Finally Friday

Okay, so it is October 1st!  Today officially starts Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Just a brief fly by to update the happenings at Chez RubyRingz.  The weather here is WONDERFUL.  My morning runs have been conducted outdoors and it feels so much more healthy than running on the treadmill.  The evenings are a sheer delight and enjoying a cup of hot tea while reading poolside before bed is beyond words.

Knitting has been transpiring as well.  The Red Hot was going well until the sleeves.  Sleeve One was finished and I thought is was long but paid no attention.  I was mid-way done with the second one when I realized that I was going to need a seventh skein and that just didn't seem right.  I measured the first sleeve and it was about seven inches too long.  The pattern is very poorly written and I should have caught on to that sooner.  So, I ripped out the first sleeve back to the transition point where the lace turns into the stockinette stitch and laid out my own increase pattern and am now almost to the portion where I begin the binding off and decreases for the cap.  Obviously, this means that it was not finished in time to be considered part of the KAL that I was participating in.  I am a bit disappointed but I will survive.

I have also been working on the Bamboo thread shawl and the Sock Competition entry.  They are both coming along nicely.  I have no new pictures of the shawl but I will get some soon.  As for the socks, I will not post pictures until I am ready to drop them off for the judging.  I want them to remain a secret until then.

Okay, back to work so that I can get everything done and begin a relaxing weekend.

Red Hot

Okay, so I am working on the Red Hot as part of the Sexy Knitters Club Third Quarter Kal.  The last time I participated in one of their KAL's was for the Sahara which I posted about here.  It has been a while since I was able to join in, even though I have wanted to for some time now.  When I saw the designer I began to troll around and found the pattern for Red Hot calling for Calmer.  I had originally purchased it for Fifi, which was another Sexy Knitters Club KAL but things with SWCNLBN got in the way, I gained weight, lost weight and moved two times so Fifi has been hibernating.  I ripped out what little had been started and cast on for this on 09/11/2010 after I had finished up the Topi.  I will go back to Fifi later, as I will need to remeasure to make the "new" size.

This one is working up quite quickly.  I am already at the point where I begin to divide for the back neck.  I hesitated on making this initially because I HATE seaming.  I think that the pattern has convinced me that I will be just fine.  I am knitting or purling the first and last stitch of each row in the opposite stitch to make the edge easier to sew and it is looking quite clean.  Calmer has a bit of a give to it, so I measured carefully and continue to measure it against my numbers.  I don't want any surprises.  It needs to be finished by September 30th, so I will be working hard on it as much as possible.  Thankfully college football season has started and that provides me with a lot of time in front of the TV.

The pictures below are of the first yarn cake of Calmer and the lace start on the size US 7's.  The decreases in the lace are a bit tricky at first but I devised a plan and the stitch count was right on target.  after the decreases, you switch to the US 8's and stockinette stitch.  It goes fast too.  So far I love the yarn and the pattern.  More pictures will follow later this week.