A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

November 30, 2004

Blog Tricofolk

Steeking is just as mesmerizing and heart-stopping in French, non?

Another Completed Butterfly

Cookie has finished her Butterfly!

November 29, 2004

Butterfly Collar Reloaded

Well, I screwed it up again. See, I only read the second part of the errata. I ignored the first part, which instructed me to ignore the first part of the collar pattern. So I ripped it out again. Now I've got it.



Judy sent me an update photo of her Butterfly blocking.

Stephanie is blocking bits of her Butterfly too.

November 28, 2004

Ribby Cardi Knitalong


I must have misunderstood Carole. She is hosting a knitalong for the Ribby Cardi and has set up a blog for it. So head on over and join her there. Sorry for the mix up!

November 27, 2004

Offline


Sorry I've been offline. Wes has been "fixing" my computer. It has been making an ominous sound like someone is inside making a smoothie. Now it's making a different, more irritating, equally disconcerting sound.

I worked all day on Friday and today and am also working tomorrow.

My son happily received his new scarf today. The report from Wes was that the scarf was worn every time they went outside. I am very pleased. I didn't get to block it. I probably never will. Here it is in it's native habitat, nestled under some dirty mismatched socks.



I had a few Butterfly disasters tonight. I went out to knit with some Purlygirls. I sewed the fronts on to Butterfly. I picked up all the stitches around the neck but something didn't look quite right. Then I realized that I had sewn one front and one sleeve onto the front of Butterfly. Rip, rip, rip. Sew, sew, sew. Pick up 142 stitches. Then I start to knit the collar. I end up with the wrong number of stitches. I rip. I count. I knit. Still wrong. Rip, count...then I remember. There's errata for the collar. What a dope! I even posted the link here a few weeks ago. It was all too reminiscent of the time I sewed one of the sleeves for Lottie to my sweater shoulder to cuff. Or the reversed fronts for the Cursed Baby Sweater. What's my problem?

The Big Sack almost has both sleeves. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get all the parts on the needles and start the raglan decreases.

November 25, 2004

Mixed Blessing

I finished the last sleeve of Butterfly on Wednesday night. I was supposed to go to Stitch 'n Bitch but our usual spot closed early, even though we were told they wouldn't. Seven of us managed to regroup at the Tea House though. After finishing the Butterfly sleeve I resumed work on the second sleeve to the Big Sack sweater. When I got home I realized I was doing the increases on the Big Sack sleeve at the rate of the decreases from the Butterfly sleeve and had to rip out about a dozen rows.

Also on Wednesday, my four year old son asked me to make him a "red scarf." I was very excited to have a family member give a hoot about having anything handknit and told him I would. When he woke up on Thursday he demanded his scarf. I explained that I didn't have any red yarn and that all the stores were closed.

"I want my red scarf!"
"Honey, I will get some red yarn on Friday and start your scarf," I explained.
"This red yarn right here," he shouted from the kitchen. "Here, I'll show you."
He brought me over to the leftover yarn from Paula.
"This is purple," I told him.
"Make my scarf!"
"Okay..."

So I sat down to make his scarf. I decided on stockinette with a small seed stitch border and a keyhole so it could be short and not too much of a choking hazard. After about fifteen minutes he came back to see if I was done yet. I told him it may take a few days. He decided to "help" the whole process by screaming, "Mommy, make my scarf!" whenever I paused to rest, eat, go to the bathroom or prepare food (even for him). He also announced that he wanted a hat and coat to go with the scarf.

I always wanted my family to be more interested in my knitting. That will teach me.

November 24, 2004

Absurd Web Search of the Week

"kim possible naked"
Dude, she's a cartoon. A cartoon fifteen year old.

A Reason To Be Thankful



The pile driver is moving out.


Since I pulled out the camera I also grabbed pictures of the sleeves of Butterfly, which are nearly complete.



And a little detail from the Big Sack.



I have 12 inches of the body and one sleeve so far.

November 23, 2004

Ribby Cardi, The Knitalong

I have been given the blessing of Carole, who had expressed interest in hosting a knitalong, to go ahead and start a knitalong. So there you have it. I'll be hosting a knitalong for the Ribby Cardi. (Have you picked your color combo yet? Better hurry before it's all gone.) Please spread the word. And if anyone out there has a knack for snappy buttons, let me know.

I Was Not Exaggerating

The view from my front hall stairs.



My four year old took one too.




Kill me now, please.

November 22, 2004

Noise Pollution

I am going insane. Evil developers have torn down the lovely 100 year old house next door to mine to build bland, awful townhomes. If this isn't bad enough, we are now a week into the "pounding 12 foot long metal tubes into the ground" period. There is a massive machine (like a fork-lift with a 20 foot high jackhammer) that mercilessly pounds these pipes into the ground. They start promptly at 7 am each morning and this morning they were right outside my kitchen window. My teeth were rattling;my ears drums were throbbing;I wanted to kill someone. So I took my son out to lunch. I'm hoping I can bill the contractor for it.

I'm half-way to the armpits on the Big Sack (one sleeve is also done). I put the second sleeve to Butterfly in my purse and knocked off maybe a dozen rows this afternoon.

November 19, 2004

Fluted Finished



They're done. I'm so glad they're done. I don't hate the socks. I just didn't have fun knitting them. It felt like homework. But it's all over now.

Strangely, I don't feel the startitis setting in yet. Now that the socks are done my size 2 needles are free to finally make my Bohus cap I bought at camp. But with two big sweaters still on the needles I don't feel "free" yet. And the Floral Felted Tote is begging to be started soon. We'll see what happens.

Die, Fluted Banister, Die

Oh this sock. It seems like it's been taking forever. Because I never work on it. Because I don't like it. The pattern is simple. A very basic four-row repeat. So simple, in fact, that it bores me to tears. But since it changes every row, I can't just zone out and hammer away on it. I have to pay attention. I hate having to pay attention. I have less than two inches on the foot and then the toe left to knit. I keep bringing it places and leaving the rest of my knitting home in an effort to force myself to finish it.

My Butterfly sleeve and Big Sack sleeve are moving along. I think I'll knit the body next for the Big Sack instead of the second sleeve--just for a change of pace. I'm going to babysit for a friend tonight so there will be a lot of undisturbed knitting time.

I had a brush with knitting fame at work yesterday. I rang up a sale for a customer. We were chatting about the joys of owning a ball winder a swift. I was about to ask if she was planning on doing some lace knitting when she handed me her check and I went to check her ID.

Evelyn Clark. Yes, this Evelyn Clark. And this one. And this one. I kind of sputtered and said something very composed like, "It's... you!" I told her that I knit her Waving Lace socks and we chatted a bit. I've seen at Knitting Guild meeting before but never talked to her. She's very sweet. So that was the highlight of my day yesterday.

November 18, 2004

Butterflies

Marta is moving quickly on here Butterfly
Anita's progress
Annie is knee-deep in Noro
Emma has started the back

Carried Away

I was knitting away on the second sleeve to Butterfly yesterday. I took it to Seattle Stitch 'n Bitch last night. I just knit, knit, knit along. I went home. I watched Law & Order. I knit, knit, knit. Then I decided to count rows. Well, crap.



This is what I had. See the little green stitch marker? That's where I was supposed to stop. So I ripped, ripped, ripped. Until I had this. (Please note that the stitch marker was placed after I counted. I'm not that dippy.)



I also knit about 14 inches of the first Big Sack sleeve. Even though it's going quickly there's part of me that was expecting it to go even faster. "I've been knitting this sweater for a day and I'm not done yet!"

November 16, 2004

Sacked



What's better than a huge bag of Manos del Uruguay? A huge free bag of Manos del Uruguay!

I'm starting the Big Sack sweater by Jenna Wilson from Stitch 'n Bitch. I'm knitting it for the shop. I plan on teaching a class on it. It seems like a good first sweater--big gauge, no shaping--plus it's a good introduction to cables. I'm knitting it in the round. It's nice to knit a sweater that I a) don't have to pay for and b) don't have to worry about fit or sizing.

Thanks so much for all the nice comments on Paula. The sweater is terribly easy to knit. So easy that it was kind of boring, which is why it got put aside for so long. But I got remotivated when I thought about how pretty it would be and how much I really wanted to wear it. It also helped to have a whole day out (Saturday), hanging out with Molly, to work on seaming it all up. It made the finishing a lot more fun to do it in good company.

The ribbon I used is 2 inch wide double-faced satin. The pattern calls for 1.5 inch wide ribbon. But I knew this was the right color ribbon and it didn't come in a 1.5 inch width. I plan on putting some Fray-Check on the ends of the ribbon to prevent fraying. I'm sure I'll find it in the attic before I die. I also decided against sewing the ribbon on to the sweater. The ribbon, I think, is dry clean only. The sweater isn't. So for now at least I'm just pinning the ribbon to the sweater. We'll see how it goes.

November 15, 2004

Paula Portrait



Paula from the Alpaca Silk collection by Debbie Bliss
Knit with Cotton Fleece in Silver Plum

November 13, 2004

Ribby Cardi Madness

You may have noticed in the knitting blog world lately that everyone is buying Highland Wool from Elann to make the Ribby Cardi. I was going to make a list of who had blogged recently about it. Then I thought it would be easier to write a list just of the knitbloggers who aren't planning on making a cardi. Then I went back to my original plan. So here is what an inquisitive mind, a Google search and ten minutes on a Saturday morning (why won't the children let me sleep?) turns up.

Absinthe Knits
Action Hero
Amped Disposition
Chonderella
daily zen
dear sir or ma'am
Everybody Love Saturday Night
Froggy Knits
half baked
jensknits
Just Another Day
In The Pink
Keyboard Biologist
Knit This
KnitBlog
Knitmeister (Using Cascade 220)
Knitting and Other Stuff
Knitting-Sushi in AZ
Lanam Facio
marmalade
Misocrafty
Much Ado About Knitting
Passionknit
Purls of Wisdom
Super Eggplant
sweet georgia
Take Back the Knit
Zeneedle

***Just Added***
Crayonbrain's Knitting Drivel
Stitch Marker
Pinku
Lectio.ca
Clever Lefty
One More Row and Another Latte
KnotInMyThread

It looks like there will be a knitalong.

And the reason I haven't posted about getting some Highland Wool yet is because I already have this in my stash from the last time Elann had it. I was going to make a striped cardigan but since I know have yarn for the Retro Prep it seems redundant. Will I make a Ribby Cardi myself? I don't know yet.

November 12, 2004

Let's Agree to Disagree

To counteract my reputation in local knitting circles as a poncho-hater, I offer this olive branch. Here are 27 free poncho patterns for any poncho-inclined readers.

November 10, 2004

Ball Winding Party

After Stitch 'n Bitch tonight my friend Jeanne mentioned, with a sigh, that she had to go home and wind another ball off of her giant cone of Den-M-It by hand to continue knitting her sweater. I invited to come over to my house to use my swift and ball winder. What a disaster. First we couldn't figure out where to put the cone so it could spin, then the yarn got wound around the bottom of the winder, which keep sliding around because I hadn't secured it to the counter well enough. Eventually we had a tangled mess of yarn and Jeanne was wishing she had just gone home. But Wes helped secure the winder and we unwound the mess on to the swift. We rewound the first ball and then put the cone on the handle to our Swiffer and wound away.


All Done!

Then I wound all the yarn for my Floral Felted Bag. I still need to finish the collar of Paula to free up the needles for the bag. But once Paula is done, I'm finally going to start. I got sidetracked today because I got my swap partner assignment from the Pink Flower Pin Swap. I spent most of the afternoon working on some ideas. I brought them all to Stitch 'n Bitch to see what everyone thought of them.

While I was at my son's school, sitting on the playground knitting a flower, something flew up, landed on my face and stung me. Right on the lip! Oh, it stung. Tears were streaming down my face. Owie, owie, owie. I put some meat tenderizer on it and kept ice on my face for as long as I could stand it. I can still see where I was stung but it's hardly swollen and only a little tender. Ouch.

November 9, 2004

Meandering


Just a reminder of what I'm doing over here


I've been stuck at home for the last two days with a sick four year old. That may account for my somewhat strident tone yesterday. But stuck at home is good knittin' time. I knit the entire right front to Paula yesterday. I even did the three-needle bind off to the shoulder before bed. This morning I cast on the 282 stitches for the shawl collar. You knit one row of k2, p2 ribbing then cast off 4 stitches at the beginning of the next 20 rows. Do some more knitting, bind off and sew the collar on to the sweater. Normally, I'm completely against sewing. But casting on 282 stitches, while it did take what felt like several hours, is preferable in my mind to trying to evenly pick up 282 stitches around the front of the sweater. Pick your poison. I'm about halfway through the collar now.

Bloglines seemed very quiet today so I toured the Knitting Bloggers webring for a while until I hit a dead end (which I took as a sign). I found Curlie Girl which features the most adorable needle felted bears and even a dragon. Keep scrolling down there are several bears and they are truly charming and incredibly well-executed.

I also discovered a knitting store that bears my name. I don't know what the store is like but the website is gorgeous!

November 8, 2004

Noro Knits?

One of our Butterfly-alongers, Mona, believes her pattern book has been lost in shipment. She is wondering if anyone would like to sell or swap their copy of the book.

Gallimaufry*

I saw knit.1 at Barnes and Noble on Saturday. It's small like a comic book or those teenage versions of magazines. The articles and products in the front were vaguely interesting but I'd seen it all before on the blogs. And the patterns? Here is what I thought as I looked at them.
"Oh no."
"Ugh."
"Ick."
"Blech."
"That's nasty."
"Nasty, nasty, nasty."
"Ugly."
"Fugly."
"Oh, dear God!"
You get the idea. The magazine is sponsored by Lion Brand and every pattern uses Lion Brand yarn. That's right. More Fun Fur than you can shake a stick at. I'm sure if I was a 13 year old beginning knitter I would think it was awesome.

Speaking of teen knitters, the Seattle Knitter's Guild held a special talk and book signing last night with Jennifer Wegner, author of Teen Knitting Club. The book looks nice. I didn't buy one to get it autographed. I'm cheap that way. I was a little put off by Jennifer. She came across as pretty arrogant. She said things like, "I can just look at someone and know their measurements and know exactly how to make a sweater that will fit them perfectly." I imagined her using Terminator vision to scan her customers for their measurements. I've met a few true knitting goddesses and they all seemed a lot more gracious and modest. Maybe Jennifer was tired after all the touring, signing and talking. She's pregnant with her third child. Poor thing.

I have updated photos of Paula and Butterfly if you're interested. I just laid out all the pieces that I've finished so far into sweater-like shapes. I've made a lot of progress on both sweaters since I snapped these pictures last night.

There's a new webring for Asian Knitters. Since I'm only Asian by marriage, I don't think it would be appropriate to join. I think they're welcoming Asian knitters and knitters in Asia.

Lastly, Theresa has finished her Butterfly! Go have a look at all it's loveliness.

*Like my title, doesn't it sound more fancy than "odds and ends?" Thank goodness for thesauruses (or thesauri, both are correct--love dictionaries too!).

Talk of the Nation

Finally!

November 6, 2004

Show Time



Wes's co-workers love karaoke. They do it at a real dive bar near their office almost every Friday night. We went once a few months ago. I didn't sing. I'm a little afraid to sing in public. I have no confidence in my singing voice. So last time I sat and watched. A few people were very good. Most of them sucked. A lot. But they had fun so it was fun to watch. A few people, like a very drunk man trying to sing Devo's "Whip It," were actually painful to watch. We decided to get a sitter and go again last night. And I decided to sing (now that I understand just how low the bar is set). I picked a song that I knew by heart, adore and is under two minutes long. I sang "Fell In Love with a Girl" by the White Stripes (if you've never watched the video, check it out). I guess I did a pretty good job. There was a lot of cheering and compliments when it was over. Wes and I wanted to do a duet and we put in two--"Don't You Want Me" by Human League and "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" by the Offspring. We got called up but the hostess didn't tell us what song it was and we both assumed it was Human League. We were both pretty thrown when "Give it to me, baby!" started blasting. My last solo bit was singing another song that I absolutely knew by heart. I also decided to stick to songs sung by men since I have a pretty low voice and didn't want to crack reaching for a high note. I sang "Born to Run" by the Boss. I think Wes was surprised I could sing. He's been married to me for over 10 years but I think he started to believe me when I say I can't really sing.

I also took my six year old to a matinee of The Incredibles right after school. I loved the movie. It was witty, zany and had a great visual style. But it's long. Really long for a kid's movie. 115 minutes. Long. I would really not recommend this for little kids. There's action, violence, guns, plane crashes, and a lot of the plot and jokes are pretty sophisticated. After about 100 minutes all the kids started to squirm. But it's a great movie so go see it. Just leave the little ones at home.

I've got about six inches of the back of Butterfly done, a few inches of my second Fluted Banister sock and the ribbing of the remaining front of Paula. I keep telling myself I should just buckle down and finish up Paula just to cross it off the list. And to justify starting a new project. But I'm so drawn to Butterfly and it's waving chevrons and my dear, sweet Kureyon. I had to run out today to get three more skeins to finish the sweater. The first ten were off of eBay. I was awfully lucky though. The colorway, #87, is discontinued. But I still managed to find some at Acorn Street and it was from the same dye lot! Not that it matters with Kureyon. But still.

I'll try to post some progress shots tomorrow. Rock on!

Butterflying

Theresa is cruising along.
Emma's fronts are nearly done.
Anne's Sleeves are done.
Kristi is still working on her gauge.
Cookie has gotten a lot done.
She also got engaged!
Marta's starting.

Any Butterfly-alongers without blogs can send me photos and updates to post. Just leave me a comment before you send an email with an attachment.

November 5, 2004

What Really Matters

With all the commotion earlier this week caused by the election, we knit bloggers missed the opportunity to discuss something really crucial--Desperate Housewives. How could there not be a single blog post from the 125 blogs I read regularly (sickness, I know) about Gabriela and her murderous mother-in-law played by Lupe Ontiveros?

We first meet Mama Solis as she click clacks with icky giant aluminum needles on a icky giant garter stitch scarf. Her son comments on the beauty of her work (huh?). We can see the actress, who is clearly not a knitter, struggle along with her scene as she click clacks away. Later, armed with the same ugly scarf, she tells a story of how some thirty-plus years ago she killed her husband with her knitting needles. Okay, she doesn't come out and say it but we know. And she warns her philandering daughter-in-law of the same fate. Click, clack, click, clack. Then there is an inset shot of hands at least twenty years younger Ms. Ontiveros knitting dextrously. Click, clack, click, clack. Which leads to the most crucial question. How come after all those years of knitting she's still making a worsted weight garter stitch scarf?

I had a great knitting day yesterday. I had fun at work unpacking shipments of Cascade 220 Superwash, needles and notions. The sales rep from Elsebeth Lavold came to the store. It was the first time I was there when I rep was visiting. I got to listen in a bit and peek over the owner's shoulder. The new spring colors for Silky Tweed are lovely. The new colors of Silky Wool will surprise a lot of people. They are ultra-vivid. We will also get Cotton Patine and Cabled Cotton which felt so soft and had an unusual (cabled, duh) construction. There were a lot of customers to keep me busy and four drop-in students for the project class. I got to help a few people while filling in stock and helping customers. I really love working when the shop is busy. I just feed off the energy.

After work was the weekly Essential Baking knit together. We had so much fun. We talked, argued about politics (and everything else), doled out sage knitting advice and laughed and laughed and laughed.

I finished the right front of Butterfly last night and cast on (three times) for the back. I still have to knit the second sleeve as well. Paula is all knit except for one of the fronts. I think I may have to rip and reknit the tops of both sleeves. They look horrificly long. I didn't get row gauge with my yarn substitution but forgot to adjust for it. Whoops.

November 4, 2004

Cap Accompli



Forgive the strange head-down pose. I couldn't talk my four year old into taking the picture so I just held the camera out and snapped. I'm lucky my head is in the frame at all.

The cap took 35 grams of Noro Silk Garden #88. I think my pattern writing skills have a long way to go. I keep starting things thinking about the beginning and not planning for the end. The decrease on this cap are a lot more elegant than on my shocking lime green enormous cable hat. But they ain't no Shedir. I will work on that.

Genius

SmartLyte
I need one for every bag.

Slightly Strange

Someone found my blog searching for "sample charts for puppy shots." I assume they have a puppy. A puppy who needs shots. And they want to chart these shots. Now why would they click on my blog (which is oddly the third hit for this search)?

November 3, 2004

Just Keep Knitting

I'm feeling very sad today but I'm just going to knit through it.

Thanks for all the nice comments on my scarf. There were a lot of questions about it.

It takes two skeins of Silk Garden. I have written the pattern and am finishing a hat as well. The two patterns will be available to buy from the Fiber Gallery in a few days. My blocking board is a piece of sound board with plaid fabric stapled to it. Simple, lightweight yet effective.

The hat is about a third-way done. I ripped it all out and started again at Stitch 'n Bitch tonight. There was a lot more cursing than usual as I kept dropping my needles and my stitches. Not my night, I guess.

November 1, 2004

Eyelets and Chevrons



Here is the scarf pinned out for blocking. The yarn is Noro Silk Garden colorway #88. It has muted tones of tan with little hints of pale pastel purple and minty green. It looks very sweet all knit up.



This was quick project. I cast on Saturday in between knitting the Madeira hat and mittens. I cast off tonight at Purlygirls. I couldn't wait to pin it out and see what it really looked like spread out evenly and flat. It's really not bad at all for something so off the cuff. My blocking board is too short so I have to wait for this end to dry so I can block the rest of it. I wanted it to be ready to go to work with me on Thursday.