My cheeks are pink with the blush of popularity

I've received such a warm welcome into Blog-land, I feel very happy! Thanks to all who have been so encouraging.

I have been knitting away, and will post more about that tomorrow, but I have words of wisdom tonight. I have finally found a benefit to growing older: When your hair starts thinning, it's easier to find wood ticks on your scalp!

Other than that, the entire process totally sucks! Knit on!

Saddle-Shoulder Aran

Well, I did all the calculations for the Meg's Amazing Saddle-Shoulder Aran, and cast on (294 stitches) did the set-up round and 13 rounds in the pattern. Here's what I discovered:

(Photo shows Sheepfold Cable over 16 stitches)

1. Sheepfold Cable Pattern - This is not only beautiful, but satisfying to knit. You travel on every row, so it's fun to knit in the round. I made mine 16 stitches wide. Once you establish the pattern, you can just knit it without a chart or notes.


2. Crossing every 4 rows - I have very squat stitches, so twisting even a 2-over-2 cable every 4 rows was tight and scrunchy. I decided to cross every 6 rows instead.


3. 3822 stitches is an awful lot of stitches for a gauge swatch! My gauge didn't change, and my calculations were correct. What I needed to fix was the layout I'd chosen for my cables. I had a Fishbone very close to a simple 2-over-2 cable, and I needed more "filler" between them. So, I tweaked the layout and have now knitted 14 rows with the new format and am more satisfied.

Here are the first few inches!

Photos and Blogs

A friend emailed me and suggested that I have photos on my blog. People like pictures! I thought that seemed a little shallow, assuming that knitters would look at pictures and then only read the text only if the picture was interesting... then I realized that's exactly what I do! I guess it's time to find my digital camera?

Since I don't have any knitting pictures handy, and I want to test that theory. Here is a picture of Dozer (white) showing Miss Nora where the food table is. Nora was pretending to be very small that day.

What am I knitting now?

Hmmmm... I think the easier question is "what aren't I knitting now?"

I have a few friends who are "serial knitters": they finish one project completely before beginning the next. I can think of exaggerations to describe how hard that is for me to imagine, but none of the far-fetched examples I can muster are far enough fetched! I honestly cannot comprehend it, just as I cannot imagine "forgetting to eat" or "not needing another pair of shoes".

There are days when I long to be one of those focused knitters, with self-control and a firm grasp on what they can actually accomplish in a given week or month. It will just never happen for me.

Today, I visited three blogs.

1. Brooklyn Tweed's Blog - His rendition of Meg Swansen's Aran Cardigan (was Wool Gathering 63, is now Spun Out #49) is to die for! I have the perfect wool in my stash, some home-grown, mill-spun, hand dyed wool (purple) from Rainbow Fleece Farm (Patty Reedy) in New Glarus, Wisconsin. I even have a large swatch knitted with the various cables I will use. Too bad I pulled the needles out months ago for use on another project, so I don't know what size I used. I really want to get that going before next weekend, when I go off to a 3-day knitting event. I always want a "body" to knit on during long hours of public knitting. Sleeves are too fussy to knit in public!

2. Janine's Feral Knitter - Janine's Acorn Fair Isle made me think, "Oh, I haven't done Fair Isle knitting in months!" Plus, the reminder that J&S is discontinuing almost 70 colors made me rush to my Wool Room and look through books. I made a list of only 4 projects that I need to buy for before the colors disappear. Only 4, because I had to stop myself to continue laundry, not because 4 is all I need. One quick call to Schoolhouse Press and I will have my way with the wool.

3. Purlwise - OK, I admit I was just visiting and this site didn't make me buy anything. Why not? Because I purchased the wool for "Ruth's Kauni Cardigan" yesterday, from Wollsucht, in Germany (with a little help from www.freetranslation.com).

I'm a little suspicious of the Purlwise knitter, because under "In Progress", she lists one item... Can a serial knitter be trusted? I hope so. Her knitting is spectacular and she gives great advice on using Kauni Effect wool to its best advantage.

There you have it: instead of knitting sleeves or assembling almost-finished sweaters, I'm settling in for an evening of Casting On! I do so love the first night of a project. Swatching, measuring, doing math, deciding the cast on and lower edge treatment.... It's bound to be a nice evening! I even have a few Stargate SG-1 episodes saved up to watch (I was going to write "Tivoed", but is it OK to use Tivo as a verb? I guess I'm the boss of my own blog, aren't I?)

Here it is

Well, I now have a blog, let's see if I have anything at all to say!