Revolution!

Tomorrow the Mess Girls and myself are going to a ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC FESTIVAL!
*devil horns and tongues in grotesque displays*
Does this make me "one of those Moms" that takes their 10 year old to punk shows and is "friends" with their teenager? God, I hope not. Actually, I've been reading related blogs and such and see that this is an at least 10 hour show. I've already told the girls that in order to up my "cool cred" points, I'm bringing some knitting to work on between sets and during bands that suck ass. If any of these little poseur punks try to give me attitude for being a boring old lady, I'll just have to punch them in the throat or kick them in the head. Don't push me, I could do it. Really.

Heel!

I have a pair of socks here that need some obedience training.


These are the basic toe-up, short-row heel socks I'm knitting for Little E. I've done the heels three times now and now I think I need to frog completely and start all over. Bastard socks!

First of all, these are the first short row heels I've ever done. The first attempt, I was having trouble with the wrap and turn instructions I was following. So I googled, Ravelried, and Knitty-ed and found a few tutorials and suggestions. I decided to use this tutorial from Knit Picks. My second go was much more successful. But when E got home from school and tried them on again, I discovered that her 10 year old feet grew while she was away! I swear I measured twice but they were just a "scosh" too short. Seeing as she is growing a few inches every time she leaves the room, I thought it best to frog and reknit the foot a little longer. My third attempt at the short row heel was quite nice.
Last night she tried them on again. Lo and behold, she grew overnight again. They are much better than they were a few days ago, but still a tad snug. Because I'm a good mother and all that bullshit, I'm going to have to frog them completely and start again. She loves this yarn and colorway and is really looking forward to wearing these socks. That kind of encouragement doesn't come along everyday from our long suffering families. But I am reconsidering the heel. I did the short-row initially because I thought it would be quicker. Ha! I think a flap and gussett heel is a little roomier, we'll see.

In other "knitting for the kids" news: Little E also picked out a ball of Patons Classic Wool in Wedgewood a while back and asked for a shrug out of it. Yesterday after I gave up on the socks and wasn't in the mood for thinking knitting, I picked up the ball and a pair of size 10 needles along with my stitch dictionary and started to swatch.
I really like it but E thinks she'd like something a little more solid. So I may frog this swatch and just do a stockinette stitch shrug on big needles with a 2x2 rib edge for her. But I do like this stitch pattern so I may grab a ball or two of stash yarn and see what I come up with for a bed jacket/shrug in an adult size.

FO socks!

*photo credit: Jen at Wool & Company*

As mentioned in today's podcast, I finished some projects this week. Most significant would be these damn socks. I still love the combination of colors and the knitting was entertaining and something new. But just past the halfway point of the second sock, I lost interest and found the two-handed knitting was cumbersome and took too much concentration for thoughtless summer knitting. So they had been put aside until this past week. When it was all said and done, I only had about two pattern repeats to complete before the toe. Details about how I messed them up on the second sock can be read on the Wool & Co blog today.

The reason I picked them back up was because I needed the needles they were on so I could cast on another project. Little E had picked out some sock yarn at the Midwest Fiber Festival that she really wanted me to knit some socks for her. (Photos coming later) As of this typing, they are almost up to the heel turn. I'm knitting them using Magic Loop, two-at-a-time, toe up. They should be done by the end of the week.

Another new project on the needles is a circular shawl from Wrapped in Comfort: knitted lace shawls with the Briar Rose Fiber Angel Face that I also purchased at the Midwest Fiber Festival.
I know this is going to work up beautifully, I just have to keep myself motivated to continue knitting thread-like laceweight in an almost impossible to read pattern. When I say "read" I don't mean the written pattern or chart, I'm referring to "reading my knitting." Typically as I'm knitting a lace pattern, I can usually figure out by looking at the stitches on the needle and figure out where I am in the pattern and what line is next. After a few repeats, I can usually proceed without having to refer to the chart for the most part. But either because of the particular pattern I chose to work from this book or because of the nature of this super fine yarn, I haven't gotten to that point with this project yet. It may also be the ten row repeat that is hindering me.

Blow Me Down!

Wow, that was exciting.

Today was the second day of school for the Mess Girls and as luck and the precociousness of midwest weather would have it, the STORM OF THE DECADE! hit with all its fury at precisely the minute school was to be released. It literally takes me less than 5 minutes from my garage to the elementary school parking lot. As I pulled out of my driveway it was thundering and raining lightly, by the time I got to the end of my street, it was raining sideways and trees were blowing at a 45 degree angle. I pulled into the school parking lot and shortly the principal was knocking on my window yelling for all parents to get their butts into the school where it was safe. Unbeknown to me, there was a tornado warning in effect for our area.

After waiting for the all clear to allow the students to be released, I was able to collect Little E and proceed into to town to pick up Mini Me. She was supposed to have an orthodontist appointment to fix a broken bracket at 4pm. But every road but one leading from our neighborhood into town was closed by either flash flooding, downed trees or downed power lines. A typically 10 minute drive took me over 25 minutes. After arriving at the middle school I called the orthodontist and told them I would not be attempting to drive another 25 miles in the opposite direction of home through floods and torrents. Instead we proceeded to make our way home and upon turning down our street we were greeted with the above sight.

We enjoy the beauty of living in a very old, established, tree lined neighborhood. But when Mother Nature decides to go off on a rant it can be very disconcerting and downright dangerous. Fortunately for us and our neighbors, no person or property was damaged when this grand dame of trees took a header into the street. It does mean that my car, along with at least three other neighbors' cars are now parked down at the end of the street until the road crew gets this cleared. I don't think our little "no outlet" cul de sac will be high on the priority list tonight when half the county has been decimated by this storm. The best we can hope for is that the next line of storms slated to come through won't be as bad as this one and our cars will be safe out in the open for the night.

A Bonnie Wee Shawl

I finally had an opportunity to wear my Highland Shawl in the actual Highlands. We had a perfect day to walk around Culloden Battlefield.

Scotland is a beautiful country. It felt both new and unknown and also comfortable and familiar. I want to go back and I know some part of me will never leave.

Almost Home

It is 1:09am UK time, 7pm at home. I'm trying to stay up so I'm tired enough to sleep on the plane tomorrow. We are scheduled to leave Heathrow at 8am and to arrive in Chicago around 10am CST. If I sleep on the plane it will be the first step toward readjusting my body clock to "home time." I adjusted quite well coming over the pond because I managed to sleep on the plane coming over (more on that planned for my rant podcast later this week.

I didn't have much opportunity to knit while here and didn't do any stash enhancement. I did get a nice photo of me wearing my Highland Shawl at the Culloden battlefield. I'd like to think I could maybe knit while waiting for my plane tomorrow but I don't know if they'll allow my circulars through security, I've heard opposing opinions on this regard. I packed my knitting in my checked baggage going to and from Edinburgh because I heard that UK security wouldn't allow any sharp objects, including knitting needles.

In regards to stash enhancement, there weren't any knit shops in the Highlands that I could find and I didn't have time for much shopping in Edinburgh. London was crazy busy and we were short on time but I did manage to get to Liberty yesterday 15 minutes before closing time. I picked up two little needlework kits and some hankies. I would have loved to had time to browse their quilting and knitting books and buy some small cuts of the delicious fabric.

Our bags are stuffed to overflowing and we've put a lot of miles on our walking shoes. I plan to get photos uploaded to Flickr tomorrow when I get home and have access to my own computer. I'm also due for another podcast, so listen for that later this week.

Cheers.

Cheerio!

That's what I hope to be seeing a lot of over the next ten days. ;)

Hopefully I'll come home with some similar or better pictures from our time in the UK.

It's Done!!!!

After a marathon television watching session (Boy Meets World* and Don't Forget the Lyrics) during a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, I finished the edging on the Lily of the Valley Shawl. She is now blocking on the cutting table.

Pattern: Lily of the Valley Shawl, Lace Style, Interweave Press
Yarn:Fino, Alpaca with a Twist
Notes and Modifications: I made no major modifications to the pattern. I did this shawl with a class at my LYS. If I were to ever knit this pattern again (don't count on that!) I'd probably make it at least 25% longer. I'll know better after it is done blocking but it seems like it will make a nice scarf-length shawl rather than a full-on stole.

I do plan on packing this for my trip. Actually it will probably go in the carry-on for a lightweight cover up for sleeping on the flight over, that and I would hate for it to get "lost" during a luggage inspection or something. I'm counting on the Scottish weather providing some knitwear wearing opportunities that I don't typically get in August.


As you can see, I don't own a set of blocking wires. If I do another big lace project, I will invest in some. Instead I used the string and pins method. Tedious but effective.

I see that my classmates are now finishing their Lilies too. Check it out HERE






*What? You haven't ever gotten sucked into the laughter and tears provided by Corey and Topanga? Mr. Feeney will just have to come over and have a talk with you.

Party Animals

Life around Chez Mess has focused around getting ready for our upcoming trip to the UK. Lots of list making and double checking of tickets, passports and online reservations.

I'm also still trying to get laundry and housecleaning caught up from my four days in Minnesota. Amazing how much can go undone when Mom is out of the house for a few days. I'm very fortunate to be married to a man that not only can but will do most of the "womanly duties" around the house in addition to the stereotypical stuff like mowing lawns and repairing stuff. But when I was out in the Wilderness, he took the two girl children to his parents' in Michigan. So in theory, no one but the dogs and cats were home for most of that weekend. So how in the hell did it get such a wreck?

I think Heidi and Shadow had a wild and crazy frat party on Saturday night. That Yorkshire Terrier, Rufus, that lives next door can perform quite the keg stand I imagine. And Sophie, the Shepherd Mix from across the cul-de-sac was probably over here going through my underwear drawer and checking out the prescription meds and cold medicines in the bathroom cabinet. I'm sure the cats were just lounging out by the pool wearing sunglasses at night and laughing at stupid jokes and eating kitty Doritoes. I'll blame Socks and Chloe the tabbies from next door for bringing the good weed catnip. Just hope Latte doesn't start referring to himself as "Big Pussy."



So anyway, as I was saying, I've been house-wifing my life away lately. I even forced Mini-Me to finally buckle down and clean her room. Amazing how much motivation can be found when; Mom storms in at 2:00 in the afternoon, starts scooping all the detritus on the floor into large black garbage bags, unplugs the laptop (and takes it hostage), and removes all forms of entertainment and distraction. Two days later, the room was clean, furniture rearranged, garbage bags sorted through and refilled with actual garbage, dirty dishes down in the sink, laundry in the hamper in the laundry room and wood floor visible again. She even managed to reserve enough strength to go across the hall and do a little "straightening" in her bathroom. I wouldn't go as far as to say she actually cleaned the bathroom. That would be too generous. I'll give her that her toilet is a tad bit cleaner than the latrines I used at our campsite last weekend.

Update on Di
We stopped in at J & D's house Saturday afternoon to deliver a pan of my extra-special-healing-powers-lasagna and see how Di was doing now that she's been home a few days. We were pleasantly surprised to have Di greet us with a big smile and a hug as she strode strongly out of her kitchen. Her energy, strength and ever-present smile were in place as usual. If it weren't for the bright head scarf covering the row of staples you'd never know she'd had major brain surgery less than a week ago. Other good news is that they did a full body scan and found no more tumors or questionable areas. They were still awaiting the pathology report and hoping for the best in that regard. They thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. Jim says that there was a moment when waiting for Di to come out of surgery that he was particularly worried and he felt a wave of love and peace wash over him and he just knew that people were praying for them.

Dobby is Free!!!!

And so is this sock pattern.
So go download it from the Free Patterns page
I didn't wait for votes. I named my new socks "Sawbill Socks" I like alliteration and it all just fit so suck it.

The best tutorial for the Magic Cast On I can find online is HERE

Did that bandwagon just run over my foot?

I was inspired by Turtlegirl's awesome scarf and enabled by Blue Moon Fiber's STR in the Scottish Highlands colorway to jump on the Chevron Scarf bandwagon. I however don't own a copy of the wildly popular book that this particular pattern is in so I had to punt. After looking at the hundreds of examples on Ravelry I came up with my own version. I chose to pair the Scottish Highlands with Watermelon Tourmaline

Mine however seems to have come with more pastels than the hank shown on the website. It also has more pale yellow than peach. But overall it is turning out okay, just not quite as striking as I had hoped.

Also a little technique note. I hadn't been slipping the first stitch on the "return" or wrong side row for the first half of the scarf. But then I realized that there was a noticeable difference between that side and the side where I had carried the yarn up to change colors and started to do the slipped stitch. I makes a much nicer selvedge edge. You can see in the photo below where I changed from knitting that first stitch to slipping it. If I hadn't already knit over a yard of scarf I may have frogged it and reknit it with the selvedge stitch, but since this is for personal wear and I know that no one else will ever notice this tiny detail, I left it. Plus it provides a "teachable moment" here for my blog.


My intention that this was going to be my vacation knitting on our trip to the UK in a few weeks. That is why I chose the Scottish Highlands colorway in the first place. I thought it would be appropriate knitting while in the actual Highlands and all that. But I took it along on our Harry-palooza night and got quite a bit done on the train and then while listening to the audiobooks the following few days. I may still take it along and finish it up on our vacation and try to remember to slip a Chibi needle in my luggage somewhere so I can weave in my ends and then model the FO while hiking in the Highlands instead of just knitting on it there.

Harry Potter hangover yarn

Weekend before last Little E and I attended the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Festival in Crystal Lake, IL. It was the day after our Harry-palooza, which I wasn't able to blog about because we still weren't back up and running at that time yet. The short version is that we went to this and had a front row seat to listen to Emerson and Ben from Mugglenet.com give their talk. Then we grabbed the 9:56 train back to La Fox and headed over to Barnes & Noble to await the 12:01 chime and get in line.

The next morning while Mini-Me was sleeping and reading, Little E and I popped disc one of the audiobook in the car stereo and headed to Crystal Lake. The day was beautiful and the festival was lovely. I was on a pretty tight budget but did manage to sneak in a few purchases. I couldn't resist this lovely laceweight from Briar Rose Fibers. I'm not sure what it's ultimate destiny will be but I couldn't pass it up. The colors make me think it will make a lovely Invisibility Cloak.

The wooden bowl was also purchased at the fair. I've misplaced the business card from its maker so I can't share that information. But each bowl is hand-carved and sanded and uniquely one of a kind. I just couldn't resist the tactile beauty of them and spent quite a bit of time deciding which one I preferred.

I also picked up a small learn to drop spindle kit but haven't had time to try it out yet. After eying all the gorgeous batts of fiber at the festival, the idea of getting into spinning is daunting and makes my budget ache. E was quite the enabler that day. Just by expressing a shared interest in learning to spin and innocently asking if I would knit her a pair of socks she drove me to buy the spinning kit and some sock yarn.

We also enjoyed and nice lunch with our friends BloglessCarla, YogaNan and her daughter Meija (I'm sure I spelled that wrong), Emily and Mary.