a sweater for Rhinebeck

Last night I finished Bryce’s sweater. Its still damp, hopefully it will be dry tomorrow because the boy desperately wants to wear it to school. Right now I have Rhinebeck on the brain, and I want to knit myself a sweater. Last night I gathered up a few possibilities and wound them up, started swatching like crazy. And by this morning the swatches where blocking. And damnit. I can’t make up my mind. (And yet again, I’m a little pissed at gauge.)

swatches from left to right:

• I was thinking of using the dark blue (Bartlett yarns)  or the light blue (Mooreland tweed from Autumn House Farm) for tweedy aran cardigan. Or maybe the light blue for Cassidy (but with out the hood)
• Redish (Peace Fleece) is for 28thirty, but mohair has been making me itchy lately.
• The gray (Greenwoodhill Farm) is/was for twist the collared version but my gauge is off by a quarter of a freaking inch. But really will it matter? My bust size is 34 on a good day and the smallest pattern size is 35. I don’t want it skin tight though, a little baggy.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions cause I would love to use up some of my stash before Rhinbeck and I would love to have a sweater for wear. Christ, I make this hard on myself don’t I? I really should just knit a shawl and call it done. At least I have this lovely handspun cowl to comfort myself with.

More info on flickr and ravelry. Its so comfy and cozy, I just want to snuggle my face down into it! Now, I’m going to go stare at these swatches and hope they tell me something. Or maybe I’ll just light them on fire.
Crap. Wool doesn’t burn.

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almost on time…

I had a sinking feeling when I casted on for Bryce’s picture day sweater that I wasn’t going to be done in time. When I told Bryce that it was a good possibility that his sweater wasn’t going to be done in time and I told him not to worry there will always be retakes (yeah, I’m totally going with the idea that my 7 year old son is waiting with incredible amounts of enthusiasm to wear a sweater for picture day that his mother made for him. Sarcasm escapes me). And Bryce replies with “Don’t worry Mommy, I’m just happy that your knitting a sweater for me.” Kid totally knows how to ham up his Mom. (And how to get lots of handknits.) Yesterday he told me that he is glad I’m not a “mean” Mom. (I’m pretty sure its cause he wants his pokemon cards back.) Anway, his picture day was Tuesday and as you can see,

I didn’t quite make it. But on the other hand, I personally think this sweater is turning out beautifully. Bryce agrees and keeps telling me how soft it is. I’ve attached the sleeves and am 2″ into the yoke (I plan on knitting 3″ before starting the yoke pattern thing yeah).  Now that I’ve gotten most of the boring bits outta the way I’m ready for the fun part. Bring on the yoke!

Happy Birthday sweetie

we all wish you where home so we could wake you up with cupcakes (traditional birthday breakfast here). But instead you’ll have to settle for a birthday song:

Happy Birthday sweetie

Originally uploaded by mistress_stash_enhancer

sung repetitively throughout the day, along with many phone calls wishing you a very happy birthday. *EG* cause I know answering your calls singing “Happy Birthday!” puts a big smile on your face *mawwhahhaa* Even for the 14th time.
Now when you get home, you may or may not have cake. Your presents may require a scavenger hunt to find them, that’s if you have presents. And party? Who said anything about a party?
I bet your happy your Birthday falls exactly 19 days after mine. mawwahhahaa
Happy Birthday love

for the love of tweed,

Since ya’ll are knitters you will understand this dream. You will not think that I’m crazy, ya’ll might have even had a dream like this. Sometime this summer I decided that I would knit sweaters for my kids to wear for picture day. I knew that their school has an (in my opinion) early picture day, I figured it would be in late September. I was shocked when the paper came home telling me it was going to be September 16! Thank goodness I was almost done with Corra’s sweater but I hadn’t even ordered the yarn for Bryce’s sweater! I knew that I wanted to knit him drive-thru, but I was going to knit it using knitpicks swish. That was, until I had my dream. I don’t know if it was the late night blog reading or what. But last Wednesday night I dreamt about yarn, I dreamt about his sweater. I dreamt about tweed.

yeah, you so read that right. I had a dream about knitting Bryce’s sweater.I tried telling myself that I could wait to get the yarn. I could wait till Saturday, till Corra’s sweater was done. (Those sleeves where taking for.ever!) But I knew that one of my local yarn shops has Queensland Collection Kathmandu (rav link) but I couldn’t remember if it was in DK or aran. I was hoping it was in aran, since the pattern is written for worsted weight. I couldn’t wait one more day, I drove down Thursday afternoon (they are closed Friday’s.) Nope, not that lucky. It was DK and the pattern is written so the sweater is knit from the bottom up. Fantastic. I thought, well it won’t be that hard, I’ll just knit a swatch, tweek some numbers and it will be all good.

damned swatch was no bloody help at all. I did learn that the yarn does grow and fluff up a bit after its been washed. but clicky on that pic to embiggen it. You’ll see. It didn’t matter what size needle I used, the damned gauge is the same on a US 6 or a 7. 5.5 sts/inch All the damned same. *grumble* Ok, if I could have lived with the fabric the US8’s gave me it woulda been ok, but the stitches where too loose. You know where this is going now? I had to re-wright the pattern. Math! Gah! No! Say it isn’t so! Ok, really it wasn’t that bad. Maybe some other day I’ll explain now but right now my brain just hurts. And I want to get back to knitting with this yummy tweedy yarn.

I’ve finished one sleeve this afternoon and started the second one right after it. I realize now with picture day being 4 days away there is no way I’m going finish this sucker before then. But there are always retakes, right?

ps. Finished Corra’s sweater Monday-ish I’m just waiting on the buttons.

proud parenting moment

When I had Bryce I never thought I would ever get a note home from his teacher stated this:

I’ve never been so proud. (please hear the sarcasm in my voice.) My eyes are tearing, (from holding back the laughter) edited to add: Bryce told his teacher that he ate a lego (his choice of words) last weekend and that he *ahem* saw it after he went to the bathroom while he was at school.
Now, back to the mad sleeve knitting. I’m almost done with the 2nd sleeve to Corra’s sweater.

OhmyGosh!

Living with an almost teen can be, um, interesting sometimes. Girl’s are very dramatic, energetic and did I mention dramatic? Recently while my parents where visiting we loaded all the kids up in the mini-van (aka the crazy train. Whoot, Whoot!) and we where on our way to drop Corra off at a Birthday pool party for one of her friends and the rest of us where going to DQ. On the way to the party (which was less then a half a mile from the house) Corra kept “ohmygosh”ing everything. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. It was driving me crazy. My darling mother, after hearing me tell Corra to stop “ohmygoshing” started, what else, but “ohmygoshing” me. Then my father started “ohmygoshing”. Then it became a night full of “ohmyGOSH!”ing. I thought my brain was going to explode. My only comfort is knowing that my sis and I get to pick out my parents retirement home. They have to be nice to get windows.
I figured, with all the “ohmyGOSH”ing I’ve heard lately its my turn to start. I have lots to ohmygosh about. First: OhmyGOSH! I finished the body to Corra’s february lady sweater earlier this week

I used a US 8 (5.0mm) for the yoke and then switched to a US 10 (6.0 mm) for the lace. This is crazy, but ohmygosh it was so hard to knit with the 10’s! I had to really watch the stitches to make sure I didn’t drop any. When I first started knitting 10’s where small, but now they are huge! And I prefer to knit with 7’s. Crazy! Anyway, I switched back to the 8’s for the garter on the bottom. I was hoping that using a larger needle would open up the lace pattern for me. But it looks like it didn’t. I don’t anticipate the yarn opening up much after “blocking”, its superwash after all.
OhmyGOSH! I stopped by Susie’s etsy shop the other day and saw this lovely roving that I just HAD to have. She sent along a few gifties too,

on the left 6.0 superwash merino in Drama (I can’t wait to spin this up, its so pretty!) And on the right 3.5oz superwash merino in lipstick and a beautiful orifice hook gifties from Susie. She’s such a sweetie!
Now see here, OHMYGOSH! My first um, yarn? Its a real stretch calling my first skein yarn.

My second one isn’t so much of a stretch,

but both are equally lovely in their own way, they are my first “yarns!” I navajo plied them both, ohmygosh that was hard. My calves where killing me! They both are thick and thin, have spots that are beautifully plied. There are some noils, are over spun in spots and under spun in others, but doesn’t that add character? My second skein is full of energy (clicky here for a pic). Lots of energy, so much that isn’t not balanced. A photo of them together shows how much practice helps.

Ohmygosh! I’m so proud, and loven this spinning thing. I used up all that Corriedale mandaJ and I bought at Silverbrook farms outside of Punxtawney when we got our spindles. Remember that? Ohmygosh that was some time ago!

The Boy is totally fine, ohmygosh is he lucky. He is still missing his lego’s, upset that one of his lego club shipments came and he can’t open it till the lego ban is lifted tomorrow. He’s still fine. Still cute, see?

OhmyGOSH! I have one last thing, remember how I want to knit sweaters for my kids to wear for their school pictures? Well picture day for our school is thefreaking16. I have 9 days to finish Corra’s sweater and start on Bryce’s. OhMYGOSH! I’m totally screwed.
Ohmygosh! Happy MandaJ! I updated my blog, showed my handspun, now oh.my.gosh, where the heck is your blog now?

I’m all ohmygoshed out, I have no idea how Corra can do this all day. Night!