knitting away the blues

... Dodger blues that is ... looks like another year out in the first round for Los Angeles. and the Twins are losing their third game as I type this so my dream of a Dodgers/Twins World Series is fading away. and if the Dodgers don't pull it together, we won't get a 1988 rematch. I was hoping the A's would feel nostalgic and grow out hair and mustaches in tribue to Dennis Eckersley if they played the Dodgers.
anyway, at least I got in a ton of knitting last night after a good pre-race workout. Thought I was ready to start armhole shaping, but had Wes help me measure for length and decided to do one more pattern repeat (10 rows) to add some length. The only fit problem with the pink shell was that I got anxious and made it too short, so I don't want to do the same thing again, Mom doesn't have enough closet room in the RV for all my knitting mistakes. Thursday is Grey's too, so kept on knitting after the game too. Four more rows to go until I can start shaping, though I might measure one more time to make sure it's long enough. Probably won't get much done this weekend, big family dinner/open house for Luke being in town tonight and tomorrow is another 10k, lunch and shopping with Amanda, then a banquet for the golf tournament Wes, Luke and Dad are all playing in. Maybe I can get Wes to drive home tomorrow so I can get in my last few rows and be ready to shape on Sunday in between cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen and vacuuming and packing for Palm Springs.

"Invincible" Sweater

so I got out to see Lois on Tuesday and she helped get me back on track for the sweater. I didn't have too much time to knit that night since Tia and I had speed drills planned, then had to cook dinner and do other housewife-y stuff at home but I got in a couple of rows while we were watching baseball. Yesterday I didn't knit at all because it was date night! Wes and I went to see Invincible. I was mostly just going because Wes wanted to see it and there wasn't a whole lot of other choices at the cheap theater, but I really really liked it. I pay a lot more attention now to how women support their men in situations such as what was presented in the movie and I thought both female leads were really strong and fun, too. The head coach's wife seemed to be where a lot of his strength came from and the main female character, played by Elizabeth Banks, was pretty sassy and knew her sports trivia! Anyway, the story and even the football were entertaining too. Definitely better than what we sat through on Friday. So, have to run after work tonight, but then should have time to knit some more since the Dodgers will be on! Maybe they can actually score this time if they send two guys home on a outfield double. dang!

Seattle is for lovers (of knitting)

by Wednesday I had knit enough on my gauge swatch to figure out parameters for this brown hoodie. I cast on that evening so that once I got on the plane on Thursday afternoon, all I had to do was start knitting and the plan worked great. The pattern called for four inches of 2x2 ribbing to start and I got about halfway through that in the 2-hour flight with a break for complimentary beer, chips and salsa (way better than a tiny cup of Pepsi and dry-roasted peanuts!). I was a little discouraged that it seemed to be taking so long, but ribbing is slow, like seed stitch. I finished up the ribbing on Friday while hanging around with Grandpa and the rest of the family and by the time we settled down to watch the Angels demolish the Yankees after lunch on Saturday, I was rarin' to go and I made incredible progress that afternoon. When we left for Pike's Market (closed at 5pm! what?) I was feeling very satisfied with the day's knitting. Sunday we got to the airport early (thanks to the complimentary with a scary-ass driver shuttle service from our hotel) and I got in a few more rows before settling down for two solid hours of knitting on the plane. By the time we got home, I had all this completed (see picture at left). I haven't measured it yet to see how much more I have to do before starting to shape for arm-holes, but this is the most productive knitting weekend I've had in a long time.
Add in visiting with Luke (home from Iraq), Mom, Dad and Grandpa, plus a fun traveling adventure with my sweet husband, PLUS a Mariners game and I'd say that measures up to a really fun weekend too.
We arrived at Santa Barbara Airport at 10:30 on Sunday morning and by the time we got back to Ventura after dropping off our ride, picking up cars and checking in with Wes' squad (they were all working!) we got home around noon and started making up for the time away: checking mail, making grocery lists, etc. We watched a fun movie last night after dinner and I was able to knit a little more, but mostly was paying attention to make sure I got the jokes :)

On the road again ...

I took a long lunch on Wednesday and headed over to AFY for some help with this screwy cable pattern. Lois was, of course, great help and figured out that the pattern was instructing me to P where I should K and K where I should P on one of the cable passes. I sat at the work table and did a few rows with her changes to make sure everything was lining up and I could have stayed there all afternoon! I certainly didn't want to leave to get back to work, but it was crazy busy on Wednesday since I knew I would be out the rest of the week, so I headed back with my corrected pattern to finish up the work day. On the plane Thursday I knitted a few more rows to complete the pattern and make sure everything was fine ... then I ripped it all out to start over. My traveling companion (Lissa's boyfriend Matt) was quite chatty, so I paid more attention to him than to the pattern and didn't get too much more done. Thursday night was the rehersal dinner and on Friday all the guys got up early to mow the meadow where the wedding was to take place (nothing like those last minute jobs!) so I sat on the back porch of our Lake Tahoe cabin in the woods and knitted for about an hour on the new, mistake-free project. I was almost disappinted when Wes called to say they were on their way back and had plans to go to the beach for the rest of the morning!
(picture below: Luke - groomsman, Matt - groom, Andrew - Matt's brother/best man, Wes - groomsman. in front: Coyt - Luke's son and the ring bearer - outside our cabin in the woods above Lake Tahoe)
But the lake was beautiful and it was nice for all the guys to hang out with Matt and help him relax before getting hitched. We had a three-hour drive from Tahoe to Oakland on Saturday, but it was too early in the morning and a little too hungover to be doing anything but looking at the road ahead, so no knitting on that leg of the journey.
(picture below: Wes and I at the A's game on Saturday)

But on Sunday I knit for a majority of our trip home. I got a couple more passes of the 12-row pattern done and it is looking great so far! I am really happy with the way it is going, and I love the cable pattern. It keeps me interested as it is more challenging than just switching back and forth between knitting and purling. I have big plans for ths pattern ...