Category Archives: Knitting

Quite the update

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I seem to be going through one of my don’t-really-like-computers phases. This usually consists of my only really using a computer at work, avoiding email, and (obviously) not posting to my blog.

I haven’t really been doing tons of knitting either, and I certainly haven’t taken any pictures. I did manage to finish the body of my Ribby Cardi even with the short delay of having to redo the right front armhole shaping section. For some reason, instead of doing the k2tog at the end of the RS rows I did them at the beginning of the WS rows (oh wait, that’s right, the pattern didn’t tell me where to do them). It wasn’t too hard to rip it out and reknit it. And I can say that I learned something (besides the fact that I’ve decided I don’t like patterns that tell you to knit one part like another, but change something). I’ve started on one of the arms… I’m knitting it in the round using the magic loop technique. I’ve got 4 more increases to do before I need to start worrying about length and shoulder shaping.

I’ve only completed 2 repeats on Birch… total. I just don’t feel like working on lace when I get home from work.

But, then, the thought of knitting with any kind of wool the last few days hasn’t been entirely appealing since we went from rather moderate weather to sit-on-the-couch-in-shorts-and-a-tank-top-while-drinking-chardonnay-
and-not-moving weather. I’m just glad I don’t live in Gilroy… 100 F… *ugh*

Now the funny part is I’m sitting at work wearing a scarf and fingerless gloves cause I’m freezing. I’m even thinking about putting on my hat. Geez. I get in in the morning and it’s actually rather nice, but come afternoon, once the a/c is really going, my fingers start turning blue. I’ve complained to facilities a few times, and it get better for a day, then I’m back to figuring out how to wear my winter wardrobe without dying of heat exhaustion while coming to work on my scooter.

Maybe I should have a cup of peppermint tea. My secret pal sent me a great card with peppermint tea to get my through the stress of my manager being on vacation. Yes, a hot mug of pepperminty goodness… that would be nice.

That’s just disturbing… Ack!

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Ugh! I hate silverfish. 🙁 This is why I screamed when I turned my head and saw one crawling towards my head on my pillow last night. Ugh! The Husband valiantly killed it for me, but I was left feeling creepy crawly all night. I would wake up and roll over and go to fluff my pillow, then think twice about even touching the thing. I was so tired when I woke up this morning… not being able to get comfortable due to lack of pillow fluffing and nightmares with insects crawling all over my bed were no help at all. Ugh! Why can’t I find silverfish where they belong — the bathroom?! Why do I always seem to only find them in my bedroom. Most knitters spend their time worrying about moths getting into their wool. I’m spending all my time worrying about my books and photos. Ugh! And now my head… *creepy crawly shivers*

Of course, on the topic of bugs, I saw a small moth in my living room a couple days ago and ending up smooshing it when it landed on the Husband’s cheek… he just loved that. So, between seeing one small moth, then another in my bedroom yesterday afternoon that I didn’t manage to catch, and a posting in the Livejournal knitting community about infestations, I’m worrying about my wool. I did a cursory scan of my fleeces and such and everything looked untouched. So, of course, now I’m thinking, “Wait! I saw it in my bedroom… where my nice silk and wool clothing is… where the Husband’s expensive tux is… Ack!”

And I used to think that spiders were my biggest worry… *sigh*

Sadly, I have not managed any lace knitting recently, even with the long weekend. I have, however, been working on the Ribby Cardi. I am almost done with the armhole shaping on the back. I did both front over the weekend. Unfortunately, I need to redo the right front. Apparently, I’m a moron when it comes to patterns that say “Right armhole shaping: Reverse left armhole shaping.” Instead of doing a k2tog at the end of the RS rows, I did it at the beginning of the WS rows, which made a weird looking decrease rib thingy. The plan has become for me to finish the back, then rip back the right front and do it again. At least this can be said to be a learning experience, right?

Now for a real post

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I did indeed cast on for Birch last night. I even swatched first… and I’m not entirely sure I was getting gauge because Birch is one of those patterns that gives you gauge in pattern instead of stockinette stitch. It looked like it was right, and this is a shawl, so I don’t need to be bang on. Of course, now I’m worrying that my gauge might be a little on the big side. Of course, I’ve only knit 4 rows so far, and the cast on edge is really loopy, so it’s hard to tell if things are a bit loose or not. It could just be that I haven’t knit enough yet. When I was swatching for Ribby Cardi, I got a gauge of 8 sts/inch after knitting about an inch… my gauge changed to 9.5 sts/inch after I knit another inch. I think I’m just going to have to cross my fingers and hope that the stitches work things out amongst themselves… ripping this out would be beyond a pain in the ass. I tried to rip back my gauge swatch and ended up breaking the yarn. *sigh*

Thankfully, I have all these knitting problems to worry about cause otherwise I’d be worrying about the fact that my manager is on a 2 week vacation to Europe. This is worrisome because there are certain things that have to be done on a daily and weekly basis… and it’s end of quarter, so I have to take care of that report, too. Of course, one of the automated scripts we have broke on Friday night, which meant I had to run a whole bunch of things manually when I came in on Monday. Boy, did I have an argument with that computer… I had to reboot 3 times. *gah* And now people are coming to my cube and asking me questions about projects I have no clue about because I’m not working on them.

Other manager: Can you tell me when we’re planning for this search tool project to go live?
Me: No, but I can tell you that it’s being tested* at the moment.
OM: Can you tell me which server it’s set up on?
Me: Nope.

Hopefully, this won’t drive me crazy… I just have to make it to the 12th.

*And that’s only cause I’m included in the alias my manager sent an email out to.

Ooo… softness

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There’s something really nice about an anticipated package showing up a whole day early. I ordered 3 balls of Kidsilk Haze in Majesty and Rowan 34 from Knit Happens last week after they announced a sale. (Unfortunately, the day after I placed the order I heard about the eBay place that sells Kidsilk Haze for $9.50… *sigh*) According to UPS, my package was to arrive on Tuesday. I like to check how things are going (even when there’s a date set for delivery and it says it’s on time. Things can change…), so this afternoon I ran my tracking number through the UPS website, and it says it was delivered this morning. But, the nice shipping guy had not been by my desk. I decided to check my mailbox on my way to get some tea from the breakroom, and that’s where I found a nice package filling my cubby hole. 🙂

The Rowan magazine is lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. And there’s actually some other pretty things in it… sadly, Rowan considers a 40 inch bust measurement to be an XL. I may have lost 25 lbs on my diet, but I’m still 6 inches away from a 40 inch bust.

The Kidsilk Haze is so soft. I know people have been fawning over it all around the knitting universe, but wow. I’m glad I decided to make Birch out of the yarn called for. This will make a really nice shawl.

I think I’ll probably be casting on tonight…

Nifty Goodies

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I’ve been working on the shawl slowly, concentrating more on my Ribby Cardi. But, the shawl is growing nonetheless.

Yesterday, I came home and found a package just for me. My secret pal sent me 2 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in a gradiated purple (pretty), a size 5 24″ Clover circular needle, a set of three soaps scented like angel food cake, chocolate, and strawberry, and a really cute card.

Speaking (writing?) of Secret Pal 5, I have received the last of the orders I placed for things to send to the secret pal I’m sending to. Now, I just need to go pick up chocolate-y goodies to put in the package, and I should be able to send it off on Saturday. Yea!

A Third Incarnation

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Friday night began the third incarnation of the Brooks Farm Duet shawl. I had to run the yarn through my ball winder twice to get a manageable ball, but it was well mollified. I discovered looking through my shawl books that the Gracie shawl from Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves is the Elfin lace pattern, so I’m using the swatch chart for my shawl. I didn’t want to make a Farosee shawl, and the swatch chart is just the lace pattern in a triangle. Reading the chart is a lot easier than using the written directions from Barbara Walker’s Treasury. I’ve actually gotten a few repeats done, and of course, I’ve forgotten to take a picture.

But that’s okay, because I cast on for another project on Sunday. I got the needles I needed for Ribby Cardi on Saturday. The yarn convinced me to get started, reminding me how cold my cube has been lately (I don’t care what the facilities guys says he’s done, it’s still cold), and how a nice sweater would help to keep me from turning into an icicle at my desk. It’s going really fast… I’ve gotten about 9 inches done so far (I’m knitting the body as a whole), and I’m going to make the underarm length 15 instead of the 13.5 the pattern calls for cause shorter shirts always ride up when I sit down.

I have broken down and purchased Rowan 34 and 3 balls of Kidsilk Haze in Majasty to make Birch. I would blame people, but Cate has already done a fine job. 🙂 I’m trying to look at this as a good thing… it’s my reward for having lost 23 lbs so far on my diet. While I am quite happy to have gotten my 20 lb star at my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday, I needed something a bit more substantial to celebrate, so of course, I bought yarn.

Lacy Frustration

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Apparently, there was yet another earthquake a couple hours ago… which would explain the faint shaking I felt (I thought it was our neighbors at the time… but they were being awfully quiet, which isn’t normal).

As for the title of this post… I went poking around in my lace books trying to find a lace border that would work with the Brooks Farm Duet yarn. I have picked out the elfin lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s 1st Treasury. I even used the outside end of my ball of yarn (cause I didn’t feel up to winding up the second hank just yet) to try it out and see how it looked. It looked pretty good, so that’s what I’m going to go with. So, what’s the problem, you ask? The problem is that the yarn loves it, too. The yarn is now trying to convince me to rip out three weeks of garter stitch (granted, three weeks of only sort of working on it) in order to use the lace pattern on the whole shawl. It feels like such a pain in the ass to even consider ripping out a triangle of garter stitch that’s about a foot long down the center… but I’m finding a part of myself arguing that, if I don’t use the lace pattern on the whole shawl, I’ll be eternally disappointed. I don’t like the idea of being eternally disappointed with the first shawl I make for myself… this yarn deserves better. This yarn knows it deserves better, which is why I’m probably going to rip out all that garter stitch once I finish posting this entry.

I think I’m going to have to reball the yarn before I get started again… maybe that will remind the yarn who’s in charge…

Just in time for the weekend

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We now return you to the regular knitting content…

The shawl with no name continues… slowly… but then I haven’t been devoting a lot of time to it. I’m beginning to think it is upset at me for not having named it yet. I also think it is beginning to lament the fact that the only lace I had planned for it was a lacy edging… it’s now making mutterings about why can’t it have a smaller garter stitch triangle to make room for some lace before the edging. *sigh* So, I’m going to have to hit the books again and see what jumps out at me. Any suggestions?

At least I’m liking the way the variegation is looking.

The only other thing on needles (and getting any attention) is a pair of socks for the Husband. I wanted to call them the Dope Fiend socks cause I worked on this one while loopy on vicodin. I thought it was a funny name… the Husband was not impressed. So, they shall just remain a pair of socks for the Husband.

Aren’t you terribly impressed by my gusset?

Tomorrow, I am planning a short trip to the LYS to pick up needles for making myself a Ribby Cardi. I decided that the very pretty yarn I had picked out for Mariah was not as dark as I would have liked. And the whole goal of this exercise was to procure for me a darker cardigan to be worn over darker shirts (I currently have a light grey/silver cardigan that looks plain silly over a black tee). So, I bought a copy of the pattern… and promptly used it as an excuse to buy more yarn. *grin* I will be using Knitpicks.com Wool of the Andes in Mist (the body) and Hollyberry (the arms and collar). I am also going to try knitting as much of it in the round as I can… hence, the needed trip to the LYS. I don’t seem to own any size 7 circular needles of any length. Thus, me and a ball of yarn will venture forth tomorrow to verify gauge and make a needle purchase. It’ll be an adventure, right?

Beginning to feel human again

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I saw my chiropractor on Monday, which helped to get rid of most of my upper body pain (it was all coming from my neck). Saw a doctor on Tuesday (not my doctor cause this is the week she has chosen to be in Boston), and was told if it still hurts in a week I should see my doctor, then I was given a sample of Celebrex to help with the inflammation. Unfortunately, I can’t take any of my happy 600 mg Motrin while taking the Celebrex, but the Celebrex did reduce what’s left of the swelling by half… and I can still take the Vicodin (wheee!). And the doctor said I don’t need to wear the infernal brace anymore. I just wish I didn’t have to come into work. I can’t seem to find a comfortable position to put my knee in, and it feels stiff whenever I get up. *ugh* And, of course, my knee, which hadn’t hurt for the first 4 days, hurts now that I’m at work.

At least tomorrow’s Friday.

I think the Vicodin has been affecting my brain… I was putting some arnica on my bruises the other day and got thinking about how I could dye some yarn with a orange-y yellow, a reddish violet, a bluish indigo, and a blue black and call it “Bruised.” It would certainly match the bruise on my hip. It would just be a matter of getting the colors right…. definitely the Vicodin.

I’ve been slowly working on the new shawl I’m doing with the Brooks Farm Duet. I still haven’t gotten to the end of the part of the ball that I ripped out of the Beginner’s Triangle Shawl. I hadn’t realized I had used that much yarn. What I do need to do is come up with a good name for it… Sadly, nothing is coming to mind when I look at the shawl. Purple, blue, and black just don’t bring anything to the front of my brain… and it’s missing the yellow and reddish tones for my bruise colorway idea. *grin* I also need to commit to a lace edging. There are a couple in Heirloom Knitting that I am considering; perhaps whichever one I choose will lend a name to the shawl.

SP5 Questionnaire

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1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
I think novelty yarns have their place, but usually that place is not on my needles. I love natural fibers… fibers that breathe… although I’m not terribly fond of 100% cotton, but I’m willing to believe this is because I haven’t met the right kind yet.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
I’ve been spinning for over a year now and still love it even if I don’t get a lot of time to do it. I know enough crochet to do a provisional cast-on without too much difficulty.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
I have asthma, so things like smoke and heavy perfumes set me off.

4. How long have you been knitting?
I’ve been knitting for almost 3 years.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Nope.

6. What’s your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
I am fond of herbal scents… lavender, thyme, sage, rosemary, etc.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
Yup, but I’ve had to cut back on my intake since I started Weight Watchers in April. I’m not saying don’t send me chocolate (mmmm), but things that are easy to have small pieces of are great. 🙂

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
Knitting and spinning are pretty much it these days. I like the idea of being creative, but it doesn’t mean I am… and I’m learning to accept that. 🙂

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I have ecceltic tastes… I think the only stuff that turns me off is country and rap.

10. What’s your favorite color? Or–do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can’t stand?
I like burgandy, french blue, and purple. I can’t stand orange and bright greens (like grass green)… they make me look ill when I wear them, so I just avoid them if I can.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Just the Husband and me.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
Sorry, I haven’t figured out what I want to be when I grow up, let alone what my life dreams are yet.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
I don’t think I have one. There are yarns I like, but none I go out of my way to get, or find myself always knitting with. I can’t even really say anything like “soft yarn” cause I kind of like the way wool is scratchy… it’s a tactile experience.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I find kitchen cottons make my hands ache… and I tend to stay away from artifical yarns (e.g., acrylic) unless I’m knitting for charity where something washable that won’t cause a potential allergic reaction is recommended.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
Again, I don’t know that I have any… I knit lace, I knit socks, I knit preemie hats… *shrug* I think socks are the closest thing to an obssesion cause I try to always have a pair of socks going… they’re a great travel project.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
See question 15. 🙂

17. What are you knitting right now?
I am currently knitting a pair of socks for the Husband and a shawl for myself while working on a shawl for my mother-in-law on the side.

18. What do you think about ponchos?
Not for me.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
Depends on the project.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Bamboo, wood, or plastic, but no metal hurts my hands like cotton.

21. Are you a sock knitter?
Yup.

22. How did you learn to knit?
Knitting for Dummies.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
A year and a half old… I think.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
Dragons.

25. What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween.

26. Is there anything that you collect?
Yarn, roving, and fleeces. 🙂

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I am currently subscribed to Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, and Spin-off.

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?
Not really…. although I am contemplating getting the 3rd Barbara Walker treasury (I have 1 and 2, and they’re great).

P.S. – If you have any other question I’ll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability. 🙂