And It Continues...

We're having a heat wave and all the windows are closed, and I'm hot and tired and we are still painting. And washing and ironing curtains while they're down, and we might as well mop the floor while all the furniture is moved, and this would be a good time to change the slipcovers on the couch, and the windows are dirty and we can really get at them now, wow, the blinds are really dusty. I'm almost too tired to knit and I'm not sure when to start the decreases on the clapotis. Has anyone used the rule of fifths? Did it work?

The Year of the Paint

Last year was the year of the floors. Mr. Truck put all new floors in our house, beautiful cherry downstairs, rosewood upstairs, marble in the condo bathrooms, leftover cherry in the condo kitchen and tile in the entryway. This year is the year of the paint. We used to have a painter named Juan. He was wonderful and then he moved back to Costa Rica to become a land baron. Now I've become Juanita and Mr. Truck is Juan, Jr. We are not as good as Juan. And much messier. But we're cheap. This weekend we painted the dining room, well it's really a dining area, in the condo. We finished the living room and hallway last time. We have a really good way of picking paint. When the fancy-schmancy mall where Mr. Truck works has something painted, which is all the time, there is always leftover paint. Mr. Truck says, "I have 2 gallons of Benjamin Moore HC 83 left, do we like it?" And I look at this.




If we like it, it's ours for free. This is what HC 83 aka Bennington Gray looks like. I see no gray. More of a khaki, but I like it.





Of course there was some knitting. I'm making a Clapotis out of this wonderful yarn. It is heaven to knit.






My amazing spoiler in the Outlander Swap, angoraspinner, spun this beautiful yarn and gave me all these amazing presents, too. I love them all but the handspun is just amazing. Thank you so much, Sally!






Next, we're moving onto our upstairs, but that's a whole nother story.

H is for Home

When we first looked at our house in 2001 it looked like this. Not too promising, but I had a feeling. We had already sold our other house and didn't have a lot of time to find a new one. Mr. Truck and I drove around the towns we were interested in and wrote down addresses and Realtor phone numbers. Then we came up with a list to go see. This was the last on the list.



Undeterred by the Sleeping Beauty bushes, we walked in and I immediately knew this was our house. It took Mr. Truck a bit longer but he finally said, "I can live here." The kids, especially the girls, were not as sure. They were worried about the location, the landscaping and, with good reason, the paint. I could only see the front porch, the chestnut trim, the rope pulley original windows and the breakfast nook, the floor plan that was so much like my grandma's house. Later I noticed the 1958 pink bathroom. Well, we still have the pink bathroom but a lot has changed. The Sleeping Beauty bushes were the first to go. And we love our home. It may not be our forever home, but for now it is just right.

Craftsman Style Bungalow c. 1929

March Square or the Tale of an Old Sweater

A very long time ago, it must have been about 1982 I think, I was given a gift of an Irish sweater. It was made for me by a lady in Ireland and I've worn it ever since. I've darned a few holes and gotten a few stains on it since then but it's still in pretty good shape although it's gotten another hole this winter that I have to work on. It's big on me and sometimes I use it like an afghan. I've tried to figure out how it was knitted and I think it was done from the top down with raglan shaping and the sleeves were done in the round because there are no seams, although I guess it could be bottom up, too. The ribbing is twisted which gives it a cable look. It must be aran weight because it weighs a ton.





It still has it's original tag.







It has beautiful cables in it but I've always liked this honeycomb pattern the best.





So for my March square in the Year in a Blanket KAL, I tried to recreate it. I used the Woven Circles III pattern from The Harmony Guide and a six row cable on each side. I think it came out pretty close.



I'm really enjoying this afghan, it takes a bit of time to decide what to do and then each square has taken two evenings to knit. I may change my mind at the end of the year when I'm seaming them all together, but for now it's a nice project without any pressure.

Happy Easter

Sugarless Panoramic Egg & Egg Box
by
Anita M. Wheeless

IRL

Mr. Truck calls all of you my imaginary friends but I know you don't really live in my computer. I haven't met many of my friends from Ravelry IRL, but the weekend before last I met Allison. She's from Rehoboth Beach, DE where we have our vacation condo and she just opened an LYS. It's an amazing thing she's done, just a sweet shop. And she was nice enough to let me take pictures. Kitschy Stitch is the name of the shop and it's in a cute little house just off the main street.


Allison was so friendly and she has the store looking just darling. She has some beautiful yarn and some fabric and a big table for knitting groups. She has classes and she's having a KAL, I think. I'm hoping she's going to have something for World Wide Knit in Public Day because I'd love to go.










Allison was nice enough to let me pet all her yarn and I bought this. I think I've found my new favorite LYS.

We have a Winner

I want to thank all of you that entered my little contest. I am overwhelmed by all the really good ideas and nice complements so I let BDE pick. Then she was overwhelmed but she finally decided on Courtney's Bit of Blue suggested by Katerina . Katerina, please email me: knttingalone at gmail dot com with your address so I can send you the prize. I think I've thanked everyone by email or on your blogs but there are a few I couldn't contact so thank you Traci and both of the Anonomous, too. And again, I want to thank you all for reading and commenting and complementing, it always makes me so happy to hear from everyone.

Marie at Knitted Gems Designs gave me an award with really simple rules. I love Marie's blog and I'm so honored that she picked me.






Rules - List 7 things I love, and award 7 Blogs I love.

7 things I love:
Mr. Truck
Our children
Our grandchildren (maybe those two should trade places)
Our dogs and cat (and all those before them)
My garden
Books
Knitting and all the new friends it's brought me.

7 blogs I love
this one is really hard because I've found a bunch of new ones through my little contest so, in no particular order

Harpa J
mareyb
Mary
Becky
Kim
Yasmin
Kathy

G is for Garter and a bit of a Game

UPDATE: I got so many good ideas that I couldn't make up my mind. So I'm letting BDE pick. Results very soon. I want to thank all of you so much, this has been enormous fun!

BDE got married last week and I wanted to make her something but the wedding was in Antigua and she gets itchy from wool so that leaves out a shawl. So after wracking my brains and looking at yarn, I finally bought a skein of Seduce by Berrocco in vintage white, a color that is as close to her gown as I can get, and decided to make a garter. Now there were a few patterns on Ravelry but none were exactly what I was looking for. So I designed my own. I found a stitch pattern I thought would work, well actually I tried a bunch of them, and picked this one. It really didn't take long at all when I actually got down to it, but designing something myself is much more time consuming than I had imagined.










Materials:

Yarn: Seduce by Berroco one skein (I used not quite half of it)

1/8 inch elastic 14" or to fit your leg

1 yard 1/8 inch ribbon

sewing needle and thread

Size 3 needles (or size to obtain gauge)

Gauge: 25 sts = 4 inches/10 cm

Cast on 8 sts
Set up row: Knit
Row 1: Slip 1 st, k2, yo, k2tog,k1, yo 4 times, k2
Row 2: Sl 1, k1, k1 p1 k1 p1 into the 4 yo's, k3, yo, k2tog, k1
Row 3:Sl 1, k2, yo, k2tog, k7
Row 4: Sl 1, k8, yo, k2tog, k1
Row 5: repeat row 3
Row 6: BO 4 sts, k4, yo, k2tog, k1

Repeat 24 times
Bind off
Seam edges together
Thread elastic through top loops and sew together
Thread ribbon over elastic and make a bow.

Based on Petite open points from Knitting on the Edge by Nicky Epstein

So now that I'm a designer, I need a good name for the garter. Any ideas? We'll have a little contest I think and I have two skeins of Berrocco Geode for whomever comes up with a catchy name for my first, and maybe last, design.

F is for Fun in the Sun

And that's what we had in Antigua. We stayed at the Jolly Beach Resort and it has the best beach in Antigua. It was beautiful and warm. The water is the most amazing blue and warm enough even for me. We brought home shells and even some sea glass for my collection and we rescued a starfish. We swam and lounged and drank a bit. We saw shows with singers and dancers and ate a lot. I knit a bit on a sock, too. And best of all, we were all there for BDE's wedding which was so beautiful. And now we're home, but I do believe we'll go back because four days just wasn't enough.

March Socks or Why Is Red So Hard to Photograph

I've been thinking that I need red socks, I don't have a lot of red clothes but sometimes I wear red and I have no red socks. Now all reds are not the same and I like a red that isn't orange, more of a blue undertone, a rich red. So when I visited a new to me lys not too long ago, this red jumped out at me. A little variegated, a nice red and I knew which socks I wanted to make with it: Leyburn Socks. But they're toe up and I like the way top down fits my funny feet better. But, it seems that those that knit before me have just turned the pattern upside down and it works just fine. Although I had to use my incredibly poor math skills. I ended up with 60 sts on the cuff, increasing to 61 for the leg and back to 60 for the foot. My problem is taking a picture that shows the color well. I had them in the sun, in the shade, in the morning, in the evening, on the porch, out in the yard, on the porch in good light, on the porch in lower light, in the house near a window, well just about everywhere I could think of and it still isn't quite right. Close, but not quite right. Any tips on red yarn pictures?









The yarn is Plymouth Happy Feet. I wish you could see the color.

And we're off to Antigua on Friday morning for BDE's wedding. I have all my knitting packed and extra needles in the suitcase just in case. Actually, the knitting is all I have packed right now. But I know what clothes I'm taking. I got my hair cut and a pedicure and I've been using that tanning cream so I don't look quite so pale. Mr. Truck bought new shorts. We're all ready. I'll be back next week with a tan and some pictures.