What I Did on My Summer Vacation, or: Reports of My Demise ...

(had there been any) would not be all that overly exaggerated.  However, here I am! still knitting, still blogging, sort of.  My severe lack of updating here can be attributed to a) summer vacation and b) complete knitting ineptitude since I last wrote.

But I'll start with the good – I have one (woo! count 'em!) finished object. My Moebius scarf, made under the direction of my unendingly patient sister-in-law Kathy, who took it upon herself to teach THREE of us (two sisters, one s-i-l) to make Moebii (?) on the shores of Lake George in beautiful Ticonderoga this summer.  And she did a smashing job, despite our complete ineptitude.  Hopefully Kathy will post a picture of all of us with our scarves sometime.  It was lots of fun, and Kathy is a wonderful teacher.

Pattern:Moebius Scarf by Cat Bordhi
Yarn:Noro Sakura, 1 skein
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm Knitpicks Options circular

The other positive summer knitting note was that on our trip to the High Sierras (Tuolomne Meadows, about 9,000 feet up), while I did not actually knit except on the plane, it turned out that handknit wool socks were the perfect thing for keeping our feet warm on very chilly mornings, evenings and during the night.  I was so happy to have my socks in use, and to have 3/4 of my family keeping our feet toasty with them. (Because I do not pack for my husband, he did not even BRING his handknit socks. However I can't complain, because he got up every morning and lit the fire in the woodstove. without which we would have been very very un-toasty, even with our socks.

Tuolomne Meadows is close to heaven. It is a place that was special to my parents before they married and had us, and a place that I have warm memories of from my childhood, and now my children have wonderful memories from there too. Having all three generations there was incredible, despite the stress of planning and executing a vacation for 10 sometimes-cantankerous (I include myself!) relatives.

The bad:  I was inspired this year to make a summer tank, my first real summer knit, the Soleil tank out of Hempathy.  It went very well and the Hempathy is lovely and the pattern is lovely ... but ... I don't think it fits.

EVERYONE and their sister said it needed to be longer, and I entirely believed them, until I compared the measurements with my favorite T-shirts (and thought about my short torso) and DIDN'T make it longer.  And it is too short.  I am sure this has something to do with my bust, though I don't quite understand why it's different from my T-shirts.  I need to try it on again and figure out what to do – rip it all out? but given that summer was all-but-over when I tried it on, I lost the will to go on and for now it is sitting.  Sad.  I also don't love the way the single crochet around the edges looks – I couldn't figure out how not to make big holes.

*     *     *

My other knitting screw-up, not as serious:  I finally went back to work on the second sleeve of the cardigan I am knitting for Auden, only to realize that not only the number of stitches I had started the sleeve with, but also the number of stitches I had ended the FIRST sleeve with, matched absolutely nothing in the pattern.  Apparently,  *cough*, mistakes were made. So I have ripped out half of the first sleeve and am plugging away at re-doing that.

I started a pair of socks for the plane trip to California:  Conwy from Knitting on the Road in Fleece Maiden Basic Merino, which I LOVE. Love the colors, love the way it looks and feels.  (I hope they're going to fit – I've switched from 2s to Knitpicks 1.5s, without readjusting my numbers ... I'm livin' on the edge.)  

And for mindless TV knitting (Sarah Connor Chronicles!!!) plain ribbed socks from Trekking XXL.



And now fall is in full swing, with always too much to do and not enough time to do it. I am going to try to stop and breathe more. I'll let you know how that goes. :)