Posts from — July 2007

 What was supposed to be a quick and easy hat is giving me a headache.  Today was the third rip and re-knit and I’m still not happy.  Although the logo looks better in solid purple, the outline is giving me fits.  I’ve tried one, two and three strands…none of which look good.  Besides that, I tried it on and the logo is way too big!  Hrmph!  Just when I started to think maybe I am some kind of knitting “diva” stupid old acrylic continues to bite me in the a** (still try to keep it rated G around here although anyone that knows me “IRL” would probably have a good laugh at that).

On a serious note, I’d like to thank Marin for pointing out the Stitch Diva fundraiser sale.  Stitch Diva Studios is offering 25% off patterns today and tomorrow only with 75% of the profits going to Evan (Allison’s son with hypothalamic hamartoma) and Gerry (Annie Modesitt’s husband who is battling multiple myeloma).  I’ve been eyeing Sahara and Goddess for a while and I’m glad I’ve waited until now to purchase.  You can also donate directly to their causes at their websites.

I can’t believe how much I am enjoying this mystery format.  It takes a leap of faith to knit something you haven’t seen but it’s unbelievably fun.  I hurry to finish each clue and then get frustrated because I can’t go on to the next until Melanie posts it.  The pattern is gorgeous and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

I am working on a few other things but two are “stealth” projects…so not much to tell you about right now.  Hopefully I can get one of those finished this week so I can move on to something else. 

No one guessed correctly what I was doing in St. Louis.  To be fair, giving no hint at all was probably unsporting of me (and possibly causing this contest to be much less popular than my previous ones).   So….what I was doing was this:

That would be me, Terri and Rob Mariano.  The St. Louis trip was for a casting call for a new reality show.  I know…I can’t believe I went either…and now that I have…I.  SO.  WANT.  TO.  DO. IT!  Only a couple of little barriers…like thousands of other potential competitors and this little rumor.  They did ask some questions that make me think it could actually be true.  Would the opportunity to see all 7 continents and the lure of winning 10 million be enough to entice you to give up your life savings?

This all got started when Terri saw the announcement for casting on a blog.  She thought I’d be perfect for it…a cross between Amazing Race and Survivor?  I was really excited until I read that I couldn’t spend more than $20 to get to and attend the call (which doesn’t even cover half a tank of gas) that was a 6 hour drive away (ok, Nashville was slightly closer, but Erica was here and that drive is more than a half a tank too).  When Terri offered to pay for the trip, how could I refuse?  I mean, when a friend has that much faith in you…well, you just have to believe that maybe the whole thing was meant to be.

 Six hours in the car allows for a lot of knitting!  I worked on the sigma pi hat.  It has already been ripped once and I am about to do it again.  I’m not happy with the way the yellow on the diagonal part of the sigma looks, so I’ve decided to do the whole logo in purple then embroider the yellow border.  I also started some new socks.  This is only pair 3 of the “Summer of Socks”.  Guess it’s not going to be much of a SOS for me after all.  I am also designing a pair of socks too that can’t be shown.  Think those will count?  I’m sure I won’t be winning anything anyway since at least one  participant already has 18 pair finished (does she sleep???). These are a standard 60 stitch toe up in OnLine Supersocke 100 “sortierung 57″.  This yarn is a lot rougher than Opal.  I really hope it softens up in the wash.

MS3 still remains about 20 rows from clue 4 being finished.  I hope to get that knocked out tonight.  Have a great weekend!

Hi all, I am back to update you on my baby blanket project. So, I have to admit I haven’t worked on it since Saturday, but it is coming along very nicely. Please see pictures for the update. Doesn’t look quite like Cheryl’s sample that she did for me, but I know I followed the pattern correctly……  

Keep in mind that the picture includes my life line just in case it looks a little funky! Ok… off for some more blanket fun!!! :knitting: 

Isn’t it amazing what we will do for a friend?  One of mine would like a sigma pi hat for her annual auction basket at her son’s fraternity.  We went to pick out yarn today since I don’t have anything in purple and gold (their colors).  We hates it (yes, I have truly become a fiber snob…I won’t even try to hide it any more).  But I’ll do it anyway for a friend.  This hat will be one of my projects while I am with her on a road trip tomorrow to St. Louis.  Why are we going there?  Well…I’ll tell you later.  For now, I thought it might be fun to make this a contest.  The first person that can guess why I am going to St. Louis will win something.  I don’t know what yet, but it will have something to do with fiber (previous knowledge of why I am going automatically disqualifies you…that is about 3 people and I only know of one for sure that reads the blog…ahem…Erica).  Oh, and I promise it won’t be the leftover Caron.  You have until Thursday July 26th, 2007 at noon eastern daylight time.

P.S.  I am almost done with MS3 clue 4…twenty one rows to go.  I may have a picture for tomorrow if I can get it finished in between packing and figuring out the pattern for this hat tonight. 

Going through the jasmine in my mind…yes, I’m dating myself.  I can’t get that silly song out of my head ever since I cast on the Breeze socks for Sheila.  I really just chose this pattern because it fit the yarn I wanted to use.  However, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the pattern and how much I like they way they look.  They were fun, easy and I love the way the designer paid attention to patterning the toes.  I think these will keep poor Sheila’s aka “Pinkie” (thus the yarn choice) tootsies nice and warm at night.

Recap…  Pattern:  Breeze from knitty.com, Yarn:  Classic Yarns Cashsoft 4 ply (57% extra fine merino, 33% microfibre, 10% cashmere, 50g/180m/197y) Color:  sh421 (pink) needles:  US 1/2.25mm Chiagoo bamboo DPNs  Gauge:  7 sts and 10 rows per inch  Size made:  Small, but we have 8.5/9 feet (isn’t it handy that all the sisters wear approximately the same size shoes???) and finished length was 8.5 inches.  They stretch quite a bit in this yarn.  I was a little worried I might run out of yarn but I had a good sized wad left, 6g. 

Ok. So I have threatened to post and here it is! I stated knitting a few nights ago a baby blanket for my college roommate Becca. She is due in February so I figured I had plenty of time to learn something new. I made about 10 scarves around Christmas time, which I see Cheryl already filled you in on and they looked marvelous. They were all garter stitch. (Forgive me I am still getting all the lingo down…) So when Cheryl taught me how to purl on my last trip I figured what the heck. Let’s give it a whirl. She created me a very simple what I thought was Erica proof pattern.  Erica proof being simple and easy to follow. I spend all day working and the last thing I want to do is have to knit a seriously complex pattern. So I started the project. I made sure I looked up all the stitches on KnittingHelp so that I knew what I was doing. First 5 rows where fine since they were garter stitch and I am a pro at that. Got to the lace pattern and my first complicated knitting stitch and of course somehow managed to add an extra stitch in there. Little did I know you actually need to count the stitches every time you go through a row in between markers. Silly me, or I would have caught the error. So I went about my business, purled the next row and then started the 2nd lace row. I then realized that I had extra stitches. Un-knit 2 rows… of the 7 complete rows (each row has 159 stitches) worth it?? I ripped it out and started over. Again, started off with a bang and then of course on the first lace row, messed it up AGAIN! This time I was counting along the way so I just had to un-knit only a few stitches, but when I was un-kitting the s2kpo stitch I messed it up dropped a loop and the next thing I knew a big unraveled area of my project. AGAIN ripped it out thinking it would just drive me nuts trying to figure out how to exactly to fix the problem. So they say 3rd tries a charm. I started over for the 3rd time and this time I made sure I reviewed the stitches again on KnittingHelp. Thank god I did. I was doing something wrong. Those videos and of course numerous calls to my DivaKnitting sister saved my project. I will keep you posted on the status of the next couple of lace lines, to ensure I don’t mess something up again!!!

Stay tuned for pictures….

I just finished clue three on the MS3.  Still loving the yarn and would still love the pattern if I weren’t so stupid as to have to frog the same three rows about 463 times (totally user error or maybe a result of KUI …the pattern is perfect).

Erica started the baby blanket I designed for her (pattern available soon if anyone should want it) and is having some problems of her own.  It is her first non scarf, non garter stitch project and she has threatened to begin posting here again.  To quote her from a recent email, “P.S. Purling rocks. I love this Norwegian style. I don’t think I could do it any other way!!” Maybe I’ll get her hooked yet!
 

Although I was late to the party signing up for Mystery Stole 3, I have managed to catch up. Of course, there is no rule that stays you have to keep up with the clues but it seems kind of fun to do it that way. I’m loving the yarn and the pattern is very pretty.

I also cast on for my second pair of socks for SOS…I really expected to be cranking out the socks in honor of this event, but other things keep intervening. When my sisters were here last week, I learned that Sheila is perpetually cold. How could I have such a great subject to knit for and not know it??!! Apparently she wears socks to bed every night, I had one ball of this yarn in my stash, her nickname is Pinkie and her birthday is July 28th. All the signs pointed to this yarn and Breeze (I think I can safely talk about this since I don’t think Sheila reads the blog.  But if you are and you didn’t think I was really giving you vitamins for your birthday, did you? ).

Yarn: Classic Yarns Cashsoft 4 ply 57% extra fine merino, 33% microfibre, 10% cashmere Needles: US 1 It’s been a long time since I’ve done top down socks. I really don’t mind though…it is kind of nice to shake it up for a change. I wasn’t wild though about having to break the yarn after the cuff. I’ll stay consistent on the next one but if I ever make another pair I’d probably just rearrange the stitches so I don’t have to do that. I also found that although the stitch gauge is about right the row gauge is not. Fortunately, the designer gave the measurement for the heel flap length so I did 20 rows instead of the 34 rows called for in the pattern. I still picked up the same amount of gusset stitches doing two in each slipped stitch towards the sock top and one each in the last 4 stitches near the bottom (making sure I have a note for myself so I do it the same on the next one).  I think these are going to be super cute and after the try on I just did they should fit pretty well too!

Edited to add:  Could some kind person out there please let me know if my new posts are showing up on bloglines?  It seems like since I messed with the feed to block the running posts that bloglines isn’t picking up the feed right…it use to be much more immediate. 

Some of you may remember that my sister Erica learned to knit last time she was in town.  Everyone on  her Christmas list got scarves.  I really thought I was well on the way to getting her addicted, but I was wrong.  What I didn’t realize is that they were all garter stitch scarves!  Nothing wrong with that of course, but I guess I just assumed she would seek out the purl stitch when she got home (I told her all about KH).  All knit and no purl makes for some boring knitting y’all!  Now that she has a baby on the way (NOT hers…a close friend) the interest to knit again has been sparked.  So this visit I taught her to purl.  Because of the way she holds the needles, continental purl was  a little awkward.  So I showed her the Norwegian purl method instead…for some reason that was the easiest for her.  Since she didn’t have much time to practice I promised a tutorial. (By the way, I hope all this messing around with my blog feeds didn’t totally screw things up.  It seems like my post from yesterday isn’t showing up in bloglines!)

Norwegian purling is fun to try (every time I think of Norwegian purling I think of the Olympics…seems like it should be the name of an intense sport).  It’s not my preferred method (I do regular continental) but it can break up monotony and is great for ribbing.  Why?  Well…Norwegian purling allows you to keep the yarn in the back same as the knit stitch.  No annoying front, back, front, back when switching from the knit stitch to the purl stitch.  (If you prefer video to stills, scroll to the end of this post.)  To begin, hold the yarn behind just as you would for a knit stitch and place the right needle under the yarn and then into the stitch on the left needle, approaching it from the right.

Then, rotate the right needle back to the right (the right needle is still in the stitch to be worked)

Next use the tip of the right needle to scoop up the working yarn.  The yarn will go around the right needle counterclockwise.

Then the right needle rotates back down towards the left.

 As the right needle rotates down towards the left the tip will go down and under the stitch to be worked.

Finally the right needle comes out behind the left needle and the stitch is complete.  Allow the finished stitch to come off the left needle and onto the right.

I also made a video for Erica.  It may be easier to try the Norwegian Purl after you’ve seen it done in real time.