I Survived the School Carnival & Hat Attack

Thank goodness this week is over. Tonight was the annual school carnival at my DD's school and as the class mom, that meant that I had to get the class gift basket together as well as volunteer to work one of the games. I could have declined helping work the game, but since only two other moms stepped up and we actually needed six, I got to pick up as much slack as I could. I worked the entire carnival and I'm exhausted! I know I didn't do as much as the main organizers but my goodness, I'm TIRED.

I have to remember NOT to volunteer for class mom next year. LOL!

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On to knitting....

I've done some stealth knitting but I can't post about it until the gift is given. Hopefully in the next few weeks!

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So if you're a knitter and you haven't had your head in the sand, you've probably heard of Sock Wars. I knew that there was no way I could make a pair of socks quickly enough to make any kind of a decent showing, so I didn't have much interest.

Then came Hat Attack.

Same idea as Sock Wars but with a hat. *This* I can do! I got some yarn last night and I swatched, so I'm all ready to go. Now I just need to wait until the pattern is given out and I find out the name and addy of my "victim." I'd love to make it through at least four rounds, but we'll see. I knit fairly quickly but I'm not sure I'm willing to go to some of the lengths I've heard about during Sock Wars (overnight shipping, staying up all night, etc). However long it lasts I know it'll be fun!

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I'd hoped to have some pictures but the weather isn't cooperating. It's cold and very overcast, so not good picture-taking weather. Tomorrow is a busy day with DD's basketball game with pictures before hand (at 8:00 in the morning!!) so if I was a smart woman I'd be in bed now.

Hey now, no snickering! I heard that! ;-)

Quilts no longer UFOs!

I managed to finish TWO quilts! I'm pretty happy with myself. (I know, I know, it doesn't take much to entertain me. LOL!)

The first one is for Ryan, who had his fourth birthday on Monday. I started this quilt on Friday afternoon, and managed to finish the binding last night!

Of course the binding isn't done in the picture above, but you can get the idea. Hopefully I'll be able to take some better pictures in the next few days.

Here's Ryan "helping" me with the last border. I used the laser mounted on the front of the machine and wrote "vroom" a bunch of times with glow-in-the-dark thread. It's been a big hit!

And here's the second almost-finished quilt, my Black and Tan with a Little Spice. The pattern is Trident Crossing from the book New Cuts for New Quilts, and it was a total blast to make!



The quilt isn't trimmed and the binding isn't hand-sewn in this picture, but I couldn't resist putting it on the bed anyway.

And here's what the back looks like:


I went a little overboard on the quilting, but I just couldn't help it! It needed both stitching in the ditch (where you sew in the seams and it doesn't show too much) and the stitching in the blocks, in my opinion.

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On the knitting front, I just started the third lace chart on Sivia Harding's Norwegian Woods Shawl that I'm test knitting. Progress! No pictures yet because, again, I don't seem to get my act together.

I also took a little time out today and successfully charted the Stor Rund Dug doily! I'm quite excited (again, I'm easily entertained) because I'd tried twice before and given up. I did change the start of the rounds around a bit so that one can just repeat the same section three times. Now I need to finish a few other projects so I can start this one without guilt. I'll be using larger needles, like 4.25mm/US 6s, and KnitPicks Bare lace-weight yarn (I think) to make it shawl sized.

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Have a great rest of the weekend!

Calorimetry

A while ago I started and finished a Calorimetry but I just remembered that I never blogged about it!

Without further ado, here it is:

I pretty much followed the instructions, although I dropped down three needle sizes from the suggested one.

(The wall color in the picture above is GONE! And I love the new color!!)

I can't remember exactly what needle size I used, but the yarn is Noro Kureyon.

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And no, Cousin Kathy, the yarn in the previous post isn't my handspun--maybe in 20 years it'll look that good, but not right now! The base yarn is KnitPicks' superwash fingering weight.

Gratuitous Yarn Pictures

The newly-dyed yarn and I had a little photo session, and here are the pics:

Re-skeined, here's one side:

And the other side:
It's going to go to the Yankee Swap our knitting guild is having at our holiday party this afternoon. Hopefully whoever ends up with it will like it!

Slowly Catching Up

First, a belated Happy New Year to everyone!

Here's my last finished object of 2007:


It's the Ice Queen from Romi, in the current issue of Knitty.
I used Kidsilk Haze in Meadow, and I had about 18" of yarn left!

Here's how it looks when not on an Ikea-trash-can-as-model:

I didn't exactly follow the pattern; I didn't change needle sizes at the end, and I skipped the last few rounds (22-24 the last time, I think). I was pretty glad I did when I saw how little yarn I had left! I never seem to have the same amount of yarn left over as other people. I'm just unique I guess!

And my first finished object of 2008:

This is a baby quilt that I've had the fabric for for a looong time. I think I bought it at my shop (I had a quilt shop with a partner) which means it's at least six years old. It's been marinating in my stash, and I put it on the new long arm while it was in the garage and put a pantograph pattern on it. (Of course you can't see it in the picture.) Tonight I put the satin binding on it, and I'm pretty pleased with myself. It's the first finished object using the new machine.

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Last night Rori and I went to Loops for their Sock Night. We had a blast! I worked a little bit on my Scroll Lace Socks (Rebecca, we need to get together so that you can try them on!!) and met boxer Lamon Brewster. It was really funny--I'll bet there hasn't been that much testosterone in the shop ever! Hopefully there will be a picture on the Loops blog soon.

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This afternoon I got my act together enough to dye some sock yarn for the K.N.I.T. Guild holiday party Yankee Swap that's coming up Sunday.

The color isn't quite right (one of these days I'll actually get my act together enough to take a picture in natural light)--the color is a little brighter. I'm going to re-skein it and put a label on it. The base yarn is KnitPicks' superwash sock yarn. I ordered two skeins of it with my last KnitPicks order, and I can definitely see why it sells out so quickly.

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Tomorrow morning at 9:00 (!!) is DD's first basketball game, so I'm going to head to bed.
Maybe tomorrow I'll take some pics of my other projects-in-progress.

Have a great weekend!