Cutest Kid's Sweater Ever

Is this not the most adorable little sweater* you've ever seen?



It's CAITLIN from KnitWhits. I saw it today and I absolutely MUST knit this for my grand-nieces. One for each. Different colors.

*Photo borrowed from KnitWhits

Trouble is, which colors? I doubt I'll use the recommended yarn (Gems Sport Weight) because the yarn requirements (three colors, around 900-1200 yards) makes it a bit pricey for something that will be the recipient of barf, boogers and bodily fluids. So that may or may not limit my choices.

I do like Encore, and they make a DK weight, but I'm looking for more color selection than they currently offer. I'm not ready to cast on just yet, so there is time to research my options. Since the sweaters are intended for toddlers, perhaps this occasion calls for the wonders of Ack. That's right. Ack-crylic. Because SimplySoft comes in a lot of nice colors and it's washable.

Because I'm crazy like that, and I have PhotoShop and know how to use it (ha ha), I played with the color options and came up with this:




Row 1, L to R
1-1 original scheme, rose/pink/teal
1-2 original reversed (the rose should match the darker pink in the original)
1-3 rose/pink/green #1
1-4 rose/pink/green #2 (reversed)
Row 2
2-1 baby blues/pink
2-2 baby blues/rose
2-3 lilac/green #1
2-4 lilac/green #2 (reversed)
Row 3 The Xmas Combos!
3-1 red/green/canary
3-2 green/canary/red
3-3 red/greens
3-4 white/red/green
Row 4
4-1 baby blues/pale yellow
4-2 teals/cream
4-3 teals/violet
Row 5
5-1 violet/lilac/red
5-2 teal/gold/red

Keep in mind niece LU is of Chinese descent whereas niece KU is fair, blonde, and blue-eyed. I haven't decided whether I'm going for Xmas sweaters or sweaters in general. If I go Xmas, I'm leaning towards Xmas 3-3 for LU and 3-4 for KU. Otherwise... I'm kind of loving the lilac/green combos 2-3 and 2-4 and reversing them might mean more economical usage of yarn and the whole alike but different theory; OR... for KU (the blonde), either 4-1 or 4-2 but with cream instead of pale yellow (maybe? or is the pale yellow OK? keep it from being too boyish?) and for LU 4-3.

LU looks good in strong colors like red, yellow, purple and black. Somehow I can see 4-3 looking really good on her.

****brief pause****
And... I had another inspiration, checked the color cards again, found that Gems comes in Cherry Red and Shamrock (which might look better than Bright Red and Fern Green) and did these:

For LU:


For KU (blonde):


Then again, they might be too close in color for a harried, hurried Mom to be able to tell the difference when getting the kids dressed in the morning. Maybe I'd (she'd) be better off if I made them drastically different. In which case, I think it'll be...

For LU:


For KU:


Don't you just love it when I think out loud? ;-)

The Truth Emerges
Come to think of it... maybe what this is really all about is that I just really want to make it for myself. Except it doesn't come in big people sizes. *pout*

Anyway, CUTE SWEATER. Love the color change cables and the vest effect. Really, really cute. (I'd make mine longer, though, like suit length so it would be less boxy on me. And I think I'd go with some sort of wine/tan combo, or maybe the lilac/green...)

Maybe like this? (Cloning feature, how I love thee...)

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Labels: Caitlin, Christmas knitting, colorwork, Xmas

posted by Jeanne @ 2:16 AM 1 comments

Un-Hijacking

That's right. I'm un-hijacking my own blog. This is supposedly a knitting blog. Where is the knitting? Oh. Between my brows. Well, that has to stop. It's time to redirect my focus.

Focus.

HAHA.

I mean, that last post? Totally OT. Some of my visitors may be turned off when I go all introspective (some, like me, love it when bloggers veer off into the hinterlands of the brain). I will attempt to please everyone *wink* by killing two birds with one stone.

I set up a new WordPress blog. This allows me to:

• test out WordPress
• put the focus in this blog back on knitting, and move the major revelations to its own blog.

So. The new blog is Mental Manifestation ("it's all just...") <--what song am I paraphrasing?

This blog will continue to exist, but we'll get back to fibery goodness here. I hope you'll include the new one in your blogrolls if you're interested in the inner workings of my mind, my newfound possible ADD issue, and my experiences with the Law of Attraction in Action. Otherwise, over here we're getting back to our knitting content.

I sat outside in the beautiful weather this evening and finished a sock today. But I can't show it to you because it's a test knitting of someone else's pattern. I can say that the pattern and yarn initially gave me fits, but the yarn surprised me because it held up after frogging not once, not twice, but probably five times before I "got it". The finished sock is quite lovely. When the pattern goes public and I have permission to, I'll lead you to it.

Still working on the Christmas socks. Last year's. I don't know what I'm going to do this year. Perhaps hand-dyed or woven? OMG. It's JUNE. I learned my lesson last year.

Time to start working on Christmas 2007.

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Labels: breaking news, Christmas knitting, FOs

posted by Jeanne @ 2:14 AM 2 comments

Horses, Not Knitting

Let's see...

HORSES
Went to the barn for a trail ride with a new riding buddy tonight but wound up working on our horsemanship due to Extreme Skeeters. It is May, people. The skeeters should NOT be out in full force like this yet. It was a massive cloud of them. Now, we'd prepared well, we thought. Marinated the horses in fly spray. Applied copious amounts of Deep Woods Off to ourselves--despite a warning label that says, I shit you not, "hazardous to humans". This stuff claims to ward off West Nile Virus.

And yet, we were lunch. We left the property, took five steps into the woods and WHAMMO! It was the $3.99 All-You-Can-Suck Buffet at the Golden Corral. My poor horse. He pitched a fit. He made it perfectly clear that he was completely and utterly miserable, would not STAND for being attacked by miniature flying vampires and told me in no uncertain terms that if I insisted on continuing, I'd be doing it on my own because he had no intention of going anywhere but home.

Normally, I'd have a conversation with him and re-establish my leadership and invite him to consider that my plan is to hit the trail. But all four of us (horses and people) were too preoccupied slapping ourselves silly. I apologized profusely to my horse and we headed back down the lane.

Actually that was probably a good thing. I wasn't too upset about it because I can handle one or two bites, but not being divebombed like that. I itch just remembering it. The ride would have been miserable for all of us. And my new riding buddy had a horse who was nervous about the trail. Her horse needed to do some confidence-building exercises, and mine needed practice in listening to me rather than Hoovering the grass, so we rode up and down the lane. The bugs weren't with us.

My new friend's horse benefitted greatly from the experience. She (the horse) went back to the barn calmer and left-brained, and they ended on a good note. The horse will be better next time for it. Honestly, I'd rather work on my horsemanship than trail ride, anyway. I realize that's not the way most of the boarders at the barn are, and it took some convincing before M conceded that it really did NOT bother me at all that we didn't hit the trail. So many are so focused on one thing: it's a goal. They go out to ride, and dammit, they'll ride, no matter the weather, no matter how their horse is that day, because it's all about the ride. They pay good money to board so they can ride, and they WILL achieve their goal even to the detriment of the relationship with their horse.

I'm the complete opposite. I'll abort a planned ride if my horse got up on the wrong side of the corral. If I'm on the trail and we have an issue, I'll stop and do whatever it takes to work it out, even if it means getting off and walking my horse for a bit, or backing up, whatever. If I have to take my horse back home because he's having a bad day, I'd rather go fix the issue and have a better ride next time than try to fight my way through it like so many others. My attitude drives most of the "ride or die" boarders crazy ("just get on and MAKE him do what you want"), which is why the longer I've been doing Parelli the less people I have to ride with.

But that's OK. Because my relationship with my horse is far better than theirs is, and it shows. They all think it's because he's older now (he's 10; M's horse is 18 aka "should know better" according to their beliefs), or he's "learned", but the real reason is, I've learned. He's been ridden by people who let him get away with stuff that he doesn't do around me because he knows who the leader in our herd of two is. I never have to "catch" my horse (or have trouble with it)--he comes galloping to me when I call. He'll follow me around of his own volition, because he wants to be with me.

That's magic.

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KNITTING
There are approximately four socks in progress and on the needles at the moment. One is the second sock from last year's Christmas Knitting Fiasco (can I just say I think it'll be a handwoven holiday this year?); one is for mememememe; and two are being done for someone else (test knitting). I hope it won't scare the person for whom I'm doing the test knitting (if this blog is in their blogroll) when I admit that this was my first experience using the Two Circular Needle method. I thought I'd hate it.

I don't.

I love it.

That really surprised me. I love knitting on DPNs but 2Circs seems to go so much faster! It helped to have Cat Bordhi's book on hand. (For some reason I thought this was the Magic Loop method, but a bit of research on the Internets cleared that up. How many ways CAN one knit a sock? One needle, two, three, four, five...)

Great. I have 4,000 sets of DPNs that I got specifically for my sock-knitting endeavors. Now I have to go out and buy 8,000 pairs of circulars because of course I must have every size and they must be Crystal Palace--although I'm currently using *gasp* Susan Bates aluminums *cough*cheap*cough* because I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to multiple CPs if I didn't want to use this method past these test socks.

Will this be the moment I cave and forego CPs for Addi's? Time will tell.

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Labels: Christmas knitting, horses, WIP

posted by Jeanne @ 12:07 AM 2 comments

My 100th Post!

Milestone
I was over on Carson's blog and saw that she'd arrived at her 100th post, which got me thinking: as jabber-jawed as I can be, is it possible that I'm nearing that mark myself? Knitty Banter has only been in existence since September 2006. One hundred posts sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

But to my surprise, my last post was #99. Which means...

THIS IS MY 100th POST!

Anyhoo.

School was back in session Thursday. Every professor is wigged out at being "behind" according to their syllabi. I spent 13 hours total (7 Thursday 6.5 Friday) in the weaving lab catching up on samples and I still have two to do, which doesn't sound like a lot until I explain what they are.

Weaving
All 15 students in the class received a different pattern draft and weaving instructions. We each warped our loom accordingly and wove eight inches of the pattern. Then we wove a shot of—oh crap, what is it called? sheeting?—anyway, to separate my sample from the next girl's. (And the one guy's.) Then we go around and weave eight inches on the next loom, etcetera, until we have completed all 15 patterns. At the end, we'll put our samples into a notebook to have and love forever and ever and ever. *imagine me hugging it to my chest swinging back and forth like a toddler hugging the stuffing out of her bunny*

Mine was Finnish Towel, an overshot pattern. Complex because it incorporates two weft yarns—a thin one like the warp for the tabby shots, and a thicker one for the pattern shots. The way the loom is threaded, I have four out of the six treadles that lift the harnesses that create the pattern, and the other two lift every other strand of warp. I'm not good at explaining it visually yet, but Anne at How the West was Spun has it down. It's complicated because first you weave a shot of tabby, then a shot of pattern, then a shot of tabby, then pattern, etc. You have to stay focused or you get lost fast.

I blew through all but the last three after doing my own; most of that was on Thursday. On Friday after Law and Econ, I braved the 5 below wind chills to walk to the art building with the intention of finishing up the last three.

WRONG.

I chose to do Pile first. Think "carpet". It involves NOT throwing the shuttle back and forth; rather it involves tying individual pieces of yarn in knots in various ways for eight whole inches so they create pile. NEVER AGAIN will I do pile, unless it's a small area for a wall hanging or something. It took me six and a half hours to do one stinkin' sample! ACK! My fingers were aching by the time I left, past 7:00, to run home and change my sweater and baseball hat (one of those showerless days), grab my knitting, and run to meet my friend B for our standing Friday-night personal S&B.

(Interjecting to add that I finished and pulled off the home loom the scarf for the Weaver's Guild Scarf Exchange; all it needs is to have its ends woven in and its fringe knotted, then washing and blocking... but I have until the April meeting to do that. Photos to come.)

Oh. The remaining two samples? One is another overshot (Star of Bethlehem) and the last is a double-weave pickup. That's the one that scares me. Instead of one shed's worth of warp, there are two. I can't begin to explain it. Here are two references if you are interested. One shows examples of doubleweaves; the other is a PDF from the Jan/Feb 2007 Handwoven magazine about designing doubleweaves. It looks complicated–another 7-hour sample, I imagine.

Knitting
Not much knitting got done Friday night. I re-seamed the toe of the first of the belated Xmas socks for Ceramicist Niece for the third time because I realized what I'd done wrong. Again. If you recall, the first time I somehow managed to seam so the toe was running perpendicular to the way the toes go.

The second time, I thought I had it—turned it inside out, did a three-needle bind off. What was I high on? I looked at it Friday night and thought "DOH!" I meant to do Kitchener. Not a bind off. *sigh* Yanked it out, put it back on the needles, and Kitchenered. The sock looks tired. All that surgery.

I tried to start Sock #2 but had a major brain fart—I cast-on just fine, then I could not for the life of me figure out which way was up! How do I join this thing? Where is the incoming yarn supposed to come from—the top? The bottom? The left-hand needle of the triangle or the right? I stared at it for several minutes while B rambled on and finally I just gave up. It occurred to me that it's been about four months since I cast on a sock. Somehow I forgot how to do it.

It came back to me last night and I cast on and knit the ribbing. Silly, silly me. Senior moment and I'm not even 45 yet. What I need to do is set up a mnemonic to remember how it is done. Especially since I've agreed to do some sock test-knitting. *blush* *ahem* Might look a bit foolish having to admit I can knit the sock, I just can't figure out how to cast it on. (I can; I think I was just tired, and distracted by the band playing in the coffeehouse, the kids running around the bookstore, and my friend's ramblings. I need silence to think it through.)

Well, I suppose I should stop procrastinating and get back to the schoolwork I'm obviously trying to avoid. It irks me that I have no true "weekends". I need them to recharge but somehow I always wind up studying. I even studied on the snow days! (That's just wrong.) Yesterday I worked up a PowerPoint presentation for Law for Monday (group thing, this time I have a group that actually works). It took longer than anticipated but it looks great. Today, I have:

1. a brief paper (1-2 pages) for Creativity & Innovation to demonstrate my understanding of a problem-solving technique we learned last week (due Tues)
2. four chapters of Econ to read (likely we'll have another "homework" pop quiz Mon, Exam is Fri)
3. two or three chapters of Law to read for Mon (Exam Weds)
4. two chapters in one book and one in the other for C&I (Tues)
5. it won't happen today, but I really need to get to the surface design lab and do the pole-wrapping portion for the background of my project since we lost Wednesday's work time. That was supposedly due for a half-done critique tomorrow. Not gonna happen. I'll see what I can do during class.
6. a load of laundry (no clean undies for this week!!!! help!!!)
7. a load of dishes (same as #6!)
8. clean the catboxes
9. shower (about time, too)
   

Yeesh. Where does the time go?

PS: I've done really well with Knit From Your Stash. So far, I've only bought three skeins of yarn—two red and black angoras intended for the Red Scarf Project but on ice until next year and one ball of black fuzz for the Weaving Guild scarf. I suppose it takes the edge off having four huge yarn closets to "shop" from in Weaving class, though! Then there is the floss loophole I discovered. If I absolutely must buy something yarn-like, floss IS the way to go.

OK. I'm really really going back to my homework now.

Really.

For sure this time.

Honest.

I mean it.

Bye...

Labels: Christmas knitting, college life, loom, musings

posted by Jeanne @ 2:37 PM 1 comments

S'sn & B'n

Yeah, that title is clear.

My friend and I had dinner then sat at our local coffee shop and did some S'sn (hemming) and B'n (whining). You know. Purl & Hurl. _titch and _itch. The two words we aren't allowed to print for fear of being accused of copyright infringement. Ess Enn Bee.

Yeah.

She worked on a needlepoint project while I was in sockland. I pity my friend. There was more bee-ing than ess-ing on her part because she's been fretting over this thing forever. She started it years ago with high hopes, then became bored with it about halfway through. It would be big enough for a throw pillow (if she ever finishes it). She keeps talking about the project in the wings that she can't wait to get to, yet she will not allow herself to toss the current one into either the frog pile (is there such a thing for needlepoint?) or in with the UFOs so she can work on the new one.

I see no point to this. I'm quite happy to abandon a project for a few days or decades (remember the Phoenix I just finished?) if I lose interest. Yes, I love to start projects. But I don't consider myself to have startitis. Rather, I enjoy having a lot of projects on the docket at once so I can jump around when the mood strikes me. I do finish them—eventually. But if I grow weary, I can stop myself and move on. One day I'll run across it and wonder why I ever put it down. That's the time to pick it up again and finish it.

Do you suffer from either Random Project Hopscotch like I do, or One At A Time Even If It Kills Me like my friend? Any advice for my friend? I told her tonight, either you hurry up and finish that so you can move onto something you actually enjoy, or I'll finish it FOR you, darn it! It stresses me—yes, actually causes me pain—to see her grumbling over this piece. Poor thing, she sits at the table rummaging through her pockets, anything to avoid picking up the project.

As for me, I discovered that socks and TV do not mix (at certain points), nor do socks and conversation (at certain points). When one is working the seven inches of "cuff", or the part between the heel and toe, TV or conversation is fine. But TV and chatter should be avoided at all costs when one is calculating the heel flap, the gusset, or doing three-needle bind off on the toe. I wish I had photos, but I didn't have the camera with me and I fixed my errors already. So you'll have to settle for description and imagination.

Sock #1: Fascine Braid Sock, in Mountain Colors "Crazy Woman" First of the pair intended for the niece who did not make it to Xmas this year. I'd finished the toe while watching TV a week or so ago and woven in my ends. It looked a little funny; the seam kind of puckered but I assumed it would even out after blocking. It came with me tonight to serve as a reference if I started its mate, and to show off to my friend. Tonight it still looked funny. Suddenly I figured out why.

The toe seam was running perpendicular to the toeline. Ooops.

Frog, frog, frog.

The seam is running in the proper direction now, but it still looks a little wonky to me. Hopefully blocking will fix it. If not, well, it'll be inside a shoe.

Sock #2: Leslie's Double Eyelet Socks in Mountain Colors "Wildflower" Yes, I'm still working on these. At the rate I'm going, I'll be 50 before I can wear them (it's a ways off yet). Another first of a pair. I successfully did the heel flap and turned the heel. Then I began the gusset. Then I got hopelessly lost because the pattern said to knit to within 3 stitches of the end of needle #1, K2 tog K1, knit in eyelet pattern across needle #2, then K1 SSK knit to the end of needle #3— and somehow, I had five needles in use.

Erm...

You do realize I've done socks before and know what I'm supposed to be doing here. For some reason, conversation must throw me completely off. I sorted it out eventually but I kept dropping stitches, having my needles slide out of the row, miscounting... eeesh. All I got done on this sock in three hours' time was the last inch of heel flap, turning the heel, picking up the gusset, and about an inch of actual foot.

I started Sock #2 in early October. It's now February and that is as far as I've gotten. Oh, the shame.

It didn't help that we were trying not to laugh at the real-life Beavis and Butthead sitting at the next table. Heh-heh. Heh-heh. FIRE! FIRE! Heh-heh.


The saddest thing of all is what I think they did. I could be wrong, but instinct says otherwise. The boys sat there for a good hour or so, chatting. They didn't purchase any food or coffee. They weren't reading. They came in with nothing. They didn't peruse the shelves for anything to read. There is nothing inherently wrong with this.

However.

It was 15 minutes before closing. The place had gradually emptied out until it was down to them and us and the two workers (one is the owner). One worker was cleaning up the service area. The owner was vaccuuming and straightening. The owner disappeared into the office. The two boys suddenly got up from their table and headed over to the comics section. My Spidey-sense woke up and I tried to knit while watching from my peripheral vision.

They huddled around the comics section for a couple of moments then turned and walked casually—sort of—towards the door. One of the boys had the distinctly stiff posture of someone who had something stuffed down the front of his shirt and was trying to keep there while walking pseudo-nonchalantly out the door. The shop is quite long and I didn't actually see him take anything—it was just an instinct based on my observation and their timing.

It seemed as if they had been lying in wait for the perfect moment. I asked my friend if she thought they might have taken something. She said their timing did seem a little odd.

Perhaps we should we have alerted the counter clerk. We didn't. I'm not sure why. Maybe because we had no verifiable proof that they'd taken anything. Maybe because we didn't want to cause a scene. It concerns me that we didn't say something. It concerns me that these boys would shoplift (if they did).

Maybe they left with what they came in with and my suspicions were unfounded.

But of course, we'll never know.

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Labels: Christmas knitting, WIP

posted by Jeanne @ 1:30 AM 2 comments

Victory is MINE

The Plan:
Go to the LYS. Grab two balls of RYC Silk Wool DK for the Fetchings, #6 DPNs if the order was in, and find out how to fold my loom. If that one hank of Anne that I lusted after is still there, I can get it only because Anne is one-of-a-kind dye baths and it's sock yarn. Avoid direct eye contact with any other tempting yarns. Hold breath. Leave quickly. Get into car, drive away fast.

The Reality:
There was a hitch in the plan—a potential pitfall of grand proportions.

The Pitfall:
I arrived at 4:45 PM; the person who knew how to fold the loom was not due in until 5:45 PM—meaning, I had an entire hour to kill, or... a return trip at a later date (and exposure to temptation yet again). I almost panicked.

Then I remembered, hey, I have an entire readership of blogfans out there (all not-sure-how-many-of-you) lending me psychic moral support. "I can do this," I thought. "I can resist the Enemy."

How It Went Down:
First, I ambled slowly back to the sock yarn department. Mountain Colors called out to me by name. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Opal beckoning me provocatively. Rowan winked at me and reminded me of the 30% off sale. The entire Classic Elite Choir sang sweetly as I passed. I tucked my chin into my chest and pretended I didn't notice. Their cries of dismay and rejection haunt me still.

I caressed each skein of Anne as I searched for the coveted dark violet blend. Two errant hanks jumped into my hands, begging me to take them home (danged pound puppies)—one was an enticing blend of eggplant, wine and chocolate; the other was an earthy composite of brown, rust, and brick red. They were clingy little suckers in desperate need of attention; I humored them and let them sit in my hands as I continued my quest for the subtle dark violet blend.

At last, I found it, still on the bottom of the heap where I'd last left it—waiting... patiently waiting... just for me. Our reunion was interrupted by a saleslady. "Have you seen a pair of black reading glasses? Someone came in, and who knows where they could be..." I held tight to my Violet Anne and her two itinerant friends while I helped the saleslady hunt down the glasses, silently breathing a thank you for the moments of distraction from yarn that the pursuit of spectacles provided. (They were nowhere to be seen. No pun intended.)

The search abandoned, I turned my attention to placating the stray sock yarns and telling them why they couldn't come home with me this time. I assured them that certainly someone will come along and give them a good home—just be patient, and sit up nice and tall when a potential victim new Mommy walks by. As I was explaining this to them, my name was called out from the front room. The skeins and I walked quickly to the front of the shop. A saleslady had called the loom folding expert while I was petting the sock yarn and she was on the phone. My spirits lifted—was I saved? Would one phone call solve my problem and allow me to escape the LYS unscathed?

Several minutes were swallowed up by the conversation, which ended with the determination that the only way to illustrate the folding process was by demonstrating it in person. Therefore, I would have to wait for her arrival. Alas, not saved.

I returned the poor, neglected stray sock yarns to their homes. I gave them time to say goodbye to their Violet friend. We moved into the next room. I headed straight for the RYC bin and quickly located two balls of my project yarn.

I almost made it past the notions display, but the sock blockers, uh, blocked my path. Size small? Don't need. The others are probably medium like I have, right? Good. So anyw—oh, crap. They're large. Exactly what I need for the socks for She of the Enormous Feet. I sighed heavily in defeet defeat. They joined our merry little band, as did a package of jumbo stitch holders (the ones shaped like padlocks that I adore and had never seen that big before). On to the register, quickly now!

$81.18, in cash. Exact change.

And it was only 5:05 PM.

The store was empty save for me and two salesladies, who retreated to the classroom/knitting area after ringing up my sale. They invited me to sit with them while I waited for the loom folder. Whew! It was like a Safe House. No yarn to be found, except for the projects they were working on. I folded my arms securely (to prevent creeping yarn fondling) and focused intently on the conversation, which was largely about recent New Year's activities. Time flew. Suddenly, my saviour arrived. We went to the back room and I got a lesson in loom folding. (It's easy, but they really do need to provide an ILLUSTRATION or photograph because the process does not easily translate into words.)

Soon, my purchases and I were safely out the door and in the car. I managed to escape without further additions. I got out of there with:

• two balls of RYC Silk Wool DK for project completion (belated Xmas gift)
• one skein of coveted Violet Anne sock yarn
  
• one pair of size large sock blockers
• one tiny package of stitch holders
• info on the upcoming Weaver's Guild meeting next week (free)
• the #6 DPNs are still MIA so I couldn't buy them
  

Sock yarn doesn't count; tools are exempt. I pretty much stuck to my resolution, I think. Agreed?

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Labels: Christmas knitting, knit from your stash 2007, stash enhancement, yarn diet

posted by Jeanne @ 12:04 AM 4 comments

Merry Knitmas!

It was a rather uneventful and brief trip to visit the PA relatives. I met my other Great Niece for the first time. My niece (Allergic One) and her DH had tried fertility treatments for years to unsuccessfully conceive, then opted to adopt a girl from China. LL came home in October 2005. Two weeks later, my niece discovered she was five weeks pregnant. KU appeared in July 2006. So my niece and her DH have two children under the age of two. I feel for them. ;-) KU accompanied niece to Mother's funeral because she was still on the nipple. LL stayed home with Daddy because she was "a handful". So this was my first occasion to meet LL. Quite a precocious, smart, engaging child. Still not enough to put the long-dead batteries back into my biological clock, though, LOL.

I'm taking a much-deserved and much-needed break from knitting after the Hellidaze/Knitmare Before Christmas I experienced. On top of knitting abuse, I managed to whangle my other hand yesterday. Don't ask me how this happened. All I know is, as I was exiting the car at yet another rest area, my arm spazzed and threw my left hand into the latch part on the car—the thingie the door hooks into. I'm now sportin' yet another bruise and a big bump and pain. *SIGH* The things I do to myself. Are they sure about my birthdate? I mean, I've had enough mishaps to qualify to be a Saggitarius rather than the Cancerian homebody that they tell me I am. Anyway, I expect to resume knitting in a day or so, because of the two remaining gifts I need to get ready for friends.

In gifting news:
Two of the five knit recipients were absent. The other three gifts were well-received. Allergic One didn't seem to notice the presence of 25% wool in her scarf and was quite taken with the design and the fact that it doesn't need to be tied (since it's made that way). Her DH appreciated the half-scarf he got, and Sister's sock fit perfectly. Hopefully I can make another one just like it. She said she hadn't been expecting one with such an intricate design ("Monkey"). I guess she would have been thrilled with a one-day stockinette jobbie. Oh, well. Live and learn!

And last but not least, what I got:
BOOK STASH ENHANCEMENT!!!

Sister is a former knitter. Apparently she understands my needs. In lieu of clothes, I requested that everyone "please visit my Amazon WishList". My library now includes:

• Vogue Stitchionary Volume 1: Knit & Purl
• Vogue Stitchionary Volume 2: Cables
• EZ's Knitter's Almanac
• Designing Knitwear (Deborah Newton)
• Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified (Ann & Eugene Bourgeios of Philosopher's Wool)
• Color in Spinning (Deb Menz)

The kitties got a tub of the Nip. Now that's what I call the highest form of enabling (on all fronts)!

Self-gifting:
Of course, I gifted myself a bit more, since I'll be on the Yarn Diet and all in four days. I've decided I need to go on a Book Diet too, because I am weak when I enter a bookstore. Leaving without at least a magazine is nearly impossible for me. I keep Amazon.com in business. Therefore, I declare an addition to my rules:

1. I can buy a subscription to a magazine I read regularly IF I have read two of the issues of said magazine cover to cover in the past two months.
2. If it's a pattern-oriented magazine, and I can't find it in the library, I can only buy it if three patterns are REAL possibilities (not "yeah, I could knit that one day" fantasies) such as for a gift or upcoming event. If it's just another cabled sweater, I have to weigh how vital it is that I have THAT sweater, or if it's just me succumbing to the appeal of the layout, color, fuzziness of the yarn, how cute the model looks in the photo (wearing the sweater meaning I will look the same meaning I will magically drop 75 pounds, grow two inches taller, and reverse-age 20 years the moment I bind off)
3. I can buy a book only if it:

• can't be found through my local library
• can be found there, but I'm fourth in the queue for the hold
• contains a technique not available online for free that I need right now for a project I'm currently working on (from my stash, of course)
• isn't similar to something I already have on hand (technique, stitch dictionary)

God, I hope that covers it. Because today I ordered:

• Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar
• Yarns to Dye For: Creating Self-Patterning Yarns for Knitting
• The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook

and while at Books A Million after lunching with an old friend, I picked up:

• KnitLit the Third: We Spin More Yarns
• the latest issues of Spin-Off and Handwoven
• Believe: A Horseman's Journey (Buck Brannaman)

No, I haven't bought any more yarn.

Yet.

Labels: Christmas knitting, family time, stash enhancement, Xmas, yarn diet

posted by Jeanne @ 7:53 PM 2 comments

Time to Fly

Thank you to the lovely knitbloggers who kindly participated in the Meme!

I'm off to parts unknown (to everyone but me and the person taking care of my cats) for the holidays so I won't be blogging until Tuesday or Wednesday. (OK, I'm going to PA to visit with the rest of the family. Hey, I wanted to sound exotic. Let the girl dream.)

Unfortunately, one of the gift recipients is unable to make it due to a misfire (she's a ceramicist and has a big art fair coming up). Had I found that out earlier, instead of staying up last night to finish her sock, I could have stayed up last night finishing someone else's sock. (Yes, that is correct. "Sock". Not "socks". Yes, they have both feet, just not both socks--yet.) Oh, well! What ya gonna do? And the Besotted Twins are being separated since Besotted Recipient #1 is the counterpart to Ceramicist-of-the-Socks, so only one Besotted needs finished now. I give up. LOL!

So I wish for all of you to have a safe, happy, enjoyable holiday wherever and with whomever you spend it.

Until next week, Merry Happy!

Labels: Christmas knitting, Xmas

posted by Jeanne @ 5:42 AM 1 comments

Happy Solstice

December 21st! It is Winter Solstice. Autumn is but a memory, we are now officially into Winter. Christmas/Giftmas/Xmas/etc is a mere four days away.

FOUR DAYS AWAY.

Are you ready?

Have you finished your knitting?

Unless a miracle occurs in the next three days, I am giving the gift of sock. As in, singular. A sock and a promise. I think I can finish the Besotted scarves in time. At least my sock recipients will know what the finished product will look like.

I could just say, "Here is this year's sock. You will get the mate to it next Christmas."

Would that be too rude? ;-)

Forgot to mention that I've moved to the New Beta Blogger now. Whoo hoo. I can't tell the difference yet, except that Bloglines shows that freaky little red-exclamation-point-in-brackets [!] next to my blog's name now. So, upgrade your Blogrolls, I guess.

Labels: Christmas knitting, WIP

posted by Jeanne @ 4:00 AM 0 comments