Knit One Quilt Too

What's in the works?

One project I'm eager to finish now is this baby blanket.  This was started at Camp Cockamamie and was worked on by many knitters there.  I first showed a photo of it here.  I've switched to garter stitch for the last few inches and this means there's a lot of purling involved.  I'm ready for it to be done!  This blanket was always meant to be donated to Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland and our next trip there is in a couple of weeks, so I'm really cranking away at it.  It uses 4 skeins of Socks that Rock heavyweight.  The interior rectangles were obviously knit of other colorways, but you get the idea.  It has 4 needles in it to go with each skein you see there.  Lately, I've been doing the knitting on my own because I haven't gotten together with enough knitters to do 4 at once.

Once that is done, I've got three other large knitting projects to focus on- the ripple blanket (oops, that's crochet), a Manos blanket and Rogue, of course.  Then I have a bunch of smaller projects like socks and scarves.  I've got plans for several knitted pillows and also have Argosy in the background.  I won't even go into the quilting projects.  I am letting my fingers rest from the hand quilting this week.  Thanks for the comments and concern about that.  As it turns out the numb fingertips are more annoying than anything.  I'm very much hoping it resolves over time.

Meanwhile, the first Jaywalker sock is coming along.  The Mega Boots Stretch sock yarn is working out great with this pattern. 

I really hope to get some sewing done this weekend.  I have my next chemo on Tuesday and I've learned that there will be several days when my hands are uncomfortable.  They get a little swollen, the skin becomes flaky and the tips ache a little more.  It's not the best time for hand quilting, so maybe I'll do some of that before Tuesday too.  I have been holding out on you in the quilt department with something that has been in the works for nearly 5 years!  Now, don't get all excited.  It's not an heirloom, or a Dear Jane quilt.  However, I do love it and really want to see it finished for this winter.  More to come on that in the near future.

Busy, busy, busy

Now that I've got my mojo back, I'm going crazy trying to finish things up (okay, I might have started something too!).  Let's see, what to show first.  I guess I'll start with the socks, since it's Socktoberfest.  I'm working on two pairs simultaneously.  These are socks that have languished for several months.  First up, are the Mystic Sea socks started at Camp Cockamamie on Orcas Island, WA.  These are knit with Socks that Rock, colorway Lunasea. I just love this yarn and the pattern is really great too.

Secondly, I just picked up again this pair from Cat Bordhi's Knitting Retreat in Newport, OR in April.  This is one of the socks that may be found in her new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book 1.  This pattern is called the Coreolis. I have made mine to just bring the coreolis pattern up to the start of the heel.  In the book there are directions for making it spiral all the way up the sock.  This is such a cool pattern!  The yarn is also Socks that Rock, colorway- Blue Brick Wall.  This is one of my favorite STR colorways ever.  There are little tiny bits of purple that snuck in.  When I asked Tina about this she said the purple is from the dye behaving badly and some people don't like it.  I happen to think it's marvelous!

I also got some yellow yarn for my crochet blanket today and did another stripe.  For some reason Scrabble likes to show up when I take a photo of this blanket.  Do you think he's trying to tell me something?

Quilting continues along on My Bootiful Booquet.  Right now I'm just outlining the applique, but I plan to quilt a spider web into the purple background.  I'm still trying to decide what color and type of thread to use for that.  Any thoughts?

Now, here's the new thing I started.  I love the Soft Trees that were all the rage last Christmas when Stephanie put her pattern on her blog, Little Birds.  I've been planning to make some ever since.  Chloe is making some too and it's been fun to plan how to decorate each one.

Lastly, just because it's Halloween season after all, take a look at this and say awwwww!

Camp Cockamamie- No whales, but plenty of fun!

Camp Cockamamie continues...  Please excuse the long absence.  I took the kids to a homeschooling conference last weekend and when we got back there was so much to do to recover from all the traveling.  We are home for a while now and I am feeling much better, so without further ado...

On the second day of camp we had a whale watch scheduled.  I had told the Sockateers that we weren't going, but at the last minute we dragged the kids out of bed, threw some snacks in a bag and drove down to the dock.  Luckily, there was room for us.  We had a good time and the day started with beautiful weather.  Chloe got started knitting right away, unfortunately, the only whale seen was this little cutie on the left side of the photo.

We saw lots of Bald Eagles, though we didn't get a good picture of them.  The biggest highlight was this rock covered with Stellar's Sea Lions.  We got close enough to hear the bellowing, roaring and growling.

I did some knitting too.  I bought this Mystic Sea pattern (named after the whale watching boat) and the yarn especially made for it called Lunasea.  It's really beautiful and I like the pattern which was created by Cass.  I didn't get much further than that though because we spent a lot of time with binoculars looking at birds and trying to find whales.   

Lots of the other knitters were actually making progress with their knitting.  Here's Stephanie in the gorgeous Bohus sweater, Cass and Tammy in the center.

One of the other highlights of the tour was Cat's every-so-often comments about the islands.  She's hilarious and has lots of crazy anecdotes. 

The day continued with an underwater knitting contest (no photos allowed!) and a concert by Orcas Island historian and musician, Christopher Peacock.  This was a really lovely addition to the program and it was a treat to meet Christopher as Mark has been a fan of his for a very long time.  We had a tour of the music room and the library and theater in the balcony above.

The last day started bright and early with a class with Stephanie.  She taught us how to knit a pair of socks with only our yarn and needles, no pattern needed. 

After lunch we had our final class which was all about community knitting.  We learned how to make a blanket with 4 knitters knitting at once.  How cool is that?  I ended up bringing our tribe's blanket home to finish with knitting friends here.  That way, we can deliver it to the children's hospital during Chloe's next trip to Portland to see her doctors.

That afternoon there were two more contests that were tons of fun.  First there was the paired up, one handed knitting.  This was hilarious to see.  Look at the concentration on the faces of the participants!

And, here are the winners!  Man, could they knit fast.  You can see them in the third photo above, having a blast!

Lastly, Stephanie and Cat had a knit-off!  What a riot! 

Yoga pose...

 

Friday evening we had a delicious seafood buffet and then they kicked us out of the dining room and sent us back to the conference hall for our final evening's entertainment.  First off, the Dixie Chicks sang our camp song. 

Then there was a fashion show.  The loveliest must have been Nathania in this incredible shawl (though it really looks as if it's worn by a ghost).  Sorry about that, Nathania really does look like a runway model!

And finally, here's Chloe, who joined the group for this last event and even took a trip down the runway to show off her knitted animals.  I just love this shot!   

Our trip to Orcas Island ended perfectly with a Saturday morning walk around town again.  It was sunny and just beautiful.  It really was a wonderful week and a treat to meet so many lovely people.  Next up, some of the projects from the past few weeks!   

Camp Cockamamie Begins

Sorry for the long delay in posting.  As it turned out, internet access was only available in the mansion and the conference center and we were kept so busy it turned out there was precious little time for blogging.  In addition, I woke up Saturday morning with a scratchy throat, by the time we were back on the mainland in the afternoon I had a fever which made me pretty miserable all the way to Portland where we spent the night.  We got home yesterday afternoon and I spent the rest of the day curled up on the couch, knitting only when the fever abated.  I feel a bit better today, but the coughing is getting worse.  On top of that, Mark is gone this week and the kids and I have another trip on Thursday!  This April is one of the busiest in a very long time.

Without further ado, here's post #1 of this incredible sock camp where I met some amazing people and some some incredibly gorgeous knitwear.  It started with a dessert reception in the mansion Tuesday night.  At the reception we received our goodies bags which contained the items in the photo above, plus a chicken chucker (went straight to Ryan) and some very odd gum.  This colorway is called Cockamamie and I just love it! 

The next morning, the shop opened and was just about cleaned out in a matter of hours.  You should have seen the yarn piles in some people's arms!  My take home yarn was rather less than most, but I did get some heavy weight STR to try (I love it!), got a couple of mill ends, some lightweight and medium weight STR and Stephanie's new book (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off).  I also got a couple of new sock patterns.

Campers were divided into four different tribes.  Mine was called the Dixie Chicks and we started right off with a session with Cat Bordhi.  Having just seen her and learned her new techniques, I got started rather quickly.  Cat is a real crack-up and kept the ladies entertained the whole time.  Here she is explaining how to do Judy's Magic Cast On for toe up socks.

Once again, we gave human knitting a try.

After a (very quick) lunch we had our second session with Tina (dyer extrordinaire for Blue Moon).  We learned all about color and dyeing techniques.

In this class we played with pastel chalks and then knit a swatch using various colors and textures of yarn.  We also talked about this amazing colorwheel of socks.

The Chicken contest requires a whole post, so look for that coming up.  I need to rest!