Posts, that is. One FO, being Karen's Dragonfly scarf. It's pretty and sparkly and blue and now DONE. Woohoo, only ... well, let's just say more than two months since her birthday. It's slow love, what are you gonna do? And the only reason it's done now is because I was so engrossed catching up on knitting newsgroups I just kept reading and knitting. Now it's 8:30 and I didn't do my homework (Gloria, if you're reading this, you should know that Mommy was ALWAYS very bad about doing her homework. Don't be like me in that, ok hon?). So tomorrow night, no newsgroups, double homework, and no hockey game until the homework is done.
Ye gods, I'm punishing myself. Oh well, better me than someone else. But now, see (swerve back to knitting topic), I have no computer-knitting project. I'll have to check the list and find something that doesn't take too much attention. Maybe some of the slippers that have been promised. Yeah, slippers for N8an - I'm only three weeks past HIS birthday now. If it's inside a month it doesn't count as late, right?
Pictures of scarf-on-Karen tomorrow if she'll let me. If not, no pictures. She may be smaller than me but she can still beat the crap out of me if she wants to - it's a sister thing.
Oh, and update on the Knit.1 / Freshisle Fibers shawl pillow: that pattern and I just don't get along. I need a different pattern for this project. Something relatively pretty but with no purl-side yarnovers. Those are just weird and wrong.
Mar 27, 2006
Mar 26, 2006
Long time no blog... but look!
Look - it's a SWEATER! Yes, my first-ever-sweater, for me, by me, but not on me. At least not for the picture (I hate having my picture taken). Trust me, it does fit beautifully, but since it is now SPRING (JOY!!!), it's too warm to wear. D'oh! It will be packed away for Fall once I'm done showing it off.What I learned from knitting a sweater:
- Buy an extra ball of yarn, more than the pattern calls for. I rushed out on a Sunday afternoon to get enough to finish the last 2" of the turtleneck. Thank HEAVENS it's a variegated yarn - if I'd had to match a dye lot, I'd have been toast.
- If the seam doesn't quite line up right, but the pieces matched before sewing, don't "jiggle" the seam to make it match. The reason it's not lining up is because you're trying to seam the arm to the body. Since sweaters are not meant to be worn with the arm attached to the body, this is a Bad Idea. (2b: it takes just as long to rip out a careful seam as it does to put one in). (2c: check your body parts before sewing seams).
- Uh... 3. Yeah. 3 would be, "hey, look, I actually CAN knit a sweater! yay!" Or in other words, don't be afraid of a HUGE pile o'yarn and a pattern with new stuff in it. You can do it.
- Have other projects to work on to take breaks from the sweater. This reduces stress. Preferably though, don't make one of them another sweater. D'oh!
So now that the First-Ever-Sweater is out of the way, current WIPs are:
- Dad's cardigan. Back done, pockets done, first front piece underway. So far so good. Won't be ready for the birthday, but definitely for Father's Day (which is air-conditioning season so it's practical too!)
- Eeny-weeny sock #1. These are the funky blue/green/purple socks for me, which are knitting up in the COOLEST way, but I'm not taking a picture until I finish at least one. Then I'll have to make the other one. Y'all are keeping me honest here.
- Karen's scarf. Yes, I'm not working on it much. I'm also not blogging or newsgroup-posting much. There's a connection. It'll get done.
- A new thing, just started this week, but I can't say what it is because it's a surprise for someone who reads this. I won't even say who. Neener!
In fact, I've been such a good Do-bee this weekend (no, really, I even packed away my winter clothes and got out the summer stuff and tidied my bookshelves and cleaned off my desk and found my floor!), I may just start that shawl this afternoon. It's a gorgeous sunny day and I feel like starting something new. Again.
Oh, and I worked on my novel for two hours this week. Progress!
Mar 14, 2006
I'm still here...
And still working away at the "multiple WIP reality" (someone else's blog, but I like the phrase) that is my life. Here's my life, in no particular order:
1) work. Spring is coming and in the construction industry that means we're busy. On the road, on the AutoCAD, on my knees cleaning out files to make room for more files. Busy busy busy. It's all good. Did I mention I got a raise last week and that they love me? All good.
2) Peter. Well, actually, he's #1 but I see more of work than I do of him. For now. Things are rolling along on the "get a house, get married" plan and while we're not quite on the planned midsummer schedule, it does look do-able for before Christmas. Stay tuned. Things are getting good.
3) writing. The novel has taken a rather dramatic shift in focus (I may have mentioned this before) so I'm reworking characters and figuring out what my "story arc" is. (Don't know what a story arc is? Me neither. But it sounds good, don't it?). Not much actual writing-writing, but a lot of prep work. This is also good.
4) fitness! Yes, I am sticking to my workout schedule fairly well. Except last week I overdid it on the cross-training and actually blew both my quads - 3 days of "it hurts to walk, sit, stand, drive, anything" owie owie ow. All better now and treadmill time and pace is increasing steadily. I am very psyched for the 1/2 at the end of May but a bit worried about how fast it's coming up! On the plus side, I am now OFFICIALLY less than 150 lbs, for more than a week. I broke through. Yay me!
5) Finally, knitting. I've got all but about 5 1/2" of dad's cardigan back finished and it looks great. Small mishap with measuring not looking right and a day of "oh crap, I'm gonna have to rip this back, aren't I?" But no! Measure twice, cut once! Re-measured dad and the sweater back, and it looks like coming out right. So I won't need to frig around with the sleeves after all. Bonus. And... drumroll please... I've put together my Shetland Chunky sweater and am knitting up the turtleneck. I expect to finish it Thursday night and wear it Friday. Deadlines are cool. Karen's scarf is still IP as is my first-ever eeny weeny sock (which I'm loving the colours of!). Pictures of all this good stuff on the weekend.
And finally finally, I woke up this morning with a sinus infection and have been on the good drugs all day. Now I'm sipping the last of the Neo-Citran and tucking myself into bed. Right... now. Well, after I post this. Then. yeah.
Goodnight Bloglanders and Knitfolk, and other special people.
1) work. Spring is coming and in the construction industry that means we're busy. On the road, on the AutoCAD, on my knees cleaning out files to make room for more files. Busy busy busy. It's all good. Did I mention I got a raise last week and that they love me? All good.
2) Peter. Well, actually, he's #1 but I see more of work than I do of him. For now. Things are rolling along on the "get a house, get married" plan and while we're not quite on the planned midsummer schedule, it does look do-able for before Christmas. Stay tuned. Things are getting good.
3) writing. The novel has taken a rather dramatic shift in focus (I may have mentioned this before) so I'm reworking characters and figuring out what my "story arc" is. (Don't know what a story arc is? Me neither. But it sounds good, don't it?). Not much actual writing-writing, but a lot of prep work. This is also good.
4) fitness! Yes, I am sticking to my workout schedule fairly well. Except last week I overdid it on the cross-training and actually blew both my quads - 3 days of "it hurts to walk, sit, stand, drive, anything" owie owie ow. All better now and treadmill time and pace is increasing steadily. I am very psyched for the 1/2 at the end of May but a bit worried about how fast it's coming up! On the plus side, I am now OFFICIALLY less than 150 lbs, for more than a week. I broke through. Yay me!
5) Finally, knitting. I've got all but about 5 1/2" of dad's cardigan back finished and it looks great. Small mishap with measuring not looking right and a day of "oh crap, I'm gonna have to rip this back, aren't I?" But no! Measure twice, cut once! Re-measured dad and the sweater back, and it looks like coming out right. So I won't need to frig around with the sleeves after all. Bonus. And... drumroll please... I've put together my Shetland Chunky sweater and am knitting up the turtleneck. I expect to finish it Thursday night and wear it Friday. Deadlines are cool. Karen's scarf is still IP as is my first-ever eeny weeny sock (which I'm loving the colours of!). Pictures of all this good stuff on the weekend.
And finally finally, I woke up this morning with a sinus infection and have been on the good drugs all day. Now I'm sipping the last of the Neo-Citran and tucking myself into bed. Right... now. Well, after I post this. Then. yeah.
Goodnight Bloglanders and Knitfolk, and other special people.
Mar 7, 2006
Time for crappy pictures...
Because I haven't much clever or interesting to say, but as Billy Crystal said, "a writer writes - always." (Screw you, Billy, a writer wrote that for you!)Ahem. Right, knitting stuff. First up is the Dragonfly Scarf (formerly the Dragonfly Shawl, but it got downsized due to running out of a discontinued and very expensive yarn). It's for my sister's birthday present - her birthday was in January, and she picked this yarn. This is "computer knitting", very handy for things like waiting for Blogger to load the dang photos. So. WIP #1. It's about 2/3 done, I think - hard to tell because the yarn ball doesn't seem to be shrinking much and the ribbon yarn is flat. But it's shiny and pretty, no?
WIP #2 is Dad's Cardigan. This is the "Service Cardigan" from Patons book Forever Favorites. See the picture in the picture? What the man is wearing. I don't knit for little kids. I'm showing a flash and a non-flash picture because the darker one shows the picture better but the lighter one shows the stitch pattern better (it's a broken rib variation). Neither shows the correct colour of the
yarn, which is a blue-grey (aka "Air Force Blue"). This is a bit of a joke actually because Dad's the only one of the men in his family who did not serve in the forces, but those that did were Army or Navy. Air Force is my Mom's side (granddad, actually). But whatever - he likes the colour! Woohoo! For those of you with conservative-style type men in the family, you know what an achievement it is to have them wear a
colour. Yay!The last picture is actually two WIPs2B - a pair of socks for Mom and a pair for me. Again, colour didn't work at all, dang it. Hers (on the left) are a very bright (like traffic cone) orange with green and pink bits. Mine (on the right) are royal blue / green / purple. Hers Jawoll Cotton, mine Jawoll Colour. I'm thinking about starting mine tonight to see how socks on eeny-weeny 2.5mm needles go (I know, I had a plan for working down through sizes in the socks. The plan is now "I want to knit the purple ones first, hush you other socks-2-B!") My gods, I'm talking to my yarn - the Harlot influence again, I suppose...
I do have a pair of wristers to finish (only an inch and a bit to go) and one sock of a pair finished, and MY sweater, and that purple poodle shawl is in the bottom of the bin somewhere too. Later. Tonight, a la Harlot, I'm going to follow my muse and start a weeny little sock. Wish me luck!
Mar 2, 2006
And now, for something completely different...
Yeah, so it's Python. They're witty. But what I mean by that headline is this: Very Little Knitting Content Today. You've been warned.
Other bits of life are getting interesting and I want to remember this day of renewed enthusiasm, so I'm writing it down (posting it up? whatever).
Last night at writing group, I got some much-needed feedback on my book-in-progress (yes, I'm writing a book; see? told you I was multitalented. Ha.). Basically, two of the three people I respect the most in the group said, "Hey dummy, you've got a great story starting here, but it's not what you think it is. Dump your preconceived notions and just do what you're doing - it works." Except they said it much more nicely and with loads of encouragement - so much so that I've been able to think about little else since I left last night (sleep? What's that?). So I am absolutely cranked up about my book again (I'd been stuck for months), and want to find out where these characters are going to go. It's a really terrific feeling and I am very optimistic again. Let me say this: when a real live professional editor says "this could be saleable", I pay attention. So, the writing is finally happening again (no, blogging here is not "writing" for me, it's more "journaling" or just "rambling on about knitting and stuff.") Yay my book!
Now, today my guiding principle (a wee deck of Medicine Cards called "Just for Today", which are surprisingly helpful) was Antelope. Antelope is the Nike of medicine cards, because Antelope's message is essentially "just do it". Get off your butt and get stuff done. Oddly, that and Beaver have been coming up a lot lately (Beaver of course being the "work hard and good things will happen" card). So. Today I got back on track (so to speak) for my half-marathon training, and did 40 minutes on the treadmill. Man, it felt GOOD! I could have kept going, but one of the cardinal rules of training is knowing when to stop, so you can continue injury-free through the coming weeks/months. Sound rule, methinks. Anyway, it felt GOOD to be moving again and just spending that time with motion and music really gets the creative juices flowing so then I started thinking about the book some more and - well, let's just say that writing follows walking QUITE well. Progress is being made.
So, you're probably saying, "but, what about the knitting?" Well, the knitting has been my primary evening/weekend activity for several months now. It needs to make a little room for other things. But it's not being put away - oh no! There is lunchtime knitting, hockey knitting, doctor's appointment knitting. Things will be done, just not quite so much so fast. But, in case you're interested, I finished a hat today (except the pompom, which I'm not quite sure how to make). I'll post a picture when I figure out the pompom. And I have a half-pair of wristwarmers done (that's one warmer), and my sweater is coming along (I'm spending an hour on the sleeve as soon as I finish here), and I did finish sock #1 of my chunky socks for me (no pictures until there are two, that's my new sock rule). And tomorrow night I'm starting dad's birthday sweater, which has to be done in six weeks. Lots of knitting going on!
Ok, if you've read this far, you've earned a picture break. Here is my sister, my niece, and my brother-in-law, all wrapped up in their knit-by-me Christmas presents. What's funny is this is one of the best pictures of their family I've ever seen. My sister thinks it's awful. Meh. I win - it's being posted. Karen's Blankie, Michelle's Scarf and Wristwarmers, and David's Toronto Toque. Cute, ain't they?
Other bits of life are getting interesting and I want to remember this day of renewed enthusiasm, so I'm writing it down (posting it up? whatever).
Last night at writing group, I got some much-needed feedback on my book-in-progress (yes, I'm writing a book; see? told you I was multitalented. Ha.). Basically, two of the three people I respect the most in the group said, "Hey dummy, you've got a great story starting here, but it's not what you think it is. Dump your preconceived notions and just do what you're doing - it works." Except they said it much more nicely and with loads of encouragement - so much so that I've been able to think about little else since I left last night (sleep? What's that?). So I am absolutely cranked up about my book again (I'd been stuck for months), and want to find out where these characters are going to go. It's a really terrific feeling and I am very optimistic again. Let me say this: when a real live professional editor says "this could be saleable", I pay attention. So, the writing is finally happening again (no, blogging here is not "writing" for me, it's more "journaling" or just "rambling on about knitting and stuff.") Yay my book!
Now, today my guiding principle (a wee deck of Medicine Cards called "Just for Today", which are surprisingly helpful) was Antelope. Antelope is the Nike of medicine cards, because Antelope's message is essentially "just do it". Get off your butt and get stuff done. Oddly, that and Beaver have been coming up a lot lately (Beaver of course being the "work hard and good things will happen" card). So. Today I got back on track (so to speak) for my half-marathon training, and did 40 minutes on the treadmill. Man, it felt GOOD! I could have kept going, but one of the cardinal rules of training is knowing when to stop, so you can continue injury-free through the coming weeks/months. Sound rule, methinks. Anyway, it felt GOOD to be moving again and just spending that time with motion and music really gets the creative juices flowing so then I started thinking about the book some more and - well, let's just say that writing follows walking QUITE well. Progress is being made.
So, you're probably saying, "but, what about the knitting?" Well, the knitting has been my primary evening/weekend activity for several months now. It needs to make a little room for other things. But it's not being put away - oh no! There is lunchtime knitting, hockey knitting, doctor's appointment knitting. Things will be done, just not quite so much so fast. But, in case you're interested, I finished a hat today (except the pompom, which I'm not quite sure how to make). I'll post a picture when I figure out the pompom. And I have a half-pair of wristwarmers done (that's one warmer), and my sweater is coming along (I'm spending an hour on the sleeve as soon as I finish here), and I did finish sock #1 of my chunky socks for me (no pictures until there are two, that's my new sock rule). And tomorrow night I'm starting dad's birthday sweater, which has to be done in six weeks. Lots of knitting going on!
Ok, if you've read this far, you've earned a picture break. Here is my sister, my niece, and my brother-in-law, all wrapped up in their knit-by-me Christmas presents. What's funny is this is one of the best pictures of their family I've ever seen. My sister thinks it's awful. Meh. I win - it's being posted. Karen's Blankie, Michelle's Scarf and Wristwarmers, and David's Toronto Toque. Cute, ain't they?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)