Month: January 2006

Now that school has started again, I’m afraid I will probably be limited to posting about once a week. I love blogging and especially reading all of the knitting blogs, but the irony is that all of that takes away from my actual knitting time. Add in school, work and family time and I have to be careful that I don’t while away my time surfing the net! But I do intend to keep on blogging so that I don’t disappoint my regular readers (all four of them!).

I determined that this week I would work on my languising projects and these are the results:

Two little baby sleeves! The original pattern called for the sleeves to be the same pattern as the body (see previous post). But it quickly became apparent that with color changes on every row there were going to be about ten gazillion ends to weave in. On the body it’s not a problem because they are at the steek and will be cut off. But with the sleeve there’s nothing to do but weave and I just wasn’t up for it. So I took this pattern from another version of the same design and I think it will be cute. Now all that’s to be done is sew and cut the steeks, sew in the sleeves and knit the front bands and neck.

And I worked on Kongsberg. Thanks to Chery, I conquered the two circular method for the sleeve and I think the results are impressive:

On the left is the sleeve started on dpn’s and on the right the two circ. It doesn’t show up as well in the picture, but the two circ sleeve is so much more even. I will frog the other sleeve and start it over. This sleeve will be a lot more slow going than the little baby sleeves. Besides being larger, they are much more complex and tiring to work on. So, in the meantime, I need to think of a simple knit – socks probably. I’ve got some Bearfoot in the stash and following the lead of Debi and Chery am thinking of starting those. Or maybe Lorna’s Laces or maybe Wildfoote. The choices, if not endless, are many.

Ok – New Year’s Resolutions. I always make them. Some I keep, some I don’t, but the eternal optimist in me compels me to at least try. I’m sure you don’t want to hear the usual “eat better” “exercise more” that we all make, so I’ll stick to the knitting ones. The first is to get my projects more organized. Despite the fact that I have a “studio” (formerly known as “sewing room”), I tend to have things strewn all over the place. This year I will try to catalog my books and my projects a little better so I can acutally find them – and not buy the same pattern twice because I already have it but can’t find it. You guys don’t do that, do you? The second is to finish by New Year’s Eve any projects that I have already started. That doesn’t rule out staring anything new, you understand, just finishing what is on the needles now.

To that end, I brought out some unfinished projects to peruse and make plans. Imagine my horror to find this:

M**TH HOLES!!! IN INGEBORG!!! I am heartbroken. I had this sitting in a basket in my sewing room. I have never seen a moth or larvae, but there is the evidence nevertheless. To make matters worse, it was sitting right on top of Kongsberg. However, after close inspection, I can find no holes in Kongsberg. I immediately took Ingeborg and threw it and all of the yarn in the freezer while I made a plan of attack. After searching around on the internet, I did what Stephanie did. I threw it in the microwave. Hopefully any critters have been fried. I’m not usually this ruthless with insects, but we’re talking mega knitting time and a substantial yarn investment here. I am not the Albert Schweitzer of knitters! Now I’m not sure what to do. I’m nervous about just frogging down to the holes and starting over because I fear all of the yarn may be compromised. This one will have to simmer for a while. Any suggestions?

I will, however, share with you another Dale with the body finished. I do have this tendency to start Dales and then bog down on the sleeves, don’t I?

I wasn’t going to post a picture because this is a surprise for Izzy. But then I realized that even though her parents read my blog, she doesn’t. Shhhh guys – don’t tell her! I started on the tiny little sleeves this morning and I have to thank Chery for her suggestion about using two circs for the sleeves. I have resisted two circs for socks because I am terribly attached to my double points, but this suggestion has saved my bacon (and my sanity). Thanks Chery!

And to reward myself for starting to get better (any excuse!), I took a trip off island to my LYS and bought this:

Lorna’s Laces sock yarn. I have heard such wonderful things about this yarn and decided I needed a treat. But I am going to try and be good and wait until our trip to Orlando in March and make this my plane knitting. Maybe.

Well, I may have been sick, but fortunately I wasn’t sick enough to forgo all this found knitting time. I guess one thing about being sick is that it gives you a legitimate excuse for blowing off all the things you don’t want to do as long as you are not too sick to pamper yourself. Behold – two Socks That Rock:

I am quite pleased with these. I used the Sensational Socks book and found that it helped with some of those fiddly things that have bugged me when I’ve knitted socks before. Because the yarn was so busy I just used a simple garter rib. As soon as these were finished I cast on with some Cascade 220 for some CIC socks. One is finished already, but I am following my self-imposed rule of not posting a picture until they are both done.

I also broke out of the starting gate on Kongsberg’s sleeve:

I know why I’ve been putting this off. It’s probably one of the hardest projects I’ve done. It took me about three starts to get it going. I decided not to do the placket – I feel it just adds extra bulk. I probably could have taken a more flattering picture by not showing the jog at the underarm, but I was too tired to play with it. I know there are methods for reducing the jog, but this is hard enough without adding an extra technique.

And introducing my B’s:

This one is easy – my husband Bill and my son Benjamin (posing with one cute little baby). Bill and I have been married for 32 years and he is indeed the love of my life. He is sweet, romantic and really listens when I talk (well, most of the time anyway). Is he perfect? Well, no. He hogs the remote, leaves lights on wherever he goes and constantly leaves drawers open. But did I mention he also cooks, vacuums and does his own laundry? I think we can forgive a few little foibles.

Ben, in case you didn’t know already, is Isobel’s daddy. He is the only child I ever gave birth to, and Bill and I decided that if we only had it to do once, we really did a good job! Ben may not realize this, but he wasn’t the easiest child to raise (like I’d have a basis for comparison?). He is so incredibly smart that his brain just does not work the same way ours does. He was always the kid who would color cows purple and take things apart to see how they work. In sixth grade his teacher got really frustrated with him because he never did math problems the “right” way, but he always came out with the right answer. He is one of the few people I know who not only understands how computers work, but can actually make them do what they are supposed to do (he is a software engineer). And he is a wonderful Daddy to Isobel! Hey, I like this ABC thing – the beginning of the alphabet is a piece of cake. And I’ve even got my X planned out!

Rats! I thought I would dodge the flu bullet this year, but I guess it is not to be (Hey, I even got the shot – how fair is that?). My throat hurts, my joints hurt, my head hurts – even my hair hurts. But mostly my throat. And I blame my husband. Despite the fact that I hang out with germ laden rug rats all day, I got it from him. Was there something in the marriage contract fine print that said we had to share everything? I think not!

So I will distract myself with some mindless (aagh – I must feel bad. I had to type that word four times) knitting – aka socks. I finished the first Sensational Socks That Rock Sock. However, to avoid the dreaded second sock syndrome I have vowed not to post a picture until the second one is done. But as I am on the cuff of the second sock and it is garter rib, I think it qualifies as mindless enough to knit while you’re sick.

This however, does not:

I have joined Junie Ann’s KAL. No, this does not mean I have started something new. This KAL is dedicated to finishing something that you have had on the needles for plus or minus three years and just can’t bring yourself to finish. Kongsberg sadly falls into this category. I really love this sweater, but for some reason just can’t force myself to start on the sleeves. There are some areas that looks as if you need to be pretty creative with your floats and it has me intimidated. Under the terms of the KAL, each week you must do something. Even if it’s casting on, going to the store for buttons or englarging the chart – that counts. I guess you could consider it the small step method. And small steps should eventually translate into a finished sweater. We’ll see. I don’t think, though, that this is a job to tackle when one is feeling puny.

I will, however, introduce you to St. Brigid. She would obviously be progressing at greater speed if I hadn’t gotten sidetracked by lace and socks, but she is lovely nevertheless. Designer – Starmore, Yarn – Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, Neeles – size 5.

And, speaking of lace, I have finished the body of Snowdrop and am now working on the edging.

This, too, does not seem to be a project for the weak of body and fuzzy of head, so it will also have to wait until I feel better. On the positive side, I have absolutely nothing scheduled for this weekend so I can sit on the couch, wrapped in an afghan, drinking tea and knitting on my sock. In fact, I think I’ll go do that right now.

Much of this weekend has been spent doing housecleaning on my computer, but it paid off. Things were really starting to slow down and I wondered if maybe I’d outrgrown this computer. But a few dumped caches and going to a cleaner desktop, plus downloading some Safari enhancers has really given new life to my laptop. We’re speeding along now! Not to say that there hasn’t been knitting going on:

This is Stephanie’s pattern available for download from her site. It would be a great starter lace as the pattern is easily memorized. I used it to teach some lace newbies at our knitting group and I think it was favorably received. Maybe I’ll see some new shawls at our next meeting.

I have also been making progress on my Socks that Rock:

This yarn is pure pleasure to knit with. I can’t wait to get them done and on my feet.

And, I have joined the ABC Along (scroll down to see the button on the sidebar). The aim is to post a picture that means something to you every other week, following the alphabet. A is easy – in fact, two A’s are very special to me:

This is my younger son, Allen. He is a really special kid in many ways. Although 28, he will always be a child, but he is sweet and kind and certainly brings a spark to our lives. Raising him has been difficult, but we know we are better people because of it. He came into our lives when he was six years old and has been a very special part of our lives ever since.

And A is also for Abby:

Abby has only been a part of our lives for less than two years, but we can’t imagine life without her. She is a wonderful wife to our son, Ben, and the best mother you can imagine to little Izzy. Everyone should have such a daughter-in-law!