So Smart!

So, Jason got me this pattern, right? It's beautiful. Ilga Leja's Sea Urchin.

I swatched for it. Really swatched! Washed it, blocked it, everything! And I got gauge! So .. the now daunting process of knitting the thing is all I have left. And I was all ready to begin .. when I read the pattern. Increase every second row, fourth row and sixth row .. huh? What is this, German?

*sigh*

I was determined though, and after casting on and knitting up to the point where I needed to actually figure out the increases, I knew I couldn't just stop. So I took out a lovely little journal I found on my bookshelf, and began to write the pattern out. Once I got to those pesky increases, I wrote out every row. All 39 of them. And started trying to plot the increases. Including how many stitches they would leave me with.

Three revisions of said writing later .. thank goodness for pencils and erasers .. I'm pretty sure I've got it written out correctly. At least now my written out destructions mesh with the pattern and the errata to the pattern that I found. I end on the correct row, and with the correct number of rows knitted after the final increase. I'm trying to decide now if I want to make the sleeve just a little longer.

I feel so smart!

PS: If you're interested, I posted in my boring blog a very very long, photo-gluttonous post about my flowerbeds.

My answers below...

Here's what the formatting means:

Bold = have already tried this
Italicized = Plan to try this
Unemphasized = Have no desire to try this

• Afghan
• I-cord
• Garter stitch
• Knitting with metal wire - I have the cutest pattern for candle holders .. just need time to try it!
• Shawl - *looks at her stash* So much yarn for shawls, so little time.
• Stockinette stitch
• Socks: top-down - I will. Next year, if not before then, I will cast on my first sock.
• Socks: toe-up - I will do this too.
• Knitting with camel yarn - And quiviut too!
• Mittens: Cuff-up
• Mittens: Tip-down - Someday, yes, though I don't even usually wear mittens.
• Hat - Monkey hats count, dammit!
• Knitting with silk - This gets both because I've knitted with silk blends, but not pure silk. Yet!
• Moebius band knitting - I do plan to try this, though it's all kinds of intimidating.
• Participating in a KAL - This gets both because I have both participated ( dishcloths ) and plan to do more. They're kinda fun!
• Sweater - Still working on. But I started, so I can count it!
• Drop stitch patterns
• Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn - Need to find something to do with it, but I will .. and hopefully, mine won't melt!
• Slip stitch patterns - Looooove mosaic knitting!
• Knitting with banana fiber yarn - Jason got me some too .. can't wait!
• Domino knitting - Do huh? Though, I did find links. Looks like it's similar to mitered squares, but it's a little more complex. I smell a book I might want.
http://www.amazon.com/Domino-Knitting-Technique-Vivian-Hoxbro/dp/193149911X http://www.interweave.com/knit/books/domino_knitting.asp

• Twisted stitch patterns
• Knitting with bamboo yarn - Got the yarn, just need to knit the poncho before the little girl is too big!
• Two end knitting - Not to my … hey .. yes! I did this with my first Ball Band Dishcloth!
• Charity knitting
• Knitting with soy yarn - Yes please! And corn too!
• Cardigan
• Toy/doll clothing - Monkey Hats!
• Knitting with circular needles - Totally .. like all the time.
• Baby items - Only because I have a few actual friends that have them.
• Knitting with your own handspun - I won't say I plan this because I do not think I have the patience for spinning. But one never knows.
• Slippers - Someday. Probably felted, even.
• Graffiti knitting - I love the idea. I so want to, just to have done it.
• Continental knitting - I have totally tried. But my hands don't like it.
• Designing knitted garments - One day. I will design my own.
• Cable stitch patterns - Looooove cables.
• Lace patterns - Usually love lace. I need a better system for keeping track of where I am though.
• Publishing a knitting book - I have an idea in mind. Just need to see if I can implement it. Oh yeah, and learn to design my own patterns.
• Scarf - This gets both because I have done them, and plan to do many more. Nyah.
• Teaching a child to knit - Not unless I teach Savannah.
• American/English knitting - Wha?
• Knitting to make money - Yes please!
• Buttonholes
• Knitting with Alpaca - This gets both because I've knitted with blends, but not pure alpaca. Have some though!
• Knitting with Angora - I totally added this because it should be there! And I plan to, definitely!
• Fair Isle knitting - Someday. Probably in socks or mittens!
• Norwegian knitting - Isn't this Fair Isle?
• Dying with plant colors - This sounds -soooo- fun!
• Knitting items for a wedding - My sister and niece have to get married -someday-.
• Household items
• Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
• Olympic knitting
• Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
• Knitting with dpns
• Holiday-related knitting
• Teaching a male how to knit - Nyah. Even if Brandon has a girl card, I taught Jason!
• Bobbles - I'm sure they have a use.
• Knitting for a living - This would be a dream come true for me right now.
• Knitting with cotton - All the time. I always have at least one dishcloth on some needles somewhere.
• Knitting smocking - Eeew. Oh .. but wait .. pillows. This is a maybe.
• Dying yarn - Cannot wait to try this.
• Steeks - Scarey, but I'll try it. One day.
• Knitting art - I agree with B .. knitting is art!
• Fulling/felting - Love felting.
• Knitting with wool - Love wool.
• Textured knitting
• Kitchener BO - For socks, this is almost a necessary.
• Purses/bags - Of course!
• Knitting with beads - Several projects, in fact!
• Swatching - A necessary evil.
• Long Tail CO
• Entrelac - Scarey, but I so want to.
• Knitting and purling backwards - If this is twisting stitches? Yes. If not .. umm .. wha?
• Machine knitting - Like Brandon, it's cheating, but cheating I can get behind in some instances.
• Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegating yarn - Variegated yes. Self-striping eventually. Probably not self-patterning though.
• Stuffed toys - Bunnies!
• Knitting with cashmere - Mmm. Yes please. Even a blend will do me fine.
• Darning - Once I've made my own socks, definitely.
• Jewelry - I made a bracelet! Just need a clasp.
• Knitting with synthetic yarn - I learned on it!
• Writing a pattern - Goes along with the knitting a book. I want to .. but will I ever get that good?
• Gloves - Eventually, yes!
• Intarsia - Scarey, but I wanna do it!
• Knitting with linen - Talk about dishtowels!
• Knitting for preemies - Only in the case of charity knitting, but sure.
• Tubular CO - I'll try it, if nothing else.
• Freeform knitting - If this means that silly scrumbling thing, no thank you.
• Short rows - In socks, no doubt, if nowhere else.
• Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers - I even found the perfect fingerless mitt pattern. And these are different than fingerless gloves, B. Fingerless gloves have half-fingers.
• Pillows - Because one day, I'll have furniture that needs pillows.
• Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine - Knitty.com rules!
• Rug
• Knitting on a loom - Weaving, yes. Using a knitting loom? No.
• Thrummed knitting - Another thing I had to look up, but it has potential.
http://fiberfreak.blogspot.com/2006/01/thrum-de-dum.html
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2004/09/15/mitten_what_mitten.html
• Knitting a gift - So many.
• Knitting for pets - Isis needs cat toys, after all!
• Shrug/bolero/poncho - I have at least a poncho in the works. And I need a shrug!
• Knitting with dog/cat hair - Interesting idea, but I don't have a dog/cat that I could get enough hair from in my lifetime.
• Hair accessories - I will try again with the knitted scrunchy.
• Knitting in public - All the time!

My -intention- is to post actual knitting content today, however my womanly innards are not quite behaving, and I'm half doubled over, whimpering and cursing enough to make some sailors blush. I've already had to call my DM and tell her there's absolutely no way I can work today, which I hate doing cos we have really no backup help right now, but I simply cannot work. Hell, I can hardly sit, never mind stand! So. I've got a shower, made tea and oatmeal, and rubbed mineral ice on all my aching parts.

The lovely Norma, who won the Mom You Always Liked Better award at JenLa's, has thrown down the gauntlet. And I have to agree with her. The festering sore that is the poor grammar usage in bloglandia needs to be stopped. Hopefully, she'll let me in the band.

Speaking of awards, congrats also need to go to Chaos and Mayhem, for winning best couple .. but come on, was there even a question? And also to Trailing Yarn for her Fresh Blood Award, Cara for her Most Enthusiastic Knitter award, Lolly for Project Spectrum winning Best Meme, and to Sandy and Purley Whites for their Keep Blogistan Beautiful awards.

In other random happinesses, Lolly has announced Project Spectrum 2.0! Yippee! I've already signed up. Of course, this might interfere with my Stashalong efforts, but I -should- have enough yarn in stash to manage a knitted project for every two-month grouping.

February / March - Blue, White, Gray : This is the perfect month to work on my Hearstrings Smoke Ring. And maybe my Victoriana Top too. And I can felt another bag with the blue/black wool to give to Neely.
April / May - Green, Yellow, Pink : I have some beautiful green wild-stuff-type yarn that is begging to become a scarf or shawl. And all my baby yarns are pink/yellow/green, so I can work on some baby things.
June / July - Red, Black, Metallics : I can start on red scarves for the Red Scarf project for 2007. I don't think I have a lot else to knit in these colors right now, but I'm sure with some stash-hunting and judicious purchases I can find enough.
August / September - Brown, Orange, Purple : Socks! I have sock yarn in these colors. I'm sure I have other stuff too, but it's hiding in my stash right now. But definitely socks. Oh! And my brown/lilac scarf I've been dying to make.

So, yeah. Project Spectrum 2.0 begins in February, and I'll be beginning with it!

...

Now then. Have I been knitting? Yes I have! I've actually almost completed the back of my dot check tunic sweater, though it's on hold while I frantically work on red scarves for the month.





This was my progress yesterday before I started knitting on it again. It's a variation of the Irish Hiking scarf, because I'm only doing two cables instead of three. I don't know how long the yarn I bought for this scarf will hold out, so I'm making it a little thinner. It's now about twice as long as it was here, about 3' long I'd guess.

I've just discovered a Broadway play I absolutely adore is coming to town this month, so I'm waiting for my husband to respond to me so I can get the go ahead to buy tickets for us and a friend. So while I handle that, I'm going to go find myself some food.

http://wicked_stitches.typepad.com/wicked_stitches/2006/11/project_warming.html

I'm moving my photos to Fotki instead of Flickr .. Flickr doesn't give me the flexibility I really am looking for as far as organization is concerned unless I shell out $30 for a 'Premium' account, and to make a new Flickr I have to make a new Yahoo completely, and I dislike that prospect. I have enough to keep up with as it is.

So, to view my pictures now, you can go to my Fotki pages.
Finished Objects
Works in Progress
Stash
Project Spectrum

I also made albums for the knitalongs I've joined, as a way to keep track of what I did or received or gave for what.
Summer of Stash
Mason-Dixon KAL
Knitting the Classics

Dinner, pink scarf and Booga!

I've been slacking again. I'm actually way behind in reading blogs too, which is something I'm trying to slowly slog through this afternoon. This morning and lastnight my 'net was having issues .. well, actually, many issues. More like subscriptions. But is seems to have stabilized now, so I'm able to post and such.

I went out on Tuesday with my friend Neely .. the one who won't learn to knit. She's -such- a snob! But I went out with her anyway, and took Brandon along .. the one who I taught to knit, and who loves it and is as much a knit-dork as I am. We went to get pedicures at the nail salon she likes in Charlotte. It was nice too. The little Asian girls were darlings, and didn't seem to talk about us too much. And the pedicure was so relaxing. I knitted on the pink skinny scarf all the way through. And they even do a paraffin dip for your feet .. all for $25! Wahoo, pampering!





After the pedi, we went to lunch at Panera bread, and then to Target for something for Neely .. and I ended up getting Zoo Tycoon 2: African Adventure. Yay! Yes, I am also a computer game dork. I already had the Endangered Species expansion, so I had to get this one! And after some annoyance with the installation, I finally got it installed and running, and I've already played it some. I'm still trying to get through all the campaign games ... they're tough!!

After the trip to Target though we went to Hoby Lobby to pick up some yarn for Brandon to make dishcloths for some friends of his and for Neely to pick out yarn for her own. She wants some that match her bathroom. And good friends that we are, we offered to make some for her. But they only had the right color in chenille (sp?) so I snapped off a small amount from the skein and I'm going to find some in a cotton or something more durable to make her some. And I'll likely be paying it out of my own pocket. And I'm used to that.

Now, I should explain something about Neely. Neely is selfish. Extremely and often uncomfortably so. I love her. She's a wonderful friend. But I don't spend a lot of time with her because of this. Neely isn't the type to do something out of the goodness of her heart. She has a motive, always. We tolerate this in her right now, because she's had some life changes .. though they are her own doing. She left her husband of 3 years for a fling relationship with a guy she met online through Adult Friend Finder, then started a relationship with the man she's renting part of a house from. She doesn't make the best decicions. But I love her, and think she tries as best as she knows how to be a good friend.

So it doesn't surprise me when I have to buy yarn for this for her. Even though I'd really rather not buy it, because she's snooty enough that I can't just pick up some everyday cotton. She wants it to be soft. But, that's the price of friendship .. at least in this case.


Anyway, we left from there to drop her off at her and Keith's house, and made plans to meet her at a restaurant local to us for dinner with she and Brandon and Jason and myself. Keith wouldn't come because Keith is a chef and is too snobby about food to eat anywhere like *gasp* Applebees. Even though we're all on Weight Watchers (Jason, Brandon and I) and that's one of few places we can go to eat and not have to worry if we have enough points. And when he cooks, he doesn't think about such things, and honestly, his food is often too 'cuisine' for me to enjoy. He overdoes everything .. he can't just make a simple meal when we go over for dinners, and it frustrates me because every time, I get sick with stomach problems. You'd think he'd get the hint.

So we get to Jason's work, and he's busy. And we're early to boot. So we sit in the car and knit. No big deal! I worked more on the scarf while we waited .. and we thought 'Hey, we should call Neely and let her know we might be late." So we call. She hasn't even left yet .. she's watching TV. *ahems* Did I mention she's a little self-centered? It didn't dawn on her we might be waiting for her.

Anyway, dinner was had, and it was nice, and we chatted and we did our duty as friends, and we went home and were content. Oh, and at dinner I finished the scarf. It's as long as I am tall .. think that'll be enough for a little 5-year-old? I love it to pieces, the feel of it is perfect. If only it weren't pink.






Lastnight I spent watching tv with Jason and Brandon, and I started my Booga bag finally. I'm not using Noro (I know, gasp away. But I'm on a yarn diet this summer, and have all this wool I can use instead.) And though the whole picking up stitches along the edge thing was wierd, I finally got through it, and I have now gotten through a good ten rounds of the sides. And if I do say so myself, the fuscia looks really good with the grey-brown handspun I'm pairing it with.