One Crazy Fiber Lady

Surprises

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a good holiday.  We did.  Yesterday was a busy one.  The kids had another half day at school.  As I had the whole day off from work, I was able to take advantage of a couple of hours of shopping without them. I made the semi-annual pilgrimage to the local Ikea.    The last time out, I had replaced the rocking chair in my room with the very popular Poang chair with ottoman.  I love the chair except it was really too big when paired with the ottoman for the space I had it crammed in.    Add in that when I hit Ikea last May, I really had an easy chair in mind but got a bit distracted in the store ;)  It was time to rectify that mistake, especially since I couldn't spin in the Poang and had to seriously rearrange things in order to spin.  Meant I didn't spin much.  Yeah, I'm sticking with that excuse. :)

Behold the new chair.  Ektorp Jennylund.  Love those ikea names!

It fits perfectly and is what I had in mind for the corner to begin with.  I have a small footstool that doubles as an exercise step and a boost for the kids to climb into my high bed (double sided pillow topper.  mmmmm)

One bonus of the new, stable chair is that the cats can now take advantage of that extra wide window sill that my father had them install. 

Last night's festivities involved dinner with the folks at home, some quiet together time and then the twins went to bed.  They were out by 8:30, the folks went to their friends' house for the evening and I spent a quiet night with a drink (margarita), a movie (Casino Royale) and my knitting (kauni).   All right in the world.

Today the folks worked the Power Squadron booth at the NY Boat Show while the twins and I spent a nice quiet day.  They played in the den while I sat in my old Poang that was relocated there and knitted on Kauni.  When the folks came home we went out for dinner at the local diner. 

Speaking of Kauni, ready for a serious surprise in the story of the sleeves?  I hope so.  Well Thursday at SnB, I started the charted fleurs de lis.  It was nice, but nothing to write home about.   Then I got a comment from Kyra suggesting one of the seeding patterns in the Starmore Fair Isle book (which I got from my granny a few years ago that she picked up for $1.99 at some odd job store ;).  Flipping through there and my other Fair Isle books, I didn't see a single sweater that changed the pattern for the sleeves.  I then remembered Autumn Rose which uses the same large motif on the sleeves, as well as the body.  Out came the sleeve chart and my original damask.  I then plugged in the damask pattern into the sleeve centering it on the middle stitch.   Like Autumn Rose, I three motifs around the sleeve and am reducing stitches at the center every 5th round.  I'm pleased with it and I take back that whole, its too busy for the sleeve business. 

I took this picture a little bit ago.  I find myself 1/4 of the way through it!

In other project news, since Kauni really isn't commuter friendly, and was in time out for that short bit I did start a new project.  The Cozy V-Neck sweater from Fitted Knits in Cascade Pastaza.  After knitting on Kauni and its small needles, the Cozy is flying on the US9! 

Time for a little knitting before bed.  Tomorrow is back to work after 4 days off.

Craft on!

 

Lifelines

I knew I could count on my internet friends!  You people really are my lifelines.  Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions as to what to do with my sleeves.  A couple of them really sparked my imagination.

I quickly gave Sara's/Deb's suggestion a try by going back to the stranded knitting, alternating colors 1x1 and rows.  I did a few rounds, held it against the sweater when to my surprise I discovered I already knew what that would result in.  My steeks were done that very way!  They don't look half bad so I ripped out, re-balled and picked up the stitches in alternating colors.  I managed a few rounds before it was time for bed.  In the light of day and more rounds on the train, I'm not convinced I like the effect. 

Back to the drawing board.  Danielle's suggestion of the fleurs-de-lis reminded me of my initial approach to this sweater.  When I found that the Dale pattern had been discontinued and was proving quite difficult to obtain, I struck out to find something comparable.  I hit on a fleurs-de-lis crochet chart.  It was also during this google-a-thon that I learned I could chart the darn thing myself.

One of the options was to take a component of the overall design and chart that for the sleeves.  I googled some more, looking for leaf motifs, with vines, fleurs-de-lis.  When what did I find?  The same crochet chart.  I looked at it closely and what to my surprise did I find?  Strip away the leaves and flower top and the damask pattern is a fleurs-de-lis.  Yeah, I'm slow that way.

Out came trusty old Excel and my Damask chart.  I added a new sheet, copied the f-d-l (not to be confused with FTL, Nancy) component and went to work. 

This is the F-D-L repeated close together like the original.  I like it.   It goes well with body chart:

Seems to be about even as to A and B yarns, eating both up at the same rate.  No huge stretches of a single color.  I could spread them out a bit, but that would bring back the whole discrepancy between the fabric problem I am trying to avoid in the first place. 

Once again, feedback would be most welcome!

Craft on.

Edited to add:  I've got sleeve charts!  Woot.  I will be working them from top down, reversing the chart stuff so that the FDL will end up in the same direction as on the body.  I'll be following the original pattern and reducing 2 stitches every 5th round (see zig-zag line up the left side of the chart) but will be modifying and doing them at the side seam and not at the gusset thing.   Like Autumn Rose's pattern, every row is charted to the mid-point.  And yes, it is a slow day at the office ;)

I'm Sending Out an S O S

I've got a problem.  As problems go, it isn't all that bad in the grand scheme of things.  Still, it is a bit of a pickle and I'm somewhat at a loss as to how to proceed

The problem, thank you for asking, is with my Kauni Damask and her sleeves.  I did the sewing/cutting thing over the weekend and yesterday picked up the sleeve stitches.  I had settled a while ago on doing solid sleeves without any colorwork beyond that which was in the single strand itself.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Other than starting near the icky green, I really don't have a visual complaint.

The problem is in the feel of the fabric.  The body is essentially double layered as the strand work is every round from hem to neck.  The sleeve is only one strand and feels flimsy next to the rest of it.  I'm concerned how the finished garment is going to work together like that.

This brings me back to the whole, what the hell do I do with the sleeves anyway debate.  I could chart the darn damask pattern for the sleeve and just work the whole thing in the big motifs.  Except I still think they are too big for the sleeve.  Can I then just shrink the motif?  Go for a different one all together?  Give up the whole sleeve idea and make the sucker a vest?

Honestly, I'm leaning towards the vest at the moment but I am definitely up for suggestions!  In the meantime, this baby is going in timeout and I'll work on something else.  Something on bigger needles and all in one color.  Though there is that lopi yarn and pattern that I bought um two years ago that should be sufficiently marinated by now ;)

HELP!

Craft on!

Holiday greetings

I really have to start posting more often.  I mentally compose many posts that never make it to a computer and by the time I actually sit down at the computer to write one, I never know where to start.  There's also my preference to write in code and not so much in english ;)

I mentioned, sort of in passing last week the possibility of my upgrading notebook computers.  Well that came to pass.  Thanks to the assistance of Nancy and her wonderful hubby, I'm the proud owner of a new MacBook.  I took advantage of a last "use it or lose it" vacation day on Friday and spent some time getting to know the new toy.

If you click and make big, you can see something that totally makes this geek giggle.  I have, thanks to Parallels Desktop 3.0 I have Windows XP running as well. I have the previous version of it running on my iMac downstairs.  The new version has something called Coherence in it which makes it invisible as to which operating system is running the application.  Translated from geek to english:  I can run windows software within MacOS without it being crammed inside another window.  I can run my windows based development suite without having to get an (non-existent) version.  Cool huh?  Doesn't take much to make me giggle ;)

Besides the geeky stuff, I've actually stepped away from the Xbox (mom is seriously addicted now btw) and done a little knitting.  The first pair of socks since early September are now finished!  Woot.  They came off the needles Friday morning. 

Project Info:

Pattern:  own basic vanilla socks.  First was done toe up and the other was cuff down.  Short row heel over 52 st on US1 needles.

Yarn:  Jitterbug in Raphael

Started: ?? Sept/Oct 2007

Finished: Dec. 21, 2007

I wore these yesterday to my sister's house for the annual family get together.  Very comfy.  Nice to finally have another pair of socks to wear.  I really got to wash the rest of the collection ;)

Another project has been resurrected.  My leftover sock yarn granny square blanket saw some action last night.

You can get a sense of the size.  That's one of the kid's matchbox cars in the upper left hand corner.  Took me the better part of an hour to do one round.  I still love it.  I'm finding though that crochet has more impact on my body than knitting.  Shortly after picking this up last night, I was noticing discomfort in my shoulder.  I must rotate it more when crocheting.  I moved my yarn supply and tried to minimize arm roll and it felt better.

Today's half day at school paired with a full day off for me, meant I could get some knitting done.  I pulled out Kauni and finally finished the body.  The sewing machine is coming out later so I can get some steek cutting done.

I want to wish all those who celebrate a very Merry Christmas.  I hope you have a very happy and healthy holiday surrounded by family and friends.  For our part, we have a nice quiet time at home as there isn't much else to do ;) 

Craft on!

Vacation

The reason I've been so quiet is that I've been on vacation since right before Thanksgiving.  Monday before, I got a surprise when my boss informed me I had 7 vacation days that I needed to take before the end of the year.  What a better time than to pair with a 4 day weekend.  So I've been home and busy.  Thanksgiving was at our house this year and it was filled with family.  No better way than that to spend the day.

Black Friday, the folks and I hit a store for a bargain.  This one is mine...

Damn, the xbox looks good on that!  And yes, I've been spending significant time playing with that toy.  Got mom hooked on it too.  After the kids go to bed for the night, we sit down and play Lego Star Wars or Puzzle Quest (thanks Lizzy for that one!).

I managed to sneak into the eye doctor on Monday for my first appt in 6 years.  Turns out that the nearsightedness that I've had since starting college has resolved itself thanks to aging ;)  I now need reading glasses.  My doctor recommended saving the cash and buying a pair of .75 or 1.0 glasses from the pharmacy.  Works nicely so far and working on kauni has been made easier.

Speaking of Kauni, while I haven't knit much over the last 11 days there has been some progress to speak of.  I'm pass the beginning of the front neck steek and halfway through the reductions.

In other knitting news, it is teacher gift season. New school means new teachers that haven't received a particular gift already.  I've sort of decided to set a standard gift of the One Row Scarf from Stephanie in a yummy yarn.  Malabrigo to be exact.  Here's the first.

I've also been doing some sewing.  I made two little skirts for Kathryn out of quilting stash fabric.  Each skirt took just under 3 fat quarters.  I'll definitely make a few more of these for her. 

Finally, this morning we awoke to find it snowing.  The kids were eager to go outside.  They helped clean off the cars before embarking with Pop-pop to make a snowman on the driveway.

It's been a confusing seasonal change around here for sure...

Craft on!

Randomness

Today is an odd day at work.  By the holiday schedule, the office is closed.  Except for us in IT.  We decided to trade today for the two scheduled half day holidays of Christmas Eve and New Years Eve.  I think it was a great idea.  I hated the prospect of schlepping in for a total of 3 hours of work.  Almost had more commuting time there.

Anyway, it is a grey, cold Monday out there and I am on day two of a horrendous headache.  Ick. 

All in all, I've been pretty darn busy.  Between getting the home network chatting with the XBox (YAY!!), knitting, monkey wrangling and other assorted things, life really has been busy.  I intro-ed the monkeys and mom to Star Wars Lego on the xbox.  It was cute.  Mom and I even played until the wee hours of Saturday night.  That was fun! 

Saturday, mom and dad took the twins to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's so I could go to celebrate the joint b'day party of Deb and Kim, along with fellow Jersey Spinner, Jessica and special guest Liz.  Now that was a blast.  I would have stayed longer but I got the guilt phone call from mom wondering if I was ever coming home ;)  I'm pleading camnesia.  There are great pictures over on Deb's blog and I vaguely remember a group photo being taken by at least two different cameras!

Almost all my knitting time has been dedicated to Kauni.  It's my only train/ferry/SnB knitting recently and it has been progressing beautifully.  I took this Thurs morning on the way to work.  Needless to say, it has progressed a bit since then.

Love it.  I've been seriously considering what to do with the sleeves thanks to some prodding by other knitters.  Lisa was the first to really call my attention to this little detail.  I chatted with Kristen at the MY SnB thursday night as well.  It was decided that this pattern would be a bit too busy for the sleeves.  Maybe at the cuff was how I left it.  Friday morning, I was surfing and hit on this.  There's the answer.  Plain sleeves!

Whether I try to matchy-match them or go hog wild I'm not sure yet.  Probably won't know until I start the second sleeve and I see where my yarn colors are :)  But I love the detail body and plain sleeve look.  Winner.

Yesterday we had a little houseguest for a visit.

Dad brought the littlest family member in for a romp around the bunny safe kitchen.  Here the girls are checking him out.  Sara was the most perplexed by the whole bunny thing.  I doubt she's ever seen one before (Yeti was already outside when she arrived) and was the most nervous around him.  Bandit was pretty relaxed with the cats and even stretched out for a nap with Sara next to him.

Craft on!

Quickie

Time for a really quick post today.  I had a busy morning at the office and I suspect a busy night. 

Here's Kauni relaxing on my chair at lunch today:

Kim and I had a lovely lunch at the mall again today.  Finally I remember I have a camera in my bag and have evidence...

After eating, and a brief amount of knitting, we did some shopping.  Not the usual shopping you would expect from us intrepid knitters.  No.  We hit Gamestop.  I have this sitting under my desk now.

I can't wait to go home!!!!! 

Craft on :)

How I Spent My Weekend

I spent my weekend, rather understandably I suppose, working on Kauni.  Go figure.  The folks were gone most of the weekend so the kids and I were alone.  I've been battling a sore throat and stuffy head for about a week now and on Saturday, felt pretty miserable.  I plunked myself on the den couch, remote in hand and kept the kids entertained with Noggin, Nick and all their toys.  While they played/fought/cuddled, I worked on Kauni when not sleeping. 

I took this picture last night.

Love, Kauni Style.

Sunday was spent doing some much needed shopping.  My little girl refuses to wear pants so I had to buy her a couple more skirts, as well as introduce her to the joys of tights.  After an hour or so of kidlet shopping, timothy grass was acquired for the littlest family member who lives out back.  He's a cutie who likes to bunk my hand with his nose as I put his water bowl back in.  Little goof.   And he just loves nose scritches.  He'll grind his teeth contentedly, stretch himself out as far and as flat as he can as I pet him.  Sweet guy.

Anyway, when I wasn't otherwise occupied with knitting, shopping or child rearing, I spent a good deal of time with my Nintendo DS :)  You can see the corner of it on top of Kauni in the above picture.  Friday, Kim and I stopped in at Gamestop and I picked up the new Simpsons game.  Dudes, it is way cool.  I'm kind of stuck on a particular level but will get past it if it kills me.  I have done some damage to my right thumb from pressing the B button too much and hope to have the feeling back in the tip soon.  Kidding.  Its not quite that bad but it is a tad odd and I should lay off.  I want to get the Star Wars Lego complete that comes out tomorrow.  I'll probably get it for the DS too, but there's a little voice in the back of my head that is starting to get louder and its requesting an Xbox 360 :)  Like I need another game platform! 

Craft on!

J'Adore

I'm seriously loving the whole Kauni Damask knitting.  I can't stop.  Even though I have a tendency to get queasy when not looking out at the water on the ferry, I'm knitting it, even if it means reading the chart for the next row.  That's how much I'm loving this project.  I took it to the SnB last night.  Combined with this commuting knitting this morning, I've made some decent progress. 

I took this just off Pier 11 this morning on the way to the office.

And I took this for the same reason my kids do a lot of things, because I could...

Everything is just so pretty this morning with the sun streaming down.  I do think the colors are a bit more vibrant than they are appearing here, but that's just sun + camera playing off each other.  Still.  LOVE.

I'm going to get some bonus knitting time today.  Kim and I are meeting for lunch at the Seaport Mall where there will definitely be some knitting.

Have a great weekend all!

Craft on!

1000 Words...

...or the equivalent:

I started, needless to say, last night.  I did the knitting maths to figure out how many repeats around the motif would go, how many stitches were left over and what should go where.  I then set about knitting.

I did opt for the Dale inspired cuffed hem, which is the yellow bits you see.  It transitioned to the green just as I finished and worked the turning row.  I can't say as I'm ecstatic by that green, but better at the hem then my face!

In case you're curious, as I was, about the color progressions, someone put together a bunch of graphics displaying the alignment results.  Super cool.  If I'm reading it correctly, I'm doing something entirely different as my color progressions are opposite.  One is working Yellow --> Green --> Blue --> Purple-->Red--> Orange and the other is Orange --> Red --> Purple blah blah.  Interesting.  I wonder how it will play out.  I might just have to much with that graphic a bit and see if I should move along or correct it before I get too much further along.  I guess that as long as the colors don't line up I should be fine.

And a close up...

Love it!

Craft on!

Edited to add:  I have to rip back.  I've got a big problem(s) colorwise and it is pretty glaring even in this terrible image.