Football Game Knitting

You get a few odd looks when you knit at a high school football game. It was the first home game of the season, and cross town rivals were playing. The oldest is in the marching band so they were there to play during half time. It was packed, I was there 40 minutes early and still had to park 3 blocks away and hoof it to the field and then stand on the track for the first quarter and sit on the track for the second quarter, and finally got a bleacher seat after half time. At the beginning of the second quarter I cast on for this sock. It is some lovely Opal my sister Karen shared with me ... I love it, thank you, Karen. This is how much sock you can knit in 3 quarters of a high school football game. It is Opal Traumfanger 1232, just a plain jane, mindless knitting sock. 68 stitches, size 2 needles, 8.5 stitches to the inch. Oh, and by the way, the band sounded fantastic. They work so hard and it shows.
And also on the needles is a sweater for the youngest. The oldest says it is "ugly", but the youngest likes it, and assures me she will gladly wear it. It is a pattern from the Spring 2005 "Knit It" magazine. It is the Hugs and Kisses Pullover, designer Kristen Nicholas. I am knitting it in the round, instead of flat as the pattern directs, and will do steeks for the armholes. I am knitting it in Cascade 220 on size 7 needles. It is a little scrunched up on the needles for the picture, but it is coming along nicely. Hopefully, I will have it done for cool, fall weather. She will match the changing colors of the leaves.

That is about all for today. We have a house full of sickly people... I hate when school begins for just this reason. We take bets on which one will get sick first, and how many days into the new school year it will take. This year , boy child won, sickly in just 3 days, followed by the oldest, 5 days, and now the youngest, who appears to be the worst. You just got to love those confined spaces and 26 coughing, sneezing kids all in one room. The youngest wants to be held, so I am off for now.

Honestly....

I really have been knitting. Most of what I have been working on has been Secret Pal stuff, so, I can't show it to you.. I will say, I have been branching out, and not all of it has been knitting. But my daughter said I had to post, because it has been a while, even though I have nothing to show, so I am.
How about a little eye candy from the flower bed. I love the Hibiscus, but the flower is short lived and we had torrential down pours soon after it bloomed. So, we had a few beautiful blooms for just a few days. The flowers were just shy of 8" across.
Maybe I will have some knitting to show in the next day or so.

Happy Dance

Kathy had a contest to celebrate her 500th post, and I was the lucky winner. Today when I came home from carpooling kids to and from band camp this was waiting for me. I was so excited, the yarn looked so beautiful in the pictures on her blog, I couldn't wait to get it open. And what was inside this package? All this beautiful Handpaint Originals Brown Sheep Mohair / Wool blend yarn. And these are all so my colors. Take a look, isn't it just lovely. I am going to search through patterns to see what it wants to be, but I am thinking some kind of lacy shawl. It is so pretty, I have it sitting here by the computer so I can admire it.. Thank you so much Kathy!

Just A Really Bad Sprain...

along with some kind of little deformity. I am so relieved that the arm is not broken, just badly sprained. And she is happy, no cumbersome cast, but she gets out of the push ups and other weight bearing arm exercises in band.... at least for 2 weeks anyway. What they thought was a fracture turns out to be some little abnormality in the bone, nothing to worry about, says the ortho MD. She may have been born with it or it may have resulted from a previous injury. It is a mystery. So we had an enjoyable morning and afternoon together, just the two of us, shopping. We don't get the opportunity to have just the two of us time very often.

There is nothing new on the needles, but I did finally attach straps and handles and buttons to some felted bags . Now if I could just find those pesky little buttons I bought for Baby Albert, I could sew those on too. I am almost done with the first sleeve on the FC Cabled Hooded Sweater. I may knit the back next just so I can do something different, rather than the other sleeve, which was my original plan..

Random Knitting Theory #1

There is a contest going on over at Jerry& Maxy A theory to prove whether there is a difference in the hands of different styles of knitters ... anyway, I think that is what is going on. So, I had my very reluctant daughter, she is having a bad day, take some pictures for me.
Exhibit 1 : idle hands














Exhibit 2: knitting hands















Now, onto the reluctant daughter. I feel so sorry for her. First of all, she was at band camp all last week in the blistering heat. They were outside in the heat for 6 hours a day, and she endured that like a trooper. I know I could not do it. This weekend she went to a camp with the church youth group. It was sort of a welcoming of the freshman, which she will be this year, into the "senior" youth group (sort of an oxy moron I know). Now, my oldest has always been somewhat accident prone, in fact I often tell her I should wrap her in bubble wrap before she leaves the house. Well she fell off a cabled wire type rope during some "extreme challenge" She has a bruise that is 11" long on her thigh , one about 4 " long and 2" wide on her chest, and her arm is bruised, but otherwise she appears ok. I did take pictures of the bruises but she doesn't want me to show them off. Anywho, yesterday morning she wakes up and tells me her arm is sore and she has a terrible sore throat and she doesn't want to go to band. I am a little hesitant to let her stay home because they are pretty strict about missing, but I let her stay home because she went all last week and didn't complain so I figure she must feel rotten. No fever, throat doesn't look too bad and she seems to be able to move everything ok. Then last night she asks me to look at her throat again, and I do and I think it looks suspicious for strep, so I tell her she can sleep in I will take her to the doctor in the morning. So we go the pediatrician this morning and while we are there I asked him to take a look at all the bruising just to be sure it is just soft tissue damage and nothing more to worry about. Well, we end up at the radiology department for xrays of the arm and tomorrow get to go to the orthopedic doctor for follow-up as the arm may be fractured. But the good news is, she doesn't have strep. This child has had 6 fractures in her 14 years of life and stitches twice, did I mention she is a little accident prone. She is such a stoic child and it is hard to tell when she is really hurting. Now I feel bad for waiting for a whole day to take her. And I think I am going to buy a HUGE package of bubble wrap when I am out tonight.

BallBand Craze

I have been hit by the Ballband dishcloth craze. I am making these like crazy. I think they are addictive. And the best part is, they are cotton, so your hands stay dry in this terrible heat while you are knitting, unlike my wool ... I am half afraid to knit with it for fear it will felt in my hands from the heat and the sweat. I went to Hobby Lobby the other day and bought more cotton, JoAnn's and Wally World were just about out and had maybe 4 colors total. I think the whole city must be knitting them.




And as if I don't already belong to enough groups, I joined 2 more this week. I joined the FCCabled Hooded Pullover KAL I think I knit this sweater in 1977 when the pattern was released. It looks so familiar. I am knitting it in Cascade Eco Wool. I started with the sleeves, I hate knitting sleeves so I thought I would start with them and use that as my gauge swatch. I think this is going to be a really quick knit.

And the other KAL is the Mystery Sock KAL. You find a sock pattern online that doesn't have a picture, hence the mystery. I thought what the heck, I will be brave and not even look at the patterns first. I closed my eyes and pointed my index finger out and whatever it lands on, that is the one I will knit. So, I am knitting this sock in Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I figure at least the sock yarn will be great, since I am knitting site unseen. It is a simple lace pattern, I didn't even copy it as it is only a 3 stitch repeat with only 4 rows to the pattern, 2 of those being knit . I will have to go back though and look at the name of it so I can post it on the KAL. I think I am starting a little early. I hope that is ok.

Well, surprisingly enough, blogger has been relatively cooperative today. This has been an almost pleasant posting experience, LOL.

My turkey breast smells like it is getting close to done so I better go finish dinner. Have a great weekend all, what is left of it anyway.