Clarifications

In my last post I may have lied.  Or exaggerated.  Unknowingly.  So, here are some clarifications.

I told you the last 11 rows of my Citron shawl would take 10 years to knit.  They didn't.  They only took 3 days - although each row felt like 10 years.  And I'm also clarifying that the rows were indeed 600+ stitches, but to be precise they were 738 stitches.  Seven.  Hundred.  Thirty.  Eight.  Knitting during naptime, tv time and even during National Night Out when we went to see The Refrigerators at Tawasentha Park:

Great cover band with a horn section.  Lots of fun!

As I was getting to this final section (on our car trip from Ohio), I had to make a decision based on the amount of yarn I had left.  Since we were in the car at the time, and I didn't have my scale, I had to eyeball it.  So I decided to end the next to last section (the one before the last 11 rows) two rows early.  Just in case.  Who knew if two little rows would make a difference, but it made me feel better.

So then it was on to the last 11 rows.  And I was getting seriously low on yarn.  So with two rows left - the one before the bind off, and then the bind off - I weighed my yarn, in case I needed to bind off right away.  I had 6 grams (out of 100grams) left.  Then I knit half a row and weighed it again.  I had 7 grams left.  ?????????  So much for weighing it.  At any rate, it appeared I'd have enough so I just kept knitting and all went well, with a little yarn left over. Probably enough for those two rows I cut out, but it would have been really close at the end and I'm glad I didn't have that aggravation.

Finally finished!:

Now I have to decide if I will block it.  It is meant to be ruched (sp?) and the edge is meant to be ruffle-y, so I don't want the blocking to un-ruche or un-ruffle anything. 

 

Next clarification:  I also told you that I'd be spinning up a skein of yarn to submit to the fair.  I even showed you my two bobbins resting and waiting to be plied.  And ply I did:

Looked great.  I was really happy with it.  I took it off the bobbin and tied it in two places like the submission instructions told me to. I was about to put it in the bath, when I realized I should weigh it and count my strands (to determine yardage) so I could write that down on the tag I'm supposed to submit with it.  The skeins are to be at least two ounces in weight and at least 40 yards in length. Can you see where this is going?

See that?  1 7/8 ounces.  And it was 38 yards.  AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!  No way to add on.  No time to start over.  No submission to the fair.  That's what I get for waiting until the last minute.
How about a cute "Look what we saw on our walk to the pond the other day" picture?



 



Got Buick?

Here's where we were this past weekend:

 11 Hour drive to Ohio!  Whoopee!  Lots of knitting time....
I worked on my Oak Trail hat.  What is wrong with this picture?:

That there is my new ball of yarn, joined to the tail at the beginning of my hat, rather than the end of the yarn where I need to keep knitting.  Yup, I (again) wet spliced the new ball to the wrong end of yarn.  So annoying.  Got that fixed up and finished the hat:

 ....all except for the little sewing up part where that piece of yarn is sticking out.  And the blocking. Cute, don't you think?

Then we got to Ohio:

That's Paul's friend Rob's car in front of us.

....and we had several hours to go, so I worked on my Cozy wrap:

 ...and saw this at a gas station stop:

We were sorry to have missed that festival.

....and ate these at another stop:

Mmmmmmmm.

I make cookies for every racing trip.  Before Rob and his dad, Ray, even say hello to me when we meet up with them, they ask, "Did you bring the cookies????"

We finally got there and made a run to JEGS (car guys' equivalent of a yarn shop), then had a whole day of racing on Friday:

....except for Paul's friend Rob who blew up his motor on his second run.  Booooooooo.  Paul got some good runs in, as well as changed out his carburetor and got some better (meaning faster) runs in with that.

Then it was Saturday!  The main competition day!.....

....which was cancelled.

So we went home.  On the way home we saw this:

A huge golf ball.

And I kept knitting on my Cozy wrap until I ran out of yarn.  Ran out of what I had with me, not the yarn in general.  I know you are breathing a sigh of relief for me. 

So, I worked on my Citron shawl.

...until it got so dark I couldn't see.  Can you see this?:

Neither could I.  I was knitting only by feel for the last 50 stitches or so because I was trying to get the last increase row done.  The one in which I now have 600 plus stitches on my needle and now I have to knit 11 rows and then I'll be done! ....in about another year.

In the meantime, at one of our stops, I got one of my latest obsession:

Dulce de Leche Caramel shake. Mmmmm.

 



And since we were home a whole day early, I picked this from the garden:

Mmmmmm..... tomato sandwiches.

And also, since we were home a day early, we got back in the car and went for a drive to Sharon Springs to see the new Beekman 1802 Mercantile:

 Of course, I had to get a couple of things:

We haven't tried them yet, but I'll let you know when we do.

Then we made our way to Cooperstown for our favorite pizza:



 And THEN, as if the weekend couldn't get any busier.... I got  some spinning done, so I may actually have a skein of yarn to enter into the Altamont Fair by the August 9 deadline.

Resting, relaxing, waiting to be plied:

 Hopefully, plying will be done tomorrow so the yarn can then take a bath and have time to dry.

Ooh, and ALSO, since I had some time in Ohio, I read and finished The Lion's Game by Nelson Demille.  Great book.  Exciting, suspenseful, and funny.  Love his books.  That was a quick review.

A Maine-ly Short Vacation

See how I did that with the title?  They do that all the time up there....  Mainely Meat BBQ (which we didn't go to), Mainely Vinyl (which we also didn't go to) etc.

So, we went to Maine for a long weekend last weekend and had a wonderfully relaxing time, although altogether too short for our liking.  We had a nice view of the water, so we spent a lot of time looking at it:

Had our usual fried and blueberry stuff:

Crab cakes and fish sandwich in
Wiscassett on the drive up

Blueberry beer

Blueberry soda, Fried shrimp and fish & chips

Then there was blueberry pie and blueberry cake and whoopee pies (not blueberry).

After all that.... we went for a loooooong walk!  We walked the carriage roads in Acadia National Park, around the top of Cadillac Mountain and across the low tide sand to Bar Island.  Ha! And I just realized those pictures are on Paul's phone.  I think I've just discovered a problem about us both having these new phones.  That's annoying.

Ooh and also, we went to Jordan Pond House for lunch and had their famous popovers which are so incredibly delicious with their strawberry jam and butter.  So of course:

And here we are nice and relaxed and rested:

....trying to figure out how to take our picture with the new smartphone with the function that you look at yourself on the screen so you know how it's going to come out.  It's harder than you think.

In Knitting News:
A better picture of one doodlebug's finished vest, while it is blocking, so you can see the pattern better:

Pattern is Sweaters and Slipover Vest.

Now that birthday knitting is behind me, I'm going to continue work on the Citron - I'm currently on a 642 stitches per row section.   And I'm slightly concerned I will run out of yarn.  Next task is to weigh what I have left and then determine if that gives me any information as to if I will run out!   Also going to finish the Oak Trail hat.  Stay tuned.

In Gardening News:
While we were away, squash bugs got my zucchini plants.  Full disclosure:  they were there before we left but I didn't know what they were.  I saw one or two.  Now, there are gagillions of them.  They seem to be way too overrun for me to do anything about them.  I was able to rescue two zucchini though and made this:

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs, 1/4 cup parm cheese, salt and pepper.  Toss slices with olive oil, coat with crumbs, top with leftover crumbs.  400 degrees for 25 minutes.  YUM!

546

546.  Five hundred forty-six. That's how many stitches are currently on each row of my Citron  project:

(matchbox cars are all the rage in the babysitting venue these days...)

Would you just LOOK at them all?

Oh. My. Gosh. It takes a loooong time to knit a row.  I have only brought this on myself since I decided to add two repeats to this pattern.  I had a lot more yarn than was needed and the project as it is ends up rather small.  So, why not make the most if the yarn I have as well as making it bigger, right?

And 546 won't be the largest number of stitches.  In the next, and last repeat, I will have 642 stitches on several rows.  Six hundred forty-two.  I already said I was a little bored knitting this and it may only get worse. On the positive side, except for 3 of the 20 rows I am repeating, this is very easy knitting and good for in front if the tv. So, on I will knit. And knit.  And knit.  And knit.....

Also, it is so hot here, we have resorted to this to keep the house cool:

I have to fix this sideways thing!! Anyone know how?

Reheating leftover pizza on the grill.  It worked tremendously - nice crisp crust!

Five years and nine months

Five years and nine months.  That's how long it took for the deer to find the hostas in the front yard:

If you look closely, you will see that the stems in the foreground have no buds on them.....  argh. 

So.  A closer look at our yard.  Remember this from the last post?:

 Paul and his brother digging trenches for the electrical wiring and water to go to the new garage.  They cut the phone wire, which Paul patched up.

This one is the beginning of the excavator's work for the garage site.  Our yard is going to be a huge muddy mess for a few months.  The excavator also cut the phone wire (in a different place), which the phone company will be coming to fix today.

In Knitting News:
I made this Mystic Sprial hat a while ago:

It's currently blocking with a plate in it.  That's what the instructions said to do in order to give it the right shape.  Another picture to come once it's dry.  I haven't shown it to you because I bound it off too tightly and it took me about a month and a half to shake off my annoyance and then take out the bind off and re-bind it off more loosely.  How annoying is it when you think you've finished this great new hat and then when you go to put it on the brim is too tight?  So annoying.  Cute hat though.  Probably an upcoming class for me to teach at The Spinning Room.

I can't remember if I told you I started a Citron shawl(ette):

I am on section 5 of 5.  Then there is a ruffled edge.  However, I have a lot more yarn and this shawlette is pretty small, so I'm going to add 2 more sections.  I'm getting to the point, though, where I'm getting a tiny bit tired of this project and knowing that it's "supposed" to be done soon is making me re-think if I want to make it bigger.  I keep thinking, "Maybe it won't be that small." or "Small could be better."  I'm trying really hard to overcome this.  Hopefully by the time I get to the last row of the section, I'll go right on to row 1 of the additional section and not cave in and got to row 1 of the ruffled edge.  Apparently it will depend on my mood at the time.

Here is the next pair of Travelling Socks that I'm sending on to Oregon:

Pretty funky looking but  that's pretty much the point of these socks!  I just received the next pair so those will be posted soon too.

And check out my sister-in-law Anita's sweater!

Isn't it great?!  I think it's her first sweater. I love the yoke pattern.  I forgot to ask her the name of the pattern....
I seem to be back in knitting mode and thinking of patterns to teach for classes this fall.  But I can't get any of that together until I get the craft room put back together.  That's on the list for today...