Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

knit-pattern Originally uploaded by ruddawg Photo Courtesy of Family Circle Easy Knitting Holiday 2002 issue. This is my current project. Every year, I make goals for what I want to do: knitting, sewing and relationship-wise. No New Year's Resolutions, but goals. This year, my knitting goals are to 1) Perfect the kitchener stitch and 2) knit an honest-to-goodness adult sized sweater. DH is getting the sweater. This a picture of the pattern, not my hubby. When buying the yarn for the sweater (Cascade 220) I asked Kerri at Dragonfly Yarn Shop for color suggestions. She asked what did my DH look like, and I responded, "Seriously? Santa Claus." Her immediate response was, "I'd stay away from red then." Oh that was funny! I will be knitting it in shades of blue.

Dem Fischer Finished Originally uploaded by ruddawg Dem Fischer Sin Fru is finished! Yay!!! I washed and blocked it on the kitchen floor last night. Yep, the kitchen floor. Some brainiac decided to carpet it long before we moved in. The ability to block lace on it is the only saving grace. The shawl is wonderful now that it is done. It was knitted out of Misti Alpaca laceweight in cream color on size 4 addi turbo needles.

My son has been given the task of reading To Kill a Mockingbird for English. He does not read. To a parent who reads almost rabidly, this is gobstopping to me: not read??? I never understood why he did not enjoy reading. We've tried different books, different genres to limited success. He enjoys the heck outta manga, but they don't make To Kill a Mockingbird in Manga. So, we brought the issue up to his counselor because his reluctance to read this book is causing him to get behind in English. After talking it out we realized that he could not utilize his brain to visualize the story while he read it. His counselor suggested the book be read out loud to help him visualize the story. So, I'm reading 2 chapters a day until it's done. Yesterday I read sitting crossed-legged on the kitchen carpet while he chopped veggies for Chicken & Dumplings. When this book was written, it was normal to describe a black person using the 'n-word'. In the book, it gets ...

Trekking Yarn Originally uploaded by ruddawg I've gone without a ciggarette for one month! Ok, well..... it will be tomorrow that it will be one month. But, there was that leap day.......... My reward is one skein of Trekking yarn in Jamaika colorway. ooooh isn't that a great colorway? At the end of my smoking career, I was smoking 3 - 5 ciggs a day. That would be over 1 pack a week. That figures to be 4.50 a pack or roughly the same amount of cash that would cover what I spent for this yarn.

DSC_5747 Originally uploaded by ruddawg The faerose shawl is going nicely. Since this keeps me from craving ciggs, I knit a LOT. This time, got through the clue in 3 days. What you see here is the middle of the shawl plus 2 of the 6 side panels. The side panels are repeated 3 times on each side of the middle panel. I gave myself a gift for going 7 days without smoking, and bought a 60" Addi Circ to knit this on. Oh WOW does that make knitting easier! The length of it is oh, about 18" so far. I didn't really measure it.