Project Pink

Here's a picture of Pink prior to felting. I'm really hoping that the 'wings' kinda disappear when felted.

I've run it through the hot cycle 2x (along w/ stuff that needed washing) and it's not shrinking as expected. Either Galway doesn't perform like Cascade 220 or Lambs Pride, or it has to do w/ doubling the yarn. Either way, it'll have to undergo additional washings before block.

(and yes, I'm too bummed to take a picture, just use your imagination and look at the prefelted one -- sorta looks like that, just a tad shorter)

Beautiful Liesel

Okay, this is just darn too pretty not to post a picture. Yes, I'm very happy w/ my first real lace project.

Say 'click' take a pic

Blogger help desk says the problem is solved. So here's the pictures I promised. This is Brown Lucy, in progress. She's in brown and green w/ black. I originally had a rusty orange also, but had to tink it out after I realized it looked all commando camouflage meets deer hunting season... uh, no.

The uneven black was my foray into mosaic knitting. It's only a couple of rows. I hope it turns out.

Lucy II progress

I've been struggling w/ mosaic knitting, and trying to modify it for a small tester bag, etc. Well, after ripping and tinking how many times, decided I'll have to (gasp) follow the directions for an actual pattern and learn it correctly. In the meantime, I'm moving forward w/ my brown Lucy.

Well, I had a picture to show you, but blogger's not letting me upload pictures right now. I'm getting this message:

There were errors during upload.

The following images were not uploaded.

sucks.

Liesel blocking

I'm done w/ Liesel. Yeah! Well, this took longer than the weekend. I used almost 3 balls of yarn (3balls*80m)*1.09yds/m=260yds of yarn. I enjoyed making it and it was lovely yarn to knit with, but it's unlikely I will do another scarf w/ the same pattern. Maybe something else, later.

The cool thing about this scarf is that I was able to do the Russian join technique to connect the 3 balls of yarn...so ta da! no unsightly disruptions in my beautiful lace and more importantly, no yarn to weave in except for the beginning and the end. I will definitely use this technique again for my projects, even if it's not lace. (okay, not for my felted items, but for other stuff). I used a blanket under the scarf to retain the same width while blocking. I tried pinning it down, but I was getting these funky points along the sides of the scarf (which wouldn't be bad if that's the look you're going for, but for me, well, I wanted the pattern to be visible, but straight sides). And yes, it looks much better w/ blocking.

stats:
Liesel lace scarf pattern
start-9/20/2005
end- 9/28/2005
GGH Lamour corn 3 balls
#7 needles (bamboo interchangeables) - not metal

Remedial Mosaic Knitting

I watched Knitty Gritty, and I searched websites for mosaic knitting. I found the cool purse from Knitty (via diagonale), and trying to figure out how to do this type of knitting, well, I'm not wrapping my brain around it yet. I've ripped out my little bag a couple of times now...I think I'll use the Knitty pattern and make a much smaller bag as tester. Wish me much luck.

Lucy in the sky w/ mosaics

I started another Lucy bag, this time using the correct gauge yarn (Patons Merino) and correct needles (#10.5). But as I'm striping, I realize, gee, how boring. And short of spending more cash on Noro to make it even more interesting, I thought I'd do some mosaic knitting. Of course, I've never done this. I tried a stripe w/ mosaic then got paranoid about how it's going to felt up. Is it going to pucker? ack!

So, I'll step back and make a little tester bag first, a little cell phone cozy, perhaps? w/ mosaic designs...felt it, then decide if I'd like a big bag like that. To make sure it all works, will have to do it in the round.

It's too early to take a picture. When I get around to it, I will.

I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started

So says Pink and so says my pink little bag.

This is a hot pink little ditty that is made w/ Galway double stranded. I only wanted a smallish bag, so I actually used my trusty yarn winder and wound up half from the center pull, and the other from the outside. I didn't cut the yarn, so that if I missed in my guestimate as to half a skein, it'll be okay. For this bag, I also added the flair on the sides so that the bag will flair out a little (I hope). I added purl rows on top and picked up a row at the bottom. I was running out of yarn, so I purled and cast off (is that the right term? -- Instead of putting a row of purls, then casting off, I casted off in purl). For the strap I modified the strap in my Lucy bag (row1:k, p3, k row2:knit) for 15 inches.

The plan is that after felting, I'll be finally able to test out my new felting needle that I got from Janis at Yarn! Can't wait, it'll be another learning experience.


As for Liesel, she's coming along to party too...

Comments, anyone?

So, I'm glad that knitting folks are interested in my knitting blog. But here's the thing...if someone posts a comment on the blog, should I post a comment in the blog? or should I try to email them directly? hmmm...'cause you know, if I comment in my blog, that would mean that I'm presuming that the original poster will also remember to go back to that one post to check to see if there were any replies.

Well, my apologies if it looks as if I've ignored your comment. Mostly I haven't. I've read your comments and have appreciated the fact that you've taken the time to leave me a comment...Embarrassingly, I haven''t gone back to all my previous posts to check if anyone's commented...I will try to rectify that. Give me a little time.

And I'm sure Blogger has some setting where it'll notify me if someone comments, but I haven't gotten that far into reading directions yet. I'm one of those people that does things Java-like-- JIT (Just In Time). I only learn how to do something if I need it. The upside is that I can have a cool blog in very little time, the downside is that I'm sure there are easier ways of doing things and I spend time reinventing the wheel.



Cheers!

Marker counters

Here's the marker counters I just made up. the rings are made by wrapping 20 gauge wire around a #10 needle, cutting them, and then hooking them together w/ a charm. Easy Peasy. I did 6 rings on one for the current lace pattern. As for the other, I need to make more rings to make it a worthwhile counter.

btw--the black tile underneath was made by etching dichroic glass (leaf) and fusing it to 2 layers black fusable glass (in a kiln). That would be my other new hobby I started last year.

I would highly recommend doing fused glass. I took classes at the Oakland Studio One. One word of caution, it's also a very expensive hobby.

Pic of Blue DNA hat

As promised, the blue DNA hat being modeled by grey bunnie. This hat took 1 skein of denim blue woolease.

z's dad's comment when I gave it to him and he tried it on was 'cool hat, it works!' Upon being asked what works, he said that his head was warm, and actually, given that it was an warm evening in the Bay Area, he was sweating.

I believe I have one more DNA item to go...the red DNA scarf for my nephew r.

Liesel lace - possible xmas present

This is the lace I'm working on. I was originally going to not post projects until later since it may end up being gifts. However, I thought it would b better to post it in real time, and if you think it may be a present for you, don't read the post?!

I found a pretty scarf pattern called Liesel that I'll make to 1) do a stash bust (okay, reducing stash by one skein should not be called busting, more like...stash slight de-enhancing) It calls for TLC Cara Mia, which I have yippee!) and 2) (yes, there is a 2) to hone my newly acquired lace skills.

There is a knitalong on craftster right now.

However, when I casted on w/ TLC, it looked blech (could be due to the color (off-white). I had some GGH Lamour in corn (wool/angora/nylon) that I'm going to use instead.

Doing this lace thing is reminding me of DNA cable. So far, I have to keep looking at the pattern to make sure I didn't mess up the pattern (it's a 10 row pattern). Lace is much more difficult than cable. You can tink cable pretty easily, but w/ lace, it's very challenging.

And the thing I did learn (oh, only after the knitting the pattern for awhile) was to take a pencil and draw a line to separate the stitches into blocks of five. You'd figure that w/ my many years of schooling (+20 yrs) and my great cognitive know-how, would have figured out pattern recognition w/ groups of 5 instead of counting each row...gee, brilliant. So, I would highly recommend doing this in the future. It's amazing how much easier it is to knit a lace pattern.

The other observation I have is that even tho' the pattern is 10 rows, if I stop anywhere but row 10, I forget and it takes quite a while for me to figure out where I left off. This caused me to go off and research a side project (which then led to me forgetting which row I stopped at). I have the fancy Clover counter that you push as well as the cheapy ones where you dial, but I found that with 35 stitches/row, I find it hard to keep changing the numbers. Anyway, I love this:
Marker Chain

so I have to take a break from knitting and make me some. What a great idea, stick your needle through the next hole of the marker chain when you come up to it.

Did I mention I love love love gadgets...

An additional observation about lace knitting is that you really need to put point protectors on the needles so that yarn doesn't slip

The final thing is that the pattern claims that you'd be able to finish in 4 hours, but w/ my lack of attention span, it's going to take me much longer...especially since I've been eyeing Blueberry on Knitty...

Another DNA hat and yet another project to start

I'm working on another DNA/coronet hat (in blue) for z's dad. The odd thing is that I'm running out of yarn, and I'm trying to figure out what happened. I'm using the same brand (Woolease), same gauge, same needles, same number of repeats, picked up the same number of stitches...the only difference is the color. So, there's a mystery afoot. Could it be that I was unlucky enough to pick up a ball of yarn that was returned by another person (that used a smidge of yarn)? Maybe the yarn got unraveled in the store and a sales person cut off the extra so that it wouldn't look bad? hmmm... very odd. I wouldn't think that a big company like Lion Brand would short yarn, but maybe?

Anyway, I hope I have enough to finish this hat.

Edited later...Yeah! there was enough. happy dance. hmmm...it looks exactly like the red one, but blue. I may add the pic in later.

I also found a pretty lace pattern that may end being a xmas present, so I casted on for this project. I'll stop now...

A bookmark to be proud of

I take it back. Definitely do bookmarks. They sure are pretty when you 1) use correct needles (bamboo or something that doesn't cause slippage) and 2) use something other than white crochet cotten.

Here's my rococo bookmark in gold lame thread. Tada! This thread is a cotton crochet thread w/ gold wrapped around it.

I do notice that using 1's instead of 2's is much better, and I may have to even look for 00's to make this look even better.

I'm now ofcourse looking to do more lace. BTW--this is the same pattern as the white crochet thread. True, this one is blocked, but I really think that this thread is a little stiffer and works up much better.

Did I mention I can't sew?

I realized that if I didn't install the zipper, J wasn't going to get his zip up the back sweater this last weekend. And how sad would that be...since he's growing so fast, I'm not sure how long he'll be wearing said sweater (I hope at least once). I kept thinking that maybe I'll rip out the bottom and sleeves, reknit the sweater parts, and THEN install zipper. Well, that didn't happen, so I was sewing the zipper in (in defeat) last Friday night. I'll make him another sweater when he gets older.

Super ugly sewing. But the outside looked really good! Maybe next time, I'll give myself a little time to actually accomplish this sewing thing. I did tell J's mom sorry about the really ugly sewing.

Specs:
-1 skein of navy blue yarn (acrylic for washing-I forget what type) and a bit of yellow for the pocket)
-16" zipper used
-followed pattern from internet (see post prior)
-made 6mo jacket and should have made a larger size.

Of course I only sew very infrequently, but MIL came by this weekend and gave me a whole bunch of fabulous sewing stuff. The coolest is this little wooden box. Inside the drawer, there's a little red book on sewing. I guess I'll have to work on this sewing thing...

Bookmark Observations

Well, I worked on the bookmark project and these are my observations:

-Knitting w/ string--not like yarn. If my tension's off and too loose, the thread falls off. If too tight, I can't do that sk2tpo that these lace patterns seem to all contain.
-Loose knitting, in this case, also results inbig giant loops that don't tighten up. No, I didn't rip, it was too small of a project, but man, did I tink and tink and tink.
-Knitting w/ white chrochet string makes it look like a doily or super cheap lace ribbon from 99cent store
-My gnat-like attention span makes it difficult to do lace pattern. Sure, I can do one stitch pattern round and round til the cows come home, but where I have to pay attention and count stitches, even tho' there's only 15, it's been a trial.

Well, here's a bookmark. It's unblocked and unstiffened.


Actually, here's my first attempt. I also tried different needles and found that Inox needles are too slippery for the white cotton. And I got bored w/ this pattern so I decreased and hoped to make a leaf-like pattern. But I think it looks like a spermazoid instead. I'm thinking that I may dye them next time I koolaid dye. Maybe if I dye and stiffen this guy, it'll look like a leaf (maybe?) Ha, instead of like a stiff green sperm?! Hey, don't even go there...


On that same experimental tract, I had some sock yarn so I tried this:
Sock yarn is much easier to knit with than string. But w/o blocking, you can't see the pretty lace pattern that I spent so much time on. And the striping really does take away from the bookmark. Finally, it's a tad thick and while it won't ruin the spine, your book may develop abnormal ripples (speculation of course).

So, in answer to whether this would be a good project for presents, I say that unless they're knitters that read, I'd knit them a scarf instead...more bang w/ less stress (at least for me). I must say I think it was the crochet thread I was using. Can thread be defective? On the other hand, lace w/ sock yarn was fun, so I shan't give up on lace altogher.

I really do need a good bookmark. So, I'll try again, maybe. Alternatively, I could crochet a bookmark or just make a book thong w/ ribbon and charms.

Winter's coming...

W/ the cost of natural gas predicted to skyrocket this winter, I thought I'd better get started on some wrist warmers for self. (And especially after our discussion at SnB).

I figure that when z and z's dad see's these cool things, they're going to want them too.
Again, no red, only blue. Altho' I'm a product of the UC system also (UCSD), I just don't have that weird thing w/ red like the Cal alums have--must have been due to the fact that we didn't have ANY rivals since we didn't/don't believe in lowering the academic caliber of the school by actually having a football team. This little ditty from UCSD newspaper explains why UCSD is the superior school and is pretty funny. (I even forwarded to z's dad).

Oh, right. I was talking about wrist warmers. I looked through my books and various websites for ideas and found that easy wristwarmers only have a hole for the thumb. I wanted a little more coverage (no thumb cleavage for me, thanks). I went w/Last Minute Knitted Gift's wrist warmers (neat pattern) and morphed it w/ DIYnet Knitty Gritty's mitten pattern. I could have chosen any mitten pattern, I suppose. Except that I actually saw that episode and thought gee, if I were to make mittens, I'd make those. But not in canary yellow, 'cause I'm a practical lass and a mom of a toddler...no way in yellow. And of course realizing that in the beautiful Bay Area, chances are that well, heavy mittens aren't necessary.

Since I was paranoid that I would run out of yarn (as a newish knitter, don't have a very good gauge on amt of yarn required), I had gotten 2 balls of cranberry for the DNA scarf that became the DNA hat. Well, I figured I'd make the wrist warmers to match the hat.

Specs:
-maybe a little more than 1/2 skein of Woolease cranberry
-cast-on date 9/15/2005
-end date 9/15/2005
-cast on 32 stitches and when starting, can't believe that little tube will fit your arm.
-pattern: 2X2rib, shifted every 4th row (don't know the name of the pattern, but I like it)
-From: Last Minute Gifts (and Knitty Gritty TV show) but longer than they suggest
-5 stitches with waste yarn for thumb. Picked up 2 stitches (one on each side) and knit in pattern for thumb.
-for thumb, I actually knitted a tester tube to see if my circulation would be cut off. But it felt okay.

So, they turned out fine. The biggest pain, as usual was weaving in the ends.

Lace to hold your place

At SnB on Monday, the Queen posed a challenge to me to make some lace bookmarks. She figured I have time, I could test it out and then could tell her if they're easy to make (too funny!). I have seen them on the internet and was interested in doing some anyway. At least one bookmark so that
1) I don't have to memorize the page number, 'cause you know I forget and skip pages of key information.
2) I won't use whatever is around to use as a bookmarker. Recently, it's been yarn pieces leftover from weaving in ends.
3) I stop (big gasp!) turning the corner of the page -- what a big no no for someone who was taught to take really good care of books. In fact, I had a really tough time in college highlighting in books. My solution? er, don't open a text book?!

Anyway, being the craftser generalist that I am, I already had crochet thread, at least in white. . So I dusted off my #2's (since I had gotten them for socks and you all know how successful I was in sockmaking). I then searched for some patterns and printed them out. Some of these free patterns were not printer-friendly since several cut off what may be critical parts of the lace pattern. As a novice lacer, I wish they would chart the pattern out too so that I could tell immediately that part of the pattern was missing. I guess I could chart it... So, the downside was that when I actually went to read the pattern (after casting on obligatory 15-22 stitches, that part of the pattern was cut off! ugh.

Will post findings later.

DNA Hat!

As Keanu says, whoa. It's taken me a month to do my scarf and I'm already done w/ the DNA hat?!

What...what...happened? Okay, worsted vs. sport yarn. uhmm. big difference. Didn't do the seed stitch nor the mini-cables and only enough repeats that it wraps around my very large head. I ended up making the hat even bigger so that I would have a continual DNA loop. It's really too bad that this project didn't start off being a hat, otherwise I would have done a provisional cast-on and would have had a beautiful seamless hat. Well, that didn't happen. It's a little wonky in the back. So, don't stare at the back of my head, okay?

As usual, I had to do some tinking after I tried on the hat. After 2 inches of decreasing, I realized that the hat was sitting on the top of my head like a big yarmulka. I wanted the hat to cover part of my ears (especially since that was the point of this hat). So, ripped and tinked all the way back to straight knitting. As I was reknitting the hat top region, I realized that I managed to decrease one section one too many times. Since only one section was off (and I figured this out when the sections were down to 4X8 sections), I decided that this hat wasn't worth another tink and finished it off. So what if I'm 5'2" and tall folks can stare at the spiral pattern on top of my head and realize one spiral is off. That's okay, it's hand made.

specifics:
Hat inspiration from Knitty Coronet hat
DNA cable from Two Sheep (see sidebar)
start date: 9/10/2005
finish date 9/13/2005
yarn: a little less than 1 skein Woolease (hey, the yarn was supposed to be a present for a 5 yr old)
color: cranberry
Picked up 96 stitches off the cable
Knit til I felt like decreasing
Decrease 1 round, knit 1 round for awhile, then every row decrease

I quite like it. Even z's dad wants one, but requested no RED! Ahh, you gotta love those Cal grads!

At the SnB...

At the SnB, saw Punk Rawk Purl's yet to be felted bag. Very very cool intarsia (in the round, no less!), and the great fun yarns being used to make shawlettes (and the sweater-shawl), am impressed. And the socks...what shall I say--I do get sock envy (or is that sock remorse), maybe I'll try again, with sock yarn that I like...I must be better about getting up and looking at other's projects, they're all so cool.

Finally, 'Thanks to Queen for the great knit animals book Knit a Square...

Is this Art? DNA gel

I saw this and had to share DNA Art. For that price, that picture had better be of MY DNA. And yes, you could just take yfgp (your favorite gel pic) to a printshop/delivery spot and get that printed up. I know that it costs about $90 if you want it poster-size in durable plastic (makes a great splat mat too).

As for scientific art, there's histology, EM, general microscopy, etc. Even organic chemistry is pretty cool 'cause they have all the funky oddly shaped handblown glasswear. Sorry to say this, but molecular biology usually only involves pipeting very small amounts of clear liquid into very small tubes...not at all very exciting. It's kinda like on CSI, a little pipetting, a little centrifuging (and don't get me started on all the movies/shows that don't balance tubes in the fuge), and samples into some magic box, and tada! results from the printer.

Anyway, DNA scarf -- that's Art.

What about this? Is this ART? It's z's genes. Literally, it's his karyotype. I think it's beautiful, and that's not just because I'm the proud momma.

Red DNA scarf for r

I purchased a skein of red Woolease for a DNA scarf for my nephew r last week or so. Since I finished my DNA scarf (SnaBI), I thought I'd make his. Since it's worsted weight instead of my sport weight DB, I opted to omit the seed stitch and fake cable edging. I knitted it w/ a stocking stitch edging (2 stitches). However, 5 inches into the project, realized that this will not look great for the scarf, I'm actually (gasp!) knitting too tightly using #7 and Woolease.

I was thinking of ripping the whole thing out, then remembered this hat and said hey, I hope TwoSheep won't mind me using the DNA cable for this hat (or something similar).

Anyway, that's what I'm working on.

DNA scarf (aka SnaBI) done!

Gee, this scarf took me a long time to finish. I had gotten the idea AND yarn for it back in February. And honestly, I was intimidated by cables. I had done a swatch of cabling from SnB book (or maybe it was some other beginners book) using the junkiest yarn I own. The yarn is some acrylic multi-colour thing. Anyway, I was intimidated.

Socks, dpn? no problem. Altho' I've yet to complete a sock project since I got bored w/ mine after turning the heel (and the fact that the self-striping sock yarn I bought isn't to my liking). So, that's sitting in my UFO pile. I'm thinking I'll frog it and make either a kid's hat (there's one in some book that looked cute using this yarn), or a bookmark.

Final stats:
3 and a little more of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino 340207
#4 (maybe should have used #3's)
maybe 13 + pattern repeats? Ends up being longer than I am tall.
6 1/2 months from start to finish. Actual knitting time: 1 month

Observations and things I learned:
how to read a chart
how to excel a chart to aid in chart reading
how I must suffer from some sort of chart amnesia since I have to continually refer back to the said chart (even after the 12th repeat).
how it's helpful (I guess) having years of experience working w/ DNA to know when your pattern has strayed?!


I would like to make it in worsted for my nephew r. He wanted a DNA scarf in red.

PB Jam

Holey Moley. Went to the PB Jam (like any other street fair deal in the Bay Area) and saw this girl had mini-booga bags for sale. Looked like Noro, but $89 each?!

Nonknitting but crafty

I'm one of the hosts for our friends' baby show(er) and went in search of invitations. Okay, there are sure some really dumb ones, and some really cutesy ones, and then there's the really expensive ones...here's what I ended up with:


Yes, I finally gave up and made the cards.

Estate Sales

It's a little sad going through estate sale stuff, but it's also very rewarding when you find this for a couple of bucks. It's 100%wool, so I'm going to dye it (looks a tad dingy), and then knit something wonderful, and then felt it. How cool will that be. And I may someday make a sampler afghan (yeah, right).

Sewing and Zipping

I knitted a zipper up the back sweater for a great little dude but didn't know how to sew the zipper on.

Now, I am definitely not the seamstress. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I told my mother that I needed to make an American Indian squaw dress for class. My mother told me, there's the sewing machine. After much trials and tribulations and much much frustrations trying to sew the burlap cloth into something that would fit me (not to mention trying to use the machine on burlap -- no one told me about tension), my mother stopped by and her comment was "oh, I thought the dress was for a doll, well, I can help you". This was after many hours and many ripping out of the seams (and when I was finished). Well, from what I remember, moms helped all the other girls and while their dresses looked more like dresses, mine looked pretty darn cool, burlap sack and all.

I was also banned from using the said sewing machine for a couple of years, if I remember...pretty sure I broke it.

So, zipper. The Queen of our SnB sent me some great information about how to install a zipper. Gee, it's going to take me longer to sew on the darn thing than to knit it. Did I mention it was a one skein (okay 2 cause I used some accent color), knit in one piece hooded sweater. I had to seam the underarms since I used double pointed for the sleeves. It also took me a bit of time since I kept trying to incorporate the other color into the sweater as stripes. Here's the pattern for the sweater:Pattern

Happy Dance --Fall Knitty is up

This is the sweater issue. And I just looked through all the patterns. I would like to make saimus definitely, maybe arisaig or cinxia, and definitely bubby.

Ack! I've got z's daddy's sweater on needles, a present for our dear friend's baby, and a couple of sweaters for z, and my SnaBI on needles. Must free needles to knit more stuff!

What Not to Wear

Book Review-Loop-D-Loop
Oh, goodness! What an interesting book. Very innovative designs, funky and fun. Okay, being a mom, there are definitely some items (steek tank) that I would never make for myself, and I would never make that for anyone I know. However, the leaf sweater-- gorgeous. The ballerina top, definitely (w/ the modification of long or medium sleeves). Some of the other sweaters, beautiful.

So, besides the steek tank, my only beef is the puffy sleeve thing (2 different sweaters). I just watched "Glamour's 50 Biggest Fashion Do's and Don'ts" on E!TV (what a guilty pleasure) and I'm pretty sure that puffy sleeves and piratey shirts were definitely a don't (and at least in the top 20 since I only started watching then).

While watching, my burst out laughing moment of the countdown was the 'muffin top'. Maybe everyone has heard of this term, but not me...it's always bugged me when young ladies of today wear pants that squished their fat over the pants. Come on. Buy the next size up. It does not make you look sexy to be crammed into those pants. And if you do wear your pants like that--all muffin top like, I beg of you, please please wear a top that at least meets the pants.


'Hi, my name is z's momma and I am a fashion don't'
I must say that I am listed as a fashion Don't in that I really like my tie-dye shirt. I have one and we got z one so that we can spot him a mile away when we're out and about. So for my T-shirt, I got it as a freebie when I was a post-doc at Big Biotech, and that the design was supposed to be a peace sign in DNA helix and instead they forgot a bar and it's actually a Mercedes sign. Hey, I love this shirt!

Ring around the Posey

Since I've been spammed w/o giving out this site to knitting folks and friends, I decided to take the plunge and join a couple of rings and see how it goes. I think I much prefer any constructive comments instead of lame spam. So, cross fingers, and see if anyone's interested in what I'm doing.


Peace.

Hurricane Katrina

In case you've been living in as an ascetic in the caves or something, gas prices have been well, impressive. z's dad emailed these. And in case you didn't know, this is part of why gas is so expensive. And will be so expensive.

I shall try to do my part and try not to drive so much. I even rode my bike today.

Appropriate Name Change

I'm finding that I forget to pay attention and that for almost every project I've done, I've had to rip or tink. Oh, well.

z's dad's birthday

Well, good thing the sweater's going to be for xmas. It would have been nice had it been done already (and may have been, if only...yes, if only).

Yesterday was the birthday party and today's his actual birthday. Happy Birthday dear! What do you want for dinner?

Not much knitting got done this weekend due to party prep and party. I brought my knitting, but managed to leave it in the car and actually play hostess.

For party, made lavash sandwiches. Highly recommend for picnic parties. The only thing is that we discovered we did not break out the big giganto ginormous tub of potato salad and green salad. So folks ate junk food. They didn't complain, mostly I think 'cause they never get to eat this carp, ever.

Me-ow Me-ow hat

Got some cheapy yarn to make the Kittyville hat. Observation: I'm getting to be a faster knitter. Things I learned on this project: Norwegian Purl. Very cool. But only if that's all I'm doing 'cause it makes a twisted stitch and gets all wonky when you're doing seed stitch w/ NP. So instead, I had to knit into the back for the knit part of the seed stitch to untwist it. A little disconcerting 'cause I kept thinking that I was going to forget the REAL way to knit (especially since I originally did the twisted stitch for a couple of projects--unbeknowst to me).

I had the hat done sans ears and pom poms. I knit on the ears and had this exchange w/ z.

z: I don't like ears.
me: well, they're kitty ears 'meow'
z: I don't like kitty ears
me: well, then. they're tiger ears 'ROAR'
z: I don't like tiger ears
me: well, then. what type of ears do you like?
z: elEEphant ears!

My boy does love elephants.

How long do I have to knit 'til xmas?

That would be knitted items unless otherwise. Will start thinking about all the knitting that needs to be done. I'm pretty sure that my science friends would love a DNA scarf of their own, but man, I'm not done w/ mine yet!?

scarfs, hats, mittens, purses and maybe cozies...

Name change?

hmmm...so z's dad hasn't posted. I think I shall change the name of the blog and he can make 'guest appearances'.

I'm a tinking about

Well, z's dad tried on a couple of sweaters he owned and picked on that he said was the right fit for him. Well, I knitted round and round and then got to the arm splitting area and remembered that there's an additional 10 stitches in the arm pit area. Oh, Carpola! That means instead of making a large sweater, am now making some huge monster sweater. Wouldn't have worried too much except for the fact that well, I ordered enough yarn for a medium sweater, not a xxxlarge sweater. So I'm tinking. about 7 rows (sigh).

It sure is Tempting

Here's the pic of my Tempting. A couple of additional notes. I really like the decreasing, almost ragland-like...since I decreased so much. And it helped to decrease more in the back since I didn't like that gap thing going on.

I just have to find some ribbon that I like. I tried the LB Incredible (left over from my river rafting ribbon purse project) and altho' I like the ribbon, it was too thin for the top. Made it look all wonky. So, either I purchase big fat ribbon, or get some black thin ribbon. Also, I'm not too keen on that bow thing. Reminds me of a gift. Maybe I can just not it and not have the dangly loopy ribbon.