Uncle Leona's Day Camp

I am the great american afghan gladiator

Check off three more blocks on the GAA:

This thing is gorgeous, but it's a true pain in the ass to make. Too many freaking bobbles. And I thought the pattern was being a bit sexist at one point:

Or maybe it's just a way to get more men interested in knitting. I could be wrong.

After nearly losing my eyes on that pattern, I moved on to one where a slip stitch was the toughest thing to do:

Took no time at all, and looks really sweet.

Yes, I decided to do another crazy one. This thing combines circular entrelac, textured knitting, lace knitting, and cables, all in one nutty 12" square block. It's cool--the petals actually resemble artichoke hearts. It's also the reason I nearly fell asleep at work yesterday--staying up until 2:30 with the "just one more section" mentality is dangerous.

I'd say I had learned my lesson, but I know myself too well.

Oh, yeah, and I finished up the sleeves on the cardigan:

They're in there somewhere.

New kid on the blocks

This block stuff is getting fun...I am now officially one fifth of the way done with the GAA blocks! Of course, a catastrophe is bound to temper my enthusiasm somewhere in the process (my prediction is that I'm not going to be fond of crocheting these blocks together...hooks may be embedded in my walls at that time). For the time being, however, it has been a fun project.

The latest completed blocks:

The designer of this block made a statement about being a fan of the feather and fan pattern. This block, though, had a completely different brand of f and f than I had ever seen. It's really cool, though; I love the yo's inside those cables.

For the record, I don't like wrapping yarn 10 times around needles and pulling a knot. If I do do this afghan for the niece and nephew, the embroidery may be history. I'm also thinking back to the quilt Mom made for my bed when I was in college. She did a lot of embroidery on my beloved "Crazy Chicken Quilt," but most was destroyed in those four years thanks to the bed's dual use as a sofa for a studying (or slacking off) student.

Once again, an excuse to be lazy.

Meow. This block presents the first minor sizing problem of the GAA. It will block out about 1/2" wider than the others. The pattern book does admit that this will happen, and that it will all work out in the end.

Remember what I said about an impending catastrophe?? Stay tuned.

Plodding along in Iceland....err....Cleveland

It's freakin' cold outside. I hate winter.

OK, now that that's out of the way, we move along to more pressing things. Like finishing Zauberflote in 2 1/2 weeks. Lorette and Marti, you're out of your minds!! I'm still toying with the idea of a fair isle vest for the Knitting Olympics (seeing as my vest for the Winter Knitting Olympics was not completed in time due to unforeseen loss of yarn on an airplane), but I'm also toying with a cabled pullover. Thankfully, I have 7 months to figure things out.

As for present-day knitting, the cardigan has one more sleeve left to go, then I have to knit up the front bands (they're sewn on). The sleeves are boring. I'll get back to you when the bands are in progress; they're a bit more fancy.

I did finish up a block for the GAA (that's Great American Afghan--it's going to take some time, and I plan on getting lazy on the typing as things go along...it's something I excel at). OK, I have basically two blocks done.

Number 1:

I love this block. That crab is an absolute hoot!

Number 2:

The Knit Picks Swish Superwash is a wonderful yarn, but one skein came up 3 rows short of finishing this block. More is en route. I have decided that Swish is the yarn I'll be using the most on the GAA; the colors are bright and fun (like me....yes, you may all puke now), and the stuff just knits up like a dream. It's also cheap (like me....although I prefer the term, "frugal"). Block #3 is in progress, and it's looking pretty cool. You'll just have to wait for its debut.

OK, I forgot to take its picture on the needles, and I'm too lazy to do it now. So be it.

This past weekend, I was up in Toledo visiting my brother and the family. I told my sister-in-law that I needed to hit the LYS up there to see what was what. Now, I need more yarn like a hole in the head, but I did find a cool little kit at Vintage Yarns for a beaded necklace, which looked like a good project to do on a night where the temperature was going down to about 5 degrees. And it was!

It's basically a 4-stitch I-cord with beads woven in and out of it. Up close, you'll get the idea:

Other than the not-so-detailed instructions (the kit is part of a class...I think the instructions make much more sense if you're watching someone do the thing, too), this project is awesome. And, at $15 for the kit, it's cheap.

Which, as we established earlier, is how I like it.

Variety is the spice of life

As many of you have probably figured out, I tend to have multiple projects in the queue at any one time. Usually, it's a couple of pair of socks and a sweater or two. That still is the case, but I have decided to add an afghan into the mix. This one:

I saw the book whilst surfing the net, and thought the patterns were just plain fun. And far more sane than the Great American Aran Afghan, which I will attempt someday. Just not now.

Anyhow, seeing as it's an afghan, and likely will need cat hair washed out of it, I thought I'd try out a nice acrylic yarn first. I had fondled Vanna White's new offering for Lion Brand and was pretty impressed with how non-gross it seemed to be. It knits up very nicely--I can feel the acrylicness of it, but then again, I'm a yarn snob. All was going well until I needed to block the block.

Big problem. Like every other acrylic out there, it doesn't block real well. It also splayed out way beyond the 12" block size. I'm going to hang onto the few skeins I have, though. If my niece ever decided to play golf (she threatens to learn every year), this stuff will make gorgeous wood covers.

So, I'm left back at square one needing a good yarn. Next try: superwash wool, which, if you're not looking to make socks, is pretty tough to find around here. I located some on KnitPicks, and some skeins are en route, but my patience is non-existant. Luckily, I stumbled upon some Brown Sheep superwash at one of the LYS in colors I didn't order from KnitPicks. So, I started knitting up a block last night, and, so far, I'm pretty pleased:

Didn't I say these blocks were fun? This block's construction so far has been fascinating. Within that seed stitch area are four rows extra to keep up with the cable area, which naturally knits up longer. Pretty cool design. I should have this block done today, crab and all. If the afghan itself works out, my niece and nephew could be looking at one of their own for when they go off to college. I know I used mine back in the day. As a matter-of-fact, it still is surviving...and Mom knit it in 1976! Still looks just as red, white, and blue.

Of course, I still have that cardigan in play. I'm at the point of getting the sleeves underway. Here's how one of the fronts turned out:

This Classic Al stuff is wonderful, by the way. The cables show off nicely, and it's soft and drapey like a comfy old winter cardigan should be. I'll get to work on the sleeves shortly, but right now, I'm crabby.

A package in a plain brown wrapper arrived on my doorstep over the weekend also. Very discreetly packaged. Inside, a plain brown box:

Open the top, and what's inside the plain brown box?

That's right....yarn porn. It's the kit for Zauberflote, from the folks across the pond at Virtual Yarns. I have eyed this puppy for years...you see, I play the flute, and, well, I have a thing for purple. Seemed only natural to spend some Christmas cash on this. I was a tad hesitant, though. All of the Zauberflotes in progress or completed across the internet seemed to be very weirdly colored things--the purples didn't seem rich at all, just obnoxious. However, I took the plunge, and I'm very pleased. The colors are rich, deep, and very purple.

I doubt this will be started any time soon, but I think I'll fondle it from time to time. Perhaps wind the yarn into balls, too. I had the thought cross my mind to save this up for the Knitting Olympics this summer, but there is no way I could get it done in 2 1/2 weeks without taking time off of work.

Hmmm....time off of work to knit like a fiend....may need to rethink that.

Merrily we knit along

Seeing as I have gone a little crazy with future additions to Ikealand (four packages are on the way...this is what happens when Leona doesn't get Christmas yarn), I have been trying to knit like a fiend to empty out a spot or two. I scored 20 skeins of Elsbeth Lavold's Classic Al at Stitches Midwest, so I yanked that out and started working on this:

The pattern has been here for a while, but I was waiting until I had the 2000+ yards of appropriate yarn to surge ahead. So, I am surging:

And the obligate closeups:

All of these neat trims are accomplished with knits, purls, and two stitch cables. Pretty dang cool. And the yarn is knitilicious. I'm on call this weekend, so I'm guessing I'll have a good amount of knitting accomplished while I'm babysitting the pager.

I have also finished one of those socks:

The second is quickly coming up to the heel. Good thing. I have three new sock yarns en route.

The purse has been felted, and I have learned something about the Berroco Alpaca:

It's furry. Real furry. I'm thinking the purse will be getting a shave before I finish it up. It did felt up nice and thick, though. I also lucked out that the Cascade felted at about the same pace as the Berroco.

The Vegas gambler in me comes out at some of the oddest times.

Now, if you'll excuse me, we have seen 6 inches of snow melt in the past three days along with drizzle, and it's now pouring down rain, which is supposed to last for another day or so.

I must build the ark.

2008, and I'm ready to blog!

Yes, it has been a bit crazed around these parts with the holidays and whatnot. The insanity, however, has come to an end, the snow is falling, and I have nothing to do but try to keep up with the blog.

And work. And do the laundry. And clean the kitchen.

The holidays were quite nice around here. No knitting booty (I didn't ask for anything...I know, I need to see a doctor or something), but lots of other fun stuff. I even got my Mom set up with an mp3 player, which was an absolute hoot. You see, she isn't exactly tech-savvy, but when I got her tunes put in "that little thing" (her term), and she put on her earphones, her eyes just lit up! I felt so cool.

Speaking of cool, I did manage to make it to one Browns game this season.

(a break while a low chorus of Taps is played in their honor)

Which game, you ask? This one:

Yep, my brother chose the Cleveland-Buffalo Snow Bowl as his company ticket game this year. It was nuts. Even made the Tribe's Opening Day fiasco look like a summer day in Miami. We were sitting right above the East end zone, so we got to observe this poor guy all day long:

That line is the goal line, which was covered with snow most of the game. Yes, we stayed, along with about 50,000 maniacs who were all dressed like the kid in A Christmas Story. It wasn't terribly cold, but that wind was blasting around the stadium at about a 40 MPH clip, which made for some interesting gameplay. Easily the most insane conditions I have ever experienced for a football game, and that includes 7 years of high school and college marching band. But it was fun. And they won, 8-0.

Grady, of course, thought I was crazy.

Yes, he is getting large. As for the project he is lying on, it has been discarded. I was working on a top-down cardigan in several colors of handspun, but the damn thing is just too clunky looking. I'm thinking I need to go the pullover route for the stuff, but that'll wait for another day. In the meantime, I have whipped up a felted purse from a book Mom got me for Christmas:

(I guess I did get knitting booty. I forgot. It's age, I tell ya.)

I used Berroco alpaca and some Cascade 220 for the trim. I may get to felting this puppy today after I take a shower. I need to get the snowblower funk off of me first. Nothing like that eau de sweat and petroleum distillates combined with the black gunk on my hands from changing out a broken drive belt to really make me feel sexy.

I have also managed to finish up two pair of socks in the past month that have been languishing on the needles for a loooong time. This is the present sock in progress:

I have had this yarn forever. At the moment, I'm on a sock yarn purchasing hold--gotta get through a few more skeins before I go nuts again. Of course, I do have a bid on a skein of Opal on eBay right now. I never said the hiatus was permanent.