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I signed up for a class to “learn how to professionally knit and finish your garments.” I haven’t had much of an inkling to knit a sweater yet, but it seems to be creeping up on me. There’s no way I’ll try it if I don’t know what I’m doing, so I thought if I learned some stuff about it, I’d feel more confident about my knitting. So for this class we are knitting a teddy bear sweater. I knit up a swatch:

but of course the gauge is wrong. I think it is standard for sweater knitting to knit more than one swatch, or at least change needle sizes. The blue is turning out nicely, don’t you think? I bought this yarn at Christmas on my first yarn binge in Chicago. I couldn’t really find anything to knit with it, so I think this will be a deserving project. I’ll have to go down a needle size, although I *really* wanted to use the size 7 Brittany needles I got on sale. The only size 6 needles I have are Denise needles which will have to do. I’ll put those thingies on the end of the cords to make them straight instead of circular. Nothing else I’ve made has really mattered how many stitches per inch it was. The hats I’ve made have ribbing for that extra stretch. The bags? Who cares, they’re either a little bigger or a little smaller. I don’t think I can mess this up anyway. It’s a teddy bear sweater. I don’t even have a stupid teddy bear to put it on. I figured I’d mail it to my niece. Maybe she has some doll or stuffed animal that it will fit. A wool sweater for a toy, kind of humorous. I wanted to use up yarn that I had rather than purchasing more. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I may be in over my head with this sweater knitting class finishing thing. We have to knit up the pieces of the teddy sweater BEFORE the class. And the instructor didn’t just give us a simple pattern. She gave us a pattern with like a gajillion notes attached to it. I may need some help executing this one. I’ll keep you posted.
In other news, I finished another Meema’s felted marsupial tote:

It’s for mom’s birthday. She should get the surprise in the mail today! I think I’m finished knitting these totes for awhile. They’re super cute, super easy, and super fast, especially using size 15 needles with two strands of worsted weight yarn. After making 3 though, they’re getting super old. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I do love making them for people because they seem to really like them (or so they say) and keep asking for them. Let’s just say I don’t want to knit anything on size 15 needles for awhile. They seem so clunky compared to smaller knitting.
Today we are leaving for a long weekend in Yosemite. Hoping to see some GREAT VIEWS (you may want to make sure the coast is clear before looking at this one at work- gotta love those Flickr searches).

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The cactus we’ve had for almost 3 years bloomed! Twice! Isn’t it beautiful? It happened so quickly, and the blooms only lasted for about 2 days, each one about a week apart. They were the most spectacular at the moment they opened. I don’t remember what kind of cactus it is. Maybe I can email the pictures somewhere and get it identified.

Also, Jodi and John sent me a hilarious book, The Museum of Kitschy Stitches, a Gallery of Notorious Knits. Very, very funny. Not only are the pictures funny, but the descriptions will leave you in, um, stitches!

I also sent Jodi her surprise, a finished Meema’s Felted Marsupial Tote! I finally finished a project! The mohair in the Lamb’s Pride makes the bag look so cute and fuzzy.

The strawberries in the backyard are also a nice surprise! I planted a few last year and this year they have spread. They are so delicious… so much different than those white-centered things you get from the grocery store. Red, sweet, and juicy. Yum! The other picture isn’t much of a surprise. I messed up. Just look at it. Look at it! Do you see it? I made a mistake. I don’t know how to fix it since it’s the heel flap of a sock and it’s slip one, knit one in one row, and purls on the next row. I thought I could just knit past it and I wouldn’t notice it. But I DO notice it! Blech. And I was on such a roll with the sock.
This week I went to my first neighborhood knitting group at a local coffee shop. I had a great time! It was fun to meet some local gals around my same age who like to knit. Everyone had such different jobs: a photographer, a life/job coach, an editor for a law website, a girl in GIS, and me, an occupational therapist. I’m hoping I’ll be able to attend often. For the next two weeks though, I’ll be taking a socks on two circulars class at Article Pract. We’ll be knitting socks toe-up with an afterthought heel. I can’t wait!

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Do you ever feel like the slightest little thing can stop your knitting dead in its tracks? For example, changing colors. I know it’s silly, but this bag sat in the basket for weeks while I said “oh yeah, gotta change colors on that one.” But I finally made it through it.

However, it was only a stripe, so I must change colors again. Another one I’m struggling to continue: A sock. The pattern calls for SSP (slip, slip, purl?) on the heel. Don’t know how to do that one. I guess I have to make a trip to the yarn store or find a solution online. So the sock hasn’t made it on any plane trips even though it would make the perfect portable knitting project. Here she is, doesn’t she look lonely?

“Please knit me”

And then there’s this doll I’ve started. It has two issues. Well, I got past the color change. But I think I mentioned previously that this project just takes a lot of concentration. A lot of counting, increasing and decreasing. So I guess I just haven’t had the time and patience to pick it up in awhile.

Then there’s this wrist warmer I’m working on. I’ve made it through the bottom wrist part. Now I’m at the part where I have to read the pattern again and add in a second needle to make the thumb hole. It also has a few dropped stitches that I have to pick up. Yeah. So that’s where it lies. It took a trip to Chicago and Hawaii, but I didn’t pick it up either trip.

So what HAVE I been knitting? Well, just a nice little scarf. I guess the rest of my life has been sort of hectic with travel and work. All I can handle right now is knit a few rows, purl a few rows, over and over and over and over. It’s nice. No pattern. No counting. No color changes! There are a lot of knitting blogs that are all about knitting complex patterns. But I’m keeping it simple for now. Here’s the scarf:

One of these days I’ll finish something!

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Do you ever feel like you have too many hobbies? I enjoy having different things to do, it’s just difficult to keep up on all of them. Gardening has fallen by the wayside. It’s too bad because I really enjoy gardening, being outside, watching stuff grow, then eating it! I’m sure we’ll have a garden again soon. That’s not only a hobby, but a value. We value growing the food, canning it, or eating it fresh. Some people are partiers, go to bars, etc. We stay home and can food all day on a weekend for fun! It’s been awhile, though. I think the last thing we canned was strawberry jam for our wedding favors. So how about the things I’ve done more recently? Or at least consider current hobbies that have kept me from gardening? Well, the knitting, the purchase of a domain, website hosting, the figuring out of the blog (ok, I haven’t worked on that one lately either), we’ve gone on a few weekend trips (we need to camp more), hiking, calligraphy (that class is over.. but I think I have an envelope to address..), and now scuba. After a long process, we found places to stay in Hawaii for our trip. We’ll be going to the Big Island and Kauai. We are going to backpack the Kalalau Trail on the Napali Coast and scuba dive. I’m taking a class at Cal School of Diving in Berkeley. I’m spending a lot of $$$ on hobbies this year. Who knew all the knitting needles and yarn would be so expensive? Not me. I guess everyone else knew it. Now the scuba gear. Yikes. It’s not about the money, it’s the personal challenge. So you want some pictures?

The black wool hat is for Ron. I need to get a picture of him actually wearing it. I knitted most of that one on the road to and from Sequoia National Park. I even had Ron pull over so I could get my headlamp out of the trunk and knit in the dark. See, you can combine hobbies! The other picture is a doll I finally started. I’ve been dreaming of knitting the Jess Hutch toys ever since I started knitting (way back in November) and finally got around to getting the tools and the know-how (and the time and patience I’m finding it takes to do increases or decreases every few stitches). It took me a few hours just to knit that dumb little blue piece of fabric because I kept making mistakes on starting a round of 6 stitches on two circulars. This is what I like to do when I wake up at the crack of dawn and Ron is still sleeping. I’m an early riser and he’s a night owl. It’s my knitting concentration time.

This is me knitting Jodi’s bag in a campground a few weekends ago.. see Jodi, I’m making progress!!

Here’s to multi-hobbying. I’m also hooked on Harold and Maude. We just saw the movie and I can’t stop singing the songs. Words to live by:

“If you want to sing out, sing out” by Cat Stevens

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
cause theres a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
cause theres a million ways to go
You know that there are

Chorus:
You can do what you want
The opportunity’s on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
You see ah ah ah
Its easy ah ah ah
You only need to know

Well if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
cause theres a million ways to go
You know that there are

And if you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
cause theres a million things to do
You know that there are

Chorus

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
cause theres a million things to be
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are

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Ok, so you’ve picked up all your stitches:

Now for that pesky RT (Right Twist). After you’ve joined the round, knit so you have two stitches left before the first marker. Click on the pictures below to see the captions, but here’s what you do: Knit 2nd stitch on needle without slipping stitches off the left needle. Knit the first stitch on left needle, then slip both stitches off the left needle (and you have two new stitches on the right needle). The stitches you have slipped off the left needle will look floppy and yucky. Don’t worry about it. Trust me. Relax. Take a few deep breaths. Roll those shoulders a bit and lower them away from your ears. After a few rounds it will start to look purty. Really! And after felting it will look even better. So here’s some pictures (They are in sequence below, but I can’t seem to get the captions to go in order when you click on them, so just pay attention to the titles).

There, you’ve done a Right Twist. Here’s what the bag will look like after several rounds:

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If you or anyone you know is a beginning knitter and is trying to knit the Meema’s Felted Marsupial Tote from S-n-B, these photos might help. If I had these photos to follow when I first made the tote, it may have avoided some flinging of work across the room, cursing, ripping out work, and general anger and frustration (pouting). I thought I would give back to the knitting community by helping beginning knitters pick up stitches from the bottom of the tote. If I ever learn how to post a Quicktime video, perhaps I’ll do that someday. For now, you may find the “picking up stitches” video on knittinghelp.com to be helpful. Click on the picture to see my captions. (If I did this wrong, let me know in the comments)Here we go: