Something New!

Its so much fun to cast on something new. I was thinking about that this week. It is a sense of renewal, of anticipation, of "another chance" to do it right. And the best thing about my next project is that the yarn is bigger than thread and I'm making a lot of progress. Its a good thing since I'm not a fast knitter. Here she is - the left front of the Jo Sharp wrapped cardigan in Cascade 220 Sapphire heather yarn:



I love the stitch definition with Cascade. I haven't used enough of this yarn. It is so soft but not drapy.

And I did a little bit of knitting on my Monkey socks:



And finally - another new toy. Qwest is migrating all their wireless customers to Verizon. My phone was on its deathbed so I decide to move over now. I love my LG decoy (it has a detachable Bluetooth headset - altho a bit too big for my ears). The phone is sexy - mirror finish. I love the downloads. I have my ringtone - Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and I add a Journey "Faithfully" ringback tone. The latter plays to caller while they are waiting for me to answer the call. Neat!



Finally - my heart goes out to all those people leaving New Orleans today on buses. After everything they went through 3 years ago it just isn't fair to have a repeat performance. I pray that Gustav turns out to be just a bad memory.

Tomorrow is a holiday and then I'm taking off Tues. Plan to block my bee shawl. Will post when its dry!

One last thing.. I am Ravelry'd out. I love it to find ideas for yarn or patterns but I have decided to "unjoin" both Sundara yarn groups. Seems that every thread turns into a "chat" with lots of silly things posted. Maybe I am getting old. I just dont' enjoy or have the time to wade thru all the silliness in order to read the minority of posts that are on topic. Oh well. I am getting old.

Bees are off the needles!

I did it! I did it! Just finished binding off my Beehive Shawl. That was a lot of knitting. Still need to block it and graft the cast-on stitches (I will do that over Labor Day weekend) but here she is:



And a closeup of the last section:



I'm very proud of myself. I learned a lot of new things with this shawl including endurance.

I also started my first pair of Monkey socks. I agree with the others who say it looks a lot more complicated than it is. Very easy. Love the color combos too:



So - what now. I don't have the yarn yet to make the Starmore Oregon. I am thinking about doing this from Jo Sharp Contemporary Knitting Two:



I have enough really soft Cascade 220 in a clear blue to make it. It will be a good break from the lace. I'm all laced out!

Been watching all the crazies in Denver for the convention. I drive past Pepsi Center on the way to work everyday. Nahhh!!

Life is Good

DENVER, Aug. 18, 2008 - Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q)
reached separate three-year tentative agreements with the Communications
Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers (IBEW). The proposed contract will apply to nearly 20,000 CWA
members and nearly 200 IBEW members in Montana.

Now maybe if I can catch up with sleep.

I'm still here!

So far so good but my fate is still not certain. CWA's contract with Qwest expired at midnight last night and now they are working without a contract. I read conflicting reports and the status. Some posters are ready to walk out, some say we are close to an agreement. Bottom line is that I still need to be ready to leave town if and when they strike. My only hope is that the closer we get to the Democratic Convention which Qwest is sponsoring, the lower the possibility of a strike.

So what does a stressed out knitter do? Buy yarn. Yes. I ordered myself a kit from Virtual Yarns to make Alice Starmore's Oregon cardigan in the Autumn Colorway:



This is the pattern from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2007 but I ordered the kit from Virtual Yarns which will also include the pattern.

And yesterday - since I knew I was going to be tired today from staying up till after midnight - I finished the socks (my recipe) I was making from Araucania Multi. Very plain and simple.



I really like this yarn. But I thought it was time to knit some more interesting socks so I started knitting Cookies' Monkey sock pattern last night - this is a Lime & Violet yarn - I can't remember the color since I tossed the label. Not a great photo but I will take more of them when I get further along. I am still on the twisted rib cuff.



But - even with only 4 hrs of sleep - I did make some progress on my bee today. I am done with the Bee In Fields 1 section and 3 rows into the 13 row border. At this rate - maybe I will be done by Labor Day assuming I am home. Yeah. it looks just like it did last week (the border is more of the same pattern from Bee in Fields 1):



So - its only 4PM here and I am so ready to go to bed. Nite..

The Joys of Being Vertically Challenged

Yes I am vertically challenged. At last measure - I was 5 foot 1 inches tall. So I would consider myself to be petite. Yes?? Well as I was trudging along around row 25 of the Bee's in Field Part 1 of my Beehive shawl (near 400 stitches per row at this point) with 11 more rows to go, looking forward (not) to starting the section called Bee's in Field Part 2 (which is more of the same), I made a delightful discovery!

Anne provided alternative directions for petites versus talls. Well - I'm definitely not a tall. For the petite size, it meant I only had to knit 5 more rows of Bee's in Field Part 1, SKIP SECTION BEE's IN FIELDS PART 2 ALTOGETHER (YAY!), and go directly to the last section - which is the hem - do not pass go, do not collect $200. How many ways do you spell relief!! Not that I don't love this shawl but its getting so its taking me 45 mins to knit one row. And I would really like to knit something else at some point in time.

So here I am at the end of row 27:



And a closeup of Bee's In Field Part 1 (it really is pretty):



And - I know - I haven't blogged for awhile. I do have many excuses:

1. disgust with my knitting after the fiasco with Tidal Streams. Actually I did pull the yarn and the pattern out of the garbage, ripped it out to selvage the yarn, and plan to eventually reknit it alternating skeins.

2. I had to rip out 12 rows of my Beehive shawl and really didn't want to admit that it took me 2 weeks to get that back.

3. I spent time on my Kindle.

4. And mostly - I have been kinda depressed about the prospect of going on strike duty. I work for a unionized company and if and when the union goes on strike, I have to leave my happy home and work 12 hr days, 7 days a week. The last time it happened they assigned me to work from noon-midnight (me who normally goes to bed at 7:30PM). I was so worn out I collapsed one night and they had to call in the paramedics. My blood sugar was down to 30. This time I am assigned to work 7AM -7PM in Salt Lake City so it will easier if it happens but it is still a pain in the you know where. Being single - I have to make so many plans. I cannot just behave like it won't happen. So if I'm gone for the next few weeks - that is what happened to me. The contract expires at midnight Aug 16 (next Sat) - so say a little prayer for me and maybe I will be here next Sunday!