15 July 2007

Whew! Or How to Make the Weekend Fly By!

It was the weekend of The Martial Arts Tournament and The Rabbit Show. Saturday brought the tournament. I had originally thought it was rabbit show day, but it's a good thing that my husband has more of a brain these days than I or I would have been up a little too early on Saturday. As it was, we were up at 6:30ish to get over to the tournament early, because, as #1 Son says "you have to be early to be on time." Hee. :)

A couple of days before he went through his summer ritual of head shaving (his request). So all was in readiness. And ready he was. He calmed himself down and did the absolute best we'd ever seen him perform. Here is the champion, himself:

Still flying high after winning first in his division for Kata!

So...guess what time we were up Sunday for the drive to Watsonville to the Rabbit Show? 4:00 a.m. ::shudder:: But it's all a blur to me anyway. I didn't actually become coherent until later when we were on the road. :)

Dart the bunny took one second place and one third place. #1 Son looks very proud, yes?

Since we had the long drive (3 hours each way), I wanted to do a bit of car knitting, and I decided to do Glad (GladWrap!) shown here:

and another view here:

I love this thing! And I thought the acres of stockinette would be perfect for the car. I didn't want to use KSH (for once in my life! what's wrong with me?!) so I swatched some gorgeous baby alpaca lace that Lisa Souza custom dyed for me. Yummy color. Perfect gauge. But which side to choose? The stockinette:

or the reverse stockinette?

In the end, I decided to try to go for reversible. And to do that, I eliminated the side seams and cast on for the entire wrap:

And do you know what I learned this weekend?

1. Casting on 463 stitches in the car is a booger.
2. Knitting laceweight, even in plain stockinette, in the car is well nigh impossible.
3. If you are going to forget something on your road trip, make sure it isn't your younger son's toys.

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30 Comments:

Blogger Marina said...

Bravo! Congratulations to the champions. Way to go!

That's a beautiful colour.

2:57 AM  
Blogger Mary in VA said...

Congrats again to #1 son (and the bunny), and to you for those early morning.

Casting on that # of stitches would be a pain anywhere, never mind in the car. But that yarn is gorgeous as the sweater will be.

5:19 AM  
Blogger Michelle Martino said...

I have some delicious golden KSH in my stash. What other things have you knit with it that you might recommend?
BTW...
Congrats to #1 son! Great job...and bunny too.

6:41 AM  
Blogger Lorraine said...

Rosemary- My son used to shave his head when he wore a bike helmet. It's now down to his butt.
Dart the bunny is such a handsome creature, congratulations.

That pattern is great, but it looks like miles of knitting.

6:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That lace project is really beautiful, even though I also couldn't do it in a moving car! And yeah, forgetting toys is a recipe for disaster (at least here it is). Congrats on ds's win!!

6:46 AM  
Blogger Kat said...

Congrats to #1 son!! Those are wonderful accomplishments.I don't envy you getting up that early, as I'm not a morning person either.

The Glad looks very pretty. Love that color!

7:21 AM  
Blogger AR said...

Congrats to #1 son. He does indeed look very proud.

Cute wrap, can't wait to see the fo.

7:25 AM  
Blogger annmarie said...

Congratulations to you and your son, Rosemary! And the Glad, once you've got it tamed, will be gorgeous - what a beautiful shade Lisa dyed for you! :)

7:34 AM  
Blogger Gudrun Johnston said...

I love that wrap...looks like a great addition to any girls stock of knitted items! Love the colour you chose too. I was there with you in spirit this weekend as we took a drive of similar length and I attempted to get some knitting done ...end result was I ripped it out when I got home and started again!
Congratulations to your son...oh and the bunny!

8:07 AM  
Blogger Psyched2Knit said...

I've had that experience leaving the toys at home - that is a tough one. Beautiful yarn!

8:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

#1 Son is just glowing! He looks so pleased.

Yeah, laceweight in the car - don't think I would be brave enough to attempt it, but kudos to you for trying!

9:08 AM  
Blogger ...Sarah said...

Your son has much discipline. I think that as soon as a baby is placed in our hands along with it comes a full plate of activities to fill a week-end, every week-end.

I am in love with that sweater. You colour choice is lovely.

11:39 AM  
Blogger Bridget said...

Congratulations to all of the champions at your house!

11:40 AM  
Blogger Amanda said...

Congrats to the champ! Love the laceweight color. If I cast on for 463 stitches in a car I would have been sick. Motion sickness is a bear!

12:30 PM  
Blogger The A.D.D. Knitter said...

Congrats to the champs! I'm sure that Glad is going to be lovely...

3:08 PM  
Blogger Jillsknit said...

Looks like #1 son did A-#1 job! Congratulations! :-)

4:15 PM  
Blogger Jean said...

Way to go #1 son! He's probably the first person to win such high honors in the same weekend at both martial arts *and* rabbit showing. That's really remarkable. He should be proud.
A friend of mine made that wrap in fushia angora. It was beautiful but took her about four months to complete! It didn't help that the angora broke if she simply looked at it funny.
Yours is such a yummy color and I love that you're using the reverse stockinette side. I hope the worst is over and it's all pleasant knitting from here.

4:53 PM  
Blogger NH Knitting Mama said...

Wow, 4:30 on a weekend: that is tough enough not even mentioning the cast on and no toy for yournger son... ugh!

You must be so proud, though. Good for your older son!

7:20 PM  
Blogger Valerie said...

That's awesome! Katas are so much fun to perform. Panic inducing sometimes but very fun! He's the same belt I was when I won gold. May he win many more!

7:20 PM  
Blogger Valerie said...

I forgot to ask, where did that pattern come from? It's too cute!

7:21 PM  
Blogger Sonya said...

You go #1 son!!
And here is one for mama.
You go mama for getting up sooo early two days in a row!

7:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congratulations! And the toys--goodness. Time for License Plate game? Or Geography, where you state the name of a place and the next person has to name one that starts with the last letter of the one the other person just named. We drove from Maryland to Texas/into Mexico, to California, up into Canada, and then home in one six-week trek when I was ten. I'm sure I can remember more car games if I think about it. (That was the trip I learned how to knit.)

11:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congrats to your son - way to go!
And woah, what a gorgeous color this is - seems like some real heavy knitting indeed though.

1:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dart looks so happy! Kiddo does too, but the bunny really looks like he knows what's going on.

1:54 PM  
Blogger Kathy said...

463 stitches?! I bet it's going to be totally worth it though - what a gorgeous wrap.

8:07 PM  
Blogger Sereknitty said...

Beautiful wrap! I love the look of KSH, but alas, it doesn't like me. Contrats to #1 son!

9:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OI!! Tell him he rules and that I know Kata 1 but I practice Muay Thai! hahaha
Nice work by the way!

10:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My congratulations to son and rabbit! Well done!

4:30 AM  
Blogger Terri Lynn said...

Hi Romi,
Nice to finally visit your site! I love all the pretty things you are working on and that pretty yarn you had dyed up for you, well, it's going to be stunning with your project. That sweater has got to go on my list, it's lovely!

8:37 AM  
Blogger aj said...

Gorgeous! I too would like to know where that pattern can be purchased - it's exactly something I would love to knit and wear!

Your color is stunning.

And I know what you mean about lace knitting in the car - I tried to work on mine on bumpy highways while hubby drove from Minnesota to Illinois. Let's just say it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to knit just a couple of rows!

6:39 AM  

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