To finish the catch-up I did the math and picked up/cast on the back of C's Flak knitted 3 rows and went to bed.
As the granddaughter said when she saw me taking the picture "Whoo hoo" I can't imagine how she came to be such a smart alack.
I did figure out where I left my notebook. This morning I need to organize the knitting bag, zip lock bags are in order I think. And find all the tape measures I have misplaced. Where do those things go?

Finished! The December/January Six Sox. I had wanted to do something in shadow or illusion knitting so this was a way to accomplish that. I am getting tired of having to rush to finish these by the deadline, but I have made the deadline every 2 months for both cycles now. This picture looks like the bottom is a darker pink, it isn't but it is hard to take pictures of your own feet.

On the other fronts: CIT I needed to redo some of the hearts that I graphed to correct mistakes in the starting rows, I am getting more familiar with the Stitch and Motif Maker software, when I did the charts the first time, once I finished I highlighted by hand but when I did the second one, I used the symbol/color combined feature and got charts that look like this:

The color is only on the wrong side rows, so helps me keep track of where I am, and which way I am going.

Hopefully this will make the whole thing easier, it is getting to be less of a torture to remember where I am and which way I need to be going on the charts.


That brings me to the FLAK I do not want a lot of filler on the back of the sweaters so I have been swatching some other cables to add to the ones that Janet has picked, I put the woven cable that I used on Caleb's Aran in the Cascade 220 swatch, and then swatched the Saxon Braid as well:

So now I can start the backs of the sweaters.

Last night I sat and watched TV, and finished the 2nd Six Sox sock top (say that 6 times fast) and then this morning received a call to come in and teach 8th grade math at the Jr. Hi, where I finished 3 more rows of the CIT sweater back and most of the foot of one sock. So I will finish the other one while I am at work Wednesday and Thursday.
Here are the socks thus far.















I am tired, 8th graders are exhausting, and some like to give subs a hard time, although the school system here really does not tolerate this behavior. But I am not as used to the Jr Hi as I am to the High school and find it more tiring, so tonight I will sit and knit, maybe the ribbing for the giraffe sweater for Mark.

I spent the last 2 days playing knitting goddess, "splain Lucy"
Ok when I went to work at the yarn store where I work part time, we had to fill out the employment applications that the employers in the USA are required to keep on file that proves that we are US citizens and not terrorists. (Although it seems to me that real terrorists would have good forgeries, but what do I know) anyway, when I came to the blank which ask the Job title, I ask the owner of the shop what the job title was, her reply "What do you want it to be?" I said, "Knitting Goddess". She said, "fine". So I am the knitting goddess.

We have an annual (this year makes 2) sleepover at St. Ann's convent in northern KY. And one of the games is Stump Anita, but since the people playing the game are not very experienced knitters I am still the un-stumped.

I took the six-sox Standing in the Shadow of Love:

Which I had pretty much decided did not have enough contrast for the pattern to show, since I kept looking at it and could not, for the life of me, see any hearts.

Well I guess what was needed was to actually finish the top patterns because when I pulled it out on Saturday I could actually see the hearts.

I took 2 pictures but I think this is the only one that really shows the pattern.


So there are hearts and I was going to finish the 2nd sock top so that I could do the mindless knitting on the foot of the sock while I am teaching this week.

But, my friend and student, who I got to follow me off the pier without a paddle, did not bring her sock just the CIT sweater, so I spent the weekend with her coaching her through the first 5 rows of the sweater back and knitting a whole 6 rows myself. WOW!! 2 days of knitting 6 rows accomplished I should finish when I am 90 at this rate.

How ever it is starting to jell and we may have found a stick with a slightly broader end if not a real paddle. I may learn to knit in Japanese yet.

Here is what I did:

This is actually the first 12 rows since I knit another row after I got home just to prove I could in less than 1.5 hours.

I have been working on the Crossed in Translation in between the FLAK. The swatch was really a hat shown here:


The hat went so well that I took the gauge and did some math, and cast on for the back of the sweater. Sailed through the ribbing:

And that is where I hit my first stumbling block working the hat in the round, one uses the charts from the front side for every row, no problem there. Working the ribbing the crosses are all on the right side and one only has to remember to twist the purls, no problem there.

But once you start working all the charts with crosses on the wrong side, which have to be crossed in the opposite direction, and purled or not with the twisted stitches, it became too much to do unless I work in the morning when I am rested. That is a major decrease in knitting time. So last Friday I re-charted the Crossed in Translation to be a "what you see is what you knit" At least that is what I attempted to do, now I am cutting and taping and will scan and reduce to try to get the charts back to front and back of one page.

I am working this morning with the help of # 5 grandchild, since his mother had to work and the daycare is off today for Martin Luther King day. Caleb is presently watching Noggin with very sleepy eyes, not surprising since he got up at 5:45 am.

If he goes to sleep I have a sweater's worth of bottom ribbings done and I will try to sneak up to the knitting room to finish it on the knitting machine, Yes I am putting off trying the charts, why do you ask. Will have to get to it by tomorrow night.

I have been a busy little bee, silly phrase that. Anyway I have swatched the Elann Highland Wool in Orchid Pink for the FLAK and Cascade 220 in a dark gray Tweed For a FLAK vest for my husband.




The pink was first and I tried the moss stitch as given by Janet but reverted to the filler I used in Caleb's sweater. Which I thought was moss, but remembered incorrectly. K2, P2, for 2 rows then P2, K2, for 2 rows.

Then we started swatching the cables:

















On Saturday Janet posted part 3 and I started the saddles, finished them on Sunday:

Oh look here it is 2006 on the Gregorian Calendar and I am not sure where October through December went except that I was as busy as a one armed paperhanger. So now that I have a breathing spell lets see what I have been up to:

I made an Aran sweater for my youngest grandson:

It turned out pretty well I just wish that I would remember that even though I can design a sweater in an hour and a half it takes weeks (in this case 2.5) to knit it.

Other pictures of the sweater for Caleb: This is the back of the cardigan showing the central braid which is not on the front, and the side cables which are on the front. I am particularly fond of this cable. I also like the wide rope with the one purl stitch running up the center. The 4 stitch ropes run up each side.





The neckline picture turned out blurry but you can see the cute mitten buttons in this picture.
Yesterday I spent the day fighting off a cold and knitting the 2nd swatch for the FLAK knitalong

http://www.bigskyknitting.com/FLAK/knitalong.html finished up today and washed it will post a picture of it tomorrow.