Centablogarian
Yes, I made it to 100. I wanted to do the ubiquitous '100 Things About Me' post that seems to be traditional, but frankly, I've been trying to write it for a week and have only got to 21. More a matter of I think of things when I'm not near the computer than I can't think of 100 things, but still (and shut up all of you who are wondering why I'm not jotting those little gems down on paper). I haven't posted in that amount of time because I've been trying to finish the list and, dammit, I have things to post about. So no list. Maybe I'll finish it up and put it in the sidebar.
Moving right along. I started the Campanulas. I got through the toe and first half of a pattern repeat. They're too big. They are now in the knitting basket, thinking about what they've done. On the plus side, the yarn is just gorgeous and really, truly delightful to work with. So I'm going to concentrate on finishing up the Infloresence socks and Becky's Katja (I hope it warms back up so she gets some wear out of it!), but I think I'm going to have to rip the Katja back to the cups. I'm pretty sure it's too big. I need to try it on her but keep forgetting. If it's not too big, I need to think about striping, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of yarn. Sigh.
I got back up to row 26 on the Mystery Stole a couple of days after I ripped it out, but haven't touched it since then. No alone time at home that wasn't occupied with work. Don't get me started on work.
Becky is happy and healthy and The Other One (no, we haven't decided on a name yet) seems to be as well, which is good since my OB is on his first two-week vacation since opening his practice. I think he's back next week, which makes me happy. I love my OB and always feel like I'm receiving the best care possible from him.
And that's pretty much my life right now. Oh, and I'm tired. This whole "making a new life" thing really takes it right out of you. So I'm going to go eat my scrumptious dinner that Kit just rustled up for me and watch a bunch of non-educational television that doesn't feature an animated mouse. There may be some knitting, but there may not. I'll let you know.
Banging head against wall
Remind me again why I find knitting relaxing?
- I tinked back row 53 of the MS3. So I should now have the correct number of stitches and should be able to concentrate and get it done right. Right? Wrong. The correct number of stitches is 53. I have...49. Defeat. I can fake it through one or two dropped YOs, but 4? Remember how I said I definietly wasn't going to frog the whole thing? I'm going to frog the whole thing.
- I swatched for the Campanula socks with the luscious new yarn. Target= 8st/in. 2.75mm(US2) needles = 7.5st/in. 2.25mm(US1) needles= 8.5 st/in. I did find a place that sells 2.5mm needles, but decided I would go ahead and try them with the 2.75s since my feet are very wide and I don't like my socks to be terribly snug. Since they're toe ups (bless you, Ramona), I can try on regularly to make sure I like they way they fit. I am mentally prepared to frog them if necessary.
- I cast on my preferred toe for the Campanula socks. I have now done this toe 7 times for various socks, so I am very familiar with the construction. It calls for a provisional CO, knitting 4 rows in stst, removing the provisional CO, picking up the stitches and continuing on your merry way in the round. It really couldn't be simpler. Unless you knit 4 rows of garter stitch. Then your toe looks, well, ugly and stupid. More ripping. Of course, I didn't lose hope that it would get over looking ugly and stupid until I'd knit about 20 rows.
I am terrified to even think about working on my lacey tunic or my Ring Cycle socks. I think tonight I'm just going to work on Katja. I'm past all the fancy increases and i-cord and picking up and casting on so it's just straight stocking stitch with the occasional row of garter (meaning if I eff this up too, it won't be quite so obvious. I hope.). If I can't get it right enough to look good, I'll just be in the corner crying quietly into my sock yarn.
What does a cow say?
According to Becky, that would be "boo." Yes, with a "b." It's not a speech impediment, because she says "Maow" for a kitty noise, and it's not her unintentionally mispronouncing it (which is what I originally thought), because she has a toy that says "moo" and she yells "No!" at it. Because it's
wrong. Just so you should not think my child is less smart than she is, she is very close to saying "alphabet" -- her version is "alpadet" which I think is pretty darn good for a 15 month old -- and also she can count to two. Well, not so much count to two as indicate when someone has two of something. If I hold up one of something and ask her how many, she just looks at me quizzically. But if I hold up a pair of something, or ask her how many feet (hands, eyes, etc.) she has, she thinks for a second and then says, "Two!" I got her going on "two shoes" this morning -- that was very cute and fun. More cute and fun:
Spartacus continues to batter my innards, but I love him anyhow. And I'm hoping it means he'll have a great personality like his sister, because she was a big kicker, too. Not the same personality, but another good, fun, happy one.
Things not Becky or Spartacus:
My new bag:
The French is:
C'est jour férié aujourd'huiwhich according to babelfish means "Today is a public holiday." If anyone has a better translation, please let me know. I'm okay with walking around with a holiday pronouncement on my bag, though.
I am seriously in love with this bag. It is
exactly what I wanted -- something small that would fit easily inside my ginormous commuter bag, but could easily be carried around town for knitting while walking, or set on a table at The Point without discouraging others to share the table, but still big enough to fit a sock in progress or three. In the picture above, there are four WIPs: two socks, the beginnings of a lacey sweater (pattern and yarn from The Point, as a matter of fact) (Dude, I'm an idiot. I just figured out where The Point got their name from. I'm just going to be over in this corner, quivering and moaning while I do some garter stitch.), and a square for the Harlequin blanket I've started for Spartacus, plus my little Coach bag with my knitting kit (scissors, ruler, calculator, stitch markers, crochet hook, extra US 1&2 DPNs, etc.). Also I wanted it to have no zipper or velcro, as I have had Issues with those things eating my yarn. To be fair to previous bags, that may be at least in part to my tendency to overstuff them (see above re: four projects in my new little bag). And it has a little sheep on it. See?
I am in bag heaven right now.
In sadder news, today was a Very Bad Day for Laura and lace. First, I got up a little early and thought I'd do a row on my Mystery Stole. An hour later, I still had not figured out where I went wrong and I had to go up and fetch my sweet darling baby who sleeps until 8am for her mommy. Love her. But I have to tink back the row (for not the first time -- I stopped counting after 3) and see what I can figure out when I get home. I will tell you know that I will not be frogging the whole thing. There may be a super wonky row right there at row 53, but no one will know but me (and the other 6,000 MS3 knitters, but let's not talk about that).
Then on the train and ferry this morning (and also on the couch last night), I concentrated on Infloresence. I finished a whole pattern repeat. It was only when I began the next pattern repeat that I realized that pattern repeat I had just finished was off by one stitch (scootched over by one, not missing one). This may actually be a design flaw, which I do have a solution to if that's the case, but either way I'm probably going to have to rip back about three hours worth of knitting.
And now a potential happy: I got my yarn for the Campanula KAL yesterday and it's completely luscious.
The pink doesn't show up super great in this pic, but pretty much anywhere it's lavender in the pic, it's dusky pink in real life. I'm going to wind it off in the morning and swatch it up. Cross your fingers for me.
Oh! Almost forgot! I've decided that possibly my slowness issue with the sock knitting has to do with the DPNs, so I will be obtaining the proper needles to try both socks on two circs and magic loop. I'm going to cast on a pair of plain st st socks for me (maybe my Froebes) so there's no pressure and give it a whirl. Can't hurt, might help.
Finally, Rhinebeck. It's going to be in late October, and I'll be 8 months pregnant. I will not yet be on travel restriction, but Kit does not want to come (he came last year and just had a truly lousy time, which is unusual for him -- I wouldn't make him do it again) and he thinks I shouldn't be driving an hour and a half by myself at that point in my pregnancy. I think I'll be fine. Any thoughts from the intarwubs?
KAL for a cure
I have a whole lotta stuff I want to post about, like my new knitting bag which I love just as much as I thought I would, and what a cow says, and all sorts of knitting stuff, and how Spartacus is apparently determined to kick his way out (which is good, because it means he's already behaving like his sister). But today I want to focus on
the KAL my friend Ramona has started.
See,
Ramona is participating in the Walk for the Cure this fall in Toronto. And for those of you who don't know what that's all about, basically you commit to walk some visciously long distance over a 3 day period with a bunch of other people, and people sponsor you and it's a really great fundraiser for breast cancer research. Ramona has thrown a little twist in by starting a
KAL with her original sock pattern. Here's the twist: to get the pattern, you have to sponsor her. The pattern is gorgeous, and the cause is definitely a good one. How can you go wrong?
She's even having spiffy contest with yarn giveaways and such! The first one is posting a
link to the KAL and talking about which yarn we're using. As usual, there is a saga to go with my yarn choice.
See, I just finished photographing my stash for
Ravelry (love you, Ravelry!) so I'm pretty familiar with what's in there. There were two pinks (one soft, one hot), Violet's Pink Ribbon, and a deep pink and forest green that's really much prettier than it sounds that all fit the bill. Well, VPR is certainly the most appropriate, since it's the colorway
Lisa Souza designed as a fundraiser for Miss V. when she found her lump last year. So I swatched. Wrong gauge -- well, no, that's not exactly right. I got gauge, but I didn't like the feel of the fabric. Plus it's all stripey which just won't work well with this pattern.
So I went back and looked at the other pink choices. The two plain-ish pinks were definitely havy enough that I was not getting gauge -- I didn't even bother trying. The pink/green will, I think, have too much variegation for the pattern. Which makes me a little sad because I'm pretty sure I'd get gauge and plus it's Merino/Tencel which I lurv. I thought about it for a bit and decided that the socks didn't have to be pink. I dug deep into the closet o' stash and come up with a bright red semi-solid, a dark red semi-solid, and two purple semi-solids. The reds and one of the purples I decided would obscure the pattern, so the purple that was left over was definitely It. STR mediumweight in Tanzanite. Ball band claims 8st/in on US 2s. Perfect.
Not perfect. 7st/in on US 2s, and I love the fabric, so I don't want to knit it any tighter. Pooh. Despite my recent yarn diet resolve (more on this tomorrow, but let me note here and now that it's called a "diet" not a "fast"), I decided I would have to hit me some yarn stores. First I stopped at
The Loopy Ewe, because Sherry is da bomb, but while she had many lovely hand-dyed yarns, none were just what I was looking for. So I ranged further afield, and while I was waiting for something to load I decided to add some more stash info to Ravelry. I needed to check Etsy for the specifics and decided while I was there to just see what some of my favorites had going on. I bought
this.
It's heathered, so not so busy it will obscure the beautiful lace, and there's a little hint of pink, but not so much that I won't wear the regularly, and it's called Miracle. What could be better? It should be here any day now, and I better get gauge with it, or I'm gonna have to hurt someone.
Blog is down!
ETA: Fixed it with a crazy clugey thing that's just stupid but it works. I shall spare you the technical details. I am now going to take some time away from the computer because my head hurts very much bad.
It looks like some of the maintenance my nice server people did screwed up the way Firefox processes my blog. (You should be able to see this through a feed reader, hopefully.) I am trying to fix it, but since http://www.afrayedknotknits.com works in IE, and http://www.afrayedknotknits.com/index.shtml works in Firefox (but not without the filename), I'm not really sure what to do to fix. I'll keep trying, though, and hopefully will have some good news soonish.
Weekend O' Knitting
I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I managed to get a whole whack of knitting done last weekend. I finished Chart A of the Mystery Stole. I was super excited, and then I realized that was only the first half of Clue 1, which dialed my excitement level back to moderate. Here's the first 50 rows:
I also: ripped out the one maternity sweater I was working on -- the yarn just wasn't right, cast on a different maternity sweater with some Punta Del Este Mericash...soso soft (note that neither of these patterns was written for maternity, the styles just happen to work), knit some on my Ring Cycle aka Dream Twist socks, knit the first of 32 blocks for Spartacus' (that's what I'm calling him until something better comes along -- keep those suggestions coming! There are already some contenders in there.) baby blanket, got my current projects into a basket for easier portability/protection from Becky/ability to find them, photographed (much of) my stash for posting on Ravelry, worked a few rows on the Pottery Barn blanket and decided to cast on two new projects (
one for Becky and
one for Spartacus).
I'm also going to drag my spinning wheel upstairs (it's a Babe -- very light) and do some spinning. I've got the fever. People keep posting pics of their beautiful handspun and also I just moved my fiber stash up to the stash closet so I know just what I have waiting for me. Alpaca and Merino and Silk, oh my! And while I was digging through those bags to find what I wanted to work on first, I found some beautiful handspun singles that I made last year out of some batts that I got at the last AC Stitches East (so sad that they moved -- it was a perfect weekend for Kit and me, because I got to do yarny stuff and he got to gamble). I need to skein them up and set the twist (who knew? This is what happens when you're essentially a self-taught spinner. Thank goodness for the intarwubs.) and then figure out what to make out of them.
In other knitterly news, I just found out that there's to be no Knit Out NYC this year due to a hike in the permit fees and some other factors. That kinda sucks. I only made it once, but I did have a great time when I went. Now I'm even more sad that I missed it last year (I was all ready to go and then I had a little panic attack at the train station. I think it was probably a little PPD, but in any case, I just turned around and went home.).
Let's close with some Becky pics, shall we?
The punk years begin. She even did it all by herself. I'm glad it's only finger paint for now.
The child does love her books.
"I bet I could wear this as a hat!"
"Look! I was right! Check out my sassy new hat!
"Get it off! Get it off!"
