I dub thee "Rhapsody in Blue"! I got tired of calling this the Cotton-Ease pullover, or boatneck, or blue monster… so, Rhapsody it is. Her back is complete, and the sleeves are cast on. I chose to do them both at the same time, somehow convincing myself that this method is quicker. We’ll see about that…

Balmoral’s sleeve was frogged for the fourteen hundredth time… I tried to cast on for it once more, but those first few rows on the DPNs are a doozy, so I gently placed them back in the bag for a time when I had more patience. My Trekking sock is also on the needles, but there has been very little progress.

After several weeks (months?) I was able to meet with Donna and Eilene for a Knit Nite. Heather just got home from her Cancun vacation (go see her great pics!) so she was not able to meet up with us last night… but soon! Donna and I stopped by Joann Fabric and picked up some crafty goodies (remnant fabric and cute table napkins for me), and we met Ei at a restaurant across the street.

After some yummy food, a few drinkies, and a large bill, we headed over to a cafe for some knit time. Donna worked so diligently on her Lucky Clover, Eilene worked on her Olive cardi, and I stitched away on Rhapsody. We looked at books and magazines, drank some coffee, and had some great laughs…  mainly at the expense of the ugly knits in the mags and books we were flipping through.

We couldn’t really control our laughter and disgust when looking through the new Knitter’s magazine. It is awful–just believe me. Why waste the magazine production costs? (you have to see Caryn’s letter to the editor. Priceless!)Â and why in the world would they put the WORST pattern on the cover?Â

Teva Durham’s new Loop-d-Loop is getting a lot of publicity on the blogs… so, I had to check it out myself. I ordered it earlier in the week online, and was able to look through it more thoroughly at the bookstore last night. My copy arrived in the mail this afternoon.

I picked up this Knitting Lessons at a rummage sale (it is a brand new copy). I had never heard of it, and I figured if it is about knitting, it couldn’t be too bad. Loop-d-Loop is an amazing book, no doubt about it. Ms. Durham has wonderful vision, and her designs really appeal to me. Her knowledge of color is phenomenal, and this book is destined to be one of my favorites for a long time.Â

Here are some of the designs I like from the book… add them to the list… the ever-growing TO KNIT list…

Got some good DDR time in today–it is such fun! I need to do a lot more before my October Hawaii trip… I think dancing is the way to make the pounds go away… thanks for all of the comments on the DDR pics. It is a great game!Â

Have a lovely weekend, all.

As my summer session classes do not start until the end of June, I have been indulging in some great pastimes. Of course, you know about my knitting, and you know about my reading (not done with Time Traveler’s Wife yet, but I may actually finish before the K1R2 discussion starts… that will be a first) but I have also ventured into some uncharted territory in my spare time: something that takes some sort of athletic ability.

I have always enjoyed dancing… but that does not mean that I was good at it. As a child, I took ballet, jazz, tap, and gymnastics lessons, but since then, my dancing has been limited to the awkward prom/homecoming dances of high school, a few odd "balls" in college, and a few "tipsy" wedding/club dances.

… but now, I am a dancing queen…

This is Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). You may have seen this game played by pimply-faced middle schoolers in mall arcades… or maybe you saw one of the parodies of it on TV… but me? I do the dancing in the comfort of my own home–and it is great FUN! We bought the pack at the beginning of April, and I couldn’t stop dancing… but I got out of it for awhile because of school obligations. Now I am back to the dancing–and I can’t be stopped!

We bought a second pad this week, and Kris and I are having dance-offs in our basement! Little by little, our scores are getting better, but the best thing about it? It is really great exercise! There is a Workout Mode set up in the game, and you can monitor all sorts of stats–it is a great program, and I have already seen some results… I can definitely feel them!

The arrows on the screen scroll upwards with the beat of the music, and you match those arrows with your feet movements on the controller pad. There are several different levels (Beginner-Light-Standard-Heavy) I have graduated to Light, and there are a few songs where I can do Standard. The game was created in Japan, and the graphics are cute, colorful, and poppy. The song selections are pretty good–heavy on the techno beats, but as the game progresses, you get new options, like jazz/swing and some hip hop.

Kris and I have also been gardening some more… many of our vegetables and herbs are doing quite well. Maryland has had three days of rainy weather, so the plants are ready for today’s sunshine… Our lilies are forming the buds, and these beans have sprouted and grown several inches in a week’s time. I can’t wait till these lilies bloom–they are an explosion of red and orange–absolutely stunning.

Our patio container garden is really taking off–tomatoes and peppers, mesculin salad greens, basil, oregano, and some amazing fast-growing cat grass (not pictured). My kitty boys will love it!

Juggling several projects right now… my project depends on where I am sitting and how I am feeling at the time. Last night, during the season finale of Lost, this was my project of choice: the Cotton-Ease pullover. I was a little apprehensive in revealing a closeup of this project, because I was embarassed about the way that some of WS stitches looked.

 The row gauge is a little wonky in some places… okay, many places. I do not know if I should attribute this to the yarn or to my own ineptitude. After reading Fidget’s post yesterday, I did not feel so bad. She is having the same problem. I am not ready to rip it, but it does not look that great. Will this change when I wash/block it?

As I knit my way up to the armholes, things have gotten better, but there are still some wonky patches. I got to the armholes in the second hour of Lost (so, what did you all think about this episode? I was hoping for a little more intensity, but it was still pretty darn good!). I love the way the decreases form and make that design… it’s the simple things.

Tonight, I am meeting up with Donna and Eilene for Knit Nite. I am planning to take my Balmoral sleeve along for the ride. We have a 4-day weekend ahead of us–Kris and I took tomorrow off from work. Looking forward to a nice weekend with my family–this will be my sister’s last weekend as a single girl.

I think I work best when I have options… I start new projects, set them aside and start another, then go back because I have a tinge of guilt for shelving the previous project… and the cycle continues. This was the case with Kris’s pullover (many thanks for the comments on it–very easy pattern, perfect for that man in your life).

Applying this to my current state, in chronological order, the next project that I need to finish is my Balmoral cardigan. I picked up the yarn and pattern for this project back in January at All About Yarn in the presence of Heather, her Pixie girl, and Jenna. I started on it soon after, but shelved it in favor of Lucky, and Tempting. Now, I am back on it… full force.

This is the start of the second sleeve. I am working it on some 12" Addi circs, but I think I will move to DPNs soon, as I am not as fearful of them as I once was a mere two months ago. While the 12" are good for some things, the more I increase for the sleeve, the worse it is. Stitches fall off constantly… at least with DPNs, there will be some more needle to hold the stitches.

You may remember that this cardigan is worked in one piece, with the sleeves being attached and then working in a final yoke towards that top. I enjoyed this method on my Tempting, so I am looking forward to that again. I really enjoy knitting this cardigan. It is nearly all stockinette, which I don’t mind. I like being able to get my hands into a rhythm. There are eyelets for the velvet ribbon to be threaded through, which is a very classy touch.

I have been saying it long enough… "I need to try socks…" and now, I am all set. I picked up a simple Fiber Trends pattern, and cast on for some socks last night. The yarn is Trekking. I could not keep my hands off of it at the shop, so I decided to actually make the purchase and try these socks. More progress to come…

Lucky Lolly got to have a great afternoon with Eilene yesterday. We did not get the chance to knit due to space restrictions at the restaurant, but we talked a lot about knitting! She brought along her fancy Rogue cardigan for me to see in person. It is so pretty, and surprisingly soft.

We discussed our future projects, talked about her new DB Cathay that she got in the mail, and had a generally great time eating pasta and sorbet. Thanks, Ei! We are planning to have a knit nite this week, the first one in quite awhile… Donna, Eilene, and me… Heather is still in Mexico, but she will be there in spirit!

Knitting progress may be a little slow in the next few days–my sister’s wedding is next weekend (June 4th), and I am really trying to catch up on a lot of reading now that I have a short break from school. Right now, I am plowing through Time Traveler’s Wife.

Now, off to indulge in my guilty pleasure of reality tv… go Bo Bice!

Denim Pullover
Yarn: Bernat Denim Style in Indigo (Cotton/Acrylic)
Pattern: Bernat’s Free Online Patterns
Started: September 15, 2004
Finished: May 21, 2005

The hardest part about this sweater? It is huge. It took up my whole table while seaming! This can only be attributed to what Jenna refers to as men’s long ape arms… Kris played a good mannequin throughout the whole process. I knew ahead of time that this was going to be a tad too big for him. I tried to make some adjustments while seaming, but they did not remedy the problem. It is not gargantuanlly big, but we would both like it to be a little smaller. I was hoping a few cycles in the wash would make the cotton in the yarn shrink–anyone have any other tips?

Even though it is too big, I am happy with this sweater. I finally cleared it out of the plastic bag sitting in my stash… now I can have my big stitch holder back. I learned how to make a cleaner pick up stitch for the neckband. I took the time to do a good finishing job, and that made a real difference.

In celebration of Kris’s pullover, I decided to tell you a little more about him. You know enough about me… now for my "other half". He signed the appropriate waivers, etc., so all is fair game

Kris loves aquariums like I love knitting. After we got married, he picked up an old 20 gallon tank from his parents’ house that he had as a child. He filled the tank with some cute neon tetras and some rocks and a bubbling treasure chest. We had fun watching the new entertainment, and not so much fun flushing the fishies down the toilet… but his interest increased, and his skills improved… Kris has a tendency to get "really into" a hobby–he did the appropriate research, drafted a proposal, and then sat me down to discuss the possibility of getting a bigger tank. (Yeah, it was really that organized). A 75-gallon tank for the basement. For those of you that can’t really visualize this: it is about the size of a coffin and filled to the brim with water. Sure, I wanted to encourage his hobby–I like to see him interested and having fun. Before long, he had set up a lovely aquarium in our basement with exotic freshwater fish and amazing aquatic plants. It is not uncommon for us to watch the aquarium instead of the TV. Now, three years later: we have five aquariums… three big ones (75g, 54g, 40g) and two small ones (10g, 20g). Kris has also joined a local chapter and serves on their board as the website administrator. He assisted in the planning and organization of a large conference last winter where people came from all over the world to discuss aquariums, aquatic plants, and fish. (Like Stitches is for us!) He has also become quite the underwater photographer:

Top to bottom: A snail in the tank bottom; flowering ammania gracilis; Amano shrimp eating algae; Congo tetra; and Angel fish.

Kris also loves hockey. He has played the game since he was a tot. Through high school, he played ice hockey as a forward. In college, he began playing roller hockey with some of our friends from high school in an adult league at the local facility. For five years they played together… and then this year, the team disintegrated… he joined another team where he only knew one person, and three weeks ago, they started their summer season.

That’s him: #9. He is a good player, and I am not just saying that because I am married to him–he has had several seasons as one of the top 5 scorers in the league. Although his old team was filled with drunkards and "baby-daddys", they had at least 5+ years of hockey chemistry between them. They did not lose games very often. The new team is 0-3-1. Here’s hoping things will get better with the new guys. I am often the (lone) fan in the stands. I bring my knitting to accompany me.

… and there is more… he plays the guitar, is a master gardener, and an awesome cook. What is not to love? I think this boy-man deserves another sweater… I am thinking the Manos zipper cardigan in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (sans orange zipper, thank you) but that can wait till fall. This time, I will measure him to get the right fit.

… and me? Well, I am having lunch with Eilene today.

I would love to have a visit from the seaming fairy this weekend… she can magically turn that into this:

However, I think she is booked solid through the weekend… so, I will have to tackle this sucker myself. I don’t know many knitters that like to seam, however, it is a part of the process, right? You can’t have an FO without it. (Stating the obvious is my forte) With the aid of my new fancy blocking board (okay, you caught me–it is not that fancy–I only paid $7 for it!) this blocking and seaming will be a cinch, I hope.

After I finish Kris’s pullover, I will return to my many "ladies in waiting"… Balmoral, Lucky Clover, Boatneck… and I will cast on for the afghan for my sister’s wedding present. I realized that I don’t have to rush the afghan since I will be visiting her in Hawaii in October… it is not like people really use afghans in Hawaii anyway… but I am still going to make it…

Many thanks to Leanne for sending me this Rowan Calmer. I love the texture of this yarn. Any suggestions about what to knit up with this?

How did you know, Maryellen, that I adore origami? This card and origami giraffe really brightened this rainy Maryland day! I have been on a serious green kick too, so these colors are perfect! I need to find some pretty origami papers… I used to be good at the folding, wonder if I still have it in me?

…and in honor of Chelsea’s Flower Picture Week, I snapped these shots of the primroses on our front porch, right after the rainstorm.

Kris and I are gonna go and stand in line waiting to see Star Wars tonight … I was thinking of starting on a sock while waiting…Â