I logged in to Blogger to catch you up on what
has been going went on in February and noticed a big red Warning on the top of the page. My blog has been locked by Blogger's spam-prevention robots. I'll be able to publish this post when/if my blog is unlocked and the kind people at Blogger have decided that I'm a real person. Ya gotta love Internet related spam ... spam e-mails (I really don't have any use for Vi@gra or Ci@llis, don't care if they are giving it away, I still don't want any), spam comments, spam,spam,spam,spam and eggs!
Back to the subject at hand. When I last visited here, I mentioned that I was ready to steek the two Norweigan sweaters that I was (notice the was) knitting for my Granddaughters. Well, I steeked! ... and I sewed the sleeves in, knit the neck band and button bands and all of the other finishing stuff that needed done. The girls and their parents came over for dinner on the Sunday after Valentine's day and I gave the girls their sweaters.
Here are my 2 cuties modeling their new sweaters. It's really a blast to have little granddaughters to make cute things for! ... and it's really a blast to have grandchildren, period!
The steeking wasn't nearly as scary to do as it was thinking about. You just have to make sure that you don't cut through the machine stitching. I loved making these sweaters this way and would do it again. ...But, the next time that I decide to make matching sweaters, I hope I pick a less time intensive pattern. My DH kept telling me that the girls would be married before their sweaters were done. Heck, they aren't even engaged yet!
On February 10th DD, a very good
friend of mine, and I went to Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet. It was a blast! I love looking at all of the things that the vendors bring, adding to my stash, and being in good company. The friend of mine who came with me is someone that I spent a great deal of time with in Jr. High School (back then we called it Junior High School, not Middle School) and through our High School years. After High School our lives went in different directions and we lost track of each other for many years. We ran into each other a few days before Pgh K and C (at a funeral, not a good venue for catching up on too many years) we swapped contact information and made arrangements to go to Pgh K and C. She met me at my house that morning and I drove the hour to our destination. I could hardly drive for all the talking we were doing. It was hard to pay attention to the road, not to mention that I had no idea where I was going while trying to cram 30 years into an hour. Sometimes, after a long time of not seeing a childhood friend, when you see each other you don't have much to talk about, sorta like time has made you strangers ... this was definately NOT the case. It just felt (to me, anyhow) like we were still back in High School. Time had passed, but the friendship still remains. .... Besides, we're both knitters! DD said that it was fun to be around us and watch us try to catch up with each other.
I finally finished my Icarus shawl. I don't remember when I started it but I know it was on the needles on July 4th, 2006. I had been kinda picking at it now and then with no real deadline planned.
It doesn't look very good with my black, red and gold skirt that I have on in the picture but that's what I had on for church today and when we got home I got DH to take a picture of Icarus for me. This was the first lace weight yarn that I've used. I guess I knit lace before since the Christening gown (see Flicker badge in the side bar) was 27 inches of lace for the skirt. The lace weight yarn took a bit of getting used to and I used Addi Turbo size 3 needles. They seemed to be not quite pointy enough to do the yarn manipulations. I'm going to have to give the new Addi Lace needles a try sometime. I've picked up a set of Knit Picks Options and the points on them may be better to use for lace knitting.
I bought 2 hanks of
Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud and used them to make Icarus. This is a lovely yarn for this pattern. It didn't look like much while I was knitting it but when I blocked it... wow! Everything fell into place and the design popped out! I was truly impressed. I bought the yarn that I used a long time ago and when I was getting to the end I really began to wonder what I would run out of first, pattern or yarn. I knew that getting more of the same yarn in the same dye lot would be impossible since I didn't have that ball band to let me know what the dye lot was. Casting off had me watching the yarn disappear after every stitch. When I was done, I had this much yarn left.... Whew! That was close!
DH and I went up to the mountains last weekend. There was18 inches of snow up there! We kinda knew what we were getting into before we left. You don't go north of Interstate 80 in February without watching the weather reports. We got to the cabin at 6:30 PM and spent the next hour shoveling out the driveway so that we could get the truck close enough to unpack. 
There were many inches of snow, then a layer of icy crust and then another 5 inches of snow on top of that. It was funny to try to walk. Sometimes I would be able to actually stay on top of the icy crust and not sink to the ground, other times... Ya just never knew what would happen when you tried to take a step.
DH shoveled a path to the wood pile and the privy. We played cards listened to the radio (no TV at the camp, and that's not a bad thing) and I got some knitting done.
On Sat. morning we went out to get water (there's no running water at the camp either, hence the title "camp" and the need for a privy) and it was very icy at the spring. The water was running though, which was a very good thing! It was beautiful with the sun shinning on the snow.
I worked on these socks while we were in the mountains for the weekend. They were made using Wendy's generic Toe up pattern ( I really like this pattern, you've gotta check it out!) I used a skein of Austerman's Step, mit Aloe Vera und Johoba, on size one Knit Picks dpn. They were a really fast knit. I finished them Thursday evening and DH wore them to work on Friday. He really seems to like his hand knit socks! I think it's really cute!
Since DH's socks are finished, I decided to start these......
The yarn is also Austerman's Step and the colorway is from a very pale green to a mossy green to a brighter minty green with little purple flecks in it. The colorway is 07. I love the color of the yarn but don't think I have much to wear it with. That's okay, I'll wear them anyhow (or find a top to go with them). I've rented a movie for this evening and these should be perfect to go along with it.
