Kris Knits

Sign me up

2006-09-05T12:54:00.000-05:00

I spent a good part of my holiday weekend looking at other blogging options. There are many good things about blogger that I like, especially the ability to modify almost every part of my blog by digging into the html. However, I am completely enamored of some features that blogger doesn't have. I want the ability to reply to comments I receive a la Typepad. I would love to have static pages that are outside of the blog hierarchy like Wordpress. Then I found it. Blogger Beta. While I am much to lazy to move things over, I am quite excited about what it will have to offer. It looks like it will have the drag and drop customization that Wordpress has. It can integrate html into it unlike Wordpress. It does not have static pages. But, curiosity did indeed kill the cat and is quite like to to be the death of me (either that or the sudden avalanche of wool). So, long and short of it is that I want a cooler url and now I have one. http://www.houseofwool.blogspot.com/ Come on over and check it out. It will be undergoing some refurbishing as I get into the groove of CSS. Does anyone out there know of a good cheat sheet? I have a great one for HTML but the new blogger is CSS based. Let me know what you think. New posts will go up there. If I get ambitious, I will try to move some of the old ones over, but that probably won't happen any time soon. Update bloglines and see you on the other page!

Blogger is buggy today

2006-09-04T13:21:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to post most of the day today. I get so frustrated when things that you expect to work don't. I finished another felted hat today. It came out pretty well. If I were to do it again, I would add the contrasting color to the outermost rim of the hat and make the stripe a bit wider. The crown of the hat is 40 rows before the decreases. I made the stripe 7 rows tall. I think I might make it 8 or 9 rows next time. The colors on the darker picture are more accurate. Naturally, the red doesn't photograph worth crap.

Eric has started a new rotation and while overall the hours sound like they will be better (pre-rounding at 7 versus 5:30 am), the call days are definitely worse. Today he is in the pediatric ER until 10 p.m. Blech. I have not worked much on the shawl in a ~~futile~~, ~~desperate~~, ~~pathetic~~ attempt to get a few more pieces done for the craft show. I am realizing that it is much closer than it should be. Mostly I will be doing hats. I love the felted ones and they are great stashbusters for me. This one was done from the same wool as Eric's hat and the red left over from a Christmas stocking. Hopefully this will off set the guilt of several recent online purchases. Destash is quickly becoming my worst nightmare, or at least my bank account's. On Saturday, I made my first purchase from Knitpicks. Yes, I realize that I am the last knitter alive to do so. I decided to try my hand at kool-aide dyeing again. The last one was so successful and I always need inexpensive wool for the felted hats. I also needed a needle and even with several balls of wool, the cost of the entire order with shipping was under 20 bucks. A decent needle would have cost at least $15 at my lys. Here's hoping it is a decent buy. Have a happy and safe Labor Day to all of those here in the U.S. We are really going all out by having Caleb's best friend over for the afternoon. (Yes, this is a bald faced attempt to keep him occupied while Eric is gone all day, thank you very much.)

A quick little knit

2006-09-02T08:57:00.000-05:00

I have been working on the shawl nearly every day. It is progressing. I just finished row 100 which puts me about halfway through the fourth chart. I am ignoring how many more rows I have to go. Along with how many more stitches that is if I increase by 2 every row. (Really, it is 4 st on every odd row, but hey, who's counting.) I've noticed a few small errors, but nothing that I am willing to rip back for. Time to let my inner zen shine through. I am using lifelines because I am freaking paranoid about having to start over because I drop a stitch. For some reason, I did not wig out about doing my first true lace project with cobweb weight black yarn. Speaking of yarn, I am completely amazed that I have knit this much and only used 12 grams of yarn. I have another whole hank of this stuff. We'll have to see what becomes of it. I can't imagine wearing many shawls, but they are so lovely and really test my mind (not to mention my ability to refrain from profanities). I knit up the first hat from the clearance yarn. It is cute and simple. I plan to make a matching scarf for it using a broken rib pattern. It should be cute. I do love the sherbet-y color of this one.

On a completely different topic, I found the following blog entry on the top 10 ways to create angry employees. Tell me you haven't experienced at least a couple of them!

What's your favorite game?

2006-08-29T19:27:00.000-05:00

Mine apparently has become "Where the fuck did I leave my car?" Every night I walk out of work and can't remember where I parked. Granted, the parking lot at work is larger than the parking lot at my supermarket, however, I park in the same row every day just to make life less uncertain. Today as I left work I couldn't remember where I parked and had to stop and look around. Makes me wish I had one of those fancy alarm key fob thingies so I could beep the damn thing and find out where it was. But that would take away the charm of the game. It would also seem that my other favorite game has become, "what is the most creative punishment for a 3 year old that isn't cruel and won't land me in jail". Caleb had developed a sassy attitude that rivals most teenagers. Sunday's outburst netted him a 30 minute timeout in his room. Tonight, he was in bed a full 45 minutes early. Give me the terrible two's any day. Nothing new on the knitting front. I am still working on the shawl and have put the tank into a temporary time out. I picked up some yarn on clearance at Joann's last week to knit up into simple hats and scarf sets to sell at the craft fair. I got the orange, blue and purple. Someone explain to me why I keep buying more yarn at Joann's if I don't like their selection?

Off the needles

2006-08-28T20:20:00.000-05:00

Finally something is done around here, the RPM socks are off the needles. Grab a cuppa cuz this is fairly picture intensive.

I like this pattern, but would make the purl stripes swirl the opposite direction on one of the socks if I were to knit them again.

Stats: Yarn: Shaffer's Lola - the colorway is no longer on their site. I adore this colorway much more than I had anticipated. At first I didn't like the teal, but it makes what could have been a very bland/boring sock great. I truly love the Lola yarns. I knit them up on US size 2 needles so they go pretty fast and make a very dense sock. This is the second one I have done and they are nice and sproingy. Heel: I changed from doing the heel stitch specified in the pattern and used the eye of partridge stitch instead. I am enthralled with how it comes out in hand painted yarn. Toe: The pattern was written to decrease down to 4 stitches and run the yarn through them all. I have very wide feet, so I increased the length of the foot and did my standard toe, decreasing to 24 stitches and kitchnering. BTW - have I mentioned that I like kitchnering as much as I like seaming? The first toe was fine, but that was last month. This second one was a bit more challenging. It probably didn't help that I stayed up way past my bedtime to get the darn thing done. It took at least 17 dozen tries because I kept repeating to myself "knit, purl" for the front needle. Okay, so far so good. Heading for the back needle now "knit, purl". DOH. *Frickafraca. Undo that. Okay, front needle "knit, purl". Yep, that looks okay. Deep breath, back needle "purl, knit". Yep, okay. No funny misplaced bumps. Front needle "knit, purl". Back needle "knit, purl". Where the hell did that purl bump come from. Repeat from * until no more stitches remain. Seriously. A retarded monkey could have done it faster. Not better, but faster. Eventually I got it right.

How sad is it that this is the one picture in which my ankles are visible that I don't have cankles. It truly is an injustice to an avid sock knitter to be cursed with ankles that would fit The Refridgerator Perry perfectly. Just as a side note, I discovered that I am not as flexible as I used to be. It is very difficult to photograph ones own toes in this fashion.

Seaming sucks

2006-08-27T09:13:00.000-05:00

I managed to seam the sides of the tank fairly well for a first timer, especially considering it is reverse stockinette. I am satisfied with it. (I won't tell you about the multiple false starts and panic moments. I don't mind looking stupid, but this would be beyond measure.)

Okay, I will tell you, but there is no photographic evidence. I had to start over/rip out the seams several time because a) I picked up the wrong horizontal bar and moved the seam over a stitch, b) I picked up the wrong horizontal bar and missed a row, c) my tension was all wonky and it looked like ruching not seaming. Bah, I prefer knitting in the round. I am struggling mightily with seaming the shoulders. No matter that I am matching stitch to stitch, the ribbing isn't lining up and I am not satisfied. I looks like crap.

The worst part are the directions for the back. I have seamed the shoulders before I am supposed to because the directions are exceedingly vague.

Cont even on 13 st each side until neckbands, when slightly stretched, meet at center back of neck.

HUH? WTF does that mean? The schematic does not show this as being a halter top. I think that I am suppose to make the neckbands meet the back where I bound off a bunch of stitches, but unfortunately there is no photo of the back. I should have seen that as a red flag when deciding on the pattern. I am wondering if I am suppose to make the neck band go all the way around the back of the neckline to meet in the middle, but it still doesn't make a lot of sense as the neckline on the back is a square. Idiot designers. I checked and there is no errata for this pattern. I am going to try the shoulder seams again, but I am so not happy with this part of finishing.

A Nearly FO

2006-08-26T08:54:00.000-05:00

I have nearly finished the tank top and there are a couple of things that I am not thrilled about. I lovelovelove the front. The shaping (once I fixed the increase issue) is very nice and fits well with the twisted ribbing. But for some reason the same attention to detail is lacking on the back. I am going to seam the sides up and see how it looks. Because it is cotton, I am planning on machine washing and drying it in lieu of blocking. Thank god for knittinghelp.com because I have never done the mattress stitch before and am ~~petrified~~ a wee bit concerned that sloppy finishing ~~make the entire project spontaneously combust in a huge burning ball of flames in my very hands~~ will prevent me from wearing the tank. Someone out there, please hold my hand through this. I have never seamed a garment before. I dislike finishing and really dislike sewing. Sewing is sewing, never-mind if it is with thread or yarn. An Un-Amazing Lace Update Truly, you have to knit a project for any progress to occur. The Peacock Feathers shawl has fallen victim to my perpetual ADD. I must have at least 6 projects on the needles currently. So much for getting the shawl done this summer. It blows my mind that I have done as well as I have with it so far (knock on wood). I found a small mistake on it last night a couple of rows down but I think I will be able to fix it with a good solid blocking. (a left versus right leaning decrease) I am on the 4th of 7 (8?) charts and am on row 97. That's nearly 200 stitches per row. Every odd row adds 4 stitches. There are ~250 rows including the edging. I must stop thinking about how many stitches that is. RPM I am still working on this slowly. I have finished the gusset and have started the the foot. This is just a filler project until the weather turns colder and I am am jonesing for another pair of wool socks. Odessa Yep, another of Grumperina's designs. As always, cleverly designed and meticulously written. This is for sale at the craft fair this fall. I am using yarn from my stash that is finer than what the pattern called for. I didn't make any changes and so it is coming out too small for an adult, but it will be fine for a child. Felted bag I have started this again. The shape is vaguely based on the Sophie Bag, but with some serious modifications. If it works, I may submit this one for publication. For now, it is under wraps. I have come to the conclusion that part of the reason I had been feeling so crappy about work the last few weeks is partly because of hormones (gotta love the ability to reproduce and the wacked out things it does to the female psyche) but also because I had stopped knitting. I was working on stuff at home and not taking any time to do the things that I enjoy. So, this week I decided that this approach obviously wasn't working and decided to knit some more. Not surprisingly, I am feeling better balanced. Hmm, scientific enough proof for me.

Still here

2006-08-18T20:10:00.000-05:00

I have started this post a dozen times in my head, but I just never seem to get the opportunity to actually sit down and write it. My life has taken on a whirlwind pace that I am ~~not enjoying~~ hating. Unfortunately, I am quite afraid that it will be like this for a bit longer. I just don't see the stuff at work ending anytime soon. Add to it that I got my hand slapped at work (and rightfully so) today, life has sucked of late. But, on to knitting. My anal qualities are shining through. I have been knitting both the front and back of the tank top at the same time because, well, just because. I've already documented how I tore the whole thing out because it was too big. So, to say that I am experiencing project burn out on this one would not do the feelings justice. I still like it, but I just feel like I have done it already. I got all the way through the bust increases on both pieces and was starting the decreases when I realized that I hated the way the increases looked. (Excuse the blurry focus on the camera - I was playing with the settings and apparently I didn't know what I was/am doing.) The patterned called for a M1 for the increases on either side without reversing the M1 type which left a stairstep look that I didn't like.

So I fixed it.

I fixed all four increase lines.

I ended up doing a raised increase (my favorite increase) on the knit side on the right side and doing a raised increase on the purl side on the way back. Although the increases are off-set by a row, they mirror each other almost perfectly and most importantly (to me) they better match the K2tog and SSK decreases used throughout the garment without leaving the stair-step look.

Because I only have 3 skeins of the Cotton Fleece, once I divided for the neckline, I have been knitting off both ends of the 3rd skein. It drives me crazy. The situations is exacerbated by the fact that there was a tremendous yarn-barf at some point and I ended up with a glob of yarn that tangled around everything. I now have the big skein from which I am knitting off the outside and a smaller center-pull ball that was the yarn-barf that is coming from the inside of the skein. I nearly grabbed the ball winder and a pair of scissors, but ended up light-headed just thinking about joins and ends and whatifIcutinthewrongspot and no spit-splice and howwillthenendsholdupinthewasher. I think I will just suffer through the twisty, crazy-making snarl of yarn that ensues. I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but at the beginning of summer our next door neighbor who was quite elderly passed away. (This was a blessing, she was in poor health and significant pain. She was able to remain at home until the end, which was exactly what she wanted.) She was an avid knitter and sewer and kept at both until her ailments prevented her from doing so. Earlier this week, I ran into one of the daughters who is cleaning out the house (imagine 50+ years of crap in the attic, basement and spare bedroom!) and we chatted for a bit. She said that they have organized more that 1000 (yes 1000) pieces of fabric to sell, not including what they were keeping themselves. I mentioned that I knit too and that Marie (the neighbor) and I used to talk about it a bit. I told her that I would love to purchase any knitting items that they are not keeping themselves because I collect old needles and patterns. Thankfully she took it properly and said that she would let me know. I can hardly contain my excitement. More stuff!

I was wrong

2006-08-13T21:17:00.000-05:00

I was soooooo wrong, life got busier! I feel like I haven't gotten time to myself in weeks. Thankfully it should be getting better in the next few days. Most of the major events have taken place and my life can resume it's normal state of chaos. I will post more as I get time, but I need to check my work email... My boss was apparently online this weekend and actually called me when I specifically told her I would be out of town. I so regret giving her my personal cell number.

Just when you think life can't get any busier

2006-07-31T19:24:00.000-05:00

I realized today that it has been over a week since my last post. Every since I got back from Houston, I have been unreasonably busy. This weekend we drove across the state for a family reunion which was very nice. This weekend is off. The following Friday is the big event for work that has been in the works since January. Then on Saturday and Sunday we are traveling for another family reunion. The weekend after that, my parents have invited us to join them up north (5+ hours) for a weekend at a cabin. I declined - I am too busy. I need to weed my garden before the pernicious vines in the garden overtake it completely . It seems like every time I turn around there is another obligation that lands at my feet. With Eric working 14+ hour days 6 days a week, the workload around the house isn't getting any better. (I'm not complaining, at least not that much). I just wish that I had more time for myself. Since becoming a parent, that is the one thing I miss more than I ever thought I would. Aside from all of the self-pity, life is treating me quite well. I finally nailed down a baby sitter for the night of the pro baseball game that I got invited to attend for work. It should be fun, I think there are about 150 attending the game. At least a few of my favorite people will be there, along with the creepy guy who turns into an octopus when drunk. But, it is a baseball game and I keep debating the merits of bringing a sock to work on, but it is a work function... At least there will be dinner and drinks beforehand. Contrary to all evidence, I have been knitting. But unfortunately, you will have to wait for proof. I am too lazy to dig out the WIP and take pictures today. I have turned the second heel on the RPM socks. This is such a fun pattern to knit. It really is perfect for a handpaint. I have started the armhole shaping on the back of the tank. I am still not sure how I am liking the changes I made. Even though I decreased the stitches throughout the pattern, it somehow looks disproportionate. I will just have to ride it out. It would be perfect if I could wear it to the ball game, which is in a week. I need to get cracking!

Whoo Hoo

2006-07-22T11:31:00.000-05:00

Eric got his Step 1 exam results yesterday. Despite his conviction that he failed, he did superbly! I can hardly stand how excited I am. This means that we most likely won't have to move again because he should be able to match into a program here for his residency! I am proud beyond words for him!

Okay, I lied

2006-07-21T15:23:00.000-05:00

This post is VERY picture intensive, grab a cup (or 2) of your favorite libation and sit back. Turns out the camera isn't dead after all. It was the batteries, duh. Which is very strange because normally when that happens, I end up with this HUGE 3-5 second lag between pictures. This time however, the battery indicator showed that the battery was full and there was no lag. All of a sudden, poof, no more ability to take pictures. The worst part is that it happened in the middle of the show in Houston and I had no way to get more batteries. I'm very glad that I don't have to buy a new camera right now. I got a huge amount knit on the trip. I was so frustrated that I didn't want to do anything that was even remotely work related during my down time. So, I got all but the toe of one of the RPM socks done and started the second. I wasn't about to peel the shoes off my feet to see if the socks were the right length on the plane. Not cool.

Here is a progress picture. Not to bad considering I was doing these a needle short of what I would have liked.

I have stayed pretty true to the pattern execpt that I did the eye of partridge stitch on the heel instead of the heel stitch that was called for. I adore how it comes out in a hand painted yarn.*

I've also got pictures of the tank and the shawl even though those haven't been touched since last week.

*Can you tell I finally figured out the macro function on the camera? Turns out that reading dozens of digi camera reviews last night paid off. Hopefully with some better photography.

Back safe and sound

2006-07-21T08:13:00.000-05:00

I got back from my trip yesterday. Tons of knitting got done on the plane, but my camera died so no pics for a while. Unfortunately the event I went down for was a complete bust. It was not worth the time or money spent. I am not looking forward to explaining everything to my superiors. I am keeping this very short because Caleb is home sick and I can't get nearly enough work done as it is.

Hitting the road

2006-07-18T21:34:00.000-05:00

I am so very lucky. I have a great friend from work. We all have the work friends, you know the ones, you call them friends, yet would never consider doing anything with them outside of the workplace. Maybe drinks after work on a particularly crappy day or lunch on the occasional Friday, but not much more. My friend Joe is the other kind of work friend. The one where you wish that life wasn’t quite so busy so that you could do stuff outside of work. As this is my first business trip for this company, he provided me with a couple of key pieces of equipment to make me look like the veteran business traveler. I already have the company laptop. Check. I have my personal cell phone. Check. New carry on bag because the old one has traveled the world over and the zipper has finally given out. (Wonder if there is a way to expense that particular purchase back to the company? Hmm, I will have to give that some thought.) Check. Joe gave me an ear bud from an old cell phone. (The ear bud is new, the phone was old.) Now, I look all cool and everything talking without holding a phone (this freaked Caleb out, he keeps asking how I am talking on the phone but didn’t have it next to my mouth.) Check. But the thing I like best is Joe lent me a preloaded ipod shuffle. So much better than sitting in O’Hare zoning to CNN while knitting. Instead I am blogging while listening to HeyJude, The Bitch Is Back, Solisbury Hill among other titles. Joe appears to have pretty good taste in music, but I did find a glaring lapse in the selections. Not one title by Sting (Brand New Day is one of my favorite albums – saw that in concert, YUM!) I would have tried to load it on myself, but my guess is that as it is an ipod, you need special software to make it work on a PC. So, this morning, armed with all of the modern essentials for 21st century business travel, I boarded the puddle jumper at 6 a.m. for the 18 minute flight to Chicago and then on to Houston. The sock has made its first plane trip.

I felt so silly on the plane because I was taking pictures out the window. I’ve flown a lot, but I thought that Caleb would like to see what everything looks like from a plane. He’s flown a lot too, but all of it was before he was 18 months old, so he doesn’t remember any of it. I am sure that the other passengers thought I was a complete novice flyer. Not that I care – I’ll never see them again. During the boarding process, I ended up changing seats twice. The first time, There was a sweet couple in their 60’s and they were seated several rows apart. I took his seat so they could sit together. No big deal. I’ve traveled several times where Eric and I were separated. As soon as I sat down, I saw that the person seated next to me was also separated from her traveling companion. So, being the kind person I am, I switched. There was a bit of an ulterior motive because this allowed me to sit on the aisle. The rest of the trip has proved fairly uneventful so far. I got so much done on the sock. The heel is turned and I have picked up the gusset stitches. The worst part is that I lost one needle. Luckily, I was working with 5, so I can make this work, but 3 needles never feels all that comfortable in my hands. I have more at home, but didn’t think to bring any extras with on the trip. I will just have to be extra careful not to lose any more.

Is it normal

2006-07-12T12:40:00.000-05:00

to spend more time worrying about how I am going to bring the appropriate number and type of knitting projects on an upcoming business trip than the actual business of the trip itself? I mean, really, I have a carry on full of clothes etc that will go in the overhead compartment or will be checked gateside depending on the size of the plane. But, I also should bring the laptop from work so I can at least look like I am working. Which really means that I will not be able to bring a separate knitting bag. However, I just know that the flight will provide some sensational knitting time. Uninterupted knitting time. Perfect for the shawl that won't knit itself. On the other hand, I have a car ride out to a customer that is 1-1/2 hours each way in which I will NOT be driving. Again, perfect knitting time. For something simple. The tank or a sock. The choices are staggering here. I could also start the felted bag. It would appear that the knitting karma is reversing again, and I feel it would be prudent to start another new project. Just in case the others on hold in the basket felt they might possibly be picked up again. We wouldn't want them to get optimistic or anything. But, the bag is a stranded projects, and I don't think I want to juggle 2 balls in the car. So, strike the bag. Which brings me back to socks or the tank. Tank Pros

Completely portable
Yarn is already wound in compact balls.
I know the pattern and won't have to pull it out much to consult.
Circular needles can't get lost.
A fast knit now that there are fewer stitches per row.

Tank Cons

I think I know the pattern and this increases the likelihood that I will make a mistake of gartantuan proportions necessitating starting over. Again.
Worsted Weight yarn = more space in suitcase.
A fast knit requiring that I bring more extra yarn along. See the dilema at the top of this post.

Sock Pros

Very small.
Completely portable.
I don't need a pattern (does this set off alarms bells for anyone else or are they just in my head?).
I will get to use either the Koigu or the Schaeffer that I have wound up already. Yum.
The odds that I will finish an entire sock on the trip are minimial so I will only need the one ball of yarn.
It's really hot in Texas and these won't sit on my lap.

Sock Cons

DPNs can get lost.
After all of the swatching and lusting after Vintage Socks, I feel like I have lost the fever for socks.

I should have known

2006-07-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

I spent most of the weekend working on the garden (sorry no pics) including watering it. It was great and the garden looks pretty decent. The tomatoes are getting big and the boys are anxious to taste the first fruits of my labor. The basil is beautiful and I am dreaming of pesto. On Sunday, the heavens opened up and we got drenched with an astounding 3+" of water in just a couple of hours. It figures. I have restarted the tank. I am not enjoying it quite as much this time around, but mostly I think it is just project fatigue coupled with the uncertainty of how I am going to handle some of the shaping. I modified the pattern to better match my gauge and so far it seems okay. I am planning on keeping everything pretty much the same, but because I dropped 12 stitches from both the front and back, the neck line shaping will have to be tweaked in order to work. The shawl is growing, slowly but it is growing. I have come to the conclusion that I actually need to pick it up and work on it for it to grow. Shocking, I know.

This past weekend, I did something that was long overdue. I went shopping for clothes. By myself. At a new mall. I spent a ton of time in one of the anchor stores and actually bought 2 pair of pants. I was thrilled. See, in February, I was a size 12 going on 14. Then I started Weight Watchers. I have since dropped 25 pounds and am a size 4. The best part about the shopping trip is that I found a store that carries pants that fit me. Narrow waist and breeding hips. I bought 2 pairs and returned the first 2. I was soooooo thrilled.

Now, I just need to work on keeping it off. I refuse to go back to being frumpy. On the other hand, I don't want to be the mom who tries too hard. I think I am balancing it, but as the extent of Caleb's fashion sense is that he would prefer to wear sweats 365 days a year, he doesn't really say much. (Yes, he would like to wear them when it is 95 degrees out. Yep, it drives me batty to see him all flushed insisting that he is cold. I want to know who out there thought 3 year olds are easier than 2 year olds. Filthy rotten liar.)

The oddest part about it all is how slowly my self-image changes. No matter how heavy I was, I always pictured myself as a size 8. Now, I look in the mirror and all I see is the cellulite under the clothes. I like eating too much to ever end up with an eating disorder, but I have been thinking a lot about what it means that I still picture myself heavier than I really am. Is this a product of the media and our fascination with girl/women with long lean legs and not a spec of body fat? Or is a normal psychological phenomenon and in a few months my self-image and my actual body will be in closer alignment?

Ribbit go the socks

2006-07-07T22:45:00.000-05:00

No such luck in the knitting realm lately. Last week the tank bit the dust. This week it was the Pomatomus. While the socks were working beautifully and they were gorgeous. On the needles. On my ankles, not so much. Having cankles is a terrible burden for an avid sock knitter. So, I am thinking that I might just try a toe up version of the new RPM socks from Knitty. I have no more patience with swatching socks this week. I also need something simple for an upcoming business trip. I am thinking that the flight will be a decent opportunity to work on my shawl, but for the long drives with co-workers, I need something that I don't really have to think much about. Besides, it will give me the chance to work on my short-row heels. I am also quite tempted by Wendy's new pattern Sizzle. I will make the v-neck not quite so plunging, not having the assests to flaunt. But I like the overal look and shape of the pattern. That and it happpens to match the gauge I am getting in the purple cotton fleece. I realize that this pretty much guarantees that my gauge will change once I start knitting. I am convinced that I am jinxed lately. Most of the projects that I have started have ended up in the frog pond. Here's hoping that this turns around because I have have so many things lined up. I am still tossing around an idea for a felted bag. I have most of the details worked out, but I don't want to jinx it by starting it now...

Ribbit goes the tank

2006-07-04T11:18:00.000-05:00

I was doing so well with the cute little tank. I was going to be a good little ~~knitter~~ Knitter and do it in pieces and seam it. I was going to follow the directions. I even swatched. But through the mysteries of swatching these well-laid plans were derailed. I knew I wasn't getting gauge. I figured that if I went down a size that it should be pretty close. That was a minor misjudgement. I was hoping that the front would come out to be about 15.5 inches at the waist. I wasn't off by just a little bit. It came in at a whopping 18+ inches. So, this

quickly became this.

I have made good progress on the newest pair of socks. Then, I made the critical error of trying to fit it over my cankles. No go.

Here is the revised progress. I had to purchase needles that are 2.5mm which I didn't have. These seem to be working much better for the yarn.

On the yarn saga front, I think it finally all resolved. Last Friday, I snuck out of work a bit early and drove across town to exchange the skein of the KPPPM for another one. I had 2 skeins being held so there was no danger of not getting the 2 skeins (my luck held on this one). I explained the situation to the clerks who where a bit stunned. I asked that they wind the 2 skeins and while they dragged their feet a bit, the did wind them for me. Somehow in the confusion of leaving I didn't pay for the second skein that they were holding me. I managed to come out on top of the deal which thrilled me, it shorted the store, which didn't break my heart and now I know I have enough to knit the socks.

Ying and Yang

2006-06-22T21:12:00.000-05:00

Ying. I am so unbelievably irritated tonight. According to the business card that I picked up the last time I was at the snooty yarn shop, they are open until 8 pm on Thursdays. Says so, right on the card. Anyone else see this as a bad omen? So, I took the craptastic skein of Koigu with me to work and planning to go all the way to the other side of town afterwards to exchange it for the 2 that they are holding for me. (I called about that earlier this week. I am not so confident that I will have enough with just one skein per sock.) I stop home quickly on my way to the shop to get Eric after his exam (more on that later) and we set off to the other side of town. The conversation was excellent; we haven’t talked this much in almost 2 months. I grab my knitting bag and climb out of the car thinking that the windows of the @#$#%& store look pretty dark. Sure enough, the hours posted on the window do NOT match what is on their business card. The one I just freakin’ got. I swear, once this yarn thing is straightened out, I am not going back. I don’t care how much great sock yarn and hand paints they have. I. Will. Not. Yang. As I mentioned already, Eric took his board exam today. We have to wait 6 excruciatingly long weeks to get the results. (I’d ask you to keep your fingers crossed, but that would make it hard to knit.) So, tonight, we went out to celebrate. Eric will pick up Caleb tomorrow, so we are childless for the evening. And here I am blogging instead of having a wild night with the hubby. So much for middle age! We had a very nice dinner – spent way more money than we should have, but hey we don’t do it often. I am keeping this short so I can work on the tank top. I have started the armhole shaping on the back and am almost done with the bust increases on the front. I have started into the last skein – think happy, yarn lengthening thoughts. I am too lazy to take pics tonight, but hope to have it nearly finished soon.

Who would have guessed?

2006-06-18T14:53:00.000-05:00

I had a whole long post nearly written when my computer crashed. This time, I am composing in Word and will copy and paste. Yesterday, I ran what seemed to be a million errands. In reality, it was probably closer to 5 places, but one of them I tried on clothes so it seemed like more. One of the items on my list was to return the flawed skein of Barefoot to the snooty yarn shop. I have to say that the ladies were much more gracious than I expected. They were horrified by the skein once I showed it to them and obviously agreed to exchange it. I spent an inordinate amount of time choosing a replacement.* The remaining Barefoot did not call out to me as the original had. There were a few skeins of Schaefer Anne, but it was more comfortable on the shelf than in my stash. While the yarns are beautiful, some of the color combinations are too jarring for me. I finally decided to go with 2 skeins of Koigu’s PPPM as a replacement. I took them up to the counter and pulled out the receipt for the Barefoot and realized that the PPPM was three dollars more expensive for the pair of socks. The lady was very generous and let me make a direct exchange because of all of the trouble. I thanked her profusely and left the store thinking that all was right in the universe. Hmm, usually that signals trouble, doesn’t it? I should have known better. I set up the ball winder and dragged the lamp over as a swift. Everything started well enough. I was enthralled by the colors, the silky texture of the yarn as it slipped through my fingers, the pearl-like appearance of the plies. It was a short-lived bliss. About halfway through the skein a few slubs appeared. At first I was irritated. But I rationalized that yarn is a natural thing and that natural things aren’t perfect. Besides, knitted up tightly, the slubs shouldn’t cause any problems. Then IT appeared. One of the plies was slightly longer than the other and had twisted up on itself causing a small lump. I was moderately irritated. But again, I thought to myself, yarn is natural. One little thing like this, no problem. I can cut it out and who cares about 1 join in a sock, its only 4 ends. It seemed that there was smooth winding ahead. We all know how appearances can be deceiving, don’t we? A few minutes later, the first knot appeared (notice I say first). My irritation boiled just below the surface. Now there would have to be 2 joins in the sock. That’s 6 ends to weave in on one single-colored sock. Because I was about three-quarters of the way through winding, I pushed onward. Then I found a SECOND knot. I fumed. Eight frickin’ ends? No frickin’ way was that going to happen, not on a skein that run $12.50. I finished winding the skein and resolved to take the hateful thing back. Unfortunately the second skein must have noticed my bad attitude because, while it was free of flaws, it tangled terribly and took nearly an hour to wind. Guess that shows me. Now, if only I could find a sock pattern that matches the gauge I am getting. I have lots for 7st/in, some for 8, but for most of yarns laying around the house, I am getting 9st/in. How crazy is that. There are a few patterns from Vintage socks that I should be able to modify to fit my purpose and gauge. Hopefully I will have more to post on that later. Progress report on the tank top – I have reached the bust increases on both front and back. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the yardage will be sufficient. Peacock Feathers is progressing. I am through row 42. Once I finish this chart (and it stops raining) I will post more pictures. *I have a very hard time making a decision when there are a lot of options. When I was a kid, if given money to buy a candy bar, I would often leave the store with the coins still in my pocket, paralyzed by indecision, overwhelmed by the myriad of options. Unfortunately, I still struggle with the same issue today. I have found a solution when it comes to yarn though. I simply purchase most of the items that strike my fancy. Hey – notice I didn’t say this was an affordable solution, simply a solution. Just don’t tell Eric – he has no clue how much yarn I have.

What a sweet surprise

2006-06-16T19:35:00.000-05:00

Today is a bit bittersweet. On one hand, I am a bit sad because Caleb has gone to spend some time at my sister's house playing with his cousins. I already miss his sweet, slightly sticky self. On the other hand, I am child-free for a weekend. I can't even remember the last time that happened. Hopefully at the end of it, my house will be clean (or not). Both halves of the purple tank are approximately the same length.

I am figuring that I will knit until I reach the end of the shorter (swatched from) skein and see how it looks. Judging by the fact that the number of stitches at the waist and the bust are equal, I think I will need to add at least 1-1/2" in the middle. (Being tall sucks - all of your sweaters take longer. Why can't I be 5'5" instead of nearly 5'9"? Just think of all of the yarn I could save.)

The lace is much more fun an challenging than the other pattern. On this one, all even rows are purled except for a garter stitch boarder. But on the right side, the pattern is charted to the center, then you reverse and knit it back. It can be tricky because you have to reverse all of the K2tog and SSK's. Fun. So, here is the obligatory lace in the flowers shot.

I put in a lifeline now I can't remember which row it equates to. Oh well.

But the sweet surprise is what was waiting in the mail for me today. A while ago, I sent off some leftover sock yarn from my first couple of pairs to Jennifer. Today, I received my sample Knit Notes. I love them so much, it is neat to see how well they turned out. The best part is that she kept meticulous notes and made sure that each knitter's samples cards contained the yarn that (s)he donated.

These are from the Christmas presents I have to my mom and sister. Eventually she will have these blank cards up on her blog for purchase. Thanks Jennifer, they rock!

Random Tuesdays

2006-06-13T21:19:00.000-05:00

Yep - got a whole lot of little things... or nothin' depending on your point of view. 1. Last week I posted a comment on the Yarn Harlot, something I don't do all that frequently, but by chance, I was in the first 10 or so comments, so I wouldn't have been the 20 bazillionth person to say the same inane thing (nope, one of the first this time). Then, the most amazing thing happened. She. Replied. To. My. Comment. I will never delete that email. My lone brush with fame - excuse me while I swoon. 2. The scale has turned out to be quite the fun toy. I have diligently split several skeins of sock yarn. Nothing too exciting, so no pics. Really, they are just 2 smaller balls of yarn. Use your imaginations here. It was great fun to do it knowing that it was accurate to within a gram! Why yes, I do have anal-retentive tendencies, thank you so kindly for noticing. 3. My new lace pattern arrived today. I can't wait to cast on, again. This time, I am trying the Peacock Feathers Shawl from Fiddlesticks. I am intrigued by knitting variations of the same pattern. I asked a few questions over at knitters review and got some more advice about the Merino Oro. I was shocked to see that they recommended a size 3 needle for this ~~thread~~ yarn due to the bloom. I hadn't thought to test block it, but will shortly. 4. I finally got around to felting the 2 hats I had. The second VPH came out just like the first - no real surprise there. Imagine - using the same yarn, needles and pattern and getting the same results - it boggles the mind. Predictable results, what a concept.

I used the same pattern and the thick and thin wool that I overdyed and got the largest hat imaginable, even after felting. It can only be called extra-large if you are being overly kind. *Freaking* gigantic is more like it. The thing is huge on my 21" head. Here's hoping there is a woman with an overly large head that wants a honkin' purple hat. Any takers?

I do like how the thick portions of the yarn created a scalloped edge on the brim. Not something I anticipated, but nonetheless, I like it quite a bit.

Felting is always so much more fun than I remember. I now have the itch to do more. Partly because the weather is heating up and lugging a sweater around just isn't my idea of fun. I am still working out a pattern I have for a felted purse. Hopefully I will get it figured out soon.

5. Speaking of sweaters, the tank progress, but until the split for the neck, it is BORING. Even the fun ribbing pattern doesn't jazz it up enough to pull me away from the shawl.

This particular pattern has me a bit nervous. By knitting it as written (except for adding a bit of length) I will be seaming my second sweater.* Yep - I've been knitting more than 10 years and have always found a way around seaming. I know that I simply need the right resources (including a glass of liquid courage). Thinking about this has made me accept the fact that until I seam this thing I will be just a lowly knitter, not the Knitter I picture myself as. (Sorry - I don't need to steek to be a Knitter - not yet anyway). Guess, I need to find out something about this thing called the mattress stitch.

*My first seamed sweater was a true disaster. Not one of the pieces fit with it's mate. In a fit of rage, I ripped out the entire thing and reknit it in the round. Yep. The whole damn thing. Now, I am thinking of reknitting it because I know a bit more about shaping and I have found that raglans are not the most flattering fit for me.

How did this yarn get in my stash?

2006-06-11T12:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a good day. Caleb went to play with a friend and I had a small S.E.X. Yep - it was great, almost as good a chocolate. First I went to the snooty LYS here that I don't normally frequent because they frown on small children. Since Caleb usually comes with, I frequent the shop that has a puzzle and the employees are willing to sit with him and color. However, the snooty LYS has a different selection of sock yarns. Since I just got Knitting Vintage Socks, I wanted a plain yarn, preferably tweedy, but without a lot of variegation. I am quite happy with what I found. I am thinking that these might be for Eric, but, I'm not sure yet. I also picked up the Stitch Keepers by Rollie. I can't wait to cast on and use them. Somehow, a lone skein of Mountain Colors Barefoot jumped right on to the counter while I was checking out. I can't quite figure it out.

I am a bit disappointed because I started to wind the Barefoot and realized that it has several snags and flaws necessitating a trip back to the snooty store. Blech However, the best part was the pocket scale that I found. There is a place here that sells all sorts of odd things, mostly science related. They had a scale that was great, but was way more than I wanted to spend. The kid behind the counter referred me to a place I had never heard of saying that they also had scales. When I pulled in the lot, I had to laugh at the kid and myself. Gamely, I made my way through the parking lot. I opened the door to the store and was hit with the invisible wall of incense. You know the one. The one you once thought disguised the smell of other things. Once my eyes adjusted to the lower light levels, I could see the physical wall of incense and the knowledge that I was in a head shop was undeniable. I also realized that any place like that which sells scales accurate to 0.1 gm is not selling it for legal purposes. It completely made my day to know that I was probably their only customer this year who was not planning on using the scale for street drugs!

The tank is progressing, waist shaping is done on the back. I am very happy with how it looks so far. Because ~~the knitting gods may strike me down~~ of the potential yarn shortage I started the front even though I am only about half way through the back. I am beginning to think that I might just make it, but I am sure that even thinking that will draw the wrath of the gods. Just to keep me on my toes, the other night I found this. I couldn't live with the split stitch so I dropped it down and fixed it. Sorry, no pics of the repair in progress.

Packages

2006-06-07T20:54:00.000-05:00

Today on my way home from work, after picking up Bubba, I stopped and got my glasses fixed. Had to. Stepped on them this weekend. Luckily I was able to force them back into a semblance of the proper shape, but they were a bit crooked on my face. I would not have gone to the mall if I had know what was waiting at home. I was so excited when I saw the box. Eric ordered these for me back before Mother's Day and they finally arrived today. I could hardly decide which to read first. In the end, I couldn't make up my mind and tried them all. I too have been suffering from Startitis. The Amazing Lace is partly to blame. I have still not found the right pattern for the ~~thread~~ cobweb weight yarn. I keep looking and everything I see, the pattern either costs an arm and a leg for just the pattern or it is for laceweight. We'll see what I come up with. In the meantime, to stave off boredom, I started a tank top. Granted, it is already June, so I need to get cracking if I have a snowball's chance in August of wearing it yet this summer. (Sorry for the crappy pics - there is no macro lens on this vintage digital camera.) I am so loving the twisted rib patterning. Hopefully the 3 skeins of Cotton Fleece will be enough. It's all I have. It was on clearance. Personally, I think the fates are against me. This is coming out. As is the same amount of progress in thread. Blech. I am contemplating this for the AL, but because it is just 4 row repeat, it seems like cheating. I have pretty much decided that I would like to use up the sport-weight TFA, but am still searching for a pattern. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

The Amazing Lace Team

2006-06-03T20:12:00.000-05:00

While the past few weeks leading up to the big event have been nerve-wracking for our Team Captain, she remains strong in the face of a number of last-minute substitutions. The team originally consisted of our Team Captain (TC), the Pinwheel Shawl pattern from Wool You Order, Merino Oro in black and brand new Addi circ. The first hint of trouble was the needles. The size 1 (yes 1) needles seemed too small. Having already shelled out for both the ~~thread~~ yarn and the needles our TC needed some quick thinking. The cost of the Addi's was nearly what the skein of Merino Oro had cost and there was no way to justify another set of needles. Not having a size 2 circ handy she sat back and thought for a bit. She quickly realized that the first substitution wouldn't break the bank. Digging through her great-grandmothers stash of vintage knitting needles she found a pair of pale pink straights. Sadly, the tip of one was damaged, seemingly beyond repair. In a stroke of genius, our illustrious TC pulled of a miracle and fixed the tip. The pinch hitter was on track to save the day, but our TC noticed that she suffered from a flare-up of tendonitis each time she sat down to knit on the shawl. Before long, she even realized that it was the straights that were causing the problem. Grandma's straights went back into the stash and out came a size 3 bamboo circ. Aaaah, much better on the wrist. But they were much too large for the ~~thread~~ yarn. Hmmm, this was not going to work. After much consideration, the Merino Oro was benched. Tree Frog Alpaca in color #38 was in. As the TFA is so slippery, it will take some careful consideration to determine the proper needle for this yarn. Originally the ball band calls for a 3.5/4, so our intrepid TC has decided to try size 7 (circ), most probably a Susan Bates, but as it has been marinating in the stash for years, its lineage is uncertain, and it is slippery as heck as well. How will she fair? Stay tuned for more updates.

Playing Catch Up

2006-06-01T12:22:00.000-05:00

There were all sorts of things that I wanted to post yesterday, but in my rush to do something (besides crawling around the neighbor's yard taking pictures of the scarf) I completely forgot about them. And others have cropped up since. 1. Go read this awesome pattern from the Yarn Harlot, you'll have to scroll down a bit. Go ahead, I'll wait for you to come back. 2. Thanks for all of the lovely comments on the overdyeing. A lot of the varying intensities came from the fact that the yarn was already variegated, white, gray and dark gray to begin with. What did surprise me is that even though I thought I mixed the Kool-Aide colors together pretty well, I still had a spottiness to the color which is what I had hoped for. So, some of it came out all black cherry-ish and other parts are a deep purple hue and still others are a faint pink or purple. 3. What you can't see in the picture from the other day is that I cast-on as soon as it was ~~no longer dripping wet~~ dry enough to wind into a ball. I am planning yet another felted hat out of it, mostly because I don't know what else to do with a thick and thin yarn like this (please talk me out of it if I have to have some of this again!) and the yardage is about right. Let's not talk about the 3 remaining skeins in 3 different colors I have in the stash approximately 100 yds each. I am open to suggestions because another garter stitch scarf may cause irreparable brain damage. 4. However, I did not test felt this yarn. I know that the knitting goddess/fairy/imp will strike me down for this. In my defense, I know it will felt because I mucked around with it a bit much on the first dyeing go-round and the fibers aren't quite as "lofty" in the unspun areas as they used to be. *cough* While I thought that the VPH was laughablely ~~large~~ ginormous, this thing is a behemouth! I cast on the same size and am using larger needles, so it make sense that it is larger, but I didn't envision being able to fit a regulation basketball in it. 5. Last night I decided to put all of the stuff for the craft fair in November in one spot and realized that I already have four things in there and several others are planned. Woo hoo. 6. Unfortunately, during this brief foray into my knitting ~~basket~~ corner I also discovered that lace does not knit itself, nor have the knitting fairies deigned to knit it for me.

Clapotis revealed

2006-05-31T18:51:00.000-05:00

Finally, a free moment while there is sunlight and it isn't raining thanks to the woman who is quickly becoming one of my favorite people! Hi Sarah! She is my son's best friend's mother. And she doesn't read the blog - how dumb am I for the shout out to someone who will never know it!

As promised, here are pics and details of the clapotis. I only did 2 repeats of the increase section. I wasn't sure how much yarn it would take and I didn't want a stumpy scarf. Like it matters, I'm not keeping, not sure what my sensibilities have to do with anything... I blocked the snot out of it. I'm still not sure about that. I really like the way it curled up and the dropped stitches almost created the look of ribbing. But, it's stockinette and it curled and that drove me nuts.

The difference between the skeins is remarkable. What you are seeing is a pretty true representation of the color. The teal is just a bit blinding.

I have just another moment before I must retrieve Caleb - which he will hate. But I wanted to show you the most remarkable (to me) flower that showed up in our garden. Keep in mind that we rent while Eric is in school and the landlords have a pretty well established perennial garden going. I have been doing the upkeep on it because I love fresh flowers during the summer. This one must not have shown up last summer because I would have remembered.

Overall I am quite happy with how the side garden looks.

2 down a bazillion to go

2006-05-29T13:06:00.000-05:00

I managed to finish two projects this weekend. Granted neither were particularly difficult (provide that one can count stitches). The simple garter knit scarf from the discount yarn that I will sell at the craft show is now done. As is my clapotis. I blocked the clapotis as I wasn't keen on how it was curling up. Duh - stockinette. Oh well, either way, I love it and am very tempted to buy more of the kimik yarn just to make this again. However, I have oodles of yarn in my stash that needs to be worked before I can consider buying more just for the sake of stash enhancement. But so far, the best has been overdyeing the ugly gray and white yarn that I bought on clearance. I was not enamored of it but couldn't resist the price when I bought it. As I am on a bit of a purple kick lately, I decided to overdye it. As I mentioned yesterday, I started using the Paas, but it didn't really come out as I hoped. So, I picked up a bunch of kool-aide at the grocery store yesterday. As there are a lot of great tutorials out there on Kool-aide dyeing, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. I used a ration of 3 packs of Kool-aide for each 3.5 oz. skein. I used 2 grapes and 1 black cherry and it came out beautifully. I am so happy with the results. The shades of color are much better than I expected. When I used the Paas, I heated the dyepot on the stove, but for the Kool-aide, I stuck the pot out in the sun because it was about 90 degrees yesterday - blech. I have already wound the first hank into a ball and cast on for another felted hat.

Clapotis is nearly finished

2006-05-27T14:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't been blogging much lately because I have been horribly busy with work. This appears to be the new status quo, much to my dismay. I received my work laptop yesterday which means that I no longer have an excuse to not work from home. Thankfully, I have a couple of projects that will be do-able now that I am working on a laptop and not an internet-based interface. The cool part is that this laptop will replace my CPU at work. Don't ask me how, I'm not a techie. I just know that they set up something called a docking station and take the CPU away. I keep my monitor, keyboard and mouse, but it all hooks into the docking station and the laptop. Guess I better not forget it at home! On to knitting news... Clapotis has been an intriguing pattern to knit because it is well thought out. (Yes, I realize that I am WAAAY behind the times with this particular project.) I am working my way through the decrease rows and hope to finish this weekend. The use of knit and purl stitches at the begining of each row impresses me because it keep both edges looking almost identical. I am still liking this yarn even if it is brighter than I had hoped in the second skein. I have noticed that my bamboo needles are staining from this second skein of yarn, so I hope that when I wash it, the bright teal will tone down a bit. Right now it is rather eye-searingly bright. Hopefully the recipient will like it. Tonight I made my first foray into dyeing. The colors didn't come out quite as intensely has I had hoped, so I may try again. I used overdyed the 60% off gray yarn that I purchased a while ago. The color just didn't do much for me. I used some Paas Easter egg dye that I picked up after Easter. I think I used way to much yarn for the dye because it was exhausted right away. Tomorrow, I will pick up a coordinating Kool-aide color and try it again. Poor Eric is not thrilled that I used one of our regular pots for this experiment. I will try to make a run to a second hand shop for a used pot, but I definately want one that is stainless steel. I will post pictures of this after I get the colors just right. Overall dyeing was much more fun than I thought it would be. At some point, I am going to have to get the KnitPicks dye-your-own yarn and try it again.

Lace and other projects

2006-05-22T13:26:00.000-05:00

I am not entirely sure that I am in love with this lace pattern. It appears to be well written. I have been following the chart and haven't found any errors. Generally, when there are mistakes, they are mine, a yarn over missed or that slipped over a marker. A part of me wants to knit something more like the Tina shawl, with loads of different motifs and patterns and a frilly, lacey edge. On the other hand, this is a nice simple pattern, with only 12 rows and 20 stitches in a repeat. Easy to learn, nothing too complicated. Good to see that this photographs so clearly. NOT.

I'm glad that I have read loads of tips on knitting lace, most importantly, how to use lifelines. I had just finished the first repeat of the pattern and was counting and recounting stitches, when I saw IT. A dropped stitch. That had unraveled several rows. My heart stopped. At this point, I am such a novice lace knitter that I chose to frog back to the lifeline. All is well now and I have started the second repeat. Clapotis is moving along well. I have started the second skein and have fallen victim to the classic dilemma of hand painted yarns. They don't match. Take a look at the pictures from the beginning of the scarf compared to the end by the needle. The teal is much more prominent in the second skein and is pooling horrendously. However as this FO will not stay at my house, I think I can live with it.

It also touches a nerve because I CANNOT tolerate scarves that are not reversible, such as My So Called Scarf. While the front is amazing - the stitch pattern is simple beyond belief, but what a pretty fabric, the back is booooriiiiing. But again, this is not staying here, so I will suck it up.

front

back

Completely random Tuesday

2006-05-16T18:59:00.000-05:00

Yep - I got a whole lot of nuttin' so I thought I would post about all of the little dribs and drabs that have come up. 1. The second Very Pink Hat is off the needles and just needs felting. I knit like crazy over the weekend and got it done. However, my wrist is now killing me. 2. Clapotis progresses. I have nearly completed the first of 2 skeins. This will be a rather short scarf, but I am loving all of it. 3. The size 2 needles are much better for the lace. The once bent tip works like a charm. 4. I am going start a My So Called Scarf out of the another color of the Cartwheel - bronzeberry (the VPH is raspberry). I have another 4 skeins of Cartwheel in neapolitan which is a lighter pink than the raspberry. 5. I have 5 more skeins of the thick and thin stuff that I am making the garter stitch scarf out of and because they are 3 different colors, I am thinking of trying my hand at overdying them so that I can at least use all of them in the same project. At a minimum, the stuff that is grey, dark grey, white and all the shades in between has to become something else. I picked up some Pas egg dyes after Easter, so who knows what I'll get. 6. While surfing (the web) this weekend, I stumbled across this link. I thought I would pee myself, I laughed so hard. Check out the missions. 7. Check out the way cool shadow knitting shawl my friend Tracy finished.

Swatching

2006-05-13T15:42:00.000-05:00

Last night I was knitting for a bit on the garter st scarf when I decided that it was too boring. So, I pulled out the ~~thread~~ yarn and cast on for the Pinwheel Lace Shawl. It was more fun than I expected, but I did run into a couple of snags. First, I think I might need to go up a needle size. I bought a size 1 circ, but am thinking that a size 2 might be better. However, I am way too cheap to spring for another needle. Then, I got inspired and dug through the stash of needles I inherited from my great-grandmother. I found a pair of size 2 straights (I never use straights - hate them, too much strain on my wrists) but the tip on one of them was bent. Not just a bend in the needle from being used, but the super pointy (yeah! - the circ I purchased was too dull) tip looked as if it had been dropped right on the point. Being ~~the cheapskate that I am~~ frugal, I thought about it for a bit and realized that I might be able to heat the tip on the gas stove and bend it straight, or at least straighter. It worked like a dream. It did burn off the pretty pink coating, but hey - I get to use Grandma's needles, how cool is that! Second, I discovered that I was not able to keep an accurate stitch count. How big a problem this will be, remains to be seen. Third, I realized that I don't have an available row counter. I guess this means that I will need to finish up either the Clapotis or the felted hat. Or, I could stop by Joann's and pick up another set, but somehow, it seems like I should be able to survive with 2 of them. Because of the problems with the stitch count, I ripped it all out. I was only about 15 rows in, so it wasn't a big deal. I am enjoying Clapotis more than I thought I would. It is fun to see the stitches run and know that it is intentional. The colors are lining up well also, not too much pooling or flashing, but enough so that it doesn't look stupid. The second very pink hat is progressing. Sorry, no pictures of this as it is an exact repeat.

Added bloglines

2006-05-12T19:16:00.000-05:00

Just as a bit of an ego stroke, I added a button so you can subscribe to a feed of my blog through bloglines. Personally, I love the site, but that's just me. Today was a total loss of a day. I swear, I had the anti-Midas touch. Everything I touched turned to total and utter crap. I won't bore you with the details, but for once, not all of it was due to my own inherent stupidity. I'm a bit nervous about picking up the knitting tonight. I might just stick with something simple like this.

I should have enough mojo left to not screw up garter stitch. I hope. Maybe, I'll give this a whirl.

Or, maybe the next very pink hat, which is already on the needles. All of them are easy. On the other hand, it might not be a bad idea to start for the Amazing Lace. There is no way that I will finish the thing in the "allotted time" so, hey, I may as well start now. I am a bit worried about knitting a pattern that calls for laceweight yarn and substituting cobweb weight, but I had been coveting that yarn for several years. When it finally offered itself to me with a 30% discount, how could I ~~hurt it's feelings~~ refuse. The yarn is Merino Oro in black. (I couldn't link to just the black because they don't have a picture of it.) I bought a size 1 needle, so we'll see how it goes.

Finally - knitting content

2006-05-10T21:22:00.000-05:00

I'm done with the ~~third~~ second sock! I am so happy with how the stripes lined up, it's just about perfect.

(ignore the cankles)

I am way to ~~incompetent~~ lazy to kitchner the toes, so I did a three needle bind-off, but other than that I tried to follow the directions faithfully. As usual, Kathy's pattern is spot on. I can't wait to find just the right yarn for her Odessa cap. (Sorry - I am too tired to find the link right now, it's on magknits.com)

Knitting Content at Last

2006-05-08T22:16:00.000-05:00

This is going to be short and sweet. I sucked it up and have almost finished the second Jaywalker. I just need to finish the toe decreases and weave in the loose ends. All of this was enabled by Caleb wanting to spend several hours at the local playground on Sunday. Thank goodness for sock knitting at the park. I don't know how other mom's do it. I can't just sit there. Instead, I cranked out a good 2" on the foot. I will have this bad boy (girl?) done tomorrow and ready to mail off to Mom next week after they get washed. A girl has to model her conquests, right? Thanks for the great responses to my last post. It was not intended to be a diatribe, begging for more comments, but thanks for leaving them. I promise that I will have more knitting content and pictures in the next few days.

Bad blogger

2006-05-05T19:06:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking lately that I would like to increase the traffic to the blog. For me, part of the fun of blogging is reading comments. But, I have to admit, I am an inveterate lurker. I surf lots of blogs but don't leave many comments myself. Mostly, this is because, by the time I get around to posting, what I want to say has already been said. Once a posting has X number of posts, I don't see much point in saying "me too." On the other hand, I know that one of the best ways to increase traffic to my blog is to leave comments on the blogs of others. Just like me most bloggers check out who is checking them out. Its a conundrum. Putting soapbox away On the knitting front, I have started a new project using the gorgeous KimiK yarn that I bought off of ebay. Holy cow is it some nice feeling yarn. The fabric is a bit looser than what I would like for a sweater, but the drape and the hand are to die for. I don't know where she gets her yarn, but I love it. (now that I've said that, it is probably some of the dye your own from KnitPicks or something similar - just 'cuz that is my kind of karma lately) The colors are pooling nicely, not too much all at once. I do realize that this is more a product of the number of stitches than anything else, but still, it's nice that it is working the way I would like it to. The gusset is done on the Jaywalkers. Hopefully that means the entire sock will be done soon. Alas, as my house has not been invaded by either knitting or yarn fairies, I suspect that I may need to pick up the project for this to occur. Last night I was quite diligent. I knit a round, stopped and looked longingly at the KimiK yarn project sitting all by itself on the chair. Shaking myself mentally I knit another 2 whole rounds when my hands wilted onto my lap causing me to gaze at the KimiK for longer than was seemly. Mustering great fortitude, I cranked out another 2 rounds, then I had to pet it - the KimiK that is. It was a long evening of knitting without much accomplished. I will promise picture of the sock that won't end once they are both completed. Just a note to my mom - the destinee for the Jaywalkers. I am enjoying knitting them, its just with all of the false starts, finishing the second sock is really like knitting a third. Honest.

Oh crap

2006-05-02T19:19:00.000-05:00

It looks as if I have fallen victim to my own sense of inadequacy and join a KAL. Check out the new button. Good thing I got the toy when I did. It would have been a real pain to wind all that yarn by hand. I already have the pattern picked out and am just waiting to start. Not as if I didn't have anything better to do in my "free" time. The Jaywalkers are progressing. Sorry, no picture, I am just about done with the gusset. Been there, done that. These appear to be identical twins, we'll see how they finish up. I am still designing (mentally) a felted handbag. I'm just not sure what exactly I want to do. I am thinking a shape that is similar to the Sophie bag, but I definately want to add some color work to this. Maybe a houndstooth type pattern. Although I am having some difficulty in getting my hands on that particular stitch. Hopefully this weekend I can get to the library by myself and see if they have a Barbara Walker Treasury on the shelf. Hmmm, on second thought, maybe I should use a zigzag done with stranded color work, not like the jaywalkers.

My new toy

2006-05-01T19:55:00.000-05:00

I started this post on Friday of last week. I am WAY to lazy to edit it and start over. So, change all of the today's to Friday's. This post is very picture heavy - so grab a cup of your favorite beverage and hang for a bit. My ball winder arrived today. It appears to be an older model where the guide for the yarn moves and the post stays in the same position. I was a bit nervous while bidding on it, but it works perfectly.

I turned this

Into this. Which begs the question, what am I going to do with it now?

But what made me even happier was turning 1200 yards of cobweb weight black thread into this tidy little ball. What you barely see at the bottom of the ball, next to the thread yarn, is a size 0 needle.

Eric snapped a couple of pictures of me winding the black thread (honestly, this stuff is too thin to consider yarn - what was I thinking). Doncha love the improvised swift? After the most recent credit card bill, I will be using this one for quite a while!

Even with the winder it still took more than 20 minutes to wind this ball. But, had I been doing in around my thumb, it would have taken house.

I finished the baby hat and that is going in the sell pile for the craft fair this fall. I know it looks like the umbilical hat from S'n'B but I don't have that book, and have been knitting these since who knows when.

Template Changes

2006-04-25T20:17:00.000-05:00

I was playing around with the settings on Blogger this weekend and somehow managed to delete my template. I was NOT HAPPY. Luckily, I try to keep things fairly simple and it wasn't horrible to recreate. The downside is that I somehow turned off the comments on the blog. Sorry. The upside is that the new header contains a picture I took of the yarn I won on ~~that evil, dangerous den of iniquity~~ eBay. Psst, KimiK has some BEAUTIFUL yarns, cheap too! Then, I went out and bought this. You know what this means? Right. I can finally start winding the cobweb weight black yarn that I got to knit my first ever lace shawl for my mother-in-law. The stuff is 12oo yarns to a skein. There is no way I want to wind that puppy around my freakin' thumb. Oddly enough, last night, Eric asked how much I spend on my hobby. I was completely honest and said that I don't really know. (Hey, ignorance is bliss.) I also carefully explained that I tend to buy yarn in spurts. ~~Hoarding ravenously as if there is a worldwide wool shortage coming soon~~ stocking up and then carefully knitting the stash, rationing it out to last until the next 40% sale or store closing comes along. I think he may have believed me, or at least he stopped questioning. Really, though, is it fair to question the value of tools like ball winder that was had for $31 including shipping, or the 400 yards of handpainted wool for under $10. I don't think so either. On top of all of that, my mom emails me to say that she, my sister and 2 of my aunts are getting a booth at a local craft show and would I like to join in? Um, yeah. I can't wait to use up some of my stash knitting up baby caps to sell. I just have to see how much my share of the booth would be. Divided 5 ways it shouldn't be too bad. Speaking of knitting, truly, this is a knitting blog. Jaywalkers now have half a heel flap. I am so loving the heel stitch. For some reason I have previously resisted all attempts to use it. Its cushy plushness is enchanting. I think for the next top down pair, I will try to use the eye of partridge stitch.

And the baby hat? Well, interesting you ask, because it looks just like it did before I decided to rip it out.

The pooling is less obnoxious this time around. While there is still some flashing, there isn't the huge diagonal line across the entire thing. I have a feeling that this baby will be sold at the craft fair.

I also have an idea rolling around for a felted bag, but I need to work out the stitch pattern first. I have the yarn, I just need to swatch it out. Hmmm, this might just be the push I need to do it.

We now return to our regularly scheduled sock

2006-04-23T10:37:00.000-05:00

I picked up the Jaywalkers again last night and knit about 6 rounds when I noticed a small loop dangling free about 6 rows down. I thought about tinking back, and actually tinked a full round when I decided that was just too tedious. So I did this. The extra loops are where I pulled back the rows above the offending dropped stitch on just the one needle. There was no slack in the stitches to just ladder it back up. In the end, you can't tell what I did, which, I guess, is the point. So much easier than ripping it all out. Today I embarked on a new fiber adventure. Last summer a co-worker gave me 2 full llama fleeces. Each fills a big black lawn and leaf bag. Once is a beautiful chocolate brown and the other is white/gray. Both are filthy dirty and I haven't had the courage to do much with them. This weekend, I started pulling the guard hairs out of the white/gray fleece. Then I proceeded to wash the first batch. Holy crap - I have never seen so much dirt in my life! I washed it several times and it still is gross. A part of me is determined to stick it out and make yarn from this free fleece and another part of me is convinced that it simply isn't worth the trouble. I am just paranoid about felting the fleece before I even get a chance to do anything with it. As I don't spin yet (no wheel and no coordination for the spindle I do have), I might just dye it and sell on eBay depending on how it goes. I think it will be quite beautiful once it is cleaned. Anyone out there know an easy way to remove guard hairs from llama? Right now my current method is to take a handful of the raw fleece and pull the individual smooth and straight hairs out. Is it necessary to remove all of them? While I don't want to end up with an inferior product, these fleece seem to have a TON of guard hairs. What happens if I don't get them all out? I am guessing that it would be a bit like wearing a hair shirt because of the texture of the guard hairs themselves. (Not that I've ever worn a hair shirt myself.) Stay tuned for the next raw fleece installment.

The very pink hat

2006-04-22T11:42:00.000-05:00

It came out so much better than I expected. I called my sister this morning to get my niece's head circumference. While I would have preferred to not tip my hand, I would hate to give it to her and have it not fit. There is something enchanting about felting. I love the fact that you start with something so ridiculously huge and it ends up being just the right size. How lovely!

I am impressed with how the variegation came out just as specks in the finished hat. Now I am back to the Jaywalkers.

Work has been insane lately. My co-worker was given an ultimatum to either stop making mistakes or turn in her resignation. She chose the latter, so now, I am doing her work as well. It is not a pretty picture. The worst is that she was not doing a good job with things (duh - hence the ultimatum) so there is a lot of clean up and fixing things that were not done properly.

On the plus side, I now get to cherry pick which of the job duties I would like. She did tradeshow coordination as well which means that occasionally she had to travel. As I started as an Account Representative in the company, I know a lot of the customers, so getting out and seeing them is very attractive to me. We'll see how it all shakes out once the shock wears off. Unfortunately, I am having to bring work home on a regular basis now, just to try and keep afloat.

What was I thinking?

2006-04-17T20:27:00.000-05:00

The last thing in the world I need is more yarn, right? Which is exactly why I bought this off of ~~that evil, dangerous den of iniquity~~ eBay. It is approximately 330 yards of handpainted fingering-weight merino. Not quite enough for socks (in my mind) and it isn't superwash. I have real issues about knitting socks that can't go in the washer. I am envisioning a hat of some sort. Any ideas to show off the beautiful yarn? Last night, I truly wanted a change from knitting things on teeny, tiny needles. So I decided to start this. So far, it looks like this. Not much, besides the eye-searing pink. However, my 3 year old niece will love it. She generally starts most conversations by telling you that pink is her favorite color. Meanwhile, the ~~third~~ second Jaywalker is proceeding.

Oh and the other baby hat - still not going anywhere...

One down, one to go

2006-04-15T22:26:00.000-05:00

I finished the first of the Jaywalkers. However, I ended up with just 14 yards left over. That's with using the yellow for the heels and toes. All in all, I like the way they turned out. I did discover that I do like the feel & look of the heel stitch, even if I am somehow too dopey to manage to keep track of it properly.

It does look a little stretched out from being tried on several times.

This weekend, I picked Caleb up from my sister's and tomorrow, Easter Sunday, we are heading to my mother-in-law's. Busy, busy, busy.

On the plus (or should that be minus?) side, I have lost 15 pounds since I was at my folks that last time in late February. So, just a little over 2 pounds a week. Not to shabby, and the truth is that my pants are all swimming on me now. Hopefully, I it will be less painful to go shopping now. The strange thing is that I don't really look any different to myself. I do notice the clothes not fitting, but that is it.

Let freedom ring

2006-04-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

We are having so much fun while childless for the week. Last night was knitting at Starbucks. My friend Tracy cracks me up. She is taking a new exercise class based on pole dancing. I was laughing so hard at her descriptions of the women doing all of these moves.

Hi Tracy! Again the Jaywalker is proceeding apace. I am down to toe. I have to admit that I am not looking all that forward to knitting the next one. I like the pattern, but as I swatched the stitch pattern about 3 times and have done the heel twice it's as if I have already knit both socks.

I was playing on ebay tonight and won this. Not like I need anymore sock yarn. But, as this isn't superwash, I am thinking that it will become a hat for me. I like the color and the price. However, my next project is going to be a tank top for me. I have 3 skeins of a very rich purple cotton that I am hoping will be enough for a snug fitting tank. We went downtown again tonight to an old industrial section that has been renovated into a very cool, hip area with shops, restaurants and tons of condos. We got dinner at a place called Wicked Hop. The food was very good, mixed drink was excellent and the atmosphere was very cool. The place was an old warehouse (multiple story) and the restaurant was on the first floor. There was an upper area that overlooked the bar area and the ceiling was all open to the original beams and studs. Very cool to think that someone hand crafted the building nearly 100 years ago. As you walk through the neighborhood, many of the buildings are on the National Historic Register. Too bad that my way cool new purse is not big enough to accommodate my camera.

How do you get a 3 year old to smile?

2006-04-09T20:03:00.000-05:00

Please, if anyone know the answer let me know. As you can see, mine won't for pictures. These were taken on a family outing on Saturday. I particularly like number 2. Last night, while we were eating dinner, Eric suggest that we take advatage of our relative freedom and go out. It was so nice. There is a bar called the Safehouse that I have wanted to visit for a while, just to see it. The whole place is done up with spy memorabilia, very kitchy. The fun part about it is that the entrance to the place has a different name, so you have to know where you are going. On top of that, once you get in the first unmarked door, you step into a small ante-room that has 2 seemingly real doors and another secret (and only real entrance into the bar) door. The place has closed circuit TV so the patrons can watch newcomers look foolish trying to get in. It was neat to see the place, but it wasn't the atmosphere we were looking. We walked along the riverfront for a bit and ended up in a microbrewery. We tried a sampling of the various beers (even me, and I don't particularly like beer). I ended up with my old standby, Captain & Coke. We ordered and appetizer which completely blew my diet but was completely worth it. It was such a wonderful time. I need to give a huge thank you to my sister for making this possible! It is even better that you can imagine.

Empty Nest

2006-04-08T18:35:00.000-05:00

Man - there is one GREAT thing to say about not making boocoo bucks. We are gettting a very nice tax return between federal and state. This will take the heat off of the ol' savings account for a while. Meanwhile - I have been enjoying Destash quite a bit. I bought a skein of sock yarn from Grumperina and sold some mohair. As my birthday is coming up soon and DH prefers to shop on Amazon because of his obscenely busy schedule, I took advantage of this and created a wish list searchable by my email address. This way - I get the EXACT book I am drooling over. YUM. This next week I should get TONS of knitting done because my wonderfully generous sister has my 3 year old for the week. Her 5 year old has the week off of school because of the Easter holiday and he goes crazy with his 2 sisters. The boys adore each other and I've never seen any troubles between them even with the age gap. The jaywalkers are progressing nicely. The yellow that I picked up for the heels and toes is a pretty good match. The socks are snug on my ankle and somewhat loose on the foot. However, mom has narrower ankles and her feet are about the same width, so I think these will be okay. Mom - they will get washed before I deliver them! This hat has met an unfortunate demise. While I liked the pooling on the ribbing the flashing on the main portion was driving me crazy. So, now I am looking for some sort of stitch pattern to help break up varigation. I tried eye of partridge, but it didn't do it for me. I did add 4 more stitches and will see if that is enough to change the pooling. I was blog surfing the other night (as there was a lack of knitting progress - hence very boring blog fodder and lack of recent posts) and stumbled across this gem. I like the idea of a post that tells you my faith~~less~~ful reader of neat stuff I have found. (Again, this will help out when the knitting is scant.)

Destash for cash

2006-04-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

I have added a button on my sidebar for the new destash blog here on blogger. I am way loving this site and could easily get into LOADS of trouble. I have put up my first offering and I have a feeling that there will be more on the way. It will be a good way to get rid of some of the odds and ends that I have in my stash. Happy shopping to all!

I'm Ja-ay Walking

2006-04-03T21:10:00.000-05:00

(in my head that sounded just like the Bee-Gee's Jive Talking.) Jaywalkers are progressing, mostly because I am not ready to rip back the neckline on Blaze quite yet. You can see that I was able to match the yellow pretty closely. Not too bad considering that they are from different companies. The stripes is Regia and the yellow is Kroy. Anyone care to take a bet if I will run out of yarn before I reach the toes? I am guessing that I will. Tonight was such a great evening. Now that it is light out later (thank you Daylight Savings Time), Caleb and I started cleaning out the flower beds. I got the front one pretty much done and it filled up the huge dumpster style garbage bins that the city has. My hands feel all rough and scratched up from last summer's detris, but it was lovely to spend time outside. As an added bonus, Caleb and I went for a walk/run - he is three after all and goes nowhere slowly. Woo hoo -a sleeping child! Edit: I just realized that I have not done the slip stitch on the gussets as directed in the pattern. Grrr. No way am I knitting the d*mn heel a third time.

Whew

2006-04-01T18:35:00.000-06:00

Sorry for not being around more. This last week at work we had our semi-annual sales meeting. This meant that our entire sales staff, from around the world, was in our office for the week. Thankfully, all of them from abroad are now either home, or on there way. I truly love having them around. I get a chance to brush up on my Portuguese while chatting with the reps from Brazil, I get to sit down and talk about the intricacies of language acquisition with our Polish rep, and above all, I eat like a pig on the company. All in all during the last week, I probably sat through close to 15-20 hours of meetings. On top of that I was at work early several days. I am so glad it is done. The (work) projects I had been working on are now either done, or nearly so. The online store that I had been merchandising is up and functional. The other big project, the first phase is complete and we intend to have the rest done by the end of next week. The net result is that I haven't had much knitting time lately. I did finish Blaze and wore it on Tuesday when I had to give my presentation, but it needs some revamping before I put the final pics up on the blog. I need to redo the neck line because it sagged a bit by the end of the day. Thanks to everyone for the comments on Blaze. And Joe? Thanks for the complement on the new do.

My intense desire to not get started on another big project has yielded this. A friend from work is having a baby and they are not finding out the sex. So, this will be just a generic baby hat once it is done. I ~~was to lazy to try again~~ actually like how it pooled on the ribbing. There is a bit more of the pooling on the body of the hat, but we'll see how it finishes up.

I have ripped out the heel on the Jaywalkers and joined the new ball that I found that matches pretty well, but because I desperately want to knit without a pattern, I have been working on just the hat.

I have a quick summer tank that I want to do, but I am not sure that I have quite enough yarn for the pattern I have picked. We'll see how it swatches. I am hoping that my gauge is off and that I can drop some of the st st areas down to fewer stitches. Hopefully, it might be enough to do it.

Today Caleb and I went to Wal-mart and got this. I am inordinately excited. Granted, we rent our apartment, but we have white/cream carpet in 3 rooms including the living room. With a 3 year old, it gets a lot of foot traffic and looks pretty grungy. My choices were to rent every time I wanted to clean the carpets or buy. As my time is precious to me and I hate being beholden to someone else, we broke down and purchased it. If we use it just 8 times, it will be paid for. Not a problem. I did the bedrooms today and they both look so much better. (I refuse to show before and after pics because it will just emphasize how slovenly I can be.)

Catch up

2006-03-26T14:38:00.000-06:00

Even though yesterday's post was only about Blaze, I actually did quite a bit on Saturday. First and foremost, I got a long overdue haircut. The last time it was cut was Halloween. I committed a huge faux pas because I went to the same salon, but saw a different stylist. I wasn't thrilled with the guy that had been cutting my hair and the silence was always very awkward. So, I decided to try a new stylist. Wouldn't you know it the other one was working and actually said hi to me. Oh well, I L.O.V.E. the new cut and the new stylist was much more talkative. As he was drying it, the owner of the salon came over and complemented the new cut and played with my hair. Somehow, that just made my day. I also mailed off the little leftover balls of sock yarn to Major Knitter. I was wondering what to do with them, now they have found a much better home and are no longer staring me in the face every time I dig into the depths of my knitting baskets. I love getting rid of guilt. A quick stop at the LYS yielded a skein of bright yellow sock yarn to use for the heels and toes of the Jaywalkers for Mom. To ensure that I had the best choice, I drove to the other side of the city and checked out a new (to me) store. It was a cute shop and I found just the right pattern for a felted hat for my 3 year old niece. I can't wait to start it. I will post pictures of Blaze once I bind off and block it. I am dying to wear it to work. I finally decided to do a 3 needle bind off under the arms. It isn't as pretty as grafting (this assumes that the grafter knows what they are doing - not necessarily a valid assumption for me), but it is done, there are no holes and no profanity was uttered during the process. It is the only seam on the sweater and it is under the arm. I can live with that.

Nearing the finish

2006-03-25T20:52:00.000-06:00

I have finished the first set of neckline decreases and am pretty happy with how it looks. (Ignore the lovely plaid pants. We know how to live here on a Saturday night!) Personally, I like the look of the circs under the arms. I still haven't figured out how to graft the ribbing. I tried it earlier tonight and it didn't work so well. Thank goodness for lifelines. The neckline gapes a bit, so I think I will do one more set of decreases, but I am pretty sure that I will need to do some sort of short row over the shoulders because I don't want the neck to be too high, but it definately needs more coverage over the shoulders. I want to be able to wear this to work. Any thoughts on the grafting or the neckline issues?

my first meme

2006-03-24T19:40:00.000-06:00

I was reading Kathy's blog and found this meme and couldn't resist the opportunity to highlight some of my favorite blogs. The original is on JenLa . The rules are pretty simple, you aren't supposed to repeat a blog for more than one entry. 1. A blog which you think people have not discovered.

I have 2 that I really like. I can totally relate to the location for Marisa's blog, not to mention being amazed her beautiful cabled sweater. The other is Pink Dandelion. Who can resist such a great name, besides, she's awfully funny.

2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically. Just get as close as you can, itÂs all relative. This one I am drawing a blank on - I don't surf that many blogs... 3. An unusual or weird animal picture. I'm skipping this one as it isn't knitting related. 4. An entry that made you laugh and got you strange looks from family or co-workers.

This one had me nearly in tears. It brought back memories of Marlin Perkins from Wild Kingdom whispering in the background while pointing at a pack of lions.

5. An idea you wish youÂd thought of.

Gosh - there are so many. Knittinghelp.com is one of them. I love the idea of having all of that useful knowledge in one place. Knitters Review is another. Clara rocks for putting together such a great site.

6. Something youÂd like to knit.

I can't wait to knit Grumperina's Odessa hat. I am supremely confident that it is as easy to follow as the rest of her patterns. There are a couple of sweaters that I adore on a French site. But as my French is subpar, these will have to linger in the want to knit pile. I will add a link when I am back on our PC, I am posting tonight from Eric's laptop which doesn't have any of my bookmarks.

7. A picture of something you consider beautiful. I'm going to have to come back to this one. 8. A blog whose author youÂd like to one day meet in person.

Besides our beloved Harlot, I would like to meet Grumperina. I get a kick out of her obsessive perfectionism, but love to reap the benefits.

9. A blog of someone you have already met in person.

This is my friend Tracy's blog. She is part of the knitting group that I go to on Tuesdays. She is one of those amazing people who lights up a room the instant she walks into it. She is hysterically funny and a damn fine knitter.

On an actually knitting note, I have finally started the decreases on Blaze. I am so excited that I might actually be able to wear this sweater before winter is over. Unfortunately, it doesn't look any different than it has in days.

I just keep hoping that this sweater will eventually end and be wearable. I am not feeling all that confident. There is nothing wrong with it. My gut says that it is just that I am tired of the project and that there is no problem. On the other hand, my supersensitive skin is feeling a bit itchy when I try it on and it does weigh significantly more than I had anticipated. I would have thought that with the 50+% alpaca that it would be lighter weight than it is. I still love the color and the pattern, so I don't think that is the issue.

On top of all of that, I still have so much work to do for work this weekend. We are having a sales meeting next week and there are 2 massive projects that both are due Monday. One should have been done today, but it just wasn't possible. I was supposed to put together my presentation (thankfully it is short) by the 20th, but that date has long since passed and I still haven't started it yet.

I think I'll go lie down now and hopefully it will be better.

the black hole of knitting

2006-03-22T19:18:00.000-06:00

It really does exist. I have been diligently knitting away on Blaze. Yet no matter, how many hours, how many stitches I knit, it does not get any longer. Okay - I was going to try and show 2 different shots of Blaze that look almost the same, but Blogger won't upload my pics. So, here is a link to the shot from today. Compared to the shot from the other day, you can also just scroll down for the second picture. I'm not thrilled. I have knit for hours and gotten nowhere. Remind me why I like knitting again? Since the darn thing is in the round, I'm just going in circles, literally and figuratively. Bah. Add to it that the sweater is much heavier than I expected. I have visions of it sagging right off my shoulders when I wear it. I'm a bit nervous, but I put so much time into it that I don't want to quit now. The masive projects at work are still sucking up my knitting time. I have also realized that I am not going to have enough yarn to finish the Jaywalkers. Right now, my plan is to try and find some matching yarn to do the heels and toes. Hopefully it will work, otherwise, I will be ripping them out and doing them toe up. Here's hoping I find something close. Anyone have a ball of bright yellow sock yarn to spare?

Blazing away cough, cough

2006-03-19T18:16:00.000-06:00

I am still recovering from viral bronchitis. Blech - I highly recommending catching the bacterial version. At least then you can get antibiotics instead of festering in your misery. This has kept me pretty under the weather - I missed 3 days of work last week, not my idea of smart. However, this weekend, I got caught up on laundry. Here is the evidence - my empty hamper. I'm not sure what is worse. The fact that I had to take a picture of this rare phenomenon, that I'm blogging about it, that it was the highlight of my day or that it only lasted about 10 minutes. I don't think it really matters - it's pretty pathetic all the way around.

The plus side to being ill, is that once I was feeling a bit better I got some knitting done on Blaze. Here she is with both sleeves attached.

It was interesting joining the sleeves on this sweater because the circs that I am using (Crystal Palace - love them) have a fairly long needle and it was tight going around the sleeves without putting too much tension on the joins in the sweater. Now that I am a couple of inches beyond that it is much better.

I was ~~too lazy to find a braidkin and spare yarn~~ thinking ahead and decided to use some spare circs as my stitch holders under the arms. We'll see how that works in the end. I am NOT looking forward to grafting ribbing. Grafting is not something I do well. I invariably end up with one purl looking stitch - but I don't know how it happens. Each and every time I had to graft, I drag out The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fey because her directions make the most sense to me. I follow them meticulously. And yet - the purl bump appears. I may just have to take this sweater to a master for this - hopefully one of the ladies at the LYS will be able to help.

There has to be someone out there who can graft ribbing without it looking like a rank amateur did it.

Someone?

Anyone?

Really, I do have a problem

2006-03-13T19:41:00.000-06:00

Now, I've caught Caleb's bug. Sunday night I had a fever of 103 - and I typically run a bit cool. I felt like I was burning up. But that's not my problem. This is. This is 6 skeins of assorted colors of the Joann's Marvel yarn. Not sure of the yardage, but it is a thick and thin 100% wool that was 60% off. I am guessing that these will become felted at some point.

This is 4 skeins of the lighter pink, 5 of the fuchsia/pepto bismal pink and 5 of the earthier colors on the bottom. Again, 60% off, 100% wool. I am thinking of felted mittens for my niece who LOVES pink out of the middle stuff and who knows what with the rest. This is all Moda Dea yarn.

As I was running errands on Saturday, I went to a store right next to a Joann's that is going out of business. The yarn was already pretty picked over, but this is what they had left in 100% wool. The rest was all acrylic novelty yarn. So much for the stash along.

I'm keeping this short because I can feel my fever creeping back and I have got to go back to work tomorrow. BLECH.

I have a problem

2006-03-11T18:58:00.000-06:00

Actually, the truth is, I have several problems (frizzy hair, sick kiddo, blah, blah, blah), but only one is the providence of this blog. As you can see by the button in the sidebar, I (unofficially) joined the Stash-along. Not because I have a huge stash (which I don't, really), but because I have multiple projects on the needles and at least as many waiting to be brought back out to light. Add to that, with Eric in school, the yarn budgets gets pretty slim at times. (Alas, no cashmere for me - not that I would know what to do with it if I had it. I think I would be afraid to knit such loveliness.) The knitting group that I belong to was started by a couple of the employees of my LYS (my favorite shop in the area). So, on Tuesday one of my friends mentions as she is leaving that the shop is having a clearance sale. Buck a ball. "Um, buck a ball", I repeated unsteadily, weak at the thought of all of that unloved yarn finding a safe haven in my stash. She confirmed the price, adding that most of it was novelty yarn. All I could think was that she said most - which meant that there was a possibility of finding something else, cuz yarn junkie or not - there is no room in my stash for novelty yarn*. So, Wednesday, I stopped after work and this just fell into my hands, honest...

What can I say, a wool/alpaca blend with enough synthetic so it won't felt. I'm thinking of making socks for Caleb, specifically tube socks so he won't grow out of them too quickly. With the alpaca, they should be good for playing in the snow next winter. Needless to say, I won't be starting these for a while (to allow for the eleventy-third growth spurt of the year) even though my fingers are just ITCHING to cast-on. Because there was only one ball of each color and there is only 100 meters a ball, they may have to be striped tube socks. I'm just not sure how far 100 meters of this stuff will go.

The Jaywalkers are not moving much at all. Work has been so busy that I haven't even brought them along. Blaze is moldering in the basket, for no good reason, especially now that winter is just about over here. Dang - I swore I would wear that sweater before spring. To top it off, I cast on for a felted purse today. Yep - nothing like startitis in the spring (or any other time of year for that matter).

*This is not to say that I won't knit with novelty, I just won't put it in my stash. I've got nothing against novelty yarns in general, especially as they are the crack cocaine of the knitting world - just one garter stitch scarf and you're hooked for life. Obviously Berroco is striving for world domination.

Turning a corner

2006-03-08T22:04:00.000-06:00

Or rather a heel. The Jaywalker is coming along nicely.

I have not had much of a chance to do much knitting since last Thursday as I am completely swamped at work and at home.

Can someone please explain to me how come my little family of 3 can create such monumental amounts of laundry? I swear, it is never ending. Blech.

I will post more shortly as I get a chance. But take a look at the cute hats my friend Tracy made...

Presenting...

2006-02-28T21:11:00.000-06:00

the hat.

That would be Eric modeling. Note the post exam beer in the background.

It came out pretty well, the only thing I wish I could improve is the lining. The top looks a bit lumpy in spots because of the thick seams, but I never claimed to be good at sewing - hence the Olympic nature of the project. I took it to my knitting group tonight and a guy sitting at the coffee shop said that it was a cool hat and that he would buy it. I was torn between elation that some random stranger liked my work and despair that I didn't have my camera to take his picture.

In other knitting news, it feels great to be knitting with something other than Peruvian Highland. The Suri Merino for Blaze is just heaven in comparison. It is growing, more slowly than surely, but I haven't had much knitting time lately.

Jaywalkers are also progressing nicely, now that I am on my third attempt. The first was too large all the way around and I bit the bullet before I got more than a few rounds into the pattern. The second attempt, I apparently did not learn anything from the first attempt as I cast on even more stitches and started again. Obviously, this would be a classic case of knitter's denial. Luckily, the third time's the charm and by going down a needle size and casting on the same number of stitches as attempt #1 (the larger size in the main pattern), it finally seems to be working. At the last try, it fit over my heel.

I will most likely not be posting until next week as I am heading out to the funeral on Thursday morning.

Gold all the way!

2006-02-26T21:40:00.000-06:00

Whoo Hoo!! I have beaten my enemy - the sewing machine - into submission. She has been conquered. The hat is completed. I finished hand stitching in the polar fleece lining during the closing ceremonies. I will have pictures of the intended recipient wearing the hat after exams.

This is a picture before blocking and sans liner.

(After blocking it looks much less nipply.)

Here are pictures of the decreases at the top while it was blocking this afternoon. Not too shabby for winging it. As you can see in the picture above, it does flare a bit at the bottom. I think if I had gone down a needle size for the hem it would have worked better. I am in the process of writing up the pattern and will be adding a sidebar link to my own patterns.

Yesterday involved much cursing (or as much as you can reasonably approximate with a 3 year old in earshot) while I tried to create a liner for the hat out leftover polar fleece. At first it was too tight around. Okay, cut out the seams and add a new section. Crap - more sewing. Thankfully, the machine has the stretchy stitch selection, cuz well, polar fleece has give.

Then came the time to figure out how to make the tube close at the top with a tich more elegance than just sewing a straight seam across the top. (Next time - no stinking liner) So, I attempted to create 4 , um, lobes, for lack of a better word, by sewing from the top down to the side in a curve on 4 separate seams. Crap - even more sewing. *Have I mentioned how much I hate sewing?*

Needless to say, this process nor the result were recorded. Mostly to salve my ego, because there is no way I am letting the world see pictures of such mediocre sewing skills.

All in all, I am happy with the results. I think I will knit this again sometime, but the rest of the the Elann's Peruvian Highland is definately going into the felting stash, it is waaay to itchy for me to wear next to my skin.

A quick note

2006-02-25T12:43:00.000-06:00

Final arrangements still have not been made, but this article was in the local paper and seems to sum him up so well.

Hugo Jan Huss, conductor and music director of the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1993, will be remembered for recruiting more talented musicians and improving the orchestra’s performance. Huss, who died Tuesday in La Crosse at age 72, tried to convert an amateur orchestra into a more professional group. He expanded the geographical pool of musicians, drawing quality musicians from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and the region.
He was one of 13 conductors since the orchestra formed in 1898. Amy Mills, who replaced Huss and is in her 11th season as the orchestra’s conductor and music director, awarded him the distinction as conductor emeritus during the orchestra’s 100th anniversary season.
Mills said Huss laid a strong foundation for her to continue building the orchestra’s artistic quality.
“Hugo worked very hard and was significant in bringing the orchestra to a new level during his time with the symphony,” Mills said.
Huss, also a violinist, became known to La Crosse area music lovers in 1977 when he won the national conducting competition held in conjunction with the Symphony School of America in La Crosse.
He was a noted conductor of the Arad Symphony in Romania and is on Romania’s list of prominent citizens.
In 1968, Huss received the highest cultural arts honor from the Romanian government after conducting major orchestras in Europe. He also was music director and principal conductor of the Guadalajara Symphony in Mexico.
He fled Romania, which was ruled by a dictator, in 1968 because he said he could not conduct his life as he wanted.“I got a passport to go to a music festival in Paris. I just didn’t find my way back,” he said in 1990. “All they needed was to let me out once.” His wife, Mirella, left Romania legally four years earlier because her father was born in the United States.
Huss also had a master’s degree in business administration and worked as data processing manager for Mathy Construction Co. in Onalaska, Wis.
Dawson Strutt, Onalaska High School’s band teacher, played second trumpet for Huss. “His legacy will be that he brought in better musicians, and he had a vision and passion for the orchestra,” Strutt said.
Virginia Strauss, a Luther College violin teacher and the orchestra’s concertmaster, said she appreciated Huss’ programming of classical music and symphonies. “He had a wonderful concept of the elegant, refined sound for classical music,” Strauss said.
Steve Bina, a tuba player and supervisor of fine arts for the La Crosse School District, said Huss brought his strong European training to the orchestra and selected great classical repertoire.
“At one rehearsal, Hugo smiled at me, and said, ‘Steve we have too much tuba,’ and I replied, ‘That’s impossible,’ and he laughed,” Bina said. “He had a great sense of humor.”

His last wish was to be buried back in Romania, which is causing the delays in the funeral arrangements.

A tinking we will go

2006-02-24T21:38:00.000-06:00

I seem to be in a knitting slump lately. What I have on the needles is just not inspiring me of late. I am melancholy waiting to hear when my friend's father's funeral will be as I would much prefer to be with her, but I have other things tying me down here at home. But, on a knitting note, I thought I was finished with Eric's hat. See above.

He tried it on and is worried that it will be too short with the added bulk of the polar fleece liner. So, I am going to be ripping the decreases back for a fourth time. ARGH. I will be making a couple of changes, but nothing major. Overall, I am pretty happy with how it came out.

The major challenge was how to preserve the ribbing all the way to the top. I did not want a stockinette section at the top. I will post all of the details once I have it all written out.

Going to be scarce

2006-02-23T17:54:00.000-06:00

I will not be around much in the next week. I will make the Herculean attempt to finish the hat - I have no idea why this is so hard, knitting a stinking hat. A very dear friend's father passed away and I will be heading out of town to attend the funeral.

Having a bad day Mr. Button?

2006-02-22T07:25:00.000-06:00

This is just a quick post on the sly at work... I was watching the women's figure skating short program Tuesday night and was incensed by the comments from Dick Button. He was snide and snarky throughout the entire evening. Normally, he is quite nice to listen to because he usually manages to come up with something nice to say about everyone. However, there were a few girls that he just ripped to shreds. All I could think was that they will watch these tapes someday and hear how they were disparaged which will just magnify the disappointment that they felt. I have to believe that each of them tried their best and if they aren't Sasha Cohen, so what. They tried and that is all that matters. What about Olympic Spirit? What about giving them credit for having the guts to get out on the ice knowing that they have no chance of winning a medal? What about if you can't say something nice, say nothing at all? On a knitting note, I think I finally figured out how I want to do the decreases on the hat. No pictures today. I hope to have some tomorrow, but the piles of laundry on the dining room table are starting to overwhelm me!

Change of event?

2006-02-19T15:46:00.000-06:00

Maybe I should have picked staying with one project as my KO goal. Just 1 week into it, I have already jumped ship. The hat is going well, I have started the decreases.

I did something here I almost never do. Yep a lifeline. Since I'm not following a pattern, and my goal is to maintain ribbing intact all the way to the top, I thought it would be wise to put in a lifeline before I started the decreases, in case I ~~change my mind~~ redesign at some point. Hmm, planning ahead. What a concept.

Unfortunately, this grabbed my attention.

This is one of the 2 yarns that I got from my mom last weekend. She definitely trends towards bright colors, which is soooo much fun. These are destined to be Jaywalkers. I haven't been able to get the gauge specified in the pattern. I am at 9 st/inch in st st. Grumperina was kind enough to write out additional sizes, so I am hoping that one of them will accommodate the tighter gauge.

Because Eric is heading into exams this week and next, knitting time has been scarce. In addition, we seem to have hit the terrible threes Chez Knitter. Caleb is beyond defiant, beyond sassy and beyond contrite for both. Here he is at a minor league hockey game yesterday with some friends from school. He had so much fun.

We interupt our regularly scheduled knitting

2006-02-16T22:41:00.000-06:00

for a freaking blizzard! We got about 6 inches of wet snow today. Eric and I shoveled for at least 6 hours today, if you total it all up. BLECH! I am stiff and sore tonight. Here is a picture out of our front door this afternoon. This was after I shoveled for almost 2 hours, see all the snow on the driveway again. Hmmm.... me thinks Florida sounds good right now.

On the knitting front, we finally have progress on the hat! I ~~started over~~ swatched a minimum of 4 times. Eric then said tonight that it would probably end up too small. As he way laying on the couch next to me, I threatened to poke him in the ear with my size 4 if he kept it up.

As it is, I finally have the knitted hem done. I really wanted this because I am going to line the hat and I don't want any stitching to show on the out side. Here is a pretty clear picture of the color.

Here's hoping that the endless rounds of 2x2 ribbing don't drive me batty. Make me wish for a bit of stockinette.

Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T18:46:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's day to everyone in Blogland. Here Chez Knitter, the adults are not celebrating as Eric is embroiled in learning all about acid neutralizers and blockers - scintillating dinner conversation to be sure. Caleb, however, celebrated in grand style at school today with my not so crafty contribution to his potluck. Look closely at picture number 2. Notice anything a bit funny? I hadn't until I had most of the darn things on the cupcakes. While I love just about everything about Latin America, I was taken aback to see that the candy hearts were in Spanish. (I majored in Portuguese in college, and studied Spanish extensively.) I thought it was hysterical that I sent his cupcakes to school with Spanish language candy hearts on them. No real progress on the Olympic hat. Right now it is in about the same state it was in before I ripped it out the other night. Feel free to scroll down and see what it looked in yesterday's post. I did find this cute link on the Knitting Curmudgeon's blog. Only having 8 characters can be limiting...

Tonight is Knitting at Starbucks - whoo hoo - I might actually get something done on the darn hat.

Day 4

2006-02-13T20:23:00.000-06:00

Yep, still no real progress. I have gotten to the point that I am ready to turn for the hem, but am not liking anything about this project. I bought the wool before I realized that I didn't really like Elann's Peruvian Highland. I think it would be great for felting, but I think it tends to run a bit thin for worsted and I can never get anything close to the recommended gauge with it. Then tonight Eric casually asks if I the hat I am working on is his. I confirm ~~for the upteenth time~~ that it is and that I am making it to matched the cabled scarf. He mentions that he thinks this might be too girly to have cables on a hat.

So, back to the drawing board. I'm not really all that heart broken because I discovered that when I first started knitting that I had purchased a LOT of really cheap Susan Bates needles. I don't mind them in 24" or longer, but that thick cable on the 16" is killing my wrist. So, I am reswatching to do a simple ribbed cap. It will still have a hem because I will be adding a polar fleece lining to counter-act the itch factor with this yarn. Here's hoping that the size 5 needles will produce a fabric I am happy with.

As promised, here is a picture of the socks that I have my mom for Christmas. These were knit from Schaeffer Yarn's Lola, which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. For some reason every picture we took of them came out a bit blurry. She loves them, and I am happy because I got 2 pairs worth of yarn from Mom to knit into socks for her. As if I need more projects on my plate.

Well, I'm off to watch pairs skating and swatch AGAIN!

The KO - Day 1

2006-02-11T19:17:00.000-06:00

Friday, I received this gift from a dear friend at work. Each item was labled with it's intended use.

Candy bar: "For when you knit right through lunch and forget to eat." No-doze: "For the endless nights and the last minute knit for the Gold." Water: "Athletes stay hydrated" VK: "For February 24th - when you finish 2 days early - something to pass the time" CD: "Music to jam with - KNIT KNIT KNIT!

What more could a knitter ask for in a friend? As you can see by this picture, not much has been accomplished. I have cast on for Eric's hat several times, but each time, I am not thrilled with the result. So, I broke down and am swatching - ACK. Unfortunately, this just isn't working well for me. I am going to change needles sizes again and see how it goes.

Today while visiting my mom, we went to one of the most unusual yarn shops I have ever seen and unfortunately I forgot my camera. The place is called Christa's Yarns, it is located about 45 minutes north of LaCrosse, Wisconsin and is well work the long drive. You could hardly walk there was so much yarn everywhere. The woman who owns the shop is in her early 80's and is originally from Germany. I was a bit nervous that what I would see would be either all acrylics or super-scratchy wools. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I have never seen so much yarn in one place in my life. Yarn covered each of the long walls in the main room from the floor to the 12 foot ceilings. Keep in mind that theses long walls were about 35-40 feet.

One wall was all acrylics - but not a bit of Red Heart to been seen, this were the nice stuff that you would actually want to use for your little ones. The other wall was also full of yarn, there was some Berrocco Cotton Twist amongst others. But, I couldn't get close enough to that wall to see what else was on it because the aisles were full of yarn. Down the center of the shop there was another set of shelves that stand about 7 foot high full of yarn on either side. Here she had her sock yarns (Treking XXL, Lana Grossa, Sockatta amongst others). She has Cascade 220 Superwash for $8.50 a ball. But was I was most impressed with was a huge number of hand paints, most notably from Rio de la Plata. She must have had 8-10 colorways that I could see (mostly because I was trying not to step on them). I cannot wait until I come back this way in April, because I am most certainly bringing my camera with. Just a note of caution, to help keep her prices low, she does not accept credit cards, but will accept a personal check.

I was able to pick up the Cascade Superwash for a cabled sweater for Caleb. I was thrilled by the price.

Just across the street from this shop is a local artisan’s cooperative. A local woman runs it as a consignment type shop and there was everything from handspun yarns to braided rugs, to hand knit sweaters, to oil and water paintings. My mom who is a professional quilter and former weaver will most likely be selling some stuff there. I might try to as well. I would have to show a portfolio of my work to the owner of the business. Who knows where it could lead.

This is the scarf that Kris knit

2006-02-09T21:33:00.000-06:00

Looking back through my knitting notes, I realized that the scarf that I am going to base Eric's new hat on was knit in 2001. Today I was looking it over to just confirm the pattern when I realized that he had worn a hole in the garter stitch edge. Unfortunately, it had already run for several rows so it was a pain to darn and not all that pretty either. But, I think it will hold. This picture shows the color pretty well. This one shows the cables. It is done over a K2P2 rib so that it is reversable. This is the yarn that I will be using for the KO to make the hat that ~~almost~~ matches. Because of the tendonitis, I haven't swatched yet, but we'll see how it goes. I think the challenge will be the decreases to keep the ribbing as intact as possible. I am traveling to visit my parents this weekend and see the sock yarn that my mom got. It's normal to travel with a bag of yarn and a full compliments of needles, both circulars and dpns, right? I mean, who knows if I will just have to cast on for a pair of socks and I will need to have the correct dpns. Since I haven't swatched the hat, I have to bring all of the needles to match that wool also. I don't see any problems with how I am packing. Although, it's good that Eric isn't coming with Caleb and me, he would need his own bag.

KO update

2006-02-08T20:16:00.000-06:00

In light of the fact that the tendonitis is not getting better any time soon, the Rowan Magpie sweater is out for my KO project. I am switching to a much more manageable cabled hat for hubby, to match a scarf that I made for him several years ago. The original yarn is long forgotten, but, he picked out the color for the new hat and I will attempt to match the cable pattern. On a lighter note I did find the following safety instructions for the Knitting Olympics. If only I had heeded her advice, I might not be trying to sign up for the Knitting Para-Olympics. Yesterday, a co-worker dropped this magazine on my desk, he is a mechanical engineer and I am terrified of math. I had to laugh because my first comment was that it looked like nice and expensive yarn. I didn't even look at the article, as I was completely entranced by the aforementioned yarn. This weekend I also received this pattern from my next door neighbor. I am guessing it is from the late 50's or early 60's, the original price was just 25 cents. If you leave off the daisy's and the lattice colorwork, it's pretty nice. I like the cut of the sweater, if there was a little waist shaping, is what I really mean. But is is a bit hard to get past the weird pose she is in. To be honest, I always wonder what happens when an elderly knitter passes away and her family and friends don't knit. What happens to all of the patterns she has stashed away over the years. My guess is that they all end up in the local landfill. Personally, I love all of these old patterns, many times more than ones I see on the news stands. I can't honestly be the only one out there collecting vintage patterns just because I don't want to see them distroyed. Am I?

Knitter Down

2006-02-07T12:13:00.000-06:00

Hopefully not for the count. This weekend Bubba decided to climb over me while I was kneeling on the living room floor. Meaning, he stood behind me, and climbed over my shoulders. Of course I lost my balance and caught myself with my bad wrist. Now, it hursts to do anything with that hand at all, knit, type, what have you. Here's hoping that a few days off will help. The back story on my wrist is that I simply knit too much and I have a desk job with lots of computer use. I think it is simply a repetetive stress type injury and if I were to stop knitting - as if - then it would get better. Icing it last night and not knitting helped a bit, so I am hoping that if I take it easy that I will be able to do the KO. Musicknitter asked about Blaze. I am using Plymouth Yarn's Suri Merino which is 55% Suri Alpaca, 45% Extra Fine Merino and 100% heaven. I am knitting it up on size 4's, but am getting the same gauge. I think it is the difference in the yarns. Like most Knitty patterns, this one is very well written. I haven't seen any errors yet. The cable pattern is very easy to memorize and every even round is a knit 'em as you see 'em round. That said, I have zigged when I should have zagged more times than I can count and with this pattern, the result is tinking back. I find it too hard to keep my place when I pull the needles out and rip back completely. By this point though I am looking forward to the endless stockinette of the Magpie sweater. I have unofficially joined the stashalong. Unofficially because I started the blog after the closing date for the -along, however, I am offically on a yarn diet. This was spurred by a few too many Stash Enhancement eXpeditions. Who can argue with Shaefer's Little Lola (which in my head I keep calling Lolita) at 50% off? This colorway is called Snoopy's Crayons and became Mom's socks. I will put a picture of them up after I visit the folks this weekend. I loved knitting Lola and can't wait to start the next pair of socks with this yarn.

More about the Rowan Sweater

2006-02-06T12:02:00.000-06:00

The KO sweater will indeed be my own design. I happen to have an ~~unnatural~~ significant difference between the circumfrence of my hips and my waist. I'm talking close to 14". So, combined with a ~~frightful~~ concerning shortage of yarn, I have to design this baby myself. Having never done this before adds quite a wrinkle to the deadline. The cast-on and the shaping up to the arm-scye doesn't phase me at all. However, I've never done a sweater with set-in sleeves much less designed it on the fly. It should be interesting to say the least. At the moment, the plan is to have about 10% negative ease for the body. Since it is an Aran weight yarn and the swatch (washed and blocked, thank you very much) knit up very quickly, I am hoping that there is a chance for this to come together. To speed things up, I am doing the body in the round. To ensure that I don't have sleeves of different lengths, I am planning on picking them up and knitting them down (at the same time) until I run out. Hopefully, I get close to at least 3/4 length sleeves. My actual goal, given that I am going out of town on the night of the Opening Cermemony is to complete the body by the time the games are over, anything more than that is icing on the cake. Oh yes, lets not forget the other ~~hinderances~~ challenges to the process:

Working full time
A very active 3 year old boy
My dear husband who is in the middle of his second year of medical school and not much help with Bubba* (the preschooler) or the house.

*Names changed to protect the not-so-innocent.

Here's to insanity, thy name is Knitter.

Here is a picture of Bubba in his prime after a visit to the local children's museum. Can you guess what the craft project was? The crumpled yellow bit above his left eye is a flower. Obviously.

Blazing Sweaters

2006-02-05T09:18:00.000-06:00

This is the one piece I MUST finish before the Knitting Olympics. Granted, there are others that linger in the knitting basket, but lets just pretend they aren't there.

It is Blaze from Knitty.com. It is beautiful in all of its purply goodness. But given that I live in Wisconsin, I had to lengthen the sleeves. Otherwise, the window of opportunity to wear this sweater would be about 2 weeks a year. Here is close up of all of the increases.

I'm quite pleased with how it is all coming together. There were a few mis-adventures along the way, we just won't speak of trying to do 2 sleeves on 2 circs all while cabling without a needle. It is just flying along now that I am back on my set of 5 dpn. Here's hoping that I get the second sleeve done before the opening ceremony. I'm not holding my breath.

I've Found a Victim!

2006-02-04T16:33:00.000-06:00

Today I received the sweetest words a knitter can hear. My mom and I were talking today and she said, "you know the yarn store here in town is having a Superbowl sale. If I buy some more sock yarn, can you knit me some more socks because I love the ones you made me." What could I say besides "be sure to buy superwash unless you want hand wash your socks." It seems like a match made in heaven, I love knitting socks and she likes wearing them. It helps that she has normal sized feet too! I decided to start this blog for a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, I would like a way to record all of the knitting I do. I seem to underestimate what I can accomplish in a year. Besides, it is pretty hard to include all of the pictures in a paper journal.
Secondly, I decided, somewhat foolishly, to join the Knitting Olympics and a blog just seems like the right place to record the progress, or lack thereof, I make.
Thirdly, a recent post on the yarnharlot got me thinking. I often feel the need to knit that goes far beyond the simple act of creating a garment or object. To me it is quite often a meditative process, one that calms my spirit and revitalizes me for what comes next.

I have 7 skeins of yumminess to knit up into a sweater for the KO. Here's hoping I make it. Of course the yarn is discontinued, so it has to work.

The color is a bit more pumpkin-y than what shows up here, but it is truely a delight to knit.