State Fair Loot

I was extraordiarily blessed at the State Fair. I won two first place ribbons with a Best of Show, and two second place ribbons!

FO: John Anderson's Kilt Hose

I finished the kilt hose last night, ended up having to undo the bindoff on the first one because it wasn't matching the second one. I used the K2tog, pass stitch back to LH needle, repeat. Now they match, but I just tried one on this morning, and the bindoff is too tight. Sigh. These are toe-up socks knit very densly with worsted yarn on small needles and I'd really like for them to go away! Ha.


But, they are a Christmas present for my husband, so I'll spend another hour this morning ripping out the bindoff. I guess I'll do EZ's sewn castoff.

UPDATE: Ripped out the bindoff, did the sewn bindoff, worked beautifully. It uses the same amount of yarn as a regular bindoff, so if you need to rip something out, don't worry about running out of yarn.



EZ's Sewn Cast off from Knitting Without Tears:
Break yarn, leaving a tail about 4 times as long as the circumference of the sock. Thread a tapestry needle.

* sew forward (right to left) through two stitches as if to purl, leave the stitches on. Sew backward (left to right) through one stitch as if to knit and remove the stitch. (For the very first stitch only, after you go backwards through it, do not remove it, instead move it to be the last stitch on the final needle. It will then become the final stitch to be cast off. This gives a neater finish to the end of the round. )
Repeat from * until you run out of stitches. Work in tail on the inside of the sock and trim any excess.

The above directions were found here, but I couldn't find them on socknitters as it cites.

Had to un-friend a knitter on Facebook

I am hoping to one day make my living in the fiber world. So I am always studying other people's work, reading their blogs and trying to learn all that I can. I admire the work of Annie Modesitt, read her blog, and "friended" her on Facebook and Twitter. (I have since discontinued Twitter, I don't like it). I soon learned, however, that in order to read her posts about her latest project, which is taking medieval pieces and re-interpreting them as knitted items, I was going to have to wade through a whole lot of liberal socialist crap that doesn't even make sense half the time. I perservered, ignored the posts that made me want to scream and just played nice. But then, she offended me beyond tolerance when she posted the so-called "survey" that 77% of Oklahoma high school graduates did not know who the first president was, and I could no longer be silent. But I was nice. I suggested politely that I wasn't sure that that was a real survey, and if it was, then possibly they only polled the one problem school district that we have that has a 50% dropout rate. I really said it like that, very nice. SHE DELETED MY POST!

I looked her up on Twitter, thinking that if she lived in California I would suggest that she wouldn't like being compared to Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" morons just because she lived in California, then discovered that her location is Tehran! Iran! She doesn't even live in this country, yet I'm wading through all her stupid opinions of how this country should be to get to the meager knitting content. I started to post something on her wall to that effect, then realized that she isn't interested in anyone's opinion but her own, and she also isn't interested in facts. I know she gloats over the number of followers that she has on Twitter, so I struck back in the only dignified way that I could. I "unfriended" her, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Ravelry. I'm sure my one insignificant stat will not even be a blip on her radar, but I feel better.

I still like her knitting work, but she should keep her offensive political opinions to herself.

The 2009 Oklahoma State Fair was good to me!

Michael Kors Cabled Tunic
1st Place - Knitted Sweater and Best in Show


Printed Silk Cardigan
1st Place - Knitted Cardigan


Prairie
2nd Place - Knitted Shell


Rhiannon Kilt Hose
2nd Place - Knitted socks

Thanks, Bette, for giving me your advice on entering!

I've been a bad, bad girl

Yep, I caught this puppy on sale on Joanns.com. I paid $120, which is about $100 cheaper than buying one at Hancock's. I've been wanting one lately because I have this design idea for a sweater but I'm modifying the width of the saddle shoulder straps and I'm having trouble visualizing how this is all going to meet at the neck. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. (grin) It's also been motivation to restart the diet and exercise program, as I had to do a lot of fiddling with the dials to, er, conform to my measurements.



Have made great progress on the John Anderson's Kilt Hose, calf shaping is coming along nicely. This is a really nice pattern so far. The foot looks absolutely huge, but I tried it on and, embarassingly enough, it fits. My husband's foot is the same size as mine (can't believe I admitted that), so all is well. This has been a great portable project for taking to the rink during my boy's hockey practice.

John Anderson Kilt Hose

The kilt hose for my husband's Christmas present are coming along nicely. The pattern is John Anderson's Kilt Hose, a free pattern.I used the toe-up method from Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book, and the eye of partridge heel. Have just turned the heel and am now knitting the leg, which will be the long boring part, save for some increasing and shaping. And, of course, I still have to knit the second one. I attempted the two socks on one circ method, but got aggravated with all the manipulating, which is why I don't care for circularly-knit sweaters, too much wrasslin'!

Have done some more mental designing on the Giraffe sweater, I think I'm ready to dive in and start the sleeves to see how the charted pattern is going to turn out. I was supposed to enter this in the fair next weekend, I'm betting with everything else that I have going on that I don't make it. Sigh.