Camp Loopy Project 3: Vitamin D

The Camp Loopy Project 3 challenged us to knit a project using at least 800 yards of yarn in one month.  My first thought... "Yikes!"

But the prize... Wollmeise.  So I started searching for a pattern.  And searching.

And searching.

Vitamin D was already on my list of favorite patterns, but I seriously doubted my ability to knit a fingering weight stockinette cardigan in a year, let alone a month.  But it was supposed to be a challenge, and with"camp" participation I was able to get 20% off the three hanks of Tosh Sock I would need.  So...

In what turned out to be less than 2 weeks (special thanks again to Doctor Who), I present my Madelinetsoh "Ink" Vitamin D.




And I love it!


It's very soft and reminds me of a lightweight denim jacket.


The shaping is all done by yarnovers and short rows.  Ingenious design and kept my interest.


Details:
Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier
Madelinetosh Sock in "Ink"
Size 4 needles

Note: I did wet block the swatch, but it lied.  The weight of the whole cardigan made the gauge grow like crazy.  I actually tossed it in the dryer until it was almost dry after soaking.  This shouldn't surprise me with superwash yarn, but I was so proud of myself for actually swatching that it did throw me a bit.

Maybe it was Time Travel

The prospect of knitting a fingering weight cardigan in 30 days greatly intimidated me but I'm flying (special thanks extended to Doctor Who).



I have 24 rows of stockinette left (with some 350 stitches on the needles) plus the garter stitch trim. 

The pattern is Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier and makes clever use of short rows for front shaping.  The yarn is Madelinetosh Sock in "Ink"... the dyers of this line are true artists!

Perfect Timing

Over the weekend my alien/sci-fi loving son discovered Doctor Who which I had never seen before either.  Our search for a way to earlier seasons led us to Netflix... the depths of which was another new discovery for us.  Of course I'd heard of Netflix before, but had no idea what all it had to offer.

Even better, this discovery coincided with the cast-on date for my Vitamin D cardigan, which I had chosen for my Camp Loopy Project 3.  Good TV makes for happy knitting.

Family, Football and Fiber

After the NFL lockout and questionable forecast for the new season, we were definitely ready for some football!  Even more exciting was the call that our nephew, who had recently graduated from the University of Texas, had been picked up by the Seattle Seahawks and would be playing in their first pre-season game in San Diego... a mere 3 hours from us!
Football and Family in one fine day?!  One word... Awesome!

We got there early to watch John warm up.  Poor guy... we shouted and waved when he came on the field as if he was taking the field for his first Pee-Wee Football game.  He obliged us with a polite nod. 


And the proud Texas papa who was ready and willing to trade in his UT burnt orange for some Seahawks pride.  :) 



We had great seats in the 4th row!


Everyone had a fabulous time.


And you certainly can't let that nacho cheese go to waste! (Especially at stadium prices!)



My 17 year old brought along his sweet girlfriend.  (I love having a girl around!)


But then things got a bit confusing/stressful/exciting in the second half.  See, our nephew was supposed to play the 2nd half of the game.  (Still great.)  However, the Seahawks decided to score every time they got the ball in the 2nd half except once.  And thus the inner conflict.  See, we have been fans of our nephew much longer than we have been Seahawks fans... and, if I'm to be honest, we were a bit more interested in seeing John punt than seeing the Seahawks win.  But you can't actually root for your team to not convert a 3rd down... you can't actually want them to get stopped and forced to punt.  Can you?  Well, deep down inside, yes.  Apparently you can. 

But on bright side, we got to watch John play in a professional football game and his team has a 1-0 record for the pre-season.  Not too shabby. 

Our greatest disappointment was the absence of our oldest son who couldn't make it due to his own football practice.  Hopefully he'll get a chance to catch another game this season.

I worked on these socks on the way...


And am now about to wind yarn to start on my Camp Loopy Project 3 tomorrow.


I can't wait!

It's been a weird few days...

I got a bit hooked on the crochet thing and found myself spending whole afternoons trying new stitches, making potholders, and discovering the granny square.

Exhibit A: Easy-Peasy potholder (I'll be making more of these!)

Exhibit B: The Granny Square and Friend: In which I discovered that, unsurprisingly, Tahki Cotton Classic is much nicer to work with than Peaches and Cream cotton.

I had some notion here of attaching these two for some sort of... I don't know... trivet or potholder?  But that seemed to exceed my available knowledge so they've been put aside.

I really enjoy the craft... but struggle a bit with what feels like unproductive time spent creating useless objects (the potholder is too small).  But at least now I know how.

Then I spent a couple days yelling at the TV and lecturing anyone who would listen on all that is wrong with this country... while trying to consider any remotely possible positive impact of insulting the ones with whom you are trying to "compromise".  For some reason the whole thing reminds me of my sons "compromising" over what game to play.  Maybe the men and women of DC need their parents to supervise.  I don't know.  But I gave up watching.

At which point I became distracted by my peeling sunburnt legs.   In a very snake-like fashion which I've never seen before, the skin is slowly peeling away in a single layer with no sign of stopping.

Fortunately, about this time, I remembered that I needed to finish my Camp Loopy Project 2 featuring cables.

I love cables.

I also love this yarn, Madelinetosh Sock in "Silver Fox".  The pattern is BFF socks by Cookie A.

Which carried me over to yesterday and Sheri's announcement of Project 3... for which I needed to invest more time picking yarn and a pattern.

I did get some lesson planning done, so I don't feel entirely useless.  But pretty close.