I wasn't going to blog today, but...

I came home from work (late) tonight with a splitting headache...but found this waiting for me:




This is from Sharon, my SP9 spoilee. And look how unbelievably sweet she is:


A "magic towel" with hearts on it - I am silly enough that I am looking forward to making it turn into a towel... and some beautiful stitch markers...


Absolutely GORGEOUS yarn!! (the plotting begins on what to do with it...)


And a fancy chocolate/marzipan bar...yum!

I heart Sharon...she was such a fun spoilee, and she was such a good sport about my vacationing in Europe for 2 weeks right in the middle of the exchange. Thank you so much Sharon - and I hope you'll continue to keep in touch, as insanely busy as you are!

Finally got my STR socks going...

I am really having fun with this sock so far. The pattern is called "Inside Out" (for those of you who have not seen it elsewhere) and it's part of the Rockin Sock Club. Yarn is Socks That Rock by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, in the "Monsoon" colorway. I am currently using size 0 (gulp) DPN's. The garter stitch part is done on size 1's.

Anyway, it is once again thanks to Bobbi that I even got this thing going, as it required a crochet cast-on, and she did the chain for me. Never mind that I obviously had no idea what it means to pick up stitches on the back bump of the crochet chain, because I was unable to "unzip" the chain when the time came. I had to laboriously take it apart. But it still worked.

Spring Birthdays

It is lucky that C's birthday is in the spring, as he always wants artichokes for dinner. Until last week I've had no luck finding any, not even bad ones. Last week I found some bad-ish ones, but I managed to get halfway decent ones for today. So for dinner - artichokes and apple pie (instead of cake).

Other than the sweater, I got him this kite:

Except it's all in black and the yin-yangs are rainbow colored. Whee! It is good for a wide range of wind speeds, which is why I chose it. Too bad he wasn't feeling quite well enough to fly it today (if you've never flown a stunt kite, they are quite a workout, especially if, like me, you suck at it and crash them so have to run and set it back up).

Happy 31st to the love of my life. May I be so lucky as to wish you many, many more happy birthdays. :)

Finished at last.

Here is the completed basketweave sweater...



Anyway, the sleeves are a tad long (sigh) but it's liveable. The body of the sweater could stand to be a little bit longer - so at some point I may add to the ribbing on the bottom, but not anytime soon ;)

The pattern is Basketweave Sweater from the Fall 2004 issue of Interweave Knits.
Yarn is Patons Classic Merino in Evergreen.
Knit on size 6 (ribbing) and size 8 (basketweave) straight needles.

Finished today!

Zipper Hell

So last night was the "zipper party" for the Basketweave Sweater. Party as in me and my friend Bobbi who comes over to knit on Fridays. She knows how to sew, which of course means I begged her for help.

So. Seven inch zipper. FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. Started around 8:00, finished at 12:30. Slow slow sewing, lots of frustration, lots of ripping out and re-doing, but the zipper is IN. And it looks great.

I am going to start putting the sleeves in this morning. Pictures when I'm done.

A gazillion thanks to Bobbi - there is no way I could have gotten this done without you.

Lots going on...

With all the illness in the house lately we made some chicken soup over the weekend. No real recipe, just tossed some chicken backs in boiling water, then took them out, put the meat back in along with some chopped carrots and onions, tossed in a handful of corn, a little parsley, and some noodles...


And since I was home all weekend, I made a bit more complicated, rustic bread -


Of course, here is the sweater, with collar and all...I didn't take another photo after doing the zipper facing, but it looks pretty much the same. Now, how to handle the sewing part, and the zipper size issue :(




And some good news - when I got home from work today, there was a package from my SP10 Secret Pal!

You can see it met with Lomion's approval - look at that tongue!!

Inside...


Check out this gorgeous yarn!


And adorable little bag...


And beads inside the bag!

Don't know if you can tell, but there is a black cat bead up in the left corner... I tried to get a better shot of it, but it's too small. But so cute! It matches Lomion! :)

Thanks tons SP! This is lots of fun already!

Ugh.

So, the zipper I have is 9 inches (per the pattern). The zipper opening is 9 inches. Yet when I go to pin the zipper to the zipper opening, the zipper sticks out 2 inches above the top.

Why???? :(

I guess I need to buy a 7 inch zipper tomorrow.

I hate sewing.

Greensleeves

(Ha, ha)

So the sleeves are done. Now for the collar, zipper placket, and sewing the sleeves in (oh yeah, and sewing the zipper in - eek).



Almost there!!!

I would post more but believe it or not I am still sick. C is sick also. We are a house full of no fun right now. I went to the doc yesterday and am now on antibiotics and steroids, both of which make me feel even better (insert sarcasm).

Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

C caught a late train home from work today... so I get to listen to the Cure while I prep for supper and do the Monday night chores (he can't stand the Cure so I don't get to listen to them at home very often).

One inch per day on the basketweave....that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ooh, this looks sorta fun.

OK, before going back to knit, I found this book meme on my SP hostess' blog, and decided to play.

In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. +The Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
6. +The Two Towers (Tolkein)
7. +The Return of the King (Tolkein)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13.+ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha
16. +Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkein)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. + The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. + Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. *Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. *The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. +The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. *The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. *The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. *The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. *The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. *Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. +Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
49 is mysteriously missing...
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. +Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. *The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. +Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. +Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
66. *One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. +The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. +Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. *Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. *Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76.* The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79.* The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphe DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. +Emma (Jane Austen)
87. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. *The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. *A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. +Ulysses (James Joyce)

The lack of bolds up there is embarrassing for someone with a BA in English and American Literature. My only excuse is that I got so tired of reading novels that in my free time that was the last thing I wanted to do. And it has been that way for the 10+ years since I've finished my undergrad degree.

Spring forward

So, due to the time change plus the fact that I have a cold, I didn't go to the gym this morning (those who know me really well will know what a big deal this is). I have pretty much sat around the house knitting all day. I have gotten exactly 14 rows done on the basketweave sleeves. I am hoping to do 8 more, but it takes SO long! I didn't take another photo, because it looks pretty much just like it did yesterday. I'll save the next one for when they are done. They are at 19.5 inches left, so I have 7 to go....which, at 8 rows per inch, is 56 rows. Gah. I am going to try to do an inch per day this week - that would get me done with them on Saturday, at which point I can attach them to the rest of the sweater and hopefully get started with the zipper and collar.

And I just have to put in a plug for my new favorite cereal:

Very blurry, but I didn't take it myself. anyway, it's supposed to be very good for the digestive system (which was why I bought it, given the issues I have), but it is delish! And 12 grams of fiber...you can't get much healthier than that. I think the only drawback is it's $5 per box. I will probably keep buying it, though.

C is going to take a nap before supper, which means I'm going to try to sneak in 4 of those 8 rows I have planned. If I'm lucky I can do this without staying up extra late tonight.

A few knitting related things.

So, I won a drawing over at Wendy's blog! I got the book yesterday:

So fun - I can't wait to read it! Thanks Wendy!

I also got a Knitpicks order. I got some size 0 DPN's (yikes times 1000) and a small cable needle, which I didn't photograph, but I also got one of the KIP bags (which were on sale so I couldn't resist):

It is a very nice size, now I am pondering buying more....hmmm.

And here is the progress on the basketweave sleeves. They really do match - they are just scrunched as they keep getting wider.

They look nice but it is VERY slow going. I am hoping to get 18 more rows done tonight - we'll see if that actually happens or not. Then 16 more rows and I'm done with the decreases. I really want to get the sleeves done by next weekend so I can do all the grafting, zipper installing, and collar knitting by C's birthday. I have some miso soup and sashimi headed my way in about 40 minutes - let's see if I can get 4 rows done by the time it gets here.

Texture is more important than you think.

I am in the midst of discovering that I do not like almonds in my oatmeal. The texture is all wrong.

That is all.

Cuteness alert!

I finished these yesterday but didn't have time to post them:


Baby socks! These are going to my friend Amy in Portland, who I will see when I am there on business next week. She is going to have a baby next month, hence the gift.

These are made in Knitpicks Palette, cream - size 2 needles. Pattern is "Infant Socks" from the 2007 Pattern a Day calendar.

Yippeeeeeeeee!!! (sorta.)

Another rough day at work today (though thankfully the boss was not mad at me), I got home (at 7:35 pm, but I digress) to find this:


My first STR shipment! (That is my knitting chair it's sitting on, BTW.)


The lovely binder...


Bumper sticker (I never use bumper stickers, but I am tempted by this one.)


Blurry photo of a button pin.


YARN!!! The colorway is called "Monsoon". I can't wait to work with it.


Another blurry photo - this time of an emergency sock yarn keychain. Is that cute or what? But clearly, I suck at photography.

Anyway - I dug into the binder and looked at this month's pattern. It is a toe-up, requiring a crochet chain cast-on. What this means is that I'm going to need help (I couldn't make a crochet chain if someone had a gun to my head), and will not be able to start the sock before my trip - as the person who would help me is on vacation for another week.

I'm now pondering some fingerless gloves for the flight.

Mostly back to normal...

Work today was crazy, but at least not tragic. And tonight I ate a very small portion at supper so I could eat my cake. Lest you think I was pigging out, the cake wasn't all that big either...about 4 bites worth. (OK, it was double that size, but I know it's not wise to pig out like that so I shared it with C.)

Anyway, I thought you might like to see a card I got the other day. A good friend of mine who knits is on vacation right now, and she had a birthday while she was gone...so the day before she left I gave her some sock yarn and a sock pattern. So I got this card in the mail (which she made):


Isn't it cute? And see that pocket on the front? Look what was inside:


I think that's a sentiment we can all agree with.

By the way, the Sockotta socks are pretty comfy. The first one I made was a little bit big (if you remember my complaints from when I was making it), it was a bit off gauge because the yarn wasn't holding well after I knit it. The other one was sized much better, thanks to my making my hands sore by making darn sure the stitches were holding. Either way, I'm happy enough with the socks, but I'm still not going to use that yarn again.

In other news, even though I don't have a button, I have stuck to the Knit From Your Stash so far this year. All I have bought so far was stuff for my SP, plus the STR club (and sock yarn doesn't count!). Even when I finish the basketweave, I have so much stuff on deck, with yarn I already have, that I think I am set for awhile. (P.S. Button added. We are rockin'. Even though Linux is a pain in the tail!)