Pomatomous Progress

This is Pomatomous after 15 rows. I was planning on knitting more of this tonight but I picked up the S-Shawl and knitted a few rows of that instead. I might actually be able to knit a few rows tonight if I could ever pry myself from looking at yarn online. I suspect that the new poll results for the KOTR KAL for Oct/Nov will lean toward The Traveler's Stockings for the next KAL (which will begin October 1st) and if that's the case then I want to knit it in Koigu purple or red. Which pretty much means I have to find a shop around town that carries it or order it. Anyone know who carries KPM around the Twin Cities?

Other stuff on the needles besides Pomatomous and the Shoalwater Shawl - a Christmas Stocking that is almost finished. Problem is it was knitted flat and now I have the seam and edging and the bells and and the knitted holly leaf embellishment...and that's all really...I guess that's not so much of a problem........Ooooh, now I remember! There are 16 ends to weave in around the top because of the points on the cuff. :-S Before I can do the edging. Bummer.

FO post - Leafy - Part Deux

Here's the finished mid-month Dishcloth from the monthly dishcloth knit-along. Isn't it purty?

Socktoberfest

I think this is a really clever, fun little button graphic! I joined Socktoberfest since I figured, "hey...I'm knitting lots of socks these days and I absolutely love Octoberfest and BEER"...so when i saw this button (just one of many awesome selections for the button) I just had to join! My Pomatomous ribbing is finished, well on Sock #1 anyway, and I am dying to get going on the leg pattern. Will post a picture tomorrow on this weekend showing the progress.

Now, about The Black Dahlia (late but not forgotten) - I liked the movie a lot but the story of the murder of Elizabeth Short is really just a backdrop for a good portion of the movie. However, it does offer up one possible solution to the never-solved mystery of who killed her. A good mix of fact and fiction. We were entertained. It reminded DF and I of L.A. Confidential in some ways. Can't really say exactly why. Maybe it was the period, costuming and cinematography. Now, about the clothing. Scarlett Johansson wears some nice vintage-style sweaters in this; you know, like twinsets, etc. And I now know a lot more about zoot suits than I ever dreamed there was to know. Mostly because I was curious about the Zoot Suit Riots that they touch on at the beginning of the film. And then there's the lesbian bar scene...who knew! I wonder how much of that was realistic though, really. Then again, it was Hollywood....

Pomatomous Swatching and Other Rambling

I did my gauge swatch last night for Pomatomous. Gauge is 8 stitches and 12 rows per inch. Cookie suggested US#2 so I started with those but was only getting 7.5 stitches 10.5 rows per inch. So I switched to #1's and that gave me the gauge I need for these socks. PLUS, (and I was wondering about this) the purl bumps on the inside are less bumpy with #1's so they will be more comfortable to wear. I'm using Trekking XXL again, same as Unst, but this isn't a jacquard stripe. The color is 51 - its Royal Blue and Kelly Green with a smidge of Turquoise for contrast. I think its going to be PERFECT for this pattern. Reminder, this is the yarn I got in July on our Door County trip. Bought in Sturgeon Bay....Tempataions was the name of the shop and it was over 100 degrees that day...in Doory County! A peninsula that is cooled by breezes from Green Bay and Lake Michigan. What a freaking hot summer we've had...but I digress.

So while I was creating this blue-green swatch it jumped out at me that this is almost exactly the color or my school uniform at Holy Ghost Parochial School back in Dubuque, IA. Sorta nostalgic now but by the time I graduated from 8th grade in 1970 I had begun to hate that wool, plaid, pleated, kelly and royal skirt! For one thing it had to be ironed every Sunday! For another, it was freaking HOT in that skirt in September...and in May and June! Iowa warms up faster than Minnesota and stays warmer longer.

I love the color though and these are going to get worn a lot. :-) Assuming they fit.

On other needles the mid-month dishcloth KAL has begun. I'm using SnC-yellow. And the pattern is some sort of lace. I've only knitted the 9 rows of Day 1's post. Still waiting for Day 2 to be posted.

The temperature dropped about 15 degrees since around 1am. No tornadoes on our side of town but I guess the NW side of the Twin Cities had a very scary night with some significant damage from the storm.

Today it remains gray and wet outside and we plan to go to the Regal to see The Black Dahlia. I thinkI first heard about this story back in the '70s when I think they made a TV movie about it. There are tons of websites out on the net devoted to the story.....Here, and here, and here and there's an entry at Wikapaedia, too. So as a fan of the mystery genre, in truth and fiction, I have to go check out this new telling of the tale.

Unst Details and the Weekend's here!

Pattern: Unst, Knitting on the Road - Sock Patterns for the Traveling Knitter by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Trekking XXL, 75% Superwash wool, 25% Nylon. Made in Germany. Color 130
Needles: Combination of -
Addi Turbos US#1 - 2 circulars for the legs.
Alum DPNs US#1 for foot and toe.
Started: Mid-August
Completed: 9/14/06 during the rerun of last season's finale of ER.

So the reason I had to switch from the 2 circs was because I wasn't sure how to split up the stitches on the instep nicely to do the lace pattern when I did the first sock. And since my dpns are a true US 1 and the Addis are really US1.5, I had to repeat my method on sock number 2. It worked out fine. It gave me a chance to knit with the dpns again. When I got to the toe though....I was really wishing I was on the circs and not the spinning spikes that the dpns turned into.

I would most definitely use a solid color or something more subtle the next time I knit these. There was also discussion about the lace ribbing on the KAL. Some knitters chose to do a simple 1x1 ribbing for more stretchiness. I can see where that might be a big deal since these just fit over my heel. If my bones were bigger I'd have had to give these away for sure.

This morning before work, I picked up my Shoalwater Shawl (pattern from Fiber Trends - arrow down on the left side to find it) and added 4 rows. As I was knitting away I found a spot where they had tied the damn yarn together but at least I found it long before I got to it so I was able to untie it and splice it. I have a feeling we're gonna need our shawls this weekend here in Minnesota. Its about 80 and sunny today but its supposed to get cold and rainy overnight. I can't knit that fast...no way...I've only just finished row 48! LOL

Good baking weekend I'm thinking....and maybe a nice hearty stew with crusty white bread.
Tomorrow also brings the start of the mid-month Dishcloth Knit-A-Long! I haven't decided if I'm doing this one in red again or in yellow. I have more yellow than red...so that might be the deciding factor here. And I have to fit a movie in this weekend. I'm leaning toward The Black Dahlia but The Last Kiss is running a close 2nd.

FYI - Opening This Week:

• The Black Dahlia
• The Last Kiss
• Gridiron Gang
• Everyone's Hero
• Haven
  

Unst has Left the Needles

Hurray! I have finished my first Nancy Bush Socks.
It actually only took me about a month I think.
Ok...maybe 5 weeks...but it was really fun to knit these!
I love the yarn...but the next lace socks I knit will be with a solid color so that the lace can take center stage.

Pointy

The points on the Christmas Stocking were knitted separately and slid along the needle to wait until the grand joining. The picture is a few days old and I'm about 1/3 of the way down the leg now but I tend to lag behind in my picture-taking, preferring to knit rather than struggle with poor lighting. There's something to be said for setting up a photo spot in the house with a good side light and multiple backdrops. I think I'm on the verge of kicking it up a knotch (BAM!) on the obsessive knitting and blogging scale.

Leafy

Here's my finished September Dishcloth. Of course! Its an Oak Leaf! Doh! It sure didn't look like a leaf as I was knitting it; it was totally mysterious. Funny how obvious it is now.

I'm thinking about knitting up a couple more in yellow and green to give as a gift.

The Illusionist and other Rainy Day Stuff

Unst
The 1st Unst is Off the Needles! Of course it doesn't look like it here...this was yesterday morning's picture. I finished the toe while watching You've Got Mail yesterday afternoon. I haven't started Sock #2 yet because I started something else...

The Christmas Stocking
This is what it looked like when I brought it home from Zandy's Yarn Shop yesterday (where, btw, I haven't visited in ages! It was nice to see Zandy and feel those lovely sock yarns with jojoba and aloe!). Back to the sock - its going to be red with a white toe and heel and white i-cord along an 8-pointed cuff. Also, there will be embellishments in the form of forest green holly leaves adorning the side. I originally set out to find some Lion Chenille at JoAnn but all they carry is Thick N Quick which is no good for my project. So then I figured maybe some Lion Suede...dang, also bulky. I need worsted weight for this. The design was done by Nicky Epstein (hence the embellishments) and it specifically says Lion Chenille. Even Lion doesn't have the Ivory color available online, or anything else that approaches white, cream or beige. So I stopped in at Zandy's to see if she had Crystal Palace chenille in any colors that might approach red and forest green...but I guess I'm a little early in the season to expect holiday colors. Its still summer in the yarn shoppes. I decided to stop trying so hard and instead of chenille, I'm going to try to do it with Cascade 220. We'll see how this goes. I've knitted 5 of the 8 points for the cuff. My big push for getting this started now is that I've joined that Red-Sock-Knitalong you see...

Also OTN...The Monthly Dishcloth
I've also got 14 rows of the September Monthly Dishcloth knitted....and I have to do today's rows yet. I have no idea what it is going to look like yet. It will be some sort of Autumn/September theme...and it has a nice seed stitch border and I'm knitting it in red. That's all I know for sure at this point. I'd have a picture here for you to see but blogger is being mysterious about where the hell the picture is after uploading...it certainly isn't to the right where I told it to put it. Grrr. Ah, well.

Lastly, I'm playing with the Noro Silk Garden Lite and turning it ever-so-slowly into the Shoalwater Shawl. And I coulda used a shawl at the movies this afternoon!


At the Movies
Chris and I went to see The Illusionist today with Edward Norton. I had no idea what the film was going to be about. Actually, I thought we were going to see the remake of the horror, The Wickerman but Chris decided that we had to see The Illusionist instead. And I'm glad we diverted to this one. What a great relief NOT to be presented with yet another remake, repeat, rehash of something from the sixties, seventies or eighties! Paul Giamatti gave a very good performance as Chief Inspector Uhl and Edward Norton with a goattee...yummy. My god, even Paul Giamatti looks good in one! If you like period films and you're tired of the normal Hollywood fare...check out this film. You might be pleasantly mesmerized and entertained with a very good story.

Yellowjackets

Rina asked why I called the little pests at the picnic "yellowjackets". Yellowjackets are wasps and not bees, first and foremost. Bees have better things to do with their time than hover around soda cans and garbage. Wasps on the other hand are indiscriminate feeders. They have no flowers to pollinate or honey to make. They are creepy little critters who can sting over and over again. Currently, its a battle of wits at our house between the bald-faced hornet and Chris. He's trying to keep them off the hummingbird feeder but its a losing battle. The hummingbirds have to fight the yellowjackets to get to the feeder. We have a wasp trap out there and it catches lots and lots of them during the week but still more of them show up to drain the sugar-water from the feeder. The good thing is that the hummingbirds can come out and feed when its raining...not so the evil wasps! And its supposed to rain this weekend. Which, incidently not only means the hummingbirds will be able to eat in peace...it means I will have more time to KNIT!