Happy Independence Day!

Independence day flag knit from two excavators.

(Photo shamelessly stolen from this article. Go read it if you must.)

I hosted a little knitting party Friday night, and a great time was had by all.  Most of the usual suspects were there --

Starting in the back, you can see the famous Stacey, who was surely regaling the entire group with witty and cute yarn stories (just as she does on her blog; and why did I not get her wearing her own newly acquired OSW?); and to the right, the wonderful Kristen of the Alpaca Bounty and now also of Brownie fame; a new member of our group, the lovely Teresa  (who has yet to create a blog ... but we all know that resistance is futile); the knitty professor Michaele (working on a seed stitch felted diaper bag for her famous VIB); with her back to us, the elusive Shirley (of no blog [yet] fame); and to Shirley's left, the most excellent barista Lesley (of the newly started blog fame); and the amazing Cathi (of newly red hair fame); and the hidden-from-view Michelle (of the working-on-her-Triada fame).

Over on a corner of my patio, there was also Wanda, winding for her Triada , which by the way perfectly matched her outfit.  (Wanda also had the chance to make the acquaintance of the Wanda Left Front and Wanda Left Sleeve on my Grace cardigan.)

Several people brought wonderful little hostess gifts, which were much appreciated.  In particular, Kristen brought brownies which my kids thanked her for the next day (they were yummy!); and Michelle brought me Estes Park Alpaca. 

Michelle, you must've seen how much I really covet this Larkspur Funny Farm alpaca in a previous entry ... (because do you all remember that Kristen gifted me some of this this as well after the month of torture that I recently had?  Well, I've decided that I'm going to get my hands on a few more skeins of this and make myself a Charlotte's Web out of Funny Farm Alpaca.  Can't you just see it?? Anyhow, back to the topic at hand ...) Thanks so much, Michelle!

I had a big bunch of munchies, and while I was tempted to have some margaritas (there's nothing like Tequila and salt during a hot and dry Colorado summer evening), the beading mania won out and I instead had glasses that we could I.D. by the little wine glass markers I made ... and I think it was Lesley who won out with the knitting-themed wine glass.  (Charms found at Hobby Lobby.)

I always get nervous that I have so much yarn in my house ... but after we kicked the Big Sweetie out of the office where he was holed up reading New England sports news on the internet, I showed the ladies my big Yarn Corner.  All of the knitting addicts were very supportive, and didn't judge me at all (at least I hope so) on my enormous yarn supply.  I mean, who really needs so much yarn?  (Obviously, I do, because next I'm plotting how I can get out to Brown Sheep in Nebraska to load up on wool for $11.00 per pound.) 

Anyhow, a great time was had by all.  Everyone luckily brought all of their Estes Park extravaganza, so I could have a true fondling experience.  I really missed out, and can only be happy that the wool market will be back next year, and that I now have a good excuse to go to Taos in the fall.  I realized at one point during the evening that a Friday night knitting get-together is sort of like reading everyone's blogs all night long -- only it's in person!  And you can ask questions, and get immediate responses!  Wow, just imagine!  It was really great, and I look forward to our next get-together.

... which you can't see very well, but it's a sapphire (for Blue Lake), inside a gold triangle (for Mount Toll), with diamonds up above (get ready to barf ... for the stars that we saw in the night sky while camping that weekend -- I know, I'm such a cheeseball), set on the white gold band he'd picked out for me.

The June contest for blog titles has been really great ... and it's now July 1.  So, here's the promised brainstorm about what's in a title for a knitting blog...

As I see there, there's different kinds of knitting blog titles.  Here are a few examples, with existing blogs that are linked, and ideas for titles that are in italics.  I'm sort of considering all of those in italics, especially the asterisked * ones.  So, leave a comment at the end and tell me what you think!

First, there's a whole series of titles that have to do with a person's name or identity:
Wendy knits
Froggy knits
Ei Knit
Gracie Knits
mamacate
J is for Junkie (yarn junkie, that is) *
Jenifer Knnits
There's one N in knit

Then, we have the knitting nickname blog titles:
Yarn Harlot
Knitting Fool
The Fearless Knitter
The Knitty Professor
The Cheeky Needle

Next, we have blog titles that are a play on words:
Knitterpated
Knit one over
Alpaca skein and wool knit* 

Next, we have blog titles that are take-offs of something that's well-known:
Knit It Yourself
Adventures of a Knitter Errant (subtitle: En un lugar de la manga...) *
Zen and the Art of Yarn Stash Maintenance *
Stitches, and needles, and yarns, oh my!
Where the Wild Knitters Are
Revenge of the Stash

Next, we have blog titles that refer to the addictive-compulsive-escapist nature of the craft:
My Escape from the Boys
Yarnaholic Confessions
I hate waiting
Confessions of a Knitaholic
Yarnaholic Anonymous

And then there's the titles that are simply about our love of the craft:
I heart knitting*
luv 2 knit
will knit for food

And the blogs that have to do with the craft itself somehow:
Almost felted
dirty purls
clickety clack

Next, the blog titles that have to do with where we knit:
Knitting at 5337
Sittin' Here Knittin'
Colorado Knits
The Casting On Couch
Knittyville
Yarnville
Top of the World Knitter
Elevated Knitting
A Knit Above

How about those "conversational" titles:
I'm knitting as fast as I can!
Just one more row....
And she knits, too!
That chick who knits
You know you have a problem when ...

Last, but not least, the titles that simply are what they are:
In the Pink
boogaj

Phew! That's a lot of titles. Not to mention a lot of linkage.   I'll reveal the Big Sweetie's contributions in the next entry (can you guess which ones they were?), and we'll all decide on a new name. (How exciting!)  But for now, check out the one's I'm favoring with the asterisks *, and tell me what you think!

And just to make sure that this isn't a photo-less blog entry, check out my birthday present from the Big Sweetie (not recent, my birthday was in February):

Can you guess what I just did?!

 FO Report:  Grace Cardigan
Designer:  Debbie Bliss
Pattern Source: Pattern available in the Cotton Angora book
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Lavender
Needle Size: US 7, 8
Gauge:  18 sts = 4"
Date Completed: June 2005
Recipient:  me (of course you know this by now)

Here we go again! Another FO!  The great thing about starting five things at one time means that about five weeks later ... you get lots of FO's.

I love this cardigan!  This was an extremely easy cable knit, appropriate for a beginner who understands the concept of cabling, and I highly recommend you learn how to do cables without a cable needle if you haven't done so already.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again ... I can just cable along all day long. 

The pattern was straightforward enough, with just a dropped shoulder shaping and everything else rather oversized and boxy.  The sleeves worked this time! (Refer to the A Line Ribbed Cardigan to understand what I mean exactly.)  On the front, you have to switch between a size 7 needle on the ribbing and a size 8 on the cables, which was slightly annoying.  Also, DB gave some rather odd instructions of knitting the ribbing from the front collar, then casting on stitches, then knitting the ribbing from the right collar ... and she never said to sew it together.  Instead I just picked up sts along the back for the collar and it seemed to work well for me.  The book, by the way, is a really really great book with lots of nice worsted-weight cotton patterns -- one of the better Debbie Bliss books in my opinion.

The yarn proves that you can knit nice sweaters on a budget ... around $20.00 worth of yarn from the recent horde of discontinued Cotton-Ease.  The yarn itself is nice, did hurt my hands a little, and does seem a little stiffer than the Cotton-Angora really probably is.  However, at 1/8 of the price, I can handle it.  It's machine washable, too!  I will say that the cables and ribbing make this a Very Thick and Heavy sweater ... it'll be perfect for snowy or cold and rainy days.  Not so comfortable in this 90 degree heat we've been having! 

Here's two more photos, front and back:

    

(Can you spot the mistake I made? I'll reveal it next time...)

That's it!  This is the last sweater that I'm going to knit until August.  Just small tops and gift knitting for the next few weeks. 

And guess what?  I know that I promised you the next entry of, "In which the Big Sweetie conjures up a few more ideas for new blog titles, and Jenifer expounds upon that subject," but I'm going to have to save that until later use ...

... because guess what?  This is what you'll be seeing next: "In which Jenifer follows her own advice again, and finds a missing object in the most obvious of places."  (You're not going to believe where I found it!)

Here's some advice:  When something is lost, don't forget to look in the more obvious places.

But let me first say thank you to everyone who offered their condolences on my missing the Estes Park Wool Festival. (Sniff, sniff, it makes me kind of sad to even write that.)  I think I'd be coping fairly well if I weren't exposed to fun photo essays, beautiful poetry, great blog entries and lots and lots of showing off of stash ... by the time I got to Michelle's blog, all I could write as a comment was "jealous ... jealous ... jealous ... jealous ...".

But let's recap all the silver linings in me getting a terrible stomach bug last weekend:

     1.  I'm feeling better now. (Always a plus.)
     2.  The kids aren't sick yet.  (Definitely a huge plus.)
     3.  The Big Sweetie got sick before I did, and had mostly recovered by the time I went down.  (It's nice to have a babysitter when you get re-acquainted with the potty, if you know what I mean.)
     4.  The Big Sweetie was home for the weekend, rather than trying to haggle his way out of work.  (Important because he's the school administrator for summer school, which just started this Monday.)
     5.  I'm sure I saved TONS of money which I was sure I wouldn't spend, but I know that I would have after seeing everyone's photo essays of their own loot.
     6.  There's always next year ... right?  (And I'll have an excuse to buy twice as much stuff next year to make up for this year, right?)
     7.  It did allow me to make a little excursion to Tuesday Morning where I hoarded just a little more cotton-ease at 50% off.  (It's okay ... Brynne bought 163 balls.  One Hundred. And. Sixty. Three.  She's got me beat.)

[Insert photo of 9 balls of turquoise Cotton-Ease and 6 balls of Hot Pink Cotton-Ease.]*

So that's that.

Next, let me say that I'm overwhelmed with the great ideas that you all are throwing around out there for the new blog names.  The Big Sweetie actually even participated and came up with some -- believe it or not -- really great blog titles.  But that will have to wait until the next entry, titled, "In which the Big Sweetie conjures up a few more ideas for new blog titles, and Jenifer expounds upon that subject."

But let's talk about why I really decided to get my house in order and join Flylady.net.  (How's that working, you ask?  I'm mostly deleting all those emails.  But my shoes are on, and my sink is shined.  How's that for progress?)

Remember the Grace cardigan?  The cable cardigan I'm making out of Cotton-Ease in lavender, ahem, sugarplum?  The one from the Cotton Angora book?  Well, I got through the back ... the left front ... I proceeded on to the sleeve and almost finished it ... when I lost the book. 

Yes, that's right. The book is MIA in my house.  I don't know what happened to it, but it's been two full weeks as of today that I last saw it.  My house has a habit of swallowing things whole.  Thus, the desperate attempt to clean my house has really been driven by my need to complete another FO.

I was so sad ... I mean, I was finally making uninterrupted progress on something!  What's up with that?!  I complained to the knitting group and who came to my rescue? ...

Yes, Wanda.  Beautiful, wonderful Wanda.  Wanda of WandaWoman, who really needs to write a Super somewhere in there. (SuperWandaWoman?  WandaSuperWoman?)  So, I'm dedicating the rest of the sweater to her.

Here's the first finished sleeve:

[Insert photo of first finished sleeve.]*

Here's the second finished sleeve:

[Insert photo of second finished sleeve.]*

And here's the half-done right front:

[Insert photo of half-done right front.]*

Wanda, that's the "Wanda sleeve" and the "Wanda right front" there.  I hope you can make their acquaintance one day soon!  Thanks again for helping me out in my time of need.  (I say definitely SuperWandaWoman, but that's just my vote.)




*And if you haven't figured it out already, I'll just let you know that my house has also swallowed my camera.  It's definitely the house's fault, right?

Michelle had a really fun knit-together / sleepover for the MHC Knitters last night ... and at first, I thought that I just might make it.  But unfortunately my husband came down with a really nasty stomach bug on Wednesday, and by Friday night I just wasn't feeling mean enough to leave him with the kiddos for the evening, while I still had every intention of leaving him with the kiddos all Saturday for the Estes Park Wool Festival.

So, I missed the fun get together.  That's okay, there will be more, right?

Yes, you heard it!

I'm going to start a new blog.  I mentioned that there were a few things that I didn't like about this blog, but in particular:

1.  The title.  Because we all know it's really 5440 now.  And what if I move some day??

2.  The pop-up.  (Okay, this is minor, but still.)

3.  Difficulties with opening the blog.  Some people can't open my blog very well, and I don't know why, but maybe it has something to do with bandwidth or memory space or something like that.  I think that upgrading my account should solve that.

4.  Comments.  I can't email people directly back when they comment on the blog.  I can usually visit other people's blogs, but that becomes difficult when:
     A.  People don't have blogs.
     B.  People leave comments on old entries, then I never see them.  (Thank you, by the way, you anonymous person who commented in this entry.  I almost missed it.  And by the way, I'm proudly wearing my "Count Me Blue" wrist bracelet these days.)

 FO Report:  Triada Scarf
Designer:  Jaya Srikrishnan
Pattern Source: Pattern available in the Summer 05 IWK
Yarn: Fiesta Yarns La Bohème in Cool Breeze
Needle Size: US 17, 24" circular
Gauge:  ?
Date Completed: June 2005
Recipient:  me (of course you know this by now)

Done!  It took forever to start this, but once I started (yesterday afternoon), I quickly finished it (around midnight last night in a Gilmore Girls-athon).  Overall, I'd say that I'm pretty pleased with this.  Once I got started, it wasn't nearly as hard as I expected it to be, and it was easy to keep track of rnd 1 or rnd 2 of the fisherman's rib pattern in the round simply by watching the stitches for signs.  So, generally a mindless knit.  I was fascinated at how this made up, as I wouldn't have ever dreamed of doing a scarf like this myself in this stitch pattern, but the fisherman's rib is so very fluffy in La Bohème.  And who can't appreciate a project that only takes one hank of this yarn??

Technical notes:  Lu pointed me in the direction of these knitting videos in the Triada-along, which we should all bookmark for once and for all. Thanks, Lu!  (Now you see why I like to start knit-alongs ... purely from a selfish perspective!)  This is what I needed to figure out how to "purl into the stitch below".   Meanwhile, check out what this looked like just before I bound off:

Interesting, don't you think? One loooong narrow tube.  In the finishing which wasn't really binding off, I left WAY too much slack in the yarn which I'm not entirely happy with, but I think I can play around with it to fix it up.  You may notice that one edge of the scarf has really loopy edge stitches -- that's the BO side.

How does it look?  Well .... as a scarf, I'm not sure it'll get much use.  Nor as a cowl.  But as a little summer poncho-ette, to go over a certain strapless dress that I always wear to summer weddings??  I think that there's a strong possibility there.  If you're still thinking of making this, I'd consider a lighter weight yarn paired with a strand of laceweight mohair or alpaca; I think it'd give a similar effect without breaking the bank.  Overall, I'm pretty pleased.