Knitting Passion

Yup, a day late and a dollar short . . . but there you go. I promised pics and pics you shall have!

–/–

At left is a picture of Sherry working on a sock in some GREAT colors! The pattern is Tidal Wave - I wrote about it a few entries ago - pretty neat to see someone else working on it. (the link goes to a pdf of the pattern.)

I can’t start on mine yet - and it is for a really DUMB reason! I bought new needles last Tuesday, set them aside until I had finished a project - and when I took them out discovered that I had NOT purchased size 1 dpns as needed. Oh, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (heavy on the sarcasm - can’t help it - I am SUCH a nudge!) I bought size 0 dpns!

sigh!

So, now I need to wait until I get paid later this week to buy size 1s. Well, maybe I will NEED size 0s at some point - but, good golly they sure are teensy needles.

My hands go numb with size 2s! Of course, that COULD be because I was watching I Am Legend while finishing up the baby socks. Have you SEEN that movie? Shiver! Wow! And, that’s all I have to say about that! (ala Forest Gump - heh)

So - am off to bed - have to be up bright and early in the morning - going to take the expectant mama her new socks - for her AND the baby.

I’ll post pictures of the finished project tomorrow. Have a great rest of Sunday - well, it IS Sunday in Alaska still.

So, I met Sherry from the Ravelry knitting group Alaskan Knitters this morning for coffee. We had no clue who the other was . . . so how in the world would we hook up?

Well, I am all about the obvious - so I wore my purple moose pin - my log in name at ravelry is Purple Moose, after all. AND - I had my knitting out on the table and was working on one of the baby socks.

Sherry came in and gravitated right to me and said - oooh, here’s another knitter! I grinned and said - are you Sherry? Yes - are you Barbara? Yes! And, we laughed.

Her hubby, bless his heart, grinned, bought their drinks, grabbed his book - and a kiss from Sherry - and left us to our conversation.

TWO HOURS later he called and told her he was in the parking lot - TWO HOURS!!! I guess it is true what my nephew told his mother back 20 years or so ago when we were stuck in SeaTac airport for 4 days (due to a volcanic eruption in Alaska which had grounded the planes - ALL of the planes - 4 days before Christmas!!!) . . . “Mom, Aunt Barb can talk to ANYONE about ANYTHING - ANYPLACE!!!” Yes, I embarrassed him greatly. Yes, I would do it again.

And, you know what? Deep down, I am secretly a shy person. No, really! Quit laughing at me! Why does everyone laugh when I say that?

heh

It was great fun, Sherry! I hope to join you again another Saturday.

Afterwards I did some book shopping for a grandson who lost his book on the school bus - called to make sure I had the right one - and, guess what! He told me the wrong number on the phone - and now I have to return it! (sigh!) What I won’t do for my grand-younguns.

————-
New (to me) charity project you might want to check out:

Scarves from the Heart. Here is a little about the founder:

My name is Shirley (Shelly) Heikkinen, I am a wife, mother, and grandmother who in 2001 retired from my office job. I have a 43 year old daughter who is battling cancer, and recently lost my younger sister to cancer. At the time I began this venture, neither my daughter or sister lived close enough for me to be able to help them with physical needs, so my role was that of moral support. Their battles left me with a lot of negative emotions that were not conducive to my own physical health, worry was taking a toll on me and I knew I needed to do something about it. One night lying in bed I got the idea to knit scarves for cancer patients, I knew that neither my daughter nor sister would want it done in their names so I decided to do something locally. The next morning I called the St. Joseph’s Regional Cancer Center (formerly the Sister Mary Pia Cancer Center) and Scarves from the Heart began.

You may view her blog at The Yarn Tart.

I hope you will read more about this project and donate if you can. If you are interested in beginning such a project in your own area, there is information on the site to help you get started.

Soooooooooooooooooo - off you go now - have fun, be careful, and enjoy your weekend.

I am hoping to meet up with some of the Ravelry knitters this morning - from the Alaska Knitters group. We will meet at a Soldotna coffee shop.

Of course . . . . THIS is what Alaska threw at us this morning . . . so . . .

a nice fresh spring snowfall - about 3 1/2 inches or so - and, on the day AFTER I changed over from winter studded tires to summer tires. Bwahahaha! Alaska has such a great sense of humor.

Will a measly 3 1/2 inches stop us from getting out and meeting for coffee? Well, I can’t answer for the rest of the folks, but it won’t stop ME!

In fact, I will be meeting a second group - of dear friends - at 2 this afternoon at another coffee shop for a love-fest of coffee and laughter and hugs.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhlaska!

By the way - for those of you who like to do yarn crawls while on travels . . . here is a GREAT place to visit FIRST - America’s Knitting - just go to the state and town you are planning to visit and you can find most - if not all - of the local yarn shops listed there.

I wish I had found it beFORE going to Ohio in March, but at least I have it for the next time. And, check out the projects page to see a pair of my socks featured. That pair is now finished and I am working on the baby socks. Hope to have them done by Monday to take to the pool to give to the mama. She only has a couple weeks left in this pregnancy and I’m not sure how much longer she’ll be coming to the pool for her lap swimming.

thanks, Mary!

Hope you are all enjoying a snow free day. We got OUR snow for free! lol

Well, I have LOTS of things - in various stages - on various sized needles. Some things have been put down “for awhile” and never picked back up again - those are destined for frogging, I’m sure. I may end up making the very same thing when(ever) I pick them up again, but for now will likely be frogged.

Come on, you know you’ve done the same thing.

I tend to like quick and easy projects - projects that are DONE when they are taken off the needles. I don’t generally like to do TOO MUCH finishing work.

Does that make me lazy?

Nahhhhhhh - I prefer to think of myself as focused. Yeah, THAT’s the ticket - FOCUSED!

heh.

But at least I am not EXTREME - in that I am not an Extreme Knitter. Well, not for now, anyway.

Here’s another very dedicated knitter. That piece looks destined to getting wet.

For now, it’s just socks - I finished the first of a pair tonight - not entirely happy with it, but going to cast on the second sock tomorrow anyway. I may (or may not) frog the first one after the second is finished. These are for a pregnant mama who swims with daughter and me each morning. I hope to get them finished - AND - a pair for the baby finished BEFORE mama goes into labor. She has three more weeks.

Three more weeks! I know! And she is still swimming with us every morning! And, let me tell you - she is no slouch in the pool, either. She does a pretty good workout every day - full out swimming - while I just paddle along. I am impressed, I’ll tell ya!

oh, dang! I missed the wee tiny sock swap signup! Shoot! Well, there’s always 2009. But, I have several wee tiny socks already done - she’s right, you can’t just make one! Hmmmmm - maybe I should do my own swap, huh? Well, we’ll see if any of you would like to do that - or I will just wait for the wee tiny sock swap 2009 to come around.

Whoo, boy! (or as some in my past would say, BOY, HOWDY!)

So, I have been “stuck” in Ravelry for several days. I now know why so many have said it is addictive - and, being one of those addictive-type personalities, I can say - it sure is!

I’m Purplemoose over there if you’re looking for me - and be sure to let me know here so I can find you, too.

I’ve joined a few groups - and posted one picture - of a pair of socks, of course. Remember these socks?
I finished them in Ohio on our trip and gave them to our friend (he was our best man 39 years ago) for his expected grandbaby. Well, the little tyke was born 3 months early and weighed in at a whopping (I jest) three pounds! So, a plea was made from the new grandparents to make a tiny pair to fit his widdle feet.

I made a tiny hat also - and the socks are tube socks. The hat is small enough to fit an orange, I would guess. For the picture I put it onto the hat of the baby on the card I sent with them. I wanted to make sure they arrived quickly - because, well, because you just never know with premies - and whoo! the post office made out on that deal. But the socks and hat arrived in less than three days so I consider it money well spent.

Hubby talked with his buddy today and the little guy is holding his own and seems to be doing well. But they still haven’t named him. He’s 8 days old. It’s time to give that baby a moniker!

Speaking of monikers . . . Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin (and the First Dude, Todd) have welcomed their fifth child into their family. Master Trig Paxson Van Palin arrived a month early. Sarah went into labor while making a speech in Texas(!!) after her water broke (!!!) She was able to get through her speech, get to the airport and aboard an Alaska Airlines jet, get to Alaska in time to deliver the young sir. And, yes, baby socks are being mailed to her tomorrow, too.

Thanks to those of you who commented or emailed wondering if I had dropped from the face of the earth - I’ve just been really busy at work and after winding down by knitting a row or two (3, 10, you know), I either browse through other folks’ blogs - or Ravelry - or drop off to sleep (either still in my chair or in my bed).

Life is good, I am fine, and I thank you all.

So, what’s on YOUR needles?