Breath.......
I swear, if anything else would have gone wrong yesterday, I would have screamed. How would you feel if you just dropped of one of your kids to a birthday party and two hours later you want to jump into your trusty Jeep to go pick him up again and the darn thing won't start? Yeah, exactly. I put in the keys, the gauges went crazy and that was the end of it. No more sign of life. Now what am I supposed to think now. And to top it all off, it was parked in front of the garage, where my other car is parked. Lucky for me I have a couple of friends that lent me their car without even hesitating and I was able to pick up my kid. Then, after I had figured out that it's probably a bad soldering connection to the battery, came the other drama. No juice, no locks! How the heck to you lock a car that has only one key hole and the electronic is shot? To make it short, I did get a sign of life out of the car, after I put on a new connector I bought, long enough to lock my car for the night. It's still not running, but I got access to my husbands car now. Hmm, I guess I'm forced to drive around with the cool Mustang now for a couple of days until my Jeep aka. the grocery getter, is fixed. I'll suffer so baldly ;oD
Now to better news. I did happen to finish the first Harry Potter book and moved on to the second one. Woohoo.
Oh, you wanted knitting news? Sorry. I've been a bit torn between projects right now. I started the
Endpaper Mitts beginning of the week for
Keri's
Fingerless Mitts for Fall KAL, but haven't even finished the first one. But, for my defense, I'm at the thumb increase, so I'm making progress, just slowly.
What I was most occupied with, besides my nasty neighbors (doesn't everybody have them?), was the latest Knit Picks project. Remember the green one? Yeah, that one. For some reason that one has been dragging too. Must be me, because the pattern is not hard to remember and I enjoy knitting with the
Swish.
(I know it's not the best picture, but that's how it's supposed to be)
To add to it, the new Lace KAL "
Secret of Chrysopolis" has started on Friday and the only thing I got to do on that one so far is read all the comments and posts on the yahoo group and print out the pattern. It looks nice so far, has a great border and is really promising. You can see first pictures of it
here and there is still a chance to join in. The pattern is written out as a chart and is easy to follow as long as you know what ssk, YO, k2tog and a sl 1 k2tog psso is and it's pretty much bilingual in German and English. So there is no excuse not to check it out and I've even found a couple of people from the Mystery Stole KAL again. Imagine that.
I've also ordered a new book, some yarn and the new
Harmony Options needle tips from
Knitpicks and can't wait to get all my stuff. But we all know how it works, when you are really, really waiting for something. Seems to take double as long, but I think I have enough to keep my mind and hands occupied until the mailman shows up for me.
Until then, don't let those needles cool too much. It's getting colder outside.
Labels: books, Fingerless Mitts, General, KP, Lace, Secret of Chrysopolis
Flechtmuster Schal/Braided Shawl
Here you go with the promissed pictures. I had to soak and pin the shawl last night, but didn't want to bore you with only those shots, so I waited until it was wearable and I could bother one of my friends for an "action shot". So, what do you think? Am I ready for the chilly fall evenings out on the porch? I think so.
An here are some blocking shots:
Labels: Flechtmustertuch KAL, FO, Lace
Here is another KP
Woohoo, did anybody get the latest
Knit Picks email yet? You did? Check out the
fair isle and tell me you love the nice purple one.
That would really make my day, because I knitted that one! I love it. It was fun knitting it. I think the sleeves might be a little long or the body a little short, but it was right on the measurements and the model wears it so nicely. I'm so proud (sniff) and as you can tell, also very excited.
Really makes me want to knit even faster on the new pattern and yarn I got two days ago. I'm knitting it with Swish Superwash in Lemongrass Heather.
So far it's nice to work with and things are going pretty smoothly with it. I'll let you know if I find any pilling on it, like some people talked about. The other yarns I used were Wool of the Andes and they were fun to knit too, very easy to handle, but knowing that this yarn, Swish, is superwash, makes me think about ordering it for one of my own projects. Maybe in DK?
On another note, I finished the Braided Shawl last night (needed the needles for the Swish :) ), but it's not picture worthy yet. All the loose ends are still hanging and it's not blocked yet, but I threw it around my shoulders on my home from my neighbor's house last night (even in Georgia it does get a little cooler around this time of the year) and it was just the perfect thing to wear. I might just get used to it, who knows. I'll post pictures later.
Labels: Flechtmustertuch KAL, FO, KP
Tangles tamed
Here is an update on the braided shawl. Now you get the idea why it's called that.
After getting all the fringes done they had to be tamed and put in order. For that, they needed to be straightened out and put on an extra cable one by on. Then it was time to pick them all up and that's where I found out that I made a huge goof up. I knitted one fringe per 3 stitches, which left me with less than I needed. Since I already did all the knitting, picking up and all the other stuff there was no way, that I would pull at least two days work out just like that. So I'm just working on my own version of the shawl. I just had to adjust the stitches, pick up 3 instead of two per fringe and I was back on track with the stitch number. I hope this doesn't effect the outcome of it too much, since the braids are looser and have to stretch a little further. We'll see, when the "blob" comes of the needles for good.
Now another question for knitters of the Endpaper mitts or anybody that is more computer inclined than me. How can I print the
Endpaper Mitts pattern off of
Eunny's blog without all the other stuff and especially without all the comments attached to it. I just want the pattern, nothing else, or do I have to knit them in front of my computer at all times? I also don't want to sit here and type or write the whole thing down by hand. So if you have any suggestions for me, I'm all ears. They are ment as an entry in
Keri's
Fingerless Mitts for Fall KAL, which I haven't gotten around to obviously.
Labels: Flechtmustertuch KAL
Check this out
Just a quick picture for you to look at. You know that some celebrities go to Iraq to boost the morale and stuff like that? Well, my husband met Toby Keith, a senator, some comedians and then today, he sends me this picture. I guess I don't have to feel so bad for him after all.
Those are the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (so I've been told)
Yeah, OK. We need to talk...... (Just kidding)
Labels: General
Tangled Fringe
I couldn't stop knitting today and that's why I already have a new post for you already. I got so caught up in that braided shawl and the issue that I had with it. It only took a little break, a note pad and the light came on and the stitches got untangled, so to speak. It suddenly all made sense, so I got going with it.
Here is pretty much how it breaks down. After the eyelet row we add all together 16 more stitches to the needle, which leaves us with 361, 180 on each side and one in the center. Split them up like the pattern suggests, you end up with 10 fringes at the beginning made from each stitch, then you have the next 160 stitches, which gives you one fringe per 3 stitches = 80, plus another 10 before the middle. There are your 100 fringes per side. Did you follow my math here? Just make sure you put the fringe at the middle of each 3 stitches.
So here are the pictures to go with it:
Labels: Flechtmustertuch KAL
Braided Shawl
OK, today is the official kick off to the
Flechtmustertuch KAL, a German Knitalong for a triangular Shawl with a braided border. That's why I just refer to it as the braided shawl.
I really hated to wait for the official start ,..... so I didn't. Come on, bare with me. The pattern is there, the yarn is there, the needles are just waiting and the only thing holding me back is a number in the calender? Sorry, I have no self control in this case. Everything else just seemed boring at the time so I decided to get a head start, even though this is not a race, I know. Anyway, I think I have the boring part out of the way. See, the main body of the shawl is knitted in garter stitch, which doesn't knit up as fast as plain stockinette, since I have a tendency to poke into the stitch of the row below. Major factor, if you are used to not having to look at your knitting, when it's only knit stitches. So anyway, after getting all the shoulder increases out of the way the rest of it was very mindless. 4 increases every other row until you reach 345 stitches. Wow, I didn't think I had to start on the third ball of yarn before I even got to the eyelet row. So now I'm there and my brain gets in the way. What? Yes, my brain. I read the pattern and it seems logic at first. Then I read it again, and again, and the train of thoughts is winding it's way around a couple of corners until it's so tangled up that it doesn't make any sense at all anymore. Hmmm. So now I'm stuck for a while, parked on the side of the road, waiting for the rest of the pack to come help me out unless I concentrate on something else for a while, take a breather and then try to read it again. I know it's doable, it's probably very simple, but I'm just stuck in the wrong gear. So here is the a picture of a baby blue blob bunched up on a cable needle, waiting for the next step.
Also, I wanted to let you know that I got tagged by
Tammy. I haven't forgotten about it yet but I'll have to sit down and think of what interesting 8 things I have to offer. That might take a while.....
Another thing that was very interesting for me this week was, that I got an email from a knitter in Malaysia that is reading my blog. How cool is that. Makes me feel like I'm a some kind of celebrity, even though I only have about 30ish subscribers. Still, I have a fan club and I'm so proud that that many people think what I do is interesting enough for them to check in with me every once in a while. Thank you so much. Blogland has given me a whole bunch of new cyber friends. (Let me dwell in this for a while and I'll get back to you later).
Labels: Flechtmustertuch KAL
Long time no Post
Yes, I guess I was getting kinda lazy about the posting thing, but I had a good reason for it. Totally unexpected and literally out of the blue, my husband, supposed to be depolyed to Iraq, suddenly shows up at the door step. Wow, what a surprise. He didn't get a second vacation, he was here on TDY, as in had to do some Army stuff. He had to go to work, which still left me with knitting time, but totally kept me from blogging.
In the meantime I got another finishing project from Knit Picks, that is already on the way back to them and doesn't really need much more mentioning. Then I started on the second crochet baby blanket I did not too long ago, just this time in blue. It's coming along good.
Then I knitted up some more hair scrunchies from the single packs of novelty yarn. They sure make my little rat tail of a pony tail look "Carmen"-worthy.
Now I'm still trying to figure out which yarn to use for the braided shawl, which kicks off on the 15th of this month and then what to use for the "Secret of Chrysopolis", which starts on the 29th of this month. In pitty session on Saturday, after I dropped off my husband, I had the credit card out and several yarn websites going at once, but finally tucked it away again, after looking at the stash I have and decided to make do with what I had, one way or another.
(I know it's not the best picture, but that's how it's supposed to be)
