Ocean Waves

A surprising bit of Americana showed up on my doorstep Friday.

I have never seen this quilt before.
It was won in a raffle in Mt. Sterling Wisconsin in 1902 by my great grandfather.
It was made by the local 'Ladies Aid' and has every members name embroidered on the front.

There is a note in my grandmothers hand to this effect which states that it is to be passed on to the first granddaughter to marry.

This is me as I am the only girl in that generation of our family and today is my 4th wedding anniversary.
Apparently it was misplaced in my aunts attic for some time and she remembered it when she saw me in January.

I finished my Hourglass Sweater and even though I tried it on and everything seemed OK, when all was said and done it was hugely baggy in the back. It fits pretty well elsewhere but the back was literally gaping.

It was pretty upsetting and I can't bear to go into details (there are more on Ravelry) but I did not want to frog and fuzz this so I tacked some darts in the back. It is exceedingly crude but maybe I will be able to wear it once the sadness abates. I may try again now that I have a pretty good idea what modifications need done but for now I am placating myself with something decadent and (knock on wood) foolproof.

I am knitting the Waving Lace socks from Favorite Socks in Sea Wool.
I stopped in Knit Purl on Friday for hemming advice on the sweater and saw this yarn and knew mom needed some socks.
She is a Piscean and oceanophile and these are 30% Seacell and the colorway was Ocean.
Perfect!



We had game night with the neighbors last night (horrid, endless game of Monopoly, Thank Goddess for knitting!) . I made good progress on the first sock!

Happy Sunday!

Sort of Anticlimactic

I knit a hand towel, loosely based on the towel patterns in Mason Dixon Knitting. I wanted a totally mindless project to stash in the break room at work for 'emergencies', days when I may have forgotten or did not have the presence of mind at 5am to bring knitting with me.
It came in handy for this purpose on several occasions.
I finally decided to finish the thing and move on. I made it extra simple stockinette with a garter stitch border so it was pretty tedious for such a small project and I was ready to cast off and wash it already to see if it lived up to the hype.
I have only hand washed it once so it will probably soften up more. At this point it is still pretty rustic. It does have lovely drape. It was OK to knit with but had little lumps of frayed yarn that bugged me and show up in the finished piece.
I love a little luxury but for the price of a skein of this yarn you could buy a pretty amazing hand towel so I'm not sure I'm convinced to make more of these.

Lagoon Monkeys and Slough Puppies

I finally finished a new pair of socks for Morgan and the weather was cooperative so we shot some pictures this morning.

Then we took the kids, often referred to as 'the monkeys' to the park by the Columbia Slough. There was much swimming and wrestling and rolling in the grass.

I love Teasel!

Tempest had a good day at the park!

Back in Action

I'm back to the needles. I am only working on current, unfinished projects.
I visited the Naked Sheep today and purchased nothing. The stash is disturbingly large and I expect it to come to life any day now and swallow me whole.
Anyway, I have a few projects, finished in January that I finally got around to photographing yesterday.


Warm, double stranded hats for myself and the hubby for cold bus commuting mornings. Both yarns were cashmere wool blends that were leftovers in the stash. More details on Ravelry.

Rainbow Skull coffee cozy. I have been using this guy quite a bit so it is fuzzy. I buy coffee at work pretty often and often forget my cup and have to use paper. I thought at least if I carried this in my purse I could reduce my waste by not needing the cardboard cozies that protect your hand from the hot cup. It works well and I get lots of comments on it!
Once again, leftover Cascade 220 and Noro scraps, felted.


Finally my Glazed Carrot armwarmers. I made these before I went to Wisconsin and they definitely came in handy. If I were to do them over I might add a real tipless thumb but overall I am very happy with this improvised pattern. The yarn is Malabrigo worsted which is dreamy to knit and I picked the cable pattern out of one of the harmony stitch guides.
P.S. There really are two of these but no one was home to model them for me.

Life, etc.

I have been taking a little....break *gasp* from knitting. I'm spending some time being more physically active in the lovely early spring weather we have had in the Pacific Northwest.

A little gardening, swimming, lots of walking with and without dogs and....

I also started to Belly Dance again!

I convinced a couple friends to join me and we are taking a class at one of Portland's community centers. Our instructor is an amazing dancer and an even more amazing teacher.

I did pick up the needles today on an unfinished linen hand towel that was laying about.

It felt good to knit a few rows. I had a dream that I forgot how to knit. This actually happened to me when I took an almost ten year break from knitting.

It is like riding a bike or driving stick though, it will always come back!

Oh and the stash was near to enveloping my home and beginning to intimidate me. It had to be tamed and corralled a bit.