A Rockin' Blog and Tales from the Bus

I'VE BEEN NOMINATED!!! Can you tell I'm just a little excited? Jen at Adventures in Knitting nominated me to be a Rockin' Girl Blogger! Thanks Jen! She was my Secret Pal a while back and it's been fun to keep in touch. We may even have the chance to meet up over Thanksgiving break! This great knitting/blogging community has certainly brought a lot of fun into my life!

Now, on to my nominations - they are some really fun and interesting ladies I've "met" via this blog:

1. Ramona at MezzoDiva: Ramona is a professional opera singer who still finds the time and energy to give to others. She sponsored the Campanula for the Cure KAL. All proceeds from her Campanula pattern were donated to the Princess Margaret Hospital to benefit breast cancer research and she participated herself in a walk to benefit the hospital. What a gal!

2. Ellen at Someone Keeps Moving My Chair: Ellen recently moved to Saratoga and we've been emailing for months. We still haven't met up yet - between my health issues and her schedule, we just haven't been able to get it together! But we will soon! It's been fun to read her blog and see my town through a new comer's eyes.

3. Holly at One More Row: Holly lives in Alaska and is the hard-working Mom of two little boys. I love to read about all the craziness that is a household with two little ones and she also posts some wonderful pictures of her corner of Alaska. She has also incredibly found the time to go back to school! Whew!

4. Anne at Ewe Knit Too: Anne is my cousin by marriage and I've known her since her early teen years! Now she's all grown up and married and living in Montana. She's a librarian too! I was so surprised to find that she knits. We haven't seen each other in a few years, but the next time we get to visit Montana, you can bet that Anne and I will be comparing knitting notes!

5. Susan at Susan In Stiches: Susan is an amazing lady living in Australia. She raises goats, knits, and creates quilts that are pieces of art! I love to read what's been going on "down under"!

So ladies - grab the button and display it proudly!

Here's my knitting progress for the week:

Montego Bay Scarf - coming along nicely after I switched to the bamboo needles. We had a slight blip in progress involving a cat and a hair ball. Enough said - the rescue was sucessful ;-)


My bobbin is almost full with my latest creation. I'm going to try to finish this today and skein it up. I haven't decided on a project for this yet - maybe socks and matching scarf or hat. I think I'll have a lot of yardage from this.


One "Bus Sock" completed and number two well on its way! I've really enjoyed working with this yarn and the color stripes are great.


My bus rides have been interesting this week. As I mentioned in my last post, I still feel funny pulling out my knitting in public - I just don't have a lot of practice at it. But, I've been doing it every day on the bus. This week the bus has been crowded enough that I've had people sit with me. The reactions are interesting! Everyone asks what I'm making. Then I've gotten several "Is that crochet?" comments! On Friday the gentleman who sat with me wanted to know " . . . what are you constructing there?" I've never heard of knitting referred to quite that way before! But then, the miracle also occurred this week - another knitter sat across from me and was so excited to see that I was knitting! She was also knitting a sock but with dpn's. She had never seen the Magic Loop method, so was very interested to look at it. She was also "jealous" of my toe up cast on method. We didn't get to talk much more because the bus got pretty crowded, but it was fun. It almost felt a little eerie - like we were members in a secret club! Hopefully I'll have some more tales to tell!

Kittens, Daughters, Spinning and Knitting

Here are my two girls just hanging out on the floor! This crazy cat of ours loves, loves, loves to have her tummy rubbed - she just flops right down next to you and waits for the rubdown!

This week's spinning has been coming along beautifully. I love the striping effect. As I said in my last post, I'm experimenting with this by plying it with some laceweight.

I really like the effect I'm getting! This will be fun to knit up - probably into socks!


I've decided to start taking the bus to work - the fact that I can knit for an hour each way had nothing at all to do with that decision ;-) It seems to be working out pretty well. The bus is not crowded at all so I have two seats to myself. Pulling out my knitting was a little scary the first time - I don't really know why, but it was. I guess I'm just not used to knitting in public. So I took the plunge and started a sock with my latest yarn purchase. It's sKNITches superwash merino and is very very soft! The color is much brighter than shows here -bright turqoise, with brown and yellow. The Rowing Cat has claimed these as her own because she happens to have a headband in exactly these colors!


Two days on the bus and I'm on the cuff of the first sock - the pair should be completed by the end of this week! I can see the potential for lots of Christmas gifts being knit "on the road"!

Saratoga 5000

The Saratoga 5000, sponsored by Skidmore College, took place yesterday. Mark raced in the Men's Rec Boat Division. How do you like his fancy new silver WinTech 24? Anne - do you recognize the shirt?? The weather was supposed to be very rainy and windy, but we lucked out. It was cool, but the wind held off until the afternoon.



Oh yes - he came in second! Next up is the Head of the Fish at the end of October. You may remember the beautiful fish head trophy he won in last year's race?

My Campanula socks are finished!! I love them! I wore them for the first time last night as we went out for a race day steak dinner - they were very comfortable. Now, I have to decide on my next pair . . . I did purchase more sock yarn this week - a beautiful skein of sKNITches Syncopation self-striping yarn in a turquoise, brown and yellow combination. I'll post a picture next time!

The Montego Bay Scarf is well underway. I may switch to bamboo needles today though. The Sea Silk is very slippery. I don't think I'll knit with this yarn too often. I never feel in control of the yarn. Does anyone else feel this way? I find myself yearning to go back to wool and the tightness of wool stitches. But this is going to be beautiful when it is finished. It is incredibly soft and will have a wonderful drapiness to it.

And I've done some work on my Chevron Scarf. I'm still chuckling over the magic of the color combination on this one.

I've also been spinning this week. More wool from the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club. I'm going to experiment with this. I'm spinning the fiber into singles and then will try plying it with some black lace weight that I have. I've never combined my hand spun with commercial yarn - we'll see how that comes out!

I had a wonderful surprise at work on Friday! It was my last day of radiation treatments (YAY!) and my office surprised me with TWO cakes to celebrate! What a nice group of people. It was a little strange having such a public acknowledgement of my condition, but it was a lot of fun!

Almost There!

Another busy week has gone by here. We had a family wedding just south of Boston last weekend, so Mark and I spent the weekend at his parents in Marblehead, MA. It was a nice little getaway except for the fact that my skin began reacting badly to the radiation at the end of the week. It happens. Nothing a little gin and tonic couldn't take the edge off! And, of course, school started. After much much discussion between the Rowing Cat and her best friend regarding what hairstyle to wear the first day, they both decided to just do nothing! I couldn't believe it! I mean, there was an ongoing discussion that lasted for WEEKS! It's really the only thing they have control over since they wear uniforms. I couldn't believe it!

It was a little cool here earlier this week, so I wore a pair of handknit socks to work! They were commented on by my co-workers. It turns out that one of the other women in the office lives on a farm and raises sheep! And she spins! We had a lovely discussion on the merits of our respective wheels - she's actually jealous of my Louet! She doesn't actually knit (horrors) but she does spin. She said she'd bring in some of her sheep fiber - in the grease though - that will be something different! And one of the other women asked if I would teach her how to knit - she said she's wanted to learn ever since a plane trip where she ended up sitting next to a woman knitting socks! How about that??!

Here are my Campanula socks almost done - I think I'll try to finish them today.

I just had to cast on for the Montego Bay Scarf. The SeaSilk really is something! Oh, the blue strip you see on the ball is a piece of painters tape to secure the end. It is slippery, slippery, slippery. In fact, the skein turned into one big know just as I was coming to the end while winding it. What an experience . . . I broke down and ordered a swift this week just because I don't want to go through that again . . .



And here's a slightly blurry picture of Spunky Eclectic fiber I'm getting ready to spin up!

I'm off to the grocery store so I can spend the rest of this rainy afternoon knitting and maybe watching the first episode of Torchwood!