I must have yarn rabbits

I don't have a clue how this happened. I bought new baskets to hold my yarn in place of the old flimsy ones I was using. This AM I took all the yarn out of the old cubicles, disassembled the old cubicles, assembled the new baskets and tried to organize my yarn. Alas - the new ones only held a fraction of my yarn. They are smaller - plus the shape does not hold many large bags. And I have putting my yarn in large Glad bags so I remember why I bought it.

So I decided to reassemble only a few of the old cubicles. I ended up having to put ALL of the old ones back together to hold everything and find some new spots to put everything.

I am clueless. My yarn is expanding when I'm not watching. I have yarn rabbits.

Now for those of you that think you have a lot of yarn.. I am flashing my stash. Everyone should do this every so often as incentive to stop buying more yarn.

Here are the new baskets. Aren't they pretty? I just wish they were bigger. The white and green ones in the middle are just sock yarn, and the three on the left are just shawl yarn. The aqua cubicles are my old containers that I was hoping to throw out. Sigh



And here is the rest of it.



In the next photo - the brown boxes hold my fabric stash - yes I used to sew and keep telling myself that maybe when I retire:



So thats it for another year. And I'm not buying anymore yarn.. ever ever..

This shouldn't be so hard

I have spent the last two days trying to learn "toe up socks". Geez this shouldn't be so hard!

I gave up on the Sensational Sock book since the only toe up pattern wasn't a plain sock and I really need to start simple. And I couldn't figure out which "number" I needed to cast on. I know - I have a graduate degree in Biochemistry - but I couldn't sort out the sizes. Duh.

Then I found some other "tutorials" on the net. I pulled out my fancy smancy new Lantern Moon Rosewood size 1 DPN's. Snapped two within the first min. Forget those! I pulled out my Crystal Palace Bamboo's (size 1) - and was able to do a couple of rows- but the stitches are so small and you start with so few of them - I dropped a couple of stitches (I guess I should do my first pair on bigger needles but I'm stubborn and want to use my pretty Juliet yarn). Tried a few more times but then I realized that these directions used 4 DPNs for the stitches and I like using 3. I need SIMPLE!

My search continued. Came home and watched Knitty Gritty. Wow - they were showing Toe Up socks! But alas - she also used 4 DPN's. What's with this 4 DPN's? Just more sticks flying every which way.

I FINALLY found a tutorial here . Ahhh - very nice. Lots of pictures and uses 3 DPN's. After a few attempts - I am now a proud owner of 3 rows! I'm so proud:



And I forgot to say a big Thank you for all the kind words on my Kauni. Yes - I will model it along with my Dale St Moritz if I ever find time to finish it. This may not be until xmas so don't get too impatient!

Off the needles!

My Kauni is FINALLY done.. at least needle-wise. Still needs to be blocked (right now it looks more like a child's sweater) and I need to tack down the edges and weave in the ends. But after lots of rework its done. IT's DONE!!!!!





This was a fun knit (except maybe for last night...) - and I learned a lot of new things. thanks so much to everyone for all the help!

Ricki

On a Happier Note

Well - I only have about 2 more rows of buttonband to go. I knit until I couldn't see anymore last night ( I was just prescribed Travatan for borderline Glaucoma last week and I had to use the drops) - and then I put it aside in case I made another mistake.

But I also got this ready. Isn't it pretty (please excuse my camera this AM - it isn't cooperating)? This is Juliet yarn by Yarn Love in colorway Fondly. The name makes me smile




And I pulled this out to learn toe up socks:



This yarn has 495 yds so I won't have a problem with running out of yarn but I want to learn the technique before I use my yarns with 350 yds.

I will get Kauni blocked when I'm on vacation next week but I think its time to set it aside.

Have a good week!

I am such a dolt!

I was so happy.. almost done, sewing on buttons. But something didnt' seem right. Well - the buttonband (you know the hard one with the holes in it) - didn't go all the way up to the neckband. Hah!




So what do you think folks. Can I do a section of corrugated ribbing and seam them together. Anything is possible right?

Here is a prettier photo of both sleeves done.



I ended up only making 4 buttonholes using the 2-color technique in "Sweaters From Camp" since I had some nice red buttons - but only 4. The thought of doing it all over makes me cringe. I am going to try to selvage it but may have to.

Only 4 days of work this week! YAY! I am taking Friday off and then 3 days the next week after Labor day -- 6 days in all. Hope to finish this freakin thing!

Later: well - my attempts at fixing it didn't work. So I took the band off and will reknit it. I only lost 1 day of knitting so I shouldn't be too upset. right?????

EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yellow wants to be Green!

I was hoping I would be showing you a completed second sleeve but that was not to be. Instead I have about 2/3 done and here it is!



As you can tell if you scroll down to sleeve 1 - I decided not to even try to get the two sleeves to match. It would have driven me crazy. Also - I decided to wanted the second sleeve to have more greens and blues. Boy did I end up with green! I thought I started with an orangish-yellow/green combination - isn't that what it looks like to you?. But my orangish-yellow decided it didn't want to be yellow very long and it decided "its good to be green". My poor green was moving tortuously slow towards blue and I decided I had to help it. So I cut the yarn and moved the green along to aqua and now everything is copacetic. Whew! I am still convinced that I got a bad batch.. I had the same problem on the body. My greens lasted forever!

But all is well again. I adore this yarn. So much that I have decided that I want to make one of these:


Isn't it gorgeous! This is the same designer who designed the sweater I'm knitting. I love the one on the left - with the red/orange leaves. Not so sure about the peblum but I can work around that. If you like it too - you can download it here.

In the meantime - I'm making "another" promise to myself to take lunch breaks this week so I can knit at work. I'm also promising to start exercising again. Four years ago I was doing "The Firm" 3 times a week - could work thru a 55 min tape with average effort. This AM - I got thru 30 min huffing and puffing. This has to change. I'm not that old am I?

Don't answer that!

One sleeve down, one to go

I just finished sleeve one on my Kauni cardigan. The good news is that I'm pleased about how it turned out (it fits perfectly and I didn't have to adjust the pattern) and I'm always grateful at this point that I only have two arms.



The bad news is that I have a predicament - Where do I start the next sleeve colorwise.. Not sure if it is obvious - but the color combinations in the sleeve are definitely not the same as the body:



I spent most of the body with a 1 color difference but I spent most of the sleeve with a 2 color difference. The color repeats are so long with this yarn - that it is almost impossible (I know.. The Yarn Harlot did it but I'm not close to her level of expertise..) - to determine exactly how to match a combination. PLUS - with one sleeve mostly purple/red/orange.. I think I want greens in the other one.

So I think I should not even try to get a match. If I try and I'm a little off it will look worse than if I don't try.

I'm getting kinda tired of working on Kauni. This always happens to me since I don't get much time to knit and it takes me so long to finish something. But I WILL get this done and then go back to some socks.

I also ordered some of these this week:



I was tired of my old stackable storage bins falling apart whenever I moved anything around. These seem very sturdy. I will "flash my stash" when I get it reorganized. That may not be until Labor Day tho - when I'm taking time off work.

When did a cul-de-sac stop being a street?

I lost it today! I live in the back of a cul-de-sac which has always been hard to get in and out of since all the driveways point to the middle. That plus my driveway is immediately next to the driveway of my neighbor to my left. That neighbor thinks the cul-de-sac is a parking lot where all their friends keep their cars and I have to maneuver around.

But today - another family (not in the cul-de-sac) has decided that the cul-de-sac is now a playground. I'm sorry. I know I'm single without kids and maybe I just don't have enough empathy but I'm tired of trying to drive home and having to circumnavigate around kids on bikes and boards racing around the cul-de-sac. They even have this wooden thingy they put in the middle of the cul-de-save that lets them leap in the air with their bikes. This afternoon my dogs were barking like crazy. I look outside and there were two of these kids running up and down my driveway. I lost it. Went outside - told them that my dogs were barking because they were running up and down my driveway and I would really appreciate it if they stopped. It worked - but I'm sure my neighbor thinks I'm a blue meany. Geezz.. when I was a kid - we went to a playground to play. Maybe hopscotch in front of MY house - but not at other's homes.

Oh well - in spite of my rants - here is my progress on Kauni:



There is a small mistake (in the back - I picked up one stitch in the wrong bar)- but I didn't notice it until I was far enough along that I wasn't going to start over.

If you notice - I deliberately chose the colors to move in the opposite directions of the body so the arms when hanging down would be in the same direction. But since the sleeves are smaller - the colors are changing slower.. plus I know that I didn't start the two colors in exactly the same place so I'm expecting different combos than the body. that's OK - I think it will be fine.

I learned something new today.. had never done an underarm gusset. It was kinda confusing since the pattern isn't detailed enough to tell you when to use K2Tog versus SSK - so I found a pattern in "Sweaters From Camp" - and now I'm doing K2Tog at the beginning (to the left of the gusset) and SSK at the end (to the right of the gusset). Hope its right.

And if anyone does this pattern. I hope you can read German. I am finding out that the German pattern is different than the English one. Thanks to my KAL pals - they are interpreting it for me..

And the pups are nagging me to show them off!





Have a good week!

I knit, I sewed, I cut

Ahh.. got the body of my Kauni done. I just sewed (a little too close to the edge but I think it will be OK since the yarn is rough enough to stick together) the steeks and cut them open. Now I'm onto the sleeves.

Here is the front:



And here is the back:


I found out after the fact that the original pattern called for decreasing around the front and back neck edges every row 7 times. The english pattern said to decrease every other row in the front - and it was not specific for the back. SO.. me who takes everything literally - did both every other row. It looks fine. Too bad the pattern isn't clearer.

So - tomorrow I start the first sleeve.. I need to think about this first tho..
what color I want at the top. I do want to have the same color combos tho - just in the opposite direction.

I was so shocked about the Minneapolis bridge collapsing. My company's building is very near the bridge and no many of my coworkers cross it everyday. Luckily nobody was hurt. I was working at home when it happened - felt much like I did on 9/11 - but fearful that it was due to terrorism. My heart goes out to all the families who lost love ones.

More tomorrow!

Later- I decided to cut the front steek (I was going to wait until the collar was done but then I decided I'd rather do the sleeves first and it would be easier with the front open).. and tried it on. ARGH!! it fits wonderful except for my hips. I wouldn't be able to close it without making the button band 5 inches wide. SOO..I will definitely use my wooly board on this when I'm done and hope it gives me the diameter I need. Whatever happened to my gauge???