Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Francis Ruth, Revisited presented

Finished in time for spring weather. Don't think I'll be wearing this until next fall or winter, unless spring temps drop, which is possible here in the Midwest. Pictures above show the open weave, despite using a smaller needle than called for, as well as a bathroom mirror in desperate need of cleaning!!! Picture below shows truer color of actual sweater as well as photographer laughing at herself trying to take a picture in a mirror.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Boots may need a hand-knit for himself!

Francis Ruth, Revisited is blocking on the bed. Boots is, apparently, attached to her. This sweater was completed on Sunday, finishing work done on Tuesday evening in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day. Such a lovely green for the holiday. Being a teacher, it is imperative, that I wear green on St. Paddy's Day, lest I be bruised up by little fingers a'pinchin' me. Not to complain, but Spring unveiled itself this week and Wednesday's forecast was upper 60s. If I worked out of doors, I may have been able to stomach a 100% wool sweater (the sleeves are 3/4 length, after all). However, I work in a 100+year old school building. The boiler system is either on or off. Let's just say I leave the classroom window open year round. There was no way I could wear this lovely finished object if it was in the 60s outside with a heater kicking out heat all day. Do the Irish have red faces? Beads of perspiration on their faces? That would have been my condition. But, there is hope for Francis Ruth, Revisited after all. Spring will take a little rest this weekend and temps will dip back to winter-like conditions. So perhaps she will see wear before the season ends after all! I have been working on a stealth project and lest she read this blog, which I don't think she does with regularity, I will not post about it. Plan to start up Heather Hoodie Vest as well. Will need to have something to work on while in her company. While the man and I were having a bite to eat at Jimmy Johns a week or so ago, I found ample reading material on the walls. As an avid reader, I will read anything, apparently, even the walls. A quote I found during my wall-read was by Dave Berry "there is a fine line between hobbies and mental illness". I approach that line on many an occasion. As I've said, Francis Ruth was finished (March's finished object for the resolution) on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday afternoon, the boy had a speech tournament (took second place in humorous duet!!!). I had enough time to run home from work and grab a snack and get in the man's car to drive to the tournament. While racing home, I realized I did not have any projects on needles, nor did I have that time to wind a hank into a ball to cast-on a new one. What to do? What to do? Seriously? Go to a 4-hour tournament with lots of in-between-speeches-time-on-your-hands with NO KNITTING????? Ah, thank goodness! Salvation! Blessed startitis! I remembered a small project begun much earlier that I could quickly get my hands on and into my purse. Whew! That was a close one! Congratulations to the boy and his partner for a very excellent performance at speech. they had the judges laughing outright at their antics. Many of the performances brought smiles and even chuckles, but outright laughter...that was the biggest compliment. This was their first competition ever. I was in speech as a young'un and I feel qualified to say that they surpassed, hands-down, everyone we saw (other than the little girls who took first place). The two little ladies who won first place definitely deserved the honor. But the boys...we're bursting with pride!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Travels with Booties

I finished up a painfully cute pair of booties on the road to pick up the Harley from her 5000mile check-up. I found the burliest dude I could at Woodstock Harley-Davidson and he was sport enough to pose with the booties for me. These biker dudes enjoyed the booties (really, who can resist booties this cute?) They are Blue Jean Booties by Kathie Popadin. Uh-dorable!! Thanks to Woodstock, IL Harley-Davidson for the boots' first outing.
The booties made their way around the store as well:
Step into a legend, indeed!
They did not get their first ride on a Harley, but did pose on an H-D trike:
And they've made it home for their ties and final pose before being gifted to Tina and Derek: