About me for starters!

I have no local knitting friends – so thought I’d try the online bit and see where it leads me.

I’ve been an active knitter for the last 15 years or so and thought I was pretty accomplished. Then I started visiting other blogs and realized I may love to knit and stash yarn and drool over patterns etc – but I’m not very accomplished. No big deal – but the truth hurts! I’m in to hand dyed yarn and love making socks – instant gratification! But have recently turned out three pairs of mitten/gloves with the flaps for my daughters and friends. They’ve been fun and quick. Lorna’s Laces has been my yarn of choice but my LYS doesn’t always have it so I’ve tried some other sock type yarn too.

I like to browse the patterns and then make my own up – but have not been totally successful. I’ve done a great Philosophers Wool sweater in the round – steek and all, which motivated me to do another in the round with a made up pattern. Worked great.

So then I spent a long time finding just the right yarn – I actually was in Montana (My favorite place) and was looking for Mountain Colors – of course the shop didn’t have exactly what I wanted so settled on something else yummy. Anyway I spent a lot of time figuring out the cardigan pattern I wanted to do (In the round, cables, etc) and started out after what I thought was carefully working on the gauge to get the correct fit – all was well. Tried it on mid way and thought the button bands would ease the tightness – I was that sure the gauge was correct. All finished now – cut the steeks in front, did the button band etc. It looks beautiful – but it’s too small – I didn’t take into account the cable effect of pulling in the yarn. So I took it to the cleaners to be blocked and they didn’t. So sad – all that work ! I think I need to stick with socks for a while before I tackle another big project. But do have my eye on something already….

With the holidays fast approaching I doubt I have time for my own projects – but have yarn stashed for many Christmas gift socks – luckily my family appreciates them!

A little about me:
I am a 50 something, Oregon native, single mom with three awesome kids – one out on his own, a college student living at home for a while and a high school junior. I live on the east side of the Cascade Mountains at the edge of the high desert in Central Oregon. (We went for years without a local yarn shop – now that knitting is hip again we have two very good ones.) Besides knitting I love spending time with the kids, working in my garden – I had the biggest tomato plants this year, and our summer adventures in Montana/Wyoming. I don’t belong to a knitting group – I did for a long time with a group from where I worked, then I changed jobs and the group eventually disbanded (this was way before knitting was hip again). Then I joined a group of local teachers from the high school who knit together, but decided I was stifling their conversations since I had kids who were their students and just wasn’t comfortable. So now I’m groupless and looking! Oh I do belong to a Book Club – I’ll post a list of what we’ve read recently. A great group of ladies – but no knitters.

I am hoping that this blog will generate some new knitting friends for me – you can never have too much knitting advice! So knit on!

I’m on my way to the big city this weekend – Portland – of course we are in the middle of the first major snowstorm of the year. Unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to have much knitting or shopping time – but you never know.

My mom recently passed away – breast caner – and I’m getting together with my sister to get mom’s things cleaned out. We’ve been putting it off for months and now seems a good time since my Dad is in California for the winter – that’s a whole other story for another time.

So now that I’ve fed you lots of info that you may or may not want to know it’s time for me to actually get some work done today – (Boss is out of town)!

I’m hopping someone out there will see this and start a conversation! Happy Knitting!