Overheard in the Shop

I was in the front room knitting while a couple of women with an infant and three year old were browsing in the other room when I heard, "Mommy, can we move in here?  'Cuz then we wouldn't have to drive all the way here when we wanted yarn."

Samples

Sorry for the lapse.  I'm knitting a bunch of shop samples right now.  The vest for my cousin is still on hold until his wife gets me some measurements.  I just finished a baby set out of the Cascade 220 Superwash Paints (photos coming soon) and a hat out of a new super bulky Platino.  I'm knitting a hat out of the Malabrigo Rios even though our supply of that is pretty low.  Hopefully, we'll be getting more soon.  I ordered it.  It's now up to Malabrigo to send it and we all know how that goes.
It's always great fun working with the new yarns!

Next

The next UFO I've dug up is a vest from handspun that was a victim of the great knitting stoppage of 2009.  This happened last year in October when I irritated a nerve in my shoulder and had to stop knitting for a couple of months.  What I learned from it is that I cannot continue knitting past the point where my shoulder begins to hurt.  I need. to. stop.  If I do that, I can knit again after a break.  If I don't, bad things happen.
Unfortunately, the stoppage came right when I was in the middle of my Christmas knitting.  I've almost caught up from it in time for this Christmas!

This is the yarn I'd spun so far and the remaining fiber.  I also had a couple of bobbins full of singles that just needed to be plied.  I've since plied what I had and spun and plied the last of the fiber.  I've got nine skeins of two ply yarn that are about 4oz each and will probably knit at around a heavy worsted weight.  I might knit them a bit tight since it is for a cousin of mine to wear when he's working outdoors in the winter.  This is my cousin who got pneumonia two winters ago so I'd like to get this done for this winter.  There's one fly in the ointment, though.  I've lost his measurements.  I emailed his wife and she said she'd get them but she's got two children under four so it may take her a while.  I must remember to never write measurements down on little pieces of paper.  I inevitably lose them.  I have a measurement book for a reason.  I've got to always use it!

Meanwhile, I really should wash all this yarn and I can always swatch while I wait for measurements. 

Stripey Sweater and Fall Yarn

Boy, the blog got away from me for a bit, but I'm back. 

I had a lovely visit to NYC though it was so hot that if I never have to go back there in July, it will be too soon.  What I mostly did was go out to eat and then hide inside and knit.  We made it to the aquarium and on the Staten Island Ferry but that's as adventurous as we got.  Really, not so bad when you think about it.  I got to spend a lot of quality time with my friends Melissa and Andy

and got a lot of knitting done. 

I finished the sleeves of the stripey sweater on Sunday morning.

You can see at the top where I ran out of the lavender and white but they don't look bad overall.

Then I spent Sunday afternoon putting it together and sewing in the ends while watching the World Cup final with Andy (Melissa took a much deserved nap).  I really like relaxed vacations.  I'm just not much of a tourist.

Here's the finished sweater

and a fairly bad picture of me wearing it.

I really need to block the front a bit.

Meanwhile, this is the time of year when all the new yarn starts arriving in giant boxes that we refer to as "Annie Boxes".  Why Annie Boxes? 

Because, they are so big that Annie could use one for a studio apartment!

Train Knitting

I'm still working on the sleeves of the striped sweater.  I've completely run out of the lavender and will be out of the white shortly so I'll need to start getting creative with the row pattern.  I'm almost to the top so it shouldn't be too noticable.
I don't usually take a sweater project on a trip but I'm so close to being done with this that I'm taking it with me to NYC.  I'll have a total of eight hours on the train and if I can't get it finished in that amount of time, I'm doing something wrong.  I'm bringing everything I need to finish it completely and with any luck, I'll have finished object to bring back with me.  I'm also bringing a pair of socks as a back up.  I feel like I'm show a great deal of self restrain in only bringing on pair of socks with me to work on.  Usually, I'd bring at least three.

The Knitting Won

I was over at the zen center yesteray.  I sat morning practice then was hanging out for an hour or so waiting for a going away party to start.  I was sitting on the couch knitting when I started to get super sleepy.  I finally lay down on the couch with the knitting on my stomach and dozed off.  About half an hour later, just as I was waking up, a friend walked past, saw me passed out on the couch with the knitting on top of me and said, "Looks like the knitting won!"

Vacation, Vacation, Vacation!

I am so happy to be on vacation!  One of the hard things about having the shop open seven days a week is that, even on my days off, I never have my house to myself.  Don't get me wrong, having the shop open every day has been really great and mostly I don't mind.  I'm just really going to enjoy having the place to myself this week.
The only major plans I have for my vacation is a trip to NYC to see Melissa.  I've splurged and bought train tickets.  One of my all time favorite things to do is ride the train and knit.  I would take a train trip to nowhere just to sit, watch the world go by and knit.  I'm hoping to have the striped sweater done by then so I will probably take socks with me.  I'm not quite sure what project I'm going to tackle after the sweater.  I may do the vest for my cousin Whitney.  I meant to get it done for Christmas last year but then my Christmas knitting got completely stalled out when I hurt my shoulder.  My bike is at the shop right now getting new handlebars so as to avoid that issue this year.  The thing about the vest is that I haven't even finished spinning the yarn.  I'm close, though, then I can start knitting it.  Yeah, I think that one may be our winner.