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!

Who Are You and What Have You Done With My Child??

What happened here????? The whirlwind began at about 7:30 last night. And this was the result!


I did not know this was in the works or I would have made sure to get some "before" shots . . .
But, as my family members can attest - IT DID NOT LOOK LIKE THIS YESTERDAY MORNING!

When she came out of her room with 3 bags of garbage and said, "I need to get the vacuum . . ." my husband and I just looked at each other and said "Who is this and what did she do with our child?"

Those of you out there with 13 year old children know that this is a rare, rare, rare occurrence. I wanted to preserve it for posterity!


Must be that "back to school" thing - I'm not complaining!

Any more takers for "Pay It Forward"? (See previous post) I've only got one - the lovely Ramona from Campanula for the Cure and I have room for two more ;-) Ramona, I've got my thiking cap on - I'm considering something stunning with a dramatic flair!

So Close I Can Almost Taste It!

Here is my first Campanula for the Cure sock! Just a few more rounds for the cuff and it's off the needles! I'll cast on the second one immediately so I don't get sidetracked . . . ;-)


And here's a little something I picked up from The Loopy Ewe - my first skein of HandMaiden Sea Silk. It is absolutely gorgeous! And so soft! It's destined to become a Montego Bay Scarf from Interweave Knits. It will probably end up being a gift - but I reserve judgment on that!

And progress on the Notre Dame de Grace sweater. This is a very easy pattern so far and the stitch pattern is very easy to memorize. I have both sleeves and half of the back finished.

A little closeup of the stitch definition.

And, of course, what happens when you place any piece of knitting down on the couch for a photo? Tiggy just has to investigate and curl up for a little nap!

I've spun up another batch of my Spunky Eclectic roving - love the bright colors - to be a pair of socks I think. I'm enjoying being part of this Roving of the Month club. Not only do I get beautiful roving in the mail every month, but it forces me to keep spinning. I don't like to see lots of months worth sitting around the basket looking lonely! So I hope to keep improving my skills. I'm having fun with all of the colors and sometimes try to get the striping to fall in line. This is a batch of superwash merino, so I can throw it right in the wash!

Well, I must say that this summer has flown by! In some ways I'm very happy to see it go - I won't remember chemotherapy fondly. But I've also had the opportunity to start a new job that I love, I only have 2 more weeks of radiation therapy which hasn't been bad at all, and my hair is starting to grow back ( oh the gray, the gray, the gray . . .;-)! Plus I'm on Ravelry, I've started exercising again and all of the back to school shopping is done! Do you think my energy level is back??

To celebrate all this newfound energy, I thought I'd join Jenn over at Adventures in Knitting and "Pay It Forward". You can also read about this on Allison's blog . During the next year, I'll send something I make to the first three people who respond to this post in the comments section and all you have to do is make the same offer on your blog! Also, the "gift" you send doesn't have to be handmade -- it can be anything you wish to share with another person. My three "gifts" will probably revolve around knitting!

Taking It Easy in the Summertime

Here is Mark and his brother Paul out on the deck watching the grill and shucking the corn . . . I love watching men work ;-) The weather has been beautiful and we've been enjoying the outdoors!


Here's some progress on the Campanula socks! I'm enjoying knitting these socks - the yarn is fabulous. I'll report more later this week - I've been busy at my new job!

Campanula For The Cure

Do you remember that several months ago I test knit a sock pattern called Campanula? Here's a picture:



I really enjoyed this pattern and the author, MezzoDiva, is now doing a KAL with the pattern. Here's what she says:


"I recently took the plunge to publish my very own lace sock pattern, called CAMPANULA for the CURE, and I'm making it a fundraiser for the 2007 Weekend to End Breast Cancer. All I ask in exchange for a copy of the pattern is that a donation of ANY AMOUNT (no matter how small) be made by sponsoring me for this 2-day 60-km walkathon next September benefiting the Princess Margaret Hospital, Canada’s leading Cancer treatment and research facility. Donate any amount you choose! Just put CAMPANULA in the message line or leave a comment here or on my blog. The WEBC site will inform me of the donation and I will email a PDF of the pattern ASAP (if you need another format, please let me know).

In the interest of raising further awareness for this foot-related fundraiser (a sock pattern to sponsor a 60-km walkathon) and the fight to conquer cancer, I’ve decided to start a CAMPANULA for the CURE knit-along!

There will be weekly contests and prize draws (some beautiful hand-dyed sock yarns I recently acquired will be up for grabs, as well as more goodies to be announced) for posting about the project and your progress at the KAL site and for posting on your own blogs (please notify me, it can be hard to keep up with all of you, but I’ll try).

To this end, I am inviting you all to join me in knitting your very own Campanula socks starting this Wednesday August 1st (that also happens to be my birthday!) or as soon thereafter you can begin. And if you join later, don't worry. This KAL is not a race to the finish (though I will give a prize to the knitter of the first complete pair posted). Like my upcoming 60-km walk, slow and steady will get the job done. (If you are one of my intrepid test-knitters and you made only one sock, now’s a great time to finish the pair. If you made a pair, please post them and start another!)

For more pictures of these lovely socks, please see the CAMPANULA flickr gallery

I am also sending out a shout out to anyone with experience doing these things – if you’d be willing to advise me or perhaps even to co-host this endeavour with me, I will be very grateful! And if any purveyors of knitting paraphernalia are willing to donate small prizes, that would be wonderful!

If you are interested in joining, just go ahead and get your pattern by donating to the fight against cancer or RSVP to me at: mezzodiva-at-sympatico-dot-ca,
subject: CAMPANULA for the CURE!"

If you're interested, click the button on my sidebar to go to the KAL website! I'm going to use the Fleece Artist I just bought for mine!

A New Toy

Here's my new toy! I asked my Dad to make a Niddy Noddy for me and he came through with flying colors! I have a much smaller one that he used as his model. This one is the perfect size! Now, next on my wishlist is a swift . . . !

Here's my progress on the Chevron Scarf. Not too far yet, but I'm enjoying it!

My latest socks! This is my own handspun from Spunky Eclectic fiber! I followed the directions for fractual spinning from the last Spin Off magazine. It came out great! Lots of distinct stripes!


Oh yes, here's a shot of the Chocolate Covered Cherries roving from Spunky Eclectic spun up into a chunky single. I was thinking of making the Booga Bag with this, but I may change my mind and make My So Called Scarf instead . . . decisions, decisions, decisions.

Thanks for everyone's kind thoughts! I'm feeling like my old self again! And I'll be starting a new job next Monday - very exciting! Oh yes, a little thing called horse racing started up here this week - Saratoga is packed! The Rowing Cat and I may take in a few races on Friday!

Mystery Shawl #3

I've been concentrating on the Mystery Shawl #3 pattern this week. This is the completion of Clue #1. I have Clue #2 but I have to take it to work today and reduce it down in size. I actually like the concept of working on this as the clues become available. Having small sections to work on makes the whole project seem so much more manageable. I know, it's all in my mind, but it seems to work! I think I'll actually finish this this summer. I know that if I had the entire pattern in front of me I would be a little overwhelmed. I'd finish it, but it would take a LONG TIME.

I originally staarted this project with lace weight yarn, but I just was not happy. I've come to the conclusion that lace weight yarn is not for me. I never feel "in control" of the yarn and it always seems to slip and slide all over the place. So I went back to the stash and pulled out one of the KnitPicks yarns I used on my husband's fairisle hat project (remember that? Whew!) I am much much happier knitting with this yarn. This will turn out to be a heavier shawl, but the bonus is that is should be plenty warm! Oh and the little white dots are actually clear beads. They look much better than the picture shows!


And tell me - JUST HOW ADDICTIVE IS RAVELRY????? What a great site - I sure hope it's a success. Every day I keep finding more things to do and read there. The Rowing Cat says that it's a Neopets for Knitters. I think she's right as I'm sure any parent of a pre-teen, teenager would agree! I'm under SaratogaKnitter on Ravelry - feel free to add me as a friend!

Chevron

Remember this little gem I purchased from the Loopy Ewe? Well, I was inspired today by Knitting Knirvana's post to get started . . . I pulled out some KnitPicks Memories sock yarn in the Cape Cod colorway and put them together.


They looked truly horrible together. Wouldn't you agree??


And then this marvelous thing happened - a Chevron Scarf was started. I can hardly believe the color combination and that it works so well - the colors are very bright in good light - we had some crazy storms here this afternoon . . . This makes me so happy!

Roving Socks

I've begun spinning my Spunky Eclectic Chocolate Covered Cherries Merino roving! The picture is a little fuzzy, but it's looking pretty good. The cherry color really pops! I'm attempting to spin this thick - it really is funny how hard this is after getting used to spinning thinner. I think I still like to spin thinner though. I feel a little out of control with this thicker yarn. This is destined to be a Booga Bag. Maybe for a Christmas present?? I did have a little moment of panic and had to go back and check the fiber info - thankfully it's Merino and NOT superwash! It should felt just fine.


I have one Jaywalker finished! Yay! The Tofutsies has been fun to work with. It really flows very easily through my fingers and feels very soft on the foot. I'm onto the leg of the second sock, so I'll probably finish these later this week. I have to admit that I'm still having sizing problems with this pattern. The socks are still just a little too big. But the pattern repeat is very easy to memorize. I think I'll move onto another pattern after this one. Maybe I'll come back to it sometime in the future. I hate to be defeated by a pattern - it just leaves that little niggle . . .


I wound up my Strawberry Fields from Spunky Eclectic tonight. And of course I had to cast on for my next pair of socks . . . The Go Whith the Flow socks. I'm doing the toe and heel in a cream that I have in my stash. I think I'm going to enjoy these. The color is already making me smile! I think I'll keep these for myself!

The Mystery Shawl 3 has been cast on and I'm about 2/3 of the way through the first clue chart. The next clue comes out on Friday. The concept is fun. I think it's good for me because it will give me incentive to keep on going rather than putting the project down for months.

The Rowing Cat is off at a friends camp for a few days and Mark is working at Chingachgook all week, so I've been taking advantage of the quiet to knit knit knit! I've also had three days off of work this week, so it really has been a treat!

For a quick treat, head on over to fellow Saratogian Ellen's blog and watch the video - I thought it was so cute!

Purchase, Knit and Spin

One sleeve complete and progress on my second for the Notre Dame Pullover. I am enjoying this project. The knitting is going faster since it's on larger needles and it's fun to see so much progress. It's a nice break from sock needles! The pattern is knitting up beautifully. I'm anticipating lots of compliment when I wear this next fall/winter - can I say that?? ;-)


My next batch of pictures turned out fuzzy - sorry! Wrong setting on the camera . . . Anyway, this is spun up from my Spunky Eclectic Strawberry Fields fiber. It's Corriedale. It's destined to be my next pair of socks. I think I'll have a little fun with these and knit the toe and heel using some sock weight cream color yarn from the stash.


SHHH! This is my secret purchase from the Loopy Ewe! And it is fantastic! It's Superwash Merino hand painted yarn from Perchance to Knit in the Citrus Grove colorway. this is destined to be my Chevron Scarf. I'm going to pair it with a solid though, more of the cream color sockyarn I'm using on the socks.

Progress on the Tofutsies Jaywalkers socks. The color in this is pretty bad. In reality the pinks and blacks really pop out. And the design shows well. I was a little afraid it would be lost in the colors but it is fine. The Rowing Cat is coveting this pair . . .


More Spunky Eclectic Roving on the wheel. This is the colorway Chocolate Covered Cherries. I'm spinning this thicker because I want to make a Booga Bag with it. I've also split the roving top to bottom consistently so that I can get definite color changes. Another experiment! And as you can see, I'm finding it a little hard to go back to spinning thick after trying so hard to spin thin! The right hand side is the thickness I'm looking for, but it took a little while. The Rowing Cat came over to look when I started and asked if I really wanted it that thick . . . I explained the problem and she understood when I showed her the finished results. This will just be singles, so it should spin up pretty quickly.


Finally, I joined the Mystery Shawl 3 Knitalong this week. What was I thinking??? Actually, it sounds fun and I have some KnitPicks laceweight burning a hole in my stash. We get clues along the way so the finished shawl will be a surprise!

I go in for my final treatment today (YAY!!) so I'll be in a chemical haze for about a week. Talk to you all later!

Tofutsies

I am making some progress on my Jaywalkers with the Tofutsies yarn. This yarn was a total impulse buy - my LYS sent out an email to say they had some in - one color only. So I thought, why not try it? The color is a bit crazy - it's really really pink, but maybe I'll let the Rowing Cat have them!

Knitting Knirvana asked how I'm liking the yarn. I like it a lot. I found that it was splitting a little when I did my cast on, but that has stopped now that I'm into the plain knitting. That might be a problem if you use very pointy needles, but my Addi Turbos are fine. The yarn is very very soft to work with - it just glides through my fingers. And that's a nice attribute with the humidity we've been having here over the last few days. The sock itself feels very soft on my foot too. So I will definitely look to use this yarn again. Maybe in a more muted colorway?? :-)

Also, I did read somewhere that you should work this yarn from the outside and not try to pull from the inside of the skein. So I went with that advice and it's working fine.

And, can I tell you a secret? I ordered some yarn from the Loopy Ewe this week!

Favorite Books

I thought I'd share some of my favorite knitting books today. I received my Ravelry invite yesterday (YAY!!) so I've been thinking about what I want to post there and what projects I might like to tackle next. Come say hello on Ravelry - you can find me under Saratogaknitting!

Greetings From Knit Cafe is one of my favorite books. I've already made the yummy soft baby blanket for my Swedish ex-aupair. But I have to admit, this is not a book I would ever have purchased for myself. I would have picked it up in the store and put it back down. However, thanks to Guido at It's a Purl Man podcast, I have it in my library after winning it as a prize! The photography is wonderful and the patterns very approachable. I always feel relaxed after sitting down for 15 minutes perusing this book!


I'll soon be picking up some yarn for this adorable baby sweater. It's knit side to side!




Favorite Socks is my latest purchase. I love socks, I love Interweave Knits, what's not to like? This should keep me in sock patterns for quite some time. And the book is spiral bound so it lies flat!

I think I'll try this pattern first!


Mason Dixon Knitting is just plain fun! I love to pick this up and just read a page or two! I haven't caught the dish cloth bug, but the log cabin concept really appeals to me!

This would be my luxury dream blanket. Someday . . .


Exquisite Little Knits is exactly that. It has lots of small projects, hats, scarves, shawls, etc. that use luxury yarn. This is a great book to pull a pattern from if you have one or two expensive or unique fiber skeins in your stash.

This is a fabulous shawl that is on my list!

Last Minute Knitted Gifts is also a recent purchase. I've taken this out of the library a few times and thought it was time to own it. I can see myself choosing many patterns from this book for Christmas gifts.

Should I take this on?

These will definitely be in my mother-in-law's stocking this year!

One finished sock! The second is rows away from being done. This really gives me a sense of accomplishment after spinning and knitting this yarn! Using the worsted weight for the cuff has worked out very well - no one would ever know!

Oh yes - I also splurged on a little Tofutsies! I think I might tackle Jaywalkers again with this yarn. I don't want to admit defeat on this pattern. I'll do them toe up and really take care to check the size often. That's what happened last time - they turned out to be JUST TOO TIGHT and I had to abandon them. I'm deteremined this time though . . .


Mark is off to Camp Chingachgook today to teach sailing! Does anyone have a camper attending this summer? Let me know!