Fitzroy

Isn't it great when you finish a summer cardigan, and it's still actually summer? I sewed the buttons on Fitzroy this morning and snapped a few pictures, so I thought I'd pop them up on the site.

I'm very happy with this project. Knitting lace is fun, the pattern works, I like the yarn, and the fit is just right. Like any lace project, you can't get too excited when you see this bumpy heap come off the needles, but after blocking--purty.

Besides a couple issues with knots and yardage, the project was a breeze. The designer gives detailed instructions that could guide even a novice lace knitter to a happy ending.

Happy Father's Day

After I got a big breakfast in to the guys, they took off for a Father's Day of golfing. The weather looks a little iffy, so I hope they can get in a round before the thunderstorms hit. If they can't play, maybe it will clear up enough on the east coast so that the US Open can continue and they can at least watch golf. They'll have a good time together either way.

Perfection

How often do we get to experience perfection? And yet that's exactly what this is. Peony buds are the epitome of hope, and when they open up--absolute perfection in sight and scent. Sometimes I think I should dig up my whole garden and just plant peonies.

June is a great month in the garden. My rose bushes are blooming, too. And there's the catmint, the false indigo, and a few delphinium buds ready to burst. We have wrens nesting in the birdhouses and are having daily sightings of two white squirrels.

With all the work outside, I must confess that my knitting is suffering some. The slowdown wasn't all due to the garden. Last week it became obvious that I was going to run out of yarn before I was able to finish my final sleeve on my Fitzroy cardigan, so I got on the Net and the good people at Webs found one more skein of the yarn--in my dye lot. How great is that? Now I'm back in business. My vacation knitting fizzled too when I finally decided that I needed sharper dpns than I had to work on a lace shawl that I wanted to start. The hiatus wasn't too painful, and I'm hoping to finish up the "Fitz" just in time to start a swatch with some yarn that's in a postal truck somewhere between here and the East coast.

Wrigley

Twins vs. Cubbies at Wrigley. Hotel room right next door to a brew pub. One night of Giordano's, and one night of Gino's East deep dish pizzas. Does it get much better?


The sweep would have been perfect, but we'll settle for winning the series.

Chicago really is a great city--one of our favorites--and stadiums don't get much better than Wrigley. It makes us excited for outdoor baseball in MN next year.

Knitting Blasphemies

Knitting has never really been a communal thing for me. Probably because there were so many years when, besides my Mom, I didn't know anyone else who knit. Now that knitting has become more popular, I still tend to see it as a solitary pastime, but I do enjoy the online community support of Ravelry.

In a way, Ravelry has become another knitting tool. When I'm going to start a new project, one of the first things I do is to check the entries of other knitters of their experience with the same project. It's rare if I don't get some tip that helps--yarn selection ideas, links to corrections, some insight into modifications.

Of course, Ravelry has a social component as well. I don't spend a lot of time in the forums utility--I'd rather be knitting, but this last week I have been enjoying a thread on "Knitting Blasphemies" that has obviously hit a chord with other members. Reading some of the entries has been like eavesdropping in a Ravelry confessional. "I hate knitting socks," one knitter admits. "EZ annoys me, and a lot of her patterns are ugly," says another. It's a hoot and good to know that we have kindred spirits with some of our own knitting peeves.

Besides Ravelry, I was distracted from my knitting this week by a delivery from Amazon. Earlier this spring I had pre-ordered Debbie Bliss' new book Design It, Knit It: Secrets from the Designer's Studio. When I saw the Cable Band Cardigan pattern in an ad, I knew right away that it was a sweater I wanted to make.

Although I haven't had much time to read the book too thoroughly, the patterns look tempting. There are several designs I'd like to try, and I'm looking forward to her advice on planning out my own sweaters or at least getting some words of wisdom on making modifications or getting better about picking the right project in the first place.

Despite the intent of the book, I do think I will start out as a blind follower and make the sweater that brought me to the book in the first place. I love the color and the style of this cardigan, and it looks like it would be something fun to knit--something out of the ordinary. You actually begin by knitting the yoke strip band and then proceed by picking up stitiches for the body of the sweater. Isn't it purty!? Must order yarn soon...