Progress is Good

There is some progress being made on the Christmas list. Mum's wrap has reached the halfway point; her socks are started. A bunch of us Riverstitchers went down to Village Yarns in Cumberland (sadly website-less) earlier this week, where I stocked up on yarn for the second pair of socks, the scarf, and the two sweaters. So now I have a big pile of yarn staring at me demanding to be knit. But at least it is still September, so I'm feeling good about it - we'll see what happens in November :)

A lovely night of stitching last night at knit night. A number of Christmas presents being knit, a wrap, socks, legwarmers, another wrap. Plus a sweater from a pattern that we won't talk about, as it causes some of the knitters to get high blood pressure :) Plus there were apple squares with vanilla ice cream. yum yum yum.

Sometime next week I will post further about Mum's wrap, just to show the beautiful yarn it is being knit from.

Dinner, For Shan

Toad in the Hole

Served with gravy. And a big green salad (OK, that part isn't for Shan).

All Knitting, All the Time

OK Girls, it's time to get serious about the holiday knitting. To that end, I'm admitting here and now the projects I have decided on for my holiday gifting.

1. Wrap, designed by me, for Mum. This is in the works.
2. Socks for Mum
3. Cardigan for Dad
4. Cardigan for Sister-in-law
5. Head Wrap for Sister-in-law is done
6. Socks for friend
7. Dishclothes for family and friends. I probably need about 10 more.
8. Scarf for Father-in-law
9. Mitts for Step Mom

That's it, I think. Hmm. Only two really big ones, plus the scarf always takes longer than you anticipate. Only two pairs of socks, and I think I'll keep them fairly simple (one of them is a women's size 10).

Come on my knit friends. Let's see those lists!

7 down, 12 to go.

Just finishing up ball 7 of 19 and the piece is getting heavy. The colour is very hard to photograph - none of the pictures I've put up even remotely resembles the actual hue. It's much more intensely mossy in real life.

I've had stacks of problems with the edge chart, but have frogged nothing. I simply don't have time to back up on this one. The chart has two or three mistakes in it, and I am completely unhappy with how the bights are opened and closed within the reverse stockinette. So, I have had to make some changes and do some experimenting on the fly, which means one end of the blanket will look quite different to the other.

I have a different feeling about this blanket, though...it's not like my other knitting projects. The mistakes and inconsistencies are inconsequential - what I'm knitting here is just life as we know it. We get through it as well as we can with no do-overs, and hope that by the end what we have is nice, and comforting, and will help others remember us with fondness despite the obvious imperfections.

Knitting this blanket has been hard. It gets harder with every ball I join in, with every day that passes to bring us all closer to the crisis. Sandy's surgeon phoned last night to tell her the biopsy results were in and the tumour is indeed cancer, though it is "young" and does not appear to have metastisized. He has upgraded (downgraded) her case to urgent, so as soon as Victoria has room for her, she will be travelling down for her week of radiation prior to surgery.

We're not ready -- not me, with my 7-balls-down-12-too-go, not my friend with the job she has just started, and a young family, and not you, with the little bits of life that flow over you and around you every day. We have little triumphs and little disappointments, aggravations and celebrations, and then when we're only midway through all we've got planned, our mortality walks straight up to us and stares us in the face.

I can't handle it. So for now I'm just going to keep knitting, and hope to be done in time.

Yet Another 0 Has Been F'd

I'm pleased with this one.

Evening Star Top

from Interweave Knits, Summer 2006

I knit this from a cotton/acrylic blend (shocking, I know) called Cotton Plus by TLC. Love the yarn. My favourite part of this top is the cabled waist -- it is super comfy and flattering. I didn't add the frilly hem, neck or sleeve treatment called for in the pattern -- too much for me. However, I can see why they put it on the neck, as the neck is loose as is. Not too loose, but perhaps an elastic thread ... I will have to wear it for a while to see. Also the back edge of the neck sits up, which I notice is in the photo of the model as well. The garment is loose over all, which surprised me as I did get gauge and it looked more fitted. But I really like it, and it is a totally comfortable item to wear.

Now on to Christmas gift knitting!!

Victory

Skein 0 Knitter 1.

Victory is sweet.