So, What’s New With You?

Last Friday night, I was at an event. It had been snowing all day and the roads were horrible, but I managed to make it there and back in one piece. All in all, it was worth it, as I had a wonderful time with good friends.

Now, I knew it was an “event,” because a friend of mine was there who is guaranteed to show up somewhere if it’s an event. It has to be a damn good one, too. Facetiousness aside, she’s a wonderful, intelligent woman and a lot of fun to talk with. I hadn’t seen her in a few months, so the first words out of her mouth were:

“So, what’s new with you?”

Well, I don’t know about the rest of you obsessive yarnsters, but that is often a difficult question for me to answer. This is what I REALLY wanted to say:

“Oh, my Goddess, what a time I’ve had! First of all, I’ve spend months knitting a ducky blanket for a dear friend…RIGHT UNDER HER NOSE…passing it off as a blanket for a coworker. She loved it, but the Gods do have a sense of humor. No sooner had I completed that then a coworker REALLY did turn out to be expecting. I had two weeks to frantically knit a baby sweater and hat for her. Now this was no ordinary little hat. I had to use MULTIPLE short rows, which is something I’d never attempted before. It took three tries, but I got it done, and my coworker absolutely loved it. In the meantime, I was working on designing and knitting a Rune Sweater for my partner. Again, something I’d never attempted—I’ve knitted yoke sweaters before, but I’ve never designed one, much less one with runes, using stranded knitting. It was a crazy challenge, but I got it done. She was so thrilled when she opened her present Christmas day, because—yes—I’d knitted this RIGHT UNDER HER NOSE, pretending it was for me. Now, I’m working on a sweater for myself, using the yarn I got for Christmas. Oh, yes, and there was my wild excursion to Creative Fibers the other weekend for their big Winter Sale on all their yarn and patterns…”

I knew this would bore her to tears, so I said:

“Oh, not much.”

Okay, show of hands...

How many knitters and crocheters out there prepare for a big storm, not so much by perusing the stash of canned goods and water, but by checking the YARN stash???

We are due for a nasty storm of "mixed" precipitation tomorrow. My first though was to make sure I enough WIPs to keep me going. I have one main project - a sweater I'm knitting (natch), a more complicated project involving many cables and odd stitches I've never attempted before, the granny stripe afghan project, and of course TONS of stash (you never know when the urge will hit to cast on or chain up for yet another WIP).

I had the mad idea of using the time to rifle through my supplies and tidy up...yeah, I dismissed the idea, too, when I took one good look at the bedlam.

I started out my crafting life with one crochet hook and one pair of Size 8 straight Boye aluminum knitting needles. I now own hooks and needles to the point (no pun intended) where we could probably sell them out of the house and make enough money for a trip to Cancun. I have an ENTIRE bookcase filled with books and miscellaneous printed patterns (again, we could sell all of this on eBay and retire), plus we won't even go into the yarn stash (at least without riot gear).

So, my plan tomorrow, after working from home, will be to sit happily and work on my WIPs, while watching the weathermen having orgasms over THE BIG STORM!!!

Knit Pattern for the Special Olympics Scarf

At long last, I'm posting the pattern for my Knit Special Olympics scarf! Keeping with the basic guidelines at the site http://www.scarvesforspecialolympics.org I decided to create my own pattern...



Measurements: 6" wide x 60" long, excluding fringe.

Gauge: 11 stitches = 3” in garter stitch
Row gauge is not critical, as the rows are repeated until almost 6” is reached.

Materials:
1 skein each
Red Heart Supersaver Blue (#0886) - A
Red Heart Supersaver Turqua (#0512) - B
Needles: Size 10 (6 mm) 24” circular needle

NOTE: The scarf is worked lengthwise.
Do not break off the yarn when changing to a new color. You can carry the other color up the side and pick up again, as needed, for each color change.

Using A, cast on 220 stitches, using a knit cast-on.

Row 1: k
Row 2: Using B, k
Row 3: k
Row 4: Using A, k
Row 5: k

Repeat Rows 2 – 5, until the scarf measures almost 6” wide.

Repeat Row 2 one more time (B), and then bind off in B.
The scarf should now be 6” wide and 60” long.

Fringe:
Cut 12” lengths of both colors of yarn.
Taking one strand for each stripe, tie a fringe across the ends of the scarf, using an A strand for an “A” stripe and a B strand for a “B” stripe.

Trim all the ends to be a uniform length.