Month: June 2004

Well, poop! That’s not exactly what I’m thinking, but being the lady I am and all . . . . This weekend was not exactly stellar knitting-wise. First of all, I discovered I had made a mistake on the border of the Mediterranean Shawl, about 10 rows back. That’s a month’s worth of knitting. It involved about 8 stitches but I was able to drop just those 8 back and do a rudimentary fix, but because I had eliminated some yo’s did not have enough yarn to do a perfect job. I had decided to just live with it because I was NOT ripping out a month’s knitting. For me that was a major decision – I am somewhat obsessive over my knitting. I had just about come to grips with letting it be when I happened to glance down and realized that I AM RUNNING OUT OF YARN!!! Yes, I am shouting, screaming, stamping my dainty little foot. How could this happen? I bought enough yarn according to the pattern. Of course, I realize now that I am probably off on the gauge, but wasn’t worried about that since it is a shawl and doesn’t have to “fit”. You would think that in 40+ years of knitting I would have learned that gauge affects more than just fit.

At this point, my options are to 1) In a fit of pique, frog the entire thing. No, I don’t think so. 2) Frog just the border and find another border pattern that doesn’t take as much yarn. Possible, but the border was what drew me to the shawl in the first place, and I think it really makes it. But it is certainly something to consider. 3) Try to find yarn to match. Hmmm – preferable, but iffy. I bought this yarn about 4 years ago in Oregon. It was during my disorganized period and I can’t even find the labels. So my decision is to cram it into a sack and put it in a corner for now. Obviously it won’t be done for the wedding, but I had sorta resigned myself to that anyway.

On the plus side (who says I’m not the eternal optimist?) this frees me up for other projects and I picked up Ingeborg, who was feeling quite abandoned. I loved knitting on her and have made quite a bit of progress, hence a picture:

I really love the feel of the Baby Ull. It is absolutely one of my all time favorite yarns. It is a pleasure to work with and it wears and washes well. Maybe I can actually get this done in time for the cold weather. And I can’t wait for the cold weather to return. It’s been in the upper 70’s and low 80’s here – too hot for me! My parents, who live in southern Missouri, land of 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity have no sympathy at all. Can you imagine? They think we are heat wimps and they are absolutely right!!

I try to be good, really I do! About 8 months ago I embarked on an exercise program – 30 minutes a day on my stationary bike. Beginning this week I added a strength training regimen. This morning as I was lying on the floor doing ab crunches, Kirby decided that any activity that didn’t include him as a major player was simply not acceptable. When a few well placed kisses on the ear elicited only a “Go away stupid dog!”, he decided to sit on my chest. In case you were wondering, ab crunches with 14 pounds of dog on your chest are no fun! I guess you could make the point that that only adds more resistance, but I’m not up to that level of fitness yet! He said he was sorry, but I don’t think he looks sorry.

On the knitting front I’ve decided to take a look at some projects that are nearing completion and focus on one in addition to the shawl. I need to feel that I’m making progress on something! Last week it was the Multidirectional Scarf; this week it will be the Master Knitters Program, Level I. My goal this weekend is to finish the four remaining swatches. I’m not sure if I’ll get the rest done before leaving for England, but wouldn’t that be loverly? Oh no, I’m thinking with a British accent already!

I did start Tilt , but no pictures yet because the piece I have doesn’t really make sense until you have the mirror image piece to go with it. Maybe by next week. No evening meetings this week, so I should get in some good quality knitting time. Next weekend I get four days off, but will be helping my sister move, so there will probably be little knitting accomplished. Have a good week all.

Isn’t this just the cutest thing? I’m talking about the one on the right, although the one on the left is kinda cute too. This is my eldest son with his little Chinese Crested, Blue. This is the dog badly in need of a handknitted sweater. Well, maybe not right away, but at least by fall for those cold, damp English winters. I have a pattern picked out and hopefully can begin and finish it while I’m there. I think they pretty much have the wedding plans well in hand, so there shouldn’t be too much for us to do. Except shop for a hat!

And here it is – an honest to goodness FO!! That’s Finished Object for you non-knitters out there. This is a multidirectional scarf from Karen Baumer’s free pattern. I can’t seem to make any of the links to her pattern work, but if you Google it, you can find a PDF to download. The funny thing about this is that I kind of introduced everyone around here to the pattern and everyone’s finished one except me. This is done in Noro Silk Garden and was a joy to knit. I’ve decided that I have to knit on something else except the Mediterranean Shawl or I will truly begin to hate it. It may mean that the shawl won’t be done in time for the wedding, but so be it. I want to like it when I’m done and there will be plenty of special occasions to wear it.

You will notice on the sidebar that I was successful in signing up for some webrings. I think I’m getting the hang of this! I don’t think the Knitting Bloggers is activated yet, though. I joined the Master Knitters ring in the hopes that it will get me motivated to start working on it again. I pulled out my notebook and I really am quite far along on Level I – I only have four swatches to go and the writing. After all the papers I’ve written for school lately, it should be a piece of cake!

No new knitting news today because it’s the same old boring thing – border, border, border. I keep plugging away on the border of the Mediterranean shawl. Interesting to do, but not to talk about. I did make one new minor yarn purchase – one ball of washable acrylic to make a dog sweater for my son’s dog. He has a little Chinese Crested (the ones with no hair) that desparately needs a sweater to keep him warm. I think that will be my travel knitting when we go to London.

I was successful in finding a dress for the wedding. It turned out to be fairly painless. The best thing is that the dress is very, very comfortable, will be suitable for cool weather or hot and is quite adaptable for post-wedding wear. And it was on sale! I guess the fashion in England is to wear hats for weddings. I’m not a hat person, so I’ve told my son’s fiancee that the jury is out on that one. I think I’ll go looking with her when we get there and I may cave if I can find one that doesn’t make me look utterly ridiculous.

The newest update on the wedding is that it is going to be on the London Eye. I have to admit to some reservations initially because I am terrified of heights, but after reading some of the information Ben and Abby sent me, I think I will be just fine.

No pictures today because I’m away from home and don’t have my camera. I do have some time off this week, so with any luck I might be able to figure out the logistics in joining a webring. Slowly but surely I’m learning about blogging, but it can get complicated! Have a great week all.

Ever wonder what 1532 stitches on a needle looks like? Wonder no longer:
Yes, it looks like one, big huge mess. Actually, it’s not too bad now since I switched to a 60 inch needle. That many stitches on a 40 inch needle was no fun at all! It was little difficult getting the pattern set up, but now that it’s established, its going along smoothly.

In looking at my last few posts, does it sound as if I am slightly obsessed by this shawl? I admit I probably am. I’m sure that my husband would attest to the fact that I can get pretty wrapped up in my projects at times. It usually happens at the beginning, when I’m infatuated, or at the end, when I can see the end in sight. This can especially happen when I’m reaching the end of a very lengthy project, such as this shawl. And of course, when I have a deadline that I’m working toward. And I do have one – the wedding has been moved up! Right now the proposed date is August 7th. I’ve been looking online for a very basic, dark dress – probably sleeveless or short sleeved in case the weather is hot. I think the shawl would look fabulous against a dark background. My sister and I did some preliminary shopping yesterday and narrowed down the field. Shopping is definitely not at the top of my list (unless it’s yarn or fabric!), but we persevered and hopefully I can narrow the field down further this next weekend.

And, speaking of yarn shopping – here is my latest purchase. Fifteen skeins of Noro Silk Garden in color #86. Yummy! And here is the intended project. My LYS is doing a knit along and I couldn’t resist. From what I understand, the knitting is pretty easy, but the finishing takes awhile. AAH – my favorite part. But I think the end result will be worth it. Of course, I need another project like the proverbial hole in the head, but when has that ever stopped me? This will probably end up a gift – does that excuse it? And for that matter, why do we feel we need an excuse? Maybe just our guilty female nature, huh?