Hurricanes and Sweaters

It wasn't as soon as I thought but I did finally finish the front on my shapely tee just last night. I immediately cast on for the back and then will have the sleeves and sewing. Hmmm, may not be done before the hot weather ends. At least I hope the hot weather doesn't last that long. The straps are wider than they look here. The stockinette stitch tends to curl.

I have worked some on the Cinnamon Wave Wrap. Since the church has had its grand opening for the addition and we are using the kitchen, I decided I better that that "wrapped" up. I want to do one set of pattern repeat rows and that will be it except for blocking. I haven't gotten a piece of blocking board. I may take some money to the local lumber company to see what I can find.

With no NASCAR today till late (probably even too late for me since it is a night race in California), I have had Fox News on all day long. Even giving up "Spencer Tracey Day" on Turner Classic Movie Channel. I am glad to see that the mayor and people of New Orleans are responding to the threat of Gustav a little more than they did with Katrina. Hubby and I are basically overdosing on hurricane and Republican convention updates. Of course no positive site pinpointed yet for landfall, but "Nawlins" probably will be getting the worse of the storm surge, rain and wind from the way it looks. Man--I was there once for few days and was heading out of town one dark and stormy and very rainy night. All I could think of then was the fact I was under sea level. How can people stand to live there? I was nervous being there just for that one rain storm.

Knitting Updates

I have been working on my shapely tee and today I got the the place where I cast off the center front. Now I am just working on the 2 shoulders and hopefully will have the front finished today.

I also started a new cardigan. Using just Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system and Knitting in the Old Way, I am forging ahead with no pattern, just a plan. I plan to add pockets and have raglan sleeves. The hardest part was deciding whether to go top down or bottom up. Since I have some 60 inch cables for my Knit Picks Options needles (the stainless ones for speed instead of the wooden ones) I figured I could transfer the stitches to that to do "try ons" while in progress.

It isn't wool, but a nice quality acrylic. It has a long color change from green, gray to pink with a constant ply of a yellow green. The pictures don't really capture it right.

I cast on Thursday and worked on the ribbing while riding to St Joe and back on Friday.

The trip was with Mary to visit Christy. She is starting her 2nd year teaching and last year we went down to help her set up her classroom. It was much farther along that last year. (The end of August and she still didn't have desks!) But even with desks, she had a to-do list a mile long on the white board. (What ever happened to blackboards?) But, despite of a trip out for lunch and a trip to the new condo to check out the new digs, we managed to finish everything on the list.

The trip down we were delivering her Buick to her, which she had swapped for her brother-in-law's farm fan. We got to drive down in lovely air-conditioned comfort. Some rain on the way down but nothing like the wind and falling trees we had last year on the trip home. The highlight this time was the trip back in the farm van.

Imagine it--no AC, lights on the dash that kept flashing. Hot, hot, hot. And all backed up with the aroma of musty feed, milk replacer and manury barn boots. Mmmmmmm, just like Hubbys truck.

Demo Days

While my blog posts (or lack there of) make it seem as though there is nothing in my life to write about, quite the opposit is true.

I mentioned that Hubbys brother came last week to survey the project of replacing the ceiling in the former boys room, future craft room. I went off merrily to work but when I came home, I find that the new revised plan is to totally gut the room. Ceiling, walls, maybe even the floor now are going to be replaced. My Hubby has been spending the evenings (when I am home) tearing down plaster and wall board. The dust was horrible. I finally convinced him to open the storm windows and set a fan in the window. It is not so bad now. He is not the most handy when it comes to home repairs and this is major. Its going to be a long couple weeks until it is rebuilt.
I have to keep reminding mys self.

Craft room.

Craft room.

Knitted Tam--Done

I love fast projects. I had this finished before I could even get a chance to post a picture. Here is an "in-progress" before I started the decreases. It is a worsted weight wool called Donegal Tweed. I really like the rustic look of it.

After spending most of the day yesterday plying up the last of the blended "October Sky" roving in a beautiful burgundy, rust and yellow, I dug out the needles and finished the hat in short order. (Time flies while watching a good classic movie--yesterday was Gene Kelly day on TCM channel. Topped it off with a little tag of I-cord and here is the finished tam.

It is still on the platter I used to block it on. I am not sure if I liked it better with or without being blocked.

Next, swatching for a cardigan. I have some tweedy long with long varigations. It is a good quality acrilic called Marble. That will definitely be a long term project, so will need to at least finish the Cinnamon Wave Wrap for church before getting into this too far. I have many decisions first anyway. I will not be using a pattern, so need to decide top up vs top down. I have already decided against steeks. I think I have decided on the size 7 needles/5 stitches per inch. But I may extend the swatch with size 6 to see what that looks like. The yarn is DK weight and someday I will get a picture.

Another Fiber Full Weekend

This past weekend my friend Jane and I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan. This is first time I actually went with someone and it was fun. I tried to restrain myself but did score some wonderful black wool silk blend--a full pound--that is pre-drafted and ready to spin. And also splurged on another blend, polworth wool/angora/silk/alpaca in a luscious pink called Raspberry Rabbit. Yum. Very inspiring and lots of fun. I didn't even bother taking my camera, I was too busy browsing. Jan, who is legally blind, brought her seeing eye dog, Roxie. Roxie did much better this time. I think she is more used to wool fumes and knows they will not try to attack us.
Jane and I also met up with several friends for lunch. And when I took my bag of wool from the fair to Zielengers wool mill trailer to be processed, another Jane was there with her wool from the fair as well. In dropping off my wool, I also gave them some brown Shetland I had gotten a year ago, but didn't scour out the greasy lanolin when I washed it. They are going to do a 2 way blend and I am really excited to see how it turns out. Especially when I saw how little processing cost.
Hubby's brother Carl stopped by today, before I went to help out at Jane's store. He is going to help Hubby repair the ceiling in the boys room. (Plaster damaged from leaky roof) They started planning and now are going to pull up the plaster and re-sheet rock the entire room. I may have to wait longer than I thought for my craft room.