Rosedale's Still Rolling

I've finished 9 inches on the body of Rosedale. So far, so good.
I'm taking the kids to Ikea today (their idea, not mine) so hopefully I'll get a little knitting done while they trounce on the furniture.

Ribbit, Ribbit

Guess what I've been doing today? That's right. I had to frog much of what I did yesterday. I missed one set of decreases in the first decrease round of Rosedale. It took me forever to frog. I'm a very slow unknitter. It's done now and I'm moving forward again.

I feel this frog adequately expresses my feelings on the entire incident.

We also went to see The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. We really enjoyed it. I can sum up my criticism in three words: Too much Frodo. I mean how much time do we really need to spend looking into Elijah Woods' big, sad, puppy eyes? Can't wait for the DVD box set.

Meet the Pets

I thought I'd introduce you to our pets. Meet Hugo.



And Zasu.

Rosedale's Rolling Along

I was able to start the body of Rosedale yesterday. Tonight, while out babysitting for friends, I got to the start of the intarsia rectangle and was temporarily baffled. I'm not very gifted with spatial relationships and trying to understand how the pattern works was a challenge. When I got home I reread the pattern online and looked at it and am satisfied that I'm not completely screwing it up.


The sleeves are a little puzzling. They start out matching pretty closely. They continue to match until about 7/8 of the way up and then one goes to hot pink and other goes to blue. I don't get it.

Ho Ho Ho

Not much knitting yesterday.
We spent the day lounging around the house in our pajamas. The kids played with their new toys. The parents dozed on the sofa. We went for our traditional Christmas Chinese dinner. We were going to go see a light display at the botanical gardens but it started to pour. We drove around a little and looked at some decorated houses.

After the kids were in bed we watched Seabiscuit. I can't remember the last time I saw a film that so insulted my intelligence. It's as if the filmmaker was sure that no one in the audience could put two and two together so he had to highlight, underline and reiterate a point--several times.

My Husband, The Snowflake Genius

Megan at Not Martha posted a link to this Make-a-Snowflake site. I showed it to my husband and within a few minutes he had churned out this one then this one for Hanukkah. Color me impressed.

Arrgh!

Here it is, Christmas Eve. The kids are in bed. It's quiet. I've just finished the second sleeve to Rosedale. I pull out a new skein of Kureyon and my new size 8 circular needles. I am about to cast on 190 stitches when I see that I bought 24" circulars! Way too short. Wahhhhhh!!!! No knitting over Christmas. Wahhh!!!! I had visions of finishing this sweater by this weekend. Wahhhhh!! Maybe I'll finally finish seaming that Debbie Bliss purse.

I Fold!

After staying up all night (OMG is it ever late) watching Celebrity Poker Showdown trying to finish the second sleeve on Rosedale, I'm throwing in my cards. I just finished the increases and have 4 more inches to night. It's 2:38 am!

Sleeve looks good though. I can't say the same for me.

Snarky Japanese Knitting Haiku

I stumbled upon these very humorous knitting haiku at the ABC's of Knitting site. Who knew Japanese knitters were this silly?

Second Sleeve Begun, Gifts Given

I'm about 6 inches into the second sleeve on Rosedale. Happily, the color seems to match the first one pretty well.

I was able to see my friend's daughters open their holiday gifts today. Her two year old seemed to like her stuffed kitty. She squealed when she opened it and gave it a big hug. Her five year old opened her backpack, screamed, "Hello Kittttty!" And immediately unzipped it, took out the stuffing and put it on. She was still wearing it an hour later when I left so I guess it was a hit. Looking at it again, in person, I have to say, it came out really well. Much better than I expected.

One Sleeve

Here's the first sleeve of Rosedale United done. As you can see I just cast on for the second sleeve. I rifled through my 11 skeins of yarn to find one that starts at the same color as my first sleeve to try to get them to match. I came close but they're still going to be different. I can't wait to get the sleeves done and out of the way to start on the body. I'm dying to see that intarsia rectangle. God, I'm such a knitting nerd.

I had my own knitting clinic today. A friend came over for help on her Booga Bag. She was stuck at picking up the stitches around the bottom rectangle. She'd never done it before. I took the knitting to show her and we realized that she's a picker and I'm a thrower. I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to properly pick up the stitches, with a twist to prevent a gaping hole, in the continental style. I did a Google search but couldn't find it. So she just did it in the American style and then switched back to continental once the stitches were picked up. But I kept telling her that the great thing about that project is that felting hides a multitude of sins.

Rosedale Commences!

I started Rosedale last night. I've got about 10 inches done on the first sleeve. I'm so excited.
I've also finished the beaded portion of my first wrist cuff and need to knit about another 2 inches of garter stitch. But Rosedale has captured my attention for now.

Yet Another Quiz with Very Accurate Results

I took another one of those personality quizzes.

you are darkredviolet #600B40

Your dominant hues are red and magenta. You love doing your own thing and going on your own adventures, but there are close friends you know you just can't leave behind. You can influence others on days when you're patient, but most times you just want to go out, have fun, and do your own thing. Your saturation level is high - you get into life and have a strong personality. Everyone you meet will either love you or hate you - either way, your goal is to get them to change the world with you. You are very hard working and don't have much patience for people without your initiative. Your outlook on life is slightly darker than most people's. You try to see things for what they are and face situations honestly. You'd rather get to the point than look for what's good.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Now this is strangely similar to the result from my "molecule" quiz. And the color is almost the exact color that I'm about to paint my bedroom. And it's my favorite color. I have about 6 shirts or sweaters that color.

Look Ma, No Ads

I've moved my blog to my own site to get rid of the banner ads. Here it is.

Okay, So I'm a Lipid

Wow, this analysis is dead on. Creepy.


You are a lipid. You know whom you like and whom you hate, and you like hanging out with people who think like you do. People who disagree with you annoy you to no end. You either love Abercrombie and Fitch or you despise it, but there's no middle ground. You're polar.

Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Spidey Sense Tingling

I got Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Designs: A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns from the library yesterday. I was immediately fascinated by her chart for a "The Spider." I was thinking about it all day and finally crumbled and cast on and knit it.

It is, by far, the most complicated thing I've ever done. There are a few mistakes that I wasn't able to figure out. At one point I had to frog one and a half rows and thought I had totally lost it and almost tossed it aside. But then I thought about a post on Knitting in Color about a terrible knitting mistake and how it made her a real knitter to hang in there and fix it. So I muddled through. I think all in all it turned out pretty well.

I also was a very lucky girl today. A friend who is a lapsed knitter gave me all this. That's 4 skeins of Tahki Donegal Tweed, 10 skeins of Lamb's Pride Cotton Top and 6 skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted! Lucky, lucky girl! I'm not crazy about the colors especially that salmon pink. I need to find out more about over-dyeing. I would love to use the worsted for an Elle bag.

Man, I'm pooped. I'm off to bed.

No Rosedale, Just Some Seams

Even though I really wanted to start swatching Rosedale last night that button in the upper right corner of my blog was nagging me that I haven't finished my Debbie Bliss purse. So I sat down to work on that last night. I seamed half of it satisfactorily (the stockinette side) but was a little stumped when I got to the seed stitch side. It's a pretty heavy cotton yarn knit with a double strand. So it's thick and a little loose. I'm not sure the best way to seam it. I went through all my books last night and can't find any illustrations of seaming seed stitch. Sigh...

Here Kitty, Kitty!

Here's my girl.

I've got photos of the completed backpack. The lining is a little too big for the bag. I think that's partly because I'm a tight knitter and partly the pattern. When I went to the Stitch 'N Bitch book signing I thought the lining seemed to be crowded inside the sample backpack Debbie showed us. If I ever make another one I will trim it down a little bit.



Here she is both lined and unlined.



Okay, that's enough pink for one day.

I also snapped a picture of my slow progress on my beaded wrist warmers. I'm surprised at how well the color differences in the beads show up in the photo. Almost better than real life. They move sloooooooooooooooow with all those little bitty beads to place. Twenty-four on each row of beads. Sloooooooooooooooow. I'm making them on size 1 needles with Jaeger Matchmaker which is just so soft.

Tonight I start swatching Rosedale!

Another FFO!

Another freakin' thing finished! Woohoo! My Hello Kitty punk rock back pack is complete. I borrowed a friend's sewing machine to finish it and broke it. How? How is it possible??? Fortunately, DH helped me straighten it out. I never quite got the tension right but at least I was able to sew up the lining and the zipper. I pinned the opening shut over the zipper and gave it a little steaming. When I unpin it tomorrow I'll snap some beauty shots.

I'm chugging along on the beaded cuffs too. I was working on them at Barnes & Noble today while my three year old read all the Dora books, then all the Blue's Clues books, then all the Dora books, then Blue's Clues, then played with the trains. A saleswoman walked by me and said, "Oh, you finished your socks." I guess I spend a little too much time knitting at B & N.

I also ran out to my LYS to get my needles for Rosedale and the gloves I started last night.

Hello Noro, Hello Kitty!

My yarn arrived!

I got this Kureyon #115 on eBay for a great price. I will start Rosedale II as soon as I get the right size needles. I was dying to start swatching but I don't have any size 8 circulars or dpn's. And the yarn stores aren't open late on Monday. It seems like every knit blogger in the world is making a version of this sweater.

I sewed up all the knitted parts of my backpack. Say Hello Kitty!

From here my knitting day went downhill. That gusset somehow ended up totally off-center. Sigh... But then my sewing machine wouldn't work. That darn bobbin thing wouldn't grab the thread so I couldn't sew up the lining and zipper. Grrrrr. I will be borrowing a friend's tomorrow.

I also finished swatching and have cast on for my first glove ever. I don't have a great feeling about it. I made a mistake halfway into the first round.

And, I keep screwing up my beaded wrist warmers. I frogged and reknitted the first 10 or so rows twice last night and then this morning I realized that I don't have enough beads strung to finish them. I think I will work as far as I can and then add the beads onto the opposite end of the yarn. I should probably just frog it and start over from scratch but I think that will leave me so depressed that I won't ever want to start them again. So, pressing on.

FFFO!

Finally Freakin' Finished Object!

My socks are done. I will not be making any socks on size 1 needles anytime soon if I can help it. I'm just too slow and impatient for it. Give me some size 6s and worsted weight wool and I'll be a sock-making maniac.
Here is the photo array:



Mental note: Shave legs.

In Other Knitting News
I also snapped a shot of the stocking I made for my son from Christmas Stockings: 18 Holiday Treasures to Knit.
Yes, the pockets are as crooked as they look. If my son cared I take them off and stitch them on again. But he's five. He doesn't care. I'm good with it.

Incredibly Still Not Quite There...

I'm still making that second sock! I am less than an inch away from the toe decreases and I should really finish it tonight. I swear!

I took one of those dopey "which character from [blank] are you?" quizzes and got this answer.



Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

Which, it appears, is spot on. "I didn't finish that sock tonight? Inconceivable!"

I saw this cute knit backpack at Land of Nod today. It got me thinking about other groovy backpacks designs one could create. I'll need to work on this...

Almost there...

My sock is very close to done. I will probably finish it tonight. I'm babysitting for friends tonight so that should be prime knitting time.

We were at the mall today and I spent most of my time sitting on the floor in a B. Dalton's working on the sock while my son read. I also knitted on line at the Nordstrom Espresso Bar, near the trains at Toys "R" Us...you get the picture.

I've pinned down the last few pieces of the punk rock backpack for blocking tonight. Hopefully I can sew it all up in the next day or two. (Did I say that a few days ago? Hope not.)

Getting There...

I didn't do much knitting yesterday. I'm about a third of the way through the second sock. The first one took me over a week to complete but I'm flying through this second one (by my standards anyway).

I did a lot of work on personalizing this blog. I added the snazzy progress percentage bars (courtesy of Anna), changed the color, fonts and background.

Booga Magic

Here's more pictures of the Booga Bag I made for my friend.

Before felting...

and after.

This bag felted a lot more than my own bag. It also felted a lot faster. Both were made with Noro Kureyon. This one is color #115.

One Down...

I finished my sock yesterday morning. I cast started the second one too. I don't want to lose momentum and end up with just one sock. It fits really well. What an amazing thing to wear a custom-made garment (even if it's only a sock).



We had a lovely pre-holiday Stitch n' Bitch last night. The host had a fire going and piles of holiday treats. She even had the hot tub ready for anyone who wanted to soak. I passed on that but helped myself to a fair amount of chocolate covered caramel corn. Yummo!

And Now Some Pictures...

I have been in a knitting frenzy for the last month or so. I've started a knitting group that meets once a month and I joined the Seattle Stitch N' Bitch.





I made a few stuffed animals from Kath Dalmeny's World of Knitted Toys. I made the dolphin (which looks more like a shark) and a cat.

I thought the cat looked a little plain. It's a Christmas gift for my best friend's daughter. So I added a collar with a rhinestone "C" on it.

I made a Booga bag for myself recently and love it. These bags are really fast and easy and they look great. I get stopped every time I go to my LYS. People want to know all about how I made my fabulous bag. My best friend was admiring it so I made one for her for Christmas too.

Last night I nearly finished a sock I've been working on for the last week. I wanted to try a project on really small needles so I made a Basic Ribbed Sock from Vogue on the go! Socks Two. I used some Regia Cotton Plus that I got off the sale shelf and size 1 dpn's. It was really slow going at first but a worthwhile learning experience. I still need to kitchener stitch the toe together.

I'm waiting on some Kureyon #115 I bought on eBay the night before last to get started on Rosedale II from the fall Knitty.

I did some blocking last night for a Punk Rock Backpack from Debbie Stoller's awesome book Stitch 'N Bitch. Hopefully I'll get all the blocking and sewing done in the next day or so.

Okay, so I'm starting a blog. Obviously.

I've been doing so much knitting lately I needed somewhere to share it. Hopefully someone will stop by and look occasionally. I'll try to start putting up pictures as soon as I can.