I Need Advice

I want to make some fingerless gloves or full-blown mittens out of the skinny cotton I bought. I think a fun, two-color, stranded pattern is what I want, but I can't find any. Neither of my two stitch guides has any colorwork, so I can't make it up. After browsing Ravelry, I'm really in the mood to do some colorwork in a mitten, too, but I want to focus on this cotton.

I know cotton for mittens isn't ideal, but these will either be for me or a friend who can't wear wool either. That's why I was thinking fingerless gloves instead. Maybe mittens knit in wool and lined with cotton would work, too. But, again, I want to focus on the skinny cotton. I only have one skein of each color, and a hat isn't inspiring me right now.

Other than the itch to start a million new projects (I'm dreaming of socks, too, and I've got a sweater's worth of yarn waiting to be knit), I'm plodding along on BYOB. If I finish it today I'll post a picture. In the meantime, here's a photo of a columbine from last weekend's camping trip.

7/27--Completed BYOB (added picture 7/28)

Butterfly in Lamoille Canyon (added 7/28)

Inching Along

Chicago was great. It felt like being home. I got my fill of yummy Handlebar food (and then I dreamed about vegan biscuits and gravy last night, so maybe I didn't get my fill after all). I saw 13 friends. My friend Wyatt said, after telling him that I had to leave: "But, I'll miss you," and he looked at me with his three-year-old eyes. My heart broke. I would have stayed there forever.

I also reconnected with friend I had neglected. Now I owe her an email, but I'll get to it, I promise. I did miss one friend that I really wanted to see. Add another email to that list.

I didn't do much knitting. I finished the February Sweater. The person it's for reads this, but I'm going to post it anyway. This sweater was just as frustrating and just as fun as the first time I knit it.


While I was in Chicago, I stopped at Nina. I was craving a trip to the LYS as much as vegan biscuits and gravy. I needed help deciding, since I was overwhelmed by all the beautiful things. I had to ask Sam a few times for some help on color. Everything I bought was in a blue-green shade, except for the Silky Merino that just happened to match the Misti Alpaca yarn I bought.

Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Cotton. I've wanted to try this for a while. I'm thinking colorwork mittens.

Malabrigo Lace. It was too luscious to pass up. It's going in the stash to wait for the right project.

Misti Alpaca Sock Yarn. These will have to be made into socks. But for whom?

Malabrigo Silky Merino. I love a Merino Silk blend.

So I've been catching up. I've been having a lot of fun at Frisbee. I think I'm starting to feel more confident in the game. I went camping this weekend, which was great fun. I went with two different sets of friends, so the weekend was doubly interesting. I took along BYOB and the Everlasting Bagstopper. The Bagstopper has been sitting for some time, waiting for yarn. I bought some at Nina, but when I went to knit with it this weekend, I realized I'd bought the linen, not the hemp I needed. I don't mind having more linen in my stash, but I would like to finish this bag already. At least it's living up to its name.

Euroflax Linen, purchased at Nina, sitting with the hemp bag.

Besides Chicago, the best thing to come out of the last couple weeks was teaching Perry how to knit. Let me clarify a little. His mom had taught him how to knit, but I taught him how to cast on and how to purl (though he only purled one row). Next, he's going to start a hat. Teaching knitting makes me so happy. Maybe even happier than knitting itself. Now I've got to get Perry to teach me to rappel, like he's promised.

Nevada Weekend

I don't have any knitting progress to show. My only knitting news is that I'm headed to Chicago tomorrow, so I'm going to get a lot of knitting done; buy a lot of yarn (I'm sure); and hang with my knitting friends.

Last weekend was a constant reminder that I'm not in Kansas (or anywhere in the Midwest) anymore. I went to a dinner party where we mostly talked about rocks--both mining rocks (gold) and climbing rocks. I went to a ranch where I fed a leppy (warning: opens in QuickTime. Watch it. It's short. And good) and played with barn cats. I went to the quietest parade ever (while parades are not unique to the West, Elko seems to have a parade every month). Then I finished the weekend at the Basque festival, where I watched Basque dancers and the weightlifting competitions. I also went to the picnic, but I didn't eat anything because the Basque only eat meat.

The most frightening thing I saw this weekend was the road to the ranch covered in Mormon Crickets (don't follow this link if you don't like big, ugly bugs). I'll post a picture soon, but let me just say this. Eeew. At first I thought they were frogs. They are almost as big as frogs, and they jump. I stayed in the car.

There's Always a First Time

My Middle Name is Patience tagged me for a meme. It's my first ever, and it's very exciting. I like the topic very much, though it's so hard to limit my answers to one per question.

• Your favorite word? Super. With delicious tied for second.
  
• Your least favorite word? Hate (I'm trying to eliminate it from my vocabulary). There's another word that I dislike more, but it's not really a word and I refuse to write it down. Say it only if you want me to squirm.
• The word that is the most fun to say? Fantastic. I enjoy words so much this was hard to answer.
• What word should be banned because of overuse? Should (I'm working on eliminating that one, too).

Answering this reminds me. If I ever repeat what you say, it's not that I'm mimicking you, it's because I'm rolling the word around in my mouth. Today we played La Loteria at the Folklife Center. It's a game much like bingo, but you don't match letters and numbers. Instead it's pictures, and you have to figure out what the image is by answering a riddle. Because most of us were rusty on Spanish (or don't speak it, like me), the caller only said the names of the images. It was fun to hear everyone in the room repeat the words. Spanish words are fun to say, especially Loteria! when you win. I didn't win.

This being my first meme, I'm not sure who to tag. I don't want to leave anyone feeling like they wish I'd ask, but I don't want to force it on anyone. If Aimee, Perry, Lynn or anyone wants to join MMNIP and me in celebrating language, please do this meme. Email me if you want an actual invitation.

Here's the Second Sock. I had to use additional sock yarn, from the leftovers pile, to finish. I like the effect of striping the self-striping yarns. Thank goodness my friend Bill doesn't care if his socks match. These definitely will not.


The First Sock.