Rear Window

So, here is my rear window. Isn't it a happy window? It looks out into our backyard. Right now, the backyard is a vision of green... with oxalis stricta.

You can't see it through the window, but we've unfortunately have a toilet in the back yard too. With the weeds, I guess the contractor forgot to take it. Nor do you see all the other junk in the back yard. What you can see is the 2 doors we had removed during our remodel, and the chair that one of the workers had out there when he ate lunch.

I decided to use a smaller linen thread than what was used for the front window (because it arrived after I started the Steinrose curtains for the front of course).

I'm now at the first of many many leaves. This is a very straight forward pattern (as all Nieblings are). After I finish the first set of leaves, I'll block and calculate how many more leaf sets I'll do before the funky flowers.

Have I ever mentioned how much I absolutely love coned yarn/thread? Love it! How many yards are on this cone? More than you or I can imagine...Okay, so, it's 25 Lea (I forgot and had to double check). I've got over a pound of this thread, so, I have over 8000 yds of this. I can make curtains til the cows come home.

By the way, here's my front window, looking out. Why yes, it does make me happy.

Curtain #2

I'm embarking on a new knitting project. Yay. It's the back door curtains. I have been checking out the Ikea curtains, and have decided that I shall instead knit this for the home. I'm doing the Teerose curtains from Burda Special E418.

I also decided to use even finer Irish linen (ebay). It's 20 Lea. So, doing the handy dandy conversion (1Lea=300yd/lb) equals 6000yds/lb...which to my eye, feels like a #80 thread? Much thinner than what I used for the front door curtains. But all's well.

My swatch was 20stitches/3 inches, so I should be able to do 3 complete flowers for this curtain.

Cast on 180 +14 stitches using #0 needles.

Knit a few rows of stockinette, and I'm ready to rumble.

Eyeballs!

I have a goofy daughter. We call her Creature...well...because she is.

I love her dearly. She's super funny. Her most recent 'word of choice' is yep "Eyeballs". For some strange reason, the utterance of that word results in reducing a gaggle of 3-4 year olds to fits of giggles.

I don't get it. But here's an example. She goes to dance class, and part of the warm-up routine is that they sit and pretend to build a pizza. Things like rolling out the dough, putting cheese on, spreading sauce, putting on toppings, etc. This way, the kids get a little stretched out and limber as they pretend to do these things. Anyway, the instructor asks each child what they want on their pizza...

Child One: cheese!

Child Two: pepperoni!

Child Three: cupcake! (hey, I get it)

Creature: Eyeballs!

Which then sends all the little girls into fits of laughter and a whole bunch of rolling around on the ground. Then, all the other girls around the circle want eyeballs too...(yep)...yes, that's my child.

So, anywhoo... yes. knitting. I saw the Polka Dot Alien Hat pattern and I just knew I needed to make it for the Creature. In Purple, of course.

I looked at the pattern, and decided I can do this. Just your normal hat using Thick and Bulky. Cast on 56 stitches and knit a normal hat.

Then came the eyeballs. Well. It said to knit I-cords and then break yarn and then knit the eyeball part (snooze...I lost interest at that point and decided I can do it myself).

Anyway, my hack is to knit them 2 at a time so that if they're wrong, at least they're both equally wrong. Knit 2 inches of I-cord, then increased in each stitch to go from 4 to 8 stitches. A row of knit, then knit1, inc1...kn2, inc1...til I tested the eyeball (aka pingpong ball) to fit. Cast off 3 stitches and knit back and forth, reconnected the round and decreased.

Sewed the eyeballs on, and ta da! Eyeball hat!

Stitches

Note to self: get back to blogging! (especially after watching last night's episode of House--at least I don't blog everything in my life, just the knittery stuff).

Anyway, I went to Stitches West w/ a couple of friends. And the convo down to Santa Clara was humorous (to me). This is my recollection, not verbatum:

Knitter 1: what are you getting?

Knitter 2: downloaded sweater patterns. Got the info and buying for a sweater

Knitter 1: getting yarn for sock pattern.

Knitter 2: me too.

.

.

.

me? I said: Nothing. I'm not getting anything. No plans. Maybe if I see something I really want...

So....here's my 'nothing'.

purse handles

Stardust sock yarn (see all the sparklies?)

Misti Alpaca lace

Cardi pattern

Babs sock yarn in grey and deep purple

WooHoo!

I'm so very excited!

Checking out the local Freecycle and received the most awesome item(s). Many thanks to nurseknits, I am now the proud owner of a knitting machine. Not just any knitting machine, but it comes with all sorts of books, winder, and even a light!

I had too much to do this afternoon to take pictures of it (we're starting to sort through stuff and moving things to our renovated spaces), but I'll try to remember once I've got my craft room set up. Oh, yes, I get a craft room...okay it's a craft room slash parlor slash office slash room where all things may end up...at least it's not the Attic?!

Actually, I really do like our attic. Not only do I like the attic, but so does my cat. We had the contractors put plywood over the insulation so that we can use it for storage. My yarn bins will go up here. (again, when I organize my stash, some will live here).

How the heck did the cat get up there? How you ask? Did I mention that we have 12 foot ceilings? He of course climbed the world's most amazing attic ladder. Built in Tennessee (or was it Kentucky?), it's a piece of engineering marvel.

Anyway, back to the craft room. You see that space to the right of the attic stairs? That used to be our office/crafting room. Now, it's no longer a room at all, but an entryway downstairs. And my crafting area in that room? It's now space--space where stairs now reside.

Now that our renovations are almost complete. We are starting to move stuff around, and I already know where the wonderful machine will go.

Very happy.

Oh, as far as knitting, I've still got the KAL going, but it's sort of on hiatus while I finish another knitting project.

And I've joined BadCatDesign's new KAL. I've always admired her designs and her blog, so this will be good. The best part is that I've got the yarn (I haven't already picked it, but am very confident that I have it somewhere in my stash) and just need to get the beads (which of course will be gotten after I figure out the yarn...).

Oh, and I've got to make another curtain. This time for the back window.

Curtains

psst. I finished. I knit the curtain, I blocked the curtain, I weaved in the ends...need to still put up the hardware for the door, but here it is:
this is the Steinrose curtains (Anna Burda July 1992). Nice knit. A few minor errors in the pattern (or maybe I just misread them). The knit 7 togethers were a minor pain, but other than that...

I knit this curtain using a provisional cast-on since I didn't know how I wanted the bottom edge (it's knitted bottom up). I then found that in one iteration of this pattern, they used this edging. But I had already did some plain knitting, but I like the break before the edging.

Anyway, specs:

needles: US0

yarn: linen thread

time: complete blur...will have to check the actual dates

pattern: Steinrose from Niebling

Next project

As I'm knitting away on my shetland shawl, and knowing that the next 3 pieces are just like the first, I'm already trying to figure out what to knit next.

A Niebling, of course. Now which one?

Well, I had a couple choices picked out. Mostly because I said I was going to knit them (and they are all so pretty). It was going to be a table topper, and when I get really crazy, I'd like to do a table cloth for my 'seats 8' dining table...(yeah, that's going to happen).

But, as some of you might know, we're getting some work done on our house, and one of the items on the agenda was to get a new front door. Well, on my birthday earlier this month, they came and installed a new front door. This one has a big giant window in the front, and so, I've got my project.

I'll be knitting Niebling's curtains from Anna 07/92.

I've done a swatch with linen thread and am pretty okay with using US1 needles. I'll be knitting 3 motifs and started with a provisional cast on so that I can do a decorative scallop edging on the bottom.

Wish me luck.