Life LackaDaisiCal

There have been lots of inquiries and comments on the Ceramic yarn I swatched for Carolyn. Romi, asked "Ceramic, like the tiles on the space shuttle?" This got me thinking -- you know what, must be, that's why it withstands heat and makes you feel cool. This Ceramic yarn only has 5% ceramic in it (that's clay for us non-tech type people) -- and it's this 5% that makes us feel cool. But this comment lead me to Rosemary's bog, Rosemary-Go-Round and to her lovely shawl and scarf pins at Designs by Romi . Drop by Rosemary's blog and web site - and say Hi!

I confess. Yes, I've been swatching with this new Ceramic yarn from Needful Yarns . It's supposed to keep you 5 degrees cooler -- because it has ceramic (clay) in it......and it helps protect you from the UVA and UVB rays. Carolyn at Main St. Yarns let me swatch this up for her to see how it knits up. Because it's silky, I knit this swatch on a 5 mm wooden needle -- it's sort of strange to knit -- as you put your needle into the stitch to knit it, the stitch pulls "yarn" from the surrounding stitches and seems to stretch -- but it isn't really. A bit disconcerting at first, but you quickly get used to it. I found that it caught a bit on my wooden needles -- so maybe I need to try some nice bamboo needles with this yarn. I'd like to use it for a summer top -- to help keep me cool - why not? This is a lovely red shade, but of course, I want the ORANGE (is there any other shade?) Happy Knitting

For ages, Brenda has been telling me that "Mosaic knitting is my favourite color knitting", "Try It", "No, it's not like fair isle......." I've got the Barbara Walker book -- I've look at it, read the instructions on how to do it -- seen it -- check out Brenda's Scimerian jacket -- this is Mosaic knitting at it's best (IMO)......but I've never tried it. Until last night....at the Oakvile Knitting and Crochet guild, we did a small sampler of Mosaic knitting and I have to say, By Jove, I think I've got it! Happy Knitting!

Renee (great knitter and blogger at " Froggie Meanie )" came with Carolyn, Samantha and me to the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitting Guild meeting on Tuesday. We met Brenda there -- she got to the meeting early and saved us some front-row seats. (Yes, I know it's Friday the 13th, but I choose to ignore it and tell you about Renee instead.) Renee has two young daughters, she knits, she blogs, she takes a photo a day! She took the evening off to come to the Kichener-Waterloo Guild meeting with us. On the drive there, we talked about the importance of taking time for yourself, to recharge your personal batteries. Last week Renee posted a photo of one of the models at the Needlful Yarns fashion show at Carolyn's shop -- and I'm fondling the sweater as it goes by. So this week, I'm posting a photo of Renee at the KW Meeting -- she cast on and knit the rib of a sock during the meeting -- and before we left, she tried it on. Happy Knitting (and Happy Friday 13th)

Finally, I have high-speed internet service. www.fireflynet.ca "Lighting up Rual Communities with High Speed Internet" I'm very excited -- can you tell? Happy Knitting

I know I said I wouldn't be back until I finished the sleeve -- but I just wanted to report that it's going well, and thank you for all of the comments. Ruth said that she wished she could knit fair isle and watch television. OK, confession time. Here's how I knit fair isle and watch TV -- what you do Ruth is watch a movie that you've watched so many times, you don't really have to watch it.....just listening to it let's your mind "see it" -- and all the while you're concentrating on your chart and getting on with your sweater. Aha, Lorraine knows this quirk of mine, watching the same movie over and over -- and she bet that I'd be watching Harry Potter - NOT! Sorry Lorraine, I'd just watched them again this week, so I needed new inspiration. (I'm sorry but I can't seem to put a link into my blog entry -- I wanted to link over to Lorraine's Sheriff of Knittingham blog where you'd see her lovely Kilkenny in Pipping Jamieson

Okay, on to the sleeves. I have 8 stitches on a holder at the underarm point -- and I've picked up 71 sts up the front, 72 sts down the back for a total of 151 sts That's 3 full 48 st repeats of the motif, + 7 So my first round will be sts 46-48, 1-48 (x3), and sts 1-4 My sleeve is going to be 2 full 48 row repeats, plus a half - 24 rows, so that's 120 rows. I need to decrease from 151 sts to 78 sts for the cuff -- that works out to dec 2 sts at the beginning and end of every 3rd row 39 times - for a total of 117 rows, knit 3 more rows, and you have 79 sts. On the first row of the corrugated rib, you'll have to decrease 1 to get to 78 sts. I'm going to start on row 26 of the pattern repeat. (This is the row at my underarm point -- this way the sleeve will match the body. Yes, I could start at row 2 -- but I want the large motif to be at the top of the sleeve.) OK, so far so good -- I've picked up my stitches, the hubby is out for the afternoon, so all I have