Knitting Retreat

Or, "What I did this weekend."

I visited my knitting buddy. If you remember she now lives 3 hours north of me. We have made a pact to visit each other every other month. In October, I drove to her place. In December, she drove here. And, being February, I drove to her place again. Of course, I should say that my husband drove me there since the whole family went and her whole family comes here too.

We had a fabulous visit. Our 4 year old daughters have known each other since they were born and miss each other terribly throughout our times apart, which is ya know always except for the 1 Saturday every other month. The kids (ok, her kid so far) write each other letters and send pictures in between and always ask when we are going to visit.

I brought an entire bin of yarn and knitting paraphernalia to her house. Yes, a big rubbermaid type storage bin. Yes, just for a one day visit. No, that's not weird.

I had Malabrigo scraps to share and divide up, yarn to wind, and projects to share.

Can I just say it is sooooo wonderful to have a knitting buddy. It's nice for when you are trying to match up yarns to patterns, see if a certain pattern even fits a yarn, or if the gauge seems appropriate or not. It helps when you have projects that are ho-hum or you don't know quite what you feel about them or just want some general input to improve, or knit on, or whatever.

A few things happened with some of my WIP over this weekend and also for future projects.

After joint counseling with my knitting buddy, my Effortless Cardigan has been put on time out. I was thinking the gauges was a little tight on US size 3 needles (3.25mm) and she agreed. I had brought an extra skein of the lovely yarn, so we wound it up. I am going to restart this project on size 4 needles (3.5) and see how I like it then. I am not frogging the size 3 since it is already to the armholes. I am just going to knit a new one and then compare and frog the one that isn't right.

The February Lady Sweater has been frogged. Really, it was too small. How do I know this? Well, she measured me and then to confirm I tried it on. I was knitting a chest size 41. My chest is, in fact, 50 (!) inches around. No wonder it was small. I do not own enough yarn to go up to that size (only 5 skeins, looks like it needs about 7 to do that size). I also don't love the yarn color. I do love the yarn, Malabrigo Worsted, but the color is kind of ho-hum. I now have 5 skeins of this yarn to do something with. I think I might put four of them up for sale on ravelry and keep one for scraps, etc. Unless anyone wants to trade something, especially anyone on a stash diet?

We wound yarn. We petted yarn. We loved the yarn. I brought my two shipments from the Speshul Snowflakes Yarn Club for her to see and touch. She thinks the DK is also quite lovely. nice taste.

We both are going to be working up scrappy Tomten Jackets in Malabrigo.

I have suddenly run out of things to discuss. Weird how that happens.

I just love, love, love seeing her and sharing this craft, and kids, and homeschooling stuff.

Oh! That's it.

Have any of you used Sonlight Curicculum? What did you think of it's style? Cost? Were you able to use it with multiple children? Did you buy the books or get them from the library?

I hope you are all having a great time knitting.

Happy to have internet "friends'

I am just throwing this extra little "mini" post out to say "Thank you".

It is sooo nice to have internet friends to share my knitting and yarn with. I don't have anyone close by. It's hard when you really want to take the yarn to your friend(s) and say "Look! Look! Look at all this pretty new yarn!!" and there is no one to show.

So, thanks for stopping by!

And She's Gone

I am feeling a little down. My best knitting buddy ever just moved a few hours north of where I live.

I miss her. I miss talking yarn and projects. I miss having her visit. I miss our kids playing together while we looked at new things to knit online.

I miss just chatting up everyday stuff with her.

*sigh*

I do get to see her again this weekend. She is driving down specifically to see the new "Twilight" movie, Eclipse, with me on Saturday. I am really looking forward to it. I hope she is too. Well, I know she's looking forward to the movie. I hope she's as happy to see me as I will be to see her.

She called today and I had to tell her I would call her back b/c we had company. I totally forgot, and now I feel like a schmuck. She has no internet and no friend's in the new little town she's in.

Maybe I'll have to drive up and see her sometime soon.