Thursday, January 07, 2010

Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger!

Yes, it's a whole new year and I think I posted about 5 times last year. I was good for a while and then just languished and didn't care much. I had a bit of a problem right after my last posting. I took a minor fall at work and injured my wrist. Don't even ask because I can't remember what it was, but I basically overstretched the tendon in my right wrist. (A common injury for skiers, from what they told me.) I reported it to my boss and we let it lie for almost a month when the pain became unbearable. So I did 6 weeks of therapy and, even though it's far from perfect, I'm better enough that most of life is back to normal.
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The holidays were wonderful. My brother came to visit from North Carolina with his girlfriend and her daughter. Sweet girls! Course, Brandi is 15 and her Mama is a bit terrified by that mouthy thing all 15-year-old girls experience. So it's possible that Brandi might come up and spend the summer with us. Since I've "been there, done that", she didn't even raise a single hair at the nape of my neck. And Dee is excited about the whole idea. She's never been a big sister and here's her chance to understand Shelby's position.
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Frankly, I'm thinking it's a great way to get back some of the slave labor I've lost... LOL!
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On the Needles:
Too many projects. I have the Wool Peddler's Shawl in the Dream In Color colorway of Musk Melon. It's gorgeous! I have about 5 more pattern rows to go on the lower edge and then 5 rows of garter and I can wash and block. It will make a spectacular spring shawl. I knit it on a size 7 needle, so it's very lacy and light and airy. Not exactly a winter shawl, especially since our winter has been downright frozen.
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Up until Christmas, I was able to use my trusty old basketweave shawl in alpaca instead of a coat. But wind chills are -0 at night now, so that's not an option anymore. And if the alpaca won't keep me warm, no way a fingering weight shawl knit on a size 7 needle will do the trick.
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I did manage to finish three sets of fingerless mitts for Christmas with the wrist injury. But I have another one in progress and one more to go. No sweaters so far, though I have yarn to make 2 of them.
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Master Knitter Level I:
The big news is that I finally did it. I signed up for the Master Knitter certification program. I bought my binder and yesterday went to my LYS and bought some gorgeous Cascade 220 for my swatches. I laughed when I got home. The yarn is a very pretty peach in color and, without realizing it, my binder is color coordinated... LOL!
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I'm hoping to blog about the program as I make my way through the swatches and questions, etc. There's a group on Ravelry and a whole discussion board on The Knitters Guild Assoc (www.tkga.com), but you never know if someone would like to read along.
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I'm extremely lucky in that I have a Master Knitter in my spinning group. She served for many years on the judging committee for the program, so she's offered to look over my swatches before I send them to the committee for judging. Who could ask for better than that? My goal for 2010 is to complete Level I and also possibly Level II. If I knit two swatches a week, that will be the easy part. The questions will require more time because I'd like to sound like I know what I'm talking about and that's the real point of the certification... LOL!
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So stay tuned while I build my binder and hope to become a Master Knitter! 2010 is going to be exciting and wonderful! I can feel it in my bones.