I know you haven't heard from me in a while but .............

The contest begins tomorrow. I have to admit, I am feeling the butterflies. The person that I'm making a hat for lives in Nevada, and the person who is assigned to assassinate me lives 15 minutes away! (The person knitting for her lives in N.C.) Needless to say, I believe I will be "dead" on Monday! (If not sooner!) Oh well.
So you may be wondering why I haven't blogged in a while. It seems to be symbolic of my life right now. I haven't been "producing" much. The vest that I talked about in the last post is in the same condition it was in, and then I have been "working" on knits from my Rockin' Sock Club, and the Webs skein of the month club. For the socks, I have started them about 6 times. The last time I got to the part where you turn the heal, and then I decided that I really should make the small size. For the Webs yarn, the pattern was really difficult to start (for me, at least) and that took me two nights to do.
I will berate myself, to my husband, about my lack of drive to finish my projects and he just says that it is a hobby, and I should be enjoying myself. He does have a point - but boy, what an enabler he is! Am I a lucky girl, or what?!!!

Happy knitting,
P2K

Avoidance

A defense mechanism is something that we use to protect ourselves from anything that we believe (unconsciously, of course) will hurt our egos. Well I believe that I have been using the defense mechanism, Avoidance. For the past couple of weeks I have avoiding finishing this vest. I decide that I want to read, or have to clean or am too tired, or can't find the directions. It is weird, because I usually knit two or three hours every night, and lately I've hardly been knitting at all.
I realized I was doing this, because sometimes finishing is tough because when you start a project you think it is going to be fabulous, and then once you have really gotten to know the project, and spent so much time with it - like any relationship, you see the flaws. However, if the project is never finished, you never have to show those flaws to the public. That perfect piece that everyone wants to see is "not quite ready yet."
So I decided to finish this vest and I did, but then the right shoulder looked awful - it poked out like I had kept in on a hanger. I tried re-blocking, sewing stitches together and then just realized that I had not spaced my picked up stitches well, and tore the arm band out.
I'll finish this vest soon - but not tonight, I think I going to organize my stash!

All the best,
P2K

Central Park Hoodie

This is a swatch. People who know me, know that I am not the most patient of people, so swatching is not something I regularly do. I know that it is a GOOD thing to do, but I always want to jump right into the project. But I have been listen to a bunch of podcasts that all recommend swatching (as if the Bold recommendation in patterns is not enough) and while I was in the Dominican Republic I finally felt like I had the time to do this. As you can tell, I feel very pleased with myself. Swatches take time. This one is 30 stitches by 30 rows, and took me about 2 hours to do. I am glad that I did that though.
The yarn is Cascade's Quatro - which I am totally loving. But I get 5 stitches to the inch, and the CPH has a gauge of 17 sts for 4 inches. Luckily the pattern is written for the amount of sts that I need to get my size.
I'm loving the pattern, and the yarn. The yardage (220 yds) is amazing. I am almost done with my first skein, and there is 4 inches of ribbing on this thing.
We're bracing ourselves for a snow storm around these parts - can I just say, the grocery store was CRAZY today.

Stay warm.
P2K

Happy New Year!

I am sorry that it has been so long since I have posted. We were away for the holidays, and life is just beginning to get back to normal. My parents, sisters and their families and us, all went down to Punta Cana Dominican Republic, for a wonderfully, warm and relaxing week in the sun. It was really nice. It is so rare that you have time to just hang out with your family let alone parents and sisters, so this was just great. My kids got to play with their cousin, and I got to go for a week without making dinner or cleaning!
I got some good knitting time, got to watch the Pats go 16-0 and got to catch up on my silly reading. Totally a great thing.

I'll write more knitting news next time.

Happy New Year.
P2K

Christmas in NYC

I just came back from a 24 hour trip to NYC to celebrate my baby sister's 30th birthday. I gave her this scarf that she is modeling for me. It is made from "Blossom" by Schaeffer yarns. It is in the Eleanor Roosevelt colorway. I love this yarn, and it makes such a great scarf. Here is a picture of the same scarf that I made for myself 3 years ago in the Georgia O'Keefe colorway. The yarn is a bit pricey, but it is warm, soft and wears very well.

So.... NYC at Christmas is magical. We went to see the windows at Bloomingdale's, Saks
and Tiffany's and then went to see "the TREE." It was packed. It was also really nice to act like tourists. One of the best things for me was seeing both of my sisters wearing scarves that I had made for them. The sister that I made the silk scarf for commented that she loved the fact that the scarf was so warm and so light weight and not bulky. Something to consider when making my next scarf.
Then at night we went out for dinner, drinks and then dancing. It was so great to hang out with so many of my sister and brother-in-law's friends and family. We got to eat great food, and just get to know people in a relaxed way. Fortunately I talk to my sister a lot, but it is really great to meet so many of the people face to face.

I hope you are keeping warm. Luckily it is "sweater weather."

P2K

Rhinebeck vest

It has been very busy around here lately. Doesn't that always seem to be the way. I've been doing a lot of work on my vest. The yarn and the pattern are from Brooks Farm Yarn and I got them at Rhinebeck. I'm really excited about the yarn. It is really soft and has a great sheen to it. The vest is being worked side to side, so that dip that you see in the center is actually an arm hole. Hopefully it will be finished by the end of the week.
Happy Holidays,
P2K

I miss baseball!

Now that baseball is over, I'm lost as far as what I should watch on T.V. (The writers' strike doesn't help either.) During baseball season, I'll get 3 or more good hours of good knitting time. Baseball is really perfect for that. You're listening and sort of watching and if something great happens, they always show the replay. Don and Remy (the Red Sox announcers) are pretty entertaining as well.
So tonight I turned to The Cutting Edge - Going for the Gold, which is a "sequel" to The Cutting Edge. The first one was cheesy, but it felt honest, and the actors had great chemistry. I've watched it dozens of times. It is a silly, fun movie. This new one is AWFUL. Anyone who knows me, knows that I will tolerate a lot from my stupid movies. I easily lose myself in them and love to cry whenever Hollywood would like for me to - and I LOVE it. So for me to say that a romantic comedy is bad - it is REALLY bad. The best that I can tell you is that I am halfway finished with a vest that I am making from some of the yarn that I got at Rhinebeck. I'll post pictures of that soon.
P2K