Rip it, Rip it Good!

Well, I haven't done any recreational knitting lately, but I did do some recreational ripping! Does that count?

I just could no longer stand to look at this horrible mess of uneven stitches:

even though I know a lot of it would block out. I just wasn't enjoying knitting it.

It was going to be this:


Now why, I ask myself, when I am an absolute mo-ho and kidsilk haze addict, would I take a perfectly good KSH pattern and use alpaca?! Yeah. It completely escapes me, too. So I am going to use this instead:

Now that's what I call recreational knitting. :)

The alpaca, which really is beautiful (now that it is completely ripped out!), is going to be recycled into a new stole design. It's gonna be purdy.

A Little Randomness

Thank you all so much for your kind kudos! I passed them all on to #1 Son who is flying even higher, if that can be possible!

Not much interesting going on here today (that I can show you)! So I'll answer a few questions and make a few comments.

NH Knitting Mama asked "How is the book coming along?" Great! Thanks for asking! I totally love Interweave, and my editor is absolutely wonderful! I can't say enough about how great it is to work with her. All of the projects and colorways have been chosen and approved and I am working/knitting on the first section. I love doing these projects because they are fairly small and instant gratification and it really feels like I'm playing (except that I write it all down very very carefully)!

Kat commented that Dr. Destructo must be very good at hiding his alter ego. Yes and no. He is so blasted cute about destroying things that I find it very difficult to punish him. :sigh:

Susan asked if part of the Mystery Stole mystery was whether it was a stole or shawl. No - we all knew it was a stole. There were several Mystery Shawls, as well, but by woman named Renee. I don't know which came first. Renee has some really really gorgeous patterns though. You should check out her shawls! (I have no affiliation rather than having drooled at her site).

Valerie asked of Glad "where did that pattern come from? It's too cute!" It's from Rowan Magazine 39, designed by Sarah Hatton. I'm having second thoughts about my yarn choice though. It shows every uneven stitch (and there are many). I might give it a little block in a few rows to see how it's really working.

And I've finally taken some time to play a bit on Ravelry. Oy. It is so cool. If you're on, stop by and "friend" me! My user name is Romi. And if you're not on, you soon will be!

I'll leave you with one of #1 Son's drawings.

Note the name of the ship. :sigh: I just love my kids. :)

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.