The Finish Line (but not without a few lists)

Believe it or not, I actually finish projects.

The picture to the right is a baby blanket. It was the first none scarf object I attempted. It was supposed to have stripes and such, but I was still too much of a weenie. I have been working on this project for over three years. Uno, because white gets old pretty fast so other colors start to attact me. Therefore the blanket would get set aside for something more eye-appealing Dos, there's the fact that I had no particular baby to make it for, so there was no real rush. Most importantly though was numero tres: When PoPo was a puppy she discovered my knitting on a shlef while I was at school, where she proceeded to EAT through the middle of the blanket. To say none the less, I had to rip back at least ten inches to redo. I was not real happy, and after I redid those yards of yarn, I wasn't in a real hurry to EVER set eyes on it again.

The pattern, though pretty, was really boring and repeative over 181 stitches. I believe it's in the moss flower stitch. (But I couldn't be sure as I'm not willing to look it up.) It's got a garter stitch edging around all four sides (not pictured). That's 210 stitches along the length of the blanket for all you non-knitters. Those, thankfully, go rather quickly. I have a huge feeling of accomplishment finally getting through this.


One down, Forty more started:

Saxon braid Scarf: slowly, but surely, when fancy schmancy new yarns aren't busy distracting me.

Exhibit 1: Exotic Scottish Yarn
This is the progress on the Hubby's Weasley Sweater. I knitted one skein today. I've altered the pattern some; 1. I've made it knit in the round to speed things up. 2. I've increased the size to fit a 42" chest (M's got a 40"). I have no idea how this will fit his shoulders. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I like that this wool has a little more give to it than the Berroco yarn I used for PoPo's italian jacket. Although, the yarn is a little sratchier than I would have originally liked, as it is wool, but M is having no problems with it so far. I do find pokey bits of straw every few yards. I'm half amused and half mad about it. Everytime I find some I think, this is Scottish foliage, from a Scottish sheep! Damn, carders/spinners can't they do better than this! I'm not real specific about who/what I blaim because I don't spin (yarn). I pay for that luxury and I prefer not to be poked. Heeheehee, Scottish sheep! Yipee!


Also, the color is a little more purple, than one would imagine from the movies. I reread HP1 friday, and Ron does describe his sweater as maroon. I bought the same yarn they used in the movies, but I guess all that lighting during production and technicolor enchancement in post production changes the color a bit.

I plan on adding the "M" as a duplicate stitch after finishing the sweater for several reasons. 1. I have a very small amount of yellow yarn and I'm worried about running out. "M" is a BIG, WIDE letter. 2. This way I can figure out placement on his chest while the husband is wearing the sweater and have it match the movie version spectacurally. 3. So that I don't have to do any intarsia knitting. 4. If the size is all screwed up I can put a "J" on the sweater and go on with my life.


Exhibit 2: Dianna
All five skeins of my Dianna yarn came in Saturday while I was gone to National scrapbooking day with my mother, faster than the time I was qouted. They even gift wrapped it in wonderfully colored tissue paper. I will not be throwing the paper out. In fact, I'll prolly be storing the yarn in it. It's just so pretty. Treadbear makes me so happy. I'm also happy to report that this is a microfiber cotton blend. My first cotton. Yipee! Saxon Braid is in microfiber. I am willing to forgive the splitting while knitting and fuzzing on older bits for the softness. After all the splitting is more likely related to my tight knitting and unwinding of the ball than any quality about the yarn.

Oh, Dianna, I think I'm in love.

I had planned on finishing at least on repeat of saxon tonight and casting on for Dianna, when the Hubby chimed in about Cloud's Sweater/Vest in Advent Children...

Exhibit 3: The Sexy Vest.
The Hubby brought the playstation into the livingroom so that we could chat while I knitted in my special chair. He is on a Final Fantasy 7 kick. For all you non-nerds or non-nerd-lovers, FF7 is the 7th in a video game series, with a central hero Cloud (pictured below). I think they are up to 1o...Anyway, the game producers/directors/artists made a movie of what happened between some of the games. I will not recap the plot, because IMDB does a much better job at it.

This is the best photo of The Sexy Sweater/Vest. It's hard to tell but the vest is actually dark blue with a wide rib stitch. I've found a great basis for the sweater, but the first is in french and not widely distributed, the second is in english by the same company but doesn't contain the vest pattern I need, rather a sweater pattern. DOH!

But I will find a way to knit this, because the Hubby has some very yummy arms and he needs this vest.


P.S. LEAF as been shunted to the side as I'm not really sure I'll wear it anymore. It's 100% acrylic and the yarn has this twist to it that makes the rows slant to the left. So....it's been left in the bag for later when I'm feeling more decisive.

More mail surprises

You'll never guess what came in the mail yesterday!

You would especially never guess that it might be non-fiber related. My BAMBOO yarn arrived! I'm a happy girl. The package contained 6 skiens of Bright Multi for another AV Dianna top. We will see if the yarn substitutes well, it's a little smaller than The AV Dianna yarn ,but this should work well as I am really smaller than the "give" allowed for in the smallest sizes of the pattern. I'm hoping the color mottles well instead of creating a striping effect. Next up, we have the two skiens of pale pink which I planned without thinking to use in making tulip toes, but like I said I wasn't thinking...Type of yarn-HA! I laugh at suggested yarns....Gauge-Phhhh! Since when have I ever followed that? And lastly, the 2 skiens of Pastel Multi, which I have no definite plans for other than owning it.

In actual news, I finished up the second front on Cloud. I got to have a little laugh at the hubby's expense with it though. If you look at the bottom of this picture, you will see the provisional yarn used to make the tubular cast on (in yellow). Well I told the Hubby that I was adding this as "trim," because I thought it helped liven up the pattern. I wish you all could have seen the face he made right before sputtering, "If you add that I won't wear it!" He's been so excited about this project, his crestfallen face was priceless. (I really am Evil incarnate, I know.) Now, all that remains is the back, collar and zipper. This project as been a breeze to work on. I hope the that back goes just as fast. However, I may have to work on my new Bamboo Dianna to "work out the kinks" in knitting collars. ;)

If your living the the Southeast you may be interested in SAFF, which I unfortunately found out about too late (meaning today) and have not been able to concoct a reason to get out of my Grandmother's 82nd birthday party. Dang! Somehow, I just don't think, "Sorry Grandma, you play second fiddle when it comes to fiber and fiber related paraphernalia. Can you manage to wait until after your 84th birthday to give up the ghost?" will go over well. It's really very sad as this is only about 2.5 hours from the house.

Hopefully, the books I ordered from the not-so-local-LYS, will help fill the void in my heart. They are supposed to come in this friday.

Hola!

Vacation was wonderful. We missed that whole hurricane issue, but still managed to get the high winds. All I'm saying is if you needed mircodermabrasion, you coulda had it free this past week at Myrtle Beach. The Hubby was wonderful and let me pick almost all the activities. (His conference gave us free tickets to Cirque Du Soleil.) Also, you will be happy to know that you can now tell were my legs end and my socks begin. I am the appropriate shade of not-so-pale. Just enough sun to give me some color, but not enough to give me skin cancer. Which sounds as medically aware as a person can get, but its really just my vanity. I would like to as least have good skin when I am old, because wrinkles just aren't much fun to look forward too. Most of all, it was wonderfully relaxing.

I won't leave you hanging, though. I did get some knitting done in the car.

The first FO of the year!

SUNBEAM

Pattern: Adrienne Vittadini Dianna no. 6
Yarn: Adrienne Vittadini Dianna in Maize, just at 5 skiens, but I was not able to do all the picot edging, nor did I want to. Bought it "discount" and paid for what I got. ARGH!









There she is folks all pinned down to block. If I may say so myself, she turned out pretty good. A few goof ups here and there, but nothing that really bothers me and nothing a non-knitter can tell. For those of you who are knitters, the "oopsies" that glare at you like highbeams in the rearview mirror, just look away. Next up from AV is Celia, when the yarn comes in that is.

Speaking of yarn coming in. My Cloud yarn arrived while I was on vacation. This is the yarn I had to exchange because silly me ordered the wrong color. I went ahead and got 3 more skiens for an even 10 and so far I am happy with my knitpicks order. I'm going to start work on this next and hope that my Weasley sweater finishes itself. I started working on the pattern today with a little help from this sweater pattern generator. I am using it as a basis and making the rest up as I go. Hopefully, because this is a stylized sexy vest, it will turn out well. If nothing else the yarn is super soft to the touch ( 55% Superfine Alpaca, 23% Silk, 22% Merino Wool).

Update: fans and lace baby blanket. I haven't quite made up my mind on it. Awfully Ugly or Awesomely Colorful? What do you think?
Nigel helps me photograph (That's nice put for Pet me, dammit!). In fact, he helps me go the bathroom, read, watch movies, sit down anwhere, like at the computer while I'm trying to type. If I'm not sitting, but rather standing to say, cook dinner, he'll lay at my feet. If I move, he'll follow and lay down again. He'd help me sleep if I let me. Do ya think he missed me? Nah.

Our cat sitter liked him so much, he told me today that he'd like a clone of Nig, since the real thing is unavailable. Yes, we paid someone ( a friend) to come over to feed, play and scoop poop, because our cats are too good to be boarded for any amount of time. Plus, the friend was cheaper. (I'm not even going into Maya's disfunctional eye swelling that occurs when she under goes any stress, like going to the vets for shots-which doesn't happen anymore.)

I hope all your summers are going well and if you find some spare time I'll be happy to distract you with more knitting.

A new look...

I've mentioned it before, I can't stand to stare at the same layout forever. So yes, I've changed the look again. My favorite part was the berries in the top right corner to symbolize Agriculture and all aspects of it in my life. I also liked the number 26 in the corner, which is my age this year. Plus, blue is a lot easier on the eyes than the orange. Don't ya think?

In knitting news, which is going very slowly, I am using the 150+ yards of left over Louet from the shawl jacket to knit a scaled down version of Mellor's hearts and stars blanket. I changed it to a four by four square blankie instead of a five by seven. Trimming down the number of cast on stitches from 167 to 135. Also, reducing the mind numbing 10 rows of seed stitch between squares. Yay Progress!

(Click to enlarge)

However, I would like to lodge a complain and question with the knitting community at large. Does this happen to anyone as much as it does to me?

Just in case you didn't click to zoom in on this picture, I'll illuminate for you with another picture. A single skein tied together!
It's driving me nuts! It's happened on my Addrienne Vittadini yarn for Dianna, my Plymouth Royal Bamboo yarn for Poppy, and a couple others I can't even remember I'm so mad. Is this a common problem or am I just cursed? I paid $13.50 plus tax for this stupid yarn, and I want to use as much of it as possible! I want those 12 inches it takes to weaving ends and cut off the waste! It's not like you can frog the stupid 6 inches of a 30 some inch long of a baby blanket and take it back to the store of a refund...can you?

Well, at any rate who would want to reknit all that work? Not me. I wouldn't be as upset if this was el cheapo, Wal-mart yarn, which never seems to be tied together. Or even the higher quality, cheap Knitpicks yarn, which I have prolly had this problem occur before, but am currently blocking it in my rage. Due to the fact, that they are cheaper to begin with, so it's not as much of a loss and you prolly bought extra yarn anyway. Plus when you bought it online, you know you bought more than was necessary to avoided shipping and tax for that matter.

Thankfully, this yarn is yummy on the hands, I love the color and the pattern is super easy, so I haven't been completely turned off from knitting it all together. Unfortunately, I have almost used all my leftover yarn and am squeamish to go back to the yarn store to get more. Though, I guess I could get her to wind it there for me and we would see if it had any knots in then. Oh, I love it when I'm brilliant!

I have a plan

As we all know, I am always way behind the trend. I mean, I was working on my Adrienne Vittadini Dianna top from Spring '05 in Summer '06. This is nothing new, but there is a problem with being a late knitter.

And that problem is yarn, name-brand-designer-for-a-limited-time-only-whatever-you-want-to- call-it yarn. By the time I get 'round to knitting a pattern there's no more yarn left and I have to substitute. After two years of feverish knitting I am a pro at substituting yarn. (It also helps that I'm not real particular about quality standards or perfection per say. Boo boos are okay with me.)

You can imagine that when I bought Becky's yarn for booties, I was going to get in trouble. And in trouble I am. The cutest sheep booties in the world require a skein of Jaeger persia in black before i can finish them. Once again, I am left to find replacement yarn as I did not realize Jaeger no longer produced their persia yarn. Not one single solitary skein of persia in black to be found anywhere. As any knitter knows, when you are that frustrated with a project, you set it to the side and let it steep a little. You know, to enhance the flavor to your liking, or in this case until the project comes back into flavor. (I'm southern-everything relates back to tea somehow.)

So after about a month of sitting on the back burners, I realized that I had the perfect substitute already in my stash! 100% acrylic Red Heart Plush yarn in a soft brown. You read that right, I am mixing my designer yarns with my crap yarns. The shear audacity of it might overwhelm your knitting senses. However, lets look at the facts about these booties:
1. They are baby booties for a non-existent baby, making them purely for the pleasure of it knits.
2. Should they ever come in contact with a baby they will more than likely be drooled, peed or pooped on and there for need washing.
3. Acrylic washes really good, while wool not so good.
4. They are sheep booties! Sheep booties!

Now imagine how great they match, because my camera is on the fritz and I've got no pictures for you.

Knits in Pajamas

Photos as promised:

Get a load of PoPo's Halloween costume. This costume is Daddy approved. We saw a Spider-man, which just so happens to be one of our favorite superheroes, costume for dogs at wally world, and Daddy said that we already had a superior costume* for her in progress. And I quote, "You need to get cracking on it." End quote. M loves my knitting addiction.

I am a dogosaurus. Fear my partial completion.

But wait! This a duel purpose costume. She can instant transform into a Dog Flower! (Get it? Dog flower? Ha! I'm so clever.) This costume might just have relations to the next generation of Transformers in Beast Wars.

Yarn: Red Heart 100% acrylic in colors lime-ish, hunter green, and grape-ish. Hey, it's for the DOG! and she already has a 100% Italian wool (Berroco) jacket.
Pattern: Paton's Up Country "Another Dog's Life" in the largest size, with some modifications in the chest area, so it doesn't swallow her whole.
Needles: Size 6's for the collar and 7's for the body.

Poppy has not been forgotten, but with the new job (as of last Monday, I am back at the college) knitting time has slowed down, so she is on pause just after splitting for the arms and doing a little shaping. I know that the variegation in the yarn completely nullifies the actual pattern, but I can't stop myself. I normally do NOT like really bright colors, but it seems the closer I approach to my second anniversary, the less I actually care about what is stylish. This is just fun. Fugly to the max if you will. Though, I may actually try this again in a solid color yarn if I like the fit-so far so good.

Oh poppy, your wonderful variegated Bambooness completely drowns this pattern, but I still love you.

Sweet pants! They really go with that top.

Yarn: Royal Bamboo by Pymoth Yarn in color #18 Bright Variety. 5 skeins so far. (substituted for AV's Dianna Yarn)
Pattern: AV's Spring '05 Collection (volume 25) textured tank with cables
Needles: the recommended size

*We only dress you funny because we love you.

Just a little button

Just trying my hand at buttons.


Take my button. (You know you want it.) Copy the image above and save it to your own server to use on your webpage and then put it into your sidebar. It's that simple.

If your a little more web savvy you'll just grab the source code for it, by right clicking the image.

You'll still want to save it to your own server, as it'll prolly load faster that way. If your having trouble, changing the image source will to a link within your website or page will do the trick. The code for the image source reads: src="http://www.your piage with the picture on your web address here.jpg"


Also a small pic of Dianna's second day out. Click for larger picture.

I Got Your Knitting

I got it right here....

The new job allows me to knit at work. This is prolly why it doesn't pay much but, I haven't been happier at work. Last summer after the Hubby and I got married, I got a temporary job (approximately 4 weeks) as switchboard operator at his college. It's typically student work, if that tells you anything about it. So thankfully, after the meltdown of my previous work I had a job the next day. Everyone in the building welcomed me back. They were all bright smiles and happy to see me. The Head of the Admissions Department was glad to see me and offered me the job for all summer, so I have until August. I just thank the Lord above that he has provided this for me. But back to the knitting, which I know you all find infinitely more exciting.

The Weasley Sweater as progressed to a length of 14 inches. Last time I got the Hubby to spread it out for me, but he's watching King Kong....away my hand is now the comparison. And needless to say his hands are larger than mine.

This is three skiens knitted in the round. I will prolly have to order more yarn to finish it, as I only have four skiens left. (Including the one in the upper lefthand corner of this shot.) The Hubby is tall so this is not quite to the armpits yet, and I have no sleeves. I hope the next dye matches closely. YIPES!

Moving on. I told myself that I would finish the Weasley before starting on my D.V. mucho mucho $ "shirt." But I had all those hours at work to fill and the yarn was calling my name. (Really, it said Jen that highland wool is soooo scratchy! You live in GEORGIA for crying out loud! It's nearly summer AND I'm a cotton, microfiber blend-perfect for summer. KNIT ME!)

So I caved, but only for a swatch. Here's most of the first skien knitted (with shaping peoples!!) as the beginnings of the back.

Originally, this yarn was called Maize, but it's kind of a pale corn color. Like the the white/sweet corn we eat here in the south. I typically use the name/color of the yarn has the name of my design, unless it's astupid name or the design is already named. In this case, the yarn is named Dianna in Maize, didn't really fit. So I have rechristened this D.V. design as Sun Beam, because it reminds me of the summer sun. It makes me think of when you can see a ray of sun coming through a window, the kind that lures a cat in to doze.

So, if my fingers will keep up with me I'll have MORE finished projects to show you soon!

Big Girl Knits

I did it. I purchased fancy schmancy designer yarn (of course I went discount shopping-lets not be hasty.) I ordered 5 skeins of the Adrienne Vittadini's "Dianna"yarn in color number 028, i.e. maize from Threadbear. I was a little nervous about ordering online again for the first time since I discovered my credit card number was somehow stolen. Thank goodness I check my credit card status/bill online regularly.

Anyway, since the website doesn't have the ability to purchase online I sent them a little note via the email address they left for contact. I told them what I would like to purchase, but that I would prefer to have a comfirmation email sent back prior to giving out any personal information. So, I got the best little note back from them! I'll post it for your review.
--

Hi Jennifer!

Thanks so much for your note and for your interest in our good things for knitters! I'm always glad to help with a little enabling! (especially a fellow dawg!)*

I have everything wrapped and ready to head out--just call the shop (toll free) at 866-939-BEAR and we can get payment and billing information from you. Ask for Sabrina (unless you get a male voice), and she can fix everything right up!

Enjoy the yarn--it's LOVELY to work with!

Rob
--

I called them tonight (yes, they were open at 8:30pm EST!) and told them everything they needed over the phone. I highly recommend using them as so far I have had a wonderful experience with them. Wish me luck. I am going to try this before progress to this, and this (right) and finally this.

*I went to UGA for six years (two degrees), and have kept my UGA email address. Ergo, Rob can tell I'm a Georgia Dawg.


P.S. Rob just called me to double check my order, since I had not spoken directly with him or Sabrina last time. He says my stuff should be to me by monday!!!