Long Time No Blog

Well, what have I been doing? Getting injured (falling down stairs), losing my job (because my employer lost a hospital account not, I hasten to add, because I was doing anything wrong). All in all, a slightly annoying couple of weeks!

On the plus side, I have been knitting. Since I last posted, I completed the Palindrome hat, which I wanted to do for 2 reasons: 1) my "Loosely Knit" group is doing hats in February and 2) it's cold and I wanted to make a hat for myself finally.



And the view from the top:














Close up of the cables:



Let me see, before the hat, I finished my first knitted pair of socks (ta da!), the "Simple Socks" by Cat Bordhi, using her two circular needle technique (much nicer to me than using double pointed needles). I don't remember the yarn brand but I bought it at one of my local yarn shops (Fashion Knit).



And, after the socks were done, I used the leftover yarn to make a Weasley sweater cell phone case for my (never working) MotoKRZR phone.



I'm also working on a much nicer pair of socks (I mean I'm doing better than I did on my first ever pair) for the Hogwarts Sock Swap 3, as well as a bag for the Bag-a-Licious swap but I can't post pictures until they're delivered.

So, all in all, a few good weeks for knitting, although not so good otherwise.

&@)%_+#! Pomatomus gauntlets

Now I have another idea, something I probably should have done from the beginning of the Pomatomus fingerless gloves. Since I've never knit any kind of glove or gauntlet before and I'm worried about the thumb gusset, etc., and since I'm having so much trouble with Pomatomus, I think I will just make myself a pair of gauntlets in a much easier pattern (but still something fun) so when I get to the harder parts of the P gauntlets, it won't be the first time I'm doing a thumb gusset or fingers. Maybe this will help. Plus, it's nasty cold here right now and I wouldn't mind extra warmth for my wrists and hands while I'm typing (for a living) or knitting (for a reason to go on living - just kidding, sort of).

Meanwhile, I'm quite eagerly awaiting being given partners for the two swaps I've signed up for: the Hogwarts sock swap 3 and the Bag-a-licious swap. I can't wait to get started!

As far as HSS3 goes, I'm personally a Ravenclaw but I'd be excited to put together a kit for a student in any other house. I might call on some of my past beading skills and make some stitch markers instead of buying some, especially if I have the right color beads. For Bag-a-licious, I might make the Harlequin bag, unless my swap partner wants something else, of course.

Now, where's that camera cable so I can upload some pictures?

Little Girls in Hats, the Dad Hat, and the Continuing Saga of the Pomatomus/Mermaid gloves

That's 7-year-old Katrina in the blue hat, 5-year-old Sofia in the red/pink hat, and 3-year-old Jessica in the purple hat. Cute, aren't they? The hat pattern is Ursule by Kate Gilbert, and it was pretty fun to do - my first Fair Isle-type project! I'll be doing more color stranding/Fair Isle work because I really like knitting two-handed and I love the color effects that are possible.

I'm back at the Pomatomus gloves after a mini break to make a hat for my dad. His wife, Barbara, tells me that he would like a brown beanie-type hat to wear on his early morning walks. (He gets up at 5 AM every day, an affliction which I happily did NOT inherit.) Anyway, I combined a couple of patterns I found on the internet for a 4 x 2 x 2 (?) rib pattern. I used a yarn I was given (no ball band), wool, plied brown and black fibers. I knew I didn't have enough of this to make the entire hat, though, so I inserted a couple of random black stripes (Lion Brand Wool).

The hat seems a little bit small. It fits me okay and my husband too (23-1/4 inch head for him) but my dad is kind of a big guy. I guess I'll block it as much as possible and hope for the best. I have a glass vase that is more or less human head shaped. I used it before Christmas, padded with varying amounts of bubble wrap, to block the 3 hats I made for my nieces (pictured above). Then I wadded up some plastic bags from the grocery store (clean) to fill in the whole hat shape. It worked pretty well on those hats, so I'm hopeful for this one. It's so cold and wet here though that I don't know how long it'll take to dry all the way.

My camera is around here somewhere. When I find it, I'll take a picture of the dad hat (although it's no big deal, really). I would take a picture of the Pomatomus glove but there's almost nothing to photograph at this point. I've restarted them about 4-5 times now. I'm finding that with the size #1 needles, when I make a mistake or drop a stitch, it's almost impossible to correct. Yarg! I'm not quitting though.

My mom's birthday

Today would be my mom's 84th birthday. It's overcast and rainy and that seems to fit the way I feel. This is one of several days of the year that are hard to get through because I miss her so much. It's not that I'm not moving on with my life; it's just that she was such a great person and a wonderful mother and I'll always have such a tremendous amount of love for her. I guess I'll always wish she was still here.

I guess I don't have anything original to say about losing someone you love. What can you really say that hasn't been said before? It's all about the feelings.

I'm in the planning stages of a crazy quilt project about her. I've heard other artists say that working on a memorial project of some type helped them deal with their grief. I wonder. I hope they're right. I wasn't able to start anything like this earlier, though. It's just now that almost 3 years have passed since I lost her that I'm able to turn a corner in a way. I don't even know how to describe that corner but I think it might be at the intersection of "This is not happening" Blvd. and "I think I might be able to handle this now" Avenue (not to be too cute about it).

Anyway, I'll post some pictures as the project comes along, although I'm not sure who I'm talking to because nobody really knows about this blog. I've noticed that many of my fellow knitters have blogs but I feel that would be pretty presumptuous of me to do since I haven't even been knitting a year and am such a newbie, although I like to think I'm a brave one.