losing my mind one stitch at a time

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Regia Stretch socks

These are the very simple toe up socks I finished a few weeks ago. They are hybrid socks meaning they are knit to fit both Ginger's short wide foot as well as my own. While this makes for less than perfect socks, I like the colorway and refuse to hand them over lock, stock and barrel.

M.O.M. (make one mitten)

my first mitten. I named it M.O.M. (Make ONE Mitten) because I have entered into the category "gloves and mittens" in the Midsouth State Fair, but have never made a mitten or a glove in my life. So last night after I dropped William at theatre for another performance of The Full Monty, I CO for this mitten. Knit in Fisherman's wool it's an Aran cabled cuff knit on 12 stitches then bound off and stitches are picked up for the mitten. The cable in introduced on the back portion of the mitten. The thumb was knit with scrap yarn then picked out and stitches picked up. I'll make it's mate and be done with that category. I will knit another mitten, but will make the gauge somewhat smaller. We have mild winters here, but not every one does.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Fun on the Tramp

Here are the boys and a friend doing dangerous stuff and having a blast. I'm just praying it doesn't end in injury. I don't know if William could continue the play if he's in a cast!

Retired!

Thanks to EOD and too many changes at my job, I am officially retired from social work as of Tuesday. It's been a long and interesting ride. I've enjoyed so many of my co-workers both in Memphis and in OK, but look forward to some simpler times ahead. Today I have absolutely NOTHING on my schedule except hosting DASNI chat at 2 pm CST. The Tahki "Leaf" sweater pattern from the Vogue Spring 2006 advertisement has finally worked out and I'm continuing on the 6th pattern repeat. William's best friend slept over last night and Max is hoping to finally get his birthday present computer up and runnning. I've been on Aricept for a week. Life is pretty good.

FIRST paycheck!!! The FULL Monty

William and Ashtia ("Vicki" in The Full Monty) This is William's first ever paycheck. Thanks again to Irene Crist and Dave Landis for giving him a chance! Remember, The Full Monty runs through September 10th at Playhouse on the Square. www.playhouseonthesquare.org box office (901) 726-4656 performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8pm and Sundays 2 pm. See you there!

Monday, August 14, 2006

Take-off on Tempting 2

Here is the poor little TT2. I CO for this months ago in a hasty effort to play with the pattern while I was waiting for my KnitPicks order to arrive. It's knit in Caron Simply Soft and I've added sleeves from the Drop Stitch Cardigan (IK Fall 2005) and am modifying the neck to be a deep-v suitable for wearing a camisole underneath. I've ripped the neck out twice so far. Hopefully the 3rd time's the charm.

Some FO's

I'm not certain if I posted these socks before, but they bear repating. I can't remember the sock yarn though, sorry! I'm sure it's from my latest raid of sock yarn on 85% discount from the LYS. These were knit for my darling Ginger who has rather short wide feet. She loves them. I finished another pair and wanted to take a picture, but they're on her feet at the moment and she is at work. The poncho is from IK Fall 2005 staff projects "Ponchos" and is the Brioche Stitch. It took just slightly over 1 skein of LB Fisherman's wool and was terribly easy once I got the stitch figured out. I am gifting it to my SIL for holiday, but need to send a little bird to ask if she'd even use it. Otherwise it will find another home. The slippers are the "Fuzzy Feet" from knitty.com and I've made a few other pairs (see last blog entried from last Fall?). This pair is for my mother's birthday. I did not take a before felting picture because, honestly, I was mortified at my knitting. I do not have 10 1/2 DPNs. I couldn't remember if I knit the previous ones on 10's or 11's. I opted for the 11's and made them per the pattern, adjusting for my mother's 11 inch long foot. The resulting "sock" (pre-felting) was literally gigantic. It was probably just shy of 20" long? And for her skinny foot, I feared it would never shrink in diameter. Into the washing machine set on hot wash/cold rinse and FAST agitation. After 14 minutes there was little felting. I set it to wash again, went to bed and just hoped for the best. I woke to these. Granted, the doubled yarn on the cuff prevented the cuff I'd hoped for, but at least these will fit her feet. Their final felted length is 11 and they are indeed rather slender in the foot. Whew!

Denise Shops!

If you are a member of KnittingParents, you know about our darling Denise, who graciously spends her very own vacation time shopping for those of us lucky enough to have a little cash tucked aside for Brown Sheep yarn enhancement. Here is this year's shipment. The hardest part of all of this is deciding what you want. My list was literally 21 lines long, but my cash was not.

The green and cream are Nature Spun sport for the cropped cardigan in Knitter's book of sweater patterns.
The brown Lamb's Pride is to go with the Bling I got on deep discount at the LYS sale and will eventually become Tubey from knitty.com.

Denise shops 2

Because blogger limits the space for photos on each post (I am toying with switching to google pages, but don't know if I have the brain cells for that) here are pictures of the rest of my stash enhancement. The cotton fleece is for the Tahki Leaf sweater free pattern in Vogue spring knit magazine. And the nature's spectrum, which I thought I would love and am not as happy with the feel of it as I'd hoped (but when it's knit and washed I'm sure it will be dreamy), is for the dropped stitch cardigan pattern from IK Fall 2005. I'm CO for the Tahki Leaf Sweater today! It's going to be my vacation knit. I think I will try to add a bit of waist shaping, but not sure I can figure it out.

A pigeon in the chimney

Our &*$*#@%!!! neighbors have $%#@!! pigeons who land on our roof and this one flew or fell down one of our chimneys. It was 3 days of "there's a funny noise in the basement" before I finally got brave enough to force William into the basement to figure it out. I had previously sent the cats on reconnaissance without success. So after a hysterical phone call to Ginger and some incredible guts (William) and freaking out (moi), we got this part of the boiler vent removed and here's what we found. After some more guts/freaking the bird was removed, calmed and returned to said neighbors. However, the grandma answered the door and she speaks no English (that's another rant) so they got their %#@! bird and we lost a perfectly good t-shirt in the process. If it's any consolation one of our cats caught and played with another of their pigeons several days later. That bird has been in our backyard for 3 days without moving much. Yesterday I picked it up and launched it across the fence, where I heard it land. I wish they kept them in an enclosure :(

The world's slowest kitchen remodel?

Here is Ginger, not very flattering, but it was hot and she was up there measuring and nailing up the crown molding. The molding is barely noticible in this shot. Yesterday she put down the floor molding. I wood-puttied the gaps and one of these days I'll sand and paint everything. Right now I'm just too busy getting William to and from The Full Monty.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Coke Kitty, or "look at MY Coke Rewards!"

This is simply too good to pass up. After a recent grocery shop, one of our cats (Galadriel) decided she loved diet Coke cartons. And the fun ensued. She crawled in, out, around, through and over all 3 cartons. Max, pictured here, laughed himself silly until we all came running to see what the fuss was. I'll share. I hope the video link works! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWkN1TX_S2I

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Brioche Stitch video's

Like the rich, egg-based bread this stitch is named after, I am now knitting it successfully. Here is a video of how I get this stitch to work for me. I have never worked so hard for a stitch before. Many instructions say simply YO, Sl 1, K2tog. But that resulted in an odd almost inside out stitch for me. I tried slipping purlwise, slipping with yarn in front. A variety of things. What ultimately worked was doing the YO and the slipped stitch (knitwise for me) SIMULTANEOUSLY. How you ask? Watch and learn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DOCe870xlg BTW, I'm using huge needles, 10.5's and they're nasty cheap needles, but they were free in a freecycle box of yarn years ago. The yarn is the color of Brioche bread and is Lion Brand Fisherman's wool. It has the lanolin still in it and is undyed.

of Brioche stitch and the love of knitting

I bought a skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool last week. I was not strong, I have wanted it for years, but always resisted. I should have bought it last year when it was cheaper! The skein is huge, 227 gm! It wants to be a Brioche stitch poncho for my SIL for a holiday gift. Brioche stitch instructions are easy. I CO and gleefully knit 108 stitches for about 3 inches when it was apparent the Brioche stitch I was knitting wasn't going to have that lovely rib. What did I do wrong? Should I stick with my created stitch or visit the frog (rippit, rippit) pond? Late in the evening, I ripped. I CO for test swatches, varying the slipped stitch, purlwise, knitwise, varied the decrease, K2togTBL, K2tog. Nothing produced the beautiful stitch. I am back to the needles today, though I have the Take-off on Tempting 2 still on the needles, a pair of socks that I'm on the leg portion of (toe up) and even CO for a lacy scarf yesterday, but this stitch if luring me like those sailors who shouldn't listen to the sirens, but do.
While searching for a knitting video (it's probably because I knit left-handed that this stitch isn't working, maybe I should switch the instructions? I'm desperate) I found this lovely piece of prose.

Companionable knitting work! When gayer friends depart
Thou hold’st thy busy station even very near my heart;
And when no social living tones to sympathy appeal,
I hear a gentle accent from thy softly clashing steel
My knitting work! My knitting work! Thou interruptest not
My reveries and pleasant thoughts, forgetting and forgot!
I take thee up, and lay thee down and use thee as I may,
And not a contradicting word thy burnish’d lips will say.
- Southern Rose, February 3, 1838

Friday, July 14, 2006

Yarn2Go sale yarn purchases

I 'm a little late in posting this as the sale was 2 weeks ago, but here's what I finally (frugally) decided on. The Bingo is Lana Grossa 100% merino in a brown verigated that I hope to mix with a solid or heathered brown yarn from Brown Sheep to make Tubey (knitty.com) and the sock yarns I got for 85% off. No, that is NOT a typo! Can you believe it? That's enough fabulous, varied sock yarn for 5 socks. And for about $2 or less per PAIR!

You can see that I have the Regia Stretch Color already CO. I think I'll use either the JAwoll cotton or the Clown cotton (both wool/cotton) for the next pair and probably give one to my mom. Of course I'll have to buy more needles as I gave my size 2 dpn's to a friend :) Both the Regia Stretch and the Trampoline yarn have elastic in them and are positively fun to play with even in the skein. The Socka is just a tried and true sock yarn and I like the subtle blue.

Drop-Stitch sleeve

Here is the result of my first attempt at dropped stitches (intentional, that is!). I am adding a long sleeve to a Tempting 2 sweater I started months ago. The short version is I was impatient (imagine) and got some acrylic that wasn't too icky so I could CO and fiddle with the pattern while I waited for my KnitPicks yarn to arrive. Months later I find this heap in a knitting basket. The top was to the short-rows (an alteration) and I realized there's no way this Caron Simply Soft acrylic will work in Memphis unless it's Fall or Winter. So I decided to add sleeves. Cruising the Interweave Knits Fall 2005, I am smitten with 2 sleeves, and ultimately decide to use the drop-stitch cardigan sleeve. I CO using a cable cast on because the pattern was K3 P1, but I've never done a drop stitch and it appears that CO is not recommend. No, I will not rip it out. Though it represents only a few hours of knitting, I will either tack the long loops up or perhaps do a bit of a knitted edge and hide them. My plan is to knit this sleeve to the arm, join with the T2 and continue the sleeve is St st, the top in the K1P1 rib and use a raglan decrease. But you know what happens to the best laid plans of a knitter when the yarn has a mind of it's own. Wish me luck?

The Ugly Socks

These poor socks were CO without much thought and knit in the same (thoughtless) manner and it shows. I gave a friend some German sock yarn, quite yummy!, but she didn't finish the project and in an effort to "repay" me she gave me this Regia sock yarn. I don't even remember where I was when I CO. I don't think I did a guage swatch though I've never knit with this yarn before. The problems, i.e. ugliness, began when I picked a K4 P4 for the instep. It is not balanced on this sock. The 2nd major ugliness was when I turned the heel and promptly forgot to start the K4 P4 on both needles. When I did realized, I was too distruntled with the whole sock to rip out so I just continued until I got to the top where I did the usual K2P2 ribbing and BO using a size 5 needle. The BO is still a tad snug :( So here they are in all their ugliness. I am gleefully on the next sock, knit in Regia STRETCH and a beautiful blue colorway. I continue to knit socks on 2 circs using size 3. I will order size 1 and 2's from KnitPicks in the next few months. I've already warned Ginger that I will need slightly smaller needles for some of the cotton/wool sock yarn I have.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Left-handed combined knit stitch

Here is the knit stitch. Again, a poor quality video shot with my digital camera, but at least it's in focus. I hope you find it helpful and remember that there are MANY ways to create knitted fabric. If your knitting is acceptable to you, but your technique is different from the left-handed style shown, do not feel you must alter your technique. I offer this video to help people who are struggling with the results of their knitted fabric. It was with the help of the gnittink list on yahoo that I discovered all the ins and outs of how I knit. I have changed my knitting technique several times over the years, none of them right or wrong, but I will not claim that I will not change my technique yet again. I used to do a different purl stitch, but my stitches were twisted if I was knitting back and forth and it required more thinking (i.e. was this stitch a knit or a purl) and I got tired of not being able to knit in the dark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7046rdhRTWU

Left-handed combined purl stitch

I am trying again to load the knitting video I made. It is very poor quality. Shot with my digital camera and in a casual setting. The purl stitch is actually out of focus. I will probably update it soon. Hope this is helpful to at least one lefty out there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPzKU9JTA2Q