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Monday, May 24, 2010

Too big a bite


Ok, there were a lot of plans made for the weekend, but not much got done. The first Once&Future sock was into the ball of the foot, had about a half inch of slip stitch reinforcement knit there when it occurred to me that the balls of my feet are really rather sensitive. So I pulled it off the Addi, frogged back all that heavy-duty slip stitch, oh so carefully picked up all the free stitches & got back to work again. I might have finished it, except that Disco & I made another run to the library (about 3 hours there) on Friday, followed by a couple hours in the grocery. So not too much knitting done Friday. Saturday I was doing pretty well with it, until Disco reminded me that we had discount movie passes & could we please use them? Another 3 hours shot out of my life, what with traveling to & from the mall and watching Robert Downey Jr be super bad. Sunday morning I got up early & knit for a few hours, then got dressed (what? you don't sit around in your housecoat on Sunday morning, reading the paper & watching TV?), then spent a very warm afternoon cleaning the kitchen & cooking dinner. I wanted to be sure dinner would be ready when LOST came on. DiscoDame & the Plaidman were out doing laundry in the afternoon, dinner was mostly in the crockpot. And there was NO way any of us would miss LOST. *sigh* I guess that's another hour of knitting time each week, since it's all over now. We may as well sell the TV, there's not much else we watch!
What are my plans for this coming, extra-long, weekend? Well, I'd like to hem at least two pairs of trousers for work -- I bought some last year (!!!) that I never did hem, partly because I knew I needed to lose a few pounds to wear them comfortably. I weigh 12 lbs less now than I did last summer, and these are summer-weight trousers, so now would be a good time to get them into wardrobe rotation. I'd like to hem the winter trousers I got this past fall (I've been wearing them with faux cuffs pinned in them!), but as they were a bit big on me before & have only gotten bigger maybe I'll have them taken in first. As far as knitting & knitting related projects go, that socks need to get along; the thrift store sweaters need to be raveled & washed & wound, the lace tank should be brought out of hibernation, and Plaidman's alpaca/silk sweater should be started. Whew! You'd think it was time to start Christmas knitting...or is it!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Time flies



My one little chickadee has turned 27. Go over to her blog, discodamespursuitoflife.blogspot.com
and bug her about being such an "old lady"!
***



Let's back up a step or two: the Lorna's laces has been rewound into cakes. The Regia sock yarn has been wound, and I've applied a Russian join to my sock-in-progress-once-again [sort of the Once and Future Sock...]. I plan on finishing this sock this weekend, starting the second one immediately, and making some sock blockers from plastic placemats. I'll make a pair of blockers in my size first, and if that goes well I'll make some for the Plaidman & DiscoDame. My other tasks for the weekend include hemming at least two pairs of trousers, and hitting the library so I can get into Ravelry. Next weekend will be a four-day, since we have a holiday! I'd really like to start unraveling some of the thrift store sweaters I've got, so maybe I'll devote a big part of the holiday weekend to that project.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Too much & too little

It can stop raining anytime now, ya know! We had standing water in the crawlspace again. I found a slug in the tub last night. I hate slugs. Ever since I stepped on a very large one, bare footed, one early morning back in West Nashville. Talk about gross! I was instantly so sick, that if I'd had breakfast I would have ralphed big time. I couldn't even lift up my foot, I just knew I couldn't look at the mess! The Plaidman had to come to my rescue, and he even wiped off my foot. Now that's love: when he's willing to wipe mushed slug off your foot, he's a keeper.
DiscoDame & I went to the library Saturday midday. I had a plan: upload some pictures to Flickr, then get on Ravelry & add a couple of projects (one finished & one frogged) with some of those pictures, then blog about it all, and maybe check out Facebook. Well, Flickr wouldn't recognize my password -- maybe I changed it? I couldn't remember, so I had to set up a new password, so the folderol with Flickr used up a quarter of the time I had reserved on the computer. Then I realized I hadn't brought the yarn & pattern info with me, to add my projects on Rav, so I kinda had to hunt through my favorites for the pattern info, then a yarn search for the yarn that was used & frogged. I did have a message, and a new friend on Ravelry: Zoom of knitnut.net asked to be my friend! Which is totally cool, as I've been following her blog for quite a while, and I adore Duncan Donut the Fabulous Dogcat. I just glad none of my furfriends are that large! Anyway, with all the folderol of Flickr & searchs, I ran out of time for blogging and never got to Facebook at all. Whew! Too much stuff to get done, and too little computer time to do it all. It's so aggravating that we had to discontinue our Internet access at home. Just can't afford it now! But that may be something we can get back to, as both Plaidman and DiscoDame are supposed to go to the employment center today, to sign up for flood cleanup work. Supposedly, it pays $8 to $10 an hour, which would be a huge help for our finances even if only one of them gets work. It is temporary, but expected to last about six months, so maybe we can get the Purl repaired and catch up on some bills before it gets cold again.
GAH! I have tried to get some pics onto this blog, but the ones I want are not in a format that I can easily apply here.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Proof positive

In case you doubt my extreme crazypants frogging fit, behold! Four hanks of Lornas Laces Shepherd Sport, Baltic Sea colorway, washed & dried & ready to be rewound into yarncakes:



This is how it used to look:


_______________

These were taken out in the sun, which makes this yarn look a lot lighter in color than it looks indoors. These used to be the Knit Picks Feather & Fan shawl; they may still be that item, but I know so much more about using handpainted yarns that I think whatever they become they'll look a lot better!
Granny E just came by to look at the baby hat in the Deborah Norville yarn, and agreed with me that it's about hideous....so I will frog it, and likely it will be added to the sock yarn collection for the Mitered Squares baby blanket. I think I'll take it outside & get a photo before frogging, just for S&G's.
Anyway, back to X-treme crazy frogging--here's a few of the Regia sock yarn that used to be the Moc Croc sock:




It's also a lot darker than it looks, I think I may have a shot of the Mark II Moc Croc....


Yeah, that's better! And see the nice Addi needle? Thank you, Plaidman!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Commisioned work

One down, one in progress. Miss A's hat has been delivered to her and she looks GREAT in it, don't know if she'll let me take a cellphone pic or not but I got shots of it before delivery:
****

*** I am plugging away at the other commission, another baby hat. The Granny brought me some Deb Norville Serenity sock yarn:

It's self-striping, and honestly? It looks absolutely dreadful as a baby hat. Also, it's so splitty that I made the Plaidman look closely at the label and repeat the name, then told him to NEVER BUY this stuff for me. He said he'd actually looked at it in the store, but didn't buy it because it was "pricey" (at about $3.50 per ball!). Then I told him to compare it to the absolutely lovely ShiBui Knits Sock, 100% merino, ever so much nicer--which was probably a bargain at over $10.00 a hank! Quality counts, folks!
EDTA: Speaking of quality, DiscoDame now has her diploma! Check it out:

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Small victories

Dear Diary,
Today I learned to do a tubular cast on! It's totally tubular and gnarly, dudes!
And how many of you can do this neat trick? I sure wish I'd learnt it before I cast on the Moc Croc Socks again. I've got about 5" of the leg done already.
**
On the not-so-victorious side, the death toll for the Flood of 2010 keeps rising, even as the waters are receding. Locally, one teen and one older man are missing, presumed lost to the flood. I feel so sad for the families of the missing & dead. Several local radio stations have been raising funds for the Red Cross, and of course today is the National Day of Prayer -- so these poor folks will be remembered in prayer, and their folks will be remembered in service.
*^*^*^*^*^
I've had some comments about the tubular cast on I've learned. I went to a blog called My Fashionable Life (//autoscopia.com/amelia/archives/2005/11/tubular_cast_on), which is not where I first saw this & thought I might be able to follow the instruction, but I can't find the one I thought I'd seen...Don't we just love the innerwebs? Anyway, Amelia makes it pretty clear & I actually got it to work the very first time I tried it! And it looks great. And is stretchy, which is so super as I have a hard time keeping my cast-ons from being too tight. So now I can make the ribbed brims of my hats lots stretchier, which will be a lot more comfortable. Ok, for the next commission, I'm making a hat for Miss A, who has a smallish head. I'm using Lion Brand Wool Ease, worsted, double-stranded. The hat called for a bulky yarn, and I've just about got gauge (yes, I swatched! Can you believe it! I know!) with this doubled. I'm using color "Wheat", which is kinda like their "Oatmeal" only with strands of brown & copper thru it. Miss A has problems with wool, but at 20% there's not going to be enough here to bother her. The other commission is one I'm not sure I agreed to, it was just assumed that I'd take care of it. Anyway, it's another knitted baby hat! Should be fun, and I'll likely keep the leftover sock yarn. I think I'm developing a mini-stash of partial balls of sock yarn, which I'd like to use for one of those mitered square baby blankets. It'll be a while before I have enough.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

All together now: AWWWW!


These tiny booties on those tiny feet....might just make your head 'splode from the cute! Yes, these are the booties made for Emma, on tiny Emma feet.
Weekend before last, I went thru my yarn crates looking to debulk the stash. I have a pile of black & white acrylic yarn to dispose of, likely will go to the Girl Scout Council. Anyway, the idea was to get rid of some. So this past weekend I went to Michael's & bought more yarn!! I am not too clear on the concept of less vs more...
But the yarn I bought was for a to-be-paid commission for a hat -- and I've selected a pattern! Hurrah for decisiveness! I have another commission too, for a baby hat--which will likely be in the same pattern as the knitted cap I did for Emma--and the party wanting it has already given me some yarn which will be quite suitable.
Sunday, in all the excitement of endless weather reporting (OMG! It's raining!), the Plaidman forgot to call in for his unemployment check. Then yesterday, he couldn't get through on the phone; he thinks their phone bank may have been in Metro Center, which is still under water. So, Plaidman & DiscoDame headed out to find an open library branch so he could register online, then off to the washateria with the laundry--which we couldn't do on Sunday because so many roads were flooded. Oh yeah, I've got to call Sis in Texas & let her know we've survived. HI SIS!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Troubled times

We've survived the historic flooding occurring here in Middle Tennessee. The effects we've seen at Chez Plaid have been limited to a flooded crawlspace (pretty much all weekend) and a brief power outage Sunday. The Plaidman was kept hopping all weekend; every time the rain stopped, he'd jump up and go plug in the pump under the crawlspace. When the rain started up again (and it always started up again!), he'd jump up to stop the pump & collect the extension cord. Back & forth, poor soul!
I've lost my mind. I had a completed Moc Croc Sock, & about 2/3 of the leg portion of the second sock done. When I picked up this project again, I couldn't recall exactly how the increases & decreases went, so I re-read the pattern. Now, when I first started working this sock, I was a bit surprised that the ribbing rows (5 of the 6 rows in the pattern repeat) were a 4-stitch pattern (P1, K 3) while the inc/dec rows were a 5-stitch pattern. "How odd!", I thought. But I completed the first sock & started on the second the same way. So, when I re-read the pattern, imagine my chagrin when I saw that the ribbing rows are actually supposed to be *P1, K3, P1*; repeat between the * --which would make it a 5-stitch pattern JUST LIKE THE OTHER row. I worked the lower leg of the #2 sock, and even got the whole way through the gusset, and decided it just wouldn't do. So both socks have been completely frogged, the yarn's been washed to get out the kinks, and I've restarted these IN THE CORRECT PATTERN!!! And I'm using Magic Loop, & a 4o" Addi Turbo circular (US size 1), and I've knit on it all weekend, even taking it outside on the porch to knit in daylight while the power was out. Whew! I have about 4" of the first leg done, and it looks fabulous. Oh, and I love the Addi's! The Plaidman gave me this one, back when I thought I might actually knit some socks. Bless him.
If you need further proof that I am heading 'round the bend, consider this: I bought 5 hanks of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport (years & years ago! couldn't afford that now!) in color way Baltic Sea, and had just about 4 of those hanks knit up in a Feather & Fan stole, and thought the changes between the hanks were too obvious. So it went into hibernation for about 18 months; it came out this weekend. DiscoDame helped me frog it (4 hanks!!) & wind it back into hanks on the swift. That yarn has all been washed, & it's nearly dry now. I know so much more about knitting now than I did when I started it, that I just thought I could do it a whole lot better. We shall see.
Well, chickadees, no pictures today: We've lost internet service at the house, and I don't know how to link into Flickr from here (I'm at work! Shhh!).