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.