(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Rhinebeck Swap

The crowd I went to Rhinebeck with did a small item (less than 500 yards of yarn) swap this year. In a strange twist, I both made and received a small Springtime Bandit. I made Gwen's from Handmaiden Casbah; Ann made mine from some lovely navy blue sock yarn—Fiberphile Yarns & Hand-Dyed Fibers Alchemy 2-ply Squooshy Sock Yarn. (Rav link to Ann's project page)

Gwen's Bandit
Pattern: Springtime Bandit by Kate Gagnon Osborn
Yarn: Handmaiden Casbah Sock.I bought the yarn at Churchmouse on Bainbridge Island on the way home from Sock Camp in March.
Notions: 4 mm circular
Time: October 6 to 10, 2009
Comments: I added on repeat of the main leaf pattern so that I would use up as much of this fabulous yarn as I could.

Warm hands

Dashing
Pattern: Dashing by Cheryl Niamath from the Spring 2007 Knitty
Size: Smaller
Yarn: Classic Elite Kumara from Knit Happens. I needed a tiny bit of the second ball (2 or 3 rounds and the thumb).
Notions: 4.5 mm (US7) DPNs
Time: October 16 to 21, 2009
Comments: I love this yarn. It knits up to an almost velvety softness. The camel down gives it a very slight halo, but there is no itch at all. I knit 18 rounds between the third cable row and the thumb and don't miss the extra inch of length at all. I had one problem with the pattern which resulted in some confusion (probably mine) in the explanation of how to work the cable. After I stopped being so literal and did what I thought I should do in the first place, everything worked perfectly.

I finished the first mitt Saturday night at Rhinebeck. I then wore it on Sunday and switched it from hand to hand to keep myself warm. I finished the second mitt just as the weather in DC warmed up. I appreciated them on my chilly early morning drives to work this week. In a few more weeks, I'm sure I will love them for my lunchtime walks.

Good mail day

It is a good mail day when the only thing in your mailbox is a box of yarn—no bills, no junk, nothing except yarn. Not just any yarn, either. I found two skeins of Pink New Tweed in the same dye lot as the eight I already have on Ravelry. Their previous owner was happy to send them to me for a few dollars. Rosamund's Cardigan will have sleeves, and her stash is two balls of leftovers lighter.

Airport fun

NaKniSweMo collar finished. I expect to make good progress on the body and sleeves tonight as I fly home.

Florida surprise

We whizzed by the Airstream Ranch so fast this morning that it barely registered. On the way back to Tampa this afternoon, I was ready with my iPhone. This monumental tribute to the Airstream is adjacent to a large dealership. Whether you view it as public roadside art or advertising, it brought a smile to this motorist passing through Central Florida on I4.

The other surprise today—just how much non-sock knitting I can manage when traveling. After a short flight and just under two hours in the car, I'm almost finished with Rosamund's collar. If I had been thinking last night, I would have tossed some stitch markers into my suitcase when I packed 2 extra balls of yarn. Instead, my tolerant co-worker agreed to an emergency stop at JoAnn's for stitch markers this afternoon; DQ knows what happens when I run out of road trip knitting. Now I can set up the raglan increases and knit on autopilot on tomorrow's flight home.

Ready, Set, Knit and Blog

November means NaKniSweMo and NaBloPoMo. I will knit Rosamund's Cardigan from IK with a friend. And I'm going to post every day. While traveling every week this month.

I will be visiting Tampa this week, Santa Clara, CA, next week, then Oklahoma City (a new place!), and somewhere that is not home for Thanksgiving (New York City or Boston). That translates to quite a bit of airplane (and perhaps car) knitting time, four days of in training all day sock knitting time, and a lot of interesting things to write about.

The way I see it, if I spend less time watching TV and haunting Facebook while I am at home, I will have plenty of time to blog and knit (and to cook, clean, and keep up with the laundry).

Mysteries

In September and October, I challenged myself to knit mystery socks. In both cases, part of the pattern was posted once a week, and I two socks at the same time on two sets of DPNs. The challenge of keeping up with the clues inspired me to knit quickly. I think I'm going to try the Sock Knitter's Anonymous mystery project in November, too.

SKA September 2009 Mystery Socks
Pattern: Fox Faces by Nancy Bush
Size: Mine (US Women's 6.5 D)
Yarn: Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Sand. Part of the challenge for this mystery was to knit yellow socks.
Notions: 2.75 mm Darn Pretty DPNs
Time: September 2 to 27, 2009
Comments: I had a great time knitting these socks with the 500 or so others who knit them as part of the Sock Knitter's Anonymous challenge on Ravelry. It was great fun to see everyone's interpretation of yellow socks appear through the month of September.

Mom's Mystery Socks
Pattern: TTL Mystery Socks 2009 by Kirstin Kapur
Size: Mom's (US Women's 8 or so)
Yarn: Fleece Artist 2/6 Merino. I call the color Autumn Sky since it contains lots of blue combined with all the colors in the leaves I admired during my week in Wisconsin.
Notions: 2.5 mm Darn Pretty DPNs
Time: October 5 to 31, 2009
Comments: I gave the yarn and a sock knitting lesson to Mom for Mother's Day a couple of years ago. She is not a fan of sock knitting. When I was home, I reclaimed the yarn to turn into socks for Mom. I had a great time knitting these socks and plan to make another pair for myself sometime soon.

Saturday Sky

Sunset Ash Tree, Madison, WI

I spent today in Madison hanging out with my brother, his wife, and their kids. We took pictures of a stunning tree, raked leaves, jumped into the leaf pile, and read Dr. Seuss. And visited Lakeside Fibers for coffee and yarn browsing.

Random Wednesday with cute

1. Sunday afternoon my mom, brother and his family, and I went apple and pumpkin picking. Miss Z had her first apple. I did not make any of the handknits she is wearing. The sweater is from Susan.
2. Wisconsin has been lovely except for the pouring rain yesterday.
3. Mom's raspberry bushes are still bearing fruit. We picked 2 quarts this afternoon.
4. I finished a secret knitting project on the plane Saturday morning. Pictures after Rhinebeck.
5. I am knitting a sweater, but it will not be a Rhinebeck sweater this year.

How many socks did SpindleRose knit while on vacation?

So, I have been home for over a month, and I never did post the vacation sock contest results. Work and visitors took over for most of June. I did not travel much for a change, I just spent so much time attached to my computer during the workday that I had no desire to fire it up at night. Then we had visitors in and out for the past two weeks—which also required a fair amount of preparatory cleaning and organizing since kids slept in the wool room. First, my college friends Rachel and Hilary and their three boys visited for a long weekend. Then, my sister and her family arrived for a week. I had lots of fun entertaining all those kids, but I have no idea how their parents can do it all day every day. Just a few days wore D and me out.

To answer the big question, I knit about 1/2 of one sock on vacation. I also added a few inches to the summer shell while we shuttled across central Maui getting from our home base at Kanapali to fun activities. Amy was right—there is just too much fun stuff to do in Hawaii to spend time knitting. I knew that, but for some reason I thought I would spend more time knitting at the beach and pool and less time reading. I think I read about 10 novels on the trip (close to one a day on the days we lazed around). The random number generator picked 1 and 8, so the first and last entrants Susan and Angela win.

Amy wins her choice of blue or pink silk yarn from Japan—I'm keeping the other color. Susan and Angela both win a lovely little change purse (also from Japan) that is perfect for storing knitting notions. I found both the yarn and the purses at Yarn & Friends in Honolulu.

Thanks to everyone for commenting and being patient while I completely ignored the blog during June. And here's a new contest for July: I'm closing in on 300 comments. The 300th commenter will win a prize from my bin of handspun yarn.