Swim Happy

Saturday, I woke up early to take Madelyn to a swim meet.  She was hundredths of a second from qualifying for the state championship meet in March and was putting a lot of pressure on herself every time she raced.  She took .03 seconds from her butterfly which was, unfortunately, not enough to qualify her for the big meet.  She put on a happy face (three more meets until March) and raced the lead-off leg for her team's relay.  Not only did she win the race for her team, her time was fast enough to win a spot on the championship team!  Yay!  We were so excited for her.  So much pressure for a ten year old!

Ok, I know that bit of swim team info doesn't have anything to do with knitting, or sewing or any of my other projects.  It does, however, explain why no one in the family remembered to check the mail.  We were so euphoric when we got home.  We called family, checked hotel rates, went out for dinner... nobody remembered the mailbox until after our trip home from the International House of Pancakes.

As I settled myself for a nice relaxing evening of TV watching, Hubby decided to check the mail and came back inside with a box.  "Crafts Americana?  What the heck is that?"  That's when I jumped off the couch, and yelled, "My yarn!"  Alyson's boyfriend was there to witness my madness as I tore open the box and squealed in delight.  Poor guy.

My yarn!

Alyson requested the Andean Chullo hat on one of her recent perusal of my ravelry page.  The hat is a kit from Knit Picks and since it was only $23 and change for the pattern and all the yarn (9 skeins of palette), I made the order last Monday.  Of course I also had to add a few more items to my shopping cart to get to the $50 minimum for free shipping.  So, I got two skeins of Felici sock yarn in blue/turquoise/purple stripes, some needles and Interweave's Jane Austen Knits, 2011.

The cover scarf, which was originally published in Spin-off magazine last spring as the Helix Scarf, is so adorable and I'd love to knit it for one of my girls or nieces.  So far, my favorite is the  Georgiana shawlette.  Maybe that will also make it in my queue.  I particularly liked the article, "Jane and knitting".  It describes knitting during Jane's lifetime and how women knit to supplement the family income.  "A pair of worsted stockings sold for two to two and half shillings in the shop..."

Speaking of socks, I finished Hubby's boring gray socks and barely got them off the needles before he put them on his feet.  He's getting another pair, but it'll have to wait.  I have to finish the apres-surf hoodie. (I'm still working on the first sleeve.)  Then, I have to start a baby surprise jacket and start thinking about a couple of sweater requests from my nieces.

Lace

I started my Apres Surf Hoodie in the beginning of November for Alyson.  She was out of the country, so I had to make the yarn selection via Skype and Facebook.  Of course, when I finally made the trip to Webs, the colors we picked over the internet either were too garish in person, or there wasn't enough of the same dye lot.  I ended up picking a soft gray alpaca yarn from Classic Elite called Vail. 

lace chart, picture taken by my phone

The yarn is soft and squishy, I can't keep random children from stroking and fondling the yarn while I knit.    The eight-stitch lace pattern is easy enough to follow and once I got going, easy enough to memorize.  The first problem I encountered was after I set the hoodie aside to knit gifts.  By the time I came back to it, I had lost my rhythm and it took me a few tries to get that rhythm back.  The second problem was discovered after I knit the whole back.  I realized that I had not followed the chart correctly! I completely ignored the first column of the lace chart and only knit the lace repeat.  Stupid me.  No wonder my stitch count was one stitch off!  At least with over a hundred stitches for most of the back, one stitch in the seam won't be noticed at all.

Back, unblocked

I just knitted the front and both pieces, front and back, are being blocked as I type.  The first sleeve has been cast on and I'm regretting not taking the time to convert the pattern to a be knit in the round.  The daunting task of seaming this garment looms over me whenever I finally bind off the last stitch.

Note to self:   Be monogamous when knitting lace.  Do not put it down for another project!

Second note:  stick to knitting-in-the-round or one piece construction.

On another note, I started a pair of very plain, very gray pair of socks for dear Hubby.  Despite all the knitting I do for the family (mostly for the girls), my men are sadly without any hand-knitted goods.  Though, I've asked them many times if they wanted a sweater, neither of them have taken the bait.  To be fair, I  knitted my first sweater for my son. But since he only wore the sweater twice, I didn't want to make the effort again.

first sock done. Yay!

Just before Christmas, Hubby was complaining about his consistently cold feet.  "Wool socks," I proclaimed, "is just what you need!"  Hubby's stipulations were:  nothing fancy, no crazy colors!  Yeesh!  It's going to be a boring knit!

I cast on Hubby's first wool sock with Valley Yarn's Charlemont on the three-hour-trip to the airport to pick up Alyson.  Slow knitter that I am, I hope I finish the second sock before winter's done.