Stupid Leap Year

I have been wanting to try knitting two socks at once on circular needles.This past weekend, I bought the book 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes.

Last week, I ordered some yarn and long cord circular needles from www.knitpicks.com.  My package came today.  I have everything I need to start a pair of socks.  Only guess what?  We still have the rest of today and all of tomorrow left in February.  And February is for Finishing.  I guess I'll work on the crocheted hat that has been sitting since the class I tought back in January.  Stupid leap year.



A Knitting Playdate

I think that most everyone has a friend in their life that they can always remember having.  Or close to it, at least.  For me, that is my friend R.  R moved into the neighborhood we grew up in when she was 3 and I was 6.  The first time I met her, she dragged her little plastic slide into my yard and asked me if I wanted to play.  I said yes, and we have been friends ever since.  Over the thirty plus years of our friendship, we have gone our seperate ways at times and always reconnected.  A couple of years ago, we reconnected for what I hope is for good.  We have continuously e-mailed and facebooked each other since.  And every few months or so, we get together to knit.  Yesterday was one of those days.  We went to coffee shop the next town over from where R lives.

We didn't have coffee, but instead had some very delicious tea that they serve there.  We talked. A LOT.  R and I can not see each other for six months (as was the case yesterday), and jump right into a conversation as though no time at all has passed.  We knit. A LOT.  I worked on the poncho I am hoping to finish for ladybug by this spring.  And R showed me a couple of projects she was working on.  I didn't think to take a picture until she had put most of them back in her bag.  But she had some beautiful sock yarn that her husband had given her for Christmas a couple of years ago.

We had plans to go to the yarn shop a few doors down, but we got so carried away talking and knitting that before we knew it the sun was setting and the yarn shop had already closed.  Well, it's like I told R, we'll have to do that another time.  It just gives us an excuse to get together soon.  Although we don't really need an excuse!

The Most Amazing Woman I Know

Last April I was blessed with a day of knitting with my Gramma.  The purpose of our knitting was so she could teach me how to turn a heel when knitting socks.  She was knitting (on average) a pair of socks or mittens a day.  (I went with my parents and it was the first time in a I-don't-know-how-long that I was sitting in the back of my mom's car!)  When we got to my aunts house, my Gramma was waiting for me with two socks, knit to the heel flap, ready to teach me. She asked me if I wanted to learn her grandmother's way, or the right way.  I told her I wanted to learn her grandmother's way.  And then, something amazing happened. She started to talk about her grandmother.  I have a fairly decent knowledge of family history on my Grampa's side of the family, but Gramma never really told me much about her side. 

Gramma learned to knit when she was 11 years old from her Grammy.  (That's what she said, too. This cute little old lady sitting across from me called her grandmother Grammy.  I don't know why that surprised me, but it did.)  Her Grammy never learned to read or write, she never had a pattern to follow.  All of the measuring she did was with her hand.  The length of the cuff of a sock was the length of her finger.  Different fingers for different sizes.  Her thumb was for a child's, her index finger for a woman's, and her middle finger for a man's.  A sweater was just held up to the person to see if it would fit.  She knew the difference in the width and length of her hand and others in the family, so she could knit mittens for them from memory. 

Gramma is now in a nursing home and today is her 102nd birthday.  She is teaching others in the nursing home to knit.  She has seen a lot and been through a lot.  Just the fact that her fingers are still nimble enough to knit astounds me.  She has an amazing faith in the Lord and trusts Him with his plans for her each and every day.  My Gramma is amazing.

Finished! (#2)

As part of February is for Finishing, I completed a pair of socks that have been sitting for almost a year.  I wanted to learn how to knit socks, but quite frankly was a bit intimidated by turning a heel.  It just sounded scary.  So, I knit two socks all the way up to the heel flap and then they sat. For a couple of months. Until my Gramma taught me how to turn a heel.  After which I very excitedly turned the heel on ONE of them.  And then they sat some more.  So, after finishing my Mod Cables Hat last Monday, I dug them out.  Here is how they looked a week ago:

And here is how they look today:

                                                                                  
The one on my left foot is the first one I made.  Along with being one of my first socks I ever knit, It is also one of the first projects I ever tried on dpns.  If you look closely, (please don't, though) you can see that the one on my right foot is so much nicer.  It's amazing what a little bit of experience can do!

What have you finished this week?

My Husband Loves Me

We were heading out to do some errands today when The Man asked if I wanted to go to the yarn shop.

"I don't know," I replied.  "I'm doing this February is for finishing.  I'm not sure I should get more yarn if I'm not going to be starting something any time soon."

Then he said the best thing!  "Well, you'll need yarn for when February is over."

I love that man!

Finished!

I finished my first item!  Woo-Hoo!  I actually finished it yesterday.   So this is what my Mod Cables Hat looked like on Friday:

And this is the finished product:

It's a rather snug fit, but that's part of what makes it so warm.  I needed to get it done in time to take it to knitting group last night to show it off. ( And since it was chilly on the walk there, I had to try it out.)  Hearing my fellow knitters "Oooh" and "Ahhh" over my hand knits never gets old! 

                                                                               

February is for Finishing

I recently started following a blog that I found simply by not knowing what to knit next.  Well, it's actually a little bit more involved than that, but it sounded better this way.  Anyways, I love post-Christmas knitting, because I always choose something small and fairly simple for MYSELF.  This year, I decided to knit myself a new winter hat.  (Aside from the Halloween weekend snowstorm, we had a late start to winter here in New Hampshire.)  So I was browsing through hat patterns on ravelry and came across the exact type of hat I wanted to knit.  Mod Cables Hat jumped out at me.  I had only made one thing before that had cables, and these cables looked...fairly easy.  I clicked on the pattern and was brought to Jeanne's blog, www.lifeincleveland.blogspot.com.  Let me just say that besides being a talented knitter, she is also very humorous.

Last week, she posted this:

And may I say that I am so happy that she did.  She has put a challenge out to NOT start anything new in February.  Instead, the challenge is to only finish projects that are already in progress.  Here is the best part: WITHOUT ANY GUILT.  So, here are some U.F.O. s I chose to work on in February:

                                         
Let's see how I do.