Random Knitty Silliness

Today I was caught by the neighbor taking pictures of my socks in the back yard. I realized the absurdity of being found wearing wool socks in 98 percent humidity and pretended she wasn't there. She didn't say anything either, I imagine she backed away slowly. A least I got a nice picture of the uptown boot sock that shows off the purple yarn. Now I don't have to hang my head in shame on ravelry.

I have no new socks to show you because I have no new socks on the needles. (Ribbons of shame, Ribbons of shame!) This didn't seem to be much of a problem until I had to go to the movies and had no sock to knit. So I figured, "What's the difference between knitting a sock and winding a ball of yarn?" So that's what I did ...... in a completely full movie theater ...... no one said anything. Though I'm sure the couple right next to me were thinking, "What is this freak doing?" But they seemed to be too busy trying to get the people with the screaming baby kicked out to bother with me.

The fun silver cable project is taking all my time. The back is done and now I'm moving on to a sleeve. There was actually some sunlight in the house to take advantage of. Whoopee! Now I don't have to completely blow the neighbors mind with half knitted sleeves in the grass. Those cables look great. Crab looks confused, but he always looks like that. Hmmm he has nice claws to hold DPNs, maybe he can start knitting new socks.

60 degrees in August? Picture time!

First many thanks to my husband who cheerfully participated in not one, but two picture taking sessions to get a completed sweater photo. He even said "Work it, work it," as I spun around thinking I was looking elegant. It turns out I was actually looking pissed off/fat/goofy, take your pick. Couple that with the bad lighting in our apartment and you have a very uninspiring FO. That's too bad because this is a great design and I've been wearing it everyday. Pattern - Slouchy Cardigan from "Greetings from Knit Cafe"
Yarn - Plymouth Baby Alpaca DK in a color 402, 9-10 skeins (Had to buy more and I don't really remember the total)
Needle size - ummmm one size smaller than pattern called for. I got this book from the library so I can't reference it now.

(Photo Caption: Did I eat all the cookies in my cabinet? My sweater will never tell.)

Note to self: Maybe you should keep some records.

Mods - When I learned to knit from "Stitch and Bitch" the book did say to check the web for any pattern errors before starting. Did I do this? Hell no! We're lucky I even knit a swatch and got the correct gauge. The pattern for the back is error free so I was lulled into a false sense of security. Then at the beginning of a
two hour train ride I realized something completely wacky is going on with the decrease on the front. I wasn't going to sit there and do nothing for two hours so I just decreased semi-randomly until I got the right stitch count. Luckily this worked fine. All the corrections are in an easy to find place on the knit cafe website. I only have myself to blame for not looking.
If I knit this sweater again I might do it in something other than alpaca. The Plymouth Baby DK has a nice drape but it also sheds like crazy. It's already pilling under the arms and......across my butt. (My butt destroys all clothing, it is a force of nature that can not be contained.)

Ravelry

I got my ravelry invite!!!!!! So instead of babbling about the cursed somewhat cowl and cables twisted in the wrong direction, I'll be surfing the ravelry site until my eyes blur.
But first.......

Some times nature gives you a tomato....


That must be dressed up.

On being married to a former boy scout

My husband came home from work and told me he had drive up to Bethlehem (PA) to visit a contractor. His office had paper work they needed from the contractor by Monday and he had been told to pick it up. I LOVE Bethlehem! The awesome downtown holds, a yarn store, a chocolate store, and independent book store (The trifecta!) The bookstore is actually 4 facades of older building that were kept intact. But internally they opened up the side walls so that the place is gigantic and has has beautiful lighting from all the sky lights. They have books of course, but also a cafe, housewares, Christmas ornaments, gardening equipment, etc (all of this is like crack to me). I've said that I would like to live in that book store and I wasn't really joking. So the first words out of my mouth were, "That's a long drive for you, but I could come along and shop while you're in the contractor's office." My husband just ignored this and talked about his day. So I brought it up later saying I could call out of work and then meet him when ever he decided to leave his office. He didn't answer again so I let it drop for the night and asked him again in the morning. Finally he said, "No, it's not right that you come, because it's work."
Honestly my brain can not process this, how can it be wrong for me to sit in a car already going to a destination and then use my free time to shop while he is doing his job. Visions of a fun Friday spent squeezing yarn and leafing through books vanished and I put myself on the train to work. Sighhhhhhhh.
He did bring me back chocolate though.

And now for something completely different..... the color orange. The color orange and I used to have a deeply hateful relationship, probably due to the fact that I look hideous wearing it. But when I had color theory in college, orange started to seem OK. Then somehow it became my favorite color for household products. Frog models by one of my precious orange trash cans. I have two and they have horrified friends in the past. Then of course we have Mr Crab who is a very happy orange color, hanging out next to the Dashing Dachs colorway goldfish which has great oranges in it. Still it wasn't until today that I realized I had come full circle in my relationship with orange. It happened when I saw The Knittery's brunt orange merino/cashmere sock yarn at woolgirl.com. I wanted to buy it and make myself a pair of soft winter socks sooooo bad. So bad that I could taste it. But I've balanced that check book and between car repairs, new orders of contacts and the fact that I've bought 2 sweaters worth of yarn already, fun money is gone. Sighhhhhh.

Yarny Goodness

A quick yarn texture shot for your enjoyment. Some times I stop knitting just to pet the completed portion.

I love you Wool and Silk blend. You are so soft and pretty. Your ball of yarn smells like woolly goodness. Your color is always nice, changing from light gray to silvery in the sun. Can we stay together forever?

Sweaters glorious sweaters

I thought that I had a post started mid week but I must have dreamed that. What I wanted to talk about on Monday/Tuesday is that I found out the Simply Shetland 4 book came out with Eunny Jang's Autumn Rose Pullover in it. Drool.

Then I found a new to me online store www.twoswansyarns.com who had the book and all the colors of shetland spindrift needed. The box arrived a lot quicker than I expected since it had to cross the country, so I would buy from there again! I thought a picture of some of the yarn was in order and Frog helped me with my picture set up. This is my first project with more than one color so it was a bit awkward knitting two handed but I think I'm catching on. Just have to watch that tricky neck.

Then we had a bit of a break in the heat wave today, it was a beautiful 80 to 83 degree day with blue skies and a cool breeze. So I decided to drive down to Anthropologie and try on sweaters. (Can you tell I'm ready for fall clothing) In the store there were several more sweaters than I'd seen on their website last week, Bonus! Anthropologie's designers/buyers are really going with the knitwear trend this year. There had t0 be at least 35-40 different styles in there. And what was really exciting was that most of the sweater were solid color with cables, seed stitch, lace patterns and a bunch of other wonderful textures I picked up a pair of jeans and a tank top and then grabbed at least 10 sweaters. They were so dead back in the fitting room the women let me take everything into the room with a smile. So lets just say I had a lot of fun and then I put everything back. That trip gave me a ton of design ideas and I also found out I look good in a couple of styles I'd never tried before. Here is the pretty yarn I'm swatching today instead of fixing stuff on the cursed somewhat cowl or continuing with the Eunny Jang Autumn Rose Pullover. (I will be continuing on that later). It is Louise Harding Grace with 50/50 mix of wool and silk. Yum

Is your sweater cursed?

Had to take a week off of knitting due to the painful neck cramp. There were good books to read so my knitting ban could have been worse. Since then I've been knitting on the somewhat cowl which I now believe is cursed. (Can you knit the devil into it or does he just have one of his minions show up late night to lay a curse on it). In just this weekend I've unraveled several days of work and then realized that everything I knit last night was in the wrong needle size. I feel like throwing it into a dark closet corner never to be seen again. Part of me thinks if I press on that the sweater will turn out wearable the other part thinks I should stop now before I make more mistakes. What I need is a "Is your sweater cursed?" test.

Is Your Sweater Cursed Quiz? (by cosmo)
1. When you sit down to knit your sweater what thoughts come into your head?

a. It feels good to make something with my hands.
b. I need to decrease an extra 2 inches and add some extra ribbing.
c. Could I commit Harri Kari on bamboo circulars?

2. Complete this sentence. My yarn is.....

a. The softest most beautiful thing that I've ever knit with.
b. Inexpensive and easy to work with.
c. The spawn of Satan. I can hear the split stitches mocking me.

3. How do you feel while your knitting?

a. Calm and at peace.
b. Happy with a sense of accomplishment.
c. Like pea soup might come shooting from your mouth at any minute.

4. What do you think knitting this sweater is teaching you?

a. Playing with color and textures is a lot of fun.
b. How to successfully execute a new technique.
c. Curse words in foreign languages.

5. What are you looking forward to once this sweater is finished?

a. To have a pretty new sweater that goes with my shoes.
b. Having something that keeps me warm in January.
c. Setting fire to said sweater on the front lawn while I dance around it laughing manically.


Key
If you answered a to most of the questions congratulations you are in knitting Nirvana or are possibly on mood altering drugs. What ever the source of your upbeat mood enjoy knitting your curse free sweater and we hope that it looks cute with your shoes.

If you answered b to most of the questions then you don't need this quiz because your sweaters are always on gauge and fit perfectly. Wrap yourself up in the curse free sweater you finished ahead of schedule and go organize your spice rack.

If you answered c to most of the questions immediately drop your sweater onto the ground and back away quickly. Your sweater is cursed and may be extremely dangerous. Have one of your family members call a priest while you arm yourself with double points in case the sweater tries to attack. Should members of the clergy think you are insane and refuse to come to your house to exorcise the sweater, go with your gut instincts and burn it on the lawn. Tell the neighbors you are helping your kids with their campfire badges, then smile and offer them some s-mores.