First Sock is DONE!!

I've mostly just been knitting on this sock whenever I was stuck in traffic, so I was a little surprised when, the last time I picked it up, it looked like I should start decreasing for the toe. So, the sock is done, but I don't have a picture yet.

For that matter, first top is done too...no pic for that yet either. Both to be posted tomorrow.

I'm currently working on a pair of socks for the SigO. Using the Seeded Ribbing pattern from Getting Started Knitting Socks by Ann Budd. Pic for that to be provided when it's a lot closer to being done. I've already had to frog it back twice, so that may be a while.

Other than finishing up first sock, I really didn't have a lot of time for knitting, or much of anything else this weekend. We went biking down in the necks of Virginia. Very scenic, largely undiscovered area of northern VA. We came across an historic church, built in 1735 called ChristChurch.

The SigO took a moment to read the 10 Commandments.

A few miles from here, we stopped for lunch at the Tides Inn, where we enjoyed this view from our table. The meal was as good as the view too, with both of us eating a light lunch of Blue Crab Quesadilla's.

The remaining ride was pretty close to 30 miles, for an overall trip of 35 miles. Mostly flat, but in a strong headwind, it didn't feel it.

We camped out at Westmoreland State Park and ate an even better meal, as is always the case when you cook steaks over a camp fire.

So, with Saturday full of fun and Sunday full of responsibility (homework, yardwork, blech!), not much time was available for knitting, but it was a pretty grand weekend anyway.

The sock yarn did get to visit the campsite, it just didn't get to get out much since I was a little too wiped out by the time we got back to do any knitting.

Almost as exciting as finishing first sock was coming home from the camp trip and finding this on my doorstep. I saw these on Emicat's blog and HAD to have them...they came pretty quickly (from Knit Picks). They're even more gorgeous in person!

And the last tidbit of exciting news....3 more days til the Yarn Harlot is here!! Woo Hoo!!!!

Small World

So, yesterday I was sitting at my sewing machine working on a quilt top that's been sitting neglected for almost a year now, when my SigO asked me how I got started quilting.

So, I told him the story of Wendy, who used to design Haute Couture in her apartment in San Antonio. I lived in the same apartment complex at the time and we met thru my ex. I loved her fashion designs, but I was especially captured by her quilt. She was hand-dyeing silk and then putting it together in a Double Wedding Ring Quilt. It was spectacular. This picture was taken around 20 years ago at an art festival in San Antonio, Tx. Those are a pair of her hand-dyed silk shorts on Kelly's head. She taught me the basics of piecing together a quilt top, but more importantly, she inspired my love of quilts.

Telling my SigO this story made me wonder what had happened to Wendy. Had she made it in the fashion world? So, I asked him to google her and look at her now!

She's got her own line of clothes!

and she was a finalist in Bravo's Project Runway. Not sure if this was my Wendy, I dropped her an e-mail to find out, and sure enough, one and the same! Tiny little world!

And back in my tiny little world, I suffered a small shock yesterday when I realized I wasn't nearly as close to finishing my quilt top as I had been thinking. I had 48 of these squares completed. It has been so long since I started this project, I thought the red squares were all I needed to do. So, when I still had some fabric left over after finishing them, I was a tad concerned. I pulled out the pattern and discovered to my dismay that I still had 52 square to do in Blues and Greens.

So, I cut and sewed and got all of those ready to assemble and now I have this much more to put together.

Meanwhile, I'm still working on that top. But only about 10 rows/day, so progress is slow. Maybe I'll tackle more of it today and at least get up to the armholes where I have to start dividing for the neck. Not quite Haute Couture, but it's all mine and it belongs here in my happy little world.

Ribbit

Well, since I ended up frogging a pretty sizable chunk of my top last night, I don't have any progress to take pictures of.

I did, however, find this lovely Frida Kahlo online today. She looks so sad I figure she must have just frogged back a bunch of her work too! I wonder if, like mine, it's because her yarn splits like a *#@!&*. I mean, you can tell she, like me, was knitting without really looking at what she was doing, so it's likely that was her problem as well...or maybe, while driving her cart in 19th century rush hour traffic she occupied her time while knitting like I do and that's where she made her errors. Or maybe a squirrel stole her fleece...

Alter"quilt" Lifestyle?

Well, I stayed off the blog for a while simply because I wasn't knitting and this IS called AlternKnit Lifestyle. But, I've been giving that some thought, and I don't intend to create separate blogs for everything else I do, so I'll just have to be sure to put a little disclaimer in the first paragraph of any blog that's not going to be about knitting. This one will have some knitting in it, but more quilting, since that's been my mood of late.

The annual Quilt Oddysey is rapidly approaching and I'm so excited about it, all I really want to do is quilt. The only problem, of course: quilting is a much louder activity and you have to actually watch what you're doing (although you might look at some of my earlier efforts and ask "Are you SURE you were watching what you were doing? Really? I'm just saying..."), so TV is sort of extraneous with quilting and it's difficult for me to focus on only one thing at a time anymore.

But, I've had this particular quilt in my closet for a while and it was time to bind it off and put it on the bed, where, if I do say so myself, it looks very nice

The pattern is Blackford's Beauty. I'm not sure why the picture makes it look like the strips are darker in some places than others. I assure you it doesn't look like that in real life. This was my first ever queen sized quilt. I didn't quilt it myself, I only pieced the top. I have a strict policy about not trying to cram miles of fabric that weigh eleventy billion tons into my tiny little pfaff sewing machine when there are plenty of women with long-arm machines who are willing to do it for me. Besides, I could never get such a nice quilt pattern as I got by letting someone else do it. Check it out:

But, as I said, I haven't completely neglected my knitting. I finished the back of my top and for a while I suffered SOS syndrome. Stephanie calls it the SS (Second Sock) syndrome, but since, in my opinion, that particular disease applies to anything that's a repeat of what you've already done, to me, it should be called Same Old Sh*t Syndrome, and that's another reason why I've been quilting instead of knitting lately. I mean, look at this:

The front is done exactly like the back until you get to the armholes...you can see I have a LONG way to go before I get there...I know, I know. It only took a week to get there on the back, what's the big deal? I'll tell you...SOS! That's what. *Sigh* But, I am excited about finishing my very first top and I do think it's going to come out OK. So far, the size seems to be on the right track.

My next project will be the Green Gables pattern by Zephyr Knits. It's knit in the round, so hopefully it won't present the same problem. I'm knitting it up in a red cotton blend...don't remember what right now. I'll be sure to report all that when I actually get started on it. Oh yeah, and I guess I'll put another Afghan Block on the needles...right after I frog that last one. *Ugh*

Gettysburg Weekend

My First Blog Post! Both exciting and a little intimidating. I can't imagine a large audience visiting this site, but still, what to say and not be mundane or trite? Well...it's yarn and needles and knitting...of course it can never be trite so long as I stay on that subject, right?

Anyway, about the weekend. I tricked my SigO into a trip to Gettysburg with the premise of riding our bikes around the Civil War Battlefield. History buff that he is, he jumped on the idea. Of course, we've been together long enough now for him to be fully aware I wouldn't have chosen a spot for a weekend ride if there wasn't a yarn shop nearby that I was interested in visiting. In this case, it was The Misty Mountain Fiber Workshop located right in the heart of historic Gettysburg

When I first walked in, I was a little concerned, since the bulk of the space is occupied by looms and spinning wheels. I've only been knitting for 7 months now and I'm just not ready to add that dimension to the craft. I was worried I wouldn't find anything of interest to me, but boy was I wrong.

I found this great yarn cultivated from local animals, hand-spun and hand-dyed by a couple living in a log cabin in the nearby Applachian Mountains (at least that's what the shop owner tells me--as much as I would have loved finding out first hand, there's a limit to my SigO's tolerance of fiber shopping).

This yarn is half wool, half Llama. It has a charming name, but I've forgotten what it is...I'll do better in the future

This yarn is 100% wool. You wouldn't think so to touch it. It feels much more like cotton. It's called Bobcat. Each skein is 200yds, so I think I should have plenty to do something (who knows what) with, someday. My savings account would be a lot healthier if I was what the Yarn Harlot calls a Product Knitter instead of a Process Knitter, but I can't imagine walking by yarn like this simply because I don't know what I want to make with it yet.

I do only have one project on needles right now...

My first top.

I've knit two hats, four scarves, a shawl and some Hokie Squares for the victims and families of the VA Tech Tragedy and now I feel prepared (ha ha, ho ho, hee hee---whew---I kill me sometimes) to knit a top. Actual Clothing. I had to use US#5 needles to get guage on this cotton/viscose/silk mix that splits like CRAZY! Unfortunately, when I first cast on, I used regular length needles. Those ended up being too short, but I didn't have any US#5's in the longer version, and I was unwilling to put the knitting down and pick up something else (like my now, seriously neglected cross-stitch), so some of the stitches on the ends are somewhat stretched out due to being shoved nearly off the ends of the needles while trying to cram all 106 stitches on one needle. I now have the longer needles and am knitting happily on those.

Which brings me to this:

When I first learned to cross-stitch, I went out and bought all the colors DMC had out. So, is it crazy to have two of everything (and four US#8's) as well as one of every size in the longer version of needles to ensure that the above tragedy doesn't recur? I just want to know, since I don't yet have all sizes and am wondering if other knitters out there have every size necessary for any project imaginable? And yes, my circular collection is just as crazy...is this normal? You know, now that I think about it, does it matter? Not so much. I'm not normal in any other area of life, why start now? But see, there I go getting off track, so I'll end before this gets too wierd.