Kabul or Bust.

Thank you for all your nice comments about the vest. I really enjoyed knitting it and I was happy that the pattern turned out as well as it did, it's nice when just once, something turns out like you hoped it would without having to rip it back a zillion times. Truly, I believe it was more luck than anything else.
The designer of the vest pattern that I used as my guidelines has set up a donation page for In-Vest for Peace to support Afghans for Afghans, for a donation of $45 or more you can have a canvas tote with the In-Vest in Peace logo. Check it out if you like, here.

I didn't finish it in time to send the vest and socks, ( the second pair were socks that I knit for my son a few years back, but he wouldn't wear them and said he probably never would, so I thought perhaps one of the older Afghan children would get some use of them.) that I knit along with the hats, mittens, socks, and vests knit by the knitters in my knitting group that Sue was sending out.

However, despite being thwarted by Columbus Day and no mail service, I did manage to get it to Afghans for Afghans before their school drive deadline. Scarletknitter in Ravelry left me a message telling me that she believes that she may have unpacked or packed the vest at the distribution center in San Francisco.

There is one other item that went to Kabul that I had a small part in. Stephania from Three Fates sewed together this Lizard Ridge Blanket from donated squares. A4A sent her this and this picture from the distribution center. Can you guess which square I knit?

Stephania working on sewing together the Lizard Ridge Squares on Cinco de Mayo.

Stephanie is currently working on putting together another baby blanket using miters square from the Mason Dixon Knitting book using cascade 220.
If you're interested in sending a square, I'm sure she would appreciate your contribution.
There is a group on Ravelry, Miters for Charity.
What's that you haven't signed up for Ravelry yet? What are you waiting for?

If you're on Ravelry and want to be my friend, find me. I'm in Ravelry as: 4knitsandgiggles
Tune in tomorrow for all out war.

Sometimes I get lucky.

Having completed the socks so quickly, remember here, that I was knitting a pair of socks to fit a child about 8 to 10 years of age, with sport weight yarn on size 1 needles, knitting straight stockinette stitch, they are striped but as I carried the unused color in the back and didn't break the yarns for the stripes, it didn't slow me down much, which is why I was able to finish them so quickly. Also I was making an effort to knit them as fast as I could in the time that I had, as a rule I do not finish a pair of socks in three days.

None-the-less having been emboldened by being able to knit the socks so quickly and having a little more than a week before the A4A deadline I decided I would attempt to knit this side to side vest from odd balls of Magpie Aran wool that I had in my stash. I had intended to knit a vest last year but ran out of time, so I thought that this year I would go for it.

Earlier I had been looking through Sally Melville's "Color: The Power and the Glory, Book 3 of her Knitting Experience Series." I was intrigued by the color work pattern in the Boyfriend Sweater. There was only one problem with it, the design is knit using Intarsia. *shudder*

Nothing gives me more pause when it comes to knitting a sweater design than knitting something using the Intarsia method. I have to be really motivated to choose an Intarsia knitted project.

However, as I looked at the design I thought that this pattern if you turned it on it's side could be knit as a fair isle design and since I planned to knit this side-to-side vest this would be a good chance to test my theory.

I didn't have enough time to work it out on paper, so the plan so to speak, was to use the basic pattern and sort of wing it on the pattern and colors. I chose to knit the large size, hoping the vest would be large enough for a 12 to 14 year old child. I knit four rows in one color, then knit a 3/3 Fair isle pattern and then eight rows in the second color.

To my amazement inserting the stripe pattern into the vest pattern worked out really well and no one was more surprised and happy with the resulting vest. Regardless of what becomes of the vest and who comes to wear it, I can only hope that they receive a portion of the enjoyment of it that I had in knitting it.

Right side out.

Inside out.

Right side out.

Inside out.

Which do you like better?

I was fortunate to find these wood buttons that mimic the pattern of the sweater.

Like I said, sometimes I get really lucky.

" Ya, ya, ya, who cares? You're not the only one who gets lucky,

I think I saw Squirrel!"

An Odd Couple

It's been an odd couple of days, there seems to be a dark cloud hanging over the team of people I work with, another one of my work mates had an unexpected loss of a parent. That's two in four days, we're starting to feel just a little paranoid, wondering who will be the next one to fall.

I'm just hoping that the worst that will befall me is the tumble I took in the parking lot and that this dark cloud will pass quickly, perhaps the cold air blowing in will help.

A week or two into September, I became distracted from the Dr. Who Scarf and Lace Stoles by a desire to knit some warm and woolly things to send off to the children in Afghanistan for Afghans for Afghans October drive.

Also about the same time I had signed up to take part in the Sock War Games, in which we are all assassins and we "kill" each other by knitting socks. (I'll explain later.) So I thought I would knit a pair of socks as a time trial to see how fast I could knit a pair of socks.

I had some Nature spun sport weight yarn in my stash and decided that I could kill two, no three birds with one stone and knit the "Hiiumma mismatched mates" socks from Nancy Bush's "Knitting on the road" book for the Knitting on the Road KAl.

Sock Mate 1