must be time for The Howard Count Fair. We went off to 'Ride All Day' at the fairground yesterday in the heat, and survived 9 hours of dusty, animal scented fun.

I did ditch the kids long enough to check out a bunch of 4-H and adult entries for the fair. There were a lot fewer entries than last year for knitted items, yet spinning had more. Interesting trend. Last year, the 4-h groups were knitting up a storm, and this year I had to search for the few that were there. All entries were fun fur or chunky blends that are no longer popular in yarn stores, so perhaps this has effected youth knitting. The adult entries were down as well. The few who did enter items appeared to enter a lot of pieces. Perhaps other knitters are experiencing what I am this year. All our finished items have been taken from us this year. Perhaps everyone in Howard County is knitting, we just can't enter items that are no longer ours. Hummmmm. I might not be alone. Knitting Thieves are to blame!

I'm off to reprint my squid hat instructions. They have been misplaced/taken as well! Those Knitting Thieves will stop at nothing.

Happy Knitting and Spinning!

I'm slipping! Perhaps it's because I haven't been to a lot of sit 'n knits this summer. Perhaps it is because I am on a stash appreciation summer. Whatever it is, I'm out of the loop!

I opened today's newspaper to find (in the Arts& Life Today section page 7E) an article about a yarn shop that opened in June named the Black Sheep Yarn Shop. I'm now stooping to finding out about new yarn stores from the Sunday paper??????? What's up with that?!?

This new store is located in Cockeysville and is only opened Tue-Fri 10-4 and Saturday 10-4. No Sunday hours and no night hours would make a visit tough for me, so it might take awhile for me to get up to this new fiber locale.

To make up for lack of social knitting this summer, I will be starting to knit every Tuesday afternoon from 4:30-6 pm at the 'Daily Grind' in Maple Lawn (the old Scaggsville) on Route 216 across from the park and ride. Anyone who is available is invited to join up with me starting Tuesday Aug. 14th. Let me know if you think you might make it so I know how many chairs to save.

Happy Knitting and Spinning!

Today was the end of my son's Ultimate Frisbee season. For 5 hours we watched the kids run around in 97 degree heat, and did our best to cool them off and keep them hydrated. My son's team lost every game. This, according to him, is a great honor. The kids on his team really enjoyed the game and getting to play. They just wanted to have fun. He also pointed out that his participation trophy is the same size as the team that went undefeated. He sees this as a metaphor for life. His ability to enjoy the process just as much as the outcome (if not more) is a great lesson to me, and I wonder how my kid got so smart. If we could all view life this way, things would be pretty cool!

I had planned on knitting for these five hours, but the heat was too much. This is not good for my time frame for the squid hat! I'm backing up my due date to Thursday night and having Large Marge deliver it in person when she heads to Florida for the baby shower. Perhaps Marge would be so kind as to take a picture of the finished item, since I have not posted a picture of my finished items for months now. Trust me, I have finished tons of things. People just keep taking them from me.

Hope you all are fining a cool spot so you can keep knitting. It's so hot I can't even think of spinning! More power to you if you can.

I took a trip to the new yarn store in Eldersburg yesterday called the 'Knitters Nest'. The owner is warm and friendly, and the other knitters on hand were just as lovely and willing to answer any questions. I had just walked in on the end part of a sit' n knit and was offered cake as soon as I came through the door! The yarn selection is quiet good for a new location. The shop also offers a sit 'n spin on the second Sunday of each month. All in all- it was a great trip!

I'm finally working on the embossed leaf socks again, and I have to say a) they are so easy b)they are so pretty and c) I love this Cherry Tree Hill yarn I'm using. On a scale from one to ten, these socks are an eleven!

I'm also pleased to report in that I have found the BEST hat to knit for Large Marge's future nephew. Take a look. They live in Florida, so the whole aquatic theme works. Well, at least in my mind. The recipient may not be as tickled about this thing as I am, but I'm pretty sure I can be amused enough for the both of us!

Happy Knitting and Spinning!