Knitter in Progress

It's the monthly update on the Barn Raising Quilts. I got through 10 squares this month. I finished my experiment on exactly how many squares you can get out of one skein of lightweight Socks That Rock. The answer is almost six--as in I was one row and the bind off away from six. If you were really frugal with your ends, you could probably get six. I needed to know this because I have to make a bunch of squares to exchange with members of the knitting crew. I decided to use STR in the Rook-y colorway and of course I could not leave it at that. I added beads to mine in the shape of, you guessed it, a skull. So June will be the Skully square month as I have to have at least nine of them done by the end of the month. Current Square Tally-- STR quilt square stats(10/42): Algae(traded 1 Lucy for it)--1 Lucy(lightweight)--5 Tres Campy(Hello Yarn)--1 Fire on the Mountain(lightweight)--1 Nodding Violet(mediumweight)--1 Lapis(lightweight)--1 STR skully squares(2/9): Rook-y(lightweight)--2 *...

Every 4th weekend the HAED BB has a different themed SAL. This weekend's was a New Start SAL. All of you crafters out there know how hard it is to resist a new start. I started something new this weekend although technically I have had this start planned since January I just haven't started it yet. It's one of the pieces on my yearly goals list and since it is now almost(cough, cough)June I figured I'd better get moving. It's a piece taken from a larger piece of artwork by Selina Fenech called Fantasy Alphabet . HAED charted all the letters you can buy them as a whole or by the letter . I, of course, am starting with the letter K . You know for Kim, knit, Knitter in Progress, and in the case of this piece of artwork, Kirin . Here's the progress made over the weekend: **clickable thumbnail** Fabric : 32 count white linen(I can't remember what kind--it's been lingering in the stash) Stitched : 2 over 2 It's a Tiny Treasure chart and as far as HAED char...

This past weekend was the HAEDless Sampler SAL. I have been working on Provence Sampler using Caron Wildflowers in Flame. I think what is the most fun about this for me is that it seems to progress so quickly. You forget after you have stitched over 1 for a while how much faster stitching over 2 is. And, of course, there is the fact that this piece only uses one color. I think I am only working on one HAED piece with 50 colors(the rest have 90) so one color is really a thrill for me :) **clickable thumbnail** The picture is kind of bad, it was cloudy this morning and its hard for me to get a good angle on this one.

After the Wee Tiny Sock swap I still had the urge to make some tiny knitted things and I loved the idea of such a quick swap, so imagine how pleased I was to find the Reducio Sock swap on Ravelry. I signed up, made not one but two socks, got some goodies, sent my package on its way, and waited patiently for mine to arrive. Which it did yesterday, and here's the loot: All this fun stuff was from Knitting Gnome who was not only my spoiler but also the host of the KAL--very cool! Go by her blog and check out her baby gnome--it's too cute :) My pal was a Hufflepuff. Jenny is blogless but she is on Ravelry . I sent her a casual sock as well as a dress sock. Plus I sent her some other goodies which in my mailing excitement I forgot to photograph. I had a great time and I'm hoping for a Harry Potter related mini swap of house sweaters, hats, or mittens in the near future.

So far I have only missed on month of the SAL Challenge. This weekend I did all my stitching on Monday night. And yes, I did get in 800 stitches. I was on a roll; I'm just trying to imagine how much I would have gotten done if I had stitched all weekend. Here's the progress: (after) (before--so you can get an idea of what 800 stitches is in the grand scheme of HAED stitching) **clickable thumbnails(if you want to see them bigger) Our Mermaid now has an arm and I am about 1000 stitches away from finishing the page! Hopefully that will happen over the next month.

This weekend seemed to go by especially fast. Friday I was out the with the knitting crew. And there was a Pens game which I dvr'd because I was out and apparently Rage decided he wanted to watch something else(ie. Spongebob)and decided to turn the channel he guaranteed that I only got to watch the first period of the game by turning the dvr off early. Saturday was just full of cleaning--inside and outside--it is amazing to me what the wind blows around here. I found a ton of stuff in the yard that came from God knows where. And my neighbors came back from Disney World and we just had to get the scoop on everything as the KiP household will be heading to the happiest place on earth in a matter of weeks--Tower of Terror, here I come! Then, of course, it was Robin Hood night on BBC America. Sunday was a gorgeous day--way to nice to be inside. And it was Mother's Day. And the Penguins played last night. My DH, Rage, and Diva got me a Sidney Crosby jersey for Mother...

I was fishing around one of my bookshelves the other day and found this: So Many Books So Little Time A Year of Passionate Reading by Sara Nelson. This book does what I think any book should do, it made me love reading even more than I already do. One of the things I tried to impart to my students when I was teaching was a love of reading. And I tried to make them reflect on what they had read in one or more of the following ways: **how does the book relate to something in your life? **how does the book relate to something in the world? **how does the book relate to another book you have read? I remember vividly when I bought this book. I was up to my armpits in toddler/baby stuff including parenting magazines. An excerpt from this book was in one of the magazines I would sit and read at night after the kiddos went to sleep. I loved her style and I just had to read the book, so off I went to Barnes and Noble dot com and ordered it. It did not disappoint and to this day it is one of m...

April Wrap up: Knitting: **rainbow socks for Diva-- DONE! **finish Clapotis-- did I even touch the clapotis? Do I even know which knitting bag it's in? I think you get the idea. **make headway on at least one other WIP-- DONE! I got a bunch of Barn Raising Squares done. Stitching: **QS Swimming with Dolphins--SAL Challenge Weekend(11-14)-- DONE! **Provence Sampler--HAEDless Sampler SAL(18-21)-- skipped--Diva was puking all weekend. **I Love Thee and my unfinished biscournu in the interim-- Nope. I'm not too disappointed with my April goals. Is is just me or do months seem to be flying by? I don't even feel like it should be March yet and we're heading into May! May Goals: Knitting: **at least 5 Barn Raising squares **Rage's Lapis socks Stitching: **QS Swimming with Dolphins SAL weekend(9-12) **Provence Sampler SAL weekend(16-19) Reading: **finish two books This month will be challenging in that the kiddos get out of school over the course of the month. Then mommy ha...