More progress, but it's a slow event.

I ran outside in my housecoat & slippers, to get a few shots of last night's progress on my Knitting Olympics Challenge Vest. OOps, I let the cat out of the bag! Yes, it's a vest in chunky yarn, with intarsia stripes. Lots of little balls of big yarn...

So far I'm not too aggravated at all those little balls of yarn. I'll let you know if that changes.

Olympian dreams

Yesterday I cast on for my Knitting Olympics challenge, just as the opening ceremony kicked off. I can tell this is going to be even more difficult than I had originally thought; I had forgotton how many small balls of yarn would wind up hanging off the knitting, in the process of making vertical stripes. Anyway, I will perservere. Here's a pic of last night's progress, held by my ever-lovin' Plaidman:

Have you seen it from this angle?
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This project looked doomed before I started, because at about 5 minutes before the start of the opening, I couldn't find the pattern. Had to get into the computer, which meant moving the Plaidman away from it, & search for it in my docs. But I'm well started now, and enjoyed both the ceremony and the start of this project. I don't want to say exactly what it's supposed to be just yet. Happy Saturday!

It's official

I have signed up for the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics. Fear & trepidation fill my heart...but it's a good thing.
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In other news, The Plaid Patrol has hispeed interwebs now! Woohoo! We be in the high cotton now. Last night I downloaded two pictures to Flickr in one minute; this would have taken two or three hours on the dial-up.



That, dear friends, just uploaded to Blogger in less than a minute. This is a Drops design, for a lacy tank top. I started it last summer, and worked on it pretty digilently for a while, until the dreaded holiday knitting just couldn't be put off any longer. Before you get the wrong idea, this tank top is not my Knitting Olympics challenge. I may finish it after the Olympics.

And that is the obligatory orange cat that serious knitters must have. A story: while the cable guy was in the house, this little kitty stayed out in the living room and even sniffed at the man. Meanwhile, the 15 lb monster kitty went into hiding. Go figure.

Do I know what I'm talking about?

Image via Wikipedia

Apparently not! I must stand corrected; Debbie Stoller's line of yarns includes these three so far:
Full O' Sheep, a 100% Peruvian wool, looks like a roving yarn
Bamboo Ewe, 55% bamboo viscose + 45% wool, has a little sheen to it
Alpaca Love, which is an alpaca/wool blend (exact amts?)
Notice that all are derived from all-natural sources--although the bamboo is processed to produce something like a rayon fiber, it did come from a natural source.
Yesterday I got a "care package" from Ms. Stoller, with 3 balls of Full O' Sheep, 2 balls Bamboo Ewe, and 4 balls of Alpaca Love. I've rewound two balls of the Full O' Sheep (let's be careful not to say that aloud too many times), as they were missing their labels and starting to unwind.

The Plaidman was admiring the nice yarn cakes that came off the ball winder he got me for Christmas.
I always make sure to let him know how much I like the yarny tools he's given me. He got a swift for me, which I put away every time because I just love the label on the box. It's Japanese, and the box is labelled "Almighty Reeling Machine"---gives me a giggle every time.

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Soon, my little chickadees, we will be pushing this silly blog into hyperdrive: We're set up to get an upgrade from dial-up (49.2 KBPS) to ACTUAL HIGH SPEED internet! I will actually be able to post pictures without going gray in the process. Which will make this site a heck of a lot more interesting--who wants to read when there are pictures!?!? Sometime ago, I got Zemanta linked into this thing, and that's the source of the picture above. Found another cuter one, alpacas grazing somewhere in the UK, but the stupid Zemanta doesn't want to put more than one pic on the page. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Here's hoping...

That this year doesn't fly by too quickly--I'm thoroughly sick of holiday knitting. So much so, in fact, that the latest acquisition of Wool Ease Thick & Quick -- originally intended for use as holiday 2010 knitting (hats!) -- will be used in a multicolored vest for ME, dammit. I actually need some practice knitting an item larger than a cowl, that has some shaping (armholes, neckline), in order to get a handle on these parts of sweater knitting before I start on Plaidman's sweater. He & I looked through The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd, to see & discuss the possibilities. I have never knit a sweater, so I'm looking for one that will have simple construction with minimal shaping, but that will still allow me to throw in some cables (he likes cables, and I can do cables!). I have a large pile of Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, in three shades of green. No, his sweater will not be plaid. I am so intimidated by the idea of sweater knitting! But it is the main reason I wanted to learn to knit, along with knitted lace, and of course socks, oh and don't forget shawls....shoot, if it can be knit, I want to knit it!
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Some time ago, I was on Ravelry in one of the forums, reading a thread & noticed that Debbie Stoller had an entry in the thread. Well, Debbie's book Stitch 'N Bitch was my ticket to Knitterhood -- she taught me to knit! And I have been so pleased & grateful, I just had to send her a message saying so. I wouldn't care at all if she didn't respond, I just had to let her know how much it meant to me to be able to do all these neat tricks with string & sticks. But she did respond! And very graciously, too. I suspect she may be a really nice gal, so if you haven't read her books, please do. She's also launching a line of moderately priced natural-blend yarns, of which there are three currently available. One is a wool & acrylic, another is alpaca & acrylic, and the 3rd is bamboo blend. I haven't seen or fondled them yet, but I intend to look for them the next time I'm yarn shopping.
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Ok, now the bad news: Plaidman has been laid off. Thanks to the stimulus package, he'll get a little more $ each week than he would normally have gotten. And he's still a non-smoker, so he's saving a lot of money there. Of course, the reason he's a non-smoker is his development of heart-related problems, for which he has to take lots of expensive medication--and he has other medical issues, again requiring expensive medication. But hey, he doesn't snore as loudly as he used to! I noticed that within days of him quitting--now I think I may be a louder sleeper than he is!
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Well, I have somewhere else I need to be pretty soon, so TTFN!

Sooo nerdy...

My Category: Quetzalcoatl
-= click to take @ NerdTests.com =-

Nearly clean plate

*** Delayed due to aggravation, this post is now about six weeks late getting online -- better late than never? ***THIS IS MY 5OTH POST! I'm still working on ONE LAST X-Mas gift for a coworker. I'd gathered together all the accessories I'd knitted, and realized that I actually had enough for all the coworkers, & carried them to the office. I blithely handed out one to each, and let a few take more than one (I had extras!!). It was only later that I realized I'd forgotten to give one to BH! Drat! So I still have that in progress, as well as the last pair of slippers mentioned in the previous post. Now, one pair of the finished slippers were supposed to be for my niece, so I'll need to finish the last pair as her size. It may be a while before I do that. I'm still stuck on making cowls! and I went back to Michael's for more (a LOT more!) of the Wool-Ease Thick & Quick, which is just super for cowls. I joined a cowls group in Ravelry. I may be sliding into an addiction here....but it's so satisfying to complete a project in just a few hours of work. And I've been able to use my new toy, a Christmas gift from the Plaidman: a manually operated ball winder! Another fun gadget, and many more Brownie points for the Plaidman! Last summer, I stopped into Big Lots just to see if they might have some yarn. They had Moonlight Mohair and Lion Suede, for $1.50 a ball--so a lot of that came home with me! I'm making BH's cowl from the Moonlight Mohair (actually, this is her "other" cowl: all the other coworkers got to pick out their gift from a selection, so I'd like BH to have the same opportunity), after trying it in an easy lace pattern worked on the needles suggested in the pattern. That first one turned out to be a bit snugger than what I think BH would like, but I learned that a) I need to use a bigger needle and b) I can cast on enough for another repeat of the pattern and c)the pattern as written takes more than one ball of MMohair. So I'm working it in one Main Color (Sahara) with two Contrast Colors used as narrow stripes (Purple Mountains & Everglades). It's AWESOME!! No pics yet, but as soon as it's finished I'll snap some. I got shots of the cowls, which I had fun editing too. So I thought I'd just sprinkle them throughout this post, which will definitely slow down the posting--Blogger on dial-up, can't go fast!
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In other news, the Plaidman is still a non-smoker! This makes me so happy, I'm not at all sure you want to see how happy I am. But I'm a little ashamed too: I've been meaning to use fabric refresher in his car, to get the smoke smell out, but just haven't found the time and will coinciding. Now it's full dark outside, and we have feral cats out there..I ain't about to go out there! DiscoDame is still living on borrowed time (& money & shelter...),i.e. living at home with the folks & sucking the very life out of us -- Situation Normal. She went to a shower for a friend's second (illegitimate) child, which was held at a buffet where you have to pay to get into the dining area. Yes, in addition to paying for a present, or in her case a whole sackful of presents. This is the same friend who feels free to call on her as an unpaid babysitter for the first child. This friend doesn't seem to realize that any funds DiscoDame has are derived from her parents' paychecks! I've expressed my indignation to DD, and suggested several times that she should ask for $ whenever she cares for the kiddo--she might not get it, but it would send a message to ask!
What's really funny: Miss Friend works for WalMart, and put her baby on their gift registry! Like we're all gonna go buy her a bunch of stuff she could get with an employee discount. She also put Baby2 on the Target registry; I think DiscoDame bought her gifts there. But for heaven's sake, how nervy can a gal get? First off, a baby shower for a second child -- used to be considered gauche, since one presumably hung onto the goodies from Baby1's shower. I know, nowadays every baby gets a shower; they're all special, etc. Next, hosting the shower herself--is DD her only friend or relation that cares enough to have a shower? 18 people showed up to celebrate (mostly family--maybe DD is her only friend!); could not one of those folk be persuaded to host a party? And the most galling offence has to be holding this shindig at a venue requiring payment to enter. That's just too much. Whatever happened to getting together at a friend's/relative's home, just a dozen or so folks, hosted by the homeowner with basic cake & ice cream, mints & nuts for nibbles, on paper plates with plastic dinnerware?
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Well, I thought I'd put pics in this post, but Blogger isn't doing that at all, sorry! I will save this in draft & try again another time.