She Knits By The Seashore

Tired

It has been a very long couple of weeks.

Chris and I have had strange work schedules and late hours. I think I'm Seasonally Affected and Disordered this time of year, try as I might to fight it. (Please Mr. Sun with your Light and Warmth, come back!). My sinuses are rebelling. Are you feeling this way too?

Weekend naps, lots of tea, and knitting are a wonderful treatment.  I'm more than half way done with the Noni bag.

I started ball 4 of 8 on the Gossamer Wrap. It is going to be a large paralellogram -- isn't the Clapotis knit this way too, on the diagonal? I hope that the thickness of the yarn doesn't make this look funky, but since I'm knitting it to wear as a wrap around the house, I'll try not to worry about it too much.

The Caroline sweater is coming along, but I'll wait until I'm finished with the back before I share that.

Chris at Stumbling Over Chaos read about my search for new music for my iPod, and sent me a wonderful selection of CDs. She has an amazing collection of music!! Thank you so much!!

It's still too cold to ride our bikes outdoors, but we've been watching the Tour Down Under in South Australia on Cycling.TV. The next big cycling race will be Tour of California, February 17-24. If you have the Versus channel in the US, you can see it on cable TV, and experience some sun and warmth vicariously too.

With that in mind, Meg and I are already in the planning stages for the 2008 Tour de France KAL. Even if you're not a cycling fan, or don't know how to ride, I hope you'll consider joining us. We'll share information about the cities hosting the route, French culture, some recipes, and of course, lots of knitting. In addition to the blog, there is a Tour de France KAL group on Ravelry, and we would love your feedback on last year's KAL or suggestions for what you'd like to see this year. A certain co-hostess is egging me on to do the Breton Girl pullover from Knitscene as my Tour project. Do I dare?

Odds and Ends

Karen graciously sent me a few partial skeins so that I can finish those mohair mittens. I only need a little, so this will be plenty. Thank you so much!!

I finally started the Noni bag, something Sarah and I have been wanting to do for a long time. The directions are really confusing as written, but the bag should work out OK the way we're knitting it.

Amazon delivered something to help me work on one of my New Year's Goals (plus a little something else):

The Luxury Knits book has been on my wish list for a long time, though now that I own it, I'm not sure I like the patterns as much as I remembered. Has this happened to you?  What I also have my eye on is this: it's hard to tell from the cover if the patterns will be pretty or corny, so I'm waiting to see a copy in the LYS before I purchase it. And speaking of cats, there is definitely some bad behavior modeling in my house:

"See, Rosie, this is how you get some really good tangling going..."

Have a great weekend!

2008, or, The Year of the Sweater

I had hoped to post this earlier in the week, but sometimes life just gets in the way!

Robin's post got me thinking. Knitting Daily's "Knit Fearlessly" email too.  I'd already started a list of goals for the New Year, but they were looking so rigid. Knitting is supposed to be fun, something to take the pressure off from work and other stressors. In trying to meet my goals and finish projects, I'm feeling like the goals are stifling my creativity. I need more balance, more room for serendipity. You might say that my right brain has a headache.

Rather than list specific projects to knit in 2008, I'm going to call it The Year of the Sweater. Sweaters are one of my favorite things to make, yet I found myself working on everything else in 2007. So...

Fantine

1. Knit Sweaters -- whatever strikes me at the time. Possibilities include Fantine, Dream in Color shrug, Coral Crossing, Haze, and others in the "Dreaming About" column. I'm hoping one of these will be multi-colored (intarsia) too, and I'm definitely going to try top-down sweaters.

Haze, from the Sublime Mohair book

Other goals:

2. Try audiobooks for knitting. I've been asking lots of questions to people I know who listen while they knit. I'm still not sure of the best way to go: audible.com, iTunes, librivox. But I'd like to listen to some of the classics I didn't read in college, and this seems like a great way to do that.

3. Learn how to use my Macbook. Since we got it last Feb, I've been using it for the same things I do on a PC, surfing the internet, emails, etc. But the reason I wanted it is to be able to work with photos and graphics in a way I'm told can't be done well on the PC. Recommendations on where to start?

4. Try to ride the century that I missed last September.

5. Get Your Guts in Gear ride, June 2008.

6. Tour de France KAL with Meg, July 2008.

Without meaning to, I seem to have taken on a new hobby this year (maybe the serendipity is already happening?). Inspired by another family member, I've gotten an account on Ancestry.com and am starting to input my family history. This is all so new to me that I don't have any plans yet except to work with my mother to input all we know, and see what happens next. If anyone has tried this, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Rainy

And, last but not least, next Wednesday night I start volunteering at Rainy's former shelter. Two hours each week in the infirmary, cleaning cages and working with a vet tech to give medication. I went once before Christmas for training and it's not too hard -- we've done pills and liquids and shots at home, but eye cream is new to me and will definitely take a little practice. At most shelters, volunteers are needed just to pet and play with and walk the animals, to help them get used to humans and make them more adoptable. But since Charlie trained us for meds, I thought it might be nice to honor him by putting that skill to use. We'll see how it goes!

It's going to be a very busy year. What will you be up to?

Picot Camisole

I never thought I'd see the day. How many times I ripped, and how many times I wanted to quit altogether!!! But it was a stage 17, Tour de France project 2006, and I could not give up.

Pattern: Picot Camisole, Spring 06 Interweave Knits

Needles: Size 2 Addis for everything (pattern suggests 3 & 4 US)

Yarn: Rowan Cotton Glace, 5 balls of Peony

Started: June 2006. Swatch here. Almost gave up here. Working in earnest here. At last, victory.

needs more blocking on the top edge

Mods: My gauge was off because of the yarn substitution, so there are tiny mods for fit throughout. I added extra rows in the midsection per suggestions on Ravelry, and am happy with the length. The main problem I have with this pattern is that it's too low cut in the front for me to wear by itself. I looked at other patterns and worked with a grid, and my ever-patient mentors at the LYS, and asked for suggestions from you, to see if I could re-design it. In the end, there was no way I could see (at least with my current skills) to re-do the top without making the overall design less attractive. So, it's likely to be worn as a vest. (It's a little bunchy over my turtleneck in these photos, but I think it does fit well, considering all the frogging, re-knitting, and trying on I did). If you get the Knitting Daily emails and have been watching those galleries with the sample knits, I think this would be an ideal project for that experiment.

Next up: 2008 goals, and a new project, from the same vintage as the camisole.

P.S. I do have model photos showing my face, but they came out too geeky to post here, so we'll have to make do with the headless shots.

A Look at 2007

The pink camisole in the previous post hasn't been blocked yet, but it was the last "must-finish" item for 2007. Now I can look at last year's goals and see how I did:

The Important Goals

1)To finish the current (as of last January) three projects In The Knitting Bag, especially Mrs. Belli's Diamond Edging, which has been going on for a long time now.

Mrs. Belli's edging, the lacy stole, and the camisole are finished. Finally!

2)To knit a Noni baguette bag.

Next on the list. I've had the pattern and yarn all ready to go, but other projects kept getting in the way.

3)To have no more than 3, but preferably just 2 (one easy, one challenging) projects on the needles at a time.

This worked out really well and I'll continue this year.

4)To come up with some sort of a gift & charity knitting plan.

My sweet Charlie models the cat blanket. I miss him so  much!!

I didn't come up with a specific plan, but did knit a few squares for gift blankets, a sweater and scarves for presents, and mittens and a cat blanket for blog collections. I'll try to contribute again this year, depending on what comes up.

Things I also hope to do:

1)Knit one French Girl pattern. I love the projects in their ads, and just bought Diamanta.

Oceane

2)Start one of the patterns in the Drops No. 88 booklet. I love the mohair cardigan, #14.

I didn't have time for this.

3)Learn crochet edgings, and/or simple beading.

I also didn't have time to do this, but the current sweater, Caroline, has crochet edging, so I'm going to learn very soon!

Here are few other non-knitting goals for this year:

1)To sell our house, and move to a new-to-us house in a quieter area. The house must have a fireplace, as we don't have one here and really miss it.

Yes! It was why I didn't have time for #2 & #3, but it was a wonderful trade, as we finally have our longed-for fireplace. I can't tell you how much I enjoy knitting by the fire.

2)To ride a century, 100 miles, on my bicycle.

Training time was lost because of our move. I did go to New Hampshire with the intention of giving it my best try, but then hurt my knee on a ride the previous week, and decided it was better to accept my limits and try again this year.

3)To discover new music to put on the iPod.

I've found a few new songs, and re-discovered some old favorites. For reasons I cannot explain, I'm going through a mean Wang Chung phase right now: "Everybody Have Fun Tonight."

In the next post, I'll share some goals for 2008. I know that these kinds of posts are probably not as interesting to read since they're personal to me, but it does help me to get things out of the knitting bag so I can post the finished objects. As much as I don't like the idea of resolutions, I do like the idea of setting goals. Writing things down helps me to see where I want to go and helps me to get there.