Knitter's Blocks!

No, I don't have knitter's block-I have plenty of WIPs and things to knit. In fact, the Chuppah is going on swimmingly, as you shall see below.

First off, however, Vickie Howell, of much knitting fame (you can find her website here: http://www.vickiehowell.com/) had a contest on her blog in which the prize was a set of Knitters Blocks (http://www.cocoknits.com/block/knittersblock.html). You had to say why you needed them. Well, thanks to the Chuppah, I was one of the two winners! I received them yesterday and they are awesome. I haven't used them to block anything yet, but they will get a good workout with the pieces of the baby sweater for my sister's soon to be little girl and then a lace scarf I have going. They came in this box, that was slightly damaged, but not to be worried, they are quite sturdy.They come in this awesome bag that fits everything perfectly

They snap together into a pretty good size of 3 feet by 3 feet. There are 12 total blocks.

They also come with instructions on how to block, T-pins, and a blocking cloth to put over the pieces if you are steam blocking so you don't felt the pieces.

The Chuppah is going along swimmingly, I am 2.5 repeats into the body and after finishing this third repeat I will measure to figure out how many repeats of this pattern to do before I do the Central Tree Motif and then switch to the upper stitch motif. It's hanging over the sides of this table almost to the ground on both sides.This is the detail shot of the entire progress so far.

Here you can see the "Goblet Lace" stitch. The Goblet is obviously a significant motif in Judaism, the Kaddish Cup is important, and you drink goblets of wine on Passover, and you drink from a goblet/cup of wine at your bar or bat mitzvah and your wedding to just list a few examples. That's why I chose this motif, besides that it is pretty.

As you can see, I am to the point again on the cone past where I had ripped out. This is virgin yarn, not being reknitted and it is really nice to be back there again, making completely forward progress.

The kitty was doing crazy yoga this morning, you think it is because of the bag of catnip on the right hand side of this picture?

HAPPY KNITTING! I am having a stressful time right now and knitting is helping somewhat.

I've been hit by the sinus infection bus..

I started feeling lousy (throat) two weeks ago and it was confirmed today. I have been hit and laid low by a sinus infection. It's just left me tired. I started the miracle of anitbiotics today and hopefully will feel better enough to truly post this weekend.

1/8 of the way done!

I am 1/8 of the way done with my chuppah!
It's the first repeat of the body and it looks good. It is 9 inches out of 72 inches currently and I am loving it so far.

I didn't do much knitting last night because I made this Challah loaf. It's Jewish egg bread basically, that is traditional for Shabbat. It's my Grandma's recipe and her Challah pan and her Challah brushes. I really love carrying on this tradition. I also made some roasted veggie soup and they were so yummy together for lunch today.

Wedding Stuff

Yesterday we went to a wedding band event and I picked out my wedding band. I love it. I feel like it matches my engagement ring perfectly.

This yarn really was the perfect background for the pictures of my engagement ring.
This is the picture from the companies website because I forgot to take a picture. I did get to take lots of pictures of the condo we are hopefully buying in Andover, MA. Hopefully, that comes through!

While all the Christians pray, the Jews shall play!

Ok, so it's Easter. I don't celebrate Easter, but Happy Easter to all of those of you who do.

This day, and Christmas Day, we go out and eat and do other things.

I spent a lot of the day knitting and organizing.

I worked on the Chuppah after a complete rip-out a couple weeks ago. These are the latest progress pictures, and it is going well. I almost didn't want to say that to jinx it.


This is it folded in half.

This is a close-up of the border about 2/3 through.

We picked up these coasters at Tuesday Morning in Andover. I had always been curious about this store and it was all I expected, it was a total mish-mash of stuff, some fabulous and some not my style. They had random yarn there but nothing tempting.

I am one sleeve away and the finishing from finishing the baby sweater.

Our kitty is truly spoiled, those are his toys on the right in his totally unused by him cat bed.
I picked up this book at the Andover, MA bookstore yesterday. It's a very nice bookstore and reasonably priced.

HAPPY KNITTING!!!

Problems and Victory

So, I was having some problems with the chuppah and it was not as I wanted, so I forgged it, all the way down. I'm not reknitting and ran into some problems with my stitch count, so it's now this:

That is down from this a few hours ago:

I do have the start of a sleeve for the baby sweater to show you:


Also, I had and won my first real trial this past week. Oh yeah, it was nice to see all the preparation pay off. I am second chairing a jury trial this week too. It's exciting stuff.


This is what the kitty did all day:

A Growing Pile of WIPs

If I was a sadist, this would be a great thing, but as it is, I'm more of the self punishment camp because of the number of WIPs I have going on.

First off, the new mental torture device resulting from saying I wasn't going t start anything new and then giving in to have something easy peasy, where I don't need to follow a complex pattern. It is a row row repeat and two of those are purling. It does curl but will be beaituful when blocked and a great throw around your shoulders scarf for a little insta chic.

These beautiful colors (Rowan Tapestry in the blue-green) are turning into what is below. I cast on 40 stitches and it will be delightfully wide.

What is above is this stitch, it took me some time to figure out the directions from the Harmony Lace and Eyelet Guide because you need to add a last yarnover on the 3rd row before the final stitch and that is not clear from the directions, but it keeps the stitch the right way and the numbers always at an even number.

Then, this quick knit is for the soonish to be niece or nephew. I am through the right body and am making the 12 month size of the Peapod Baby Set Sweater.
The lace shot. Its the new money shot.

My ball winder and swift in action. SPICY!!!

It makes these beautiful little cakes. MMMMM yarn cakes....

The Chuppah is soooo long.

Now that I have a repeat done I can measure this with the number of rows and figure out whether 2 cones will be enough. I don't think it will be, but Sarah's Yarns is having a private sale right now. It's the perfect timing for 15% off their already low, low prices.

Happy Knitting and Happy no-longer-February. It truly is the worst month of the year IMHO.