Sweatergirl gets back in touch with the Old Friend

I have been working on the Old Friend Aran - there's just not much to see. Yup, same old cables. The flush of new love is gone...it is actually mindless knitting now. My old friend...

S and I are going to see the new version of The Italian Job tonight. Should be a lot of fun! We saw the Michael Caine version with the local British Motoring Club. That movie made me fall in love with the Mini Cooper - and from the trailer, the new version is also a great Mini commercial. I love the IMDB: check out the keywords for the original version. You may ask, how many movies have "mini-cooper" as a keyword? Oh yeah - I forgot about The Bourne Identity - which links to Matt Damon, whom I never realized was in Mystic Pizza - I'll have to rewatch...

I am insanely curious to know if you get the same ads on my page as I do - sometimes it's the PTA, the Peace Corps, and the Red Cross, and today it's agnes b and Porch Dresses. I would never ever buy anything on the porchdresses.com site. Cuz if I ever ever felt like wearing anything like that, I would make it (or buy it at a local Mart), not ever ever pay the prices they are asking. Wow. Maybe I am just too midwestern. But, thanks, Porch Dresses, for paying for my blog...

Sweatergirl's Wednesday weirdness

It's a beautiful day in Mid-Michigan - so welcome to my virtual picnic. Pull up a chair...

or a hammock...

and pick up your needles. Got your shades?

We've got the grill going, and white sangria and snacks while we wait...And mosquitoes and pollen are NOT allowed.

Ah - food!

We've got some fruit salsa, cucumber salad, and spinach salad with sweet dressing, and my famous chicken-pesto sandwiches, and for dessert - watermelon sorbet. Yum. Weight Watchers weigh-in days always make me fantasize about food...So here are some recipes.

Sweet dressing:

1/2 c sugar
1/2 c apple cider vinegar
2 T vegetable oil
1 green onion, chopped
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 t prepared mustard (yum - horseradish mustard...but all work well)
1/4 t pepper
Mix all ingredients and refrigerate. Toss with baby spinach and/or field greens and toasted walnuts.

Chicken-pesto sandwiches:

Spread a baguette with pesto, top with roasted red peppers (from a jar), 2 sliced grilled boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 4 sliced Roma tomatoes, lettuce, and bacon (if craved).

Watermelon sorbet:

Over medium heat in a medium-sized pot (sounds mediocre, but it gets better), combine 2/3 c sugar, 1/2 c water, and 2/3 c light corn syrup. Reduce it a bit over low heat. Stir in lemon juice, and put syrup in freezer until it colls to room temperature. While it's cooling, cut a 1/4 watermelon into chunks and puree in a blender. Stir into the cooled syrup. Freeze in an ice cream freezer .

Oh wait - I forgot to order the chef...I guess I'll just pick up some Chinese food instead! I can still eat on the deck - if the mosquitoes aren't too blood-thirsty.

Sweatergirl learns a lesson

When packing for a 10 hour car trip (each way), make sure you bring a second ball of yarn!

I had a great weekend, but accomplished very little knitting, since I ran out of yarn. But I finally have the hang of the Old Friend Aran cables, so I don't need the charts anymore. Whew.

I visited friends and got to see their new house for the first time. J is very creative and has a great sense of color, so I was flattered that I got to help her pick out fabric for a fun project - she is creating a canopy-type covering for the ceiling of their screened-in deck. I'm not quite sure if that describes it, but it is going to be fabulous. We kept rolling fabric off the bolt and walking under it; I'm sure we looked a bit flaky to the fabric store employees. But what a fun space the porch will be with its dotted turquiose canopy!

Maybe they need Blue's Clues sweaters to match the new spotted digs...

Boy - this is getting boring, and I missed the shizzolating of the weekend - check it out. Much more interesting if I could write that way, n'est ce pas?

Sweatergirl checks in - briefly!

Ok - headlines are back. The exclamation point is for Sarah! Check yesterday's comments.

It's Sarah's BIRTHDAY! Go say hi.

And - almost as a birthday present - Berroco posted a whole bunch of free patterns. Great basic shapes in lots of gauges. Get 'em while they're hot! I found this out from their mailing list - join up and you might win a prize of a kit - although I haven't won one - yet. So maybe I shouldn't dilute my chances...oh well - too late now.

No more headlines!

They haven't been all that good, and I'm giving up on the headlines. I think. At least for today...How indecisive is that?

I got the Summer Spin-Off yesterday - anyone else love the "bowls" on the cover? For those that don't get the mag - sorry that they don't have the summer issue posted on the web yet. Here's the link for when they do! Basically, they are knitted from unspun roving and felted. Neat.

Thanks for the ideas for programs - more are welcome, of course! We have weekly knit-ins, so I will be asking the guild members for ideas too. AND - if I come up with any patterns or handouts, I'll post them. For free. And, you can link to them. And, if I have any restrictions about use, I will post them with the pattern.

Anyway - I have been travelling a lot - with the Dale sleeve, and I think I have missed a few increases or my row gauge is off or something. Dammit. (That's for Cindy; I have a bad cursing habit! I'll knock it off now, though.) In Sarah's seamless sweater class, she taught us to use safety pins to count rows - so before ripping, I'll safety pin all my increases and seee what's going on. I do still have 5 inches before the top of the sleeve, so I might be able to get them all in, but I've got to calculate it out. I just want to figure it out tonight, since I am travelling again tomorrow and don't want to just keep knitting...just to have more to rip out.

I am really impressed with how quickly it's been going - this sleeve had been in my knitting basket for more than a year. Once I got past the three-color rows and the flowery things, though, it's been soaring. But - there is still another sleeve to start - hopefully the same mental blocks won't stall THAT one too.

Sweatergirl with a new title

Last night was our last meeting of the MidMichigan Knitters Guild for the year (September-May, just like school). We celebrated with a scruptious dinner - as Sarah mentioned - but I celebrated with three desserts. Sarah didn't do her part with only two! I was asked to run for VP of the guild - it was my turn! After having been a member for five years, they finally caught up with me.

The major responsibility of the VP in this guild is to plan and organize programs. We do a half-hour to hour-long program one night a month, and we can additionally have workshops at another time (Saturdays, with potluck lunches?). Those are usually pretty fun, and we try to keep them in the same theme. So - I have a couple ideas, but I want to hear about fun programs or workshops or knit-alongs that you have participated in (in which you have participated?). Of course I will ask the guild too, but we tend to have been to the same events and such. New ideas are always invigorating!

For example - here's one I picked up from the Plymouth guild - At the start of the year, everyone gets a Secret Sock Santa (I don't think they call it that!). But basically, throughout the year, you work on a pair of socks for someone (shhh! don't tell anyone who they're for!), and present them at the end of the year. I thought maybe we should have a program (half-hour) on how to size socks, then write our measurements on an index card (with allergies, etc), put all the cards in a hat, and then pick someone else's card. Even if people didn't want to do the sock exchange, the fitting workshop would be useful.

We also do a project in December, called the Hat Contest, in which people blindly select a bag of yarn and make a hat to donate to charity from the yarns in the bag. We get some interesting color combos, as most of the yarn is donated. We give a prize for "People's Choice" and "Luck of the Draw" - LynnH won People's Choice last year. Maybe the November program could be about edgings or hat shapes? Or "Making the most of those putrid colors". Hmm.

So - what programs/workshops have been the most fun? entertaining? educational? Let me know in the comments - Thanks!!!

Martha, Martha, Martha

Martha, Inc., the NBC movie, was outrageously disappointing. The dialogue, in particular, was unbelieveably bad. And Martha's full character is never developed - she stays the same throughout the movie. What a waste. But, since I am not a CSI fan, I just kept watching...like a train wreck. Just awful.

I only got a bit of knitting done - about an inch on the Old Friend Aran. Not much to see in a photograph though. So, as picture of the day, I present Indy looking resentful - that's his norm. But we love him anyway.

Sweatergirl gets girly

I spent the past weekend in New York at my little sister's place. She is getting married in October, and the other bridesmaids and I went to look at dresses. Fun, fun, fun! Luckily, none of us are too into frills and stuff. Here's the dress we came up with - it's from the Jenny Yoo Collection. Jenny herself was there. We're doing it in silver. Some of the eight bridesmaids are doing it as a halter (shown) and others are doing strapless or spaghetti straps. Cute, eh? Edi's a good sister, and a good bride! No bridezilla potential in evidence...

Although I flew, I spent most of the flight reading instead of knitting - I don't really like to talk to people while I'm scrunched into the seat next to them - reading is pretty anti-social. So this is as far as I got on the sleeve. I think I need to make sure I increased at a decent rate.

I finished reading Step-Ball-Change, by Jeanne Ray. A cute and entertaining book, but not much to discuss, even though she covers marriage, divorce, growing old together, interracial relationships, and lots of family stuff. I think it just breezes by so fast, it's hard to think - but I think that's the feeling she was going for. This family got caught up in a whirlwind of activity!

I started, and almost finished, The Nanny Diaries - entertaining, if I didn't think it was true. Scary. I was so happy to get back to Michigan, where there's enough land for everyone to have a little piece...

Sweatergirl and Super-T

Batman had Robin, and now it appears that I have my own, ummm, partner? Special friend? How about my lovely assistant?

It's Super-T - and he came on the front of my Lands' End catalog! Wow - check out that chest logo.

And a good time was had by all...

Tuesdays are MMKG's knit-ins, and are always a good time for sharing. Last night we dined on a wonderful white chili with jalapeno cornbread and a refreshing salad. And three desserts. Yum! Did you know Cool Whip comes in French Vanilla? I guess I missed it, but it is definitely yummy.

So last night, I gave Daphne a mini-lesson on spindling. If she gets it, it will be through sheer dedication, as I was quite distracted by the good conversations around me! But she didn't drop the spindle nearly as much as I did my first time, and I think she's caught the bug. I loaned her my first spindle, which I had to draw arrows on to remember which way to spin singles and which way to ply. I hope she enjoys! That spindle has been through a lot of beginners.

I seem to be alternating between the Old Friend Aran (from Interweave Knits, Fall 2000, a great issue - thanks for the nudge, Anne!) and the Dale sweater (from Dale #100 - thanks for the reminder, Julie!). I worked on my Old Friend at last night's knit-in.

And I seem to have found a new project - an Echo Lake (Interweave Knits Summer 2003) knit-together with TrixieChick and another friend. I found out that there are six Echo Lakes in the state (how? GNIS), so we are going to have to have a pique-nique at one of them to celebrate when we finish. Even if it's cold...so my knitting partners had better keep me on track! So, if you want to join in, find an Echo Lake near you, or come visit ours!

Sweatergirl shows her stuff

Woo-hoo! Look at what I did last night - the whole red/black section in this photo. That's about it. When I get to the diamond pattern (the main sleeve pattern), it'll get to be a lot easier and go a little faster.

I did successfully avoid Sam for the evening. He's all seamed up, but I am still undecided about the border and buttons and such. So I'm avoiding him.

I saw this on squiBlog - kinda neat:

SimilarMinds.com Compatibility Test

Your match with Amy R Singer you are 83% similar you are 86% complementary

How Compatible are You with me?

Sweatergirl shocked by Survivor

Check out Terri's commentary on the Survivor finale. She says it all. I was surprised and slightly angered by the ending. Grrr. How could Jenna have gotten 6 of the 7 jury votes? I think something important was edited out. And - cattiness alert - as bad as Heidi looked during the show, I thought her Pamela Anderson-eque appearance at the jury and the reunion was unforgiveable.

I got quite a bit of knitting done this weekend - I finished the back of the Old Friend Aran, and started the front:

And I started the sleeve to this Dale sweater:

During Survivor, I wove in the ends on my first pair of gloves (forgot a picture - but they're gloves and they're orange). Boy, there's a lot of ends. And a lot of holes to sew up around the fingers. I guess I will have to be more conscientious next time. I did the fingers a la Meg Swansen - I-cord. Kinda cool, and a lot easier than doing with lots of DPNs.

Reading note: I finished The Secret Life of Bees - it's a wonderful book, but I was so sad to finish and not get to visit with the characters anymore. Any locals want to borrow it?

Sweatergirl's summer 2003 IK review

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!

I actually really like this Interweave Knits issue! First, it's got a project by one of the most talented lace designers/knitters, who just happens to be in the Mid-Michigan Knitters Guild - Faina Letoutchaia (my copy is autographed!). The Forest Path Stole is gorgeous. And don't wory about using alpaca - Faina and Sharon Winsauer (another amazing lace designer in our guild) work with it all the time - it's not a rough and ready garment, but it's a lace stole, and you aren't wearing it everywhere.

But I also like the idea of the lace garments. The square bodice pullover is quite elegant. I would make the stockinette a bit longer for myself, but I think it could be quite elegant. I also like the Rumplestilkskin Cardigan, but I think it makes the model look heavy, so I'm not sure it's for me. The summer stole is a neat idea - say, for someone who is going to be weating a strapless bridesmaid's dress in October in NYC...As soon as we pick out the color of the dresses, I will look into some elegant yarns. The wedding gown story is quite interseting, if a bit scary.

What makes the issue really worthwhile for me, though, is the Shimmer Aran, by Veronik Avery. I want one. Badly. It's now on the to do list. And my husband likes the Echo Lake Cardigan by Leigh Radford - sans zipper. He is not an exciting person to knit for...he even wants it in dark grey. Kathy Zimmerman always does a great job with cables, even though I won't make this particular item. There are some other interesting things - I'm not sure that any really sing out to be made immediately, but I keep the issues around and flip through - so who knows if any of them are in my future. All in all, a decent issue!

Sweatergirl's short attention span

I decided to block Sam before seaming, since Sarah argued her point so convincingly. I am also debating what to do with the bands. I could go find a 6th color (another bright, or black?), or I was thinking of striped applied I-cord. I have a few days, since I decided to wet-block cotton during a rainy week. Thoughts?

So, I spent some time with the soy silk and the Lady Ann. And dropped that beautiful drop spindle over and over again. I was too stubborn to try another fiber I was more familiar with - tonight I'll try some tussah silk and some merino. But aren't they lovely together?

I also spent some time on the Old Friend aran - project notes to come. I had started this a looong time ago, but seeing Kathy's version inspired me to pull it out and get moving. Ok - I am slow to respond - I can't believe she posted this in January, and I am finally acting on my envy! But I had 16 inches done, did 3 more, and have 5 to go for the back. It's in Tahki Donegal Tweed, and the pattern shows up much better in person. This was the best I could do with the camera! Anyway, I forgot how much I loved knitting arans.

And here are some pics from the weekend - two wistful angora goats (love them!) and two sleepy Tunis sheep.

And for any of you MMKGers out there - can you believe I have some Noro Kuryeon yarn that Cheanne doesn't have enough of? Whoa. I think this is a bad sign and it is time to stop accumulating yarn...

Right now - on NPR (Diane Rehm show), they are talking about the resurgence of homemaking and the popularity of knitting. The book they are discussing is Made From Scratch, by Jean Zimmerman. They mentioned the "relaxation response" that happens when you knit. I am an incredibly uptight person, even with the knitting - so I hope everyone I know is thankful that I knit!

Actually, knitting was a minor mention, but this topic is an interesting one to me - balancing family/career/values. I know right now my life is terribly unbalanced, and do I think it will magically fall into place if I have kids? Hmm. Has anyone read any of her books? The titles look interesting (Life After Birth: What Your Friends Won't Tell You About Motherhood, Raising Our Athletic Daughters, and, earlier, and perhaps in another life, Breaking with Tradition). I guess the show worked, because I am curious enough to at least look at the books!

Told you I had a short attention span!

Sweatergirl reports back in

I've been delinquent, but, hey - it took a long while to recover from our marathon Maryland trip!

Following someone's advice, we got to the fairgrounds before 8 and got a great parking spot. That's the roof of the gate in the bakground on the right. There's my little VW Golf TDI, which gets great mileage! And I'm the insane person on the left. Some of the vendors were open when we arrived. So we starterd in. TrixieChick convinced me to make one small purchase to overcome the overwhelmed feeling. I bought a small packet of hand-dyed soy silk for $4.50 and was pretty smug. But that just opened the floodgates!

In packing for the trip, I came up with three missions - to purchase a new spindle, to look at Jean Frost's book, and to purchase a tension knob for my Lendrum Lazy Kate (a $2-3 item). Before leaving, I was unable to find my Comet spindle from Tracy Eichheim (my only nice spindle - did I loan it to someone? Or is it just hiding somewhere?). So my next purchase was a Mjolinor (don't make me say it) spindle, made by Greensleves Spindles, and found at The Woolery. I spun and plied 2 oz. of "Mystery Roving" from The Drafting Zone on it over the weekend, and it's a wonderful spindle.

I bought a bunch of dyed mohair top and dyed mohair/Border Leicester curls, and a used Hatchtown Lady Ann - which I heven't figured out yet - but I am going to give it some time.

So - by 10 AM, I had the spindles checked off, and TrixieChick promptly found Jean Frost's Jackets book. I loved it - so bought it. How had I not seen it before now?

I also gave in to Aberlemno from Yarns International. Sweater samples really sel me - I was torn between Aberlemno and Rain Forest - but there was no wrong decision. Both of these sweaters are much more subtle in person than on the web photos. I'm no Wendy Johnson, though (isn't she an inspiration?), so don't expect to see me wearing this anytime soon!

On the Sam saga - I didn't quite finish in time, but look at it now! I actually did the green sleeve entirely at Sarah's house last night. Sarah confirmed that it is really small. Oh well. Now to sew it up, figure out edging, and make some cute booties to match.