Sweater in progressOk, in case you never believed me before, here’s actual proof that I am the slowest knitter in the world. This represents another week of knitting on my February Lady Sweater, and I still haven’t quite gotten to the second buttonhole yet. It’s ok, though, because I’m enjoying knitting with this yarn. I haven’t had any major knots this week so that’s a real plus.
Today was knit group and I took lots of photos and even some video. I’m kinda tired tonight so I’ll have to try to get to the group report tomorrow. We had lots of new people, including one lady, Alice, that I happened to spy reading knitting magazines in the magazine aisle. I can’t wait to tell you about everyone tomorrow.
I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. I’ve barely done two inches on my very first sweater and over the last two weeks I’ve bought yarn for three more. Plus some single skeins of Cascade 220 from Webs. (Pssst. In case you’re living under a rock and haven’t heard, they’re having a big sale. Check it out. It’s a good thing.)
Well, I’d better get to bed before I turn into a pumpkin. I’m really BIG tired tonight.
Tegan likes to help with the knittingYesterday I posted on my Facebook Profile that I was wondering how to distract my 16-year-old, nearly blind kitty from wanting to “help” so much with the knitting. One of my friends then asked, “Doesn’t that mean you’re getting cat hair all over your silk yarn?”
Wait. Are you telling me that not ALL knitting comes with cat hair? Silly me! I thought this was par for the course. Cats have a knack for finding the knitting, wherever it happens to be. Why, I’ve even heard of people who don’t even have cats that somehow find their yarn to be a cat magnet! (Ok, not really.)
The truth is that I don’t mind having my cats nearby when I’m knitting. Except when they get on top of my yarn, thereby making it hard for me to pull more yarn from the ball. Or the time when Zoe, my 17-year-old Blue Maine Coon, managed to unravel an entire ball of yarn all over our apartment when she was a kitten. (I didn’t own a camera then, so just trust me when I say it was the biggest mess of yarn I’ve EVER had to clean up.)
So, I don’t mind finding the occasional stripey cat hair in whatever I might be working on. When I do, it says, “Tegan was here.” Knowing that her remaining days are fewer than I’d like to think, this somehow brings comfort to me. I know I’ll be finding evidence that Tegan was here for many years to come.
Sweater after one week of knttingSo this is what my February Lady Sweater looks like after just one week. On the one hand, it might not look like much, but on the other, you gotta remember that I am the self-professed slowest knitter in the world. So actually, this measly couple of inches is a huge feat for me.
Have I mentioned how nice the Tess Yarns raw silk feels in my hands?? Oh gosh. It’s cool like cotton, but squishier. I just love it. Perhaps that’s why my progress has been so good this week. I can’t get enough of holding this yarn in my hands. I’m still not taking bets on how long it’s going to take me to get this sweater done. Probably many months. Maybe I’ll wear it to NEXT year’s Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. (You know? I’ve never worn one of my own hand knit creations there. Someday I’ll have to make something appropriate for warm May weather, with the festival in mind.)
My first buttonholeSo here’s my first buttonhole. See? It looks a little funny. But I don’t think anyone will really notice, especially since the buttons themselves will be likely covering the buttonholes up.
This morning I got up early, donned my “knitting uniform,” which today consists of my Ravelry hoodie and a mint green-colored t-shirt (Ravelry colored!), and prepared to sit and knit while listening to the new episode of Cast On. DH and Her Highness the Tween went to skating lessons and BoyZilla had a breakfast date with the grandparents. I was so looking forward to having the house all to myself. Next thing I knew, they were all coming home! Dang. I fell asleep and missed my “me” time. It’s pretty gray and icky today and I’ve been having trouble staying awake all day. Oh well, I guess some days are just like that.
So, what are YOU doing this weekend? Anything fun planned?
beginning of sweater yokeI’ve been knitting my first sweater! Yay! Of course I have miles to go on the garter stitch yoke before it even looks like a sweater. But you know what? I’m one of those people who is, in general, not at all bothered by miles and miles of garter stitch. In fact, I find it rather soothing. So, I don’t know how long the yoke is going to take before it looks like anything that resembles a sweater. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep things interesting around here, if you’ll indulge my occasional need to show you yet another picture of the same old thing.
This photo of my full sized February Lady Sweater reminds me very much of this one, from last summer:
sweater yoke in progress
This one was my February Baby Sweater, which I completed last August. I remember feeling like the yoke took forever. (It did.) I knit it in sock yarn on size 1 needles. It took a whole summer, because each teeny-tiny row was about 183 stitches long. Crazy! But it was so worth it, because in the end, I got this:
sweater, after blocking
That’s Lisa Souza yarn, by the way. If you’ve never bought from Lisa, you should. Now. Go! I’ll wait…
Ahem. So where were we? Oh yes, my current sweater. One thing that I am finding bothersome so far is that the yarn knots up on itself so easy as it comes out of the ball! I’ve already had to cut it once, and I almost did again today! But luckily someone at the knit group at work had a darning needle handy, and just at the point where I was ready to boil over in frustration the knot gave way. Phew!
I’ve made my first buttonhole, too. Cool! Except it looks weird. But that’s ok, it is my first, and as such, I’m keeping it for a souvenir. You can only have a first — anything — once. They’re worth remembering.
I hope to see you again in this space tomorrow! I need to go order another set of darning needles. My last good one disappeared when wrangling a knot. Ugh. Ciao!
Sorry for the long time no bloggy thing, but this has been a long week for me. For starters, my good wheelchair is in for repairs (electrical short, AGAIN!) and I’ve been sitting in my old and clunky one for just over a week, and it makes me feel, well, old and clunky. I’ve been in the old chair for about a week now and my hip is really starting to complain. So excuse me if I don’t sound like a happy girl; the truth is I could cry tonight.
To top it off I’ve been having computer troubles too. The two USB ports on the front of my computer died some time ago (wheelchair meets USB cable dangling down from computer… so much for the USB ports. They were literally ripped out of my machine.). No I can’t replace the part. My computer’s too old. So I’ve been making do with a USB hub, except I have to use a powered one so that my iPod will charge, and electrical sources are already hard to come by around here… and I broke my USB hub. (wheelchair again. Are you sensing a pattern? Shut up with the laughing. I’m not in the mood.) Then, I’ve been having increasing problems with my monitor wanting to stay on. I was hoping against hope that it wasn’t my graphics card. Thank goodness it wasn’t! This morning when my monitor absolutely refused to turn on, I got up close to it and sort of looked at it sideways and discovered that the stuff was on screen, but the monitor was dark. Ok. So a dead backlight bulb I can live with. Monitors are way cheaper now than they used to be so I can take it.
Except you know what? A lot of the monitors are in widescreen now. I am not sure I like this. Not everything has to be like I’m watching a movie all the time, does it? The new layout of the computer screen is going to take some getting used to. Ick. Like I needed change just now, what with me being so crabby and all, on account of the wheelchair thing…
But I suppose it beats the alternative of the seriously black screen I was dealing with this morning. Maybe I should have taken the opportunity to download Jaws and experience the computer through alternate means, because, well, I am a web site manager and maybe I need to know these things a little more first hand. But, as I said, I’m crabby. So I don’t think I would have done well with something THAT new.
swatch for February Lady Sweater with cast on beginnings of sweaterBut there was one bright spot in my day: today we had an extra session of knit group! It was really fun and there were a few new folks. I brought along my gauge swatch for my February Lady Sweater, and one of my new knit pals checked my gauge for me, and I started the sweater. Yay! My first sweater, ever, except for the baby version I did last year. I don’t think this really counts because well, it’s just a baby sweater and so I wasn’t too concerned about whether it fit, because well, as Elizabeth Zimmermann herself said, “babies come in various sizes.” So I’m considering this project to be my first “official” sweater. Wish me luck! It’ll probably take me most of this year.
So far I have half of the first row done. Maybe I’ll be able to start the increases by tomorrow! I’m already planning my next one in bigger yarn, because this one is going to be slow going. Here’s to hoping that my impatience doesn’t get in the way!
I’ll blog about group tomorrow. It was fun, and I don’t want my current mood to rub off on my description of it! I had so much fun meeting all of the new folks today! See you tomorrow.
I spent nearly all week working on the first of three balls of navy blue silk yarn, and I finally felt like I hit a breakthrough late last night, so stayed up way too late winding yarn. Then, by this afternoon, with help from the kids (who find my ball winder to be most fascinating) the first ball was done. Then this afternoon my good friend Steve came over and asked me why my ball winder and swift were out, and I showed him the remaining two hanks. Next thing I know, he had the twisted mass of yarn all straightened out and ready to go on my swift, and so the second ball went much quicker!
Trish winding yarn
Once Steve got it all figured out about which end was which, after a few times of untwisting the yarn from around the hank it was actually pretty smooth going. I sometimes wonder if it’s my eyesight and perhaps I can’t see where the yarn is going, so I set it up wrong in the first place? I don’t know… but Steve was able to get it all sorted out, so the rest of the yarn got balled up today! Yay!
Yarn on jumbo ball winder
I actually love my ball winder. It’s the Jumbo Ball Winder by Strauch. I got it last year at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and I have loved it! It was so worth the money to have something so sturdy. I got it because even though it comes with a clamp to clamp it to a table, it’s not 100% necessary to use the clamp, as long as you don’t wind it at breakneck speed. All of my tables have aprons under the table top so none of the ball winder clamps work on my tables anyway. So this one is good and sturdy and as you can see, it winds HUGE balls!
After I did the second ball, my mom and Tony showed up and prepared dinner, so Steve settled on the floor to tackle the third ball:
Steve winds the yarn
Next thing I know, BoyZilla wanted to take a turn on the ball winder:
BoyZilla and Steve wind the yarn
So, the yarn has been conquered and tamed into balls, and soon it will be on its way to becoming the February Lady Sweater.
