One Crazy Fiber Lady

Catsup

Okay it has been a long time between posts even for my recent sparse frequency.  Time to rectify that.  The kids are napping, as is their grandfather, mom is downstairs I suspect she's at her computer finalizing things for my sister's wedding next Satuday and I have some quiet time as my shawl is soaking in the sink for its blocking.  I've tried a couple of times to put together a post, but it seemed that circumstances were conspiring to keep me from doing it.  One night our DSL connection was incredibly slow, the second one, it wouldn't connect at all.  Some pretty violent thunder storms two nights had the computers off entirely.  Oh well, just wasn't meant to be.  I have alot to catch y'all up on so lets get moving.

First and foremost, an update on the job thing.  Last I posted, I had received an offer and was waiting for the Freelance Place (heretofore known as FP) to counter.  Well, the boss lady and I had a serious talk Wednesday morning on the deadline.  While she couldn't offer me a permanent job, she did indeed have enough work for me to do to keep me until the end of the third quarter.  The 4th quarter was more than likely, but they don't plan that far ahead (interesting for a large corp, but whatever).  Doing the math, the freelance gig was paying darn well, even without providing benefits (I've picked an individual health plan with Blue Cross for $475 a month so that is covered) that it seemed silly to take a pay cut for the theoretical security blanket that a "permanent" job offers.  We all saw how permanent my last position was.  Also keep in mind that two of the three people I'm working with, now permanent employees, started as freelancers as well.  I also didn't have to take the first offer that came around.  The this job or that was an artificial limitation that just didn't need to there.  Freelancing offers me a great deal of flexibility and freedom that I couldn't get at the other company.  It seemed silly to not stay at FP.  I did the calculation, to match my gross income from BN.com, I just need to work 23 hours a week.  Not too shabby when you really think about it.  So there it is.  I'm working and happy.  We'll see what happens as we close in on the end of the 3rd quarter.  In the meantime, I'm getting experience in .NET that I didn't have before and found to be the necessary technology currently in my market.  The real upside to this is that one interview I went on early in my quest kept the door open that if I gained .NET knowledge I should call them back.  Options are good.

Now that summer has begun, the boat and the pool are seeing some usage.  Last weekend, we inaugurated both over the holiday weekend giving the twins their first tastes of them as 2 year olds.  Over the course of almost two hours, the pair got pretty darn comfortable in the water.  The lifevests gave them the security to keep their faces out of the water and freedom to do things without clinging to the nearest adult.  Speaking as one of those nearby adults, it was a most pleasant change.

Sunday morning the family trouped to the marina and spent this year's first overnight on the boat.  These kids are definitely water babies.  They took very nicely to the boat this year, which is a good thing as we'd planned to go to Kingston, NY, up the mighty Hudson River, for the extended July 4th weekend, via boat naturally.  Nice that they do so well on it.

This next picture isn't from the holiday weekend but one that I downloaded from mom's camera of a day trip that they took with the kids to the boat a couple of weeks ago.  I just loved it and wanted to share.  As always, click to see the larger photos.  I love seeing my dad with the kids.  They really look so great together.  Dad is just amazing with them.  The sun rises and sets by their PopPop.

As this is purportedly a knitting blog, I do have knitting to report.  First, I'd like to publicly declare my membership in the Summer of Stash.  I'm not sure what my reward to myself at the end of it is going to be, maybe the Mermaid kit or another Dale of Norway.  Who knows.  Really though I seriously have enough yarn in stash to keep busy all summer long without buying anything.  My exceptions are going to be the Sundara Petal's Collection as that is already paid for and not technically purchased between the end dates.  I withhold the right to buy myself a yarny birthday present in July as it is a birthday that end in {shudder} a '0'.  I also will claim as an exception yarn purchased as a souvenier should I actually go anywhere, like Kingston and find some.  So there we have it.  I did get some purchase in under the wire including two eBay buys of some Wendy Guernsey in Slate that is pegged to become The Danish Nattrøjer from the Winter '04 IK Issue.  I also picked up a pack of some Rowan Wool Cotton that is destined to be a Chicknits design, just not sure which one yet (Eyelet Cardi or Cutaway).

As it isn't always about buying yarn, but actually using some of it, I have been knitting.  And I have a completed project.  The ever present socks. They took a while for me to finish and with everything that has been going on, I honestly can't remember when I finished them, though the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend is a likely candidate.  I just won't swear to it.  I did start new socks the very night I finished these though.  I picked up a few skeins of Lisa Souza's wonderful Sock! yarn.  Having seen Wendy's socks naturally I bought the mahogany colorway, as well as the What-A-Melon and Earth Birth.  All are just gorgeous.  I eagerly started the What-A-Melon, working toe up on the same needles.  I finished the first one on Memorial Day and am now slowly getting some work done on the second one.  The yarn is just delightful to work with and is making some gorgeous socks.  Here you see the second sock posing as a modesty shield during little peep bath time.   Gave me something to do while they played.  Just have to work on that whole splashing thing.

In other knittings news, I've been working on Wendy's Lisa and finally started Reid for Kathryn.  Having had 2 days off in the middle of the week as Kat ran a fever, I got some knitting done during naps.  I've finished the back for Lisa and have a good start on the first sleeve.  The knitting is easy and good for tv and/or toddler watching and the drape of the Silky Wool is just to die for.  I sooooo love this item.   Reid is coming along nicely too, though the cotton yarn (Patons Grace) is not the easiest on the hands.  Alternating between the two, Silky Wool on Addi Turbos and the Grace on Addi Naturas is making my hands a little sore.  The socks enter stage right for hand relief knitting! 

Yesterday I needed to get the kids out of the house so that mom could get some things done, including hemming her dress for Rikki's wedding.  She's doing mine today and just ran out to buy a different thread for it.  Anyway, we needed to get the shorties out and the weather was just dreary.  Immediately this mall rat thought of heading to, where else, but the mall.  In the end, it didn't work out that way, but much better.  We went to visit these two!

It's Deb and Chappy!  Who where, as always, great hosts.  Even if Chappy gets perplexed by the fact that even after the initial excitement the toddlers are still moving around! I hear you Chappy, I still don't quite get it that they JUST CAN'T SIT STILL! They once again adopted the underneath of the desk in Deb's kitchen as their own personal playcave.  Goofy monkeys they are. 

That pretty much brings us up to date with the bigger goings on around the CFL household.  Except this, what is it?  I'll leave that to you all to figure out :)

Just as an FYI, I had to set the blogs comments to requiring approval after I got some serious comment spam of over 75 in one evening.  I spent too much time deleting them.  Bastards need to get a real hobby and not promoting their real estate, pharmacy or porn sites in my comments!

Gots to go block my shawl.  Ta for now!

Craft on!

Chazzerai

Sorry for no post yesterday.  I awoke with a terrible headache and after getting the twins off to daycare, curled back up in bed for a while.  I did feel better later in the day and got some knitting done, but just didn't want to play with the computer, even though I have a lot to show!  This was one of those excellent weekends (ignoring the ignoble end to it of a migraine). 

Saturday I had a play-date with Deb, who very nicely documented the adventure!  Here she is sitting in the Ridgewood Starbucks working on the early rounds of her shawl.  Yup, we had some of Starbucks very yummy Espresso Brownies.  MMMMMMMM.  I had a very enjoyable time with Deb, always do.  Lots of laughs and for the first time during our play-dates, we actually knitted!

What did I get?  At Majestic Yarns, I picked up 4 skeins of the Aurora 4ply for further Olympic training exercises.  I'll knit some of the toddler mittens out of the Mittens book I mentioned on Friday.  I also picked up a set of size 0 dpns, because really, a girl can never have too many small dpns.  I've worked two of the mittens out of the book, and while there's a picture of one below, I didn't photograph the second. Some of the frustration of two handed knitting is receding.  While I can't possibly say that I'm truly comfortable with it, I'm not as uncomfortable and frustrated with it as I was before.  My only complaint I think has to do with the projects I selected for training, little glove/mitten bits on dpns.  By the time I get up to speed, it is time to change needles.  I think I'm ready for the vest with the circular needle and should feel more comfortable as it progresses.  I guess I should pull out the yarn (which arrived on Friday - hmm forgot to photograph that) and swatch it at least. 

Anyway.. there were more purchases on Saturday.  I can't tell you how ecstatic I was to find that second yarn store, Close Knits.  While Majestic is nice, it has a limited selection.  Fabulous if you want Karabella, but terrible if you want sock yarn.  Enter Close Knits.  Big comfy couch in the store and more Cascade than you can shake a stick at.  Finally a local source for Cascade 220.  They also have sock yarn!  I found these babies, Claudia Handpainted, and picked up enough for two pairs.  The blues/purples on the left are the new skeins for mom's socks.  The others are for ME. 

I probably would have picked up some Cascade had it not been for this.  I bought this bonanza of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran from Deb's stash.  Yummy yummy yummy.  I've been eying this yarn and luck would have it, Deb wanted it out.  I'll probably design something for this, right now leaning towards a simple cardigan with maybe simply cables running up the sleeves perhaps.  I have some time to decide, what with all the current projects and the Olympics coming up quickly!  There is a little crazy voice in my head that is whispering that maybe I should ditch the fubar pattern vest and go with this.  I'm trying to ignore it.  Yarn this nice deserves to be savored.  After the Olympics, definitely.

Those were my purchases for Saturday (well a couple of Sudoku books and some things for my BP), but the goodness of the day didn't end there.  I got home to find a box jammed in my door.  Naturally I started mentally checking off all the things I've ordered and haven't received yet.  While this probably says a lot of my shopping habits, I couldn't think of what it might be, and didn't remember placing an order with The Woolen Rabbit recently.  It never crossed my mind that it was from my better pal.  I had to wait until the twins were down to open the box.  I have the best better pal!  I found this jar of knitters & spinner's cream, soap and 4 balls of bunny crack!  How very  cool is my bp???? I should have figured it out.  Friday night I opened an envelope that had the neat Yarn Yak notecards and a card telling me to watch out for a package.  Thank you again BP.  I love it all!  My BP is definitely going to spoil me:  first cashmere and now bunny crack.  Sweet.  Thank you!

One other purchase to display.  Last week Deb so nicely posted about more sock yarn she had purchased.  She even so generously provided the link to where she bought it on Etsy.  Such thoughtfulness of her!  Weak as I am, I had to click the link.  Even weaker, I had to buy some of the lovely sock yarn.  Who could turn down handpainted merino that comes with two tiny coordinating stitch markers.  Okay forget for a moment that I don't need coordinating stitch markers to knit my basic socks.  That's besides the point.  I picked up this skein in the "Autumn" colorway.  Gorgeous.  Simply gorgeous. 

Yeah, last look showed me kicking ass at the Buy More Yarn stashalong with 47 points.  I'm not entirely sure if that is a contest I want to win.  There's also a skein of Trekking and a pound of eggplant colored corrie sliver that I added and haven't photographed.  I'm not the crazy fiber lady for nuthin eh?  First step is to recognize there's a problem ;)

What else is there?  Oh it hasn't been all about socializing and acquiring ever more stuff for my collection.  I have been knitting.  I finished the socks that originally started out as Mom's belated holiday gift.  Except they were too big for her feet.  Naturally I found that out as I was halfway through the foot on the second one.  I just couldn't rip out that much sock, and considering the availability of new sock yarn, I finished them on Saturday and they will be going off to my baby sister.  She's been coyly asking for a new pair of knitted socks, and well, her feet are a bit larger than mom's and mine.   Done.

Then there's the EZasPi Anniversary Shawl.  I'm using the gorgeous ruby colored Zephyr that Deb gave me before the holidays at our last play-date.  I'm in love with this yarn.  Anyway, I decided on the Shetland Tea Shawl from Gathering of Lace.  Its getting to the nice sac-like dental floss look.  Since this picture was taken, I've transferred it to the 24" circular needles and moved into the 288 (or this case 290) stitch section.  I'm on the first round of the Horseshoe Lace pattern.  So far, so good and I do so love this yarn.  I dug out the old Pi Completion Calculation spreadsheet and dusted it off for this one.  I'm currently 8.885% complete.  Weeeeee.

To show that I don't just stash the yarns I buy, and that I am indeed training, here's the first of the practice mittens.  The pattern is the Chicky Feet from the Mittens book (link above) in the Red and Yellow Aurora 4 from Karabella.  Nice, soft, squishy yarn.  I made the 2 YO size, go figure.  Fits the boy short person perfectly.  Was good practice for dealing with long floats and tucking them in so the short people fingers don't get trapped.  I was so involved with fighting with the yarns that I didn't notice until 4 rounds later that I had only switched one of the three smaller dpns to the larger size after finishing the cuff.  Since this was "practice" and in the category that one size difference in dpn wouldn't matter much to a short person, I left it.  I started another mitten yesterday after my nap, but naturally not the second Chicky Feet, but an entirely different pattern as it involved switching the colors more frequently.  Was an excellent workout for the dumb hand and it no longer feels so incompetent at the task.  Will be even better on a circular needle, and not the ML switching thing, come the games. 

As last night was a new episode of 24 (YAY) and I love me that show, I took a quick mental inventory of the current WIPs.  Actually since the mental inventory is notoriously bad, I actually hit the blog and checked out the On The Needles section to see if there was something I could work on during the show.  Naturally nothing is really mindless knitting.  While the STS is relatively easy, the small stitches are somewhat grabby and I have to make sure I am working them one at a time.  The Nachaq was ruled out last week and therefore already not good for this week.  I really had nothing.  The Olympic training still requires too much attention paid to the wayward finger and therefore wouldn't suffice.  I needed something that I could glance at occasionally, like during commercials.  Left me with no alternative but to start.. wait for it... socks!  Figured not time like the present to start those Replacement Belated Holiday Socks for me.  I picked out the Claudia Handpainted in the Walk in the Woods colorway (though I've never seen a blue and purple woods), winded into a ball and got to work.  By the end of 24, I was well into the sock.  Here's my progress, along with the kitten zen for today. 

The Claudia Handpainted?  Great yarn.  Reminds me a bit of Koigu, price is certainly in the KPPPM range, but feels a bit softer.  I like how these colors are working up.  Hopefully mom will as well.

That should be enough for today.  I'll have more pictures tomorrow, including the second FI practice mitten and the stash extras that I forgot to take pictures of (need to document this for myself ;) and a meme that Chris tagged me with.

Craft on!

Giving and Getting

While I don't celebrate this holiday myself, I do want to wish all those that do a very Merry Christmas.  I hope you've been surrounded by all those important to you.  Yes, Hannukah officially starts tonight, but my family exchanged our gifts on the 18th (not fair speeding up the knitting end deadline either!).  The twins and I are sharing a quiet {snicker} day together at home and I thought I'd take a moment to post a long overdue update.

Since I posted last, I went to my office holiday party (12/16), had a wonderful playdate with Deb, celebrated the season with the family, started a 2 week vacation, and knitted my darn fingers off.  I detailed it all in my completed album so I won't put too much here.  Most was finished at the last much to my cramped fingers dismay.  I took almost a two day rest and returned with the Diamond Fantasy Shawl using the Fleece Artist Merino that I don't think I ever blogged but do remember getting it after Stephanie knitted hers.  I don't have pictures of that yet, but will save that for another day.  I've finished three of the six repeats.  Anyway here's pictures of the finished gifts:

(Photos link to album page with project info.)  The natives are getting a little restless and I need to speed this up and well, sorry, links are just time consuming, even if they are pointing to your own site.  We have here the Thuja socks, a Kerchief Scarf, Shetland Lace scarf and Handwarmers.  The socks, with their huge feet parts fit my father perfectly!  The other three were gifts for the kids' teachers.  Nope, the Rowan Biggy Print didn't end up as gifts for them.  Actually the Biggy Print will end up in the "Looking for a home" album shortly.  I do need to do a little cleaning this week of vacation now that all the gift knitting distraction is over.

Besides the gift knitting, I also finished up some knitting for the little people:

Again, these link to the project pages in my album.  Sadly the mittens are a tad overfelted and a bit stiff for the little monkey hands.  I bought them some new ones at the mall on Friday.  The socks?  Yup, finally finished those bad boys.  Serious case of SSS for them.  Can't believe how long it took to finish these very small little socks.

I received some very nice gifts as well.  The first was on Saturday during the playdate with Deb.  Her description of it is fabulous and I just point you there :)  She gave me a wonderful holiday gift!

That is THREE skeins of Zephyr in my absolutely favorite  color, along with hand made beaded stitch markers.  LOVE IT!  I've always wanted to try the Zephyr.  Thank you Deb!  Thank you!   I think I'll be using this yarn for the Anniversary Pi Shawl come January 21 (official cast on date is the 22nd) when Deb and I get together for an outing to Majestic Yarns followed by Starbucks.  I think I'll be working on the Shetland Tea Shawl from Gathering of Lace.

At risk of blowing away my crazy fiber reputation, my favorite gifts are these.  Imagine my surprise when my mother had Alex and Kat each hand me a wrapped present.  Inside were these hand/foot prints that my parents had put together.  Story has it that Kat didn't dig putting her hands into it and they had to wrestle her to get this done.  Like the Grinch, my heart grew several sizes larger as I looked at these.  I'm trying to find the perfect place to hang them.  I now also have a guide for making further mittens... which I might do with some thinner weight yarn and not go for the felting thing.  We'll see. 

I think I'll leave this here.  The natives need lunch and well, I need some knitting.  Hopefully the next post will be sooner, but I'm still on vacation and will be until January.  We all know how spotty I am about posting from home.  I also have a load of email to reply to and blogs to catch up on.  Again, a very happy holiday to you.

Craft on.

Quick Catchup

Lots has been going on since I last typed.  Been busy just about everywhere and sadly the time for blogging has been drastically cut into.  I've had a pretty big project at work, which is still going on.  Compound that with the fact I'm off the last two weeks of the month.  I have 8 vacation days to use before 2006 as we're a "use them or lose them" outfit.  I ain't losing them, so I'll be on vacation from Dec 20th through the end of the year.  Weeeee.  It does mean that I want to get as much done on this project before disappearing for almost two weeks though. 

Friday dumped 7.5" of snow on my beloved home.  I awoke to hear the town's whistle announcing school was closed.  This was followed by a telephone call from the kids' daycare teacher telling me the center was closed.  Saved me a call.  Kat was running a fever Thursday night so we wouldn't be going to school anyway.  Darn.  Friday was a pretty miserable day.  I did get pictures of the finished gauntlets though...

Nice to have them done especially since they put my teeth on edge.  Project details are here.

The package from Joann.com arrived on Thursday with the much needed WoolEase to make the socks for Dad.  I cast on for the first one after I got the twins down.  I worked on it on and off all weekend and finished it Sunday night.  It's a nice pattern, but damn those are huge socks!  I'm used to my little Size 5 (EU35) feet and the little tiny toddler feet.  Not these huge honking man feet.  But one down, one to go.  I'm a few rows short of the heel stitch on the second one.  I'm pretty sure I'll have these ready for Sunday's Family Hannukah Get-Together, especially since I started it yesterday afternoon.

During lunch, I took a field trip to Seaport Yarn to pick up some Lamb's Pride Bulky to make the twins new mittens.  Last year's Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby mittens were fine when they weren't outside doing much, this year, however, they're playing in the snow.  My dad keeps pestering me that they need heavier mittens.  I did some surfing and turned up the Lovikka pattern.  Looked great and would fit the bill perfectly.  I had a chance meetup with Cassie at Seaport.  I couldn't stay long and had to get back to the office.  But not before buying two skeins each of Lamb's Pride Bulky in Rosado Rose and Blue Boy.  While the kids watched some tv before bed, I had most of the first mitten done (started it when we got home).  It took me about 45 minutes to do each one.  Sweet.  I'll knit the second pair tonight and get them into the washing machine ASAP to felt.  I think I'll make the hats, but right now, neither needs a new hat.  I might make myself a pair of these bad boys with both colors so we all coordinate.  Awww how cute.  Blech.  I love the braided tassles.

Last, but not least, my kids are heavy into "reading" now.  Not a big surprise.  I'm a big reader and was really really happy to get the gig working where I work.  Excellent employee discount!  They helped themselves to some "reading" material off my shelves this weekend.  Get a load of the mix.  The three on the left were Kat's choices.  Pretty good choices if you ask me.

Well that's it for the moment.  I'm toiling away trying to complete "IT" on an accelerated schedule!  Oy vey.  Though Friday night, I skipped knitting as I was too tightly wound to do that.  The kids were just exhausting.  I spun instead!  I finished a second bobbin of the BL/Wensleydale roving.  Now I have to empty my third Woolee Winder bobbin and ply the babies.  Add that to the list.

Craft on!

To sleep, perchance to dream

-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!

In the Pink

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!

Startitis' Cousin

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!

Extra Extra!

Update, we got your updates here. 

First, that Super-Secret Surprise Baby Gift project for coworker Marina is finally no longer secret and I can divulge it to the rest of you.  I had another coworker deliver the gift to Marina this weekend as she had her little girl on 9/11.  Yes, a less than positive day but with a new reason to be happy.  The circle of life and all that.  Anyway, I can finally post the picture and project details.

Pattern:  From Last Minute Knitted Gifts. 

Yarn:  TLC Cotton Plus (though the gold is Cotton-Ease)

Full project details:  here.

I got an email from Marina this morning thanking me for the blanket.  I hope baby Emma is half as happy with it.  For those that remember my stitch quota, what it translated to was two and a half blocks a day.  While riding the bus, it was easy to accomplish and was pretty mindless knitting of rows and rows of garter stitch.  Great project and would be faster as Joelle set it up, for a group of friends to knit together.  I have plenty more yarn as I only used a skein and a half of each color and ordered 5 of each.  Yup, stasher extraordinaire! 

Moving right along.  I finished knitting the hat for Kathryn yesterday.  It was pretty late when I finally worked in the last end so I haven't had a chance to start the felting part of it yet.  I need to dig out a bowl the size of the monkey's head to get it right.  Maybe tonight or tomorrow, depends on how much energy I have left tonight.  I'm pretty tired now, but that's because I had a carb-rich lunch at Benny's Buritos.  Nope, not with (S), more on that later though.

As a further indicator to me that I shouldn't lead a KAL, (my last lead was that Recycled Sari Silk scarf-along that I HATED) I haven't touched Eris in at least a month, have even discarded its replacement of attention Samus and am now working on the newest of the cabled cardigans to wiggle at me.  Meet Twist.  I got an email from ChicKnits yesterday announcing the newest sweater pattern's release.  It had two of my favorite new features.  It was both a cardigan and had cables.  It had two other features in its favor.  The yarn from Samus met the gauge requirements and since I'd just recently swatched and started that, re-purposed the Wool of the Andes yarn.  Samus is now out of the WIP and into a "Someday" queue.  Oops, I seem to remember joining a KAL for it.  KAL's aren't my strong suit obviously.  Anyway, the other plus in its favor is that Bonne Marie designed it.  I've used several of her patterns, including the much beloved Ribby Cardi and very much like her work.  I started the back while the twins took their afternoon nap yesterday.  I had to force myself to stop and go back and finish the hat.  I like the shaping that's built into this sweater so for the moment, we have a winner in the cardigan contest.  Well that's until something else comes out from the woodwork to tempt me. 

Now, for the dating thing.  In talking with (S) to see if lunch was still on for today, he mentioned that because of meetings, it would have to be quick.  While trying to find a good central point for us to meet that would not be McDonalds and yet quick, I suggested maybe rescheduling for another day.  He initially declined stating that two reschedules "would make him a jerk".  Bonus points to him for this.  After explaining that I understood work pressures and wouldn't think him a jerk, he agreed that a reschedule that allowed for a more leisurely lunch would be best.  We're meeting here tomorrow.  He picked it.  Should be an excellent lunch judging from the email exchanges and two quick scheduling phone calls with a nice guy.  (S) has played by the new rules very very well.  I'm really looking forward to meeting him.

I have some stored procs to write and a batch job to test, so I'll part here..

Craft on!

Inquiring Minds

I have a lovely finished object to show y'all.  The Girlfriend Swing Sweater is now done.  Sweet little sweater for Ms. Kat.  I'm pretty sure its large enough for the little monkey that she should be able to wear it through the fall and more than likely next spring.  I had a little trouble convincing her to put it on so I could take a picture.  Mom got her to do it with a little sweet talking.  She's a true cat and came straight for me as I held the camera.  I did get to snap off some very cute pictures, if I do say so myself.  I'm pleased with the modifications that I made to it.  Full details of that are in the album pages here.  (click for larger images)

And true to toddler-hood, after struggling to get her into the thing, she didn't want to take it off.  I started a hat from the Knit Hats! book, the "Child's Felted Hat" in the same yarn to match this cute little coat.  That should be done in no time.  Good thing I started knitting again at lunch, I have so many projects I want to work on.  Either Samus or Eris need to be addressed soon.  Not to mention the yarn that's on order that I mentioned in my last post.  Someday I'll take some pictures of the current stash. 

Hmm, I could be knitting... NOW.  But...

I'm sure that inquiring minds want to know, my lunch date with (S) was postponed until Monday.  I got an email from him early Friday telling me that he was looking forward to meeting me, but could I call him before our get together.  Sure, no problem.  Well he was getting slammed at work and wondered if we could change our plans and maybe get together at 2:30 for coffee.  Tough time, but then he suggested lunch on Monday.  Works for me!  Got to break up the two big Asian meals in one day thing I had scheduled.  Something to look forward to Monday for...

Now we get to dinner.  I was nervous as hell.  Surprised me too how nervous I was about the whole thing.  I forced myself to go, really, what was there to be nervous about.  I had free babysitting and I was getting out of the house for something other than work.  All good.  Anyway, I got to the restaurant and (B) had arrived before me.  Good thing he recognized me because I wouldn't have recognized him.  Where I had used recent pictures for my online profile (borrowed them from my Finished Items albums - Ribby and Ribby Shell for the curious) he hadn't and had changed quite a bit.  There were no awkward silences, conversation was good, food was better.  In the end, he'd make  good friend, but I feel no physical attraction for him at all.  It would have to be faked and that wouldn't be fair to each of us.  See, I was right for wanting to put the brakes on all the telephone conversations I was having with him.  So much energy expended on what looked good on paper and went conversationally well, to end because of a lack of chemistry.  I'm going to call him and thank him for a lovely dinner and decline any further contact.  In the end, the first date in a long long time is finally under my belt.

On that note, I'm going back to the felted hat for the monkey.

Craft on!

Eclectic Mix

Knitting proceeds apace on the Girlfriend Swing Sweater for Little Miss Kat-Kat. I finished the second sleeve yesterday. I've made some modifications to the pattern. I'm not particularly keen on the rolled edge look. To me it always looks like you skipped something in the finishing of a garment. While the pattern does suggest using a 2 or 3 stitch I-cord around various edges, I'm not a huge fan of the old idiot cord. I decided to use a seed stitch border instead. I had to un-bind-off one sleeve and the garment hem to add this new border and am very glad I did so. So now both sleeves are done and I've started the collar. I'm halfway through with that now and should have it done during lunch today. I'm going to add the seed stitch border to the end of the collar as well. It should help it lay right. The only part of the sweater that I still have decided what to do with is the edge of the collar. I've been slipping the first stitch of every row, giving it a decent selvage, but.... I do have to add button bands and I was considering continuing these button bands in one long line to include the edge of the collar. I'll have to see how it looks when I cast it off. If it rolls or looks cheesy, it gets the band. I'll dig out mom's button tin later and see if there are any goodies that would be perfect for this sweater. She handed me her good-size tin full of buttons when I was hunting around for closures for some beadwork I'd done. Nice stuff and I now have a great button collection. Yay. Next picture should be a mostly complete little sweater for my monkey girl.

I did a little more stash acquisition. I'm laying in for the winter. Yeah, that's the ticket. I saw my favorite yarn dealer had some very lovely discontinued Rowan Wool Cotton in one of my new favorite colors for a fabulous price. I'm thinking one of ChicKnit's sweaters for this yarn. Either the Eyelet Cardi (which yes has been in my queue for ages and I've already bought a cotton blend for from Knitpicks) or her new one, Cutaway. I turned to my expert on all things Rowan for her opinion. First she heartily approved the yarn. Naturally :) Her advice as to which sweater? Cutaway, being a bit trendy, was good I could finish it this fall, otherwise go for the more classic Eyelet Cardi. Great advice I think. While it should be a quick knit, we all know how my attention wanders from project to project. I'm easily distracted by any new yarn that shakes its ballband at me, not to mention the various patterns and projects that a quick cruise around knitting blogland reveals. This is made worse that I'm a ring checker and have to look at a bunch of sites every week! Do you know what that does to my attention span? I try not to look at the stash, the pitifully ignored queue and the ever expanding WIPS.

The J&S one ply Cobweb arrived yesterday. Oh my goodness is that stuff fine. It really is amazing how small a 200+ yard skein of something that fine can be. I bought 8 skeins so I should have a decent amount to play with. I'll be ready for when the workshop starts this weekend. Yay. Oh sure, I really do need more to do.

I've been giving my little mp3 player a decent workout the last couple of days, especially since I ripped a couple of LP's. I do totally love my Creative Zen Micro and would definitely recommend it over the iPod. (which by the way, I'm still waiting to hear from the class action settlement board what they intend to do with my iPod that suffered the catastrophic battery failure). I usually leave the thing in random play mode and am always amused at the eclectic mix that you can wind up with. I left it playing when I got to the office as I needed to charge the battery up (last charge was Sunday.. good Zen) and could listen while it charged. Here's the playlist since I got in:

• I write the songs - Barry Manilow
• Janie's Got a Gun - Aerosmith
• Ready to Take a Chance Again - Barry Manilow
• Bad Moon Rising - CCR
• Waterloo - Abba
• Toreador Song - Pavarotti
• I am What I am - Gloria Gaynor
• Two Tear Drops = Steve Warner
• Fool in the Rain - Zep
• Whole Lotta Love - Zep
• Running with the Devil - Van Halen

It managed to find two of the three total Barry Manilow tunes on the drive out of the 260+ tracks. In my much younger days I was a huge fan and in a nostalgic mood, I got a hold of a favorite or two. The train ride had an even wider divergence of genres going from Guns N Roses to The Three Tenors to Aerosmith and then Yes. Variety is indeed the spice of life.

One final note, my mom informed me yesterday that my dad (who only works 3.5 days now) is taking off Monday instead of Friday (as normal) so that they can take the kids Friday night, freeing me up to date. Nice huh! I don't have to pay a babysitter. Sweet. Now I just had to make sure that the penciled in date with (B) would be in something other than pencil. Honestly, I wasn't sure as I hadn't really conversed with him either in email or on the phone since last week. I really did need to step back and see if he could as well. So he went from two to three phone calls + 2 emails a day to two calls since Saturday (though one was to my cell phone yesterday - bad bad bad) and an email, though he doesn't wait for me to reply before contacting again. Not great, but better. I just sent him a restaurant option (Japanese Steak House - yummy!) and we'll see how the self-proclaimed boring eater responds to that. I'm still feeling rather ambivalent on the whole thing with him, but I am excited to have lunch with (S) tomorrow! We're meeting at a Thai place near my office. Guess I'm in an Asian mood. Still, two dates in one day. Weeeeeee.

Craft on!

Good, Bad and the Geeky

I appreciate everyone's comment on my post yesterday.  I have to admit, I had a similar reaction when I walked in there.  After the initial shock of seeing cornstarch and powdery white kids, I fought the laughter myself.  Okay, like a good blogger, I did back out and close the door so I could get the camera.  You bet I'm going to print those pictures out and frame them.  They'll definitely be good blackmail pictures down the road.  I knew it could have been far worse than the never-ending vacuuming and you all provided the "worse".  There are still spots of "mesh" that I need to get back to as the twins keep wandering into those spots.   I bit the bullet and pulled the sides of the cribs off last night.  I installed Kathryn's toddler rail and used a regular bed-rail that collapses to half the length of the crib for Alex's bed.  While I knitted and listened to the baby monitor for them to go to sleep, a picture flashed by on my computer's screen saver mode.  It was this:

That was the day they came home from the hospital after a week in the NICU.  They shared that crib, side-by-side as above, for the first six months.  Now look at them:

I still can't get over the fact that they are going to be two years old soon.  TWO?!  They did very well in the bed last night.  Kat fell out once at around 10.  I walked in to find her standing next to the bed, crying.  She was more surprised than anything else and went back to bed pretty nicely.  Gasp, the next stage will be twin beds.  I'm in no rush, but will keep and eye on bed sales in the area.  This will do for a little while at least.

Now.. onto the knitting.  I have been doing some.  I need to clear some projects off the plate before the Shetland Lace Workshop starts over on the EZasPi list.  I ordered several skeins of the Jamieson & Smith 1ply Cobweb in Natural for the projects from a fellow lister Beth.  I can't wait to check out this cobweb and compare it to some of the very fine yarn I have hanging about the house thanks to the knitting machine days. 

I had a setback with Birchington this weekend.  Friday on the train home I started playing with the math for the next motif that I wanted to add to the border.  I was very close so I finished with the last repeat, did a few rows of solid stockinette and set about with the next.  Three rows into it I didn't like how it looked.  At all.  But when I changed patterns, I had 111 st each side, 444 per round and I needed to undo 3 rounds.  I don't have to know the final number there to know that I couldn't tink that much.  It was at this point that I regretted the decision to not use lifelines.  I've read how they've saved others but never got around to implementing them in my own knitting.  Now I wish I had.  I pulled the needle out, frogged the yarn and somehow managed to get all my stitches back on the needle.  An hour later.  Oy. 

Having the bad taste of Birchington and the frogpond, I decided to switch tracks.  I moved to the Girlfriend Swing Sweater for Kat in that lovely pink color of Jaeger Shetland Aran.  Having done a lot with fine gauge yarn recently, I'm tickled pink at how fast this is going.  I was an inch shy of the bind off at the bottom during my train ride this morning.  Going out on a limb, this should be definitely done in time for Rhinebeck.  But then again, I do have to add buttons and we all know how long that takes me to do.  At least there is no piecing to do.  That takes me almost as long as the buttons to accomplish.

Now for the geeky bits.  Get a gander at this:

That's my computer desk in the living room.  Nice flat panel monitor, very sleek and colorful Sony computer.  Ignore the clutter please, I might be a good knitter but I'm a lousy housekeeper.  Hmm that reminds me that my mom's friend wanted to know if she should check to see if her housekeeper had any available time.  Must make a note to call her.  Anyway... in between the computer and the pile of bags (yes knitting and roving if you must ask) you see a nice printer/copier/scanner combo that I'm very pleased with.  But the geeky bit (geekier than the second computer hiding in the lower right hand corner of the photo under all the bags) is the item sitting on top of the printer combo.  Want a closer look?  Now you might be asking what's so darn geeky about some seriously old technology as a turntable.  (If you've never had a turntable, please don't tell me, I don't need to feel older than I already am.)  The geeky bit is that this new, yes brand new, turntable is plugged into the line-in on my computer's sound card.  As these pictures were being snapped, my computer was busy converting the LP into a MP3 file. Yo how cool is that?  I still have old vinyl that I never converted to CD and as such, really can't listen to these days.   Yo yo.  Oh and yes, I'm still drinking TaB with no ill effects on the keppellah.  Yay me.

Nothing to report on the dating front.  I have a lunch date scheduled with (S) for Friday and probably dinner with (B) Friday night.  Rains but it pours right?  I haven't had a date since late June 1999 and now I have two on the same day to break the drought.  Figures.  (B) still shows signs of being a phone pest and as such is falling quickly from favor.   I take heart in all the comments you've left of how successful pairings have been made off the 'net.  Thank you!

Now to answer a bunch of emails...and get some work done ;)

Craft on!

Phoenicopterus minor

Project details:

Yarn: Opal Rainforest Flamingo
Pattern: My Own Basic over 44 Sts
Needles US2 - Metal DPNs

Started: 8/4/05
First sock finished: 8/5
Second started: 8/9
Second finished: 8/10

I do so love toddler socks.  I love casting on when I head for work one morning and finishing it heading home from work the next night.  How cool is that?  I'm still giggly over getting the stripes to just about match.  It is more than good enough for government work if you ask me!

I'm going to call it a night.  I got a bonus night without the short people.  My father volunteered to keep them overnight again this week.  Sweet.   I'll be back to working on Birchington tomorrow during my commute.   Eris isn't quite commuter friendly at the moment.  Though....  I do have to carry a decent sized shopping bag to the office tomorrow to bring in the new keyboard that I bought for myself.  I've been getting hand and/or wrist pain from the various flavors of keyboards that the helpdesk has offered up.  I had had a great keyboard, but seem to remember losing that one when I got the new computer.  Goofy me forgot all about my tactile preferences when it comes to keyboards.  Heck, I liked the old one so much, I bought the same model off eBay for home usage.  (Typing on that bad boy now.)  So what did I do?  Bought another one off eBay for the office.  Nah, the charts and complicated cabling are not train friendly.  Birchington it is until I finish Eris' collar.  Wow, only two projects on the needles.  Amazing! 

Craft on!

Relief

I sat in horror watching the television reports that terrible February day.  I'm sure it comes as no surprise that this acknowledged and outted Trekker was very happy to see the shuttle program resume.  Space is a dangerous workplace but the exploration is a calling.  I cheered as Discovery escaped the planet once again.  I wanted to wait for the full celebration until her safe return.  I tell you there was a victory pump, a lump in my throat, and tears in my eyes as she touched down.  Safely.  Welcome home Discovery.

I had a bit of a snafu at the daycare center this morning.  The teacher who was supposed to open at 7:30 completely forgot about it.  I arrived at 7:55 to find a crowd of parents outside with their kids.  Lots of phone calls and folks driving about, I was able to head for work at 8:20, only 15 minutes late.  Late enough to miss the train though.  I opted for the 8:32 bus rather than waiting around for the 9:08 train as I wouldn't get to work quite as late.  Besides, while the bus isn't my first choice, in a pinch it does offer up bonus knitting time, especially if traffic was bad. I cast on the second sock for Kat this morning.  Unlike my pair, I actually tried to start the yarn in about the same place.  Instead of 4 rows off for mine, I'm off by stitches, if that.  Take a good gander in the photo.  Cruddy colors.  Mea culpa.  I'll explain that a bit later.  By the time I got the office, I was two rounds short of the heel flap.  I turned the heel on the train tonight.

My office has/will install web monitoring software.  They've also set a computer usage policy.  Sigh.  What that boils down to is less fun internet time at the office.  I doubt that I'm going to be posting every night, unless of course, I can figure out the posting by email thing.  I could always add photos later.  Not like I always post a photo either.  Email response is going to be even spottier than it already is. (My apologies to anyone expecting an email from me now.  I had a deadline today to make and I spent last night rearranging kitchen cabinets as the new melmac has been arriving.)  Seriously, the last thing I want to do after spending a day in front of the computer is to come home and do it again at night.  I also won't get to read as many blogs as I currently do.  Surfing is not exactly productive.  I'm sure there will be some understanding that a break is needed every now and again.  If not, I'll take up smoking again and take advantage of the breaks that offered!  Yeah, not likely.  I've made it 4.5 years, I'm not starting again... though I could in a heartbeat.  Now might be the time to train myself to do away with the sleeping thing.  Yeah.  Think of how much more I could accomplish if I gained back those 7 hours! All good things.. right?

Craft on.

[Edited to add....]

How could I forget about this?  Elaine and I are co-hosting an Eris KAL.  Elaine did a fabulous job setting up a forum much the same as the Rogue KAL.  It is here.  Read her equally fabulous posting about the KAL on her blog today, here.  Go read it.  Now, go join the forum and the KAL :)

Deja Vu

What's this?  Have I lost my mind and because of a lack of stuff to photograph, I'm posting an old photo again? 

I started socks for the little monkey girl last night on the train home.  I started reducing for the toe on the PATH train ride in this morning.  Whoa.  Talk about instant gratification in the knitting world!  I love socks for their quickness.  I totally adore toddler socks!  I'm not using any particular pattern beyond my basic one with some math done to scale down for the short blocky monkey feet.  Since I'm pretty much winging it, I have been making notes so I can duplicate it for the second sock. 

While Wednesday night I was on the insomnia side of the weird walking coin, last night I couldn't stay awake.  I tried.  Hard.  I found myself dozing off on the couch and didn't have any energy for the SSSBG.  I plan on finishing that this weekend.  I want to get it wrapped and in its recipients hands next week.  This super secret stuff is killing me! 

Other than finishing the thing, I really have no plans this weekend.  Though while I'm finishing things, I should really just finish Trellis once and for all.  The poor thing has bee languishing seemingly forever!  Hopefully the weather man has it right and this stiffly HHH nastiness that has been lingering will move on by tonight.  I'll probably fill up the twins pool on the front lawn and let them go to it.  My parents took Alexander for a haircut yesterday.  What a huge difference a few minutes with scissors makes.  He looks like such a big boy after a haircut.  We won't get into how shaggy he'd been looking before the cut.  Hell its been some 4 months, or maybe more, since my last trim.  I've had to cancel the last two appointments due to some injury the day before.  I'm scared to make another one! 

I've been doing some thinking about the sweaters that I've lined up on the queue and the yarns that I've purchased for them.  I've come to the decision that Rogue is going back into the "someday" pile.  I'm going to do Eris first in the Araucania Natural Wool.  I've had ChicKnits LoTech Sweat on the queue since I finished Ribby.  I could use either the Patons Classic Merino I bought way back or the Wool of the Andes.  I don't think I'll have that many needs for a hoodie that I really need to make two of them, but you don't know.  Hmm.. I wonder if I could just put Rogue through a pattern shrinker and make it for Kat-Kat instead.  (Kat-Kat is what me and the rest of the crowd, including her brother, call the monkey girl.  It was only a matter of time before I started typing it.)  That might be a challenge I could take up. I like the cable patterns and Kat-Kat needs a new fall sweater so maybe that should ook its way to the top of the queue.  I have that pretty bright fuschia Jaeger Shetland Aran for sweater.  Its the right guage.  By George, I think it could work!  It also fills my burning need right now to knit with wool.  Ahh wool. 

Thanks to its being non-wool, that Soleil in the bamboo yarn is going to be no more.  I'm not enamored with it.  Will it go into dormancy along with the Big Sack Sweater?  Probably.  Until something else demands I use that yarn for it. Maybe back to the FBS that I pegged it for until that butterscotch yarn turned my head. I'm willing to call that Summer Ribby in the CottonEase a forever UFO.  Talk about languishing!  I can't remember the last time I worked on it.  I do know I swiped its needles for other projects:  one for Trellis and the other for SSSBG.  I have to admit, I'm not liking the CottonEase so much.  I don't like its very splitty ways.  If I ever get around to doing a summer ribby in a cotton blend, I'll get a new yarn for it.  I'll inventory my stock of CE and put in in the Looking for a Home album (hopefully this weekend) and will post when its there.

I'm out of the office at 1 today.  I'll have 3 hours to myself before I have to pick the monkeys up at daycare.  Oh what to do with myself?  Shop?  Excellent idea.  'Cept the ankle isn't thrilled with lots of walking.  I know, I can finally do all that post office stuf that I've been meaning to do for ages.  Speaking of which, that Sockotta is winging its way off to Rosemary in a trade for some of her extremely lovely looking Merino-Tencel blend sock yarn.  Yay!  Everyone have a good weekend.  Stay cool in the Northern Hemisphere, stay warm in the Southern ;)

Craft on!

Multitasking

Thanks to everyone for their comments regarding my horrible headache.  Unfortunately it has been a multi-day affair.  It was so bad yesterday that after taking the twins to daycare, I came home, took some painkillers and curled up on the couch.  While still a dull throb, it is much better today.  While there was a point in my life where I had a headache every day, and let me tell you that was absolutely no fun, I can mostly function with them.  While I was pregnant, they disappeared.  Thank goodness as being pregnant I was limited in what I could take.  It seems that my respite from a regular headache seems to be ending though.  I've seen many a doctor about the problem and have just come to accept them.  They aren't debilitating enough that I want to take a regular medication for them as the last neurologist prescribed.  No thanks.

On the good side, lazing around with no short people about did give me some knitting time.  While you've seen me flit from one project to another, I've had multiple starts and stops on the secret gift project for Marina that have occurred behind the scenes.   I've finally struck on the right project and have actually been making some decent headway on it.  Since time isn't standing still on this and well there is pretty much a deadline, I've set a quota for daily production that will have the knitting finished within 14 days.  Finally assembly and end hiding will add another day or so.  I'm using the same yarn that was purchased for the previous iterations so there's been no affect on stash.  Laying on the couch, I was able to do two days worth of quota knitting.  My hands were a bit tingly by the time I was finished so I moved on to another project..

I finally knit the collar for Trellis.  I did make one pattern modification to this.  Instead of knitting the collar and then sewing to the neck edge after grafting the second side, I attached as I went.  I picked up one stitch every other row until the 11 in the pattern and then subsequent rows, I would slip that last stitch, pick up one and then pass the slipped stitch over.  I continued to the middle back, put those stitches back on the holder and did the second side to the same spot.  Then I kitchnered the two together.  Done.  No sewing.  Yay.  It lays nice and flat and is a far neater seam-line than my sewing would have made for.  Now I just have to sew the sleeves and side seams.  I've picked out buttons from the collection and will be able to call this little guy done soon.  It will then be winging its way off to New Orleans for my impending nephew.

Having gotten tired of working with cottons, I pulled out Birchington and finished another pattern repeat.  I'm getting very close to the point where I'll turn around and start reducing for the second half of the square.  Birch has some 299 stitches at its widest, I figure that around the 150 mark would be a good spot.  I don't want what Elaine calls Shawzilla at the end of it.  I ain't that big.  At last count, I had 119 stitches, so 3 more repeats and I'll be there.  I got the shipping notification that my order from WEBS left yesterday so I expect to have that soon.  I wouldn't think that UPS ground takes all that long from Mass to NJ.  I wouldn't be surprised to see it tomorrow.   In the meantime, I switched from the Addi Turbos to some Clover bamboos that I had about the house.  The knitting is easier and I'm not picking up stitches that have accidentally slid off, but I'm having more issues in pushing the stitches onto the needle.  Hopefully the ebony ones will be the answer.  Still looking for the perfect needles.  Aren't we all though.

Craft on.

Nearly Done

As predicted, I finished the second sleeve for Trellis last night. I just did it earlier than I expected.  I managed to finish it within 5 minutes of my train leaving Hoboken.  Its for trips like that that I carry multiple things to keep me busy.  I confused my commuting buddy who didn't exactly pay attention as I put away one project and pulled out another.  He just noticed that all of a sudden I wasn't knitting with blue yarn anymore.  There is a striking visual difference between Birch and Trellis so he only gets half points for noticing.  I wanted to block the pieces before I completed assembly on Trellis and knitting the shawl collar.  I'll hopefully do that this weekend.

This meant though that I needed a new train project.  Like Birch and the socks, not to mention the poor languishing summer Ribby and Stonington, couldn't be train projects in their own rights, something made me start this.  I'm not going to tell what it is, nor what yarn I'm using.  I'm hoping someone could guess.  I didn't go out and buy any yarn recently that I haven't blogged about, but it was a blogged SEX.  Bonus points for correct project and yarn.  Hmm.. should make this interesting and offer up prizes.  How's this, one ounce of prime angora fiber from my own dear Yeti for first correct project and 5 handmade by me stitch markers for the correct yarn.  Here's Baron showing the new project last night and a slightly blurry picture from the train ride in this morning.  Leave your guesses in the comments to this post or send me an email to crazyfiberladyATgmailDOTcom.

Notice Baron's dark face mask has gotten darker and larger than the last shot.  I did take the picture last night without the flash so you could see his eye color rather than the spooky cat eyes.  He's a goofy guy.

When does yarn get to be considered "stash"?  How long does it have to sit around unknit to be labeled this rather than just an advance purchase for a project?  Any thoughts?

This weekend is supposed to be H-O-T with temps in the 90's again so the monkeys and I will be taking advantage of the community pool with hopefully the mother's helper to keep us company and sane.  Which reminds me, I better call her and see if she's available this weekend.  Have a great weekend all,

Craft on.

Now for something completely different

In order to dress up my Birkenstock Arizonas yesterday, now that wool sock season is temporarily over, I did this:

Polishing nails is something I don't do all that often.  Last time I remember polishing my fingernails was the day I went into labor with the twins.  I had this compulsion that day that my nails just HAD to be polished and I just fixated on that.  I'm pretty sure I had mom polish my toenails that day too, no way in heck I could get to them.  Memory is a bit fuzzy as to some details of that day ;)  If not, I can't remember the last time I did my toenails.  Anyway, it was a great suggestion by a coworker to take five minutes and do it.  Gave me a great excuse to park on the couch and knit.

As you can see, I'm well past the halfway point on the second sleeve for Trellis as a result of my forced "idleness".  As of this morning's commute, I am in the home stretch.  I'll finish the second sleeve today.  I want this sweater done ASAP as there was a nice package in the mailbox last night when I got home.  My Coffee Bean Calmer arrived!  I have to say, I do like the brown very much.  It matches nicely one of the skirts I bought last weekend.  Brown would also be one of those colors that I could wear season after season after season without worry.  I like the classics.  Now I just need to find a nice pair of brown shoes.

I overslept this morning.  I just couldn't get up.  I had some of the weirdest dreams too.  Guess the fumes from the nailpolish got to me.  I dreamt that my ex-husband came over, we were chatting, and then while I was in the shower, he destroyed my bed.  A while later I discovered this as I tried to call it a night.  I got pissed, naturally, and he showed up with an Uzi.  He shot a bunch of people, including my boyfriend (of which I have none) and I "woke up".  Cut to his now threatening me and bashing my car against the retaining wall on my parents driveway, about to pull out his Uzi again.  I took advantage of the car abuse to call 911 and they took him away before the bloodshed.  Again, I "woke up".  Cut to my explaining the double dream to someone and we then went to the holodeck on Voyager for a party.  It was then that I really woke up as the alarm clock got a little insistent.  A little weirded out I might add.  Why after being divorced for 5 years am I dreaming about the dude.  I've had no contact with him since March of 2000.  I did remove his old clothes from the hall closet during the closet fiasco and dumped them in one of those bins last weekend.  That shouldn't be enough to see him as a nut with a gun now though.  Just odd.  Not to mention the various repeats with variations that the theme went through and the layering in of Star Trek.  I'm surprised there was no knitting at all!  Though now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I was knitting during the chatting in the first layer.

I love those dreams in a dream in a dream.  During the early days of my being back at the office after maternity leave, I spent a lot of time during the wee hours rocking Alexander in the nursery.  He wasn't very good at going to sleep on his own, a problem I didn't rectify until he was 9 months old, so I rocked him.  One night I must have been really tired and dreamed that I had fallen asleep in the rocking chair and was there dreaming about sleeping in my bed.  Which is where I really was.  I was surprised when I did wake up in my bed. Nuts. 

Now that I've completely digressed, I think I'll close here.

Craft on.

Balance

So as to not turn this into the All Birch All The Time channel, as well as having to get some of the other projects done, I did work on other things, while finishing the first repeat of Birchy goodness.  I'm pretty sure I blew something in one of the patterning rows early on but refuse to tink it.  I can now read the lace pattern, even if it isn't looking like some others at present.  Cassie did help greatly in supplying a link to a chart.  Woo!  Thanks Cassie!  I know there are others who would love to knit Birch but are put off by the cost of the pattern book and/or the yarn.  I'm still hoping to find something in the Rowan issue other than Birch that I can knit because Rowan #34 isn't cheap.  There is available a pattern on the internet, Kiri, put together by another blogger based on Birch but worked from the tip up rather than the long edge down.  It is far less daunting to cast on 3 stitches rather than 299.  While the Kidsilk Haze is just dreamy, it is a tad expensive.  I know that Jannette is selling a cheaper alternative to the Rowan:  Plassard PICHENETTE Kid Mohair but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more.

Yes yes, it still is reading like a Birch lovefest, I promise, I'm moving on right now.  To this:

I finished the first sleeve for Trellis last night.  Here it is reclining on the lovely train seat this morning.  A bit overcast today so no benefit of sunshine.  Add sunshine and this blue yarn looks lilac.  Freaky.  You can see the two finished front pieces nicely attached at the shoulders to the back.  Nice.  The stitch holders are hanging onto the front band stitches for working the shawl collar.  I read ahead and on the good side, I get to knit a strip 11 or so stitches wide.  Yay.  Then I can graft them together in the back.  Not so bad.  Then I can sew the whole works to the body.  Ick.  Oh well.  The light at the end of the tunnel is indeed visible.  I should have this little beastie done shortly.  Oh no.  Buttons.  Sigh.  Good thing the baby isn't due until September.  We all know how long it took to sew on Alex's buttons ;)

Need more caffeine, oh and to make a mental note to pick up coffee.  I used the last of my beans this morning.  I can't begin to imagine how horrible tomorrow morning would be without coffee.

I stopped in the hardware store this morning on my way to the office and picked up some tiny black rubber O-rings.  The nice man gave me a funny look as he pulled out his box of O-rings.  I found a bunch that fit my size 7 needles with room to spare and took 20 (well actually 21 and he threw one in as a bonus in case I counted badly).  For $.10 a piece I have some fab new stitch markers. 

Craft on.

To Birch or Not To Birch...

There is no question.  To Birch!  After dinner I went home fully planning to do some work around the house.  When I got to the mailbox and pulled out the small grey airmail bag from the UK all thoughts of laundry, vacuuming and addressing my flylady hot spot went right out of my head.  I got the twins down and went about Birching.  Resistance if futile you know.  I quickly pulled out the pattern book that arrived last week and photocopied the pattern page.  A needle hunt was then commenced.  I saw Stephanie's post yesterday on her beautifully completed Birch and noted that she used the 4.5 mm needles.  The pattern was specifying 5mm or a US8.  Having spent Sunday fighting with my only free set of 8's and disliking intensely the new Balene II's, I figured if it was good for Stephanie, it was pretty darn okay for me.  I had two free sets of Addi Turbos in the 4.5mm and thought that a good omen.  I stayed up far later than I should have and made it through the first 4 rows of Birchy goodness.

Here's Birch reclining on my desk chair a few moments ago.  I won't be going anywhere without Birch for the foreseeable future and even changed purses so I could carry it safely with me.  Always.  I don't think I can truly express my pure joy at the yarn. OH. MY. GOD.  I. LOVE. IT.  There is something almost orgasmic to working with the Kidsilk Haze.  It is purely divine.  The color?!  Gorgeous.  I can see glints of the silk peering out between the fuzzy delight of the mohair.  I could just plotz.

Other projects?  I have other projects?  Oh yeah, I do.  I'm an inch short of finishing the first sleeve for Trellis.  Yay.  It seems my gauge is off a tad but heck, its a baby sweater, big is good, right?  Fits longer that way.  Longer sleeves are just excellent right?  I vaguely remember the sleeves getting too short before the body got too small as the twins outgrew clothes.  I'm not that far off, just a smidge.  No one will notice.

I'm still chugging along on the silly sock.  I added a couple of rows this morning on the train as it was a bit crowded to pull out anything larger.  I find knitting socks to be ideal for knitting while crammed into a four-seater at the end of the car.  The PATH train was a tad more spacious and while I wanted to dive into the sweet pool of birch, I knew I'd miss my stop if I did.  I worked on Trellis instead.  I'm proud of me too. 

Birch.  Birch.  Birch....

Craft on.

Weekend Update

Friday afternoon I had lunch and as expected, yarn shopping at Purl, with Cassie.  I had a blast!  Nice to see eye to eye with someone :)  Though there seems to be a number of us petite knitter/spinner/bloggers.  While there was no knitting, there was lots of talk of it.  I lost all track of time and wound up getting back to the office pretty late.  Good thing my parents weren't taking off to the boat early on Friday as I would have then had to leave at 4 to pick the monkeys up at daycare.  Unfortunately there are no pictures of this minor confluence of bloggers as I forgot I had my camera until I got back to the office. 
Naturally while the primary reason of the outing was to meet Cassie, and what better place to meet than a yarn store, I couldn't leave empty handed!  Upper left is two skeins of Lorna's Shepherd Sock in Poppy.  I think they'll be perfect for the lace pattern that the variegated Twinkletoes failed at. 

In the upper right are two skeins of Louet Sales Gems Opal yarn in Terra Cotta.  These are bookmarked for the Aran Sandal Socks out of Socksx3 or the aran socks that were in the Fall'04 IK. Lastly are three skeins of Rowan Wool Cotton in 951 Tender.  It is earmarked for the baby jacket in the Summer '05 IK.  All three are yarns that I've never used before but have wanted to for a while.  Unfortunately, as I look at the yarn cabinet, you remember the nice Kampe shelves that I got from Ikea in December that looked so roomy.  I'm not showing any pictures of it now, especially the packs of yarn that live on top of it.

While lots of folk enjoyed the Webs Tent sale this weekend, the twisted part of my mind wanted to schlep there and take advantage of the sale.  Okay that would be a bit far for a day trip, though I have done it in the past.  But that was before the babies.  Not to mention, NEXT weekend is the Cummington festival.  Okay, I bought yarn on Friday as well and of course I just commented how the cabinet is overflowing.  While on my way home from Oakland where I picked up the groceries I ordered online Friday night (I still giggle in excitement in that ability - hell I was knitting my sock while I waited for my groceries to be brought out to the car, how cool is that?) my shoddy memory recalled that Deb's LYS was going out of business and having a sale.  I couldn't remember when they were actually closing down for good, nor really what the name of the store was.  I did know the town where it was and that they carried Rowan.  So while the twins took their nap after we got home, I did some blog reading, email archive consultation and googling and came up with a possibility.  A call to that store proved my investigative skills to be on point for a change.  A little mapquest work and we were ready to go.  Well not really, the twins were still napping.  I figured a 25 minute drive or so was far more reasonable than going to Webs.  Right?  I thought so. 

Anyway, a nice trip to the store, some coffee at the local Starbucks, some snacks for the monkeys, I returned somewhat cash poorer and yarn rich.  I also picked up some nice new knitting hardware to go with the cushy software.  All at 30% off and a good thing we went as this weekend was going to be their last weekend. ( Deb, I thought I had your number in the car or I would have called you!  Sorry! ) 

I got a set of size 7 DPN's.  I could swear I have some, but just can't find them.  Must be stuck in a project someplace that I don't remember, or better yet, in the basket of gadgets and extras next to my computer.  I also got a set of those row markers, which will come in handy for a variety of projects so I can just mark a row and not have to count the whole darn thing again.  Also is a 32" 7US Addi Turbo to be used for the next pi shawl, which will more than likely be the Shetland Pi in the KAL as I surprising found I had shetland wool in a gorgeous red in stash.  Okay I have 2+ POUNDS of laceweight....why?  Glad you asked.  I bought it as my first yarn purchase after getting a knitting machine and I actually remember working a dress from it.  I also remember frogging it.  I swatched while the twins slept and I waited for the yarn road trip and found with a size 7 it will be perfect. 

Sweet.  Stash yarn.  Means I can buy more.  Right.  Good.  Cause I did. Three full packs of Rowan All Seasons Cotton.  The colors are 182 Bleached, 199 Ravish and 216 Citron.  I love the feel of the yarn.  It is so soft, cushy and flows so nicely while knitting.  Damn shame its so expensive.  Though if I am admitting to the weekend SEX, I have to admit to purchasing two more packs of this stuff off eBay in discontinued colorways:  Orkney (yellow gold) and Slick (charcoal grey).  Nancy was absolutely right in predicting the yarn was in my future.  I wonder how much of it she saw?

I've already started using it.  And the pattern that Nancy pointed out to me, Trellis from Knitty.  I'm using the Rowan in Ravish.  It's a very pretty color.  In some lights it reads very blue, like the photograph above.  In others it has a lilac feel and sometimes periwinkle.  I'm very much enjoying it.  The blending, 60/40 Cotton/Acrylic is just wonderful, far better than the same percentage pairing that Lion Brand is discontinuing (big mistake -- keep that frou-frou stuff, I'll go for the basic yarns) and just so pleasant to work with, even for a wool snob.  I also have to admit, this is my first cabled sweater pattern, and my fourth cable pattern overall.  Ever.  And I've been knitting for 30 years.  Whoa.  Far longer than I care to admit.  Anyway.  Hatmione, Cable Rib Socks and the long stalled Irish Hiking Scarf are my only cabled projects to date.  Until now. 

Behold:

Trellis.  The back.  Completed.  Worked on Saturday night and Sunday morning while the twins slept (@4 hours total) and finished Sunday evening with an additional hour.  I LOVE IT.  Cables rocks.  Notice I opted to put the shoulder stitches on holders (also purchased at the going out of business sale) and will graft the fronts to the back when the time comes.  I'm probably going to join as I finish the pieces rather than waiting to do it all later.  Less of an assembly process and more a part of the whole this way.  I've pretty much got the chart memorized and have to only glance at it time to time.  I can't believe how quickly I was able to whip this out.  I still haven't decided which impending bouncing baby this is going to be for (NYC or NOLA) but the color would would for either.   Heck, I have enough yarn (back only took a little over 1 skein) I can make the same color for both. 

While I wrote most of this posting Sunday night before bed and planned to write more this morning, an antihistamine/decongestant has left me very very fuzzy today.  Not to mention that it is now 11:17AM and I just got my computer back.  I came in this morning to find a bunch of wires where my computer had been sitting.  I went trotting off to the helpdesk and found that the weekend Norton deep scan had triggered a virus alert.  After researching, it turns out that a zip file that I've had (on many machines now) had files within that were infected.  Nice.  They removed it and just brought it back.  What did I do for the 2 hours I sat here as a computer programmer without a computer?  Knit.  Well knit and read a full chapter Programming Microsoft .NET.  Fun huh?   I wish I could blink at least.

Clickety Click

For a process knitter who hates the artificial pressure of knitting for others, I set myself a deadline for the Ribby Shell and then had the audacity to move it.  Closer.  Now I do better with deadlines at work.  Seriously.  I like deadlines.  Now this doesn't mean that I'm going to finish something way ahead of the deadline so I can coast into it.  No way.  That wouldn't be fun.  Not this former Queen of the All Nighter.  Does this mean I'm going to knit until my fingers cramp just to get Ribby Shell done tonight so that I can return one stinkin' skein of Rowan Handknit Cotton in Flame tomorrow?  Rest easy Cassie, no.  I finished it last night.  Woo hoo!  I still have to work in the ends and sew up the shoulders, but the knitting piece is D.O.N.E.  While I can't find my receipt, I hope Purl will take the skein in exchange.  Not sure for what, but I'm pretty confident that I can find something.  I'd seriously doubt that it would be for more 100% cotton.  Maybe the All Seasons Cotton. 

Nancy was kind enough to forward this link over from the  Knitty.  The smallest size calls for 4 skeins of the All Seasons Cotton.  I do have two upcoming babies (not mine!) to knit for and I'm tempted to make this for one rather than a blanket.  It would also give me cable practice before I was sick enough to take on an adult sized one for myself.  I do think this sweater in a 6 month size would be good for my cousin's pea in the pod.  She's due in September and lives in New Orleans.  This would probably be good for the less than totally chilly winter that they get.  Though blankets have a longer lifespan.  Not to mention, cabling in cotton?  Should I just have myself committed now?

I'm really progressing nicely on the F&F socks.  I started the toe on the PATH this morning.  I should have it finished  by the end of my commuting today. 

Non-knitting content

Speaking of commuting, I've modified the whole thing.  I had been taking the Bergen Line of NJ Transit from home to Secaucus, where I then transfer ed to a Penn Station NY bound train.  At Penn I would either take the subway to the office or in a fit of extreme energy I could walk to the building.  Going home just meant reversing the process.  Now when it worked it worked very well and I could get from my parking spot to my desk in just about an hour. However, it doesn't work very well very often.  The trains heading to Penn Station are never on time and are generally packed.  I find myself standing on the platform waiting and waiting and waiting.  When the train finally shows up, most days you need a shoehorn to wedge yourself in.  Certainly not conducive to good knitting time.  Now you also need to consider that all this transferring means a lot of short little hops.  12 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 2 stops on the subway.  Bleh.  More time walking and waiting than actually riding and knitting.  Granted I've still managed to be pretty productive, but all that moving about does reduce the knitting time.  The train alternative is to skip transferring at Secaucus, take the Bergen Line all the way to Hoboken and then take the PATH train to 14th Street.  Works nice and was my commute for years and years prior to the opening of Secaucus last year.  However, it does involve a two avenue schlep from the station to the office.  Okay, tis shorter than the schlep from Penn Station to the office, but lets be honest, I didn't walk it all that often.  It also takes a little longer and makes for more of a 1hr 10 min commute car to desk.  Not too terrible considering I've had a seat, transfer ed only once and have been knitting almost the whole time.  However, I get home later as I can't catch the early train home without leaving the office conspicuously early.  Now Hoboken works for coming in and Penn method works for going home.  Hoboken is cheaper than the Penn.  PATH is cheaper than the subway.  So what's a girl to do?  Hoboken in.  Penn out.  Keep the monthly pass as is for the more expensive leg and keep my options open. Difference isn't all the much but I could crunch the numbers and find a cheaper way to do it. I'll see how it goes.

In the "You don't see that everyday" category, get this.  Go.  I'll wait.  I was one of those pedestrians on 14th street on my way to the office.  I saw (and heard) those two beautiful white horses trotting up 14th street towards the park, hooves clapping the pavement, harness chains jingling.  It stopped me dead in my tracks.  I thought I'd seen it all in this city.  New York.  Gotta love it.

Knit on.

Finishing Fever

Now that the siren call of MDS$W has been answered, we can now return to the regularly scheduled blogging content.  Okay so I have a ton of things to do tonight and seriously doubt that I'll be able to do any crafty things, I can leave you with this:

Alex's hoodie is done but for the buttons.  I ordered a bunch of cute ones off eBay and they should be here shortly.  It took just under 3 skeins of the Jaeger Shetland Aran.  I used the pattern located here, with some modifications.  The hood is from a very 70's pattern that my mom gave me that too was modified.  Kathryn's version will be a heavily modified version as I probably blogged about recently.  I didn't like the sleeve construction so hers will be picked up and knit down to the cuff.  Instead of the half-arsed set-in sleeves, she's going to get a drop shoulder.  I'll more than likely do a 3 needle bind off for the shoulder as well.  While I didn't like the actual construction of the sweater, being a toddler sweater it was thankfully quick.  I'll start Kat's shortly, probably after my Ribby Shell is done. 

This morning on the train I read instead of knitted and finished this:

It was a fast and enjoyable read. This is the first book I've read by the author and I'll probably be getting more from her. I love a good detective yarn. Yarn? Did someone say yarn? Oh yeah, I did :) Back to the book, this one was a good one that kept me entertained on the train when knitting wouldn't do, or gasp, I didn't feel like it. Even better, this was a freebie book that I picked up off the giveaway shelf at the office. One of the perks of the job location, free books. A goodly number of those free books are uncorrected page proofs or advance reader's editions, but every now and again a real gem turns up. This one was happily one of the gems. I hope the next in the queue is as good.

I think I might have a case of startitis as I have indeed started a new knitting project.  Like I didn't have enough on the needles or in the queue.  I started one of these cute little Baby Bobbi Bears.  Thanks to some evil generous fellow knitter on one of the mailing lists I read, I found the yarn at a substantial savings online (sorry the sale is still going on for $5/skein :).  I shared the info with Marina and the two of us cast on for this on Tuesday at lunch.  We're both using the Blue Sky Alpacas sportweight yarn held doubled in the natural streaky brown color.  I finished the first section yesterday at lunch and will proceed further during Knit Club today. 

I really need to put together a list of all the things I need to bring along this weekend.  The Pi group is getting together so I'll be bringing my shawl for the group picture. If its cool I might just wear it and help others pick my petiteness out of the crowd.  I have a ton of stuff the kids will need.  I also have to decide what to bring to keep me entertained.  I think I'll bring my Journey Wheel along for sampling fiber purchases Saturday night after the twins go to sleep.  This is provided I don't feel like collapsing right along with them.  Though while I don't have a specific fiber on the list to buy, nor a list to buy, I'm sure I'll want to sample some new fiber!  Now that I think about it, some rainbow dyed something for socks would be nice.  Hmm, maybe some bamboo fiber so I can try spinning it myself!  I do need a new driveband for my Lendrum as the little monster that is Baron Belgarath gnawed through the existing one.  I would like a Woolee Winder for that wheel.  I guess I do have a wish list afterall :) 

I might pack Stonington or my Twinkletoes sock for knitting fun.  Yes, the Twinkletoes socks are back in semi-active pile even if they did completely fall off the blog.  I had been toting them around in my bag until the cable rib socks took their place.  The CRS even took the TS place in the sidebar.  I had even pulled the needles from the socks about a week ago, ready to proclaim the 3/4 finished sock dead.  Oddly, while making dinner Sunday night, I reinserted the needles and went right back to working on them.  Strange I know.  But then again, I am crazy.  It still is a simple 2x2 rib in this pretty handpainted yarn.  Having seen Cassie's sock in the handpainted, I'm seriously tempted again to rip it out.  Maybe I'll just leave them home afterall.  I guess Stonington gets packed!

Nancy posted recently about her HandpaintedYarn.com laceweight yarn that she bought (and got a double bonus of!).  She asked how I liked it.  I happen to like it very much.  I've been using the Bergamota colorway for my Stonington and I really do like the subtle color shifts that are in this colorway.  The others that I have aren't quite as subtle and would definitely have a different effect.  I'm very pleased at the feel and the texture of it.  I've knitted a bit with singles, both commercial and my own homespun and this yarn is very similar.  So far it is standing up nicely to my knitting and I haven't noticed any great variation in diameter, though there is some minor fluctuations.  It is definitely pleasant to work with.  My choice of Addi Turbos as the needles for Stonington have made for a slippery slick experience, but I don't have any trouble getting the tips through the stick and no troubles other than general coordination.  Tis a good thing I like the yarn, I do have a load of it!  I am planning another pi, be it a simple one or a spiral shawl out of one of the other colorways.

So much fiber, so little time.

Knit on.

More Than a Paperweight

I found something this week that made this geek very happy.  I truly dislike going to the grocery store.  I've never really liked it.  Since the kids arrived, I've taken a stronger dislike to it.  At first it was because it was almost impossible to take twin infants to the store alone.  The carts are not set up for two of them.  I would have to plead with someone to watch the twins or to come along with me. If I couldn't get someone, which was most of the time, I would put Kat in the snuggly/mayan wrap (depending on which one I preferred at the moment) and Alex would sit in the built in baby seat.  Made for a somewhat difficult grocery experience with Kat hanging there front and center.  I could use the stroller, but was very limited in what I could buy.  There was just no ideal solution.  Now that they can finally sit in the cooler carts for kids, they have grabby little hands, especially in the checkout aisle. Not to mention the meltdowns that make me want to abandon the cart ;)

So what made me so happy?  I got my hair cut on Saturday (trim only, I'm letting this mistake of a short cut grow in) and I had to bring the monkeys with me.  My hairdresser has two as well, her youngest is 6 months older than the twins.  Well she tipped me off to something oh so cool.  Shoprite.  Now I've been an A&P girl for years, but I did get a Shoprite card last week after being impressed by one of their newer stores.  What had me smiling ear to ear?  Shoprite.com!  Online Ordering.  That's right.  You can order groceries online.  Okay folk who have had PeaPod, FreshDirect and a host of other grocery buying online for years, I have not had that luxury.  I just live in the wrong place for it.  My sister in central Jersey has had it, but not me in the northern part of the state.  While I can't have it delivered as I don't live close enough to the participating store, I can still order it online and then go pick it up!!!  Yes!!  Frickin A Cool.  Hell its worth the $10 "delivery fee" and 13 mile drive.  Oh yes indeedy it is.  It also stops that impulse buying that we all face while in the store.  I got what I needed and only what I needed.  I shopped after the twins went to bed and picked up the stuff after breakfast.  I never even had to leave the car.  They brought the stuff out to me and even loaded it in the back for me.  Sweet.  No antsy twins and Kat even took a nap on the way home.  Heck if I put the DVD player in the car and left Barney on for them they'd probably start asking to go grocery shopping!  Round trip was still less than what I'd spend in the store backtracking for Kat's blankie, for the items I forgot, looking for Alex's binkie and just putting things back on the shelves that the little hands grabbed.  I'm convinced.  Technology is my friend.

Since I saved time on the grocery shopping, I was able to pick up crafting time! Double sweet. After finishing the second sleeve for A's sweater, I steam blocked the pieces and sewed them together.  As an aside, I am not using this pattern unmodified for Kat's sweater.  Stupid construction.   A half-assed set in sleeve where the body has an inset but the sleeve is boxy and without.  Blech.  I'm going to three needle bind off the shoulders and just pick up the sleeve and knit them onto the body.  Nothing is gained in the current horrible version and I just don't like it.  I did the button bands yesterday.  Then using an ancient pattern I got from mom as a model, I picked up stitches for the hood from the neckline.  Again, I'm modifying that pattern as it has a hem casing for a drawstring that I'd rather avoid.  I'm doing a 4 stitch garter edge and I like how it looks.  I'm considering picking up stitches on the edge of the hood and attaching an i-cord to it, but I haven't decided.  After it was sewed together, I tried it on the boy and it fits a bit large.  Good, maybe he'll get some good wearing out of it :)  I'm going to have a lot of yarn left over as I only used 3 skeins out of the 10 pack.  I really do like the yarn and it is so nice to work with after spending time with the Rowan cotton. 

I did do another two inches or so on my Ribby Shell.  I would do more, but my hands get so tired working with it.  It might be a combination of the yarn and the Addi Turbo needles, but whine whine whine, its slow going.  If the Denise tips in the right size weren't in use on some other WIP (probably summer ribby) and that I'd wind up with a line where the change occurred, I'd try and see if plastic were better for cotton as Norma found.

Sometime this week I'll be getting a new computer at work.  For those that don't know, I'm a computer programmer for dotcom and believe it or not, they have me working on a P733mHz with <512meg of ram.  I'm pretty sure my Sony Clie palm device is more powerful than this desktop.  I know for certain that my machine at home, a Sony Vaio 2.4Ghz IS more powerful.  Anyway, they've gotten a shipment of new machines in and I'm getting one.  It was nice having a helpdesk dude visiting my cube neighbor last week as I got to chatting with him. I indicated my museum ready computer and he suggested putting in a ticket for a new one.  While he wouldn't swear to it if I asked for a new more powerful and I had a genuine need for it, they would probably replace it without having to get director signoff.  So I did.  And I will.  And no director signoff is necessary.  Now I just have to clean this guy off and write down some passwords. :)

Sorry no pictures today.  Thanks to everyone for their kind words on the twins new picture.  I still have a couple more of the formals to scan and when I do, I'll post them.  Hmm, need some frames as well.  Got to make a note of that.

Knit on.

Finally Friday

After what seems like a week much longer than others, it is finally drawing to an end.  I went from my summer clothes at the beginning of the week to a jacket again yesterday and today.  Phooey.  Does give me some breathing room though on finishing (or starting even) the summer clothes that I want to knit.  In that respect, I'm sort of glad the high temperatures were just a sneak peek at some future condition.  This week also saw much aggravation in the public transportation system.  From the subway adventure trying to get back to the office from Purl, to the fire along the tracks that night to my train breaking down just before leaving Secaucus last night, I've been less than happy.  As Deb pointed out in an email, at least I had knitting with me.  Damn right!  One of the reasons I always carry knitting.  You never know when you are going to have free time and would otherwise be idle and tempted to chew your own foot off to do something!  I'm just hoping that tonight's commute home is uneventful for anything other than finishing the last 4 rows of Mr. A's little sleeve.

Speaking of said little sweater in the super wonderful Jaeger Shetland Aran, I was reading further into the pattern to see what the directions were past the sleeves.  I was looking at how badly the nice stockinette components were curling and hoped to see a "block pieces, sew together, pick up for hood, etc" direction someplace.  Nope.  After the sleeves (make 2), the hood is knit separately from the front edge down to the neck, binding off a host of stitches over several rows to form a back seam.  The hood is then sewed to the assembled garment.  I'm going to invoke my opinionated independent knitter skills and not, NOT, do it that way.  I find no reason to sew the hood on when it can picked up from the neck edge and worked up to the front.  I'll have to reconstruct what it is trying to do (maybe use Rogue as a model) and work it the logical way.  I hate sewing pieces together and will avoid it at all costs.  I've actually been working on in my head a way of doing the thing in one piece for Kat's version.  I don't like all the fiddly little pieces with lots of ends dangling about attracting both kitten and toddler nuisance at all turns.  Sewing together pieces is up there in my book with swatching.

Speaking of swatching, what's this?  Could it be?  Why yes it is, a SWATCH!  You can't say I'm not trainable.  I do learn from my mistakes and promise to swatch from hereonin.  I pulled out the larger needles, in this case the 7US and cast on some 20 stitches.  What you see here is a perfect 5st/in as the pattern called for.  The fabric has amazing drape and feels glorious.  I just with the yarn was cheaper or I'm just going to have to hit the lottery so I can make more out of that Habu Textiles Bamboo yarn. 

After swatching, I spent the rest of the evening (well until bedtime that is) working on Sigma.  Okay so I had been originally going to do Chickami, and I will eventually, but I feel the yarn would be better served by some swingy little number.  Sigma hits that mark.  I'm about  1.5" to 2" into it with 10" total before dividing for the front/back.  You can see my knitting companions cuddled on the couch.  I love how these two boys get along.

Since Cassie specifically requested it and Nancy has remarked about it as well, I give you Stonington.  The photos are actually showing the slight color variation in the yarn that my eyes just aren't picking up in person.  You can see the lighter color seems to appear to be orangey.  Interesting.  It does look nice in person and honestly, the knitting is somewhat mindless.  I'm now to the point where I don't need to even consult the pattern.  So far so good.  I've been fighting the urge to schlep it along with me, thereby pushing Mr. A's sweater aside.  I'm so close to finishing that I should just keep working on it.  I'll be good.

This weekend brings the start of the Passover holiday.  Tomorrow afternoon and evening will be spent with my family, enfolded in tradition.  One of my nephews will do the Four Questions as the youngest son is still too young to ask.  I doubt I'll have much craft time this weekend, which is a shame as I have two sealed boxes with freshly shorn fleeces in them.  One is a shetland, the other is a first shearing of a CVM.  I picked that box up at the post office this morning!  Every year I swear off adding any more fleece to the stash that is probably at SABLE levels already, but every year I also succumb to the lure of the freshly shorn.  I have reserved one more shetland from Laurie and hope to get to next year's shearing with no more than one after that.  I'm trying to content myself with already prepared fiber (besides Yeti's of course) so as to have actual spinning/knitting time and not preparation time. 

I look at fiber prep the same way as I look on swatching.  While they are indeed part of the process (Ohhhmmmm), I am not a huge fan of them.  While the shortcut to spinning can be had with buying the prewashed and prepped rovings, I've learned the same doesn't hold true for swatching.  See.. I did learn.  I had been lulled by recent successes where I had swatched and came out exact on the first go around.  Now I know better.  SWATCH!  Back to fleece prep, there are some things in spinning that are just better done with a prep other than combed roving.  One of them is lace yarn. That is best done from slightly greasy locks (ergo my shetland collection this year).  You can also do much more color variation work if everything hasn't already been so homogenized by the processing (again ergo my shetland collection).  I'll probably post some pictures of the new fleeces over the weekend.

Happy holiday to those observing. 

Craft on.

Spring has Sprung

Well maybe more than Spring right now.  Today's high is supposed to 87F.  That's way above the average for April which is somewhere in the 60's.  I am not complaining mind you, I do so like summer, I would rather a smoother transition.  I vaguely remember sending the twins to daycare in their winter coats last week.  Its crazy!  More seasonable weather is expected for the rest of the week though. 

I have most certainly been taking advantage of summer while its been here for its early preview.  Yesterday I took a trip up to School Products to get a couple of Addi Turbos.  For some odd reason I got it in my brain that they were at 23rd street and got off the subway there.  Boy was I surprised when I popped out of the station to find a completely different scene than I'm used to.  I'm now at the corner of 5th, Broadway and 23rd street.  I headed uptown.  Guess where they really are:  28th street!  Thankfully it was a nice day for a walk.  I had opted to walk to the office from Penn Station yesterday morning (today as well) instead of taking the subway so I've been enjoying the outside a little more than normal.  Today I'm off to Purl for a visit and a fondle. 

Oh that should make for good google skewing.  Its amazing what my cross stitch project name has been doing for my google hits recently.  Scary.  I'm very close to changing the name entirely.  Yesterday I saw in my referers a google hit for this:  "respectable ladies in complete frontal nude".  Oh my.  Imagine the disappointment when that link opened.  Snicker.  Sorry pervs, knitting blog.

Moving onwards...one of the new addi turbos was used last night to cast on Stonington.  Nifty bit of knitting that one is.  I'm using the handpaintedyarn.com laceweight in bergamota colorway.  The color shifts are ever so subtle and not glaringly obvious which I think will work out nicely.  No pictures yet, but maybe some tomorrow.  I did get through the first section of Chart A and am into the first repeat go 'round.  Okay, I need a better way to phrase that, but not today ;)  I also need to come up with a spreadsheet calculation to chart progress.  Until that happens, I ain't putting up the standard progress meter in the sidebar.

{Talk amongst yourselves, I'm off for lunch and a trip to Purl }

I'm back.  Marina and I had a blast playing in Purl.  Love the store.  I spent far too much time fondling yarn, playing with all the yarns that I see on the 'net.  I considered the Rowan Denim for a Chickami, even carried an armload of it around before returning it to its shelf for some Rowan Handknit Cotton in shade 254, which a websearch reveals as the color "Flame".  Whatever you call it, its a gorgeous summer orangy thing that will look wonderful as Chickami.  While wandering the store with my armload of Rowan, I made the mistake of petting a skein of the Habu Textiles Bamboo yarn that was on the table.  OH. MY. GOD. I. MUST. HAVE. IT.  The nice lady there is such an enabler.  I made the mistake of vocalizing my approval of the yarn and she immediately showed me this 10.5 oz hank of it in white.  Okay, so I'll have two Chickamis ;)  I was strong and resisted the Lorna's Lace, sock, sport, etc.  Nothing bad in that store.  Dangerous place to go into!  Rowan everywhere!  I could fondle for hours.  Alas, I had to get back to the office.

I did finish the second front piece for Mr. A's hoodie.  I cast on for the first sleeve on the train last night.  Probably would be a bit further along on that if I hadn't of been distracted by the shawl last night.  So much yarn, so little time.

Knit on.

Insert Title Here

There are just some days where I struggle for a title to the posting longer than it takes me to write the rest of it.  I don't feel like the fight today so you can imagine a clever, witty, on point topic header and insert above please.  Thank you.

Once again there is a several day lapse between posts.  What's with that you ask?  I'm not entirely sure.  Yes, work got a bit hectic recently, especially with my boss out and my covering for his on call duties.  I had just come off my own on call week and nothing happened.  Naturally since I was covering for him, the world crumbled.  Figures.  That didn't stop KB (new coworker feller) and I from enjoying the nice weather and venturing further afield for lunch.  We did indeed go to Chinatown on Thursday.  MMMMMMMM it was Marvelous!  I'd highly recommend Tasty Dumpling if you are ever in the area.  The food was ridiculous cheap and just downright excellent and worth the long line and small dining area.  While returning to the subway, I snapped this view looking up Mulberry Street.  Okay, so it isn't only Chinatown, but also Little Italy, you still get the area's ambiance.

Saturday, the twins and I were graciously invited to fellow blogger Deb's house to spend the afternoon with her and the famous Chappy!  This was the twins first real exposure to a dog.  While they were initially hesitant by this barking thing that was much larger (and louder) than their cats, they did get to be pretty comfy with him. Deb had a great writeup of the afternoon so I'll just lead y'all over there.  My favorite picture from the day is one Deb took of the twins.  You can see it here.  No, I'm not getting a dog, but if I did, I'd want one as sweet as Chappy.  The current lifestyle wouldn't be fair to a dog.  While we are indeed out of the house some 10 hours a day, cats deal with that far differently than a dog.  Someday.

Trucking onwards, I finished the Cable Rib Socks that were a cause of much consternation!   The second one was amazingly faster (well not including the initial knitting of the cuff) than the first one.  That seems to break all the rules of sock knitting as I know them.  I guess in my supreme desire to not fall prey to the dreaded SSS, I'm doing them faster?!  Mine is not to question why, its just to knit some more.

Which is exactly what I'm doing.  I started the hoodie for Mr. Alexander.  The back, the right front and half the left front are now complete.  I hit the cast off point for the armpit this morning on the train and the second front should be done by tonight.  Mom and I agree, I will be finishing with buttons and not a zipper.  Mr. Adventure knows how to open a zipper but can't as of yet handle buttons.  I haven't started the button quest yet, but should really do so soon as this project is a quickie. 

The yarn for Stonington arrived over the weekend and it is gorgeous.  After a quick field trip to a yarn store for a set of Addi Turbos in size 4 and I'll be ready to start it.  I gave the instructions a quick look over last night and it seems like a nice straightforward project.  I just love EZ.  I added a few more of her books to my collection.  I picked up Opinionated Knitter and Knitting Around last week from Knitpicks.  Speaking of knitpicks, they've now added cotton yarns!  Sport weight so far, no I don't count the texturized stuff, but it sounds like they're adding more.  Maybe a nice DK or Worsted.  Yarn yarn yarn yarn yarn.  Why is that running through my head on an endless loop???? Baby blanket yarn has arrived, pattern is ready, have to check what needles it needs, maybe a set of Addi's for it too, and I'll be ready to go on it too. 

Where to frolic for lunch today?  Decisions, decisions, decisions.  I think a trip to School Products for Addi Turbos is called for and Purl tomorrow.  I love NY in the spring!

Knit on.