Hello again and an FO!

Hmmm - it has been a while since I updated. Believe it or not, the cough is still here. After weeks of tests and pharmaceuticals it is finally better. This year has been my worst ever for allergies that caused the bronchitis. I am loaded up with meds but can at least function now. Good thing I didn't have any jobs for the past few weeks - I was non-functioning as a teacher or player. But we are on track now and I am working again.

Wallis Cardigan is finished. But I think I am going to place the hooks differently so the front doesn't gap. The sweater is not at all tight but the gaps make it look like it is.

Stats: Yarn: Sublime by Sirdar 50% cotton/50% soy

Needles: Options #4 & 5

Start: 8/10/08

Finish: 9/28/08

Jim's new sweater is Cobblestone from IK Fall 2007. I abandoned the Sirdar pullover in favor of this one. Using this Sirdar Country DK green heathered yarn (but this is not Cobblestone - just wanted to show you the color):

Bought some Wool Ease for a mere $1.99 a skein at Joanns today. I plan to cast on for Imogen later this week ;-) The total cost for the yearn was $15.00! I think my husband will be pleased with my thriftiness. Check it out:

The color is Blue Mist. I love the flecks of color and think it will look nice in Imogen. What do you think?

We have the opening concert of RSO this week - great repertoire: Brahms Piano Concerto, Schubert Symphony in D Major and Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis.

Guess I better go practice. Have a good week, y'all.

Mahler and More

Hi y'all. I just finished my portion of the Mahler Festival with our performance of the 6th Symphony last night. We got a nice review from the Ft. Worth critic and a lukewarm review from the Dallas one. We thought it went great, so there! Here is a shot from the audience. As you can see, the orchestra is enormous. We had 5 oboes (usually there are 2). The rest of the wind and brass sections were double sized as well.

In the midst of it all, I have managed to start the Wallis Cardigan in a delicious blue cotton/soy blend. I'll post the picture of the back though I must tell you that I am going to tink back a bit to make the armholes a little larger. I realized I miscalculated....

I loved reading your comments on the BYOB. In retrospect, even though I complained about it, the seed stitch really wasn't so horrid. It did go on for a while, but truly only a short while. If you need a bag like this - do indeed knit it. It was quick and worth the "seedy" time. But be careful with the tight cotton fabric, it really tore up my hands. And I am a relaxed knitter.

And Zippi - who are the Chargers and Bolts? Is that like nuts and bolts? (I know nothing when it comes to sports.)

I finally managed to get my schedule in line :-) It will be a busy semester as usual. But I would rather be moaning about too many hours than too few - if you know what I mean! I am headed out to the University for the student's auditions, then just one kiddo coming tomorrow. I plan to get in some quality knitting this weekend!

Have a good one -

No Knitting Here, Well, Maybe a Little

Yup - you read it right. There is minimal knitting content on this knitting blog! (At the end if you want to pass all the other words.)

But I do have some Harp content - Yes indeed! I am taking lessons from Laura so I can attend Harp Camp and not embarrass myself too much. Here is this morning in her studio after my (2nd) lesson.

Daily news - we had to replace our mattress last week. It was a drag not only because of the price of a king, but our old one was only 3 years old. We decided it was defective since one side had no support any more. So we got a Simmons Beautyrest in firm. It felt very supportive bit a bit hard. After doing some research, we decided to get a mattress topper and are much more comfy now. This one is from Walmart and quite inexpensive - but according to Consumer Reports, people liked it more than the $$ ones.

Now it feels very nice indeed :-)

Ocean Cardigan is ready for assembly. I was thinking about the effectiveness of blocking since this ribbon yarn is 62% nylon and 38% cotton. One suggestion made was not to block until I seamed it all together. I am trying to decide what to do since the edges roll alot.

What do you think? Will this fiber block? Or just jump back to it's unruly sproingy shape?

My next project:

Wallis Cardigan from IK Summer 08. The suggested yarn was way too $$ for my budget, so I bought some Lion Brand Micro Fiber in a lovely Vanilla color. the weight is very similar and I figured it would be good for the conference at BYU this summer.