Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I was wondering...

Has any of you ever taken the time to see how fast you are knitting? I mean I know there is a difference on american and continental knitting, but have you ever sat down to figure out how many stitches per minute you can knit? Not a complicated pattern, just the regular knitting your stockinette stitch without even looking at it knitting? I would be interested what you have to say about this and what the average number would be. Would you mind helping me out on that? I know we all have something on the needles and there are only a couple of days out of the year that we don't even touch a needle or at least think of one, so that should be an easy task to master. I'm just curious and yes, I had a REALLY uneventful day. I'm really bored even though I WAS knitting today.

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Monday, July 30, 2007

Back to "normal"

With my husband "safely" (trust me, that word is way overrated) back in Iraq we are settling into out old summer break routine again, which I'm trying to change over into the back to school routine. The boys have two weeks before they go back to school, one into 5th and the other one into 1st grade. I guess that means I would be free to go back to my job at the commissary again, but I gotta see if I can upgrade that. It's nice going shopping there and people that know me ask when I'm finally coming back and that's not just the coworkers, but also the management. I guess that means I did a good job. Unfortunately I couldn't get a job directly working for the commissary, since I don't have the right citizenship for that. That sucks.

On the knitting front I'm catching up with all my oh so neglected projects, which are really not that many. I got that nifty percentage bar on my sidebar now that helps me keep track and get a little more organized.

My Mystery Stole is slowly catching up. I'm still working on chart D and have until Friday to finish chart F to be with the main crowd, but I guess that is not the important thing. I also don't make any guesses on the theme. I'm just along for the ride and enjoy a free pattern. I love knitting the lace, but I'm not sure when I have an opportunity to actually wear one of my shawls.

I haven't started on the lacy socks yet. They are on the list, as you can see, but I'm trying to get my invitation from interweave for the lace style KAL. For some reason I didn't get a response yet. I'm starting to think it's personal (I hope I'm just kidding). I just don't know what I'm doing wrong about it. I never had that problem before.

My Chevron Scarf is creeping along and growing. Don't ask me how long it is by now. I rolled it up into a jelly roll, since I had to fight with it after turning it over for every row. I'm just going to knit until I run out of either one of the yarns. It's really fuzzy and the color change had a couple of surprises in it.

I also started a girly baby blanket. At least that's what I call it. I have this friend in California that I sent some blankets that me and my sister made before, for her to sell them in her vendors booth in front of a store. She ended up using them for baby shower gift, which ended up being her "trademark" now. She commissioned me for a baby blanket for a girl and another one for a boy in November. So I got right to it. I had that acrylic yarn (naturalists, cover your eyes) that was waiting for it's turn. I tried it last year on my knitting machine, but it turned out to be too thick for it and was as hard as a board, even with the loosest setting. I guess that's how I can make some nice wash cloths or maybe placemats? I just don't want to stress out the machine too much. So handwork it is. I knitted it up at first and came up with this.


Then I ended up ripping it out, because I was way too big and if I would have gone on it would have been and adult afghan, not to mention I have to check for more yarn first and the kid would have probably walked by the time I would have been done. So frogging was in order. Since this was a feather and fan pattern and with the chevron scarf being similar to that, I really wasn't in the mood to do it again. I had this image in my head I saw on Sherie's blog, but knitting it for little baby fingers, which could get caught in those long stitches, was out of the question, so I turned it into a crochet pattern.


I like it, but it seems to be a little on the hard side. I already went up one hook size, but I think it's the yarn, even though it says "Baby" on the label. Maybe a good conditioner soak afterwards will help with that. I don't know if that has any effect on acrylic. Any input on that, anyone? Oh and no, I didn't move over to the "other" side, I'm just exercising my many talents. Some of you might not know that I'll tackle almost anything that involves a string and a needle in any kind, but I try to keep my hobbies under control or my husband will go nuts with me, not to mention the movers, every time they have to pack up my stuff. That reminds me, maybe it's time to work on that quilt that is looking at me, making me feel guilty. It's not even in closet, so it's really ready to be worked on, but with more than 90 degrees F outside there is no way I'm cuddling up under a blanket to quilt it. They do have a winter here in Georgia, just not a really cold one.

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Thursday, July 26, 2007

I'm baaaack

Well, knitting blog buddies, you have my full attention again. My 15 days with my hubby are over, done, finished and these couple of days will have to last for a while, I mean, almost a year. I think we did quite a couple of things, but not so much that we couldn't say we didn't have some time to ourselves. It wasn't too hectic.

My husband still managed to rack up a good 300+ miles on this brand new Ducati, which I got delivered after he was already gone with only 7 miles on it. I guess it's not so brand stinkin' new anymore now.

First I have to say the kids had no idea when he was coming home. They knew it was soon, but had no date. I took them to the mall and on the way I "missed" my exit and ended up at the airport, still no suspicion, where they had something to eat and where my husband surprised them.

We took a trip to the Kennedy Space Center, took an air boat ride on the Everglades, where we saw Alligators and, believe it or not, a cow. Don't ask how it got there or why, but it was there.


We went shopping in one of the numerous outlet malls as well as the Florida Mall and had a great time dining at Medieval Times. No utensils there, I tell you. It was fun and the kids really got into all the jousting thing and cheered on "our" knight. The "evil" black knight was yummy. I couldn't figure out who had the better hair, the knight or the horse. :) We also had some nice dinners and some time at the beach.


For the knitting content of this post I must say that the long anticipated yarn for the latest Knit Picks project made it here the same day as my husband. What a bummer. I had to knit while he was home. It's kinda ironic, when you think of it. It got here when he came home and I dropped the finished sweater off today, the same day I dropped him off at the airport to go back to Iraq. I had enough knitting hours on our trip to Florida and back and managed to squeeze in some stitches here and there.


So now I'm without that, without him, just the Mystery Stole to catch up to and the Chevron Scarf to finish. I tried to sign up for the Lace Shawl KAL, but somehow my emails must have gotten lost. I didn't get an invitation yet. I'll try it one more time and if it doesn't work this time, I guess it wasn't meant to be my KAL. I was also asked to make some baby blankets. Any suggestions for patterns? No matter if knit or crochet, but it's gotta be cute and semi fast to finish.

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Friday, July 13, 2007

I'm still here

This entry won't have any pics for you so if picture books is what you read, you don't even need to bother this time. I'm just giving everybody a quick update on what's going on and that I didn't drop off the face of the earth, if I don't blog for a couple of days.

Update one: My husband made it into country on Tuesday for his R&R from Iraq, which is the main reason why my knitting and blogging time is cut short for a little while.

Update two: I finally got the so long expected yarn from Knit Picks for my second project and wouldn't you know it, I ran into the mailman on the way to picking up my husband at the airport? Another reason why I don't have much time to blog, but my husband is understanding that everywhere I go now the bag with my knitting has to be with me and when I sit in the car, the map and the knitting is in my lap.

Update three: Chevron Scarf and Mystery Stole have to sleep for a while. You will get an update on those two once I have a chance to come up for air in between my upcoming very busy two weeks. I won't have a problem to catch up with the stole, since that usually only takes me a day to complete and the scarf looks the same as on the last picture, just a little longer again. I'm knitting it until I run out of yarn. Don't know how long it's going to be at the end.

Update four: Totally off the knitting content, we are taking a family trip this weekend and I'm going to take pictures, so expect them next time.

Now I gotta go and I'll check in with you all later.

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Sunday, July 08, 2007

Mystery Stole 3 Clue 2 Update

Wow, what an official title that is to this entry. Despite all the sidetracking and all the other things I did since Friday, I did manage to finish clue 2 of the ongoing mystery stole.

It's turning out very nicely, but surely needs some vigorous blocking to show all the details. Maybe I should have used a thicker yarn or a smaller needle size after all, but all will be revealed when it's done, soaked and blocked at the end. Right now I'm ok with it. The pattern emerges quite well, but unlike so many others, that knit this stole, I'm not jumping to any conclusions on what the theme might be. I'm just happily knitting along. You might want to check out the group and see what all "interesting" theme guesses they are coming up with.


My chevron scarf is also growing and growing. Right now, unstretched, it's already measuring a generous 33 inches. Of course that's easy to do since I'm working with fuzzy yarn and 5.5 mm needles, compared to the other KAL knitters who are using STR or any other kind of sock yarn. I'm not cheating, I'm experimenting and altering the scarf to fit my own needs and expectations for the outcome (hale to the big words).

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Friday, July 06, 2007

What am I thinking!!?!!

Like I don't have enough to do (wait, I only have the Chevron Scarf and the MS3 on my needles) I signed up for some new KALs I ran across. Did you know there was a Lace Style KAL? And a Knitty KAL? You did? Why didn't you tell me???!! Anyway, I subscribed to the KAL list so something like this won't happen again. Anybody care to join me? Anybody has any other ones I should know about? I think some of you might know me good enough by now to know what I'm into, knitting wise that is. So if you joined it, let me be part of it. I love buttons on my blog and it sure is in need of more.

Now I better get off the computer and onto the needles or I won't have anything to show for in those KALs.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Chevron Scarf

Or should I say the things you do when you have nothing else to do? I signed up for the Chevron Scarf KAL last week and so miserably failed to produce a scarf with my first attempt. I didn't even make it in front of the camera, before the frog jumped it. It' was just not soft enough. So I took another look at my stash and found this.


This eventually evolved into that.


Now I'm surprisingly pleased with the way the colors change on the greenish yarn, which by the way I have no idea what it is. It's one of those mystery balls that my sister scored somewhere and it made it into my stash and now it jumped me. The blue one is almost as fuzzy, but I actually had a band for it. It's ancient from my aunts store and it's a acrylic/wool/viscose mix of some kind. Anyway, it's soft and I totally adore the way the colors change. Did I say that before already? Well, anyway, I guess that shows I'm really loving this and I might just keep it for myself instead of making this an early Christmas present for I don't know who yet.

I also have the monkey socks finally finished. You might not believe this, but after I have no idea how long the two little monkeys are finally together to play. Wow. Don't ask me why this took so long. Looking at Teenie's blog, she whipped out those monkey is only a couple of days.


My foot model was a little shy this time and his feet were too small for the socks, but I didn't want to stretch them out by putting them on my paddle feet. My sisters are a bit smaller than mine and that worked out with the pattern just right. The only change I made was, that I used the short row heel. It's just my personal choice. Somehow I just like that as a heel as well as a toe, even though I have to sew up the toes with a kitchener stitch. For me it's worth the extra step.

Otherwise, lets cross our fingers for the UPS guy today and hopefully you'll see some new teaser pics from my new Knit Picks project. I know I'm bad.

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Monday, July 02, 2007

Rockin' Girl Blogger


Did you see it? Did ya, huh, huh? Yeeiii. I'm a Rockin' Girl Blogger and so proud of it. It's so nice to see my name on other peoples blog, being in their list of daily reads, getting mentioned because of something I knit, but being nominated and awarded with a button, oh that's the best. Thank you so much Tammy for making me a Rockin' Girl Blogger. Now I get to name a couple, preferably 5 new bloggers for this honor. Hmmmm, who to choose and why. Well how about these ladies:


Knitty Gritty Thoughts - Keri was my help when I first started my blog. She is a great knitter and has done so many things all by herself that she deserves this.


Knittin' Mama - Erica is blogging all the way from Germany, where she is temporarily displaced. She is a multitalented knitter, spinner, dyer and much more I'm sure.


Stranded on Fair Isles... - Marina is the most talented Fair Isle knitter I know. She whips out those intricate sweaters with such easeand she is such an inspiration that even I can do it.


Have you any Wool - Rachel is a great knitter and blogger and has come up with a couple of her own sock patterns. Too cool.


Jewel Tomes - Julie is such a funny knitter/blogger. She always has something in the needles and always an opinion about something that is going on in her crazy NY area. She also thinks life is a joke :)


I don't want anybody feeling left out, but there are too many great knitters out there and if I tag them all, there won't be any left for anybody else to nominate. :)


And best of all, this one is not combined with any memes.