On our way back East

We were in Tacoma, Washington yesterday afternoon when we were making our delivery near the Port of Tacoma. We turned back south and were blown away with the view of Mt. Ranier. We have been in the Northwest several times and I have taken pictures of Mt. Ranier, but I have never seen it so clearly and seen it look so beautiful. I sent the dh out to take a picture and durn if the camera wouldn't work. We have to get a new digital camera. I just need to do the research and figure out what I can get with the highest pixels for the amount of money dh said I can spend. I would really like, no make that love, to have a digital SLR, but that is out of the budget that dh set. Bummer!!

With no digital camera, that means that I can't take pictures of the things that I want to take to post on here. That really bums me out. My ds has a little digital that I may try to use, but the pictures are so bad from it as it is one of those $20 instamatic style, webcam style digital camera's.

I have been knitting on the socks that I started, but it is slow going because of the size of the yarn and the needles. I frogged all of the ds's scarf because it was looking so bad. I was trying to get fancy and do some cables that ended up just not working out. I am now doing a combination of seed stitch and stockinette stitch that looks really nice. It is so much more even and just looks a whole lot better for the yarn that I am using.

I am really becoming a yarn snob. I was looking at the sale that JoAnn's is having now and there was very little in the way of yarn that I would buy because of the fiber content. Some of that feeling of wanting to use natural fibers comes from the years of doing Civil War re-enacting and living history. One of the precepts of doing these things well is that you have to use patterns, fibers and fabrics that were readily available or could be and were easily produced during the time period. After trying to do everthing authentically and period correct for so long, it is hard to not want to use the same fibers now. That's bad, isn't it.

I like the way the ribbing is going on my socks, even if it is slow. At least I will be able to say that I took my time and tried to do them right. I also can't work on them very well when we are driving because the bumps in the road make me drop stitches, miss the stitch I'm trying to hit, and I really have a hard time seeing the place that the needles are supposed to go into the stitches. These are best worked on when we stop. I do three or four rows before we go to bed and sometimes when I am waiting for dh to do his daily paperwork.

We are going to get our truck fixed, yet again. DH got a DOT inspection the other day and they found two little things wrong and we have to get them fixed and signed off on within 15 days. It's not really a big deal, and dh could do the work, but it has to be signed off on by a mechanic. The never ending life of working in the trucking industry.

I will get to knit while we are waiting for the truck to be fixed, which is the upside of all of this. We won't be moving so I can work on my socks....yay.

You all have a good day.

We have left the cold states of Minnesota and South Dakota and are now on our way across Montana. We need to be in Spokane, WA tomorrow morning sometime, so I guess we will (or at least the DH) will be getting up at 0'dark thirty to finish the last couple hundred miles. I will get to sleep for a bit of time and then get up with him.

I finally started a pair of socks on dpn's, cuff down. Once I got the hang of the dpn's it isn't so bad. I only have one size, size 1, so that is what I am going to have to use for now. I do have two #3 circ's that I may try to use for knitting on two circ's toe up, after I finish the pair I am doing now.

I found a book that I want to order soooooo bad, called Crazy Toes and Heel that sounds like it makes knitting toe up on two circ's really easy....I need easy, don'tcha know.

I picked up my ds' scarf, otn, and worked on it a bit after I was working on the socks. It was like using jute rope on telephone poles after using the sock yarn on size 1's. I'm only using #6's with worsted weight, but it stil was a little strange.

I changed the pattern on the scarf that I'm knitting for ds. It needed a little something, so the area that I was doing the ribs in got changed to more cables. It actually looks really cool because it looks like the strands of the ribs start crossing. It is an exercise in making something from my own mind and enjoying the process. Besides the ds want's a scarf mom knitted.

Pictures are coming, I promise. I am going to do something about that when we start and see if I can't upload them either tonight or when we are going across Washington tomorrow.

Crossing the frozen North Country

We are on our way to the Seattle area, and we are now crossing Minnesota. It is soooooo cold here that it makes you not want to get out of the truck. I guess, having been on the unseasonably warm East Coast for the last month +, this cold weather is kicking my bum.

I finished my Sis's scarf the other day, and I will try to post a picture of it in the next day or so. It was made from Moda Dea. I don't like working with that because the metallic thread that runs through it makes my fingers sore. I have 2 and a half skeins left, so will have to do something with it, or else find a swap to trade with someone for something else.

I have now started another scarf, this one for my DS. It's made with Lion Brand Woolease. I am kind of making up a pattern as I go and it's turning out rather well, if I do say so myself. I decided that since I had done the cables of the dishcloth for the KAL, I could do a cable on his scarf. I got out my Stitch and Bitch book and looked up how to do cables that turned back like they are supposed to and I am making a scarf that is 44 stiches wide that has 2 2x2 ribs on the outside (8 stitches) and then has 6 stitches on each side of the cable that are purled. It's purty!

When we came up in the real cold, my husband, who has become the stash limiting nazi, decided that he needed a new scarf. I had crocheted him one last year and it is just horrible. It looks kind of like a huge bow tie made from Lion Brand homespun. Anywho, it got taken off the truck and now he wants one that is decent. I told him I could use the wool ease that I had on the truck and knit him one, but he asked about the fiber content, and decided that anything with that much acrylic wasn't going to touch his neck, oh no. Sooo, we went to knit picks and he chose some of their gloss in a dark brown for a scarf for him, and not only did I get to buy enough for a scarf for him, but he wants matching socks. I also got to buy enough gloss for a pair of socks for myself and some of their dancing self patterning for myself. I also got some more of their knitpicks dpn's for knitting up this wonderful yarn.

I haven't done any knitting today...at least as of yet. I really want to start on a pair of socks, but I'm skeered or intimidated or something. I am going to buckle down and just do it. I have a couple of patterns to try and it's just a matter of printing one out and going to town.

Pictures of the OTN projects and the finished stuff should be coming shortly. I'm sure that will make my blog far less boring than it is now. I know that it's kind of bland, but it is only my second attempt at one and I am learning.

Have a wonderful night and stay cozy and warm.

Sitting in Delaware

Here we sit in Deleware waiting for a load. I have been working on the scarf that I am making for my sister off and on today, at least when I haven't been online looking for the perfect sock pattern to overcome my trepidation and intimidation of beginning a pair of socks. Having never done it before, I am just a little leary and kind of scared. I don't know if my knitting skills will stand up to making a pair of socks. Oooohhhh well....I guess I'm just gonna do it.

I am sitting in the front of the truck having just gotten off the phone with my moher and getting her email program straightened out for her. My family is in the back watching an opera on PBS...it seems to be rather hilarious. I am writing in my blog. I am going to be more faithful about writing in this than I have been on my other blog.

I want to finish the Mid month discloth that I am working on and the scarf and then I can start some other projects.

I keep reading about people resolving to knit from their stash this year rather than buy anymore yarn. I don't have to make a resolution like that. I was told the other day that my dh will act as my stash buster. He said until I get some of the started projects done, I can't buy anymore yarn, and all of this after what I said about him being such a good DH and not grousing about my stash. MEN!!!!

I guess I will take my knitting and go in the back and watch this silly opera.

Later

First Post to this Blog

Hi,
I am going to use this blog to keep track of the items that I knit while on "The Truck". My husband and I own and operate our own trucking business and I am with him on the road all of the time. I don't drive, and I need something to do while sitting in the passenger seat, and knitting, reading, crocheting and websurfing are the things that I do while we go down the road.

I am very fortunate in the fact that my dh is a wonderful man and has no problem with my hobbies and even though I take up some of the very limited space in our little world, he is very supportive. He also takes me to places that have really cool yarn shops, like Bozeman, MT and Durango, CO.

Right now I have a scarf for my sister, a blanket for my ds, and a dishcloth in progress. I also am itching to try my hand at handknit socks...my dh wants a pair and has agreed to be the guinea pig on my sock trials. I found a really cool sock tutorial last night as I was surfing the web and have decided that she made it seem not nearly as intimidating as I was imagining, so I am game.

I have a very small stash here on the truck, and most of that is cotton yarn for discloths. I started do those because my mother really wanted some, so I bought the "stuff" and started making some just after Thanksgiving. By Christmas I had made 6 of them and ended up giving 3 to my mom and 3 to my sister. They both love them!!!

When I started to knit again, after a hiatus of about 15 years, the first thing I did was to go online to find patterns and ended up finding the yahoo groups for Monthly discloth knit-a-longs, sock knitters, sock knit-a-longs and sock yarn sales. I should be set for a while.