Second of a Dozen

I'm squeeking in just under the wire this month, but I haven't had a chance to get pictures prepped & ready until now. Here are my February 2007 Shoot a Dozen Days pictures. There really aren't any rules saying that all the pictures have to be from the same day in the month, but I've decided that is how I want to do it.

These are all from February 17th, 2007. January was the month of ice, & February the month of snow this year. I'm hoping March will end up being the month of Spring, as I'm definitely ready for warmer weather.







As always, pictures may be seen larger by clicking on them.











Sledding is always fun on a snow packed hill!









It was cold enough for long enough that several of the local lakes & ponds froze nearly solid, which is rare around here. With the snow, it was almost hard to tell where the edges of the ice began, unless you already knew where they were located.





The kids also enjoyed looking at the snow & being able to pick out which animal tracks were which.

Time Travel Tuesday -- the 40 Days Edition

Ann is once again doing 40 Days For Others this year. It's a very good idea, & fits nicely with something I've got in the works. (Plus I've also started a hat for the Hats For Kids challenge by my local Knitting Guild)

All this, plus this week's Sticks & String essay about time & knitting, got me thinking about my grandmother's charity work, & my mother's. Charity work is a commitment of time, given for other people. (As opposed to charity donations, i.e. money for other people.) Both of my grandmothers were very involved in church charity work, but only one of them got involved in charity handwork. My dad's mother made baby quilts for AIDS babies. I'm not sure if she ever did any charity knitting, but I'd put charity sewing & quilting into the same general catagory. My mother doesn't knit very much, but in the past year she has completed a shawl for her church's prayer shawl ministry.

Charities need both time & money to stay running. Knitting for charity gives them both, in a way.

Last Saturday Sky for February 2007

Here is my Saturday report, posted a day late. We had a rainy day, so my Saturday Sky picture is taken from inside my porch, to keep the camera from getting wet. I did venture out in the rain to attend the monthly Greater St. Louis Knitters' Guild meeting. This was the month to go over changes to the by-laws as part of the program. The committee who proposed the changes did a great job, but I think all of us were glad we brought our knitting! By-laws can be a bit dry, which makes me all the more appreciative of the committee, who didn't get to knit while they presented.

I won't let the cat out of the bag just yet, as far as where I was on Friday night. I did run into a couple other knitters while I was there, which was fun. Neither had brought their knitting with them -- one was working there & the other was keeping track of much younger children than I was. The ironic thing with the other knitting mother I ran into was that she didn't actually see me knitting. I had just packed up my stuff because the boys were getting ready to move to another area. The way that I found out she was a knitter was because of a comment she made, rather than her seeing me knit, as I'd been doing on & off ever since we got there. I wish I'd had business cards printed with my blog site, though. I'll have to get around to creating those soon.

Friday Night Knitting

Here's a different take on Knitting In Public.





Any St. Louis knitters recognize where this is?




How about this?





& here's the mate to the not-sock from the mystery pictures:

My daughter is thrilled to be getting some fingerless gloves, even though they aren't just exactly like her brothers' are. Well, honestly, maybe she's more thrilled that they aren't the same. There's a reason why this girl's favorite color is pink! I got the single ball of sock yarn in a sale bin at some LYS, because it was the last they had of that color. I figured it would be good for kid stuff. Looks like there will be plenty left over. Each mitt seems to take just under 2 full repeats of the colorway.

Also, if you haven't read her update yet, go here to see Mary Beth's Super Secret Project in all its final glory.

Secret Knitting Project Revealed

Here are some progress & completed pictures for my latest "Secret Knitting Project" (The pink booties that I made earlier & didn't get pictures of were very similar, just a different color.)



This is the first knitting pattern that I've used out of this giant book that I bought at Sam's Club. (No, I won't shop at Walmart, but there aren't any Costco stores near me, so I will shop at Sam's.)





The pattern is very similar to ones I made for my eldest son over a decade ago, so I thought I knew what I was doing. However, as I looked closer at the pattern this time, I realized I'd done something differently from the pattern, both on these booties & the pink ones I made earlier. The pattern actually NEVER SAYS to join your work & do the ribbing in the round. I'd just done it automatically without even realizing that wasn't in the instructions. Oh, well. I think both babies will be happier for not having the seam up the backs of their ankles, don't you?





Considering that I hadn't done anything like this in years, I'm happy with how they turned out. They made a realitively quick baby gift. Now that I've familiarized myself with the pattern, I can make a pair of booties over a weekend & still have time for all those other nagging stupid-non-knitting standard weeekend chores.



& now that Mary Beth's big "Secret Knitting Project" for the same mom-to-be has been given as well, I can share this picture from when we got together a couple weeks ago. I'll let her share her pictures of the finished object. It's quite spectacular!

Time Travel Tuesday -- First Edition

Weekend mornings are my time to catch up on my podcasts, & frequently to listen to Cast On, because it's my best chance of not being interrupted. The latest "Today's Sweater" on the most recent episode was a sweater made by a daughter for her mother. The author muses about how she & her mother never really "talked knitting" the same way that the knitting community does now-a-days, even though she remembers her mother knitting a lot when she was a child. The author didn't really get into knitting until she was no longer living at home.

That struck me as being similar to my own situation. Both of my grandmothers were good knitters; I have items they knit as evidence of that fact. But I do not remember ever actually watching either of them knit. For both of them, knitting was only one of many handcrafts. Both also sewed, & did needlepoint, & were far more comfortable in the kitchen than I will ever be. (Thank goodness for a husband who likes to cook!)

However, I never really discussed knitting very much with either of my grandmothers. There were always other things to talk about. I do remember sewing & doing embroidery with them; just not knitting.

It makes me sad to think of the missed opportunity. I never really realized the questions I could have or should have asked until they were no longer available to talk to about knitting. But at least I do have knitted items which they made & I can touch & look over, & figure out how they were created. I'll be highlighting those in future Time Travel Tuesdays.

The View From My Knitting Spot

Today's Saturday Sky is brought to you from the inside of my house, taken while sitting in my favorite knitting spot. It's been snowing here this morning, so the camera hasn't been taken outside.





The cats also appreciated being able to watch the snow from the warmth & dryness of being safely inside the house.



Frequently I am the first one awake on Saturday mornings, & on a good day, I have enough time to fit in an episode of Cast On & an hour or so to knit in peace. The snow falling outside this morning added an extra layer of peacefullness. (At least until all 3 kids woke up! But they are outside sledding right now, which gives me a chance to post this.)

Some Knitting Progress & Pictures

I finished the last Pirate Mitt this evening. Yesterday I finished an Ultra-Secret-Project that will be delivered on Sunday. This time I'll try to get pictures.

Speaking of pictures, here's one I took earlier this week, on the afternoon of our latest "snow day".



Here you can maybe see a bit better what I mean about the pooling differences. I actually like how the yarn pooled in the first half of the scarf. But the second half isn't pooling the same way, so I'm worried that it will look lopsided if I graft them together. I think I may try some variation on this second half, & then knit two more halves in order to make two scarves, & see if I can "match" the pooling better that way.

Also from our latest snow day -- a snow angel made by my daughter.

Time Travel Tuesdays

David Reidy's Sticks & String podcast for last week got me thinking about how connections in knitting run back through time. The essay for Show 11 is titled "A Long Thread" & is about how the thread of knitting connects us to other knitters not just now, at social or virtual KALs, SnBs, etc, but also to other knitters in the past & in the future.

The show got me thinking of how knitting connects us both to other knitters in the past, & even to the knitter that WE were in the past, if we've been knitting a long time. I've been thinking for a while about devoting some blog time to past projects from pre-blogging era, but had never gotten around to doing it. David's show was just the thing I needed to get me thinking in that direction again.

I've got to get pictures ready & tales written, but stay tuned for some Tuesday knitting retrospectives on my blog in 2007.

Adventures in Designing

As you can see by my post over here & my pink swatch in the lower right side of the knitting progress picture here, I have been trying my hand at lace design. I think I've finally got the pattern worked out to my satisfaction, but now I'm having yarn issues. (Though I'm not a Guy From Boston)

The design has a decided direction to it, requiring the lace scarf to be knit in two parts & then grafted together. So far, so good. I've figured out how to make the design work for that. Except that when I started my second piece, the color in the yarn is pooling completely differently from how it pooled for the first half. It's rather frustrating, especially since I have a different project taking up a lot of my time this week, so I don't even have time to work on the scarf right now.

Saturday Travels & Saturday Knitting

Today was another clear & cold day here in middle America. 20-something degrees actually felt relatively WARM today compared with how this past week has been. I can completely related to the Yarn Harlot's comment yesterday about relative human perspective where temperature is concerned.



I started this morning with a trip across the river & into Illinois, to go knit with Mary Beth & Rebecca. I had a great time & got a lot of knitting done. I also wore the shoulder shawl that I finished last weekend, & had Mary Beth take a picture of it in action.





Rebecca was working on a darling itty bitty little item out of the crochet-a-day calendar for this year. It's a mini-bra that would make a very cute lapel pin.





Driving home, I stopped by The Loopy Ewe. Sheri was having an open house for St. Louis Knitter's Guild members today. The Loopy Room was quite overwhelming, even without the shipments of new yarn that Sheri has due in next week. I found 3 skeins that I just had to have come home with me. Of course, after I got home, I realized that she had Inox grey needles, which I'd heard are good for lace, but have never had a chance to try. Did I see them & buy them while I was there? No, of course not. Oops! I also discovered that Sheri only lives about 5 minutes away from me. This could get dangerous...

Friday Finished Object

Well, it makes for a good title, but this shawl was actually finished last Saturday, after my blog entry for the day. I realized that I needed to save my mindless knitting for possible Superbowl knitting, so I pulled out something that I hadn't worked on in a while, figured out the place I was stuck, & finished it up.





Lucy seems to think I've made her a new blanket instead of a shawl. Her opinion is that anything placed in a sunny spot is fair game for sitting on.





The yarn & the pattern are from my Birthday Stash Enhancement Expedition. I used just over 3 balls of Portrait mohair. It hasn't been measured or blocked yet, but I've already worn it to a couple Superbowl Parties last Sunday. Garter stitch lace is forgiving that way. I like it the way it is now, but I'm hopefull that the pattern will be a little bit more visible after blocking.

___________________

In completely non-knitting local news, I have to say that I agree with local columnist, Bill McClellan.

Saturday Sky & Saturday Knitting

It's clear & cold here today. We've had a few dustings of snow, but nothing that has stuck to the trees. I think the trees have already been through enough for the winter. This is what's left of treetop that littered our backyard with branches last month.

I was able to spend my early Saturday morning knitting in peace, which always makes for a good start to the weekend. I'm slowly but surely making progress on several things, though none of them are nearing completion. Here's a picture of the projects I've actually touched & worked on this week.



On the left-hand side is the mohair striped sweater that I started two weeks ago. The back is over half done now, in addition to the left front side that was complete in my last picture of it. At this rate, there might even be a chance of wearing that sweater this spring.

The black & pink Norwegian cardigan is coming along slowly but surely. It is in the boring stage where it's only fit for TV/podcast/SnB knitting, but it's too big to be easily portable for smaller pieces of time. I only have a few more inches to go before it starts getting interesting again, though.

The pink swatch in the lower right-hand corner is a design in progress that I'm working out the kinks from & will use for my Violet's Pink Ribbon yarn. I was initially thinking of designing a rectangular shawl for it, but it may work out better in the scarf size, depending on how I decide to do the grafting for the center. The design is definitely going to have a right side up/upside down effect to it, so grafting two halves together will be a necessity for which I'm still working out the details. I'm thinking possibly a seamen's style scarf, with ribbing in the middle part that goes behind the neck, for easier grafting than trying to maintain the pattern. The swatch yarn is left over from the pink baby booties that I made a few weekends ago.

The green & grey pirate mitts are my "work on while standing in line, or other short bits of wait time" project right now. I should hopefully finish both of those within the next week or so. (& it would be just my luck to get them done just in time for the cold snap to be over. Not that I wouldn't mind it being over. Brrrrr!)


In fact, it's gotten so cold around here that my kitties are even willing to sleep close to each other for a smidge more warmth. Usually they stake out opposite ends of the room from one another.