Frogcity.

I've frogged the Diamond Fantasy Shawl. I wasn't that far into it, so no big loss. But I dropped some crucial stitches (ones too hard to just pick up and fix) before I had gotten to the point I wanted to place my first lifeline.

I'm probably going to frog the yoda sweater beginnings as well. I'm not happy with it. The fabric it's creating is too thin. I have some other things in mind for the baby so it's not a huge loss, but I did think it was cute.

I think I am frogging my start on my toe-up socks too. I might do those lovely lace socks from IK in that yarn instead. Or maybe something else.... not sure yet.

Perhaps I'll just work on finishing up some of my open projects instead. Maybe a clean slate would help. Or maybe I'll flip thru the mags and books and find something else to work on.

Or maybe I'll do another flower basket. Or maybe I'll start lady eleanor. Or... or... something!

I'm just bleh about my knitting. I know I said I'm process, but I want the things my process creates to be nice so when I get the "this is not working" feeling, I am listening to it.

Maybe I'll just start the big area rug for the kitchen.

Chatty.

First! Knitting content.

Another Log Cabin washcloth is almost done.

I have started the Yoda Sweater designed by Cari. I am doing this in some Peter Pan acrylic something or other. It was Odessa 2 but I ripped it because I wanted to use it for this.


And I haven't made any more progress on anything else. I have, however, set up a knitting chatroom on the IRC network I am always on. While I may not be there all the time, my computer is. If you'd like to drop in, just click on the link on the sidebar and go from there.

Finally, the picture below is from last week. We were eating hotwings, and because we were in the living room, I was sitting on the floor and close to the coffee table. Daisy was waiting, not quite patiently, to swoop in and grab anything I dropped, and this is the face that peered up at me the entire time I ate.

Memorial Day.

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in life, and politics, and opinions, and the relief of having an extra day off that we forget why we have the day off. So here is my Memorial Day photo collection.

THANK YOU.

Face-lifted.

I got bored with my old look and disliked that some of the functionality was missing because I used a non-blogger skin and edited it. So I switched back to a blogger skin and edited it instead.

Hope you like it. I tested it in IE and Firefox, and they both seemed ok. The font did seem a tidge smaller in Firefox.

If you are having any problems viewing/reading/whatevering the site, let me know.

Thanks!

It ain't cheap.

The Atlanta area just found out what all knitters already knew. Yarn ain't cheap.

It's been discovered that two ladies were stealing from a store in Woodstock. One of them stole $13,000 worth of yarn over a period of time. Talk about SABLE!!

You can read the article and watch the news report here:
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/9268970/detail.html?rss=atl&psp=news

I'd like to say I was smart enough to tell you what yarn store it was, but I'm not. I didn't know that there was a yarn store in Woodstock. I had a hard time finding yarn stores when I lived back home, and now that I am up here in the "Great White North", I hear about yarn stores all over the place down there.

As a side note, is it wrong I was comforted by watching the news reporters I've grown up with? It felt good. I might have to do it again. I still listen to my old radio stations online from time to time. It's nice, even if it makes me feel sneaky and dirty for some reason.

I do have some knitting content to report. But not much. I started another log cabin cloth.

And then the pattern I ordered for the Diamond Fantasy Shawl came. So I started it in that mohair yarn I got not too long ago. I just think it's too fuzzy, also, it's a bitch to rip/tink out.

So I started again, this time with the Knitpicks Palette (in "Pool") I ordered. The pattern of the lace looks much better in it, even if it's not as pretty colorwise, and has no fuzziness at all.

Thanks for all the good wishes regarding being sick, I'm much better now!

And to Jeri, it's Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. I completed the first one and decided I didn't really like the way it fit at all, so I'm not doing the second.

Sick.

After fightingit for a few days, and even going to Wine in the Woods (www.wineinthewoods.com) on Saturday and meeting up with Lolly and Coleen (links on sidebar). It was great fun, and I think the wine helped me ignore that I was getting sick.

Shmoo and I found out that we have very differing tastes in wine. I like fruity and sweet. He detests it. He dosn't mind fruity and dry, or woody and dry, but the only type of wine I can stand causes him to make a face.

I was suprised by the number of vineyards in Maryland, and I think we might plan some day trips to them some time this summer. We bought some wine from Leow's Vineyard. One Honey & Grape for me, and two Harvest Red for shmoo. I want to go to Boordy at some point and pick up some of their Sangria, it was lovely as well.

As for knitting, I have managed to finish my log cabin washcloth between stints of hot tea and naps.

And now for the promised geeky keyboard pictures. Unlit, lit, and close up.

Have a good one, I am going back to my decongestants, chicken soup, hot tea, and bed.

Geekiness.

I started the Hippopotamoose socks from Knitty. You know the ones. No one can pronounce/spell/remember the name properly but they have that cool pattern? Yeah, those.

Turns out, the pattern wasn't as cool as I thought, so they got ripped. BUT! I loved loved loved the look of the plain twisted rib. LOVED. So I restarted a toe up sock with the same yarn and plan on just doing twisted rib. I'm not super far into it, but that's ok.

The more I start things and rip and reknit, the more I think maybe I am process knitter. I knit things for the finished product of course, but I want them to be things I like, whether I am keeping them or not, so it doesn't bother me much to rip, or abandon a yarn or pattern. Perhaps that's also why I have a bazillion projects.

I haven't been doing much knitting this week. We've been doing some rearranging here at the house, and I've been a little bit geeky as well. I ordered a new keyboard. (It should be in today so I'll update this with pics later.) And I have been working on re-setting up my server since it died ages ago, and I really want it back. The geeky bit is that it used to be debain flavored linux and now it's FreeBSD (also a sort of *nix flavor, but really it's own seperate branch) and I am using fluxbox for the window manager/gui.

It will be nice to have my email on my server again and get my photo gallery back up and running. It's a steeper learning curve for me (and I never did really figure out how to do much more than bare bones with debian), but I have a nice book, tons of web docs, and shmoo, so it should be fine. I'm pleased to be close to having it done and everything restored like it should be.

That's about it, I might add a pic of my tiny piece of sock when I update, just to maintain the knitting content.

Have a great weekend!

Out of Sorts.

To start with something positive, everyone who received something knit from me for Mother's Day was very happy with it. Now on the the fussing.

I'm just out of sorts. Nothing feels right. I keep starting projects (lace) and end up not happy with the needle size, or the yarn itself, or just the combo of the two with whatever particular pattern I happen to be trying at the moment. Perhaps I am just being fussy but... nothing fits my hands at the moment, so lots of false starts and frogging have been going on.

And then I feel like I shouldn't bother to start because I'm just going to not like it and frog it.

And I don't want to finish up any of my current projects right now.

*sigh*

I do feel better since sucky knitters met last night and then I went with Erin and Coleen to some place that serves Margaritas, but I can't remember the name of it. They both crack me up, and their perspectives on things often help.

If you found me because Erin (Mama-E) pointed you this way for hand cream, leave a comment or email me. I'll be happy to talk to you.

And because I really don't have anything to take pictures of besides my washcloth knitting, I'll leave you with those. Have a great day!

Lost

Since finishing Flower Basket, I have felt a little lost. I didn't want to do any of my current projects, but I wanted to knit. Mostly I wanted to knit more lace, but didn't really have any yarn I wanted to work with. And I wasn't sure of a pattern, and I didn't have the needle size I wanted to work with the yarn I had.

So... I ordered the Diamond Fantasy Shawl pattern. I ordered many many skeins of Palette from Knitpicks in Red and Pool. And a lace book by Martha Waterman.

Then I went to All About Yarn and did some stash enhancing. I picked up some KFI Whispers to do some lace something for my mom for her birthday or Christmas. I also replaced my two balls of Dale Baby Ull, this time in a claret color, as I had a plan for that yarn already and it's just waiting on the pattern to be available. I also nabbed a blue Chibi and a pair of sz 4 Natura's. I think I have just about decided that Natura's are my favorite needles.

I also frogged my toe-ups on two circs. I turned the heel to early, and I still didn't really have a stitch pattern in mind, and so I decided to just frog it all and try again later, perhaps when I have something more specific in mind. Or maybe I'll do some cotton lace. Who knows.

In the mean-time, I started Knitty's pedicure socks. Certain to be abandoned if not finished by the time my lace goodies get here, and possibly even sooner if I decide which pattern I want to use that Whispers for. (Possibly Print o' the Wave)

That's about it. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

And in your mind....

is where I'll plant my seed. - Guster, The Airport Song.

The seeds of future lace projects have surely been planted. I really enjoyed Flower Basket. A lot. I have been at a loss as to what to knit since I finished it. I was so focused on getting it done, now that it is, I am having a hard time remember all the other things I had going on knitwise. I mostly just want to go buy some more Baby Ull and do another one, much larger. But I digress.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly present Flower Basket Shawl!

The blocking shot. As you'll see in the detail shot, it's wrongside up.

Blocking detail. Man I love the macro function on my camera.

Finished/Front detail.

And finally, the money shot. Proudly brought to you by a leather chair at Panera. She's a lovely model isn't she? This picture represents the color of the shawl best to me as well.

Quickly for the notes now.... I used the pattern from IK Fall 04 ( I think, it's free on the website as well, possibly subscriber only.) I used US 6 Addi Natura Bamboo circs and not quite two balls of Dale Baby Ull in a lovely peach color. (Can't remember/don't know the color number.) As for pattern mods, I added one more repeat of the lower chart for a total of 8 instead of 7.

It was a good first lace pattern. It covered all the basic stitches and wasn't a terrible repeat. In fact, after the 2nd or 3rd time thru the chart, it gets a lot easier. I highly recommend this for a first lace project.

I plan on making it again, possibly in a proper lace weight and smaller needles. But we'll have to see really. I have so many other things to finish up and that I want to do, but if I need another outstanding gift fast, I can see doing it in a week again. Preferably, next time I'll give myself at least 2 weeks so I can do my usual project hopping around.

Tagging (aka bad knitters)

Today on the craftster forums, I stumbled across some chick "tagging" things with her knitting and taking pictures of it. She was leaving a Knittaplease tag on it as well. Now she had no affiliation with this group, she's just using their name on the tags, instead of hers, and encouraging others to do the same.

Now, I admit it's a cool concept, but that's all it is. Going on forums everywhere and encouraging other like minded teenish types to do out and do things that can potentially damage OPS (other people's shit) is not a good thing. In fact, I'd call it vandelism. Sure, it's not paint, it can be taken off without lots of scrubbing, but it's OPS. And the potential for damage is there. Especially since a lot of the targets are car antennas. Things that are easily broken and cost lots of money to replace just aren't the way to go. And I don't think this is encouraging others to knit. I'd say it's exactly the opposite, but there are young (and dare I say foolish?) teens who think this is hilarious. They justify it because it's their way of trying to share their knitting with others, and it doesn't hurt anything and yada, yada, yada.

To these people, I say this:

You aren't doing this to things you own. You are doing it to things owned by other people or the public. Stop it. If you want to share your knitting with others, go to a kid's center, or a senior center, or a community center, and teach other people how to knit. Knit hats for the Dulaan project. Knit items for the homeless. Knit items for the women's shelters. Teach knitting at women's shelters. Just get out and make a difference in someone's life instead of being a vandal and thinking how cool and punk rock you are. Because you're not.

And most importantly, stop messing with OPS.

The Flower Basket shawl pics will be up sometime later tonight or in the morning, as I am going to try and coax one of my knitting buddies into modeling it for me while I take the picture.

And I ain't got no worries.....

'cause I ain't in no hurry, at all. (Doobie Brothers, Blackwater)

I have finished the Flower Basket Shawl.

I'll block it shortly and hopefully have some decent pictures of it compelted before I send it off.

Neat plates seen at Maryland Sheep and Wool:

An awesome felted fishie bag:

A super cute face:

And my purchases:

10 ozs of Corriedale to learn to spin with.

A Kundert top-whirl drop spindle. 1.2 ozs, made of Walnut, with Zebra-Wengle and Birdseye Maple whorl accent.

And, from Tintagel Farm, 8 ozs of 50/50 wool and mohair.

8, it's the magic number.

I am on my eight repeat and then I am going to go ahead and do the edging. No pictures, it's just a big peachy wad on the desk. Imagine the last picture, only bigger and with a few more mistakes and you'll be bang on.

Top of the 6th

I'm two rows into the 6th repeat. Out of 7. It doesn't seem that it's going to be that big at all. There will surely be repeats added. Definitely one. Likely two. Perhaps even three.

Cracked.

It's finally happened. I have cracked. I have decided that my Grandmother needs a Flower Basket shawl this Mother's Day. Yes, this Mother's Day. Cracked.

I started with Knitpicks Shadow in Lost Lake and did it double stranded like the pattern said. I got halfway thru my second repeat of the lower chart and decided it was too bulky and unclear.

So I frogged and started over single stranded.

Yeah, I frogged that too. It was too thin and loose.

So, I went to the stash, hoping it wouldn't let me down. Possibly considering my KnitPicks Essentials sock yarn. Wondering if I had enough not to run out....

Dale Baby Ull for the win. It's a lovely peach color, and if I run out, I can hike it to the LYS and pick up another ball. I have caught back up to where I frogged and feel good about it this time.

So when you don't hear from me, just know that I am desperately slaving away at my crazy mission, questioning my sanity every few minutes. I'll try to post pictures as I go, but if not, I'll nab a finished one before I send it off.

Random.

Drop Stitch Hoodie has a completed back. Can't decide if I want to do fronts or sleeves next.

If you have a Mac, check this link: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/04/30/apple.security.ap/index.html

Mac has changed some things and now viruses for them are starting to appear out t here. Also, it has fellow shmoon Rodney in it, and I think he's a nice guy.

Columbia (aka Sucky Knitting Girls) Knitting Group is meeting tonight at 7 at Borders.

Maryland Sheep and Wool is this weekend. (As if you didn't know!) And the Knitbloggers Ball is this Saturday night. The details are on Mama-E's blog. (link in the side bar, I'm lazy this morning.)

Also, it seems that Maryland has a huge Ren Faire in the fall. As big as Georgia's in the spring. I want to go, but perhaps for the first time ever I am thinking of going in costume or something else super cheesy. Are their knitting patterns out there for these outfits? And lord help, what would you knit it in that wouldn't be too hot?

Time to put the laundry in the dryer. Ya'll have a nice week!