Let’s pretend for a moment that it’s fall…

I look so warm and snuggly.

It actually wasn’t a bad day for these pictures. There is a front coming through (can you hear the thunder?), and that has made is nice and cool and overcast. I’ve also got a close-up of the neck and a gratuitous shot of me playing with a hermit crab. It’s still full in the shoulders but fits great through the torso. I’m pretty happy with Gatsby and am looking forward to wearing it For Real.

I’ve also been practicing jacard.

Looks better already (Emily rolls her eyes).

I got out my Big Book of Knitting and am swatching some of the color charts in it. I figure, if I do a swatch a day, I will be ready to start the Huntington Thing by the time I am finished with M’s vest. I have my fingers crossed. If I’m not ready, I can always make Deja Vu Honey, a bucket hat or (and this is very exciting) order more yarn and make something else! Salt Peanuts maybe, I am a real fan of that one. Do you think it would work with a cotton tape yarn instead of wool tape? I could get more wear out of it that way.

While I was at Amazon looking up the above link, I couldn’t resist peaking at this other book that I covet. Mmmmm…boy sweaters.

I think I’ve set some kind of Land Speed Record with this sweater. I’ve never finished anything this fast in all my life! I steam blocked the pieces last night and let them dry in the fan. I ususally wet block (since I’m lazy), but between the sweater being made of wool and the 10,000% humidity it would Never Ever Dry. This morning I was able to sew it all together.

I opted to seam this sweater with a different yarn (the Lana D’oro Great Gran got me for the Huntington Thing). I figured that if I seamed with the Gatsby yarn I would end up with insanely bulky seams. The shoulders are still chunky, but I think they will flatten out if I hit them with the iron. The shoulders in the pattern picture look pretty chunky, so I am not sure if that could have been avoided.

Project finished! You know what that means:

The cookie is my reward for finishing my project. See my reflection?

That’s the Lana D’oro for the Huntington Thing. I am a little bit worried about making this. I’ve never done colorwork before. And it’s in the round. I don’t know if that makes it harder or not, but it certainly could.

The cable (and, thus the cable modem) went out this morning before I could post this. While it was out several things changed.

I made a two-color swatch for the Huntington Thing (Betty helped). It’s bad. I mean really bad. See for yourself. And while I know some of the things I did wrong (some I did wrong on purpose to save time) I think I need to practice a little more before I start on this project. I will pick up some of my leftover yarn from home this Sunday and practice.

In the meantime, I’ve started one of the Michael vests.

This is in another yummy yarn from Artful Yarns called “Jazz” the colorway is “Ella”. There is a strand each of purple, grey, golden brown and charcoal. I’m making the On The Go Vest from a back issue of Knitter’s.

I occurs to me that I need to update my Stash page. I seem to be speeding right through it. I should start looking around for more projects. . .

Great Gran made the loopy bit and here are the finished pictures of Sitcom Chic.

A different view.

I am not especially happy with the button that I ended up with, but I can always change it later. Buttons are nice that way. Too bad you can’t see all of the helicopters that went by while we were outside taking these. We’re right down the road from Hurlburt Field so we get a lot of military air traffic. Which is noisy, but pretty cool to watch.

And I made the Gatsby swatch.

Close up.

I really like this yarn! It’s got a little bit of a hand spun thick-and-thin to it. That, combined with the softish texture and occasional tweedy bits makes for knitting pleasure. It’s so much of a pleasure that I have already finished the front and back. Three stitches or so to an inch makes an awful quick-knit.

We’ve been over to the to the Mary Esther branch of the Okaloosa County Public Library Cooperative to make sure our library cards still work. This library is packed to the gills with mysteries (I guess that’s what little old ladies and snowbirds like to read) so my beach literature choices are limited. I don’t mind, it is much easier to knit and read at the same time if the story isn’t hard to follow. All this to say: the new trend in mysteries is food. The authors incorporate food into the story in some way (a bake-off, the protaginist owns a cookie store) and then include recipes. Which is pretty cool - I’ve got a new fudge cupcake recipe that uses raspberry syrup. The way they talked about those cupcakes in the book, they sound Divine. I can’t wait to try them.

It has taken me all afternoon to get this written. I had to take a break to wash the dog, break up the cat chase, fix supper and go to the grocery store. Now, I am going to watch some gymnastics, finish my book (this one has a recipe for strawberry shortcake) and go to bed.

After ripping three times, I finally got it right.

Now all I need is for Great Gran to make the loopy bit that goes over the button and I can show you a Finished Object.

Speaking of Finished Objects…

Here’s what’s inside!

I am so glad that’s over with. No more will we speak of these socks.

And now that I have finished up all of my Pending Projects (except for a pair of Michael Socks), I am ready to start something new. I really want to make something for M, but the vest that I brought the stuff for has BIG differences between sizes. Since he’s losing weight (on purpose) the size I would make now might be waaaaaay to big. And since the yarn is Jazz, I have decided not to take any chances. The yarn (such a deal) for the other vest I want to make him isn’t here yet. I was forced to examine other options. Options that involved projects for me. I brought the Breeze (Look at that. It’s discontinued) for a remake of “Remembering Honey”* (IK Spring ‘03). But I don’t think I am ready for that yet. My Yarn Treat (in natural and pine) from Great Gran isn’t here yet either. That’s for the Huntington Castle Pullover in the new Interweave. It’s got a hood. Thus, by process of elimination, I have elected to start “Gatsby” (IK Spring ‘03) in Chai Latte.

It’s really way to hot for this. Off to swatch!

Do you remember the terrible fading problems? When the swatch did it, I just figured that I had done something wrong. When the finished sweater followed suit after being blocked in plain water and never being worn, I called the manufacturers. After a bunch of emailing back and forth and finally mailing them the sweater, they had no idea what was wrong and sent me some new yarn. In a different color.

Welcome to my most image-heavy entry ever!

To begin with, here is the finished Haiti!

Here is a full length picture if you are interested.

I’m glad that this one is finally finished. Mom pulled out the edging several times (and changed hook sizes several times) before she was happy with it. I am very happy with it - Haiti is a perfectly delicious tank.

And here is the finished Mercury:

Princess Arjumand is right inside, with room left over for the power source and the camera cable. I may never felt another thing again. My poor bag looks like it’s made out of a muppet.

Last but not least, I’ve been trying to finish up Sitcom Chic. I spent the afternoon pinning, basting and sewing the ribbons onto the front edges. And look at the lovely disaster I made.

Three guesses what my Genius Self did wrong.

I managed to get one side of the front attached to a MUCH shorter ribbon. That takes Skills, people. It gathered just beautifully. I’ll get out the seam ripper and try again tomorrow. Incidentally, that was the only shot I got of my disaster. I was going to take another but something got in my way.

Off to fix supper, work on That Sock, and watch the Olympics.

I’ve had the following picture taken for a week and a half.

Here’s a close up of the neck.

Michael made a little program to get my pictures out of the camera, onto Princess Arjumand (my laptop), into the editor and then delete them from the camera. While he was gone, the program decided to save itself some trouble and just delete the pictures. Bah. I had to wait until M came back to get it fixed. In the meantime: I finished the knitting on Sitcom, finished the book I was reading while knitting on Sticom, felted Mercury, put Mercury together and started over on Hammie’s graduation sock. After a field trip to JoAnn (Oooh, look! Free shipping!) for some buttons, I should be able to show you some finished products.

But for now, I need to go and feed the masses - they are demanding lunch. Grilled Cheese and french fries for everyone! Except Great Gran, who has opted for leftover Chicken Pot Pie.

PS We have had ZERO bad weather from TS Bonnie, who was originally headed straight for Okaloosa county (that’s us), and Charlie doesn’t look like he’ll be a problem for us either. It did rain solidly all day Tuesday from one in the morning to the following evening. But that was from an ordinary storm system. Nothing special.

After an entire day of knitting and reading, I have finished all of Mercury’s parts.

In case you’re interested, here is the strap streatched out looong.

Today I am going to throw it all in the washing machine and see what happens. Hope for the best!

In the meantime, I have picked up Sitcom Chic. I had set it aside (gasp!) at the start of the summer because it was just too hot to think about something with sleeves and I was having problems with “ladders” where the DPNs met. I am almost finished with the first sleeve, and there doesn’t seem to be any unhappiness at the joins like before. Maybe it’s the humidity.