The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Un-freaking-believable

Let's just go in order here....

The Good
I finished up the second sleeve of Blanche-Neige last night (all but a few ends to be woven in). I was in such a good rhythm and my needles were flying so fast that I hardly paid attention to ER, which is one of my favorite shows. Dr. Carter was even back on this episode! But I had eyes only for my knitting.

Since that was done, I brought my second pair (well, the first sock of the second pair) of Jaywalkers to work for my lunchtime knitting, and soon discovered that I was ready to start the toe decreases. So I need about another hour on that and I'll be finished with a sock.

The Bad
I had to start using my last ball of yarn to finish the second sleeve. That means when I was done, I was left with approximately three quarters of a ball (let's estimate maybe 100 yards, if I'm lucky). Call me pessimistic, but I don't think that's going to be enough to knit both border sections of the fronts. I was hoping that a full ball might do it, but I think it would have still been close.

The Ugly
In spite of the fact that I deliberately bought more yarn than I thought I needed, I'm still short. And the knitting gods must be laughing at me for being so complacent that everything was working out so well at the beginning. Because Knit Picks does not have any more Merino Style in Vanilla left in stock. Yes, you read that correctly. In fact, they won't have any more in stock until 3/17 (which would be even funnier if the color I needed was a shade of green). So in all likelihood, I won't be able to get more yarn in the same dyelot and furthermore by the time I get it and finish the knitting, it'll probably be too warm to wear the darn thing.

The Un-freaking-believable
(And I use that term so as to avoid cursing and annoying J, who doesn't like me to have a potty mouth.) In my previous life as an elementary school teacher, I got a lot of interesting gifts from my students around the holidays. In most cases they were things I would never use, but one student and her family gave me a great gift: an amaryllis. It's one of those bulb plants that has long straight leaves and has a stalk with multiple blooms. You see them a lot around Christmastime. In any case, when they gave it to me in December 2004, it was still a baby and was ready to start blooming in a few days. I took it home, put it on top of the bookcase in front of the window (which gets very good light), and took care of it. It bloomed beautifully and looked gorgeous, but eventually dried out. But then a second bloom happened, which was just as lovely as the first. When that stalk dried out, I decided to keep watering the plant because the leaves were still green and frankly I didn't know if it would bloom again. I cut off the dried out flower stalks and kept giving it the same attention. In the intervening time, I had a couple of the outside leaves turn yellow and dry out, so I cut them off, and I had about two or three new leaves shoot up from the inside. Not very exciting, but it was still green and alive, so I kept watering it.

Then, Wednesday evening, I brought my bottle over to water it and saw this:


Yes, that's a bud! It's going to bloom again! I don't know if these plants are supposed to bloom more than once in a lifetime, but you bet your butt I'm going to keep it around to find out. I'm thinking that now it probably deserves a sturdier, roomier pot to live in. Once the weather gets a little warmer I'll replant it.

And back to The Ugly
I'm going to take this opportunity to send out an impassioned plea to the knitting community. I am in dire need of more Knit Picks Merino Style in Vanilla. I am very concerned that even when they get more in stock, it won't be the same dyelot, and as this is needed to knit the front part of the sweater, it'll be very obvious if it doesn't match. I am hoping that someone out there has one ball -- just one ball! -- of this yarn (Knit Picks Merino Style, Color Vanilla, Dyelot 59136) that they'd be willing to part with. I'd be happy to pay you for the yarn and the shipping, or arrange some sort of trade if you'd prefer. Please, help put Blanche-Neige together!

Blanche-Neige has cold feet

Now that the time crunch of the Olympics is over and I'm under no pressure to actually finish Blanche-Neige, of course I can only think of one thing: socks.

Socks have been my knitting obsession for the past couple of months, and other than the yarn purchased for Blanche-Neige, my only stash additions have been been of fingering weight. Tonight is no exception. I just placed a Knit Picks order for about 14 balls of sock yarn. Before you start thinking that I'm going to have a pair of socks for every day of the week, let me set the record straight -- not all of the socks I imagine I'm going to knit is for me. J has been wearing his socks around the house (apparently only on the days I'm not there), and has officially put in a request for more. So we spent some time over the weekend going through my new favorite knitting book, Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, and picking out patterns. J really likes the Gentleman's Fancy Socks and Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock (although personally I don't think either is particularly manly and might make a pair of each for myself). He'll be getting one pair in gray and one pair in burgundy -- presumably to wear with his scarf. As for me, my heart is set on Child's First Sock, which of course will have to be lengthened to fit my freakishly long feet. Sigh! Such lovely socks! Such happy feet!

But now it's on to work on Blanche-Neige sleeve #2 and the Gilmore Girls. And hoping that J can get through on the phone in spite of the horrid cell phone reception he must be getting on the ski slopes at Vail.

Monday Monday

This morning I woke up to a lovely surprise: my second migraine in as many months. Joy. I noticed my vision was going (my first symptom) while I was drying my hair, and by the time I was down to about 50% of my visual field I called in sick and crawled back into bed to try to sleep it off.

By mid-afternoon I was feeling well enough to sit up on the couch, watch "The English Patient," and finish whipping up this:

(Yes, I'm aware this isn't the most attractive picture. Keep in mind I've been in my pj's lying around all day, and the hat had just come off the needles.)

Pattern: Odessa by Grumperina
Yarn: JoAnn Sensations Bellezza Collection Dolcetto (54% wool, 24% nylon, 22% cotton) in color 4/Blue
Needles: Addi Turbo US 7 16" circs (ribbed band), Inox US 8 16" circs (hat), Pony US 8 dpns (finishing)
Mods: Obviously I omitted the beading. I tried to find the Rowan Cashsoft DK the pattern calls for, but was unsuccessful, so I decided to try using this yarn I had lying around from a trip to the closing JoAnn's. I also changed the needle size to account for the difference in yarn. Although the stitch definition isn't as good as the Rowan would be, this yarn is supersoft and makes a very cozy hat. It's a bit on the delicate/fuzzy side, so I didn't want to try the beads (I was afraid they'd shred up the yarn too much). My one complaint about this yarn is that it gives off a really odd smell when wet -- I know this'll sound crazy, but it kinda smells like smoked turkey! I have two more balls of this stuff (in pink and yellow), destined to be matching hats for my two awesome cousins in Chicago, who much admired my cabled cashmerino scarf last weekend.

Tonight the plan is to continue to lay low (so as not to incite the headache gods) and cast on for Blanche-Neige sleeve number two, the goal being to complete it by the end of the week. At this very moment, J is taking off (in a plane, that is) for a 3-day trip to Vail, so I'll have a lot of me time this week.

Congrats to those Olympic knitters -- including Jane and Jill -- who successfully completed their projects! Next time I'll know to pick a more realistic pattern.

No Gold

The time has come to finally admit it to myself: I am not going to finish Blanche-Neige by the end of the Olympics. In fact, if we want to be totally accurate, in real time the closing ceremonies have already concluded; the Olympic flame has been been extinguished; and I am one sleeve, two front/collar borders, and much seaming short of completion. So there will be no gold for me. I am choosing to think of myself as the Michelle Kwan of the Knitting Olympics, bowing out gracefully after admitting that yes, I probably was overly ambitious and tried to push myself further than I could realistically go (especially considering I work two jobs, was away one weekend, and have a wonderfully supportive boyfriend who nevertheless was none too fond of the knitting needles getting in the way of togetherness time).

Although part of me is disappointed that I didn't finish, most of me is very proud for making the attempt in the first place. I had admired this pattern for a while, but without the challenge inherent in the event I likely would never have actually knitted it. This is also the very first sweater I've ever knit, and I'm proud of myself for choosing a pattern I loved, but one that wasn't so simple that I was ever bored or complacent. I am really pleased with how all the pieces have turned out thus far, and I'm really looking forward to wearing the finished project.

For those who are keeping track, by the end of the Olympics I finished the back, the two fronts (sans borders, which will be picked up and knit after these pieces are sewn to the back), and -- just this evening -- one sleeve. Here is the latter, blocking (don't you think it looks like the same shape as an ice cream float?):

Now that I'm no longer under a time crunch, I am not in a rush to finish the other sleeve; in fact, I'm not even going to cast on for it tonight. I've decided to take a short break and give myself some (nearly) immediate gratification by knitting myself a hat before I pick up the Addis and move on to the final piece. I am still worried I don't have enough yarn, and if that's the case I'll need to wait until 3/17 for Knit Picks to get more in stock before I can finish.

To all of you Olympic Knitters out there, whether or not you finished your projects, I hope you're feeling as satisfied and content as I am this evening. We may not be athletes, who wow the world with feats of great strength or endurance or style, but we certainly showed that we are worthy competitors. I think we all really embodied the true spirit of the Olympics -- that of unity and mutual celebration of something we love. Knit on!

3 of 5 done

Blanche-Neige is moving right along. I finished and blocked the Right Front last night, and then started in on sleeve #1 with a nearly new ball of yarn (leaving five full balls untouched). Here's the progress so far on the sleeve:

The patterning is a little more complicated on the sleeve as far as following the chart goes. Because of the increases on each end of the row, I'm actually having to follow stitches at the end of the row on the right-side rows. I don't know if that makes any sense, but let's just say there are lots of sticky notes involved (used to mark my place). I guess as long as I know what I'm doing, it doesn't matter if I can't articulate it very well.

In other news, I'm anxiously awaiting my shipment from Barnes & Noble containing this and this. I bought both with the gift card I got as a reward from the wonderful people at My Points. Basically the way it works is that they send you e-mails with offers from Web sites, and you earn points by clicking on links to those sites, taking advantage of the special offers, or even shopping through the site. Then you can redeem your points for all sorts of gift cards and other rewards. I usually use mine for B&N gift cards; I'm still waiting for them to offer yarn or gift cards to my LYS. ;-)

Finally, did anyone else see this in this week's TIME?

Some progress

I do have knitting content in this post, but let me first tell about the weekend (knitting went with me, so this is relevant!)

J and I took a very quick trip -- with my parents and brother -- to Evanston, Ill., for a surprise party for my cousin and his wife (happy 30th, A & S!). Right from the get-go, there were complications. First, I woke up Saturday morning and looked outside, only to see a serious dusting of snow. Which was not in the forecast, by the way. Then J calls me to say that he checked the flight on his BlackBerry, and it was cancelled. So I called my parents, and then called Southwest, and we were told that we might be able to get on the 2:15 flight, provided we get to the airport before our original flight was due to leave (12:15). We schlepped out to the airport, did get seats on the plane, and then found ourselves having to wait, oh, about three hours. The good news was that I did get in a fair amount of knitting while we sat and waited (I finished one front piece of Blanche-Neige during the flight).

Our flight was really quite good (and that's saying a lot, because I'm horribly afraid of flying and pretty much freak out if I don't have someone to hold my hand and calm me down). I give most of the credit to the highly entertaining flight attendants and their sharp sense of humor. It also helped that the flight was very smooth and we arrived about 10 minutes early. But the drama was not over. Oh no. We got our bags and made our way out to the rental car place located in the parking garage -- which I should mention was open, and the temperature was about, oh, 6 degrees. Fahrenheit. I kid you not. We were all bundled up, and I thought I'd be able to tough it out since they told us our white Impala would be right now. And don't you know, someone else drove off in our car? Grrr. Or rather, brrrr. Fortunately they found another car for us relatively quickly, but not before I transformed into a popsicle.

We drove through downtown Chicago and then had some time to rest in the hotel before heading over to the restaurant and awaiting to surprise A and S, who thought they were meeting my cousin L (A's younger sister) and her boyfriend for dinner because he was visiting from out of town. Boy, were they surprise. S actually started crying, while A looked liked he wanted to strangle someone (funny how different reactions to surprise can be). They both had a good time, though, once they got over the initial shock. The highlight of the night for me -- other than seeing my aunt, uncle, and cousins for the first time in about 2 1/2 years -- was seeing J get hypnotised. Yep, you read that right. My aunt and uncle brought in a hypnotist for the evening's entertainment, and my sweetie went into a trance and did all sorts of silly things he doesn't remember. We are now calling him Macho Man after watching him flexing his muscles as the most manly-man in the world. Poor guy still has a bit of a sore throat from overdoing his Godzilla remake movie audition. ;-)

Sunday was a beautiful day, and we had brunch at my aunt and uncle's before heading to the airport. Where our flight was delayed. Oy. The good news was that we apparently had such strong tailwinds that we were traveling at about 700 miles per hour (or so the pilot told us), and although we left about 45 minutes after we were scheduled to, we arrived back home on time.

So, I bet you're asking yourself, did she actually get any knitting done during all that insanity. Well, yes, a bit (a bit). Most of the stitching was done in the Pittsburgh International Airport before we even left. I did some on the plane both ways, and a little bit in the hotel room before dinner on Saturday. Here is the Left Front, blocking:

This took just about one ball of yarn; I needed a little of another to finish it, but I'd started with less than a full ball. Here's the progress on the Right Front:

I am planning on knitting furiously on this tonight and hope to finish it at my work knitting group tomorrow. I'm no longer feeling too confident about finishing this by the end of the weekend, but I'm sure as hell gonna try my darndest.

Pieces of sweater completed: 1 (out of 5)

Balls of yarn left: 8

Yikes, could get scary down the line. I used a full three balls on the back, plus all of what was left of the ball I used to swatch, plus a few yards of a fifth ball. Luckily, the front pieces are about a third of the number of stitches in the back, so I'm hoping my yarn will go a lot farther than I think it will. Here is the back, yarn hog that she is:

She's blocking right now. Rather than give her a bath, I pinned her in place and sprayed her with water, because I'm afraid of blooming that will mess up my measurements. Right now the length is exactly right, and the overall fit appears to be good when held up to me.

I had a lovely time at a [smaller than usual] stitching meeting last night. Rita won the contest for the most exotic yarn -- she brought yarn spun nearly entirely out of dog fur! It was so soft and cuddly, but probably not adviseable for those with pet allergies. I can also attest to the fact that Jen is making progress on Tubey; she was in the process of picking up stitches for the body portion as we were stichin' and bitchin'.

This weekend we (J, my parents, my little brother, and I) are headed to the Midwest for a family party, and I'm taking Blanche-Neige with me. I did my homework and checked the TSA's permitted/prohibited list to make sure my needles were allowed (and for the record, Jen, I called Southwest today and they said they're ok!). Frankly if they weren't allowed, I would be questioning the intelligence of the security people. There's no way I can do the slightest bit of damage with my Addis!

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. J and I had a quiet evening at home. I made a delicious dinner (J's pronouncement, not mine) and then we sacked out on the couch. J did earn big points for romanticism: he showed up at my office during lunch -- he actually couldn't find me at first because I was with my knitting group on another floor -- and brought me a single red rose, along with this little cutie:

This is Gretel (she's the smaller furry one). I've been talking about wanting a daschund for a long time, so J decided to get me the perfect kind -- small, cute, and incredibly well behaved. She's also really easy to take care of, since she doesn't eat or need to be walked or have any accidents in the house. She's been very good at keeping me company while I knit and has been watching my progress with great interest -- hmm, maybe she wants a doggie sweater. (As you can see here, my company was really stimulating.)

Off to work on Left Front!

Giochi Olympici, giorno numero tre

Since the games are in Italy, I decided a little Italian was in order. ;-)

I've been knitting furiously away at Blanche-Neige, and here she is as of this afternoon:

(Apologies for the curly-ness of the fabric -- it's tricky to hold it down with one hand while aiming the camera with the other!) Although I did not knit as much as I wanted to over the weekend, the sweater is coming along relatively quickly, and I absolutely love the yarn despite the fact that the wool is giving me a weird dry spot on my left index finger. My one complaint about this pattern is that the chart really isn't very accurate on the wrong side rows, but fortunately the seed stitch pattern is straightforward enough that I was able to figure it out. For anyone else who might be contemplating the pattern, I wouldn't let this deter you; I would advise you, however, that because there are no border stitches, when you do the decreases you will move in on the pattern, so you'll need to keep track of how many stitches at the beginning of the row you won't be doing. I kept track with a sticky note covering the corresponding number of stitches on the right side of the chart (just remember that in the middle of the row, you'll still be knitting those stitches -- if that makes any sense).

Now that I've gotten comfortable with the pattern and relatively satisfied with my pace, I'm of course beginning to freak out that I'll run out of yarn. I did calculate my yarndage, and according to what the pattern calls for I should have enough, but I think I've learned this thing about myself as a knitter: if there's not something to worry about, and if I'm too complacent, the knitting won't get done. It'll just go into the UFO pile and I'll forget it's there. Right now I'm in the "Cont. in patt. until work measures x inches" part of the back, and I'm quickly approaching the end of my second ball of yarn. That leaves nine more balls, plus a fraction of one left from my swatching. Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow I am cooking J a delicious dinner for Valentine's Day. Depending on my progress tonight, I may even put my knitting down afterwards and give him some attention (poor guy felt a little ignored this weekend when I started, I think). Either way, I'm planning on bringing B-N to B&N (hehe) on Wednesday night. I say we call it "Sit 'n Knit," since we're not using that other term right now.

Finally, to all the Olympic Knitters out there: Forza!

Two days and counting...

Like many other knitlympic "athletes" out there, I am just itching to start my Olympic project (and for the record, I have only 44 hours to go before I can start!). And even though I finished up my Jaywalkers on Monday, don't think that I've put down my needles since then!

This is the back and fronts of Trellis, which were completed sometime late last week. (I've started a sleeve as well, but haven't picked it up again since I've been so focused on finishing the socks.)

And speaking of socks, what have we here?

Well I'll be, that looks like another pair of Jaywalkers in a lovely stretchy wool/nylon/polyester yarn! ;-) The color is actually much darker than it appears in the picture -- the main color is a dark bluish purple, and the lighter spots are a limey green and aqua blue. I'm not afraid of knitting too tightly now, since I know the pattern will give me plenty of room, so these should fit a lot better than the first pair.

I have not picked up my Adamas shawl in over a week (and it'll be at least 2 1/2 weeks until I do again), but I'm thinking I'm going to have to frog again and start over -- again. I was pretty certain I was following the pattern correctly this time, but somehow wound up with a rather dense patch right in the center section, where it definitely shouldn't be. Guess I wasn't concentrating enough. Grr. But a big shout-out to the designer of the aforementioned Adamas shawl, who occasionally stops by this blog (Hi Miriam!).

Thanks to everyone who commented on this post; I really appreciate your concern. I'm happy to report that there have been no other fainting spells (thank goodness -- if I even say that I feel dizzy, J wants to rush me back to the ER!). It's nice to know that this little community of knitbloggers is so friendly, and I'm hoping that one day I'll get to meet you all in person!

ONE FOR THE THUMB!

This says it all:

PITTSBURGH STEELERS - SUPER BOWL XL CHAMPS!!!!!

(Perhaps now my favorite #86 will change the spelling of his name to Heinz....)

I'm convinced that my knitting had something to do with this victory -- it seemed to work during the AFC Championship game, after all. I picked up my Jaywalkers sometime during the second quarter and had only a few rows left on the toes when the game ended, at which point I was very excited and thought it might be a good idea to put down my very sharp dpn's. Ten minutes of lunchtime knitting today, and here you have it:

Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina
Yarn: KnitPicks Sock Landscape (100% merino) in Cape Cod colorway
Needles: US 2 Inox aluminum dpn's
Mods: None, just knitted the larger size ('cause I have such big feet). You can't really see it here, but my tension was a lot tighter in the second sock. I think I was still worried about that freakish won't-fit-over-my-heel moment in my first attempt at these (granted, it was caused by my not following the pattern!) and knit the first sock a little on the looser side. But I absolutely love this pattern, and as soon as finished weaving in the ends on the second sock I cast on for another set. Those, however, will not be seeing my feet for quite some time, since they will be cast eagerly aside in favor of Blanche-Neige in only four days!

Drama, or Why I Should Stay Home on a Weekday Night and Knit

Even those this posting will have nothing to do with knitting, and even though it's a rather personal story, it's just too funny (in hindsight, anyway) not to tell.

Last night J and I were at a big event opening an historical exhibit, which I had worked on a bit through my job, at the Heinz history center. We got there a little before six, had some munchies and some drinks, and then stood for about an hour while various important people talked (and talked and talked). I was getting a little uncomfortable from standing so long and kept shifting from foot to foot, and there were so many people in the room that it was starting to get rather stuffy. All of the sudden I started to feel inexplicably woozy (and more so than I would expect from the glass and a half of wine I'd had to drink with my hors d'oeures). I turned around to J and said, "I feel really dizzy, I think I'm going to pass out." I heard him ask me if I thought I could walk out of the room, and I tried to say no. Next think I know, I'm flat on my back on the floor, J is frantically calling my name, and there are all these people around me trying to determine if I'm okay (including my boss, who apparently helped J to catch me when I went limp). In about a minute I was sitting up and somewhat back to normal, and a few minutes later the paramedics were there to check me out. My blood pressure was a little low, and J said I'd been out for about 15 seconds, so they were worried enough to suggest I go to the emergency room to get checked out. I didn't particularly want to, but I could see that J was a tad bit freaked out at that point and I thought it was probably the best idea. What I didn't count on was them having to strap me to a stretcher and wheel me out -- passed all my coworkers and several hundred other people, including local elected officials, community leaders, and even the chancellor of the university. Oy. Rather embarrassing.

For the record, let me just say that if you need to go to the ER, going in an ambulance is the way to go. They wheeled me right in and I was in and out of the ER in less than an hour. Everything wound up being normal; apparently I just fainted.

The funniest thing about the night (although again, it wasn't that funny at the time) was hearing J's recounting of what happened when I went down. Want to know why the EMTs came so quickly? Because Bob O'Connor called them. That's right, THE MAYOR just happened to see me pass out and, even when he heard that someone had already called 911, called them himself to make sure they were speedy about it. So thanks, Mr. Mayor! Now, can we talk about getting a stop sign or two on my street so I don't get run over when I go to get the bus every day?

Crisis Averted

After the last Blanche-Neige swatching incident, I was obsessed with gauge (and thank you again to all of you who made very helpful suggestions and offered tips!). Believe it or not, I actually dreamed about the knitting Thursday night, and by the time Friday rolled around my brain was busy with thoughts of how to fix the problem. I decided that the only thing to do was another swatch in smaller needles. During my lunch break I went on to Knit Picks, thinking that I'd need more yarn (because of course I was panicking that the yarn I'd use on another swatch would cut into my supply enough that I wouldn't have enough yardage to finish the sweater). What do I discover? Take a look for yourself here and see my dilemma with getting more Merino Style in Vanilla -- that's right, if I want more, I'm going to have to wait until St. Paddy's day. Apparently I cleaned them out. So, further panic. I jump over to the pattern to check the yardage needed and calculate how much yarn I'll have left, even if I use up the remainder of the first ball on a second swatch. Phew. Assuming I can get gauge, the size S will only require 1200 yards, and I've got 1353 in the 11 balls of yarn that are untouched. Okay, now all that remained was to knit a successful swatch.

On the way home from dinner Friday night, I convinced J to make a quick stop at JoAnn's, because I just wanted to see if maybe they might have a pair of US 2 circulars. I wasn't too hopeful, and I did have some US 2 dpn's at home in my knitting back, but hey, it was on the way and we were already planning on stopping at Giant Eagle anyway. It must have been my lucky night -- there were actually two pairs of US 2 29" circulars waiting for me! I got one pair, along with the "sock set" of teensy dpn's (in size 000, 00, 0, and 1) that I'd eyed but passed up last time. I immediately started swatching when we got home, much to J's chagrin, because he wanted to lie down in my lap and I kept elbowing him (sorry, J! love you!). I finished the swatch yesterday, blocked last night, and measured this morning. And.... it's Monday morning miracle! I GOT GAUGE! Well, nearly. My stitch gauge is almost perfect -- I got 28 and about a quarter of a stitch over four inches. For a fraction of a fraction of an extra stitch per inch, I'm not sweatin' it. Row gauge was a little less perfect, at 42 rows (rather than 40) over four inches. Again, I'm not terriby concerned, as that can easily be adjusted for in the part where the pattern says "continue even until piece measures...."

Now the only thing to do to get ready for the "knitlympics" is to get myself over to Knit One and get myself some Addi Turbos in a US 2. The Susan Bates 2's I got on Friday were fine for swatching, but if I had to knit the whole sweater on them I'd go nuts. The needle parts are fine, but that cheap-o plastic cord between them is complete you-know-what. It curls up and refuses to stay straight, which means that the yarn is constantly getting tangled in it, and the time it takes to extricate the yarn cuts into my knitting time. With only 16 days to finish this project (for the gold), that's time I just can't afford. (I feel I should add here that I recently learned that I'll have more knitting time than I expected, as I'm taking a weekend trip to someplace in the Midwest. All that time sitting at the airport, on the plane, and commuting -- perfect for knitting. I even went to the TSA's Web site to make sure that knitting needles are allowed on planes; some very smart person -- probably a knitter -- realized that us knit-o-holics wouldn't want to use our needles for anything other than knitting, especially if we might risk dropping a stitch!)

As to projects that I've actually been allowed to work on, I've made significant progress on my Jaywalker, and successfull turned my first heel-flap heel. I'm now nearly done knitting the foot, le voila:

I'm experiencing a little bit of laddering in the stockinette portion, but since this part will be on the bottom of my foot, no one will ever see it but me. It's still rather frustrating, though. Anyone have good advice on how to prevent this? It's the main reason I started knitting socks on circs rather than dpns, and sometimes it really drives me nuts.

No progress has been made on my shawl in the past week, probably because I've been too taken with knitting Trellis. I finished the back yesterday and am more than halfway done on the left front. I had to frog and restart after that little problem with the border stitches, but it's coming along very quickly now and it's quite simply adorable.

Finally, this hat (made to match the sweater and knit from the leftover yarn) was finished over a week ago, but I didn't get around to blocking it until Thursday night and photographing it until today. So here you see the completed set (modeled by a bear because I didn't have a baby on hand to do the job):

Now, anyone have a quick pattern for booties?

Slight hiccup

Knitters, I need some help. I swatched for Blanche-Neige last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The yarn is fabulous, and knits up into a soft, dense fabric. But there's a slight problem -- I'm not quite getting gauge. The pattern calls for a gauge of 28 stiches over 4 inches (or 7 stitches per inch); I got 24 stitches over 4 inches (6 stitches per inch) on my blocked swatch. The swatch was knit on US 3's, although the gauge given on the yarn label calls for US 5's. The knitting was pretty tight on the 3's, and so I'm wary of trying a swatch on US 2's to see if I can get gauge that way, so now I'm stuck. I know that having one less stitch per inch than I should doesn't seem so bad, but I know that multiplied over many inches it'll make an impact. However, I'm wondering, if I follow directions for the size smaller than I was intending, will the extra inch I get every so often work to my advantage and actually give me a size closer to what I wanted? Or will this really mess me up and do I really need to re-swatch with smaller needles? Help, all of those who are good at the maths!

Edited 10:06 pm
Pulled out my swatch again, and got 37 rows over 4 inches (the pattern gauge is 40 rows over 4 inches). I looked over the pattern again, and there are parts where it says something to the effect of "continue in pattern until piece measures x inches." I'm thinking that here's where I have a little wiggle room, since I can always eliminate some of these rows to account for the difference in row gauge. I think. Am I right?

As to the stitch gauge, I did some calculations at the end of the day and I think that if I follow the stitch count for a size XS, it should get me approximately to the width of the M.

Thanks all for your helpful comments/advice -- you help is much appreciated!

Meet Blanche-Neige

(Consider this her baby picture)

Here you see 12 balls of Knit Picks Merino Style in Vanilla, one ball of Knit Picks Elegance (70% baby alpaca, 30% Silk, 100% delicious) in Coal, and a new pair of Addi Turbos which may or may not be right for my gauge -- but you know I'll keep them anyway.

Let the "training" begin!

Just call me Kermit

Yes, I frogged again. Thank you to Holly, who pointed out I was making the same mistake she did with the borders on Trellis (they're reverse stockinette, not garter stitch) and directing me to this post on Jill's blog about her own [mis]adventures with this pattern. So I have started over, and this time I hope and pray I will do it correctly, because lately I've not been having great luck with patterns.

Today I caved and signed up for the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics, in which I will be competing in the Blanche-Neige event. I would be "training" (that is, swatching) this very evening were it not for one minor complication -- my Knit Picks order hasn't arrived yet. It was shipped on Friday, so it's now been in the mail for four days. I'm starting to suspect that my mailman is a closet knitter and has stolen my fibers and my turbos. Keep your fingers crossed that it comes tomorrow! There aren't very many training days left before the start of the game, and as I know I'll need to play around a bit to get gauge, I will need as many of them as possible.

Now, can anyone tell me how to "steal" a button and get it on to my blog?

Actual Knitting Content

Shocked? So am I. But anyway... As I alluded to in my earlier post, I did some ripping 'o the lace late last week. I'd learned the hard way that gossiping and lace knitting do not match. After my meet-up knitting session, I had quite a few mistakes, and rather than trying to cover them up (which I was finding myself having to do quite often) I decided to just start from scratch and this time really pay attention to what I was doing. I'm now through two repeats (of 14) of the body chart and it looks much better, although there still some weirdness going on that I just can't explain. No pictures yet, but I'll post some when I've made some more progress.

I had a mini shopping spree over the weekend. Sadly, my local JoAnn's is going out of business, so they are selling everything at a very nice discount. Take a look at what I snagged in a mere 20 minutes of browsing.

Here you see some baby yarn (with the beginnings of Trellis on some US 6s), two packages of the stitch markers I favor for lace knitting, four strips of buttons (in pearlescent white, dark gray, and blue), and dpn's in US 1, 2, 3, and 6. All of this for about 30 bucks! I was tempted to buy some Patton's wool yarn (I forget which type), but I didn't have a project in mind at the time and decided that I had enough in my basket for one day.

Here's a closeup of one repeat of the chart for Trellis:

This is nowhere near gauge for this pattern, but frankly I just wanted to get to know the pattern and the stitches, and the yarn was cheap, so I'm not terribly concerned. I'm doing the largest size, so if it actually comes out nicely, it might do to fit an infant.

Still awaiting my shipment from Knit Picks, which I really thought would come today. I'm hoping for tomorrow. Still also contemplating entering the Knitting Olympics with Blanche-Neige, since I know I'll be parked in front of the TV just about every night (especially when there's skating on). I'm cutting out the fancy parts of the pattern, like the beading, so it's really not too complicated a pattern, and two weeks might be enough time if I only focus on the one project. What do all of you webstalkers, er, I mean, blog readers think? Should I go for the gold? (And has anyone tried this pattern and know if it's doable in a fortnight?)

Self-Tag?

Since I've read this meme about four times already, and I guess I'm not cool enough to be tagged by anyone else, I've decided to tag myself for it. (I guess since no one else tagged me, that means that there's generally not much interest -- so sorry if you didn't want to know this much about me!)

"Four"

Four Jobs You Have Had in Your Life
1. Proofreader
2. Retail salesperson
3. Elementary school teacher
4. Teaching assistant

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. Sense and Sensibility
2. The Parent Trap ('90s version)
3. Amelie
4. Pride and Prejudice (A&E miniseries version)

Four Places You Have Lived
1. Pittsburgh
2. West Philadelphia (3 separate locations)
3. Center City Philadelphia
4. Pittsburgh (different location from #1)

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch
1. Gilmore Girls
2. Lost
3. Sex and the City
4. The West Wing

Four Places You Have Been on Vacation
1. Cape Cod
2. London
3. Italy (Pisa, Florence, Rome)
4. Israel

Four Web sites You Visit Almost Daily
1. Google
2. Merriam-Webster online
3. Post-Gazette.com
4. various knitting blogs

Four of Your Favorite Foods
1. chocolate
2. peanut butter
3. eggplant parmesean
4. Mineo's pizza

Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now
1. at home
2. at J's
3. in a yarn store, knitting
4. in any warm room

Four Cars You Have Owned
1. 2004 Subaru Forester -- the first car I've ever owned!

Four People You're Going to Tag
Yeah, tag yourself if you want to.

Perhaps some knitting content will make it up here later this evening. I will say this much -- there has been some lace frogging since my last post.

Three Cheers for the Comcast Guy

Today my favorite person is Eric, the Comcast service technician, who no only replaced my cable box but arranged it so that there is no fee (he decided that it was not a power surge that killed my box, but rather the problem was that the equipment was old and just died -- it had a TCI sticker on it, for pity's sake!)

But let me back up and explain how Eric came to make my day. At about 3 a.m. Tuesday night (er, Wednesday morning), I woke up inexplicably -- although I think that the fact that it was the first night J wasn't here in over a month had something to do with it! As I rolled over to see what time it was, I discovered that my clock was off. Groggy as I was, I had to get up and walk around the rest of the apartment to see what was what, and indeed, the power was out. No power is what my management company calls a "true emergency" (I know because I've called their maintenance line way too much), so I turned on my cell phone and called up the emergency line. They must have been getting a lot of calls, because I didn't even get out where I was calling from before the person on the other end interrupted to tell me Duquesne Light was on their way. Okay, that's great. Never been a huge fan of Duquesne Light, but at least they know there's a problem. I knew it could be a while before the power came back on, so I set the alarm on my cell phone and tried to get back to sleep. I was still tossing and turning when the power came back on at 3:30, at which point I had to get up and reset my clock and alarm. Then I was all paranoid that it would go off again, so I kept opening my eyes to check that it was still on -- long story [not so] short, it was about 4:30 when I finally got back to sleep, and then I had to get up at 6. To add insult to injury, when I dragged my exhausted self into my living room to watch the news with my coffee, I discovered that my cable would not go on and, worse still, was displaying the ominous message "E 11." The customer service guy at Comcast told me that it had probably been killed by a power surge when the power came back on; when I protested that every other electronic item in my apartment was perfectly fine, he told me that he was an "expert" because he used to work at a radio station and they once had lightening hit a tower, and the resulting surge only killed some items but not others. Yeah, whatever. It's 7 a.m. and I haven't had my coffee yet, just send me a technician and a new box so I don't have to eat breakfast in my bedroom and spill coffee all over the books next to my bed (yes, that did happen this morning).

Which brings me to Eric, my cable savior, who apologized for the idiot who I talked to yesterday morning and told me there was no way in hell I could possibly control or be responsible for electricity (I believe his words were, "There's a reason they call them acts of G-d!").

Okay, now that I have that out of my system, back to the knitting content of my knitting blog!

Had a lovely evening knitting with the ladies at the Waterworks B&N last night. I took my lace shawl, although I quickly learning that talking and lace knitting do not mix: I wound up with about 5 extra stitches on the last row I completed. (Shh, don't tell anyone, but I just knit them all together and pretended I didn't see them.) I promptly put it down and picked up my Jaywalkers, but here you can see my progress so far, bearing in mind that of course lace looks really crappy (sorry, J -- make that "creppie") until it's blocked.

As you're looking at it, it's upside-down and the top border is at the bottom (near my thumb). I was rather surprised by how this shawl comes together -- it starts at the top center, and works out and down. I've already made several mistakes (namely finding myself with too many stitches and solving that problem by just knitting them all together), but I'm not too bothered by them, especially considering this is my first foray into lace and my first time reading a chart. For my next attempt, my goal is to do this with a slightly thicker yarn (I'm afraid to handle this yarn because it's so ridiculously thin!)

I've been making slow progress on my Jaywalkers, as you will see to the right. This may look like a lot to some, but let me add that I started the zigzag pattern on Saturday (and got over an inch of it knit in that session), and I'm a fairly fast knitter. I've really only been pulling this out for part of my lunch hour this week. At last measure during lunch today, I had about 4.5 inches of the leg done, so a little less than 2 to go before I start the heel -- scary, because I don't think I've ever done a heel flap before (at least not successfully).

I decided to forgo my last few minutes of knitting time today to finally place an order on Knit Picks for my supplies for Blanche-Neige. Those of you who read my blog know that I've been talking about this pattern pretty much since the winter Knitty came out; I've decided that since I finished all those projects on my knitting resolutions list, I just don't have enough UFOs. I'm contemplating signing up for the Knitting Olympics, but I'm wary of giving myself such a tight deadline with work being as crazy as it's been. Besides, I'm not sure I can resist the lure of a new project, and I'm not sure that swatching alone will sustain me.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on the baby sweater! It was a very easy pattern to follow, and I highly recommend it. I had some yarn left over, so I started a little hat to go with it this morning. It's got the same garter stitch border as the sweater, and I'm working in the stripes as well. If I still have leftover yarn, I'll have to find a good pattern for booties.

Okay, I think that's enough posting for one night. If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for sticking around! Perhaps you could leave me a comment, even if it's to tell me to stop the diarrhea of the mouth (hands? I am typing, after all ...)

The Joys of a Long Weekend

I had a very productive knitting weekend, as you will see here:

Pattern: Seamless Raglan Baby Cardigan Sweater by Carole Barenys
Yarn: icky acrylic (baby friendly!) from the stash - worsted weight
Needles: US 7 29" circular and dpns
Mods: I knit this in a heavier yarn than the pattern called for to end up with a larger sweater. (I always like to give clothing in larger-than-infant sizes as baby gifts, since it seems that everyone always gets a lot of really small stuff that the kid outgrows rather quickly.) I finished the knitting Saturday morning before I went to work, and wove in all the ends and sewed on the buttons during the Steelers' amazing upset victory on Sunday. You're seeing it blocking here, still pretty wet, so the green appears darker than it actually is. I still have some yarn left over, so I'm thinking of making an umbilical cord hat (from SnB) or booties to go with the sweater.

As soon as I finished this adorable item, I immediately cast on for my first foray into lace knitting -- an Adamas shawl (from Knit Picks) in Knit Picks Shadow. I've gotten through the first chart and through one repeat of the body chart, and so far it seems to be going pretty well. The charts are a bit of a headache, but since the pattern is symmetrical, I really only need to pay attention to one half of it. The next challenge is seeing exactly how the chart works with repeats; keep your fingers crossed! I would have posted a picture of my progress so far, but my camera batteries just died on me. They're charging now, so I'll take a picture once I've made some more progress.

I'm still making slow progress on my Jaywalkers, after having to frog back to the cuff and restart the zigzag pattern for a third time. We won't go into details -- let's just say I'm a complete idiot and don't read patterns carefully enough. (Ironic, since my day job is to read carefully!)

To all of you in the Pittsburgh area, I hope you'll make it out to the knitting meet up at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble on Wednesday evening! My Adamas shawl and I will be there, unless it refuses to cooperate between now and then and has to take a trip to the frog pond.

Progress

Probably not the best picture (hey, it's hard to hold it up while holding a camera!), but you get the idea. I'm on the last white stripe, which will be about the width of the previous two combined. There will then be a thinner stripe of the green at the bottom to finish it off. The sleeves will more or less match, though they'll be shorter than the body.

This is knitting up really quickly, and I think it's not unrealistic to say that I'll be done by the end of the weekend. I am being very good about keeping my current number of projects down to only two (one for home, one for travel/work). I am very anxious to start my first lace project (the Adamas shawl from Knit Picks), and I'm thinking of doing a sweater for myself as well. Perhaps Lucky from SnBN, which caused me to buy the books in the first place. Or perhaps Blanche Neige, about which I've been waxing poetic since I first saw the new Knitty. Maybe it's finally time for me to order that yarn and see if I can play around with needle size to get gauge. And come to think of it, I haven't been to Knit One in a while, and they might have some new stuff in. Sigh, so many projects. I guess for now I should focus on finishing this little one at least.

Who ya gonna call?

Just call me a Stashbuster. I've started to use some of that "icky acrylic" in my stash for another baby sweater (specifically this one) for my cousin, who's expecting a baby in February. I was intending to give her the first one, but just found out over winter break that she's having a boy, and I thought it looked a little too girly with the stitch pattern around the neck, sleeves, and bottom. So, I've moved on to a less decorative pattern and more "manly" colors, and here is the progress so far:

I guess this makes me a "Rogue Stashalonger," ala Jill.

I took my Clappy in to work today, since it came out more like a shawl than a scarf. It did keep me nice and warm in my little icebox of an office! I do have to say that if I knit this pattern again, it will be in a much lighter yarn (and by that I mean weight, not necessarily color). The Saucy has a nice sheen to it, but it's 100% cotton, and we all know how heavy cotton can be. I'm thinking perhaps a nice alpaca-silk blend, mmm.

I have not made too much progress on my Jaywalkers (perhaps 1/2 an inch of cuff), mainly because not only did I have to work through lunch yesterday and stay late to finish a big project, but I also manage to wind up with a migraine in the middle of the day. Lucky me. I only get them once every two or three years, and of all the bad days to get one, yesterday was it. Needless to say, when I finally got home, worsted weight was about all I could deal with. That stuff I can knit by feel, unlike fingering weight, which I've definitely got to look at to do correctly. I got a few rows done during lunch today, and it's finally starting to resemble a sock cuff. I've got a long weekend coming up, so hopefully I can make some headway and at least get to a point where I can try the darn thing on and make sure I'm not having the same size problem again.

Now, off to work on the baby sweater and watch a new episode of Lost!

Ravel and Unravel

First there is good news to report. After hours of vigorous stitching -- even through the Steelers game, I'll have you know! -- I finally finished up Clappy this evening. Here she is, blocking, in all her misshapenness (yes, I just made up that word):

Pattern: Clapotis from fall '04 Knitty
Yarn: Saucy 100% mercerized cotton in Claret
Needles: US 7 aluminum straights
Mods: I skipped one repeat of the straight rows because I was afraid I was going to run out of yarn. Turns out I probably had enough, but frankly I had just had enough of this project and was anxious to finish.

I've also been working on my Jaywalkers (my travel project). I had gotten a few inches done by the end of my lunch break today when I decided to try them on. Good thing -- look at this:

The photo is a little fuzzy, but can you spot the problem? That's right, they are way too small. Couldn't get them over my heel. So I'm going to frog and cast on again in the larger size. I'm worried that the cuff might be too big, so I'm going to cast on and knit it on my US 1 circulars, then switch to the US 2 dpns for the pattern rows. I'm hoping that a few more extra stitches, plus a little bit of give when I block, will help me squeeze these over my (apparently) freakishly large heel.

Finally, since it's getting late and I'm getting ready to pass out, here's my last thought for the night (and this one is for you, J). You want to know why I never wear skirts or dresses to work? Honey, here's why:

Cutting the Cord

After finishing up the French Market Bag and my Jaywalker swatch last night, I decided that my next move should be tackling one of the UFOs taking up space (and looking messy!) atop my newly organized stash -- in other words, the long-neglected baby cashmerino tube scarf. I took my inspiration from Jen, a fellow long-scarf-lover, who decided to bind off her mother's scarf much sooner than she would have if it were for her; I decided that I'd just had enough with this scarf and bound off this morning. I'd been working on it since last March, having started it when I was stuck in my best friend's apartment in Philadelphia with the flu (so much for my vacation!), with yarn and needles purchased at my former LYS. Before blocking it was five feet long, plus some inches (I didn't measure very carefully). Here you can see it finishing up its blocking:

(I apologize for the crappiness [sorry, J!] of this picture. The towel on which the scarf is resting is rather close to the color of the yarn. I promise to take another picture of it, with the chocolate brown suede coat it's meant to go with, once it's dry.)

Pattern: My own (and definitely not one of my best, but at least it was simple)
Needles: US 5 bamboo 16" circulars
Yard: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a light blue shade (lost the color number), 5+ balls
Notes: After blocking, the scarf measures about 66 inches long. I used 5 full balls of the yarn, plus a little bit of the last one I had (I'm planning on using the extra yarn to make this cutie, or maybe two.) Since the scarf was knit in the round, it's a long tube, but I've blocked it to lie flat so that it'll be like a double thickness scarf. I love love LOVE this yarn, so I really don't care about the mistakes I made because I wasn't paying attention to my cabling; I can't wait to feel the softness against my neck.

Next up: finishing Clappy, my Clapotis (currently half done) and casting on for Jaywalker #1, which will be my travel/work project. (And a note on the Jaywalker: this is the first time I've seriously swatched for a project, and it's a success! I used US 2 -- but I think they're more like 1.5 -- needles and got 32 stitches over four inches; the pattern calls for 31 over four inches. If you ask me, that's pretty darn close. I don't think an extra quarter of a stitch each inch is worth playing around with needles.)

2006 FO #2

E voila, mon sac francais du marche':

I finished knitting the last handle and practiced my kitchener stitch this morning, then wove in all the ends this evening. All that remains is the felting, which will be done in the machine at my parents' house (since it works better and will require less cycles than the one in my building. Also, it's free.) Here are the FO details:

Pattern: French Market Bag from Winter 2003 Knitty
Needles: US 7 29" circular and dpns
Yarn: Cascade 220, 1/2 skein burgundy (base of bag) , 1 1/2 skeins aporto (body and handles)
Notes: This is a great pattern to knit, especially when you want a quick project and a pattern that requires minimal attention. The only slightly aggravating part was the beginning of the base, knitted in the round on dpns. Another plus of this project is that because it's felted (and the felting process hides most errors and secures all loose threads), it's good practice for weaving in ends and grafting with kitchener stitch.

Shown here, it's stuffed with some plastic bags and held up by J to give you an idea of the shape of the bag. Once it's felted it'll probably stand up on its own.

Now on the needles: swatch for my Jaywalkers...

Good News

Forgot to add to last post -- I FINALLY finished Villette last night (stayed up late to get through those last 25 pages). I really only bothered because I was so sick of the thing, and I was way too close to the end to just not finish. Besides, I rarely stop reading a book in the middle -- I may take a very long break (like the 1.5 year+ break I'm currently taking from Madame Bovary), but I usually finish it eventually.

So, in a nutshell, my review: Not nearly as good as Jane Eyre, and much more confusing.

As promised

Here are the promised photos! First up, J's socks, which were blocked last night and are almost finished drying as I write. Here they are:

Pattern: My own (i.e., made up as I went along)
Needles: Two US 1 Addi Turbo 12" circulars
Yarn: Regia 4fadig, 75% wool 25% polyamide, two balls (100 g total)
Notes: These were knit from the toes up, with short-rowed toes and heels. They are plain old stockinette stitch, with about an inch and a half of K2P2 ribbing at the top.

J tried these on periodically as I knit them, so they should fit. He is only planning on wearing them around the house, anyway (as far as I know), so they were intended to be more like slippers than socks.

Next up: The Great Yarn Organization Project of 2005. Voila:

Here you see two four-drawer plastic bins (on casters) purchased from Bed Bath & Beyond. I am sorry to say that I did not take a "before" picture of the stash, but I'll bet you can picture it pretty easily: all this stuff (along with some additional junk that I did away with) in a ridiculous number of plastic bags, and all of that in an overflowing heavy-duty plastic trunk. I could never find anything, and it was too full to close the lid of the trunk, so needless to say it looked awful. This is loads better. If you look carefully you can see the last bit of the icky acrylic stash in the bottom drawers (and here I must admit that I inherited about 4 more balls of acrylic from my mother last night -- all destined to be more baby sweaters). On top you can see some of the holiday gifts from J's mom and stepdad: an Asian-style knitting tote bag (inside of which is a matching needle roll) and a zippered knitting supply carrying case. You may also see one component of The Great Holiday Present of 2005; you can see it with its partner in use right here:

Yes, here I am using my brand new swift and ball winder! J took himself over to Knit One to get these, because he knew how much I was coveting them (I think his first inkling was when I shoved the first balls I wound in his face when he came over one night). The man is a genius -- he not only knew what the perfect gift for me would be, he even knew how to find a simple solution to the problem of the hole being too big for the screw thing at the bottom that holds the swift to the table (by the way, the solution is to wrap a couple layers of plastic wrap around it, then screw it in the hole. Works like a charm.) And just what am I winding into a ball here, you might ask? Perhaps some of this:

Presenting The Exciting Knitpicks Shipment of 12/31 (which was shipped on 12/28, I'll have you know -- how's that for fast?!) Here you see two balls of Sock Garden in Morning Glory (front); three balls of Sock Landscape in the Cape Cod colorway (middle left), destined to be a pair of Jaywalkers for moi; two balls of Shadow in Lost Lake (middle right), destined to be my first lace project, an Adamas Shawl (pattern also purchased with the yarn, but not shown); and in the way back, 440 yards of dye-your-own sock yarn, just waiting for the Kool Aid. Everything you see is 100% merino wool. Mm mm good.

Tonight project: attempt to finish French Market Bag. The bag is already about 9 inches deep; I'm aiming for about 10 before I move on to the handles. It's a miserable, rainy day -- perfect for knitting.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2006, all (meaning all two or three of you who actually read this blog -- J being one of them). Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year's Eve. J and I had an interesting time at the home of some friends. There were a lot of babies/little kids present. J particularly got a kick out of one almost-two-year-old who would answer "No!" to just about every question (except, ironically, something to the effect of "Are you a nutcase?")

We've been having a relaxing vacation, so much so that I've neglected this blog when in fact my intention was to use the free time to shower it with affection. The one improvement is the little thumbnail gallery you see off to the right, which J (my computer genius of a boyfriend) spent about two hours doing for me. He has promised to show me how to do it on my own before we go back to work on Tuesday, which is especially helpful since I'll need to start a gallery for 2006 FO's.

I already have my first finished project of the new year -- J's socks (I still need to weave the ends in and block them, so a photo will have to be posted later). I finished them up this afternoon, while watching the Steelers deliver a good butt-whooping to the Lions. I also need to post pictures later (tonight or tomorrow, I promise) of The Great Yarn Organization Project of 2005, completed this past week, the Great Holiday Present of 2005 (from J), and The Exciting 12/31 Shipment from Knitpicks, in addition to the socks.

Since I never keep them, I have determined not to make New Year's resolutions this year. However, I am setting some very specific knitting goals for myself, which I don't consider unreasonable under the circumstances (and I think you'll see what I mean):

• Finish the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino cabled scarf, BEFORE it reaches its first birthday in March.
• Finish the royal purple Lion Brand Microspun scarf I started back when I was in grad school (in 2003-04, mind you. You haven't seen it because it was just recently uncovered in the The Great Yarn Organization Project of 2005; I made a hat to start with, and the scarf was already about 2/3 complete before I put it down for unknown reasons.)
• Sew on buttons and block this baby sweater for my cousin BEFORE the baby is born (he's due in February).
• Finish Clappy -- she's half done, and tired of being ignored.
• STASH BUST. Get rid of as much of the "icky" acrylic in my stash as possible. This could mean a lot of baby garments, since I consider acrylic the perfect fiber for babies who tend to spill, drool, and spit up.

More later when I can post pretty pictures!

P.S. I'm sad to report that I didn't manage to finish Villette before the end of the year (I was about 25 pages short). The goal is to finish it tonight, so that I can chalk up my first finished knitting project and first finished book of the year on the same day.

Finally able to show these FOs

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend (Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!). I had a wonderful time with the family in Michigan, spending time with my aunt and uncle and our longtime family friends. I ate a ridiculous quantity of food (it's tradition!) and got in a lot of good solid knitting time (10 hours in the car, plus time sitting around). I finished J's sock #1 and got a few inches done on my French Market Bag. I cast on for sock #2 last night; I'll post pictures when both are done and blocked.

Now that the holidays are over/started and I've given the handmade gifts, I can finally post pictures of these FOs.

Here are a couple of shots of J's scarf before the [attempted] felting:

You may recall from this post that I had a frustrating time with the felting process. I was going to try to felt it again before giving it to J, but of course all my jeans were clean at that point (and I wasn't going to waste the money on the machine to wash clean jeans!) so I thought I'd hold off until I had some jeans to wash. But then I was gone for the weekend and the holidays rolled around, and I decided to just give it to J and see what he thought. Turns out that when he wears it his preferred, European-style way, the length (all 7 feet of it!) is good for him. Here he is modeling his new muffler:

I also gave my brother his handknit gift last night. He's going to be a freshman at the University of Michigan next year, and I know from experience that the winters are very cold there (I visited the school in the middle of January when I was looking at schools!), so I made him these:

This was my first foray into intarsia (and as you can probably tell, the wristband, the second item knit of the two, was more successful). The blue is Lion's Brand Wool Ease, and the maize (not yellow!) is Lion's Brand Micro Spun, doubled, because I could not find Wool Ease in anything close to the right color. J is modeling the items here before I wrapped them up to give to my brother last night. They were a big hit, and I think he'll actually wear them! That's a big deal, considering his usual disdain for my knitting.

Finally, I have to close with a little note about how much fun I had at the knitting meet-up last week meeting Jen, Jane, and the other ladies. I'm glad to hear that Jen's mom is feeling better -- probably because she is the lucky recipient of the beautiful pink scarf she was working on that night!

To tell, or not to tell?

For those of you who religiously read Grumperina's knitblog as I do, you no doubt saw yesterday's post posing the question of who to tell about knitting blogs and whether or not we fellow knitbloggers have told our family about them. I've been thinking about this question all morning and thought I'd just throw my two cents in.

The only person in my life who really knows about my blog (and occasionally reads it) is my wonderful, technologically-gifted boyfriend, J. (Speaking of which, he has promised to help me jazz up my blog next week when we're both on vacation.) I've mentioned to my parents and my younger brother that I have a blog, but met with these responses:

Mom: What exactly is a blog?
Brother: Yeah? So what?

I haven't really told any friends, because none of them knits (that I know of), although J apparently mentioned it to my best friend the other day -- I don't know if she's even looked at it (if you're reading this JK, happy birthday!). The only person I know who might be able to appreciate the knitting content is my aunt, but I haven't mentioned it to her as yet. I'm cautious to really bring it to the attention of any family member because I'm worried that I might then feel a need for self-censorship in my postings -- not because I really talk about my family at all, but because how I express myself sometimes might clash with their ideas of who I am. (Sometimes I think that even though I'm out of college and grad school and am working a "real world" job, my family members still have a tendency to see me as a little girl.)

So those are my thoughts. Any feedback or comments are welcomed.

Looking forward to knitting meet up tonight!

Just 'cause it's so funny

Here's what J has been doing while he's on vacation:

(This is us as South Park characters. Aren't we cute.)

Sock it to me

I am pleased to announce that I finally seem to have mastered the art of turning a sock heel using short rows. I present to you Exhibit A:

This is the first sock for me, in Knit Picks Sock Garden in the Geranium colorway. Granted, the heel is a little pointier than I intended (easily remedied with fewer short rows in the heel), and I bound off a little too tightly around the cuff (again, easily fixed), but it looks good to me! I think I've gotten the hang of it enough to do a good job on J's socks. Speaking of which, here he is (or rather, here his foot is) modeling the progress on J Sock #1:

The stripes are not cooperating as much as I'd like (probably because this sock is wider than the original I cast on -- twice -- before I frogged and started from scratch). J is very excited about them, however, even though they won't be a surprise anymore.

I'm hoping to finish up this sock before I leave with the family for Christmas weekend in Michigan on Saturday. Hoping to take J Sock #2 and probably my French Market Bag for all those hours of good car knitting (and also praying it's not so cold that my poor little fingers freeze up!) On the agenda tonight is sewing my "hanger" into the mini-sweater ornament and then go crazy with sock #1. I'm planning on going to my first knitting meet up tomorrow (and hopefully meeting Jen!) and want some good stuff to show off.

Mini Me

Two FO's in two days! Wow, am I prolific. Last night I sat down and watched "Spanglish" (great movie) for about the third time in the past two weeks, and all the while stitched away on this year's O. Family Christmas ornament. I started by following this pattern, but then adjusted it a bit for minimum finishing work. Rather than knitting the sleeves flat and then having to sew up seams, I put the sleeve stiches on some scrap yarn and proceeded with the top-down body. I just cast on three additional stitches under each arm and knit the rest in the round, and then knit each sleeve in the round. And, after about two to two-and-a-half hours of knitting, I had a mini sweater:

Ta-da!

(Quarter provided for scale)

All that's left to do is either find and buy or make a miniature hanger and sew it in. This was knit from some leftover Regia sock yarn and US 2 dpns. I blocked it overnight to get the sleeves to point downwards a bit (they originally stuck straight out).

[Too] many projects still on the needles, but I think I'm going to focus on my sock for the night. I'm making good progress on it, and I'm anxious to get to the heel and see if I can finally get away with it. I'm sure that with this horrid wintry weather, J would like a nice warm pair of socks to wear around the house! (Especially since he's now officially on vacation until next year, lucky!)

Instant Gratification Knitting

After a long day at work yesterday, and then errands I had to run after work, I decided that what I really needed last night was some instant gratification knitting. So I sat down and started this (which I just finished a few minutes ago):

This is a modified version of the Umbilical Cord Hat from SnB (I made it bigger to fit a two-year-old). It's going to a little boy named Elijah, whose "stocking" I picked from my office gift drive for disadvantaged children at a local children's community center. I bought him some toys as well, but I always like to stick in something functional. The hat is here being modeled by Pomegranite Peach Teddy---he came with a shampoo/conditioner package in said fragrance---on one of my four bookshelves in my living room (have I mentioned that I like to read?) Not only was this a quick knitting fix, but it also used up some of my acrylic stash! This particular color was left over from an afghan I crocheted last year.

Tonight I'm going to try to do a mini sweater ornament to take to our family friends' house in Michigan for Christmas. I've made them an ornament (usually embroidered) every year we've gone there. Last year's ornament was a miniature stocking/sock. This is our last year going to their house (they're moving to the DC area soon), so I thought I'd go all out. Depending on how quickly that knits up, I may also cast on for a hat for my brother for one of his holiday gifts.

Thanks to Jen for the Blanche-Neige suggestions. I thought about e-mailing the designer to see if she could suggest an alternate yarn, but seeing as how her recommended yarn is her own -- well, somehow I'm guessing she wouldn't be so helpful. I'm still hoping that I can play with the gauge, especially since it's an open, cardigan-type garment that will be a little more forgiving if the gauge is slightly off. Or so I think. I'm probably going to put this project off for a bit, since I still have holiday gift knitting to do and I've been spending a lot of money lately. Then again, I'll have a lot of knitting time the last week of December when I'm off from work. Oh, the temptations!

Still seeking imput, if anyone has any!

Mystery Project, RIP

Yes, the mystery project is, alas, no more. For one thing, I went ahead and told J what the project was -- a pair of socks -- since I'm apparently inept at turning a heel with double pointed needles. It just looked so bad that I gave up on the possibility of a blocking miracle and frogged the whole thing. I'm now back to square one, with a ball of pretty yarn.

Fortunately, I'm now armed with tools that may break the sock curse for me:





Yes, those are my brand new US 1 Addi Turbos, currently working on a test sock (for yours truly) in Knit Picks Sock Garden in Geranium. Behold my toe in all its merino deliciousness, mmmm. I love love LOVE this yarn. It's so soft and knits up so nicely on these needles. I think the two circular needles might solve some of the laddering issues I was having with the dpns, not to mention the fact that these are a size smaller than the dpns (they were US 2's) so the fabric should be a little tighter. I'm just going to finish this sock and see if I've figured out where I went wrong with the heel last time, and if all goes well, I'll cast on for J's socks once this one is bound off. It won't be a surprise, but I know he wanted a pair, so it wouldn't have been that big a deal even if I had managed to pull them off.

Speaking of J, I finally finished his scarf last week, and I tried to felt it. "Tried" is the operative word here; apparently my dpn/heel ineptitude (is that a word?) decided to extend itself to my felting abilities. I put the 6' scarf in the washing machine with three pairs of jeans on a normal wash cycle -- and 30 minutes later I had a 7' + table runner. Plus, the fabric just barely softened up a bit, didn't get anywhere close to felt. Grrr. I guess I'll have to schlep over to my parents' one evening and use their washing machine, since that's what did the trick for my felted bag.

Once I finished the scarf, I cast on for a French Market bag for myself. The plan is to use it to hold my WIPs, instead of leaving them all over my couch and chair in my living room, like this:

Here you see several of my UFOs. L-R are: baby cashmerino cabled scarf, Clappy, baby cardigan (sans buttons). Hiding under the paper in the back is a big ball of cotton blend yarn from a sweater I frogged a while back.

Still contemplating yarn for Blanche-Neige. I think I may try Knit Picks merino style with a smaller needle (perhaps US 4's?) to try to get gauge. I think I figured out that if that will work, I'll probably be able to get the yarn for around $30 -- much more affordable than the 100% cashmere the pattern calls for! I am definitely forgoing the beading, however; I think the fuzzy black trim is enough embellishment. What do you think -- should I try to play around with gauge to save money on the yarn? Any tips on how to play with the pattern to make it work? Give me your imput, oh wise knitters!

New Knitty

So the new Knitty is out (up?), and I keep coming back to it. There are a lot of cute designs, especially the little animals/critters (they remind me of some Beanie Baby-sized animals I crocheted several years ago). Of all the designs, though, I'm positively taken with this, and I think it might have to be my next project for myself. I so cannot spend a fortune on 100% cashmere yarn, however, so I am thinking about what a good substitute might be (especially a substitute that is relatively cheap, since I will be buying a lot of it -- KnitPicks anyone?) I would like to formally solicit anyone's imput on this one.

Also, I'm a little nervous about working with the pattern if I use another yarn, because I'm not sure I can get the same gauge. I haven't had enough pattern experience to know how to play with gauge and measurements and patterns and such, so I don't know what I would have to do edit the pattern to work with another yarn. My gut instinct is just to go for it and pretend I don't care, but I have a feeling that with a fitted garment like this, that just won't fly. Anyone out there really good with math?

Update on the WIPs:
1) J's scarf is just over 5 feet long, and I'm about to join the final skein of yarn to finish it. I'm planning to make it 72" so that when I felt it, it will still be long enough to wear it the European way (doubled over, wrapped around the neck, with the ends pulled through the loop in the middle), which is how J informs me he liked to wear his scarves. (I cannot confirm this, since I don't think I've ever seen him wear a scarf, but I'll just have to take his word for it.) I am planning on finishing it by the end of the week, and hoping to felt it this weekend. I promise to take before and after pictures, but I can only post them soon if J will promise not to peek. Of course, I might not trust him anyway and just wait until after the holidays to post them.

2) Mystery project is coming along slowly. I've been working on it at lunch just about every day, but I never get more than about an inch done per knitting session (damn that fingering weight yarn!)

3) Clappy (my clapotis) is resting on her needles right now. I did a few more repeats of the straight rows last week, but have done nothing since. I'm about halfway done at this point, and starting to worry that I may be one skein short on yarn. I think I'm just overreacting as usual.

4) The yoked, top-down baby sweater I knit last weekend is still sitting on my couch, still awaiting buttons and blocking. I am going to try to dig through my button collection and see if I have five that (more or less) match; otherwise I'll need to make a trip to the craft store this weekend.

Give me your thoughts on yarn and pattern-tweaking for Blanche-Neige!

Deep breath...

Hope everyone else had a productive knitting weekend like I did. I wound up not having to work for the first weekend in months (Saturday because they called me off, Sunday because I woke up sick). I thought that since I was on the couch anyway, I might as well put all this free time to good use.

Faced with a weekend of plenty of knitting time (but since I was at J's the whole weekend, I couldn't work on knitting for him, obviously), I decided to tackle this. I decided it was high time I attempted to knit a sweater, but still feeling somewhat apprehensive, I thought my best bet was starting with a baby sweater -- small enough to not waste too much yarn, but it would still give me the idea of how it felt to knit a garment that's not a hat or scarf (which has been most of my knitting to date). I also thought this would be a good stash-busting project, since I've got so much icky acrylic yarn left over from several crocheted afghan projects I did last year.

[And just as an aside here: I still don't think there's anything inherently wrong with acrylic yarn, especially if you're just messing around and experimenting. It's easy to deal with, machine washable, and keeps its shape and gauge. I like it for crocheting, especially big projects like afgans, where there is so much yarn used and the price starts to add up quickly. It makes a lot of sense if you're knitting something for babies or kids; I think it would be too much for me to think of a two-year-old spilling grape juice or something on a nice wool or cashmerino garment! Of course, when it comes to myself or certain other loved ones, I'm turning into a big of a yarn snob. ;-)]

So, as I said, I had a good knitting weekend. J and I were celebrating our one-year anniversary, and we actually had two other events to go to Saturday night before our celebratory dinner, but I had about six good hours of knitting time in before we had to get ready to go. Then, of course, as soon as we got home from dinner, J passed out on the couch, and as I was still wired, all I could do was knit for a couple more hours before bed. Sunday I was supposed to go to work, but woke up feeling not quite right (let's just say there were some female plumbing issues and leave it at that). And since I was spending the day on the couch anyway, what else to do but knit! So after three days of stitching with wild abandon, I give you this:

Pattern: Seamless Yoked Sweater by Carole Barenys (found on knitting.about.com)
Yarn: icky acrylic from stash
Needles: US 7's - 32 in. circular and dpns
Still needs to be blocked and buttons need to be sewn on, but I'm thrilled with the results. And many, many thanks to Jen, who put up with my webstalking and helped me decipher the pattern! Even though this was knit with "icky" acrylic, I think it might still make a nice gift for my cousin, who is expecting a baby in February. Hey, it's machine washable, so the kid can get whatever he/she wants on it and it won't be ruined.

Before I go, I'm just wondering if anyone else is reading this. I mean, part of the reason for having a blog is to use it like a diary; but if I wasn't interested in having anyone else read my thoughts, I have plenty of empty notebooks lying around. So, if you are reading this, do me a favor -- leave me a comment! It'd be nice to know that someone out there is looking at this besides me (and J, you don't count!)