Dora the Explorer and Tempting

Last night, got some comp Dora tix at the Paramount. We've never done a live show based on a cartoon before...first, big giant long line as we came up - with lots and lots of small children ages 2-6? The line for Dora shirts, and other carp was equally long.

This is a live show w/ actors in costume. They were very nice tickets. Balcony front row. But a little loud. z loved it but we could tell it was a little overwhelming w/the sounds and lights and such.

Back to the silly actors in costume...I can just imagine the actor's pick up line in a bar.

"Hey, Baby, I'm in the 'theater'. I play the nongender neutered Boots the monkey." Or his fellow actor: "I'm Issa the Iguana, wanna turn my wheel?" (okay, for the wheel reference, you really needed to have seen the show)

Anywhoo, so, instead of working on Tempting...did I mention I casted on for Tempting at SnB? I decided from extensive reading of KALs, Knitty boards, and crafters.org that the sweater, in the wrong hands (or body) can end up making a person look dumpy. Gee, I don't want no stinking dumpy looking sweater that costs an arm and a leg. So, I did the unthinkable (gasp), I decided to use Wool-ease (in chocolate brown). I figured that I would make this sweater for $6.28 (w/o ribbon) and if I didn't like it, well, it's not a huge loss.

I put aside z's dad's sweater, and am finished! Will post pics next time. I made a medium, and in hind site, should have made a medium small. The folks weren't kidding when they said it stretches. The only thing I want to add is that I'm really glad that I decreased in the yoke (following Knitty board instructions). The other thing is that you really have to keep trying it on, even w/ the hassle of putting 1/2 of the stitches on waste yarn.

Specs:
pattern: Knitty Winter Tempting in medium
yarn: Lions brand wool-ease brown
amount: 3 skeins (made a bit longer and have approx.10 yds left of last skein)
needle size: 7 got gauge (I'm finding that 7's are what I have to use for worsted weight yarn)
start time: Aug 29 at SnB
finish time: Aug 31 at home

Husband sweater take II

I knitted and knitted and knitted and in a couple of days, got almost a third of it done...only to decide that I didn't like the gauge--even tho' I went down to 8's and the gauge is right on, the Cascade 220 is knitting up just way too loose. Did I mention a THIRD?! Well, I got z's dad's opinion, since he's the one that'll have to wear the thing, and he agreed. And then added that he hopes I won't blog about how he didn't like the knit and that I absolutely had to rip it out...I reassured him that I was already thinking the same thoughts.

I will go down another needle size or 2, and see how it looks.

Catapillar scarf

This is a gift for my 9 yr old niece. I asked Sarah (who's also 9) at the snb and she said scarfs are the bomb...so I made one in her one in pink and purple (her favorite colors) with wool and fun fur. one skein of Bernat's Fun Fur in pink purple and yellow(I think) andSirdar Super Nova. I hope she likes it. I think it looks like a catapillar.

Tonight is her Bday party. It'll be fun!

Later...I forgot to take a picture. But she did like her scarf.

Husband sweater

I started the husband sweater last night since I wanted some mindless knitting project (to go w/ my SnaBI -- which I do have to think). Did I mention I really like Cascade 220? It's a top down pull-over in the round.

But here's the thing, remember that I knit loosely? I made gauge w/ #9's but it looked really loose. After 4 inches of st stitch, frogged it and started it over w/ #8's. We'll see. Oh, and this was about 2am, an hour before z woke up and didn't want to go back to his bed. Knitting sweater 'til 4am, hoping he'd fall asleep, followed by a half hour of him screaming. Ahh, the joy of parenting a toddler....

The present for MIL - Little Red Hat purse

The purse can now be posted since it's been gifted. It was done w/ 1 skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky in purple. I used the pattern from book () and since I used bulky instead of worsted, I decreased the initial cast-on stitches to 26. Also, I wanted more flaring on the top, so added a few stitches. I used the flower pattern center for the button. I looked into real buttons for the purse, but they looked too juvenile or too Rococo. I also made a rose and leaf that I felted and sewed onto a pinback so that she can take it to her RH events or just have a plain purple bag when not. The rose is from Knitty.com Since her roses were not felted, I added an extra row or two (fearing too much shrinkage). I used Patons wool red and I had extra LP bulky green for the leaf. I hope she liked the bag.

I'm back blogging and knitting

Just got back from SoCal. I got a little knitting done. Worked on my SnaBI scarf and my string scarf. It's now on skein 3 of 4 and will be a decent size once blocked. Checked out Miki's CA Yarn Shop for about 5 seconds. What an amazing place. I couldn't figure out how the store was situated, but she had a lot of different types of yarns--and some look like they're really old. Wish I had more time...next time, tho'.

Speaking of my DNA scarf, I decided not to do the ribbing around the neck and to instead, continue in pattern until I either run out of yarn, or it's the length I want, which ever comes first. Also, my just turned 5 year old nephew wants one too. He wants it in red (likely for the Angels). I told him I'll make it after I'm done w/ mine. Note to self: make his w/ at least worsted weight yarn or it'll take as long as mine.

A wrinkle in time

Did you know that although it takes less than 6 hours to travel from the Island to Magic Mountain, it then takes almost that long to travel from MM to SoCal? At least it feels that way...

Very little traffic, good courteous drivers that move to the right lane as you speed by (and of course you move over as someone comes zipping down the 5.) THEN, you hit LA. Can you come to a complete stop? As Bob the Builder says "Yes you can".

So, whereas the Wrinkle in Time theory goes something to the effect of time is a string and time travel is affected by making a loop and shortening the length of string, I would equate time spent on the 5/405 as the reverse wrinkle in time. (note to self - check traffic before the drive.)

And I won't bore you w/ z's unfortunate chocolate shake incident. Another note to self. Do not think it's a bargain to get a medium malted crunch shake and then give it to a small child sitting in the back seat!

But we're down here now and I brought SnaBI, string scarf, and z's dad sweater. We'll see how much actually gets done.

Journal live or live LIVE!

I've been thinking about this for a bit. Do I put my blog in rings or not? hmm....

Yarn

I won't bore you with the fact that I'm starting an excel spreadsheet about my yarn. Or that I have way too many projects : babies I want to knit for (3) + other folks in addition to myself (x+1). However, here's the pic from the yard sale last weekend.

No more yarn!

SnaBI scarf

Many months ago, MIL and I went up to St. Helena to check out a couple of yarn shops. While there, I treated myself to Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino for a DNA scarf. At the time, I had not ever cabled, nor read a chart -- gee, I'm not ambitious or anything. Anywhoo, got 4 balls of this yarn w/o knowing anything about gauge or needle size or whether cabling would be good w/ this yarn.

Fast forward to now. I thought now's a good time to learn to cable and so I sarted the scarf. Not as bad as I expected, especially since I wrote out which row I finished and how it coordinates w/ the little twists (that go 1-4). I did finally have to epiphany and since z's dad was on the computer, I had him print out a chart of the rows and how they coordinate w/ the twists. And now, I just have to check off the rows I completed. I've now finished 2 complete patterns and it's going well, methinks. I'm hoping that I'll work on this scarf and actually be able to wear it sooner than later.

btw-it's named SnaBI for one of my favorite restriction enzymes (TAC|GTA)

I've read the DNA KAL and saw that folks finished versions of that scarf in record time. I'm shooting for being done by the end of this month (w/ other projects interspersed). We shall see. That pooled bit of yarn was the result of frogging over 10 rows because I purled when I should have knitted (where the bases interact). Oh, well.


On another front, I finished another pinwheel blanket, this one for our friends w/ a brand new baby. I forgot to give it to them today. This is good since I forgot to take a picture of it.

Oh my friggin gosh that's a lot of yarn!

Wanted to attend a yarn sale listed on craigslist. Got there and saw there was already a line (Hi Luba). But unlike other garage sales, everyone was pleasant and very friendly -- as yarn folks are, I presume. Anyway, rounded the little corner of the driveway to where the yarn was and 'Oh, my friggen gosh!' The sellers weren't kidding when they said there were ~50 bins of yarn. 50 BINS!!! We were given trash bags and told to pay them what they think the yarn's worth. I got 2 bags full...by the time I got up there, the seller could kinda eyeball it. I will post pics of everything once I have it inventoried. I am not going to need yarn for any projects for a really long time.

Holy macaroni!

call me bag lady.

I am so pleased with my bbl bag (basketball lucy) that I am itching to make another felted bag. I started a little bag from 'Bags: A Knitter's Dozen'. I wanted to use the skein of Lambs Pride Bulky in purple but they suggested 175yds of LP bulky on 10.5 needles. Ummm...I wanted to make a purple bag without buying more yarn. So, I knit w/ 15's since, well, I just did my bbl in the same and it felted beautifully. Well, I initially cast on 30 (vs. their 40 something) and after I got to the st stitch in the round, decided I wouldn't have enough yarn and it's way bigger than I wanted. So, frogged and started over. This time w/ 28 total...still to big...then 26. Did I forget to mention that M1 results in a big hole w/ 15's? Well, had to do a kfb instead and that looked much better. I also omitted one of the bottom round sets so that I did cast on, r1: purl, r2:K1,inc1, inc1,etc., r3:purl,r4:K2...,r5:purl and stopped there. I want a cute little bag. As I'm knitting up the round, I am also increasing every once in awhile so that I get a cute flair up top. We shall see.

Presenting Lucy aka basketball bag

I finished Lucy. The final prefelting dimensions: 21 inches in height and I forgot the circumference (maybe 30"). The straps were 41 inches and 12 inches since LP supposedly shrinks a tad more than C220. Lucy went into the zippered pillow bag that I got at Goodwill along w/ 2 old jeans. Added a squirt of Dawn dish liquid. At 2 hot washes (w/o the cold rinse), it looked pretty good. I did let it go 1 additional wash to shrink it a tad more. I had 3 different sized balls ready for the blocking. Ended up that the regular basketball was the perfect fit. I'm super pleased w/ the results since I wanted a big bag. My only concern it that it's going to look sloppy once I have stuff in it.

Thoughts on felting LP: much more fuzz everywhere. Good thing I had Lucy in a bag. I may still have to shave her-- pretty hairy. She was pretty completely felted after the 1st wash. I guess next projects I would make a tad smaller prefelting size then only wash once. This would save additional yarn for other projects.

Speaking of other projects. I will actually make a cell phone cozy that matches.

Having a ball! or not.

Got the pattern for this very cool felted bag (Lucy from Two Old Bags) that can be semi-spherical in shape once felted. I am using Lamb's Pride Bulky for this. Of course I started out not checking gauge, and got most of the body done before I got totally paranoid AND realized I hated the color stripe combination AND the broadness of the banding. So, frog frog frog. Took it down to the circular knitting (that would be frogging 14 inches) and checked the felting gauge. My felting doesn't seem to match the 'lunch bag' from Knit and Felt it too. They say 22in height becomes 12 inches. And I get 4 inches becomes 3 inches. Maybe I just didn't felt long enough. Anyway, I figure if I shoot for the final height to be ~12 inches post felting, will be very happy. I am now making small varied stripes with more of the main color and omitting the purple. I hope this works.

Loot!

Took z to garage sales this morning. He's great to take to garage sales. We met a Hannah this morning. Her mom was getting rid of some knitting stuff.
This is what I got in the bag:
#15 needles
#13 needles
#4 needles (bamboo) - the best part is that I almost got these yesterday since I desperately needed 4s.
#6 addi turbo (16in circ) - can you say score!?
#2 inox (40 circ)
#2 metal (16 circ)
2 crochet hooks (one carved wood)
notions bag
tape measure
scissors
hook rug needle and other misc. implements
wool yarn - for a thin mini clapotis in blue and gold?
wool blend yarn - going to make a scarf
baby acrylic yarn
homespun yarn
misc red heart, etc.

Sophie bag and felting

Here's the pic of Sophie before and after. I felted it in my new-to-me zippered bag 2X in hot smallest load. I still need to figure out some sort of clasp/closing system for the bag. As others on the internet have noted, it's a little thinner than I was hoping for and a bit floppy, but I really like it. I think that next one will be more decreases at the top to have a better shape.

Loosey Knitter

Working on Sophie. This is actually my first time working w/ Cascade 220. Surprisingly nice. Much better than the Encore I've used for z's sweaters.

One thing I've noticed is that I can't gauge properly. I went down to a 10 and still can't hit the 16st/10cm gauge. I've decided to forge ahead on this project since it'll be felted anyway. Again, I do hope (gee, sensing a trend here?!) that I have enough yarn...maybe I should rename this Blog 'just one more stitch' or 'please, let me have enough', or 'that's a passle of yarn', or 'I lost my gauge in San Francisco' instead of 'yarn and teotwawki' (especially since the oil part has yet to input in any info)...

Also, been lazy and not posted pictures since I've been wrestling w/ our internet access. Will post soon.

Toe

I did a lame z's mommadad manuever last Friday. I somehow was running in the house and managed to trip over a chair and get a nasty hardwood floor burn on the knee. (have no idea why I was running in my own house -- not even to pick up the phone). Okay. That hurt. Oh, and my ring toe (corresponds to ring finger) hurts, but not as much as the knee, so didn't think about it.

Yesterday morning, went to get the phone (not really running...guess I didn't learn my lesson) and jammed the same toe. Ouch. I've got to take a picture.

Still Clapping! Done.

My progress on the clapotis is slow but steady. I'm trying to figure out when to start decreasing and how big it'll be. My major stress is of course do I have enough yarn?! If I don't, does that mean that I'll have to frog it back and do over? oh, dilemma...

later...
After SnB (at Julie's Teas since Coffee for Thought closed down!), I was able to finish the Clapotis. Yippie. There was a couple of major stressor points when 1) I found out there was no way I had enough yarn to finish the decreases 2) I dropped an edge stitch (that wasn't meant to be dropped).

1) Made huge number of decreases and at the end, was left w/ less than 5 inches of yarn (I kid you not!) It looks alright, I suppose -- it's not like anyone's going to look that closely (I won't let them). I do like it quite a bit. Can't wait til it get's a tad cooler.

2) Done w/ the clapotis and showing to z's dad, when I realized that there were extra loose loops on one edge...what IS that?! upon closer inspection, realized that there's a dropped stitch. WTF! ugh! Used a crochet hook and hopefully hooked together all the loops. There were 3 columns worth ( = 15) and some were 2-4 rows down. What to do at the end? Tied the loops up and hid the ends. Will post pics tomorrow. (I'm not ripping that thing).

Back to CfT. What's w/ that?! Show up at SnB, get yelled at from across the street (it's okay, ended up being the knitters). Reading the sign -- their last day was yesterday. Does that suck or what? No warning what so ever. We sat on the benches for awhile to see if anyone else was going to show up. I wonder what happened to the sea shanty folks...

After much contemplation and thought (trying to figure out what was open on Monday nights), we headed over to Julie's Tea on Park and knitted there til 9pm. btw-wickedly good Mexican hot cocoa. I was trying to be good all day, and then this concoction with chile powder and whip cream...okay, maybe going to Julie's isn't such a bad thing. The gym is right across the street. I could go and knit and then go across the street and do some cardio on the orbital. Yeah, right. Well, maybe...