Faux Weekends

I hate weekends like this. You know, the kind of weekend where it doesn’t even feel like you had one? Yeah, that was mine. Busy, busy, busy…yard work yesterday (my muscles can feel it!), prepping the old floors for the new floors, and more yard work today. Not nearly enough knitting/reading/lounging time.

Knitting:

LouLa’s tank top, not quite finished with the shaping for the arm holes:

I really like the Cotton Fleece, I can see myself using it a lot for things for her and other kids. I do really like the book (Barefoot Knits), too, but I have a tiny problem with it. It doesn’t show any schematics. Is that what they’re called? You know, where they show a drawing of the finished item, before seaming. This doesn’t have that. Which, isn’t such a big deal, since the patterns are pretty basic. But, I was thinking that this top looked awfully small, and I was wondering about putting the seam up the back, that seemed a little odd. Then I read the pattern a little more carefully and realized that I need to make two of those. Duh! With schematics, I would have figured that out much earlier. As it is, the tank top will probably be too big. Oh well, better too big than too small.

After nearly a year of hinting and hoping:

Josh has a sock! Only one so far, but I’m good about keeping Second Sock Syndrome at bay. It fits very well and is the perfect length. If you want to look very closely, you can see both mistakes. Oh well, it’s just a sock. I like KP Essential. I haven’t knit with the new stuff until this sock, and it’s really soft. For solids, I think it’s a great deal and a great yarn.

Reading:

I started on Nineteen Minutes and it’s pretty decent. I’m not quite halfway through with it and I’m enjoying it. I like how she moves between the characters, and their point of view, as well as back and forth in time.

Books, Books, Books…

I am *almost* done with Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach. For a long while, I was annoyed reading the book. She travels a lot, but never explains how she can afford it. Obviously the gist of the book is about what she learned along the way in her travels and her impressions of the non-touristy places. But, I’m practical and I love to travel, so I want to know how she funded these trips. Maybe I’m just jealous.I bought more than yarn this week:

Top: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult-I’ve read all of her other books and I’ve liked most of them. Sometimes they get a little trite and it’s like she can’t think of anything new. But, I’m hoping this one is different.

Left: Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande- The title of this intrigued me.

Right: Comeback: a mother and daughter’s journey through hell and back by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine- Again, the title intrigued me, though this book could be cheesy and bad.

Both of these are by Gregory Maguire, of Wicked fame. I really held out reading Wicked. I picked it up in various bookstores several times, and I wanted to like it, but I always put it down. One day, I broke down and bought it and I really enjoyed the book. It’s one that I could read again, because it’s fairly complex and I’m sure I missed things. I think I’ll enjoy both of these, too.

I think the Picoult one will be next. I need something that is “brain candy” for me.

Tomorrow I’ll post my knitting progress. Later this week, I may have a short post on new flooring in our home. I’m so excited! Seriously, when you see the before and after pictures, you’ll know why.

FYI, I’ll be gone next weekend. My dad and his family are going to meet us in a nearby city and put us up in a swanky hotel. It’s a late birthday celebration for LouLa and I’ll run/walk the 12K on Sunday. It’ll be a busy week.

Two Yarn Stores + One Day = Heaven!

 

I have had a great day!

From left to right:

Dream in Color (unnamed color)-This will be used for my Wicked sweater. I was looking for a solid, rather than handpainted, but this is solid enough, I think. It’s a superwash merino and I hope it doesn’t pill too terribly.

Above- Cotton Fleece (Robin Egg Blue)-for a tank top for LouLa.

On the right- Cotton Fleece (Wisteria and Nymph)-for a wrap dress for LouLa.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with this yarn.

There’s Fiddlesticks Knitting in Plum. It’s a lace weight in 50% merino wool and 50% tussah silk. It’s soft and beautiful and very purple.

I also bought one skein of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in the pink and 5 skeins of the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in yellow. It was on sale for 40% off, which seemed like a steal. Ideas anyone?

The small notion bag has some stitch markers and stitch holders. I can’t keep track of those things, maybe this will help.

No trip to the yarn store would be complete without sock yarn, right? That’s Cherry Tree Hill in Nantucket Red and Jitterbug in Velvet Plum.

Of course I had to get books! Barefoot Knits may just be my favorite book for knitting for kids. It uses Cotton Fleece and a size 6 needle for every pattern. The sizes go up to a 10 for many of the patterns and they’re all basic, but I can see where you can be creative if you want. I *think* it’s just the book I’ve been searching for. The Cotton Fleece I bought is for two of the patterns in this book.

I have been ambivalent about buying Casts Off! I’ve heard that there’s quite a bit of repetition from the Yarn Harlot’s other books, but I really like her writing and I think she’s funny. At that point in the day, I wasn’t holding back on buying what I wanted.

Knit Today is a magazine from England. I’ve found that the craft magazines from the UK are generally better and more modern in terms of patterns and styles than what we have here. Other than IK, I haven’t been really interested in the patterns in other magazines. I’ll still buy them, don’t get me wrong, because I’m a magazine fiend. Anyway, I’ve usually gotten Simply Knitting, another UK magazine, but I thought I’d take a chance on this. I’ve paged though it and I think I prefer Simply Knitting. But, again, I’m not that picky when it comes to magazines.

Josh survived, though he almost sent in a search party for me when I was on my second yarn store. I told him that if I died in a yarn store, I would have died a happy woman.

Time to swatch!

Indecisiveness

I went through all my magazines, looked around on the net, and made a list of all the sweaters I would like to knit.  Mind you, these are just the “summer” sweaters that I want to do.  There are 9 on the list.  I’ve narrowed it down to Wicked or the Green Tea Raglan (Interweave Knits Spring 2007).  I really, really love Wicked, but assuming I found the perfect yarn tomorrow, I couldn’t get started on it for some time since I just ordered the pattern.  I’m not one for delayed gratification, so this is a problem.  And, who knows, I may just change my mind between now and tomorrow and decide to do a different pattern.

I’m also going to be on the lookout for yarn to make a sweater for LouLa.  I really love Reid (Knitty Spring 2006), but I also have my eye on the Girl’s Raglan Cardigan from Knit It! Spring 2007.

My husband didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he said we could stop off at the yarn store.

His idea of “stopping at the yarn store”:  He waits in the car while I go in, find what I want, and pay.  Total time-15 minutes, max.

The reality:  He waits in the car while I go in, walk around the store once to get an idea of where things are, then do another circuit to really look at what they have that might work with what I want to do, then spend more time debating between 2-3 yarns, then spend time debating between 2-3 colors.  Total time-at least an hour.

There is nothing like the joy of a 3 year old with blue frosting.

Knitting:

I have finished the Embossed Leaves socks!

I am mostly happy with them.  They are too long and I should have gone with my gut and stopped the pattern when I thought I should.  But, I went one more repeat.  They are still nice, and I’ll wear them, but it’s something that will probably always bug me.

Stats:

Pattern-Embossed Leaves from Favorite Socks by IK

Yarn-Koigu KPM-The problems I had with the yarn continued, though as the skeins went on, it wasn’t as bad.  Bad enough that I probably won’t actively seek Koigu out to use again.

Needles- KP circular size 1, 32″-I used the Magic Loop method (as always)

Modifications-None

I started Josh’s socks, but didn’t swatch (Bad, Heather!) and after knitting 6 rounds, he tried them on.  They are way too big.  I’ll use what I have and start knitting in stockinette to get a swatch.  I think I’m going to use the twin rib pattern from SKS.

 Reading:

Chances are, the trip to the not-so-LYS on Monday will include a trip to a bookstore.  I will take any and all suggestions on reading material.  I read pretty much anything, even bodice rippers.  It is one of my guilty pleasures, along with reality tv.  I am *almost* ashamed.

 

“Surprise” Roses

I received a very special surprise yesterday at work.

 

It was our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday. Not so long, but it feels longer, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Josh can’t keep anything a surprise, so I had a pretty good idea that I would get some flowers yesterday. Maybe it was the fact that he said, “You’re going to get a surprise delivered at work today that I think you’re going to like….I can’t wait for you to get your surprise…etc.” It was a nice gift and it’s not something that I get often, so it was wonderful, even if it wasn’t exactly a surprise.

Knitting:

I’m still working on the Embossed Leaves socks. I have one done and I’m past decreasing on the gusset on the other. I’m going to make Josh a pair of socks when I’m done, using one of these:

The blue is more of a blue-grey. I haven’t used KP Essential for quite awhile. These skeins are the newer, softer version. I’ll probably use one of the patterns from SKS, or maybe the Moc Croc pattern from KP. I would love to use one of the patterns from Favorite Socks, but I need to get that returned to the library.

(Special thanks to Nicole who clued me in on the close up feature on my camera!)

I’m also thinking of making Wicked. On Monday I get to go to the not-so-LYS, and I’m going to look at some yarn there. I would like something that I can wear during the summer when it’s chilly, but cotton tends to be heavy, so I don’t know.

Reading:

Nothing new. During the week I can’t stay awake long enough to get any reading done.

Can I just shut up already?

So sorry for that insanely long post yesterday. If you read the entire thing, I’m impressed!

A deer hit my car this morning. I refuse to say that I hit the deer. No! It hit me. It climbed over the guardrail, and I even swerved to try and avoid it, but it insisted on running into me.

Items to replace (all to passenger side):
-door
-quarter panel
-rear view mirror
-hood
-headlight
-windshield

I bought this car in August of 2004. I have been hit by two deer (or was it just one?) and two cars prior to this morning. It has had over $10,000 worth of damage to it.
I have a great relationship with my local auto body shop, and I do have good insurance. So, I’ll pay another $250 for everything to be fixed. The only good thing is that the windshield needed to be replaced anyway, so it’s getting done faster than I would have been able to.

How’s this for great customer service?: My auto body shop drove 40 miles to tow the car and they even brought a loaner car to my work. They could have made me scramble to find a ride to their shop, but they were kind enough to accommodate me. I think I’m going to bake them cookies or something. They have been really good throughout the years.

LouLa went on a walk with her Daddy, so I have some time to myself. I’m very independent (selfishly so, at times), and there are times that I desperately need my space. In a small house, with an (almost!) 3 year old who is going through a clingy phase, this is hard to come by. That’s been the hardest thing about motherhood for me; totally giving of myself when I may not want to. The good far out weighs the bad and it’s gotten better. The bright spring morning has made it easy for me to have some time to myself today. She’ll go outside at the drop of a hat and doesn’t care who goes with her, just as long as she gets to go.

Knitting:

I haven’t made lots of progress on the socks, but I thought I’d show you a picture or two. I must say, my Kodak EasyShare camera isn’t into close ups, so just pretend everything is perfectly focused.

Please pretend my feet are manicured, too. Thanks.

I’ve picked up for the gussets on the other sock. It took me some time to figure that out. The way the heel turn works out, you end up on the left side of the gusset. The pattern says to cut the yarn and then rejoin to pick up on the right side. I wasn’t sure why it didn’t just have you knit across the heel to the right side and then begin picking up as usual. Far be it from me to question a published pattern. I’ve done it before, with bad results. So, I put the sock down, watched the movie (The Holiday-very cute), and thought about it. I went back and reread the pattern to see if there might be a reason further on in the pattern. There are few things I hate worse than frogging and I didn’t want to screw myself. But, there didn’t seem to be any real reason that I could just knit across and do my normal picking up. So, I did. I’ve only done the first round and all seems to be well. It’s written for dpns, which complicated things a little, since I had to remember where needle 1, 2, 3, and 4 were on a sock. I don’t think there will be any problems.

I do love that this pattern has a garter stitch border on the heel. I do much better picking up with a garter stitch border. And, I even picked up the same number of stitches on both sides. In addition, I even picked up exactly what the pattern called for. I hardly ever do that. My left side tends to have 3-4 more stitches picked up than the right. It’s just more decreasing, but I feel like I’m a naughty sock knitter for not following the pattern exactly.

Responding to comments from yesterday:

Liz, you are so right! I am very glad that I’ve moved on to garments! I looked through my non-sock yarn stash yesterday, hoping that I had enough of something to make a sweater for LouLa. No such luck. Not unless I wanted to do stripes, and I didn’t. My regular stash is mostly from my early days of knitting and I just bought yarn with nothing in mind. That would be fine, except I would only buy a skein or two or any particular color.

lucillelane, I don’t consider myself much more than a novice, really. My advice is to just go for it, whatever “it” is. I stayed away from sweaters for so long because it just seemed too complicated. I wish I had gotten into it sooner. I’ve only been seriously knitting for a little over a year. I’ve never done any colorwork, except for one stripe on a hat. I’ve just barely seamed. But, most things aren’t that hard, it just takes patience and confidence.

Beverly, I’m so with you on the m1s! But, it was my first sweater, and I didn’t think it was a good time to question the pattern. I was lucky it worked out. Next time, I’ll kf&b, though.

Reading:

Finished the Dornstein book yesterday afternoon. What a good read. I highly recommend it.

I started messenger by Lois Lowry last night and finished it this morning. It’s a children’s/young adult novel. Lowry also wrote The Giver, which won the Newbury Award. messenger is the third book in a semi-trilogy that started with The Giver. It was very good.

I’ve started Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach. It’s a memoir about a woman who travels all over the world and learns new things. I’m at the beginning and she’s in Paris, taking a cooking class at the Ritz. She also goes to Scotland and learns how to train Border collies, goes to Japan to learn traditional art, etc. It’s well-written, though this lady has got to have quite a bit of cash to be able to do this. She’s also written Without Reservations, about her “European journey of self-discovery” that I haven’t read.

Yes, I read quite a bit when I can, and I tend to read fast. The weekend is my productive time for knitting and reading. During the week I get far less done.

Speaking of being busy…I won’t have time to post again until later this week. LouLa turns 3 on Tuesday, and I’m running a 5K on Saturday at 9:00. We’re having a small family party on Saturday in the park (no rain!) at 12:00. I’m supposed to pick up her cake at 11:00, and then I’m going to get a bucket of chicken or something. I think I’m crazy for planning so much on Saturday, but I’d just as soon get it done with. I’m not into planning big parties.

Knitting:

It’s done!!

I think it is really cute, but I’ll let you see for yourself.

I should have done a close up of the buttons. Those are ladybug buttons and they are adorable! I was going to get something in a bright pink, but I didn’t find any that I liked and these seemed perfect. The ribbon around the neckline is a lovely addition and ties the ladybugs in nicely. It isn’t supposed to be there, but I had “issues” with m1. By “issues,” I mean holes. Whoops! I rarely do increases, and I haven’t mastered the m1 yet. I’ve since read that you’re supposed to ktbl, which I didn’t. Oh well. They were there and evenly spaced, so it worked out fine. I made the hat using the Umbilical Cord Hat pattern from Stich ‘n Bitch. It was very easy, though I’m not sure that the baby will be able to wear the hat at the same time she can wear the sweater. The sweater will probably fit at 12 months and the hat looks much too small for that size of a baby. But, I had extra yarn and baby hats are so cute.

To sum it all up:

Yarn: KP Shine Worsted in Apple Green. It’s beautifully soft and I love the color for kid/baby things. I’d definitely use it again. I used about 6 skeins for the sweater and less than one skein for the hat.

Needles: KP Options in size 6 (I think)

Pattern: Daisy sweater pattern from Knitty, largest size and no modifications. Hat is Umbilical Cord Hat from Stitch n’ Bitch

I also made a couple of cotton baby bibs. Pictures are on my flickr account.

I’m still working on the Embossed Leaves socks. I’ve turned the heel on one, so I’m getting close to the foot. That should go pretty fast and I hope to be done with the pair by the end of next weekend.

Reading:

I’m about halfway done with The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky, by Ken Dornstein. It’s a memoir written by the brother of a man who was killed in the terrorist attack on Pan Am flight 103 that went down over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. I really like it. Dornstein focuses on how he dealt with his grief after the death of his brother. He basically wanted to find out who his brother was. He talked to those who knew his brother and read all the journals and papers left behind by his brother. It’s sad, but it’s very interesting. I’ve been to Lockerbie, so the part of the book where he visits the town was touching to me. Because I’ve been there, I almost connect to that attack more so than with the September 11th attack, since I haven’t been to NYC or the other places that were a part of that day. The brothers had quite a few years between them (almost 10, I think), which is something I can relate to also.

Other than the socks, I’m floundering at what to knit next. I’ll start a swatch on a sweater I want to make for me. But, it’s wool and I wouldn’t be able to wear it until next winter. I would really like to make a wrap sweater that I found somewhere on the web (it’s bookmarked on my computer at work), but I don’t have any or enough yarn in my stash and I don’t have the money to buy more. Oh woe is me! I have plenty of sock yarn, so I think I’ll manage to survive.

My Favorite Things…

Yes, I know the cheese factor on the title is very high. But, it fits.

Presenting, my favorite socks:

From left to right:

1.  Swap socks made by Liz in Cherry Tree Hill (right, Liz?).  I love these because they’re longer in the legs than any of my other socks.  With my “shapely” calves, it’s hard to get socks to fit high enough.  Liz was smart enough to add some invisible increases and I get long, beautiful socks.

2.  Monkey pattern done in Cherry Tree Hill.  The yarn was part of a swap Liz and I did, along with our socks.  I sent her some Bearfoot, and I received this lovely yarn and colorway.  It’s mostly blue, but there are hints of green and lighter blue.  It really worked out with the pattern and they are wonderfully comfortable to wear.

3.  Some lace pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks done in Bearfoot.  This photo doesn’t do the yarn justice.  If you haven’t knitted with Bearfoot, you need to!  It’s sooo soft and yummy.

4.  A rib pattern from SKS done in Lorna’s Laces.  These are by far my brightest socks.  It’s the Bittersweet colorway and the entire time I was knitting them I couldn’t get over how bright they are.  They blindingly bright.  But, I like them.  It’s not my usual thing; I much prefer softer tones, but these are fun.

I bought buttons tonight for the Green Baby Cardi.  So cute!  I’ll have it all done by the weekend and I’ll post a picture then.  I also knit up a couple of cotton bibs that I’ll show you all.  I have to say, I LOVE knitting for babies.  The instant gratification is high and the finished product is so darn cute!  I’m working on a matching hat for the cardi, which may or may not work out.

Book News:

I may quit the deja vu book.  I’m sure I’ve read it before, even though I can’t remember much.  The book isn’t so great that I feel the need to read it again.  I have two memoirs that I’m interested in and I know I haven’t read those.  We’ll see.