Last weekend, I finished all the end weaving, seaming, drawcord making for both gigi and the long neglected malabrigo cardigan. I know! I threw myself a little party. It was great. That evening I blocked out the cardigan, and this Friday, it was dry (!).
Does that mean I have FOs? Unfortunately, no, they both need buttons. Additionally, at least the malabrigo, and probably gigi too, could benefit from facings. Which means sewing.
Maybe the sweater's slow drying was to accommodate my reluctance to actually pick up a needle and thread and hand sew the facings. By Friday, I was ready to grit my teeth and get it over with (see, the title's a pun! I'm so witty...)
And it wasn't that bad. It was important to pin it first. Also, doing that back-loop kinda stitch where you overlap works better than doing a straight line. (and if that description of sewing terms doesn't convince you I'm a rank novice, I don't know what will) but it really did turn out well. Nothing tricksy about it, and the stitches didn't show out the other side. It was just monotonous, and make my shoulders stiff from tension. I'm not sure the silk will be as easy, since it's a much looser gauge, but I'm also not 100% convinced the silk needs it.
Now all I need to do it buttons (and button holes...) but I need to buy more thread first.
Also, my plan for my next project has been foiled. The sunrise circle pattern is no longer freely available for download, was never printed, and now cannot be had for love or money. It is rumored that it will eventually be available from the designer, but eventually does not in any way equal 'now'. There is a slim chance that it is on my computer back at home from the days when I downloaded any free pdf I liked 'just in case'. But I think I found that pattern after I decided doing that sort of thing was silly. That'll learn me, won't it?
Sooo... I'm not sure. I'm debating over the apre-surf in bright orange, but I can't decide if the one I found on colormart is a good, edgy bright, or a bad, too-bright 'I should go deer hunting in this' color. Also, their gauges confuse me. I will need to swatch what I have at home.
Also, I need a niddy-noddy, and a ballwinder, and a swift. kthx.
Not in knitting, though I am - I can't bring my self to do the math (ahem, counting) to cast on the last piece of gigi.
No, in keeping with the completely off-topic posts genre of late, what I'm really stuck on is novels. When I stopped reading last night, I was not stuck. It seemed a perfectly reasonable, non-suspenseful place to break. One of the characters had done something a little odd - not really out of line with his personality, but not fully explained, and was off to do something else. So, that's fine - completely linear development is boring. A little suspense isn't a bad thing.
Then, at random, halfway through my day at work, (yeah, it's a little slow at work recently, my mind's been wandering) I think I realized his motivation. And suddenly, it is NOT a little suspense. It is a lot of suspense. Not only omg, am I right, was it really that? But if it is what is he going to do now?
And there is diddly I can do about it. Not until tomorrow morning or maybe even after that. Because, of course the book is at home, and tonight we're going to a friend's (to play D&D {nerd}) which I have been anticipating for most of the summer. And now I'll be distracted by wondering if I'm right about the book. We'll get home late, and tomorrow morning we need to clean in anticipation of having people over to watch football that evening.
So I'm stuck. Bah.
I wasn't originally going to mention what book I was reading, since it's irrelevant to my conundrum, and could be a little bit spoiler-ish (you know, if you happened to be in the exact same place I am or something). Plus, if I don't mention the book, it makes for easier deniability if I guessed wrong, or, you know, if everyone else realized that right off the bat. But really, it's not that big or obvious of a point to be recognizable - it just happened to be where I stopped, so I've changed my mind.
I re-read Dune a bit ago. I still don't understand why it's so incredibly famous. It's a good book and all, but it doesn't feel that impressively unique. Maybe it just did a lot of these things first? I don't know where it falls in timelines. Anyway, this time I knew what I was getting into, so it went down a lot smoother. Enough that I plowed on into the sequels M has.
I must say I did not like the first sequel. I think the only reason I kept going into the second was that I was sick, and it was there, and I really didn't want to watch more daytime t.v. Oddly enough, it was a good choice. It's like the ripped the original Dune in half, and put all the philosophical blather in one sequel, and all the plot and characters in the other (obviously, I prefer plot and characters - mostly characters - I'm a sucker for character). It's quite strange.
So, as to why I bothered to write all that: If you thought Dune was passably good, but couldn't stand the sequel I would highly encourage you to try the third. You could even skip the second if it bored you too much. There are a few different characters that might be a little jarring, but they do a good job of explaining how that happened if you wait it out. It's almost as if they didn't expect you to actually read the second. All you will really miss is some development of Alia and her husband. (Actually, I did start reading the wrong one - our books are a bad printing - one cover says 'book three' the other says 'final in the trilogy' it took a bit to figure which was lying). Conversely, I suppose, if you thought the second book was a vast improvement, I wouldn't bother with the third.
Well, there was a comment yesterday about what happened to the other blog content, which left me a bit befuzzled, as I always intended this to be a knitting blog. I guess I'd been getting more sidetracked than I realized in the past. (fyi, I do keep separate blogs for my house/garden and my pets, but it seemed a little schizophrenic to do them all at once - maybe I'm wrong about that)
In any case, I've had some random things bugging me recently, so this seemed as good as any excuse to let them out.
To begin with: There is a motivational-style poster near the elevators at my work that states 'Why can't an Engineering major enjoy a little Edgar Allen Poe once in a while'.
Our company deals with libraries, so it's a generally appropriate poster. Even better than that, I was an Engineering major (or Computer Science, through the engineering department at least - classify how you will), and I took offense at the professors who assumed we were in the major because we hated our english classes. I adore me some good literature, and will yammer your ear off about the revolutionary ambiguity in Antigone, the importance of context in appreciating Wuthering Heights, the complete contrast between 1984 and Brave New World, or how every male lead in a chick flick is in some way derivative of Mr. Darcy. Oh wait, I already have.
So why does this poster bug me?
Because nobody ever bothers asks the reverse. 'Why can't an english major enjoy a little fluid dynamics now and then?' or discrete math? How about Quantum, or even Newtonian physics? But those are hard, you may say. Or maybe irrelevant. And I disagree. They're no harder that Poe - definetly no harder than Shakespeare. Saying otherwise is an insult to english majors, and a disservice to engineering majors, who get their friends, family, and potential compatriots scared away from understanding what it is they really do. 'because it's hard'
hmm, I had other thoughts, but maybe that's enough for one day.
(oh, and there's another poster in that hall which proclaims 'no to libraries are alike, isn't that a wonderful thing' that I have many time wanted to rip off the wall and set fire to when our current project involved painstakingly going through every possible stupid idiosyncrasy anyone ever thought of and dealing with it, instead of just telling them to standardize their darn system already! -- thanks, I feel a little better now)
And I'm not even done with all the pieces!
I started by tacking over the selvedge/drawstring place on gigi's shoulder, because, well, the tail I needed to use was right there, and I didn't want to do the counting involved in casting on a new piece.
And then I just kept going. I have seams and woven in ends on the 2/3 pieces I've completed. I'm not sure if this is a particularly well-written pattern*, or if I'm reaching a new level, but I'm doing a much better job at finishing on this piece than I have in the past. Finishing has been one of the things I've been unhappy with in my previous work, so I like this improvement.
* I must point out. This is the first pattern I've followed in some time. THAT MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT, that someone else actually put thought into the finishing techniques so I saw them from the get-go instead of me looking back at what I've shaken out of my head and saying 'huh, doesn't look right'.
I finished the back of the silk gigi by the end of the olympics - if you don't count weaving in ends, which I haven't done. That's why I don't go in for that sort of thing. Then I started the left front, and finished the (extended) ribbing, and looking at the instructions for the after-ribbing-stuff realized I'd futzed something up with the pattern and how the button band was supposed to go.
(what part of p1, (k1 p1)x3, k2 p2 to end looks like 'do the whole thing in 2x2 rib just like the last piece' to you? Apparently part of it did to me)
It was probably a good thing though, since in restarting, I noticed that a) I think I had two fewer stitches than I should have, and b) I was using the larger 'stockinette needles' for the ribbing.
Ah well, I have an inch or so done again.
Oh, and I am completely loving the tubular cast on thing. I can do it by memory now. It does help in the picking up if you use bigger needles for the flat part though.
|
I didn't do it intentionally, but last night, I cast on for gigi with my colourmart silk. For once, things conspired in my favor, as the smaller gauge I was getting corresponded perfectly with the smaller size I wanted, as opposed to landing off the charts somewhere and requiring a lot of math and frustration as it usually does. (by the way, my target size for this is 26" circumference - it matches one of my T-shirts for ease) I tried the invisible 2x2 cast-on outlined in the fall interweave knits (it is *so* novel to be receiving these magazines). It was great. Way easier than the tubular cast on's I'd seen before. Also way easier than provisional cast ons I see recomended. Every time I do one of those, it seems to unravel from the bottom. I know, it's not supposed to do that, but it *does*. Or it did. Maybe it has to do with it being ribbing? In any case, winner on the invisible tubular cast on. The only change I would make would be to do the initial rows in larger needles. But maybe it said that and I didn't notice. I'm glad I did find a technique I could use in that issue, as there really weren't any patterns I'd use. Maybe the colorwork sweater - maybe. So, yeah, enough about cast ons. I started at the beginning of evening coverage, and stopped at midnight. Then I stayed up to watch the end of the men's gymnastics final because it was way cool. But I didn't knit for that half hour or so, because I was mostly asleep, and having problems. In that time, I knit about an inch and a half of ribbing. Yes, 104 stitches across, on size 2's, with roughly fingering weight yarn. But still, a little over an inch. There are 5 inches of ribbing total, and this is only the back piece, and I want to make the ribbing longer since I'm long waisted. I guess it's a good thing I didn't make this official, because there's no way I'd finish in time.
and, we have a house.
Good news? It's ~100 years old, and cute as anything, with great space, and a nearly 3 acre yard in the middle of the country.
Bad news? It's ~100 years old, and needs new floors, walls, and other things before we can move into it, which it's looking like will happen in January.
So, not much knitting now. Or blogging, though we have lots of house 'before' pictures I want to get on a webpage someday - but, y'know, I'm spending all my time working on the house!
Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.
In reading my daily blogs, I found this announcement from my reader.
Sew, Mama, Sew! on the Move
Basically, they aggregated their top 1000 feeds to a list, and pointed some out.
What I thought was interesting, was the thematic analysis. Basically, tech stuff was king, then humor and news, but the final category they found noteworthy was craft blogs. The blog from the title, YarnHarlot, and a third that I didn't look into.
Huh.
Now, I haven't done any analysis outside of reading that article, so maybe their PR writer sews, and this is just an outlier because that's what she wanted to write about. Maybe it's old news to everyone else. But while I knew crafty blogs were popular, I wouldn't have pegged them over, say, fashion. So, huh.
In other news, the house sellers we've been talking to accepted our remediation, so we may well be moving out of the grandparents' soon. On the other hand, they haven't gotten back to us on when the septic is being done (which for various reasons, has to happen before close) so we don't actually have a close date... And soon is a relative term: we're thinking with the holidays, and the amount of work we want to do, we'll actually be moving sometime in January.
That's a little sad, isn't it? M was a little taken aback when I told him I'd dreamed of a 'going to a yarn show' (his dream was a much more impressive affair of post-apocalyptic spain or something)
Rhinebeck was quite nice in my dream, though replete with odd spectacles like a lan-party full of high schoolers throwing pink balloons, and tossing second cuts over the crowd like confetti that I doubt were accurate representations of the festivities.
Really, though, Rhinebeck wasn't something I gave much thought to, it's a long way away, we're busy now, and I'm much more in a 'finishing' groove now than a 'stashing/starting/buying' one, and have only been to one fiber-fest-type ever before now. The only reason I even knew about it was everyone blogging about their exploits. So I'm a bit surprised it was on my mind enough to feature full dream.
Apparently though, I want some brooks farm yarn, as this featured prominently. Honestly, I can't believe how accurate my dream memory of this was when I looked it up this morning. I both dreamed an actual yarn company, remembered their lines (though I did transpose the fiber content of some) and had a valid reason for wanting to buy it at a festival. (I'm sensitive to mohair, and wanted to know if it was soft enough).
The way my dreams normally go, I would be fruitlessly searching for the special parrot-feather-and-rum yarn from scurvy pete's yarn booty or something equally outrageous (see lan-party with balloons, above)
So, remember back last winter when I thought I ordered from webs, but hadn't?
Well, I recently tried again at online ordering. First, I forgot that while I entered my new married name at the yarn site, they used paypal for payment, and my account there still had my maiden name - imagine what a mess that could have been. But apparently my credit card remembered who I used to be, and took the payment anyway. Phew. Disaster averted.
But then! I get an email from them: the USPS says your address doesn't exist, but we noticed you listed something different on the paypal. Should we resend it there? Ohmygosh. Back in the day when I registered on that site, I entered my then college dorm address (apparently partial/incorrect - who gets mail at a dorm anyway?). Somehow. I neglected to update that when I decided to place an order and told them to ship it there.
Note that this company is in the uk. So in order for the post office to tell them I'd entered some monkey poo instead of a real address, it presumably had to cross the Atlantic - twice!
I cannot believe that by this point someone hadn't thrown the darn thing in the trash as said to heck with this person who can't figure out her own order! I would have.
I've ordered on the internet before! I swear I have! I don't know why I fail at doing it now. But I think I should be banned or something. Only allowed to do so under strict supervision.
But in any case. If you're thinking of ordering from colourmart. Know that their customer service is *phenomenal*.
I wore my fps to a concert the other night (and yes, I wore more under it than I did in the first pictures - a black camisole to be precise)
It was wonderful. It was light and warm-but-not-too-warm and really really perfect. I was astounded, and honestly, I didn't figure on it being too terribly practical, despite what I've heard from everyone else. Because really, it didn't *look* practical.
I ended up sort of crossing the ends over one shoulder without actually tying them, since tying looked a little frumpy. It was a *little* short for this to work quite perfectly. I'm not sure whether a shawl pin would help, or be to heavy and ruin the effect. It would be worth looking for a lightweight one at least.
Or I could trying using a bamboo dpn ;)
I tried to wash it afterwards and just push it into shape rather than going all out with wires and pins. We're in a strange in-between state with living and washing arrangements currently - not much space to stick pins in, and I don't even know where my wires are. I do not think it was a success. Too bad. Blocking takes so darn long I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that step every time I wore it. But I worry more about ruining it if I don't wash it every time, since it was next to my bare skin, and I don't want the oils to sit on it and cause it to deteriorate or discolor. Would this really happen, or am I worrying too much?
So moral of the story: I do like wearing shawls. I must make more shawls. The shawls must be larger. Blocking is a bear.
My first fiber-fest!
It was a gorgeous day, and I must say I enjoyed the drive down nearly as much as browsing the exhibits (which is good, as it took about as long)
It was also perfect sweater-weather. Just the right side of cool. I've resolved that I need to make a better sweater for wearing in public like that. I felt a little embarrassed of my not-quite fitting felted tweed. FPS would have been great, but it was a bit nippy for that.
I didn't come home with anything (other than half a rootbeer float), which wasn't completely the plan, but not really unexpected either. I didn't plan at all to get things I actually needed, and the focus of the exhibits was spinning material, not knitting.
This was, honestly the first time I'd seen people actually spinning. It was fascinating. The techie in me is embarrassed to admit that I was paying so much attention to their hands I didn't even look at how the wheel was working - it was just magically twisting and sucking up the yarn. Too bad, I'm sure the wheel mechanics were fascinating too.
I was hoping a bit that I could get a basic 'learn to drop-spindle' set and enough instruction to set me on my way, but pretty much everyone was using wheels, though I did get to try one of them (fun! and not as hard as I thought!). I *almost* went over to the kids area where they were doing hands-on CD spindle lessons, but chickened out. There wasn't a heck of a selection of spindles to begin with.
Proposed name for new stole. Pictures pending.
I did pick up my beads this weekend, and finished winding the lace (at last!) and cast on for my new shawl.
The beading was a little rough to start (ha! The first row took me forever and I stabbed myself a bunch and hated it - it was *agonizing* to start) but I am getting the hang of it, and things are much smoother now.
I also forgot to read the fine print on the bead site, where it said that 'a 1.10mm crochet hook is the appropriate size for size 8/0 beads if you string them first. If you want to put the hook *through* the bead, you will need a .75 or mm hook'.
Needless to say my 1.10 mm hook does not fit through the beads. So I improvised with guitar string (again). It works pretty well, though the ends are sharper than ideal. I can store about a row and a half's worth of beads on it without worrying about them falling off, which is convenient, and seems I wouldn't be able to do with the hook.
The hook does seem a reasonable size for repair and utility work though, so not all is lost.
I feel a bit conflicted about this project and the source of the design. Allow me to expound:
I started with the inspiration from The Baltic Sea Stole (ravelry) - essentially I saw a picture of it worked in variegated yarn and thought 'oh, that pattern (which I recognize as 'Japanese Feather' from Barbra Walker) looks decent even with the fairly heavy variegation. I think I'll try it.'
So I did, and, it did, and I began place to make a shawl with that yarn and that pattern. I decided I didn't want to follow the Baltic Sea pattern, since I didn't like the squared off edge - much prefer to keep the natural curve of the lace.
I also discovered that there wasn't very much distinction between the panels to show of the curves (I'd already forgotten that Baltic Sea Stole worked an extra yo there to create negative space between the panels). Instead, I figured a column of beads might make a nice divider.
Unwittingly, I ended up with almost exactly Beaded Lace Scarf II (ravelry). I didn't *mean* to reverse engineer it, it just sort of happened.
*Ok, I looked a little closer and feel a little better. 1) I think it uses a slightly different stitch pattern, not Japanese Feather. 2) the beading is done differently. I'm not sure how, but theirs sit sideways, and mine sit vertically.
My mum let me know my beads have arrived. (I had them shipped there since our accommodations are so topsy-turvy right now).
But
I can't go get them!
We're making another offer on another house this evening (third time's the charm? I'm so jaded on this now you could make a bracelet out of me). So not tonight.
Then tomorrow there's *the football game* with M's work people. Much fun.
So, who knows.
I guess that means I should finish winding the rest of that laceweight. (would you believe the first thing I dug out of my yarn box in the garage was my paper-towel-tube nostepinne?)
So, I started 'working out'. I put this in quotation marks because I am doing really, really, pansy things that do not count as a workout in any definition of the word I believe.
Why am I writing this here? Because I'm sore and want to whine. Because supposedly, documenting things is good for keeping up at them. and finally, because I find it amusing the sorts of pansy-wuss things I'm doing that actually make me sore.
I started with situps (well, backwards situps where you lie on your back and lift your legs - they were easier). I could do five of these at a time. That bad. I did three sets of this, for a total of 15 situps before becoming completely exhausted. That was my 'workout'. See why I used the quotes?
I was really surprised that in three days of doing this, I was able to do ten at a time. I mean, that's still really pathetic (don't real people do 100's?), but I actually made progress by doing 15 situps for three days in a row. I think that's crazy. 15 measly situps?
So, it's been about two weeks, and I can now do 3x20. So, I started doing toe-touches. Or more realistically, toe-looks. Because about the only thing that I'm worse at than being strong is being flexible. I can get my hands a little past my knees. Bad. And really, toe-touches? Standing up and bending over? That's the sort of 'exercise' you do in 2nd grade gym. So I did 100. Because It seemed like a good round number.
Apparently those 2nd grade gym teachers were onto something, at least for wussy grown-ups. By about 50, I could actually reach my toes. (hey, combination of working and stretching muscles at the same time. Effective) But for the rest of the night I kinda felt like I was gonna fall over. I wasn't tired anymore, and I wasn't sore yet, but I didn't feel like I could trust all those 'stabilization muscles' you know.
Today I'm sore. From touching my friccin toes.
In fact, it was the very first thing I packed. I'm not sure on the wisdom of this in hindsight, but at the time, it was a very clean 'category' of stuff that I could make a box out of.
Does this mean we found a house? Well, not exactly. But our lease is up, and we don't really like our landlord to begin with....so we're moving in with M's grandparents. This isn't quite as bad as it sounds, but it is still living with your grandparents. Right now, I'm hoping we'll find a house by x-mas. M's a little more optimistic, but I like to prepare myself (which is why, for instance, I'm not freaking out about moving in with grandparents, because I made peace with the possibility back in July, when it was a little less immediate).
On the other hand, fry boxes from Wendys (where my sister works) are a great size for moving. And no they don't smell like fries, they're cut up just frozen potatoes at that stage (this was a concern for me). It is funny to have all our stuff in boxes labeled things like 'cool ranch sauce', 'artisan foccacia bread' and the ever popular 'nugget shaped chicken breast fritters with rib meat'. Not as good as the liquor boxes my in-laws once moved with, but still good.
So no real knitting for a bit now.
:(
|
|
|
|
