Hawks in flight...

... the hawks are back in my neighborhood. We've had a family for three seasons now... i am happy to see them soaring high above the trees and really do love to hear their call. Makes this suburban hamlet a little more rustic....

.... working on the baby sweater from the weekend - hopefully it will be done by wednesday - i gave up knitting last night during the oscars and skyped and facebooked instead...

... b&c (affectionate term for the OH) installed my bluray burner whilst i was away. I burned dvds over the weekend that actually WORK in my dvd player. Not bluray yet, but it makes me feel so much less like a nincompoop to see that it was my old dvd burner that was the problem and not "operator error".

the ever present soldier socks are getting their 20 minutes a day treatment until i finish the baby gift. then they will be front and center til finished. then... (notice i am procrastinating) the fair isle socks. ... i need to do more socks for me.. i almost always give them away.

grey and dreary here.. but no snow... so i will take it... maybe having the winter from hell has made us all more happy to see anything but snow? LOL

New Life...

...not the Spring variety (although i can actually see my lawn now thanks to all the rain)... but rather the baby variety. I've started a sweater for my neighbors' new son... born on superbowl sunday ... it's called the Wee-one Welcome Set by KnittingAtKNoon (however the picture is not the most flattering - the newer pic on my pattern is in self patterning yarn). I am using KNITCOL trends from adriafil and i like the feel of it so far. The pattern is top down and one piece, yay! My goal is to complete it in a weekend, so i can gift it next week.

So off the needles are my woodruff mittens. I can work on them as needed, and after all, i will be gone again in two weeks and not back til i won't need mittens at home (i hope). My soldier socks have a goal of finish this week as well, although i hope to start another pair for my next trip - they are so easy to knit in transit (who'da thought i'd say that about socks, when so many people have such trouble with them...)

I have not started my fair isle socks yet - i think they will be next (putting the mittens further on hold)... i would like to master that and get on with it....

music.. yes.. there is music today... if i can find it on yt i will embed.. lol


and a quote.. i've gotten away from this and need to get back....

home isn't where you live - it's where people understand you....

information superhighway

while answering the stocked up emails i have from not being home on the range computer, i took a break to read a few articles in Knitter's Review - the latest is a reprise of how to substitute yarn in a project.

now... i do not create my own patterns. Don't have the talent. LOVE that others do. But to be honest many times those creative people use yarns i cannot afford. so i have long been of the "substituting yarn" category. The article on this (or actually a series of them) helps people who may not have the steps or the information to DO the steps.

I am extremely (can i repeat extremely!) fortunate to have a chart that was created by someone at my LYS years ago. I took the info this lovely person gave me (thank you eileen!) and put it on business cards - and have carried it with me ever since - over the years i've gotten pretty good at recognizing some of the information with regards to gauge and needle size (fingering/dk/worsted come to mind) but there are times still when yarn stumps me. For those times that little cheat sheet comes in way handy!

A similar cheat sheet appears in the article on Knitter's Review this week ... the article you can find if you click here - thank you to Clara Parkes for reprising this article written a while ago. There are links to current yarn info (YARNDEX and RAVELRY have great information stored)and discontinued yarns and what their qualities are (yards/meters per skein etc) in case you have old patterns that do not specify. The newer patterns DO give you (often) the yardage on the yarn they call for - at least when you sub out you can do the math.

with the glut of new media available, one thing i also do is keep a running list of yarn i might need for a project on my ipod (i probably could on my phone, but i like keeping that separate) - just the weight, what it's for, and the yardage - so if i am surprised by a LYS somewhere i can still stash wisely.

i feel i've gotten better over the years and don't buy as indiscriminately - but i do succumb often to internet clearances - not always good for the budget.

so ... what am i knitting... working on the round and rounds of my latest pair of soldier socks. am at the 7 inch mark and only need two more inches to decrease the toes and be done. need maybe to be asking for another pair of legs.

Also working on the woodruff mittens spoken of in my last post - i should learn how to put something in the side bar with 'works in progress' - shouldn't i.. oh well not a necessity since there is probably not a lot of reason - lol - the yarn i am using is the School Products pure merino i purchased in december - it is a little stiffer than i like to work with - but i am hopeful it will soften as advertised. The mittens are for me, since i've lost two pairs this winter - i usually opt for fingerless mitts (will post a couple of pics) but sometimes you just need "closure"

most are a variation of "socks for hands" - a pattern from a calendar from several years ago. I altered it to be knit in the round, with a longer cuff and longer ribbing in the finger area - so it is not the original pattern anymore - but i cannot claim creative responsibility - someone else did all the math - i just did a variation.

could this post be any longer? i am thinking not...

here a stitch... there a stitch...

everywhere a stitch, stitch...

Having a bit of "how small are these stitches??" today with the soldier socks (in order to obtain gauge in my loosy goosy way of knitting, i need to use 00 needles on the heels and toes of socks.. and the rest of the sock is usually on a 0 (at the most a small 1) - so i took a quick break and started a pair of mittens for ... well maybe even for myself.

knitting a pair of Woodruff mittens by brooklyn tweed (jared flood)in a merino wool i bought in bulk on a trip to School Products. Dark Grey merino... tweedy. I had to learn, however, how to enlarge a chart on a pdf.. and it was not easy. I think it might be a good idea to supply a link for a bigger copy of intricate charts one can purchase as pdf's .. for old eyes that cannot read the small print.. LOL

more music today - Deliver Me, by the Dave Crowder Band - someone posted it today on FB and i was immediately in like with it. When you hear the words you feel spill out of someone else's voice, you know you are not alone with the things you face....

today's quote .... hmmmmmmmmmm....

I daren't hope a woman like that would care for me. No one loves me, no one but you...

a perfect kid...

... watching a television program tonite and one of the characters said (i paraphrase)... "all those different bits and pieces, put them together and shake them around ... what comes out? a perfect kid... every time..."

and it's true.. no matter what nuances you may or may not love or like ... every kid is the perfect combination of the parts supplied. What happens, happens.. and all along the way there are people somewhere smiling down at them as they try to make their way through the world. Some of them make their way for a very long time... decades, scores, half and sometimes even whole centuries.. some of them only make their way for a little while... but their impact is the same on our hearts... yep... each and every one.. a perfect kid...

i'm back where the weather warns of snow, sleet and freezing rain, instead of a thunder shower and humidity... it's nice to be back in my home... but aaaah was that warmth of the past few days well received... i am almost done with another pair of soldier socks and my next project will be little miss bound i am thinking.. although i do have a pattern for some fair isle socks with a tutorial or two.. i am nervous of (i refuse to say scared of) fair isle, as i know if you knit with a firm hand you will make the dang socks too tight to go over your heel, but i am determined to learn it and become comfortable. wish me luck... LOL

new music tonite - Love and Permanence by Azure Ray - as always thanks youtube for allowing the chance to share the music... although they can be poopy on occasion... lol

have been a bit lax with the quotes lately - will post a really really simple one...

"woman, your willfulness will kill you..."

thanks, i needed that... where the palm trees sway...

... is where i am ... the sunshine state has been very very good to me...

.....visiting family, with family... and the weather has done massive good to my psyche...the sun is shining and there is green here!

Yesterday i spent an hour or two at the beach (dog beach at Walton Rocks) and today i sat with a "sunning" top on soaking up as much vitamin d as i can before i need to make the return trip to the cold place where the ground is still white (although i hear it is warm there this week too). i am excited to hear some of the snow's melted. it's supposed to be cold next week, but i can stand it, because i will be back in the sunshine once more this spring ...

i even have photographic evidence of the sun, but i have not uploaded it here yet, so i will have to post the photos later.

i feel a little out of touch with my internet contacts, because i have not done a lot with the computer whilst here... but i have spent dedicated time knitting a pair of soldier socks and reading lots of knitting mags...

tomorrow jetblue will wing me home.... sigh....