Eye Candy Friday

It took all summer to get some roses but they were worth the wait. Only two of my bushes really produced because it's been so dry. And I don't think I cut them back in time this spring. I should have done it in the fall but I forgot.

I couldn't believe it but I found a pair of UFO socks hanging up on the coat rack (in a bag, of course.) I think the pattern is Moonstruck in Woolease. Unfortunately one of the needles has pulled out and I had some ladders on the heel flap which is where the intarsia pattern is so that will have to be re-knitted. I have no idea why they got put there but I'm the only one who could have done it.

I also have a hooded sweater from Lion Brand's site that I need to finish. I deliberately put it away for the summer because it was too hot to work on it. I'm almost ready to bring it out. When I finish Jesse's Flames I will.

One of my sils stopped by today and was drooling over the Monkeys. She knits but for her it's not a passion so she doesn't do it much. I may have to make her some Monkeys. But not the ones I just finished. Those are my Monkeys. *grin*

She didn't understand the spinning though. She asked why on earth I was going to all that trouble. It's as I suspected. There are people who knit and people who are knitters.

I have a dream that someday I can knit some of those really gorgeous patterns from the major magazines in yarns that are luscious and soft. In the meantime, I knit what I can afford and what I need. But someday I will knit what I want.

TTFN

A bit o' this, that, and the other

Last night I took Zach to his psych class and settled in the parking lot thinking I would listen to book 2 of His Dark Material when I realized I had the wrong knitting bag. Not only did I not have my cds but I didn't have my projects either. None of them. Instead I brought the bag that I had set up for tomorrow to look at knitting socks from the toe up.

So what the heck...I cast on and started learning how to do a figure 8 cast on and a sock from the toe up. I didn't have the complete pattern so I just knit it plain vanilla (worsted weight). It took me a few tries but I really like the result and plan on working on the lace pattern that it was written for (the pattern Cookie A used on Knitty Gritty.)

Yet another new project. I refuse to think of startitis as a bad thing.

**Edited: I didn't like the lace pattern with worsted weight yarn so off to the frog pond. I'll do another toe up later when I find a pattern I like with that weight.

So today I was very careful to set the right knitting bag by the door, next to my packed lunch. I was so proud of myself for being so organized. I got my socks out to knit on them and I didn't have the fifth needle. *sigh* Okay, I got out my swatches to work on. No cable needle. *deeper sigh* I did have my crocheting in the bag so I worked on the Antique Lace Shawl.

One of these days I will be better organized.

Zach decided to drive home from StuffMart today. He hadn't been behind the wheel for nearly a year. I don't know why but he just stopped driving. Never got his license and only recently got his permit renewed. Initially I needed sedation but by the time we got back into Horicon I was breathing normally again and my heart rate was down under 200. Next time his dad takes him out.

No real progress on the other projects because I was taking Zach's scholarship check (yes, that's right) to the bank today. Out of the blue he got a scholarship from our church. Woohoo! Answered prayer, let me tell you. Nobody better ever say anything bad to me about Episcopalians.

Off to knit the rest of the night. I'm going to work on my other swatches tonight. I hope they don't give me fits like the first few did.

TTFN

Some WIP for Wednesday

One of the bad things about WIP days is how badly I am at adding pictures and text together.

The 1x1 swatch. Lion Brand Wool, size 7 circular needles, reverse combination on the ribbing, continental on the garter stitch. I keep wondering about all the hours (and I mean hours) that is going into each swatch. It seems insane on one level, but on another, I have analyzed my knitting to such a degree that I am more aware of what I am doing so that I can work on fixing years of complacent knitting. I can see a difference in my projects already.

My dishcloth shawl in Red Heart Symphony. I love the woven look to it. It reminds me of the shawls from pioneer days but with a lighter drape. Not that I was around then.


My handspun black sheep wool. The second picture shows a browner cast to it but this is closer to the true color. I started with size 11 needles but my yarn is so much thinner now that I should start plying pretty soon. I haven't had any breakage yet but some of it is laceweight and some fingering weight. And every now and then I have a lump in there. I'm getting so much better at my rolags. I just need to set aside some time to work more consistently on it.

I have more WIP but I've been showing some of them in other entries this week. They are certainly more colorful than this bunch but it's a gloomy day (again!) and this pretty much reflects my mood today.

Something is going on at 6 a.m. every morning that sets the Professor off and he barks his fool head off in near hysteria, which brings me up out of a dead sleep where I stumble down the stairs with my arthritic knees and plantar fasciitis feet to shush him. By the time I get him soothed, I'm awake. Since I don't usually fall asleep until 2 a.m., this is creating a deficit. And as far as I know, there is no sleep bank where you can store up sleep for just such occasions.

And when I try to nap in the afternoon, the ratbastard cute little squirrels frolic outside the windows, tormenting him, which sets him off into another frenzy of hysteria. I think I may sleep in the car while waiting for Zach to finish his psych class today. It's going to be the only time he can't wake me up.

Little dogs aspire to such great heights in the dog world.

Thankyouthankyou Vicki for your encouragement yesterday. I feel better about myself as a knitter thanks to you.

I have startitis. I have to admit it. But do I have to stop it?

TTFN

Not my best day

Do you have someone in your life who, when you get the greatest news...news that when you receive it you say, "I'm finally going to be able to sleep tonight," news that makes you cry because you're so happy, but that certain someone is right there to rob you of your happiness? It's like there are people on this earth who just want to suck the joy out of you like some kind of emotional vampire.

Yep.

Making headway on the plain vanilla Paton's Kroy. Nothing plain or vanilla bout these though. I got a few strange looks at the college today while I was waiting for Zach to get done with his computer lab. One woman asked me if I was knitting. I politely nodded and smiled.

I like the randomness of it. There is a little bit of pooling on the other side but it's not too bad.

Jesse's Flames sleeve. I'm so focused on the intarsia, I keep forgetting to increase on the edges. I like how it's turning out even if my increases aren't as evenly spaced as they should be.

I'm wavering on the Master Knitter program. I'm at a low point. I can't get the 1x1 ribbing to look like anything other than crap even though my other stuff looks okay. I know I'm just stressing over it and I do want to finish it because I sincerely have completion issues. For me it's fear of failure. So I don't finish last, I just don't finish at all.

I'll keep working but I don't think this is instilling confidence in me at all.

TTFN

Sunny Sunday

No rain today! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the bees are...swarming.

We had church in the park today. Zach was acolyte and I kept watching him because he's terribly phobic about bees. He's gotten control of most of his OCD but this is one thing that would send him running. Fortunately none of the bees seemed to bother him. And he was up there handling the wine. They sure seemed to like the priest.




I took my socks with me. Normally I wouldn't knit in church but this was the park and we got there plenty early. I cast on a new pair. Paton's Kroy, Paint Box. They are wild. I'm doing plain vanilla because there's nothing gonna compete with that colorway.

Got a lot of knitting done yesterday. Tom fell asleep on the couch (one of my hot buttons...it's not like he doesn't have his own bedroom complete with television and air conditioner) so I couldn't clean or watch what I wanted on tv so I took my knitting, some tapes and a dvd of Kavanaugh, Q.C. upstairs. I really like John Thaw and wish he was still with us. He's such a great actor.

Worked Jesse's Flames and finally got a good result. My problem was I had an area of intarsia and an area of stranding. It looked awful. I decided to do all intarsia, in spite of having to knit just one stitch up several rows and having a tangled mess. But it looks so good now. I was surprised that some red yarn I had in stash from nearly 2 years ago matched near perfectly to the yarn I just bought. It was the same with some black yarn I had bought at the same time. Lion Brand done good.

I'm doing about a round a day on the lace shawl motif. It takes me about a half hour to do the round. I'm almost to the end of the round so I'm sure this shawl will provide me with hours and days of entertainment.

Zach starts college tomorrow. Sniff. My baby is all growed up.

TTFN

Idiot in the rain

That would be me. Professor wanted a walk so I figured I could make it around the block before it started raining. Didn't even make it to the halfway point but I figured we could get all the way around before it got too bad.

Wrong...

I was dripping and Professor was at a dead run and this was up a steep hill. Good thing I'm in better shape than I was a year ago. 60 pounds lighter makes a big difference.

As promised...the Monkeys.

I don't know what socks to do next. I'm still dealing with completion issues. Sort of like separation anxiety. *sigh* I miss the Monkeys already.

The Antique Lace Shawl. I'm almost done with the first motif. I like it but it does require a great deal of concentration since there isn't a lot of repeating patterns per motif. I guess I'm glad I won't be doing long, intense rounds. Maybe motifs are better.

Had to frog back on the sleeve yesterday. I had a loose stitch way back and being so anal particular about this, I had to go back and try to fix it. Which resulted in a complete mess. This sweater is going to college. I want it to look its best.

I'm trying to eat more vegetarian meals. I want off as much of my medicine as I can get and for now the weight loss is at a standstill so I'm trying something different. Not to mention, my tightwaddiness is kicking in. Gotta stretch that food bill as much as I can since StuffMart reneged on their job offer.

But I'm not bitter. Nope. Not a bit *trying to unclench my jaws*

Off to read the blogs and fix supper then knitting for the rest of the night.

TTFN

Monkeys...

are finished. Pictures tomorrow but I'm on a roll, knitting like crazy today (with my shoes off, of course.) I did a bit of crocheting, too on the lace shawl. I like it but my next one will be knitted. One of the things I don't like about crocheting is making motifs. And this shawl is made of triangular motifs. I think 19 of them.

Made progress on the sleeve yesterday but I think it's going to look more homemade than handmade. As I said before, I've not done that much intarsia and it's a bit different from stranding, which I'm not that experienced with either. I've frogged back a couple of times and I do improve each time. Thankfully, Zach loves my knitting so he won't be upset if it's not perfect.

Thinking of frogging the baby sweater. It's turning out stiffer than I want it to be. Maybe I'll make it with a bigger needle and adjust the pattern accordingly. Or maybe I'll find something else to knit. I have some blanket patterns and maybe I'll do that instead. Jan, from church, is director of the our diocese Haiti project. She has said they need baby blankets because our sister church is at a high altitude so it's chilly there. I could make tons of socks, too, for kids.

I may finish up the Caron sweater. I've read other bloggers who use Simply Soft and like it. I won't buy anymore probably but I could finish up the sweater. And I thought I would make a hat to go with it.

I'm going to go through all my knitting magazines (that may take a while) to see what I've got in the way of sock patterns. I've got the green Baby Ull and some Paton's something or other in primary colors. That one will require a basic pattern, like some variation of ribbing, but the Baby Ull needs some texture to it. I've still got that pattern I was going to test but I think I want something not as challenging right now. I've still got swatches to knit and reports to write.

It's good to finish something.

TTFN

WIP Wednesday

The Monkeys!

Watched Pan's Labyrinth yesterday. It was a really good movie but since it was all in subtitles I had to do a lot of rewinding when I missed something. Not a great knit movie, but a good movie if you don't ever have to look down at your knitting

Sorry for the lousy quality of pictures. I got a book from the library so I can learn how to do this better but I haven't read it yet.


Zach's cell phone case. Lion Woolease, size 2 needles. I knitted a casing instead of yarnovers for the mini-biner. I was afraid yo's would stretch out over time. It's a denim blue color.

Dishcloth Shawl made with Red Heart Symphony, a lovely brown, tweedy color. I love the texture the garter stitch makes. It will make a lightweight shawl for me to wear at church or whenever I'm out. I think it will go with jeans or with something dressier. I had to go with a pattern that wouldn't require blocking since I'm working with acrylic.

Antique Lace Shawl from Annie's Crochet Newsletter, 1993. Bron has been crocheting some lovely things and I've been bitten by the crochet bug. I find most patterns are cumbersome and boxy. I don't like the bulk of crocheted clothing, but that's just me. YMMV. I've been wanting to knit a lace shawl but don't have any laceweight or the money to go buy some so I thought this solved several problems at once. The color is a lovely light sage green.

Jesse's Flames front. The back is done as well but since they look so much alike...

Jesse's Flames, left sleeve. The yellow part of the flames are duplicate stitched on. I'm not that practiced with intarsia so I'm taking my time with it. Lion Woolease.

TKGA Swatch 1 and 3, unblocked. Same wool.

TKGA Swatch 1 unblocked, size 7 needles. Not perfect but I'm going to submit it. This is, quite honestly, the best I can do. Lion Wool, yellow. Not that you can tell from the picture.

Baby Bobbles sweater in Bernat baby yarn, sport weight. It's a pastel yellow but my lighting is the pits.

Move your feet, lose your seat

This is what happens when I get up to take a break.

TKGA Day

I've been getting a lot done but it's terribly boring blog fodder. I am doing so much better with my ribbing. I just needed to relax and not fight the needles and yarn so much. Not there yet but I'm so close I can taste it. I'll take some pictures for tomorrow's WIP Wednesday.

Been reading for the research stuff as well.

I've needed to knit a lot the past couple of days. Things on my mind, things that affect my future that I have no control over the outcome.

And I'm supposed to just put this stuff out of my mind.

Man, I hate men sometimes.

TTFN