Monday, September 24, 2007

Ridiculously Unproductive Weekend

So, I made the mistake of surfing the internet on Saturday morning. I clicked on some ad for Old Navy so I could peek at their fall knitwear. That's where I started my downward spiral. They have this scarf that I figured I could make for Joe's daughter for Christmas. All I have to do is figure out the lace pattern & I'll be all set. Yeah, right. I spent all of Saturday and most of Sunday trying to figure out that damn lace pattern, perusing stitch pattern books, making charts, testing swatches. I finally ended up going to Old Navy so I could get a close up look at it. Good thing I did. There is a knit SEVEN together in the middle of it, then those 7 stitches magically re-appear on the next row, and there's no holes there either. Luckily, I'm pretty sure I have it figured out now. Sometimes I love my obsessive nature. Sometimes I want to take it out back and beat the shit out of it. This weekend was the latter.

Sunday afternoon I took a break from the insanity & went to the Coventry farmer's market so I could see my SnB buddy Kris at her first fiber festival (well, first one as a vendor, anyway).
It was a really nice little festival, and from what I could tell, it went really well for Kris. Another SnB buddy, Paula, was there helping out with the booth & she made the most awesomest banner for the shop:

P, I know I keep going on and on about it, but I am constantly impressed with your talent & creativity. You rock!

Monday, September 17, 2007

A few FO's

I went to a baby shower this weekend for Joe's cousin (his Dad's sister's daughter, if you're curious), and I made her one of those Zodiac sleeping sacks. It might just be my standard baby gift for a while. It takes about 3 days to make, plus one day to make the chart at the bottom, screw up the duplicate stitch, rip it all out, start over at least 2 times, then finally get it right. But, if you know how to count, you can skip that last part. ;)
The new mom & dad both went to the University of Notre Dame. They loved it! The only problem I had was figuring out WTF to do with the remaining 5000 yards of this:
I also got around to blocking & getting a pic of my Back to School U-Neck Vest from Fitted Knits. Before I blocked it, I tried it on and absolutely hated it. It sat in a pile in the floor for WEEKS until yesterday. Of course, after blocking, it looks fine. Why I haven't learned this yet, I can't tell you.

And, ---AND--- Joe finally modeled his Cheezy Puffs sweater for me:

Sunday, September 09, 2007

You say tomato.....

Tomato
I finished this one so quick, it made MY head spin. I finshed most of it in about a week, then spent the next week trying to figure out what to do with the sleeves. I decided to go with 3/4 sleeves, but chickened out when I got to the elbow because I was terrified of running out of yarn (this yarn has been in the stash forever, so I knew I wouldn't be able to find more in the same dye lot). I ended up having enough anyway, but am too lazy to rip back & fix them, plus I really like them the way they are.

I only knitted this to get practice with fair isle, but I totally love it. Wendy Bernard is just an amazing designer. Her patterns are so simple, yet so detailed, and so basic, but always have that little special touch that make them LOOK complicated. What can I say? I'm a fan.

If anyone wants to know, I lengthened the sleeves like this: I picked up 6 stitches in the underarm, knit one plain round, decreased 2 stitches in the underarm the next round and every 5th round thereafter. When I got to 1.25 inches before my desired length, I decreased my stitches to get to a number divisible by 4, then did 8 rounds of ribbing & bound off.