Needles & hooks

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Potpourri

When I was back in Michigan, I gave my sister the Shawl Collar Jacket. She loved it and wore it the whole time I saw her. The best thing? The color perfectly matches her Firebird! Here’s a picture of her wearing it:

In a few weeks I’m the maid of honor in a wedding. And I need to make my skirt. So a few days ago I took my sewing machine for a spin to see if it needed replacing. The good news is that it will work. For the test drive, I made some floor pillows:

Finally, I got some work done on the Matinee Coat. I’m almost finished with the back:

I better hurry - I’m making the 3-6 month size and Grace is already 1 month old!

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Should I get this?

The Knitting Pattern a Day calendar? Do I really need another calendar? Will patterns be more useful than the stitches in the Stitches Perpetual Calendar? Will the little squares of paper just pile up never to be used or filed in a more useful format? Will this just make my stash worse? I don’t know the answers to these questions. But Anna, there’s a Cross-Stitch Calendar, too.

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Adventures on the Web

Yesterday I found wiseNeedle. It has a really nice yarn info database that is visitor-generated. It’s a good place to go to find out what other knitters think about a yarn you are considering. It’s also a good place to find out about possible substitutes. But it’s all created by knitters like you and me reviewing the yarns they’ve used. So go visit and fill out reviews of your favorite yarns. Or your least favorite ones.

I also heard from Knitter’s Magazine about the Squiggles sweater. They sent me the list of Brown Sheep color codes used in the sample. I’m posting them here so someone who might search for them in the future can find them.

The yarn is Brown Sheep Naturespun Sport

The main color is #109 Spring Green.

The accent colors are

• #112 Elf Green

• #305 Impasse Yellow
• #N54 Orange You Glad
• #N44 Husker Red
• #116 Blue Boy
• #N89 Roasted Coffee

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Amy Reaches for the Cross-Stitcher Whup-ass!

My mom picked out the sweater she wants, it’s Squiggles from Knitters Magazine, Winter 2003. It’s lot of seed stitch and then it has a nice embellishment effect which I look foward to doing. Problem is, she loves the colors exactly as shown in the photo. And the magazine didn’t publish the exact colors used. They say “Green” and “Red” and “Yellow” and “Coffee” when Naturespun doesn’t come in colors by that name. Some of the colors were easy to figure out, there’s only one bright yellow, for example. For the rest, I’ll have to find someone locally who carries that yarn or order a couple of different balls and figure out which is the best shade because computer pictures of color cards are no help.

Of course, the magazine’s website doesn’t list errata for the pattern and I didn’t find anything when I Googled the author. Nor did I find anything when I Googled the pattern, I guess none of you are making it. I sent e-mail to the magazine, hopefully I’ll hear back.

This kind of frustration is one reason I stopped beading. After years of doing cross-stitch, I know about dye lots and color codes. It’s one thing for a small bead producer not to take much care with these things. Some boutique fiber makers don’t either. But there are bead manufacturers that have collections full of numbered shades and bead stores toss that information out! Can you imagine a bin full of DMC floss without any labels? A pile of yarn balls without dye lots? And for a pattern to come without the necessary information for you to exactly reproduce the sample? It boggles the mind.

To soothe my indignant outrage, I didn’t start the Dianna tank like I’d planned, but kept working on the Matinee Coat. I’ve gotten past the skirt portion of the back and decreased for the bodice. I made a slight alteration to the 3-stitch decreases so that the middle stitch lays on top. I did a swatch and found it looked better that way. More symmetric. I’ll put details in a project page.

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Not the end of my knitting career

I went out with some friends who knit last night and I tested out my punctured finger. It’s still sore, especially if I press it the wrong way, but it’s functional. But because I still had bandage residue on my fingernail, I didn’t want to work on one of my nice projects. Instead, I brought some scrap yarn and tried a few tension-fixing techniques with an eye toward improving some of my TKGA Master swatches. I think I worked out most of my issues and will sit down when I get some spare time and look over the ones I’ve already done with a more critical eye.

And I signed up for the Great Stash Redistribution Project. Can’t wait to see what turns up.

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Welcome to the New Me!

Since I can’t knit, I decided to finally sit down and overhaul the look of the site. In addition to the new colors and streamlined fonts, I’ve moved the WIPs to the right and created a whole new project notes page. And I’m using Blogger’s comment feature now, so all the old ones are gone, but new ones will be better.

What do you think?

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Ouch!

I’m out of commission for knitting for a few days because I stuck my left index finger with an IV needle. I have to give my cat sub-Q fluids and I slipped while changing the needle. I’m keeping an eye out for infection, but I should be fine. Unfortunately, it’s hard to knit with a bandage on your finger.

But at least my needles didn’t explode! Here’s another page with more pictures. At least they don’t look like Addis!

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Ssshhhhh….it’s blocking

I finished the Shawl Collar Jacket! Looked pretty good on me unblocked. Now it’s damp and pinned out on my bed. Of course, all this time I forgot to find a nifty button for it. I’ll probably get a functional black one for the short term, but keep my eye out for a funky art glass one.

Done is good.

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Don’t, don’t, don’t let’s start

I have no resistance to projects.

I have to finish the Shawl Collar Jacket. I’m loathe to do it. So instead, on Wednesday night, I swatched the Matinee Coat. The yarn (DB Baby Cashmerino) is yummy. It looks great knit up. I didn’t measure my swatch yet (don’t know why), but I’ll wash and block it tomorrow and see how it goes. This should be a good project to take to MI with me next weekend.

And last night I sat down with the Shawl Collar. I have one week to finish. It must be done to go to MI with me. So last night I sewed up the sleeve seam. And I was about to do the tedious work of attaching it to the body when I remembered that what I hated about the other sleeve was knitting the cuff with the whole sweater in my lap. So I started the cuff. Another 4 inches on that and I can attach it. Then there’s a bunch of tails to weave. And then maybe I block it. I better get a lot done this weekend!

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(insert title here)

I finished the Flore hat for my baby niece over the weekend and presented it to my SIL when I was down there visiting. It’s way too big right now, so she can grow into it. Grace is very tiny, which means that I think I’ve got time to work on some of the other items I’ve planned before she’ll out-grow them.

Here’s a picture of the hat:

And I’m way behind on making project notes. And this whole site needs a design overhaul. I think I’ll have some time to get to that this weekend. But I also have to finish the Shawl Collar Jacket for my sister, because I’m going to visit her next weekend.

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