Sad Endings, New Beginnings

I was so proud of myself. After my original Learn to Knit class at Ewe-nique Knits in Royal Oak, I joined the Wednesday night knitting circle and took on a big beautiful project -- a cardigan using 3 different colors of yarns.

Alas, I can't find the original pattern or the yarn information but here is a close-up of the pattern:

Beautiful right? Here's how it looks in pieces:

The problem? These are the pieces of a beautiful cardigan post-knitting, post-seaming and finishing. What happened? Well, I knitted up the medium size because I'm a medium size, right?
So I sewed everything up and what happened?
It was huge on me! Not just a little big -- it was BIG!
But after all that hard work and effort I wasn't going to let this go to waste --- so I pawned it off on my mother who is more of a large...
Her response... it will still too big!
So she has faithfully held on to the sweater, not wanting to hurt my feelings, but not really wanting to wear it either.
A couple of days ago, she gave it back.
We're going through a yarn shortage here -- my niece is living with us at the moment and she is a knitting FIEND! I've shared a good share of my stash to keep her busy, but the truth is... we're almost out of yarn!
So last night, giving up my cherished sweater that nobody was going to weart, we started frogging it in search of beautiful, yummy yarn that will someday take on a new life as something else.

Dreaming of summer....

It's February, it's still cold and I'm counting down the days to spring because it's the only thing that is going to get me through this month!

As a member of the Anny Blatt Lovers on Ravelry, I've been perusing their spring/summer catalog (you can find it here) and am just loving their offerings!

They've added a few new colors to their Victoria line that are just sumptuous...

I'm particularlly in love with the Cerise and Japonais and am thinking that this ribbon yarn would make a wonderful summer tank top!

I also fell for their Vianney pattern that looks just so soft and comfy....

-- and I definitely love the color.. It's made with Anny Blatt's Japonais - Victoria, Angora Super and Muguet.

What inspires you?

The Dropsies

So I took a break from Sylvi to work on this drop-stitch scarf for my sister-in-law and I discovered muscles I didn't know existed!



I'm not a wimp and not THAT out of shape, but this pattern calls for a ton of Yarn Overs and I'm using my arms in knitting in a whole new way. And slowly, but surely, my body cried "Ouch!"

Here's where it hurts:

When it comes to knitting I do it in the English style which means I'm a "thrower" and my right hand and arm do all the work! As the aches came on I've tried silly ways to modify my style, propping up pillows under both my arms and anything else you can think of, but it's just been getting worse and worse.

So now it's reversi time -- I took a break from the scarf to finish the second sleeve of my Sylvi coat -- it's knit mostly in seed stitch which seems to be easier on the body!

Drop Stitch Daze

I am just loving this pattern for the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf!

This is my first drop stitch project and it's a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Here's the project picture from Ravelry:

I decided to use this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in the Tuscan colorway. Wound up it looks like this:

So I cast on two nights ago and after a brief hiccup, I knitted a good five inches last night. The pattern calls for repeats that are really easy to remember and after a few rows I was off and running!

The scarf looks a little unkempt, but I'm convinced that after I wash it and block it, it will really open up!

Inspiration Credit

I found it! I read about the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf in Melody's blog at http://www.knitphomaniacs.com/

Faces of February

I don't know what that groundhog saw today, but here in metro Detroit the first day of February has brought us the gift of warm weather... 45 degrees! woo hoo!

The snow is melting -- Rupert the dog can finally move around the backyard in less than stomach-high snow and the Bird Girl has lost her snow cap (see pictures below).

Something about the warm temps, not having to wear two layers and not even wearing socks has got my mind spinning (knitting?) with ideas...

Oh yes, Sylvi is still in progress. I've finished one sleeve and started the next (That is Nikita, a.k.a. 2 of 5) in the picture. Knitting Kitty... Kitty Knitting....




But my timeline on Sylvi is long... next fall is my goal.... so I need to break things up with little projects. Reading someone's blog, I can't remember whose (sorry :( ) I saw this great pattern for the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf... read the instructions and determined I could knit this up pretty easily in front of the TV without too many opportunities for errors.




So I went searching through my stash and decided up this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Tuscany -- I'm excited to see how it will turn out!

Of course I can knit without a recipient in mind so I've settled on this for my sister-in-law Kelly. (Well, she's not REALLY my sister-in-law, but that's another story.) I'm always talking about my knitting and what I'm making for who, but I've never made anything for her so I figure this should make up for things!

Cowl'd & Frosty Morning

Well, I just loved Kelly's Cowl’d and Frosty Morning pattern!

I could have knitted this up in one night, but I got distracted so it took me two. I've put the cowl in a gift bag and left it for Julie the mail carrier.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures -- I decided to use my phone's camera just to get the pix really quick before I packaged it up!

Julie the Mail Carrier

Sometimes we don't realize how the smallest human connections can mean so much.

We've lived in our house in Royal Oak for 12 years now and we've always had the same mail carrier. Her name is Julie. Six days a week Julie would come bearing the fruits of the U.S. Postal Service -- sometimes good mail (magazine, personal letters & cards), sometimes bad mail (bills & junk mail). But there she was every day trudging along her route on my street no matter the weather.

When it was 95 degrees, I'd offer her some water. In the freezing temps, I'd offer her coffee or hot chocolate.

Over the years we shared our families goings on -- jobs found, jobs lost, her parents illness, my mother-in-laws passing.

Even Rupert, our dog, got attached to her. Rupert likes to lay on top of an arm chair in the bay window facing our yard. In the summer, she would pass by the window and say, "Hey, Rup!" She's the only stranger, actually, who he wouldn't bark insanely at. We always knew if Julie was on vacation or off sick because Rupert would go crazy barking. If I happened to be around when Julie came by, I'd let Rupert out the front so they could visit for a minute before she continued on her route.

The other day I was out shoveling snow when Julie came by and she gave me the bad news... well, bad news for us, good news for her. The post office finally reduced her route after 10 years of delivering mail and our route was one that she cut. Starting in February we'll have a new carrier. I'm sure he/she will be just fine, but we're going to miss Julie.

So I decided I wanted to make her a going away present -- a cowl to keep her warm on her new route.

After researching patterns on Ravelry, I settled upon Kelly's Cowl’d and Frosty Morning. It's a simple pattern that I know I can knit up in a couple of days in front of the telly, and it matches the Tahki Yarns Bunny
Print yarn that I was gifted this summer.

I hope she likes it... I'll let you know.

I forgot to mention....

This was my favorite Christmas gift from our friends Dean and Nancy

Crosspatch Hat

Made this hat for a friend of mine who has kidney cancer and has to go through chemo. I just love this pattern! It's easier then it looks and only took a couple of nights!
The pattern is by Elizabeth Morrison and published at Knitty.com -- it's called the Crosspatch Hat. I used Blue Sky Alpacas Olive and Dungaree Blue Worsted Hand Dyes. Next up is one for the hubby!

Extreme Knitting - How to Hand Knit a Mattress

This is just crazy!!

Bird Girl

Bird Girl in Summer.....

Bird Girl in Winter.....

What else is there to say?

I'm thinking babies!!!!

No, I'm not pregnant.

But my stepson and his wife (aka Boy and Girl) just may be thinking of trying to get pregnant this year and finally make us grandparents!

With that hope in mind, I've decided I'm going to start knitting baby clothes -- gender-neutral of course!

After researching patterns on Ravelry, I've come up with my first two projects.

The Baby Berry Hat

and

The Tomato Baby Beanie

Both patterns are available for free to all...

Yes, there are plenty of patterns out there for sweaters, hoodies, booties, etc. but these are just so darn cute (and gender-neutral) that I can't resist them!

Do you have any favorite baby patterns? Share them please!

OK, cold night. Time for comfort food.... Sloppy Joes. Here's my mom's recipe...


1 lb. hamburger
1 lrg onion
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 c. ketchup
1 c. water
1 tsp. celery salt
1 tsp. paprika
1-2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
several dashes Tabasco
salt and sugar to taste

Brown burger, onion and celery in skillet.
Drain fat.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer at
least 20 minutes until celery and onion
are tender and sauce is thickened.

Brrrrrr.....

Okay, I grew up in northern Michigan where we went to school in the winter (when school was in) wearing layers upon layers... long johns (top & bottom), jeans, 2 pairs of socks, a turtleneck, a shirt and a sweater. Not great for showing off your figure, but definitely kept you warm!

I remember when we would have snow days for days on end, I would get cabin fever and actually walk into town to my girlfriend's house in the middle of snow storms and 4 ft. snow.

Well, after 25 years in metro Detroit ("The South"), I've lost my northernness, my thick blood, my ability to tolerate cold temperatures.

Woke up today and it was 3 degrees -- currently, midday, it is 14 -- woo hoo! I'm freezing my butt off and so are The Kids -- The Kids being 5 cats, a dog and a bird. Witness picture below. Sofia and EZ cuddling together which NEVER happens.

Sofia, right, EZ the Burmese, left ( aka "3-of-5" and "1-of-5", respectively for you Trekkies)

Rupert, the dog, won't even go out unless he really has too.

Meanwhile, Sylvi survives and cuff is done and the sleeve is actually in the making! No going back now!

Sylvi Obsession

Well, it's freakin' freezing here in metro Detroit! We're at our high of 14 degrees for the day with a forecast of a low of -9 -- yikes! We've had 37.5" of snowfall so far this season -- the most we've had in a longtime.
For those of you who don't get snow, don't want snow, don't remember what snow looks like -- I'm offering up this pic of my backyard taken this morning through a storm door window from the warm comfort of my kitchen! Enjoy, gloat, do whatever moves you!
So, after my requisite 3 hours of looking for a job on the Internet (found 1 to apply for, which makes it a productive day here in our island of economic depression called Michigan), I am finally free to ponder all things knitting and Nothing But Sylvi!

So this three-part tale....

Cuff #1

After much research and discussion with others on Ravelry, I decided to knit the small size but on 10 1/2" needles.
So I cast on and knitted the 14" according to the pattern and created finished the cuff with the 1" overlap.
Then I decided I didn't like the overlap.
So I ripped it out and started over.

Cuff #2

I cast on again and knitted to 13", stitched the ends together and happily picked up my 39 stitches, and I was off and running in seed stitch land.
Meanwhile, I was still obsessing about sizing. I definitely think (maybe) that the small is the right size for me. I'm 5' 4", 115 lbs and would like to wear this sweater in spring and fall, but wanted to make sure there was room for a turtlenect underneath. That's why I decided to go with the 10 1/2" needles instead of 10" needles -- to give me a little extra room.
And I kept monitoring the Sylvi KAL on Ravelry and with post I read this little voice kept nudging (screaming?) at me, "This sweater is going to be too big the way you're going!"
I put my arm through the cuff/sleeve -- it did seem pretty big around my wrist. I measured, tried on, obsessed some more and finally decided -- again, definitely, I'm committing to this and not changing my mind.
So I ripped it out and started over.

Cuff #3

Last night, I cast on... AGAIN!
I'm using size 10" needles, strictly following the pattern (except for the cuff overlap, of course). So I'm ready to stitch the ends in again, pick up my 39 stitches and humbly ask the gods for re-entry into seed stitch land and go forth....

Shrinking and Felting

Well, yesterday was time for my monthly visit to our family shrink to discuss my mental well-being in the face of unemployed.

When I first learned the restaurant was going to close and that we'd both be out of work, I started having panic attacks at the thought of having to return to some high-powered corporate job like I'd had before that would just consume my person and all my time (before the restaurant, I was the Director of Interactive Media for a multi-media publishing company).

A visit to my good doctor result in orders to take a hiatus this summer and regroup both physically and emotionally.

So on this particular day, I was sitting in the waiting room working on an i-cord handle for this felted wine cozy when he called me in for our meeting. I had told him that I've been knitting for sanity and he asked me what I was working on. The end result -- we spent the majority of our meeting talking about knitting!

I explained to him the felting process and ended up logging onto Ravelry on his computer and showing him this modified Groovy Striped Felted Bag that I just finished as a beach bag for my mother who lives on Lake Charlevoix. (Read post below to see how I modified the pattern!)

Then I showed him this blog... and he thought it was interested... now he'll probably read this to see how I'm really doing!

Sundries and such

After a little more than a year in a nursing home with dementia, my 86-year-old mother-in-law Betty passed away this past February. Sadly, my husband, an only child, is now an orphan. My own family has reached out to him to let him know that they're his family now, but that can be a bit overwhelming for Philip -- I have 5 older brothers who are all married and sometimes our family get-togethers can get a bit overwhelming for him -- even after 10 years!

We had Betty's belongings in a storage unit but recently moved them into our garage so that we could save the $120 a month it was costing us. Being unemployed and with a lot of time on our hands we've been sorting through her furniture and belongings -- had an estate sale in our driveway for three weekends in a row -- Betty would be happy that the sale of her belongings helped us make our latest mortgage payment.

Going through the things that made up her life was sad for Philip -- much of it was from his life growing up as well. But there were some amusing surprises as well...

Before I share, let me put it into context. There is one major difference in the philosophies of my family and Philip's -- Philip's parents philosophy was, "Why do it yourself when you can pay someone to do it for you," while my family has always held, "Why pay someone to do it when you can do it yourself."

So for Betty that meant eating out instead of cooking, taking clothes to the tailor rather than sewing a button herself, getting the dry cleaner to pick up and deliver her clothes, etc. Up until she went to the nursing home she wore suits everyday!

With that knowledge, I just had to chuckle as I sorted through the boxes and counted up about 5 full sets of pots and pans, a huge collection of cookbooks and a beautiful old sewing machine, among other things! There were two sewing boxes full of needles and thread and buttons and a sundry of knitting items including yarn, needles, vintage measuring tapes and a decorate box full of bone crochet hooks!

I loved Betty -- she and I developed a relationship that was asclose as a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law can. She always introduced me as her daughter and as time went on and her dementia set it she would barely start a sentence or question and I could finish it or answer it without a hint of what was on her mind.

We miss her so much - her wry humor and her and bright smile. And I know she'd be smiling that I found these things, knowing I would tease her about them, but most importantly, that I will use them!

Groovy Things

Well I haven't left the house since I decided to embark on my little experiment, but I do have to go to the post office and the bank today so we'll see what happens...



I have, however, started to read the book, and so far it is keeping my interest. It along the same vein as Debbie Macomber's Shop of Blossom Street series of which I've read A Good Yarn.



I probably would be deeper into the book, but I've been trying to use my time to clean our house room by room -- after 2 years of working at the restaurant 7 days a week, suffice to say our house is a bit of a pit! Piles of stuff everywhere. Helping that along is the fact that we've got 5 cats, a dog and a bird so there's plenty pet hair and bird fluff to deal with.



I've also been trying to finish this Groovy Striped Felted Bag which is going to be a beach bag for my mom. It was supposed to be a Mother's Day present, but now is more likely to be her present for her birthday next month.



The picture here is the product image of Natalie Wilson's pattern. I've actually modified the pattern a bit. Instead of knitting with 6 different colors of yarn, I decided to use 2 yarns -- one is a solid color for the sides and bottom of the bag and then I'm using a Noro self-striping yarn to create the striped sides of the bag.

I tend to knit at night in front of the TV so I thought it would be easier just using the self-striping -- requiring less late-nite brain energy that usually is in small supply!

I've finally finished knitting all the sides so tonight I'll start sewing up the sides. When I have a chance I'll take a picture before I felt it and post it here!

The Friday Night Knitting Club - A Social Experiment

A little more than a month ago, the restaurant my husband and I managed for my brother closed down. While we look for work, I've made it my personal mission to destash our belongings to make a little money to supplement our enemployment checks.
This is driving my husband crazy because I'm selling most of our books and CDs on Amazon -- I just keep telling him we can always re-acquire when we have work and don't have to pay $800 a month for healthcare.

So I'm standing in line at the post office waiting to mail 2 books and a CD that sold overnight and I'm holding the book "The Friday Night Knitting Club."

The woman standing in front of me asks me if its a good book, and I tell her I haven't started reading it -- that my mother just mailed it to me because I'm a knitter. Turns out she is too! So we discuss our local yarn shop and she's trying to figure out what to do with all those little balls of yarn you end up with after finish a project. I tell her about Ravelry.com -- a great website for the knitting community around the world. I belong to one group called "Scrap Happy" where one member posted a link to her blog, SimpleKnits, where she had amassed a list of 500 knitting projects based on how many yard of yarn you have -- from 1 to 285 yards.

I also belong to the Thrifty Knitters group, which is a great forum where I learned about frogging sweaters for the yarn, and Random Acts of Kindness where users post needs and wishlists that others fulfill as their RAK for the day. I tell her about how when the restaurant first closed, I posted a note about "knitting for sanity" about how we were unemployed and I wouldn't be able to buy yarn for a while and I've since received care packages of yarn from knitting around the world.

Next thing you know, she's asking me for my name and address because she wants to destash and send me some yarn! I'm a little embarrased and tell her that I didn't mean for her to do that, but she insisted. So I took her email address and sent her the link to blogpost on scrap projects. She wanted to make toys for her grandkids and there are plenty of ideas there -- my favorite being the finger puppets.

Then, this man 3 people down the line asks me if the book is any good because his partner is a knitter and belongs to a knitting circle that meets at the local Coffee Beanery on Friday nights. I tell him that I haven't read it yet, but it's supposed to be very good and he declares that he's going out to buy it for his partner right after he mails his packages off.

I used to belong to a knitting circle at my local yarn store, but can't afford the fee for the two-month session. This man points out that the Friday night group is free so I'm going to go check it out this weekend.

I called my mother when I got home and told her that her gift of the book was giving more than she intended and told her about my post office antics and she was delighted. Then she came up with a great idea -- carry the book with me wherever I go and see if it continues to facilitate these unexpected encounters.

We knitters love to talk about knitting with anyone that will listen so I've decided to take up my mom's idea and carry it in the outer pocket of my purse when I go out... we'll see what happens!