Knitting on the Lake 2008

This past weekend my friend Carol & I traveled from Northern VA to Clarksville VA and attended a 3 day Knitting Retreat. This is the lake from our room. The terrible thing is that this lake is at least 15ft lower than it should be. If this keeps up we will be Knitting at the crater!

The drive each way was nice and sunny and according to "Jack" Carol's GPS the drive was 3.5 hours each way. This is our room. Very nice size with a kitchen. Small patio out the back door where I took the shot of the lake. We arrived on Friday about 3:30. Settled into our room and registered with Robin. I've been "talking" with Robin for over 8 months and was only surprised by her southern accent. We both live in VA but those 3.5 hours sure make a difference. Around 5 o'clock Robin made dinner reservations for 15 at the Lake House Restaurant (built in 1890). It sits on the corner of the main street and you have to climb up the front steps that are way UP. Then we climbed way UP to the second floor to what once may have been a sitting room or bedroom. Here all 15 to 17 knitters sat at small tables. Tami & Norma were a pair. Their antics had tears coming down my eyes. Mary has some pictures on her site

Here is Norma taken by surprise by Tami in the bathroom.

This is Tami showing us a lamp from the bathroom.

It is a vase made into a lamp and she has one at home that she would like to do the same.

Dehydrate-Hydrate-Tami ordered a beer and water.

Here is Robin our wonderful host. See how close the bathroom is! There was a young pregnant gal from another room who kept coming in to use the BR. Mind you, there was another entrance outside of our room on the landing but she could only see the sign here and cut through.

The project I brought along with me was two socks on magic loop for the first time ever. Phyllis & Sally (below) wanted to learn. Thank goodness for Becky. Phyllis wanted to cast on and I did not know the proper way. I cheated by knitting one sock for about 1" and than started the other on another needle and than past in onto the same needle as the 1st sock. Anyhow, Becky was able to teach Phyllis the correct way to cast on. When we parted on Sunday afternoon, Phillis had about 2"+ of two socks going. Add to that, she loved the pattern for my Nine to Five Socks so I wrote down the pattern repeat for her and she was doing that for the first time.

Speaking of my Nine to Five Socks. I was making them for Robin for PIF. I was going to mail them to her but decided to gift them to her at the retreat. Every penny saved on shipping will go back into yarn. Here she is trying them on for the first time.

Robin C, Renny & Tami

Shawn, Carol, Phyllis, Sally and Clarine

Clarine & Shawn drove up from NC. It was also their first time and I hope we see them back next year. It was a very relaxing and fun weekend.

Carol and PatsyClarine, Shawn and Carol

Carol with her door prize

I was very lucky! My first door prize was this skein of Spirit Trail Fiberworks yarn

After the first round of drawings and based on the amount of door prizes, Robin would started over. My second door prize, stitchmarkers by Jennifer

At the end there were two "grand" prizes. All our tickets were put back in for the final drawing and my number came up a third time!! I have never been this lucky before.

Carol's stitch markers, the ones on the right were a door prize donated by Jennifer

I could not pass up on these stitch markers a a row counter.

We have already made our reservations for next year!

Another Preemie Cap

this makes my 3rd FO. I did not have fruit ala Robin so I'm using items I have on hand.

Cast on late last night for the Clapotis using my new Alpaca with a Twist-Fino! After 4 tries I set fino aside and used Simply Soft on Size 3. This helped getting the pattern down. SS is knitting up nicely but I'm not sure if I'll keep on with it. Tonight I'll check my stash. I've never used 2ply lace weight before and would like the FO to be something I would like to wear.

I'm trying to get something started that is a no brainer for the Knitting on the Lake coming up this weekend. If I hope to knit & not tink the whole weekend it must be simple. My mouth can not operate at the same time as my needles!!

1st two FO for 2008

Started the Nine to Five Socks Christmas Eve and finished 1/11/08.
Here is a picture of a baby hat that I made for the knitting retreat. Will probably try another one that can actually fit a preemie. Hope I can post a finished lined felted bag by the end of the day. I will be using my new Brother sewing machine. Hope I find it as easy to use as my old Singer.

Too Cute!!

This is a preemie hat Carol made. Took the picture at work yesterday morning at work.

Then I received this email from a friend. Names have been changed to protect the innocent

True story - happened last night.

B (my five year old) is in the shower and says "Oh my gosh, my balls are getting smaller". I'm hoping against hope he isn't talking about his "balls" but some toy he has in the shower. And I say, "What honey?" And he replies, "My balls, you know my nuts (the stuff they learn at school is amazing), are getting smaller". With the straightest mom face, I can muster, I say, "that's what happens when boys get cold". His solution -fill up a cup with hot water and pour it over his "balls" to see if they get bigger. To his disappointment, it didn't work. I then had to explain that once he dried off and put on his PJ's things would go back their "normal size". I'm not ready for boys....

Leaving you with me being mothered.

Happy New Year

remember 2000! The day everything was going to stop. I spent that New Years Eve with my best friend. If we were going to crash and burn we were going to do it together! This picture was taken before I got back into knitting and never thought I'd be knitting socks (those are store brought). I'm the one wearing the long johns, what was I thinking... What a difference 8 years make. I only made it to 10:30 last night and gave up.

Today I will finish sock one of my 9to5 socks, on the toe decrease now. Then I'll start the second one. Nice to have the day off. I hate having two Mondays in a row! Almost everyone will be back at work tomorrow. They will spend most of the day reading emails and trying to catch up. I will be asked a lot of questions. My answer will be, done or take care of or we need to talk about that. So for the next two days I will be going over business stuff that is in my past and in their present. So I'm looking forward to next Monday as we will all be on the same page. Such is life in the business world.

Got out of work yesterday at 2:00 so I took this opportunity to go to a new LYS. Nature's Yarns in Fairfax. They are carrying a different selection of yarn than other LYS. I could not resit picking up some more yarn. The first is Misty Mountain Farm-Jubilee Colorway: Crimson Tide. The second one is Alpaca with a Twist-Fino. This LYS covers the band with their label with bar code so I only have a number for the color 2001 but found it on their site Royal Velvet. I plan on starting something different to have it ready for a knitting retreat I am attending in three weeks. Happy dance!

and the date stamp on my camera is out of whack. I took all these pictures today. ah, date fixed. Computer is giving me fits as well as blogger. I leave you with this.

Pia likes to sleep on the table. Since I can't fight it I decided to give her something to sleep on. This is a very bad attempt at a baby blanket so it will make a nice kitty bed until I make her a felted one. Two seconds after I put it down, Sissy gets on it! Then Pia knowing it is hers, takes her place. A hiss, Sissy is content. Pia is pissed.

All I had to do is pet Sissy and down she goes. Pia is now a very happy fat cat.