I Deserve A Badge

I give this to myself for all the stupid questions I get asked and the gracious answers I give when others ask me why I knit socks when I can just buy them. I've been knitting a lot at my dad's hospital bedside lately and the calming effects of knitting sure help when you want to kill a nurse when they have Dad on a day and a half worth of clear liquids for a CAT scan that never happens until you park yourself right in front of the nurses' station until the Barium comes.
By the way, for those of you wondering about my dad's reaction to his gift, he thought the Hemlock Ring Blanket looked like something more for a woman. That's all I got. Go visit Cast-On and get a badge - you probably deserve one too...

Hemlock Ring Blanket is Done!

For your approval, Dad's Hemlock Ring Blanket!
Here's a "before" shot - 37" across and pitiful...

















And "after" at 55" across. "My, how you've grown!" (My bed is a queen, no Brooklyntweed coffee mug for perspective so a magnetic pin cushion will have to do.)


















For those of you who groove on closeups:















Lounging on the chaise under the pergola, two days after blocking, it has gotten some of the peaks and valleys back into the Fan and Feather pattern.

I used Cascade Eco Wool in Latte, just like Jared's, because I wanted one just like his! I got good stitch definition using #9 circs. I started on size 8 dpns and graduated to 16" then 36" Clover bamboos. This project would be perfect for Denise or Knitpicks Options, because of the ever growing circle. There's a very good KAL over on Yahoo where people have added lots of interesting points of view. Check it out if you plan on making this. I basically just stuck with Jared's formula, and added two extra repeats. If I had to do it again, I'd add two more.

I'm giving this blanket to Dad. I think he'll like it. It's a little fru-fru for him, being a Marine and all, but the color is masculine. He'll put it over his lap when he sits in his Lazy Boy. He's feeling crappy these days. He's in the advanced stages of various cancers. I knit this fast because I'm not sure how long I'll have him.

Lace Headband

I enjoyed making this Lace Headband. Not only was it an easy, relaxing knit, great when I needed a mental health break from MS3, but I made it from my blogless friend Betsy's hand dyed, hand spun yarn. And, it is my favorite color, red.

Please excuse the crummy pic and the even crummier do.

Astrid is the Bomb

This could easily become my next obsession, except for the fact that:
A. I've never knit Fair Isle
B. Holiday presents need to get started
C. I owe husband a sweater
But take a look anyway. And if you need to drink from the well, jump over here where the nice people from the Jeanie Townsend Group on Yahoo started a KAL. And to seduce you even more, here's the crack, I mean kit.

I'm Still Lovin' It

Dad's Hemlock Ring Blanket is coming along great. Only problem is, I knit from the doily instructions and didn't use Jared's chart. Now I'm not sure if I can easily "jump off" the instructions. I may be re-writing the written instructions to extend the doily. This is new for me. Challenges, yay...



Look - it still looks kind of like a yarn muffin... Snowwhitesuicide of Lick My Sticks (one of my favorite bloggers) says, Yum...