Big Dummy

I jammed my thumb while closing the windows on the porch last night. I don't think it's broken; it's probably just sprained or strained. I used a little too much force upward to make sure the window closed, and wow, did it hurt! I have pretty good range of motion. It's odd what hurts: putting the lid on a Tupperware cup, pulling up a zipper, when I try to lean on that hand while putting together ds's train track on the floor. It does NOT hurt when knitting. This is great news because I've started a third pair of socks. I'm over a third of the way through the foot of the feather-and-fan pair, and halfway through the cuff of the second monkey. I was flipping through my summer IK and decided to try the toe-up method featured in this issue. I'm doing them toe-up and two at once. I did the first step for each sock on dpns, then slipped them to my 32" size 1 circular, and I'm really enjoying them. The pattern calls for a 2x2 rib once you get to the patterned part, but I'm going to do that rib as a baby cable. These are just going to be footies to wear around the house. I think anyway. We'll have to see how far the yarn takes me. I am using Lang Jawoll Cotton Jacquard in a brown/grey/teal colorway.


Now for a few pictures. This is what I'll call an heirloom rose. It's off a start from a rose my mom brought up from our house where I grew up and I think it may have come from the farm where she grew up. It only blooms once, but it is just covered in blooms. It has that old-fashioned rose scent. I love the way it has taken over this fence. Anyway here is another view. The bush inside the fence is an old-fashioned lilac. It was a disappointment this year. I thought its buds were bitten by the late freeze, but then no, they looked like they would open. Then we got a long dry and hot spell and the buds dried up. *sigh* The roses don't appear to be affected by either the freeze (though I did have to cut them back severely this spring) or the dry spell. This red one, Showbiz, always looks great and does well until it gets hit with black spot. This yellow one is Sunflare and though it doesn't look like much now, you can see it is loaded with buds. The last pic is the first bloom of Pretty Lady. She will be covered with blooms shortly too.
I can't believe I almost forgot to show off my baby bluebirds! This is them on Monday afternoon. I haven't checked on them since, but momma bluebird has been busy in and out of the box keeping them fed.

*grumble* Damn camera! *grumble*

I didn't think it would take us this long to decide on a new digital camera. Sorry about the lack of updates. I'm *this* close to buying a $20 kids' camera for myself just so I can take pics for my blog. There are some pics of my roses on the camera disk that the computer won't read, but dh has to recover them using the laptop, so any updates just have to wait. I finished the monkey sock from the previous update and I'm about four repeats through the cuff of the second one. (Imagine pictures here. That's all you're going to get for a while. *sigh*)

I also knit a feather-and-fan sock through the cuff, heel, and gusset only to discover that it wouldn't go over my heel. So it's been frogged, the yarn went in time out for a day and a half, and then I cast it on again using bigger needles. I really like this pattern. It's easy, it's pretty, and it's going really fast on the bigger needles. *grin* I'm almost done with the heel flap now. The yarn is Tofutsies in a pink, turquoise, green colorway. I've been trying to figure out of what it reminds me. I think of childhood candy whenever I look at it. Sweetarts, maybe? I posted the yarn in a previous post so you can go look at it and tell me what you think, though the colors don't show as well in the skein. (Ooops. I posted the yarn on the Sybermoms Stash KAL blog, not this one. Here's a link to that entry.) When I was knitting it on the smaller needles, the turquoise was pooling more so it looked mostly blue. This redo is pooling the green more. It looks a lot different, but I still like it.

I have made NO progress on anything else. It doesn't help that my other projects are on BIG needles and I do NOT like working with BIG needles (i.e. 11s and 19s). I've been trying to teach myself to throw in the style of the Yarn Harlot. Someone (I can't remember which blogger now) had video of the Harlot on her blog. She was so amazed at the speed that she slowed it down and narrated how she thinks Stephanie achieves such speed. Anyway, I can't do it and it's frustrating. I like my method even if it means I have to take breaks now and then for the tendinitis to calm down. (I generally can't manage more than a day or two without knitting, so it doesn't get a whole lot of opportunity to calm down.)

I would like to make the sweater on the cover of the Summer Interweave Knits, but with short sleeves. I have 7 skeins of artyarns supermerino so I think I would probably have enough if I start the sleeves right below the yoke. What I'd like to try is doing a provisional cast on and working from the yoke upward, then going back to the body and working till I run out of yarn. I just don't know if that would work.

SHEness, and The Muggles just don't get it.

I am a SHE--Sidetracked Home Executive for those unfamiliar with the term. It always seems that things never really get done at my house because I'm easily sidetracked by something else when I'm in the middle of doing something. That is, when I'm not playing hooky by knitting or reading anyway. For example, yesterday dh and I were very busily cleaning up the house for our Mother's Day cookout which we were hosting. I was in the middle of cleaning the pit next to my chair where UFOs go to die when dh mentioned that I might need to check on the bluebirds in the bluebird house because he'd seen a broken egg and maybe some predator had gotten to them. So I got righteously indignant at the thought of some stinking raccoon killing my bluebirds the first stinking year any clutched in that box and marched outside with my stepladder (I'm short) to check the box. The birds were fine. Momma bluebird flew out of the house when she heard me approaching and all five eggs were fine and accounted for. So I headed back to the house past my irises whereupon I remembered that I needed to replace the irises in the vase inside the house, so I got some scissors, headed back out, and cut some irises. And bleeding hearts. And Johnson's Blue geranium. Oh, and some columbines. I finally finished refreshing the bouquets in the house, so I got back to business cleaning in the bathroom and needed to get some more toilet paper to restock the cabinet. So I trotted off to the laundry room where the spare TP is kept. I remembered whilst there that the laundry in the dryer needed to be jerked and hung and the remaining laundry dried. So I did that, interrupting dh so he'd bring me some more hangers in the process. Then I decided to throw the kids dark clothes in the washer, intending to bring down more darks from upstairs to fill the load. Many minutes later after straightening the laundry room, I remembered for what I'd gone there in the first place and headed back to the bathroom to finish cleaning it only to recall that I was actually in the middle of cleaning the pit next to the chair before any of the bluebird/flowers/bathroom/tp/laundry room craziness began!

So that's why I never seem to get anything done. I get lots of tiny steps done toward accomplishing things, but then I'm sidetracked by something else. Right now I should be working on the monkey sock, but I was folding laundry and folding my yarn over cable socks when I remembered that I forgot to tell my mom how to care for her socks I gave her (they're NOT superwash wool) so I called her. We chatted for a bit about Purdue day tomorrow (homemakers' choral festival) and she mentioned that she didn't think my MIL was planning to get over here to watch the kids at the time that *I* thought she would be getting over here. So then I had to check in with dh via IM to make sure his mother was in fact going to be here when she was needed. And then of course since I was in the computer room, I had to check my email. Then I remembered I wanted to write this blog entry so I started on that. The dryer buzzer went off reminding me that I'd forgotten to jerk and hang the damp shirts I'd gotten out of the dryer earlier. So I went to do that and now I'm back. This SHEness is exhausting! And that darks load I was going to start yesterday? Just started it about an hour ago. *sigh*

On to how The Muggles don't get it. The Yarn Harlot frequently refers to non-knitters as "muggles" so I'm going to co-opt her use of it here. The muggles in my family tolerate my love of yarn and obsession with knitting. They wear and use the handknit items with which I gift them. Or some of them do. My mother appreciates the knit socks anyway, though I'm not sure she really uses the felted bags all that much. Anyway, I was knitting away on the monkey sock with my Mama E's C*eye*ber Fiber yarn in the Mean Girls colorway that I picked up at Threaded Bliss a few weeks ago. (It is really unseemly just how much I love this yarn--the softness! the colors! the perfect variegation! I just love it a little too much perhaps.) So being taken with the yarn as I am, I trotted out to the patio to display its loveliness for the admiration of my mother, MIL, and SIL. "Look how pretty this yarn is! Isn't it just so pretty?" I exclaimed, expecting their faces to light up with the delight I feel when admiring it.
I expected at least that someone would reach out and want to feel how soft it is and admire the colors more closely. Nope. Each of them just said, "Yeah, it's pretty." Much in the way one might comment on the weather, "Yeah, it's sunny." *sigh* Yarn is so unappreciated by the muggles. They just don't get it. I didn't even bother to get out Lilac the Tapdancing Midget yarny goodness from Lime & Violet's etsy shop for them to look at. They wouldn't understand why I love it.

Oh, yeah. I finished the Horcrux socks last week too. See the lightning bolt? The pattern is based on the speculation that Harry Potter's scar may be the last Horcrux. We shall see in just a few months whether the speculation pans out. The yarn is Lang Jawoll colors. The pattern is one of the Six Sox Knitalong patterns.

And these are the socks I gave my mom yesterday, the Springtime in Paris socks which also happen to be a Six Sox Knitalong pattern. One is inside out because you can wear them either way. Inside out the pattern is supposed to look like little Eiffel Towers. Worn stockinette side out it's supposed to look like the drops of spring rain dripping down the window of your hotel room in Paris. The yarn is Knitpicks Sock Memories in Grandma.

Short n Sweet

. . .is done and blocking. That is all.

Just for AMG

This picture is for a knitter at Sybermoms who just got this same yarn in a swap. Not the greatest picture, but I was trying to be quick.
I worked on these till I got them to the same point so I can now work on one repeat on one sock, then one repeat on the other. Of course right now I'm not working on them at all since I have to finish Short n Sweet, the Lotus Blossom Tank, AND sew a skirt by next week at this time. *twitch*

A quick C&P

I know I haven't updated in a while, but I just posted this to the Sybermoms Stashalong Blog so I thought I'd see if a cut-and-paste would work. IT DID! Woohoo! Twice the posts for half the work!

This post is going to be photo-heavy and prose-light.
First is the sock froggie blanket--a variation on the sock monkey blanket in The Happy Hooker. I'm glad it's done. I don't care if I ever crochet/knit with mint green and pale yellow again. It doesn't lie perfectly flat, but I'm not worried about it. I'm hoping to have it in the mail to my friend later this week.

Springtime in Paris socks. To the left we have the detail shot flipped over so you can decide if the supposed-Eiffel tower details look anything like Eiffel towers. To the right is the progress on the sock so far. This has gone very quickly and is making me a convert to the magic loop technique.

The yarn-over cable socks. I have darn near perfectly matched up the stripes and am at nearly the same point so as soon as sock #2 is caught up to sock #1 I will be able to work them semi-simultaneously so they finish at the same time. I will be so glad to get these finished as I HATE HATE HATE the dpns.

This is the Lotus Blossom Tank. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the 4th lace repeat. I want to have it done to wear on Easter with the Short and Sweet (I think that's the name) bolero/shrug thingie from The Happy Hooker. The tank is in Shine Sport and I will be ordering Shine Worsted for the bolero thingie. And I need to make the skirt I intend to wear with them. Sure, I'll be done by Easter. No problem. *twitch*

Ok, these aren't knitted, but I like this so I wanted to post it. It's a Roll Your Own needlecase from SnB but modified for dpns. I like it. Too bad I hate the dpns so much.

Wow. I really need to post more often.

I'm way behind. I finished Shedir. It ended up taking me a little over two weeks. The side picture doesn't really do it justice I think. The cabling is much prettier on, and the star on top is a very nice detail. I learned to cross the stitches without a cable needle. If I'd continued using the cable needle, I think it would have taken twice as long to complete. I'm really glad to have finished it, and I'm pretty proud of it. I don't know if it qualifies as more complicated than Sherwood, but it was a bit of a challenge. The chart was actually pretty easy to read. I put in markers to separate the repeats. I think I would have gotten lost and screwed it up if I hadn't used the markers.
This is the lovely star pattern on top. I couldn't get a good picture of it on, so I had to stuff it with a small knitting bag to get the picture. That's why it looks like it has strings hanging off even though it is entirely completed at this point. I'm just really proud of this project. I would actually consider making this again. It was enough of a challenge to keep me entertained, and it progressed rather quickly. I would, however, use a different yarn. The yarn is natura Advantage 100% Deluxe Acrylic, 3 ply sport weight. I don't know if this yarn is still manufactured since I bought it over 15 years ago, tried to learn to knit, then happily forgot about it. I did enjoy taking pictures of my dd wearing the hat. I couldn't get any good phots of the details of the hat while she wore it, but I think her expression in this photo is priceless! She's such a stinker.

What else have I been working on? This stripey sock! It's a pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. I did the heel differently; it's the same heel used in the baby socks I made a couple months ago. I find the yarn-over/backwards yarn-over method much easier than the wrap & turn method. I like doing this toe-up too. I think these socks will actually fit me! I need to get me a digital scale so I can measure out the yarn till there's only 50 grams left and make sure I have enough for the second sock. I still haven't figured out the stripe repeat yet. It started with orange stripes, then THREE pink stripes, then THREE orange stripes, and now it's been TWO stripes the rest of the way. What gives? How does this make sense? I keep thinking at some point I'll run into a section of three stripes again, but so far that hasn't happened. How am I supposed to make them match? I don't know if I can have totally not matching socks. I think that would bother me a lot. We'll see. I will be taking a break from the socks for a little while since my wrists started bothering me this morning. Darn teeny needles.

The other project that I've been spending a considerable amount of time with is the Very Cropped Top Hoodie from Magknits. I'm using the yarn from my frogged Big Sack Sweater. Rather than making it a truly very cropped top, I put the body on waste yarn so I can pick it back up and add length after I make sure I have enough yarn to finish both sleeves. It might not end up being a hoodie at all if I run out of yarn. No biggie.

If you're wondering how the Lotus Blossom Tank is going, just scroll down a couple entries. It still looks like it did. I just can't bring myself to work on a summer top when there's several inches of ice/snow on the ground.

Progress

I have been working on things since my last post. In this shot you can see the cabling on Shedir. The color in this picture is not at all true. The actual color is flat black, hence the inability to see any details in the previous picture of this project. It's more fun to work on now, and I'm learning some new techniques for crossing stitches without using a cable needle. It's still not automatic, but it's easier than using the cable needle.

Here is the sock. It's coming along nicely. I think I only have about an inch before starting the short rows for the heel. It's hard to tell with the dpns since I can't try it on as easily as if it were on 2 circulars. I might have to put some waste yarn in it to try it to make sure before I start the heel. I'll rip it back if I turn the heel too soon and redo it, but I'd rather avoid that if I can. Once I get to the ankle on this sock, I'm going to do the other sock of the pair up to the same point so I can make sure they end up close to the same length. I'd hate to have a short one because I ran out of yarn.

Any of the other stash projects that are in progress have experienced NO progress over the last few days. I cast on the Very Cropped Top Hoodie with the yarn unraveled from the Big Sack Sweater. It doesn't look like much yet so I chose not to photograph it yet. I will leave you with a picture of my knitting chair:

You are Milk Chocolate

A total dreamer, you spend most of your time with your head in the clouds. You often think of the future, and you are always working toward your ideal life. Also nostalgic, you rarely forget a meaningful moment... even those from long ago.

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

Stash WIPs

I'm participating in a Stashalong with others in the craft forum at Sybermoms. The idea is to avoid buying yarn as long as possible. Probably every knitter/crocheter has a stash of yarn they've bought for projects that were abandoned, projects that were never started, leftovers from completed projects, yarn we fell in love with at the store but for which we couldn't find the perfect project, etc. If you click on the link, you can go to the blog for the Stashalong. As a result I have a lot of projects on the needles that are from yarn that's been in my stash.

This is the Lotus Blossom Tank from the Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. I'm about halfway through the third lace repeat. I think this will be very pretty when it's done, and it's been fairly interesting to work on. The yarn is Knitpicks Shine sport in Cream. I had originally made the Honeymoon Tank from this yarn, but decided it was too bare for me. Just not my style. I'm thinking this one will be much more me. I love working with Shine. It's not as hard on my wrists as most cotton yarns, and the modal gives it a beautiful sheen. This is also the first official stash project cast on from scratch.

These socks were cast on well over a year ago. I can't remember exactly when. I originally started them for a pair of boy-girl twins. Sadly, I'm sure those babies have outgrown them by now. I had completed one of the blue socks on dpns, decided that it would take forever and I'd likely get bored before completing four socks on dpns, and cast on the second blue and first of the pink onto 2 circulars. Then I got bored. The truly pitiful part of this is that I got bored with only 5 rows to go before the toe shaping. These took me no time at all to finish. I will hang my head in shame for leaving these OTN for so long when they were really so close to completion.

This is a hat for a friend who has cancer and expects to be losing her hair shortly. It is from the special breast cancer issue of Knitty. The name of the pattern is Shedir, and it is the second in the issue. You'll note from the picture that it's a lovely cap with several cable crossings, none of which you can see in the picture of my work thus far. I hate working with black, but my friend requested black. I will deal with it. Maybe I'll get an OTT-lite for Valentine's Day out of this. (Yes, that's a hint if you ever read my blog, sweetie!) I'm taking a break from it right now to work on. . .

Toe-up Socks! These are the yarn-over cable socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
by Charlene Schurch. The yarn was an impulse buy when I was picking up a second ball of yarn for the Branching Out scarf for stepMIL. I haven't figured out the striping pattern yet. I thought it would go from maroon/orange to maroon/pink to maroon/yellow, but it went back to maroon/orange before the yellow showed up. Interesting. It's a cotton/wool blend yarn. So far it is not bothering my wrists too much. I started those yesterday and that's how much I had finished yesterday afternoon. I thought I'd do them on dpns for a change, and I really just don't like them! I'll stick with them since the only other size 1s I have are a knitpicks circular which I could use for magic loop, but I would hate it if it turned out to be slightly a different size.

As it is these next socks are on a susan bates size 2 (2.75 mm) and a knitpicks size 2 (3.0 mm). I'm hoping that won't matter too much. I hate hate hate hate hate these socks. They began as doubleknit socks a la extreme knitting. Once I'd mastered the technique, I got bored with it. It also seemed to hurt my hands, but that might be the yarn since it's 100% acrylic. (The self-striping seduced me, and I neglected to check the fiber contents on the label.) I'm bored with them, and I think they're going to come out too big since the nasty acrylic doesn't seem to have much stretch at all.

That actually is it for things on the needles at present. I'm not counting the Big Sack Sweater from Stitch n' Bitch because it will be frogged. I discovered that I already had a sweater almost identical to it. Dh had given it to me a few Christmases ago. It's oversized, has raglan seaming, and has a rope cable going up the center front just like the Big Sack Sweater. The only differences would have been the color and the rolled edges of which I'm not a huge fan anyway. The only other thing actually on a needle is the dishcloth which I've discussed before. I haven't felt like throwing lately, so I haven't worked on it.

The best thing about all of these projects? None of them have a deadline so I don't have to be monogamous with any of them. I think that will work out nicely.

You can only imagine my frustration.

Dh fixed the camera disk. I can take pictures again. So yesterday I took sixteen knitting-related photos. I decided to save them to the computer so I could work on an obscenely long and photo-loaded entry that would make those with dial-up weep into their cereal. . .or whatever. Imagine my frustration when I insert the disk into the computer, and the computer recognizes the disk, but insists there is nothing there. 0 items. 0 bytes. WTF?! I took a deep breath and removed the disk from the computer. Put it back in the camera. Viewed my photos on the camera. They are still there. The computer can insist the disk is empty all it wants but I know better. When dh awakes, I will assign him the task of figuring out how in the blazes I can get the photos on the blog when the computer doesn't think there are any. (He still hasn't taught me HTML.)

I just can't do it.

There has been no break in knitting. I may be doing a little less than usual overall, but I certainly haven't stopped. I wear my ugly wrist things pretty much all the time which I think helps. I finally broke out of ribbing and into the plain stockinette part of the extreme socks. I'm finding it much easier to just use both hands instead of one of those thimbles that separates the yarns. I'm still not adept at throwing and tend to just drop the right-hand yarn completely when I do the left-hand stitches and pick it back up when I need it again. I'm changing my left-hand technique a little too. After watching Cat Bordhi on the Knitty Gritty, I've picked up her little thing she does with her middle finger to help wrap the yarn rather than doing so much scooping/picking with the needle by the right hand. Maybe it's saving some strain on the right wrist; who knows since I have to throw with the right anyway every other stinking stitch. I like the concept of double-knitting the socks and being finished with them both at the same time, and there's the whole mystique of the Extreme Knitter, but honestly it's kind of a pain in the rear. Next time I'll just do two on two circulars if I want to do them at the same time. But hey, I can say I've done it.

The Lotus Blossom Tank is coming along nicely. I'm about halfway through the third lace repeat. If I make the medium size, I'd be able to move on to the stockinette after the fourth repeat. I'm leaning toward the medium, though it will give me NO ease in the bust, because I'm using cotton yarn which has NO memory, and the last tank I made with this yarn just didn't fit well even when made to specifications for my size. We'll see what happens.

I still haven't dug out the baby socks on two circulars. I don't know why I have such a mental block about those things. I think it's the guilt of knowing the babies for which they were intended are going on two years old and will never wear these socks. Some other babies will have to get these socks. Maybe I'll pull them out this afternoon just to finish them and be done with them. Or maybe I'll finish the dishcloth. It would give me more practice throwing. I'm feeling very "attention-span-of-a-gnat" with regards to my projects today. So far I've done one row on the dk socks, not even a full row on the LBT, and I'm dying to dig out something else to work on. Tsk. Maybe I'll just completely thumb my nose at the knitting altogether and do a froggie blanket granny square!

Now I've done it.

Maybe too much handwork yesterday. Personally, I think it was the crocheting that did me in. Anyway, when the boychild woke me up at 4-something a.m. coughing--at which point I felt compelled to leave my bed, get him a drink of water, a dose of cough syrup, and more water despite the fact that he was actually pretty much asleep and may not have been too bothered by the coughing--while trying to get back to sleep, my wrists started throbbing. Throbbing might be too gentle a word. They were actually sharp pains at the time. They took turns too. First it was the left, which didn't want to stop no matter what position I lay in. Then the right joined in and at some point took over completely for the left. The right was still throbbing when I woke up this morning. That's why I'm blaming it on the crocheting.

Yesterday, I made two froggie faces (well, actually heads...they're still faceless at this point) and two granny squares for the froggie take on the Sock Monkey Blanket. (Link to modifications posted on craftster in a post below) Since crocheting involves mainly the right hand, I'm blaming the froggies. Yes, I worked on a couple knitting projects yesterday (the Lotus Blossom Tank and the double-knit socks), but I don't think I completed even a row of the tank and only 2 or 3 rows of the socks. How could the knitting be to blame? No, it's gotta be the crochet's fault. All the years in which I did nothing but crochet set me up for this. Maybe I'll start referring to this wrist problem as "an old crocheting injury" in the way that a man might refer to his limp as an old football injury. I'm sure it would shut up all the inquisitive cashiers, librarians, anybody-I-run-into-on-a-daily-basis from continuing their inquiry into "what happened to your wrist" when they notice the really unattractive wrist support thingies that I use. (No, really. They're ugly. Except my right one is a darker tone, more of a tan color, and my left is black. They help some.)

Anyway, the dear, dear husband is begging me to take a week off again. (I only made it 4 days last time I vowed to take off a week.) Perhaps I can use the time to spiff up this blog and add lots of fancy links and buttons. We've decided to tape American Idol tonight (dh can't STAND to watch the early rounds) and spend the now free time to teach me HTML which he says he knows like the back of his hands. I will take copious notes in the hope that I won't have to IM dh at work or dear friend Laura to help me when I get stuck and strange things happen to my blog. Or things disappear from it. Really, they need a detailed "blogger for dummies" help site. The blogger help section just isn't that helpful to me.

DH will also work on the camera tonight if I have to fashion a cattle prod from knitting needles and extension cords. With luck we'll have some pictures and REAL knitting content tomorrow.

Ugh.

I played with upgrading my template last night, and I lost some of my buttons and links and things. :( I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. Hopefully soon. As far as I know, the camera is still not working so still no pictures. I am eight and a half rows into the lotus blossom tank. I really like it so far. Granted, eight and a half rows aren't all that far, but I'm enjoying the lace. I still haven't washed my swatch for the other sweater, but as soon as I throw in another load of laundry, it's going in! That's all for now. Maybe this afternoon while DD is napping and DS is at school I will work on the blog template again and see if I can figure out how to put my buttons and links back in. *sigh*

Not much to post.

In the interest of posting every day (which hasn't happened thus far), I will babble on about not a whole lot.

I washed and blocked the armwarmers and they are MUCH softer. I don't think they will itch at all. Since last night, I finished a gauge swatch for the Evening Star Top from the Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. I'm using Artyarns Supermerino color 208. I picked up seven hanks at the Mass Ave Knits after-Christmas clearance sale. So far the gauge looks like it will work out, but I'm actually going to bind this off and wash and block it to make sure. I've never actually done that with a swatch! I also cast on for the Lotus Blossom Tank from the same issue. I'm making it in Knitpicks Shine Sport in Cream. I recycled the Shine from the Honeymoon Camisole (knitty) that I made last spring/summer. I just didn't care for the fit or how bare it made me feel. I will probably also work on getting gauge for the Frou frou Cardigan from The Happy Hooker out of Lion Brand Wool-ease. Yes, I already made one of those, but it was a gift. This one's for ME!

I met with my local SnB/FiberArts club at Beanzie's today. We had a good time hanging out and working on stuff. One of my friends from the group is moving to Ohio next week so this was her last meeting. I cast on and completed a couple of rows of the Lotus Blossom Tank. Leslie worked on a hotpad. Mary, who knits for charity during the month of January, finished up a couple hats that she started on her knitting machine at home. She will donate them to the Wheeler Mission. We are working on finding local charities for which to make things. We have donated 25 dishcloths to a local group that works with low-income families, teaching them how to stretch their dollars more nutritionally. They will use the dishcloths as some kind of reward or incentive for the families with whom they work. I can't fully express how much I enjoy this group AND the coffee shop. It's such a nice little haven and relaxing time.

Armwarmers finished.

But no pics. We got trouble in River City. . . with regards to the camera disk anyhow. The camera keeps beeping at me, so I put the disk in the computer to clear off some pics. The computer tells me the disk is not formatted; do I want to format it? Oops. Troubles like I said. I will have to sic dh on the problem.

Anyway, the armwarmers are ok. They are pretty and all, but I'm not sure I like them. They are snug around the base of my thumbs and the tops come up just far enough to be annoying when knitting or typing. Also, the yarn is a bit scratchy on the insides of my wrists. I'm going to wash and block them and hope that alleviates some of the troubles, but if it doesn't, I may just have finished a pair of armwarmers (really, they're wristwarmers, they don't go very far up my forearms at all) that I may not wear. Ah well. Time to swatch my Artyarns Supermerino I got at the Mass Ave after Christmas sale and see if it will work for what I want to do with it.

Those armwarmers...

...just are not going to match. Here they are after one day.
At this point I had considered pulling more yarn out of the second skein to see if I could find a color point wherefrom I could continue and the stripes would match. I pulled out quite a lot and it didn't seem to be matching up at all, and I didn't want to completely unwind the skein so I decided to just continue. Maybe they wouldn't be too far off. I'm sure they'll be pretty anyway. After knitting a bit yesterday morning and during the Colts game last night (for some reason I feel my knitting is tied to how well they play. For several games I didn't knit because it seemed whenever I would pick up my knitting, they would start playing badly. After the late season losses, I started knitting during the game again and they're playing better. Go figure. Yeah, I know, I'm a crazy fan, but I digress.), we have these totally not matching armwarmers:

Nowhere near matching:

Still haven't reached a point where the two skeins overlap in color changes. These are the same dyelot, but I've learned a valuable lesson about SWS: if the two skeins, even of the same dyelot, look very different, matching stripes will prove nearly impossible. I didn't have this problem with the other SWS projects (admittedly all felted Sophie bags so, well, with felting not much matters anyway) so I didn't anticipate the problem with this one. If you look at the two skeins though, they look quite different, and I probably should have thought ahead. Anyway lesson learned. While the flash highlights the sheen of the yarn, it is washing out the pattern, so here's a picture in natural light:
My mother-in-law watched the game with us last night and asked what I was making. I explained they were armwarmers. Neither she nor dh appreciated the charm and benefits of armwarmers. They just don't get it. *sigh*

What a blecky day.

Ok, maybe I'll just try for every other day with this. The every day thing just isn't working out. I would have pictures of knitting stuff to post, but on top of the rest of the yucky day, the camera batteries died. I've been working on the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers from SnB Nation. I spent way too much time redrawing the chart so I wouldn't have to try to figure out how to reverse the pattern for the second one on the fly. I'm working on them both at the same time on two circulars. I'm using Patons SWS in the natural blue colourway. The stripes are not matching up at all so far. I'm hoping I'll like them anyway. I don't relish the idea of ripping one out to redo it for matching stripes.

Ds is getting over being sick with just an occasional cough. DD is in full on coughing mode. Dh has spent most of the last 48 hours in bed. Why am I the only one in this house who is ever well??? It's not fair.

I went to yoga this morning. That kicked my butt. I'll be lucky to be able to move tomorrow to head to yoga again. :( Actually, I really enjoy yoga. I attended the Saturday class last week and it was fairly low key and not real hard. Today was a different teacher and this was TOUGH yoga. Once I get into better shape I think I'll really enjoy the class. Today was just very challenging and I probably worked a little too hard.

Today has to be one of the yuckiest days weather-wise too. It wasn't terribly cold, but it rained, rained, rained all day long. Dh has gone back to bed so I'm entertaining the little darlings till bedtime. One hour, 20 minutes to go.

Meh.

I can do the English knitting. I still don't like it, but I can do it. I'm about halfway through the dishcloth.

I remembered one of the other things I wanted to blog about. We are on day 2 of "no kids tv during the day." WOO HOO! They haven't even asked for Blue's Clues, Dora, or Diego or any of their other annoying friends. (DD did get a mini-fix when we stopped by Nanny's house. She watched a show and a half on Noggin.) I am letting them watch videos, either movies that we own or videos from the library, but even then they haven't watched many. They didn't even ask for any today until after 5 pm! This isn't really a New Year's resolution or anything like that. I just didn't turn on the tv yesterday morning, and they never asked for me to turn it on. It went so well yesterday--they played fairly nicely, they cooperated, they were sweet!--that I decided to go for two days. DS turned on the tv and cable box this morning, but the "home" channel is one of the music stations so I just left it on all morning. They continued to play nicely! DS was feeling better so he went to school today, and DD and I ran errands this afternoon. It is so nice not to have those babbling animated characters carrying on in the background of my day all. day. long. *sigh*

Oops. Already missed a day.

I have a good excuse. My kids were both sick yesterday. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

The scale has already gone down a couple pounds so I'm feeling a little better on the weight front. My short-term weight loss goal will be 140 by June 1st.

Knitting-wise, I spent yesterday finishing up the second of these darling wee socks for a friend's new baby.
They are the cable rib "better-than-booties" baby socks from Interweave knits I think summer 2005. They can be found here. I made these on size 1s (I don't have anything smaller.) with Katia Mississippi 3, a cotton/acrylic blend. I don't know why I insist on knitting with cotton; it always hurts my wrists. Oh well. I may be making another pair from this pattern for another pregnant friend, but she's not due for a while so they can wait. I also need to get her opinion on frogs cuz this (scroll down) is just too darn cute!

My knitting plans for today are mainly to work on my English knitting since it may be less strain on my wrists. I figure if I could actually DO it, then when my wrists are sore, I could continue knitting without causing more strain. Maybe. We'll see how my theory pans out. I'm just working on a grandmother's favorite dishcloth to practice. I started it continental a few weeks ago, so it should clearly demonstrate how much my tension will differ between methods. I've been stubbornly resisting the English knitting because it seems so much more awkward and "busy" for lack of a better term. Continental is so compact with smaller movements, but I'm afraid the smaller movements are what's causing the wrist trouble in my right hand. :(

It seems like I had more stuff floating around in my brain about which to blog, but I can't think of it right now. I'll come back later. Maybe two entries today will make up for missing yesterday. *wink*