If you don't like it, rip it.

After looking at the Swallowtail Shawl in my basket for weeks, I decided to rip it out. It's not the pattern, it's the yarn. I think this was Alpaca Cloud from KnitPicks. Just not my type of yarn.

I will make this shawl, but perhaps with something else. Maybe even some koigu sock yarn?
But, I will be giving this particular lace weight away to my friends at my knitting group.

FO: Garter Rib Socks

And Day 2 of no antihistamines.

I had one particular bad day last week, and to top it off... when I came home, my laptop wouldn't work. The power cord had gone bad, and our battery is sick. So these socks have been finished for a few days. I made them for my husband, and they are a little snug. I'm not sure he likes them... I hope they will loosen up with wear.
They are from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. It's in Handmaiden Casbah sock in Earth. I love this yarn.



This second picture is more color accurate.



And, as I mentioned I am on Day 2 of no antihistamines. I have my allergy testing next week. My eyes are pink and swollen, my head feels fulls, I keep sneezing, and my ears hurt. *sigh*

Yarn Harlot!

I got to see the Yarn Harlot yesterday. It was a blast. One of our fellow knitters in the KY group made us Ravelry name tags, and so people were wandering around finding out if we knew each other. One of the first things said to me was "Hey you are on my friends list!" and I knew then it was going to be a fun night. I met tons of people on my friends list, and had several more to add when I got home.



Stephanie was hilarious, as usual. Always worth seeing. She seemed tired though, and I felt kind of bad that she probably has the most serious jet lag ever. I mean, she was just in Denver, straight to us, and then she had to get up at 5am this morning to catch yet another flight. Writing knitting humor seems tiring.

I didn't make her wait for me to dig my sock out. You have no idea how long it would have taken me to dig out my sock in progress. Also, looking at this picture, all I can think is I need to go get my hair cut (which I've been planning to do for about a month now). And yes, I wore my Tangled Yoke, which Stephanie complimented and put me on cloud 9.



I also bought some new sock yarn yesterday because one of my LYS had a 20% off all sock yarn sale. I had being wanting some J. Knits for a long time. I had been checking out on the Loopy Ewe. I finally scored some! In the Miami colorway. I can't wait to knit with it.



Oh, I have to tell you about my horror hand story. I had blood drawn for my Thyroid levels on Friday. The girl is looking and looking, and says, "I can't find anything to draw from, but I see something in your hand... can I draw it from there?" The nurse part of me kicks in and says "Sure, draw it from wherever you can find something." As soon as she starts, my vein blows, and the knitter part of me kicks in and I think "My hand is going to be too sore to knit!" My hand hurt like hell for a few hours, but I did come home and put a warm compress on it and that helped. It was very very black afterwards, but it's fading very quickly. And I am able to knit, thankfully.

Charity Knitting

I finished up a baby hat for charity. They are taking them up at the Yarn Harlot event I'm going to tomorrow. When I finished, my husband said "But you didn't add cutsey stuff to it!" I didn't because I wanted it to be gender-neutral. That's why I picked this celery green, too. I want it to go to whatever gender needs it.

This is the Simple Baby Hat from Itty-Bitty hats by Susan B. Anderson. It's in Rowan Handknit Cotton, which is my favorite cotton yarn. It's fun to work with.

We had our leak fixed in our front porch roof, and it's a good thing. It's raining and raining and raining....

Goodbye old shrubs, goodbye old wallpaper

I am back to scraping wallpaper. It has two layers of wallpaper, then you get to a layer of blue paint, which has an additional two layers of wallpaper underneath it.

I have a technique down that seems to work.  Basically, I spray it down with this DIF wallpaper stripper gel.  I strip off the top two layers, score the paint so I can penetrate through it, spray it with the DIF again, then strip off the rest with the help of the steamer as well. It goes slow. Luckily, most of the plaster is in decent shape. There is one spot in the wall that is bad, but other than that it seems smooth. This is the room I'd like to eventually make into a nursery. (And no, I'm not pregnant. But, by the time I want to be, I better have a room in good condition.) The wet spots are just from my steamer... it had not dried yet.

Also, I decided that the textured ceiling in this room is intact, and therefore not worth my current time and effort. I hate the textured ceiling, but it's not falling apart like other things... and unfortunately I need to prioritize. So, I am going to eventually just repaint the ceiling.

My husband cut down all the shrubs in the front. They were not taken care of for years, overgrown, and causing some problems to our foundation and porch. We don't plan on doing any landscaping for a while because we need to fix some stuff first.


Max says "These people don't have a clue what they are doing." (Max is the kitty who came with the house.)


Oh, and knitting. I haven't tossed it completely aside. There are husband's socks. I'm on the second one, almost to the heel. And I bought the new Yarn Harlot book, and I have a ticket to see her next Saturday at the bookstore!!

Time to get started...

Well, spring is officially here.  (Even if it is still freezing.)  It's time to get back to work on our house.  So, unfortunately less knitting time, but it must be done....

We hired a man to work on the roof of our porch on Saturday.  If he does a good job, we will definitely get him to fix the roof/flashing on the addition as well.
I have a list of things that keeps growing that I need to get done.

• must finish stripping wallpaper in rear bedroom


• strip paint off fireplace tile in front master bedroom (yes, someone painted dark blue over gorgeous tiles)


• figure out how much work it is to scrape off a textured ceiling


• take a billion things to the recycle center from the basement


• paint the new side door


• plant flowers outside

This is just a list of things to accomplish before we hire electricians.  After we fix our electrical problems, my list grows exponentially. (Going back to the porch for a minute, I plan on having the electricians put in ceiling fans in our wrap around porch.  I have this dream of sitting on my southern wrap around porch, with the fans going, sipping my sweet tea and knitting.)

I have an appointment with an allergy specialist on Tuesday.  After that, I am going to try and score the Yarn Harlot's new book at the bookstore for comfort.   Yay.

Loving the Knitty Funnies

Today's Natalie Dee comic made me laugh. Had to share!


nataliedee.com

Buttons!

I got some buttons on Tangled Yoke, and took a better photo!

FO: Rosebud Hat

This hat is the cutest hat - I will probably make another one.
It's made of Rowan Handknit Cotton. From Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson. I made the 6-12 month old size. I only used two colors for the roses: two shades of pink.  I also used less rosebuds and leaves than the pattern called for.  I used the "celery" colorway for the leaves instead of the recommended green.  The rosebuds knit up very fast, as does the hat! I even enjoyed the assembly of the hat, and usually I hate the finishing up.

I had a great day off. I went to a knitting class about altering your patterns, and it was very helpful. I learned a more accurate way to measure my gauge swatch, and how to approach your patterns when altering, and how to think about the pattern in a more general way.

Fun stuff! Knitting classes and baby hats. It can't get any better, right?!

One More Day

Can I make it?  I miraculously have a vacation day on Friday (for a knitting event, even better) and thank god I do.  It has been the week from hell.   I'm not even sure I can make it one more day.

One good thing in this week from hell: New Knitty!

Casting On Multiples

I spent a lot of my weekend untangling my Handmaiden Casbah. It was on my swift, when the clamp came undone, and it all fell off. It was sooo tangled it took me two days of going back and working on it (and a lot of ugly language). I finally have 3 wound balls, as I had to cut certain parts due to tangles. I did get it all untangled, even if in segments, and had it been any other yarn - I admit, I would have thrown it in the trash.

I am going to cast on for my husband's socks tonight with the Casbah. I am still debating between patterns...

I also casted on some lace this weekend, my first lace with actual lace weight. I cast on for the Swallowtail Shawl. They say lace looks like a mess until you block it. I hope that's true because right now it looks like a big mess of yuck.

Yes, that is dental floss I am using as a lifeline. I am very pleased with how that works. The waxy coating keeps it from tangling with the fibers of the yarn. Thanks to David Reidy for that tidbit.

I also worked on some little knitted rosebuds for an Itty Bitty hat. I had mentioned on Susan B. Anderson's blog that my rosebuds didn't look like hers. She was so sweet to reply to my blog, and give me tips. I just rolled the bud tighter and finessed it a little bit, and that worked. I have the black hat made, and I want to get a contrasting rose color to finish it off.

I am not sure why the sudden need to cast on for so many things. I'm not going to question it. I'm just going to do what makes me happy!

March Snow

I have always thought our house looks pretty with snow on it.

Looks like it's going to be a good day to curl up with some knitting.

 

Tangled Yoke - The End

Well, sort of the end. I don't have buttons, yet, and won't be able to get them in the town I live in. So, it'll be at least a week. And I can't keep my enthusiasm in. (I may even wear it tomorrow without the buttons because I'm so excited.)

My second adult sweater is done, and I love it! It fits the way I wanted, it turned out better than I could have wished. So, despite the dark dreary night, we attempted photos.

You'll probably have to suffer another Tangled Yoke photo shoot with natural light after I have buttons.

Caught in the act of being cute...

Sam says you must enjoy his cuteness while the Tangled Yoke is blocking!

Once.

I love this movie! I was alone tonight, and thought, I'll rent this through Itunes. (yes, you can rent movies through itunes. which is so awesome because I don't have to get cold to rent a movie.)

I am downloading the whole soundtrack. (I'm not a soundtrack kind of girl, either.)

And be prepared, I couldn't take my eyes off the film, so it's not a great knitting movie. It is beautiful in every way.

Go watch Once.

Words, words, words

I know a lot of people don't like blogs without pictures, but I have none today.  So if that's what you came for, sorry!  I will have some as soon as I see sunlight again (which lately seems like never).

I seriously need a mental health day.  Besides some random stress, I've had some health issues.   Friday my heart decided to beat a little, ahem, fast, and oh, be in an irregular rhythm.  It seems as if some sinus medication plus some headache medication together could have been the culprit.  So, they want me to go off everything for sinus, no more headache meds, and no caffeine.  (Beat me now - no Coca-Cola?)  I had the worst headache Friday, and I've been having some severe long-lasting headaches that I believe originate from sinus problems.  I had a cyst in my sinus cavity a few years ago, and there is some question that I could again, so I'm on tons of antibiotics now.  I whined about no meds for my headache, and they gave me something that wouldn't affect my heart.  Also, before it was my choice not to take allergy shots, and now they are saying I sort of need to.

Needless to say, between being knocked out and an irregular heart rhythm, I didn't really do any knitting lately.  I went back to work today and I feel a lot better - so I did start the collar of the Tangled Yoke tonight.

OH! We did house stuff this weekend.  (Well, I didn't, my brother in law did while I was upstairs knocked out.)  We have a new storm door on the side now!!  Hey, progress is progress, no matter how small!

Tangled Yoke Progress Despite A Knitting Injury

I've only got two rows left of this Tangled Yoke chart. While knitting this, I just kept being so surprised and so happy with the loops and turns.

I'm far enough along now that I am fussing over how to do my button band (I had to add rows...) and how I am going to block this. I think I may soak it in cold water for a while before blocking. (I'm not very good at blocking.)

I have been doing all this despite a knitting injury. I have a callous on my middle left finger. I tried to cushion it with a band aid, but it doesn't really help.

Knitting classes have never interested me because I usually like to teach myself most things. I've always been this way in every subject. However, I signed up for a knitting class at long last. I took a vacation day in March for it. It's called "Adapting Patterns". I am supposed to bring a pattern I want to alter in some way and some graph paper. I have no idea what pattern to pick!!! I've thought about The Pewter Coat by Shirley Paden from IK Winter 2006, since it only comes in two sizes. But, I have my reservations since it is a huge knitting investment with both time and yarn/money. Any suggestions on other patterns I might be interested in changing up and knitting?

Speaking of Interweave Knits, I did get the Spring 2008 issue. There is nothing in it, I must admit, that I am burning up to knit. I think it's a good issue, but not one for me. I like the Drawstring Chemise, but it seems to me you need a pretty flat or small chest to wear it successfully. Maybe I'll be proven wrong by some Ravelry folks, but for now, I'm thinking it's a *don't* for me.

One last thing, David Reidy mentioned on his podcast Y Knit.  Y Knit is a new podcast by two guys about knitting.  Their first episode had Debbie Stoller on, and it was a great episode.  I think it will be a new favorite for me!

From tornado to ice...

Between the tornado, the recent ice storm, and other un-fun events, I have been down in the dumps. Not knitting dumps, just dumps in general.

I have been knitting and buying yarn. To keep my spirits up, of course. I bought 2 skeins of Rowan Handknit Cotton. Any guesses on what I started? (Hint: pink and black) The Tangled Yoke does continue on, of course, but I have limited myself to 1-2 rows a work night. I get tired and mess up, so if I feel tired, I don't knit on it.

I did take some pictures of Tangled Yoke in progress tonight, but they were so dark, you couldn't make anything out. I will attempt to take some other pictures I can share in the near future.

Molly says "Geez, you are boring!" (Sorry, Molly, your owner has to work to buy you premium cat food since you are so picky.)

Tornado sirens in the middle of the night

I woke up at 1 AM or so to the tornado sirens. We turned on the TV to see the news, and immediately went downstairs to shelter.

The elementary school roof was blown off, two restaurants are totally damaged, our fairgrounds building is destroyed, several homes are either gone or have no roof. An apartment for the elderly has no back wall.
We were very lucky, we only lost a shutter than we know of. I had trouble getting to work today. My normal road was blocked. Apparently, there was a power line down in an almost flooded road.

I think I may go out and take some photos later. I will post them if I do. It's just so unbelievable. And we are supposed to have these winds again tonight.

Edited to add pictures.... (There are more on my Flickr page)

My heart is with the many who lost their lives in several states.

Rip it, Rip it.... Tangled Yoke untangled

So, I started on the tangled yoke chart, and while it's a chart I can handle... it's not a chart I can handle when I'm watching Lost. I know better than to knit complicated things while watching TV. But, I somehow always do it anyway.

So, I took a deep breath this morning, and put in a lifeline... (and put on an episode of Stash and Burn that helped give me courage to rip)



Have I mentioned Sam has started to really love this sweater? He wants to sit on it and tread it.




After making Sam move, I began to rip it out.... Look at what a mess.



And now, my stitches are back on the needle (happily), and I am back to where I started.

While I am not happy I had to rip back, I am very happy that I have gotten to a point where I'm ok to rip things back. Before, I would have fudged, lived with wrong stitches, and just sucked it up. Now, I'm at a place where once I put time into it, I want it to satisfy me. And I can rip back successfully to do that. I think that's progress.

Also, while I had it off the needles, I tried it on, and I believe it is going to look nice. That made taking it off my needles worth it.

Well, I need to go take a break from knitting and my computer. My parents are coming tomorrow, so I need to do some serious cleaning that I've been neglecting.