You talk as if you care...*
Boy have I been BLABBY lately. Chatt-Y. I don't know what has come over me. I have always had a lot of bloggy knitting things to say, but sometimes I just don't get it together. Now, you're being subjected.
Look how fat you are!
Scroll down if'n you only want knitting...
So, pregnancy has been such a weird experience, so far. And don't take any of this to mean I'm not delighted to pregnant. You all know what it took, and I'm VERY happy. But during it, it is a bit weird.
What's most strange is dealing with the weight gain issues, and moreover, what other people have to say on the subject. It's like when you're pregnant people think they have the right to say whatever they want, and it's okay.
Since moving into my second trimester, I've had so many work people say things like:
"You're getting chubby!"
"You thought your ass was big before, wait till your third trimester!"
"Can you still fit through a door?"
The latter from my PARTNER. I've gained 7.5 pounds. I think I can still fit through a DOOR, you *%^*!.
The hardest thing is, people don't seem to realize that it's hard on me mentally to gain weight. Of course I want to, I know it's SUPPOSED to happen, but when you spend your whole life fighting the scale, desperately wanting the numbers to go down, it's depressing a bit to watch them go up... up... up...
Some smartypants out there help me come up with some snappy funny comebacks for those comments. I sure could use them...
AND! DRUMROLL....... FINALLY!!!!
A finished Vintage Knits Ribbed Sweater!!!!
Yes, it's done. Finally. Modeled by the lovely Carrie.
There was a lot of pain involved - click here to read all about it. I'll summarize for you things I learned:
1) To fix the edge stitch problems, where they were terribly uneven, I did this:
"Knit the first stitch of the row, but don't tighten it. Put your finger on it to hold it in place, and then pull up with the needle on that stitch to tighten the row below it. THEN tighten the stitch."
This fix is from The Knitting Answer Book. I love this book. And I now do this routinely when knitting back and forth. Makes a HUGE difference.
2) To fix the uneven ribbing problem, I would knit 2, then purl the next stitch by wrapping the yarn the opposite way (clockwise), then purl the next normally. On the next row, that backward-wrapped purl stitch would be knit tbl to reorient the loop back to normal.
This FINALLY fixed my uneven ribbing. Try it if you are having problems with the second knit stitch of your k2 p2 being too wide/loose.
3) I made 3/4 sleeves - if I hadn't I'd have run out of yarn - and I made the medium which called for 9 skeins. I used just almost all of those 9 skeins and full length sleeves wouldn't have made it.
4) I did backstitch seams for the first time for the set-in sleeves, and they worked pretty well.
Ok, off to work tomorrow. 8 am again. The PAIN of 8 am. In my world all my shifts would start at 4pm. ;-)
*10,000 Maniacs, anyone?
and I want to drive it ALL NIGHT LONG...
Hey there, kids. So busy around here, not much to say. Too busy to knit much, if you can imagine it. The purple vintage knits sweater is SO CLOSE...
BUT will have to wait until after my trip. What trip, you ask?
We'll be hanging out the "Gone Fishin'" sign, as the High Energies are off to New Mexico and Colorado for 11 days.
For the record - I have only two bags packed - for ELEVEN DAYS.
This:
And this:
That MIGHT be a HEJ record. I'm not a light packer.
Whatchoo gonna knit?
For knitting, Loll is all bagged up and ready to go:
Cause it's time I got her done. Only knitting one thing will be good for me.
So, we'll see you in a couple weeks. Don't you forget about us. In fact, while I'm gone, take a little quiz about me. It's hard, people. My hubbie only got 80%. (He'd have gotten 90% if he could count.) It's a stumper!
Changes come around real soon make us women and men
Hey all. THANKS again for your continued wishes and prayers. You all are truly the best. At this point, no news is good news, and that's where we are. More news when we know it. Until then, we'll keep taking all the prayers/thoughts/love we can get!
While you all were in Maryland...
I went to North Carolina, to see my folks and sister. Can I tell you how awesome my family is? They are the best. They went with me to dress shop for my cousin's wedding. My family+shopping=goodtimes, because the mockery level is HIGH. We can make fun of anything.
Also, they rock because they took me to Yarn Paradise, and knew the level of mockery had to be reigned in. AND I got 10 skeins of Debbie Bliss wool cotton for $35.00!!!!!!!!!!! Wowie. And some Koigu. So. Good. Then we watched a movie and made some fun of it. Overall, a FUN two days.
But now.
Now, I have to go to work, tomorrow at SEVEN A.M. OUCH. So this is a briefish post to say:
HOLY CRAP LOOK AT MY SOCKS!!!
The lovely Patti sent me these drop-dead gorgeous socks:
High Energy Dad helped with getting the colors right. He's no FAUX-tographer. He's the real deal.
And these fun seed pots! Fun, since I'm into growing things these days!
Patti, I love these socks so much that I have worn them everyday since I got them. I'm wearing them NOW. I'm going to wear them out! And that's a good thing. The color is so perfect, the fit is perfect, the yarn so soft (Cherry Tree Hill, people!!!). I couldn't be a luckier sockapaloooza pal. Thank you Patti!
Speaking of growing things, here for Cara is one of the new flowers from our new front yard landscaping:
I hope everyone gets their socks out there. I have lots to share on the purple ribbed Vintage Knits sweater (only a sleeve to go! some minor sleeve surgery! 3/4 sewn together!!!). Stay tuned!
Sweet Child, Where do we go now...
Thanks to all of you for your well wishes and prayers. You all are the best.
We have some embryos a-growin', so we'll see what happens. They will take over the world. This I know for sure. Bwah-ha-ha-ha!
Have you finished ANYTHING?
Yes.
The Sockapaloooza socks are done.
Click here for a detail shot. Oh, yeah.
And, here's the specs, if'n you want 'em.
Gratuitous Pet Shot:
Ouch.
Now that I have passed the egg retrieval stage, I am taking intramuscular shots of progesterone nightly. Thank God I work with nurses. Take a look at the size of this needle:
Ow. Quit it. Ow. Quit it.
Actually, and truly, they aren't that bad. Didn't really hurt much. Or maybe I'm just numb from all the other shots I gave myself over the last 10 days or so. Hmmm.
Sleeve therapy.
To distract myself from such medical therapies, I finished the Vintage Knits Ribbed Sweater Sleeve No. 1. Or, Bob, for short.
Bob needs to be sewn on to see how it's all going to go together. I have true fear that I am going to run out of yarn. I think I can maybe get the other sleeve done, but there's no way there's enough for the neckband. CRAP. The yarn gods are not smiling. Anybody out there have any Rowan Cotton Glace in color 787, Hyacinth??? We can talk dye lots, people. I can trade or pay. But you can't have our firstborn (if there is one). ;-)
Ohhhhh......I knew you were waiting....I knew you were waiting for me...
Here's the deal - when I blog I listen to itunes, and you get a title based on my at-times-ridiculous music preferences. There it is. The truth is out. And I love that song. Carrie and I must do this song at karaoke soon. It's IMPERATIVE. Of course, she'll be Aretha, since she can actually SING. Not that George Michael can't, he's fabulous, but I have less of a chance of mangling his part.
Uh, stick to your day job.
Right. SO. Let's talk today about a sweater situation. I began this innocent-enough-looking sweater* in 2004. 2004!! I bought the yarn (Rowan Cotton Glace) in May-ish, and started the sweater, sometime that year.
By October of that year, I had already restarted it:
This, as you can imagine, did not portend good things.
Since then, I have literally re-knit the back of that sweater about five times, the last time frogging at least 11 inches. Why???
1) I had a problem with the size. It had become too small because I gained weight, then I lost weight, had to start over. That was the first frogging.
2) I hated the way the ribbing looked - it's k2p2 and the second stitch of each K2 looked terrible - too wide. I tried all kinds of ways and all kinds of needles - holding the yarn differently, wrapped one time, then two times around my pinky, using STRAIGHT needles even - hahahaha, that was hilarious. Every time it looked like crap.
3) Then, when that started to even out and I thought, blocking will fix it, I noticed the stitch next to the edge stitch looked terrible - way wide one row, then narrow the next.
This has happened before, and was the Riddler to my Batman, the Arvin Sloane to my Sydney Bristow, the Paul Millander to my Gil Grissom, if you will.
Stop channelling Dennis Miller.
You get the idea. No one seemed to know an answer, and I looked it up everywhere I could. Nothin'. It made the seams of my cotton sweaters look TERRIBLE.
Finally I did some kind of crazy selvedge stitch concoction (like a chain stitch edge), and it helped some, but it was going to be a beast to try to seam it.
4) Finally, I gave up. I put it in a bin, for over a year. I tried to forget it. I couldn't. It was like that Michael McDonald song.
AND THEN:
I found The Knitting Answer Book. And the author, the lovely Ms. Radcliffe, suggested I try this (I paraphrase):
Knit the first stitch of the row, but don't tighten it. Put your finger on it to hold it in place, and then pull up with the needle on that stitch to tighten the row below it. THEN tighten the stitch.
And just like that. It was all fixed. I could do it. I could. not. believe. it. I cast on again (getting that right is a whole other blog entry in itself), and knit my way merrily along, and had ALMOST finished the BACK!!!! Joy! Dancing!!!! HOORAY!!!!
5) I then spilled marinara sauce on it.
Oh yes. I did:
I mean, really. For God's sake. Jeez Louise. Jiminy Christmas. For the love of Pete.
There are knitting gods, though, because this bottle came to my rescue:
And no, I didn't drink it.
It worked, I washed it, and here's the back. Recorded here so no one can say I made it up.
Click here to see it big. Somebody. Anybody.
I even finished the front. Here's a pre-blocking shoulder seam:
I am now halfway through a sleeve. Everyone cross their digits, throw salt around, don't break any mirrors, whatever. The voodoo may have lifted.
*Sarah Dallas, "Vintage Knits", is the source of the pain pattern.
From the home office in Athens, GA, it's LATE NIGHT with HEK!
After my last post about quality, I have become excited again about knitting. I'm really enjoying the projects I'm working on, and not starting new ones.
Well, maybe just one new one...
For my Dad, for his birthday, I'm working on some socks he can wear hiking. Now I must tell you, my dad is an engineer. Ok, a retired engineer, but you can't take the man out of the HP calculator, if you know what I mean. And his socks follow: practical, simple, no-nonsense.
BORING. See for yourself.
Killing me softly with his socks...
However, I love my dad, so boring it is. I really did try to get him to let me jazz 'em up. He was having none of it.
Hey, whatever happened to...
Remember this ribbed sweater from Vintage Knits that I started a while back? Where's that at? What's going on there?
Er, we're sorry we asked.
Here's the thing, this is the FOURTH time I've ripped it and started over. A number of things were so wrong with it, and I am tweaking the pattern a bit (no offense to Ms. Dallas). First, I have shifted the ribbing so instead of k2, p2, etc. k2, it goes k3, p2, k2, etc., end k1. Why? Because the increases will fit neatly into the pattern this way, and when sewn the ribbing pattern stays intact.
Also, I learned a new way to do increases, thanks to Montse Stanley, who rocks. It's the kind where you use the stitch below as part of the increase. Check out her book, it is the best.
Lastly, this is a slippery yarn and gave me the same trouble as my vogue sweater. So, I have learned a new way to deal with that frisky edge. All pics are forth coming.
Construction Zone
Put on your hardhat, because we are sawing and drilling and paintin' around here. The "finished objects" link is finally becoming a true gallery. It looks like sh*t right now, but soon it will be glorious. Or at least navigable. I'll update you soon. I have learned a lot about how to use two different MT blogs together, and so although it doesn't look like much a lot is happening behind the scenes. Stay tuned!
And, am I the only one who thinks those "Men with Equipment: 500 feet" road signs are way hilarious?
Why must he be such an angry young man?
This person had a vet visit yesterday.
So very very mad at me. I'm the worst mommy.
Send kisses Fisher's way. He got shots and flea meds, and new food. It's just not fair.
Long time no blog.
Well, it's been a mite busy around here. But all for the best. I have a job, a signed contract, and the house closing seems on time, for Nov. 1st. Stuff with my current job has been wrapped up. We have a moving plan. We just might make it to GA after all!
I will say that I am SICK of filling out forms for my new job. If you don't want to fill out endless forms saying the same thing for like 10 different groups, then don't go into medicine. I'm glad for all the background checks, but sheesh! If I have to fill out one more form I'll scream.
Then I'll fill it out, and send it in. SIGH. ;-)
More importantly!
The Klaralund, she is almost done! Here's a pre-sleeve-seaming look:
I am really pleased so far. I think this is a sweater I will really enjoy. It's hard, because I go to all this trouble to knit something, and it fits, but sometimes it's just not me, you know? It's frustrating. Molly and I were just grousing about this.
But not this sweater, I think it will be great.
New stuff.
Just for Becky is a picture of the OUTSTANDING Phil Ruban I bought from her to make this tank:
Becky, here's a close-up.
And, I re-started this ribbed sweater from Vintage Knits.
The thing about this is, when I first cast on like a year ago, I made the medium size. I realized about 11 inches into the back that it didn't fit, it was too small! I was sad and frogged it. NOW, after my running and weight loss, I am making the small, and it will fit. I'm so happy!
And for our next guest, a man who needs no introduction:
This is Fisher. He just turned 12. But he still loves boxes.
Next post, I will show the finished Kate and describe the neck issues and the fixes. Till then!!