Kigwit's Thoughtful Spot

I have a really great sister. She is my best friend and my favorite person to go on vacation with. She's a lot of fun and an excellent mother, sister, daughter, friend. She's also ditching me today and moving to The Netherlands. I am thrilled for her as she has always wanted to go to Europe and despaired of ever going. Her husband is military and she convinced him to get a transfer. Her kids aren't too thrilled (well, except for my mid-size nephew who is in alt over getting his own room) and have kinda been giving her a hard time. I am praying that DS and I can go over and visit next spring. She has also made me knit some things. Now, keep in mind that she learned to knit before I did so she has more experience. She's a super tight knitter which always leads me to tease her about bulletproof knitting. She has made me knit socks (which I gave back to her), finish a hat she was knitting for our SIL and other dire things. She made me knit a poncho . I know, I know but she&

Ordinarily, I love to knit socks. I love to cast on and I love the sense of accomplishment when turning the heel. I love the sense of satisfaction when I kitchener the toe. But right now? I don't want to knit socks. Specifically, I dont want to knit DH's Father's Day socks or the yellow socks. What do I want to knit? Hmm. I think I want to knit the entrelac Market Squares bag. I have the yarn. I plan to knit it in coffee colours. I also want to knit a sweater from Big Girl Knits. I am wearing my short sleeved sweaters I bought last summer from Kohls. I bought five of them to wear to work as I needed something that would fit over "The Girls" (my breasts were HUGE when I started breastfeeding). They are a little too short for me as I am long waisted and most of them have a band at the hip which is not a particularly good look for me. If they were two or three inches longer it wouldnt be so bad. I would love to knit something that actually fit properly and looked n

My Aunt and my Grandmother came down to stay for the weekend. They mainly came to visit because my sister is here for a few weeks before she and her family ditch me and move to Europe. At New Year's I made a deal with my Aunt that I would learn to quilt if she would learn to knit. I knew I was safe because she always said she was too busy with quilting to knit. Guess what she pulled out of her bag the first night she was here? Very quietly she pulled out a scarf in progress and not one hook (she used to crochet) but two shiny gold knitting needles. Ahem. Sister, Auntie, and Grandmother were all entraptured by my multidirectional scarf (still in progress) so we headed off to Yarns 2 Ewe for supplies. Noro Kuryeon is just gorgeous. My Auntie chose the same colourway as I did for mine, my sister chose one that matches her current mitten project and Grandmother chose one that I covet unashamedly. So we ended up having a little Knit Along while they were here. My auntie had to l

I tried the wallaby on DS several times. The neck is just too tight. I keep having to yank it over his big ol' melon. I ripped it out and am reknitting (again). This time I am taking my sister's suggestion and knitting in a button so it will open up. A wooden or wood-look button will be really cute with this tweedy knit. I can't find my other skein. I decided to just go ahead and use it instead of returning it. While I was getting the house ready for guests I put the skein in the shop bag with the receipt because I planned on returning it. I wonder where it ended up? I suspect it is in the black pit that is my closet. In Father's Day news my sock yarn came for DH! He looked so sad when he opened the gift bag I thought he didn't like it. He was teasing me because it wasn't knit into socks yet. I cast on right away for his new socks while he and DS took a nap. I was knitting a pair of yellow Opal Magic socks but I am just not enamoured of them so am glad to do

I am just about finished knitting the wallaby for DS. I was about to knit the neckband at work on Monday and thought it looked a little small. DH thought so and so did Crafty Woman. So I slipped the neck stitches onto some waste yarn and tried it on DS that evening. It was plenty big. So I started the neckband on the 7 needles that I was knitting with and then switched to some 6s so it would be a little snugger. At this point I ran out of yarn! I have another skein of this yarn but I hate to use a couple inches of it. I just want to return it! So I kitchenered the underarms and used the left over to finish the neckband. I need just a few minutes to weave in all my ends and then I'm done!! I'm still knitting on some yellow Opal Magic. I'm not too hot about this colourway. When I bought it I thought I needed some yellow socks but why I don't know.

Remember the red and black sock yarn (Steinbach) that we bought in Austin? We could only find one ball so I used it for socks for DS. DH asked me to find some for him. And I did on Ebay! Hooray! I hope it will be here in time for Father's Day. If not, DH has a birthday in July and will still be thrilled.

We've had two birthdays and Mother's day in the last three weeks. I am glad to have some quiet weekends for a while. My DH gave me a sweet card and a bouquet of daisies and said that he would get me whatever gift I wanted. I couldn't think of what I wanted and then I realized what I want. I want TIME. I want some time to sleep and I want some time to sit and knit. We are so busy with work (and our days are longer in the summer) and family that we really don't have any down time. Last Tuesday DH had an doctors appointment in town and wanted me to come. On my morning off. *sigh* So DS and I loaded up and went with him. As a little thank you he drove us out to Katy afterwards to visit Yarntopia . We got there before they opened so we had a donut breakfast (and DS had his first donut holes! He really enjoyed those). Yarntopia is a nice shop. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have much in the way of sock yarn. They had some Jawol and Wildfoote. They also had a

Well, yesterday was my DS's first birthday! He is such a sweet baby. We are so lucky to have him. His class at the Montessori school is too young for cupcakes so I brought them for the staff. I also lugged cupcakes up to work to share with everyone. They kinda feel like DS belongs to them too. I love my DS so much. I had given up ever having a pregnancy that ended with a real live baby and now I have DS. My DH totally surprised me on my birthday. I had ordered myself a gorgeous Ott-lamp (which I have yet to set up) so I figured that was it. Well, DS and I came out of the shower on my birthday and on my pillow DH has placed cherry poptarts, oreos, a box of blueberry tea, two bars of bittersweet chocolate, a sweet card and a bunch of carnations. It was so sweet. I started to cry. Then in the hall leading from the bedroom he placed the gift bag and card from his parents. My sweet guy. My parents gave me a bunch of etc including a 100% genuine mom t-shirt. AND a copy of Big Girl Knits.

I finally went to visit Mary Charles Yarn. I have to admit I was disappointed. It's a small shop but didnt have much in the way of yarn or needles! I saw lots of Debbie Bliss and Big Sky and some novelty stuff. I looked for sock yarn and they had one largish basket . But it was all the same stuff. Not the same brand but identical balls of yarn. I probably wont go back there. I also went to see Nancy Knits. I've felt badly for her as she had such a cute shop and now is crammed into a tiny store. I've always found her to be friendly and she recognized me from last summer (new baby is keeping me from knitting). She's really trying her best to make the shop welcoming. I noticed that the shelves and drawers are now labeled with prices and she offered to order me a pattern I'd like to get. She's hoping to get a better online presence so people can find her again. I hope she can get into a better shop situation someday and that people dont just write her off. I bought

I am so chuffed! I won some Mountain Colours Bearfoot sock yarn from Libby at Derby & String . I can't wait to see it! I did a stash dive and decided to knit a pair of cotton socks using the Butterfly Bows pattern in Socks, Socks, Socks. I knit these for DS's godmother several years ago. She was kind of surprised when I asked for them back! Just for patterning purposes. I had forgotten how I sized up the pattern as it was originally for a 10 year old girl. I started to cast on Thursday and then I realized I don't know how far my yarn is going to go. I attempted to make two equal balls using my ball winder and digital scale but it isn't exactly accurate. Even though the lying scale said it was even when I snipped the yarn. Grr. I cast on repeatedly Friday morning but kept having too long a tail. Finally got it right and have knit about a third of the first pattern repeat. I love the yarn. It is Fortissima Cotton Colori that I purchased in 1998 in Provo Utah. I bought

I finished my orange socks! I am very happy with them. I did a crappy job weaving in my ends after kitchenering one toe so I have to v. carefully re-weave in the short end. They washed nicely, the colour held up, and were very comfortable to wear. Am nearly to the toe on DH's everlasting purple socks. The FIRST toe. This sock is taking forever. Now to decide which sock to knit next- for me!

Easter is in the offing and my grandmother will be here on Thursday afternoon. My home is nearly ready. DH is supposed to clean his bathroom and vacuum the house and clean the kitchen floor. Then all I have to do is make the guest bed! I am looking forward to seeing my grandmother but am a little anxious as she has started to sound very querulous on the phone. She wasn't well this winter and I think she is really starting to feel her age. I really want this to be a good visit for her. I am nearly finished with DH's first sock and am finishing the gusset decreases for my second sock. I know that after Easter weekend I will have more time to sit and knit. Although I have promised myself to seriously clean out my closet and my boxes of etcetera out in the garage. One thing that I learned from cleaning out my parents' attic is the Perils of Packrating. I had already been trying to distance myself from conspicuous consumption- including the rabid collecting of things.

Somehow I ended up spending most of the weekend helping my parents. I don't know how that happened. One little "can you fix this problem with my computer" and the whole weekend disappeared. Oh well. haven't touched the orange blankie for DS. I suspect I wont get near that one until after Easter. Have turned the heel and am knitting the gusset decreases on sock #1 for DH. And am turning the heel on Sock #2 for me! If I can get that heel finished I will treat myself to a stash dive this weekend for MY next pair of socks. Have also decided that I am NOT going to knit for DH for a while after I finish the purple socks. He's is a Wool-Pig for sure and he loves that I knit for him. BUT. He rarely wears what I knit him. I mean, yes he did wear a pair of handknits that day we were married but generally he likes to pile up, gloat over and hoard his treasure of handknits like Smaug the dragon did over the dwarvish treasure in the Hobbit. V. irritating. I want him

Not really. I am chuffed though because I found ORANGE blanket binding at the decent megamart yesterday. I was just about to bid on some unseen seconds on ebay and Lo! I found it. I have some super lovely orange minkee fabric and some darling orange fabric with black and white sheepies. I plan to make a blanket for DS. Now I just need to decide how big to make it. His current blankie is 30 x 36 (half a yard of minkee). It just covers him when he sleeps. So should I make one that size, or a bit bigger at 4 ft or should I go whole hog and make a 5 ft one? The minkee is 36 x 60 and I have two yards of the orange sheep fabric. Tough to decide!

Well, I did manage to squeeze in some knitting yesterday. I started the heel on DH's socks and I finished my picot cast on and am now happily knitting away on my own socks. I want to knit a wonderful wallaby for DS for next year. I am itching to knit it. As soon as I finish DH's socks I am going to cast on. But when I finish my socks I am casting on another pair for ME. I need these socks. They make me a better person. I am a kinder, gentler Kigwit when I wear handknitted socks. Really.

Not too much knitting going on around here. I'm trying to do the second picot cast on for my socks. And for some strange reason I have decided that the stripes must match the first sock. I never do this so I have no idea why I am doing it now. Must be some evil tendency that comes along with a picot cast on. Also I need to knit the heel on DH's socks. I just need a few minutes to sit down and get going but I can't find those minutes! Most of my knitting time is in the car and I don't like to start a heel or pick up gusset stitches in the car. So, how am I wasting my time instead of spending it on knitting? Well, my mom asked me and DH to reinsulate her attic. No biggie, right? Several years ago my brothers had told Mom that they had emptied out her attic. LIARS. It took us THREE days to empty out her attic and go through the stuff and cart it to the curb for pick up. One of my brothers works seven days a week at two fulltime jobs so he got a free pass. Th

A couple of years ago one of my coworkers, Club Girl, asked me to teach her to knit. She wanted to knit a throw like I was knitting at the time so for her birthday I gave her the pattern and a set of needles (big fat circular needles). She never got the yarn. So I gave her a skein of practice yarn and told her to pick up some smaller needles and I would teach her. No needles. So I finally said I would bring her some needles. And I never did. Until this week. I started out by teaching her the English method as most people I have taught prefer that way. She tried and struggled with it. Then yesterday I showed her the continental way. And guess what? She's a natural continental knitter. I've never met anyone who was. Another coworker, Crafty Woman, was watching me teach Club Girl and said that it made her want to do it too. She picked up some needles and a booklet on the way home that night and has been a knittin' fool ever since! I started Club Girl on a ribbed s

Well, sorry for starting a blog and then taking a big break. I thought I had written the first week of March but OOPS! I did a little knitting on Spring Break. I knit on my picot edged sock and I am well past the heel. I also started DH's socks. I am using the Best Foot Forward pattern from Knit Socks! It's an easy pattern to memorize and I am moving along. And guess what? I have my orange chibi! One of my coworkers was placing an order from JoAnn's and she let me order with her to share the wretched shipping. I was going to order it earlier when there was a 40% off sale but the shipping would have been 4.95. 4.95 for a 4.99 item. It would have been 2.99 for the chibi after the sale and 4.99 for shipping. That just makes me crazy. I'm in the same boat with a pattern I want. The pattern is 3.00. The shipping is 5.95. WTF?? I know, I know, it takes time and material and postage to mail something but really. For a one page paper pattern they are going to c

I finished DS's spiral rib socks this weekend. I need to try them on him but it is so warm here I hate to put a wool blend on him. I finally cast on a pair of socks for ME ME ME! I am using some Meilenweitt cotton jacquard that DH bought for me last spring. It is a great orange yarn (has some white, yellow and grey as well). I am getting 8 sts/inch which is unusual for me. I usually get 7 sts to the inch on sock weight yarn. I was able to do the picot edge but I used the instructions from BoogaJ instead of Claudia's. It occurs to me that I should really try this on to make sure it will fit before going any further.

Am v. glad it is Friday. Am even more glad that it is only one more week until Spring Break. My knittin' bud at work is coveting my Truly Tasha shawl . I knit mine a couple of years ago in some burnt orange Cotton Fleece. I really like it- both pattern and colour. She's been after me to give her the pattern so I finally remembered today and printed it out. I enjoyed looking at the Wooly West website. I have the Happy Trails pattern book to use with the Happy Trails yarn. I knit the socks using the barbed wire pattern. I will look up the correct name when I get home tonight. I thought it was really clever of the author to use barbed wire as a pattern idea. I liked the Happy Trails sock yarn too. I've got some in my stash. I would like to knit with this yarn again now that I am a more experienced knitter. The two socks I have knit from this yarn are now too small to wear! I machine washed them and hung to dry. BUT I didn't know very much about stranding wh

My favorite knitting book is Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. Several years ago I had to go to Utah for work and decided to bring along my copy to have autographed. I spent most of my time in Provo, UT and was packing to return home via Salt Lake City when I realized my book was missing! Horrors! It must have been stolen! I called and told my (then) DH how upset I was that someone had stolen my book. He calmly pointed out that it was highly unlikely that someone had stolen a knitting book. (What does he know?) I went to SLC and met Nancy Bush, briefly, at the Wooly West and even showed her the sock I was knitting. (Item: I was knitting the Ukrainian socks and had done the peasant heel wrong.) She was v. nice but I was upset that my book was Gone Forever. When I returned home the book was laying on the bed where I had been packing my suitcase for the trip. This is a book that likes to get lost. I think I have lost my copy no less than seven times. It is currently lost. I think pa

Saturday I met up with the local Betsy-Texans. We're an unofficial chapter of the Betsy Tacy Society. The last time I saw the girls was at my baby shower and I was hugely pregnant. This time I brought DS and Ames brought her baby girl. Baby Girl is almost a year old but DS is bigger than she is. She was so cute in her mint green warmups with rosebud embroidery. Both children were exceptionally well behaved. Even when the bakery closed and we were forced to go hang out at a Kroger's grocery store. Yarns 2 Ewe is very close to where we met but I didn't even go there. I was kinda surprised at myself but I did just get all this great yarn last weekend. As it was, I was able to stop and attend Mass at my church. I call it my church but I haven't attended in several years. I am getting back into the habit of going but I really need to find a home church. The problem with Catholic churches is that they are getting to be so huge. It's due to the lack of priests but it real

Had to attend a useless training session today. Did I mind? No way! I sat in the back row and knit the entire time. I am knitting a pair of spiral tube socks for DS out of some sockenwolle we bought in Austin. I started them in the car of the way home from Austin and nearly finished the first sock. Then I tried it on DS. Note to self: try things on DS before you are nearly finished. I ripped it out yesterday and nearly finished the first sock during the useless training. I have also done a swatch for DH in the brilliant purple Cascade 220 superwash. I like this yarn. Very soft. DH has picked a pattern out of Knitting on the Road (Nancy Bush) but I will have to do some maths to work out size and gauge. And: I finished the Leaf Edged Baby Hat! I had nearly finished it on our trip to Austin and when I tried it on DS's big melon it was too large. So I ripped it back out and started the decreases really early. Then I got frustrated and just started decreasing the heck outta the thing. I

I've never been a big Valentine's Day person. In fact, my best Valentines have been from my Dad. He always would get me (and my siblings) one of those cardboard heart boxes full of chocolates. Unfortunately they were usually full of creams and I loathe creams. I much prefer chocolates with nuts or nougats or caramels. One year Dad gave me a heart shaped necklace with my initial on it. I still have it and wear it occasionally. Actually, I suspect that Mom may have done all this but Dad gets the credit! But DH and I ended up getting married on 14 Feb. So it's not Valentine's Day anymore-it's our anniversary! So Happy anniversary DH! DH, DS and I took a trip to Austin as our anniversary present. We did a lot of eating: Stubb's BBQ , Kerbey Lane Cafe (twice at two different locations) and Abuelo's (twice). Lots of good food. We also visited the two yarn stores in town. The first was Hill Country Weavers . HCW has been in Austin for a long time. I remember visi

Okay, so I misinterpreted the instructions for this ridiculously easy hat. Ripped back to my picked up stitches and began again. Am disenchanted with project but will finish as I think DS will look adorable in this hat. I didn't get to knit much yesterday. I was deep in a SQL fog and didn't want to think about anything else. I knit a bit on the way home (DH drove). SIL and Brother had planned to come over for a little SnB but I was really tired and hoped that SIL would cancel. She said she would come over early but it was nearly 8 before they got there. SIL is a fairly new knitter and a voracious one at that. She is wipping out scarves and hats left and right. She is currently working her way through Lion Brand's Just Scarves book (that I gave her for Christmas). I also gave her Scarf Style which she has deemed "Too Advanced." She also pointedly informed me not to buy her any more books for gifts and that gift cards were better. (Sister gave her some knitting boo

DS took a really long nap Friday evening so I started knitting the Leaf Edged Baby Hat . It is an easy enough pattern and I really enjoyed watching the leaves form. I added a leaf repeat as DS has a big melon for a 9 month old baby. He gets that from DH! Hopefully I will be able to make the adjustments to the pattern as I go along. I am a little confused by one part. It says that after completing the edging to pick up 96 (or in my case 110) stitches around the straight edge on the WS and then to knit rev. stockinette stitch for four rounds. I'm confused because I understand that I want to fold the hat along the rev. stock. sts but then I want it to be just regular stockinette for the rest of the hat. I just can't wrap my mind around this for some reason so I am just going keep going with what I think is right. I am also a little worried about running out of yarn. I am using some of my early handspun that I recently recovered from a early knitted hat. Actually, it was my very fi

This morning, on the way back to work after fixing a server by putting the network cable in correctly, I finished knitting a Big Ole Cabled Scarf for DH. I used Encore Worsted in a (nice for him) maroon colour. (Hate maroon). I generally use a washable yarn for DH. It was an enjoyable knit and the pattern was easy to memorize. Even easy for me when my brain is full of fluff and baby. I slipped the first stitch of each row because that is what I generally do on scarves. About a foot in, I was sorry I did so but I was NOT going to rip and start over. In any case, DH is v. happy with the result and is already whining for more knitted love. He is such a Wool-Pig. I was surprised I finished it this morning because I have been in the Knitter's Black Hole of Despair for so long. I wanted the scarf to be 72 inches and could never seem to finish those last 9. I measured today and it was nearly 81 inches. Oh well, at least it wasn't a sweater that needed to be ripped back! I don't h

I love to read blogs. Some of my favorites include the Yarn Harlot and Claudia's Blog as well as Chez Miscarriage and A little pregnant. I love to read about yarns and patterns in knitting blogs. I get a lot of encouragement by watching other people's projects and purchases. Especially the purchases! When I was undergoing infertility treatments I found that IF blogs were self-validating. No one in my RL was undergoing infertility. So to find other women out there was a blessing. I hope this blog will be a place where I can track my knitting progress (yes, this may end up being a FO blog) and to generally write myself out about things in my daily life.