Bad Blogger!

So, I’m a lousy blogger, I admit it. Lots has been going on, I had a stint in the hospital, fundraising for the Avon Walk, a car wreck on the way to see the Yarn Harlot (in a brand new rental car – don’t go there)

The good news is that I’ve been knitting quite a bit! I’m working on my first sweater, Twist by Bonnemarie Burns at Chic Knits and it’s going wonderfully so far! I have the back finished and am working on the left front section and it’s going pretty quickly.

I’m also working on a free KAL pattern for the ILoveKandCAlongs Yahoo Group with some other knitters – it’s the Lacy Stole pattern from Lionbrand. I like it because it’s leafy-lacey and because it lends itself really well to like stash yarn. Doesn’t matter what gauge or yarn or needle size really – it’s a pretty pattern. Everyone in the group seems to be using different yarn and needle sizes and loves it

My cats are getting a little out of control with my yarn. I have one of those rolling totes that Joann’s sells for yarn and I keep it next to my living room table so I can dig in it at will if I’m looking for inspiration or a WIP I’ve abandoned (did I actually SAY that?)

The other morning I got up and saw a skein of my beloved Sulka that had clearly been dragged out of the middle layer of the tote, played with wildly, wildly enough to untwist it totally. It was linty and cat-hairy from being skidded all around my hardwood floors – this made me especially happy since it’s a deep burgundy color, designed to show lint and cat hair clearly. Now I have to keep the tote zipped all the time. I wonder if it’s the silk content that drew them to it. Anyone else experience this?

Ok, that’s enough for now..I’ll try to be better about this blogging stuff, especially since I have cool knitting things to share.

Oh yeah! World Wide Knit in Public Day is June 14th! We are doing cool stuff here in Chicagoland at Millennium Park – Yarn Swap, Meet/Greet table, charity afghan assembly and a fiber/tools collection for Interim House and their knitting program – hope to see some of you there!

Another week

The Knit in Public Day gathering was very fun. The day was beautiful and it seemed like around a 100 knitters working away or wandering about admiring everyone's work. I saw some beautiful sweaters, socks, bags, you name it! I took my camera but since I knew not one person there I was too shy to take photographs - I just parked my chair near a friendly looking group of knitters and took off on another round of the endless Market Bag. I really Really REALLY want to finish this x0!% bag after nearly 7 skeins of yarn. I miss my unfinished socks (I'm truly afraid I'll forget how to do the gussets) and I know I have to finish them so I can start something new as a vacation project. I'm trying to keep to a small project, suitable for keeping my hands busy for a week since Jack has already asked with a tone of fear "Honey..how MUCH yarn are you going to have to haul on vacation?" I have a gorgeous stash of Lorna's Laces superwash in the Hawaii color..mostly white with sections of striking purple and teal. I found this free pattern for a very lacy sock that I think will showcase the yarn beautifully.

Of course I am swatching up a cotton/linen blend for a before-mentioned shawl as well. Hmm. All the yarn for that might appear before the end of July, who knows?

Jack and I play on a beach volleyball league here in Chicago. It's a lot of fun but it basically means that neither of us can move on Saturday. Ugh. I was called into work today so I'll ride my bike and hope to stretch out the soreness.

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of CAT - Crochet-A-Thon (from Crochetlist of Yahoo Groups). CAT is an amazing thing to me, a charity is picked each month and crocheters (and knitters!) donate their time and stitching for the chosen charity and it's needs. They pick a 24 hour time frame and meet in an MIRC chatroom over that 24 hours to yak while they work..pretty amazing! I was to have hosted an hour tonight but work is going to interfere and that bums me out. Hopefully next month but I'm sorry to be missing an anniversary month. Bleh. Work.

Friday Monkey

Yanno, I'm starting to think of Monkey as Mon-key in the same way Shrek says "Don-key". Scary. Here is the relaxing Friday night Monkey doin his (my) thing.



Tomorrow is World Knit in Public Day and supposedly Chicago knitters have a big gig going on at Millenium Park. I have this vision of hundreds, no Thousands of knitters working away on projects together all afternoon. I'm going to toss my bike and knitting on the train and go check it out for the afternoon. God knows I need to spend 4 solid hours working on this bag in order to be caught up for my next class lesson on Tuesday evening. We're doing the Market Squares Bag from Bags-A Knitter's Dozen. It's an entrelac style so I'm getting huge experience picking up stitches and more stitches and yet MORE stitches.

I have finished the last increase row and have started the decreases with Tier 7. I'm convincing myself that I WILL get to Tier 15 by Tuesday. After all, they're getting smaller each row, right?? Right. (help) Here's a shot of the bag as is..a big knarly mess in a beautiful Noro Kureyon.