Errrrgghhhh!

Who would think it was possible to make so many mistakes in one tiny sweater? So far I have made the back hem in garter stitch and the two front hems in ribbing, picked up a dropped stitch halfway down the back, made one front too long, and now I discover the first sleeve is 1/2 inch too short. This is an easy fix, but good grief! How oblivious am I???

Nevertheless, it's coming along. I'll finish it pronto when I get home.

Here's an old-fashioned quilting bee -- well, more of a binding bee -- last Monday at our monthly Dump Salad supper. Judy is teaching this quilt at Expo this weekend, and needed to have the sample done and washed by Thursday.

This is the fourth or fifth year (maybe sixth?) of Quilt Expo in Madison. The first year they thought it would be a good sign if they had 2,000 - 4,000 people attend. There were 10,000! It has been very successful: http://wiquiltexpo.com/?page_id=12

I've been busy getting things ready for DH to manage here without me (sob), and getting packed and organized to leave for England tomorrow (yaayyy!). I haven't done any sewing all week; I have been listening to the Goldberg Variations played on harp -- beautiful and amazing. I love that piece of music. I've also been listening to Alexander McCall Smith's 'Love Over Scotland' on my iPod. I'll take it with me, can't leave it behind unfinished! It's laugh-out-loud funny.

Gratitudes:

A great trip ahead

Loving family

Fun with good friends

Nice Save

Yesterday I grafted the shoulders of the baby sweater and knit on the neckband , then discovered that one front was a good inch longer than the other front and the back, just the width of the ribbing. I considered the options and didn't like either of them. Option 1: Ravel the neckband, un-graft the offending front and ravel it down an inch, re-graft and re-knit the neckband. Problem is, the stripe pattern would no longer match across the center opening. Option 2: Cut off the ribbing, pick up the live stitches and knit back down to the bottom. The stripes would then match across the center front. Problem is, I've never done that before. Gulp. But that would definitely look better in the end, assuming I could pull it off without the whole thing coming undone.

So I put a lifeline in the middle of the brown stripe, where the ribbing started. I was too chicken to cut in the row of stitches right below the lifeline, and thought maybe if I raveled from the bottom, I could just use that yarn to knit back down. But as I pulled the ever-longer end of yarn through stitch after stitch, the twist of the yarn got more and more untwisted and worn-looking. So finally I bit the bullet and cut -- though in two steps, coward that I am. The original ribbing piece first, which the cat ran off with, and then the second piece, here:

Then I ran a small circular needle through the stitches with the lifeline, and pulled it out. I had been very careful to put the lifeline through, so that was far easier than I had anticipated. Then I began to knit in the other direction, down. The switch is in the middle of this brown stripe; can you see it?

I can't! Hurrah! And I've learned something new, always a good thing.

Here's my assistant, Glenna:

I learned to knit in Brownies at age six. We made potholders for our mothers. I've been knitting ever since, though I'm no expert. I love to knit socks -- most of the time you can just go round and round and don't have to think.

Looks like the kind of day I like: sunny, not too warm, not humid. Yaaay!

Gratitudes:

learned something new

fresh slicing tomatoes ready to eat

smell of bread baking

There's a Reason

There's a reason I call this blog "Incremental Victories" -- that's the story of my life. What I accomplish is mostly done by the three steps forward, two back method. Overall it's progress, but I won't win any productivity awards.

This week the issue (one of them) has been the total chaos created when our internet service provider did an "upgrade" -- boy, is that a misnomer! We still have problems even after three trips to the Apple Genius Bar -- even the Geniuses there haven't been able to fix the mess. So tomorrow we take two computers and two iPhones back in for more work. I hasten to add that none of this is Apple's fault; the fault is entirely with our internet service provider. May be our former service provider before this is over.

The computer problems have been huge time-wasters, and I haven't been able to get a lot else done. However, I started this baby sweater for a new grandson:

I love these wonderful "cheater" sock yarns, and wish they would design some for adult size sweaters. I suppose there's a lot more variation in adult sizes than in infant sizes, and that's why we haven't got it yet.

I've made progress on the rag rug from selvages:

Right now it looks like a dog's dinner, but I'm not worried -- if it looks too bad, I'll overdye it when it's done. It cups a tiny bit, but I've convinced myself that when it's been walked on for a while it will lay flat. Long way before it's big enough, though, and now I have to stop until I have some more selvages. I have four quilt backs to piece, which will provide some, and I'll ask my quilting friends to save for me too.

Last night we got three of the six inches of snow predicted, and there was a raw wind this morning. But it was sunny this afternoon, and most of it's melted.

Gratitudes:

The goldfinches are turning yellow.

We can always go back to paper and pens.

Goblin is healing well.

Onion Skin Socks

I've been making Claire socks with Koigu yarn , a color called Charred Wood, if I remember correctly. I had to break into the second (and last) skein before finishing the first sock. That means I'll run out of yarn before finishing the second sock. What to do? Seems extravagant to buy another skein just to finish a toe. I had this orange fingering weight yarn from Dale of Norway -- a little too pink and bright, but . . . I wondered about dying it with onion skins. So I've been saving brown and red (mostly brown) onion skins for a few weeks. Tonight I put them into a glass bowl and poured boiling water over them, then let them sit for an hour or so. Now to experiment: I tested a short length of the orange yarn which I had 'cooked' in the onion skin soup. It's lying across the brown sock -- can you see it?

Looks like it will work. I rolled an estimated two toe's-worth of the orange yarn into a circle and tied it several places with twine. Then into the bowl of onion skin soup it went, and both went into the microwave oven.

I cooked them for seven minutes on high, until the yarn had absorbed much of the color in the water.

I rinsed the yarn until the rinse water ran clear, then hung it to dry. When it's dry, I'll roll it into a little ball and finish the first sock's toe. I hope there's enough to do both toes, as it might be hard to re-create the exact same color again!

This is another way to waste not, want not -- use it up, make it do. I'm feeling quite pleased with myself!

Birthdays and an Owl

A friend showed me a beautiful scarf she's knitting, the pattern is called Ocean Waves, and is available free on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com).  It's very simple and goes very fast.  I'm making two at a time, this one in yarn that really is the color of ocean waves:

And this one:
What I learned is that the more frequent the color changes in the yarn are (every 2 - 4 inches), the more evenly distributed they are in this scarf; whereas when the colors change less frequently  (every 20 - 25 inches), colors appear in large diagonals, as in the first photo.  I may like this better when the scarf gets longer, but for now, I prefer the scarf in the lower photo.  I'll have to remember this in future.

This morning we had a guest during breakfast:

He (or she) has been perched in branches near the house during the day several times lately.  This morning he (or she) stayed a good half hour before flying away.  We have always had a pair of these barred owls in our woods, and we frequently hear them hooting in the night, but we rarely see them during the day.

My friend Diane's birthday arrived last week, one of the ends-in-zero ones, and our quilting group has a tradition for ends-in-zero birthdays:  Each of us makes the celebrant a quilt block in the design and color of her choice.  Diane wanted churn dash blocks in green on tan or black.  Here's the one I made her:

Yesterday was my birthday (not ending in zero -- that was three years ago).   Everyone was so nice to me I felt quite elderly -- no Boy Scouts helped me across the street yet, but I expect that's imminent.  We had a lovely family celebration at an Indian restaurant Friday evening, and a lovely dinner with friends last night.  Roses, candy, heavenly-scented soap and candle (Frasier Fir), a beautifully-bound blank book, phone calls, cards, a portable DVD player on which to play my quilting tutorials -- I am spoiled.  

Early in the morning Jim flies to Florida for a week of golf, and I drive to my friend Renee's house, from whence we will go on to Fox Valley Technical College for a couple of days of quilting.  This is a new group to me, and I'm looking forward to making new friends and learning new things.

Gratitudes:

Another year of a good life

Owls in the woods

Birthday cards handmade by my grandkids