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...

Happy Memorial Day!

It's the un-official start of summer and what a beautiful weekend we've had to get the season going. Here in MN, you can never really count on the weather cooperating, but this year has been the rare exception.

During the Twins game this afternoon, the broadcasters broke into the game at 3pm to join the rest of America as they took a minute out of their day to honor all the men and women who have died defending our freedom. It is important to remember why we're home today to rest and watch baseball.

With the warmer weather, it's been time to work in the garden. I took a couple of days to run around looking for all the plants that I wanted and then took this last week to get them in the ground. The gardens look good, my body is sore, and my fingernails are still dirty. Life is good.

I didn't need too many perennials this year. Despite our very cold winter, almost everything came back again this spring. I did decide to try delphiniums and foxgloves again, and I couldn't resist a red and white columbine, or a cute little dwarf catmint. There's always room for one more. Now that the planting is over, it's time to get some pictures and make a few notes for my garden journal. It's always fun to look back to see how the gardens have progressed over the years.

Last year I had the good sense to pot up a few of my herb plants to have right off the back porch, and I did the same again this year. I can't have everything that handy, but I like having the most common ones close by--basil, parsley (Italian and curly), mint (Mojitos), and cilantro.

I also finished up the Bobbled Braids cardigan last week--just in time to store it away for the summer. I'm such a sucker for cables and bobbles, and I especially liked the bobbles in this pattern because they are made without turning the knitting. Each bobble is made by working P1, K1, P1, K1 in one stitch, and then passing the first three stitches over the last one one-by-one. This creates a more subtle bobble that gives texture without being too pronounced.

The pattern runs a little big, so I shortened it by a couple of inches--not a problem for the body, but a bit tougher for the sleeves. I kept the stitch count the same, and if I were to do this again, I would probably reduce the numer of increases so that the sleeves were narrower at the body, but not a big deal. Even the length adjustment was tricky. I wanted to end the cable design to have a crossover at the seam, and one less was too short, one more was a bit too long, so I opted for a longer sleeve.

Overall, I'm really happy with the finished sweater. As this one was drying on the blocking board, I was already casting-on the next project--a cottony summer cardigan. The pattern is one of Kim Dolce's called "Fitzroy." I've been itching to get at this one so that I could knit it up to wear this summer, but it's just not in me to start a new project without finishing the one I'm already knitting. So, if you see me at the July 4th picnic with my wool cable cardigan on, be kind.

No. Empty Nesters Do Not Have More Time.

When I envisioned my first spring as an empty nester, I saw myself leisurely working in my gardens while I listened to the ball game on the radio and sipped on a fresh glass of iced tea. What a dreamer! I'm still running around trying to catch up with my to-do list. Even without kid-madness, I'm not getting to all the things I should be doing at the change of seasons.

Not to sound completely befuddled, I have made some major advances on clearing my calendar of obligations. The biggie is being able to check off some "final meetings" of a few volunteer responsibilities that break for the summer. It's been a little like finals week, and I am inching closer to summer vacation. Lucky it's Friday so that I can take a breather for a few days.

Happy Mother's Day! Always a nice holiday since it actually coincides with the reason I get to celebrate in the first place. My son doesn't really like it when his birthday and Mom's Day are on the same day--attention hog!--so he should be happy this year when they are a day apart. We'll head up to see him for both. Since it's finals week and no one is too interested in birthday partying, spending the day with Mom and Dad doesn't have the shame attached to it as it might otherwise have. I think we might take in the new Star Trek movie at some point over the weekend. Seriously, who ever thought I'd be anxious to see a movie with Spock in it, but it's getting incredible reviews. And I'm sure eating will be a significant part of the celebration as well.

Last night I finished off the left front piece of my Bobbled Braids cardigan. The pattern recommends blocking the pieces before attaching the sleeves with a 3-needle bind off. I've gone ahead and done that in the "big blob of knitting" phase instead so that I can soak the whole works and not have open stitches to deal with. On to the sleeves, which I think I'll knit together--as in, at the same time. It's a little awkward and heavy towards the end with two sleeves on the needles, but the payoff is worth it when you're done and have two perfectly matched sleeves. I've been reading ahead trying to figure out how to knit the front bands since I shortened the length of the sweater. Spacing the buttonholes in the cabled band will take some thinking. Horrors, I might have to do some math.

Enough! That list isn't getting any shorter by sitting here writing about it. My freshly mopped kitchen floor is dry, so it's back to work for me.