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WIP Wednesday - 05/14/2008

A quick WIP Wednesday post today - I'm getting ready to head out Friday for the Snake River Fiber Festival in Idaho Falls.  Please stop by the Wooly Wonka Fibers booth if you are there and say "Hi!".

Project #1:  Little Child's Socks

Sigh.  Not even one stitch on these.  They are too complicated for me to use as mindless knitting, so I've not made any progress at all on these with everything else on my plate right now.  Probably won't see any progress this week either.

Goal:  None - on hold.

Project #2:  Cobblestone Pullover

I finished up the sleeve increases on sleeve #1.  I also unraveled the cast-on edge and then raveled the sleeve back past the garter-stitch edging, and then picked up these stitches to rework the cuff.  Not very painful - I love this yarn.  You can frog and refrog and reknit and it still looks very nice.

Goal: Finish the sleeve decreases (MAKE NOTES!) and the cuff.

Project #3 (semi-new) Gentleman's Sock:

Nothing like mindless knitting and lots of hours driving in the truck!  I have not only finished the leg of the sock, turned the heel, did the gusset decreases, but I'm most of the way down the (very long - 11.26 cm) foot of the sock before the toe decreases.

Goal:  Finish this up!

All for now......

Eagle Extreme Ride

This weekend, D and I drove up to Eagle, Idaho (just north and slightly east of Boise) for the Eagle Extreme ride.  This was D and Sam's first ride together, and Bhen and I told them we'd ride with them to make sure they got thru everything okay.  We needn't have worried.  The guys did great!

MJ drove up with us to Idaho.  She's just gotten clearance (as of Monday, today) to start riding again, but since her horses have been on vacation while her shoulder healed from surgery, she didn't have them in good enough condition to ride.  (So we had one of the top 3 riders in our geographic division acting as crew for us; a little overkill, I suppose........  She's a good sport, though, and took very good care of the ponies during our vet-check break.)

We took the big, living quarter trailer her husband has as a demo from his trailer-sales business and lots of panels for the horses.  Bhen had his own space at one end of the trailer.

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Sam had slightly taller panels, since he's such a big boy, at the other end of the trailer.

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Ride camp was in this lovely flat, sagebrushy area between two small ranges of hills.  There were 4 loops for the ride (the 50-milers rode all 4, the 25-milers rode just 2 of the 4).  They all came back into camp for the vet checks, which was nice, since the boys could come back to the trailer to have a snack and a bit of a rest before going back out again, and we didn't have to pack everything to take out to a midway point.  The first loop was not very technical - most of it was flat 2-track sandy trails through a ranch.  Our only dicey moment was at the start, where Sam got kind of revved up with all the horses and excitement, and we had to try to stay clear of an unhappy, kick-prone mare whose rider was trying very hard to get under control.  Once we got on the trail, the boys trotted along nicely next to each other and kept each other company. 

We had our break after the first loop and went back out onto the second part of the ride.  I had actually ridden part of this trail before, when I went to try out Bhen, since the ranch where he lived was just over the next range of hills, so I recognized some of the terrain, knew when we'd need to slow down or where we could make time.  With his huge walking stride, Sam was able to make up a lot of time on the hills.  We could keep him at a walk and not tire him, but he was leaving folks trying to trot those hills in the dust.  Our main goal for this ride was to finish and to have Sam come to the end of the ride still in good shape.  This trail was more technical - creek crossings, more rocky areas, some cross-country (meaning no trail  at all) areas, and had some somewhat sparse and/or confusing trail markings. We blasted out of a rocky creek crossing at one point, coming out of the trees up a steep hill and almost ran into a somewhat uncooperative cow and her bull suitor.  Oops.  A quiet and verrryyyy careful tiptoe away from the romantic pair was in order. 

Nearing the end of the loop, we unfortunately missed a turnoff for the last few miles of the loop, and headed back into camp incorrectly.  The ride manager stopped us, explained where we needed to catch the other part of the loop and sent us back out.  I was worried Sam would be overly tired, but apparently he just got his second wind, because he powered back up to the top of the ridge line, we found the trail and headed out to finish up the loop.

Even though we wound up adding 3, or maybe 4 extra miles, D and Sam still came in 10th.  Not bad at all for their first ride.

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We all got commemorative water bottles for completing the ride, and D and I got a set of polo wraps, since we were had driven the farthest to attend the ride.  We got to hang out a little with Bhen's previous mom, Sally, and see her new horses, and then crashed for the night.  No problems sleeping at all!

We packed up the boys on Sunday a.m. and were home by midafternoon on Sunday for a little R&R.  Digger was happy to see everyone and the boys have all been having back-to-back snoozes in the sun here today.

Bhen's looking forward to his next ride in June, up in the mountains of Utah tho!

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All for now....

WIP Wednesday - 05/07/2008

Hokey doke - the seemingly never-ended scarf is finally finished and off the needles, so......

Project #1:  Little Child's Socks

Are now the top-listed project.  I did get a few repeats knit on these.  I've got 2 more repeats for the leg before turning the heel.

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Goal:  Finish up the leg repeats.

Project #2:  Cobblestone Pullover

This has turned into my "knit when you can" project, but with multiple errands and waiting for the yarn skeiner to run, I actually have made quite a bit of progress on the sleeve.  I have 4 more rows, and then will be up to the last set of increases for the underarm "seam".  I think I've decided that I'm going to cut off the large garter stitch cuff, then pick up and knit probably 8 or 12 rows with spaced decreases, down to a smaller garter stitch cuff with less rows (and do that on smaller needles). 

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Goal:  Finish all the increase rows.

Project #3 (semi-new) Gentleman's Sock:

I posted a pic of this a few posts ago.  The pattern is the "Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock" from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks book.  Sorta-kinda.  I changed the heel treatment and tweaked some stitch counts to get what I wanted (which is mostly to use up the bulk of this large 450-yard skein of Alpaca Sox).  I'm working these up in another ginormous guy size to ship off to the orphanage.  This yarn apparently felts like the dickens, so cold water/hand washing will be perfect for it, and it IS extremely warm for its weight.

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Goal:  First sock is already done and off the needles.  I have about an inch of the second sock ribbing done.  No specific goal, but we are on the road to Idaho for a race this weekend, and I think this will be my primary travel project, since it is exceptionally mindless and I don't really need a pattern to work on it.

All for now.....

FO: Center Diamond Scarf

Finally!  It is done, done, done!!

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Project Specs:

  • Pattern:  Large Rectangle with Center Diamond Pattern Shawl from Victorian Lace Today
  • Yarn:  Rowan Kid Silk Haze - 2 skeins - colorway Liquor (# 595).  I didn't use all of the second skein; there's probably half left over - if anyone can use it for another project, please let me know and I'll be happy to send it to you.
  • Needles:  Size 7 US bamboo
  • Modifications:  I made this significantly smaller than the original.  I only worked 4 diamonds across the body of the scarf.  Finished dimensions for this project wound up at 15-1/2 x 60 inches after a light blocking.
  • Notes:  OMG - I thought I would never finish this thing.  I was distinctly unmotivated through most of it, and I have no clue why.  I like the yarn and the color and working lace.  What the heck was my problem? This was not a particularly difficult knit.  I would rate it fine for moderate beginners who have knit some lace.  Picking up the edging stitches is about it for technical stuff.

Slightly less artsy shot for those who want to see the details:

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Liz - remind me of your snail mail addy so I can send this along to you, K?

All for now......

WIP Wednesday - 04/30/08

Project #1:  Lace Diamond Scarf

Look at this! Woot cubed!  (Yes - I know - out of focus - ignore that part).

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That little bit is all I have left to put edging on.  I think I have 2 repeats, then the corner, then 7 repeats and the last corner, and then 3 repeat.  I'm going to try like the dickens to finish this and get it off the needles.

Goal:  Finish edging.

Project #2:  Little Child's Socks

Chugging along on this.  I actually did 3 repeats of the leg pattern this week.  No specific goal for this, as I want to concentrate on the scarf this week.

Goal:  None specific; work on this ad lib.

Project #3:  Cobblestone Pullover

I finished up the 16 rows I had set as a goal for myself.  I had D slip this sleeve on and he didn't like the way it kept "flopping in his soup".  Meaning he wanted a tighter fitting sleeve at the cuff.  Okay - I can do that.

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Now, shall I cut off the garter stitch and pick up those stitches into just regular ribbing, or should I add a couple of decrease rows and then do a narrower garter stitch cuff (like maybe 6 rounds)?  Any opinions?

Goal:  None (finish scarf!) while I ponder what I want to do to modify the sleeve.

All for now......