Trish Knits.com

(Obligatory Blanket Update)

Well, here it is, the latest photo of my ripple afghan in progress, for Miss Z. One or two more people added their work to the blanket this week, and I feel like I’ve knitted a LOT, but visually, from the picture, it doesn’t really look very different. I guess I’m entering that disappointing stage where hours and hours of knitting yield very minimal results. All knitters hit that wall with long-term projects. At some point. Right? Please tell me I’m not alone.

So this week my kid decided that she needs to do five rows a day on the baby blanket she’s working on for her teacher. So far, she has stuck to it, except that tonight she is feeling a little punky so I doubt she’ll knit today. I hope this isn’t the beginning of a winter virus making its way through our house.

I caved and bought yarn this week. Lots of yarn. 25 balls of Wool of the Andes in Amethyst Heather, and 20 balls in Onyx Heather. Not sure yet what I am going to do with it, but I was originally thinking maybe a blanket of some sort, or at least a couple of hats and mittens and scarves etc. We’ll see. Obviously I won’t be taking on any new projects for a while yet.

Also in the box is a set of needles in size 7 for IJ at work. She wants to learn to knit! I can’t wait to teach her. I’m hoping she will love knitting as much as I do.

Not much else going on around here. Brenda has a new episode of Cast On up today so I’m gonna go listen and knit. Ahhhh. Knitting and Cast On. Two things that make winter more bearable. Thanks, Brenda.

I decided to shoot a quick photo of the blankie this morning… it is coming along nicely, eh? I really love how it looks, and especially how it feels. It is SO soft! I hope Miss Z. will like it.

Speaking of Miss Z, yesterday we had our annual holiday breakfast at work. We always do ours after the holidays since folks usually have leave and there are lots of other parties before the holidays to go to. Anyway, Miss Z. came to our party and brought her little baby and her young daughter along. The baby is just precious, as I knew she would be. But I have to say, for all she’s been through, Z. looks great! I took lots of pictures, but I don’t want to post one here because that would require getting permission from Miss Z., and I don’t want to tip her off about the blankie.

Except that she is a teeny bit tipped off. As I was leaving yesterday I popped in to see the boss and Miss Z. was still in there, chatting away. I had my coat on and my bag with me, and the blankie was peeking out of the top of the bag. Miss Z. peeked and said, “What is THIS? A scarf or a shawl? It’s so pretty!” She didn’t take it out of the bag so couldn’t really see what it was, but the color and various textures were visible. I said “Oh, it’s a blanke….” and left it at that. She said nothing else but I don’t think she caught on. At least I hope not… I guess we’ll see!

A Circle of Mittens…

So for some reason, my mom thinks I was ragging on the mittens she’s been knitting for everyone. Not so! Here’s a pic of some of them… Guess whose mittens are the purple ones??? On Sunday mom came over and we casted on for her felt hat. I hope she does ok with it… she didn’t quite get the concept of Magic Loop, but I think she will be ok eventually. She had a couple of rounds done before leaving on Sunday. Sigh… I sometimes wish I had a hat on the needles….

Pretty…

It’s stopped already, but this is what was happening outside of my door a little while earlier today. Yes, winter is finally here.

Well, here it is, the latest “baby pic” of Miss Z.’s Blankie. I am enjoying making it but I wish it could go faster. Miss Z. starts her chemo very soon and I want it to be done. Now that the holidays have wound down and most folks are back at work, I am getting even more takers on the “many hands” aspect of the project.

I have now used all of the yarn colors that I have for the project, so am starting over, in a slightly different color order. I hope I can keep the variations going. In a recent stripe I added Knit Picks Shine Sport in the colorway, Willow, but I’m not sure I love it being there yet, since it is so much lighter than the other shades. But I was having an interesting dilemma of not having enough yarns for the parts in between the primary shades. I had some Shine on hand, so decided to try it. So, I guess we’ll see how it works out.

Trish’s Got a Brand New Bag

Ok, as much as I absolutely LOVE my Jordana Paige Knitter’s Satchel, I have finally had to admit, it’s really not the most practical solution for me. I’ve managed to bend the metal bar that holds the clicky clasp on both of my bags, and so neither one closes well. Which is causing me problems, because except for the little stuff in the zipper pouch, most of the stuff is rolling around in there and all jumbled up with everything else.

So I bit the bullet and bought a Namaste Executive Bag. I’ve been hearing about these as they seem to be the buzz of all the knitters in the know. But, it’s hard to get. I hear it’s been discontinued, and that a newer, better bag may be coming out soon. But, I gotta admit, this one’s pretty cool! I like that it has separate compartments fort the “purse stuff” and the knitting gear. I also like that it seems to have stronger closures, so I shouldn’t have to worry about the bag tipping over and all of my purse stuff falling out.

It does seem that the material it’s made of is kinda thin. That’s one complaint I’ve been hearing is that the bag isn’t as durable as some folks would like. So I guess we’ll see how I make out with it, given that I do seem to be pretty hard on stuff. Wish me luck…

On a Roll

And now for something completely different…

I heard Kelley Petkun talk about this on her podcast a few weeks ago, and I thought, “Who in their right mind would buy a book about THAT??” But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Then, this week, my copy of Toilet Roll Covers finally found it’s way to my door. I cannot believe I started feeling all nostalgic, as my mom and grandmother used to make cozies for just about everything. But my mom has never seen toilet paper cozies like this! They are fun, funky and adorable. Of course I will have to make a hat for my toilet paper, and maybe even an Aran sweater. The piano keys are also very cute, and someday, I’ll have to make the “Drum Roll” for my brother the drummer.

Sigh. Looks like my Redskins are losing to the Seahawks. It’s been a tough year for them. I was really hoping…

Ciao for now!

Hi, all! I hope everyone had a great holiday. I know we did. Our kids got a much-wished-for Wii for Christmas, and much to our delight (and dismay), even our 5-year-old took to it pretty quickly. (He’s the current bowling champ in the household.) Thankfully, he still says his Thomas the Tank Engine Carnival Play Set is his favorite gift (from Grandma, of course…) though the older one LOVES the Wii. Hey, at least we’ll know where to find her.

Me? In between the Christmas card writing and the cooking and the eating and all of that other stuff, I’ve been trying to steal as many moments as I can to work on Miss Z.’s Blanket. It’s coming along, but with me being the admitted slowest knitter in the world, of course it will take longer than I ever would want it to. I decided during my last week at work during the holidays that I was going to call the project the “Many Hands, Big Heart” afghan. My logic is that since Miss Z. is a co-worker, that I would let any other co-worker who wants to, to knit on it for a stitch, or a row, or whatever suits them. Even if I only teach a person to make one stitch, their contribution still counts. I only actually work on-site two days a week these days, so coordinating the project will be interesting, but I am hoping to get lots of hands to chip in. So far, MANY people have expressed interest, and the Office Director for our department has said I can send an email to everyone in our wider group. That’s cool.

A little bird mentioned to me recently that I wrap my stitches “backwards” when I knit. I didn’t realize this as my stitches aren’t at all twisted (at least I’m consistent!) but now seeing so many other knitters work on my blanket too I can definitely see that my way of doing things is not what the majority does. In this case though I have many colors and textures going, and with the whole concept of Many Hands, I think it will be a design feature, if you will, if some of the stitches might be a bit twisted. I don’t think the recipient will notice, and if there does end up being a twisted stitch here and there, then so be it. Each one will be twisted with love.

Knitterly Gifties

Santa was very good to me! DH presented me with the long-awaited Options Harmony interchangeable needles. Now I have the whole set, except for the largest sizes of tips, which aren’t included. I’ll probably get them separately just because I am a completist, even though it is rare when I knit with anything higher than an 11. I did cheat and get myself a couple pairs of tips before Christmas, but I did wait for the whole set to come. Yay! I’m even thinking of switching out my metal Options on my current WIP to the wood ones. Haven’t decided yet on that.

My inlaws gave me the Quantaray Portable Photo Studio, which I am also considering to be a knitting related item. I love to shoot photos of my yarn related things for this blog, and frankly, I’m getting tired of shooting from the same old red kitchen chair every time. The kitchen chair has been optimal to now because I have overhead pot lights in the kitchen which are pretty good for color accuracy. So now I get to play with mini photography lights and see how I do. That is, when I get them working. Unfortunately one of the lights in my kit is loose and we could not tighten it and get it to work. I’m going to have to exchange my kit for another, which hopefully won’t be too hard to do. I can’t wait to play with it! Yay!!

Well, it’s getting late here so I better sign off for now and get ready for bed. Hope everyone is recovering well from much celebrating (or if not from celebrating, from doing something else fun on your day off!) Me? I gotta go back to work tomorrow. Drat.

Ok, I’ve said to more than one person recently that I would probably never knit another afghan. Now, watch how fast I am going to eat my words! I’ve mentioned in a recent post that I am knitting with a heavy heart lately. Now I can say why, at least some, and then the afghan will make some sense.

I have this friend. A co-worker, actually, and I don’t think she knows that I adore her as much as I do. This fall she surprised us with the happy news that she was expecting her third child. Soon after though she began complaining of a pain in her side that would not stop. (She was due at Christmas, so by telling us in the early fall she was already quite far along.) It was difficult to do too many tests, because of course, she was very pregnant and they didn’t want to hurt the baby. However, soon the doctors began to suspect the possibility of colon cancer. They wouldn’t know, of course, until after the baby’s birth, but the situation began to take on some urgency.

The baby was born after Thanksgiving, about 5 weeks early, and had to spend some time in the NICU at the hospital, but is fine now and at home. About two weeks later mom had surgery and the diagnosis was unfortunately confirmed. She will recuperate for about 8 weeks or so and then begin treatment for cancer.

I did have all sorts of plans to make tons of things for her new baby, and had even bought mountains of yarn and had started knitting on a baby hat for the baby. As it turns out I made a yucky mistake with the hat and need to start over anyway (my color changes look awful, and I forgot to do the jogless jog, AND I made a mistake on the decreases at the top so have to rip those out anyway). So I need to rip that hat back to before the first color change and start over. While I’m at it, I might as well make the next biggest size, too… so baby won’t outgrow it too soon.

But anyway, the problem with knitting for Baby, (though I can’t wait to do it someday soon) is that every time I did knit for the baby I would think of mom and start crying. So instead I decided to pour my efforts into knitting for mom. And what did I decide on? A snuggly throw, knit on very LARGE needles so hopefully it will go lots faster this time. I am already having some doubts, but I’m determined to do this for my Miss Z.

I don’t do browns, and of course, browns are what makes Miss Z feel happy. So I went online to Knit Picks, and buy boatloads of brown yarn in different colors and textures. Clockwise from the top, in the 12:00 position:
Wool of the Andes Bulky Hand Dyed, colorway, Redwood Forest; Suri Dream Hand Dyed, colorway, Falling Leaves; Suri Dream, colorway, Sandstone; Wool of the Andes Bulky, colorway, Taupe; Andean Silk, colorway, Cinnamon; Quarry, colorway, Dakota Mahogany; (center) Andean Silk, colorway, Chocolate.

I bought two balls of each color, except for the Andean Silk, for which I bought 6 balls of each color, as it will be my dominant two colors with the others in between. I’ve doubled the Andean Silk for a really soft, bulky feel and am doing a simple ripple pattern from Jan Eaton’s book, 200 Ripple Stitches. I’m liking it so far but am finding the Suri Dream to be a bit fussy to work with. Hopefully I’ll survive. It’s for a good cause. And it’s on size 11 needles, too… so hopefully won’t take me a year like the last blanket did.

With holidays fast approaching, I’m not sure I’ll be able to post much again before the new year. Thanks for reading, and if I don’t get to it before, I’d like to wish everyone now a joyous holiday time and Peace for 2008. Also, if you’re a praying person, please flip a few skyward for my Miss Z. She’s got three kids who need her very, very much. Thanks for reading.

It’s done.

Off to bed… story tomorrow. Diana went to bed with her pajamas on inside out and backwards. She’s hoping for a snow day. Secretly? Me too. Don’t tell her I said that.

Yesterday was a very happy knitting day, indeed. The fall chill is definitely in the air, the leaves are dropping, and it was the first day of Standard Time, which though I dread the early nights it is nice to see the sun again in the mornings. My friend Steve came over and he had a pile of long-neglected paperwork with him. For some reason, he says he does better getting his stuff done at my house. That sitting in the company of someone is an incentive to get the task done.

Well, I think I do know what he means. While he was sitting at my kitchen table writing away, I sat nearby, finishing the last row and then doing the bind off for my long-suffering rainbow stripey baby blanket. Yes, there were many days when I was certain that this project would just NEVER get done. Of course, I have all those ends to weave in, but a good friend has volunteered to come over and help. Yay! I’m still trying to decide whether this blanket needs a border. Opinions, anyone? I’m thinking the blue color, since the baby is a boy. (I originally picked the rainbow because the MOM loves bright colors, and the gender of the baby was unknown at the time.)

It’ll be a relief to start a new project. I’m planning some baby hats for a co-worker (a different one!). Then it will be time to make a hat for my mom and a new one for me. Then, I’m tackling mittens. But wait… I’m getting ahead of myself…

Ugh. For some reason, I’m dragging this blanket out into foreverdom. I don’t know why! It’s not like I DON’T want to be done with it; trust me, I do. I have lots of hats I want to knit! I think it must be all of the ends that need to be woven in, and the border I want to crochet on. Egad, how I hate finishing! (insert whine here)

So, slowly but surely I am plugging away. Five rows to go. Then the bind off. And all. Those. Ends. I think it’ll take another month.

(Harummmph.)

Cool Stuff I Found on the ‘Net

• The Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book–this book is finally available as a PDF download. It has SO many cute hat designs, if you love hats you won’t be able to pass it up.
• Magic Loop Video–by the Knit Witch. This has to be the most clear example of how to do the Magic Loop technique that I have ever seen. Check it out!

Yay! I’m starting the last stripe of my baby blanket. Finally! My daughter decided that she needed to snap this photo of me the other day, and is insisting that I put it on my blog. So here it is, with full photo credit to Diana. But, boy… I sure am tired at seeing that fat person in those photos! Who is she, anyway? Someone who wants to be done knitting a baby blanket, that’s who!

What was I thinking, anyway, doing such a large project? I think this confirms for me that I am a small project kind of gal. I’m fine with that.

I am still trying to decide whether the blanket needs an edging. I probably will, to increase the amount of blue in the pattern, since the baby is a boy. Now another co-worker is pregnant so I think next time I will do a pile of baby hats and socks. The baby is due at Christmas and is a girl. Yay, one of each to knit for this year. How fun!

Cable-y Goodness

Yesterday I received the book, Cables Volume 1: The Basics by Janet Szabo. I love this book! Ok, I think I’m a book ho. But seriously. Still. This is a good one. If you love cables like I do, or a shameless fan of Janet’s work, as I am, Go. Now.

The book is chock full of photos and very clear instructions. The photos are black and white, which I think is a good thing, because sometimes color can be distracting in cables. So it’s really easy to see the work. She also discusses cabling without a cable needle right up front, which is how I do it, and I think that’s a very useful thing. Makes cables go a lot faster! Each chapter talks about different types of cables with photos and instructions in charts and words, and also gives you challenges to try other cabling experiments. There’s even a chapter on designing your own cables. How cool!

So look what I found when I opened the book:

Wow. I wasn’t expecting a SIGNED copy! It says, “Patricia, may all your cables cross the right way!” But hey, even if they don’t, there’s a section in the book on fixing cables.

If Volume 1 is this good, I already can’t wait for Volume 2!

Here’s the latest blankie update photo. I haven’t measured but I think I got about six inches or so done while I was on vacation. At this moment I am planning to work my way up to the next pink stripe before calling it done, since the first stripe was pink. Then I need to decide whether the blankie needs to have a border of some sort. At this point I’m thinking maybe an attached i-cord.

So, while doing all of this knitting in the car on my trip, I listened to and got all caught up on the podcast Lime and Violet (or should I say, Violet, sans Lime? Where is she anyway? I miss her.) This podcast isn’t as much about knitting as it is about yarn and fiber and lots of wacky conversation… though of course there is some knitting, especially socks. I definitely would not listen to this podcast around my kids, but it is hysterically funny. I even caught my DH laughing several times. Now he knows why I’ve been known to guffaw out loud at night in bed (I use my iPod as a sound abatement sleep aid!)

I also listened to many episodes of Sticks and String, by David Reidy from somewhere in the Blue Mountains of Australia. I also love this show, as he is always talking to someone new about the world of knitting. As I was listening last week I found myself wondering whether, since he’s in Oz, if he happened to catch any of the Countdown Spectacular 2 concerts that are happening there. BSG were playing and of course since they play pretty much only on that side of the world I’ve never had a chance to see them. Have I ever mentioned that I am their WebLady? BSG of course are the principal founding members of Australia’s super-group, Little River Band. But, I digress…

I’m almost caught up now on David’s podcasts too and will look forward to the new ones each week.

Look, Ma! I’m Petting a Dolphin!

Here’s a shot of me petting a dolphin at Sea World in Orlando. I don’t get the chance to get up close to animals very often, except for my own cats of course, but this dolphin trainer called the dolphin up out of the water so I could pet her. She also showed my son how to ask the dolphin to make that clicking sound they make, and the trainer also showed us how to ask the dolphin to wave her fin at us as in waving bye-bye. It was so cool that she responded to us, and this was a highlight of our vacation. Thanks for letting me share!