Kiliming slowly

It seems like time for a Kilim jacket update. Yes, this is the same one that I was working on last year. It is not a UFO and hasn't ever been one. It just gets one or two rows at time. Sometimes, a week and half apart.

It is now about 4.5 inches above the armhole. If I was going to do the rows a week deal, I figured I had to stick with it. So, I have actually done a number of rows in August.

One thing that is helping, I retighten the needles and they are holding better. It was frustrating having the tip in the right untwist regularly. Guess I just didn't tighten it enough the first two tries. So, 4.5 more inches and it is steek time! Any guess how long 5 inches is going to take?

The plan is to wear it before the coming winter is over. Of course, I get to define winter not the little groundhog in Pennsylvania. My definition always allows 12 more weeks of winter. Actually, I figure spring arrives after March which 8 - 9 weeks.

Is it just me or am I the only one who grew up thinking it was any groundhog who saw its shadow? I didn't realize it was one specific groundhog who is carefully observed until I moved to the East Coast. I have no idea how many Phils there have been over the years. I imagine a lot. Wonder if it is a family business? One that is passed from Father to Son.

Knitting news

I finished the Scottish Wave Mobius Scarf courtesy of running around in the car, as a passenger of course. There is nothing like sitting rush hour for getting knitting done. If anyone else decides to use the Brown sheep super wash, didn't have enough yarn for the last two rows of red. My red was placed where the red in Magical Knitting went. Probably needed another 10 yards. One skein is enough of the black even with an increase on the third to last row. It is currently drying after being 'blocked'.

A couple of more hats got completed. One of the is fairly wild with pin stripes on it.

Now time for the report on recent knitting purchases. These happened since the last report. I now have Socks Soar on Circulars, The Magic Loop, The knitting Almanac, and One Skein Wonders. And I think I want to get Andean Knits. It doesn't help that I was already out of shelf space where the knitting books are being kept. Then on the yarn front, I picked up 3 skeins of Encore, and 4 skeins of Pagoda at The Cottage Yarn sale. Looks like the magic loop will be used for the Pagoda. Also, picked up a Chibi and a graph tracking board with magnets. I like the magnets and board. I have been using them with the Oregon shawl chart.

And the other news, is I did 5 rows on the Philosopher's Wool Sweater. This is a big deal because I usually do two at best. The best part is that it didn't bother my left arm. Of course, I spent 3 days doing the 5 rows. Currently, I have a rule about no more than 2.5 rows on it in a day.

Progress Forward Finally

Most of last week had negative knitting progress. First, I realized the sock was too big and going o flop around the leg. Very annoying. So, on Friday it got frogged. I now have smaller needles set out to try again soon. I have noticed that two out of three sock attempts since the 5280 count start have failed for me. It is making me wonder if I should just knit other stuff for awhile. Don't get me wrong, the yarn will be socks in the future. It maybe a month before I try again.

The other negative progress was the Scottish Wave Mobius. I cast on and was going great guns at the knitting guild meeting. Then I tried to get the pattern stitch to work out and finally concluded that I had 5 too many stitches. The count even worked out 3x times. So much for counting. I wonder if the black hole for knitting sucks stitches in while someone is counting and then spits them backout. So, I frogged it on Friday.

This weekend I restarted the Mobius and it is going well. I am about to start the second batch of red. This time I figured out that it was an 11 stitch repeat and put a marker every 33 stitches while casting on. So, one unique starting marker and 10 regular markers with on set of 11 stitches between the last regular marker and the starting one.

Then I got through one repeat on the center block of the Oregon shawl.

So, progress has finally been achieved.

What I Did Last Weekend

Since, I don't get the summer off anymore, this is my equivalent to "What I did this summer". It has been years or should I say decades since my last long summer vacation.

So, here is what we did last weekend. We took Friday off and wondered up I-70 to Glenwood Springs. we stopped by the Mountain Valley Textiles & Gifts and watched some weaving. They have very reasonably price items and a few followed us home. Amazing none of the yarn want to come home with me.

We then continued on over the McClure Pass, zoomed by the coal mines, and stopped at a winery farm for a few minutes. Here we met Peaches, a friendly orange tabby. He is about year old and showed up last peach season and thus the name.
After that we continued to Montrose, arriving just in time for a early dinner at the Red Barn. The dinner was delicious and complete with the sound effects of the thunderstorm outside. The rain put a stop to the planned fishing expedition for the evening. Instead, we wondered up onto the mesa south of Montrose. This is an excellent way to get a two tone vehicle. If you do this you will need a car wash, rain doesn't remove much of the dirt. And the truth is, an express car wash doesn't get rid of all of it either.

On Saturday, we explored the South Rim of the Black Canyon of Gunnison. I got to use my new walking sticks. They really do help going up and down trails. And have the added benefit of getting some shoulder exercise. I think we skipped two overlooks because they were really close to others. We think we walked about 3.5 miles of trail between all of the paths. One of them being from an overlook to the visitor center where we watched to history of the Black Canyon.
Another attempt at fishing was make by going up on Grand Mesa after another early supper and storm on Saturday. Rudy did catch one fish in a lake. It was immediately returned to the lake. I doubt if it learned any lessons from the experience. We spent an extra half hour up there because we went past our turn for leaving. Probably would have spent less time if we had just backtrack instead of doing a loop.

Sunday, we returned home via Monarch Pass after going by the Blue Mesa Lake. All in all, a fun weekend with lots of nice scenery and wildlife. If, only it had been longer.

The pictures in this post were all taken at the Black Canyon. I just picked a couple including the Blue Grouse and the chipmunk. If the cats had anything to say, the chipmunk would have been invited home for a short visit.