One Crazy Fiber Lady

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.

Sum-Sum-Summertime

Have I mentioned before how much I love summer?  It stands repeating.  I love summer!  I love going barefoot.  I love not wearing a jacket.  I love the water.  This weekend was spectacular (apologies to those in the hurricane zone) after that tropical depression passed here Friday night dumping loads of rain and colder temperatures, Saturday dawned bright and warm with promises of a beautiful day.  The twins and I headed for my parents' boat docked in upstate New York on the Hudson River.  The River is just a gorgeous place and someday I'll get some pictures that do it justice.  In the meantime, this picture is one I found on the 'net taken from the back deck of the restaurant at the marina looking out at Haverstraw Bay, a point where the river expands to 3 miles across.  My nephews were still with my parents and my sister and BIL met us all at the boat.  We spent the day sitting in the sun, nibbling and taking turns with the new JetSki that my parents purchased during the off season.  My sister, BIL and I wound up taking the Power Squadron's Basic Boating Safety Course so that we could legally drive the JetSki.  Fortunately my parents are both accredited teachers so they could admin the course and then proctor the test.  We all passed with flying colors so now I have a boating license.  Woo.

The twins did wonderfully on the boat, slept very well on Saturday night and showed Grandma and Grandpa how nicely the can climb steps and just about everything else they encounter.  The last trip to the boat, my techie geek in training son managed to reprogram the radio so that the left side speakers no longer worked.  This time the folks turned off the power to the bridge radio :)  Other than a quick 30 minute for Kat, 15 minute for Alex nap on Saturday during the drive up, they didn't nap at all.  This did make for some tired and cranky babies.  Alex started to nod off at dinner on Saturday night.  He's never done it before and it was the funniest thing.  He didn't stop eating, though I was pretty sure I'd have a kid asleep with his face in his spaghetti.  Dad gave him some lemonade and he perked right up.  They did sleep well that night! As did I.

Did I knit?  You betcha.  Nice thing about being on the boat, with my folks and my sister and her family was that there were plenty of hands to help with the twins.  What did I knit?  Oh the DDD Shawl (or Birchington as I've been thinking about it recently) for starters.  I started it twice in as many days.  Friday night, after getting home from work, I looked at what I had done with the white mohair/nylon blend and was happy.  I had picked up the edge stitches and futzed around with a couple of lace patterns.  I did some surfing online, searching through the collection of lace books and came up with a bunch of different motifs.  I started one but wasn't overly happy about it.  But part of the discontent was the fabric itself.  While the kid mohair was heavenly cushy, it just didn't seem "right" for a shetland style shawl, which is really what this was turning into.  I figured that since this was a really a rework of Stonington, that I should use a more traditional yarn, and really, I should use the yarn I was using for Stonington.  I frogged Stonington and reclaimed the Handpainted.com laceweight in the Bergamota and recast on my design after the twins went to bed.  By Saturday evening, I was a quarter of the way through what I've set for the center square.  There's a but.  NO surprise, eh?  The but is that the yarn bled terribly.  Everytime I worked with it, it looked like I had been eating those darn red pistachio nuts, except it wasn't just my finger tips, it was wherever I had touched the yarn.  I got tired of pink fingernails, wrists, back of hand (yarn runs a corkscrew around index finger, around hand, then wrist.. yes odd) and just having to deal with this mess.  I'll wash the yarn at some point and see if I can get it to quit shedding dye on me.

You counting?  That's two Birchingtons started and discarded.  Yup.  Nothing new here.  Okay so last night I pulled out a few more yarns as contenders to replace the Kid Mohair and the Handpainted Yarn laceweight.  Good thing I have a serious stash.  I found a bunch of skeins of Nandia Cashmere/Silk Laceweight.  I have two skeins in each of White, Royal Blue and a Lt. Grey (which doesn't appear on the site right now) that I bought last year.  I hope like hell I have enough of one color and haven't just made a huge mistake.  Anyway, I selected the light grey and started that.  As of this morning, I'm a 1/4 of the way through the base square, still giving thought as to the lace for the sides.  The fern pattern would fit beautifully in the trapezoidal side sections as they would both increase at the same rate but I think that would be a bit much of that pattern for even me.  I could do strips of it, set of with something much simpler, maybe Cats Paw or Strawberries.  Or do I go with a theme of lace patterns as this is Fern, I use the Pine Cone, Pine Tree, and other outdoor related motif. 

Choices choices.  I do like how the yarn is knitting up and it isn't a solid color.  It is a pearl grey with some darker colors interspersed.  It is making for a nice effect.  This picture was taken this morning on the train and you can see the color variations pretty well.  I'm very pleased with how it is progressing and I do think the third times the charm in this case... well as long as I don't run out of yarn.  I think if I make it lacy enough, the more holes the less yarn necessary right, I should be able to squeek it out with the two skeins.  I guess I could do the center in this and then the sides in the white. Now that wouldn't be bad, would it?  I'll reassess this when I get through with the center and see if I've dipped into the second skein.  Never easy is it?  I do have to admit that I'm very much enjoying this challenge and designing it myself.

I might be posting a bit less this week and I have a decent sized project and a deadline to contend with.  I'll leave you with my goofball son and his antics this morning in the car as we headed for grandma's daycare center.

Craft on.

 

Crazy is in the eye of the beholder

Just a quick post.  I'm tired today.  I stayed up far too late last night living up to my blog  name and email address moniker.  I guess I chose it wisely.

(picture is actually bigger than this for a change - I'm just so proud)

I finished this last night well past my bedtime.  I was up late enough to actually watch Robot Chicken on the Cartoon Network rather than catching it on ReplayTV for the first time.  I'm tired.  I doubt I'm going to have a really good night sleep until this little obsession is done.  Fellowship of the Lace anyone?

I'm pretty sure that this is big enough to form the center of the shawl.  I'm now on the prowl for good stitch patterns for the borders.  Rather than the traditional Shetland method of picking up and working each side one at a time, I'm going to do it as one.  Longer rows, but far less chance of getting bored and moving onto another project.  I compared this to the center two rounds of one of my Kerry Blue Shawls this morning while waiting for the train (yeah the shawl is folded up and stored in the door pocket of my car). 

Believe it or not, this will be the first piece I've designed myself.  Before blogging, I was so stuck on following patterns that I would never have dreamt of doing this, nor even replacing the hood on Alexander's sweater.  So blogging has been good for broadening my horizons.  This challenge of Elaine's has me pushing that boundary even further and for that I thank her, even while calling her evil for tossing a shiny pebble (My Preciousss) in front of me.  So thank you Elaine.

Craft on.