Good Goes

I was recently paging through a knitting magazine and found a tiny little blurb about Good Goes, a program organized by Save the Children that provides medical treatment and other support for newborns and children in needy countries. They're asking for donations of knitted or crocheted newborn caps to distribute. This coincides with a lot of recent thought about my small balls of leftover sock yarn and this would be a great way to use them up and give to a good cause. If you are interested in learning more you can do so here, there is a downloadable pdf with shipping information and a free worsted cap pattern here.

Castlegar, Castlegar

I started this sweater with the best of intentions. You know, intending to knit it mostly monogamously so I could have a shiny new sweater to wear this Fall. I am moving along but it feels quite slow and not as gratifying as I feel it should be. It's the Castlegar Cardigan by Laura Chau and I really really want to wear it but I don't really really want to knit it. On sock yarn. On 2.75 mm needles. I purchased this yarn in my buying frenzy at Stitches West this Spring and it is lovely to work with and I'm not getting any pooling or flashing or anything but wonderful softness and sheen from the merino/bamboo blend. Miss Babs, you do me right. If the glass is half full I've already got the two sleeves done if the glass is half empty I haven't even cast on the body (almost 300 stitches) and that, my friends, is a setback indeed. Instead I knit a baby sweater and a headband and bought yarn for a Super Cupcake Cowl and am doing anything but casting on those stitches. Kick me, please, and just tell me to cast on and knit the damn thing.

Single Skeins and Stuff

Before I went on vacation I knit a handful of single skein projects for Stash & Burn's annual Single Skein September. It's kind of a KAL but mostly just a chance to look at all the single skeins in stash and use them up in some type of manner. I like quick and easy projects so I dug out a single skein of Manos del Uruguay Clasica in color X, also known as topaz. This is Elizabethtown from the MdU booklet Adirondack Accessories. I knit mine up in a little over an evening on size 10 needles. It's knit from the bottom up with cable decreases and then a ribbed split neck to fold over a jacket collar. There's also a buttonhole to fasten the split neck securely but I don't use mine.

As for the other stuff, last week was my four year wedding anniversary and we had a tasty tasty dinner at ToulousePetit in Lower Queen Anne.

We also took the Little One to her first fair where she enjoyed her first corn dog with lots and lots of yellow mustard, giggled at the baby chicks, and cried when a rooster crowed right in front of her.

My best friend is now in the Ukraine starting her stint in the PeaceCorps. Check out her blog and make a donation to help finance her Eastern European experience. Really, she doesn't even know if she'll have hot running water in her abode and the PeaceCorps living stipend is, shall we say, frugal.

Milkweed

My newest little piece of loveliness - the Milkweed Shawl by Laura Chau.
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn in Bronzed Sienna
Needle: US #4 Addi Turbo Lace
Mods: None! I knit it just as written and blocked the heck out of it.

Vacation

This is what vacation looks like! Bright, I know. I took my camera along but failed to take any pictures whatsoever. There was a lot of relaxation, knitting on the back patio, basking in the lovely weather, yarn buying (eep), and general awesomeness. We made our way down to San Francisco to have lunch with Nicole from Stash & Burn and to buy yarn at Imagiknit. Yes. A whole side trip just to buy yarn. Yeah, like you haven't done it before! I came away with a bag FULL of Madelinetosh loveliness and on top of that we dyed yarn with kool-aid a couple of days later. We used Lamb's Pride Superwash Sport and the pic is what I came away with - a skein of bright blue (8 or 10 packets of blue raspberry, presoaked in 6 packets of green tea) and a skein of shockingly bright orange (4 packets of orange and 4 packets of pink lemonade postsoaked in black tea). They look like goldfish mittens to me! If you haven't dyed yarn before I think this is a great way to start, plus your yarn will smell slightly fruity for a while. Other than the SF expedition and yarn dyeing not much happened except for hilarity with my sister and my BFF.

Quick

I leave for California tomorrow to visit for a whole week. It's just me and the Little One hanging out with my very good friend and my family. I've been knitting a whole lot of little projects for Stash & Burn's Single Skein September. It feels good to do some small, fast, satisfying, and scrappy little projects. Of course, I'm knitting them faster than I'm taking pictures so I won't have anything to share for at least a week. I'm eager to see exactly how much single skein knitting I can get done this month since I think I managed only two or three last year.

See you in a week!

On. Off.

Last week I realized that the end of August was fast approaching so I buckled down and got back to the business of knitting. My Central Park Hoodie had been languishing a bit due to smaller, more portable projects. This weekend I knit up to the hood and am now about half-way through. Go me! Hoods are almost as bad as sleeves for knitting, knitting, knitting and making almost no progress until you've magically knit past the point where X is supposed to happen. Once the hood is all knit up I have one more sleeve, a little bit of seaming, and buttonbands left to go. I'm hoping to have it done before I leave on vacation next week.

One of the small and portable projects is off the needles. The Playful Stripes Cardigan knit up quickly and I'm glad there are larger sizes available in the pattern because I'm pretty sure I'll want to knit another one in a couple of years for my larger size girl. The Little One seems pretty happy in it and has already christened it with apple juice (a special treat for her) since she refused to take it off. It fits great and has a little room to grow so she should be able to wear it through this Fall and Winter. Well, one can hope it'll last that long.