Trish Knits.com

Author: Trish

  • I Haz a BIG Sad…

    So I’m sick again today, and I’m sitting here, watching Oprah. I get to the end of a stripe in my brown ripple afghan. Yay! I put the blanket down to take a break, on the couch next to me, and then I cross the room to check my e-mail.

    I then hear this ungodly rrrrrrr-r-r-r-i-i-pppp! My blankie, my beautiful (albeit brown) blankie, is hooked on the footrest mount of my chair. And I’m dragging it with me. When I manage to extricate it from myself, I saw this:

    ripple afghan with ripped hole in it

    If there were some word I could type that would mimic the sound of my wails, I would. But I think the sound defies written expression. I’ve been working on this blanket for almost 6 months. I was getting near a point where I was going to call it done, and now this.

    The thing is, I don’t know how to repair it. It is ripped in the middle of the second stripe. I don’t know if there even is a way to fix it. It’s a little beyond me. I could stick a lifeline in the third stripe, then go back and add yarn and do a bind off row there. But that would disturb the color pattern. The second stripe is not just pulled out, it is actually ripped. And I can’t just pick up and knit in the opposite direction, because it’s a ripple pattern and the ripples all already go the other way.

    I know there must be an expert knitter out there who would have some ideas. If so, I’d love to hear them!

    Thanks! Back to sobbing now.

  • One Lousy Row.

    purl side of ripple afghan in progress

    You know life is rough when you wish for a sick day. Yep, wish for one. I’ve caught myself hoping for a little cold, just so I could sit home and knit for a day without guilt.

    I guess I should be careful what I wish for. I started feeling crappy on Thursday afternoon late, not coincidentally, I’m sure, at the same time that my mom was being re-checked into the hospital. (She’s home now, thank goodness.) Last night I found myself not breathing well at all when laying down, so sleep was hard to come by. I had no choice by this morning but to stay home.

    First, I literally fell dead asleep this morning, bolt upright in my chair. Then I woke up at noon and basically sat like a blob til I got up the energy to go to the bathroom, where I promptly fell asleep again. So, by this evening, when I finally had a bit of energy for knitting, I could only get out about a row (ok, a wee bit more than a row) before my needles suddenly felt too heavy once again. So today, I cranked out one lousy row of knitting. So much for my blissful sick day.


    I LOL’d the Cat Today!

    Cat, sitting on Printer, with caption, copycat, I is one.

    This is Tegan, on her favorite perch. She is annoyed that I woke her up for this. Visit my page at icanhascheezburger.com to vote for this picture. (I have no idea how they go about choosing the daily LOL’s, but maybe if Tegan is lucky she’ll get her 15 minutes of fame.)

  • Practice Makes…. Better!

    This afternoon, DH took little man to a birthday party in Virginia. It left daughter and I on our own for dinner, and I decided that we would have an easy time of it and order pizza. She grabbed my bag when the Pizza Man knocked, and when reaching for my wallet to hand it to me, accidentally grabbed the sock that was in there, too, and pulled the stitches off the needle.

    After dinner I set about fixing it, only I could not put the sock back down! And before I knew it, I had turned my second heel ever:

    Second Sock, left side of heel

    Second Sock, right side of heel

    I am quite pleased that the results are much improved over my first heel:

    closeup of short row heel stitches

    I was so worried I guess about not being able to find the wraps (they’re hard for me to see, especially with dark yarn) that on the first sock I wrapped a little too loosely. Which, I think, is why the heel of my first sock looks, well, holey. Second sock is not perfect, by a long shot, but much better. Now I can’t wait to do this sock thing with actual sock yarn.

    Which brings up the subject of today’s transgression. Perceptive readers might notice that my Yarnaholic Meter was reset to Zero today. It’s because I couldn’t resist buying some Lisa Souza Sock! Merino in babyish colors for the impending baby in yesterday’s post. I got three colorways: Spumoni, Peacock, and Pumpkin. I am planning baby hats and socks all around, and if I get adventurous, maybe some baby jackets. We’ll see about that.

    Tomorrow I’ll start the cuff on my sock. For now, it’s back to the brown ripple afghan… Ciao!

  • Pool Season

    brown ripple blanket in process

    Believe it or not, today was the first day of the swim club being open. It was too cold to swim unless you were a totally insane person (like my daughter), but we enjoy going there and hanging out, so we went for lunch. Didn’t stay long because my little guy wanted to get in, too, only he’s too young to get in the pool by himself and there was no way my DH was going. But it was great chatting with friends who we only seem to be able to get together with in the summer months. Every summer it’s always amazing to see how much each other’s kids have grown, and it’s fun to catch up on a winter’s full of activities that we always somehow miss hearing about until now.

    I’ve actually had a rotten cold that started up on Thursday afternoon. I called in sick Friday and went to the doctor. It’s just a rotten cold, but I mean, ROTTEN. I don’t even have much energy for knitting. But at long last, I have been working on the brown ripple afghan again. I actually switched colors today for the first time in a while, and will probably be able to do that again tomorrow already. I haven’t been knitting at that pace, on ANYTHING, in quite a while. But… there’s been lots of napping in between, too. I guess I’ve needed it.

    Since joining the Summer of Socks 2008, I have since learned that our pool manager is expecting her first. This is happy news! She and her sister used to babysit for me when my daughter was a baby. So, it looks like baby socks and hats will be in order! I’ve been looking around the interwebs, and I’ve found quite a few patterns and resources to check out:

    Baby Keep Your Socks On — by Amy King

    Just Your Basic Baby Sock (PDF) — by P2 designs

    Tiny Toe-ups — by Patti Pierce Stone

    Chart of Baby Foot Sizes (PDF) — from WendyKnits.net

    Tie One On Baby Socks — The Keyboard Biologist

    Baby Jays — by April K

    Ribbed Lace Toe-up Baby Sock — by P2 Designs

    Baby Life Ring Socks — by Cat Bordhi — by P2 Designs

    If I knit a bunch of these then I’ll have the whole sock thing down before I know it. Now, I’m on a quest for ultra soft and washable sock yarns. I know, I know… Socks That Rock comes to mind immediately, but would also love other ideas. Hopefully things that aren’t too expensive, but also high yardage AND washable. Oh, and soft. Very soft. Soft enough for a baby’s, well, you know…

    I’m thinking that if I can find balls of yarn with high yardage then there would be enough to make socks for my size 6 feet and have enough left over to do baby socks. Do-able? I’d love some feedback…

    Ciao for now, gotta go blow my nose. Yuck.

  • Sock, the Second

    first knit sock next to second sockin progress
    I cast on for the second sock one day about two weeks ago. Yikes, has it been that long? I hadn’t thought about that until now. But oh well, I have said it over and over, I am the slowest knitter in the world.

    I’m nearly done with the foot and am about to start the short row heel. I would like to say that I’m not going to make it look as funny as the first one I did, but you never know. I don’t actually know what I’m doing yet with this whole sock knitting business.

    I want to get this second sock done. I am anxious to knit a real sock, with my Socks that Rock yarn that I got at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I even joined the Summer of Socks, 2008 (hey, that chick uses the Mandigo theme, too!), as I think I am going to be knitting lots of socks by the pool this summer. They’re really quite portable. I’m finding after doing a couple of blankets in a row, that portability, is, indeed, a good quality.

    Speaking of blankets, I’m having a bit of blanket guilt over a certain brown ripple afghan. More on that project this weekend, K?

    Ciao for now.

  • Bowie Borders Knitting Meetup

    Bowie Borders
    4420 Mitchellville Road
    Bowie, MD 20716
    Phone: 301.352.5560
    Fax: 301.352.5571