13
January
2008
Here’s what I had been so frantically working on before X-mas
A couple of different examples of this year’s ornaments:
A couple of baby sweaters:
Those are the Ruby pattern from Bee’s Knees Knits. Solid and self-striping sock yarn make washable sweaters with fun stripes. They were easy to make and the pattern was filled with thoughtful details.
The purple one:
Inset of color on the back:
Front pocket, knit into the body, only sewn on the slanted sides:
Close-up:
The blue one:
Hood piping detail:
Back detail:
Comments: 9 — Posted under: Knitting, Almost Random
20
December
2007
I’m in the last throes of frantic holiday present finishing. By my calculation, Saturday noon is the drop dead time ensuring that my package gets to the UPS Store in time to make the “usually 4pm, but during holidays no guarantee” pick up for “Next Day Air” Monday 24th delivery. I’ve got a couple of knitted projects, and a few beaded projects that have to be in that shipment. Jamming through the knitting, over the last week, I was working on a magic-loop project, and pulling tight between needles to avoid ladders. And thus, those first few stitches were hard to work, so I was pushing with my index finger against the left needle. And it was starting to get a little bruised, but okay as I knit late into the night. The next day, I picked up my knitting again and the first push was killer-painful. I looked at my finger to discover an incision. Near as I can figure, the repeated pressure on the finger caused the skin to separate across a fingerprint line. Ouch!!! Fortunately, I had a project I could switch to that didn’t require such tight stitches and I could work around the injury and keep going. But how weird!
Comments: 2 — Posted under: Almost Random
16
November
2007
I survived the Breast Cancer 3-Day, walking all 60 miles and getting only 2 blisters. And in between the last time I posted, and going out there, I also moved again. Everything is packed in random places and I still can’t find much. Like my knitting. But I have real internet again! The raffle prizes will be drawn and announced soon (I do know where those are) and I’ll write up and post about my 3-Day experience. But for now, I just want to watch TV (which I also have again! seems it comes with internet, or vice versa) and knit. And I can’t find my knitting!
Comments: 1 — Posted under: Uncategorized, Almost Random
2
October
2007
Seems so long, I’m not sure I remember how to blog anymore.
My post-divorce, post-house life has been kind of crazy, and my internet access has been far less than it was. I spent most of September working in Los Angeles in a room without access to the outside world. And where I’m living right now doesn’t really have internet access either. I bring my work laptop home and use its wireless dial-up card to check a little e-mail in the evenings. And my commute is LONG! now. Not a lot of time left in life to do fun things, like blog. Or knit much. In fact, this post was written in some stolen moments while waiting for feedback on a big presentation I worked most of the weekend and 18 hours yesterday on (and really, I meant to write it yesterday). Oh, and when I’m not driving or working, I’m out doing training walks for my 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk. This past weekend, I walked 28 miles in total. Today, I have to find time to walk another 5. Oh, and 90% of my belongings are in storage. Makes me feel a little scattered at times.
I do remember how to knit. In fact, last week I went to a knit night at my LYS. I’m slowly making progress on the hoodie for my little niece. And despite all of that, my eyes are bigger than my hands right now, and I keep buying more yarn for more projects: 1.5 kiddie hoodies, a baby sweater and hat, 3 pairs of socks, a wrap, and a cat sweater. I need a stern talking to.
I did find some time to read, and I blazed my way through Crazy Aunt Purl’s book in 24 hours. I loved it. Maybe that’s just because she’s only like 2 steps ahead of me in life right now.
My October resolution is to get back on top of a few things, like blogging, my knitting projects (both in stash and online - hey Hanne fans!), my checkbook (work travel and no rent means this isn’t as dire as it could be), and sorting out my storage space. And my 3-Day Walk is coming up and I have been planning a fundraising raffle. If I get home before the sun goes today, you’ll get an announcement tomorrow. Otherwise, well, I have Columbus Day off!
And if I finish up my slides with some time to spare, I might make another post, this time with photos!
Tomorrow I’m back to Los Angeles for a couple more meetings (that big presentation). Maybe some more free time. Definitely knitting time on the plane if I don’t sleep the flight away. Which is very likely, especially since I scored a first class upgrade.
Comments: 3 — Posted under: Almost Random
21
August
2007
Okay, the last month since I posted has been crazy hectic. After I got back from my family reunion, I started packing up my house in earnest to move out. Then I was in Los Angeles for work for two weeks, sequestered in a freezing room with no internet or phone access. I would take “warmth breaks” out to my greenhouse-effect car in the parking lot to elevate my core temperature and reconnect with the world on my iPhone. But I was able to read Harry Potter in my hotel room. Then I got back and had one week to be out of the house. Panic ensued. But last Friday, at 10:30am, the house was cleared out. Then there was a shower, the closing, and a weekend of sloth. And now I’m divorced and homeless.
I’m living at a friend’s house for now (he lives with his fiancee, two doors away). It’s under reconstruction, so it’s not ideal, but it’s sort of familiar - my mom started remodeling the house I grew up in when I was five. That was 30 years ago, it’s still not done. My cat, Mough, is staying with another friend (because construction zones aren’t the safest place for a cat), until my Ex gets keys to his new apartment in another week. My longer term plans are up in the air. But I’m heading back to Los Angeles and Seclusion for another 3 weeks starting on Monday. So they can stay up in the air for a while longer.
But, now that some of the BIG THINGS are off my plate, I can get back to the fun things. For all the flying I’m doing in the near term, I’m working on some hoodies for my nieces. I don’t have photos yet, but they will be super cute. And miles of small-gauge stockinette is a perfect flying activity. I do have some photos of some recent FOs I’ve mentioned.
This is Sheldon from Knitty.
I made him for my niece, Grace, who just had her 3rd birthday. He was a favorite who achieved instant bedtime buddy status. I spoke to my SIL on the phone a few days after she received it and I mentioned that the shell was removable. So later, she said “Hey Grace, look!” and pulled Sheldon out of his shell. Grace shrieked “he’s naked!” and jumped up and grabbed a hat and stuck him in it. No, Sheldon was not anatomically correct, but Grace was very concerned for his modesty.
This is my sister, Lisa, modeling the Geisha Wrap I made for her:
The pattern came with a project kit of Colinette from ThreadBear when I visited last February. I assembled the wrong edges, but Lisa adores it, so that way it stays. This is the wrap my mother was hideously jealous of, causing me to have to return to ThreadBear (oh, the horrors), and buy another kit for her. But that one stays in hibernation until the hoodies are done.
Anyway, it’s good to be back.
Comments: 6 — Posted under: Knitting, Almost Random
26
July
2007
Home for a few days. Family reunion was great. Grandma loved her shawl, sister loved her wrap, amy! went to ThreadBear, and jealous mom got a kit for me to make. Photos soon. I’m quickly going crazy. And because I haven’t managed to pick up a copy of Harry Potter yet, I can’t even read knitting blogs anymore!
Comments: 2 — Posted under: Almost Random
8
July
2007
Okay, so I’ve been in a funk and haven’t been posting or doing much. I’ve also not been reading my knitting e-mail, so I’m way behind on Hanne spreadsheet responses (I apologize). But life is kicking into high gear, so I’m trying to get back into things. So this post will be sort of kitchen sink-ish.
First up, an FO! I successfully finished the Princess Cover-up. My version is longer than the pattern and wider as well. Also, after pinning it together and trying it on my friend, Kim, we decided that the neckline should curve a little more than it does, so I ripped it out some and did some reshaping.
Here’s some high-speed blocking of it:
I say “high-speed” because I blocked the fronts and backs on top of each other. That way I could make sure that everything lined up well and also, my blocking board is only so big. I used blocking wires and pinned it out. And then I set it in the sun to dry - no need to worry about fading!
And here it is all finished. Currently, it’s on a beach in St. Martin.
Communication News
Another way life is high-speed is that I splurged and bought an iPhone when I was out shopping on Independence Day. I’ve always been an Apple fan, but I really had a lot of good reasons why I wasn’t planning on getting one right away. But when I was shopping for a wedding present, I decided to just look. And that was my undoing. And after wandering in and out of the Apple Store for about 2 hours asking questions, someone returned an 8GB model, so it was fate that I buy it.
This thing is more fantastic than I can possibly say. You have to wrap your head around something entirely new. It’s not merely an overpriced phone. It’s not merely an overpriced, low-storage, wide-screen iPod. It’s not merely a Palm Pilot wannabe. It takes all of those things and wraps them together in a new way and anticipates just about your every need in a beautiful package. And because it’s Apple, it just works and just makes sense. Nothing like driving out to run some errands and remember that you forgot to look something up before you left, and then realizing that you can look it up at the store on your phone. Or to have your realtor e-mail you a PDF of the offer on your house while you’re driving home, pull over to read it (seriously, read it), and then call your nearly ex-husband to discuss it.
Which brings us to…
Life News
We accepted an offer on our house on Friday night. It’s less than we wanted, less than we paid, but we’ll get out of it without owing anything, and it will be done. Inspection is Monday and then I can stop living in a museum. If all goes well, closing is Aug 17, which means I have a lot of stuff to figure out by then!
So one of my chores is to actually finish all the little things hanging around the house. You should see more posts. And another Breast Cancer Stash Sale soon. And if I can manage it, a Breast Cancer Donation Raffle too.
Mail Call
A month or so ago, I got an e-mail about the new StringDirect Club from String in NYC. Somehow, I interpreted what I read to mean that it would be more than simply a pattern-a-month club, that I’d actually get a small sample of the featured yarn. I know that String mostly carries high-end yarns, so I wasn’t expecting a full skein, but a few yards to make a tiny swatch and see how the yarn felt was what I was expecting. And with this expectation, I signed up right away. And no samples are included. I can’t find my original e-mail about it, so I don’t know what I was smoking when I signed up, but now I’m annoyed. I’m thinking about cancelling even if I don’t get a refund, just because I don’t really want more patterns I’m never going to use. I did get an autographed copy of their Luxury Knitting book. But, as a Club idea, meh.
In happier mail, I also got a surprise card from ThreadBear with a gift certificate in it! I’m not sure what I did to deserve such a thing, but it did make me smile at a time when smiles are precious, so thank you very much Matt and Rob! And I just booked a plane ticket back to Michigan to spend it! Okay, no, I’m actually going to a cousin’s wedding. But I think I can make a side trip.
Comments: 6 — Posted under: Knitting, Almost Random
20
June
2007
I caught a bug:
Yes, I started playing with chainmaille. My sister Lisa, a much more talented jewelry maker than myself (that’s fine, she can’t knit), made some pieces that fascinated me a few years ago. Since then, I have perused bead magazines and sent her ones that have neat chainmaille patterns in them. Last week, I stumbled upon Bead & Button’s Wirework issue. I picked it up for her, but showed it to a friend, Kim, who has a thing for maille. And Kim realized that she could make it herself. And in looking into it online for her and Lisa, I realized I could probably do it too.
After a couple of days surfing maille sites and not knitting sites, I’d ordered a kit, but decided that wasn’t quite quick enough for me. And I passed a bead store last night and bought a small pile of aluminum jump rings. I used to do a lot more with beading, but got bored with it because it was so much effort for so little product. But after an hour with a couple of pairs of pliers, I had that bracelet. Here’s a close-up:
It’s not perfect. They didn’t have the size jump rings I wanted in stock, so I had to go with some slightly bigger and my aspect ratio is a little large for the pattern I was going for. In knitting terms, my gauge was too large for my yarn and thus the fabric is too loose. But it’s still not bad for a first try and it’s very shiney. I could insert some beads into it too, and I might. It’s a toy project after all. Can’t wait for my kit to arrive. It appeals to me for the same reason that knitting does, there’s a mathematical aspect to it. But it’s also something of a puzzle, which is also very fun.
So, that wasn’t all I did last night. I also did this:
Those are a bunch of different brownies for a bake sale at work to benefit my Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk. I have another 6 recipes to try tonight. All my friends brought in pans for me to use so that I could just keep baking. My kitchen is perfect for mass baking like this, I’m going to miss it when it sells. Speaking of which, how do you hide 6 pans of brownies so that the house is ready to show at a moment’s notice?
Sssshhhh, don’t open that cupboard!
Comments: 8 — Posted under: Almost Random
11
June
2007
My bosses brought around one of their new bosses to meet people in my group a little while ago. When in my office, the new guy noticed The Glove and asked if I’d made it. One of my bosses replied “she knits almost as fast as she types”. What kind of experiment can we do for that? Typed words per min vs stockinette sts per min?
Comments: 3 — Posted under: Almost Random
10
June
2007
I got lots to say, so this post will be all over the place. Hold on to your needles, it could be a bumpy ride.
Baby Socks!
First up, a FO for you. Remember this:
When I went to Webs on Glove Tour ‘07, I brought the tiny bit of yarn I’d attempted to make socks with before and found a nice ball of Rowan Cashsoft DK to go with it to make full sized socks. So again, I started my two-at-a-time-toe-up socks, deciding that I should just use little fair isle accents of the multi-color yarn. I started each sock from opposite ends of each ball. And pretty soon, I had this:
And I learned that you really should only do that with one ball at a time, because you just can’t untangle. So I wound out huge amounts of the solid color and cut the yarn and went through heroic efforts to untangle each separate ball and rewind. There are no pictures of this process, because my hands were busy with the yarn, and my cat is too lazy to be bothered with the camera.
Finally, I ended up with these:
They’re slightly fraternal, and you can see how well I managed to match the dark burgundy shade of the multi-color. Because there are huge sections of “solid” on each sock. Fair isle with identical shades is pretty forgiving, just not all that satisfying. In the future, I would just cut the yarn and start up at a new color, but I didn’t want to rip these out yet again. How many times can you rip out baby socks, seriously?! And in the end, I only used about 1 color repeat on each sock, so I still have plenty of that micro ball left. So it’s going to the mom along with the left over Cashsoft (now in 3 mini balls as well) and she can decide what to do with it.
Documented Cotton Allergy?
That out of the way, I’ve moved on with the Princess Coverup that I showed you this swatch for:
Working from my measured gauge and the measurements of the recipient, I added a pattern repeat to all the pieces to make it a little wider. Now I’m fearing that my gauge swatch lied and that it’s going to swim on her. Not necessarily what you want for a swim-coverup. I’m doing all 3 pieces at once so they will all be the same length and here’s what I have (about one full pattern-repeat):
Knitting away on it today, my nose started itching. Sort of the way it does when I handle bunnies. Uh-oh. It’s made with Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton, and I’ve never had issues with cotton before. Then I looked at my pants:
Clearly, this yarn is shedding just like a bunny. Fortunately, this project has to be quick. Unfortunately, I have two cross-country flights coming up, also known as enforced knitting time, so we’ll see what happens to my nose in the Mile High Knitter’s Club.
Exercise in Restraint
Thursday was the beginning of the summer clearance sale at my LYS. In the past, I have been very, very bad at this sale. Shopping it takes dedication. They sell all their close-outs in sealed bags, usually of a single color, and either you buy the bag, or you don’t. No buying single balls. In some ways that’s frustrating, because I might want to buy a few balls in a variety of colors. However, sometimes you just find yourself buying way too much of everything because “wow, a whole bag of Aurora 8 in my favorite color?! And in my other favorite color?! Oh look, I love that color too!” (And the sales staff remembers you doing it for years, hi Pat!).
Anyway, what with planning to move and with the recent excursion to Webs, I didn’t go on the first day. Although I pass the store on my way to work and that morning I passed by right as it was opening. I really had to think twice not to stop. I went back on the way home on Friday and ended up with only one thing I couldn’t put down:
That’s 9 balls of Andes in a blue jeans/melon colorway. No, I have no clue what it will be. But that’s never been an obstacle in the past.
Glove Infamy
I also showed off my Moo cards when I was at the store, and, well, outed myself as the creator of The Glove. Turns out not only had the staff heard of it, but so had the other customer who was checking out when I was! And the suggestions keep pouring in on where I should show it off…Stitches, Rhinebeck, Manchester. If only I could send it off on a trunk show, but really, you need the chair to fully appreciate it, and that just doesn’t ship well. Maybe I could send it off on a good-will tour — trusting on the large vehicles of knitters everywhere to cart it from one store they shop at to another, sort of a perverse chain-letter (or Geocache Travel Bug) until I meet up with it again at some distant store in the future. But anyway, few yarn stores I’ve seen have room to display it anyway. It’s just too huge.
A couple of Glove sightings:
sparklej
The Harlot
Okay, with that, I’m going back to knit and ponder cotton and bunnies. Amazon.com and Tivo have a new thing that lets me “rent” movies from Amazon and download them to my Tivo. This weekend, a bunch of movies starring Oceans 13 stars were 99 cents. The Good Shepherd is up next.
Comments: 12 — Posted under: Knitting, Almost Random, Retail Therapy
Mermaid Jacket
Odessa Hat 
ZigZag Sweater
Twisty Baby Set
Miss Dashwood
Clapotis (Mixed Berries)
Tychus
