Knitamazoo(tm)

I know, I know . . . I haven’t posted in ages and now I’ve done 2 posts in 2 days. I hope I haven’t caused any heart attacks.

This is just a quick post, as I wanted to show you all what I am currently working on. Lace has been my knitting of choice lately and I am currently working on the Fibertrends Sheep Shawl. I am loving it! I’ve had to rip it back a couple of times but I’ve been putting in life lines so it wasn’t so bad.

There is that one larger than life YO and I have no idea how I managed it. I’m going to have to try to share some of it out with the stitches next to it and hope that blocking helps. I’m on row 105 of 210 rows and then there is the border. so it’s coming along.

And from the “What will they think of next?” files, scientists have developed an allergy free peanut! Good news for those of us who suffer from this allergy!

I got up Sunday morning to discover this in my living room. I’m pretty sure that Cosmo is the guilty party as he seems to be the only cat that has any interest in the Christmas tree at all. I’m happy to report that no garland was eaten (I’m basing this assumption on the fact that I did not find any glittery cat barf anywhere in the house) and I was able to repair the damage quite easily. I bought them a kitty stocking for Christmas filled with catnip toys but I’m thinking of replacing them with hairball remedy and coupons for the kitty spa. Speaking of the kitty spa, both cats have appointments next weekend. They are both scheduled for pedicures and aroma baths. Gotta smell nice for Christmas!

On the knitting front, I finished the SIL scarf last night. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. Vital statistics: Midwest Moonlight from Scarf Style, Rowan Soft Baby yarn and Clover 16″ size 8 circulars. Again, the bamboo was a little too grabby for this yarn in my opinion and I wouldn’t use them again. The picture is a little dark (what can I do? It’s still dark out when I leave for work.) but you get the idea. I’m not sure if I want to block it or not and I have a few days to make up my mind.

There’s one last piece of absolute must be done Christmas knitting to be completed. That “thing” for my brother. I may end up making my first foray into Magic Loop for this one and I really don’t want to go out and buy size 13 dpns just for this one project. I’m not sure that I’d ever use them again. But this is very close to being complete. Then if I can figure out what pattern I want to use I can try to get a scarf done for hubby by Christmas. I’m just glad that I’ve got most of the knitting done now. Maybe I’ll have some time to clean the house before everyone arrives.

And snow it did! This is what I woke up to this morning. A beautiful winter wonderland! It started snowing last night between 4 and 5 pm. We decided it was a pizza night and when we went to pick up the pizza around 6pm (we only live 2 blocks from Cottage Inn Pizza) it was really coming down. It had stopped by the time I got up this morning but we had gotten about 8 inches.
This is the first pass my hubby made with the snow blower down the driveway and I used my boot to try to give some kind of reference. I’m sure that any neighbors who were out blowing snow or shoveling thought I was totally insane to be outside snapping pictures with my digital camera. Oh well. I don’t care. Just don’t tell them they’re right.

Hubby did get up bright and early to clear the driveway for me. The little blur to the left is him. It’s too bad he couldn’t snow blow the road. Our neighborhood is one of the last to be plowed. So I had a lot of fun trying to navigate our little car through the deep snow. (Our 4-wheel drive SUV is at the dealership awaiting installation of a tow hitch.) The main road was plowed though so that wasn’t so bad. I saw an ambulance being towed this morning. That’s bad. There was also 2 tow trucks blocking most of an intersection. Driving the 1.3 miles to work this morning was loads of fun. My brother who is going to school about 50 miles from here was wondering if the weather man might have mis-spoke. The weather man said to expect 2-4 inches (they got about 8 also) and my brother thinks he might have meant 2×4 inches. His mind works in mysterious ways. (BTW Boo, this was a lake enhanced winter snowstorm, not lake effect snow.)

In knitting news, I’ve started knitting the second ball of yarn for the SIL scarf. I’m really liking how it’s turning out. I snapped a quick pic this morning before venturing out in the snow. It’s just over 3 feet long right now and I plan to use all the yarn so it should be between 5-6 feet when I’m done. It’s so soft! I’m going to have to buy some of this yarn (Rowan Soft Baby) to make a scarf for me. I wouldn’t use bamboo needles again though. A little too grabby for this yarn I think. It’s not too bad but I think I’d like slicker needles with this yarn better. Maybe I’ll try my Addi’s next time.

So it looks like it will be a wonderful weekend to hunker down in my favorite chair and knit away on the remaining Christmas gifts. Happy knitting!

So it’s what . . . 20 days til Christmas? And only 15 til my brother and his fiance show up on my doorstep. I have to finish the scarf for my, I’ll just call her my SIL since they’ll be married soon. My hubby also wants me to knit him a scarf to go with his mittens. I’ve also got a little something going for my brother but since he will be looking at my blog to see pictures of his sweetie’s scarf I can’t mention what it is or show a picture. So I have all this knitting to do and what did I do this weekend? I made crochet snowflakes! Not only did I neglect the “must-do” knitting, I actually went back over to the “dark-side” and crocheted! *gasp* But they’re just so pretty and fast and fun to make. Here they are pinned out on a saran wrap covered towel after having been sprayed with a fabric/thread stiffener. Once I get them to the stiffness I want, they’re going on my tree. I know these pictures aren’t the greatest. I was getting too much glare from the saran wrap when I used the flash. But they are made with white #10 crochet cotton (of which I have tons!), some with a number 2 hook and some with a number 8 hook. I want to do a couple of more yet. The crocheting has been a nice break from knitting. I think my hands needed a rest from knitting but I couldn’t just sit and do nothing. Maybe I’ll work on these on my breaks at work and concentrate on the Christmas gifts in the evenings at home.

And just so you don’t think I’m completely lazy and procrastinating on my Christmas knitting, I did add quite a bit to the SIL scarf, seen here. I’ve pretty much got the pattern memorized now so it’s much quicker than it was at the start. I should have no problem getting this complete by Christmas. I love how the stitch pattern pulls and makes it look kinda wavy.

I can’t believe that I haven’t told you all, I found out who my totally awesome secret pal is! It’s the lovely Choomon! She had to email me and reveal herself because I couldn’t figure out who she was. She was the best secret pal and anyone who gets her as their upstream pal in future rounds is very lucky indeed.

And the new Knitty is out! And I absolutely adore this sweater but I have to ignore it until I finish up a few other projects first. Must not look at it, must not look at it, must finish things currently on the needles. Must not buy more yarn. Oh who am I trying to fool?

So as I sit here trying to figure out how to knit while I sleep, I hope everyone is having a great Monday and that your Christmas knitting is almost complete!

Well there’s only 23 days left til Christmas. I wrote our Christmas letter yesterday and printed it out on cute paper this morning. This weekend I will stuff it into the Christmas cards that I have addressed and have hubby mail them on Monday. Both Mom & Dad’s knitted Christmas gifts have been finished. I want to do a hat for my brother to match the scarf I made him for his graduation pressie. Hubby’s mittens are done but now he wants a matching hat and scarf. (I hope the LYS where I bought the yarn has more of the same color or we’re going with a coordinating yellow!)

I finally got some kind of answer out of my brother as far as color for a scarf for my soon-to-be sister inlaw. Here is what I got: Her coat is black and tan. Alrighty. I know for her wedding she is using a light green and lavender. So I went to the LYS last night and bought two balls of Rowan Soft Baby (and when they say soft, they mean soft!) in a very light minty green. I was going to do the Misty Garden Scarf but I didn’t like how it looked. So I frogged it (note: this yarn is a bear to frog) and am now doing the Midwest Moonlight scarf from the book Scarf Style. The pattern calls for one more repeat of the lacy section and solid section but I thought the scarf would be too wide. So I actually did some math and figured out the pattern was 16 sts. plus 1 and figured out my new cast-on. I’m really proud of myself for that. I’m not sure the color came out all that well in these pics. I think it looks more like a cream or ecru. But take my word for it, the yarn has a nice subtle green hue to it. Here is a closeup of the pattern. I used a dark green towel so it would show up. I really like the pattern. It’s easy to do. And when I held it up to show hubby last night he said he really liked the “design.” Hopefully my future SIL will like it. If anything, it is so soft you just can’t help wanting to rub it against your face.

I also have to finish cleaning my house before the family arrives, get groceries so I can feed the 6 of us, wrap gifts, plus I have this scarf to finish, a hat to make for the Boo (that’s what we call my brother) and a hat and scarf for hubby. Only 23 days left? No problem. Pass the caffeine! Please?

Let’s start with the ranting and get that over with. For those who do not know, my job is to get problem tickets from the company helpdesk and then assign techs to work on the issue according to the particular campus the client is located on. We have 5 different campuses spread out over about 30 miles. So I get a high priority ticket for a client who’s location is listed as a building that has been unoccupied for over a year. I send the ticket back to the helpdesk asking them to verify the location since that is their job. They send it back with the comment “Verified location. Please assist.” So I figure this guy is over there for a meeting or something. I assign one of our techs to the ticket and let him know since this is an emergency. He calls the client and finds out that the client is located on our downtown campus about 10 miles away. So they lied to me. Did they think I wouldn’t find out? Another tech did the same thing last week. What is the point? If you didn’t verify the location the first time, just do it when I send the ticket back. Don’t lie about it. I let their management know so we’ll see how that works out. I’m also shorthanded on one of our busier campuses so that has been a mess too this morning. I’ve been looking for a nice solid brick wall to bang my head against but I haven’t found one I like yet.

Now on to some good stuff. Let’s start with the promised yarn pr0n. First up, from Knit Picks, we have Merino Style in Hollyberry for my Dad’s Christmas gift. I’ll be posting a picture of that WIP later. Then Wool of the Andes in Cloud for my Mom’s Christmas gift. She already knows what she is getting but I’m not going to post any pics until after Christmas. Then I also got some Wool of the Andes in Chestnut for a sweater for myself. I didn’t want to dig out all the balls I bought so you get a picture of one of each. I’m lazy, I know. But the stash is upstairs and I take the pictures downstairs and well I’m just lazy that’s all.

Next we have some yarn that I picked up at one of my local yarn stores. We have some Cascade Pastazza in a rust color to make mittens for my hubby. I let him pick out the color. I also picked up some Elsebeth Lavold Angora yarn in a lovely green to make some house socks for myself. I love the last pair I made with this yarn but I wish I had made the cuff longer. The pattern was for shorter socks but I want it to go above my ankle. More boring 2×2 rib, but these socks knit up quickly and are soft and warm. I am resisting the urge to cast on for them until I get Christmas gifts done.

I did manage to do some knitting this weekend. I started the dickey for my Dad for Christmas. It’s only 6 inches of 2×2 ribbing. I was happy that I was able to get it on a circular needle so I wouldn’t have to use dpn’s. I started out with the dpn’s but because the circle was not small like a sock or sleeve, the dpn’s flopped all around and I was always worried about twisting it. So while I might like making a mobieus, I’m not sure my Dad would like wearing one. So after two rounds on dpn’s I quickly switched over to circulars and have been happy ever since.

I also did some work on my Kiri. I have now finished section 1 and the first of 12 repeats of section 2. My lifeline has been inserted and I’m happily knitting along. I didn’t get it pinned out too well for this picture. I took it this morning before work and I was a little rushed for time. But I at least put it on a solid background so you can see the pattern this time. You can see a larger picture by clicking on it.

I also have a finished project. This is a really, really old project. In fact it isn’t knitting . . . it’s . . . crochet! Yes, I used to crochet all the time. I’ve had this afghan in the works for probably two years. It’s made with Lion Brand Homespun. I’ve left it languishing in a basket for at least a year and a half now. I decided yesterday to see if I could finish it up when my hands began to hurt from the endless 2×2 ribbing on the dickey. I wove in the ends this morning and it is now sitting in the washing machine. It was rather dusty after sitting in the basket for so long. Not the best for my allergies. But it’s soft and warm and will get lots of use while watching hockey in the basement rec room.

Since I started this post with a rant, it seems only fitting that I end it with a rant. What is up with blogger? I started this post at 10:46 this morning and have had nothing but problems getting my pictures uploaded. It’s now 12:20 and I am finally able to publish this. And it better publish . . . that’s all I have to say.

Well maybe she did and I just choose to ignore her. Anywho, my life has been turned upside down lately. Last Friday was my hubby’s last day at work. His job has now been outsourced to India. Last week he was called back for a second interview for a job that sounded really great. So he drove back up to the Grand Rapids area (about 60 miles from our house) for a second interview, taking unpaid time off of work for this interview. He felt that it went really, really well and felt pretty confident that he would be offered the job. They told him they would make a decision either Friday or early this week. Well Monday came, no phone call . . . Tuesday, no phone call. Yesterday he got a letter in the mail thanking him for the opportunity to interview him but they had decided to go in a different direction. I was devastated. He then tells me that he had a weird vibe about the job after the second interview and maybe this is for the best. Now why didn’t he tell me that after the interview so I might not have set my hopes too high on this job? But things are looking up. Yesterday he interviewed for a temporary job with a company that is growing rapidly. It would be a two month contract but they hinted that there may be more opportunities after that contract is up. So he took the job since it’s better than unemployment and plans to keep looking in case he finds himself without any opportunities at this company. He starts with training next Thursday.

In the meantime we are contemplating selling our house and moving closer to where he will be working. I would plan on commuting until around the middle of December and then quitting my job and finding one closer to where we end up living. That will also hopefully give me the opportunity to spend some time with my family at Christmas since we are hosting my parents, my brother and his fiance this year. I’ve taken off work next Monday and Tuesday so that hubby and I can clean the house from top to bottom, start packing up some stuff and getting rid of the clutter. At least I’ll get paid!

In knitting news, a couple of things to report. This weekend was a bust as far as knitting was concerned. No matter what I worked on, I screwed it up. Apparently I did not pick up 294 stitches on my bolero as it’s not coming out right. So it’s sitting in my knitting bag hopefully adjusting it’s attitude. I have this beautiful autumn colored sock yarn so I decided to start a pair of quick socks. I managed to mess up sock number 1 somehow and I need to figure out if I’ll frog back or just keep going. Here’s a pic anyway and fortunately you can’t see the screwed up part. Maybe it will just become a design feature . . .

I also cast on for a lace shawl. I am determined that lace will not kick my butt this time. I decided to try the Kiri pattern. I got to row 29 and was short one stitch. Rassenfrassen . . . stupid lace. At least I had inserted a life line since I couldn’t figure out where I went wrong by tinking. So I frogged back to the lifeline and have managed to get past row 29 with the correct number of stitches. I know this picture isn’t all that good. The striped chair upholstery is not a very good background. Next picture I’ll try to find a solid background so the lace shows up better.

It boggles my mind to think that I have a burning desire to take on a knitted lace project when I have all this stress in my life. Do you think I’m masochistic in some weird, demented way?

I have finally begun the shawl I fell in love with from the new Vogue Knitting magazine. It was a rough start to say the least. I had to cast on 111 stitches using the long-tail method and I ended up with a longer tail than I had hoped but no problem . . . that’s what they make scissors for right? Right! So off to do row 1. Everything seemed to be going well except that the “space” between the last stitch I worked and the stitch I was about to work was getting bigger. Hmmmmm? OK, don’t panic. Just cast on again and start over. Keep breathing. OK, 111 cast on stitches, here we go again. Working row 1 just fine. Two repeats left. Oh no! I forgot a YO a couple of repeats back. Try to tink. Not working. Getting frustrated. Breathe. Too much of a mess to try to figure out. Let’s frog and start again. Start frogging yarn. What is this? Knots? No can’t be knots. Try to work what appear to be knots but can’t possibly be knots out of yarn. Start to get really frustrated. Keep breathing. Smoke alarms are starting to go off. This really is a knot isn’t it? There is no way to un-knot laceweight yarn. Completely frustrated at this point. Can’t stand to look at it anymore. Put the whole big mess down and pick up my Liberty sock. I did manage to work several rounds on the sock and calm down before going to bed.

I woke up this morning much calmer and determined to not let lace kick me in the . . . well you know. So after getting ready for work I had some time. I sat down, cast on 111 stitches once again and managed to do this:

I know it doesn’t look like much but I did manage to get the first row done without incident before I had to leave for work. And get this . . . I did the second row while I was home for lunch! Whoohoo! I know I can do this.

OK, so after working with both Monkee and Shetha in knitty chat yesterday I was bound and determined that a stupid lace doily was not going to get the better of me. I came home from work all fired up to tackle the lace problem, picked up the doily and . . . promptly frogged it. Yes, I frogged it. The lace doily is no more. And lest you think that a lace doily has gotten the better of me, after I frogged it I picked up the needles once more and started a different doily. (So maybe the first doily got the better of me but this one will not defeat the super knitter known as Dawn! Well maybe not super, but you know what I mean.) You can see a picture of what it should look like here - it’s the first doily on the page. The pattern is a little less challenging than the other one I tried and so far I have been able to complete 20 rounds without strangling myself or setting the stupid thing on fire. That’s 5 rounds more than the last one so I’m happy. It looks a little wonky in this picture, but you can’t exactly divide 7 pattern repeats evenly across 4 needles. I need to get some stitch markers in there to mark where the pattern repeats start. I didn’t want to have stitch markers in my way when it was smaller, but I think I can put them in now and they won’t be more of a hindrance than a help.

Yesterday I promised you all a picture of the new sock in progress so . . . (drum roll please) . . . here it is! I’m using Kroy sock yarn in a denim looking color. It’s just a boring 2×2 rib but it makes for great mindless knitting. It will be going with me this weekend when we go visit my mother-in-law at the lake in Indiana. This is going to be a dry run for our new tent, cots, and other camping equipment. We’ve set up the cots, gotten self-inflating camping pads and opened up the new sleeping bags. The cats weren’t sure what to make of all that but we’re excited. Now if the camp stove we ordered would just arrive. Hubby wants to take it with us this weekend to try it out. We checked out the tracking on it last night and it should be delivered either today or tomorrow depending on when it gets to our local UPS center. But my Elizabeth Zimmerman book, Knitting Without Tears arrived yesterday. It was ordered from Amazon at the same time the camp stove was and was sent via USPS. Oh well, I’m happy at least!

Well I knew it was going to happen . . . the lace doily has made me angry. It was only a matter of time really. Everything seemed to be going so well . . . why did it have to get all wonky and make me angry? Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s my nearly virgin lace knitting skills. Whatever it is I have a screwed up beginning of a doily that I don’t know what to do with. I was knitting around just fine, following the pattern (which is not charted out by the way . . . grrrrrrr!) and I just assumed that each pattern repeat would work out evenly on each round. Is this a misconception on my part or is this how it should be? If I am right and it should work out evenly on each round then either the pattern is whack or I’ve missed some yo’s. You can see a picture of what it should look like here (it’s the second doily). I’m going to try charting out the pattern but the only charts I’ve ever used are for lace knitted straight. How do you chart something in the round? Ack! I like a good challenge so (oh who am I kidding?). And that my friends was the start of my weekend. As I was going to a pool party on Saturday afternoon and I wanted a small project to work on while I was sitting around gabbing. So I grabbed some Kroy’s sock yarn and started another pair. I wanted to do some toe-up socks but I was getting frustrated with getting it started. Maybe I should try thicker yarn til I get the hang of it. I went back to top-down so that I would have a project to work on and I was happy again.

The pool party was fun and I did get some work done on my sock, but alas I haven’t taken any pictures of the sock and I forgot to take the camera to the party. What can I say . . . I’m getting old and forgetful. Sunday was spent getting more camping supplies (we are going to camp at my mother in-law’s place at a lake this weekend) and messing around on my computer. No knitting!

Monday morning I had a doctor appointment for my annual so I decided to take the entire day off. What better reason is there? After that was done I picked up a friend and her 1 year-old son to go down to Schoolcraft to check out the antique stores. Out of 5 antique stores only 1 was open! We couldn’t believe it! But I did find some old knitting needles which I bought. Though some genius thought it would be a good idea to keep each pair of needles together by using scotch tape! Moron! Now I have to figure out how to get the sticky residue off the needles. Sigh.

I also went to Goodwill and found some sweaters to frog and reknit. Three of them are a cotton or cotton blend and I’m not sure if the yarn will be usable after frogging. I’m afraid it’s going to be a bunch of singles. However the purple sweater is 100% wool and is frogging nicely. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening frogging it while I watched tv. I only have the back of the sweater to frog now. I can’t wait to wash it up and get all the little kinks out of the yarn.

I also found a cashmere sweater that is frogable. I’m not sure if I’m going to try frogging it or not. It is a very fine gauge and may not be worth my time. I was thinking that if I did frog it I could hold the yarn double and knit up a tank or shell to wear under a jacket. Decisions, decisions. It is so soft and yummy though! Such a quandary I’m in. Any thoughts? Click on the picture for a closer look.

I promise to post a picture of my new sock in progress soon. And Monkee if you’re reading this, how about some help with the lace? Please?