Jeremy's Knit-a-bit

Two FO's!

I only had to weave in the ends on my Turtleneck Tube Vest from Fitted Knits and last night was the night. My sister called to invite me to an Oktoberfest at a local church and I thought it was the perfect weather to wear in under my jean jacket (I tried to take a photo but it didn't work, I’ll have one of the girls take one later). I don't like the cut of the armhole but I haven't blocked it and maybe I can shape it better. I do love it under the jacket and I may try it under a shirt. I post pictures with it one once I recruit a photographer.

Here is another Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth. I just love this pattern. A great on the go project and I love the dishcloths. I now have a white one on the needles for my mom. She loves them too!

In the knitting news, I am making progress on East Hampton and am starting to shape the sleeves on the front. It is a fast, mindless knit that I think will turn out very cute. I am excited to have a new sweater soon. Since I have a lot of yarn for sweaters in my stash, this could be the winter of sweater knitting. I also put in a Knitpicks order. I wanted to get size 13 and 17 needles for my option set and finally when I read Turtlegirl's post about the harmony needles I decide to go for it and order all. They are supposed to arrive in 5-12 days, usually Knitpicks is pretty quick (except when Lake Forest post office messes up and sends it to Libertyville but now I am living in Lake Bluff).

I set a blogging goal for myself, I am going to try to post a minimum of twice a week, once during the week and once on the weekend. Lets see how I do.

I am getting the bug again...

I have been really good about staying loyal to my two projects (along with my car knitting dishcloth). Every morning I knit two rows, yes I know that isn't much, on my Mock Cable Socks for the Favorite Socks KAL then the rest of my knitting is usually in the evening when I am exhausted and I work on the turtleneck tube vest for the Fitted Knits Along. Well yesterday I saw this at Liscensed 2 Knit. Maybe it is working at a golf course but I just have to make some. I may even be able to figure the pattern out myself. I am pretty busy with the move but I am getting the urge to go buy yarn (you would think I would have what I need in my stash. I don't. Stay tuned.

FO's keep rolling in

Here is Grandmothers Favorite Dishcloth 2. These babies just fly off the needles. #3 is done except for weaving in the ends and a picture and #4 is half finished. All of this knitting takes place while waiting in the car. The plus is they are my favorite dishcloth to use and I have a lot of Sugar'n Cream in my stash.

And the monkey socks are finally done and off to my swap partner (I won't reveal who until she gets them). I loved making them and learned a lot.

Things I learned while making monkey socks:

1. Check gauge. I learned the hard way when I had to frog half a monkey because it was too small.
2. When using fine yarn and small needles don’t unknit to fix mistakes, it usually creates more problems than there were to begin with. Either fix the mistake without unknitting (which I became quite good at) or compensate and continue.
3. Have adequate lighting. After I purchased an Ott light the number of mistakes I made decreased drastically.
4. When knitting wool socks I prefer the "grip" of bamboo needles.

Once my swap pal receives her package I will post a picture of what I sent.


I also wipped up this water bottle cozy because my water bottle at work was sweating like crazy. I was going through a dozen napkins and everything was wet. This works much better. Searched for patterns and modified what I found and came up with this: Download knit_bottle_cozy.doc


Now that the monkeys are finished I am going to focus on my knitting for the Fitted Knits Along and the Favorite Socks KAL. I have already gotten back on track knitting the Turtleneck Tube Vest. I am going to use this Lorna's Laces Shepherds Sock in Childsplay for my first pair of socks from Favorite Socks.


I have decided on Ann Budd's Mock Wave Cable Sock pattern.


Of course the first boxes I packed for the move are my knitting stash. It was good to organize everything and I know I will be able to find the most important things when I get to the new house in August.

Virtual Vacation Swap Questionaire and FO

Its finished and a new one is on the needles and in the car.

Virtual Vacation Swap Questionaire

1. If you could visit any state in the US, which would it be and why? Hawaii, I haven’t been there and I love beaches and water.

2. If you could visit any country in the world, other than your own, which would it be and why?
Ireland. I lived in England for a year and never got there. My grandmother’s (who was from England) side of the family is there. The history of the area intrigues me and I have read a lot of historical fiction set in the UK.

3. Have you ever driven across several states/providence/countries?
With my family we used to take camping trips. One we drove to the Black Hills in South Dakota, and other we drove through Canada to Niagara Falls. Another trip was to North Carolina and then to Pennslyvania. When we lived in England we drove to Paris twice taking the ferry across the channel. I enjoy driving.

4. Have you ever visited someplace you consider exotic? Where was it?
One of my favorite trips as a child was to the Bahamas. Acapulco was also exotic but I was so sick I couldn’t enjoy it.

5. What was your favorite "travel" vacation? Why?
Wow, I can’t pick a favorite. I have loved our camping trips, we used to go to Captiva Island, FL for spring break. Those are some of my favorite trips

6. Have you ever played tourist in your own home city/state (if international, country)? Explain. Not often, but when the kids were littler we would go into the city (Chicago) to explore a museum, the zoo or a sporting event. The year we lived in England we played tourist big time. Every weekend we would take the train into London. It was a lot of fun. I love having house guests to show the town so next time you are in Illinois I would love to take you around.

7. Are you a museum visitor, beach comer or an amusement seeker?
Beach comer all the way.

8. What's your favorite type of yarn?
I really love sock yarn right now. However any soft wools will do.

9. What's your least favorite type of yarn?
Acrylic and novelty yarns

10. What items do you like to knit/crochet?
Socks. I am involved in the Fitted Knits KAL and have been starting to knit more tops. I always have one or two afghans on the needles.

11. What do you pack, knit/crochet wise when you go on vacation?
Lately, socks. I always bring more than one project.

12. What other crafts do you do/would like to do other than Knit/Crochet?
I have made beaded stitch markers but there are just so many you can use. I pretty much stick to knitting because I am busy and other crafts take away from my knitting time.

13. Are you allergic to anything? Not really

14. What is your favorite color?
I love color as opposed to neutrals, I don’t like the orange, gold, brown family of colors as much as others. Jewel tones are pretty. Least Favorite? Neutrals, dull drab colors

15. Sweet or Savory (Treat not personality)?
If you think it is good I will too. However what I really love is coffee - whole bean and dark roast. I also love caramel and toffee (I keep adding on to this).

16. Anything else we are forgetting to ask that you think your partner desperately needs to know?
Feel free to email me with questions.

School work is done!

So now I can focus on finishing the monkey socks. I did bring some knitting to school, the lace wings sock and grandma's favorite dishcloth. School knitting has to be simple. And I can feel productive when my desk is messy. Notice the margarita mix, an end of the year gift. Tomorrow the kids have one hour but we have a full work day. Then lots of monkey sock knitting for the June 15 deadline. I can do it.

Report Card Avoidance

I am making this post because I really should start on my report card comments but I don't want to. This seems to be a constructive use of my time.

The final Mother's day dishcloth is done (except for weaving in ends, takes 2 secs.) I made a seed stitch border and used the Quatrefoil Eyelet stitch pattern (p.171) from Barbara G. Walker's, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns
I needed new car knitting so I started this dishcloth using Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth pattern. Yesterday was my last knitting class of the year and one of the girls forgot her knitting so I let her work on it. She seemed very honored to be asked to knit on one of my projects.

I had to photograph it with a cicada because of all the hype they are getting in the Chicago area. Of course it was a media overkill (May sweeps?!?) so the children at school were alittle freaked out before they arrived. I have seen about 7 at my house, we get more mosquitos and ticks than that.

And lastly more monkey progress. Now my swap partners feet are about 1-1/4 inch longer than mine and when I tried on the sock it looked like it would be time to decrease for the toes. I think I will just add 1-1/4 incles to what I have instead of the 2 inches the pattern suggests. In fact I will take a picture and please let me know what you think.

Quick Knitting Update

The socks I knit for Lily have been done for a couple weeks and Mom's last dishcloth has 6 rows left but I had to get more Sugar 'n Cream.

I had finished the six repeats of the pattern on the monkey socks when I decided that I needed to go up a needle size. I photographed them just before I frogged them.

I immediate cast on again and had no problems (like the first time where it took all day to get the stitch count right along with the twisted rib pattern). It has gone much faster the second time around. I partially attribute it to the purchase of this light. Also pictured is the monkey sent to me by Chrissie, my coffee swap pal, who is also in the Monkey Swap.

Knitting and blogging will be sparce until report cards are over in a week or so. I have to write approximately 185 narritive paragraphs. Probably the only knitting I will be doing is on the monkey socks and a little of the dishcloth in the car while I am waiting.