Ta-Da! Tuesday #17

A very Happy Tuesday to everyone!

Those of you who have been following have seen today's Ta-Da! progress slowly since before The Great Move last fall...  It's been a very fun project and even though the garter stitch bit was a little boring, it was also very relaxing...

I used five skeins for the middle and I very scientifically used up two skeins and then weighed the third.  When I had used exactly half the grams, I changed from increases to decreases and do you know I still feared that I would run out?!  I think I had just a couple yards left when it was all over -- and I'm pretty sure I should have had a lot more than that considering I worked a gauge swatch out of the first skein!

Oh well...



...




Ta-Da!

The blanket turned out to be 37.5 inches square in the center with an additional 3.5 inches per side with the border (which I changed to work knitted on and with short rows for the corners).

I'm pretty happy with this blanket, although these night-time pictures don't exactly do it justice.

It feels good to get this one off the needles.  I finished another object last night and I'm hoping to wrap another one up this evening!  It's like Knitter's Christmas around here these past two weeks.

Apparently when you cast on a lot of things in a frustrating bout of startitis and then work on them in a constant round-robin fashion they all cascade in completion at the same time!  So here I am working on the remaining WIPs and dreaming of a whole new slew of knits!

Knit Happy Everyone!

SEMKR 2012

Hello Everyone!

Well, now that it is July, most people are thinking about summer vacations, the beach, the garden, etc… but I have to tell you – I am thinking about this year’s SEMKR retreat (South East Men’s Knitting Retreat) in November. 

SmallTownKnitGuy kicked off planning last month and we’re all looking forward to it as much as last year – more probably now that we know how much fun it is!  While he’s been hard at work recruiting sponsors and donations, I’ve been hard at work on creating and distributing the posters we need to recruit new members!

The retreat will be held at the Asbury Hills Retreat Center again in Cleveland, South Carolina (just north of Greenville) and this year it is a day longer so it will begin Thursday, November 8^th, and runs through Sunday,  November 11^th.

If you know any men who knit, please share the retreat info with them – it really is an indescribable event.  I began looking forward to this year’s retreat the day I got back home last year!  Please also feel free to ask your LYS to post a flyer in their shop…

For more information on this year's event, please see the SEMKR page here:

For more information on this year's event, click here.

For a description and pictures of last year’s event, click here.

Knit Happy Everybody!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

I hope you all have a very happy and safe holiday!

Fireworks Over the Washington Monument

Photo © Capitol Concerts

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Ta-Da! Tuesday #16

Good Morning Everyone!  and Happy Ta-Da! Tuesday…

A couple weeks ago while I was completely overwhelmed by the number of projects I had going. I found myself listless and apathetic and needing to do something fun and quick to try and get my knitting mojo back…

So I dug through the stash and decided on this beautiful Cascade Tuscany Grande – a super bulky, warm, and luxuriantly soft yarn… But what to make?

I had a limited amount of yarn, so it had to be small and delicate…  A baby item seemed a good choice because I enjoy their quick turnaround and immediate gratification.  Finally I chose to design a baby sleep sack…

Ta-Da!  This is Chrysalis.  It is my first pattern, ever, and I’m still working out the kinks, but I expect to post it to Ravelry soon.  Chrysalis features a split in its top 1/3^rd —to make getting a baby into it a bit easier – as well as two button-hole columns to adjust the snugness for swaddling.  It also features a super stretchy cast on at the top for a comfortable fit.

This was a lot of fun to make and it certainly gave me my mojo back!  The FO’s are just cascading now...

Come back tomorrow to see and share some WIPs!

As always, Knit Happy Everyone!

Back on the Wagon, and My Weekend…

I want to start this post by thanking several of you for the congratulations on the new job…  I appreciate your interest and well-wishes!

The new job is going really well and I’m enjoying the transition to no end.  I am working with great people and this new company treats its employees as the most valuable resource they have.  It is quite a change from the environment I recently left and I am still attempting to shake that uncertain feeling I lived with for so long.

There are a lot of great things to write about and I am keeping a list so I won’t forget to share any. So those are coming up but I wanted to share our weekend with everyone this morning…

Superwife ran home overnight on Friday to pick up a meat order from her parent’s recent processing while I stayed home and tried desperately to keep our poor grass alive...  In this 100+ degree heat, our plants are faring poorly.

I also celebrated a close friend’s birthday Friday night:

On Saturday, I spent some time knitting with a wonderful group of people at our new favorite LYS, Hank of Yarn.  Hank, the proprietor, has a comfortable store with lots of space to sit and knit (and visit). It’s a lot of fun and I’ll write about that later in a separate post…

We spent some time setting up our new patio and Grill on Sunday…

While the girls played themselves silly and beat the heat by napping near a vent…

Lots of Ta-Da! Tuesdays coming up so be sure to check back tomorrow!

Until then, Knit Happy Everyone!