Amish Country

Wow, what a busy weekend (seems like I say that a lot lately)! I left Friday for a small town in Upstate NY to visit my parents. They live in a town with a large and growing Amish population. This weekend the old general store re-opened. The historical society refurbished the inside and it is selling Amish and hand-made goods. It was truly lovely with handmade quilts, baskets, furniture, etc. Plus, I scored some old fashioned lemon drops, Yummy. They are so hard to find.

Saturday, my Mom & I spent the morning teaching my grandmother and Great Aunt how to do the quilting stack & whack technique. We worked on 20 blocks to create a queen size quilt to raffle at next year's family reunion. We cut and pieced the majority of the blocks - we just have to pick out some accent fabrics to finish the rest - then it can go to be machine quilted. It was great fun and it is interesting and heart warming to see all the generations working together on a project. It also gave me a good chunk of time to work on the felted bag for my husband's volleyball team. I cut most of the pieces - so I was able to knit while my grandmother and Aunt did most of the piecing and Mom ironed. Pretty good progress from Friday to now.... I only have about 15 rows to go - then I just have to do the I-cord and felt...

When we finished on with the quilt "class" - we visited a new fabric and yarn shop (my two favorite combos!!) in a nearby town. They had refurbished another general store and stocked it with beautiful natural fibers and yarns. Not a huge selection as they are just getting started, but some truly lovely yarn. I bought two gorgeous skeins of Baby Alpaca for a sleeveless shell and some secret yarn for my secret swap pal... shhh.

Also a few picks that I was going to post on Friday, but because a storm my Dad's Internet was not working too well....

Baby cardigan all done -- just needs to be blocked to tame some of the rolling.

Shrug progress:

Secret Pal 11 & What to knit?

I just received my Pal assignment for Secret Swap 11!!! I am really excited to be participating - I have already started brainstorming on what types of items I might include in my package.

Wednesday is sweater group at the LYS. I'm excited, but I'm not sure what I want to start next. I finished the baby cardigan - it just needs to be blocked. I am planning on do the Fifi top (see sexy knitters club KAL), but I am short 1 ball of Rowan Calmer in the right color. The first version of the pattern I got had the incorrect yarn yardage (extremely wrong - 85 yds per ball vs. 175!) - so I'm in the process of trying to track down another ball in the same dye lot from KnitSwap. Plus - I'm doing a cardigan from the No Sheep for You book for my mom for Christmas - but the LYS ordered the yarn and it won't be in until September. So I need to pick a relatively quick project because I know I'll want to start these two once the yarn situation is straightened out. I have a bunch of Karabella Aurora Bulky that I may knit into a V-neck for me or a Children's Zip-up - I'm just not sure which I want to do. They are both from the Yarn Girls Books (beyond the basics & older kids knits). Choices, choices, choices....

New Addition

It's been a busy weekend. My parents came in on Thurs to visit with us for a long weekend. I had sweater class at the local LYS that night, work on Friday, baseball game Fri night, Saturday off to an outdoor Quilt Show and then we braved the newly opened Cheesecake Factory restaurant (absolutely mobbed) and then last but not least off to the Corning Glass Museum on Sunday - we got to make our own glass Christmas Balls. So after all that I'm a bit tired - but I did take a vacation day tomorrow since my Parents won't be leaving until late morning. All the time in the car - did allow for some productive knitting - 2 rows left on my baby cardigan then just last ends to weave and that will be done. I started a table runner in the car with Rowan handknit cotton - but I'm not happy with the pattern - (after 10 rows of 276 stchs - frussstrating..). I think I'm going to frog it and use the yarn for something else.

Plus - we got a call from my youngest brother - he and his girlfriend are expecting. I bit surprising, but we're all excited. Plus I get to knit more baby stuff - which I love - even though we don't have any of our own yet. Waiting for my DH to find a full time teaching job - particularly since we don't have family around that can help pitch in - which means full time day care $$$$$.

If I haven't said it before - I just have to repeat - I love knitting blogs - it is so much fun to read about everyone's projects, progress and general life events. It really brings the world closer together. Contests are also a lot of fun. You should check out the contest on this one: http://shutupimcounting.blogspot.com/2007/08/post-222-contest.html. It is a lot of fun to read everyone's responses to the contest questions:
2 favorite knitting blogs; 2 favorite knitting books; 2 favorite knitting patterns

I'll try to post some pictures of the almost finished cardigan tomorrow while I'm home. Goodnight all!

Knitty Pictures! Progress finally

I'm finally catching up a bit since our trip. You certainly can't beat the views in the Grand Canyon.... even for someone who hates heights.

The scenery was spectacular and I found plenty of time to work on some projects...

Finished my itty bitty hat with duck:

More squares for my blanket....

Read in Bed Shrug:

Debbie Bliss Baby Cardigan:

Finished the body of my Debbie Bliss baby cardigan and have seamed up one side. One more seam, button bands and collar to go.

Officially a "Knitter"

I feel like I have officially entered the land of Knitters (as the Yarn Harlot discusses in many of her books). I have recruited a new knitter. A few months ago one of co-workers had a beautiful scarf and I asked her if she made it. She indicated that she had. She learned to knit while living in California, but never really progressed past scarves and with the move back to NY - hadn't really looked into any LYS yet or classes or the like. So my subtle or not so subtle recruiting began. I haven't been able to get any of my friends to go to LYS or learn to knit - which has been disappointing. I would love to do other fiber related activities, but it is hard to get too excited about going on your own (though I do anyway).

I began showing her some of my books, WIPs, etc. and she began to get interested in picking it back up, but thought that a sweater was pretty daunting. However, I convinced her to join our Beginner's Sweater Bunch and she joined us last night and started the tulip baby sweater! Yeah! a new convert. I am progressing along on my Debbie Bliss Baby Cardigan. Back and sleeves are done (to the point of arm shaping - where you have to wait for all the rest of the pieces - since it is worked all in the round from that point on). I am part way through the left front. I hope to have the left and right fronts done before we leave for Las Vegas on Tuesday morning. I'll try to post some pics soon - work has been pretty nutty as we are releasing out a variety of projects (I'm a project and contract manager).

I think I'm going to take my afghan with me to work on the plane. It is composed of about 50 6"squares. So I can work on some of the squares or the borders that I am creating. I am taking a quilting concept of creating squares within a square and then bordering between the squares with a unifying color. I'm grouping 4 squares then putting in a border then another grouping of squares then a boarder then a third grouping of squares. This will become row 1. We'll see how it turns out. I'm really liking the crazy quilt affect - since I'm using to try out different stitch patterns and color combinations from the 200 blocks book by Jan Eaton. Fabulous learning experience. I think these patterns are what gave me the courage to try my first sweater. Now I'm on sweater #3....