Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Reading and Knitting




Have you read Ann Shayne’s new novel, Bowling Avenue?  If not, hop on over to www.annshayne.com and check it out.  While you’re there, you can read the first chapter and get ordering information (you can also order from Books-a-Million). 

The novel is set during Nashville’s Great Flood and is about family.  Having read Mason-Dixon Knitting for years, I was familiar with Ann’s writing style.  And I was delighted to find Ann’s delightful turn of phrase and downright Southerness.  Oh, and you’ll find knitting in there too.  I found myself downright envying Ginna’s yarn stash. 

All the time I was reading, I kept thinking I should be knitting, so somewhere about half-way through Bowling Avenue, I found the perfect knit -the cowl from Churchmouse’s Easy Folded Poncho (I knit it separate from the poncho).  Round and round I knit, with my Nook propped on the arm of the sofa, pausing only to turn the page.  Before I realized it, I was finished with the book and the cowl.  It was a bit of a let down to be finished with the book (and the cowl).

In other knitting news, Mable.  I’m happy to report that it appears that both sleeves are the same length!  But I have a confession…..I’ve never sewn in sleeves so I’ve scheduled a private lesson at my LYS last Saturday morning to get some help.  Robin was a great teacher and made learning to put in sleeves fun.  

And of course, I did some shopping while I was there!  Mignon, Loop's new baby cardigan, came home with me along with some beautiful Cascade Ultra Pima.  The photo doesn't do justice at all.  The color is a beautiful, vibrant coral color (color #3767-Deep Coral).  So far, everyone's who seen it remarks on how beautiful the color is.  And the yarn is just a joy to knit.



There was a lot of talk (and some knitting) of Dull Roar's Bad Oyster in the shop and I decided that I needed to try it too so I bought the pattern and some Malabrigo Sock Yarn.


 So, there's a lot of new going on in my house.  Learning to put in sleeves, learning to make cables, and I'll be doing my first steek with Bad Oyster.  Exciting stuff, for sure.




Sunday, June 3, 2012

Startitis to Overwhelmed to Sane Again

I'm sorry for the long silence ya'll.  At the beginning of May, I had a severe case of startitis which went right into being so overwhelmed that I was feeling frazzled which just made me feel frazzled in general.  Sound familiar?  Here's what I had going on:


The pink in the front is Mable, a baby sweater I'm making for a friend's new granddaugther to be.  I watched the daughter growing up so it's a pleasure to knit for her baby.  Moving on to the left is the Mohair Bias Loop.  I'm still not sure why I thought it'd be a good idea to join the Churchmouse KAL on Ravelry when I had so much other knitting going on.  Moving along is the Mitered Square Blanket.  And then Liberty.  Liberty has been languishing in my knitting bag since the end of February/first of March.  But it is becoming fairly well travelled.  It has travelled in my knitting bag to work, to Mother's hospital room, to the ER with my dad, a sacred harp singing in Nauvoo, AL, the knit shop in Cahaba Heights, and to Nashville.  I'm thinking of making a map of Liberty's travels.  And finally, the Easy Folded Poncho which just needs to be seamed.  Not shown in the picture are the two Baby Kimonos and baby hats I was making for a friend's new twin granddaughters.  The Kimonos needed seaming and ribbon closures and one hat had to be made. 

On Mother's Day weekend, I had an epiphany.  I needed to set priorities.  And the first priority was to finish the twins' kimonos and hats.  (The color isn't showing up well here but it's called Rosebud-I used Berroco Comfort)


Since setting priorities, things are going along much better. The next thing that has a deadline is Mable since baby Cadance is due at the end of this month.

By the way, I'm curious.  What are your "go-to" baby gifts?  I'm looking for mine but haven't found it so far. If I'm short on time, I make three hats in Comfort Chunky.  Right now, I'm experimenting with sweaters but I'm not sure that's gonna be it.