Saturday, June 30, 2007

Got Intarsia? Check!!


I’m such a Fickle Franny, like my mother would say. Here I thought I didn’t want to do colorwork, now I’ve done mosaic, intarsia and I’m looking for my first fair isle. Or is it just a knitting thing? Once you’ve mastered something, you just want to move on and ‘do it all’?? I guess everyone is different.

My brother recently told me he thought the process of knitting would just “get old”. Well, those of us who are true addicts know the truth. It never gets old. In fact, I think it gets more and more interesting as you start to learn about all the different things you can do. I mean you could make nothing but hats your whole life and learn just about every different technique.

Jim’s (my brother) an artist too. He chooses to work in the mediums of stained glass and wood. Here’s his site: http://www.adelphiastainedglass.com/, which of course doesn’t begin to do justice to his work. Every time he finishes something, he’ll never make that same thing again. It has to be different. He can’t stay in one place long enough to knit something.

Am I just crazy? I even like the weaving in of the ends of the yarn and the sewing together of pieces, the whole process. I love the finished objects, but I’m definitely realizing it’s the journey for me.


About the "Double Scoop" pics, I'm terrible about showing my WIP's, usually just FO's, so here's the inside shot of my hopefully not too scary weaving in. I found that I had some pretty big holes on some areas, so the weaving helped a lot with that. Not sure why, I followed the directions I got from the video at knittinghelp.com. The yarn is Knit Picks 'Main Line', which I do like very much and I imagine I'll be going back for more of this one. The other shot is the little stripes I added to the back, since it was pretty plain, I love the contrast of the purl side of the stripes. I can see doing a project using the 'wrong' side in my future.

Little Sydney and I had our ‘girl’s day’ yesterday, first we went to Waechter’s Silk Shop here in Asheville, http://fabricsandbuttons.hostasaurus.com/, this is a wonderful fabric shop that is known for their button selection. We went to get a little button for her “Double Scoop” sweater. For some reason, the neck seemed a little tight, so I left the side open and will add a loop and button to it. We found a great button, matches the sweater wonderfully and also some for my Arietta.

Then we had lunch at the City Bakery next door to Waechter’s, a black forest ham and cheese panini with some great grainy mustard. Some Honest organic iced tea. Then off to the Library and park, where we played and got (guess what??) more knitting books to read.

Found this great one called “Nursery Rhyme Knits”, by Teresa Boyer. How cute is this book? Let me tell you….it’s adorable. One of these may be my first Fair Isle project. She’s incorporated not only designs from many favorite nursery rhymes, but even the words as well. My favorite has to be the “Mary had a Little Lamb”.

One of these days I’ll get back to sewing and making things to sell, for now I’m having too much fun exploring my knitting possibilities. Off to make some Carrot Cake for hubby’s birthday tomorrow. Yummy!! I’ll leave you with some pics of my 3 year old, what a little contradiction she is. I know, I know, it’s a ‘knitting’ blog. But she’s my kid, and, darn it, she’s pretty cute!!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Back Home from Vacation


Aaahhh…..vacation. If only there could be more of them. Sydney and I had a great time visiting my parents up in Philadelphia, PA, for more than 2 weeks!! Some of the highlights were going to the Camden, NJ aquarium and the shore at Ocean City, NJ. Here's a pic of Sydney with her first fish, she was so proud! We got to see relatives and just went to lots of places and had lots of fun and ice cream. Had some quality time with both parents; Mom and I had a spa day, complete with a wonderful massage, then went fishing early in the morning with Dad, wearing his hip waders, next to 4 snakes on the Delaware River!

Some of the knitterly highlights including seeing 4 knitting shops, 2 in Philly, and 2 in Bucks County, PA. I got my new Arietta yarn! It’s Lana Grossa “Cool Wool”, 100% unshrinkable merino. This is some nice, nice stuff. The girl at the shop was making baby stuff out of it, which would be perfect, it’s that lovely. Hopefully, you all like the colors I picked out this time. I am finally happy with them. I’m just about done with the first sleeve. Already I’m learning a lot about how to keep track of increasing/decreasing with a chart, which is all new to me. I’m getting better and really examining the pattern to figure out where I need to be on the chart. I guess this gets easier with time.

I also had to start a new project, which was great knitting for the beach/pool. It’s the “Montego Bay Scarf” from the Summer IK, although for me it will be the "Ocean City Scarf". Lace, I like it! Just easy breezy knitting with a pretty hand dyed rayon boucle and my rosewood circs. http://www.interweaveknits.com/Galleries/bonus/summer_2007/montego-bay.asp

Back to work on Monday, ugh! Having a date night with the hubby tonight, it was really hard being away from him for so long. Maybe if he's lucky I'll make him that carrot cake he loves for Father's Day tomorrow. You all have a great weekend.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Up in PhillyLand....and the search for Arietta

With no hook up for my digital. You'll have to wait for the great pics I'm getting. We (Sydney and I) have been having a great time staying here with my parents. We went to a really nice aquarium in Camden, NJ, and got to see lots of sharks! It was great. You can actually swim with them there....don't know if I'm quite brave enough for that.

We went to Chestnut Hill, down in Philadelphia, a nice area for shopping. Of course I only went there because there are 2 (!) yarn shops within a couple of blocks. The first one in called "Knit With", it's the oldest YS in Philly, it's been there since 1970 (older than me!), and it's pretty small. There are some lovely yarns there, it just feels pretty cramped inside. I do have to say the owner that I made was extremely helpful and informative, he was knitting the sweetest little baby jacket. He knew what LYS are in my area, even told me which one was better than another one! Unfortunately, he didn't have the yarn I needed for Arietta. He had some beautiful egyptian cotton for $9.99 for 109 yds., but I would need about 17 skeins on it...yikes!

So then we wandered down to "Tangled Web". Let me tell you, this is a great yarn shop. The two people who worked there that day were just great, very friendly and helpful. The shop is big, bright and airy, the kind of shop I'd want to go have a sit 'n' knit in. Let me also tell you that I switched gears. The girl who worked there was recommending this Lana Grossa yarn, I think it's either called "Cool Wool" or "Merino 2000". She happened to have two projects going with it in her bag, both were fabulous. I was sold. It is soft and light and sproingy, since it's a sport weight I'm sure I would use it in Spring/Fall as well as Winter. You'll just have to wait and see my colors, but I'm feeling really good about it this time. Arietta, here I come!!

Let's see....what else. We went fishing yesterday and I caught a decent sized Bass. My Sydney caught her first fish at 3, so she has me beat. (My first fish was caught at 4!) It's just nice to relax and be with my folks. OK, that's enough for now. Have a great week.