FI-nally

Friday, July 28, 2006

I can hardly believe I'm posting this but my orange socks are FINALLY done. Truly and completely done and finished and wearable and everything.



They look long and skinny and like they wouldn't fit an adult size foot in a hundred years but I have long and skinny feet. I also like my socks a bit snug. These turned out perfect and I can't wait for cooler weather to try them out. It's been so hot here that I've been wondering if I've somehow been transported to another dimension. A dimension where it actually gets up into the 90's for several weeks at a time in North Dakota. I mean, I'm usually the first to defend my poor, forgotten state when people start talking about how cold it is here all the time. We have seasons just like everyone else: it's hot in the summer and freaking freezing in the winter but, you know, it's not usually this hot for this long. I could definitely do without it. I mean, why else would I live here through the insanely cold winters if I didn't expect a nice 70-80 degree summer?

The heat and no rain has been bad news for my garden too. Well, that and my putting off watering because I've been so busy. I found out the other day that a ton of my tomatoes had blossom end rot. Despite what that site says about calcium, the more likely reason for it is the unpredictable watering sessions they've been getting. I pulled off all the bad tomatoes and have dedicated myself to watering more regularly. Meanwhile, we're eating lots of purple beans and cucumbers! The purple beans turn green when placed in boiling water so they're fun for kids (and adults, I'll admit it). I took a picture when I cooked some last night but I don't seem to have transferred it here. Oh well.

Back to knitting. After finishing the orange socks, I immediately cast on for my Baudelaires. While knitting and realizing they were definitely Too Big I was thinking about this blind faith I, and many other knitters, seem to have in patterns. I mean, this isn't the first time I've started a project, rechecked the gauge and listed sizes several times, and still plowed on thinking that the author must just know what they're talking about. The pattern says she made the small size for a size 6.5 foot. I figure a 6.5 foot must be pretty similar in circumference to mine since they're so skinny and I measure my foot and start according to what the pattern recommends: the medium. Whoa boy, these suckers are HUGE!



And I'm almost exactly spot on with gauge and refuse to go down to size 1's so I frogged and restarted as a size extra small (not listed in the pattern, I sized it down myself). I know this is risky since she states in the pattern that the lace isn't stretchy but so far it feels perfect. I got through the lace chart twice on the big sock and boy is it pretty. I can't wait to get farther along and get a better picture for you!

(sorry for the blurry picture.)

LOST but busy

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Still watching LOST (on to Season 2) and now anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new laptop. I've had my current desktop computer for about six years and while it's not a hunk of junk just yet, I think a laptop will be much more convenient come homework time. Not only will I be able to sit around on the couch and type up papers and such but I'll actually be able to use my desk for spreading out books and notebooks and writing.

Quick little moral dilemna though: the other day I had the work laptop at home and I found a wireless network whilst sitting on my couch. I'm not really close to any businesses in town that provide wireless access so I'm assuming it's a neighbor's service. Do I use it? Do I inquire with my neighbors and let them know I can access their unsecured internet? Do I hope it's a business and just pretend that I'm clueless? Though already having copies of the second season of LOST sort of shows that I'm not clueless when it comes to computers. I've discovered the wonderful world of torrents and am almost caught up to the episodes they're showing on TV.

Oh, this is a knitting blog? Surprisingly there has been knitting. I've almost completed the orange socks FINALLY. I'm very excited to start some Baudelaire's with this gorgeous yarn I bought in Sioux Falls the other day. It's Wildfoote in the colorway Blue Blood Red. The internet gives it no justice. The depth of the color is amazing and it's so soft and sproingy. I'd also love to start Mon Petit Chou but neither of the yarn shops I went to on my trip this week (for work, to SD) had Cascade Fixation. I'll have to order online.

Boy, this entry is really spastic or something. I meant to just write about my laptop and the awesome yarn shop I went to in Sioux Falls, Athena Fibers. I also wanted to mention that I went to one other yarn shop on my trip that shall remain nameless because I was taught not to say anything if you don't have anything good to say. Athena Fibers though, you should go there if you're ever in Sioux Falls. The staff was fantastic, the yarn was gorgeous, and the house it was in was really neat.

I'll try to post some pictures next week after the hullaballo of my best friend's wedding this weekend. And I'll try to be more coherent then too. Have a great weekend!

LOST

Friday, June 30, 2006

I'm still alive. This week has me holed up on the couch watching LOST every night, hence the title today. I'm only halfway through the first season and I know I'm hooked. Don't leave any spoilers in the comments! Is anyone else as eerily aware of how Stephen Kingish the whole series is? Only better because the acting is great and the budget is, seemingly, much larger than a Stephen King movie or TV shows would be?

I have been busy though. My best friend's wedding is coming up quick so there have been shopping expeditions and dress fittings and mother-in-law crises. A few weeks ago I painted my living room and crossed it off my list of things to do this summer. The curtains for Kurt's room still aren't done yet though... And there are no pictures of the living room because they're awfully fuzzy. Maybe another day.

There are a few pictures of a fibery adventure from a couple of weeks ago with my friend Jenna. Jenna was going to teach a Koolaid dying class but didn't end up with enough participants so we dyed yarn at my house. Thanks again for the yarn, Jenna! Here it is pre-fruitiness:

Kurt basting in blues...



Jenna hard at work with her purples and greens.



Me wringing my yarn in my new geek glasses.



And an arty picture of the finished skeins.



I'm very happy with the darkness of my black cherry red but I'm disappointed that it didn't completely saturate through. There are a few white spots within the red and I'm thinking of overdying it one of these days. *scoffs* Uh-huh, when I have time. The other color I used was easier to come up with than I thought but I didn't think to write down the flava's. Oh well, maybe it's the yarns destiny to be a little splotchy.

Jenna's green and purple and natural yarn is just lovely and I can't wait to see what it'll look like knit up! And Kurt's blues are really pretty too. I mean, manly and um, handsome! He'll have some bright-ass socks from that stuff. That is, if I'm ever able to knit socks again. I'm STILL working on the orange ones. A few rows every few days. The painting really flared up my wrist again and I've had much computering to do at work lately. I'm almost ready to just give in and go to the doctor but it seems very pointless since I don't have insurance or money for additional testing or surgery, if needed. I just need to continue resting the wrist and then not get to this point again.

Okay, long enough post for now. My garden is gigantic but no pictures today. I'm also not sure this is my return to "regular" blogging but I thought I'd check in. I'll continue to read and comment on your blogs though!

Time Out

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Some of you may have noticed my early summer break here. It started because I wasn't knitting much. My dad had given me a new lawn mower, a "real" one much louder, heavier, and stinkier than my beloved rotary mower. The mower worked fine but something about it caused some pretty bad wrist pain. I used it again this weekend, trying to be careful about how I moved my hand but the pain is back. Stupid wrists.

So that's what started the break from knitting, hence the break from my blog. Then last week my grandpa had another respiratory "event", as the doctors call it, and this time there were more complications and he passed away on Friday. He was ready and had prepared for the possibility in the previous weeks but it is still a difficult time for all of us.

Since I'm still not knitting much and not really in the knit-blogging mood you can expect another bout of silence here but hopefully I'll be back fairly soon. Kurt will be taking on the duty of mowing the front and very back lawns with the new mower and I'll take the middle once I sharpen the blades on the rotary. We'll both take time to remember grandpa and get back into the swing of our own lives and meet you back here in awhile.

Par for the course

Thursday, May 25, 2006

It's spring. Life has not let up for about two weeks but instead of being stressed out and unhappy and crabby it feels great! In spite of being sick most of last week (stupid spring colds) I finished the fence for the garden.



It is certainly bunny-proof after burying the chicken wire down about 4 inches. And a good thing too! Here are a couple new additions to our backyard:



If I didn't have that fence up I would be blistering with hate for those cute little bunnies because they would already be eyeing the lettuce that just sprouted the other day. As it is, I think they are the cutest little fluff-balls ever to grace my back lawn.

Once the fence was up I scrambled to get the garden planted and in the haze of sickness last weekend I finished. I don't have a picture of it all planted but here is one of the not-so-fancy gate I built with it's tomato-in-a-pot lock.



Those are strawberries behind the gate and, believe it or not, we ate our first strawberry last night! There were a few tiny ones starting when we bought the plants and I had to leave a couple to grow (even though I should have nipped them all off to make the plants work on root growth instead of fruit production) and they're just ripening now. Soooo delicious!

And finally the knitting. I have been knitting! In between all the gardening, end of school stuff, work, and reading I've been knitting a simple toe-up sock.

Toiling in the garden...

Friday, May 12, 2006

Did I say I would post a picture in the beginning of the week? I meant to say the complete last day of the work week.



The problem was that I finished Monday evening and the first pictures I took were crap. Then it rained all week so there was no sun to take a good picture in. Yesterday I took a few when the sun peeked out from behind some clouds so they're still not the best but much better than what I had before.

So, what do you think?

I love it. It's one of my sort of reproductions. I just wrote a mini-rant in my other journal about it so I'll just suffice it to say here that I try not to do exact reproductions. I don't think Van Gogh would like that. He probably wouldn't like my version either but maybe he would be flattered that I would want to try. Or he would slap me upside the head and tell me to go outside and draw my own pictures of flowers. Uh, I'm rambling again.

So the to-do list is a bit shorter. I've finished this, started Kurt's curtains, and begun clearing out and tilling up my garden with my good ol' Garden Claw. Okay, actually it's practically brand new but I love it so much that it already deserves the "good ol'" title. I also put up fence posts for my chicken wire fence to keep those rascally rabbits out and off my lettuce this year.



AND I started a new sock. No picture, sorry. It's a toe and about 10 more rows. It's burnt orange Knitpicks Essential, plain stockinette, 52 stitches on size one DPNs. The actual color is Pumpkin but it's deeper than a pumpkin orange.

This weekend: more gardening. Have a good one!

Work, work, work until you die...

Friday, May 05, 2006

Today has not been a good Work Day. Not that anything bad has happened, I just haven't been able to focus. It's hard to sometimes when you know there are exciting things just on the horizon but you're still stuck in dull and drab grant proposal writing hell. Good thing the day is almost out.

There is fun stuff in this entry though! It's not just full of complaining! Quick, look, a picture!



Pattern: Modified Rib and Cable Socks from Interweave Knits, Fall 2005
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential, two balls (with much left over)
Needles: US 0 Takumi Clover bamboo DPNs

Yes, I modified the pattern to toe-ups because I love them. The socks turned out great and comfy and wonderful except that when I don't have shoes on they feel a little scratchy. Hopefully they'll soften up after a wash. The only other item of note is the small needles. Holy crap these socks took forever and I blame it all on the small needles! I love the way the tiny stitches feel on my feet but my wrist and patience just cannot take them again (anytime in the near future anyway - never say never). I'm really itching for some Regia sock yarn and Size 2 needles again. REALLY itching for them. But I might just settle for some more Knitpicks I already have and... damn, I have to finish the cabled gloves before I can use my 2s. Well, at least now we know what knitted item I'll be blogging about next!

In other news, I have literally laughed out loud, at this blog which I found through Heidi's blog, which I almost feel guilty reading because it's in diary format with no comments section but it's too damn hilarious to be private, plus it's addicting as hell so there. Whew, that's a long sentence. Go read Mimi Smartypants, she's the new Erma Bombeck.

While wasting precious time at work today (and berating myself for being a slacker), I also got itching to start my garden like Right Now because this blog, which is an offshoot of Farmgirl Fare. Her idea of salad greens has given me an entirely new outlook on salads.

And last, but certainly not least, I've gotten some work done on the poppy picture. In fact, it's almost done and I can't wait to show it to you! Next week, I promise.
For now I'm off to finish some work so I can go buy gardening supplies. Huzzah!

What's the connection?

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Have you ever wondered just how many of those knitter's out there are scientists? The Keyboard Biologist is a bioinformatician (read: one type of scientist), many might know that The Bookish Girl is an environmental scientist, and even Grumperina is a science geek. If you're like me, embarking on an adventure of returning to college this fall for a potential science degree, you might wonder these things. Thankfully, there is the ScienceKnits webring.

But what is it about science and knitting? I mean, all kinds of scientists? Have you SEEN how many library science knitters are out there? Here I always thought that I was an anomaly. I love analyzing and research and reading and just thoroughly geeking out. But I'm an artist. I've been involved with art in some form for as long as I can remember (drawing bunnies in church as a 4-5 year old). I've always leaned toward the arts, including majoring in art at my first attempt in college. Surprisingly, to me anyway, I realized in my mid-twenties that the reason I had been focusing on art and never knowing what the hell I wanted to do with an art degree (not teach, not own a business, not sell my art) was because art was what my mother really valued of my talents. So I promptly dropped out of college. Insert angst, cross country moves and then.... social work? How did I end up here? I ended up here because when I would produce art in my formative years everyone, not just my mother, exclaimed what a great artist I would be someday. Huh.

Why not science? (And this is the part that really boggles my mind.) My chemistry teacher in high school was a slightly less tall version of Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and bored me to sleep.

So I quit chemistry and never thought about science again* until recent years when I've noticed a trend in the types of things I geek out with online. Discovery Channel news, Science Daily, studies, statistics, nutritional science especially. It's been about a 2-3 year process for me to realize that my personality and interests for a career really lie more along the science part of me than the art part of me. I like art. I make various forms of art all the time in my free time: knitting, drawing, baking, cooking, embroidery, sewing, etc. But would I want to do any of those things as a job? No way. It would ruin it for me. I'm not a business person and I have no business sense.

So I did what any self-respecting, analytical, going-back-to-college, geeky, late twenty-something would do: I took a career test. Not one of those online jobbies, though I have taken my share of those, but a real honest to God career test. The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey at my college's career exploration center. For once, I was completely honest in all the answers. Do you want to read stories to children as a job? No freaking way. Do you enjoy working with people on a one-to-one basis? Not even a little bit, and I don't even feel bad about it. Okay, I feel a little bit bad since, you know, I *do* work with people occasionally at my present job but it's one of my least favorite parts and I'm being honest here dammit!

Would you enjoy working as a scientist in a research lab? Why yes, yes I believe I would.

*Except that Biology course I loved and aced in my Freshman year of college. Get a clue, Katie?

Spring Fever

Monday, May 01, 2006

It’s Spring now. As much as I hate to admit it, I am the type that will go through the house top to bottom, cleaning and purging it of the CRAP that’s accumulated over the winter. It’s like it’s impossible to really clean in the winter time. It’s too dark, too depressing, and too cold. I haven’t started digging yet but I’ve been thinking about it for weeks already. Gotta work up the gumption. In going through the house in my mind (because really I’ve just been too lazy to actually go through it yet for real) I’ve come across several UFOs. Not of the knitting variety though. These are projects I’ve put off because of my knitting, more likely. It’s just so much easier to pick up a sock and sit my butt on the couch and knit than it is to say… dig out my tablet, oil pastels, shading tools, and some sunlight to finish this Van Gogh reproduction I started for my living room last summer.



Or, in the case of sewing in an unheated front porch, of digging out the fabric, measuring, cutting and sewing the curtains for Kurt’s bedroom. Even though the reason I wanted to put curtains up in his room was to help keep the drafts down this past winter. Yeah, whoops. I missed that one by oh, about six months.



There’s also the new bedspread and curtains I’ve been meaning to make for my bedroom ever since I painted it last spring.

And let’s just not mention the curtains I made for the dining room immediately after we moved in but never finished embroidering... three years ago.

If last summer taught me anything though it’s that I can’t knit with cotton. Not unless I want to spend my sunset years watching other old ladies knit and crying inside because I screwed up my wrists while not finishing other perfectly wrist-friendly projects during my summers. My goal then for summer: finish all unfinished projects and a couple unstarted projects as well. I’ll keep something on my needles all summer, of course. I can’t just let knitting go for months at a time, I’ve proven that with my few day cave-in a few weeks ago, but I’ll keep the projects small, portable, and quick.

Surprise Recruitment

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Yesterday a business associate (and previous co-worker and office mate) and I were talking regarding a new client and as we finished up the "work" stuff she exclaimed, "Hey, you knit!" and proceeded to ask if I could help her with her first project. Could I?? Whoa, how fun! So she brought her knitting over last night. Her mother-in-law is actually teaching her to knit and had given her homework: she was to finish 8 more rows on a baby blanket she's making for her up and coming babe. The problem: a hole. It was an easy fix, a dropped stitch which she had carefully marked with a paper clip, and once fixed we settled on the couch to knit and talk.

We talked and caught up and laughed and had fun. I realized she had learned to increase unintentionally which was causing some wacked out stitches to show up (knitting an M1 in the front of the stitch instead of the back). It seems whenever she couldn't decide whether a stitch had been dropped or not she would just pick up and knit whatever was hanging there.* I was just cracking up! And she wondered why she kept having extra stitches at the end of a row! Too funny. So I taught her to decrease and tried to help the best I could. New knitters confuse me because I second guess the advice I'm giving. She kept saying what a pro I was and an expert and just giving me a lot of guff - this in between her cursing at her knitting, calling it a wanker and exclaiming "pisser!" when she messed something up. I've missed that (she left our office about a year and a half ago for a new job but we still work together for one project.)

Anyway, expert schmexpert. We fixed all of her mistakes but I realized belatedly that I had really screwed up my own knitting! I forgot to start the cables on the back of the sock after the heel so I tried picking up that row but got frustrated so I pulled my needles out. Yes, I pulled my needles out, thinking if I had them out of the way it would be easier to pick up the row. Uh-huh. But I was still frustrated so I frogged back. *groans* Frogged back to the row, on Size 0 needles, thinking I could pick them back up without dropping stitches 1 or 2 or 3 rows lower. Fuck, I am an idiot. The sock declined to be photographed in it's current mangled state.

Expert. Pshaw.

*It does not help that she's using some sort of soft, fluffy, boucle-type yarn for the blanket. Her first project, did I mention that? *I* can't even tell which are knits and purls!

What are you listening to?

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

This is too fun. Susan posted one and I saw through her link that Beth has as well. I love it. And you guys have great taste! Or maybe I just have great taste in picking knitblogs to read. ;)

So what's everyone else listening to?

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

Note: the MXPX is Kurt's and we've been listening to it at suppertime for a couple days. Not that there's anything wrong with listening to MXPX.

Nostewine

Monday, April 24, 2006

Hi. Meet my semi-new nostepinne.



Way back when I saw someone post, on the Live Journal Punk Knitters group, a picture of a beer bottle she had used as a nostepinne. This was around the time I was contemplating purchasing a ball winder but didn't want to shell out for a swift as well. Then I got a bottle of wine for Christmas. Genious. I'm sure the real thing is even better, like that time I made my own DPNs, but for now I'm really lovin' on the nostewine. I also love how you can see the progression in this picture. Bottom left is the first ball I wound, then the bottom right pink, top pink, red in the middle and finally the grey on the top left. The one actually on the bottle was done yesterday - it was one the cats got into last weekend. I left it there because I just like the way it looks.

The nostewine and yarn is sitting atop a pile of paint cards. I finally chose a color for my living room (Yellow Rose) and my landlord is supposed to drop it off this week. Just one of the projects I hope to complete this summer.

Me and the Sock

Friday, April 21, 2006

Uh-huh, that sock and I are not really on speaking terms right now. It's about 99.8% completed, just needs to be bound off. See?



I did start the bind off THREE different times the other night... and tinked my way back. The problem is that my favorite top of the sock bind off is the tubular, or invisible, cast-off that I've sung praises about before. The ensueing problem then is that I don't have a simple 2x2 or 1x1 rib going on here, there are those stupid four stitch cables in the way. When I made the cable socks before, I'm sure I had a way I worked around this but for the life of me I can't figure it out now. So the sock and I are "on a break". And it's not cheating if you're on a break, right? So I started the second sock.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd throw something out there. For those of you who knit toe-up socks, how do you decide the sock is done? Do you compare it to another pair of socks or follow a pattern or something? What I've been doing, and what works quite well for me so far, is to knit until the foot of the sock and the leg of the sock are (about) the same length, when the sock is folded in half.



Toe-up socks really like to fold up this way so I use that to my advantage. I originally thought the "knit until you run out of yarn" school was so cool. I wanted to be just like that! But, as I learned with my knee-highs, there is a LOT of yarn in those little balls and the increases over the calf are a pain in the ass! So I just have all these little balls of extra yarn, like the flattened one in the above picture, hanging out in my yarn box.

Man, I really say "So" alot, don't I?

Have a great weekend! We're going out to my dad's farm tomorrow morning to see his little tiny baby chicks and ducks and we're (I'm) so excited we (I) can hardly wait. I don't think I'll be this excited when it comes to butchering them but it's going to make for a great start to the weekend this weekend. :)

Yarn is Invisible

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

So here I am at home. Doing laundry, cleaning the house, listening to the guy outside tearing apart and building new fascia boards on my house. It's been kind of a nice morning, despite the sneezing and allergies because I ran out of Flonase over the weekend and haven't made it to the drugstore yet. I could go now except that Workman is blocking me in the driveway and I'd rather not disturb him. My landlord and I have been waiting for him to come get this job done for at least a year.

The weekend didn't start off so great though. I've been spending quite a bit of time away from home this last week helping my friend with her house and such and my cats were getting a little lonely. So when I came home Friday night at like 11:30 pm, I decided to let them come in my room and sleep with me for once (I'm allergic so usually my room is Off Limits). I did a thorough check to make sure all yarn and kid projects that cats love were out of sight and paw and went to bed. It was a cozy night and in the morning when they invariably woke me with their mewing for breakfast, I stumbled to the kitchen and fed them and went back to bed - with the door closed this time. When I next resurfaced, this is what I found:



It could have been worse. It could have been much worse. One ball they got from my bedroom. It had been sitting directly on my bedside table. I'm telling you, yarn is invisible in it's natural habitat. The other two they somehow finagled out of the closed, zippered backpack I keep my current projects in. Damn them! I just finished unraveling the last tangled ball this morning.

In spite of the yarn mess, there was knitting this weekend. Quite a bit actually. I started a new Rib and Cable sock on US 1s, completed the toe, and realized it was going to be way too big. So I put the other one on and walked around my Dad's house for awhile and I realized it isn't Too Too small. Just a Little small. Actually quite perfect. So I knit away on that through all the holiday visiting. It shall be finished soon with pictures forthcoming.

Holidays

Friday, April 14, 2006

Anyone else have to work both Friday and Monday this weekend? No holiday day? It bites. Well, I shouldn't complain too much since we'll most likely get to leave early and I'm taking part of Tuesday morning off (to do laundray that I won't get done on Sunday. Woo.)

I've worked on the glove. I've actually gotten much farther than the picture shows but haven't taken another picture. I tried my first idea for the flap but, once again, my introspective engineering skills are sub par. I'll try to explain: when I got to the part where normally you would just mark a row for picking up the flap stitches later I put them on a stitch holder (yarn scrap) and cast on new stitches for the rest of the hand instead. After a few rows, I tacked (ack! tacking!) the cast on edge down for a nice flat seam. Once finished with the fingers (should not have done all of the fingers) I picked up the stitches I left off and began the flap. Uh-huh, it pretty much just looks like I picked up stitches along the back of the glove for the flap. Not the invisible look I was going for.

But it's not all bad news. The process I've detailed here is actually VERY simplified. To write it down in pattern form would probably give me an aneurysm. So now I can take what I've learned, apply it to the left glove, and come up with something easier, prettier, and better. The good news is, the cable is beautiful on the glove - though I might get rid of the P2, K2, P2 alongside it and shorten it to a P2.

Haven't touched the sock.

But I did come across this gorgeous, but filthy, handmade artifact in my best friends new house last night (the house is full of junk that is now theirs). It reminds me of the Harlot's Tink's sweaters.



And here is a pretty, pretty rainbow we saw while out at her house.



The whole night, from the drive out, the storm (which was brief), the house, the ride home under the full moon, made me want to live in the country. Now. Unfortunately, I don't see it as feasible at this point in my lifey-life. *sigh* So I'll have to content myself with hanging out at my Dad's farm this weekend.

Have a great one!

What happened on YOUR birthday?

Thursday, April 13, 2006

From ellie at deceptively packaged: Do a Wikipediasearch of your birthdate, minus the year; list three interesting events, three people who were born, and three people who died on that day.

Events
1295 BC - The coronation of Ramses II, on whose face the sun's rays fall each year in Abu Simbel temple.

1889 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states. (Yes, I am biased because I live here therefore ND is the only state I linked.)

1956 - Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".

(Oh but there's this one too that made me laugh: 2006 - At least six men stage Britain's biggest ever robbery, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.)

Births
1732 (N.S.) - George Washington, first President of the United States (d. 1799)

1932 - Ted Kennedy, U.S. senator from Massachusetts

1975 - Drew Barrymore, American actress

Deaths
1680 - Catherine Monvoisin, French sorceress (burned in public! holy shit! on my birthday. yeesh.)

1987 - Andy Warhol, American artist, director, and writer (b. 1928)

2002 - Chuck Jones, American animator (b. 1912)

Mittens in warm weather

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Several knitting related things happened in the past week while I was on "sabbatical". First off, I couldn't not knit. Isn't that terrible? But I did take a break from the Tiny Needles of Doom. While on break, I actually measured my gauge because the sock is a tad bit tight - not horribly so but, you know, a little bit.
Uh yeah, gauge is off. I'm getting 8.5 sts to the inch (8.5!!). Which, you know, isn't the end of the world. I'm not sure I mentioned it, but I did a KnitSwap with a CheekyMama for some Clover DPN's in sizes 1 and 3 (I gave her my new Crystal Palace's in the same sizes because I hated them). So I might just start the second sock on US 1s and see what my gauge is and how it fits. Knitting on 1s would be slightly better than on 0s and I can do it all under the guise that my gauge was off. Hah. (Also, sorry for the terrible picture. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get a picture of BROWN socks.)

One more note on the swap though - CheekyMama seemed to think she needed to apologize for getting my needles out a little later than I sent hers (she really didn't, it was fine) so she sent me some handmade stitch markers. They're so pretty! I haven't taken a picture yet but I will. I've always wanted a set but haven't yet purchased any so it was really fun to get a surprise set in the mail. Thank you!

So I said I couldn't not knit but that I haven't been knitting on the miniature socks (more gauge humor, building my case here). Maybe you've guessed by the entry title that I've started my fingerless gloves. I was right in my assumptions that Knitpicks Wool of the Andes is a thinner yarn than what I used for Kurt's gloves and that it would knit up to a perfect size for my hands. So far, so good. Here you see the glove trying to drive my car. (And yes, it's too warm to wear a coat and yet I continue to knit wool gloves. I'm preparing for next year! Early!)
I've had a couple different ideas of how to continue the cable onto the mitten flap without it being interrupted (by picking up stitches for the flap). I'm not sure which idea I'll go with yet but I'll be deciding soon. Hopefully it'll work! I'm excited to try.

Wow, you'd think it was all knitting all the time around here. In reality, I also got to 1) go to a rock show my friends put on while in town on tour, 2) watch the river rise past major flood stage and be protected by a new almost-completed flood wall, and 3) buy a bridesmaid dress for my best friend's wedding. Oh, and knit with a friend on Sunday. All in all, a great week despite the wrist aches.

Knitting Sabbatical

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

I haven't knit since Saturday. The US 0s are doing a number on my poor wrist. It's not knitting with tiny bamboo needles that's the problem technically. It's that I am so careful and hold my knitting weird when I'm knitting on them because I'm scared I'll ruin them - bending them into shapes reminiscent of a U-bend or, worse yet, snapping them in half. When I try them (okay, it) on, it feels great! I love that I can't really feel all the little purl bumps because they're so small but it's definitely not worth this uncomfortableness or possible permanent wrist damage. I figure I'll sloooooowly finish up this pair and then go back to knitting socks on size 2's. Not sure if I'll try 1's.

Anyway, that's all. I haven't been able to do any more figuring out of my html and web stuff either because mousing is weird and uncomfortable. My wrist doesn't even really hurt, it just feels weird and tingles sometimes and I know that's not a good sign.

So yeah, not alot of knitting this week. Hopefully next week! I have to check on my winter set's yarn and see how much I need to order to complete the hat and mittens (since I used two balls of it on my sweater).

Fixed

Monday, April 03, 2006

In a miracle of miracles, I now have the scarf pattern available for download by clicking on the link in the last post. For all the fucking around I've done with my "personal web space" in the last three years, I'm not really sure what I did differently tonight to make it work. If this continues, I may even move my site. Whoa.

...but don't hold your breath, of course, and I won't hold mine.

My first...

Though technically not my first pattern, this is my first pattern I've made available on my site. If you should happen to use it, please let me know of any mistakes and whether it's well-written or not. I've read through it several times and made some changes but since I've already made the scarf it's more difficult to see these things. The second picture on the bottom of the pattern is crappy, I know. It was really overcast yesterday and difficult to get a good picture of the cable pattern. But it's here! And I hope people like it! And I hope to include a bonnet type hat and fingerless mitts to go with it!

To upload the pattern for the Elegant Cabled Scarf, click here.

In other news, I've decided to continue with the brown Knitpicks socks on US 0s. After knitting more of the foot it became apparent that they really DO fit and the sagginess was simply an illusion. I haven't taken a picture yet but last night I turned the heel and started cabling in earnest: from three cables on the foot to six around the ankle. How did I become so obsessed with cables?