Mokihana's Garden

I finished my socks!  I holed up in the living room, telling my husband to leave me alone, no interruptions, upon fear of death please, so that I could really concentrate on what I was doing.

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The first time I tried this stitch, trying to read the directions from a website as I was stitching, it ended up a mess.  I was frustrated!  I understood the progression from stitch to stitch.  I got it! But my first attempt was a disaster. (more…)

On Tuesday morning, I got one sock done all the way up to grafting the toe.  It’s great!  It looks just the way it should.  (more…)

Tonight I did the gusset on my second sock and decided to put the two socks together and admire my handiwork. Did a double-take. When I bought the two skeins of yarn to knit with, I made sure I had the same dye lot on each skein. I wound each skein into a ball and knit the first sock with one and the second sock with the other. And it wasn’t till tonight, with the socks side by side, that I noticed that the second one is much lighter in color than the first! Noticeably lighter. (more…)

I did it! I turned both heels two days ago. Then yesterday I didn’t knit at all. But today I got back into the swing of things and not only got the gusset all done, but also am well on my way down the foot. Then I’ll be ready to begin my toe decreases and graft the toe. I did have to tink a few rows on the gusset when I realized I forgot to do alternate rows of straight knitting, but that went pretty fast. I hope I can get the gusset done on the second sock tomorrow or Sunday, then it’s the race for the finish! (more…)

This morning I was all set to do the heel flap for the second sock… I counted the stitches on my needles, and ack! I had 2 too many stitches. I tinked (unknit… “knit” spelled backwards), stitch by stitch, for a couple of rows. Still too many. Dang! So I decided to frog it ‘way back. Frog it? I have frogs in my socks? Nope. “Frogging” is a knitting euphemism for taking the project off the needles and, instead of going backwards stitch by stitch, just yanking out a whole bunch at a time. Rippit! Rippit! That’s frogging. If you frog the entire project, then it’s “sending it to the frog pond”, and you have to start all over again from the very beginning. (more…)

I started the second sock last night! I didn’t have as much knitting time because there some interesting competitions to watch, especially the ice skating. I’ve worked on it a bit more today but am feeling tired and kinda sluggish. Not enough sleep, I suspect. Please pass the salt! (more…)

Today I was joined by some new Team Hawai‘i Nei members! What a great start to the day. E komo mai (welcome) to:

Carol, who’s making a child’s Warm and Wooly Vest.
Maile, who’s knitting a cable- lace afghan of her own design.
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Today I got a new team member; her name is Emily and she’s going to be knitting Kate the Cat! Welcome, Emily! Kate is absolutely adorable!

Bonnie is our honorary member who will be knitting socks and other stuff while watching the games and cheering everyone on.

Another friend of mine is a cheerleader, and we have a whole crew of tita cheerleaders! It doesn’t get better than this! (For those of you unfamiliar with the term “tita” (TIT-ah), it is usually a large, well-proportioned, always tough, very local (Hawaiian Islands) female… a woman with an attitude!) (more…)

One of my favorite bloggers is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, from Canada. She’s an amazing knitter and a wonderful writer. In January, she wrote about the Olympics and how knitting is her sport. Then she got the brilliant idea to have a “Knitting Olympics”, which would start during the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, and end before the flame was extinguished. You can read about it here. (more…)

Da Hawaiian language get ukupila words for rain: kili, kilihune, (fine, light rain), ko‘iawe, light, moving rain; lelehuna, fine, windblown rain. Ua, da rain, was beloved by early Hawaiians because it preserved da land, and was called kāhiko o ke akua, adornment of deity. Lots of rains had specific names and were associated poetically wit particular places [Hawaiian Dictionary, Pukui and Elbert]. My middo name, Anuheaikauatuahine, refers to da cool, refreshing rain Tuahine in Mānoa Valley on O‘ahu, weah I was born and raised. (more…)