FO Report: Halloween Scarf

Project Name: Halloween Scarf
Source: http://circe.canalblog.com/archives/2009/04/23/index.html
Yarn Used: Various, but featuring Vitreous Humor, by Insubordiknit
Needle Size: 13, for the eyeball yarn
Date Started: June 2, 2009
Date Completed: June 9, 2009

Notes: I knit most of this scarf on my Singer Cord Knitter, so each cord went fairly quickly. The eyeball yarn cord was knit by hand on size 13 needles. I actually have a little bit left over so I’m trying to decide what to do with it. I think I’ll keep it for decoration. I braided most of the cords loosely and tacked them together a little bit but I did not tack down the eyeball cord in case I ever want to recycle it for another scarf. I’ll try to get a photo of my daughter wearing it tomorrow. It looks much better on a person than on a chair!

Yarn Yummies

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!

It’s Cascade Eco Alpaca which I purchased from The Loopy Ewe for 20% off. Sheri is hosting a knitalong for Jared Flood’s Girasole pattern, and well, I had to jump on the bandwagon! The knitalong is supposed to run through October 1, but I doubt I will finish in time. But, wow, the yarn is SO soft and SO yummy… I had to jump at the chance to get some at a discounted price. Oh wow, even though I know I can’t start my blanket just yet, I really want to! I can’t wait to have that yarn in my fingers. Yummy!

Well, I guess I better get to bed before I turn into a pumpkin… just wanted to share the day’s knitting news with people who I know would understand and share my joy. I’m sure most of you know what it’s like to live with people who love you but only tolerate your knitting? That’s what it’s like for me most of the time. Nobody here shares my excitement over the softest yarn ever or the joy of a completed project. (Though I do think my daughter is coveting a skein of the Eco Alpaca at the moment–guess I’d better be sure to count them before casting on for my project!) So, thank you for reading and sharing in the moments with me. It’s great having a community of knitters to share these little things with.

Until next time…

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Mine Enemy the Yarn

I am just about fed up with knitting right now. Do you see this yarn? It mocks me. I’ve been trying to make a mitered square a la Vivian Høxbro, and for some reason, no matter how easy it seems, I’m always messing up. Somehow one leg of my square is always bigger than the other. They’re supposed to be, well, square, which would, of course, imply that the sides must be the same size. Why, oh why can’t I seem to count?

I have this goofy idea of making a mitered square knitted version of the Babette Blanket, where, instead of crocheting individual squares, I’ll be knitting mitered squares and knitting them onto each other as I go. I’ll use the basic layout of the Babette blanket as my guide, and various colors of Noro Kureyon yarn. I can see it in my head. But this first square is going to be the death of me. I’ve started it, and ripped it out completely, twice now. I’d love to see this idea starting to take shape, but here I am, months into the project, and I still only have this yarn ball to show. Can you hear its maniacal laughter? Dr. Demento is running through my head right now. (“They’re coming to take me away, ha ha, ho ho, hee hee, they’re coming to take me away.”) Shut up. You know you hear it. Stop laughing at me.

My daughter, on the other hand, is having much better luck with her knitting. Tonight Diana knitted two more little hearts! Only this time, she got my huge bag of polyfill out of the closet (we call it, “monkey butt,” in honor of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Monkeys that I hope to knit and stuff their butts with it someday… ok, don’t ask). So she made this teeny little heart pillow as practice, because she wants to make a bigger one. I think she’s getting the idea of the heart shape down. Cool, huh? My daughter is a knitter!

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And You Thought Valentine’s Day Was Over!

Tonight I finally finished my Valentine’s Day treats for my co-workers. Phew! I only go in the office two days each week (I work from home a lot!) and the last time I was in was last Tuesday. There was no way I was going to be done by then.

Earlier in the week my daughter was touched by a friend at school who has recently suffered a senseless family tragedy. So, tonight as I was knitting on the last heart of the bunch, she asked me to teach her how to knit them. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Diana can do basic garter and stockinette stitch, and can weave in her ends like a champ. But these hearts, as small as they are, contain slipped stitches, double decreases, and short row shaping. Typically she gets very frustrated when trying new things, but I didn’t want to discourage her from trying. So I bit my lip about saying that really I just wanted to get mine done and go to bed, and we pressed on.

“They’re small, Mom. I can do it, she said.”

And she did. The blue one in the front of the picture is all hers. Her heart came off the needles a little wonky and she wasn’t happy with the shape. But, I suggested that she take out the darning needle, and as she was weaving in, tug here, and pull there, to get the heart into shape. She did just that, and her heart actually came out shaped better than any of mine. (I opted not to weave in any ends, and use them instead as ties around the baggies. Am I lazy, or what?)

I am so proud of her! Perhaps somewhere there’s a real knitter in her yet.

To refresh your memory, the heart pattern is on page 155 of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop

Playing with the Blog Again!

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll find that things look REALLY different around here! I’m like my mother, I guess, who re-arranges the living room furniture or the kitchen drawers when she gets restless. (You can’t ever go there in the dark and sit down if you haven’t been there in a while; the chair that you thought was where it’s always been might be somewhere else altogether!)

But for me, it was about more than just being restless. I loved my previous theme. A LOT. But different people come to this blog for different reasons, and I wanted to have a way to highlight knitting content versus family/personal content. This way, hopefully it will be easier to manage just one blog, instead of trying to juggle three. I was constantly updating this one anyway, and throwing in family content, and my others have been sadly neglected. I’m hoping this solution will be the best of all worlds for me, and I would love to hear your feedback!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

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Be Warned: Loooong Knitting Post Ahead

And Thank You for that, oh Cable Internet Provider Craptacular! I’ve been offline more than on since last Wednesday so this is the first chance I’m getting to update since our Bowie Knitting meetup on Saturday. So, bear with me, as this is sort of a catch-up post.

First, I have an FO Report!!

Project Name: Lady Hawk Hat
Source: Me!
Yarn Used: Cascade 220, less than one skein each of Navy and White
Needle Size: 5 (I’m a loose knitter)
Date Started: October 17, 2008
Date Completed: February 7, 2009

Notes: I did this hat using a simple top-down formula and changed colors back and forth basically when I felt like it. Except that I knew that the letters I’d be using were 10 stitches high so I had to do one of the white bands at least wide enough to accommodate the lettering. I am not sure why this hat took so long to finish, except that it did. Perhaps it was that I was dragging my feet about doing the duplicate stitch lettering, and it turned out that was for good reason, because I sucked eggs at stitching. I’m going to have to practice with some swatches before next time.

So, enter in Tammy, who graciously (and patiently!) tried to show me how to do duplicate stitch at our last group meeting. She felt sorry for me and my pending sense of disaster, I think, because she took pity on me and offered to do the stitching and bring the hat back to me. This was so generous of her! It looks great, doesn’t it? And I do think that my generally hard-to-please, almost-teen was genuinely thrilled with it, even if it was in her usual understated way. Thanks to Tammy for helping to make this project a success!

February Bowie Borders Meetup Report

Our little monthly group met on February 7 at the usual time in our favorite little coffee shop. There was much yarn and much fun enjoyed by all! Here are some photos of the afternoon’s doin’s!

I brought my little Flip Ultra video camera with me to group for the first time and I got a few shots of the fun.

It was a great day! I am always so excited to go to group every time. I love the bunch of people that I am getting to know!

And Finally, A Ravelry Connection!

You know, I am amazed at the number of ways Ravelry has impacted my life over the last year and a half. Over the weekend I got my glasses done, at long last, after being frustrated with my poor quality of vision correction for at least 4 years. Wouldn’t you know it? Someone I met on Ravelry is a Master Optician at a local optical chain, and she helped me make some good decisions about my eyes. I have progressive lenses, and have had them for the last several years, but my mid-range vision for the computer has been consistently awful. Anne Marie (“Roxy”) fixed me right up! Given the amount of time I spend at the computer, she recommended two pairs of glasses, one for distance and reading, and one for computer use and reading. Wow. I never would have thought to do it this way, but it works and I love them! Of course I had to make sure to document the occasion for the blog:

So as you can see, Saturday was a great day filled with many rewards. I do love the knitters!

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Candy Hearts

I’m totally obsessed with Valentine Hearts. I started last week with the full-sized version, and once I finally figured out how they worked, I was able to downsize to these cute teeny hearts. I started by casting on 31 stitches instead of the 61 called for in the original pattern. At half size, I can do a heart in about 45 minutes.

The cool thing is that I don’t think I’m even going to weave in any ends, because I’m going to use them to tie onto little baggies of candies for my co-workers, kids, and a few other friends. I don’t know how many I’ll get done between now and Valentine’s Day, but we’ll see!

Bloggy Stuff

I moved my Feedburner blog feed to Google today. They say the transition will be seamless. We’ll see about that. I’m a little nervous. I’m just starting to gain a few readers here and there, and so I hope I don’t lose anybody!

All this technical stuff makes my head explode. I’d really rather just be knitting.

Good night for now!

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