Apparently, I say this a lot. The boys told me this. Now, they didn't just say, "hey ma, you say that a lot." No, but when getting ready to go to the playground, they say, "Hold the phone, we gotta get our shoes." And while playing with their Thomas trains, they say, "Stop, hold the phone, I gotta fix my train!"

They're going through a little phone phase in general it seems, always telling me that the phone is ringing. I can see from the caller id that it's some telemarketer and so I'm not answering and the boys are saying, "moooooommmmmyyyyyyyy, the phone is ringing, mooooooommmmmmmyyyyyy...."

And now they have started using their Happy Meal video games, which we keep in the car, as cell phones. They hop into their car seats and immediately flip them open and say stuff like, "No, I am late. I can't do that. I have a busy day." And then the "phone call" always ends for some unknown reason with them saying, "So you build me the pink house. Okay."

Anyway, my knitting is a bit on hold right now as I finish up a BIG design project that I can't share with you all. It's very exciting, but it's a lot of work. Plus, the germans are coming! First they select a German pope and now the in-laws are coming to visit. I'll still be knitting and posting, but only in the breaks between designing and Oma & Opa funtime.

So you build me the pink house. Okay?

A sleeve for my white bread sweater.

I'm so glad that I threw caution to the wind and went for stripey sleeves! I should have plenty of yarn to make sleeve number two. I am having a hard time with the sleeves though, because of how I lengthened the top. Keeping the same shape over a longer armhole, while making sure that the stripes still match up has been a real battle. This is my fourth attempt and the first that looks like it may have a real chance of fitting in the armhole. I'll sew it in this week to see if it's a keeper.

"Argyle" sock number two isn't pooling quite as regularly as sock number one. Can you see how it really wants to keep shifting in one direction?

I was able to keep the pooling centered on the front of the first sock by adjusting gauge alone. But that hasn't been enough for this sock. In order to keep it from swirling, I've had to remove color repeats to keep it centered. For example, the gray was coming too early AGAIN, thus shifting the whole "shazaam" to the right, so I pulled out the whole color repeat to an inch before the gray began again and then started knitting with the yarn.

Now I've got an inch more of blue to work with before the gray comes. Result: the "shazaam" has been forced back towards the center. I'll have to go back later and cut these yarns on the inside and weave them in. Still, it's a fairly easy fix and is working pretty well.

Say that ten times fast.

Oh, I love me a good hem. And I love me this denim yarn! I originally bought the denim to make a Tasha bag for me, but then I found an awesome blue jean bag in a vintage store and the yarn decided that it had to become this denim pinafore (from Erika Knight's simple knits for little cherubs) for my friends' little girl whose first birthday is coming up. I've had a bit of trouble getting the right gauge and sizing down the pattern (my first, failed start is on the right in the above picture), but the little dress is so sweet, I've been able to battle through the difficulties rather easily. The simple stockinette has actually made for very good playground, car, and talking-to-the-in-laws knitting.

Plus I get to do hems. Picot hems!

One sleeve in. Looks like I've got a keeper here.

And because Colleen wanted to see, here are all the ends on the inside.

I carried the green yarn, which is used in two rows every fifteen rows, but cut the other yarns, since they didn't repeat for fifty rows. I'll have a lot of weaving in to do in the end, especially around those sleeves! But first before I do sleeve number two, I've got to give this whole thing a wash. The mystery yarn is a little stiff and I need to see if it's going to soften up enough before I go to the trouble of finishing everything.

So how do I figure out if the yarn is wool or acrylic? Is there a test? Or do I need to commit a crime wearing the sweater in the Las Vegas/Miami/NY area and let the CSI folks tell me?

Thanks so much for all the tips on how to determine the fiber content of my mystery yarn! Since the back of the sweater is knit entirely in the green Bazic wool that I bought, I knew that the "wet wool smell" test wasn't going to be enough to answer my question. I was going to have to resort to something more drastic. So while hubby, the in-laws, and the kids were out of the house yesterday, I decided to give the burn test a try.

metal baking dishes, matches, yarn, and plenty of water at the ready

I lit up the match, held it to the yarn and... it stuck.

Houston, we have acrylic.

The yarn immediately melted and stuck to the match. Twice. On the third try, I got a small portion of it to light, but the flame quickly petered out, like when the wax from a candle smothers the candle's own flame. Alright, mystery solved.

I actually love that it's acrylic. It seems only fitting that the retro, white bread sweater should be made of acrylic yarn. Don't you think?

Super boys getting ready to fly off to a superhero birthday party.

I even wore my "super mom" shirt!

The birthday season has officially begun! It seems like all of our family and friends' birthdays are in the spring and summer. Luckily, Santa comes along six months after the bitter end of birthday season to make up for the loss. At the end of last year's birthday season, the boys had finally grasped the concept of birthday party. And it was good. So this spring when we received this first party invitation, you could see it in their eyes: "the birthdays are back!".

Super!

- - - - - - - - -

A happy mother's day to all the other super moms out there, including mine!

Just got back from a mother's day outing to... now don't laugh...

Foxwoods Casino! This place is huge (check out the never-ending hallway of hotel rooms). I played a little poker, lost a little money (net loss= $2), and ate a lot of food.

Questions from my first casino experience:
1) What's with all the slots? Rows and rows of droning slot machines looked a little too much like one of the circles of Hell to me. What am I missing?
2) People, do we really have to smoke this much? Now I know why I never see anyone smoking on the street anymore - every remaining smoker in America is smoking in Foxwoods Casino. Right now.
3) When did Bingo get so complicated?
4) Who out there is playing so many Keno games that the numbers have to be posted in every hallway, restaurant, casino area, television and in the internet?
5) And please, please tell me what was supposed to be going on in Ocean's Twelve. We watched the movie in our room and hadn't a single clue!

The first half of the pinafore is done!

you gotta see the BIG picture!

This is knitting up so quickly! And I'm really enjoying the denim. Just look at that blue! The blue, by the way, isn't coming off on my fingers dramatically. My hands are definitely less pink and more pallid after I've been knitting with the denim for a while, but I wouldn't call them blue. The Erika Knight pattern is so simple, but the little picot and decreasing details really make it. I can't wait to see how it will all look when it comes out of the wash!

And I am now obsessed with the idea of making a denim pinafore for myself.

To all you mothers out there who have been forced to watch Dora's Pirate Adventure, I apologize. I simply cannot turn the heel of a sock anymore without having this ridiculous song in my head!

I'm still shazaam'ing my way down the foot as best I can. It's been a really fun challenge trying to keep this pooling going the way it has so far. But my favorite thing by far about the socks has to be the Gems Opal yarn I'm using for the heels and toes. This yarn is such a pleasure to work with. It has a wonderful hand and knits up smoothly and evenly. I can't wait to get some more and make a whole sweater with it like Grumperina did (I hope you clicked over to her site, because her sweater is fabulous!).

"I'm turning the heel; I'm turning the heel!"

My store model nothing but a t-shirt is underway!

Is it okay to say how very much I'm enjoying knitting another one of these? This new blue shade of Calmer is really cool - sometimes it's positively purple looking and then other times it appears to be a true baby blue. Very neat color. How did my LYS know that I'd like the blue? Wink, wink.

my Lorna's Laces "Argyle" socks

I'm thinking these socks will definitely have to be for me. Look at how I messed up the heels.

see?

The first heel was done over about 60% of the stitches, instead of 50%. I left it because I was too lazy to go back. I did the second heel correctly (why didn't I just repeat my mistake to make them match?!) but then managed to do the toe over a different number of stitches from the first sock. Whaaaa? So they're wonky and crazy all over now.

I still kinda love 'em though. I can't help it. They crack me up.

Well, at least I am. Yup, I'm at the store the whole weekend again. If we're not swamped, I'll be knitting a bit on my store model nothing but a t-shirt. Hey, knitting I can legitimately do at work - cool!

Doh! I made the back too short. Guess I'll start with a little frogging.

And a little bird told me that the store is going to have a nothing but a t-shirt class! Six weeks to make a NBaT with me. You know what that means: I've got an excuse to make another one!

Another bread sleeve. Yum!

Prewashed pinafore parts.

I finished the second side of the pinafore, sewed the shoulders together, did the edgings, and washed all the pieces without further seaming, as instructed by the pattern. The denim fabric has definitely changed after washing. The stitches are tighter and the color has faded ever so slightly. It's not really become lighter, but it's like the edge has been taken off of that perfectly deep blue. It's a really cool effect.

Now to sew down those picot edgings...

We're down to about four sockapaloozers still knitting away. Two make-up gifties have already been sent out to waiting pals. Go sock pals and doners!

And look, some sockapalooza socks have recently arrived on my doorstep too.

blue crocheted socks - how cool!

It's a second pair of socks from my sock pal, Andrea! She sent me these along with the lovely cream-colored pair I posted about in March, but these were too tight for me to wear. Andrea was kind enough to offer to widen them a bit for me and now they fit perfectly. Hooray! In exchange for her fixing my socks, I've offered to fix the supercool socks she got from her pal.

the pattern is from Vogue Knitting On the Go: Socks

These beautiful socks were knit by Shirley, who's a little too busy right now to fix up Andrea's socks, but will be sending me her extra yarn, so I can try it.

- - - - - - - -

Speaking of fixing, my pop sweater is still unfinished. And with the arrival of warmer weather, I'd say that it's likely to stay that way through the summer. So it looks like the fix-a-thon has pretty much wrapped up. Here are a few final fixes to show you:

Emily's tank finally fits!
Nicole's Rosedale is gorgeous.
Erin turned a tank-gone-wrong into a bodice for a little dress for her daughter (scroll down to April 24). Awwwww!
Leanne reports that she has finished two projects and ripped out another (check out her fix-it nightmare!).
Ellen reports that she lengthened sleeves on one sweater by ripping out an oversized collar and then ripped another sweater out, dyed the yarn, and will reknit it in a different pattern. You go, girl!
And Suzanne did a great job fixing a way-too-big denim sweater for her son: before and after. Look at that cute little smile!

Send me more links if there are other fixes out there. I wanna see!

- - - - - - - -

And elsewhere in Knitalong-land, I guess I'm sort of knitting along with the NBaT'ers over at Nona's. So here's my progress...

model tee: front and back

And more blue blog designs I've seen:

Beth's Tricot in Manos Stria
Kim's fabby Rutgers NBaT (scroll down to bottom) and her new Mets NBaTank (scroll down to May 12) Go Mets!
Anna's rockin' chocolate brown scoop-neck NBaT
And Rosemary's Spring Fling Tank in Lion Brand Polarspun

Wonderful knits, ladies. Thanks so much for sharing them with me!

twisted stitches, sister

holey incomplete stitches, batman!

gasp! dropped stitches

hey, what's that purl stitch doing there?!

I made all these swatches for a "correcting mistakes" class at the store last night. What fun it was to make all these mistakes on purpose! Class was fun too. First, the students would watch me drop a stitch and let out a little gasp. And then they'd watch as I fixed it. There'd be a long silence where each one would try to do the same thing with their own swatch and then someone would burst out with: "Cooool!" By George, I think she's got it.

I brought in Vogue Knitting as a visual aid, since it has such a nice section on correcting mistakes. But for detail and pictures, I still think Theresa's Knitty article can't be beat. Any other resources out there on knitting boo-boos that you all would recommend?

...and you gotta expect to come home with yarn.

Shireen is to blame. I am totally hooked on Rowan denim! My second denim baby knit (after the pinafore) will be this little Phildar baby sweater (from Phildar #381), which I'm gonna do in dark blue denim with light blue denim stripes. And I couldn't help myself when I saw the Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit buttons. So cute!

Next, I've got Lisa to blame, um, thank for renewing my love affair with Rowan all seasons cotton. Lisa gifted me with this bag of beautiful orange/gold asc. I've got plans to do something cable-y with it (like this maybe), because asc looks so damn good in cables! Afterall, it was Amber's incredible cabled sweater that sparked my last asc crush.

But best of all, waiting for me at the store, was this yarn and these truly beautiful stitchmarkers from Amy C. Amy recognized me and the boys (I think most people actually recognize the boys first) at my local Finagle-a-Bagel and remembered that I had posted about searching the Boston-area yarn stores for more yarn to fix B's blankie. Well, she just happened to have two balls of it that she couldn't really find the perfect project for. She wrote me a sweet email saying that she'd like to donate it to the keeping-the-blankie-alive cause. Isn't that wonderful?! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Amy!

By the way, if you happen to go to the store these days, this is what you're going to see:

nothing but a t-shirt goes big time! (click for a close up)

The finished denim pinafore. After what seemed like hours - well, I guess it was literally hours, but somehow that seemed like too long - I finished sewing down all those teeny tiny picot edgings. Although they do soften the armholes and neckline, I'm thinking they really aren't that visible. If I were to do this pattern again, I might make them one row longer, so that they have more effect. Nevertheless, I am very pleased with how this little dress came out. My first time knitting a dress! To celebrate the girly nature of the whole thing, I added a pink flower applique (iron-on: "works on jeans"!) to the front.

Oh, why do I have so few friends with little girls?

Number one done.

Number two to do.

So, what do you think of the contrast color? I didn't pick it out myself. The yarn for the store model was picked out by powers higher than me. I think the burgundy looks good when the main color is looking blue-ish. But in it's more lilac moments, I'm not quite so sure.

Sunday morning and I'm just playing around with a random assortment of scrabble letters we got in a goodie bag.

technically speaking:

for sock-knitters:

projects:

and of course:

Over a week without any sock knitting?! Say it ain't so. Don't worry, it ain't. While I was flipping through the Vogue Knitting on the Go: Socks book to find the Zig Zag sock pattern, I saw the cutest little tennis socks and could not resist. Really, who could resist that green pompom? As I was working in the store that day, I had plenty of time to find the perfect yarn: Rowan's new Cashsoft 4ply.

My choice was made easier by the fact that I've been looking for an excuse to try out this yarn. I have the first two of the Rowan Classic books and I love the patterns. If I enjoy making these socks, I think there will definitely be more of this yarn in my future. But first, there will have to be more short-rows. Because there's no way I'm doing a bulky heel flap for summer socks. Nope, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' dream short row heels and toes will be just right. And, oh so cute!

And I don't even like my ankles.

Teased by Rowan's gifting its International Club members with this yarn and simultaneously discontinuing it, several of us decided we had to give this lovely looking yarn a real try before it disappeared. I think now most of us realize we could have lived without it. Hee, hee.

got linen drape?

started may 1, 2004

To answer Carla, no sockapalooza two sign-up yet. I'm working on the behind the scenes organization. Should be done by next week! At which time, it might actually be warm here in Boston, meaning I'll have to stop wearing my winter sockapalooza socks and will be ready for a summer pair.

In other knitalong news, my NBaT is now a pile of completed parts waiting for seaming. I can't wait to appear in Nona's regular wrap-up!

S wanted to be in the picture too

And there's yet another store model and another knitalong to report on. Okay, I'm a year late for the knitalong, but with all the excitement surrounding the impending release of the next Harry Potter book (what Jenn, no countdown?), I've started an Azkaban scarf. If you aren't obsessed with Harry Potter like me and some others whom I've already outed and so won't name again, let me point out that in the third movie, the Prisoner of Azkaban, they changed the style of the house scarves. For the first two movies, they were basic rugby-style stripes, but now the scarves are darker with subtler stripes.

This version seems much more mature. And also much longer! I'm using Jamieson's Shetland DK, which had the best colors in my opinion, but seven feet of scarf at 5.5 stitches to the inch is, well, a lot of stitches. I'm loving it though!

Big footie, little footie. S wanted to be in this picture too!

I love it. Even before the pompom.

I got to go to a swatch party over the weekend at the bookish girl's. There were lots of Boston-area bloggers there, tons of fabulous food and a basket full of wonderful yarns to sample.

Concateknit Elisa, Stitchy McYarnpants, Wendy, the bookish girl,
Kellee, Jackie, Melanie, and Colleen, the Subway Knitter
(just to name a few)

First, I began with Debbie Bliss' new cotton yarn, Cathay. Knit on US5's, this cotton/silk blend produces beautiful even stitches and is very pleasant to knit with. The gauge is small enough for the cotton to be light and delicate - perfect for summer knits - but not too small to be uncomfortable. And what a beautiful color! If I ever get to my summer knitting, I think you'll be seeing more of this yarn.

Next up was Elann's Peruvian Baby Cashmere. I definitely wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to try out a little cashmere, no matter how small the actual fiber content (it's 10% cashmere actually - the rest is 60% alpaca, 30% merino)! Knit up on US3's, this yarn was a tad to fine for me. I couldn't imagine making a whole sweater out of it at that gauge. It was very soft and knit up quite well, but I didn't love knitting with it, as I felt like my hands were working too hard to control the tiny stitches. It's not like I can't work with yarn at this gauge. Perhaps different needles would have made the work easier. We'll never know, because....

The ball of KnitPicks Elegance was available, so I tossed the Baby Cashmere aside and snatched up the Elegance before someone else did! Elegance is an alpaca/silk blend knit on US6's and it feels wonderful. The stitches weren't perfectly even, which disappointed me a little, but it sure was soft. At KnitPicks' prices, I think this yarn is definitely worth a try.

Now, what can I say about this next yarn? Malabrigo's Kettle Dyed Merino is an absolute dream. As beautiful as any Manos colorway, but as soft as butter (no seriously, I can't describe how incredible this yarn feels any other way). It doesn't just have a wonderful hand, it's like you're not even knitting. Perfect even stitches just float off the needles effortlessly. And it's knit on US8's! And there's over 200 yards in a quite reasonably priced hank! If it weren't slightly variegated, I'd be in big trouble here. Luckily, I still have issues with variegated yarns, so I should be able to keep my Malabrigo obsession in check. I ONLY have three skeins on hold for me at the store so far.

Last up, before I had to make a very early exit from the party, was Rowan Cork. This soon-to-be-discontinued yarn is really neat. It's knit on US11's, although it neither looks nor feels that chunky. It also has a neat sort of stretch to it. I really, really liked it. I'm very excited about using the few balls I got in my Rowan membership giftie (Yes, if it's in the Rowan giftie bag, you can bet it'll soon be discontinued. Look, they even sent me blue!) and maybe even snatching up a sweater's worth if it, if it goes on sale.

Wow, that was fun!

House scarves from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD.

Gryffindors Hermione and Ron

Draco and his Slytherin goons

Look, there goes a Ravenclaw! (That's Harry under his invisibility cape stealing a lollipop from Neville.)

I think I like Hufflepuff best of all. Love that buttery yellow!

My scarf is coming right along. And here are the three Gryffindors wearing their scarves in a still from the new movie coming up in November. What a relief that they're not changing the scarves again!

The sockapalooza was by far most work and most fun I've ever had with a knitalong. And what a huge success! With over 150 participants, there was a large chance of failure. But we only had about 6 folks not finish and dozens of generous knitters offered to donate yarn and socks to those pals who were forgotten. Thank you so much to everyone who participated and offered to donate!

sockapalooza
a sock exchange

sockapalooz-ers

green = finished

sockapalooza archives

Did someone yell "encore"?? See ya this summer for the summersock tour! (Sign-up coming soon.)

After some very late-night seaming, my model nothing but a t-shirt is all finished and already in the window of the store.

we finally get some sun and it ruins my shot!
here's an indoor pic.

I really enjoyed making this pattern again and the Calmer was just as incredible as I remembered. I would have loved to do a little design on the front, but the owner wanted a plain front. Still, even plain, I love these colors together! I don't know how I could ever have doubted how great they'd look together.

So, now that I've made this pattern again and have it fresh in my mind, I thought I'd open the comments here to pattern questions. One question I can answer regards how many straight rows should be knitted between the waist decreases and bust increases. The way the pattern is written, it seems to call for a total of 31 or 32 total straight rows. I checked the original shirt I made and I knit 24 straight rows between the decreases. I'll send the correction over to MagKnits.

Other questions? Shoot!

Just in time for Memorial Day and the unofficial beginning of summer here in the US, pompom ankle socks!

They are so cute, I can hardly stand it. I will have to make more of these. Many. Many. Many. More. You can see that they aren't true ankle socks. As I was knitting, I was a little worried about them being too short and slipping into my shoes, so I first worked 10 rows and then started the heel. I think next time (I've already got some Koigu for the next pair!), I'll only do 4 or 5 rows, so they're just above the shoe.

I wore my new pompom socks to work this weekend and they were super comfy. The Cashsoft 4ply (on US3's) is a pretty good weight for socks, feels wonderful on, and held up quite well to its first wearing. Here's how the toes and the heels looked after the day. And just in case you're not convinced, here's Knitter's Review's recent article on Cashsoft. I'm sold!

Let the summer of ankle socks begin.

Alright, hopeful sockapal-2-zers, this is your 24 hour warning! Get your foot measurements and sock preferences together and get ready to sign up. My tech guys (hubby and my master webmaster) are hard at work getting an automated sign-up system all set up. Tomorrow, I'll tell you where to go to sign-up and you'll need to have all your info ready to enter. Here's what I'll need:

- BASIC INFO: name, email address, blog address, mailing address (don't worry, I won't be sharing your email or mailing addresses with anyone but your sock pal)
- GROUP INFO: do you want to be in the beginner group? are you willing to ship overseas?
- FOOT AND SOCK INFO: foot measurement from heel to tip of big toe AND foot circumference measured at the ball of the foot as in the image below, plus any other measurements or info that your pal needs to make socks fit your feet

from Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' dream sock pattern

Also include any of the following sock details that are important to you:
fiber preferences - got allergies? prefer summer socks?
color preferences - solids/variegated colors? specific colors you hate?
design preferences - do you like crazy socks? lacy socks? prefer calf length/ankle length?

Include whatever you think your pal should know. If you're up for anything, just say that and your pal can have fun with your socks!

Got it? See you tomorrow then!

- - - - - - - - - - -

Anyone new to the Sockapalooza, here's some info to catch you up on what it's all about. I'll collect names, addresses, and sock preferences from lots of people (probably about 200). Then, I'll assign each person another person to knit a pair of socks for. So someone will be given your info and will knit a pair of socks for you and you'll be given someone else's info and be knitting socks for them, the person you're knitting for will be knitting socks for another person, and so on, and so on..... We'll all start knitting around mid-June and will send our socks out mid-September, that way everyone should receive their socks around the same time. And remember, it's a secret! Don't tell your sock pal you are knitting for them! It'll be much more fun if it remains a surprise.

[Added: Oh, and there are two groups, a beginners group and a non-beginners group. If you've successfully made socks before, you're not a beginner. Beginners are those who really haven't made socks before. I really wanted beginners to be able to participate too, but to be fair, I think it's best for them to swap their "first try" socks with each other. I think most of the beginners in the last round had a blast learning how to knit socks and receiving a pair from a pal who also just learned. So if sock knitting is new to you but you really want to give it a try, join us!]

Got it? See you tomorrow then too!