“Ooh, a contest! I’ll whip up a quick dishcloth!” Oy.

The first incarnation of the beast lovely dishcloth is seen in the thumbnail here. It’s a mini EZ square baby blanket, inspired by 1870 pearl. Well, here’s the thing. That cloth is full of short rows that go unwrapped, leaving lacy holes from the center to each corner. As previously documented, I am incapable of dainty holes. Click on the thumbnail of the original dishcloth for evidence. So, after knitting about halfway around, I frogged it.

Incarnation the second was the same dishcloth with wrapped short rows. I wrapped them all – even the long rows, which left a nice, big open circle in the middle of the cloth. It was quirky; I approved. Finished it all up, went to weave the start to the finish, and realized I should have used a provisional cast-on. I went back to the EZ book. Yup; she mentions it… at the END of the pattern. Uhm. Oops. I picked out my cast-on and weaved the edges together. Twisted stitches. ARGH. I tossed the cloth aside and went to bed. Frogged it in the morning for its impudence. I didn’t like that gaping hole in the center, anyways.

Incarnation the last is a wrapped short-row cloth with the center worked a bit differently. Now it has a perky little hole in the center, like a cheeky child showing her belly button in the summertime. The weaving looks horrid, but at this point I’ll live with it. It was a learning experience. More importantly, it makes that second mini Jaywalker sock look appealing again. I’ve already cast on.

Note: Today’s the last day to name my first batch of ale. “Ewe Brew” and “Knitter’s Solace” are currently neck-in-neck with three votes each. Yes, you read that right. Three votes. Those of you in the US need to start practicing now for 2008 – vote, vote, VOTE! Ahem. Sorry; I get carried away. The poll is in the sidebar; come on over to the site if you’re reading from a news aggregator. Voting ends at midnight tonight.

This morning, as I was drinking my morning Joe and perusing the blogs, I saw that Carrie over at The Barefoot Cobbler is having a spring contest. Start a dishcloth, and be in the running for some fabulous sock yarn. How could I resist? Okay, I probably could have resisted, except a ball of Sugar ‘n Creme followed me home two days ago. I couldn’t ignore the colors, as they screamed, “SUMMER!” at me from the shelf. I decided I’d bring it home and make a dishcloth. Now, I know I was just being psychic. See? It’s all perfectly reasonable.

I finished up mini Jaywalker 1, so I cast on for a dishcloth as a palate cleanser before slogging through knitting up the second one. This is the Four Corners Dishcloth from 1870 pearl, which is basically an itty-bitty version of the EZ baby blanket. Cute, no?

As so often happens when I drag out the dishcloth cotton and my old needles, I spend a lot of time musing about their tips. See that wear? It’s not all mine. These needles came from my mother, or her mother; they’ve been with me so long I can’t remember. I sit, and knit, and wonder where these needles have been. What have they seen? What have they made?

Today, they’re making fabric that fairly exudes summer. I guess that’s enough to know for now.

Get thee to the poll in the sidebar and vote! All the cool fishies are doing it. We went to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher this weekend. It’s wonderful, and there’s a not-too-crowded beach nearby for all your castle-building, shell-collecting, sun-and-salt-spray-revelling needs. I’m enjoying this rare few weeks before summer hits in earnest.

See that blue? That’s the entire sky today. A bunch of my azaleas didn’t make it through the cold patch last week, but this beauty is in a protected nook.

Me? I’m doing a bit of this and that. Busy as a… well, you know. On Friday one of the boys had his yearly testing (homeschoolers in NC must take a nationally standardized test once a year). So, while Tweedle-d’oh spent two hours answering questions, I fussed and fidgeted with downsizing the gusset are on the Jaywalkers to fit his feet. I think I’ve got it; we’ll see.

I hope y’all are having a great weekend.

Okay, so I don’t technically have the goods in my hot little hands, but these lovely stitch markers are wending their way through the mail to me as we speak.

They’re specially made for socks and lace (read: teeny needles), and apparently won’t snag on your yarn. Best of all, they can be yours, just for entering my Name that Brew contest. Do I sound desparate yet? At the moment, I’m a little nervous that Heide will win with her suggestion of “Purl Hurl”. So far, only Dave and Heide have made submissions; unless something wondrous happens, the playing field will be small.

Submissions are open until midnight on Sunday, followed by a week of voting.

This is what’s on the needles…

… mini Jaywalkers, sized for Tweedle-d’oh (age 7.)

Tweedle-dee’s little socks are done. Now, I say little, but as I was knitting them I kept thinking, “This can’t be right.” They looked way too long. I remeasured feet. You know a boy has a mom for a knitter when he isn’t fazed at all by having his foot grabbed and measured in the middle of a movie… for his brother’s sock, no less. Don’t these look long?

You know where this is going, don’t you? I knit, and knit, and knit. I measured. Knit some more, and measured again. I turned the heel and knit the leg and cuff. When it came time to put them on? Yeah. A little too short.

But, you can stretch ‘em to fit, and he loves them. I finally made him remove them after the second day for a washing. I have secret plans to rework them after some of my other projects are done… provided he hasn’t worn them out in the meantime.

Details:

Started:	29 March 2007
Finished:	12 April 2007
Pattern:	Short row toe and heel, 3×1 ribbing on top and around leg. 40 stitches around(?)
Yarn:	Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in Fern 9806 (green) and Yellow 3646. Less than a ball of each – I didn’t think to weigh everything out. This yarn is 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, 21% elastic nylon. A little splitty, but much easier for me to work with than Cascade Fixation. I suspect it’s a personal preference thing.
Needles:	4″ Addi dpns, size US 1.

I’m taking Dave’s advice, and having my first contest. Last week, I bottled up my first batch of home brew. It’s a brown ale, and it’s currently named the gorgeous and descriptive name of “Batch One”. The bottlecaps weren’t quite big enough even for that, so we fondly call it “1″. My husband, meanwhile, brews lovely meads called “Serenity”, “Clarity”, “Bold”, and “Black Gold”. We can’t have this sort of disparity! I need a good name!

I’ll accept names (knitting-related or not) in the comments of this post for a week – deadline is midnight on Sunday, April 22nd – and then I’ll post a poll and we’ll pick. In the unlikely event that I get more than five names, our panel of judges (my family) will narrow the field before voting begins. My husband’s submission to the competition is “Knitter’s Solace”. Do you think he’s seen me frogging too many times?

Since I have basically NO stash (at least, no stash a sane knitter would be interested in), you will all be competing for a lovely set of stitch markers. Photo later, after I procure said markers.

Let the fun begin!

Hullo, and Happy Saturday. There was a sky today…

And, a Rennaissance Fair…

…which necessitated emergency sewing for my little knights’ costumes. My very dear sister created them, but forgot that they’d be wearing clothes under them. I ended up ripping out the side seams of the tunics and putting in a few bands of elastic to hold the front to the back.*

There was going to the market, too, but I don’t think I have a picture of me picking out milk. Or vitamins. Speaking of which, what lovely person decided to lace all the children’s vitamins with aspartame? Ahem. Sorry about that. I just found out – while looking at the kids’ vitamin bottles to show them the colors in the ingredients list – that they contain nutra-sweet. I’ve been pretty vigilant about keeping aspartame away from my kids, because it gives me (and my brother) one heck of a headache. While I read all of the food labels of anything that they consume, it simply didn’t occur to me to read the vitamin bottle. Ugh. At any rate, I scoured my Target – ALL the kids vitamins had aspartame, except for one kind that had a BUNCH of vitamin C and not as many of the ‘regular’ vitamins in it. So, off to Whole Foods tomorrow to see if they still make vities like when I was a kid. If only I could find a kids’ vitamin that isn’t chewable.

* Never try to sew through too many layers of sequined “chain mail” fabric by machine. It makes your machine go kaput. Making costume alterations by hand isn’t nearly as efficient, though it does allow one to watch Stargate while sewing.

I am pleased to have squeaked into the Hogwarts Sock Swap at the last moment. This should be just the thing to keep me occupied until the new book comes out in July. I’ve never been in a knitting swap before, so I’m doubly excited. Yes, it doesn’t take much; I’m happier this way.

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into?

Gryffindor

2. Shoe size?

US 6

3. Foot Length?

9 1/4 inches

4. Foot Circumference?

8 inches around the ball of my foot.

5. List your three favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length.

a. addi skakel metal 4″ dpns – sizes up to 3.

Can you believe that is it? The only other non-aluminum dpns I own are a set of Clover bamboos I bought for a hat last winter. They were all right, but nothing to write home about.

6. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length?

Sure! I’m up for just about anything! I knit with a bunch of non-wool and wool blends, so a needle with a little bit of grab is better for me. I stick mostly with small yarn, so needle sizes in the sock range (up to size 3) are best for me, and I prefer shorter needles to longer ones.

7. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference?

n/a

8. Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal?

Sure!

Note to my swap pal: I’m sensitive to wool, but superwash wool works just fine – whatever they do to make it machine washable also makes it so that I don’t turn red and puff up when I wear it. I’m downright allergic to most all animal fibers: mohair, angora, etc. The jury is still out on alpaca – I haven’t found any to roll around in just yet.