New England Knitting Tragedy

On a list of things that knitters do NOT want to see before a four hour flight, this tragedy ranks highly:

For those who are trying to figure out the tragedy in this picture, that is a broken DPN, occuring mere moments before the beginning of my flight. I had no extra needles with me - words my mother will swear she never taught me may have been uttered.

Thankfully, despite this setback, I managed to continue knitting a decent pace on the plane, even if it meant knitting with a two small knitting needle and trying to make compromises where possible to accomodate such a small needle.

In fact great progress was made.... (look at that progress... so far!)

... except I don't like the heel... like at all. Love the pattern. HATE the heel. (pictured below)

I have turned into one of those knitters, where I decide, mostly when it's too late, that I simply cannot live with the imperfection that offends me, and I will rip hours of work back just to have a product that I will be able to accept. And so, with that in mind, I ripped back to the Heel flap and will knit the heel turn again- to hopefully much more acceptable standards. Goodbye five hours of diligent hard work for nothing- we hardly knew ye!

On top of knitting, blog readers will be happy to know that I did NOT fall off the yarn diet wagon and managed to resist the call. (Okay maybe not blog readers, maybe my husband is really more happy to note this than anyone!) Sadly there was no time to hit any of the awesome shops that New York had to offer- however I did still have to resist temptation. You know how I mentioned in my last post if anyone knew where the yarn shops were in Easton Maryland? I needn't have bothered asking - what was the first thing I noticed as we parked accross the street from our hotel?? WE PARKED RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE YARN STORE. I practically squealed with joy when I discovered this. (My apologies to the all male passengers in the car who did not comprehend such excitement over yarn.)

Of course I checked it out the very next day- how could I not?! I suppose it's good that the store didn't have much of what I tend to impulse buy, (*cough* hand dyed sock yarn *cough*), and so I left with nothing. (Although I did fondle a lot of interesting wools... I'm just not in a "big wool sweater" mood when the sun is shining and I'm in shorts and a tank top.) But all the same, I couldn't believe my luck - great hotel choice honey!!

Catching up with friends on my holiday I was excited, (okay and dismayed for obvious reasons in a minute), to find out that TWO of my good friends from New Haven are expecting babies, one in September and one in October. I don't suppose I have to tell you what this means.... YAY MORE WHINING ABOUT BABY BLANKETS!!! I'm thinking about changing the blog's tag line from "I knit. Therefore I Am" to "I knit baby blankets because I like pain". Seriously people- eat some chocolate or get a really stressful job or something, we need to slow down the pro-creating!

With that in mind, I'm off to knit the Runk Blanket because suddenly having it halfway done doesn't feel as timely as it once did!

On Vacation

Today is the start of my much needed vacation. It's only sort of a vacation given that tomorrow begins "wedding madness" that will take place for the next couple of days as we prepare to attend a buddy's wedding. (PS... anyone know a good yarn shop in or around Easton Maryland?)

That being said- knitting progress has been going swimmingly. Viola, I give you the Runk blanket half way finished.

Since the blanket requires a lot of yarn and it takes up a bunch of space, it's not a "holiday project", too much to drag around. And so- in the interest of keeping my sanity and enjoying a bit of my holiday, I cast on a new project. Nancy's Bush's New England socks!

It requires more attention than most socks, (hello big chart!), but I think it's the right thing to keep me interested and motivated. Plus- it's fun to cast on something new and exciting. It feels good to work on something I WANT to work on again.

And so with this little short note- I'm out for a while. Be back soon, hopefully with a sock to show for it!

Happy Mother's Day!

In true knitterly fashion, (meaning knitters are natural born procrastinators), this Mother's day gift is right down to the wire. Yes folks, it's time for the super top secret project reveal- mom's gift!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I hope you like it!

Pattern: Debbie Bliss Capped Sleeve Top

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in colorway 27009

Needles: US 3 and US 4

I've been working on this top since the beginning of my much needed blanket break - unfortunately my little bout with the flu slowed my progress, but thankfully, just in time, I finished this top so I can present it to my mother fully.

Mom, this yarn is pure silk- and a color I know you'll love. It's unbelievably soft and I really, REALLY hope it fits you. (Thankfully silk has a lot of give and you can stretch it out a bit if need be.) I bought this yarn a looooooong time ago with the intention to knit something for you- but never seemed to have the time and couldn't find the right pattern to make you something you'd love. When it came time to take my blanket break, this project inspired me to do something a little different for Mother's day this year.

This garmet was created with love for you--- and I hope that when you receive it will reflect to you how much I do care. But on top of knitting this yarn- this project has a wonderful story that embodies your spirit. I didn't have enough yarn to make this up. I found a woman on Ravelry who has the exact same color and had labeled her yarn "for sale". I sent her an email asking if she'd be willing to ship to Canada and how much she'd like for her yarn. Not only was she willing- she was very kind and giving. (A lot like you.) She offerred to give me the yarn that I needed - at no charge. I'm not going to tell you how much an individual skein of this costs, but bare in mind it's silk and "up there" as skeins of yarn go. This kind soul sent me FOUR skeins of this yarn and all she asked in return was that I post a picture of what I made when I was all done. So this project was as much of a gift to me as it was to you. (I didn't ask permission to post her blog link here- but if you'd like I'll send it to you by email if you'd like.) Her yarn arrived on EXACTLY the day that I ran out- perfect timing!

Happy Mother's day mom! I hope you like it. I love you. Thanks for being my mom.

Crappers!

Firstly, I apologize for the craptastical, vague photography. I am a gifted knitter, clearly not gifted in the other area. Does this look right to you?

Look closely... it's not. Can you spot the boo boo?

CRAPPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I somehow messed up the cable!!!!! I suppose I should be thankful that I discovered this close enough that it's not too devestating to tink back. But still. CRAPPERS! CRAPPERS! CRAPPERS! I know that the Harlot has a genius tutorial about how to go back down and fix the cable without tinking back, but honestly, I don't think I could do it without vastly screwing up the knitting. (Something I am not interested in, this late in the game.)

And so- instead of nearing the finish line- tonight I rip back and correct the error. This craft couldn't frustrate me more sometimes!

In other news- I can feel my resolve not to buy yarn, (aside from blanket yarn) until September weakening dramatically. Is it wrong that I want the Loopy Ewe to crash majorly, for the next 4 months so I'm unable to look at the pretty, pretty yarns and not send hourly emails to my MiL, desperate to buy something? (She's no help by the way, since she sends me stuff to look at too.) That site is "knitter's crack"! But seriously- how can I resist this, or this, or this or even THIS (granted not that I can actually get any of that because it's always sold out... but minor detail)?? YOU'RE THE FRENCH FRIES TO MY YARN DIET SHERI - stop having such good damn taste!

I'm going to go and fix my boo boo and pretend that the Loopy Ewe will not accept my credit card.... hopefully that will prevent me from falling off the wagon.

**this post brought to you by the word CRAP.