Monk's Traveling Satchel

I was hoping to have completed the poncho project by the end of this month. I did finish the front and back. I tried it on and I think it isn't wide enough so I'm planning on adding borders to each side but I haven't quite decided what I want to do yet, So I don't think I'm going to have it done. While I'm thinking on that I picked up the Monk's traveling satchel project, 74" of seed stitch for bottom sides and strap, Ugh. I've decided to knit the side pockets into the strap as I go. That is to say that at the point where the pocket was to be attached, I knit 1, yo'd the row. On the next row I then double knit the pocket and strap together. To do this you slip one stitch with the yarn held in front of the slipped stitch, then either knit or purl the next stitch according to the seed stitch pattern, repeating this across the row. By slipping every other stitch you are knitting only the front stitches and when you turn the row and knit back you're knitting the other side or the back. I continued this on for 7.5 inches, the length of the pocket, and then divided the stitches on to two needles. I put the front stitches on a holding yarn ( you could bind off the stitches if you wanted to . I intend on using an attached I cord to finish the edge when I'm done with the strap) and continued knitting the strap. When I get to the other side where the second pocket is to start I will do the same thing only I will cast on the 33 stitches using an I-cord cast on.( That is make an I-cord 33 stitches long, then pick up a stitch from a row of stitches in the I-cord.) Then holding the cast on pocket stitches in front knit one stitch from the pocket, slip one stitch from the strap, purl one from the pocket and slip one from the strap repeating across. Then double knitting the pocket and strap for another 7.5 inches. When I get to the end of the pocket then you simple knit and purl 2 stitches together across to close the pocket and then continue on to the end of the strap. Sound complicated? It isn't really, just sounds complicated. But it will give you an idea of the lengths that I will go to to avoid sewing a project together. I'm of the Elizabeth Zimmerman's school of thought why sew when you can knit it. I'm getting close to the second pocket so I guess I'm going to have to choose a contrast color for the edging. I still haven't decided the sides and strap are black, the front and back of the bag are tan. So what do you think? red? I'm leaning towards red. Well I have a few more inches to go before I make my final decision.

Lace Scarf

This week I've mostly been knitting Caryn's Winter Sunset Cardigan. I've begun the armhole steeks and am working my way up. Here's a few pointers for starting armhole steeks. 1. Don't attempt to count stitches late at night, after a day home with all the kids and night of manual labor at work. 2. When dividing the stitches do not count the steek stitches. ( Why I had such a tough time with this concept can only be attributed to point #1) 3. This may not be necessary for all patterns but for this one I added a stitch to each side of the steek to make the pattern come out the same on front and back. I'm nothing if not compulsive about pattern repetitions.

I spent the day in uptown yesterday afternoon with my daughter Ani. She had her violin lesson earlier in the afternoon and then we were assigned the task of waiting in line at Dreamhaven to get a number for a book signing by Terry Pratchett , that was scheduled for later in the evening. While we were standing in line, Kurt was at the library where Terry was giving a reading and answering questions before going to the signing later in the evening. After getting the number we had two hours to kill while we waited for Kurt and some friends that Ani had contacted to meet her later at the signing. So Ani and I bummed around, we ate something and then checked out a few book stores. There are a couple of used book stores in the area that I like to peruse for knitting books, Skunked, this time.

Oh well, I picked up two knitting magazines from B&N the other day. One is an English Publication, simply titled, Knitting there is a checked sweater in the book that I think will work great for some yarn that I bought a couple of years ago that I intended for my son Buck. I started swatching it. I'm thinking I might post the swatches to and see if I can get a few opinions.

I worked on finishing a lace scarf last night. I'm thinking I going to try to finish this one this weekend.

This is the poncho I have been working on since the end of October. This is an exchange poncho. This poncho is for Sharon in New York. Sharon and I exchanged names for the MSN knitting and Crochet Group. She Crocheted a lovely Black Poncho for me and I chose to knit this a five color variation of a Knitted throw from Jamieson's Shetland Knitting Book. My thinking was since Sharon was a crocheter and not a knitter I thought I would knit her something more unique to knitting like cables, what possessed me to do it in five colors, I can't say. But there it is and there's no going back now.

The poncho working on finishing the poncho. The poncho and Caren's sweater are my two major projects that I'm working to complete.

Here's a closer look at the pattern.

I worked on Caren's sweater last night. I'm nearly to the point where I will begin the steeks for the arm holes.

Are you wearing green? Ooo I'll give you such a pinch. The youngest is home today. Because of spring conferences for grades K-6, spring break starts today. The teenager's break starts tomorrow. A whole week of wholesome family togetherness. Should prove interesting to see if any of us comes out of this unscathed. Overall as a family we hold together as a family pretty well. But a whole week cooped up in the house with no one to pick on but each other? I ask you do you really believe that any of us will come out of the other side of spring break whole? I'd say more holey than holy.

I'm a winner! Marcia held a little contest on her blog called guess the body part and I won. I recieved ten skeins of a Donegal tweed. See, all you have to do to get us lurkers to come out is dangle yarn in front of them and then watch us creep out of the shadows and fall all over ourselves for it. I'm thinking that I would like to knit the Bookworm vest from the Folk Vests book that I recieved as a gift at Christmas. It may be a while yet I still have quite a few projects to finish before I think about starting that project. No seriously.

Woo hoo! I'm a contest winner. Hmm,more yarn, what to do, what to do?

I'm still trying to figure this blogging thing out, I took a few pictures of my various projects and the plan is to bring everyone up to speed on what I'm knitting. This is a sample of some of the yarn, not necessarily wool, in my stash. I never did get on board with knitting scarves with big needles and specialty yarns. My first attempt with these type of yarns was knitting a scarf using Splash in a blood red color. I discovered rather quickly that if you drop a stitch, and it isn't difficult to do with all that fringe absuring the thread, that it is not so easy to pick up the dropped stitch for the same reason. After a few attempts and much frustration I did manage to figure out a way to knit the stuff and the scarf turned out rather well. It was for my 15 year old daughter and she wears it nearly everyday. In the basket there is another ball of splash in yellow. A glutton for punishment, I plan to make a second scarf for my other daughter who's six. I'm currently working on too many other projects right now which gives me an excuse not to start the second splash scarf. Ani chose the red color because it looked to her like Phoenix feathers and she said the yellow for Katie's scarf made her think of Chocobo feathers from the Final Fantasy video game series. I just thought Kate would like the color yellow.

Look, Look, Yarn

Well, here I am. I'm a bloggin', and it only took me two months to decide on a blog name. I think I stretched the limits of my children's and husband's patience by running possible blog names by them for their opinions, which probably wasn't the best way to arrive at a decision because their response generally was, and I quote, "Whatever ". So, in spite of their overwhelming support, I've gone ahead and done it, I chose a name, I created a blog and here I am, welcome to my blog.