Twenty Ten

Yeah, OK Ive jumped on the bandwagon and posted my 2010 knitting goals....

1. Cast on (and finish) an intermediate shawl. Ive done a couple of the easier ones and will undoubtedly knit more of those quick & simple shawls. Its the intricate lacy ones that are so gorgeous - but intimidating to me. So far I haven't had the confidence to make one yet. This is the year! It may be from the book A Gathering of Lace that I have or maybe a large circular shawl from Ravelry. Definitely making the Ishbel and will cast that on first.

2. Knit a jacket/sweater that actually fits me. Ive made 2.5 sweaters for my self. The finished 2 just hang on me, the third is almost done and I can tell already its not the right size. I over compensate and make the bigger size or use larger needles - or both. Once blocked they just grow. This time I SWEAR I will swatch - WASH & BLOCK.

3. Pick out a Selbuvotter pattern, cast on and finish a pair of mittens. Ive had this book for a few months and I just cant seem to decide on a pattern, they are all so beautiful.

4. Finish up the 52 pair plunge by cranking out a dozen or so baby socks. I want to use the book New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi. Its suggested to work through the patterns in baby size to learn all the different techniques. Sounds like this book and the 52 pair plunge were made for each other.

5. Organize my downloaded Ravelry and printed patterns. I bought some binders and need to sort the the printed patterns I want to keep & make some labels for the binders for easier locating. I hate it when I think Ive printed a pattern out cant find it then print a 2nd copy. I also definitely need to clear out all the patterns on my PC that I will never make. When I first got on Ravelry I wanted them all and either downloaded or printed them many that I now know I will never knit.

6. Begin the annual charity knitting no later than June 1, 2010.

7. Figure out what to do with my sock yarn leftovers and start the project. I may not finish it in 2010 but I gotta get something started!

I think thats it - for now, wish me luck!

Catch Me If You Can

Since I haven't posted for a month I thought I'd include something extra. Ive been busy getting a head start on the latest 52 pair plunge. I knew I'd need a quick and easy pattern so I made one up.

It's a simple & free cuff down pattern I just posted on Ravelry. Easy enough to memorize - from cuff to toe.

I was able to make a pair a night and bring them to the day care in the building I work in to "size them up". Having tons of tiny feet for sizing was very useful.

Catch Me If You Can

Pattern is available for download on Ravelry for free.




























Plunge count now at 16.


Only thirty six more pairs to go ~~~ Catch me if you can ........

Big Knitting Secret

The annual conference/seminars for work went well. I'm officially a C5P. Hmmmm time for a raise? This year was at the downtown Boston Park Plaza.

Beautiful room with 2 full baths… yep 2 FULL BATHS. That’s 1 more than one person needs, so of course I rotated use. LMAO.





I took the train in so I avoided driving and parking in the city. Best idea ever, even though I drove in downtown Boston daily and have documentation proving I can cut off a taxi driver AND I survived.

Any way the big secret is I haven't been knitting much!

Just a lil on the Lace Ribbon Scarf (J. Knits/Washington)

I finished up two pairs of socks - one, possibly both are gifts.

A third pair on the needles is definitely for me & a fourth is another gift. I need to clear the needles though for a Sock KAL I signed up for starting in June. I have 2 more skeins of J Knits slated for it and one skein Paigewood Farm. I need to shop for the rest since I plan on making at least a dozen pairs. YIKES!

But this is what I have spent my weekends & evenings doing........ trying to launch a boat! Well DH and I and we had some help from #1 son.










We purchased the 22 footer for a song last fall and it sat for the Winter. We pulled it out three weeks ago, stripped it down, replaced some things (the pretty blue carpeting and some of the seating), then put it back together, then added some more stuff.



Absolutely worth the time & effort!
We turned off the cell phones and towed it up to camp this weekend.I already picked a spot for my Summer knitting!

Knitters Opinion Needed

I love this yarn from Schaeffer - great color way and it’s softer than other sock yarns - So I made a cowl with it. The cowl pattern was absolutely awful. It was a free download from Knit Picks and it didn’t work out well at ALL. Ripped…

I decided on socks. Still love the yarn and the pattern has been in my Ravelry queue forever. The perfect match ….so I thought. I got both socks to the heel on size 1’s and worked the gusset on one of the socks and tried it on. Way too tight. The legs snug, but wearable, getting it over my heel is another story.

I’ve ripped back to the leg and am now deciding. Do I just go with fingerless mitts?

Or somehow figure out a bigger heel? And if the choice is socks with a bigger heel/gusset how do I do that? Going up a needle size will help, but will it fix it? Do I need to make the gusset in 3's?

Such a dilemma…..

An email from Amy...

Hi, Lisa!

Thanks so much for your submission. It's very clever! I especially like the different variations, and think you've done a great job. We receive many more submissions than we are able to publish at Knitty, and that means we must make some hard choices. Unfortunately, that means we won't be able to use your submission this time.But I really like your style! Thank you for taking the time to prepare it and send it in and hope we'll see something from you again in the future!

Best, Amy

Possibly a form letter but I dont care, I'm so glad I tried!

I thought it was too easy of a pattern and never would have even tried if it were not for KnittingSamurai and MeowMeowHead in the local knitting group confirming it was a unique idea. Thanks for the encouragement! Ive posted the pattern on my Ravelry page WickedPyssa and will post on here soon.

Hmmmmm Maybe my sister can use it on her website http://www.yarn2buy.com/index.html

Such an idiot...

Yep that’s me, the short explanation…. I clicked a button and the PDF is now posted for my Holey Cowl Pattern on Ravelry.

Chill'n Out

Since my last post, “Start as Many Things as You Can!” I’ve started 5 items! 4 are knitted gifts - 3 out of 4 of them are already off the needles with the last almost completed too. I guess I still like to finish what’s fun on the needles before picking up an older project.


What started all this was a weekend with the opportunity to knit to my hearts content but I did very little knitting because nothing I had on the needle excited me. Instead we went to an ice sculpture exhibit in Portland ME.

There’s Rachel wearing the hat I knit for her for xmas 07 and she LOVES. Its the most used item I’ve ever knit, at least that’s what she tells her mom.

And all of us in the Yellow Submarine.

Then we went even further north to the camp for snowmobiling. We all had a great time, then sat by the camp fire and watched the ice fishers for a bit, visited with neighbors, and generally had a relaxing time. I think Rachel, up from NYC, certainly needed some down time.

Who thinks we had too many Butter Ball shots?

Butter Balls
Use equal parts of Butter Rum Snapps & Baileys
Mix em up, pour & relax but DON’T DRIVE – even snowmobile!

Makes Sense to me, I think...

Since I finished my latest projects, two Holey Cowls (my first pattern design), two pairs of socks (one for me and one to give away), and another pair of fingerless gloves (Porphyrias) I feel like I’ve nothing fun to knit anymore!

I’ve decided to take the advice of an article I read in the Spring 2009 IK by Vicki Square

Start as Many New Projects as You Can

I’m going to try it anyway and see how it goes….. I shouldnt get bored this way right?

16 Hours of Knitting

I can’t wait; I just booked my annual seminar at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. Two days of LIHTC Compliance, Sec 42 of the tax code, fair housing & state monitoring rules & regulations. Sounds like HELL huh?


Oh no, no, no, no, no!



I look forward to this each year! This is my fifth year so I have tested out, like many of the attendees. All we need to do is sign in and be in the room and for me - knit. Its two days of knitting (interrupted every 45+/- mins for a coffee/stretch break or lunch). The breaks are routinely spent trying to convince the newbie’s they will recover from the overload. OMG I remember my first year. But for us veterans of the program, it’s two evenings at the bar networking and socializing - not preparing for the test. Another bonus is that’s this is all just a few blocks away from a couple of LYS I’ve never been too.

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WickedPyssa/celtic-triskele-charts

Last year I made this project/sock bag.

I need to start hunting for a simple two color stranded pattern for socks or should I do another project bag?

Busy Day - Doing Nothing

Yeah ok so I mis-spoke last night when bragging to friends about my “bad” news. The flooring contractors were not done installing my new floors yesterday so that meant it was my turn to be available today– meaning I had to stay home and knit all day....poor me huh? Because they were in the kitchen & dining room – basically cutting off ½ of the first floor (and access to laundry) I thought I was trapped with only with my iPod & knitting for the day. The PC was available for emailing work and of course Ravelry. But my planned knitting included working on my Bubbalicious Socks

and some mittens for me. I knit over a dozen pairs already this season but had none for me after the holoday gifts were wrapped up & given out.






Anyway, long story short, they are still not done with the flooring




but completed enough of the job before they had to leave for me to spend my afternoon reorganizing and cleaning the crystal.


I use to sell Princess House Crystal so I have tons of this stuff. A few years ago I sold boxes of it at a yard sale for a song, this is most of whats left.

The new dining room floor looks GREAT!




The kitchen has a bit to go. Moving and/or installing the flooring around the appliances and island was more time consuming than originally thought so I guess I have 3/4's of a kitchen floor for the weekend.




I did to do a little more knitting today while my Holey Cowl blocked & dried. I dont have final pics of that but I used the yarn above, which I dyed this fall. I found out that I was approved to add the pattern on Ravelry so once I finish writing it up I will – just need to stop procrastinating, maybe after all the crystal shines and I organize my knitting that’s been scattered throughout the assigned space …......

Getting there, almost done. Oh yeah, now I need to call my kids and let them know their cousin had a baby girl this morning! And then call my sister and remind her to apply for AARP since shes' a grandma now!

949 Items - 21.7 Days

I love listening to podcasts while I knit, drive, or even while I’m at work. I’ve also found an inner child in me that enjoys being read to sleep. My favorites are PodCastle http://podcastle.org/ and EscapePod http://escapepod.org/ both short Sci-Fi stories written and narrated by various undiscovered authors. I usually fall asleep in the middle of the story but obsolutely HAVE to re listen to the podcast in the morning.

At work it’s usually a radio show out of NY in my ears. I get it on iTunes to avoid all the commercials http://drjoy.com/. Open minded relationship advice without judgment. Sometimes I find it hard not to judge when a caller wants to know if she should stay with her significant other between beatings because he loves her, or they have kids, or they have history or whatever together. If you know me at all, you know my immediate thought /answer is turn around and run not walk out that door NOW and don’t look back! She advises them how to leave safely, that’s why she has a radio show and I don’t.

Im on the road alot becasue of work so when driving around I listen to – which I found completely by accident - Stuff You Should Know http://www.howstuffworks.com/. This podcast is actually one of the top podcasts for 2008. Did you know that former president Bill Clinton published 26,000 pages of legislative acts in the “midnight” phase of his term? The Big W is doing the same to sabotage Obama. Another scary fact is that there are 90 handguns for every 100 people in the US. Yikes! Did you know that you can generate enough power from a dead body to produce enough energy to illuminate their headstone (or other odd things) for quite some time long after their buried? Ok so some facts are just plain useless and stupid, but I’m thrilled at how the podcast discusses factoids in plain English making it much more interesting. While on the road I also like listening to another newly found podcast recommended by a friend called The Moth http://www.themoth.org/ Short unedited true stories.

Because the first kind of podcast I found was about knitting I have quite a few on my iPod. I have probably heard at least one episode of each show and either kept updating it or deleted it depending on my level of interest. They were never exclusively saved for when I’m knitting so I’ve tried a lot of them out; my favorite podcast is Knitters Uncensored http://knittersuncensored.blogspot.com/search/label/MP3%20link. But they haven’t recorded a new show in months. Cast On is another one http://www.cast-on.com/ and Stash & Burn http://www.stashandburn.com/.

Any recommendations out there? Knitting or otherwise.

I give up

I just cant keep up

2508 queued
7450 faves

Everytime I open friends activity I get 10 pages of this! Almost 500 new queued items for ONE person in a few days?

Bah Bye

Can Anyone Beat These #'s?

2135 queued
5851 faves

Very ambitious, I'm impressed!

Feeling very lucky...

DH and I had planned on going north this weekend but with the ice storm and other events those plans were squashed. Most of my town has power restored and things are getting back to normal for us. Yesterday was filled with podcasts and knitting under the one lamp powered by a borrowed generator. Zachs xmas hat is done, toms socks and hat started all thanks to the bad weather and my fully charged iPod.

On the flip side life is not so good for more than ½ of the tenants at properties I manage. Last count was 53/34. Fifty three units without heat - 34 with. In addition to the no heat units, one downed tree at a two family (just on the porch, no personal damage or major roof collapse) and one building of 10 units has no hot water and another unit in a separate building has a faulty heater valve thingy making the furnace leak. He’s got a bucket collecting the water for now, but will need a sump pump soon. Most are in NH but they are in multiple buildings in two different counties. I’d hate to be a maintenance person this weekend!

Do You Have Time to Dye?

I typically obsess over one thing or hobby at a time. A few years ago I started playing in the dirt and took up gardening…. with flowers not crops. My back yard was, and still is, FULL of beautiful perennials each Spring thru Fall. I either bought or swapped plants with friends at an annual perennial party till I had no grass left in my back yard.

Next came online sweeping. The best part of that hobby was that it paid off and I won trips to Ireland, NYC & Vegas, electronics, gift cards, cash, and tons of little surprises in my mail every week. Think about it, you have to enter a lot of sweepstakes if you win something each week.

Now it’s knitting, I knit almost every day and meet with other knitters weekly – or more. Today I tried dyeing. I liked the results, I had great fun doing it but it’s such a process! Luckily it was a group thing with other knitting obsessed friends making most of the steps more efficient since it was done in multiples. The yarn we all dyed is absolutely gorgeous, but its still drying after being home for five hours.

Then I have to ball it before I can even start to think about knitting it. oops First I’ll have to find a pattern. If I had to do this for every project I would have moved on to another hobby by now.


BTW A real friend lets you stink up their house for the sake of an obsession. Thnaks HJ.

Have you ever had the pleasure of inhaling steaming hot wool? I’m sticking to just buying the yarn and knitting it. This way I think I’ll love to knit even longer. Of course this could change if we all try spinning next..........