Saturday, November 28, 2009

2009 Knitting Goals

At the beginning of 2009 I set three knitting goals for myself ... that I would knit 100 skeins, 10 kilograms, and 10 miles of yarn.

On Wednesday, November 25th I reached two of the three goals!  With three projects off the needles during that day I completed knitting 110 skeins of yarn which equal 10.53 miles (18,550 yards)!! 

The third goal will be hard to reach - I'm 1600 grams short of the ten kilogram goal.  It is probably unrealistic to expect to knit that much in the remaining 34 days of the year, especially since the projects I hope to complete by December 31st use fingering and DK weight yarns.

I will admit that the yarn inventory has not shrunk by the 110 skeins since I have bought some yarn during this year, and have been given some yarn for "charity" knitting, but the stash has shrunk some, I think.

Photos of my latest completed projects will be in my next post.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Socktober and other October knitting

"Socktober" was just that - a month of sock knitting, with a little knitting for others thrown in.

The first pair of socks off the needles were my second pair of socks knit from the toe up instead of from the cuff down.  I have avoided this method for several years, and now I cannot imagine why!  The techniques are not difficult and result in a very efficient use of almost every foot of the yarn, reserving just a little for future darning of the inevitable holes in the heels.  The pattern I used is Wendy Johnson's "Sportweight Toe-Up Sock with Gusset Heel" and the yarn is a tweedy Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Socka 6 Fache/6 ply I purchased at Limerick Fibers in Gordonsville, VA several years ago. 



After that pair was complete I dug out the oldest sock yarn in my stash and cast on for another toe-up pair.  Somehow the yarn, a skein of Lana Grossa Meilenweit, had shrunk from 100 grams to 88 grams over the past years.  This is quite possibly because I had started a couple of pairs of socks with the yarn, become frustrated with whatever pattern I was knitting, frogged the socks, and returned the yarn to the back of the drawer - guess I threw away some of the yarn when it tangled too much.  Anyway ... the yarn is now a pair of socks knit with the "Vihtori" pattern designed by Heli Heikkilä in Finland.  I love the opposite swirls of the pattern.



My October knitting ended with another baby cardigan and hat knit for the Anchorage Stork Project.  The yarn Red Heart worsted is from the estate of Norma Jean M. whose son graciously passed along his mother's yarn stash to some of us who knit for community service organizations.  The pattern is one of the "5-hour baby sweater" patterns found free online.


An October day in New Orleans

The next to last weekend in October I traveled to Baton Rouge to spend several days visiting with Kate.  That Saturday we drove to New Orleans to spend the day wandering around the French Quarter.  We walked along the Riverwalk, through the open-air French Market, and around Jackson Square. 






Because the line was so long at Cafe du Monde we bypassed that for a cup of coffee at a smaller coffee shop near the French Market.  I was surprised by how crowded the area was ... perhaps the crowds were drawn to town by the "Krewe de Boo" (Halloween parade) that was to take place that evening ... and we saw a lot of prople wearing LSU and Auburn tee-shirts (the football game at LSU did not start until 7pm). 




While we were around Jackson Square we watched a wedding party parade - the strolling jazz band was followed by the bride and goom, then the attendants and parents, then the wedding attendees.  We presume the wedding had just take place either in St. Louis Cathedral or in Jackson Square. 

After walking for a couple of hours we stopped for an early dinner at a small restaurant called the Gumbo Shop (thank you Lia for the recommendation!) on Saint Peter Street.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Crawfish Etouffee, while Kate had the Combination Platter with Shrimp Creole, Jambalaya, and Red Beans.  While dining in the open air courtyard under a huge banana palm we listed to the jazz bands playing for the wedding parties going into and coming out of the Cathedral.

We concluded our day in New Orleans with a drive along Bourbon Street, a drive through a few streets of the Garden District, then across town to a drive through what remains of the Lower Ninth Ward where the total devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is still so evident.

Kate - thanks for being such a good tour guide and braving all the traffic!