Otherwise Occupied

Oh I wish I had a space
A space to call my own
A place to put my knitting things
Where none can bring the phone.

I wish I had a space
A place to put my things
Where no one else can feel at home
Oh, that would make me sing!

I SO wish I had space!
Where none could bother me
My time would be my own and none
could tell me how to be.

Until I have some space
I guess I'll have to share
At least I really love this guy
Who's sitting in my chair.

Thanksgiving and Stitches schedule!

THANKSGIVING:
We had a great Thanksgiving and Jeni and I even worked some on our knitting. We must have been inspiring 'cause the next morning, at 5:30 a.m.(!) we were up and on our way to Purlescence for their Jammy Sale. I skipped out on wearing my jammies, but it was fun and there were a lot of people there! AND we were joined by my eldest daughter Isha, my ex-husband's fiance Hannah (love saying that!), and my niece Danielle who is expecting a baby (we were there picking out yarn for a shawl I am going to knit for her), but get this- Danielle bought her own yarn to knit a scarf!!!! Then I was able to teach her how to knit while we waiting for Hobbee's to open in the parking lot. I am so proud and she is a quick learner...
But that 5:30 a.m. thing? Yeah, only for yarn.

Then we all got together on Sunday and worked on our scrapbooks AND our knitting. Such the perfect weekend!

STITCHES:

I am stoked. I was able to get all of my first choice classes!

Yipee!

Thursday: Traditional Shetland Scarf with Candace Eisner Strick.
Friday: Twined Mittens with Beth Brown-Reinsel (6 hr. class)
Saturday: Fair Isle Knitting and Flawless Finishing (Norweigian and fair Isle sweaters) with Beth Walker-O'Brien.

I am really looking forward to Stitches this year.

But, for now, I am back to my kniting....

A Spring in Her Step

The socks are loved and appear to be a perfect fit both physically and conceptually! I am sure that my lovely daughter will be most pleased to model them for us so here they are (enter catwalk music with a Washington-esque alternative beat...)


I have named the socks A SPRING IN HER STEP. Seemed most appropriate and the hope is that the "Springy" colors will carry her through the l-o-n-g gray days.

I am currently working on the Wine and Roses Mitts from the latest Interweave Knits magazine. Really a beautiful pattern that. These were originally going to be the Breakfast at Cafe Du Monde gloves, but I just couldn't figure out that pattern. I was mightily confused (How was I supposed to go from 50 stitches in one round to 70 stitches at the end of the next round with no apparent increases?! hmmmm) and then my daughter started to dictate changes that she wanted so I just steered her towards another pattern. Since we had changed plans I am not using cashmere for this, I am instead using the Louet Gems fingering weight yarn that I picked up from Purlesence. These are moving along pretty quickly, although I have learned not to work on them when my eyes are tired or after a glass of wine. Picking up droped stitches or tink-ing lace work is a pain in the arse. I have finished one and am about halfway done with #2. I am liking the yarn very much and thanks to Jeni for suggesting it!

Here is one more photo of the socks. They do suit her (and her boots!), don't you think?

Dreaming of Stitches

I finished the socks.
They look good.
You will have to wait till Isha gets here to model them before you can see them.
They'd better fit.
She has small feet.
They are some rockin' socks if I do say so myself!
Judging from the weather they are having in Washington, she should be very grateful for them!

I got the Stitches West brochure.
Man oh man.
I highlighted all of the classes that I was interested in.
There are a lot of them.

I finally narrowed it down (helped along by the ones that were ALREADY closed!)
and registered online tonight. I tried to go with a bit of a theme, knowing that I have yarn for a Dale of Norway sweater as well as a Philosopher's Wool kit (from last year)and I would really like to start one of those soon. So I mostly went for classes that would help me a bit with one of those projects, plus finishing- cause I love it so much (note the dripping sarcasm here). Well, like I said we'll see what I end up with. Mostly I am looking to improve my technique on the more difficult stuff and am just loking forward to spending a weekend with my knitting! Man, I can't believe that I only found out about this last year. I am SO looking forward to this!

I'll let you know what I ended up getting in to.

I have picked up the husband/alpaca sweater again, but am already feeling the effects of the alpaca so I'm not too sure how long I will be able to work on it. Luckily my husband knows that I love him! I need to get some other project(s) on the needles though. Socks and some gloves for my other daughter. Yep, guess what. I am almost done with last years' Christmas presents.

This year they get cookies.