My apologies

I have been absent. Please forgive me.

Things got wild here the beginning of April and I feel like life is just now settling down. T1 was confirmed into the Lutheran church on April 5th. It is a big deal for us and the fact that we now live 900 miles from most of our family means a celebration involved travel and house guests. As we prepared for hosting 12 out of town guests for the weekend and a party with 35 guest as well as regular life, I didn't have much time for knitting.

The short story is it was a wonderful weekend that flew by way too fast. The weather did not co-operate but we had three days of food and family all in support of a boy becoming a man.

So there has not been a great deal of knitting as I said so very little to post about. I finished the body of the Urban Aran sweater, finally. I had gotten to the under arm and decided I wanted more of the side cable detail. I frogged back almost a skein of yarn and re-knit. The rest of the body was knit without incident. I did struggle with alterations because I think the pattern would be great as a raglan. If I ever do this pattern again I will try it. Last week I cast on for the sleeves and have been plugging away.

A little side bar-I have been feeling a bit uninspired the last few days. I think I need to be around some artistic and inspiring people. A friend of mine who is an incredible artist has a new web site. Take some time to peruse his portfolio and if you are ever in the Milwaukee area try to get to his gallery and tell him Amy sent you.

www.reginaldbaylor.com

Enjoy.

Urban Aran on St. Patty's Day

I have started the Urban Aran for Thing 1, inspired by Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed. His is wonderful and my son really liked it. When a 13 year old likes a sweater, we make it!! Thing 1 requested a zipper just at the neck so I decided to knit in the round. Lets face it if it can be knit it the round it should be! I will need to make it longer because he is tall and skinny so I added an inch right away at the bottom and plan another extra inch before the underarms. The smallest size will fit him with the extra length. My yarn choice is Araucania Nature Wool Solids from my Mom's stash (I call it dipping into my inheritance!!) I cast on Friday evening and have forgotten how fast two strands of yarn on size 10 needles goes. I feel like a speed knitter!!!! Now on Tuesday March 17th I am 6 1/2 inches in and I worked yesterday. The green I think goes very well with my Guinness for St. Patrick's day, don't you? Luck o' the Irish to you!

I started working a few days a week about three weeks ago. This, like house work, really cuts into my knitting time. The job is good so far. I am doing insurance and billing for my chiropractor. This was the second postition they offered me so I really could not refuse. I love the people I am working with and the patients are great too. The point is my knitting will either all have to be done on size 10's or there will be longer lapses between posts. Bear with me.

P.S. I finished the Twist for my Mr. but need a toggle and then I will get photos.

What I did instead of knitting...

I spent the day taking pictures of almost all of my yarn stash and entering it into the organizer on Ravelry. (to anyone that doesn't know-Ravelry is on online knit and crochet community.) The Stash organizer is so cool it even impressed my geek Mr.!! I now have everything in one place and I can see what I have, in what gauge, and color and how many yards, and now pictures too!!! I have been trying to get at this since I became a member last summer. I do admit my stash is by my laundry and used the mountains as my excuse to stay in the basement all afternoon. (I did not get it all washed yet and no folding took place but tomorrow is another day!) The pictures are of the stash sorted in picture version and the other is the chart version, too cool in my land of knitting!

The other picture is of my new "borrowed" Kindle. I was given it to try till further notice. I was waiting for "Knit Two" to be available in paperback but downloaded it the other night. I read at night when my hands are too tired to knit so hard cover books don't really work. Have you ever dozed off holding a hardcover or gotten a hand cramp? The Kindle is light and easy to hold and just a click of the bar on the side and you are turning pages. Very cool. Another bonus is that you can change the font size so when I am laying down I can take my glasses off and still read. Thank you Mr ?

Chilly Willy

Well, they did it and survived!! I have pictures to prove it. Thank to those who sponsored them. I have them home now and warmed up on homemade mac and cheese. Carbs to warm you, right? It was a very nice day and the sun was glorious. I believe there were a record number of "Plungers" at over 75. The principal of T3's school challenged the school families to raise $1,000 to "Plunge your Principal"! She did raise the money and wore a great costume as well. One of our church members also raised $1,800. Really does warm me.

Groups

I have nothing new to show. I thought I would ask you to take a moment of your day to read about some projects I think are very interesting. This is a charity group project to benefit the Support Network for Battered Women, True Beauty. The other group to read about is The Milkweed Project, which is a collaborative art project. (Both of these are Ravelry groups, a and b.)

I also want to brag about my boys. My Mr. and T1 & T2 are taking the Peconic Plunge on Saturday to benefit the homeless here on Long Island. They will be swimming in the bay for a bit and T3 and I will be holding the towels and blankets. (I am making soup to warm the swimmers as well.) Then on Sunday afternoon T1 is participating in World Vision's "I will starve for food" which is a 30 hour fast to raise awareness and monies to feed children around the globe. More here.

Thank you for your time.

Bella, Bella, Bella, and Bella

I finished pair one and two. I timed myself on the second pair and it took 7 hours. I was working out of two skeins and had to finish the second pair to find it took only one skein per pair. I know I have said it many times but the Brown Sheep Lambs Pride is the best yarn and the best value out there. The pattern calls for 220 yards so I got 4 skeins now I have enough for four pairs. When I gave the finished mittens to the teacher that commissioned them another teacher wants the fourth pair! The other day I knit the 7 hours straight and even today still have hand cramps. I know, Boohoo! a whole day of knitting.

Bella's Mittens

I was asked to knit the Bella Mittens from the movie "Twilight" for the kindergarten teacher at T3's school. She and her friends fell in love with them. I have the first pair of three done except for the thumbs. I am using Brown Sheep Worsted in Charcoal Heather from School Products in Manhattan. I didn't want to wait or pay for shipping so I had my Mr. pick it up when he was there last week. This yarn is wonderful. If you have never used it I highly recommend finding a project appropriate. The pattern is only 82 rows so went pretty quickly. Twelve stitch cable pattern and ribbing. Nice. I am going back to finish now and watch the rest of the Super Bowl (really I just like the commercials).

p.s. The computer is working much better now and was only gone for 4 days!