What's on my needles?

Entries in Knitalong:Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Togethe (1)

Wednesday
Sep032008

A Good Weekend...Part UNO 8)

I hope everyone enjoyed this past Labor Day weekend. It was a very nice one for me, and very productive I might say! I have so much to share and can't fit it in just 1 Lil'O post, so I'll be splitting this baby into 2, the 2nd to follow shortly...

My weekend started with a BANG! I got off at a little before 4 p.m. on Friday, all day all I could think of was... "Is it 4 yet? I wonder if I'll enjoy the game? I wonder if my kids will?"

What game you ask? Well, the last pre-season game for the San Francisco 49ers vs the San Diego Chargers. Woohoo! My husband and I bought 4 tickets a few weeks ago to take the kids and let them experience a real NFL game. We left San Jose about 5 p.m. and headed North towards San Francisco. We were all geared up, I had on my white 49ers tank top with lace trim, and I was wearing this lovely "Moss Ribbed Scarf" in Scout's custom dyed "49ers" colorway...

49ers Moss Ribbed Scarf
49ers Moss Ribbed Scarf

I'm thinking I might add another 10 inches to it, cause it fits more like a cowl than a scarf, but boy did it come in handy.

Now us (me'family and I) being San Jose natives, left the hot San Jose weather wearing our normal summer clothes to go to San Francisco. You would think that we would know what to wear to S.F., considering we go there all the time, but no sir'ee'bob. I was the only one who brought any kind of warm gear, my scarf a.k.a faux cowl *) and my beige sweater jacket, but nobody else brought anything warm to wear?

So we had nose bleed seats (which I love!) and up there at night in Candlestick, it can get windy & chilly, and it didn't fail to deliver this last Friday as we watched the game. My hubby & kids were all rattling their jaws, curling up, and trying to enjoy themselves. We ended up buying a S.F. blanket for a whopping $55.00 bucks! We've learned our lesson, and we'll gear up next time, but the blanket will come in handy this winter, so I guess it's a positive.

There was also this "49er Elvis", so cute! You gotta see this pic....

SF 49ers Game vs. San Diego 8/29/08

You see him striking the signature "Elvis" pose? Look at the back of his shirt.. I love it! "Viva Las Niners"!!!

49ers

I always thought "nose bleed" seats were the worst, but now that I know how the view looks, I'm going to pick these seats more often. Check out this view:

49ers

Another cool thing, which I swear was a wish granted to me, cause as I was attentively watching the game, still cold under my sweater, I wished silently "If only they had a stand vendor who could serve you hot chocolate right at your seat"... I totally swear I wished this, and then next thing you know... BAM....

SF 49ers Game vs. San Diego 8/29/08

I couldn't believe my eyes! I quickly bought a $4.00 cup of hot chocolate..I was just in ahh of it. If only I had wished for $$$, wonder if that would've come true??? Oh yah as soon as I got the hot choco, I took a big gulp and I burned my lips. Guess all that ooh & ahh just took the common sense right out of me 8) Friday's done PERIOD

Begin Saturday... I started off with cleaning, I'm a good knitter, I clean my house before I knit so as not to feel guilty. I can't stand to have guilty thoughts and I really hate the voices in my head sometimes, I'm just totally neurotic, I'm always thinking about something or everything. Thinking of dinner, what to knit next, knitting patterns to devise, colors to dye yarn with, meals to write down, job stuff (I really hate when job stuff creeps in), bills (ahh!), upcoming appt.'s, on and on I go in my head. Is everyone neurotic or is it just me? Are you? I have the hardest time going to sleep, I just can't get my mind blank.

After my cleaning I was just pooped. I decided to finally catch up with my Secret of the Stole III KAL, which I'm so behind because I kept debating over what beads to use, and decided to go and buy some to match my lovely lace yarn. After some lazying around, I just didn't feel like driving down to the bead store. I had some beads I bought from the Knitting Arts going out of business, and decided to go with those. There green, and the lace I have has shades of green in it. I was a little skeptical as I started my SofSIII Hint 1, but I'm really liking how it turned out. I think the beads turned out pretty darn good, in fact I think they give the yarn that special *something*. This is the completed SofSIII Hint 1 portion:

Secret of the Stole III Hint 1

Yarn is Schaefer Yarn Company Andrea lace weight, it is so so soft and silky. I remember when I bought it from GPY, I was just in love with it the moment I saw it and felt the silkyness.

Besides my SofSIII I continued knitting on my Elm Row scarf, this is one of the newer patterns published by the marvelous Ann Hanson from Knitspot, this pattern is so pretty, but I have to say, you do need attention to detail for it. The stitches are your basic increases, decreases & such, but I'm finding I need to pay attention as I'm knitting because the pattern consists of a 10 row repeat, each row has a different combination of stitches. For me, I tend to make mistakes because I have this type of built in memorization I do. I played the Memory game alot when I was a kid, maybe that's where I get it from? You know the game Memory? It's where you have a bunch of cards, each has 1 pair of identical pictures, and you mix them all up, face down, and slowly try to match up the pairs by memorizing where you saw the previous picture cards position? I played this so much as a kid, and it has helped in my adult life, I memorize everything, from numbers, to phrases, etc. For knitting this is good because I can remember entire patterns I knit, and because I memorize stitch sequences, I'll start knitting ahead knowing the next sequence, but with the Elm Row the pattern changes so frequently that I find myself knitting a sequence that is not next in order, so I TINK TINK TINK away!
Anywho, I'm making good headway on my scarf, and I just can't wait to finish it and block it. My little yarn cake is diminishing rapidly. The yarn is the beautiful "Peach Pit" from Scout, one of her debut colorways back in late July 2008. I'm going to custom order more of this color, I love this colorway.

Elm Row Scarf with Scout's Peach Pit

Elm Row Scarf with Scout's Peach Pit

To end this post, I did also get another "TO DO" done, I knitted up a Square from the "Barn Raising Quilt" pattern in the "Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together" book. Stacey from "Sheep in the City" (great blog!) posted awhile back regarding volunteers to knit a square for Father. I love my Father, and from one kind thoughtful knitter to another, I was more than happy to volunteer my knitting time. I knitted up this square using the softest yarn, I don't have the label on me right now to give you the yarn specs, but I can tell you it is soft, velvety, rich and vibrant. I just love how this *star* pattern evolves as you knit the square. This went out in the mail to Stacey this morning 8)

Square Knit Along for Stacey

Square Knit Along for Stacey

Okie Dokie folks, I'll post Part DOS later, stay tuned 8)!