Soup's On

It's a perfect day for Mah Jongg. The ladies will be here shortly and I'm ready for them. I'm trying something new: soup!!! Yesterday I made a batch of the tomato soup I learned to make when we lived in Connecticut. And so we have a little something to go with it, I've made the ginger cookie recipe that I got from Liz as a party favor at her pre wedding brunch. Any minute now 11 ladies will desend. Will soup be too weird a snack, or will it be a success?

Ascutney Mountain Hat

I came home from Rhinebeck with three small projects. All of them are for winter. Just in time for the dropping temperatures. For this knitter, there's nothing like cooler weather to get me all enthused about new projects.

While in the Green Mountain Spinnery booth I fell in love with the Ascutney Mountain Hat. The sales woman was nice enough to pull out her own hat and try it on for me. She and I both agreed that we generally think we look horrible in hats. However, there was something about this one that made her feel like she looked good in it. She and the hat were downright attractive. She thinks the reason is the cabling makes some bulk around the face, instead of squishing the hair close to the head.

I was all for this hat. It has a fetching cable band running horizontally around the face. Then you pick up stitches to do a regular stockinette top. I had actually been dreaming of creating such a hat, but was too lazy to figure it out. So, here's the pattern that does all the work for me. And with a great cable that I've never knit before. I'm learning something new!

Can't wait to finish, so I can walk the dog in warmth....and style.

My other two Rhinebeck projects: Norwegian mittens and a scarf, pattern yet to be determined. Winter necessities.

Whoopee!!!!

WHOOPEE!!!! I have no idea who these people are but I was so excited to be in Rhinebeck at the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival that I couldn't help but take their picture. I was also excited to see the ravelry meeting space and all the people mingling and meeting one another.

It was a fantastic fall day in New England. The trees were flaming red and it was cold enough to wear wool sweaters. The fair grounds smelled of fall leaves and fair food. So many people were dressed in their fantastic hand knit or woven clothes. Everyone seemed happy.

I hoped to take lots of pictures to capture the glorious day. However, shortly after I took the photo of this handsome man, my battery gave out and that was the end of that.

Don't you love this guy???? I was standing to the side of the crowd, having survived buying two gorgeous skeins of Socks that Rock yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, when a young woman set her back pack next to me and I spied this charming guy peeking out of her pack. I couldn't help but ask her about him, and she gladly took him out, put his glasses on and introduced me. I was totally charmed. This is the kind of moment that one experiences when mingling with thousands of fiber lovers.

I saw lots of wonderful yarns and discovered some new companies, but the highlight was watching all the people. I saw some fantastic clothing and got ideas for new things to knit mostly from people watching.

In addition to Mr. Blue Suit and friend, I want to remember some of the other people I connected with:

• While standing outside the Brooks Farm Booth, waiting for my friend Mimi to make her purchase, I got all involved with several women who were trying to figure out how the circular shawl that Brooks Farm features works. I was very interested because I already have the yarn and the pattern. We laughed ourselves silly trying to figure out how one should wear this yummy, soft, beautiful but huge loop of knitted fabric. We never did figure it out, and the sales people were so overwhelmed with shoppers, we couldn't get expert advice. We did have fun winding ourselves in this kid mohair delight.


• Before getting back on the Tangled Web bus to head for home, Mimi and I stood in line to get hot drinks and cookies. Three charming young women were in front of us and they were so kind, letting people walk through the line to get wherever they were going. The girls then apologized for being nice, saying, "We can't help it, we're Canadian."We soon started chatting because the one girl had on the most beautiful yellow, lace scarf. She was also wearing wonderful fingerless gloves made by the friend standing next to her. One bit of conversation led to another, and before I knew it I was writing down the website of the free pattern that she used to make her scarf. You can bet I'll be checking out Mimknits.com for the Adamous scarf.


• The best encounter of all was running into my friend Rachel from West Simsbury, Connecticut. 3 or 4 years ago I came to Rhinebeck with Rachel and her mother. I bought yarn for Snow Star Farms Anna's Jacket at that time. I wore the finished sweater to this year's festival. I was leaving the building, wearing my sweater, having just passed Snow Star Farms. I walked right by Rachel, did a double take, backed up and said, "Rachel!!!!!!!!!!???????" Yes, it was Rachel AND her mother!!!! She had just passed Snow Start Farm and was wondering if Jamar had ever finished that sweater. She was amazed to see me, in the sweater, walking by.

I made it through the day, buying a few things, but I didn't break the budget. I guess I'm ready for winter because I bought yarn for mittens, a hat and a scarf. I do love the change of seasons. I got lots of ideas for new projects and I will gladly go to my favorite local wine shop to make purchases for those.

What a fabulous day.

C'est fini

10:39 p.m.

RTD out of town. Lots of T.V. and some red wine.

Cockiness and Sassiness

I have completely finished knitting my Cherry Red Cable Cardigan. All I need to do is weave in the ends and finish the frog.

True to my standard of knitting everything twice, I've managed to make this fairly simple project complicated. This is how it went:

First I knit the two sleeves. I did this because sleeves are small enough to take while travelling and they were finished within the first month. I then let CRCC hibernate while I became distracted with other projects. When I was able to refocus on CRCC I knit the back. It went very smoothly. The cable pattern is easy to follow and it knit up like a dream. Complicated enough to add interest, simple enough to avoid being mired in following a chart.

By now I was feeling quite cocky, so I knit the left front. It too progressed easily, but when I finished it I noticed that the top of the shoulder was smaller than the shoulders on the back of the sweater! What is this? Oh yes, I had neglected to decrease properly for the back neckline and didn't notice the neck would be more appropriate for an American Girl doll than a person until now. Learning that I wasn't quite as perfect as I was thinking I was, actually provided some relief. Cockiness gets one no where. Nothing to do now, but rip out part of the back to get the decreases correct so my front and back shoulder seams would match.

Since that correction wasn't too torturous, I started feeling sassy and moved on to the right front. Since I had successfully completed the left I went on automatic pilot and sped through the right front. However, the right cables need to mirror the left. Where exactly did I start that first decrease for the v-neck? This took some experimentation and rip out. Not only where did I start it, but how did I do it?

The right front arm hole was another story. I knew how to do it, why reread those directions? The reason I should have reread the directions is because I decreased 4 stitches per row 2 times instead of 1. Alas, I didn't notice this error until I was well up the arm hole and noticed that it didn't match the left armhole. Time to reread, rip out and reknit. However, I happily made it to the top and both sides now mirror one another.

A few days ago I stitched all the pieces together and knit the i-cord for the frog. I've discovered that the side of the frog with the knot makes a much smaller frog than the side with the loop. I can't have a lopsided frog so I've got to knit some more i-cord, maybe an inch shorter than the original to make the loop part of the frog match the knot side.

Hopefully I will finish the frog to my satisfaction, manage to sew it on without having to reknit anything else. When that is accomplished I will be so happy to have a little photo shoot and submit that along with the announcement that this project is fini!!

Here's hoping I've learned about cockiness and sassiness: these personality traits are often the cause of the entire twice knitting predicament.

Now, I'm off to dream about the next project.

Not Original

The most disturbing thing just happened to me.

During lunch today, my friend Cindy asked, "What's a blog?" Several of us tried to explain to her exactly what a blog is. When I told her that even I have a blog she sounded very interested. So when I got home, I sent her an email with my blog address, the address of my son David, who has a phenominal blog, and the blogspot address so she could see a few examples and start one of her own if the urge struck.

I tested the addresses I sent her, including mine, to make sure she would get what I wanted her to see. Guess what???????????????? Someone else has the same blog name as mine "Twice Knit"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What does this mean? Not only do I have to knit everything more than once, I'm not original.

I didn't take time to thoroughly check out the "other" Twice Knit blog, but I got the main idea. This other knitter gets carried away, knits beyond the stopping point and then has to rip out and reknit. Actually today I had planned to report how far I am in knitting my Cherry Red Cables and how and why I've had to do some ripping, but I got distracted by this other blogger.

That story of Cherry Red Cables will have to wait while I lick my wounds for a bit.

What am I knitting?

People often ask me what I'm knitting. Since last November I've replied, "A red cable knit cardigan." Today is October 1, almost a year later, and I'm still knitting the same red cardigan. As a matter of fact I'm closing in on finishing it. A non knitter probably doesn't think anything of the fact that I've been on the same project for such a long time. However, a knitter knows something is up.

Here's what's been up for the past 11 months. After starting the red cardigan, my local yarn shop started a knit along of the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. That was too intriguing for me to pass up so I took a break from the red cardigan (2 sleeves completed) and knit the Tangled Yoke. Then, while at a Friday night knitting session at Tangled Web, I was charmed by the Clapotis that a co knitter was wearing. So, even though Tangled Yoke wasn't finished, I started the Clapotis as an airplane project. I did actually finish this, as well as the Tangled Yoke. In the meantime, Tangled Web was doing a Market Squares Bag knit along and you know who had to join in? However, I couldn't attend the class where we got instruction on entrelac so I had to teach myself how to do entrelac. That's when I knit and felted my little entrelac purse. With that done I was free to make the Market Squares Bag. But, alas, that became too big to carry on an airplane, so I went back to the red cardigan - I had never really forgotten it. So, I finished the back of the red cardigan and then went back to Market Squares. I finished the bag and felted it. I was so excited by it that I had to use up the remaining yarn. Once again I put the red sweater on hold, and moved into a felted wine sack. Now, I'm back to the cardigan. I have finished the right front and am close to finishing the left front.

So why am I not knitting on it right now? That's because I just spent my several free hours taking photos of my stash, and entering all the info onto Ravellry. (Now I know exactly how many unkit skeins of yarn I have squirrelled away in my closet.) Since I was already at the computer I thought I may as well justify myself to myself as to why I still don't have a red cardigan to wear.

I now have a new goal: finish the red item before the one year anniversary. I think I can do it, if I don't continue to get distracted. And for now, when someone askes what I'm knitting I can really say, "A red cable knit cardigan."

Projects complete in 2008: Tangled Yoke Cardigan, Calpotis, Entrelac Surprise Bag, Market Squares Bag, Wine Sack and red................???

As I reread this, the story seemed familiar. It reminds me of the children's book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I guess I'm a mouse.