Knitting in Transit

I realized it is going to take me forever to knit the Ripple Cardigan. Why? Because it is an adult size sweater knit on size 3 needles. Whoever thought knitting such a thing would be a good idea? Oh wait...me! The brim for Matilda is also slow going as it is many, many rows of stockinette. Basically, I've got two really boring projects on the needles right now. I might need to add something to spice things up a little. Gigi told me how the Little Guy went to a birthday party yesterday and got a balloon, which then got loose and blew away. Poor Little Guy was so upset! His dad explained to him that the balloon would fly far, far away and another family would find it and take really good care of it. He wanted to ride his bike really really fast and go find his balloon. Awww .... David and I headed over to my mom's this afternoon, where the Little Guy was visiting with my brother, wife, and their four little ones. So, we stopped at the party store on the way and picked ...

That's the sound I make when I try to whistle. I'm more successful when I knit a Wee Willie Whistle Sweater. I knit this from Lion Brand Cotton Ease, which has since been discontinued and replaced by Lion Brand Cotton Ease (new). I bought these skeins about five years ago, then it was discontinued, and now it's back. It's similar to Rowan All Seasons Cotton but cheaper. I'd say the Rowan is a little nicer to work with, but if I'm knitting a baby sweater that is going to be thrown up and drooled on, I'll go with the cheaper yarn. I discovered as I finished this up yesterday that I really don't like attaching sleeves. The armpit area feels like a mangled mass of seams. I actually would not let myself go for a run yesterday until I had finished seaming this sweater. Yes, knitting was the "dreaded activity"; running was the reward. I think this little sweater turned out quite nice. Now I just have to decide who to give it to. I have a thoug...

I thought for sure I would finish up the Wee Willie Whistle sweater yesterday since it was my day off. Unfortunately, I wound up spending half the day at work and since it was such a nice day I then went for a run. By the time I got back from my run, the sun was setting and I knew I wouldn't be able to get a good picture of the sweater even if I did finish it. So I didn't even try. I am a knitting quitter. Quitting is probably an exaggeration. I'm a knitting puter-offer. Regardless, I did work on it and completed the shoulder seams and the neck. Now it's just side and sleeve seams. I dislike seaming so much that quite often I'll wind up doing one seam a night, which means it would take me four nights to sew up a baby sweater. I'll do my best to be a bit more speedy than that. Anyhoo, here is the progress so far. Pretty cute, eh?

About two minutes into my most recent swim lesson, I began to think that this whole triathlon idea was C-R-A-Z-Y! That swim instructor is trying to kill us, or at least make us hate water. We started out with more kicking. When I got to the other end of the pool, she told me to kick faster. The rest of the class was lined up behind me like I was the jerk doing 55mph in the passing lane. Then she made us swim six laps. SIX! SIX! BTW, a lap is once down the pool, 25 yards. We had to do two laps, 15 second rest, two laps, 15 second rest, 2 laps. I know someone out there is a swimmer and is thinking, "Whatever, Michelle. Get over it". But for me, who can barely swim one lap, this was as though someone told me to run a marathon after I've finished my first 5K. I'd get to the far end of the pool, look back, and there she was, motioning with her arms and saying, "Come on. Come back!" At one point I actually said, "I don't want to". By the ...

I can tell the weather is getting colder because I have been spending time in earnest searching Ravelry for patterns that can be made with what I have in my stash, making plans for what to knit next, and actually spending a good deal of time knitting. I am on to the sleeves of the Wee Willie Whistle sweater. Ya know what that means? It's almost done! I've been actually spending time on Ravelry lately and noticed that the Interweave Knits holiday issue was out. I checked it out and immediately saw the Ripple Cardigan and thought, "Finally! Something that I can knit with the TEN skeins of mohair I have!" Maybe not all ten skeins, but I'll take what I can get. While I was at Barnes and Noble, I spotted Debbie Bliss knitting magazine . I had no idea she had a magazine. I picked up a copy because there are some nice tweedy sweaters that I think I might be able to use some of my tweedy yarn from Ireland to make. Pretty sure I don't have enough for any o...

Another update in my quest to complete a triathlon in August! Sunday I had my first swimming lesson. I mentioned in my last update that I can swim a half-mile doing the breaststroke. Judging by the look on David's face, this is not impressive AT ALL. The look said, "a two-year old could do that blindfolded and with his arms tied together." Although I am still proud of this, I know that I'll need to be able to swim a half-mile doing the front crawl, hence the swimming lessons. There are eight adults in the class, and everyone was very friendly. Nothing like having strangers witness you flailing through the water to bring you closer together. The first thing the instructor had us do was just kick, with the kickboard, for 100 yards. Boy oh boy, am I not a good kicker. I barely moved. Apparently I am kicking all wrong. Even when I tried to kick correctly, I still barely moved. Very humbling. Then we worked on the front crawl and the back stroke for a bit. At ...

Way back when I started my blog, I took a survey to help me decide which of many UFO's I should finish up. The choices were a mitten , dragon hoodie , yellow sweater , Wee Wilie Whistle sweater , and an intarsia square . The mitten won...I promptly finished it...and forgot all about the other items. Now they are making a comeback! Even thought the Wee Willie Whistle sweater was not a winner, I have started on it again. Ripped out what I had and now have the back complete (again) and have started the front. I think now that I have started, this will be a quick knit. I'm not sure how the progress will go on the other items. Since I'm trying to use up stash yarn, I think finishing some of these projects makes sense. On the other hand, there is a lot of other yarn in my stash as well..in addition to a few new UFO's. Some things never change in knitting.