Knit Quest

Freezing Fun

Today we were in The Dells Wisconsin freezing our tushes off.  However that didn’t stop us from spending the day at Mt. Olympus Water & Theme park. It did keep us out of the water part though.

We’re hardy Seattle folk but 60 degrees and rain is too much for me to be outside sporting a swimsuit.

We did ride go-carts. Clearly she was a bit concerned about the whole thing and she drove about 1 mile an hour (Bug passed her twice) but she did it!

We rocked the coasters.

With our arms up of course. No fear here. In fact she rode the biggest coaster she could get on 6 times. 5 of them in a row. She was loving it and I was just praying I’d keep my funnel cake down.  

Bug was finally tall enough to go on all the big rides and took full advantage of it. with daddy. I love the big rides but they don’t love me so much.

Just watching them go round on the tea cups made me a bit queasy but they loved it.

How cute is he? Look how’s he hugging and protecting her. Made my heart melt.

Speaking of cute.. We told her how brave she was to ride the coaster with her arms up, especially when her brother won’t do it. After that she rode every ride, no matter how big or small, with both arms up and a proud grin.

Tomorrow we’re off on another long day of driving. Hopefully we’ll make Detroit before everyone’s asleep.

PS – Hubby remarked that she looked like an extra from the Sopranos in her track suit and started calling her little Guido. I’ll never look at that outfit the same.

Road Trip Update #1

While I can’t say things are going exactly smoothly (can you say leaking battery and wrong turn that added 60 miles) we are seeing some really cool stuff.

After a rocky start we made it to Rushmore late Friday. Can you believe that that whole mountain was completed in 14 years?! We listened to a ranger talk and learned that most of the work was done in 6 years and with very basic tools. The description of the men in rudimentary harnesses dangling hundreds of feet up jack-hammering the mountain side totally gave me the willies. I can’t image singing up for that.

The entire area is quite beautiful in fact. I’m not sure what I expected but rock formations jutting out of the ground, forest, and seas of grasses wasn’t it.

We drove through Custer State Park (by the way..why is this guy so famous for being an idiot) on our way to Wind Cave National Park.

There were a whole lot of buffalo

I wish the picture could convey how huge they are. And don’t worry I wasn’t that close I have a telephoto lens.

Can you see that little guy in the middle of the photo? There was a whole village of them making this crazy loud chirping sound. At first we thought it was birds making all the noise. 

We also saw some Pronghorn Antelope and lots of deer. All just hanging out by the side of the road as if waiting for us to see them. I’ve been to Glacier and Yellowstone Parks and never seen so much wildlife.

And that wasn’t even the main attraction. Wind Cave is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.

According to our guide it’s the 4th longest cave in the world and contains 95% of the worlds boxwork formations. My pictures can’t do it justice but you get an idea.

The tour took us 189 feet underground and traveled for about a half mile. The spaces were a little tight at times and other times opened to large rooms.

At one point the guide turned off the light and we got to experience true dark. You really couldn’t see the hand in front of your face. So cool. The whole family loved it. In fact Bug kept saying, “Amazing!” the whole way through.

We’ve also been on a trail ride (can you saw sore butt) and had lots of campground fun but this post is long enough.

6 states, 1680 miles, and an unbelievable amount of gas so far. Wisconsin tomorrow.

Not According to Plan

Left late, couldn't make first stop, slept at

Walmart, and now we're out of water.

Still having fun! This is one beautiful country.

I'm blogging from my phone so I have no idea how the pics will turn out and contest results will have to wait for a real keyboard and wifi.

Here's hoping the rest of today goes smoother and ends before midnight. 470 miles to go.

Not According to Plan

Left late, couldn't make first stop, slept at Walmart, and now we're out of water.

Still having fun! This is one beautiful country.

I'm blogging from my phone so I have no idea how the pics will turn out and contest results will have to wait for a real keyboard and wifi.

Here's hoping the rest of today goes smoother and ends before midnight. 470 miles to go.

Another Chance to Win

 

(photo stolen from Kathy)

I promised to give away patterns every two weeks until I run out of patterns to give and breaking my promise on the second week seems like a bad idea so… I’ll be giving away 10 copies of Tellum.

To win all you need to do is leave me a comment telling me something about your hair and you’ll be entered in the drawing. Did you ever have a mullet? Get an awful perm? Bad dye job? Find something awful stuck in it?

Other then the mullet I could say yes to all. I think the worst was when I tried to highlight my hair myself 2 days before starting work at Microsoft. I spent the entire day before work driving around a new and strange city desperate to find someone who could change my hair from white back to blond.

Be sure to have your comments in by Midnight PST Tuesday June 23rd for a chance to win.

Tellum

I was walking to the bus a few months ago and thinking to myself.. “I really like how this scarf keeps my chest warm but doesn’t have wads of fabric bunched up under my hair. I love all the waves and drape peaking out of my coat, but man are these tails driving me nuts. I wish I could have something like this without the hassle and extra fabric. Hmm… hold on a sec..”

I scurried home, started sketching, thinking, and knitting. Before long I had my skinny in the back and party in the front, Tellum! Try spelling it backwards and you’ll understand.

As it turns out I had a whole lot more than the perfect accompaniment for a walk to the bus stop. Once I finished I realized not only could it be worn a ton of different ways, but you could use just about any yarn (or combination of yarns) to make it. Practical stash busting at it’s finest. It even looks great on men.

One of my friends started calling it the multi mullet and we set out to see just how many ways we could wear it. With the button in the front (love this one!).

As a corset/tube top (although if you are really going to do this you should sew in some elastic).  

As a hood.

The next two are a bit ridiculous but good for a laugh so I’ll share. A Rastafarian style hat.

And I don’t even know what to call this.. some kind of turban thing.

I’d never go out the house like that but it does actually wrap twice around (with the button in the back) and stay on.

Now that you’ve seen all that you can do with it here are the specifics:

Pattern: Tellum

Yarn: 200 – 400 yards fingering to bulky weight yarn

Sizes: written for a gauge of  2 (3, 4, 5, 6) stitches per inch

Construction: No wrap short rows, knit flat.

Available for $5 US

As usual I had help, so thank you, thank you, thank you to all the test knitters! Thank you to my friends for the many silly ideas about how to wear it!  And thanks to all of you for your encouragement and support.

If for some reason that’s not enough photos you can see some more of the test knitters projects and more of my shots on flickr.

A Little Something Done

A couple days to knit and a couple months to get the pattern together, but it’s finally done and ready for knitting!

 

Sweet, sassy and summery. A little flair, a little warmth, a little style, A Little Something.

Wear it with a tank or strappy dress and keep the air conditioning at bay. On cooler days sport it over a long sleeve top and a pair of jeans. Either way it’s a quick addition to your wardrobe and at only 400-600 yards you can afford to show off some really great yarn.

For me a great sweater (or any knit for that matter) is all about the details so let me show them to you.  The scalloped bottom edge. A simple lace pattern to really show off the yarn.

 

Flat borders with a great rolled edge. A one row button hole, plus the chance to show off a fabulous button.

Specifics:

Pattern: A Little Something

Yarn: 400 – 600 yards Sundara Aran Silky Merino

Sizes: 32 (34, 36, 40, 44) – sorry I couldn’t go bigger with this one but I promise I will on the next one

Construction: Bottom up with no seams

Available for $5 US

As always I couldn’t do it without the help of some fantastic test knitters! I really appreciate you guys sticking with me and helping me put out the best sweater I can. Special thanks to Kathy who knit the sweater twice! Check out the finished goods!

Favorite Thing Friday: Road Trip

One more week of school for the kids. 12 days of packing and panicking for me until we’re off on our 23 day RV extravaganza.

Over 5000 miles and 15 states! I’m not sure if we’ll have the best trip ever or be really tired of each other by the time we get back but either way it will be memorable.

We’ll be stopping in Bozeman, Mt. Rushmore, La Crosse, The Dells, Detroit, Clinton, Lincoln, Denver, Twin Falls, and Boise. On the way we’ll see lots of family, a couple national parks, take a horseback ridding trip, and visit a number of water parks. That’s a lot to do, but something is still missing. Can you guess?

Yarn. There’s no fiber fix scheduled. Any recommendations? Great shops to visit? Also if you live near or have been to any of the cities on our route I’d love recommendations for quick stops, good food, and interesting sites. Don’t forget we will have dogs and kids with us so probably no 5 star restaurants or china shops. We’ll be wanting needing to move!

Today we’re off on a quick road trip to Oregon to visit the family and pick up the RV so I won’t be on the computer much until Monday. Have a great weekend and don’t forget it’s World Wide Knit in Public Day  tomorrow.

And the Winner is…

Wow! Thanks everyone for all the comments and entries on my Zoom Zoom post. I can’t believe I was worried I wouldn’t get 10 comments.

The winners are: Nancy, Joan, Stacy, Beth, LeslieEileen, Michele, Marisol, Karin, Jen,   and Nicole!

Winners the pattern should be waiting for you in your email. I hope you like it.

If you didn’t win this time don’t worry, you’ll have a lot more chances. Next week I’ll be publishing A Little Something and giving away 10 copies.

What’s in a Name?

I think the name of a pattern can really make a difference. You want it to say something about the garment, be memorable of course, and maybe even evoke a feeling. That’s a tall order for a name and why I think naming patterns can be a lot harder then actually thinking them up.

 

It’s also why my latest lovely is still lacking a name. This was my progress as of yesterday morning, I finished writing the first draft of the pattern today and should finish the knitting tonight, but I can’t start asking for test knitters until it has a name.

When finished the scarf will be short, just coming around the neck and the bottoms crossing. I’m also experimenting with adding beads where the edging joins the main lace repeat. Anyway…

What would you name it? My ideas so far are:

1) Summer Loving – because it reminds me of those adorable pink scarves they tied around their necks in Grease and I love that song.

2) Crush – the color is called Sweet Crush (yarn is Hazel Knits Soy Merino) and once I started knitting this I could hardly put it down (maybe I should call it “don’t start if you have something else to do”)

Ideas? Opinions? Votes?

PS – Thanks so much for all the comments on my Zoom Zoom contest post. I’ve been having so much fun reading everyone’s car stories. If you haven’t left me a comment and want to enter the drawing you have until tomorrow night.