Idol Knitting complete

I could claim I am super busy but well sometimes it's just plain procrastination.
The second day of Idol  Knitting began in the dark. Everyone was told to be in line by 5 am. So we pulled ourselves out of bed and headed down to the Rose Garden Arena. Although we were there plenty early, I have a feeling folks lined up much earlier to in front of the line.
Front of the line has it's perks: more time on camera, you get in the area sooner and you have a view

Idol Knitting Day 1

"Idle hands are the devils work." That's what my gram would say. Last weekend I had Idol hands. As in American Idol hands. Our son Bryce's lovely, talented girlfriend Courtney auditioned for American Idol in Portland, Oregon on Saturday. (The result show is later in the blog, wait for it.)

'Road Trip' for a knitter has a whole other meaning than most people. For a knitter, it means deciding on what you are going to knit. So I selected a the Lace Ribbon pattern from Knitty.com. I was hoping for an easy to remember pattern so I wouldn't have to concentrate too hard during all the action. It turned out to be a pretty good choice.

Courtney gets her wristband!

We left the house at O'Dark 30. Which translates to 3:30am to begin our drive to Portland, Oregon about 3 1/2 hours away. We arrived at the Rose Garden in Portland to find...no line! So we get to walk right in and get our wristbands and tickets for Saturday's audition. And yippee! I get a wristband and ticket too. On the American Idol rules it state one person can accompany the singer. Sweet!

So with no waiting to register we are left to wait till we can check in to our hotel. Love the folks at the Doubletree at Loyd's Center. They let us check in where we promptly all took naps.

After trying to sleep for awhile Courtney and I hit the mall for sushi (not bad) and a little accessory shopping. We found the cutest necklace and earrings to go with her audition outfit.
When we got back to the hotel we decided we needed to go do something fun or we would worry ourselves to death. After cruising the web for something to do, Brad found out that The Waterfront Blues Festival was going starting that afternoon.

So we jumped onto the The Max (with free train rides within the city) and we were off to check out one of the largest blues festivals in the region. It was a beautiful hot day in Portland and boy are there a lot of pale people!
Admittedly I was one.

It was a great time and got us all in the mood for more music tomorrow. The place had four bands playing on stages located throughout the park. We started out with a glass of Washington Wine from St. Michelle which was awesome since you can roam the festival and are not confined to a "drinker's coral". It s great they projected the music onto large screens. There were boats lined up along the shore and the screen would rotate so they could see the performers too.

Courtney and myself enjoying a little brew.

We all had a great time checking out the vendors, very eclectic cuz we are in Portland. Didn't buy anything but some ice cold beer because it was in the 80's. We then sent photos of our beers to Bryce just so he knew what he was missing. (We drank one of his favorite beers.)

We had a great couple hours listening to some amazing musicians and watching people. As you can see, it was packed. It was a really good time. We ate some great food at Paddy's a few blocks away and went back to the hotel to crash. We had to be in line the next day at 5:00am.

Check out this performer who was amazing. It is just a real short video but it gives you a taste of what he could do. He stood perfectly still until someone put a tip in his jar. Then he went into a great routine.

PS. I didn't knit on Day One.

Sock Monkey!

This has to be my largest knitting project ever! I am not sure when I will take on another project of this size but it sure was fun! And isn't he cute? I didn't have a pattern so I just made it up as I went along.

Nice sweater!

The sock monkey costume was requested by my husband after seeing the car commercial with the life sized sock monkey. As I have knitted smaller sock monkeys I figured "how hard could it be to make a life sized version?" Well, it wasn't hard but it was a lot of work.

Showing off his tail! It was the last thing I finished knitting.

The sock monkey was knitted using three Caron Pounders in Lace and a second brown yarn from a cone of lace weight (3/15) I had on hand. The off white was from Red Heart (1 skein) and a partial skein of red from my stash. 

I made the arms first. i knitted them two at a time from the closed mitten ends up the arm. I am planning to redo part of the hands to make the "hands" removable. It sounded good at the time but not super functional.

Lace table runner

It has been awhile. But while I was "offline" I have been on a lace kick.
Right now it is a table runner with a leaf lace pattern. The lace pattern of a pair of socks from Knitty.

The yarn came from the local knitting store, Knitty Gritty. I picked it up after my doctor's appointment. The shop is in the 3-cities and i don't go down there that often. But the shop is really close to the doctor's office.

The yarn is a cotton with beautiful flecks. Granted it the wrong season, but the yarn looks like golden leaves. So I went searching for the perfect lace pattern.
Originally it was going to be a scarf but I forgot about blocking...yep it will add inches to the width.

So at the last doctor's appointment I picked up another skein of yarn.
The pattern of lace was made to work in the round but my table runner is knitted back and forth. I remembered the difference when I got a few rows...frogging I went.

Right now it is about halfway.

Not sure about whether I will add a border or not. Time will tell.

The purse is done!I finally sewed the lining and added the button. The lining is sooo cute. It is vintage material. I ended up with a box of material at an estate sale. I wanted the sewing machine, a girls can never have too many sewing machines.
So when I finished the purse, I went digging through it to find the perfect material.

Scarf knitting for Special Olympics

I am sewing the ends into the scarf I knitted for the Special Olympics. The Special
Olympics World Winter Games Scarf Project is in it's second year. The goal is that when the athletes participating in the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games walk into the Idaho Center in Nampa, Idaho on February 7, 2009 they will all be wearing a blue and white scarf.

The colors were chosen to match the organizations official colors. The colors are from the Red Heart yarn, delft blue and soft white.

I chose to knit a pattern using modular triangles. Some call it a multi-directional scarf. It was good practice for me as I have only done this style of construction once before for an adorable bath mat.
I hate sewing seams so this is a great technique. Since I did alternating colors, I have some ends to weave in.

At the moment I am debating whether to add fringe or not. I have tons of yarn leftover from the big skeins. So I can make another one or save it for another project. Here is a link to some suggested patterns.

Hmmm...decisions.

The finished scarves must arrive by January 15, 2009 in Boise, Idaho so I have time to decide. If anyone else is interested the information is available at Coats and Clark site. I read about it in Crochet Today.

Green sweater is almost done..

I finished the yellow sweater from Interweave. I added two large silver buttons that we found at Gramma Gray's. I wore it at BAM (Bellevue Art Museum) and it looked pretty good. It is one really, really warm sweater! It doesn't matter that it has short sleeves, it was toasty! I used heavier weight yarn than the pattern used so it is bulkier than the original. That made the sweater heavier as well as warmer. Still cute just not sure about the sleeve cuffs. I added a crocheted picot edging to the sleeves and bottom hem. Thinking about continuing the sleeves longer in the kimono style.

The pattern is "Flutter Sleeve" by Pam Allen. The original used a cotton, silk and nylon blend. I think I could've made a smaller size even though I swatched and matched the gauge. I think it needs less ease. All in all I learned a lot from making it and will wear it again.

I am almost done with the green sweater from Interweave. I am using the "Painted Silk" pattern by Connie Chang Chincio. Again using a warmer yarn, a wool cotton blend instead of the silk. I just need to finish the seaming and the neck ribbing. I really like how it is turning out. I am using a yarn from Jojoland called Bloom. The yarn is actually two strands of yarn twisted together. The base yarn is a apple green wool wrapped with a white and black cotton yarn. It gives it a tweedy look.

I think I will really like this one once it is completed.

Better finish the seaming so I can finish up the neckline. With the cold weather, this should be a nice weight of sweater to wear around.

Pumpkin hat

I have been busy knitting sweaters. And that is just it...I am knitting them but I haven't seamed them up.
So instead I got distracted by the season and a little girl's first birthday. My great niece Siana turned one last month. She is just the right size to wear an adorable pumpkin hat.
This is the first pumpkin hat I have made and I did it without a pattern.
The hat started with an i-cord and worked down from the top ending with a ribbed edge.
For fun, I knitted a leaf and a curly tendril to go on the top.
The yarn is Patons "Look at me" baby sport yarn.

Okay time to add a post

I may not be posting but I am definitely knitting.
I have a gorgeous yellow sweater that only needs to be seamed up the sides. It is made out of Brown Sheep Prairie Silk in a yellow named as Leveraged Lemon. The pattern is from Interweave Knits and is called Printed Silk Cardigan by Connie Chang Chinchio.
I have to admit that I hate seaming. Really hate seaming. So I started another project.
It is a apple green cotton and wool yarn from Jojoland. I am working on the back now and it is looking pretty good.
Nope, I haven't seamed the yellow sweater yet...