Slow Ride! Take It Easy!

This has been a productive and fun weekend. First of all I wasn't paged at 4AM on Saturday and then I set up my Guitar Hero! I haven't had that much fun in years. I know - my life is dull - but this thing is a real kick! It took me about 30 times but I finally got thru "Slow Ride" on Easy Mode. Hah! If any of you were like me - the last people on earth who hadn't heard about it - the game rolls colored notes to you and you need to push the same colored buttons while you strut to the song. The notes roll faster and faster (I can't imagine how this can get any harder in higher modes). If you don't do very well - they stop the music, the crowd boos, the lead singer rings out his hair and the guitarist who represents you cries. It really is funny.

Well - that wasn't all I did this week. My mermaid is woven and done!



Here is another photo of me in it - again not the best view:



It fits beautifully. This sweater has taught me a lot: 1) I don't like garter stitch: It goes too slow since I find it hard to put my needle into the purl stitch 2) I need to think ahead: I should have done a provisional cast-on for both the sleeves and the I-cord edging. I gave up on grafting the I-cord and just made a seam. Aside from all that - the final product is gorgeous. Hanne Falkenberg is a genius!

And then I also spent some time on my sock:



And my last item to be finished is my Southwest Philosopher's Wool cardigan. Steeks are sewn, sleeves are seamed, and I'm adding the neck band now:



Here are some closeups:



And the neck:



(Later: Hah! Realized I was supposed to do ribbing on the neckband so I just ripped it all out!)

And I have recently discovered another amazing knit designer. Anne Hanson of Knitspot. I found her designs on Ravelry and I am diving in with both feet.

I have bought yarn and downloaded these beauties:

Snowflakes

Gust

irtfa

I'm so impressed. If any of the yarns I ordered for these arrive by the time I finish Southwest that project is next on my list. If not - I'm sure I'll find something!

Happy Week!

One sleeve to go! WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!

After getting woken up by a page Sat at 3AM - I wasn't awake enough to do much more than knit my simple sock but this AM I decided to tackle the seams on my Mermaid. Sigh.. The sleeve was easy compared to the rest. The two sleeve seams went fast. Then I knit the attached I-Cord. After spending an hour - I realized I was supposed to do them from the wrong side of the sleeve. Oh well - I think they look fine.

But then I started the other seams. I had to do every one of them twice because the yarn kept tearing when I give it a tug. Sigh.. So frustrating. I would have been done by now but all I can show you is one sleeve done. Here is a clear photo of the garment:



And here are two very fuzzy photos of me wearing it. Don't ask me why my camera is taking such fuzzy photos thru the mirror. I finally gave up trying to get a good one.

Well here is a one armed Mermaid on a fuzzy lady (I am wearing a navy long sleeve tee shirt under it which is what you see on the right side of the photo). The photos aren't good. The sleeves aren't as short as they look - they are being pulled up by my tee shirt sleeve.



And one more - please ignore the clutter in my bathroom:



As you can see - I still have a lot of weaving to do and I need to graft the ends of the I-cord but I'm getting close. This one has potential if the yarn would only behave. For those of you who are thinking of knitting this.. it fits very much like a fitted jacket. I will get a lot of use out of it at work. Altho - I don't really enjoy garter stitch that much.

And here is the Opal Crazy simple sock. I love this yarn. its fun wondering what comes next:



And since I was feeling sorry for myself yesterday after that page. I decided to join Queen Elizabeth and ordered myself one of these:



Yes its a Nintendo WII! And I have to confess I really bought that so I could buy this:



Hah! And Jesse says oh no - Momma is regressing. It will never be peaceful around here anymore!



Maybe next week I will have a whole Mermaid!

Later: second sleeve is done.. but I think I'll put it aside for awhile before I tackle all the weaving:

Anyone ever seam two vertical garter stitch edges?

I finally finished the second Mermaid Sleeve but now I'm puzzled. Puzzled on how to sew a seam when both edges have been vertically gartered stitched. I cannot find any help anywhere - I have looked at my books, my DVD's, the internet. There are directions for one vertical and one horizontal - but not two verticals. I asked for help from the Hanne Falkenberg KAL - but most knitters did a provisional cast-on at one sleeve edge and then a 3 needle bind-off to join the edges together.

So.. HELP! If nobody has any advice - I will just wing it. My sister reminded me that this seam will be under the arm and not too noticeable which is true but I would like it to be at least decent.

So here are my sleeves.. Please don't tell me you can tell that the one on the right looks a little shorter than the one on the left. It can't be true - I think they will be OK after I block them which is the next thing on my list:



It feels good to get that knitting done. I find that I don't enjoy knitting rows and rows of garter stitch..especially with yarn that isn't very soft. I'm not a fast knitter normally - but with garter it takes me longer to get my right needle through the bump. Maybe I need to use my KnitPicks Harmony's which are pointier. But they are done. Now its just finishing!

And is anyone feeling like we shouldn't be eating dinner this early? It always takes my body a week to adjust to Daylight Savings Time. I think we all should petition Congress to just forget it. Just forget it! Geezz..

Later.. I blocked the Mermaid and then realized that unless I sew my Southwest steeks I had nothing to knit all week! Eeekk.. Sorry Judy - but I don't want to start the Antique Lace before I finish the other two. So I shopped my stash and out popped this: Opal Crazy. This yarn is so much fun, changes irregularly. I don't know why I haven't used it yet. I decided to follow my toe up recipe - very simple and mindless. Here is the start:



Mindless knitting is good!

The next day: I did some more searching and finally found a description of how to seam vertical garter to vertical garter in Sally Melville's "A Knitting Stitch". Looks pretty simple.

Embossed Leaves are off the needles!

Yes - I finished something.. Well maybe I still need to weave in some loose yarn but it feels like I finished something. My Embossed Leaves Socks in Dream in Color Smooshy. Ta da!



And a closeup:



I love these! I've been wondering why some bloggers say this is a fast knit but it has taken me 2 months to finish these. I think part of it (in addition to the fact that I knit slowly and don't have much time to knit) is that I did it with fingering weight yarn on size 1 needles. I know - I'm making excuses but I am constantly impressed on how much knitting other bloggers accomplish. Then again - I also worked on my Southwest cardigan in between socks.

So - my next goal is to finish my Hanne Mermaid. Only one sleeve to go and then the finishing. I'm going to set a goal to finish it by the end of March. I think that is realistic. Then I will finish my Southwest my the middle of May. Right?

I have a day off tomorrow. Have a doctor appt at 9AM but plan to get a good start on the Mermaid sleeve. It will feel good to work with larger needles again.

Have a great week!

Its a winner!

Well - I haven't posted for a week partly because I wasn't feeling well, partly because I was down about something that happened at work, partly because I was feeling like I wasn't making much progress on anything.. but all that has changed (well maybe not the work thing).

I feel a lot better and here is the completed body tube for my Philosopher's Wool Southwest cardigan!



It took a lot longer than I expected. Its bigger than my Traditional - because I made the sleeves too wide at the top (10 inches) and I didn't start the armholes soon enough. I had to keep going until I knit 10.5 inches above the start of the armhole steek. Here is a better photo of the top:



And you can see how the stripes at the top will coordinate with the stripes at the tops of the sleeves:



I'm pleased. I plan to put the stitches on waste yarn so it will be easier to sew the steeks and then do a 3 needle bind off at the shoulders. The pattern doesn't say to do that - but I think that is what I did for my Traditional.

And you ask how I add a neckline? With the PW method.. you sew an oval where you want it to fall and then cut the yarn above the sew line. So easy.

And the sink hole has been repaired! Life is improving.

My next goal is finish the second Embossed Leave sock. Then the Mermaid.. Then I will come back and do all the work for the Southwest. My sister and I plan to do the Antique Lace vest for the summer so I better get busy. But for now - my hands need a rest.

Surviving on little sleep!

I am one of those souls who is much more productive in the morning than the evening so I like my mornings to be long. The side effect of that is that I go to bed VERY early in the evening and most days - I am up by 4AM.

Well - Murphy's law struck last week. I came down with some kind of virus. It hit my stomach first and then my sinuses. I stayed home for 1.5 days from work and then went back but was very tired. Thursday night I left work a little early wanting to get home so I could crash. Then this happened:



Yep - that is a hole. A sink hole on one side of I-25 which I innocently drove onto Thursday night as I do every night. A big water main broke under the highway (why in the world they put one there in the first place??) and the pavement caved in. It took me 2 hrs to get home!! What was maddening is that there are HOV lanes and they didn't decide to open them up until later that evening.

So Friday I took the side streets home - but guess what - so did the rest of N. Denver. So that took me 1 hr to get home.

Bottom line is that I am not getting the sleep I need to kick this virus and I'm not doing much knitting either.

I left my Embossed Leaves socks at work.. but here is my cardigan.. I am about 3 inches into the armholes. It is pretty but takes a lot out of me when I'm this tired.



Please say a little prayer for me that they get the sink hole fixed by rushhour tomorrow? I think they have opened up a few lanes but rushhour traffic in Denver needs 5 or 6!

And just a final risque view of my little Belle.. I think she is sleepin but she has no shame!



Have a better week than I did!

A Delightful Day!

I finally made it to the Denver Creative Festival on Friday and had a wonderful day! I spent more $$ than I was going to but had a great time.

I met Anne and Eugene Bourgeois - the owners of Philosopher's Wool and took her class.

They took a photo of me (I hope I was smiling OK) and I asked a nice lady to take photos of me along with Anne and Eugene. Here is me and Anne (I'm the one with funny thing going on with my smile.. now how did I do that?) and yes I am wearing her Traditional sweater in Colorway Deep Sea:



Here is me and Eugene. He suggested that - instead of using my Addi 16 inch circulars for my sleeves (which cramp my hands) - to try the 2 24 inch circulars (like they do for socks). I will try that for my next project.



Both of them are delightful.. I brought my Southwest and asked Anne about the vertical bands I saw in the sections which contained purls. She told me that they added interest to the sweaters and not to worry about them. She signed my book:



Her only suggestion was to go down more in size when I do my button bands and collars.. since mine gape and would eventually get worse. Then I bought another one of their kits (this is their new pattern Light And Easy in Hollyberry - so pretty). They gave me a free tote bag as well as their Shawl book since Eugene said - being so petite - I must have a lot of extra yarn left over after I finish a sweater. Yep!



But to my surprise - there was more at the Festival.

I met Cheryl Oberle of Folk Shawls fame - she is writing a book called Folk Jackets. I told her that my sister and I had made her peddlers shawl together. She asked if they were red.. I said yes - of course! I ended up buying her Celtic Roses pattern (so pretty and it won't be in the book):



I tried it on in blue but decided that I preferred her pink/purple yarn. This yarn is wonderful - very soft with very saturated colors:



And there were so many sewing related booths.. I didn't think I would be tempted..but then I found Faux Chenille. You layer fabric - put tissue on top with stitch lines, sew through all the layers and then cut the top layer between the stitch lines.. It turns into this wonderful chenille like material. It was so amazing. You really have to see to believe. Here is the purple/red silk fabric which is layered over black rayon. I purchased a pattern for a short collared jacket with vertical stripes (501 on her website):



Here is Nannette's website on Faux Chenille

So it was a wonderful day for me. It was good to be inspired by sewing again. Its been a long time since I've done much with it other than steeks.

And I jumped back into my Southwest. I'm about 3 inches away from starting my armhole steeks. I'm psyched!



Now if I could only stay home all the time and work on my projects. And for those who are wondering why I am buying more kits.. I sold about 8 of my kits on Ebay over the last month so I feel justified. Hah!