Blog Slump, Knit Binge

Hello to all!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend and a Happy Father’s Day. We celebrated my father by letting him watch as much golf as he wanted.

As I mentioned last time I get a lot of kniting done while watching golf. I should note that golf is the only TV my kids get to watch and you can’t tear them away from it. Knitting peace for me!

So I finished up the Jaywalkers- and why don’t 2 socks knit at the same gauge, from the same yarn come out looking the same???

And I started Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Pi Shawl from The Knitter’s Almanac-

I’m knitting this with cotton string from the hardware store. My idea was to use EZ’s theory of Pi to make myself a sunhat, and I thought this would be stiff enough to knit into a nice dense fabric, it’s been unused in my toolbox several years now.

Well… it’s a little too stiff to knit densely at all. But knitted loosely it’s quite soft and enjoyable to knit so I decided to make the shawl instead. Perhaps I’ll starch it and make a giant doily.

I worked more on the Tomten until my hands ached.  [Peggy- thanks for the tip on taking greasy wool outside for softening. I will definately try that next hot day we have.]  I think it’s headed to the frog pond to become a patchwork blanket. I have some ideas in my head, but nothing written or knitted down. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll have a frog fest, the kids enjoy those.

And since the Jaywalkers are done, I needed another sock on the needles- this yarn.

Fourth toe-up attempt pre-frogging. I guess there’s more to toe-ups than casting on. Like feet large enough to use conventional patterns. Time to get out the smaller needles…. sigh.

Anyway. The Scandinavian Festival was pretty disappointing. I guess it felt really Americanized (go figure). When I’ve gone before they’ve had language rooms where you can go speak the native languages and learn some basics…. And folk-art rooms where you can see craftsfolk in action…. Or learn a folk dance…. Not so much this year.

There were booths and raffles and tons of food… All Scandinavian derived of course, but everything was for sale, there was no one interested in sharing their craft and culture. Or perhaps I was feeling too harried by my little men to notice. Oh well.

And the fiber booths I’d scouted out? Mostly machine knit sweaters, with a notable exception. There was one booth that was selling handmade Lativan textiles- handknit mittens and socks, handwoven shawls and covers… Beautiful stuff. Out of my price range…. but beautiful.

The proprieter of one of those machineknitsweater booths also had what seemed to be a personal stash-thinning sale. Her advertised price: 50gms for $2. Wow. It is fortunate for me that she didn’t have too much nice wool or I might have completely lost my head. I got some Fortissima sock yarn and some Lamb’s Pride worsted. She even gave me the worsted for $2 a skein too, even though they are 113 gms! Score!!!

We combed all the booths looking for a nostepinde, but there were none. After giving up the nostepinde search I let the kids spend the money on a fishing set instead. I’ll just wind my wool on that!

Fish for supper anyone?

note: I was speaking with my mom about Bunny and she remembers (much more accurately than a 7 year old could) that Bunny’s quote was “Only God makes perfect things.” Thus the new header… And the frog fest tomrrow…