Finally some photos

This is my friend's Branching Out. She picked out the pattern and color. I've been working on this during my "after breakfast knitting while listening to the news" period every morning. It's working out quite well since I only have time for about 6 rows so there is less chance for me to zone out and mess up. Note the absence of a lifeline. I hear that little voice in my head telling me I better get one soon...


Speaking of scarves, I plan on staring the Child's Rainbow Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts soon. I think I'll give it to my cousin for Christmas. I picked up the yarn during my Easter travels at Yellow Dog Knitting. What a great store! They had a wide variety of yarn, but what really stood out was their friendliness. Seriously, I have never felt so at home in a store within five minutes of walking in the door. I hope to stop there again some time.



Here's the giant Rose I mentioned in my last post. Looks pretty good and close to be finished, except that there is about 12 inches of ease around the chest! (No, I will not model it, it's really awful.) I haven't been able to frog it yet. I'm just not emotionally ready.


And here's my sock I've been ignoring for over a week so I can take it to knitting group on Saturday, assuming I am able to go. I should be able to get close to the toe decreases then.

Disgruntled

Again I am too lazy to take and upload pictures. The past several days have been a blur. I've worked late the past five days, including an annoying 10 hour day today. I'm spent. My weekend was only somewhat relaxing.

Not much knitting has been happening lately. I finished the body of Rose (Soleil with sleeves) and what do you know? It's WAY TOO BIG. I knew in the back of my knitterly brain that I should have ripped long ago, before I wasted hours and hours knitting for nothing. Note to self: Do not ignore the nagging or the bad feeling. It's probably right. My gauge expanded in the middle, and I think I may have made entirely the wrong size. I'll be able to save the lace bottom, but need to omit pretty much all the increases in the body, as I am NOT well endowed. I've never done a major frogging before, I suppose there's no time like the present. I'm not sure if I can tackle dealing with knitting this any time soon. I've got some bad vibes going on with wearable items other than socks and scarves.

I started my friend's Branching Out last night. I know I can do that succesfully. Of course I did manage to lose a stitch while watching TV and had to tink back a couple of rows.

One thing I like about my job is interviewing. (This is knitting related, keep reading.) We've expanded quite a bit over the years and I've been able to go to many interviews, especially for new grads. A couple of weeks ago I was in an interview and asked the woman if she had anything to add. She said when she went to college she had to choose between art and science.

Interviewee: "My mom has an online yarn store and my dad..."
Me: "What? Your mom is a spinner?"
Other interviewer: "What? An online YARD store?"

The discussion point was lost after the yarn vs. yard clarification. Well, seconds after I returned to my desk I located the online yarn store, as if I needed anything else to tempt me... I didn't buy anything, but the info is filed away in my brain in case I need it later.

Loved to Death

I made some slippers for my husband in November or December 2004 from the book Knitting Pretty. I think they were my first non-scarf project.

A few weeks ago, they started disintegrating, however, he continues to wear them, and they now look like this:



Clearly, he needs a replacement pair. I don’t know if I should whip out some new ones with the same pattern or if I should hunt for something different. I also don’t know what kind of yarn to use that might last longer. These were made of Lion Brand Wool-Ease (chunky, I think).

I've been working late all week and don't feel like taking any new pictures to show all of the things I've been working on lately, so you'll just have to read about them.

- The Not Cashmere Sweater is unloved and untouched.
- Rose is coming along, but slowly. I hope to finish in a couple of weeks.
- I finished the heel on Spey Valley Sock #1 and am trying not to work on the sock since it will be a good project for the next time I go to knitting group.
- I am halfway done with an Easter cross stitch pattern I started last Friday. I was hoping to finish over the long Easter weekend but got distracted by my sock.

The new Interweave preview is up. I am really looking forward to seeing the magazine. I could see myself wearing a few of the shirts, and they look like interesting knits.

Happy Easter

I put together this little basket for my mom. She collects rabbit stuff, so she loves getting bunnies at Easter time. Observant blog readers will notice that the "grass" is actually the Boa scarf I made for her.

I leave you with one of the bunny heads I made a few years ago...

Falling behind on my stories

Two Sundays ago we went out for a late lunch. The woman in the next booth was knitting! I think this was the first time I had ever seen anyone KIPing other than as part of a knitting group or at a yarn store, where it is expected. I couldn’t tell what she was working on. Her husband was wearing a very nice sweater, and I wondered if she made it.

First Saturday Knitting this month was a festival of sugar-I brought cookies, someone brought banana bread, and someone else brought cupcakes with inch-thick frosting. Perhaps it was the sugar that destroyed my willpower. Despite a warning from one of my loyal blog readers that the yarn was "squeaky" or "slippery" or some other "s" word, I had to bring home a skein of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. It had been calling out to me since January. I just love the rich brown colors and I’ll be able to wear the socks with almost anything. I started (three times, don't ask!) the Spey Valley socks from Knitting on the Road, as seen in my previous post. My first socks on size 0 needles! Yipes! They are actually coming along pretty well. I'm about 2 inches away from starting the heel.

Rose is moving along again, after doing some serious thinking.

I’ve been having thoughts about frogging the Not Cashmere Sweater. However, I’m going to wait for awhile and make sure that’s what I really want to do. I don’t want to do anything I’ll regret later. Other times I feel like I should just suck it up and work on it and get it done. Maybe I should just ignore it until fall.

The new knitty is up, but nothing is really speaking to me. That's good, since I have plenty of other things to keep me busy!

A Day in Photos

Breakfast: puffed apple pancake.

The mess I tried to clean up today.

Right sides together really means right sides together.

Voila, the bag is finished!

Tonight: Quality time with Spey Valley Sock #1

FO Frenzy!

I was looking for an easy project to take to First Saturday Knitting. Enter the handwarmers. I had been meaning to make a pair for some time, since my hands are almost always cold. Unfortunately, I don’t forsee myself taking them to work, where I need them the most. They will be great for reading or using the computer at home. These were a fun, quick knit.

Women’s Hand/Wristwarmers
Pattern: Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Started: 30Mar2006
Finished: 01Apr2006
Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha, Color 80 (Thanks, Kathy!), 1 skein
Needles: The pattern requires two circulars, “necessary because of the curve of the handwarmer.” Whatever. A set of 5 Clover DPNs, US sz 6 worked fine.

A truly remarkable thing has happened. I used some fabric stash! I achieved one of my goals for 2006. I bought this flannel and pattern at least three years ago. This was supposed to be my first sewed garment, since flannel pants don’t go out of the house. But after initially buying the wrong size pattern (how was I supposed to know my “normal” size is way off of sewing pattern size?), and then actually taking the pattern out of the envelope and panicking over the wrinkly, giant pieces of tissue paper, the project lived in my fabric stash, untouched and unloved.

The flannel pants were not free of problems. My head almost exploded while trying to figure out the pockets-right side, wrong side, put these together, facing this way, blah blah blah, but the pocket installation was successful on the first try. The side seam, however, was not:


Know anyone who would fit into these? I don’t. Riiiiiiip. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to check the first seam before I sewed both sides of the mutant pants.



Flannel Pants
Pattern: Butterick 6354
Started: 20-March-2006
Finished: 01-April-2006







Laura asked about the pattern for the green sweater I'm working on. It's Rose, the sleeved version of Soleil.

Quilt Show

I was in need of a three day weekend, so I took last Monday off. I was really excited when I realized that there was a quilt show happening the same day. I had attended the show a couple of times in the past, and I even entered a wallhanging one year (I certainly did not win a ribbon, in case you’re wondering), so I knew it was going to be a good way to spend some of my day off. This time I was armed with my digital camera, so I was able to add a new dimension to my quilt show experience. Unfortunately most of the quilts were in very poor lighting, and I am not a human tripod.

This cat robber cracked me up. It was part of “Cats Incognito.”


Next time, a couple of FO's.