Blankie Friday - the Wrap-Up

I can't believe this is it - the final Blankie Friday. The culmination of what seems like forever, but really in the long run has been a simple blink in the eye. The blankie has been a huge part of my life these last 20 months. It has led me to many new friends, most far, far away in the computer, but a few real, in-person friends. It has been a constant companion, growing in my lap. It has been something to photograph and write about, to dream with. And here it is all grown up.

Let's start with a few fun facts:

The finished dimensions are 53" X 72.5", or 134 X 184 cm (diamond point to diamond point.)

The finished weight is 2 lbs, 13 oz or 1.282 kg.

That's about 5960 yards/5450 meters - or 3.3 miles/5.4 kilometers of yarn.

512 sts per square times 736 squares (counting each of the large squares as four) adds up to 376,832 stitches in the squares alone.

Each square took about 25 minutes to knit, and if you add five minutes to that for picking out the next color and weaving in two ends, half an hour per square adds up to 368 hours of my life just knitting the squares for the blankie. That over 20 months, start to finish, comes out to an average of well over one square per day, which was my original goal for progress on the project.

The Timeline...

Blankie was started at the beginning of July, 2006 - it first appears on the blog here, leading me to believe that I started it right around the first of July, 2006.



Just a few days later, I wrote a post that sparked a flood of gifts, sparked on by the Yarn Harlot's post here. It is hard for me to believe, in retrospect, that so many people so generously sent me their yarn on faith based on the tiny little start I had going in this picture.



Note the tiny basket of original yarn scraps. That was the sum total of my own scraps that I started with.

Lots of people were interested in knitting a similar blanket right away, and I felt like the least I could do to repay the huge response of yarn-scrap gifts was to write up a little tutorial. I do seem to be unable to write a blog post without embedding my family in it, so it's a long, rambly tutorial, but it gets the job done. Start Here, Then Read This, Then This, and Finally This.

Before I knew it, I was inundated with packages, and it was like Christmas every day for a while there. I spent hours and hours opening packages, photographing them, and thanking the senders in the blog. That was probably the most fun part of the entire project, except perhaps the last five minutes of applied i-cord knitting.

Before long, I was pretty darn well buried in yarn. The cats loved it...





Some of that yarn went to other blankie knitters, more of it went to charity knitters - my favorite was Jo-Ann in Ontario, who knits bears for various children's charities.



The blankie (and I) have gotten to meet the Yarn Harlot once in Eau Claire.



And again in St. Paul...



And hopefully we will get a third picture with Stephanie when she comes to St. Paul again in April. She has been so gracious in the past, I'm really looking forward to thanking her one more time with a final product in hand.

And before we get to the pictures you've really been waiting for, I'll announce the
Contest Winners...

Part the first was sock yarn identification.

Sock yarn C



was the most contentious, and at least a couple of people guessed that it was Fortissima Socka color Mexico 9072 Sundown. And it's funny because I actually knit a sweater for Julie when she was little (and which Sophie still wears sometimes) and a pair of socks for myself out of that color, or one in the series.



Sorry, but that ain't it. Fortunately, ikkinlala came up with what I believe to be the right answer, which is Opal Brasil #5001. She even found it available here, which is great, but I chose to order a skein of it through an e-bay seller because I found the whole "every fifth stitch is for g*d" thing a little creepy, and also her ordering system was kind of confusing.

Sock yarn A



turns out to be Trekking #131, correctly identified by Razor Knit Girl. Thanks for the help, RKG, and I left a comment on your blog asking you to e-mail me. On further reflection, I'm not sure that I'm going to order that one after all. As much as I enjoy looking at those colors playing together on the blanket, they are totally not colors that I would wear. So I will at least hold off on them for a while.

I'm a little disappointed that nobody even guessed on squares B



or D



because those are probably my two favorite and I would totally buy them if I could get my hands on them. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? I'll extend the offer of a set of notecards and a little surprise to the first person to comment with good information on what these yarns are.

The second part of the contest was giving away the remains of the blankie scraps. I did get a few responses on this one, including an offer to buy some of the yarn. Sorry, but there is no way my conscience is going to allow me to *sell* yarn that was gifted to me! But there is enough to pass along at least a little something to everyone who responded with a link to a picture.

Sandra is churchlady on Ravelry, and is blogless, but has a teeny little beginning to a blankie.
Sopranospinner linked to her latest picture on Flickr.
Jesse has pictures of her newly-started blankie up on Ravelry
Knit & Purl Mama showed me her little chunk of blankie
Alice debuted her blankie on her blog just for the contest.

All of you are winners! E-mail me with your mailing addresses and color preferences (I'll do my best - there is an awful lot of blue, brown, black and white in the mix). I'll get some packages in the mail soon-ish. Just remember - you're taking on responsibility for the care and wellbeing of this yarn - don't neglect it!

Okay, and finally the "show me the blankie!" portion of the contest...there were 116 entries, and the random number generator chose 53, which turns out to be StaceyK, aka moonlightknitter, aka moonlightknitter on Ravelry. Stacey, e-mail me your mailing address and I will get a fabulous package out to you soon!

Thanks to everyone who spewed happy comments on last week's post - it was so much fun reading them all this week, feeling your excitement along with my own.

Now for the real goods...















The photos speak for themselves, no? Happy Friday, everyone! Blankie Fridays are over for now, although I'm sure Blankie will be showing up again from time to time. I will enter it in the Minnesota State Fair this year, and I will bring it with me when I go see the Yarn Harlot in April. Oh, and I'll probably have it with me at Yarnover this year as well. If you see me with it, come say hello and give it a squish.

What Next?

What next is the question that several of you lovely readers have asked me, and indeed the question that I have been asking myself in more than one way these last few days. Of course, you all are asking me what I will be knitting next now that the blankie is done.

Indeed, the blankie *is* completely and totally finished. I didn't end up knitting the very last bit of i-cord edging till Saturday afternoon while I was teaching my class at the store. It had occurred to me that some of my students might like a demonstration on applied i-cord, even though it wasn't part of the fair-isle hat class that was ending that day.

And I have to stop right here to brag on my students. They totally rocked! They all got it, they all produced nice hats. One student in particular, who happens to be named Shelley also, even agreed to have her picture taken for the blog - I really love her hat, and she sort-of by accident made it to match the trim on her jacket perfectly. Thanks for sharing, Shelley!



Here are a few of the others in their near-finished states:



All beautiful! All designed by my students themselves. Lovely. And my students were really cool about me finishing that last bit of i-cord while they worked their tubular bind-offs. They were in fact interested in seeing the demonstration, but they also seemed genuinely excited for me that I was finally finishing such a giant project. I - I was practically high on the endorphins. It was fun.

I blocked the blanket Saturday night, and I decided that the best way to do it was by sticking the whole thing into my front-loading washing machine (yes - the same one I use to wash dirty diapers in!!!) and run it through on delicate cycle with the tiniest bit of Eucalan. I smirked a bit when I thought of the horror I might see on some of your faces at the sight, but I can tell you now that all ended well. Even though all the yarns involved are superwash, I didn't put it in the dryer, but laid it out on the queen-sized guest bed, upon which it barely fit. The washing really relaxed it a bit, and it grew somewhat. Which is totally fine. Pictures on Friday, I promise.

We'll get to the what-next of knitting in a moment. But first I have to show you pictures from Sophie's birthday party. It's a bit belated, as Joe's parents and aunt and uncle were out of town on a cruise and just got back last week. We ordered a giant load of Famous Dave's barbecue and had everyone over for dinner. After all the sickness and general stress that's been floating around here the last month or so, I just didn't have it in me to cook a big meal for everyone right now, and I wanted to try and relax and enjoy the party some.



Nobody complained. We had a ton of food - here's a picture of what was left over because I forgot to take a picture before we ate.



I did bake another cake - any excuse to bake a chocolate cake. And Sophie got to blow out candles again. I think my facial expression in this picture is hilarious, and I wish I always looked so young and skinny these days.



Look at that happy face. Okay, look at those happy faces.



I handed Sophie off to her grandfather so that I could eat my cake in peace for just a moment, and they both loved that.



There were presents too...



Unfortunately, the what next to that event was another night of projectile vomiting. It's crazy. She puked Friday night, was fine all day Saturday and all day Sunday, then barfed her dinner just after falling asleep Sunday night. This shit has been going on for a month now. I dragged her in to the doctor's office again today, and the pediatrician checked her out and thinks that she's just gotten back-to-back stomach viruses. There *are* multiple stomach viruses working their way around town right now, and Sophie has apparently been lucky enough to catch them all.

Poor thing. She was fine today, though, and so far tonight knock on wood. I just don't know that I dare ask what next on the family front right now. I need a bit of peace and happy quiet.

On to the knitting front. For the moment, I'm working on a quickie project - something else just for me that I've been desperately wishing for these last few very-cold weeks.



An everyday scarf. My poor neck has been cold, cold cold. I lost the very-nice scarf that I had - a cashmere one that Joe had bought for me a few years ago - last winter, and hadn't found time to replace it. Yes, I know I have that beaded silk/cashmere waiting to be a scarf, and I also have an alpaca-silk lace thing well started. But I needed a nice sturdy something that I wouldn't mind dragging around while I'm schlepping the kids. I don't know if this will be done in time for the next cold-cold spell, or even if we will have subzero temps again this winter, but it will certainly fit the bill.

The yarn is handspun Blue Faced Leister wool by Aisha Celia, and I bought this particular skein at a craft show in December 2005. It's been aging in the stash, waiting for me to find the right project for its loveliness. It's been a little tough because there are 267 yards and no more, so I'm really hoping I can get a wearable scarf out of it. I went for a rather narrow lacy pattern in the hopes of stretching it out. The color is more accurate above, but below you can see the lace pattern a bit better.



I had been thinking of knitting it up in the Argosy pattern, but I started it on Sunday afternoon once the cleaning was all done, and wasn't totally enjoying the process. So I swatched out a Barbara Walker stitch pattern or two and came up with this, which I think may be slightly less attractive than Argosy, but which is much more of a pleasure for me to knit.

I don't think it will take more than a week to get through this ball of yarn, especially since I'm hoping/planning to have some quality knitting time on Friday. After the scarf is done - well I've got several projects screaming at me to work on them. I think it's going to come down to either the other lace scarf or perhaps a sweater - two are in contention. I do also need to make a new hat and glitten set for next fall, but I don't feel quite ready to work on those just yet. I am leaning slightly towards a sweater for now while the weather is cold and a big piece of wool in my lap will feel nice.

For tonight what next involves watching a movie, eating a piece of leftover cake, glancing at my happily finished blankie now and then, and maybe working on that purple scarf for a while before bed.

Blankie Friday - the Penultimate Edition

I had a really tough decision to make this afternoon.

The i-cord edging on my blanket has been going incredibly quickly. I had been dreading it a bit as I approached the end of the blanket, because I was afraid it would take longer to work than I had remembered from the first chunk I worked lo these many moons ago. But it turns out I was able to get up the right side, across the top, and down a good chunk of the left side in the last few days, leaving only a handful of diamonds' worth of edge unfinished by this afternoon. Only an hour, two at most, worth of work left to do.

I went ahead and took pictures during daylight hours, still hoping that maybe just maybe I would have it finished this evening. But then we decided to make cookies instead of watch a video, so I had no couch time before the kids went to bed...and Julie had a melt down at the end of dinner, so there was no time to knit while they were in the bath...and yet I still held out in my mind - I could hold of writing up this post until later tonight when the blankie is - dare I say it - done. I can really hardly believe it now that I am to this point. The blanket will, one way or another, be complete later this evening. But I made the decision to post early, finish later.

A few weeks ago, Wannietta asked me if I would feel sad or a little let-down when the project is finished, after being attached to it for so long. At the time I didn't answer her, but I laughed to myself and thought "yeah, right." But I knew what she meant at the time, and the question has stuck with me. The answer is yes, I will - a little.

So I will assuage that feeling by holding on to the Blankie Fridays for one more week, and next Blankie Friday we will go out with a big bang. There will be contests! Rules in a moment. The blankie will be blocked and spiffy, not rumply and covered in cat hair as it is right now. We will come up with some creative ideas for pictures. I will take you on a little trip down memory lane and we will give the blankie a little blog-party. I'll outline the contest in a minute, but first let's look at some pictures.

There is no big-picture picture tonight. I did take some big-picture pictures, but I'm going to hold back for a couple of reasons. First, the blanket looks so much different now with a nice straight edge across the top. It looks almost like a finished project, and I don't want to steal next week's thunder. Because it really is beautiful, if I do say so myself. Second, the blanket really needs to be blocked. As you may be able to tell in some of the close-up pictures in a moment, the corners aren't very sharp right now, and the i-cord is wanting to roll a bit. The edges need to be told who's boss. Sorry about that, but if you really need a big-picture fix, go look at last week's Blanket Friday. It's pretty close.

I will show you the one remaining edge awaiting it's i-cord application.



At the top is the ball of yarn, attached and waiting its fate. At the bottom is the start of the i-cord, and one of the last two tails remaining to be woven in (yay!) It has been so gratifying as I work my way around the blanket to get rid of all the nasty little dangling ends and bits of scrap yarn holding my provisional cast ons in place.

Here are the close-ups of the final week's worth of square knitting (for those of you who love spotting the yarns you sent in).







This little shot I took after the main photo session. I've got all the remaining provisional cast-on stitches loaded onto a 000 Addi Turbo and am cranking away on the last bit of I-cord. Can I confess that I've been watching old episodes of 30 Rock on Netflix Live in the evenings, and they go together perfectly. It's very entertaining, but doesn't require much eye contact. You can see in this picture that I'm working my way up the side that doesn't have live stitches. At the end of each i-cord row, I pick up the next stitch along the blanket edge that gets knit together with the third i-cord stitch each time around. The live-stitch edges are about twice as fast to knit as the pick-up stitch edges.



Okay, now to the contest. There will be several parts, but for all parts I must emphasize - I *must* have a way of contacting you via e-mail, or don't even bother entering. The last contest I had, I was incredibly frustrated by the number of people who, despite my request, didn't leave their e-mail in the comment and had their Blogger profile set to private. I need to be able to e-mail you to confirm that you want the prize so that if you don't I can offer it to someone else. It's that simple. Also, it's really frustrating on a regular basis when someone leaves a comment asking a question and leaves no contact information. Would it be so bad to set your blogger profile to public and list an e-mail address there? I'm even okay with sending a message on Ravelry if you just give me your Ravelry id, if you're worried about spam.

Part the first: I've been wanting to ask this question for a long time - there are several yarns that people sent me that I really love. Ones that I'd like to make pairs of socks out of some day. So following are pictures of the squares I made out of them. The first reader who identifies each yarn and sends me to an online store that carries it in the colorway shown gets a set of my notecards with closeup pictures of my projects on them, and maybe an additional surprise in the mail.

A:


B:


C:


D:


Part the second - in Ravelry alone, there are 90 projects listed for my blankie pattern/tutorial. I know there are more out there. For those of you already knitting blankies who could benefit from additional chunks of leftovers, please comment with a link to a picture of the current state of your blankie, and let me know if there are any specific requests for colors. I will give away my remaining stash of superwash wool/nylon fingering weight just like what went into my blankie.

I want everyone who considers taking any of this yarn to understand something, though. When I started this project, before I was flooded with gifts after the Yarn Harlot linked to me, I thought it was going to be a 20-year project. I wasn't planning to make it my main knitting obsession for a year and a half. But then I received all these gifts and I realized that I now had a responsibility to show all the people who had generously sent them to me that I appreciated them and that they were being well-used. So I knit them up. I did not hoard them in my stash for an indefinite period like so many other yarns I own. If you take some of this yarn, I expect you to take on some of that responsibility as well. Depending on the number of entries, I will split up what I have into reasonable packages and draw names randomly.

Part the third - this one is for everyone. Simply leave a comment (separate from any other comment entries) saying "Show me the blankie!" (those exact words, please - I'm going to use an automatic sorting feature in Outlook) and you'll be entered for a prize package including a skein of my hand dyed yarn, some note cards, a set of my favorite Pony Pearl knitting needles, a sock project bag by Messie Craftie (no affiliation - I just love her bags and want an excuse to order another for myself as well ;-), and a copy of one of my favorite sock knitting books - your choice of Nancy Bush's Folk Socks, Interweave Knit's Favorite Socks, or Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks - Warm Feet. It'll be kind of like the Secret Pal package I would send to myself if I were my own Secret Pal, only the winner will get it instead. I guess I'd better throw in some chocolate as well.

Alright, that's it. Um, if you're out there and you're reading and you have a blog - send your friends here for the party next Friday. There'll be lots of pictures and fun facts about the blankie. A huge thanks to all of you who have hung with me on this and seen me through this far. I'm off to fire up the 30 Rock and have one last knitting session with the blankie.

Editing to add - comments closed because the contest is over. Check out the wrap-up post for final blankie pictures.

A Little Urpy (still!)

Either this is the longest - acting GI virus ever, or we have somehow
been exposed to yet another of the multiple GI bugs going around our
fair suburb at the moment. Or, if I'm lucky, it was just too much cherry
yogurt for midmorning snack right before naptime.

Because Sophie woke up in a pool of you-know this afternoon, curtailing
our plans for a visit to the library. It would also have meant
cancelling our playdate planned for tomorrow had it not already been
cancelled to to the GI bug currently hosted by (hopefully only) one of
our little friends.

I am so tired of winter! I hardly got any blankie-time in last night
because Sophie didn't go to sleep until 11 last night because of some
other tumy problems.

The good news is, she seems to be feeling fine now, and is spinning
herself silly at the moment. (Auxilliary barf bucket just out of
frame).

I'm sneaking in this post now in the hopes of achieving a complete
evening of I-cord knitting tonight - it's going really quickly when I do
have the chance to work on it. See you for blankie Friday tomorrow.

Adventures in Hot Glue and some other stuff.

I really have to share with the world all about my latest non-knitting "crafty" project, which I think is hilarious because even though I am totally obsessed with knitting, I don't tend to think of myself as all that crafty a girl, especially when it comes to that kind of crafts which involve hot glue, store-bought felt (even if it is the all-wool variety), cardboard and ribbons. And yet here we are.

Yesterday morning I set the girls up with little art projects of their own so they would give me a few minutes to heat up the old hot glue gun.



I chopped a couple hunks of cardboard off a box left over from my recent Internet-credit-card extravaganza.



I cut a couple pieces of felt just a little bigger than my cardboard chunks.



Then I used insane amounts of hot liquid plastic stuff to secure them all together, along with some pretty pretty ribbons.



And then I did the whole thing again, in between trips to the potty with the girls, fetching additional art supplies, and refilling sippy cups. In the end, we had a new organizational system for the crazy jumble of hair clippies and barrettes that were taking over the house.



Who me? Why yes, I am indeed a glue-gun wielding suburban minivan-driving housewife mother-of-two. Oops!

Oh, and speaking of Internet-credit-card extravaganzas, the last package from my recent excursion arrived today. A lovely skein of this stuff, all the way from Australia.



It's sock yarn, it's luscious, it's a little on the thin side, and I think it might end up making something lacy when it has aged in the stash long enough.



I really should not be allowed to keep my credit card anywhere near the computer. This really was an impulse purchase, made partly because it's really nice yarn, but mostly because I was already on a roll.

And further speaking of Internet-credit-card extravaganzas, I may have had an additional falling down this afternoon while the kids were napping. (Well, Sophie was napping - Julie was having enforced quiet time in the hopes that she would be fresh for ballet class.) This package will be on its way from Germany in the near future. At least I only bought the one thing I wanted today and refrained from buying the Bohus kit from Sweden, which I also strongly considered.

If you're still here, still reading...guess what I did right before typing up this post? You'll never guess. I'll have to just tell you. I knit the last freaking square on the damn blankie!!!!!1111!!!!one!!! That's right, baby! Tomorrow night - i-cord. I have nine more days to potentially finish this thing in February, and if I don't, there is always March. But it is going to be d-o-n-e soon. Let's all have a virtual happy dance, shall we? Photos on Friday - yes, you have to wait.

Knit Out 2008

I'm not sure exactly where to start with this post, except maybe to point out for the millionth time that, in case you hadn't already noticed, I am a big ole dork and a huge knitting geek, who can be kinda clueless sometimes. The 2008 Knit Out was held this weekend at the Mall of America, here in the Twin Cities.

We've had knit-outs here in the Twin Cities in the past - I went last year and it was an okay time - a chance to glimpse and even meet-and-greet some big-name knitters (designers and authors and magazine editors, among others). The big yarn companies show up and have display booths and put on demos and hand out freebies. It's a good chance for the knitting world to show up and raise awareness for the craft, and it's fun to just hang out where there are so many other knitters.

But here's the dorky part. I didn't realize that the Craft Yarn Council had made the Minneapolis event the main one for the year. The national speed-knitting competition was held here yesterday. They had whole panels of authors up on stage discussing stuff. And the most embarrassing part for me is that although I read the blog of Canada's fastest knitter, and although she's been talking about coming to the Knit-Out in America for weeks and weeks, I didn't realize until yesterday that she was talking about *our* knit-out. And I was horrified when I realized that Wannietta, who also reads here and comments regularly, and who I highly respect, was going to be *IN TOWN!!!!* and I hadn't made any effort to meet up with her!!! Well, I sent her an e-mail and hoped for the best, and in the end it worked out really well, as you'll see.

Confessions aside, let's get to the story. I was teaching a class at the store on Saturday, so today was my day for the Knit-Out. Can I just tell you what a wonderful husband I have - who volunteered to stay home with the girls for a second day in a row so that I could go have some fun? Well he did, so I headed out the back door towards the car, just as my friend and neighbor Laura was headed out her back door, coincidentally, to the Knit-Out. We had talked about the event last week, but hadn't made any plans to go together because I wasn't entirely sure whether I would get to go and/or whether I would have to drag the kids with me.

Fate was on my side today, though, and Laura and her friend Rachel agreed to let me tag along with them at the Mall. We all got coffees, then milled around looking at the displays - there were huge lines for getting freebies at most of the booths, but we skipped the lines and just got looks at stuff without picking things up at first. We got to meet the Lion Brand Lion at their booth - quite friendly, really, and (s)he was hanging out with the shark from Underwater Adventures, but agreed to take pictures with me and Laura...



And speaking of Lion Brand, I have to mention something that might surprise you and to be honest really surprised me. They have an awesome new sock yarn coming out in the next couple of months. It's a self-striping wool/nylon fingering weight, in really nice colors. There were a couple of colorways that I was practically drooling over. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a bit of a yarn snob, and I had a nice little chat with one of the ladies at their table about how Lion's catalog is, frankly, much less laughable than it used to be. I think the big yarn companies are listening to the real die-hard knitters out here in the world and responding with the kind of yarn and projects that we want. And even though I'm not generally in the habit of buying my yarn at big-box craft stores, it makes me happy for knitters overall, especially the ones who may not have local yarn shops in their areas. They'll have a chance to go see and touch some decent sock yarn in the stores they do have. I'll tell you what - I will be watching for that new sock yarn in the store, and I will probably buy some when I find it.

We strolled around some more, and eventually made our way back to the Rotunda, where the main stage for the Knit Out was set up. And guess who I spotted there? Wannietta! I was really pleased to see her and I went and caught her attention, and thankfully she recognized me after a second and I think was happy to see me too. She was so nice to talk to, and took a bunch of pictures with me and the blankie...you can't tell in the picture very well, but Wannietta has some awesome bright-red highlight streaks in her hair that suit her perfectly. And she was wearing a really cool denim knit sweater that made me wish I could stand knitting with cotton.



And oh-my-gods I had been carrying the blankie around all folded up in my bag just in case I ran into someone who wanted to see it. But when I pulled that sucker out, it was like a magnet. Suddenly there was a little crowd of knitters standing around asking questions and I was blushing something fierce. I mean, it was exhilarating to have strangers excited to see what I had made, but I really am a bit of an introvert and it's a little scary too.

So Wannietta and I stood around chatting for a few minutes, and I asked her about yesterday's competition - she got third place in the international competition! She is the third fastest knitter in the world! And I was standing there all gushing over her, and she said "Well hey, let me introduce you to the fastest knitter in the world. She's right over there." So she went over and got Miriam, who was very sweet and photogenic and chatted with me while I got all gushy and fan-girl on her.



And she admired the blanket, which made me feel very warm and fuzzy.



And I got all super-dorky and made them let me take a picture of the fastest-knitting hands in the world. (Oh, and although Miriam came in second at the competition here, she does hold the Guinness Book of World Records record for most stitches knit in one minute.)



Oh, and they were getting ready to do a show-and-tell thing up on stage, and the guy from the Yarn Garage was MC-ing it. He happened to be standing there when I pulled the blankie out to show Wannietta, and he came over and asked me to show it off up on stage. Ahem. So I did. I was nervous as all get-out, but I am also somewhat shameless.



Thanks to Laura and Rachel for taking the day's pictures for me!

Finally, it was time to come home. As sometimes happens when I am not here, Sophie had failed to take a nap. So she was super-tired, and while I whipped up some corn bread to go with our dinner, she fell asleep in her high chair.



But she did wake up in time to eat a bit, and take a bath before bed.

Oh! and I can't close without mentioning how very excited I am that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will be coming back to St. Paul in April. When I was at the Yarnery on Saturday, one of the managers mentioned that people have already called in and reserved half of the 600 available free tickets. If you are interested in attending, git yerself over to the store and score some tickets!

Blankie Friday and Valentines Wrap-Up

I know you're just here for the blanket pictures, but I'm too lazy to do two seperate posts tonight, so I'm going to make you sit through my Valentine's Day pictures first.

I've been waiting months for this. I saw this totally amazingly yummy-looking chocolate sauce at the co-op a few months ago and thought how perfect it would be with some strawberries as a special Valentine's Day dessert.



And oh, my. It was a terrific Valentine's Day dessert.



The girls loved it. I loved it. Even Joe, who normally does not get into desserts, seemed to love it.

And then Joe surprised me with not one but three awesome VD gifts...

A Takashi Murukami mouse pad to protect my new desk from the laser in my mouse, which left a big old faded spot on the surface of my old desk. Hee hee. I love it.



This funny little guy, which is so totally something Joe would buy. It's a wind-up toy, and the little plastic heart beats in and out as it swings the clear plastic circle around like a hula-hoop, making the ball bearing inside go in circles, producing a rythmic clacking against the ridges inside. It's hilarious, and the girls wanted it for themselves. I said no. But I did let them watch it several times.



And finally, a t-shirt, which is also so totally Joe's sense of humor - it's an ugly doll, Jeero, wearing a surgical mask. Funny.



And I know you're all totally "C'mon, give me the blankie pics!" But I can't resist showing you a couple more chocolate-mouth pictures from today, when we had some friends over for lunch and shared the leftovers with them.



You have to admit that happy chocolate-covered kids can be pretty cute.



The blankie is looking pretty good this week. See those top squares over on the right? That's the freakin' top of the blanket. Oh yeah, baby! I knit 33 squares this week, and there are only 24 more to go. I really think I have a chance of finishing the whole damn thing, i-cord edging and all, by the end of the month.

Happy Valentine's Day

I've been having trouble posting today from my computer, so hopefully
this Sidekick post can get through...

Happy Valentine?

Hey, this is just a test. I've been trying to put up a post all day and Blogger can't seem to connect. Will this one?

Happy Valentine's Day

From all of us.

Lifecycle of a Sock

The other day I was wearing a pair of my handknit socks, as usual. This pair I remember knitting on the year before Julie was born, so they must have been about 5 years old, and have been in fairly steady rotation all winter long since then. The yarn is Lang Jawoll, and the only pair I've ever made from this brand because it contains some acrylic and they tend to get a bit swampy. Still, the colorway goes well with blue jeans, so they got regular wear anyway.



Five years is quite a good long life for a sock, handknit or not. On this particular day last week, I realized that they had lived just about to the end of their life.



The heel was just about ready to poke on through the sole, and the toe was getting quite thin.



I generally subscribe to the Yarn Harlot's school of thought of darning socks, which involves standing over a trash can and saying "darn it!" Really, I have tried darning socks in the past, and find it not worth bothering for several reasons. 1. I would much rather be knitting on a new sock than sewing on an old one. 2. I would much rather be wearing a new sock than an old one with lumpy darns at the heels and toes. 3. Never fails - patch up one hole on a sock, and the yarn next door starts giving way after a few more wears.

I did have a little light-bulb moment as I was pondering all this once again, though. I'm going to start saving my blown-out socks and maybe some day there will be enough of them to cut up and make a blanket out of - the nice stretch of stockinette fabric on the ankles generally stays in great shape, and it would be easy to stabilize it with some machine knitting, open the tube up and sew all the chunks together. I don't know if or when it will actually happen, but it couldn't hurt to hold on to the old socks just in case, right?

In the mean time, and just in time, my Fleece Artist Seawool socks were nearly finished. It really is magical how you can spend a few minutes casting on a sock, and then by simply stealing a few minutes here and there, knitting during a meeting or some other down moment in the car, you suddenly have a new pair of socks.



I took a little time away from the blankie over the weekend and voila!



Joe even agreed to take a happy-feet shot. (Rolling his eyes the entire time, I assure you.)



And finally, just in time for Valentine's Day, the new socks are taking center stage on my non-blankie knitting agenda. Vesper Sock Yarn's Love Stinks colorway.



You may remember that I had started this pair using the Rainbow something-or-other pattern with all the short rows. I frogged it back and am now knitting them plain-jane stockinette, and am very happy. Love no longer stinks!

Where Were We Wednesday...

Sheesh! I'm sorry, friends and loyal readers, I haven't posted since last Friday. I have been busy celebrating Sophie's birthday, knitting on the blankie, and to be honest, just barely holding my shit together as I deal with the aftermath of weeks of sick family and general life overload. I think things are looking up - Sophie is actually taking a nap in her crib at the moment, and Julie is hanging out playing with the valentines she brought home from their party at preschool this morning, so I have a few minutes to dump some pictures.

On Friday, the day of Sophie's birthday, I made ramen noodles for lunch, hoping that Sophie would wake up from her nap and feel up to trying some. Julie loved it, and demonstrated her chopstick skills admirably. Sophie wanted nothing to do with the noodles, and just stuck with more O's cereal.



That night, Joe brought home Punch pizza for dinner, and it was a hit as usual - even with Sophie, who wanted to eat off of *my* pizza, and kept asking for more pieces because she basically wanted to lick the tomato sauce off and eat not much else.



The next morning we checked out the new tent in the basement.



And the new play tunnel as well...



Sophie, while not back to 100% just yet, was obviously feeling much better.



Joe even got in on the action (sorry, honey, couldn't resist!)



And out of fairness, I got in on the action as well, and had Joe take my picture snuggling with the girls even though I was fresh out of bed and still sporting my bedhead jammie look. Let's all take a moment to admire that double chin, too!



Sunday afternoon I baked up a chocolate cake, and called Julie in to lick the frosting off the beaters while Sophie napped.



Sophie woke up just in time and got to lick some frosting off the spatula.



Sophie thoroughly enjoyed the singing of Happy Birthday and the blowing out of her candles. Thanks to our friend and neighbor Laura, who agreed to come over with her little family and eat cake with us and took the pictures.





Alls well that ends well. Everyone's relatively healthy at the moment once more. Knock on Wood.

Blankie Friday - the Unhappy Birthday Edition

Lots going on at House of Kang today. Mostly involving more barfing, another fruitless visit to the doctor's office, and a very sad toddler, exhausted mama, and bored pre-schooler. All on Someone's second birthday. It sucked. Royally.

But. Let's forget about that for a moment. I've had a glass of wine and a long, hot bath. We've agreed to have a re-do of Sophie's birthday when she's feeling better. Hopefully on Sunday I'll make a cake and buy some balloons. Joe's set up her birthday present in the basement, and we'll show that to her in the morning assuming that she's up to it.

Here's the birthday girl at lunchtime, still in her PJs, eating applesauce and Cheerios. She wanted nothing to do with the Pedialyte that I dragged the girls through SuperTarget, to fetch.



Moments later, I was trying to take a picture of Julie to prove that she's still alive and happy. Um, yeah.



So for now, let's get on with Blankie Friday and some other fun stuff.

This week marks a milestone - I knit the last big square in the blanket just yesterday. My friends, there is a growing light at the end of the tunnel, and it's increasingly clear that the light is not an oncoming train. Shown here are the candidates for that last square. I'd used most of my more-favorite samples in big squares already, and I needed something that fit colorwise with the spot. So I cheated a bit and pulled out a few of the intact skeins on my shelf. I did end up using one of the intact skeins, the Opal one third from the right, so I'll make sure to add it to my plain-sock queue right after the Vesper pair that's on the needles and next in line.



Here is the big-picture shot for the week. 33 new squares total (yay!) I think the guilt of having played around with another new project really worked to motivate me this week.



And the up-close shots...







Once again, the girls were hanging around watching as I took my pictures, and Julie wanted a chance to play in the blanket. There is a series of Beatrix Potter videos that we sometimes borrow from the library, and one of them includes the story of Samuel Whiskers or the Roly-Poly Pudding. It involves a kitten who gets caught by some rats and rolled up in dough while they plan to eat him for dinner. He is saved just in time, thankfully, but Julie is really interested in the whole scenario. She loves being made into a roly-poly pudding.



Remember how I said I wasn't going to count how many squares are left to knit? Well, I gave in. I drew myself a little diagram, and counted up the empty squares - 58! Barring some unforeseen obstacle, I should be finishing my last square in a couple of weeks. Happy Dance time!



And finally, something completely unrelated but hilariously funny and cheers me up to no end...There's this show on the Cartoon Network called Aqua Teen Hunger Force. It's shown as part of their Adult Swim schedule late at night and is totally not meant for kids. Joe and I used to watch it back when we had cable TV, and he just bought the latest season that came out on DVD. He's been watching it all week, and last night he called me in to see this.

Two of the main characters, Shake and Meatwad (the show is silly and twisted and distusting and makes no sense, but it is still highly entertaining) are playing a video game.



A knitting video game!



Look at the little old lady face. Notice how purl is misspelled. And they're saying something like "Knit! Knit!" "Purl, dammit!"

I can't believe I just said...

Hey, Sophie's asleep. Pick up your books and put them away so we can go
downstairs and eat potato chips and watch tv.

(Julie was resting quietly in her room while I put Sophie down, and I
had promised her the rare treat of chips, left over from our lunch out,
while she watches a video, so I can rest and commune with blankie for a
few minutes. And go to the bathroom unsupervised.)

Socktracked, and other stuff

It's confession time. Over the weekend I got a bit sidetracked from the blankie. Really, it was only for one evening - or so - as far as the knitting went, but my brain has been all over a little obsession with a new sock. Still is, really. Don't worry! I've been hard at work so far this week making up lost time, and blankie progress for the week will hopefully fall into the acceptable category of accomplishment.

I'll talk about the sock in question momentarily, but first I have to show you a couple of other pictures that are clogging up the queue...

Sophie has been working hard on sprouting new molars in the back of her mouth. So she's been walking around looking like this quite a bit lately.



It really is amazing how far she can stick pretty much her whole hand in there. Totally random, I know. But cute, so you have to look at it to get to the knitting.



And by the way, those pictures were taken over the weekend. Today's Sophie update is that she woke up with a high fever and remained a limp little noodle for the entire day, despite multiple doses of Motrin and Tylenol (delivered at appropriate intervals, of course). Gah! Why can't we as a family seem to recover from the neverending sickness this winter? The answer is all in one word: pre-school.

Next, I need to brag on my recent sock class that just ended. I feel so lucky to have gotten to teach this awesome group of women for the second time - a bunch of ladies took my hat class a few months back, and they had fun, so they set up a socks class to do together. They were all really fun, and seemed to catch on to the short-row heels and toes pretty well. Here are some of the results:



And here are update pictures of my current socks-in-progress, although I've gotten further up the cuff on this Fleece Artist one



And the poor little Vesper toes are languishing in a project bag somewhere till the Seawool ones are done. Notice, though, that I *do* sometimes use magic loop now. I kinda like it, and I love my Addi Turbos.



And here's where we really get down to business...It all started when I got carried away with the credit card and the computer a couple weeks ago. Part of my spending spree involved some more Addi Turbos. Because my beloved Yarnery doesn't carry them in this particular size, or maybe they were just out of stock the last time I checked.



Let's have a closeup.



That's right. Crazy-tiny Addi Turbos in a length justright for Magic Loop. I know I've mentioned it before, but I'll mention it again. I knit loosely. I usually knit all my socks on size 0s, partly because I really strongly believe in firm fabric for socks so that they will wear longer, and partly because I knit like someone who is much, much more relaxed than anyone who meets me could possibly believe. So when I heard about crazy-tiny ATs, I thought "I need me some of those."

And they came in the mail, and it was kind of like a present because I had by that time forgotten that I'd ordered them. So I was really excited and I felt the immediate need to try them out. Of course. Unlike the other needles that we don't even need to name again, I couldn't just switch one of my projects-in-progress and give them a whirl because I was expecting, even hoping for, a dramatic change in gauge. I needed something new.

And what I found was the perfect yarn for the testing job - a skein of what I'm pretty sure is Schaeffer Anne that one of my awesome readers sent me during the deluge of sock-yarn scraps. She had tried knitting with it and didn't like it, so convinced me that I was doing her a favor by taking it off her hands. And I had at some point in the last year and a half cast on a toe with my beloved Pony Pearl 0's, but never got any further because I was less than thrilled with the fabric I was getting. Anne is really thin fingering weight. I think one could even argue that it borders on laceweight. And that combined with my loose tension meant a fabric that was floppier than I wanted for socks.

It's hard to see in this picture, but the top toe has a nice, tighter gauge because it was knit with the 000 Turbos, while the one at the bottom has a looser gauge because it was knit with the 0s.



They look like they're about the same size, and they pretty much are, but that's because I knit more rows and added more stitches to the new toe when I realized that it was going to be too small for my foot on the standard 64 stitches around that I normally use. So I went up to 72, which was about right. Only, I had knit my standard short-row toe and switching to increases at either side looked pretty clunky. See?



And at this point, I realized that if I am going to knit socks with this yarn at this gauge, I'd like them to be State Fair-worthy - a high bar to set when you're talking about the Minnesota State Fair and its highly competitive sock knitting categories.

See, by this time, I had another motive in mind. I've had entrelac on the brain for quite some time - years really - and over the holidays out came Interweave Knits with their Holiday issue and in it was a design called "Annetrelac Socks" that had renewed my interest in making a pair of entrelac socks, considering how beautiful the sample was and the fact that I had this single toe sitting on my shelf staring at me all the time anyway.

And the obsession was in full swing by now, and I was suddenly pulling entrelac sock patterns off the shelves and poring over them to decide just how I wanted to knit my version.



I've really considered three main patterns - I started with Eunny Jang's pattern that appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of IK, and actually knit a couple of tiers on it (after, of course, ripping out the second bad toe and casting on again with the appropriate number of stitches this time) before I realized that I was terribly unhappy with it. I forgot to take a picture before I ripped, but I had a line of holes along where the base triangles joined the toe. In talking to one of the managers (Theresa Gaffey, who totally rocks!) at the store when I was there on Sunday, I found out that she'd had the same problem with that pattern, and then looking at the picture in Ravelry, it appears that lots of other knitters had the problem too. You can see it pretty well in this one.

To the frog pond I went, and I took Theresa's suggestion of the pattern by Vickie Starbuck in Socks Socks Socks, which she said worked much better for her, and which I found to be true for me as well. See?



Oh, and before I forget - I chose not to use the Annetrelac pattern in IK Holiday 2007 because it was written top-down and without patterning on the foot. Which doesn't make it a bad pattern - just not the one I wanted.

Anyway, even after knitting all these annoying little squares, and much improving my knitting-back-backward technique, I'm still a little obsessed with the idea of entrelac socks. I'm going to knit a pair, I think. But I've set this toe aside for a few days, partly because I knew I needed to make up time on the blankie, and partly because I want to sit with my thoughts for a bit before I embark on a project that will take some time, and not just idle mindless multitasking time, but actual pay-attention knitting time.

I poked around a bit more on Ravelry. What the heck did we ever do before Ravelry? There are a few different patterns for entrelac socks out there, and hundreds of project pictures amongst them to stare at and analyze. Lots of those were made with Schaeffer Anne, and I realized that I didn't like them as much as some of the others - the handpaint yarn actually seemed to muddy the pattern up quite a bit. The ones I really love are the ones made out of the new Noro sock yarn. It's like the gradually shifting colors and entrelac were meant to go together.

And I feel like I've come full circle, because I'm not sure if I mentioned it here, but I saw my friend Connie knitting entrelac socks out of the new Noro sock yarn a few weeks ago at my Wednesday morning group, and could. not. take my eyes off of them, they were so beautiful. They were so beautiful that the same afternoon I dragged the girls to Coldwater Collaborative and bought two skeins of the stuff. I bought colors 164 and 185 - don't have a photo handy at the moment, and it's getting too late tonight to drag the camera back out.

In any case, I'm strongly considering knitting some copycat socks, and I was really sad about missing knitting with her this morning because I wasn't about to drag my limp Sophie-noodle to the bagel shop where she could infect all my friends with her fever-inducing germs.

And speaking of Sohpie once more, I will leave you with two more incredibly cute kid pictures. Julie, for some reason, hasn't been in the photos much this week - maybe because she's been in school and Sophie and I have been tooling around together. This one is from Monday when we were heading out to do our grocery shopping, before the Busted incident. It looks like she's grimacing, but really she's smiling because she's letting the snowflakes land on her face and tickle her. You kind of had to be there, but it was SO cute, watching her experience the sensation as only someone to whom it is new can do. She did this every time we got in and out of the car that morning.



And from yesterday, she let me put her hair in pigtails, which were so cute till she pulled the rubber bands out later that afternoon. And she's excited about eating a banana, which she loves but which I haven't allowed her to have very much in the last year because of the constipation issues that are well on their way to resolved now.



And hey - if you have any great resources on knitting entrelac that you'd like to point me to, I'd be grateful.

Busted!

I just got pulled over and given a $148 fine for a stupid stupid traffic
violation.

I was headed to the co-op to get some groceries before the snow expected
today, and I accidentally turned left where you're not supposed to turn
left during rush hour. I didn't even think about it because there was no
traffic coming the other way - and because I'm not usually headed to the
Wedge before 9 in the morning.

I realized what I was doing mid-turn, but it was too late and I kind of
mentally berated myself but figured oh well, pay more attention next
time. And then I saw the cop, lights flashing behind me. D'oh! I knew
right away, and when he told me what IU had done I was honestly
apologetic and truthfully told him I was sorry and that I'm not usually
out so early.

Still - almost $150 down the toilet. Ouch!

I so badly wanted to snap a picture of the flashing lights with my
Sidekick, but I figured if he was going to be lenient, that would have
been a surefire way to piss him off.

I think probably the worst part for me is the shame of being pulled over
- of being the one sitting on the side of the road in front of the
police car with lights blinking a silent "Guilty! Busted! Gotcha!" for
everyone to see.

And to top it off - the store doesn't even open till 9, so Sophie and I
are sitting here killing the extra ten minutes that, had we spent them
at home instead of heading out the moment Julie's schoolbus left, would
have saved me - lets say it one more time - One Hundred and Forty-Eight
Dollars!!!11one!!!

Sigh. And Joe (who didn't get his wii yesterday BTW) just laughed at me
when I called him and told him. Whew!

My Husband is So Cute

Yes, we know that Joe is physically cute.



But does everybody know what a video-game addict he is? He is a huge video game addict. And I'm not complaining. We are a perfect fit for each other because he likes to spend his evenings playing video games, I like to spend mine watching DVDs and knitting. We both respect each others' choices in how we spend our free time and our fun money. Heck, I bought him components for a new computer for his birthday so he could have the gaming machine he wanted.

Ever since the Wii came out, Joe has adamantly said "I don't want one. I don't need one. Maybe eventually." Even when I've offered one as a gift for a holiday. Until a couple weeks ago. Suddenly, he decided that he *needs* one. And when he *needs* something, he becomes obsessed with it. He needs it *right now*!

And of course, the Wiis are kind of hard to find right now. And to Joe it feels like he will never get one - the other day he was talking about paying big bucks on e-bay for one. I kind of quashed that idea - my neighbor says that the local stores are getting regular shipments in and that you can call around to see if they have them in stock. Well, he saw an ad in a store flyer from the newspaper this morning, and he got all excited "they wouldn't be advertising them if they weren't getting some in the store. I better go right now!"

Okay, I said. But I have to work later, and I need to get in the shower. No problem, he said. I'll take the girls with me. They love going on errands with Daddy, so ten minutes later they were all out the door and here I sit in a blissfully empty house for the first time since that day that I was house-cleaning before Christmas.

I hope for Joe's sake that he gets his Wii. I love watching him with a new toy, all excited. And to be honest, I think I may play with it some too. The game that finally got him ready to buy the Wii is coming out next month I think. It's Wii Fit, and I think I could benefit from it too. I like video games, I just 1) am not very good at them and 2) would rather be doing something productive. Flying Hamsters notwithstanding (thanks a lot Yarn Harlot!) But this Wii Fit game sounds like it would be somewhat productive in the getting-some-exercise sense.

Just so nobody thinks I'm being too hard on Joe, this whole scenario reminds me of my own recent obsession and splurge...



Now gotta go take a shower and get ready to teach!

Blankie Friday only Ten Hours Late

These pictures are from Friday afternoon, and I had every intention of posting last night when I came home from knitting with some friends at a coffee shop. It didn't quite happen - will get to the why of that in a moment - but at least the square count is from Friday - 29! I really felt throughout the week that I was struggling to keep up with my quota. It seemed like I never got to sit down to knit till at least 10 at night, but in the end I came darn near 30 squares, and I'm still on track to finish knitting at least the squares by the end of the month.

My secret wishful goal would be to finish the whole thing, i-cord and all, by the end of the month, but I will be happy with getting the squares done by then if that's how it works out. I'm forcing myself not to do the math on exactly how many squares are left, but I think about it constantly. See that topmost large square right in the middle beneath Sophie's toes? If there were two more squares on top of it, that would be the top of the blanket. We're getting close.



I sort of forgot to take the up-close shots of the top of the blanket this week - the girls were there just dying to roll around on the blanket, and I gave in and let them as soon as the big-picture pictures were taken. I did put up the full-res image above, though, which should suffice if you click right through to it.

And I did get this fun little picture, which makes me happy to look at. The standard overhead shot is getting a little boring, and I think this on-the-ground perspective give a little bit better idea of what the blankie looks like in person.



Now about the why-I-didn't-post last night. All this last week, Sophie and I had been affected with a low-grade stomach bug. Sophie actually threw up a couple times over the weekend, and just didn't eat much during the rest of the week. I never actually you-know, but I had that ooky feeling in my tummy for several days myself. I thought Julie was getting away free and clear, but it turns out it just took a few extra days to hit her.

And really, you don't want to know any additional details. I will just say that I really should not have gone to knitting at all, and poor Joe was stuck changing the bed several times while I was gone and doing a ton of laundry in the space of about three hours. I ended up going to bed with Julie and snuggling her for a few hours - partly to comfort her and partly to be right there with the bucket if necessary. And I'll admit - it's not often that my four-year-old lets me just hold her and cuddle, so even though she was sick and miserable, I kind of enjoyed being there with her. It's twisted, I know.

Today she's still not eating much, but she's keeping the juice down and will be just fine. I had Sophie in the doctor earlier this week to check for an ear infection because *she* has been waking up screaming every night this week, even after the stomach thing cleared. It turns out it's just her new molars coming in, but the awesome nurse practitioner did mention that this low-grade stomach bug has been all around the community. Julie's going to be just fine.

Now if we could all just get a solid night's sleep...