A Couch Needs a Blanket

Inspired by others, and our new blank canvas IKEA couch, I have started a very simple project: Double crochet striped blanket. I also decided this would be the oppurtunity to get rid rid of some of the nasty acrylic yarn hanging around the bottom of my yarn chest. I don't mind using acrylic for a blanket, because it is cheap, durable, doesn't itch that much, and with double crochet you don't exactly have to worry about uneven stitches like you do with straight untextured knitting.

The only thing is, as I got thinking about this project I decided that the few colors of acrylic yarn I had weren't going to cut. I probably didn't have enough material. Then I went to the local craft store and became mesmerized by the color options and the cheapness, and bought something like eight skeins of crappy yarn. It seems that instead of getting rid of the crappy yarn it has instead multiplied.

Alas....What's a girl to do? If it makes my blanket cool, it's worth it.

New project for the baby boom. Pea Pod sweater from Interweave knits available for free on their web page. These baby sweaters make me realize that sometime plain old straight knitting is all I want to do.

Finished Object 2007

The orange baby sweater was finished last weekend, in time for Jen and Matt's baby shower.

It turns out the sweater matches the running stroller we donated money to get them.

It did pretty good with the ends, and the seams and like. Also it is a very quick knit, took me two weeks, with most of the knitting accomplished in week one.

Hippo models:

See, I really did finish the knitting of this sweater. I'm even working on the ends

Quick Morning Update

• A. My paper has been excepted at MBC, soon to be in press!!!!!! (I heard saturday and did a little dance in my kitchen)




• B. I finished knitting and seaming the baby kimono sweater.
  (pictures as soon as I charge my camera batteries




• C. I had a carrot soup catastrophe, involving a random accident and me not completely understanding the limitations of my cuisnart. (Upshot is that my husband has agreed to get me the kitchenaid blender I have been coveting for at least five years

That's all for now. Have a good Monday!

Orangey

The pink sweater is out. The garter stitch edges are rolling in too much... a bad marriage of yarn and pattern. So when my knitpicks order came in, I couldn't help myself.

A sleeve and a half of the kimono style sweate form "Natural Knits", in the unatural shine sport

Update....

Alas, the little star sweater does not fit!!!! But not for the reason I was worried about. Apparently it is the mock turtle neck design which does not happen to work so well for my nephew, who might have a large head (because he is a genius). I guess I should stick to the v-necks and cardigns for my adventures in childrens clothes. I am chalking this one up to a design flaw, because obviously my knitting was flawless....

Fixing it?...hmmm it could be tricky because of the way a seamed it. But maybe I will try. Of course he will probably out grow it by the time I fix it...

This is why I'm afraid to knit for other people.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

We've been experiencing a slew of lazy afternoons. Some due to weather. Some due to a generalized lethargy that seems to have settled in around here.

I've been trying to cook a meal (or sometimes two) to eat during the week, to make my life easier. I'm also trying to incorporate more vegetarian dishes. For some reason boneless skinless chicken breast just stopped being appealing and indian and vegetarian food and sweet potatoes seem like great stuff. I've really had me a serious hankering for sweet potatoes, particularly sweet potato fries. mmmmmm....

So I guess that sort of explains the necessity of lazy sunday mode, but I think we are settling into too much of a rythmn. Big breakfast saturday, shopping after, run, go out and eat dinner somewhere. Little breakfast saturday. Stand around and postulate about what we might want to do today. End up doing nothing. Cook food.

By the way, I'm cooking peach mango chutney right now, and it is perfuming the house with the odor of sugar, cardamon, ginger, and cinnamon...very nice

The reason for the lack of blogging is laziness and slow progress. We will work to correct this.

Well, not really lack of progress. I finally sewed in all the ends of the little star sweater, and have handed it off to my sister. When asked if he wanted to try on the sweater it only took his aunt five months to complete, Sam vehemently shook his head no, and started to cry. He has apparently suddenly become picky about his clothes.

Also this weekend I finished two backs:

The green one(elann Sierra Aran, fiddlehead green) is the Marseilles pullover (IK summer 2006), the pink one (elann, baby alpaca/silk blend ) is the ballerina wrap from "Adorabe Knits" by Zoe Mellor.

I also order yarn for some other items for the not yet born. There seems to be a baby boom going on in the DC area as an alarming high number of couples we know are expecting (and soon). In truth I was feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of knitting baby gifts, but I figure they can get them after the baby's born, so its not really a big deal. I also have my eyes on my next project for myself, but I better finish Marseilles first. I fear this might be a sweater I will never get to wear.....

Recovery

The surgery went well, and I got some pretty flowers from my lab-mates.

I'm already venturing back to work, although I'm still a little tired so it might be a day or two til I'm able to stay the whole day and not need/want a mid afternoon nap.

My family came over to cheer me up and feed my Sunday which was nice, and I found some time to sew up this:

That leaves the ends to work in, and there are alot of them, but it might fit afterall.

Is this really the fortune you want to get the night before having surgery?

Because of said hospital stay and feeling like I was getting a cold all week, I've been taking it easy, which meant getting the opportunity to do a little knitting. I finished the knitting on the little star sweater and proceeded to seaming.

I'm getting better at armhole and shoulder seams, although they're still not like the ones in the books!

I was very worried about the proportions and sizing of this sweater, but now that I've started to seam it, I feel like it might not be a horrible thing to inflict on a 2 year old after all. (He won't remember it anyway, right?) I really don't want to be the crazy Aunt who knits the sweaters with sleeves that are vastly different sizes.

I guess the final verdict will be when he gets to try it on.

Anyway, now I have to figure out what little and easy project to bring with me to the hospital......

Exorcism, a photo essay

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

While listening to Neko Case live courteous of a free download from NPR

Consequently, very little knitting to report on chez H.Po and Snuffles.

I had a good title for this post, but now I can't remember it

I thought I could get the sweater for my nephew done, and I was headed that way, but two things happened.

Thing One:

I am no expert or children's clothing, but something about the proportion of the arm to the body lenght looks wrong. My nephew does not have short stubby arms, (does he?)

I now dislike patterns which give row counts instead of measurements. Sure I could do the math and figure out what the measurements are suppose to be, but that would be work. The thing is I added some length to the back, which caused me to add some length to the front. I thought I added some length to the sleeve, but apparently not enough. This has caused me to pause while I rethink. I need to ask my sis to bring a long sleeve t-shirth or something so I can get an idea of what the correct sleeve length might be.

Thing Two:

Can you guess?

I'm in San Diego. It's warm here, and there's lots of sunshine, and lots of cell biologists looking for coffee..

Update..

November was a rough month for me. I been a little stressed and haven't done much knitting. I think the whole birthday thing couple to just having alot of stuff going on just kind of got me down. I don't deal with stress well.

However, the calendar has now changed to another page, and I got through most of the doctor's visits and presentations that were going on and I'm ready to move on.

I have picked up this project again.

I had all but stopped it as I didn't like how it was turning out. The 1st attempt through the star I made the mistake of thinking it wouldn't be that bad to carry the yarn behind, instead of winding little seperate balls and doing it the way its suppose to be done.

The result was very wonky. It made me unhappy but I wasn't able to decide to rip it out for awhile. So it was put aside.

Going through the month of November made me ready to accept what had to be done, both in terms of this sweater and life in general. So I ripped out the star, and started it over again. And now I am moving through it and could finish it by Christmas, no problem.

It's still a quite a bit wonky, but it looks better, trust me.

Just brief.... Knitathon on Gilmore Girls?, and I thought I couldn't love the show more!

Finished!

Last weekend I was here:

This weekend I am:

Finished! (But need to block)

Buddy

I guess I've neglected to post lots of pictures of Spencer, so now I'm going to have to quickly make up for that. You see, we've known for awhile that Spencer, who is roughly around 13, was not quite well. And when you take a pet to the vet, and they can't quite pinpoint what's wrong, you get the feeling that maybe you don't really want to know.

So after several months of trying to change food, and giving him medicine that didn't help, or whatever other suggestions our vet could make, my husband decided to take him to the specialist, who confirmed our suspiscions.

Spencer, aka Buddy, aka Mr. Mushyface, aka handsome guy, has a intestinal tumor, and doesn't have much longer to live.

So, we get to spend the next couple of weeks saying good-bye, until he starts to get really sick.

I'm glad we get a little time to say good-bye, but its kind of hard too.

You see Spence is the sweetest cat in the world, and if you knew him, you'd be kind of sad too.

He's a nudger, and a licker, and sometimes a talker. He cries everytime my husband takes the dog out for a walk, like he's afraid they are leaving him behind.

He drinks water from people's glass or from the faucet, but not from his own bowls.

He wakes us up in the morning to give him food, even though he usually has food(he just wants the company).

He killed 6 mice in the summer of the great mouse adventure back in the house in Lansing, NY. Also in that house, he would stalk deer on our front lawn from his perch in the front window. He also stalks bugs, and rabbits

He is not a wool loving cat, or a catknip loving cat. He is kind of straight-edge that way

He let the dog lick his ears, but every now and than he would get his dander up, and chase the dog around the house, just to make sure she knew who is boss.

He is a special guy, and we will miss him when the time comes.

New Beginnings

So, I'm now back from all the beachy traveling about (there was also a trip to New Jersy in there, so happy Rosh Shanahnah....). And I've been blogging about all the things I finished with the traveling. So now it is time to talk about what's just beginning.

I've started three projects:

Project one: Gift Clapotis

This is a Christmas type present for someone who doesn't know of this blog. The yarn is Brooks Farms, a silk, mohair blend that a bought way back when at MDSW. Picture taken in the car on the way back home from NJ, feeling very full after two nights of feasting.

Project two: Little star sweater

Also a Christmas picture for my favorite little star. This is a design from Adorable Knits , by Zoe Mellor, knit is knitpicks Shine Sport. I've finished the back and am currently roughly half way through the star on the front. It's my first color work type item since the dreaded baby blanket that never got finished, also from this book. The stiches on the lower part of the star are a little uneven, 'cause I stranded the blue yarn behind the white, instead of doing straight intersia. I will post some pictures of it, but I can live with it, as my nephew will probably destroy it with in weeks of receiving it.

Third : Evening Star

I don't have a picture of this yet, but this one is for me. It is from my favorite issue of interweave knits Summer 2006 . I'm knitting it in knitpicks Merino Style in the color River. I really digg the color. I've been working on the bottom of this a bit this week, as I don't have to pay that much attention to it, and I'm coming down with a cold.

So that is what is going on. There was a slight problem with Marilyn once I blocked it. It just might be a little to large for my small little frame. In retrospect, it wasn't such a good design for myself. I'm not really a Marilyn type of girl. I will post a picture of it anyway, but it was a little deflating to realize that it blocked a bit larger than it knit. Also I finally blocked lotus tank, and this came out much better, i.e. the slight uneveness in the front is gone, and the lace part opened up and down a little, so it's less of a belly shirt.

Beach Trip, II

This weekend I was in Corrolla, NC to visit with my mom and dad, and Aunt Emma.

The other reason for the trip was to bring you artistic type photos of a recently finished project

And so I present to you, without any further ado....

Unfortunately, my camera had slipped into some funky mode and all my icarus photos appeared bleached. It was bright on the beach, but I've never had a problem taking pictures like this before.

The details: Icarus from IK Summer 2006 (2nd of four projects I intend to do from this issue ) by Miriam Felton. Using slighly over 100gm (2 skeins) of alpaca cloud from knitpicks in appropriately enough "Autumn". When I say slightly over, I mean I ran out of the 2nd skein on the cast-off, good thing I always buy extra. The pictures really don't do the yarn justice. It has a lot of different shades of orange and even some hints of green in it, hard to describe....

Roughly, a picture of the point

A shot of the detail on the edge

I have to say, it didn't turn out as large as a was expecting. For some reason I was exprecting it to be enormous, but I think it turned out nicely.

This leaves still one more F.O. from September to reveal... Still need to block.......

And there are some new additions to projects on the needles, to talk about. It's been a busy month for knitting. Yeah for the fall!!!!!

Beach 2006: The Knitting Update

So guess what I did while at the beach (and in the car on the way to the Beach)?

I finished something!!!!

Actually I finished two things, but I'm giving each its seperate blog entry, because it really isn't that often that I finish things

Here are the modeling shots, from the balcony at the beach house.

The Front

and The Back

It's the cover art from Interweaveknits summer 2006: Lotus Blossom Tank by Sharon Shoji, in knitpicks Shine Sport

I started it back in July when I went the the meeting. It was a rough start. I didn't think I had the gauge right. It turns out the gauge was more or less right (its hard to measure lace patterns accurately), but I thought it was way too big after doing two repeats of the lace bottom. So I ripped it out, changed needles, and then I ripped it out again and changed needles again, and then finally I ripped out and took out two pattern repeats, and adjusted down the pattern accordingly, and added extra length on the straps.

I think I made it tighter than it was designed to be, but I am pretty satisfied with the results. I probably should have made the straps a little longer, but overall it looks pretty much like its suppose to.

Next week I report on the other finished object, which is not Icarus. Icarus is almost done. I'm at the border, but apparently I can't knit lace without a chart. I feel like the stiches aren't lining up right. I need to chart it out and see what's suppose to go where. Thank goodness for safety lines