Ravelympics Day 2 (and maybe Day 3 as well): Knit? I'm supposed to knit?

I'm going to try to update with some pics, but I'll be lucky to get this posted between wiping up doggie grossness. LSS, the bodacious Wilburbeast has been struggling with acid reflux for the past couple of months - we literally share the Prilosec. He's been doing very well, so we tried him on a new food - when I say "tried him", I mean I gave him 2T of this food at breakfast this morning...and now he's in major gastric distress again. I've dosed him with the Reglan and the Carafate with some improvement...but he's still a messy, uncomfortable boy, and I'm a dogmom with serious pangs of guilt for giving him those 2T of what is supposed to be the best darned dry food out there. Here's Wilbur and P yesterday...Wilbur was having a good doggie day.



Valentine's Day was quite nice, though very low key. We ate out at our favorite Chinese restaurant and got each other nice cards. We were both wiped out from the band gig Saturday night. Lots of friends, a great time was had by all, but getting to bed at 3am, even when you haven't had anything stronger than soda water to drink, makes for a very tired knitter next day. I brought my camera but, since I was wedged back in a corner without much of a view except profiles, I didn't take any pics. Next time!

I tried to knit yesterday...I REALLY tried! I ended up doing two pattern repeats...and messing both of them up badly by adding an extra row. It's a little tricky...the beginning triangle has a six-row repeat, but it's rows 2-7. The main body of the scarf is a very similar pattern, but it's rows 1-6. In my sleep deprived state, I was thinking rows 1-7. Oops. Started frogging...I really figured I'd have to start the whole thing over again. But the knitting gods were smiling down on me, and when I got to the beginning of where I'd started messing up, there was my k2tog, yo row perfectly intact! I carefully put the stitches back on the needles and knit a few more rows (kind of like falling off a horse...you gotta get back on and do it right!) before going out to dinner. Here's my progress on the #11 needles and a comparison of the cardboardy little scarf I was making with the #8s.





And since it's Monday...yes, we have another snowstorm! We'll have probably close to 30" of snow on the ground after this latest storm. Here's the view from my living room window as I'm writing this:





Thanks to everyone who has dropped by and especially those who have commented! I'm really learning this blogging stuff as I go, so it's especially thrilling to hear from y'all! And as I head off to cook up a pot of beef stew, I wish everyone happy knitting (or whatever your choice of hobby may be), safe travels (especially if you're in the midst of this new snowstorm!), and much love and happiness.

Ravelympics Day 1: Where's My Porridge?

I feel like frickin' Goldilocks!!!



My bag was packed, I was ready to knit...and knit I did! I only looked up from my work during dramatic moments in the opening ceremony...kd Lang's glorious version of "Hallelujah" and the mechanical malfunction. Couldn't they have crushed up a few of those little blue pills and poured them in the mechanism to get that thing to...rise...??? I knit about 11" of my scarf with the old, old yarn. Then I put it down and went to bed for the night.

I got up this morning all excited to photograph my amazing progress...until I picked up my knitting. Ugh...it all came back to me...why this yarn had been frogged from a sweater I made with it and hated, tossed into a grocery bag with nothing more than a label with the needles recommended for gauge (#8) and crammed into the bottom of one of my stash bins.

The yarn looks lovely and blue in the ball...kind of like faded denim once knit. The colorful, shiny slubs help somewhat, but it just doesn't look as good once knit. Worse...if you knit with the recommended needles, size 8, the knitting is heavy and hard as a rock, with no drape. This is a scarf...I NEED drape!!! It was also so tight that the yarnovers were pretty much invisible.

I photographed my work, made coffee and headed off to read the paper and stew about this a while.



After much stewing, breakfast, and a shower, I got out bigger needles, size 13, grabbed another ball from the knitting bag and started knitting. This was much better, nice drape, but the yarnovers were too big, so I frogged again. I got a pair of 11s and tried again...SUCCESS!!! As Goldilocks would say, "It was just right!" Nice drape, visible but not honkin' big yarnovers...even the color looks nicer. I reknit about 6" of the scarf before having to head off to other things, and I'll be a much happier knitter for my troubles. Granted, it will probably be the world's widest scarf, but a scarf with nice drape it will be. It won't weigh my shoulders down to wear it. YAY!!!!

If any folks from Columbus, Ohio, are reading and looking for something fun to do tonight between 8pm and midnight...come on out to the India Oak and catch my husband's band, The Subterraneans. Great obscure and not-so-obscure rock covers, and a lot of fun at a neighborhood bar with fabulous subs and chili. No...I won't be doing any knitting tonight...but if I remember my camera, I will post pictures.

No, I haven't been buried in the snow...not quite, at least

Color me embarrassed for letting my brand new blog sit idle for an entire week. It's not that I've been swamped with other activities. Ok...Tuesday...I went to the grocery at 6:30am to buy stuff to make vegetable beef soup (my husband's Hungarian grandmother's recipe), came home, cleaned the house, including vacuuming and mopping, did 7 loads of laundry, made the soup (one hour just chopping vegetables!), and shoveled the front porch, driveway and sidewalk and cleaned off the car after the five MORE inches of snow we got on top of the ten inches that fell a week ago. Yeah...not much time for blogging that day, though I did finish the Knit Picks Sideways Hat and wore it outside for the snow shoveling - it kept me toasty warm!!!

Saturday morning, my husband and I went out to dig out from that first ten inches. Here are a few fun pics of me, sweet Wilbur, and my bodacious snow angel.







Also on Saturday, I finished the Pretty Thing. It ended up being both too long and too wide to be a true neckwarmer thingie, but it folded over nicely into a cute little collar. Good thing, too, because I hated knitting this thing. Don't know why...it wasn't difficult, I liked the yarn I was working with...it just didn't click for me. The very cool thing is it perfectly matches three cotton sweaters that I never wear. It's like they've been hanging out in the closet just crying out for that little knitted lace collar to go with them. Gotta love it!!!

Since I'm new to this blogging thing and haven't figured out all the ins and outs and etiquettes, I want to thank Jo Ann from JoKnitWits Funky Life for stopping by to comment. Hope you and that gorgeous Sawyer boy are doing great!!!

And...since I know he pops in here to read about what I'm doing now that I don't talk yarn with him as much anymore, here's a shoutout to my beloved hubby, Pete. His birthday was Monday, and we celebrated very low-key this year, but that doesn't mean that he isn't the light of my life, the parmesan on my spaghetti and the catalyst for every good and wonderful thing that has happened to me since the day we met. Happy birthday, sweetie, I loves ya!!!!

Tonight I will be casting on for my first ever Ravelympics. I'll be competing with Team Knitgang in the Scarf Super G and the Stash Compulsory Dance, making a lovely lace scarf using yarn that has been in my stash since about 1985 (really!!!!).

So...what's on YOUR needles?????

Oh, the weather outside is...

whiteful!!!! Snow, snow, and more snow, up to a foot or more here in the middle of Ohio. Every winter, the weatherfolks predict a snowstorm or two...the buildup goes on for days, the news anchors are breathlessly dramatic. It's a farce. A central Ohio snowstorm is usually three days of dire heavy snow predictions followed by one inch of snow, about a half-inch of freezing rain, and another half inch of plain old rain...maybe another half inch of snow on top of that. Rarely do we get clobbered. Today...we are getting majorly clobbered!!!

A few hours ago, it looked something like this...bear in mind, it's still coming down hot (relatively speaking...) and heavy and isn't supposed to stop till tomorrow evening. This is just the beginning, folks...




Wilbur is singularly unimpressed with the white stuff. You know, dogs like to...umm...sniff where they've been. He wanders around the yard looking confused as if to say, "Dude...where's my poop?"



This should make for a very nice knitting day, right? However, I haven't knit a stitch. I've cleaned the house, I've taken pictures of the snow, and I've played on the internet all day. Supposedly, we are having a friend over for dinner tonight, however, I'm just waiting for him to cancel. Can't imagine him making the drive, even for my famous Pesto Roast Chicken. We'll see...if not, Pete and I will have a yummy dinner tonight, and I'll get that Pretty Thing finished.

Recipe for a Migraine

Take 1 happy, friendly dog
add 1 cable TV technician who is clearly uncomfortable around dogs
put them together in a very small house for 3 hours
Owner of house and said happy, friendly dog will develop migraine within one hour.

Such is my day today... I tried deflecting my stress by knitting away on the Ten-Stitch (Knitting Around Corners is a Blast!) Blanket, telling myself, "Yes, I'm having FUN knitting around these corners! There's NOTHING to be stressed about not a darned...hey! Wilbur!!!! Leave him alone!!!".

By the time the cable dude left, I had supposedly finished the blanket (at least I was finished with the last skein of yarn). I ate some lunch, took a very long nap (3 hours long!), stumbled back downstairs and looked at the blanket...and decided it was too small. No decision, really, it's only about 32x36. So I ordered two more balls of Marble Chunky from Paradise Fibers...and how awesome are these people????? I'll tell you - the yarn is ALREADY ON ITS WAY!!!! I should be back to knitting around corners in less than a week.

In the meantime, I've kept my promise to myself to work on the Christmas Tree Skirt. This is a fun project, but it doesn't have to be done till, well...Christmas...so there's no rush. I'm going to complete a set of red/green wedges between projects till it's done...or till I have to panic and madly knit in time to get it under the tree.

Then...I'm grabbing the gorgeous Crystal Palace Mini Mochi yarn I just bought a couple weeks ago and start working on The Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing. I figure I can probably at least get an inch or so done tonight, and it will be a welcome relief from the blanket and tree skirt.

I had planned to join the Clintonville KnitGang for their weekly get-together this evening, but the post-migraine fatigue and the "is it coming back?" anxiety are keeping me holed up in the house, pot o' chili simmering on the stove, snoogly puppy at my side, knitting my troubles away. Tomorrow should be a better day.

Early Spring???

This morning, we woke up to snow. Not much, maybe a half inch. At the same time Buckeye Chuck, Ohio's official groundhog, did not see his shadow, predicting an early spring. I could handle this. It's been a mighty cold winter!

So I found this nifty little tool that tells everyone how many yards I've knit so far this year. What would be an even niftier little tool is one that tells how many yards of yarn I've PURCHASED so far. Yesterday I made my maiden voyage to Wonderknit and increased my stash by...oh, about 1,000 or so yards.

I picked up two skeins of Cascade Yarns Rustic in the olive green colorway. I love the shimmery effect of the linen. Then the Aslan Trends Santa Fe in the World Oceans colorway called to me, and I grabbed four skeins. I'm now waiting for the yarns to decide what they want to become as I continue working on my Ten Stitch Blanket which is probably close to 75% complete...unless I decide to buy another ball of Marble Chunky and make it larger (a distinct possibility...).

Oh, what a tangled tale...

It seems that life keeps cutting into my valuable knitting time lately. The most recent intrusion...researching home-cooked food for my dog. Yes, Wilbur the Wonderbeastie has developed a terribly sensitive tummy and, after a huge vet bill and a week of feeding him prescription food and having him STILL burping and shooting gross stuff out of his nose, I decided to take matters into my own hands. It's sad that my dog and I are sharing the Prilosec these days, but that's the fact of the matter. I'm boiling up brown rice and stirring in some boiled chicken breast, he's gobbling it down and, most importantly, keeping it down...but I know I need to do more. He needs some supplements to make this a complete diet. So...I'm researching...Pitcairn...Strombeck...Messonier.

In the little bit of knitting time I did have yesterday, I had this thought...which came first...the yarn or the pattern? In my younger knitting years, I would always find a pattern I liked, go buy the yarn and start knitting. These days I'm much more likely to grab up a yarn that catches my eye, bring it home and let the magic happen...what does the yarn say it wants to be? Sometimes it takes days or weeks to make its decision but it never fails. One day I'll look at it, and it will say "scarf" or "blanket", and I'm on my way to find or design the pattern. Intuitive knitting...let the yarn speak. What comes first in your projects, the pattern or the yarn?