I cheated

Note: this post was written on Monday. Sorry I've been so lax in posting -- last week was a crazy knitting rush and this week I'm having computer problems so don't have a lot of time to post. I'll do better next week, I promise.

No, not on Blogger Bingo, silly! On my Rhinebeck sweater. Frankly, it was the blocking that did me in (and allowed me to get some sleep Saturday night, which was good because Becky actually pretty much slept through the night for once and how pissed would I have been to have stayed up knitting the one night she slept?). But more on that later.

Sorry about the lack of updates last week -- I had a crazy work week and then spent every spare moment knitting on the sweater for Rhinebeck. Even though I didn't really finish it properly (see below), it was wearable and I'm feeling better about deadline knitting now. If I'd missed that deadline and made it three in a row, I'm not sure what I'd've done.

Also, some people in my life are going through some hard stuff right now, so if you could all send out mental hugs to my mom, Larry, Erica, and Avy, that'd be nice. They can use all the hugs they can get right now.

First, the Becky Fix:


Check out my cool new exersaucer! Thanks, Auntie Fun!


Look how big I smile when I play in it!


Bad Bosox! I eat your head and maybe next year you'll do better so my daddy can enjoy the World Series!

She's a silly, happy, googlymoogly girl. She gets mostly formula now -- one bottle of frozen milk (yes, we thaw it first) at night. And she's eating a little bit of solid food. So far she doesn't like any of it, but she loves eating with a spoon. She's getting a little separation anxiety in the mornings and doesn't want to be put down, but hopefully she'll get over it. If not, college is going to be pretty tough for her. Heh. She always has smiles for the ladies at daycare, so I'm sure it's just that she wants mommy, not that anything's wrong there.

And now the big huge Knitting section:

Okay, here's how it went down with the sweater. I was done with all of the knitting but the collar around 9:30pm Saturday night, and I started on the making up (because you make the thing up and then knit the collar on last). By 10:30 I had the shoulder seams and arm seams done. That left three ginormous seams that had yet to be done (two sides and then the front gets sewn up the middle, pluss sewing the sleeves on). And this thing had to had to had to be blocked. Believe me, I'm the first one to skip blocking if I can get away with it. But this guy seriously needed to be both wider and shorter (convenient, since making something wider usually results in noticeable shortening). So if I continued seaming, I'd probably get done around 4am, and then still have to block and knit the collar. I decided, I think wisely, to give it a dunk and block it with just the shoulder seams sewn together, hoping that 8 hours would be long enough for it to dry.

Fast forward 9 hours. I have a Very Very Wet Sweater. That still needs to be sewn up. That still needs six inches worth of collar knitted on. Crap. Wait! I have hair dryer! Wool is hair, right? Right! A few passes with the hair dryer and I have a moderately damp sweater. Dry enough to sew. It's 9am (did I mention I slept in?). Thoughts that ran through my head: I do want to go to Rhinbeck before all the vendors leave. Can I possibly get away with the nefarious plan that is forming in my little noggin? I'm gonna try.

Yes, I wore a basted together sweater to Rhinebeck. And I felt shame. Warm shame, because the sweater dried pretty well while I was knitting the collar in the car -- again with the much faster than expected driving! I only got four inches of collar done -- the sweater totally needs at least six inches. So, this week at-home knitting will be consisting of ripping out the basting and putting in real seams (the front seam is done properly -- I was afraid it would gap) and undoing the bindoff and knitting (at least) 2 more inches of 2x2 ribbing. Oh, and there will be another good blocking, because apparently actually wearing a damp sweater makes gravity think you're giving it free rein with your knitting.

Other knitting consists of...socks! I have 8 more days of Socktoberfest, and I am determined to knit Sock2. I will also be continuing Socktoberfest into November, as I am planning on 3 pairs of socks for Christmas presents. My current walking project is the rest of the manly muffler (yes, I finally got the right color), which will be followed by yet another scarf (Christmas presents, people, they're not all for me). I'll also be doing a couple of sets of gauntlets for presents. Next year, nobody gets anything that requires me to make two of them. I don't know what I was thinking.

Finally, Rhinebeck:

Yes, Rhinebeck gets its own section. Rhinebeck is huge. I have to admit, though, I was a little disappointed. Not because there wasn't a lot of stuff, mostly really nice and very well priced (I got 8oz of Tussah silk for 8.95!), but the vendors just weren't as friendly as the vendors at Stitches, which is my usual Fall event. Stitches moved to Baltimore this year (from AC, which was wonderfully husband friendly -- I'm so disappointed they moved, I can't even tell you), so I knew I wasn't going to make it down for that. I figured Rhinebeck would be comparable and thus a good replacement. Not so much.

First, it seemed more fiber oriented than yarn oriented. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised about this, since, you know, they had actual sheep and llamas and bunnies (oh my!). But I was a little disappointed at the yarn selection. In fact, I only bought yarn for one pair of socks. I bought plenty of fiber, though...Merino/Alpaca in a gorgeous mossy green to make the Wanderlust sweater with; the aforementioned Tussah silk; some pretty teal cotton; a lovely merino/silk blend in purples and reds and oranges; and the piece de resistance...a blend of 50% Buffalo, 25% cashmere, and 25% silk. It was by far my most expensive purchase (but very reasonably priced, considering what it is), but after I touched it I had to have it.

Here's all the swag:


Speaking of cashmere, that was another disappointment. I was able to touch several samples of cashmere from several different vendors, in both raw and spun form, and it just didn't feel all that great. I mean, it was nice, but not drool-worthy. I prefer my alpaca/angora blends for softness. Qiviut, on the other hand...wow. You know how when you're a little kid, you imagined clouds were these big incredibly soft fluffy things, and how nothing is ever as soft as you imagined clouds would be? Qiviut is softer. Someday, I will treat myself to some qiviut, but the time has to be right. It will be prespun, because I don't want to wait that long, and I have to have the right pattern, and I have to not have anything to keep me from it (like Christmas knitting, or crazy things at work, or babies).

Chris was absolutely fabulous the whole day. He was bored out of his skull, and I knew it and felt awful. But he wouldn't let me give in to the guilt and leave early -- he insisted that I wander through every barn and see all the goodies. Plus, he took care of the Beckmonster all day. I'm a very lucky wife, and I probably don't tell him so often enough. But he just keeps on being Mr. Wonderful. Sigh. My husband is ever so dreamy.

posted by Laura Y. @ 5:52 AM 1 comments

Por moi? Et SP neuf.

And that's about the limit of my French. So, rough day at work Friday, but I came home to not only my awesome SRS package (thanks, Meera!) but a note from my SP9 pal! Plus I have knitting news, pictures of her Beckiness, my SP9 questionnaire, and pictures of my swag. So, this is going to be a super long post -- sorry.

Swag

Check out this gorgeous silk/merino Meera dyed just for me!



You can see more of her stuff at her etsy store or her blog. I absolutely love the colors and although the patterns she sent me were for either gloves or wrist warmers (Voodoo Wrist Warmers and Urban Rustic Gloves, both from Knitty -- not Meera's fault, but how annoyed was I when I saw a pair of ribbed gauntlets after I spent all that time designing a pair! To think I could have just gone to Knitty and saved myself the trouble! The thumb is totally different, though, and mine are stretchier, which I like. But still.), I think I'm going to spin it up and knit something fun for the Beckster, though I might keep the pink for me. These are the kinds of colors I just love to put her in, and anything that's yummy next to her skin is a winner for me.

And, here's a pic of the card I got from my spoiler:



Isn't it lovely? It looks handmade and I think it's just adorable. I can't wait to see what she sends next! I have some serious plans for my spoilee, too...haven't decided if I'll share them here or not.

Becky


Isn't she just the cutest thing you ever saw? Yeah, me, too.

She hates carrots, loves her mommy and daddy, and is transitioning well to formula. Tomorrow, we try bananas.

Knitting

I seem to be constitutionally unable to finish a knitting project on a deadline. Translation: I did not finish the second ribbed gauntlet in time for Otherworld (good thing I didn't rip out that first non-ribbed one, huh?). Now, I am not willing to take full blame for this -- Chris went and found a route to Pomfret that shaved an hour and a half off our travel time. An hour and a half! I'm all for less time in the car, but that seriously cut into my knitting time. Those of you who are keeping track will realize that also means I didn't get nearly as much done on my Rhinebeck sweater as I thought I would. In fact, I didn't knit a single stitch last weekend. Things are not looking good for me to meet that deadline, either. People who are expecting something for Christmas, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Knitting lessons, on the other hand, are going incredibly well. Erica and Avy both are doing well (even though Erica doesn't think she is). It's funny to watch the two of them and how differently they approach knitting. Avy is definitely a process knitter -- she even taught herself to purl a couple of weeks ago because it was the weekend and I wasn't around and she decided she wanted to know. That Monday she brought in about a foot and a half of a perfect stockinette stitch scarf with a lovely little purl ridge pattern that she'd made first by accident and then decided she liked out so figured out how she'd done it and just kept going. Erica, on the other hand, sees knitting as a means to an end. She wants to make stuff. When we walked into the yarn store to buy the yarn for the scarf she's making, she was already planning her next five or six projects. Since I am, at heart, a project knitter much more than a process knitter, I totally understand where she's coming from. I tend to teach myself new techniques only when I want to make something that involves them.

SP9
(Apologies to my fab spoiler -- I really did mean to get this up sooner. It's been a rough week.)

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I wasn't a yarn snob until just recently -- I think maybe because my time is so much more limited now, and also because I finally feel confident that I can do beautiful, expensive yarns justice. I've also just started knitting socks, so having to buy less of the good stuff to complete a project is a definite bonus. Right now I'm loving Lisa Souza. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. Oh, and I'm allergic to guard hair. Yes, it's an allergy, and no, it's not to lanolin, dye, or any processing chemical. There's an actual rash, and it happens with anything that's from an animal and isn't merino, alpaca, or superwash. No, I do not count silkworms as animals.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
A little makeup case. I just got a new one to replace the one I'd been using for the past 6 or so years -- it was getting a little skeevy.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
Hmmmm...I would say it depends on what I'm making. I'm advanced at cables and bobbles, intermediate at lace, and definitely a beginner when it comes to color work.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Technically yes, but no not really. I have things on my B&N list, but they're really just there as reminders (and mostly for my husband), so let's just pretend I said "no."

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Although I like most fruity stuff, I have some kind of weird allergy to something that's used in lots of scented products so I always have to sniff stuff before I buy it.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Yes, but I'm trying to lose the rest of my baby fat (and then some).

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I: spin, weave, dye, do paper crafts, sew, quilt, make jewelry, make soap, embroider (okay, the last two I haven't done for awhile, but I still have all the supplies and will probably get back to them one of these days).

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I have nearly 5,000 songs on my MP3 player -- please don't send me more music!

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I love purples, greens, blues...lately I've been on an orange kick, too. Oh, and reds...yummy. Really the only color I don't like is pale yellow, though I don't mind a spot of it here and there in a variegate.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I have the best husband ever and a super sweet daughter (see Becky, above). No pets right now (well, Slappy and Austin, but they live down at the junkyard).

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Scarves, yes; hats, yes (usually to match the scarf); mittens, no (thinking about modifying the gauntlets to have a foldover...but what would I do about the thumb?); ponchos, yes.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Sweaters, hands down. I am loving socks, too, though.

13. What are you knitting right now?
What am I not knitting right now? I've got the Rhinebeck sweater, the rest of that second gauntlet, my second Sock, the baby sweater to replace the Mexicali, the Manly Muffler, the sweater I want to submit to Knitty. Probably more that I can't remember.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Love to!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Wooden circs (or DPNs for socks). Bamboos are my economic second choice...though I did just find (and buy) a bunch of rosewoods for about the same price as bamboos from Herschnerr's. I lust after glass needles -- damn that LimeNViolet!

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I am lucky enough to own two of each.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
We don't talk about The Paisley Sweater of '90.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
International Talk Like a Pirate Day

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Hobbies, apparently.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Hmmmm...nothing I can think of. I'm intersted in Socks That Rock, but am waiting until Rhinebeck when I can touch it for myself to jump on that bandwagon. I subscribe to IK and VK...also Spin Off and Handwoven (which I know are not knitting magazines, but are still fiber related so I thought I'd mention them).

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I think I'm finally ready for Fair Isle...I'm going to do the We Call Them Pirates hat in the sadly discontinued Crystal Palace Romance. Mmmmm...luscious.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I have knit an sock...not sure that makes me a sock knitter, but I do plan on knitting additional socks, so maybe. Measurements are not handy at the mo, but I have big feet. I didn're realize how big until I knit that sock.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
Feb. 28. It was not a leap year, so no, I was not "almost a leap year baby" (can you tell I get that a lot?).

posted by Laura Y. @ 3:02 PM 2 comments

These Magic Moments

Well, we're back from Otherworld. It was even more magical as staff than it was as a participant, and I cannot begin to put into words how incredibly honored I feel to have been invited to work/play with this particular group of people. You know how when you're the new guy in a tight-knit group that's been together for years there're all these war stories and inside jokes that you can tell are funny but you just don't quite get because you weren't there and so even though you know everybody likes you, you're still a little bit of an outsider? Yeah, it was the exact opposite of that. There's always a little bit of withdrawal after OW associated events (because the people are all so fun to be around and we live too far south -- never thought you'd hear me say that, did you?), but this year it's stronger than it has been since our participant year (2004), because this is the first time we've had the people AND the event to miss. I need to find some sort of Otherworld methadone.

For those of you wondering what this wacky "Otherworld" thing I keep going on about is, go here. I can't tell you much about it, because I want you to go and have a great time, and it's one of those things where knowing too much is definitely a bad thing (sort of like if you went to a murder mystery weekend already knowing whodunit -- no fun).

What I will say is that before I was a participant at Otherworld, I was very shy, so much so that I often preferred to stay home rather than having to be around people who were not close friends. At Otherworld, I got to be a "more heroic version" of myself -- as a Bard, I made myself go up to people I didn't know, talked to them, asked them questions, engaged them in conversation (all things I was horribly uncomfortable with in real life). By the end of the weekend, I wasn't so uncomfortable doing it as a Bard, and after we got home, I found I wasn't as uncomfortable in real life, either. Am I now the most outgoing person I know? Absolutely not. But now I don't mind things like going with Chris to his rugby games and hanging out with the other wives -- sometimes I even walk right up and say, "hi!" before I'm introduced, which is something I never could do before. Okay, this is so not what this post was going to be about, but hey, there it is.

So, Otherworld is fun. Otherworld is about finding a more heroic version of yourself. Otherworld is about friendship and solving puzzles and also monsters and whacking things with foam swords. Otherworld is not a LARP, at least not in the way most people mean it: there is no system of advancement, the focus is on problem solving rather than combat (okay, there's a lot of combat. But it's for fun, not for gaining experience points or anything like that.). Otherworld is not for everyone, but it's for a lot of people who might not think so (in fact, those are often the people who get the most out of it). You should give it a look, and let me know if you have questions. If I don't have the answers, I know someone who does. Tomorrow, all about the Beckmonster and also plenty of knitting content. Speaking of the Beckmonster, I hear her dulcet tones now...

posted by Laura Y. @ 8:18 PM 0 comments

Lesson the first

Note: the Becky Fix is at the bottom of today's post

Yes, we had our first knitting lesson on Friday! Erica and Avy, both star pupils, learned to cast on (Erica's making the lengthwise garterstitch scarf from Oddball Knitting -- she's never gonna forget how to cast on after that) and knit. This week, we purl. I probably won't teach them to cast off yet, because I'm a firm believer in practice being what cements knitting skills, and they won't really have anything to bind off yet (note to Erica and Avy: "cast off" and "bind off" are the same thing. The abbreviation in patterns is "BO." There's your lesson for today.) Avy hasn't picked a project yet, and I'm interested to see what she chooses -- I think all of the projects in Oddball Knitting are great beginner projects, with the exception of maybe the dog sweater. Then again, my first project was an oversized black lace mohair sweater, so I may not be the best judge of suitable first projects. I like to think I've learned a little since then, though. There are no pictures of their first attempts -- would you like to see your first knitting posted on someone's blog for all the world to see? I didn't think so.

In other knitting news, I've got a gauntlet and 1/4 done, and I'm going to rip them out and start over. See, I was pretty (well, sort of) happy with my design, though I'd've liked them to be a bit more snug. And I really didn't enjioy the purling on DPNs with the first one. But I found on the second one that I don't mind it so much. And then I went here and saw the pic of her finished gloves. Dude, I have to rib them. The fit is so much nicer (and this is the prototype for at least two Christmas presents). So for now I'm going to leave the finished one intact (just in case) and rip out the one I just started and start over with fewer stitches and all around ribbing. Let's not discuss how my original design called for ribbing throughout and I decided to change it because I wasn't so much enjoying the purling on DPNs.

Despite it being the third day of Socktoberfest, I have not been working on my socks. Given my plan for the gauntlets (see above) that need to be done by Friday, it is unlikely that I will have a chance to work on them until this weekend. They'll be traveling with us. I fully expect to have at least the foot done by the time we get back (knitting time will be all in the car -- we learned as participants that Otherworld = always something to do and I expect it to be even more so as staff). I'm thinking I could sort of count the gauntlets as socks for the hands.

Also traveling with us will be the Rhinebeck sweater.A word about the Rhinebeck sweater: I know it's traditional to knit the whole thing for Rhinebeck and not just pick some random UFO (UnFinished Object, my non-knitterly readers), but I love this sweater and I really want to finish (and wear) it, and with a 5 month old, do you really think I'm going to knit a whole new sweater especially since I'm also working on socks and Christmas presents and, well. Look, I'm breaking tradition. This is going to be my Rhinebeck sweater. Maybe next year I'll knit something from scratch.

Finally, I got my Lisa Souza (!!!! -- you cannot believe how luscious this yarn is -- I want to have its children) to use in the Knitty sweater design and the other yarn came in to The Point last week so I'm going to pick it up today on the way in to work. I'm so excited! I got the LS is a couple of different colorways and I'm still not 100% sure which will go best with the black, but I can't wait to star knitting it up. Plus I have another design all sketched out that will use one of the other colorways, and then there'll be two left for me to play with. I have a shawl idea in my head, but I sort of feel like I'm done with shawls for awhile. So anyhow, the Knitty design is going to be my walking around knitting for awhile.

Becky Fix:
Okay, I forgot to bring the card with me to upload more Becky pics, but you can go see a bunch at Flickr (bookmark the link -- I'm going to do monthly Becky galleries). We went for our 5 month well visit today, and she's almost doubled her birthweight! 16lbs, 8oz -- no wonder my arms get tired after carting her around for awhile! She didn't get much taller -- only an inch (for a grand total of 27 1/2 inches) -- but the doctor didn't seem concerned.

She also gave me her first real belly laughs (unless Daddy hasn't been telling me something) while we were waiting for the doc to come back with the shots. There was no more laughing after the shots, but she recovered pretty quickly from her crying jag. I was watching him give her the shots today -- usually I watch her -- and I'd cry, too! He sticks that thing in like an inch! Poor poppet.

She's been rolling over back to front regularly, and can do front to back, though I think she's still not quite sure how she does it, because sometimes she gets stuck on her belly and we have to give her a little hand over. She's also been giving us raspberries, which is just hysterical because she can't quite get her lips to work right, and the other day I tried to give them back to her and it turns out I have the same problem. Maybe it's hereditary and not developmental.

Oh! She started solid food (rice cereal) last weekend and loves eating with a spoon, though she's not too keen on the taste of the cereal. I'm thinking we'll stick with the rice over the weekend since she's with Grandma Gracie all weekend and then next week we'll try some oatmeal.

posted by Laura Y. @ 4:30 AM 0 comments