MaggieBKnits

I know that is a crazy name for a post but it's the most descriptive thing I can think of. How did I get thru nearly a week with only one post? You just don't want to know. Truly! Here is my kid seta shawl. I have to say that, true to form, the more I invent and knit, the more complex it becomes. This is no longer an easy-knit-for-beginning-lace-knitter. I'm really really sorry. It just happens to me all the time, I get all excited and pretty soon, well, it gets interesting. To me. So I have decided on a perfect first lace project. It is based on a shawl I knit for my daughter almost 5 years ago (really. She is almost 7 now, and regularly clamors for shawls just like Mommy's) (She calls them "Shawlies" but you probably didn't need to know that.) I will show you a photo tomorrow (she is in bed) and I promise to knit it next, and out of the red Kid Seta. Just a general description-- a roughly Faroese shape, but top-down, and all garter stitch, w

Lest I leave you thinking my property is still a parking lot for huge power equipment, let me show you the new high point in the state of NJ: Mount Septic. The ski lifts go in next week. That's one loose end. Here's another, but it's not tied off yet: I have made some progress, thanks only to soccer games and practices. Progress has been hindered by the design method I am using on this shawl: chart and knit. Contemplate an even better idea; chart madly; knit madly; stop and contemplate, chart, imagine... and knit madly again. Because I want it to hug my shoulders, I have worked in extra increases, which wreaked havoc on my charts (wait, I forgot to leave room for these extra sts) and I invented all sorts of odd ways to show them. Surprisingly, it has been an easy knit. I apologize for the photo, I enlisted a son to hold some parts as the (short) needle is overwhelmed by the sts which keep trying to escape. This is another loose end: a sweater I finished in the early part o

While one son was cheerfully practicing with his team, this morning, I thought I would swing by the lys in my small town. Oh, and get a cup of coffee across the street. Just swing by, no real plan in mind. Ha. Actually I did truly need to purchase some more of the Kid Seta since I haven't enough to finish the shawl I am making. Not that I'm running out, exactly. In fact, here I am (I cannot stretch out more of it or it will all come off the needles): Not awe inspiring progress, I know, but I have been messing with graph paper and madly charting and trying things and that can be time consuming. Especially when you're outside in the wind, which has its own ideas about what my charts should look like. Anyway, I did get my yarn, and had a great conversation with one of the owners-- which is where the serendipity comes in. Turns out there's a knitter in town who wants to use Kid Seta to make a special shawl and would like some help with pattern and just lace knitting i

I promised knitting...! A few days ago I mentioned some yarn my husband brought me, from Collective Yarns . He was innocently delivering one of the owners' sons to her, after soccer practice, and he said something about lace weight yarn (he has been well trained, but he's also a real hero since he truly believes I need no more yarn. Can you imagine? He must not have noticed the stuff under the bed.... ;) Anyway, Megan of Collective Yarns handed it to him and said, "here, see how she likes this." (So she's a hero, too) I like it. The best part is, both of the owners of the shop are lovely local women. My husband works with the husband of one... and coaches both of their sons in soccer. It's a net, drawing him into More and More Yarn Purchases! Anyway, I am delighted that they opened a lys in our town, and I do promise to go buy lots of yarn from them. Even if it means the personal sacrifice of breaking my own Yarn Fast. Rats. ;) More knitting: Here we h

Here is my 13 foot deep hole, in which we are burying a Mercedes, I mean, a septic. This is one of the 40, yes, I did say 40, massive dumptrucks that brought the Special Australian Sand which is so important to the success of a septic in NJ. (I'm kidding. It's not really Australian sand; it is priced as if it were, though) This scene? That used to be my backyard. They built a road so the trucks wouldn't sink into my nice yard when they brought their multi-ton loads. (Too bad they couldn't do the same thing for my driveway) Here he goes. (The guy running things was looking suspicious so I hid behind my window on this one, which is why the white stuff is there. Rookie, here.) Dumps away. You thought this was a knitting blog, didn't you? I just wanted to share the joys of installing a maniacs-run-totally-amok DEP septic in the state of NJ. Those logs? Two enormous ash trees-that-were. The bulldozer? That would be parked on my present septic system (despite my request

Very little knitting makes Boring Blogger. And after that kerfluffle of completed objects, I have had very little knit time. You really don't want to know why, do you? I didn't think so. But soccer season has begun, so there will be some periods of enforced inactivity when I will be able to knit. (When I can be spared from cheering) A very interesting thing is that my DH works with the DH of a woman in my town who has opened a knitting shop. I have been struggling with the need to go in and buy from her (like it's a sacrifice?! :) and the need to adhere to my "No Buying Yarn/Knit from Stash" policy. However, I think that exceptions sometimes are mandatory. To encourage me in this thinking, something interesting happened yesterday. My Dear Husband sashayed into her shop and came home with this: First of all, it is a glorious deep and rich wine red not this whacky orange color in my photo. But it's Madil's Kid Seta (a Kid Silk Haze lookalike) and it is lovel