KAL yarns

I've picked out my yarns, finally! Jen, thanks for your suggestions, I would have loved to try those, but my procrastination means I'll use what I can find. And I'll admit, I prefer being able to touch yarn when I'm picking it out.

This first pick is of Bernat Camoflague, acryllic worted weight. It's a wonderful BDU colorscheme varigated (I hope it will pool, that would make it even better!) I'm going to use it for Little J's Vestee. Have I mentioned that I'm going to alter that pattern a little? Yep, I think I can split it down the front and make a cardian sweater, and then I should be able to knit the front and back together, too, so there wouldn't be any side seams to do up. (I dislike sewing up seams. I'm fairly good at it, but it's so tedious)


And this one is Carron Simply Soft in a loverly burnt red. Also Acrylic, also worsted weight. ( no, not the cats, That is Princess, and Rama is in the background) I don't usually knit in acrylic for myself, but this stuff is amazingly soft, and when I touched it, it called my name in a soft soft voice... And, i would like to have ONE garment that is red.


Now I need to do swatches for these, hopefully by Monday....

Rogue: done knitting!!!

If this was a movie, there would be confetti, and trumpets, and lovely people dancing around...I've finished knitting Rogue! Here is a picture of the sleeves, along with the left over yarn:


I'll block it today, (if the baby goes back to sleep I'll be able to do it this afternoon) and hopefully I'll have it assembled in time to wear to the knitters meeting on Monday.


I'm sooo haappy!



p.s. I looked at the old posts to check, and I started Rogue on Feb 11. So, it's taken me a little over a month and a half.

Book List

One of these days, I'm going to put all the books I've read this year on ONE list. Oh well. someday...

• Home Therapy, Lauri Ward
• A Sorcerer and a Gentleman, Elizabeth Wiley
• The Price of Blood & Honor, Elizabeth Wiley
• Mrs. Polifax and the Lion Killer, Dorothy Gilman
• The Clairvoyant Countess, Dorothy Gilman
• Benighted, Kit Whitfield

Benighted is really really good. It's a werewolf novel, but different in that 95% of the world's population are were, so that to be a non-changing human puts you in the minority. It has interesting questions about prejudice and biases. Read IT!

Vestee KAL

My knitting group is going to be doing a KAL for Vestee, from the recent Knitty issue. It's a baby sweater, with options for long or short sleeves, fold-over collar, or hood. It's very cute, and I'm going to be making it for my little boy.

Vestee has a guage of 20 stitches/4", so I'm going to be looking for a worsted weight or DK yarn. I think I probably want a DK, and I'll decide on the color after I look at the choices. Since this is for Little J, who will probably outgrow it before long, I'm not going to order anything expensive, and will just get my yarn at Hobby Lobby or Michael's.

We're going to start the KAL on Monday, that would be April 2nd.

Rogue: The end is Near!

Yippee yay! I'm on the decreases of the second sleeve! I'm almost done!

I got to the decreases, and decided to do the two sleeves seperately. I wasn't sure I could keep track of those k2tog, if I had both sleeves at once. It's given me a happy little boost when I realized I had bound off the last stitches on one of the sleeves!

I had to stare at my husband, and then giggle, when he looked at my sleeve, looked at me, and said "You mean you have to put it together?"

Gardening Season

This is seriously taking up my knitting time. I only have so much knitting time, and with spring having sprung (so to speak) my mind is fixiating on plants. green, Green, GREEEN! muhahaha! The only green things I have right now are houseplants, crocuses, and grass, but I'm waiting.

Greenwood has a community garden, for which I thank God, since I have very little usable gardening space at my house. The community garden is very basic, a plot of ground marked off, and a water spigot, but it's providing an outlet for my gardening urges. (And for my muscles. Shoveling/digging up a garden plot is hard work, and my dear hubby doesn't volunteer to do my dirty work.) The family went out yesterday to get the first of my seeds in, and Little J and I put more out today.

The list of currently in the ground seeds:

• Cascadia Peas
• Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
• Red Velvet Lettuce
• New Red Fire Lettuce
• Green Deer's Tounge Lettuce
• Oakleaf Lettuce
• Cherry Belle Radish
• French Golden Radish
• Radish mix

Now I just have to wait for them to sprout...

But, I can restrain myself from digging them up. No matter how much I want to see if they have little roots yet.

Movies vs Knitting

I often knit at movies. If it's a simple project, I can knit in the dark with no problems (although I am looking lustfully at those needles with lights on the end.) HOWEVER, I discovered a very very important premise: Make sure the project is already started BEFORE going to the movie.

Yep. We went to see TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles (turtles on a halfshell...)) and I think I cast on for a pair of socks half-a-dozen times. And ripped it out that many times too. The yarn I was using was fingering weight, and while I could feel the stitches, I was having problems getting the needle where it wanted to go. And, I was working toe-up, and the increases in the toe were messing me up. Phtoey. So, I didn't get very far on the socks.

On the movie side, TMNT was pretty good. Little J watched it all the way through, with a short refreshment break. That's an accomplishment, b'cause the last couple of times we attempted a movie, I had to leave the theater at least once with a crying baby. It did bother me that the turtles were more realistically rendered (skin texture and coloring) than the people were, but the plot was pretty good, lots of action, and, well, after all, it is based on a comic book :)

Book List

Haunted, Kelley Armstrong
Industrial Magic, Kelley Armstrong
Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist, by Dorothy Gilman
White Lies, Jayne Ann Krentz
Wolf Justice, Doranna Durgin

I just read Wolf Justice in the past few days, and I have no idea what it's about. That's sad, very sad.

Re: Sexy Knitters Club (Sahara)

I'm looking at the Lion Brand Organic Cotton right now. Except for being pure cotton, and so I'm not sure how it will drape, I think I'll like it. Either in the antique color, or the light green.

Sexy Knitters Club

I've been looking at this blog for a while now...the patterns they pick for their KALs are really nice. (And I like the button ;) ) The upcoming KAL is for Sahara, a pattern from StitchDiva. I downloaded the pattern tonight, now I just need to find yarn for it.






p.s. Unlike a lot of knitters, I don't have a sizable stash to rummage thru. The yarn I have on hand is mostly WIPs.

Okay, does it make me a bad parent that I take pictures instead of unsticking my little one's head? I was also giggling semi-hysterically, because I didn't know he would fit under there!

And, then we have pictures of him going OVER the baby gate...

Sleeves take Forever

I'm on to the sleeves now. On the home stretch. Over the top, boys!

Yeah, whatever.

I'm getting impatient with this sweater. I want it to be done. NOW! And it's not happening. I've got too much stuff going on to have dedicated knitting time. So, I'm getting the sleeves done, in what seems like drabs and trickles.

Enough whining. I'm on row 20 of the sleeves (both of them! that's a good thing, right?) so the cables are showing up nicely. They aren't as impressive as the ones on the hood, but they are also smaller. I haven't had to rip out any of the cables to fix them, either! Yay! I'll put up a pic tomorrow, for y'all to feast your eyes upon. ciao!

Book List

I realized that I haven't posted about my reading in a while. It's not that I haven't been reading, but I haven't gathered up my random stacks of books to write down the titles. So, here we goooo....

In the last couple of weeks:

• Wyrd Sister, Terry Pratchett
• Cordelia's Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold
• Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold
• Simply (something), Mary Balough

Recentlyer:

• Survival, Julie E. Czerneda
• Industrial Magic, Kelley Armstrong
• Voyage of Slaves, Brian Jacques
• Stork Naked, Piers Anthony
• Trollbridge, Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple
• LaLecheLeague brochures
• 25 things every mother should know, Martha Sears

What is your level of knitting experience?

You're a knitter. There's no turning back now; soon you'll have calluses on your index fingers and double-points rolling around on the floor of your car. There are still plenty of new things you can try, but you have the basics down pat.
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Rogue sweater...

No, it's not running wild. ;) The sweater that I'm currently working on, is Rogue, from http://www.girlfromauntie.com, Jenna's site. She's also got some other very very nice patterns with cables. Hope that helps, Tracy!

Next-Stage Rogue

The hood for my Rogue is finished, all the stitches grafted together properly! Yay! The top part is looking very nice, although the empty arm holes make it look rather unbalanced. The bottom picture is a closer-up of the hood cables.

(I'll tell you a secret. I had to rip and redo several of the cables to make sure they all crossed the right way. But it was worth it, they are beauoootifull.)

I've decided that with the sleeves, I'm going to do the facing at the cuffs individually, then I'll put both sleeves on one needle and work them at the same time. Otherwise, I'm going to have problems with S.S.S. (second sock syndrome) If I do them together, they're both done at the same time, the both have the same mistakes (hopefully) and I won't get bored halfway through the second sleeve.

Spring Sewing

Here is my current sewing project:

It's Little Sister's Easter Dress. We're (me and L.S.) sewing version C, the far right drawing, with the solid turqoise cotton on the upper bodice, and the embroidered cotton for the skirt and waist. The skirt material is very very kewl; see the little leaves? Those are actually fuzzy! in purple and neon green. If L.S. hadn't found the material first, I might have snagged it. Instead, I got material for a summer gardening jumper at the same time. I'll post a picture of it when I start working on it, but I warn you ahead of time, it's bright!

I'm probably going to make a few modifications in this pattern before we're done. I've already raised the v-neckline 2 inches, and I may need to make the skirt shorter, too. L.S. is wearing women's sizes, but her porportions aren't right, so...tweak, tweak, tweak. Also, do you know how hard it is too find interesting patterns that are suitable for a 12 year old? I don't want her flashing her chest at everyone like she's a rock star. And, as active as she is, skimpy designs just won't stay up! Oh well, this one is going to be good. Further pictures will be posted as we progress in our sewing.

Book Wish List

When we go to the bookstore, I often see books that I'd like to read, but I don't feel like actually buying. I want to read them first, see if I'll want to reread them to justify purchasing it. When I do, I record the title on my cell phone's voice memo. This list came from me going through all the voice memos I had saved on the phone. Whew! I didn't realize I had such long a reading list.

Books that I'd like to read:

• Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey
• Reserved for the cat by Mercedes Lackey (not yet published )
• White Lies - Jayne Anne Krentz
• Maelstrom - Ann McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarbourgh(sic?)
• Off Armagedon Reef - David Weber
• When Darkness Falls - Mercedes Lackey & James Malory
• Blood Knight - Greg Keyes
• Wolf who Rules - Wen Spencer
• Simply Unforgettable - Mary Balough
• Last Child in the Woods - Richard Louve
• Temeraire Series #4 - Naomi Novik (publishes September 2007)

And I saw one today that Big J might like:

• Adopted Son - David A Clary

To Crystal: KAL

Hey Crystal, I tried to email you about your comment, but I'm not sure it worked, so...I'm covering all my bases here. A knit-along for that pattern would be great! I think I'll have to get some acrylic to make it up in, and I need to finish my Rogue first, but then it will be that one. I love small projects :D

Little J was having fun outside today too :)

Lovely Weather

The weather is Sooo nice! It's sunny on my back deck, and warm enough to be out without a jacket. Loverly! Yesterday, and today, we're spending hours outside. And this morning, I was even motivated enough to take the doggie for a walk. (yesterday I picked up all the doggie poo in the back yard. Ewww! but I'm proud of myself!) I'm going outside now, to knit and read in the sunshine. Bye!

It's here, It's here!

And when I checked my email this morning, TaDa! Knitty had the new issue up (that sentence does make sense, Knitty sends me a email notification for a new issue. I must be so special!). I really like the socks in it, although they all use wool blends yarns, and I'm not sure that I want to be knitting wool socks with spring coming up. Have you seen the weather forcast? The temperature is going to be above freezing for almost the next week! Hurrah, hurray, I'm so happy!

I don't do waiting well

I just realized that the new issue of Knitty is supposed to come out in March! And it's not out yet! Arrghh! now I'll be checking Knitty everyday to see if it's out yet (and maybe more often than that.)

Baa Baa Knitters

This is my finished (but the idea is still in progress) craft/knitting project. Yay for sheepies! They are knitting markers with black-n-white sheep as charms. The sheep were made from sculpey III. It's the first time I've made anything from sculpey, and it was easier than I expected. All together, it took about two hours (during Little J's naptime) including the time when I was anxiously obssesing over how to stick the bits together and frantically searching the 'net to find an answer (turns out sculpey sticks to itself. Kewl.)

This is a close up of two of them. Some of them aren't totally steady on their feet, but I think that's because the cookie sheet they baked on was warped, not because the sculpey shrank. This is pretty close to the actual color too.






And this is my favorite one! I like his pathetic little eyes, and his floppy little ears :) The color is off in this photo, but you can see the nifty curly wool-ish marks in his back.

I haven't tried them out in my knitting yet. They may be too heavy, or too big, to work well. Actually, the only markers I've ever used are the little plastic rings...and yarn or twistties when I'm desperate. I'm going to put them onto Rogue in the next row, and see how they work.

Cthulu wakes!

http://www.dark-platypus.com/cthulhu_life_counter.htm

The Girl from Auntie had this on her blog. Nifty, is it not? It's a life counter for D&D type games, but it would work for a row counter...Big J really likes Lovecraftian things, so I'm going to email it to him. Maybe suggest it would be a good birthday present for his favorite knitter :)

Knitting Injury

Ow Ow OW! I can't believe I just did that. I managed to poke myself in the eye with a knitting needle. For Pete's sake, I wasn't even knitting. I was moving my project over to a table (so nobody would sit on my project and get impaled. go figure) And I was distracted by the TV, and the needle missed my glasses and hit my eye. Ouch! Big J says that it's red, but otherwise, looks all right. ::sigh:: how would I ever explain it to my optometrist?

Knitting Excitement!

I just returned from a meeting with the Southside Indy Knitting Group. Much fun! was had by all, I hope. :) I loved all the projects, (I'll just mention the ones I was sitting by, okay?) Laura's shawl from Homespun yarn, and the amazingly complicated lace that Valerie (sic. Valerinda? sorry!) was working on. The knitters also extracted a promise that I would post my blog url on the yahoo list so everyone could see it. yep yep, that's the next thing I'm going to do, I swear!

Little J was very good for his daddy when I was gone. Big J and my sis managed to clean the baby after supper (he was covered in rice. ALLL over) and they watched a movie (Willow! Yay! Mad Martigan, yummy!) When I walked in the door, though, Little J started whimpering. I think he remembered he was supposed to miss me... It's a bit later, though, and he seems to be in a great mood.

I finished about 8 more rows on the hood of Rogue. Not too much, but I was drinking tea, and talking and laughing at the same time. Multi-tasking slows things down, well, sometimes. ;)

There's got to be a better way to load images than by posting them...

5's better than 4

After Church this morning, we left for our monthly family grocery expedition. We go to the military commissary at Harrison Village, in Indianapolis. They have better prices on some things, so that even with the extra gas for the car, we save money. Since I try to do major grocery shopping once a month, the grocery list is fairly long, but with two or three carts, we can get it done in an hour.

Anyway, the reason I mentioned grocery shopping is because of the amount of the trip. It takes half an hour for us to reach the Commissary, so I like to take a knitting project along. (I can't read in the car anymore - makes me carsick) I couldn't take Rogue, because I hadn't printed out the next page of graphs for it, (bad me) so I picked up my poor abandoned Fair Isle fingerless glove. I did a couple rows around the hand, then it was time to start on the fingers. I tried doing it with only 4 needles to hold all the stitches (normally, I only use 4 for socks, I find I'm less likely to have one drop out of the stitches.) but it just didn't work right. So, when I take it up again, I need to find an extra needle, or a stitch holder, or something!

Cables and Rogue

And here, are the promised pictures of cables from Rogue. The neck stitches are still on the needles, but the shoulders are both (all?) finished.







This is the side cable from my Rogue sweater. Big J was looking at it last night, saying "That looks cool, but I have no idea how you did that." It's good to impress your spouse. :D

Things to do this evening

1. Pick up toys
2. Start the dishwasher
3. Work on March's month of Menus and grocery list
4. Knit!

It dosen't sound like much, but if I don't get my cute little fanny out of this chair, it'll be midnight before I'm done. Adios!

Booklist

Simply Love by Mary Balough(sic?)
Troll Mill by ???
Bad Guys by ???

Rogue Update

I'm done with the back, I'm done with the back! Yay!

It makes me very happy to finish these different parts of the sweater. I don't normally go around saying 'yay me!' all the time. Really, I don't. But for some reason, this project makes me very very pleased with myself. Maybe because I have a tangible product for all the work I'm putting into it. (Unlike cooking, or cleaning the house, which I just have to do over and over and over...)

For future planning, I'm going to be meeting a group of knitters nearby next Monday. That's also a "Yay!" I'm looking forward to it. My dear hubby has given me a definite 'yes' that he'll be able to babysit. Maybe I'll have Rogue almost done by then...or at least be working on the sleeves. When I get the front cables done, I'll post a picture here.