Trish Knits.com

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Is It Worse Than I Thought?

Thanks so much to everyone who commiserated with me over the last couple of days about my poor blanket! Most of you suggested that I try grafting the pieces back together. I’ve never done grafting before, but I guess now’s a good time to try. I think!

Arlene from Knit Talk offered to try to fix it for me, which I may be tempted to take her up on! Margo Lynn said she’d offer to help next time she’s in the area. And Catherine even sent me some very detailed instructions that I think will be helpful once I get my brain wrapped completely around them. There were many other words of wisdom, too, and I appreciate every one!

The top photo shows what I originally thought was a ripped end in the initial chocolate brown stripe. Yes, there are stitches pulled out here, but that errant-looking end is actually an end of the yarn that I had previously woven in to the back of the blanket. Fixing the dropped stitches in that first stripe should also not be too hard.

The thing that has me a bit baffled is the grafting itself. This page has a pretty clear picture of what grafting is, along with clear wording, which I think I could do in a quiet place, slowly, step-by-step. The tricky part for me is going to be trying to decide how to recreate stitches that are completely ripped or missing. As you can see in the second photo, it’s not an entirely clean break. I guess I won’t know really if it will work until I try, but the thought of it all is just too scary for now. Margo Lynn is right, though… I need to get the piece on lifelines or stitch holders asap. For now though, I think I need to spend a little more time curled up under a rock and cowering. I will steel myself and give it a try. Just not today. And Arlene? I might just take you up on your offer yet.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone and wish me luck!

May 22, 2008
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:

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.

May 20, 2008
One Lousy Row.

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!

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.)

May 19, 2008
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:

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

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!

May 18, 2008
Pool Season

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.

May 17, 2008
Sock, the Second

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.

May 15, 2008