Saturday, May 19, 2007

I've gone over to the dark side

I have multiple (that's more than one!) WIPs. I know, for some people project monogamy is right up there with eating a bowl of plain oatmeal every day, every week for breakfast. Give me raisins! they say. Give me apples and cinnamon flavor! Heck, forget the oatmeal - I wan't eggs benedict, a side of Canadian bacon and a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice!

Now, I don't really want to eat plain oatmeal every day, but in knitting, I don't do well with multiple projects. I get so stressed about which project I should be working on, I don't work on either. Come to think of it, I'm like that about home decorating projects too. Which is why I'm seriously considering hiring a designer to whip this place into shape. My next door neighbor (same house, mirror-image floor plan) hired one, and her house looks 15 years younger than its actual age.

Back to knitting - I started the Follow the Leader Shawl by Sivia Harding in Jagger Zephyr wool-silk. Yum! I can see why this is always a top hit when people ask the lace group on Knitty "what's your favorite lace yarn?" It knits up very nicely, and yet feels sturdy enough in my noob lace hands that I don't feel like I am fumbling with cobwebs. No snagging on my needles (US5 - plastic, unknown brand). The color, teal, is just what I was hoping for. I ordered from Theknitter.com. I did not know the USPS had an option that took 10 days to get a package from Colorado to Ohio, but apparently the Pony Express has been brought out of mothballs. Next time, I will either plan further ahead, or fork over a little extra money for faster shipping ( I went with the "free shipping" option.)


and I'm knitting away happily and my daughter asks what it is. I tell her and she says "For me?" "No, for Mommy" "Oh. What you knitting for me?"

How can I resist this face?
So, I break out the Knit Picks color cards and let her pick her favorite color. Then, we break out the crayons and I have her draw (with my help) a neckline and sleeves on her new sweater.

I'm working in Knit Picks Shine Sport, in Cherry:
I'm at the point where it's time to start the armholes, and am off to read the Knitty tutorial on such. Time to break out the calculator!

Or maybe to sneak back to the shawl, which has been unloved for the last week for the sweater. Feeling guilty again....

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Diving into the stash




Still no packages from my mailman, so I broke down last night and pulled out the only "kit" I have in my stash right now - the Northern Lights mittens from Knitpicks. I bought the pattern last summer, and after reading it carefully, ordered the yarn that was listed in the materials section.

I cast on and knitted a few rows:

and I'm just thinking - this doesn't look like the photo in the pattern. The orange stripes are just too light. I checked the pattern again, and the yarn band, and I did order the right color - but its not the color listed on the Knitpicks site now! Since ordering the yarn, they have added a "buy colors shown in photo" button to their pattern order pages. And now it is Bark, not Fawn.

I found a great picture of the mittens as a FO with Fawn as the contrast color (as I would have if I keep going). If you read Jenna's post, she comments on the pattern error, and I agree with her that the Fawn doesn't offer enough color constrast. I think it's way too late to call and complain, especially since I already used a little of the Fawn for another project, so I'll just order a ball of Bark and start again in a week or so. Until then, I'll keep going with the colors I've got now, skipping over the rest of the corrugated ribbing to practice the Fair Isle and make sure I'm getting gauge with these needles (US1 bamboo). Of course, I'm not about to pay S&H for one lousy ball of wool, so I'll have to pick up some Shine Sport to make a little summer tank for Audrey.

Why is my stash not getting smaller??

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Saturday, May 05, 2007

I ate the jellybeans

They were over a year old. And I'm still alive to tell about it.

My daughter has (finally!) finished eating her Easter candy. I'm getting tired of the plastic eggs rolling all over the kitchen counter for the last month (empty eggs go on the counter, full eggs stay in the basket until eaten), so I told her that when the candy was all gone, she should put the empty eggs back in the basket, put the basket on the porch, and call the Easter Bunny to come pick up the basket. Then he would store the basket until next Easter for us, and bring it back full.

Genius me forgot to check the weather forecast today. Strong southerly winds. Basket blew across the porch, jammed under the railing, and a dozen plastic eggs were launched over the edge. Plastic grass decorates the arborvitae. Fortunately, this is not visible from the window. After she went upstairs to change this evening, I went on an Easter Egg hunt. Found all the eggs - and one was still full! Oh joy - candy for me!!! I have a terrible sweet tooth. As the first jellybeans enter my mouth, I see the black licorice bean in my hand and I think "there shouldn't be any black beans in the "tropical smoothie" flavor mix. Then it dawns on me that there were black beans LAST year. This egg got overlooked last year, buried in the plastic easter grass. Got overlooked when we emptied the basket to refill it this Easter. Got overlooked when Audrey was pulling out candy each night for her dessert. Got overlooked until I dug it out from under a lilac bush tonight and tossed the contents in my mouth. Ick.

Nothing much fiber-y happening lately. I'm waiting on my Zephyr wool-silk laceweight to start the Faroese, and can't motivate myself to pick up anything else in the meantime. Slow mail (I know, I get what I pay for - it was free shipping) - I ordered it a week and a half ago. It did ship out earlier this week though, I got a nice update email from the seller. I think they are clear across the country though, so a delay is to be expected. I've been practicing with my spindle on the light blue roving and I think I'm getting more even. I won't know for sure until I ply it though.

Sorry, no pretty pictures today. Wish I could do better!