On the move

I think the title is deceiving as I'm not really on the move since I really jacked my back up from my obsessive spinning last Saturday. My lower back is very sore and tired feeling. Got a massage earlier this week which helped, and I'm keeping ice on it. Moral of the story: proper chair and lots of small breaks. Must remember this.

In the knitting world, I'm working on the monster project from hell with renewed excitement. I have put the beautiful Max-damaged socks to the wayside for now as I'm still too bitter to look at them. Beautiful DK sock yarn has arrived and is in the basket on my table taunting me with their brilliant colors. I will get to them in due time but I'm too busy acting on the momentum from the project from hell.

Holiday weekend here I come!

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Take me out back and beat me senseless. Call me a fool. Tell me I should never go near needles again. What's the saying, "(something or other) me once shame on you, (something or other) again, shame on me."

See that BEAUTIFUL sock below that's pink and green with hints of butter cream yellow? It has two HUGE holes in it from the freakin' schnoodle. How many times will it take before I learn. Hell, the damn dog was right beside me (as was the sock). I took for granted that the dog wouldn't be stupid enough to chew it up while he laid beside me, so I didn't even catch him in the act. I didn't even find the holes until 2 hours later.

I quit. I quit. I quit. Anyone want to adopt an adorable puppy that chews up WIP's?

Stupid me!

Bonding

Victoria and I bonded today. It started about 10:00 a.m. when I got her out and realized she wasn't going to cooperate, so I introduced her to my boys.



That's my five year-old twins taking her for a spin. Seth is at the helm, and Eli the engineer is breaking down the mechanics of the wheel. Seth's first words when he treadled for the first time "Mom, I could do this forever" (I shit you not!!! that's what he said).

Then I called Gwen the Enabler for help getting Victoria to cooperate. She tried, and then we called Donna for help. They are officially, without a doubt, the nicest and most generous enablers I've ever known in my entire life. Truly. These are amazing women! Did you know that Donna drove an HOUR to solve Victoria's problems and sell me a $4.00 spring for Victoria? I am beyond lucky two have these two wise women in my life.

So I went home where Victoria and I bonded under the shade of our sweet gum in the front yard.




I turned piles of beautiful pink roving (created by Gwen the Enabler) into this.





This is my very first ever full bobbin of homespun. It's riddled with inconsistencies, but it's absolutely positively beautiful, don't you agree?!


Then when I ran out of pink roving, I plunged into a big bag of brown pencil roving and made this.



Then I looked up, realized that 3 hours had passed. It was time to feed and bathe my children (and myself), but most importantly, I needed to call Gwen the Enabler to get more roving tomorrow!

Yep, Victoria and I bonded and it's a really really cool thing!

One down, one to go

And this is my first "one down" made from Painted Skeins (http://www.paintedskeins.com/) yarn "Pimento" purchased on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/).



I took this pic in the middle of the day in full-on sun so you can't fully appreciate the colors which are pink and green with hints of butter cream yellow.

The best part is that it validates my self-worth as a sock knitter. I started this sock Sunday and finished it today. True it's a sportweight yarn, but really, one sock shouldn't take 2 months to knit like the *&#^$%* toe-up/top-down socks below.

Doing this Snoopy dance!

Isn't it ironic?

You may recall that I took a toe-up sock class in early July, and in early August I ripped them out after coming to turns with the fact that I was completely disenchanted with the toe-up process. Toe-up just isn't natural for me. It should not have taken me 4 weeks to figure this out, and by the time I ripped them out and started them again (this time top-down) it was another 3 weeks before I finished them. Finish them I indeed did on Saturday. Aren't they pretty??? Two months to finish a pair of socks.

You would never think, by looking at them, that they had such bad mojo. And as I pulled them off the needles, I guilty looked at the leftover yarn lamenting that I wouldn't have leftover yarn if I'd only made them toe-up.

THEN I found

the MOST horrifying thing...

Max the damn dog had attacked them:

Isn't it ironic that had I not switched to top-down I wouldn't have had enough yarn to rip back and re-do the toe? I did just that last night...ripped 'em back, put them back on SIZE 1's (eghads) and started again.

Isn't it ironic?

I'm being invaded by 1st graders

Today we celebrate the 7th birthday of my eldest angel son.

Alas, his birthday was in July but holidays, vacations, etc. have interfered. However, tonight we will have 6 little boys here to celebrate the birthday by watching the premiere of High School Musical 2. Have any of you had your TV's on the Disney Channel today? They actually have a freakin' countdown clock for the premiere. Marketing machine at work, eh?

Until then I knit on my socks. Haven't picked up the BSJ since I cast on the other night. I think I'm in denial.

A knitter? and Ann Budd

Maybe I'm not a Knitter but rather just a knitter. Why? Well, I picked up my BSJ after 4 days and promptly realized that I couldn't tell heads from tails and so I ripped. It. Out. This makes 2 rippings and a 3rd start on the same freaking WIP...although really. Really. Really? Really is it a WIP if you can't seem to make any progress on the work in progress? 3rd time has got to be a charm, right? I just don't think my life is conducive to following a written pattern (that isn't something like "knit 3 in. st. st.") -- the boys circle around me, the phone rings, the doorbell rings, the laundry beeps...you know the drill. HOWEVER with this, my 3rd attempt at the BSJ, I will pick up a pen and make notes marking where I stopped and what I need to do next. I know that Knitters have been doing this for years..but remember, I'm just a knitter. ;-) Besides, after reading Chocolate Sheep today, it looks like we'll be starting at the same time since all I've done so far is cast-on. I need my BSJ buddy. Really.

I bought a new knitting book. I bought it on impulse after I fell in love with her newest book. Her who? Ann Budd. I've quickly learned that Ann Budd is a brilliantly wise and experienced knitter. I have been knitting socks for a while, but I've been itching for a resource that will give me size 101 and gauge 101 with various yarns. That problem was solved with Getting Started Knitting Socks, and just when I was thinking that there was no way in hell I would ever tackle a sweater, I stumbled upon the knitters handy book of sweater patterns (I promise the title is in lower case, promise). Both of these books are wonderful resources to have on hand when you're thinking about knitting socks or sweaters or want to modify an existing pattern. Ann is nothing short of thorough and she's definitely a Wise Woman.

Go forth and buy.

For Mom

Some of you Muggles (read: Mom) have commented that they would benefit from a translation of abbreviations in my recent entries.

Here goes: for a breakdown of BSJ (Baby Surprise Jacket) and EZ (Elizabeth Zimmerman) please see my July 22 entry.

LYS: local yarn store

FO: finished object

WIP: work in progress

Hang in there Muggles, I'll have you decipering knitting code in no time!

About the BSJ

About the BSJ. Kindly disregard the photos from my last post. I did www research, I found a glorious page with tips and hints. I realized I was indeed a buffoon, and I ripped it out. Yes, with reckless abandon I ripped out my BSJ. I started it again using the info. I found. I'm about where I was in the pictures, only this time (hopefully) I'm doing things right. Still lots of questions, like, where to put the freaking stitch markers. I'm just making it up -- I think I have the appropriate # of stitches before and after the markers on each end, ignoring one on each side in the middle and moving forward. I. Can. Do. This.

Now to see how Beth at Chocolate Sheep is managing her BSJ.

No progress since Friday as life/family/weekend activities interfered. The only progress I made was on some socks at a skating rink birthday party with my eldest. Oh and yeah I got my 39 y.o. arse on skates and I kept the 39 y.o. arse off the ground. I LOVE skating. Memories of being a 6th grader...so much fun.

I'm stuck

I don't get it. I think half the free world is smarter than me. No, let me take that back, everyone is smarter than me and EZ is a freakin' knitting genius!!! Here's my BSJ to date:

The holes near the top of the picture are the M1's for above the cuff.




This is the entire piece as it is now. It measures a mere 2.5" in height.







I'm working it in Plymouth Jeannee (51% cotton/49% acrylic) -- remember I live in Oklahoma not Minnesota. ;-)

BUT HERE'S THE PROBLEM: I'm completely STUCK at the part where she says: "After 22 decr. (90 sts.), work 3 rows even, then start to inc...." I think this must be obvious (to everyone but me), but 22 decr. (90 sts.) has me spinning around on my size 4's. Does she mean 22 total decreases (4 per decrease row) or 22 total decrease rows. My piece is 2.5" long, hardly looks long enough for the 1+ y.o. size it is supposed to be. Can anyone help me?

Signed stuck in steamy Oklahoma...

There once was a man from Nantucket...

I'm a knitting bag whore. There. I said it. I'm a whore for knitting bags. I own almost as many bags of varying sizes as I have yarn in my stash. Note that I said almost.

So I my new best friend and I met at one of my LYS's the other day, and she told me about this magical bag she bought at the Maryland festival: http://www.nantucketbagg.com/

I went to the site, watched "the pitch" and bought myself the bag. I LOVE IT! It's so amazing with all those pockets, options, variations, etc. GO to the site, get one, and prepare to make it your favorite knitting bag. Mine is hot pink and lime green.

In other news, I sat down with The Opinionated Knitter and started my first BSJ last night. This one will be for my niece. I read somewhere that EZ doesn't spoon feed us the instructions on her patterns. GASP -- I've actually had to take pause a couple of times to make sure I'm doing things correctly. So far so good (I think). I hope to have it done by the weekend.

Now, go buy your Nantucket bag.

Interference

Life keeps interfering with my knitting. I won't bore you with the details except to say that despite my best efforts, I have miles to go before I get back to the sticks. In fact, I may have to go out to the sticks to pick up the sticks. This is bad news for me and my sanity. Must knit. Must knit now.

Have to feed the family instead. Darn it all!

In other news, our new Wii is a BLAST!

Let me just say this about that

I love moebius things. I think Cat Bordhi is a genius. I bought her two genius knitting books and am a fan of Socks Soar. Then a friend brought in her version of Cat's moebius shawl. I fell in love, I bought the yarn, I mastered the moebius cast-on and I knitted and knitted and knitted. Then I thought, this is a hell of a lot of work. She's really smart to have figured this out, but why don't I just knit a scarf, twist it and kitchner the two ends? So today I ripped my moebius shawl out. It felt good. I felt vindicated. Two rippings in one week. Free at last free at last.....

So it's me, the Christmas project from hell, socks, and a prayer shawl on the sticks.

Friday nights and knitting. MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE WEEK!!!!

Endings

I had a bad relationship with a toe-up sock. I tried; I took it to the gusset increases and started wrapping my brain around the heel flap. This took four weeks, but it should've taken three days. Today I decided the sock had too much bad mojo and I ripped. it. out. I love knitting socks, I can knit top-down socks in my sleep, but I have decided the toe-up socks, for me, just aren't worth it.

SO I started work on a prayer shawl for a dear sweet lady named Hazel. Hazel lost her husband to Alzheimer's years ago, and in recent years she has moved from her home to an assisted-living home. She's had some set-backs, and only recently had she begun getting excited about using her walker to eat in the dining room, meeting friends to play bingo, etc. She fell. I am knitting the prayer shawl with prayers of encouragement, healing, and love. I'm doing the basic pattern in knit 3/purl 3 alternating with purl 3/knit 3 each row AND I'm doing it with the Fibonacci sequence. I'm also doing on size 15 circulars and using Twinkle yarn. YUM!!!!!!!!! Wanna see?





And when I wasn't knitting the prayer shawl, I was staring at Victoria who was staring back at me with her long tongue of pink roving sticking out at me. The bottom line is that I'm an idiot. We won't talk about it any more today.







So after the stare down with Victoria, I re-started the sock -- this time TOP DOWN.

Stop staring!