Pattern: Fifi from French Girl knits
Yarn: 4 1/2 balls Rowan Calmer color Khaki
Needles: Crystal Palace US 1 DPNs
Thoughts: Finally she is finished. I like the look but I have issues with the pattern, the length, my bind off on the arms. The pattern was not very clear which I think is weird for such a more upscale pattern company. I cast on 3 times for this pattern and I still am not happy with the neck line. It needs to be bigger (next time I will cast on 140 on smaller needles and then switch to larger ones after rnd 6). Because this yarn stretches, I thought I had the right length, but once I put the BO garment on it seemed a little shorter than my desire. I tried a new stretchy BO which works for the bottom, but not the sleeves. The sleeves probably need to be knit on a needle one size down with a basic BO.
Mods: I got to the BO for the S, but it did not meet at the underarms. (now it seems, It might have fit if I had split there and had increased in the side seam.) So I did the full increases for the L/XL on the bust but not the sleeves. I put in bust darts – 2 on each side ( I had holes were I wrapped and turned so I duplicate stitched that area so you could not see the holes.) It seems to me that you might have been able to do a regular short row bust dart. I did 7 decreases on each side starting 2 inches before my waist (in this I did not follow directions but rather turned the side areas into k1p1 areas). I also did the same number of increases for my hips as soon as I completed the decreases. My BO was a K2tog pass st back to LFT needle and k2tog. It worked really great.

Churchable’s 4th socks
Pattern: Basketcase Socks
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight Colorway Minestone
Needles: Crystal Palace US 2 Circular
Thoughts: He loves these socks. They fit great on him. I have learned that 60st with this yarn works great for him. He likes snug socks.

Pattern: Sweater with Cables from Rebecca #30

Yarn: Laine de Schaffhouse Livia color 32 (held double)
Needles: Crystal Palace US 8 Circular and US 6 Circular
Thoughts: I am not so fond of this pattern. I looked good on the model, but I made a mistake and made the wrong size (36/38). I know better but oh well. I also don’t like the two cables going over my breasts. They are too wide for me. I might wear this with a button down shirt, but I don’t know.

My entrelec sock has gotten many ohs and ahs lately. It especially caused many passerbys at Fabric Depot to stop and pet it and comment on the fact that I was not even looking. My response would have been why do I need to look at my knitting when it is all little tiny squares of knit stitches, but I was brought up to be nice and accept it. My inside voice was screaming STOP PETTING the SOCK people. I might understand now about the whole people petting pregnant women’s bellies. Totally not ok. Ok it was fine for a few knit bloggers but not the entire group of people that I did not know and who did not ask.

My sweater with cables from Rebecca 30 is coming along well. I think I might only have enough to seam and crochet the neck. I don’t know how much I can do with the sleeves. I have one small ball left. It is currently blocking and waiting for me to seam it and figure out how much yarn I have. I started this project happy if it only becomes a vest.

I have restarted Fifi with more stitches in the neck and then realized that I was lazy and did a swatch but did not measure it. I just cast on willy nilly. It’s not good to toss about starts. So I got the sweater with cables off the size 8 needles and I will be swatching tonight and hopefully casting on tomorrow morning before I start work. I just got my yarn today for my big project for Tina over at Blue Moon.

Now on to the big weekend event. If you don’t care about my crazy life move along there is no more knitting till Friday. So I finally decided that I had had it with cousin It and he had to leave. I mean what good is a tree that is supposed to flower and has only flowered once in the 4 summers you have been spending time at this house. You must first know that cousin it is most likely about 40 years old. SO it was not easy. Now the house looks a little bare but much more to my liking.

I want to quickly catch you up and hopefully I don’t miss anything. The past couple of weeks has been busy/lazy.

We headed down to Sacramento to a memorial service. We of course had adventures on the way down. Two hours into our drive from home we discover that the front passenger tire is flat and has been for a while (we would stop every couple of days and pump it up since we saw no holes). Strangely odd. We also had left at 8:30 pm hoping to stop at a campground and sleep and then jump back on the rode. The campgrounds on I-5 between Portland and Grants Pass are slim if not nonexistent. So churchable’s grand idea was to sleep at the Salem fairgrounds. Ok fairgrounds don’t sound too great, but after I got over being freaked out at camping in the middle of a city, I got a good nights sleep till a big fat drop of Oregon hit me in the face. I don’t know about you but I don’t appreciate sleeping without a tent in the rain. We ended up sleeping at a rest stop. The rest of the drive down was pretty good.

After the memorial we headed off to see on of my HS buddies who lives in the Bay Area. We got to meet their baby who is very active but he is a year and half old. Unfortunately we stayed with them for a very short time since they were expecting family and leaving for Europe shortly afterwards.

The rest of the time in the Santa Rosa area of California. My SIL and family live in the area. We had good times. I spent a lot of time knitting. I finished a few things and started something very cool.

During this time was my FIL’s birthday which was celebrated by going to Santa Cruz and riding on a narrow gauge train up a mountain.

During this time everyone was suffering or recovering from a stomach flu. Bud, Frog boy and I did not get it, but churchable was attacked by it the day we planned to head out to the base of Mt Shasta so that he could summit it. I ignored his delusioned requests that I drive and all I would need to do was pull over so he could puke. No thank you.

So we headed back to the Northwest a day late, which just meant no Mt Shasta. At this point both front tires were trying to see who could be less deflated. While the tires bickered, we made a detour to see Crater Lake, which was amazing. I can’t wait to come back in the winter and go snowshoeing around it. Churchable wants to ski some parts of it (no not into it.)

On saturday we woke up and I complained that I thought I needed a warmer sleeping bag because I froze most of the night. Well come to find out it was freezing that night and my bag is not rated for that cold of weather. So if you go to Crater Lake and camp, bring a warm sleeping bag.

My body might have been cold, but my mind was quickly waking up to thought that I would be at the Black Sheep Gathering soon. My lovely husband was so kind to let me schedule it in. He was even looking forward to the sheep to shawl competition which we never saw. I saw lots of pretty yarn but I must say I really only wanted yarn from the Blue Moon booth, but I am a little biased. When I was ready to go, churchable was shocked. He questioned me about if there was more I wanted to do or so. I did say I wanted to meet up with some of the PDX bloggers but I seem to have missed all of them except Tammy, who was helping man the Blue Moon booth.

Ok on to the knitting content:

Oh first I must tell you a story. Si asked me to teach her to knit socks (she has never knit before people) back in early May, but she lives in Cal and I in Washington. At that time we were both in Spo Vegas and I started her out learning to turn the toe on a short row toe up generic pattern. As we were starting, Frog boy asked if Gee (his frog) could have socks. Each time she and I talked about me coming and her doing more on her sock, Frog boy would ask about Gee’s socks. So without further ado, Gee socks with a scarf.

Upon receiving the scarf, that I knit on the sly in his presence, Frog boy asked if Gee might possibly have some mittens. I think I have some mitten knitting in my future. I hope we don’t boil this little frog alive in all the wool I keep passing his way.

If you look closely at the slide show, you will see David’s Orange socks are being worn. I finally finished them. I will track him down with them on later.

Since I was sockless, well at least on the needles. I started one pair for me. I have powered through the main sections of the sock but these socks are Enunny’s Entrelec Knee socks. I am in love with the socks and their fit, but beware the pattern seems small for a US size 8-9 shoe size. My feet are 7 1/2 and they are tight.

While at the Blue Moon Booth, I bought churchable socks. Well ok sock yarn to be socks. Amazing if you look down, we have a sock. Maybe I did buy a sock at the booth. Ok no really I have just completely shocked myself in how fast I can knit my hubby’s sock. I started this a week ago, found out it was too big, ripped it out on Friday night, and Tuesday night I BO. Amazing. I must finally say the proof is in the yarn. I knit faster when I am in love with the yarn. So churchable’s socks are Basketcase socks. It is a really easy pattern to learn. It is perfectly suited to a man’s sock in its present state but that is because a man wrote the pattern and churchable likes a tight sock. The yarn colorway is Minestone.

yes I know the ends are hanging. GO look at something else

Now on to the fun stuff: What you thought socks were fun? Haha

This here sweater is one that I don’t think I have blogged about. The back was knit before I started this blog and it got pushed aside so that I could knit for the Sexy Knitters Club, babies and in anticipation of my new job. Now I have time to return to it. It is supposed to be a long sleeve sweater, but I doubt I have enough yarn. We will see how big it gets.

This is my next sweater for the Sexy Knitters Club. We are knitting Fifi. Now don’t run away when you see I am doing it in the called for yarn. I know this is so not normal. I picked Rowan Calmer because I had read so much about it in the No Sheep for You Book. I wanted to play with this miracle stuff. I have found a new yarn that shall be called nonwool crack. Yes I want to blow my yarn allowance on this stuff and this stuff alone. Forget about my love of Blue Moon. I must have…..

Oh sorry. I think I am better now. but the 4th is calling and I must enjoy some good ribs and corn.