They Call Me...

Sausage Fingers




Do you see the size of those things? They are famous for swelling up overnight and then unswelling (is that even a word?) throughout the day. Its really putting a damper on the knitting.

Speaking of knitting. I officially have 23 inches completed on the sweater. This leaves 3 or 4 more inches to go before I start to steek, which I'm totally looking forward to!

On your mark, get set...

GO!!!

Today is the official start of getting into shape for the 2010 Knitting Olympics!



Remember this? Me either. Its the basket that the Fair Isle has been living in for awhile now.

I took some measurements and it is currently almost 19 inches long. I have another 7 to 9 inches to go. Then the steeking.

Michigan Scuba Treasure Shipwreck Diving

Ray and his dive buddies went diving again up at Marine City, Michigan. They found this wreck, which they are calling "The Jefferson St. Wreck," on a drift dive last year and are now checking it out. This year Ray got a side scan sonar that he can hang over the edge of the boat and take pictures of the bottom of the river. Well he found not only this wreck but another wreck about 50 feet away! How cool is that?



Rick, the bald guy with the camera, did a fantastic job of capturing the excitement of the day. In the video, "Tiny Bubbles" is our boat and DH is the guy getting it all together and situated before they take off!

Now lets talk about the loot. He found a small fishing weight for down riggers, some triangle things, and a small bottle. The bottle he brought home for me!

Getting Into Shape

Is been a year since the last Knitting Olympics and I think that its time that we start getting into shape for the next one. The next Winter Olympics according to the site I found will be in Vancouver in 2010. I'm choosing the Winter Olympics, as opposed to the summer olympics, because the first Knitting Olympics took place during the Winter Olympics. I would hate to break tradition after all. This time the games will be held for 17 days which, if memory serves correctly, is a couple days longer than the last Winter Olympics.

Here is what I'm proposing. Get your oldest WIP and finish it in 17 days. For me, this is the Fair Isle. I completely understand that it is already started and mostly complete. However this is just for getting into shape purposes and I have to work up to starting and finishing an object in 17 days. I figure I may as well start here.

I'm starting the timer on June 18 and ending on July 5.

Wish me luck.

Big Girl Bed

Now that Karolyn is 2 1/2 years old, we decided it was a good idea to get her a big girl bed. (That, and we needed the crib for the new baby.) The bed we decided on is incredibly special indeed. It was made by her great grandpa for her grandpa. Which was then passed down to her dad. And daddy is passing it down to her.

The bed had been sitting in the basement since we moved in collecting dust. We brought it upstairs, cleaned it up and made the necessary repairs.



It was then put together by K and her daddy. She was incredibly excited about getting a new bed that all she said for the next 2 hours was "big girl bed," "big girl bed!"



Later mommy and K went shopping for just the perfect sheets and blanket. First we went to JC Penney's to no avail so we headed off to Sears. There we found a very large section dedicated to toddler/ little kids bed sets. Of course there was the Disney and Sesame Street selection but I really wanted something a bit more generic but fun at the same time. We eventually settled on a butterfly print with a matching pillow.



As soon as we put those sheets on the bed she climbed right up and played on her new big girl bed for quite some time! I am also proud to say that she managed to sleep all through the night on the new bed. I, on the other hand, had some trouble sleeping as I was worried about her falling off the bed. She did of course at 5:30 am and survived the incident with no injuries!

Ultimate Compliment

A while back Marie left a comment on my blog saying that she found a picture of my hat on someone else's blog. This of course excited me to no end as I just love seeing other's interpretation of my designs.

Immediately I cruised on over to the site to check it out. Turns out that this knitter is German and her entire blog is in German so I couldn't read a thing that she said, just stare at the picture. Then I Googled her site and sure enough it was my lucky day, directly next to the link to her site was a translator provided by Google. Naturally I clicked on it and magically what I could not read a minute before was transformed to words that made since to me.


She said she made it as a chemo cap and it was relatively easy to execute. I'm extactic that it turned out so great for her and that whomever the recipient is will have a warm head to make her life a bit easier. Thanks Christiane, your hat turned out great!

Mrs. Zimmerman's Baby Surplice Jacket

I subscribe to Vogue Knitting Magazine and while I usually don't like the majority of the patterns published, I find the articles to be fascinating. The Spring/Summer 2007 issue was particularly special as it had Mrs. Zimmerman's pithy instructions for making a baby surplice jacket. This is of course a variation on a theme of the famous BSJ.

Fairy yarn mommy sent me some really great machine washable yarn in an outstanding colorway and just knew it had to be this jacket.

I casted it on, blindly followed the instructions, then casted off. After it was all said and done, I completely understood where Elizabeth was going with the design. If I haven't said it already, Elizabeth is a genius!



Altogether I used 3 balls of Cascade Yarns Bollicine. This is an incredibly easy and fast knit. I'm already planning on making some adjustments so it will fit a toddler. Hopefully it will be done in time for fall when the weather starts to get a chill in the air and the leaves transform to their artistic display of colors.

Tuesday's are wonderful...

...because I'm due on a Tuesday. This means that on Tuesday's is when the magic number of weeks remaining becomes 1 less. This Tuesday marks the beginning of week 7. Not that I'm counting or anything, I'm just sayin'.

Edited on Wednesday:

I went to the Dr yesterday and we now have a date for the baby. The C-section is scheduled for Friday July 20, 2007 at 8:30 am. The lady who called to let me know said that we have to be there at the hospital at 6:30 and that I can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight.

Of course I asked her if she was crazy about the food thing. Then I explained to her that I'm usually up in the middle of the night (about 3 am) eating and then I get breakfast at 5 am. She told me that this is standard operating procedure for major surgery. I'm gonna have to have Ray get me something to eat after we have the baby.

We are pretty sure we have a name! Ray picked it out and its growing on me. Now we just need a middle name. I told him that he was in charge of that. I'm not even gonna tell so don't ask. Something needs to be a surprise!

Also, the Aunties at Elann chatsite have decided that they need to get a pool going. They were originally going to bet on the date and time of the arrival but then I botched that up for them. So they are needing something else to bet on. Wt maybe? I don't know but if you can think of something go and tell Betsy about it so she can get it all set up.

Priscilla

There is always a time in a knitters life when all they need is an easy knit. A knit that you don't have to think of what your next move is. A knit that all you have to do is follow the pattern. And hopefully that pattern is well written.

I found all of these elements present in Priscilla. The pattern is in Berroco book #223. This book is wonderful. It shows how one can take the same identical pattern, switch yarns, adjust the gauge (if needed), and have a completely different top! All of the tops are quite easy and I'm planning on making more of them in the future.

As luck would have it, Berroco Echo was on sale at Herrschners a while back and I picked some up. To be completely honest, I actually bought the yarn for this pattern and then followed through with the the plan. This is monumental because I normally never use the yarn the pattern calls for as it usually costs the GNP of small countries.

I made the L sized top and I think it will fit. I did try it on but the belly got in the way and everything is out of proportion so I'm not sure if it looks good on me or not. I have hope as the top part actually fit! The belly part, on the other hand is a different story altogether. I'm excited as I now have a cute and soft summer top to wear.

Now for the specs. I used 7 balls of yarn and knit it on Options US10.5 needles.