Ennui

The weather has turned lovely here. It was a perfect weekend, weatherwise, as far as I am concerned. Despite my very pale skin, I adore the sun, the feel of it against my skin. I love when warm weather rolls around and the heat envelops you, surrounding you like an embrace. This past weekend provided a very promising start to the summer.

Unfortunately, I am at a loss to choose what project to work on next. I finished the silk corset this weekend. I loved working with this yarn (Classic Elite, Classic Silk 50% cotton, 30% silk & 20% nylon). The piece feels like an loved cotton tee shirt wonderfully soft, and I think that the nylon will give the piece stretch and elasticity. I haven't found the right buttons for it yet, but I still consider it to be done. Once it was finished (mid-Saturday) my lost feeling began.

I know that there are plenty of projects out there that I once felt excited about, unfortunately, I no longer do. I spent some time on Sunday, and again on Monday, looking at patterns for tank tops and short sleeve sweaters. The heat is here, it is time to work on some sexy, summery knits. Nothing though is calling to me. What is wrong with me?! I know that there are very interesting knits out there that would be perfect, but I can't find inspiration. I was thinking of trying my hand at design, but I don't think that I have enough technical know-how, or creative energy to get something to work. At this point I will either be settling on a less than inspired feeling knit (to me at this moment) or continuing with lace.

On the lace front, frost flowers is coming along. I have 3 out of the 7 repeats of the section I am working on done. I also have 19 pattern rows of the WRS, which does make me happy.

Sexy Summer Knitting

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I can't even remember when - was it last Wednesday? Anyway, I know I said I'd have photos of my completed Blue Sky Alpacas Fitted Tank on Friday, but I wore it on Wednesday and got it all sweaty and nasty while taking my neice for a walk in Balboa Park, so it's been in the dirty clothes hamper ever since. I finally washed it tonight, but it's drying, so the photos will come later. Unfortunately, while it fit perfectly prior to being washed, it grew about 3 inches in width in the wash. But, my experience with cotton tells me that once it dries, it should shrink back to size. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Moving on... I've made quite a big of progress on Orangina. In fact, I finished the front on Saturday at Rebecca's and started in on the back the next day. In one day, I made this much progress and I thought that I would finish it in no time. I really haven't touched it at all since. It's starting to really bore me. I'm looking forward to wearing it, so I'm sure it won't be too terribly long until it's finished.

I also started a new project. I've had Classic Elite Bamboo sitting around in my stash for at least a year but haven't used it. I bought it for Kyoto but ultimately decided that I didn't want to make that pattern anymore, so last night, while searching the 'net, I saw this adorable FO on Carrieoke's blog and realized it would be a really good use for this yarn. It has a good drape to it, although it's heavy as hell - only 77 yds for 50 grams, so it will be dragging toward my knees before long. It's kind of a boring pattern, although it's got interesting shaping and seaming. It's working up quickly, and it's sucking up stash yarn! It doesn't get better than that!

Finally, I've got Cotton Fleece on order in two different colors to see which one I like better to make the Prosperous Plum Tank. With the color that loses the challenge, I'm probably going to make the Honeymoon Cami. I tried to upload photos of the Prosperous Plum Tank but my computer REALLY doesn't like the photos that are available. Just click on the link and you can see it. It's a nominee for the next Sexy Knitter's Club knitalong.

Amazing Lace, Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself

I am Jeanette, one half of this bi-coastal knitting blog. I am a knitter, and many other things too, but that doesn’t matter for now. I am taking part in The Amazing Lace this summer, my teammate is my new, long term relationship, Sharon Miller’s Wedding Ring Shaw. We are taking part in the Amazing Lace in an effort to save our relationship. Before I get to that though, let me tell you about my love affair with lace.

It all began innocently enough last year with Butterfly, from Rowan. From there it progressed to a lace stole, a circle shawl, then another lace shawl. I was undoubtedly in love with lace. Then I saw it, the Wedding Ring Shawl, and it was love at first site. I returned to Sharon’s site over and over again, would I buy my love, or could I be satisfied with another? Eventually I broke down and ordered my mail order groom, but only the pattern. More time passed and I began other lace work. Finally, I brought the rest of my love, the cone of gossamer silk, from across the Atlantic. Even knowing that my precious gossamer silk was coming to me did not stop me from having a fling with some Helen’s Laces and with some Lacey Lamb, though. Helen’s Laces and Lacey Lamb were both bought on vacation, and the gossamer silk hadn’t arrived, so that wasn’t really cheating, was it?

I returned from that trip to find my lovely cone waiting for me, smooth, shiny, and slinky. It was perfection on a cone. I had my pattern and I had my yarn, surely WRS had everything I needed to satisfy my hunger. It had challenge, complexity, a certain amount of uniqueness too. What more could I possibly want?

Apparently, I have a cheating heart. Instead of casting on for WRS, I started Madli with my Helen’s Lace. I had a passionate, torrid, and brief fling with the Helen’s Lace before committing to WRS.

Finally, I cast WRS on and from the start our relationship has been turbulent. The yarn is so fine I barely feel it on and in my hand. Each stitch requires a level of patience that I have never experienced before. Each row is time consuming and requires all of my attention. There is no leaving a row half finished. There is no talking on the telephone while working on a row. There is no knitting while around other people. WRS demands 100% from me and no less than that. If I spend 1 row of time with WRS a week, I consider myself to be doing well. Don’t get me wrong, WRS requires attention but I am not confounded by the pattern (at least not yet!) it is just so small and delicate that everything is an effort.

A few rows into WRS I needed to resume my co-dependent relationship with Ethereal Fichu, a shawl began many moons ago. After spending time with Fichu, an old seducer piped up and while I was able to withstand the seduction before I caved and began an extra-WRS affair with my Lacey Lamb and with the Frost Flower and Leaves Shawl. LL/FF&LS and I have been sharing guilty stolen moments since late April, and we have gone much further together than WRS and I. My time with WRS has suffered as a result, and we have done only 14 rows together.

Clearly my relationship with WRS needs help. The Amazing Lace may be just the thing to help us.

Spring has sprung

I have made knitting progress, but I'm still doing some final finishing. I should have photos of a finished Blue Sky fitted tank on Friday. All that's left is weaving ends in and adding crochet edging. I think I'll be able to wear it today. I'm also 10 inches into Orangina. But since I'm finishing a project today, you know what that means - something new! Yay! I'm probably going to do Audrey from Rowan 35 using the Continental knitting techniques I learned in a class at the Grove over the weekend. I have some Calmer in my stash that I was using for another project that I'm going to frog.

Good news - Dave seems interested in the Eunny Vest as a potential class project! More details to come.

Instead of knitting photos, though, I wanted to show you what spring looks like in San Diego. These are just some of the lovely sights I see as I take a walk around my neighborhood. They're the kinds of things that make everything seem right with the world, if only for a while.

Third Time's a Charm?

I have recently received 2 gift certificates for the LYS near my office, Putting on The Knitz. I waited a couple of weeks before using either of them, largely because I couldn't think of anything that I wanted to knit for the summer. I was looking at the latest IK and saw the Modesitt corset tank from it. While I was contemplating doing that piece it hit me, like a lightening bolt, that I had the pattern for the Modesitt silk corset, and that I wanted to make it! So, after work on Friday I went to Putting on the Knitz and looked at the summer yarn. I knew that I didn't want 100% silk, or 100% cotton since neither are known for their elasticity. I ended up choosing some Classic Silk by Classic Elite, 50% cotton, 30% silk, 20% nylon, perfect! When I got home I immediately did a gauge swatch, and satisfied with my gauge I cast on. I happily knit along working on the 35" bust version. Before the night was over I had already done the armholes (it is a top down) and started the bust decrease. I put my work onto waste yarn and tried the piece on. No way would this piece fit me. I tore it all out, double checked my gauge swatch and figured that I would just make the 38" bust version, and then it would fit. I knit happily along on Sunday and tried it on again. Still, couldn't close the stupid thing. Time to frog again. I looked at my gauge swatch, I checked my actual gauge, I was getting 5st to an inch. The pattern called for a gauge of 5.5st-1" (22st-4") what is up? I should have too large of a piece, not too small of a piece. Time to do some real math, casting on 177 st (for 41.5" bust) would give me an actual piece that is 35.4" at my gauge. Something was wrong. Couldn't be the pattern, too many people have already made the silk corset, while I heard that the yarn expands after being washed, and therefore it becomes too big, I hadn't heard about gauge problems. Looking at the internet did reveal to me (on Monday, after my 3rd start) that the called for gauge is 4.5st to an inch, not 5.5, mystery solved. But I am not crazy, look, my copy of the pattern does say the gauge is 22st to an inch. I have again gotten to bellow the arm holes, but if it doesn't fit this time around, I am just going to give up the ghost, I think.

Dreamin' About Knittin'

You know your knitting obsession is bad when you spend the night dreaming about knitting. You know it's REALLY bad when you actually solve a yarn dilemma in your sleep. When I first saw Eunny's vest, I didn't think it was something I really wanted to make. But the more I thought about it and the more I saw on various blogs, the more I thought it was the perfect project to try out Fair Isle knitting. My yarn dilemma was which yarn to use for this project. Although Fair Isle typically calls for rough, scratchy yarn, I really didn't want something like that. When I went to bed Friday night, I wasn't even thinking about this project, but sometime overnight, my brain decided that not only did I REALLY want to make this vest even more than I thought, but it also decided that I should use Jo Sharp DK Wool. Unfortunately, it didn't work out the color combo I should use, so tonight, to sleep, perchance to dream...

I've been busy knitting over the last few days since I haven't had things like school to interfere. I did, in fact, finish the left front of my Cotton Tape sweater and I started the seaming, but I wasn't thrilled with the way it was coming out, so I set it aside for the time being. Finishing isn't really what I want to be doing right now anyway. So, I decided to get started on a couple of projects. First off, I've been working on the Fitted Tank from Blue Sky Alpacas. I'm using the Organic Cotton in Shrimp. I've finished the front and have just begun the back. It looks like it's going to fit well and I like the way it's coming out so far. The neckline looks extremely unfinished so I'm going to add a little crochet edging around the neckline and armholes. I'm hoping it will be a nice touch.

I also started Orangina. This hasn't been on my "to knit" list all that long because I figured it wouldn't be flattering with someone with my body type, but I've seen it on some blogs and thought it actually might look nice. It's knit with 4-ply cotton on size 3 needles, so lets just say progress is a little slow. I've knit on it through at least two movies and for a few hours besides that, too, and I've only gotten this far. But I just know it will be worth it.

As far as the tank goes for the upcoming wedding, I'm considering using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Spryte to match a lovely pair of earrings that I picked up at Nordstrom this weekend.

Busy Morning

ordinarily I post first thing in the morning. On the days I post I come in, turn on my computer, start writing, inserting photos while I check email. This morning started about that way. As I was writing, however, I learned that I had to run into court on an emergency basis. First thing I had to drop everything and finish drafting, then I had to talk to my client, then I had to change into my suit. Because I can't wear heals yet, I got to wear a skirt suit with my ugly clogs. What a fashionista I am! No?
I had started the day in capris and a green sweater, I tried on the brown shop samble. It was not actually made to fit me, but the measurements were almost mine, so I figured that I could show it off.

My lump of lace continues to grow. In lace news, I signed up for The Amazing Lace 2006, so you will see posts intended solely for this, bear with me as I write and photograph for them. Thanks.

Now I gotta return to the working world. Later!

Sweet Freedom!!!!!!

I'm slowly decompressing after the prolonged stress and anxiety of the last few weeks. When I woke up this morning, my whole body was completely wrecked, like I'd been out on a drinking binge last night or something. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get up, but I'm feeling better now. What a wonderful feeling to wake up and have absolutely nothing that I have to do today. What I plan to do is clean this filthy pig-sty of a house. I won't walk on the kitchen floor without socks at this point....yeah, I know. Nasty.

Let's see if Blogger is up for a little photo-posting, shall we? On Monday, it made an executive decision that our blog readers could only see my finished left front and not my progress on sleeves or anything else. Not that they're all that thrilling. Perhaps this is Blogger's way of saving the world from boring progress photos. Basically, I've finished the sleeves and have moved on to the right front. I'm definitely ready to be done with this project and moving on to other things, but I'm so close now that I don't think I'll get tempted to start something else.

I've still been looking for classy, elegant patterns to make for the wedding I'm going to in the Hampton's this summer. Thanks to almost felted, I think I've found something. Since I don't have a 28 inch bust, and haven't since I was in the 2nd grade or so, I'm going to have to do some serious upsizing. The body part looks fairly simple to change, but the armholes will be a little more of a challenge. I think it's a very elegant design that can be dressed up with the right skirt, jewelry and hairstyle.

Does anybody else out there think that this awful weather we're having is hilarious? When I travel, people always assume that our weather is so perfect, but when they come to visit (no, it's not just you, J), they comment on how much crappier the weather is than they thought. They usually think it's just bad luck or something. But it's not, is it? I saw the sun for a few minutes on Monday, but that's about it for at least three weeks, maybe a month. Amazing. I know it doesn't match the floods and pouring rain on the east coast, though.

Say it Ain't So!

What you see here is the very end of my yarn. I have no more balls of calmer, the colorway I am using "Peacock" is discontinued. I am on the edging of the giant doily, it doesn't have sleeves yet. Is the pattern that wrong in it's yarn requirements? No, I don't think so. I knew I didn't have enough yarn. Why then, you may ask, would I foolhardily rush into this project knowing I didn't have enough yarn? Well, before I started I looked at The Knitting Garden (where I bought the original 4 skeins of calmer) and they showed 2 more skeins in stock, so I ordered one, I thought that was all I would need. I got a confirming email and happily crocheted right along. Around Thursday I started to think that I might be better off ordering that last skein as well, and I hadn't received an email telling me that my order shipped, so I sent an email to The Knitting Garden asking if they hadn't shipped my skein to please add the last skein to my order as well. Yesterday I received a return email telling me that they were out of peacock calmer all together, and that an email had been sent before (I am guessing that it somehow ended up in my junk mail folder). Now the search for 2 skeins of peacock calmer begins. I can't have a giant sleeveless doily with unfinished edging. I just can't!

In other news, my shop sample was completely knit in time for the deadline, but wasn't seemed. I got an extension for seeming and washing the piece.

This weekend I wasn't able to spend a ton of time knitting, on Friday I went to a Sox game in the pouring rain. The game should have been called, I just can't understand why they felt the need to make sure it was a regulation game. I was soaked by the time I left the game early. On Saturday I took an MMPI personality test (let's see if I am as screwed up as I think I am) , I got completely soaked, I went for soup on the way home (I planned on going to a raw restaurant up in Beverly, MA, but decided that it was much more of a soup day than a raw food day (it was a raw day)). I went

Circles in the evening for knit circle. On Sunday I went to see a play, Island of the Slaves. It was the perfect type of weather for hibernating at home, but that just didn't seem to happen for me. C'est la vie, I guess. At least everything was interesting. Oh, and I bought a new bag! A Namaste messenger bag in rose. I got it at Circles and am loving it. I just wish that I had found it a couple years ago when I was searching for the "perfect" bag to carry to and from the office, I ended up with a Coach bag, which I do love (it is also more professional looking than this bag) but my Namaste bag can hold my lap top and my Coach can't. I am hoping that the Namaste bag will reduce the number of bags I lug home when I decide to bring the lap top home.

Breaking the Silence

This blog has been uncharacteristically dark for a few days. Usually, with two of us posting, we can find time between us to say something mildly amusing. It would seem that for the last several days, we have both been busy with "life", whatever that means, but I have still been knitting and hopefully J has, too.

I'm fairly certain that I'm going to be done with my exams tomorrow. I haven't even started studying for the test tomorrow, but I've done well in the course all semester so it shouldn't be a problem, knock on wood. The take-home that I'm working on, that is supposed to be due Thursday, is getting it's final revisions, so my partner and I are just going to set it aside until it's due and relax in the meantime. Then....sweet freedom! Knitting all the time! Walks in the middle of the day!!! By the way, for those of you in the San Diego area, I plan on bringing a couple of bottles of champagne to the knit salon on Thursday to celebrate. If my finals go well, I may even eat something for dinner...stay tuned.

Anyhoo, here is my knitting progress on Shingle, which is all I've been working on. On Friday evening, I finished the left front, which went very quickly, less than 24 hours if I remember correctly. It's amazing what you can accomplish on size 11 needles. I'm still slaving away on the sleeves. I thought they would go much more quickly than they have, but aren't sleeves deceiving that way? I'll probably finish them today and then, the right front is all I have left. Since it takes less than a day to do that, I should have a finished sweater by the end of the week. Yay!

I ordered some yarn from elann last week but the wrong color came. I ordered the Opal Aqua but I received Scooter Red instead. I'm not pleased so I'm going to have to return it, which I've never done before. I also ordered Sachet, and I was pleased with that. This yarn is so soft, and supposedly the same gauge as Cotton Tape, although it is a lot thinner. I plan on making a couple of the tanks in the Cotton Tape Collection for the summer.

I recently had trouble with some Lantern Moon needles. I had bought a couple of pairs from someone, secondhand, and almost immediately, one pair started splintering. I returned them to the shop where the person had bought them, and they were replaced within a week. Apparently, Lantern Moon was contacted and immediately remedied the situation. Very good, since I was disappointed with $20 needles splintering. I now have a brand new pair!

As you can probably guess by the picture, I don't have much knitting to share today. I am at the shoulder shaping for my shop sample, but you can only see so many pictures of brown cables before you think, "who cares?". My giant doily is becoming larger, I would like to have it finished for Sunday, when I go to a play, but I don't know if that is possible, I have a skein of the yarn I need on order and don't know when it will be here.

Just so you know, the above photograph was taken when K and I went wine tasting in Temecula 2 San Diego trips ago. The wine there was adequate, nothing to write home about, but after the first tasting, you don't care as much about the wine ;-)

Have fun!

A whole lotta buyin' goin' on

Not quite the infamous words of Jerry Lee Lewis, but it's true all the same. Since I haven't been buying yarn, I've been buying books...lots of books. I don't know when I think I'm going to find time to make all of these patterns, but I'm optimistic. I've been eyeing the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk and the Jaeger book for a long time, so I guess I don't feel too terribly bad about those. The VK Stitchionary I got with my 40% Joann's coupon - yay!

I just LOVE Greetings from the Knit Cafe! Even though the patterns are simple, they are classic and knit up in luxurious yarns. They evoke a relaxing evening of sipping wine and knitting or curling up with a book. Or sitting on the floor on a lazy weekend morning reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. At this time in my life, I just love the idea of doing these things, especially in an angora hoodie! One week to go! In the text that goes with the photos, she also speaks of Los Angeles so fondly that it made me nostalgic for the time I lived there, all those years ago in college. Just a great, overall cozy feeling. Happy, happy! I have enough yarn in my stash to make the Comfy Socks.

It's leftover from previous DOA projects.

As far as the actual knitting goes, I thought about just saying, "The Shingle? Guess what? Are you sitting down? It's LONGER." But I made enough progress that I guess it's worth a photo. I think I'll finish the back tomorrow and start on one of the fronts.

I'm making good progress on my take home exams, so the weekend isn't looking too horrible. Anybody planning on making it to Rebecca's this week?

What Every Knitter Needs

A giant crocheted doily! Okay, so it isn't really a doily, but that is what it looks like to me. I was getting a little bored with the Frost Flowers Shawl and due to the abundance of white fur in my apartment, and the white furs ability to be attracted anything dark, I don't work on the shop sample in my apartment. I picked up some Calmer from my stash, ordered 1 more skein on line, and started the Lacy Cocoon Shrug by Annie Modesit. I don't know what it was about the shrug that drew me, but I was captured. The Calmer was meant to be used for Tempting II, but I wasn't ready to start that project yet, so I will have to buy more Calmer. Quite a tragedy really, having an excuse to buy more of a yarn love so much. It is crocheted, and I have crocheted for awhile. I had forgotten how quickly crochet moves, and I am not a quick crocheter. It helps that most of this piece is simply chains, but I got this far in basically 1 day, while working on the brown sweater.

As far as my brown sweater goes, progress is being made. The frogged back is over 1/2 way done.

I guess that is all I am going to say for today. I hope that the weather is better for you then it is here in Boston (predicting rain every day until next week, blah!)

Sitcom Chic is finished!

This may be the fastest long-sleeved sweater that I've ever made. It's miles and miles of simple stockinette was just what I needed during my stressful week last week.

Project stats:

Pattern: Sitcom Chic from knitty
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Sugar Plum
Needles: Addi Turbo Size 5's and 8's
Time to completion: approximately a week and a half
Overall thoughts on the pattern: this is a really great pattern with minimal finishing and a nice, simple, clean design. I didn't change anything about the pattern, although I feel like I should have used size 6 needles to do the bottom ribbing because it rolls up a lot.

This week will be no better stress-wise. In fact, I anticipate very little knitting time at all, but that's OK with me because there's light at the end of the tunnel. Pretty soon, I'll have lots of knitting time and time to do other things, too.

Naturally, I wasted no time starting something else. I wasn't sure what to work on, actually. I have lots of cute little tanks and sleeveless tops in the pipeline, but I decided that since it's spring, I should do another long-sleeved cotton sweater and leave the other stuff until summer when it's 95 degrees in my house and the only thing I want to be dealing with is something super-light. So, I decided to start Shingle, my Cotton Tape sweater. It's a very fast moving project as well, which is good for me this week since I'll feel like I'm getting a lot of knitting done.

Today begins the hell of finals week. I have 4 exams starting Wednesday and ending next Wednesday. Two are take-homes, which I actually prefer even though they're harder. I have performance anxiety issues with time-pressure situations. I actually ate a couple of meals yesterday which is good, although they have to be on the bland side. OK by me as long as the tummy trouble stays at bay. I'm mostly looking forward to having wine again, though. Last night, my mom had us over for dinner and everybody was enjoying onion dip and wine. I had water. C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas? The good news is, we're turning in our Aerodynamics project today!!!!!!!!

It Finally Came!

After about 3 months, my Lorna's Laces finally came! It was well worth the wait, too, even if it means that I have to wait to make my Twisted Float Shrug until next fall. Not my finest photographic hour, but I think the colors show up well all the same. That's Boucle in Blackberry and Shepherd Worsted in Blackberry and Lakeview. I think it's going to be beautiful!

This is going to be a rather brief post since I don't have much new to report. I can't imagine how showing you a pile of Sugar Plum Cotton-Ease and calling it a sweater would be interesting. Once I get done with the main knitting, I'll show it to you. At this point, I'm still working the raglan decreases. At first, the rows had 300 stitches each but now we're down to about 250. My stitches under the armholes are REALLY loose because of the awkwardness of attaching all of the pieces together. I'm hoping I'll be able to disguise that during the seaming process.

So, about Rebecca's this Saturday. I believe it's going to be a very poor turnout, and I'm debating whether I'll be attending myself. It's the week before finals week and I have a lot to do, but I'm still on the fence. I'll also need to see how I'm feeling. My stomach is improving but it's not totally better. Anyway, if you'll be there, give me a shout out!

I have lived in the Boston area now for almost 10 years. On Tuesday night I reached a pinnacle in Boston life. I was invited to a Red Sox Yankees game. For those of you who don't know, tickets to any Sox game are hard to come by, tickets to a Sox Yankees game, impossible. People would prostitute themselves to get their hands on these tickets. Finally, after years of patient waiting, I had one ticket. This wasn't the game of Mirabelli's triumphant return to Boston, mind you, but still Beckett was scheduled to be on the mound, and he has had a phenomenal start of the season. Yes the weather was cold and drizzly, but Sox v. Yankees, I would put up with more. Before the game I visited the Cask n Flagon, along with a crowd of other Sox fans. After one beer (or was it two?) a rain delay was announced. No biggie, a little delay, at least I wasn't waiting in the park. After 3 beers and ordering food, the rain delay became a rain out. Can you believe it?! My first (perhaps my only) chance to see this legendary rivaly rain out! I still can't get over it (but I still have the ticket).

In knitting news, I still have a lump of lace for my Frost Flower and Leaves shawl. The lump is growing though. I finished the first portion of the chart and the first repeat of the second chart portion. My cabled sweater is coming along well. I have started the V neck separation. I am definitely going to be frogging the back, it is much looser than the front, and I think I like the look of the front better than the back, which I always thought was just too loose. The only question is whether I should continue with the tight knitting I am consciously doing on the size six needles or swap down to size 5 and knit at my usual tension. I am leaning towards sticking with the 6 for consistency.

I just realized, I went from an all blue knitting phase and now am in an all brown phase, interesting, especially since I have never knit with brown yarn before.

How do you spell r-e-l-i-e-f?

This is how I do it. Fun times!

Since basically all food makes me nauseas in one way or another, I've taken to drinking what my husband called "that elderly nutritional supplement". That's right, an unfortunate incident with onions yesterday has made me foresake any food except pseudo baby food and simple carbs. Since I don't want my hair to fall out or anything, I figured I should probably get some nutrients too. Hence, the Ensure. I just cracked one open. It's not exactly like a fine Merlot, but it's not bad. Oh that's the other tragedy - no wine. No food and no wine? It's like being in hell! When does this hell end? May 18th - the day my last exam is done.

Anyway, onto the knitting! I've gotten a lot done on Sitcom Chic over the last couple of days, and its making me really excited to finish this sweater. The miles and miles of stockinette are almost over. Once the second sleeve is done, I get to start the eyelet detailing and raglan decreases.

I've been carrying out my most recent yarn purchase in my car for a couple of weeks now, but it's time for it to come out of the automobile and be seen by the world. I took advantage of Elann's Cotton Tape 50% off sale and bought enough in a rose color to make this:

Here's a photo of the color, too. Can't wait to get started. It will make a lovely sweater to slip on to go out for a quick summer supper. It's hard to find just the right shade of rose, but I think this is it. On the screen, it looked hot pink, which would have been OK, but I was overjoyed when I saw the actual color.

More Blonde than a Blonde

I can be, and am, a ditz. My hair may be red, but sometimes I have serious blonde moments, including when I shampooed my hair 4 times or so because I couldn't figure out how I wasn't managing to get the suds out before applying conditioner (I kept picking up shampoo when I thought I was picking up conditioner). This weekend I visited my family in PA, and took advantage of having a washing machine at my disposal to put my sweaters though the machine, including wool sweaters. No this ISN'T a tail of woe over inadvertent felting. After taking my sweaters out I noticed how incredibly soft my merino sweater was. It was always soft, but not like this. The next day, I was doing a load of wash for my mom and as I was about to add fabric softener to the wash I realized that the day before all my sweaters were washed in Downey and not with Woolite (yes I know Woolite is not a good choice for delicates). How much a ditz do you have to be to confuse the blue Downey bottle with the white Woolite one? That is the ditz I am.

On knitting news, my ditziness continues as I forgot to bring home the camera card. It sat on my desk from Wednesday, through the trip to visit family, which I wanted the card so I could take baby shower photos, through my thinking that I had to bring it home yesterday, and ending up still here on my desk this morning. Therefore I have no photos to show you.

The update on projects: My Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl is moving right along (imagine a picture of a lump of lace here). My Karabella sweater is at the V neck separation, however, since I have bad knitting karma, I think that I have to tear out the finished back and start from scratch. I have to have the sweater finished by next weekend. This morning I realized that I needed a second skein of yarn to work on the V neck shaping. (imagine a picture of the front of my sweater here).

Enough boring talk. Have a good day!

The Prodigal Needle

Yesterday was our weekly knitting get-together at Rebecca's, and this week, we had a really decent turnout, which is always great. I worked on my toe-up sock, but with all of the conversation, progress was very slow indeed. On Friday night, I turned the heel because I knew that would take beaucoup concentration. Although I was skeptical of the instructions, it worked out perfectly! At Rebecca's, I worked on a little of the leg, and tonight, when I tried it on for its close-up, it fit absolutely perfectly. I don't think I've ever made a better fitting sock. I wonder if that's because I actually did a gauge swatch for this one...hmmm...

While I was at Rebecca's, the sainted Kris showed up with 6 lovely skeins of Sugar Plum Cotton-Ease that match the one I already used to start Sitcom Chic. As soon as she arrived, I went back to working on that project. It's A LOT of stockinette. I know, I know, it's what I said I wanted. It actually worked out really well while I watched TV tonight. I could basically give all of my programs my full and undivided attention and, in the process, I'm basically up to the armholes. This pattern is kind of interesting because now, I break off and make the sleeves before I continue on with the yoke. The sleeves are done in a tube on dpn's, so no real chance of making them both at the same time. But, it will be a type of sweater construction that I've never done before so I'm looking forward to the challenge. Hopefully it won't be too long before this sweater is finished. It looks like there'll be minimal finishing, always a plus.

By the way, remember that dpn that I lost a couple of weeks ago? It's the reason I gave for setting aside my ugly socks. Well, wouldn't you know that I found it just sitting on the couch, right where I'd left it. Never mind that I've slept there a few nights (snoring hubby), hubby has slept there a few nights and I sit there and knit every single night. The only conclusion I could come to is that it went away on a trip somewhere and has returned, the prodigal needle. I wanted to ask where it had been, what kind of adventures it had, but ultimately decided that it wasn't any of my business. Have a great Monday! (Yeah, right.)