One Crazy Fiber Lady

The borg had it right.  I just can’t resist.  It is futile.  Waggle yarn in front of me, post a picture of a finished object or put a pattern book on sale and I cave, even in the face of an oath to stop acquiring!  I am like the borg in my somewhat single minded acquisition to achieve what?  Perfection?  Add this distinctiveness to my own collection?  Or is this the pon farr that drives me beyond all reasoning and logic to stash and horde.  Oh I do have plans to use the stuff, I haven’t quite moved to that level of hording where I don’t want to use something lest it no longer be in its beautiful pristine state.  I prefer the feel of the yarn as I work it, see the stitches form and become.  The overflowing yarn cabinet is something I try not to look at as it is a constant reminder that I do have an abundance of yarn already.  Thankfully I do most of my yarn shopping at work where I can’t see it lest I be shamed into not making that purchase.  <g>   

I arrived home to a collection of boxes from the beloved postman/ups dude.  Love those guys.  What was there?  Um remember last week when I agonized over the Peruvian Highland Chunky that miraculously reappeared on Elann’s site?  And the purple Wool of the Andes that I picked up from Knitpicks (that I totally forgot about) and hadn’t previously mentioned here?  Well boxes and boxes of yarns, I received, opened and photographed to bare witness to my wooly glutonous ways.

November Yarn Haul

Baron was checking it all out to make sure it was safe to add to the collection.  What’s here? 

• 12 skeins of Wool of the Andes in Hyacinth
• Great American Aran Afghan book
• 14 skeins of Peruvian Highland Chunky in Lt. Indigo
• 10 skeins of Rowanspun DK in Drizzle
• 14 skeins of Peruvian Highland Chunky in Oatmeal
• 1 2lb+ cone of Brora Softspun

I also finally used a very generous $50 gift certificate that my Secret Pal, Amy gave me for Knit Happens.  I toyed with whether to use the gc for stashing up on Cascade 220.  Love that yarn and can always find a use for it.  But they also had the lovely Lorna’s Laces. I’ve always wanted to try the Helen’s Lace but could never justify the cost of a skein of that.  I mentioned my quandry to my mom. Her advice was to use the GC for something I wouldn’t ordinarily buy myself.  Sage advice as usual.  I picked up a skein of the Helen’s Lace in the Tahoe colorway yesterday.  Ship tracking shows it as arriving tomorrow.  Not sure what I’ll make of it, but I loved the colors and have just been drooling over this yarn for a while now.  Thank you Amy!

I think I want to make ONE more yarn purchase before I stash away my credit card for several months of catch up knitting.  Since I have the pattern book for the Great American Aran Afghan, I want to knit it.  I was considering alternative yarns for it.  Right now the undyed Wool of the Andes is prime contender, along with the Fisherman’s Wool that I’ve now gotten a taste for.  Any suggestions?  Obviously I don’t require that it be machine washable/dryable in that the lead options are definite felters!

Catching up for the weekend’s fun, I had a bit of excitement with my grocery shopping.  Last week I was oh-so-excited to find that Peapod had arrived in my area.  Yay me.  I wanted to try it and have my groceries delivered oh say Wednesday night or at the latest, early Friday.  The stocks were running a tad low and being home with the twins wasn’t going to help.  Wednesday afternoon, I pointed my browser to the new excitement only to find that the earliest delivery window was going to be TUESDAY, NOV 29TH!  Ugh.  That wasn’t going to work at all.  Oh well.   I think that was a holiday/new neighborhood fluke because it shows I can order now and get delivery tomorrow.  Sweet.  Sooo back to Shoprite I went.  With a little additon of dinner with my folks on Friday and a pint of milk, I was able to stretch the supplies until the regular Saturday morning shopping run.  Friday night after the twins went to bed, I popped online, placed my order and called it a night.  Saturday morning, we headed up to the supermarket where I gave my name at the drive-in.  The girl disappeared, returning a few minutes later with a manager-type.  That couldn’t be good.  He told me that the computers were all down and as a result, they didn’t have my order.  Heck they couldn’t even call me to tell me as I really didn’t exist outside the computer.  Well I do, sort of.  He apologize profusely and told me that if I gave them my order items, he’d have it delivered without charge.  Sweet.  I drove the 9 miles home, called the store (he gave them the heads up that I would be) and I read my confirmation email item by item to the girl.  A couple of hours later, a van pulls up, a nice young guy pops out and carries my bag to the kitchen.  Doesn’t get sweeter than that.  With that kind of service, I don’t care what kind of lead time I need for Peapod.  I’m going for it.  The twins were happy as well, they’d started emptying the bags as soon as the first load were in the house.   They’re big into helping now.  I’m eating it up before it become more like work and less like fun.

On that note, I think I’m going outside for a little wander.  It is currently 62F in NYC and this will probably be the last time I see that temp for months to come.

Craft on!

Is it Monday already?  The four+ day weekend can’t be over already can it?  My does time fly… though there were periods over the weekend when it seemed that hour would never end.  The disruption in the normal routine was enough to futz with the toddlers’ nap schedule.  They didn’t really nap regularly all weekend, until yesterday.  There were naps in the car, odd naps where they’d fall asleep on the couch and then the dreaded 3 hour nap that ended at 5:20 last night.  Needless to say they didn’t go to sleep until almost 9:30 last night.  I’m tired and have a pretty darn bad sinus headache today.  I am enjoying the relative peace of the office though

Thanksgiving was a great day, regardless of the nap status.  This year the gathering was held at my sister and BIL’s house in central Jersey.  The twins really love getting together with their older cousins, especially Alex.  Kat will mostly sit out of the horseplay, but Alex wants to be right in the middle of it.  Randi made a very yummy dinner and everyone ate well.  Poor Randi had her WW weigh in on Friday morning so behaved herself.  Alex grubbed turkey while his grandfather carved and had filled himself prior to the actual meal.  Could have been on worse, right?  We got all the kids to sorta sit still for a group shot:

They all clearly like each other.  Alex has a bit of a drooling problem, but hopefully that will clear up when he finally finishes teething (at least I hope so).  I wore Twist to the gathering.  Mom has a photo on her camera which I’m waiting for her to send.

In a vivid reminder that I had so very little to do on it before I mothballed it last spring, I finished Big Sack Sweater on Thursday, before heading to my sister’s house.  I finished the second sleeve Wednesday night and had half the thing sewn together before going to bed.  The collar and second set of seams were done Thursday morning.  Amazing.  I should have stuck it out and honestly can’t remember what distracted me from finishing this last spring.  Was just some random new yarn waggling its ballband at me.  Oh well, now I have a newly completed sweater and was a fast and easy knit.  I do vaguely remember some errata when it came to the neck shaping for the front, but just can’t remember.  I need to dig back in the archives.  Thank goodness for blogging!

I started a new project on Saturday.  My sister’s MIL, or Grandma Phyllis as my kids call her (sweet lady who has "adopted" the twins as her own grandchildren), complimented Twist.  She then requested, if I had the time, a knit hat.  She’s purchased a couple of hats this year already and none fit her.  I whipped out my trusty tape measure and now that she’s lost a considerable amount of hair, has a rather small head.  I thought I might just help her.  She’s been so good to the twins and she’s just such a nice lady who’s been through a rough year or so (lost her husband and one son in 6 months) that it really is the least that I could do.  It was Friday night that I remembered the chemo cap that was posted on Knitty.  I figured it would be perfect for Phyllis.  While the Calmer in stash is dogeared for NBaT (when I ever get around to it.. and the color just wouldn’t be right for her) I do have 3 skeins of Rowan Wool Cotton in this faintest of pinks the would be perfect.   I started it Friday night on the US3 that I had on hand but the gauge was a bit loose.  Saturday I took the monkeys for their first shopping trip sans stroller to Majestic Yarns in Ridgewood and picked up a 40" US2 AddiT for magic looping the thing.  As an aside, the twins were fabulous in the store.  They held my hand as we walked to/from the car and listened when I told them "no touch".  I also grabbed a US3 in 40" while I was there.  I have a use for that but shall remain silent on it.  Anyway… Saturday afternoon I recast on for Shedir and by bedtime, I had gotten as far as in the picture.  It should be perfect for Grandma Phyllis.

That should hold you over for the early part of the weekend.  I have more, like a food shopping story, purchases and a fun outting yesterday.  I just can’t concentrate at the moment and need to find some relief for this headache. 

Craft on!

I think in an attempt to justify further yarn purchases, I decided to return to an old WIP and finally move it towards FO. Witness the return to active duty of the Big Sack Sweater.  It is no longer on hold.  I picked it up last night with the front and back complete.  The first sleeve was two decreases into the raglan shaping.  I finished that and cast on for the second.  I’m well into the increases by the end of my commute this morning.  I’m using the Peruvian Highland Chunky that I noticed yesterday is back in stock at Elann.  I’m strenously fighting the urge to horde more of it.  Heck, I have enough for two sweaters sitting in the shopping cart right now.  Torn between being "responsible" whatever that means and getting MORE MORE MORE MORE before it disappears again, maybe this time for good!  Heck it is the right gauge for the Byzantine Bazic.  I know I have some in stash, 11 skeins in Dark Indigo and 8 in the Spiced Wine.  Sitting in the cart, 14 skeins each of Mid Indigo and Oatmeal Heather.  I’m a yarn wh*re.  What would I do with it you ask?  Well the Oatmeal Heather would go towards a sweater I saw in the Fall 02 issue of Vogue Knitting.  As an aside, I have a buddy over in another part of the company who gets all these crafting magazines and is now sending me the ones she no longer needs.  I got from her this week several including this issue of Vogue (which I admittedly am not a huge fan of.. but this is a Adrienne Vittadini pullover with cables running up the raglan shoulders to the edge of the mock turtleneck collar).  Am I hording yarn in case sheep disappear from the planet?  What is it with the stash acquisition??? Why am I compelled to keep adding more?

I must show you this, my new bag.  I got it from Jackie.  She’s custom making bags giving choice of fabrics and bag design.  This is a messenger bag with lots of inner pockets for things like my cell phone, palm pilot and camera.  I have the sleeves for Big Sack, Birchington and a skein of yarn for socks in here along with a magazine, my wallet and other necessities of commuting life.  I still have room to tuck in a couple of diapers and wipes for those outtings with the munchkins.  Beautiful bag!!   

Today is a short day at the office, we’re closing at 2 for the holiday.   I wish all those who celebrate a very happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful weekend to all.  I’ll be placing my first order with Peapod before the weekend’s out so I’ll let y’all know how it went.  I would also suspect a particular yarn horder to fess up to a purchase of Peruvian Highland Chunky.  Just saying.

Craft on!

I am about to giggle myself silly.  Why you ask?  I just got an email that Peapod Grocery DELIVERY is now available in my area.  GIGGLE GIGGLE GIGGLE.  Okay the ShopRite thing was nifty because I didn’t have to get out of the car.  This???  I don’t even have to fight the little people out to the car!  How the #$% cool is that?  Cheaper fee too and, AND, I don’t have to drive 9 miles each way (which is 1.5 gallons of gas in my gas hog) to pick the stuff up.  I’m about to faint.  I love the ‘net.  Found that both of my radio stations are streaming so I can listen to them at the office.  Woot.  Today is definitely looking up.  Didn’t start off so well as I overslept, but the boss is off today and my manager was later than me so no harm. 

Have I mentioned yet that I’m a huge klutz?  The fall down the train stairs wasn’t enough to tip y’all off to that fact was it?  I’ve been relatively unharmed in the last year or so of blogging so that secret might have been pretty well kept.  Umm.  Last night, walking along in a light rain to my car after getting off the train, I got a huge reminder that I am indeed a klutz.  Minding my own business, I must have stepped on a wet leaf as the next thing I know, I was lying face down on the wet pavement one car away from my destination. Sore and indignant I picked myself up and limped over to my car.  I took stock, palms:  skinned.  Check.  Right knee:  big owie.  Check.  Pants:  wet.  Uck. Bad ankle:  sore but not anymore than it was earlier in the day.  Good.  I climbed up into the gas hog and did a weird two footed automatic drive to my parents house where I was able to get a good look at the knee.  It’s skinned and badly bruised.  The monkeys were very sweet with this new boo-boo.  Alex helped mom get bandaids and Kat gently gave me "all better" kisses.  For a monster, she can so very sweet!  Knee is stiff and sore this morning, but all in all, I’ll live.  Just another little reminder from the big guy that I am a klutz and that isn’t going to change.  At least I didn’t roll the ankle again!

I did finish the first of the socks for Mr. Alex.  I made sure to try it on him before starting the second one.  Tricky prospect it is trying things on a 2 year old.  He had this one sock on his foot and pretty much demanded the second one.  Forget for a moment that it was bed time and I was changing him for bed then.  I gently explained to him that mommy hadn’t made the second one yet.  He wasn’t happy when I removed the perfectly fitting first sock either.  I distracted him with the Barney pajamas.  Whew.  I did get the second started this morning on the PATH train. 

Now that some of the other big projects are done and off the WIP list, its harder to hide the fact that Birchington has been ignored for far too long.  I had been having creative differences with the designer on it.  Debating far too much how to best transition from one lace motif to another one and as such, stuffed it in the knitting bag to deal with later.  Well later happened last night.  Before taking my parking lot tumble, I had decided to simply continue with the same motif for the whole of the border.  I didn’t want anything overly fancy and the Quatrefoil lace pattern I think nicely offsets the Birch center.  Problem is I had started a bunch of plain rows after the last Quatrefoil repeat and needed to rip those out.  4 rows of some 400 sts each round.  Sigh.  An hour and a half later, I had tinked back to the point where I could start another repeat of Quatrefoil.  After a bit of knitting last night and on the train this morning, I’ve regained those four rounds.  Now its just a matter of how big to make this border before starting the edging.  Hard to measure it in its current "tangle of dental floss" appearance.  I also don’t want to wind up blocking it to within an inch of its life.  I want it to be about 54" when done so I guess I do need to measure the center piece and figure out how much border needs to be done.  I had the center measure at some point, probably with the pre-felting #’s of the booga bag

I leave you with this picture of the little miss that I snapped while trying to get her to pose in the hat. I love the look of her here. This is the natural state of her hair. She’s a no fuss girl like her mom. As much as I want to fuss about and put cute little ponytails on her, she really wants no part of it. I did manage to get the ponys in today. Alex would love to have the barettes and ponytails.  Figures eh?

Craft on!

-ay, there’s the rub..

This weekend, when it wasn’t about sleeping or the lack thereof, was about finishing off items.  Friday during lunch I did pop on out to pick up a new needle for the Big Booga Back that might be easier on the hands.  Instead of Purl, I opted for the shorter walk but longer subway trip to Seaport Yarn.  Love that place.  Knew that I could get the long Addi’s that I wanted there, as well as maybe a nice skein or two of sock yarn (like I really need more sock yarn, but wanted some in less feminine colors for the boy.. and does sock yarn really count?  I don’t think so.  Sock yarn has been properly labeled "Knitter’s Methadone"! .. but I digress..).  I picked up three Addis and one skein of Trekking XXL in shades of grey (can’t find a picture of it on the net).  The Addi made the BBB much easier to knit and far gentler on my tired hands.  Which BTW are feeling A-OK now, and I did do a bit of knitting over the weekend as you shall see. 

Anyway, Friday night I was minding my own business knitting the BBB#1 when the little miss started crying at 10:00.  I comforted her and finally pulled her out of her bed to the living room.  A while later, probably 11:30 or so, after she’d fallen asleep in my lap, I tried to put her back in bed.  Not only did she start screaming but woke her brother too.  Now I had both of them screaming.  For a little bit, I was comforting both of them in Alex’s bed.  It was a bit crowded in there for the three of us.   As they both weren’t giving me up, I decided it was time for the special circumstances exception and moved us all to my bed where they finally went to sleep at 2:30 and I could get some shuteye.  ShopRite called at 8AM to question me about some out-of-stocks (yup typed socks to begin with on my web-order.  Needless to say, I was a tad tired on Saturday.  I did manage some knitting, felting and other household usefulness though before I crashed after their nap.  Attend…

First up, Friday night I tossed the Child’s Felted Hat into the washing machine with a couple of pairs of my jeans.  The Jaeger Shetland Aran felts beautifully!  It became pretty solid without any visible stitchs on one cycle through my washing machine.  I blocked it using a knit hat that currently fits the little miss, stuff with newspaper and covered with a plastic bag.  I stuck the works on the top of a Crisco can and placed it on my stovetop.  The pilot lights aren’t exposed, but under the metal cover of the cooktop.  Makes for a toasty top and a great place to dry things (Earl likes to sleep up there too much to my consternation).  Saturday morning it was dry.  Could I get the little miss to pose with it for the blog?  Nuh uh.  We took a "jammie" day on Saturday, understandable considering the sleep situation.  Kat is modeling her hat that she won’t wear along with some lovely 2T Mighty Ducks Footy (shoes) Pajamas.  Classy eh?  She is wearing the hat today as it was pretty cool this morning.  It was off before I got her brother in the car. Beast.

While the pair were napping, and I should have been as well, I went back to knitting and finished the Big Booga Bag.  I had done all the kids’ laundry and a good bit of mine so it is still waiting to be felted. I put the Chibi in for perspective. I also took measurements of the pre-felted dimensions but I’ll be damned if I know where I put that note.  I do know that I knit 6 a#~$*% feet of I-cord for the straps.  I hate i-cord.  I used a bit shy of one skein of the Fisherman’s Wool for this bag.  I haven’t decided if I’m going to add any pockets to this, though I am toying with maybe needle felting a design after felting.  That is if I have time and can find my felting needles. 

There’s more.  I finished Twist last night.  Love them ChicKnits designs!  This took a bit under 11 skeins of the Wool of the Andes yarn from Knitpicks.  The color is Cranberry and I just love it.  The buttons are from the lovely button tin that mom passed to me a couple of months ago. 

Yesterday was an odd day.  Saturday, except for the weird wakeup time, the rest of the day was normal.  The twins took a 3 hour afternoon nap allowed for much knitting, laundry folding and even a tiny nap for me.  They then went to bed at their normal time without a fuss.  Yesterday was another story.  Yuck.  After a slightly late lunch, I put them in for a nap.  Alex’s eyes were drooping at the table so I figured we’d be go for napage.  Uh nope.  An hour later, I finally got Kat to go to sleep but had to pull Alex out of their room.  An hour and a half later, he says "night night" and indicates that he was ready to go to sleep.  After questioning him, I took him to his bed.  Not only didn’t he go to sleep, but he woke Kat!  Arg!  So short nap for Kat and none for Alex.  I wimped out and opted not to make dinner and ordered a pizza instead.  After dinner playtime and a bath, they went to bed without a peep.  Thank goodness.  There are days that I just want to push them out the door and close it quickly behind them.  I could have had a puppy but nooooo.  K.  I’m better now.

After finishing Twist, it wasn’t yet time for bed so I decided to do some knitting for the Knit Unto Others KAL.  I pulled out the 6US Addis that I bought on Friday, the Red Heart {gasp} soft ack-rylic sportweight yarn and went to work.  A little while later I had a small preemie sized hat finished.  I present you the first of the Newborns in Need knitted hat.  This is an awfully tiny hat and it is disturbing to know that babies are born small enough to wear something this small.  I know, I saw very tiny ones in the NICU after my monkeys were born.  There but for the grace of G-d.  There were reasons I spent 10 weeks on almost complete bedrest, larger baby hats amongst them.  While a quick knit, it is also a very rewarding knit.  I’m going to be sending a batch to the NICU at the Hackensack University Medical Center where my monkeys were so wonderfully cared for and I spent 8 weeks on bedrest.  If anyone wants to knit a hat or two and add it in with my donation, I’ll be very happy to collect and forward, just drop me a note.

The Twinkletoes Toddler Sock returned to the fore as commuting knitting this morning.  I was running a tad late again and managed to get just shy of the toe while on the bus.

Craft on!

While I don’t think knitting is entirely to blame for hand pain, it might not be helping.  I took the day off from it yesterday and yes the thumbs felt a bit better.  The pain was at the base of both thumbs, just above the wrists.  I returned to knitting this morning on the train and having to fight the circular needle to move the stitches along has brought the discomfort back to the left hand.  The right is fine.  I’m inclined to believe that I probably strained my hands on Tuesday wrangling two little children who wanted nothing more than being picked up.  The thumb under the armpit lift is probably causing a strain that typing and knitting aren’t helping.  Since there are slicker needles on the market than the Denises that I’m using for the Big Booga’s, I’m going to head off at lunch and pick up a longer 10.5 AddiT.  I also need a long 6 for the preemie hats.  I pulled the yarn out last night and am ready to do a bunch of them. I might put the cable sweaters on hold for a short bit until the whole hand situation settles down.  I know cables are tough on them (oh yeah, mix toddler wrangling with a one day cable vest marathon – guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my hands hurt).   Enough whining about my hands.  Though speaking of hands, Chris graciously volunteered to be a test knitter for the lace handwarmers, using my basic stitch count but a thicker yarn and larger needles.

Holy crud it got cold.  Two days ago it was almost 70.  This morning, barely over freezing.  Since I believe that you can only complain about one, I choose to complain of cold.  I freeze.  I don’t like being cold.  Doesn’t necessarily jive with my woolcentric view of the universe though does it.  I never said I like to wear my knitted items, I love making them.  Heck I could churn out sweaters that I’d never wear.  Been there done that.  I have a drawer full of them.  Someday I might just bring them out in a museum of knitted shame display.

The Brora Softspun arrived yesterday.  My eyes might be going or the monitor at the office needs some serious calibrating, but I had read the color to be a dark green.  While not my favorite, it was the best of the options available.  Boy was I surprised when I opened the box and a big old cone of dark brown yarn popped out.  Brown is good.  I have the deep green to knit Eris and really wanted something different.  Thanks to everyone for their feedback on the Brora.  It does feel a bit crunchy on the cone and its a relief to know that it gets nice and soft after washing.  My Rowan arrived this week as well though ashamedly I haven’t even opened that lovely grey plastic Royal Mail pack.  I need to finish Twist before I start anything else big, which I hope to accomplish this weekend.  I’m seriously hoping to get that dopey hat off the WIP list before the end of the weekend.  Heck the only thing remaining to do is to give it a ride through the washing machine.  I even have a nice load of clothes, but seriously when doesn’t a house with kids have clothes to wash? 

Have I remembered yet what I wanted to blog?  Nope.  I will.  I hope.  The twins are better.  Both are still a tad stuffy, but they are back to their good natured goofy selves.  Kat’s eyes are defying the diagnosis that she had pinkeye.  They cleared up before we even started with the drops so I’m counting it as a false alarm.  Alex and I are still clear.  Well if I want to pop over to Purl during lunch I have to go now so I’ll close here.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Craft on!

I’m now just shy of the halfway mark on the first of the big booga bags.  Glad I switched to that as the gift.  It makes for wonderful mindless knitting and perfect for the social situations I find myself knitting in.  I do need to dig up a longer cable for my Denise needles though as the 158 sts are a tad crammed on the current one.  Making for some very sore hands.  I refuse to believe that i’m knitting too much and blame the discomfort in my thumbs and index finger stiffness on the keyboard location at the office and all the typing that I do.  It does probably have something to do with what some less crazy people might deem excessive knitting.  I might have to mix it up a bit and maybe consider mom’s advice to "take a break".  Uh maybe.  I might knit during the day and spin at night.  That’ll work.  Not like I can give up typing and see if that’s the problem.

For the first time in weeks, maybe months, I slept through the night!  No wakeups to pick little bodies up off the floor and return to the bed.  No wakeups to find a pacifier lost during the night.  No wakeups because some little one was crying in her sleep.  What caused this miracle you ask?  The short people stayed at my folks house last night   Wee.  While I had a good night sleep for a change, my folks did not.  Alex woke up at 12:30 and having had a good long nap, was awake until 3.  Poor mom.  Before bed last night, the twins and I were playing in the den when Alex went into the toy corner between the couch and the chair.  He popped out a few minutes later stark naked. Kat naturally had to strip off her clothes too!  Alex helped her with her pants.  Sigh.  I then had to chase them around to at least get diapers on their nake-y little bodies.  Someone please tell me that the toddler impulse to strip off their clothes at the earliest opportunity lasts for a very short time?????

I didn’t get any knitting done last night after they went down.  While waiting for my parents to get home from teaching their Power Squadron class (thereby allowing me to leave and go home sans short people) I decided to pop onto mom’s computer and check mail.  One problem, her 2+gig computer was running with a pegged processor and a browser that would lock up after the second link click.  I spent the next two hours cleaning it of unecessary start up programs and the adware/malware that had infiltrated the browser.  It is now back to its sleek and spiffy state.  A little hint, if IE starts acting silly or doing odd things, immediately check for spyware/adware/malware.  I’ll just about guarantee that one of the above is there.

The eagle eyed regular reader might notice that I’ve been tinkering with the left sidebar.  I’ve put back the progress meter on the WIP section.  While I had removed it because of some geeky difficulty in estimating percentage for completion, I find that even a bad estimate is better than no visual reminder.  Its to better push myself to actually finish something rather than let it whither and dye, or wind up in the ON HOLD list.  Someday I’ll have to address the items languishing there.  I’ve also removed some buttons and added new ones.  Most importantly is the Knit Unto Others.  This is a two week drive to do some knitting for charity.  I’m proud to be joining along and encourage others to do so as well.  I’ll be making the preemie hats from the pattern here. 

I’ll leave you with a picture of the two furry boys cuddling together on the bed.  More often than not, these two are together!  Couldn’t have asked for more when I got Baron.  And no, I still haven’t remembered what I wanted to, but forgot, to blog about yesterday. 

Craft on!

I had an unscheduled day off yesterday.  Monday night, Kat turns up with a very gooky eye that was suspiciously pink and by bedtime was running a fever.  No question, we needed the pediatrician.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get an appointment until 2:30.  Two cranky toddlers who refused once again to nap.  Alex, who is generally very very good, decided yesterday that he was also a toddler.  He was extremely obstinant and downright surly.  Everything was NO.  It was a lovely day.  By 9:30am I was wishing I’d gone to the office.  Some mother I am.  Diagnosis of pinkeye and I now have to wrestle a 2yo to put eyedrops into both (yup it spread) eyes.  Any bets on when Alex or I come down with it?

Well, you’ll be happy to know, I found another yarn for the Byzantine Bazic sweater.  No longer need you fear my knitting a masterpiece in Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool.  I spent some time Monday surfing for 4st/in yarns and came upon an serious option at Webs.  I opted for the Brora Softspun.  The price is definitely right and I like the writeup (and reviews I read on others’ blogs).  The FW has already been repurposed as I cast on for a Big Booga Bag last night.  I haven’t really been enjoying the shetland scarves as teacher gifts.  I decided that since 3 of the 4 teachers are new this year, I can use the booga bag as a gift again this year, but I’d go for the larger version.  That 4th is a real sweet college girl.  I can either give her the one finished scarf or make her another bag.  We’ll see where I am with the bags right before the holidays.  I’m using the FW for the bag and strap (have the doodad that knits up icord for ya!) and will probably use a nice bright patch of Lamb’s Pride or similar yarn to make an outside pocket.  I finished the bottom of the first bag this morning and am 5 rows into the 70 that make up the body.  Not to mention this makes a better commuting/ studying new programming language/lunch knitting project as it is almost auto-pilot knitting.  As I’ve been working with the FW, I’m glad I opted away from it for the sweater.  It isn’t next to the skin soft and I don’t think I’d have enjoyed wearing it.  Hopefully the Brora Softspun is a better choice.

You can mark one of those three cabley-goodness items off the wishlist.  In a veni, vidi, vici kind of way, I cast on, I knit, I finished the Cozy in Cables Toddler Vest.  I cast on for it Monday night after getting the twins down finally at 9pm.  Ugh.  I really only meant to cast on and return to Twist, but..well… it went so fast and I was enjoying it.  I was 3 inches into the body before I put it down to go to bed.  I finished the darn thing during the twins "after doctor falling asleep in the car" nap.  Sweet.  Took just under 3 skeins of the Aurora Bulky from Karabella.  I still have three more in stash.  Super quick knit, but I discovered that I ain’t so good at keeping to a pattern (that seed stitch is my downfall all the time) while dealing with tired and cranky toddlers!  I got the little man to model the thing last night before bed.  It still needs a good blocking, and naturally he wouldn’t normally wear it over a big t-shirt.  I’m very pleased with it and would highly recommend this pattern.  Project details here.

Now there was something else I wanted to blog but just can’t remember what it is.  I have a lousy short term memory.  Oh yeah, I’ve gotten a number of requests as to whether I was going to share the pattern for the lace handwarmers.  First, thank you, I’m flattered.  I do have a problem though.  I need to write it up to start with.  But bigger problem than that is that I have very tiny hands.  My ring finger is a size 3.  Adult sized gloves just don’t fit so these are designed to be tiny.  Even more problematic is that the lace pattern is set for 14 stitches.  I would think that adding a whole repeat to my tiny sized gloves would make something very huge for regular sized people.. though maybe not.  I might have to give it a test knit (or is there someone who’d like to volunteer to test knit with the cobweb with one additional stitch repeat?).

I’m off to play with .NET and C# as I have a new learning project with real world application.  Woot.  The slow time of the year might not be quite as boring as it was last year.

Craft on!

How does a relatively young, single woman spend a Friday night?  Nope, not knitting.  Keep in mind that on top of being a knitter, this woman is a geek:

Yup, the geekier side of my personality came to the fore on Friday.  I upgraded my ReplayTV from the 40gig hard drive that it came installed with to a whopping 200gig hard drive.  However, in order to do said upgrade, I needed to pull out the old drive (guts of replayTV above right), chain it to the new drive, install in my desktop computer (spilling out like entrails on the left) and run a patch program.  I managed to transfer the 38gig of programming that was stored on the old drive to the new one.  Good thing too or I would have been stuck all weekend without any Boohbah for the short ones.  I then had to put entrails back into the various electronic doodads and make sure I didn’t break anything.  Good news, they both work.  Desktop is unscathed for its experience.  ReplayTV now has a whopping amount of free space and quoted me some 59 hours of free space at high quality left.  Woot.  Its really good to be a geek.  Until recently, building my own was how I got desktop computers.  Prior to the machine above (a nice Sony Vaio), the last purchase of a complete unit was in the early 90′s when I got a Packard Hell 486/66.  Between the PH and the Sony, I’d swap in new chips/hard drives/mother boards/memory/etc as needed and worked my way up through 5 upgrades.  It was cheaper and I had better parts and less crap software.  Until the Sony.  I couldn’t build the thing for less so I bought it.  The old skills haven’t been lost though and I was able to upgrade the ReplayTV with nary a worry.

Lest you think I was all geek this weekend, fear not.  I did get some good knitting time in.  I finally got off my butt and did the rest of the sewing on Twist.  I also managed to knit the button bands.  I’m really really pleased with this sweater so far.  I need to dip into the button box to see if there is anything appropriate for this sweater. 

In furtherance of the cable madness, I have a couple of other projects in the queue. 

Cozy in Cables Toddler Vest, pattern here.  I bookmarked this vest a while ago.  I’m going to use the Aurora Bulky that I bought LAST year at Majestic Yarns to make something for Alex.  It is sufficiently aged now and should be perfect for this vest for the little man.  Especially since the dude has a serious appreciation for handknits by mom.  He was sooo excited when I put the Opal socks on him.  I modified Stephanie’s sock routine and handwashed the socks while he was in the bath Saturday night.  I started a new pair of socks for the boy this morning on the bus out of the remainder of the Twinkletoes yarn from my Feather and Fan socks.  Anyway, I should be starting this vest very shortly.

Cafe Bastile Cables – IK Fall 2003.  I was cruising around the blogs and I found this sweater.  I love it.  Here’s another view of it.  I then spent an hour or so (thanks to Carole and Elaine for their yarn color feedback).  I wound up with Rowanspun DK in Drizzle from one of my favorite crack yarn dealers from the UK.  I’m waiting now for the new shipment to arrive.  Should be imminent.

Byzantine Bazic – IK Fall 2003.  I was flipping through the IK magazine and tripped on this sweater and fell in love.  I spent a good deal of the twin’s Saturday nap surfing for a yarn to knit it in.  The 24+ skeins of Bazic that the pattern calls for was just simply out of the question. At $60/pack, I just couldn’t justify it.  While I’m not completely enamoured with the yarn I have posted here, the Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool, I think it would be a decent yarn for the pattern.  The gauge is spot on and I haven’t found too much else in the 4st/in category.  I guess I could have tried some of the heavier worsteds in the house.  At least the FW is pretty cheap and I have used it before with decent results.  I’m not feeling it, but haven’t yet cast on.  We’ll see.  In the meantime, if anyone has a good recommendation for a replacement yarn, I’m all ears.

Craft on!

I was visited by the ghost of finished wips last night.  I managed to knock three, count em three, projects off the WIP list and call them done.  Woot.  Hang on for the ride:

First up were the socks for Alexander. These are from the leftovers of the Opal Rainforest Fish that I made myself a pair from. I think there’s enough to make a third pair for Kat, but I need a break from this yarn, even with the delay in finishing these bad boys. Never attempt 4 socks in a row, let alone 6, in the same yarn. Yawn. Anway full project details are here.

Now that I was in a sock finishing mood, I completed the knitting on the Magic Loop Koigu Socks for me while on the train home last night.  That left nothing more than the grafting to do last night.  Bring it on baby.  I pulled those bad boys out next.  Toes kitchnered, they decided to lounge across Suzie Pro to have their picture taken.  I dig these socks.  Wearing them now actually.  There’s a slight difference in color intensity between the two of them that really is only noticeable by yours truly and will suffice nicely on the feet.  Nice wool socks are indeed timely as it turned downright frigid this morning.  I actually pulled out the winter coats this morning.  Super zippy pair of socks and you can call me a Magic Loop convert.  I plunked the long-arse needle back in my bag, along with a skein of Sock Garden yarn in Star Gazer Lily to start a new pair of socks.  I haven’t used any of Knitpicks sock yarns yet, but am curious to see how they knit up.  I’m fighting the urge to cast on as I do have 3 more scarves to complete before Christmas. 

Lets not forget though that I finished one more project last night.  Okay, I changed my mind, I’m posting them now, before judging as I’m just so excited by them.  These are the lace handwarmers that I designed for the contest at EZasPi.  In case you don’t believe that I finished both of them, check here.  Too hard to take a picture by yourself of both your hands.  I tried   I used a size 0US Rosewood DPNs of which I had many a saga, one skein of Jamieson & Smith 1-ply cobweb and my own design utilizing the Columns & Arches lace pattern.  They fit well, like a glove one might say!  I’m quite pleased with them.

This morning, I returned to the Shetland Scarf for teacher number two.  The fircone pattern is settled into the brain and it should be an easy knit for the remainder.  I LOVE eggplant color that I’m using and am fighting the startitis compulsion to order more yarn in that color for a sweater.  Ooooh, Elann has several yarns in "aubergine" that are tickling my fancy.  A ribby cardi in this color?  Now that sounds yummy.  Oooh, they also have this color in a new yarn…an alpaca/tencel blend.  OOOOO that they are showing knitted into a lovely shawl that is a free pattern!!!  I’m weak.  Eeew, its a poncho.  I bet I could modify it to be a shawl.  No, better stick with a new ribby cardi.  Down startitis!  Down.  See the WIP list??  Still have a bunch of items there.  Okay, look at the on-hold list.  See, bunch of stuff there.  Okay, now have a gander at the queue.  Snap out of it! 

Whew, I’m better know.  Speaking of crazy, thanks to everyone for your wonderful support in backing my non-crazy idea of putting knitting in the bathroom.  Though honestly, I didn’t think any of you would think me weird for it.  I think I’ll start with some cotton for facecloths.  I have a load of the awful stuff and the eternal knitting stitches calendar.  This will give me something to do for stolen moments and while the kids are in the tub.  Confessing a secret, I’ve knitted while they were there before. 

I think that does it for today!  Have a great weekend.

Craft on!