Knitting By Glow Stick - It Can Be Done!

I wish I had brought my camera tonight... not that it would have done a lot of good in the dark but it would have made a fabulous picture.

Here's the story. My fifteen year old daughter, Ryan, got invited to Pump It Up for her friend Shelly's birthday. Pump It Up is basically a big gymnasium with inflatable toys on a grand scale and party rooms for after you bounce, slide, and tumble your way to exhaustion. It's actually a lot of fun. The grow-ups are encouraged to play too and some really smart person even put a drinking fountain in each  room. Ryan beat me on the obstacle course.

One of the things they do to make it even more fun for the teenage crowd is turn off all the lights. They give each kid, and adult, a glow stick necklace to wear and then turn on one lonely overhead black-light. Then the music gets louder and the laser show starts and you can't see much. More to the point, you can't see well enough to knit. This will not do. But I am a clever knitter and if there is a way I will find it.

They'd given me a glow stick too. I broke the seal, shook it up and made it into a necklace. It didn't have a lot of light but when I lay it right over the top of my needles I could just make out the yarn. I was knitting socks. My double points were Knit Picks Harmony size 2, not a light color it turns out. The yarn was better, it had flecks of white in it so some of the black-light glow made it easier to see. First I hung my glow stick over my wrist but that was to far from the tips of the needles for me to see. Then I hung the glow stick of off the needle I was working on. That was better but I dropped a stitch while I was knitting around the glow stick and it was like having and extra needle in the way. I had to go out to the lobby to pick up the dropped stitch. Eventually I landed on a solution. It was elegant and ridiculous, but it worked. I put the glowing necklace in my mouth. I had to lean a little closer to my hands but it put the light just where I needed it. You couldn't actually see the needles, you had to go on faith that they were there. I finished half the foot and started the toe decreases. Ryan's friends and the other parents think I'm crazy.

I am happy I got some sock knitting done.

Yes, the cat really is trying to pick his teeth on my double points.

Ryan actually tells me that her friends like me a bit because I'm nuts and paint and knit and bake. She sometimes feeds them my cupcakes and spent a good part of yesterday experimenting with my acrylics to make Shelly's birthday present. I'm so proud.

The Great Sock Finishing Begins Now

So, I'm working on some Felted Fuzzy Feet for John, and a pair of ankle socks for my self and thinking really deep thoughts when the most amazing thing occurred to me. I've just finishedthe first sock on both of them. How cool is that?

Yes, that is what my coffee table usually looks like. I like to take pictures of the big sock before felting with a regular size sock just for the "wow, that thing is Huge" factor. Off to the right is Leonard's new technicolor bunny. He knits up the pieces at work and then brings me the bits home to sew together. His co-workers are darling and always asking what he's making now.

I also love reading articles about how other artists work, how knit designers arrange their studios and where people get their inspirations from. Once long ago I posted pictures of my stash. It's a little peek at how I think and how I like to organize my yarn. My stash is now 4 times as big and lives in it's own room. Here's a look at my current work station.

I love to surround myself with bright colors. Kaffe Fasset is my hero when it comes to studio workspace. Man never met a color he didn't like. When I grow up I want to have a studio just like his.

I wish I has something more profound to share but now I need to go and rearrange Leonard's room and get furniture ready for Goodwill to come pick it up, and let the cat in, and get a Half-Price Book run ready and..... Knit.

Back in the Saddle Again!

So.... after many years of not blogging, and signing up for Ravelry and then not using it, I'm going to try blogging once again. I find that I do indeed have something interesting to say and perhaps some useful information to impart. The cool cat pictures are a bonus. I can't promise to post regularly but here's a look at whatI'm doing right now.

Socks. I always have at least 2 sock projects going, one for at homeand one for in my purse.

Last summerI taught my partner Leonard how to knit on a cruise in Alaska and I was so proudof him. He took to it like a fish to water. He had 2 hats done by the time we got home. His current knitting obsession is knitted toys. Here's the kitty from Nicky Epsteins Knitting: Block By Block and the bunny from Susan B Anderson's Itty Bitty Toys. Right now he's working on a second bunny in rainbow stripes.

Easter! Or as Leonard calls it "Zombie Apocalypse Day." Isn't the bunny cute?

I'm also making my daughter Ryan a Giant Totoro. I'll post pictures and the pattern tomorrow or the next day. And then link it to Ravelry. They have a group just for folks like me who love Studio Ghibli.

Picture Day (Catching Up)

I rembered to bring my cable with me this time. Go me.

So here are a few pics from the last 2 weeks or so to prove to you, me and everybody that knitting has in fact occurred. And there are some cute cat pictures too.

Here's the finished top section of the Icelandic Lace Shawl.

Here's Pixel being totally unconcerned that he is interfering with my picture.

Some goodies I took up to my Mom. That yellow thing in the middle is actually a very cute baby sweater that I wrote the pattern for myself. I'll get pictures of Quinn actually in it soon. Hopefully before she grows out of it.

Here's some sock progress. Yes, I know they are not identicle socks. But I really like how self striping yarns make fabulous fraternal, twin socks.

And last for this morning, my fierce new knitting bag. Which I'm using as a purse, because mostly what goes in my purse is knitting anyway.

It's suade. I love to just pet it.

How much sock can you knit in a baseball game?

I can knit this much.

If you want to get all technical it's 4 1/2 " using Opal sock yarn on size 1 double points. The pink and purple and blue in this color way is very pretty, but the orangey brown and black stripe mixed in to the colorway begs a question. What the hell were they thinking?

I've been avoiding this preticular sock for this very reason. I finished the first one in June. It is not second sock sindrome at work here. I have never before hessitated at making a second sock. The pattern is very nice, it's a plain 1 by 1 rib for an inch at the top and a 1 by 3 rib the rest of the way. I just can't stand the colorway. And size 1 needles take longer than size 2.

In my real life, yes I have one, I've been busy at work and haven't had a lot of time for knitting. I always get quite sad when I don't have time to knit. It makes me want to go and buy yarn, um, more yarn. So I did. Yesterday I popped in Michael's and picked up some of the new self-striping Sugar and Cream, and Paton's has some new colors of SWS. So I got some of that too.

Funny how yarn just jumps out at you when you haven't had enough time to spend with it. And all I really needed were some clasps to fix a bracelet. I got those too.

In other news the shawl is coming along fine. I've finished the first ball of yarn and I was going to do a big 'I Finished the First Ball' post. But I was working and got busy and couldn't stop knitting on it so finishing the first 437 yards became a non-event. Bad me, these things should be celebrated.

It's hard to see in the picture but the center bit of lace is shaping up nicely. Now that I've knit on it a while I'm getting to like it. I'll never use this pattern again but it looks pretty cool now that I'm knitting more than 2 rows an hour. Funny how when the work goes faster the patterns starts being less irritating.

Charity Knitting Postponed To Make Sock

My son James is thoughtfully holding up some Charity Bears, while thinking his Mom is a total goober for taking his picture.

Great Yarns, my LYS, does up a whole bunch of bears every year for children in hospice care and they also sponser a bereivement camp for children who've lost there parents or siblings. When I went in the other week they had the bears put up all over the place. These bears were dressed to the nines. There were bears in sweaters, shawls, hats, cardigans, made with every knitting technique known to man, entrelac, lace, intarsia, fairisle, even beaded. The talent pool of knitters at Great Yarns is just amazing. I was blown away.

And being a giving kind of person, I snatched up two bears to make clothes for then and there. Then I got to talking to Fontelle and she said they were getting in some fabulous new sock yarn. I am a sock yarn addict. We will never tell my husband how much sock yarn I truly have, so we will never have to hear him say something really foolish like 'don't you have enough sock yarn already'. He will never know.

Any way, Fontelle says they're getting in this new yarn and could I knit up a sock for the store's display. I said, 'Oh, yes, please!', just as soon as you get it in. I'm no dummy, I get to knit socks and not have to pay for the yarn first, and everybody gets to admire them and say what fabulous socks they are and how fine a job I did on them. Oh, yeah.

So I went in yesterday and the new sock yarn was in! It was wonderful. She had got in Tofutsie and Shi Bui. Two of my all time favorites. And then Fontelle tells me that she needs the first sock in Shi Bui by next Wednesday so she can take it to the Seattle Mariners Stitch and Pitch on Thursday. So I'm knitting socks and not bear clothes because all the bears have to be in by August 1st and the sock has to be done in 5 days. Eek. Good thing I knit fast.

The pattern I'm using is fun one, Fiber Trends Lupine Lace Socks, and the color we picked is called Anime. I knit some on it last night and this afternoon and it's coming along pretty fast. The pattern calls for Lornas' Lace sock yarn and size 1 needles. I'm using size 2 needles, because Shi Bui is just a tiny bit thicker, to knit the small size sock and I'm getting the medium size measurements out of it. One of the nice things about the pattern is that you get a great leaf pattern and after you've done one pattern repeat you never have to look at the chart again. I love easy to memorize patterns. And have I mentioned the yarn. It's so soft and you can wash it in the wash machine too.