Are you an innie or an outie?

I am still working on my scarf for the Knitting Blooms March Madness Challenge. The scarf is about 22 inches long (unblocked) and I still have 60 grams of yarn left in ball so I am less than halfway through the yarn and I have until Friday night to finish it. I really would like to finish this KAL on time but I don't know if I will. I was hoping to spend a lot of time knitting on the scarf while I was on vacation but that didn't happen. I took my knitting with me but failed to knit even one stitch and I'm okay with that.



I think the feather and fan stitch was a good choice for this yarn. I haven't decided if I am going to do a hard block on the scarf to open the stitch up as much as possible or if I'm just going to let it dry naturally which will emphasize the ridges. I'm leaning toward the ridges. You can find all the scarf details on my Ravelry project page.

Now that I've talked a bit about the project, I'll get to the point of this post. When you wind your yarn into a center-pull cake, do you pull the yarn from the center (innie) or pull the yarn from the outside of the cake (outie). Normally, I pull from the center but for some reason I decided to pull from the outside when I started knitting on this project. Here's the thing...it doesn't feel like I am making any sort of progress when I look at the ball of yarn.



I started off with 108 grams and the ball is down to 60 grams but it just doesn't seem to be smaller. I know that if I put this ball next to a 100 gram ball it will look smaller but without a point of reference, it seems like I am knitting and knitting and knitting and the ball isn't getting any smaller. I had no idea how much I relied on visual cues to feel a sense of knitting accomplishment. I know the scarf is getting longer but unless I start using stitch markers to track my progress I won't be getting visual feedback every time I knit because it takes several knitting sessions before the scarfs looks longer.

However, there are some definite pluses to being an outie. I haven't had the yarn tangle at all which happens occasionally when I use the yarn from the middle. Also, when the project is finished, any leftover yarn is will still be in a nice yarn cake instead of being collapsed into a pile that has to be wound into a ball.

So, my fellow knitters, are you an innie or an outie? Do you have a definite opinion one way or the other? Shout it out in the comments.

Frolicking with Friends

I spent the weekend with my college roommate and her family having a wonderful time chatting, adventuring and eating. What more could you ask for?

On Saturday, we went looking for Indy food trucks. Although twitter promised a gaggle of food trucks would be in downtown Indy, twitter lied. All downtown had to offer was an unwashed mass of people dressed in green who had just finished a shamrock themed walk/run. Fortunately being the wise women that we are, we had fortified ourselves with caffeine before starting our quest.


We stopped at Mo'Joe Coffeehouse in downtown Indy for some yummy beverages. It was an honest to goodness independent coffee house with lovely pierced and tattooed baristas slinging some delicious concoctions. We probably would have lingered a bit longer but we had a toddler with us and he got a bit bored of the coffee house scene. He probably would have enjoyed his time more if we would have let him play in the storage room with its tempting food treats but alas, we did not.

Since twitter can't always be wrong, Holly tried one more time and we were rewarded with an actual food truck.

The Scratch food truck, which advertises itself as modern comfort food, was in Carmel so we zipped over there to grab a bite to eat. Holly got the Spicy Chicken Cone sandwich, Liam got the Grilled Cheese (sans braised short ribs) and Mitzi & I got the Scratch burger. I would go back for the burger for one reason: bacon marmalade. Bacon marmalade is delicious and it the perfect accent for a burger. However, I would skip the fries which were a tad greasy. Holly got the ginger lemonade which she said was delicious, or it least it was delicious before Liam plunged his hand into it to get some ice. (The joys of parenting a toddler.)

To top the meal off, we needed dessert.

We ended up at a chain cupcake place called Gigi's Cupcakes in Fishers which was tasty. I will say that all three adults had to forgo some of the icing on the cupcakes because there is just a little bit too much icing but that would not stop me from going there again. Their cupcakes are superior to the cupcakes that are available at my local cupcake place. However, when I am in Indy again, I will most likely forgo the chain place and drive a little out of my way to get cupcakes from the delightful local business, The Flying Cupcake.

After all that sugar, we called it a day. I spent the rest of the weekend with Holly, Derrik & Liam just relaxing and getting stuffed full of Holly's cooking. I have repeatedly threatened to move into the closet under the stairs in order to have access to the many delightful things that are created in their kitchen. I didn't take pictures of most of the food (I was too busy shoving it in my gob) but I did capture the Irish stew in bread bowls that we had on Sunday night.


Are you drooling? You should be. The stew was delicious!!!

In short, if you are want a wonderful weekend: gather friends, add lots of conversation, a fair amount of delicious food, a sprinkling of caffeine & sugar, stir & enjoy!!

If at first you don't succeed

...try another knit-a-long! Yep, despite failing at stash dash this summer and the SAL/KAL that finished in February, I am doing knit-a-long with the Knitting Blooms podcast.

The Mach Madness Knit-a-long is a bit different so I thought I would give it a shot. I signed up for the challenge and Tina, the podcaster, looked through my stash (posted on Ravelry) & picked out a yarn for me to use. The pattern was totally up to me. Tina picked a yarn that I have had for several years, Keegan Lane Yarns Big Footsie Toasty Sock in the Shy Violet colorway. I purchased the yarn at The Loopy Ewe but they don't carry Keegan Lane Yarns anymore but you can find Keegan Lane Yarns on Etsy.

I am making the Old Shale Scarf by Tiennie because I wanted something simple and easy to memorize so I can pick it up and put it down at will without getting lost. Here is a photo from the start of the project.

The scarf is now about a foot and a half long now. When I actually work on the scarf it goes quickly so there is a chance that it may actually be finished by the end of the month.

In other news, who wants to see a baby? Anyone? Here is a photo of my mom with my faux-niece's baby.

My mom has long been sad that neither my brother or I wanted to have kids because it meant no grandchildren for her. I felt bad for her but, you know, not bad enough to have a baby. Fortunately my faux-niece stepped up to the plate and delivered a bouncing bundle of adorable baby that my mom can cuddle to her heart's content.

For the knitters out there, yes, my mom made the purple blanket that is wrapped around the baby. It is the Basket Weave Blankie kit that mom got from Herrschners. I don't know that she would use the yarn that came in the kit again because there were numerous knots in the skeins which made for a frustrating knitting experience.