kmkat and her kneedles

The vacation, part 3: the knitting.

Did I knit while we were on vacation? Why, yes! Yes, I did. Thanks for asking.

You may remember I planned to knit a Noro striped sweater during the month we were gone.

Didn't happen. Never even took that particular knitting bag out of its cubby in the van. Starting that sweater was contingent upon finishing the multicolor striped raglan that I had been working on since February. When we left home, that (top-down) sweater had a yoke, both sleeves, and three or four inches of the body. I kept slogging plugging
knitting on it all during our trip. Here it is today, rather rumpled from having been stuffed into a traveling knitting bag for the month of June and most of July.

It's nearly done, isn't it? Maybe getting it out of its bag and seeing how close I am will inspire me...

I had started a pair of socks as my carry-along knitting before we left, but I was not enjoying them. The Knit Picks Felici sock yarn, while lovely soft and in nice colors, was also loosely plied and therefore splitty. There was progress made on the socks, but it was s-l-o-w.

They are now [finally!] finished, however.

Somehow, even though I knit them on the same number of stitches (60) and the same size needle (US#0) as always, they don't fit well. See how the end of the toes sticks out from the end of my foot? That is because it is too narrow. Such nonsense is probably the result of my not liking the yarn; disgust made me knit tighter.

So.

If I didn't knit the Noro sweater, and I didn't finish the socks, and I worked on but didn't finish the raglan, what DID I knit?

Baby hats for the PIH hospital in Rwanda! At the last minute I threw my baby hat knitting bag (it's where I keep all the yarn that is good for baby hats) into the van. Good thing I did; otherwise I might have had to finish the sweater and socks. As Dale-Harriet once said, Baby hats are like potato chips. You can't do just one.

My soon-to-be-fifth-grade neighbor helped me do the photo shoot.

She was so cute.

Then I showed her my iTouch and the knitting was forgotten.

 

Let's examine those hats in detail, shall we? They are being modeled by my trusty ostrich egg sitting in its base of brass and wart hog tusks. (How fitting for hats that will travel to Africa!)

This first five were all done on a US#3 circ from one skein of Socks That Rock heavyweight, colorway Gay Pride. The striping and pooling are different because the hats are worked on different numbers of stitches, from 56 to 68. Babies come in different sizes, so I figured their heads do, too.

 

I had a few yards of the STR leftover so I combined it with some green Valley Superwash DK for the hat at the left, once again on a US#3 circ.

I decided before I started the hats that I would not put a cuff on any of the wool ones, hoping to stretch this skein of STR to seven or eight hats. Didn't work. .

.

.
.

.

This next group were all knit from Knit Picks Shine Sport in River (blue) and Cherry (red, discontinued) on a US#3 circ.

 

The second photo shows the slanting jog that results from a new-to-me way of changing colors. (The jog looks a lot better in the socks in the link than in my hat; I don't think there is ANY way to make jogless two-row stripes.) The fourth and fifth photos are of a hat I made to experiment with the knit-one-below stitch (more on that in another post).

Next, three hats from Knit Picks Shine Worsted, knitted on a US#5.

Yup, I was using up the last of that particular yarn in the last hat. How can you tell?

The last few.

The first is more KP Shine Sport, this time in Willow and with some one-row stripes of a fuzzy novelty yarn. I got from lisa. The second is Cleckheaton 8-ply County Check superwash wool  worsted (discontinued) left over from knitting mittens a couple years ago. Third is KP Comfy in Honeydew, combined with KP Shine worsted in the fourth. That last hat is my favorite of them all.

And that is what I knit on my summer vacation.

2009: That was the year that was.

January.

Well, there was this (bad).

And there was this (good) (from left, Wendy, me, Chris, and Susan).

On the knitting front:


 

February.

Good intentions.

 

Snow and cold.

Knitting:

March.

Winter melted away.

Knitting.

April.

Spring arrived in earnest.

Yarnover.

End of tax season.

Taste of St. Croix.
 

Knitting resumed after tax season.

 

May.

I scored big at Macy's sale racks, I helped Norm go away, I celebrated Mother's Day in an eco-friendly way, the bears and the ticks came out of hibernation, I picked up trash, I enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend, I bid farewell to our local librarian, and Hannibal discovered the joys of catnip.

Knitting was primarily of a stealth nature, but did include scientific swatching and the F'ing of a couple of O's that had been OTN for nearly, and over a year, respectively. (I am rather proud of that sentence -- and its punctuation -- awkward though it may be.)

 

June

June was for knitting and vacation and celebrating that brief magical time that is summer in the north woods.

 

 

Lots of knitting.

 

 

July.

July was for more vacation -- the rest of the one in Wyoming and another on the North Shore.

And summer.
 

And injuries.
 

And knitting.

 

August.

It was a very good month. I turned 60, had a contest, and laughed. We went to a concert.
 

I learned the difference between eagles and turkey vultures, and I had surgery to remove some extra/unneeded bits and pieces and repair that torn cartilage in my knee.
 

Knitknitknit.

 

September.

In September I had lots of cats on the blog, it was my turn to give the prayer at the beginning of the monthly county board meeting, the county budget process blew up, and the most gloriously gorgeous month of the year was here.

 

The knitting, she continued.

 

October.

I became a biker by proxy,

more new-to-me music found its way into my iTunes, and we celebrated 35 years together

by not-camping on Lake Superior.

The kneedles continued to fly.
 
 

November.

The van that took us on some wonderful vacations met up with an unfortunate bear on the road and was replaced by an older but bigger and more customized van.

Cold weather arrived, and once more I cooked and baked.

 

Mostly, though, I knitted.




Apparently I can crank out hats like other knitters crank out... sweaters

December.

I continued to be thankful (there is a lot to be thankful for).

With the help of Matthew and Maggie, I decorated for Christmas. This decorating thing is never a given.

I showed you my ornaments, y'all showed me yours.

 

We ate well.
 

A bit more knitting* for others.

I pretty much finished my Christmas knitting. (Shhh, the Calorimetry is a surprise.)


The medical mittens are still OTN -- stay tuned.

*For someone who doesn't like pink, I sure knit a lot of it lately...

What did you knit on vacation, Kat™?

Did I knit much on vacation? Did I knit much on vacation? I knit so much that by the end I sometimes found myself riding in the car and not knitting! Apparently I had gotten my fill, not that that condition lasted very long. I resumed knitting as soon as I got home.

Let's recap, shall we? As planned, I took along:

1. The kimono sweater, which I planned to finish. Status: not finished, but not for lack of knitting. When we left I had knitted the first 6" of the two fronts. While we were gone I finished both fronts, attached them to the back with a 3-needle bind-off, picked up 270 st -- from the bottom right front up around the neck and down the left front -- and knitted 3" of garter stitch for the neckband. And I have woven in all the ends so far. That is where the sweater stands now. I didn't accomplish my entire goal, but I am much further than I was; it is still realistic to expect to wear it this winter.

This back:                                                added a couple fronts and a neckband:
                  

2. The corn socks, in hopes of having a completed pair sometime during the trip. Status: done, worn, washed, worn, washed, and ready for another wearing.

These:                                                       became these:
              

I need to seek out another shirt or two in golden tones so I have something beside one t-shirt to wear these with.

3. The Cascade 220 stash-breaker Faroese shawl, to be able to change up my knitting when I finished the kimono sweater. Status: the shawl looks remarkably similar to the picture taken before we left. I knit only another couple stripes because I was so intent on the kimono sweater.

This:                                                           grew very slightly, into this:
                

4. Sock yarn to start another pair of socks. I returned to my original plan and brought this blue Pagewood Farms Denali sock yarn instead of the brand-new BFL I won from Tammy right before we left. I really need some more blue socks; I have plenty of red ones because I love red, not that I won't love to knit this into socks and wear them.

This:                                                            instead of this:
                    

Blue sock #1 is now nearly done, just another inch or so on the leg to go.

4. In addition, I brought two balls of Karabella Margrite (80% extra-fine merino, 20% cashmere) to make a chemo cap for Smokey's co-worker.

107 yards of this:                                          was transformed into this:
                    

The color in the first photo is accurate. The cap is lovely soft and was delivered to her this week.

As you can see, I totally pwned that 4-row lace pattern this time. Yay, me!

5. I finished the narrow Clapotis.

Three balls of this:                                   had grown into this before we left.
                            

It subsequently grew into this:            which shall be worn sort of like this:
                    

The jacket is actually a dull olive, a bit darker than the green in the scarf, not the gray it appears to be in the photo. The colors work quite well together.

6. I threw 2 balls of Cascade Fixation in a mottled denim colorway into my knitting bags, too, just in case I felt like knitting another pair of warm weather socks when I finished the corn ones. Didn't happen. The yarn still looks like this:

6.  I did not bring along the half-done child's sweater for A4A. Reality smacked me upside the head. Given the projects above, I knew there was no way I was going to get to this one.

All in all, I am pleased with my progress. Wish it could have been more, but don't we always wish that?

Mystery solved. More PV. And some knitting (praise be!).

Remember this thing on the water tower? I got the real story today from Mike. He wrote, "Kathy, The curtain over the water tower is in place for sandblasting the tower inside and out . The tower had lead paint on the outside. Mike"

Really, I like you guys's explanations a lot better, especially the ones that involved aliens and partying.

* * * * *

There is another  photovoltaic array in my little town, this one fairly impressive.

These serve an  industrial mat manufacturer in the industrial park on the edge of town. Unlike Jeff's PV array, which is stationary and aimed toward a fixed point 10 degrees west of south (to help out during the summertime afternoon peak demand), these swivel to follow the sun across the sky. They have an ideal location, no trees for several hundred yards, which is rather unusual 'round these parts.

* * * * *

Since I finished the stealth project, I have been working on my Indian Corn Maizie socks and cast on two (2!) new projects. I might just cast on another.

I am making both socks at once. The foot is on a US#0, the leg is on a US#1.

A friend is having her last chemo treatment on today. This hat (Rowan Calmer; thanks for the suggestions!) should be ready for her tonight or tomorrow. That is a good thing; our weather has been unseasonably chilly this week.

I hosed the lace around the brim of the cap.

It may look like lace but it does not look like the lace in the pattern photograph. There was no point in trying to redo it correctly -- lace and I do not like each other. Mary, if you are reading this, my apologies.

I have been making preemie caps all along, casting on whenever I had a break. Like Dale-Harriet says, they are like potato chips -- ya can't make just one. This skein of Knit Picks Crayon (100% Pima cotton, color Beach Glass) has yielded two caps so far (they are posing on top of a couple other skeins of sock yarn) and it looks like it will produce a third before running out. I am not usually a fan of boucle yarn but I love this stuff -- so soft, and it hides any wonky stitches beautifully.

A day or two ago soxanne showed a photo of her black Clapotis blocking, and a light bulb went on over my head. I have these three skeins of Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud that I won in Carole's 2007 Tour de Fleece.

I unearthed them last weekend while looking for something else and have been thinking about them ever since. I had gotten as far as thinking that I would like a long rectangular scarf-y/stole-y thing that did not involve lace. Clapotis to the rescue!

If I do cast on for it -- and I think I will, as soon as I finish this post -- that will be project number five six seven on the needles. I used to be a monogamous knitter.

Not any more.