SailingKnitter

Here they be! A pair of ribbed socks for my DH knit with the new Opal Dreamcatcher self-patterning yarn. Because the pattern repeat is so large, I decided not to make them identical - but more like fraternal twin socks. But - lo and behold - they came out the same!!! Dumb luck.

These are my standard CO 72 tubular cast on, US size 1 1/2 needles, and a 4 x 2 rib on the leg and upper foot. He loves them - I knit them.

Next pair is really two different sock projects. One for me made out of beautiful Opal Prisma yellow yarn and one for my youngest son - you guessed it - gray. A really soft/light gray yarn from Regia.


FLAK - Follow the Leader Aran Knitalong Update

OK - slow progress on the Aran Top down cardigan. Got one of the fronts done. Actually, after I took this picture I started the other front side. Part 6 (Sleeves) is already posted so I've fallen behind! Agh!

But, I've got 10 mostly daylight hours of car knitting time coming up this Saturday when we drive down to Palm Desert for my mother's memorial service on Monday. Then another 10 hours on Monday driving back home. It will be a full van with my DH, both sons, and my nephew - 5 adults in a 7 passenger van. I think I'll just sit in the very back and knit.



Knitting Olympics

No gold medal for me - didn't finish, no silver, no bronze. I think I should get the "Rust" medal - at least I started the shawl. Yeah, and I can still find it. I'll work on this during the car ride next Saturday. Gonna see the whole Famn Damily and I can show my sister what she'll get someday from me. Perhaps this can be for her birthday April 24th. Ooohhh, another deadline to commit to and miss. I'm on a roll.

Good question. First, we have to sell the house - it is listed and has been on the market for 17 days now. Lots of "lookers" but so far no bites. Then, we take some of that cash (equity) and buy the BIG boat outright. I'm waiting, waiting, waiting.

We gotta get out on the ocean in the boat and get our sea legs before the October Baja Ha-Ha http://www.baja-haha.com/

This will be our first Ha-Ha adventure and we've been waiting years and years for this moment. Time's a wastin' folks...BUY MY HOUSE!

The boat picture is of "Profiligate" - the Baja Ha-Ha's Mothership. (all hail to the Grand Poobah).

We have been "boatless" now for two whole months!!! This is not the way to live. Of course, we wouldn't be using the old little 22-footer in February anyway as there's not enough water in Folsom Lake to "float the boat".

The map is from the Baja Ha-Ha site and shows how we will sail from San Diego down to Cabo San Lucas with 2 stops along the way. This trip will include some overnight sailing which is one of the skills we want to practice before October. Just want to make sure that Jones can wake me up when it's my watch!!! Just give me stars and an open sea and I'll be fine.

Ooohhh...future yummy yarn....


Here' are pictures I took this morning of some of the sheep that I pass on the way to work each day. Because of limited access I couldn't capture the total number of sheep - I estimate about 200 in this flock.

Because it was a sorta holiday today (Abe Lincoln's Birthday) there was very little traffic on the road. I actually stopped in the road, rolled down the window, and took these pictures. There's no shoulder on the road so I couldn't pull over.

Anyway, they were all verbalizing - Baa - it was so cool! Hard to believe that Sacramento, the state capital of California is only about 25 miles away from here. Then I had to go to work....

On the knitting front - still working on my FLAK fronts (2 fronts as I'm working a cardigan). I'm an Olympic Hopeless - only have 5 rows (about 100 stitches total) on my Olympic project. And nobody has bought this dang house. The end.

I was knitting on my FLAK sweater last night and came across 2 small pieces of VM - vegetative matter in the yarn. I love these!! While carefully picking them out, I thought about the source of my yarn - those fluffy sheep wandering the hillsides. Yeah, I know...lots of folks consider VM to be a "fault" with the yarn - the yarn wasn't processed properly - or was quite dirty. And I know that quite possibly this VM had traveled the digestive track of the animal before becoming lodged in the fleece - to roving - to yarn - to me. Yet, I choose to picture the little lamb, exhausted after playing in the green fields, flopping down to rest under the bright blue sky with cotton ball white clouds. A tiny grass blade becomes entwined in his soft, white fleece. Many months later, that very same piece of VM is picked out of the yarn by me.

Remnents of a "high fiber diet" or evidence of the natural source of yarn - how you think about it is your choice.

Each morning as I drive to work along the 2-lane (high-speed dangerous) road through the foothills I see the large flocks of sheep & lambs munching away on the grass. Why do they always face in the same direction? Why do they slowly walk (in that same direction) as they eat? I think of them as "yarn on the hoof". It's that time of year now where the fields look brownish gray, but if you look closely you can see the new grass shoots growing up in the bare spots around the old last year's stalks. My husband calls sheep "land maggots" because they look like large maggots and have the intelligence of maggots. I just see yarn, miles and miles of yarn.

Our knitting guild is having a Block of the Month program to encourage us to make 7x7 squares for the charity lap robe project. This is my version of the 1st square. This is knit with 2 strands of self-patterning sock yarn knit together. Our own knitting celebrity, Lorna Miser wrote up the pattern for us. It is knit from the outside to the center.

Actually, mine didn't quite measure up to 7 inches - so after I took this pic I added an edging of double crochet. Who's gonna know? Only me and other knitting freakos - the normal folks at the VA hospital will never notice!!

Hey - it's the thought that counts! Thank goodness somebody else is seaming all these together. I love to finish my own work - but mindless seaming of blocks is really brain numbing.

FLAK in the evening, FLAK at suppertime...

Part 4 of the Follow the Leader Aran Knitalong is done! This is the back of my cardiagan with the shoulder saddles attached. The KnitPicks Wool of the Andes has been a joy to work with and is really showing the stitch definition. Which is great for arans - but also shows any stitches that got a little fugly. Oh well, I can play with those when I block it and try to get them to behave properly.

Had an "Open House" at the house yesterday so we had to stay away most of the day. That was fine with be as it was the first Saturday of the month and as such, I was knitting with the Folsom group. Jones joined me at about noon - then we went for a walk along the American River Trail as it was a beautiful sunny day.

Well...at the Nimbus dam there was a gate malfunction and they accidently opened more gates than they should have and a massive amount of water rushed down the river. There were about 40 fishermen fishing for salmon and/or steelhead on the river and it suddenly rose about 6 feet without any siren warning!!! Everyone made it out OK thank goodness. That could have been a real disaster. Can you imagine standing down in the basin below a dam and then suddenly having the cold water rushing up at you??? It had to have been terrifying for those guys. I've fished from there before and have never really thought about something like that happening.

Anyway, so far no nibbles on the house - but lots of "looky-loos". Come on folks, BUY THIS HOUSE! For heaven's sakes - we've fixed everything - new appliances, tile floors and countertops, new solar panels on the pool, new spa timer & cover, and much more. BUY IT so I don't have to keep it clean and tidy anymore! Plus, I really really need to get out on the boat...

knitting on...and on