Sweater Done!

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The sweater is a bit big for the model, which is a good thing, seeing he's three years older than she is! I'm very happy with how it turned out.



Details:
Pattern: Camouflage Hooded Sweatshirt
Yarn: Red Heart Acrylic WW
Needles: US 8
Modifications: Created casing as I knitted hood rather than sewing it shut afterward. Garter stitch cuffs and and on the bottom instead of ribbing. Next time I'll do it in the round.

Oh, and the model? It's her third birthday today! Time flies.....

Interweave Press now has e-books! Elizabeth reviews Christmas Stockings.

You know how you see those Folger's schmaltzy commercials and those Normal Rockwell paintings and think, "Oh, isn't that just so homey!" And when you try to recreate them in your life it just never quite makes it? Well, Rebecca's sweater, near the fire, on a cold winter's day.... First of all the cables would make me crazy after awhile, and I don't think it's ever gonna get cool enough here ever againfor a fire. But, despite all that, isn't a gorgeous sweater.



2nd Chance by James Patterson

rating: 2 of 5 stars

Has James Patterson decided to let high school Writing 101 students do his work for him? This was the most poorly written book of his I've ever come across. Something you'd expect from maybe a sophomore trying his hand at a novel.

The story was good, not as good as most of Patterson's stuff I've read, but good enough. Lindsey and the girls connect the killing of four seemingly unrelated black individuals and then begin the search for the killer that calls himself Chimera. She must wade through the emotional turmoil of reacquainting herself with the father that abandoned her and her mother many years ago, she must also discover how he is involved the killings attributed to Chimera.

Lindsey's character seemed a bit dunderheaded in this one...not the cool, clear, crisp thinker Patterson usually portrays in his protagonists. It's like she was on some other allergy medicine than Claritin.

Because I generally like Patterson, love Alex Cross and enjoyed 1st To Die, I'll give 3rd Degree a try.

View all my reviews.

Some Assembly Required...

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Hood is done and the back seam finished. It's amazin what people will do to make a project more complicated than necessary. The hood could just as easily been a simple rectangle instead of all the decreasing, which makes for a very difficult seam....Next time...

Kenny shares more autumn glory.

Just a hood to go

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Finished up the second sleeve and got the hood CO. The initial rows of the hood are folded over to create a channel for the drawstring. I decided to use a provisional CO, knit st st for three rows, then a purl row for a clean turn, and then three more rows of st st. I then knit the live sts from the CO with the row sts to create one less step in the finishing of the sweater. I'm alternating rows of variegated and black to create a look similar to the front and back of the sweater. Don't think I'll get it all done today, but it should be ready to put together tomorrow.

Can you feel the nice cool air that accompanies views like this? I can...it's coming from my swamp cooler because even at 5:30 am, it's 71 degrees in the house and 74 degrees outside.
Can you even imagine? Check here for the back of the sweater....
Knit Fast, Die Young by Mary Kruger

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Not as good as the first book...the formula was too much the same...an unpopular fiber based person was murdered with a knitting needle at the fairgrounds. Local LYS owner, Ariadne, is the first person to come in contact with the victim, minutes before she dies.

She teams up with the local detective, and the state police to solve the crime.

Characters weren't as well developed, too many suspects and the time line was way too short. In the end the authorities hand over the investigation to the LYS owner. How far from reality can we get?

This seems to be a common problem with themed cozy mysteries...if the first one is a success, following the same outline with different names plugged in doesn't make for a good sequel. If I'd read this one first, I'd never have bothered with the other book.

View all my reviews.

One and Three Quarters Sleeves

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First sleeve finished up nicely and second sleeve is almost done with the increases. Then about 5 inches of st st and the sleeves are done. The hood shouldn't take too long...maybe it'll all be done by the end of the weekend!

It was raining yesterday morning and was just about cool enough to get away with wearing socks. I did! Such a rare occurrence these days. I thought autumn had arrived earlier this month, but it was a lie. It's still in the mid to high 90s and according to some thermometers, was in the triple digits earlier this week. Will it ever cool off?

Rest in Peace. 1925-2008

Sweaters, Books, and Ghosts

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Another progress shot! Three and a half inches and the first sleeve is done. If things keep moving like this I should have the sweater done a couple of weeks before the birthday.

Remember all those mittnz I knitted? Well they got mailed off this week...60 pair of hand knits and 21 pair of purchased Magic Gloves. A good showing if I say so myself! It appears we are not doing an organized blitz for Hatz, but I have several of those already finished to be mailed out later this year. Blanketz and Squarz are being made my many members of Native American Support. I've got seven baby blankets ready for that mailing in February. So I feel guilt free in turning my knitting towards holiday gifts. Not making as much this year as I usually do. I'm stumped for projects for the Hawaii family members. Need to make some work socks for my son in Tennessee.... Just hard to get in the mood when the temps are still in the 90s every day here.

I found a new nearby LYS today. Grandma's Spinning Wheel. Although it is very limited in it's yarn choices, (Crystal Palace only) there are lots of fun things for spinners. Atmosphere is the friendliest in town, except for the one LYS waaaaaaaaaaay on the other side of town. Haven't been there as I haven't been able to justify the gas expense to go "just to snoop." Grandma's Spinning Wheel has an afternoon set aside each week for a free Stitch 'n' Bitch, and she offers free beginning knitting and crocheting classes! I've always thought that was a smart move to get fiber people into a store.

I'm reading the second Mary Kruger Knitting Mystery--Although it's following a bit closely on the same formula the first one established (unpopular fiber person gets murdered, heroine finds the body and teams up with the detective to solve the murder) it's still kinda fun to read. She depicts non-fiber people well.... Not understanding why one suspect would leave the fiber merchants area at the county fair to go into town to visit the LYS. "There is yarn here. Why would you need to go to a yarn store?" Silly Muggles.

In pagan lore, Halloween, All Hallow's Eve, or Samhain (pronounced SOW-en) is the time of the year when the curtain between the two worlds is the thinest. IOW, it's the time for ghost sightings, strange unexplainables. So far, two blogs have weird things, KnitWitch has photos of orbs and strange lights, Melody's son moved out of his room due to ghosts. Wonder if we'll here more stories as we get closer to the end of October.

Take a nice stroll through the monastary and the woods with Amber. Need a pattern for gloves using fingering weight yarn? Kathleen's got a nice one!

Sweater Progress

I didn't get to stay home all day like I'd hoped yesterday. And today will be more of the same... I have two hours to kill while Youngest Granddaughter is in school.... Knitting will be involved! I have less than two inches of the black "yoke" and then either sleeves or hood needs to be cast on.

Sweaters and Schools

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Moving forward on the sweater. I'd hoped to stay home all day yesterday and work on it, but....the best laid plans.... I have about two inches to go till changing to black for the "yoke". Then sleeves and hood, which I'm thinking will be black. I'm loving the contrast between the back and front...the same but different. It's amazing how black added to the mix as the neutral brings out the colors while the grey on the front tones them down.

Youngest Granddaughter got a new dress. And I know you are just dieing to find out why! Last week I told you she'd qualified for special ed pre-school for delayed speech. Well, her teacher, Miss E, called early Monday morning, inviting us to bring YGD for a visit and to finish the enrollment paperwork. Things went so well Miss E suggested YGD stay there. So she did. Although she had a deer in the headlights look when we left her, she did very well and after a good night's sleep was raring to go back on Tuesday. It's just two hours, four days a week, and in a couple weeks bus service will start. Right now it kinda means tearing around the house in the mornings to get one kid to school and the fly across town to get the other one there. It's almost too far to come home between the YGD drop off and pick up.... Today is the day off of the five day school week, so I expect someone is going to be a bit upset she doesn't get to go to school. As can be expected, Youngest Daughter and I had more emotional upset at leaving her there than she did at being left! She has the same teacher and speech therapist my Third Grandson (who I am knitting the sweater for) did and both come with the highest recommendation from my son.

I finally got all the vacation pics downloaded off the camera. I could only do about a dozen at a time and with about 250 pics, it took awhile. I'm in the process of getting them loaded up on Photobucket! Go take a look!

Have you ever wondered how to spin with a Walking Wheel or a Great Wheel? I've never seen in it demonstrated. However, Lilith Parker has a video on her blog today. Isn't it interesting to see how spinning was done, "in the olden days" as my kids would say?

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The front is finished! It didn't take long to do the few rows left on it yesterday morning. The back has been CO and about five inches finished.

OfTroy has some great socks!

CrazyAuntPurl has a hat pattern with a new twist to it. Very cute!

Stripes!

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I got most of the front done yesterday. Just a few rows to finish up the left side of the front shaping and then start the back. I'm still undecided if I want to do a plain back or more stripes. I think, though, instead of grey as the neutral color running through the front, if I do stripes, it'll be black as the neutral color.... Still haven't decided on anything for sure though.

Spent a good portion of the day with my BFF, F. We haven't been able to spend much time together at all for most of the summer. Funny how stuff just gets in the way.... He and B have really made their new house into a nice home. The formal dining area has become the coziest library. It's where I'd spend my time if I lived there.

Is this not one of the most beautiful pictures of fall colors? (Click it to make it big!) Check out Kniting Iris' current blog post for more gorgeous autumn loveliness!

Davey Jones' Locker

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Jolly Roger got frogged. I finished the back and (1) It was way too big for my grandson, in both length and width, (2) when examining the front I found several errors that had slipped past me last February when I was working on it, and (3) I really didn't like it.

So I started this one. I'm using bits and bobs of left over yarn for the front. I have five different yarns going, two hanging off one side and three off the other. Each time I finish a row, I grab the one hanging lowest off the side and work back with it. It keeps the colors from really forming a pattern. The back and sleeves will probably be a solid color, but who knows for sure!
Died in the Wool by Mary Kruger

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is probably one of the best cozy "themed" mysteries I've read, with Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles at the top of the list. The characters were believable and likeable, (although why there is always a crappy ex in these books I don't know) and the story kept moving along.

However, I think I've read too many of them cuz it's too easy for me to pick out the murderer. I like pondering it throughout the book, but it really is like finding your Christmas presents in October...really ruins the surprise.

Yarn shop owner Ariadne unlocks the store early one morning to find the local unloved-by-all knitter strangled with some gorgeous handspun yarn. The normal questions issue forth: Why was Edith murdered? By whom? Why here? and was she really the intended victim?

Ariadne and the newest transported detective in the little town of Freeport join forces to find the answers. Clues come forward regularly suggesting different culprits each time.

It did get really preachy about copy right violations and implied that most free patterns on the Internet are stolen and that there is something inherently wrong with designers, both amateur and professional, that give free patterns away. Being one of those that rely on free patterns to support my obsession...it was a bit preachy.

I will definitely, though, read the next in the series Knit Fast, Die Young.

View all my reviews.