Trish Knits.com

Category: blog

  • Knitting the Ribbing!

    The Hat Ribbing in Progress
    The Hat Ribbing in Progress

    Were it not for a slight accident this morning with the needle slipping out of the stitches and quite a few more than I would have wanted being dropped, I might be writing the Finished Object Report instead of just a run of the mill progress report. But, such is life when we’re knitting, eh? I’m not sure if I’ve ever knit a project that didn’t have at least some major mishap involved.

    When I originally envisioned this hat I thought it might make a nice Christmas present for my daughter. Then I started it so early that I thought she’d get to wear it some this fall. And now? Well it looks like it’s regained it’s Christmas present status again. Oh well, at least I feel like I’m on track for something now!

    Last night, we went around the kitchen table and each of us said what we liked best about the holidays. I asked the kids to ignore the obvious (presents!) and to pick their other favorite thing. Here’s what everybody said:

    Diana: The Food
    Steven: Making Christmas Cookies
    John: Looking at All the Lights
    Trish: Christmas Music

    WordPress Upgrade And Other Site Stuff

    Yesterday I upgraded this site to WordPress 2.7. So far, I love it! If you’re thinking of upgrading, there are a couple of things to consider. At least there are a couple of basics that I did that helped make things go smoothly. First, I made sure that the theme I’m using is 2.7-compatible (it is). I grabbed the latest version of my theme, installed the upgrade, then disabled all my plugins, and let my hosting company do the automatic upgrade. Then I went in and reactivated my plugins. That’s all there was to it!

    I’m finding that it’s hard to maintain three separate blogs, so I’m going to do some more general type blogging here from time to time. I’ll still keep my family blog, but even that needs a serious update. But I’m going to add a page for my writings and stuff that I had intended to develop at my long-neglected personal blog.

    This blog will still be a knitting blog, but you might notice a couple of other sections in the menu over time. I’m just finding it harder and harder to even think about keeping up with three blogs. Let me know if you have any feedback on this issue! For now, I’ve uploaded an article I wrote for my college newspaper, more than 20 years ago. Even though my life is in a completely different place now, this article captures how I’m feeling right now:

    Doing Yesterday’s Work Tomorrow

    Enjoy!

    Listen to this article
    Listen to this article

    December 12, 2008

  • Had to Share Some Holiday Cheer

    Courtesy of icanhascheezburger.com:

    kitten playing with Christmas ornaments on tree
    more animals

  • Why I’m Not Into Holiday Knitting

    school spirit hat in progress
    school spirit hat in progress

    Here’s the proof. This is why I don’t do holiday knitting, or occasion knitting in general. It’s been a month and a half since I started this hat, and I’m still working on it. Yes, this has been my main project in most of this time. I’ve done a stitch here and there on a couple of things, but nothing else to write home about. If Christmas depended on my knitting? Christmas would just never come.

    But hey! I made a milestone on the hat today. I am on the ribbing! I asked my daughter to try it on and it is just about the perfect size. I am not going to do a very deep rib, because it doesn’t need one. Then the last thing will be to add the words, “Lady Hawks” to the white band in duplicate stitch.

    I started feeling stressed about all there is to do over the next several weeks, and I made myself stop and knit for a bit instead. It helped. Now, if only I could teach my DH to knit… We’re seriously behind. No decorations are up and ready. The shopping’s about done, which I guess is a good thing! But I think it remains to be seen whether we will have outdoor lights or Christmas cards mailed before Inauguration Day. And you know what? I’m going to do my best not to care.

    I’m getting the feeling it’s going to be a long, cold winter here. It is unseasonably winter-like for this early in December and we even had some snow yesterday. The wind has been cold and biting. Perhaps I should start a countdown calendar for Spring. I’m so ready already!

    Hopefully I’ll write again soon. If not, you’ll probably find me buried under a pile of unopened ornaments somewhere.

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  • Knitting in December

    Today was our monthly knitting group meetup at Borders in Bowie. It was a lot of fun! Today I got to meet THREE new folks: Melody, Iliana, and Diane. Our Bowie MD Knitters group at Ravelry is growing, thanks in part to the recruiting efforts of Marie.

    Here are the photos from today’s gathering:

    As usual, click on the photo to see a bigger version.

    It was snowing as we were all departing from group today. A perfect wintry ending to a wonderful December afternoon.

    Tegan is snoozing
    Tegan is snoozing

    Tegan decided she’d rather sleep through the whole thing.

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  • When the Mooooooon Is in the Seventh House… And Jupiter aligns with….

    Venus!

    Tonight as we were picking up the kids from school, we noticed bright lights in the sky, near the moon. On the car radio, we quickly learned that for at least a couple hours this evening, Jupiter and Venus would be visible next to the moon. None of us in this house had ever seen anything like it, so we all agreed this must be something special. My camera doesn’t know how to focus on objects that twinkle in the sky, but the video function did much better. My DH was able to capture this quick little clip so we’ll always remember what we saw.

    Not much knitting today. I got a couple more rows done on Diana’s hat. Hopefully tomorrow morning before I start telecommuting I can knock out the rest of the body and start the ribbing. I can’t wait!

    It’s a typical Monday after a holiday around here. Which means the little one is a homework refusnik and the older one called in the afternoon, complaining of a “headache” and wondering if we could pick her up early. Nope, kid, go back to class. Ugh. Better sign off for now and reel the little one back in. Wish me luck, and hopefully there will be a knitting update tomorrow.

    Ciao!

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  • Knit Picks Goodness

    It came! It came! I finally received the Andean Chullo Hat Kit from Knit Picks today:

    Andean Chullo Hat Kit
    Andean Chullo Hat Kit

    I can’t wait to make this, but I do have a couple of other things to work on first. But I wanted to go ahead and get the kit now, because it seems that Knit Picks doesn’t keep it available all the time so I had to wait a while to get it. The kit includes 9 balls of Palette and a pattern, which I can’t recall whether it’s similar to a pattern that I bought several years ago but I’ll have to try to find that one and see. This one does appear to be more detailed, if I remember right.

    Also in the box today were two hanks of WoTA Bulky in Blackberry:

    Wool of the Andes Bulky Yarn
    Wool of the Andes Bulky Yarn


    I thought I might use this in my afghan of domino squares, which is an ongoing, long term project. There were also some size 0 needles in the box, in about every cable length size available, because I recently learned how easily one of those toothpick-thin things can snap. There was also a book, but more on that at another time.

    On the Home Front…

    We had a glorious weekend with my DH’s family. They were here for Thanksgiving Dinner, which was a rare treat indeed. The last time all of my DH’s siblings were together for a Holiday, my now 12-year-old daughter was in preschool. (We were all together for a weekend in January of 2006, but there was another addition to the family shortly thereafter that some others in the family hadn’t even met!) So, it was a good time. Mostly the cousins all had fun playing together. The youngest, now two and a half, really enjoyed playing on my son’s train table. It was better than just about anything to him, except he did say last night that he wanted to sleep in his own bed.

    Tonight he did get to do just that, because everybody parted ways this afternoon. Who knows when we’ll all be together again? I do hope it’s sooner than three years from now!

    Before they left, though, the cousins all got together for a “grandchildren portrait” that my mother-in-law wanted. All of the kids did great! My DH and I decided that since we were taking our kids to the studio that we would dress up and have our own portrait updated:

    Family Portrait, 2008
    Family Portrait, 2008

    It seems strange to me that my little girl had to bend over so far to be near my head. Where does the time go, that she should be so grown up?

    And me? I see a diet in my future.

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