The Classy People House: Yarn on the run

Today I started a pretty crazy knitting in public event on my regular morning bus. I was knitting along on a hat on the bus when this woman that I see everyday starts yelling and laughing hysterically. I turn off my mp3 player and try to figure out why she is gesturing frantically to me. Apparently my small golf ball sized ball of yarn that I thought was in my bag had popped out and rolled to the front of the bus. It had gotten tangled all over the place and was twisted around a sleeping mans leg! She was trying to catch the yarn ball but the yarn was so slippery and the bus was moving. A couple of people helped me chase down the ball and wind it back up we all laughed. I told the woman I would give her the hat when I finished it! I guess a lot of people will be hearing a story about a crazy lady on the bus lost her ball of yarn!

January was NaKniMitMo10 or National Knit Mittens Month 2010 since I love to knit mittens I decided I would participate again. Last year I busted out four pairs of mittens for the event. This year I did two. I did the Latvian Inspired Mittens and the flip tops for Jazzy that I wrote about earlier. I decided that I wanted to make my sister a pair of color work mittens for her birthday which is in late January. She tries to make me give her my Lapland mittens and I always say no. So I found this great pattern on free Ravelry and dug out some RHSS from the stash in some girl colors. I wanted to make sure the mittens were machine washable and didn’t itch! The pattern is pretty straight forward and it looks beautiful. I chose purples and gray for the mittens. So I went like gang busters on the first and then was easily distracted on the second. I let it languish until the very end of the month. I knit like crazy wove in all the ends and left the thumbs until the last Saturday of the month. I had to measure my sister’s thumbs. In the past my mittens had thumbs that were too small and it really hinders movement. Well long story short she loves the mittens. She wears them when she drives which is weird but she hates cold hands. They washed up nice and soft and haven’t fallen apart I guess that is a win - win in my book!

In other news I am still working through my Modern Library 100 Best Book list. Since last check in I finished I, Claudius by Robert Graves, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, and the Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett. I am working on Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. I have to say the To the Lighthouse was wonderful and Mrs. Ramsay is a knitter. In the story she spends a summer at the seashore working on a brown sock. Much of the story develops around the act of her knitting. It was fascinating to see how knitting was used to convey the mood of Mrs. Ramsay and how her husband sees her. I would love to find an audio book of this title to listen to while I knit.

At last count I have six projects that I have yet to blog about. I will get to those in the coming weeks. Right now I am working on a hat from the new Stitch Nation Booklet and thinking about an afghan for Nate to take away to college. Oh wait if he ever finds out which college he is going to. You rush and rush to get everything ready and then you wait! I bought two new color work books. The New Stranded Colorwork by Mary Scot Huff and Color by Kristen by Kristen Nicholsas both of which are drool worthy. I want to make the Southwest-Style Sleeved Wrap from Kristen Knits and the Being Koi vest from Huff’s book. Maybe when I am the empty nester my sister keeps telling me I will be soon!

My mother finished an amazing crocheted fisherman inspired afghan for a fundraiser. It is amazing. I am awed by how fast she can crochet. She mixes and matches the stitches in panels so each blanket is unique and she always does them in the creamy aran color. I have to jump on the band wagon and say I did the fringing. She hates fringe but people love it. She sold raffles for the blanket and made over 150.00 for her charity. Mom, please make me an afghan and don’t tell me to bid on the next one or make my own!