it's a knit thing: July 2005

Vacation time!

We're off on a week's camping trip to Lake Placid. We leave this afternoon and will be back on the 31st. I can't wait even though neither of the kids can make it. Here are a couple pictures of our travel trailer.

I guess I should say we're going RV'ing because the trailer has all the amenities of home.

I even have a microwave! The only thing missing is the dishwasher. Oh, wait, that would be me!

On the knitting front, Danette at God's Tiny Angels has issued a baby sweater challenge for the month of August. She asked that each of the 140 some people on the list make at least one baby sweater during August. With fall rapidly approaching (wahh!), she wants to be able to outfit as many babies as possible with at least one warm sweater. I have a Precious Layettes pattern #1 on the needles. It's in mint green with a shiny white thread running through it. I hope to have the sweater, a hat, and booties done by the time I get back. And I am bringing yarn to start a couple more if time permits. The lifesaver afghan and several other projects are coming, too.

I guess Lake Placid has a yarn shop that I missed the last couple times I was there. Sue and I will certainly find it this trip! I know I don't need anymore yarn but who cares. Everyone needs an obsession.

I picked out 5 names at random from the Fiber RAOK! database. They are from all parts of the country. While in Lake Placid, I intend to pick up some little souvenirs to send out. I love sending people presents!

Well, I still have food and clothing to get packed before we can leave this afternoon so this post is done. See you all in a week!

RAOK!

I've been accepted on the Fiber RAOK ring site. How fun is that?! I've never been a member of a ring site before so I'm going to fumble my way around for a while. It will be fun to send surprises to people.

First thing I have to do is host the image of the ring site on my own photo site. I'm not sure how to fix that so I'll go poke around my template in a while and see if the solution pops out at me.

I have been have been knitting and crocheting lately but I don't seem to be sticking with one thing long enough to finish anything. I want to get some charity items finished up and sent out but I keep going in too many different directions. I guess I need to pick one project and work on it until it's finished then go to the next one.

The lifesaver afghan is coming along but it isn't even half way done yet. I think that's because I can knit without looking at the work but I can't crochet unless I'm looking at my hands. That slows me down a bit. I goofed on the first buttonhole on the fair isle yarn sweater so I haven't done any more on it. I'm not posting pictures of partially finished items any more. It seems to curse them.

We took the trailer and camped at the Canandaigua KOA this past weekend. It's only 20 minutes from Ariane's apartment so we got her moved into the new place. Luckily, the new place is only a block and a half from the old place. She got in Friday at midnight after spending 4 days in Las Vegas for work and had to fly out Sunday night for St. Louis. She gets home today. She's going to be a wee bit tired.

I didn't even take most of the stuff out of the trailer since we leave Saturday for a week in Lake Placid. It's our first week long camping trip of the summer and I can't wait. There's a yarn shop there that I haven't been to yet. Sue and I should have a good time there. And there's lots to do in Lake Placid with all the Olympic venues still in use. During the summer training skiers practice their jumps by skiing into a pool. The skating rink is usually in use and there's always the mountains for hiking.

That's about it for tonight. I have to go play with my template.

Knitting and crocheting content!

I have a couple pictures of what I'm working on right now. And I'm using the new Blogger image feature to insert them right in my post. Very nice feature.

This picture is a the ripple baby afghan I'm working on. I call it my "Lifesaver" afghan because the colors remind me of a pack of Lifesaver candies. The yarn is Caron's Simply Soft Brites.

This is a preemie hat and booties made from Patons Astra. It's for a 3-5 lb. baby. You can see from the ruler that the hat is about 4 inches high and the booties are about 2 inches high. The bootie is about 2 3/4" from heel to toe. So tiny! I still have to sew the seams on the second bootie. The next set of these that I make, I'm going to use double points for the hat. It has a seam down the back that I don't like.

I have the sleeves done on the pink/white preemie sweater and cast on for the body. I don't think the sleeves look like they have a Fair Isle pattern but it might be because there are so few stitches. I hope the body of the sweater looks a little more patterned. The yarn is really pretty though.

And that's my knitting and crocheting news for now.

I'm here!

I know it's been a while but I just haven't been in a blogging mood. Maybe now that I have my camera back, I'll be more inclined to post. But it's summer so I make no promises!

I posted pictures of several different events. They aren't even in the right chronological order. But that doesn't really matter. They are pictures of Ariane's MBA graduation, the birthday party for Sue and I while camping at Sampson State Park, and our 4th of July picnic. That is our pool that everyone is enjoying. All three events were a lot of fun in spite of the very warm temperatures!

I have been knitting and crocheting in the heat, too. Or rather, in the air conditioning. I finished and sent out the newborn sweater set and the round ripple afghan (pictures can be seen on at Sue's Photos). They should be in the folder labeled "charity".

Right now I'm working on a regular ripple baby afghan in what I call "lifesaver" colors. Bright yellow, bright orange, lime green and white Caron Simply Soft Brites. I'm also making a preemie sweater set from Sirdar Fair Isle yarn in pink and white. I bought the Fair Isle yarn at A.C. Moore's on Saturday. They had it on clearance for $1.50 a skein. So I got 3 skeins of pink and white and 3 skeins of blue and white. It's supposed to look like a fair isle pattern as it knits. I'll post pictures when I have more done.

I had a question about the Petal Sweater. It is baby sized. And I haven't knit anymore on it since I posted the picture of the first 8 row repeat. Story of my life, it seems.

And that concludes our programming for this evening. Hope to be back soon.