MYSTERY CABLES

I realized that out of all of my 13 posts I have yet to post a work in progress. I started these socks yesterday, and they are really cool. The pattern is the Friday, February 23 and Sat./Sun., Feb. 24 & 25 from Paulette Lane and Friends Knitting Pattern a Day 2007 Calendar. The pattern calls for Cascade 220 and I am making them in a child's large for Marsha's Students through Afghans for Afghans.

Here is the completed leg. What do you think?

Okay, your thinking how your going to break it to me that there must be something wrong - but here is the mystery! It is knit inside out! Now that the cabeling in finished you turn it inside out - which is really outside out and ....
I think it is really cool! However, the socks need to be delivered by March 7th, so no more blogging, just knitting! (I can hear the intro to Cast-On with Brenda Dayne - "Knit, knit like the wind!") Wish me luck!

SEE DAN KNIT!

I am teaching my roommate Dan to knit!

Here he is knitting his first rows!

Here he is frogging those first rows! (rip-it, rip-it)

On Valentine's Day we trecked through the newly fallen snow to get Dan yarn for his project at Purl in Soho. It had stopped snowing several hours earlier, but the roads were still a mess. This is why I love New York City; even when the roads look like this: you can still use public transportation to get to a yarn store! The first yarn that Dan picked up in the yarn store was a dark brown Rowan Scottish Tweed Chunky with flecks of color out of the 50% off bin. I suggested that he might not want a dark color for his first project because it might make it more difficult to see the stitches. His response was that of a true knitter- "Well I'll probably just get it anyway - it is on sale." Bless his knitter heart, he was about to start his stash before he had completed a single project. (I just hope that there is enough room in our apartment for two knitters!)
He did end up getting the Rowan and I think he is developing great technique, what do you think?

And here it is .....Dan's first finished project!

TA DA! ENTRELAC!

I was so inspired by Judy's knitting on the Entrelac Socks from the new Spring issue of Interweave Knits I decided to give entrelac a try. I googled "knitting entrelac tutorial" and found a great tutorial -nice clear instructions, with great pictures. Here's what I have so far ....

I know the colors are bad, but I learned something new! I love my ugly little entrelac swatch!

MY MARINE'S "SOCKINGS" ...CONTINUED

I just read my last post - oranges in the toes? What can I say? Hey, if you're reading this then chances are you have had moments of equal crafty insanity! Right? Anyway, I made Pomanders using clementines instead of oranges. Basically, I just stuck cloves into the clementines, working in concentric circles until the entire clementine was covered. I then left them on the kitchen counter to dry out. In about a month they were as hard as rocks - and smelled wonderful.

It made me very happy to picture my Marine opening his Christmas care package and have this wonderful aroma drifting out. I am sure that even the toughest Marine appreciates something that smells good in their foot lockers. The rest of the "Sockings" was pretty boring. Just basic goodies and some essential comforts. Looking back I now realise that I was hanging pretty far out on the hope that he would appreciate hand-made items.

In the first care package that I sent to my Marine I included a one-time use camera. He took some pictures with it and sent the camra back to me. I developed doubles, kept one for myself and sent the other set to him. I was so appreciative of the shot he got of himself wearing the socks. This is by far the best my knitting has ever looked!

Here is his picture. It was taken after he benched 350 lbs to win his units bench press contest!
Either it came to you right away or it is on the tip of your tounge .... it's Chuck Norris! Chuck Norris has found his way onto a knitting blog, pretty cool if I do say so myself!

MY MARINE'S FEET ARE SAFE AND WARM ... AND NOW THEY'RE COMIN' HOME!!!

Last October I did something that changed my life. I adopted a Marine through Soldier's Angels. If you can commit to writing a letter a week and sending a care package a month - I highly recommend it. If you cannot commit to this for 6 months to a year - go check out the site, there are plenty of one time giving opportunities. I was very lucky in that I received several letters back from my Marine and we exchanged e-mail on a regular basis. My proudest moment as my Marine's Angel was when he was promoted from Corporal to Sergeant and talked about applying for an officer's program! Today was a great day too. I received official word that he will be returning home sometime in late March or early April (dates are kept confidential for security reasons)
The first thing that I knit him was a wool helmet liner. It gets very cold in the desert, especially at night. It is a really great pattern and since it calls for Cascade 220, it's relatively inexpensive to knit. If you want to learn to knit socks this is a great lead up project - it uses many of the same skills, but on a larger, easy to manage scale. I'm sorry for the scary head - it was my old roommate's, and the only model I had available at the moment. There used to be two of them, starring down from on top of the kitchen cabinets!
For my Marines Christmas present I really did out knit myself! In Interweave Knits Special Holiday Gifts Issue, they had a spread of some of their favorite things. As soon as I saw it I new I needed the American Red Cross Knit Kit for One Pair of Serviceman’s Socks!

It arrived in this really cute tin, which I now us for my knitting notions.









The tin contained one 4 oz skein of yarn, plastic size 5 dpns, a plastic embroidery needle, and the sock pattern that the Red Cross distributed in 1940. I just loved the idea of turning the same heel, of the same sock, of many of kthe nitters who have come before me. I also loved the idea of my Marine receiving the exact same sock as all of the servicemen that came before him. There was only one problem with the kit, the yarn was way too thin for pattern. I had to knit with size 5's in order to get gauge, but it just seemed too flimsy. Unfortunately I did not make the decision to double up the yarn until I had already turned the heel of the first sock! I had to frog the entire thing! The other problem arose after I had finished the ribbing of the second sock. Even though that 4oz skein looked like 3 times too much yarn - it wasn't even enough to complete both socks with doubled yarn. I called the Red Cross store to see if they would sell me just yarn, but no, I had to buy another kit. (It really was almost worth it for the cool tin, the second one holds my sewing notions!)Anyway, I had asked my Marine for his foot measurement, and the finished product was worth all of the frogging - and most of the hair that I pulled out has grown back in!


Now, for them to go from socks to "Christmas Sockings!" In theory I wanted to put oranges in the toes. Typical WWII era stocking would have had an orange in the toe. I don't want to think about what actual oranges in the toes would have looked like by the time they got to Iraq! - My solution in the next post.

.... to be continued!

"KNITTA PLEASE!" DOWNLOAD THIS SONG!

Hey Knittas! Penelope from Sit n' Knit New York just posted this song. DOWNLOAD IT NOW! It is the funniest ever!

THE WORST ROOMMATES EVER .... AND WHAT THEY LEFT BEHIND

My roommates have left, I have a new roommate moving in (who is great, and he is willing to let me teach him to knit!) I will let these pictures speak for themselves ...... (if I had audio it would be me screaming why, why, why!) The first picture will soon be my sewing and knitting room - you can look forward to an amazing before and after. I am actually excited they left that chair behind - it will be reborn as a great sewing chair!