Monthly Archives: April 2005

So I love to knit socks for my grandfather because he loves them.  He even requested a pair of socks to be put aside for his burial.  He believes in being prepared.  lol.  I knit those with fine charcoal alpaca.  There’s no better way to get a knitter to knit for you again than to love her gifts and wear them so much that you wear them out.  I was talking to my Gram the other day and she informed me that my grandfather is in dire need of new socks.  He has taken to duck-taping all of the socks I knit for him so they won’t wear out any more! lol.  I swear he’s a completely sane, very intelligent even, man.  Okay, okay Gramps.  I got the hint.  More socks soon.

For the second year in a row I bought “Odessa’s” fleece from Whitefish Bay Farm.   I’ll post a picture on the first sunny day when I can take it outside and spread it out.  You can see the variation in this swatch.  I’m telling you… it’s the most stunning, soft, clean fleece.  It goes from silver grey on one end to a charcoal grey on the other.  CLEAN!  Ahhh… heaven. I got the idea for this swatch from one of the spinner’s I met at the Spinning Retreat in Scotland last Summer, Freyalynn Close-Hainsworth.  Her gorgeous Misty Mountains Shawl was in the Fall 2003 issue of Spin Off and was the winner of the 2002 Majacraft International Competition of Fiber Innovation.  She used Vivian Hoxbro’s Domino Knitting for the knitting of the diamonds in the shawl.  The beauty of it though is the way she carded and spun the wool.  She kept the dark and light locks separated and the result was diamonds that blended like this little rectangle I did with Odessa’s fleece.  She even knit beads into it.  Gorgeous shawl.  I still want a pair of Viking Combs after watching her use them in Scotland.

Guess what this is:

In the words of Gomer Pyle,

“Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”

It’s my new favorite knitted baby gift.   Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise  Jacket.  Way too much fun to knit.  I had just enough of some of my hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn to knit it with too.  I have to find the perfect buttons and stitch it up for a new baby boy.   You can find it in The Opinionated Knitter and Knitter’s #56 (Fall ’99).

I had such a good time knitting it (great mindless TV knitting), that I’ve already cast on another in cotton for the baby my brother and SIL are adopting.   They live in Arizona, so I think wool would be a bit unwelcome, don’t you?

I couldn’t resist the Humpty Dumpty in the new Spin Off.   When I was a little girl I had a big Humpty that I slept with.  In my mind he was big but I was about four then so who knows.  I was living with my Gram in New Hampshire at the time and I remember Humpty being an issue with my Aunts because he took up too much bed space.  It was usually my Aunt Ruthann that let me sleep with her.  Don’t know if it was because she was so kind about it or if it was because she was the youngest of the girls (she’s only six years older than me).   Probably a little of both.  At the time my Grandfather was the Fish & Game Warden in Center Ossipee.  The house was at the top of the hill and at the bottom were the large tanks for the fish that he used to restock the lakes and ponds.  I think my Humpty was drained out of one of those tanks many years later.

My new Humpty looks a little more like a huge Smiley face with arms and legs but I like the little bow tie he’s sporting.

Ha!  And you all thought I wasn’t getting any knitting done just because I wasn’t blogging!  Oh, ye of little faith!  We had plenty of car time with Jeremy here so I was able to finish the Must Have before we went down to the Alps so I could get some cool pics.  Don’t mind the ‘do.  Just look at the sweater and mountains.  My hairdresser is moving (story of my life) and you have no idea what it’s like to find a good hairdresser in Germany that speaks English well enough that you feel totally safe with your hair in their hands.  But I digress…

Wanna see something funny?  Just “met” another Army-wife-knit-blogger here in Germany today and she went down to the Edelwiess a few weeks ago. 

It really is a small world.  Now I gotta find out where she found that Phildar store!! C’mon, Allena, fess up!!

The color in the picture of the front is accurate.  The one of the back is all washed out but it’s a good close-up.

So, my first real cable sweater is finished and it didn’t take me two years to do.  I’ve done simple cables before but nothing like this.  Well… I did the Cables 101 Vest a few years back, but that was easy compared to the Must Have.  Dan’s been asking for a cabled sweater for years and now I have no excuse.  Dangnargit.  Just shot myself in the foot. 

Haven’t really decided on the next project yet.  I think I’ve become a one project girl.  I seem to get more done that way.  I need to do a few baby gifts and the next adult sweater is Dan’s.  I think it’s going to be this one.  It’s Sirdar 8313 that I picked up at John Lewis in Glasgow.  God, I loved going through all those pattern books.  I love Sirdar and Patons patterns and they were in abundance there.  Very manly man sweater.  Actually…. now that I look at it, lol, it kind of reminds me of an Army uniform sweater.  LOL.  Greeeaaat. 

It calls for DK and I’m using Elann Highland Wool (of course) in about the same color, so I’ll have to do some tweaking.  No biggie.  Weird pattern though.  It starts out with about 50 more stitches that you reduce at the end of the 3×3 ribbing.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before so I’m a little nervous.  Sound weird to anyone else?