Serpentine Mitts at the Mummers Parade

Saturday night was the annual Mummer's Parade in Hagerstown. This is the biggest parade of the year in this area and usually has well over 100 units and lasts about 3 hours. Our Farm Toy Collectors Club has had a float in the parade for the last 7 years and this one was no different. The weather was clear, cool and windy with highs in the upper 50's. There were nine of us on the float this year and I knitted right up until the time that we started down the route. I can't wave and knit.

It was pretty cool so the the Serpentine Mitts by Miriam Felton came in very handy. I took my heavy gloves to put on over the mitts but I didn't need them, the mitts kept me warm enough. I had them on this morning when I stopped at McDonald's to get my ice tea and the lady who always takes my money said she could really use something like that so I had her try one on (there was no one behind me) and told her I'd make her a pair. I plan to start them tonight.

The thing on my left shoulder in the photo is a gryphon puppet by A Midsummer Knights Dream. He's my constant companion at events like this where he attracts quite a lot of attention. His name is Andy Gryphon and we adopted him at the MD Renn Fest about 6 or 7 years ago. I take him when we go to shows to sell pedal tractor tickets and he really draws a crowd. I'm sorry that's such a bad pic of him, he's got his head hanging down so that you can't see his face or his glowing orange eyes.

I think we all had a great time at the parade but I for one am glad it's over for this year. Now if we can just get through our toy show in November without any major hiccups I'll be able to relax until it's time to get ready for the spring show in April.

The Busiest Season of All (for me anyway)

I've read that many people consider the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to be their busiest time of year. For me it's fall. My husband and I belong to a farm toy collectors club and every year in November and April our club holds a farm toy show that attracts hundreds of visitors. We only have about 15 members and only 8 are really active so this means that a few people do a tremendous amount of work. Our most important activity outside of the two shows is to sell chances on a pedal tractor to raise money for a scholarship. Every year we award a $1,000 scholarship to an area senior. That's a lot of chances for 8 people to sell. Doug, Linda and I take the pedal tractor around to various tractor shows and festivals, most of which are held in the fall. This provides many opportunities for Knitting in Public.

I knit in public all the time so when I learned that many consider this to be an unusual activity I was a little puzzled. Yes, I get comments and questions but I've never had anything other then a positive experience. More often than not, I'm approached by other knitters who want to ask about my yarn or pattern. I love this aspect of knitting in public.

Saturday Doug and I went to Crownsville, Maryland for the Renaissance Festival and I took my baby socks to work on while we're sitting around watching people (and drinking beer). I saw a woman knitting on the bench where I had been sitting and knitting just a few minutes before. I approached her we got to talking and really hit it off. It is amazing how many subjects we touched on during our short conversation. Her name is Sherry and she was there with her family. She was working on a sock but told me that she had only been knitting for a few months. You would have never guessed that by watching her knit. She went to a social knitting group with her daughter in Columbia, Maryland and I think that's how she got pulled into the knitting universe.

The Saturday before, I was knitting at an arts and crafts festival where we were selling chances on the pedal tractor when a little girl about 9 or 10 walked up to me and said, "You're knitting a sock." I was stunned. Not only did she know I was knitting but that I was knitting a sock. She scampered off before I could ask her how she knew what I was knitting. I looked at my knitting and it wasn't really to the point where it looked unmistakably like a sock hanging off my needles but she recognized it as such. I hope whoever the sock knitter is in her life teaches her how to knit.

Being out and about with time on my hands is a wonderful thing right now because I can sit and knit (or stand and knit) and I get to meet new friends like Sherry.

Progress Report and Knitting Scout Badges

My step-mother fell on Monday and broke her femur just below the hip joint. The surgeon inserted a rod and some screws and now she's in the rehab unit for a few days. She has lived alone since my dad died in March 2006 and really values her independence. She lives about 100 miles from me so I'm not going to be able to look after her for more than a week (vacation from work) and I'm worried about how we're going to work this out. I know she doesn't want to come here because she doesn't know anyone and there still wouldn't be anyone there during the day. She'll be out of the hospital in a day or two so we're going to have to come up with a (low cost, cause none of us are rich) solution quick.

I've been working on a pair of Miriam Felton's Baby to Toddler Sized Socks for my step-mother's physical therapist. Her son is 5 months so I'm using Size #1US needles so that he can get some use of them before they're too small. I've finished one and cast on for the second. This is the third pair of these I've made and I'm still not tired of them. I'm a slow knitter and I can finish one of these in about 3 hours.

I was knitting in the hospital room and was amazed at the number of people who commented on my socks. One lady asked if I sell them and I told her I didn't think it was practical because the yarn cost over $20. She said I could probably sell them for $75 and I had to wonder who she thought would ever pay $75 for a pair of socks. Paris Hilton, perhaps?

I've stopped working on my Double Eyelet Rib Toe-Up Socks by Wendy Johnson of WendyKnits to work on the baby socks but I only have the leg of the second sock to finish and they're done. This has been an enjoyable if somewhat boring pattern to knit. It's only 4 chart lines so it's very easy for a beginning lace knitter. I didn't use the heel from this pattern because I didn't have it in front of me when I started the heel. Instead I used the wrap-less short-row heel with a gusset from Wendy's Southwestern Socks pattern. I really like this heel and it may become my favorite.

When I read Miriam's page I saw these Cast On Scout Knitting Badges and decided that's a few of them apply to me so I created a little bar with the applicable images. Thanks, Brenda.

Lily of the Valley Smoke Ring

This is my current focus right now. I'm on the fifth chart repeat. It's hard to photograph a tubular lace project that's still on the needles. I stretched it out as best I could with a sheet of paper in between the layers. I think it's absolutely lovely and I want to thank Susan Pierce Lawrence and Wooly Wonka Fibers for making it available. I think I'll get a lot of use out of this come winter to ward of the drafts here in my office. I can almost feel it's soft folds around my neck.

It's a fun and portable project. I have the chart memorized so I can whip the project out where ever I happen to be and just knit away. This is my first experience with nupps (knit five together through the back loop) and I've heard horror stories about them but I find that if I keep it loose my Knitpicks 16" US#5 circs are quite pointy enough to get the job done. They don't make 16" Addi Turbo Lace circs. I even worked on it while standing in line Friday night waiting to get my Harry Potter book. When this is done, more socks.

Middletown Valley Barn Tour

Saturday was a beautiful day here in Maryland, clear, breezy and almost cool. That's rare in a state that's the capitol of hazy, hot and humid so we took advantage of it and went on the Barn Tour. Eleven barns were featured on the tour which ran from 10am to 5pm. We made it to 10 of them before calling it a day. My husband's family are retired dairy farmers so he's very interest in old barns. We have one across the road from our house that's about 200 years old.

I took advantage of our stops to sit in the shade and knit. I'm almost done with the second Anastasia Sock by Pepperknit. I lost one of my dps at one of the farms where I was sitting on a hill under some tall pines enjoying the breeze and scent of the pines. It was one of my new KA bamboos and I hated to lose it but it wasn't worth going back and looking through pine needles to try to find a bamboo size 0US!

The first farm had about a dozen peacocks roaming around and I took lots of photos. They are such beautiful birds.

I is so handsome! Take picture of me!

You get my good side, ok?

I has nice legs!

Flag the Itchy

The last farm we went to had horses. We parked in the shade beside a fence and I sat in car with the door open and knitted. Eventually the one of the horses , a pinto, came up to the fence to check me out and we ended up having a 15 minute scratch orgy. He was very clean and well groomed but he had lots of itches that needed to be scratched and I was happy to oblige. I got all the critial spots: under the mane, behind the ears, under the halter straps.

He leaned into the scratches with such obvious pleasure that I just kept on scratching thinking he would walk away when he had had enough but he never made the slightest attempt to leave. So I moved on to styling his forelock into a mohawk and was getting ready to take a picture when my husband came back and told me to quit torturing the poor horse, whose name it turned out is Flag. So I bid Flag farewell and we headed off to dinner. It was a wonderful day.

The New Sock Goes to the Eisenhower Farm

I took the partially finished sock on a bus trip yesterday. We went to the Eisenhower Farm at Gettysburg, PA. My hubby tried to take a photo of the sock on location but I forgot to bring the freshly charged batteries with us and the ones in the camera died as soon as we turned it on. In lieu of a location shot, I'm posing the sock (completed last night) with the really cool pin I got at the book shop. I know you're thinking that Ike was a five star general and the photo only shows three but the stars spin around and there are five of them.

I worked on the sock on the bus, on the grounds of the farm, and at the Gettysburg Visitor's Center. I finished it up last night after we got home. While we were touring the Eisenhower farm I noticed that the Docent had her knitting laying on a table by the door.

The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Serengeti that I got from The Loopy Ewe and I'm using Knit Picks US#0 - 6 inch double points. I've found that I work much faster using double points than 2 circs. I started this sock late Friday night and finished Tuesday night. That's got to be a personal best. I'll be starting the second sock tonight. The leg is made over a pattern called Falling Leaves by Jessica Landers at Knitty.com and the foot is Wendy's Toe Up Sock. Thanks, Ladies!

The Harlot Represents

I've been following the story of the Yarn Harlot and her quest to "represent". To show the muggles (non-knitters) just how many knitters there are and how serious they are about their knitting. She got tired to speaking in cramped bookstores and tiny reception halls because the muggles who organize her book tours constantly underestimate the number of attendees. It was her hope to fill the 775 seat auditorium at The Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. She did.

Wow, I wish I could have been there! It must have really been something. And it's about time that knitting gets some good publicity. When I knit in public (often) I don't think I really make people think about their concept of a knitter because I'm almost 50 and probably fall into the grandmotherly stereotype. People need to see young knitters and male knitters to really understand that it isn't just something that Granny does while rocking on the porch. They need to see modern, well designed and constructed items in really nice yarns that didn't come from Walmart.

I can't have the impact of the Yarn Harlot but I make it my business to knit in public when ever and where ever I can. Every person who asks me about what I'm doing gets a detailed explanation of the process and the project as well as encouragement to visit the local yarn shop and check out the inventory of wool, silk, cashmere, alpaca, etc. I encourage people to ask Susan about lessons. I tell them that she taught me and look at what I'm doing now. If they haven't wandered off, I tell them about Social Knitting on Friday nights and about the wonderful friends I've made through knitting and the charity knitting we've done.

If I could get just one person interested enough to visit the shop and sign up for lessons, I would feel... what would I feel? Joyful, fulfilled, elated? I know I would be very happy to have another knitting friend and to know that I helped to introduce someone to a marvelous new lifestyle.

Charity Knitting and Baseball

I took a little time off from knitting the Lacy Cabled Scoop to knit a couple squares for an afghan we're making to be raffled off for charity. I asked the Star Wars gang to pose with the squares and Artoo Potatoo agreed to put aside his differences with Darth Tater and Spud Trooper long enough for this photo. The mayham resumed as soon as the flash died.

The afghan will be made of orange, black and cream squares knit in various stitch patterns and pieced together. It'll be raffled off at a Hagerstown Suns game (their colors are black and orange) on Father's Day (I think). Kraemer Yarns generously donated the yarn for the project.

Susan, from Y2Knit, is organizing the project and the Social Knitters are doing the squares. It's a really team project. We'll be having a few Stitch & Pitch events at the games this season. I love to knit at the ball game. What a great way to spend a summer evening. Here's a pic of me knitting the Icarus Shawl from Interweave Knits Summer 2006 at the game last year.

Opening night is only two weeks away!

Knitting in Public

I knit in public a lot. I'm always dragging my knitting around here, there, and everywhere. So it's funny that I didn't get to participate in National (or World) Knit in Public Day. I didn't have to go anywhere so I stayed home and knitted until time to go to a wedding. I took the knitting along to the wedding but it was too crowded at the reception to knit.

But yesterday I was at the Mall waiting for a friend to show up. We were going to the movies and I had time to kill so I was knitting on a bench near the food court. Everyone ignored me except one very young couple. The man (hardly more than a teenager) walked over to me and asked if what I was doing was hard. I told him no, it wasn't hard at all. He said thanks and walked away with his female companion. I was left wondering what motived him to come over and ask me that question. He didn't ask me what I was doing as some people do. "Is that knitting or crocheting?" I get that one occasionally. He must have known what it was. Why was he interested and not his companion? Questions, questions.

I continue with Icarus. I still hope to finish by July 7 when the Mystery Stole begins.

Cruisin' on the Choptank

Hubby and I took a dinner cruise aboard the Choptank River Queen yesterday. Maryland crabcakes and fried chicken, yummy! And the great thing is that Hubby doesn't like seafood so I got his crabcake and he took my drumstick. I'd call that more than fair, at least from my perspective.

It was a bus trip through our community college. I think we were the youngest people on the bus. I worked on the Icarus shawl part of the way down and the whole way back. I finaly got back to where I ripped it the last time. Time for a lifeline.

Work on the Icarus Shawl Continues...

Icarus at our local Minor League game.

Icarus in the grass.

I'm working on the shawl every chance I get but I'm not the fastest knitter in the world by any means. Yesterday Hubby and I went to the Suns game, they're our local minor league (single A) team. We go to most of the home games. It was a wonderful day. I know it looks cloudy in the photo but they were big white clouds with blue sky between. The heat wave ended on Friday night when thunder storms and hail swept through. I was beginning to despair that summer had come to stay. I HATE Maryland in the summer when the forecast, day after day, is hazy, hot, and humid.