AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! January 11, 2008

One of my Poms has developed a hole.  An insidious hole in the side of the heel flap.  I think the yarn must have broken.

I DON’T HAVE TIME TO FIX IT, PEOPLE!  There is whip-cracking going on at our house, and nothing fun can be done until closets and the office are cleaned out and ready for showing. 

Of course, we slacked off last night and instead of cleaning, we paid bills and learned all about paying for points.  It’s not like I played Solitaire all evening or anything.

Anyways, I do have things to show you, but they’ll have to wait for another day.  Probably the day after the house if finally showable. 

Y’all come back now, ya hear?

A fish out of water July 19, 2007

Pattern: Pomatomus, by Cookie A.
Needles: US 0 (2.00mm) Crystal Palace Bamboo
Yarn: Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel in Quicksilver
Mods: None really. I knit the toe a little shorter and not so pointy, but otherwise I followed the pattern to the letter.

Here you can see my only issue, and I know what I would do differently.  My YO’s were so huge on the left side of the instep.  If I knit these again, I’d bypass the YO on that row and then on the next row just pick up the bar (as if to do a M1) and then I’d have my YO.

I figured out how to use the super-tulip function on my camera!  (OK, I know that’s really a super macro function.  I just like to be silly sometimes.)  You know what else is silly?  I chose to wear these to work today!  Really, it’s only 88^o outside today.

This shot is a pretty good representation of the colors in the sock.

Look at how my toenail is starting to separate from my toe on the bottom. (Look at the crappy airbrushing I did to hide my toe hair.)

I know I said that I was going to work on Reid’s sleeves next, but I feel like I’d be forcing myself.  I’ll probably start Bellatrix tonight.  We’ll see if my chosen yarn will work with the drop stitch pattern.

I don’t have pictures of knitting July 17, 2007

That’s me on the left in the grey and pink shirt. The others are my sister and brother.  I clearly do not have good posture!

I’m going to get another picture of family uploaded hopefully tonight.

Things have been crazy-hectic here, and they’re not going to get better for another couple of weeks.  The two new stores that are opening up are both having their Grand Opening parties on Thursday night, and then I just have to catch up on all the backed up work that was put off for these two new stores.

I have found moments to knit, so my second Pomatomus is almost done.  I just have a few more rows on the toe! 

After these socks I’m going to go back to Anna’s Reid.   I need to make the sleeves.  I can’t decide if I should knit them flat, as written, or convert them to knitting in the round.  If I did I’d probably want to go up a needle size or two, and I know that I would need to omit the selvedge stitch that’s included in the chart for knitting flat.  Opinions?

(Really, it’s only because I’ve never seamed a garment before.  Ok, I’ve never seamed anything before.  What if my mattress stitch looks awful?)

All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my Kitchener June 21, 2007

Information for posterity:

Stop chart B on row 17, omit all YO’s on row 18, omit first 2 YO’s on row 19.  Follow Cookie’s instructions until 7 stitches left on each needle, then decrease every row for two rows.  Kitchener.

Voila, not-too-pointy-toe! 

It’s amazing how much knitting I can get done when Anna wants her Daddy to put her to bed.  I did feel guilty for a moment, but then I got over it.  Hubby would have just been watching TV.  And I did wash the dishes.

In fact, these past couple of nights I have had a lack of patience in dealing with Anna.  She’s found her whiny voice, and it irritates me very quickly.  Plus I’ve been extra tired in the evenings.  I think I need to improve my diet (as seen in abundance in yesterday’s post), and stop drinking so much soda.  My rule used to be soda only at restaurants, water at home.  I also allowed myself some Crystal Light beverages if I wanted flavor.  The rule slowly bent more and more, and then I found myself reaching for Hubby’s Pepsi, and decided that if I was going to drink pop at home, at least I should get some diet pop.  Presto-Chango, I’m drinking it all the time now.

Something fishy this way comes June 18, 2007

The purple toenail is in the process of falling off. Loads of fun! A biology lesson right on my own foot!

Something looks fishy

Yup, you lucky readers get a picture of my in progress Pomatomus*.  Don’t you feel special?

But first, you get to read about a miraculous occurrence at our house this weekend.  Don’t want to?  Well, just keep scrolling.

On Saturday morning I was not woken up by an unhappy toddler or an alarm clock.  I was allowed to wake up completely naturally!  And then I got to do the same thing on Sunday morning.  Hallelujah!  Did you know that you don’t need coffee in the morning if you’re well rested? 

So, back to the sock.  Lisa‘s suggestion to purl that first instep stitch through the back leg is working beautifully. 

*See this space:

This area is where my picture was going to go before I tried to turn the camera on.  Apparently between this morning and this afternoon my battery died.  You’ll get a picture soon, I promise!

It fits so far! June 11, 2007

Knitting with no pictures continues.  Pomatomus #1 is past the heel, and the gusset is decreasing. 

Lordamighty, I am terrible at starting a round with a purl stitch.  That join is loose and terrible.  I am contemplating moving the first stitch of needle 3 to needle 2 just so I don’t have to start with a purl.  Does anyone have any other suggestions?  (Please note that with this wonderful amazing brilliant pattern, just moving the purl is fine except that I’d have to move it back because it eventually changes to a k2tog tbl.  Still, if that’s the only way to do it, it’s worth moving that stitch back and forth.  I do want to love these socks on my feet as much as I love them on the needles!)

Anna was sick again this weekend, and her babysitter is sick too.  Scott’s staying home with her today, and if they’re both still ill tomorrow I’ll get to stay home. 

Before this year, Anna hardly ever got sick.  I guess I was lucky. 

Simple vs Complex June 4, 2007

When I first saw the pattern for Pomatomus, I thought I would lose my mind trying to knit it.  It still looks like it would be hard to knit.

But really, it’s just a k1tbl p1 rib, with a yo and k2togtbl thrown in for biasing.  Brilliant pattern, but so easy to follow and rather intuitive once you get started.  (I admit that at this time I haven’t moved onto the foot portion, so I don’t know how that’s going to work for me.)

Reid, however, didn’t look all that tough, but it’s a booger for me to keep track of.  I can’t look at what I did the previous row and figure out what comes next!  If I make a mistake, I generally only notice it by counting my stitches in every section. 

I think Reid made me a little knit-shy. 

In more Pomatomus news, I am halfway through the second repeat of the leg chart.  I’m still very happy with the way it’s progressing.  The merino/tencel blend, while being a bit splitty, is becoming a very soft, sleek fabric.  Because the sock is essentially a k1 p1 rib, it’s very squishy and it makes me happy just to fondle it.  Speaking of which, I shall go knit on it some more.

What I did on my summer vacation June 1, 2007

There is a hum in the air in Chicagoland. Yes, it’s the 17 year cicada!  Anna was very pleased to have the cicadas at Nana and Grandpa’s house.  The sea (lake) gulls were also happy to have food in such ample supply.  I almost felt like I was in The Birds.

In less buggy news, the Fetchings are complete!  For most folks, I could see these being a quick 2 day knit.  For me, a week was perfect.

Pattern:  Fetching
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Raspberry, a little less than 2 skeins
Needles: Size 5 Plymouth Bamboo DPNs
Mods: I didn’t read through the pattern before packing everything up for the trip, so I didn’t have any waste yarn for the thumb holes. Instead, I just slipped the 7 thumb stitches onto a holder and cast on 7 stitches. On the left glove I used a cable cast-on, and for the right glove I used a backwards loop cast-on. It turned out pretty well.

They’re heading out to St. Louis to Sheri for her Loopy Ewe Quarterly Challenge.

I also cast-on for Pomatomus.  I am totally loving the yarn/pattern combination.  The Merino/Tencel has a sheen to it that goes well with a pattern named after a fish.  I’m only now just starting the charts, but they’re not too hard.