This Olympic Update brought to you by...

a stretching break.

This is a fun garment, and I am really enjoying it, this Rogue thing. This was a good idea, and all for me, and I am glad I chose it. It is rare that I make more than an occasional sock for myself. I started at about 4:00pm Friday , and have got the kangaroo pocket done, and am working up the sides, about ten rows from attaching the pocket back to the front.

The trouble is that I really have to start work on this sweater for store demo. I finished the math calculations for all sizes this morning and am all ready to go. Rogue is distracting me. I must put it aside shortly and forgo the spirit of Olympic competition for the spirit of "Kathy needs her new garment". It helps that I don't have cable. I can forget about the whole Olympic thing if I have to. I know what I need. What I really need is a Martha Stewart type staff...someone to clean the house and walk the dogs so I can just knit!

They're just never going to be done. Never...

And it breaks my heart. Because I really really really wanted them done by tonight, so I could start the Olympics with a nice clean plate. Instead I can add "special socks" to the list of stuff hanging over me. (whinnnneee.) I could have gotten them done today, were it not for the Blog Gallery, and my falling asleep while knitting. Must be some sort of Pre-Olympic Rest Period? They're just never going to be done. But the heels are turned. Whatever happened to a sock a day? Am I aging? Can I no longer keep up?? Am I...losing it???

Let the Games Begin!

As we begin this monumentous and historic effort, let us remember the words of our leader, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot.....

The Knitting Olympics Athletes Pledge

I, a knitter of able hands and quick wits, do hereby swear that over the course of these Olympics I will uphold the highest standard of knitterly excellence.

I will be deft of hand and sure of pattern, I will overcome troubles of yarn overs and misplaced decreases. I will use the gifts of intelligence and persistence (as well as caffeine and chocolate) and I will execute my art to the highest form, carrying with me the hope for excellence known to every knitter.

I strive to win. To do my best, and to approach the needles with my own best effort in mind, without comparing myself to my fellow knitters, for they have challenges unique to them.

While I engage in this pursuit of excellence and my own personal, individual best, I also swear that I will continue to engage with my family in conversation, care for my pets, speak kindly with those who would ask me to do something other than knit, and above all, above every stitch thrown or picked, above every cable, every heel stitch, every change of colour, I swear this:

That I will remember that this is not the real Olympics, that I'm supposed to be having fun and that my happiness and self-worth ride not on my success....

but on my trying.

Let the games begin!

Recovery Day

Tuesday between Ikea, the JC Penney Outlet and Webs I thought I might die from the joy. Life is truly good. Stuff on my Ikea list was in the As-Is room. I actually left under budget, with nearly everything I wanted (and, of course, a couple of things I had not planned on, but had been considering). My primary goal was a child sized table, and more Lillabo train parts. Our first stop is always the As-Is room. Last time I managed to get my Poang chair for half price. This time it was a Speja crawling tube for $1.99, a Latt child’s table for $4.99 (instead of the alotted $19.99), and roman blinds for my bedroom, thick heavy things, for $9.99 each. I have made them, but for the money and the time, this was totally worth it. The blue Ikea crawling tube works well with the crawling tube set my mother in law found so now he has two tubes and a little hideout in the middle. As a bonus I snagged another collapsible toy bin, love these things, so now trains live in one and Mega Blocks in the other. In short, my home now looks like a daycare, and I spent half of yesterday trying to arrange it to look less so. We stopped off in the exit Bistro for caviar to take home and hot dogs and frozen yogurt for Girl and mother in law. Then Penney’s Outlet - I had not been since they closed the one in Connecticut - they had my husband’s beloved 100% cotton white mock turtlenecks for $2.99 - I bought six. Then I decided I really don’t care what initials are on my bath towels, for $3.99 they could monogram just about anything on them and I'd buy 'em- Egyptian cotton towels that retailed for $17.99 – so now we’re mAp, and pLg, but who cares??? And, I suppose, if I did really care I could always get a seam ripper and tear the letters out, but it’s really not that important to me. I am a real stickler for 100% egyptian cotton and high thread counts in towels and sheets, and also amazingly, painfully cheap. This fit my bill perfectly!

I also learned a valuable lesson…do not try to chart a cable pattern on your husband's computer ten minutes before it is time to leave, assuming you can just email it to yourself to print. It just did not work out that way. Instead, I got an empty file, and spent 2 hours trying to cable from hand written directions scrawled on graph paper in three different directions with x-outs and pen hacking of all kinds while moving at 65 mph on a major highway. Not good, great overwhelming nausea. I did get a little done, but not nearly as much as I’d have liked, but managed to get another inch last night. Last night was also a Rogue evening – talk about Olympic feats. Twelve balls, wound and ready, and in their own bag. Then I did a bit more on the cabled socks, which I hope to finish today, but that may be tough with the baby...I mean Boy...coming for the afternoon. Then the Olympics start, but I also will start the actual knitting of a new design for the store this weekend, once I have done the final math checks and revisions - thank God for calculators. It's going to be very pretty though, of Longmeadow, and feminine and sweet, but not too sweet. In fact, I may have to make one for myself.

THE BEST PART….while driving to Ikea we stopped in N’Hamp at Webs for a little visit, to drop something off and pick something is up….I bought 2 hanks of Silk Rhapsody, one for myself and one for mother in law. I almost wish the Olympics were behind me, and the sweater I’m designing for the store as well, so I could get my dirty little mitts on this stuff. It’s SO lovely to look at, it doubles as living room decor!! The put-up is great at 260 yards per skein, that’s a LOTTA yarn, $39 retail but well worth it for silk and kid mohair.

The another wonderful thing happened yesterday…my husband put my new slick tire on my bike on the trainer. It is amazing how much difference a tire can make. The treads on the MB tire were causing the bike to bounce around on the trainer. Now it is smooth and slick and no vibration in my poor little tush, so I can sit up straight, pedal and knit to my heart's content. With my new girlie seat and slick smooth tire, I am very excited, and can’t wait till morning to test it out more. I love my husband!! (and Performance Bike)

The Hive....

I should have taken pictures. The store yesterday was alive with activity and resembled a hive of some very industrious mostly female insects. I would say the AlterKnitive SuperBowl Bash was a raving success. There were door prize give-away's, including some of Gail Callahan's hand dyed silk scarves. There was yarn, coffee, tea, VERY yummy snackage, and about a million persons of fiber orientation - crocheters, weavers, spinners, and a large proportion of knitters. They were strung from the rafters, sitting on the floor, on rented chairs, and generally filled every space the store could offer up. It was a lot of fun. Girl came along and found a small spinning child, also homeschooled but about 8 years her junior. They wandered aimlessly, chatting. Always interesting that homeschoolers seem to find each other in a crowd, the way the kids in "real" school all seemed to find a group. I find that homeschoolers tend to not be selective about ages though - a ten year old homeschooled kid will happily spend a day with a 17 year old homeschooled kid, and never question that it might be "uncool" for the 17 year old to take an interest in her, nor does the 17 year old find it odd that she's fascinated by this "little kid". They seem to me much more accepting of people of all ages and types, and make no generalizations about groups or individuals.

In knitting news...I finished a pair of socks last week, Artyarns Supermerino that just sort of called to me when I walked by the rack, and so I bought it. I just did a simple cuff down sock with a mock cable pattern on 6's, no big, and really worked up very fast. I am a sucker for red.

Also finished the first baby set for the petite unborn, who perhaps we should now call 'Kermit'. Mommy picked the yarn, so he/she can blame her when the time comes! I love the yarn (Filatura MilleFili Fine which is a steal at $3.00 a ball for discontinued colors), but do not love this particular color. I love the pattern but think it very feminine.

While driving bike routes with Mr. Wonderful (try finding roads in NH with a breakdown lane, or a smooth shoulder...good luck) I worked on the Baby Bunting Bag From Heck. It's a Dale pattern, supposed to be knit in Hauk but I am doing it in Cleckheaton Country 8-ply on size 2's and very slow going to me. The yarn splits a lot, and is annoying as a result. I have used it before but for simpler projects on larger needles. I just want it to be done. Then I did more baby shower shopping and decided I'd really like THAT to be done as well!! It's down to food and finalizing, which is nice. I have selected four games to play, bought about everything I need short of food, selected a theme, invited the guests, and fielded a variety of phone calls of all types - acceptances, rejections, and confusions. It's amazing what can happen when you get addresses from a pregnant woman who refuses to look in her address book and is convinced she can remember it all. She transposed phone numbers with zip codes, streets and towns, and all manner of interesting things. She has not accepted that her mind is lost to her for the next 18 years at least.

I thought this was cool - a pile of swatches since a few weeks before Christmas, incomplete actually as there's more underneath and I did not lay them all out. I pulled them all out of the basket for blocking and transportation to the swatch holding area ( a Grey Goose Vodka box with a sliding top) someday I am going to pull them ALL out and make something. Some are washed and blocked, many more are just bound off and tossed in the basket. I figure when the box gets full I will petition my local liquor store manager for more. We have a bunch of the boxes, and they're incredibly handy. We use them for storing dyes and dye materials mostly, though I use a mini version for my circulars.

Last, but by no means least...Girl started making "a bag to felt". We've been sort of keeping track, writing it down as she goes, and if it works I will post it here as a free pattern. It is 2 strands of her most beloved Berkshire (Girl truly loves Berkshire and is even considering the creation of a sweater in the stuff) on size 15's. It will be round, with a flat bottom and drawstring top, although I think she may need to rethink that part in the end, but we'll see. It is freaking huge! I think she will line it with fabric (or get her mother to line it) to keep the Berk Alpaca Haze off whatever she's carrying, but generally I suspect this thing will be SpEcTaCuLaR when done, and I may need one myself.

TAGGED, I'm it...

My first meme. I am so excited!

Four jobs you have had in your life - ice rink DJ, car exhaust shop receptionist and general office scut shuffler, shoe salesgirl, Registered Nurse in long term care facility

Four movies you could watch over and over - Gone With the Wind, Price and Prejudice (newer BBC version), Waterworld, Emma (old BBC version)

Four places you have lived - scary apartment complex, creepy spiritualist summer camp, former corn crib (seriously, and we sold it for four times what we paid), and cold, drafty dormitories at Christian boarding school.

Four TV shows you love to watch - not a single one. We don't have cable. When we had cable I watched ER, old M*A*S*H* reruns, Trading Spaces and While You Were Out.

Four places you have been on vacation - Southern California, Florida, Vermont and Niagara

Four websites you visit daily - accuweather, google, yahoo, bloglines (my feeds!!)

Four places you'd rather be right now - Disney World, Hawaii, Europe, Ikea (can't wait for tomorrow!)

Four bloggers you are tagging - persnicketyknitter, kraftygirl, and two random sock counters, yet to be determined.

The Ranting Steeker

First, here are my Stockbridge Rogue swatches which I adore. I am going forward with the coned yarn for now, to be true to my original intention of only using what was on hand. However, when it comes time for the CardyRogue From Someday Land, Stockbridge will be the yarn of choice. Though not to gauge, it is very soft, blocked out well, holds it's shape, knits easily though did split at times while cabling - so I ditched my cable (Thank You Annie!!) needle and proceeded without further problem. The gauge problem will be easily solved by needle size or adjusting size selection to correspond with gauge.

Then I blocked, since I was at it, my Midwest Moonlight scarflet in Silk Rhapsody, and my Stockingette Stitch version of a modular pattern available to Modular group members only (sorry). I love them both. They are now laid out on the kitchen floor. This shocked my father (dare I say "floored" him), to see my laying out silk and mohair on a linear surface not above pet level. But they know better. They are not stupid animals. Years of going around mommy's fabric cutting area has taught them well.

Dad stopped by to see our new Thomas the Tank Engine Big Loader in action. He is mechanically minded, and had bought a similar toy for my nephew and decided A. needed one. We set it up and let it rip, and after some false starts, all our own fault, and some discussion about not touching, only watching, the thing has become a huge hit around here. I MUST find a Thomas BigBig Loader (it has a crane and an elevator!!) for my dad for his birthday. VERY cool toy! I have seen reviews whine about it's being plastic, and crappy, and with poor directions, but I say for $14.99 it makes my grandson sit, with hands folded and watch, entranced, as Thomas, Percy and Terrence chug about with loads of coal, switching directions and performing various tasks, and if the kid is not making some critical engineering decisions in his little brain I will eat my hat. (Thank God my hats are all wool or silk.) As for the crappy directions, they are very Ikea-esque, and we all know how Melissa feels about Ikea..and if we don't, we'll find out next Tuesday when I get back from my little expidition to Mecca II (Mecca I being Webs, of course)

Also done (yester)today were four swatches for a new design, only one of which I loved. You tell me which I love, A,B,C or D. Of the remaining three, one I like, two I don't like at all because they remind me of my grandmother.

It is now 'tomorrow'. For a day and a half I have been trying to upload pics to this stinking blog without any stinking effect. I am sick to death of the dark ages of computing. I am sick of saving drafts like it's 1991 and I'm in the GCC Computer Lab at 4pm writing a case study that's due tomorrow morning while my kids play at my feet with paper plates and straws stolen from the cafe. Pop-up...loading...done...NO PIC! Lose connection....regain connection...save quick, connection bails again. Over and over and over again. All this so I can live in the woods three minutes from Vermont on a ridge overlooking two brooks, with neighbors who let their stinking dogs run loose all over my chickens (I'm buying a gun.)

I am heading to Webs this morning to drop off a steeked sweater for a woman who was concerned about the steeking process. I have a few things to say about this project. This woman spent hours following directions. The garment is beautifully knitted, the work is very concise. I would post a picture of it, but it is not my work and don't feel right publishing pictures of other people's work without their knowledge. The problem is that I don't agree with the directions. The pattern is Sirdal from Dale of Norway Soft Treasures for Little Ones, a beautiful book with rich photography and incredibly cute Scandanavian infants and toddlers in these amazingly beautiful garments. This is one of those books that anyone with a grandchild, niece, nephew, potential child, neighbors child, borrowed child, ANY child in their lives should have because it contains the most amazing heirloom quality classic garments. Sirdal is a classic Norwegian cardigan that Dale has drafted in all sizes from infant to adult male, with a front steek and sleeves that are steeked though no actual steek is knitted in; you simply knit, sew around your intended sleeve openings with a sewing machine and cut away. I love cutting my knitting. I think steeking is next to godliness, right after cleanliness and just before selflessness. However, from personal (read "near death") experience, I have learned a few things about steeks and I shall now share this knowledge with you, dear reader. First, if color stranding, as most steeked sweaters are, work your colors across your steeks. If your steek is, say, six stitches wide then work one st navy, one st white, etc across each steek row, alternating the colors on successive rows so that navy is over white (or whatever your chose colors are) Had I time I should knit an example! (And perhaps I will, under the guise of preparing for the petite unborn who should own one steeked sweater, or even perhaps for the grandson.) Working your colors into your steeks prevents floats. Floats are not good for steeks. They draw the width of the steek in, causing the steek to pucker which makes sewing it difficult at best, impossible at worst. In this case it was nearly impossible, but in the end it was accomplished (I should get hazard pay). They are also called floats for a reason and when you go to stitch your steeks, by machine or by hand, you're left with these loose, floating bits of color here and there down your garment. Second, while I adore this pattern and appreciate that the sleeve openings 'worked' without a "true" steek, I would have thrown in a four stitch steek anyway, just to be safe. A steek Ala Knitting in The Old Way (which has been released in paperback, and which every serious knitter should own). I would have figured out my sleeve depth, maybe even knitted the sleeves first and meaasured them, and at the point where I expected my sleeves to be insterted, I would have b.o. four sts at the bottom of each intended sleeve opening centered accordingly, and then reverse c.o. four to six sts to work as a steek for the arm, to give myself a little buffer. Third, when selecting yarn for these kinds of projects we naturally tend toward washable wools for babies. Having made that choice we need to consider the slippery surface of the superwash when steeking. Your steek should be a little wider than called for, two stitches at least, and once cut should be turned under and stitched down with a whip stitch to help prevent any slippage. The superwash wools can be very slick and not catch as traditional wools do. This means that your machine washable steeked garment may not stand up well to machine washing, and stitches that normally would be held fast by wool scales will slip and slide. We shall see. I have decided to buy yarn this morning to accomplish this garment for somebaby, either a boy toddler 24 months, or an unborn gender-free infant.

Now, I am completely late in getting out of here, must hustle girl through her toilette, grab diaper bag, run for errands before Webs and boy-fetching...this is a good thing. My hands were getting sore and they'll have a day off. And the weather is supposed to suck tomorrow, so today is good for erranding. And the worst that can happen is that I over do with all the racing around, I make myself sicker and have to stay home for a week and knit. (awww...tooo bad...)