World Cup and Knitting

Thanks to the World Cup, I have found out the nationality of my neighbors in the next house down.  I knew they were Hispanic and either from Central or South America.  My neighborhood has a fair number of Hispanics and the town seems to have a large contingent from South America.  My neighbors are from Paraguay.  I know this because after the match between Paraguay and Japan today, one of my neighbors came out cheering, grabbed the flag that was on their house and went running down the street.  I looked at the World Cup scores and found out that Paraguay won and is in the group of 8.  Funny, we Americans would rarely do that.  People at the Olympics will wave the flag at an event, but I've never seen people running through the streets waving the flag because a USA team won.  Perhaps, we've become too jaded with all the sporting events within the country.  Perhaps we no longer have a national sport, unlike many countries where football (soccer) is the national sport.  But it was nice to see this spontaneous demonstration of joy and national pride I saw this morning.

I have been watching some of the World Cup matches and not just the USA team's matches.  The crowd noise and the vuvusellas can be distracting, but I like watching the matches.  Maybe because my older brother played soccer while in college and did get a letter.  It and Yankee games are my prime knitting time.  I did get bored with all the seed stitch and jumped on the Icelandic Lace Group's KAL for a shawl.  It is the Lacy Shawl by Rowan.  I made it in Kidsilk Haze (the yarn specified in the pattern) in a color called Majestic.  It is the color of distant mountains, a hazy grayish lilac purple.  The color doesn't photograph well, but here are some of the finished shawl.  It took me about 2 weeks.  I used 5.0 mm (US 8) for it.  It really doesn't need to be dressed being knit in a fuzzy mohair.  Plus it is about 4 feet long at the center point.  I'm only 5'2" so if I stretched it out any more, it would definitely be too long.  I haven't decided if I'm keeping this one.  I have been thinking about sending it to my old college boyfriend's new fiancee as a wedding gift and peace offering.  What do you think?

I must be getting into a combination mood of wanting to finish things but I have startitis.  I went back to a drudge knit that I didn't think would be a drudge.  I was making a side to side top I found on Ravelry.  I chose a lovely bamboo tape yarn for it.  It was in stockinette stitch, mindless knitting, something I took to knitting group.  I started it in early April, I just finished the knitting today.  The thing just went on and on.  Now I just have to do the seams and crochet around the neck to finish it.  Whew!!  I have several projects waiting to be finished, a Goddess Knits shawl that only needs the edging completed, MMario's Mystery Shawl that's half done and the Moonfleet shawl.  But I want to cast on for a pair of socks.  I just got a kit from the Knitters Brewing Co for their Ravelry KAL of the Pink Ribbon Socks.  The KAL started in May, but is running through July.  I didn't get their Breast Cancer Pink yarn.  I got a teal yarn which is the color for reproductive cancers.  My knitting friend, Angela, has just completed chemo for fallopian tube cancer and so far, so good.  But I'm doing these in honor of Angela.  I may make them for Angela or make her a second pair.  Part of the cost of the kit is going to Susan G Komen so it's a good thing all around.  Or I could and probably should go back to the endless seed stitch and try to complete it for the challenge.  Choices, choices, what should I do?  Let me know what you would do.  Bye.

Fanaticism and Addiction

I am a sports fanatic even though I don't play one, unless you count scuba diving as a sport. I love pro football, college basketball and Yankees baseball. Then there's Formula 1 racing, hockey (although I'm still not sure of some of the rules), college baseball and softball and Indy car racing. I even like boxing. But right now, the boys of summer have my attention. I grew up watching the Yankees and Mets on television, but mainly the Yankees, Dad was an AL guy. I would go to the stadium for games with my dad when my brother couldn't get a client to go to the game. I even went to Shea to see the Yankees when the old house was being renovated. Now I have a partial season plan for Saturday afternoons. I would get a full season plan, but the Yankees don't allow knitting needles in the park. That's just too much prime knitting time to not have something to work on. Plus, given the length of some of the Yankee games, I can't see me getting home at midnight or later. So I stay home, curled up in my big, old, comfy chair working on socks, my nephew's afghan or sometimes the never ending sweater and watch the game on YES.

The current project is sweater set I'm designing. So far, I've gotten the back up through the waist shaping. So it's on to the rest of the back. I haven't worked out the armhole shaping yet. But that will be tomorrow. I have a good idea on how I will do this. It helps that I have taken a few fitting classes over years. The classes at Stitches and the TKGA meetings are good resources for leaning on how to change a pattern to fit your body. It is imperative that you get your self measured and then use those measurements. It may not be pretty and you may hate the numbers that you see, but they are just that, numbers. A well fitted garment will make you look better and thinner. It can give you the illusion of a waist where there is none, play up your assets, change your proportions to be more balanced visually. What more could you want? OK, it can't take the 20, 50 or how ever many pounds you may want to loose, but it can hide a multitude of sins. You just have to look at the good parts to play up and NOT the parts you hate. We all have them, from Julia Roberts to Mary Sue around the corner. So take a class, get measured by someone you trust and work on showing off your assets.
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