Wednesday, June 11, 2008

5 sweaters, 7 knitters & 1 heat pump

May here in the Tidewater of Virginia was very mild. Actually cool some days. Ususally we've turned on the air conditioning a few times before June's heat and humidity comes rolling in. But not this year. So as the first day of real heat hit us I flipped the little switch to turn on my air. Nothing. So a call to John's Brothers on Monday morning had them coming out on Tuesday morning to tell me...we can fix what's broken for eightyeleven dollars and something else will break because your system is old old old. So, bright and early last Thursday morning when it was already 95 degrees 5 Men & their trucks pulled up to my house

John's Brothers

and by the end of the day cool air was pouring through the vents from a brand spanking new heating and air conditioning machine that cost caused my checkbook to say "we didn't for plan this, what about that new roof we wanted!".

That night, Bailey enjoyed moving from favorite place to favorite place finding the cool spots. No picture, but imagine a long haired black dog in 100 degrees panting really really hard finally finding cool.

Friday, the Men in Trucks, showed up to hook up the heat side of the new machine.

A week later cool air is still blowing out the vents and we've had a nice break in the 101 heat. A nice balmy 85 with low humidity today.

In knitting news.....

Andrea redecorated Ewe Knit Kits to include a "Wall of WallisKnits" patterns.

WallisKnits Wall of Patterns
Thank you Andrea!

And let me introduce you to the "Morning Knitting Group at Ewe Knit Kits".

Morning Knitting Group

Almost any morning of the week, you can stop by and find them knitting away, discussing the lastest pattern, yarn, their families or where to go for lunch. Stop by and join them some morning!

I've been busy knitting sweaters and shrugs.

All are Knitting Pure & Simple patterns.

A black (looks charcoal but it's very dark black) cardigan in Rowan's Calmer

Black cardigan

And a great way to use up all of that novelty yarn we purchased 2 years ago that's still sitting in your stash A red cardigan in Berroco's Love It and Trendsetter Charm.

KP&S Love It & Charm

And 2 new patterns from KP&S that knit really fast. The Woman's Bulky Shrug
that probably took 4 hours of straight knitting to finish. I used Plymouth's Baby Grande Alpaca 2 1/2 skeins for the size 40. Didn't quite get gauge so I went up a size.

KP&S 286 Bulky Shrug The note pinned to the front says "2 KnitIn's will be held for this shrug". I'll be holding a 5 hour "class" where we'll knit this shrug. Wed July 9th or Sat July 26th.

And look at this little tiny shrug! I'm knitting the 18mo size in Kertzer Butterfly. And I used the optional lace bottom.

KP&S 288 Little Girls Shrug

The lace wt Morehouse Merino sweater is still on the needles. Very slow going there and I'm enjoying the portability.

In Ewe Knit Kits news: Bobbie just returned from TNNA. She said she shopped til she dropped and shopped some more. So in addition to the Universal and Berroco yarns we've already received, we should be getting in lots more over the summer. Mountain Colors order was big. Namaste Bags are coming in. Lots of patterns. Trendsetter had good deals.

This Saturday, June 14th, is World Wide Knit in Public Day. Ewe Knit Kits will hold our annual "Sit and Knit" so bring a chair and join us. I'll be there. And Bobbie will be sending out the email to talk about the days events (and by events I mean what's on sale) soon. I'll update the Ewe Knits Group on Ravelry when she does...because you know she doesn't tell us in advance.

And Happy 90th Birthday to my Aunt Trony! THE Aunt Trony that the "Trony" shawl is named after.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Where have I been you might ask? Scrabulous and
The SAT Question of the Day and knitting 3 sweaters, 1 scarf and planning 2 classes.