To the finish line.

Finished my heavenly shawlette, actually somewhat bigger then a shawlette but smaller then a real shawl. Pictures taken but still need to jump thru the hoops to post. Yep, I'm sure wiser folks could do it but their not here. So later.

Finished my Amiga sweater, a knitty pattern, except to weave in the fee ends. A great everyday kind of sweater. Seemed strange to be knitting a long sleeve cardigan out of wool blend sock yarn on a day with a heat warning. Thank goodness for central air!

CO a cotton blend short sleeve cardigan using some stash yarn. A Plymouth Jeannee that I got on closeout last year. I'm using a Knitting Pure & Simple pattern. So it won't be terribly challenging, but it will definately be wearable and a quick knit. Both really good things.

Off to the cabin for the 4th.

tip toeing towards sucess

It probably wasn't the most efficient way to get a photo from my ipad camera to a blog, but here it goes.

I couldn't get a direct link to a photo from my flickr account to work. Not to surprising since I haven't mastered downloading from flickr to Ravelry either. The camera genius app has a setting to make your pictures look like 1970's shots. Very fun.

After reading rav reviews I bought the Goodreader app. It is appealing to think that you can highlight and comment on a pdf document. Then save it or print it with your comments. For the things I do it certainly wasn't a critical function. But, for the price..definitely a "nice to have".

I finished the 2nd sleeve on my Amiga over the weekend. So the live stitches from the front band are back on the needles. The sweater is well on the way to completion.

I had to frog an entire 21 row charted repeat on my shawl. I blame poor signals from the catcher. (A MN baseball reference to a recent game loss. I was watching the game at the point I made my error in the 3rd row...didn't catch it until the 22.)

Sometimes it just doesn't work

I've been trying to be high tech this week. I downloaded a new app that let's me add some fun effects to pictures I take with my iPad. I set up a flickr account. But try as I might I just can't seem to master linking the photos from flickr to the blog or emailing them to anyone. So even though I'm touching great technology, I'm feeling very low tech.

Progress on all fronts.

I finished my first attempt at a pseudo raglan sleeve Motherbear.

It has the increases only between the stitch markers, none of the slope that I associate with a real raglan sleeve. It is definitely a first attempt, but no seaming except the top after stuffing. The pink i-cord ribbon is in honor of Gisela.

I started another baby sweater. I think based on the gauge it will be for a big baby.

It is the Newborn top-down cardigan by Nancy Pietraszek, GrandmaNancy on Ravelry. It has a broad spiral rib along the button band. It is a "something different" for me.

And I am well on the way to finishing my second sleeve on my Amiga cardi. After I finish the sleeve I'll go back and pick up the live stiches on the front band and make it wider. I wanted to be sure I wouldn't run out of yarn mid sleeve, hence the need to go back.

Three remotes!

We are up to three remotes for watching tv. One for that came with the television, one that came with the dvr box and one that came for with the blue ray player so we can watch Netflix. Most of the time we can still get buy with just one, but when we want to watch something on Netflix it take all three to make it happen. It is mind boggling. And yet, so worth it to be able to watch a series from the BBC. A rainy day, Netflix and my knitting the world is a magical place.

A general lack of pictures

Yep. Another post with no pic's. I'm even carrying my camera in my purse, but a long history of missing photo opportunities is hard to leave behind. I've made some progress on wip's. So there will be pictures!

Made it to one of the pop up green houses and bought some lovely annuals for 50% off! Perfect timing too, we had a nice rain today. Especially nice since I could sit inside Culver's with mt knitting group and watch the rain..then sit at home and watch the rain and knit.

Although truth be told, I seem to do very little knitting st Culver's. Lots of chatting, show and tell, and moral support. It is so nice to have the friendship of these wonderful women. It is definitely the best part of Tuesday..and often the best part of the week.

A picture really would be good here!

Progress made

Yep, I finished the first sleeve of my Amiga sweater and am well into the second. Not really picture worthy. I think it will be a great throw-on everyday kind of lightweight sweater.
I set aside my latest iteration of the 198 yards of heaven shawlette. I am well past 198 yards doing the first lace chart. This will be a long term project.
I started another baby sweater for Bundles of Love. It's got a twisted non-cable by the button band. So its another project that works really well with the 1-2-3 Knit app. Makes it so much easier to keep track of my row count for the increase at the same time as tracking my pattern row, and the row count for button holes. Not so much that any of those are difficult, but just nice that if I set it down I can start again without any effort.
I not making progress on my raglan sleeve bear. So it will be my project for today/tonight. I really want to finish it, but it was more fun to start something new.

Another damp overcast day. My yard is getting that mow or buy sheep to graze on it look.

Good that I mowed on Monday

Another rainy day. The dog doesn't even want to get up or go out.

I've started another lace project with some unidentified yarn.

It seems to be a cotton blend, two strands twisted loosely together. I think it will be on the needles for a very long time. I'm knitting the free pattern 198 yards of heaven, but it will be far more then 198 yards. I can only hope when I finish that it still feels heavenly.

Dropped off boxes of stuff at Goodwill yesterday after knitting. The gentlemen unloading my car was less then "gentlemenly" with the stuff as he put it in the bins. I could hear the unmistakeable sound of breakage. But I just grit my teeth and reminded myself that like a gift, once something is donated it is no longer yours to worry about. I only hope that my fear of damage is over estimated. It was truly a "walk away" moment.

After that DD2 and I stopped at Joann's. I bought her yarn to 2 more baby sweaters, 1 for charity one for a relative's upcoming baby. Also bought her yarn for a baby blanket she spotted in her new knitting book/mag. Since she hasn't had any response on job applications or the internship she's trying to set up she is knitting a baby sweater a week for the charity group Bundles of Love. Good for Bundles, not so good for her.

Motherbear Raglan Sleeve

In honor of an amazing knitter, Gisela, people in the Mother bear community on Ravelry have been knitting pink themed bears this month. I decided that this would be the perfect time to work on knitting a top down raglan sleeve bear. I've been knitting my bears top down for over a year, but always split off for 8 rows after knitting the head, then rejoin for the rest of the body. Then coming back and picking up stitches for the arms. It works, but if you can knit a sweater top down with raglan sleeves then certainly you can knit a bear the same way.

It seems to be working. When I'm finished I'll post my notes here and on the rav project page.

This definitely qualifies as a "something new" for me.

My other something new is I now am the proud owner of an ipad. So I've been downloading apps, games and e-editions. I downloaded Kindle (free) and some free books from Amazon. I changed my paper edition of the local paper to the e-version. I set up ibooks so I can store digital copies of pdf files (patterns). Love it!

Knit in Public

DD2 and I knitting in public at the base of the Walleye statute on Lake Milacs.

Enough said.

New toy

I broke down and bought an ipad. I really like Apple products, even though I admittedly don't use them to their full potential. I've had an ipod for years, have played with some knitting apps and enjoy a variety of podcasts. The knitmore girls and Brenda Dane got me through alot of lawn mowing. We,(DH especially) even enjoy a few of the games. I don't have an iphone, wrong service provider and no real need to be connected to the internet on my phone as cool as it is..just can't justify it. But something about the ipad just really delighted me.

So with my Target Redcard 5% off, coupled with an extra 5% off for pharmacy purchases (what a great deal from Target). I splurge and bought a new ipad2 this weekend. I've downloaded my fav knitting apps, games, and podcasts. I downloaded the kindle app so I can use it as an e-reader, switched my newspaper subscription to the e version. I'm off and running into the i-world.

June Bundles of Love Done

I finished the Maile sweater for Bundles of Love last night. The finished object is darling. The yarn is lovely. There is enough to make a matching hat. The buttons are from a my button stash, accumulated from clearance at Joann's, thrift store finds, and other failed projects. I think that the little pearl style buttons are perfect for this sweater. They even look slightly yellow against the sweater. Like I said..perfect.

I have made good progress on my sweater. The miles and miles of stockinette in sock yarn are going great. I made the sweater body much longer then called for in the pattern. There has been (knock on wood) no serious frogging.

I even seem to have successfully picked up the gazillion stitches around the front of the sweater to start the band. I've decided not to do a button, but use it as an excuse for acquiring a lovely shawl pin.

And where did I do all this knitting? In the car enroute to and from the lake. And sitting at the cabin looking out at this scene.

I submit it doesn't get much better then this.

Oh I also knit while watching the TWINS play. An interesting collection of players pulled up from the minors since many of the big names are injured. I love love love knitting while watching baseball on tv.

lids

Today when I was emptying the dishwasher I noticed the silverware holder needed cleaning. When I finished that I cleaned and purged the other kitchen drawers. Why on earth did I ever buy nut crackers and nut picks? Don't think I've ever used them but there they were taking up space. I had two pastry cutters! Then I decided to tackle the cupboard with the tupperware. How does it happen that there are containers with no lids and lids with no containers? While my kitchen was torn apart, DD2 was doing a mountain of laundry. So of course that's when the county assessor arrived to do the periodic review of the house for valuation. I wonder if we could lose taxable value for chaos? I didn't think not letting him in was really an option.

I don't recall being home when they stopped in the past so they must have just guessed. About the only big change we've made since we built was to finish the lower level...which BTW was also in disarray. Things from my Mother's house, stuff that didn't find a home after redoing the basement etc. Yep, definitely think we should get a tax discount for my mess.

Weekend Wedding

We drove from MN to SD for a family wedding. That's alot of car time and alot of sitting around "visiting" with family. So I did quite a bit of knitting, not during the wedding but I was tempted. As a result I made great progress on my Amiga. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/amiga-2

If you only like to knit challenging lace or cables this is not the project for you. But if you like to have some mindless knitting for times you know you'll be interrupted or can't fuss with a pattern or chart this is a great project. I think it will be a very wearable sweater for times you just need a little something.

As for the wedding, it was nice. The bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome. The flowers included lilacs, something I've not seen before. We enjoyed one another's company...always a plus when hanging around with family you rarely see. Since I don't feel comfortable posting other peoples pictures without their permission I'll just post this one

Sis and Bro-in-law's corgi and HUGE cat wrestle and play all the time. It's a hoot to watch them chase around. The cat always lets the corgi win. You know he does, because clearly the cat could exit the area at any point.

In the works..more of my Amiga and a KAL for the organization Bundles of Love. For June we are doing the Maile baby sweater, also found on Ravelry. The sweater is darling. Just a little bit of lace, bottom up, raglan sleeve. This actually counts as something new for me. I've never done a raglan sleeve construction from the bottom up before.