Not a bad weekend, all things considered.  Dad and I went out on Saturday, but we didn’t go too far because it was snowing and quite heavily at times.  And finally, Sunday, I got to stay in and relax for a while.  I didn’t exactly do nothing, but it was pretty close.  I did breathe now and again :)  I also looked around at shawl patterns.  I had been looking forward to making the Victorian Shawl that Elann offers, but I’ve heard so many stories about the pattern that I’m a little leery.  According to some of last week’s commenters (Hi there Amaryllis, Becca and Beanmama!) there is even a Yahoo group centered around a knit along of this pattern, AranWeightVictorianLaceShawlKAL.  I understand they have also worked on clarification and error correction of the pattern which really seems more like a guide-line than an actual pattern.

Anyway (deep breath), this has become more relevant to me since last Friday.  Before that, I didn’t have the yarn to make this pattern.  Now I do :)

This is a late Christmas present from the friend I spent the day with on Friday.  This is Cascade 220, which I haven’t used before but which I have wanted to try.  It feels very nice and the color, well, the color in the picture isn’t right and nothing I could do got any closer to the deep, rich, no yellow undertones of the real deal.  The undertones are blue and this yarn is crimson, glorious, saturated tapestry rose, blue-blood red.  It’s entirely possible that I will find a nice, clear bowl to display this in rather than wait until I’ve decided what to do with it to show it off.  Yes, yes - it’s quite likely I will make the Victorian shawl (or at least something very much like that) with it but I have learned that the universe regards “hard and fast” statements as an excuse to start dropping banana peels in my path.  Hence, I always try to leave a little wiggle room :) 

My friend kindly allowed me the pleasure of helping her deal with DPNs and cast on for a sock for the first time.  She got some gorgeous Wildfoote yarn and some Brittany needles (size 1) and off we went.  She took to this as though she’d been doing it all her life.  I’m sure those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while remember my bitching and moaning about DPNs, how I didn’t like them, couldn’t get used to them and would probably never use them on anything but an emergency basis.  And you also know that after about a year of dancing (almost literally - three steps forward and two steps back!), I finally got to the point where I could cast on consistently and where it’s not a big deal to use them any more; I am very slow to acquire physical skills - a year!  My friend got this down in, oh…I’m going to say 30 seconds.  Tension wasn’t bad, no twisting, no ladders at the transition points between one needle and another - she was doing great!  It was a real thrill to see how quickly her head and hands understood this information.  She might slow down a bit when she gets to turning the heel, but I’m guessing she won’t slow down for long and that the next time we get together for lunch, she be wearing her own, handmade Wildfoote Symphony wool socks :)  Yaaaay!

Yesterday I tried out a stitch pattern I’ve been looking at for a long time.  It’s pretty simple though, for some reason, I thought I would be tedious to work.  It isn’t :)  From the Pattern-a-Day Knitting Stitch Calendar, it’s called Dot Stitch.

Multiple of 4 + 3

Row 1:  K1, *P1, K3*; end P1, K1
Row 2:  Purl
Row 3:  *K3, P1*; end K3
Row 4:  Purl

Nothing to it, see?  What was interesting to me is that while I was working on this stitch, it was difficult to see the pattern.  Not until I put it down did I see the pattern clearly.  This may have had to do with the kind of yarn I was using and perhaps something with a more serious twist and a smoother finish would show things off better.  But you know, I was kind of taken with this aspect of the fabric.  It seemed to me to be a not-seeing-the-forest-for-the-trees kind of thing and until you back up a little, you can’t see enough of the picture to have an accurate feel for what’s really going on.  Now, this wouldn’t have surprised me much with a complicated aran patterning or even a really involved bit of fair-isle.  But this simple stitch?  Way cool!

You all go away now, I’m going to fondle my Cascade :)

Well, I didn’t finish the slippers.  But they’ll be there for later on, another occasion.  I read yesterday on a blog (please forgive me, I don’t remember which blog as I randomly scanned many) - this woman had a gift bag for some of her knitting - kinda like my Dulaan bag.  And you know?  That sounds like a darned good idea :)

Anyways, since there aren’t slippers, there’s this:

...and this to go along with it :)

 
Nothing particularly fancy or special, but cute, I think, in a kind of Fiesta ware sort of way :)  I really, really wanted to do something and crochet (my first craft-language) goes very, very quickly for me.  I dug out a couple of balls of Spotlight cotton, experimented for an hour and then went to work.  So now there’s a mat for the bowl and a rug for the mug too :)  In fact I enjoyed that so much, I might try to think of another crochet project to work on.  Heheh - I guess I’ve recovered from making Myria’s afghan.

The entrelac afghan is coming along and remains an entertaining knit.  I’m going to have to slip half its stitches onto another needle so I can get an idea of its actual size, well, width actually.  The length is currently undetermined :)  I must say, it’s a nice, well behaved little thing - sitting quietly off to the side when I’m not working on it.  Myria’s afghan tended to be a bit of a trouble-maker and a floozy :)  Although, now that I think of it, she resides quietly now, no problems, no obstreperousness, no leaving her colors all over the house.  Perhaps all she needed was to be completed - in which case, it’s a good thing she only took me four days to do!

Oh yeah - I’ve been playing with patterns and lace-weight in my head :)  A few things are beginning to separate themselves from the chaos and maybe that’s something to work on this weekend!

Have a good one!

When we were grocery shopping last week, Myria mentioned wanting a Nintendo DS hand-held.  I only barely knew what it was, kind of a big brother to the Game Boy, but it was no surprise that she wanted one.  Myria has always been the bleeding edge gamer :)

But these buggers are expensive - somewhere in the $130 range and we just didn’t have the resources for it.  As we got into the car I suggested that she trade in her Game Cube (which hadn’t even been turned on in over a year) and all its games plus whatever else she could find.  Gamestop has three stores in our area and we had traded games there before.

The look on her face was priceless.  In fact she kind of just went away for a while.  Finally she turned to me.  “I never even thought of that!”

So home we went, where she put everything together that she wanted to exchange.  She packed everything into a couple of bags and we headed back to the store.  She was hoping to get $40 or so for the trade-ins which would bring the price down to something we could manage.  I thought $60 was more likely but in either case it would be fine.  As it turned out, the Game Cube and its assorted peripherals (connectors, controller, memory, etc…) gave us $123 and change so all we had to lay out for the DS was the princely sum of about $6.  Pretty cool!

There was a small glitch.  Once she got the thing home and charged and started playing with it, Myria discovered there was a stuck pixel about in the middle of the screen.  That means that pixel was stuck in one color and didn’t change as things changed on the screen.  So we went back a couple of days later and exchanged it - no hassles, no problems.  Now everything works perfectly.

I did want to put in a plug for Gamestop though, as always, your mileage may vary.  In a time where it seems very few people know much about the product they’re trying to sell, the folks here (at least in the store we usually go to) really know their stuff.  They know the game consoles and the games inside and out.  Not only that, but they are unfailingly pleasant to deal with.  In terms of good service, they are head and shoulders above most other establishments I deal with on a regular basis.

And I’m afraid that’s it.  Neither of us are feeling too spiffy; I suspect we’re coming down with something and I’m going to be a lump today :)  I’m going to watch movies and knit and not do much of anything else.

Game on!

The end of last week saw me the recipient of a couple of things from two very sweet and thoughtful people.

This came from Nathalie over at KnittingNatty.  Because it’s summer in Australia, it contains wonderful cool recipes for many diabetic friendly meals, libations and desserts and the magazine itself is bright and full of color - a welcome change from the local dreariness.  This is, in a very real sense, my first diabetic cookbook and I can’t wait to try some of this stuff out.  It was an incredibly thoughtful gift.  Many thanks Nat!

Then there was this…

...from Jo Ellyn in Oklahoma.  She had found the tutorial All Aboard the Entrelac Express useful for teaching a student about the entrelac technique and sent me this as a thank-you :)  Tatting is one of those things I never could get the hang of.  Just look at what beautiful work is in this bookmark!  Thank you so much Jo Ellyn; I will use it with great pride and pleasure.

As for the weekend’s knitting, I did start a purse while we were watching North by Northwest, Saturday night on one of our local PBS stations.  The movie was on PBS, not the knitting - well, you know :)  I don’t know if it was Hitchcock or Cary Grant that got under my skin (and it’s not as though I don’t know this film practically by heart!) but the purse didn’t work out to my liking.  No mistakes, in fact it was turning out well and according to the nebulous little plan that was floating around in my head - I just didn’t like it.  So it got ripped yesterday afternoon and this got started instead:

This is the SOS - Special Occasion Slipper from Socks Socks Socks.  It’s a fast knit and I like the construction method a great deal.  The slipper is interesting enough not to be boring as it starts being worked flat, goes to being worked in the round and incorporates a small bit of easy lace.

Now the recipient has a tiny frame - little bitty hands and feet.  And, because this is a gift, ergo a surprise, and because she isn’t here for me to conveniently measure anyway, I took things into my own hands in terms of sizing.  This is beautiful alpaca DK yarn on size 6 needles.  The pattern, which is for a woman’s small, calls for worsted weight on size 7 needles.  You guessed it; the slipper might fit an eight or nine-year-old but it isn’t going to fit my friend no matter how small she is.  So, I’ll add a mate to this for the Dulaan bag and dig out one of those lovely hanks of Classic Elite Wings to make the slippers with.  On size 7s, of course :)

I also spent a lot of yesterday working on the blanket which is actually starting to look like a blanket.  It’s really a gratifying piece of work because although it is essentially stockinette, over and over, it does require attention and mild concentration to pick up the stitches and decide on the color changes - but it’s easy to work.  Just about perfect television knitting and I am surprised at the extent to which I look forward to working on it (as opposed to working on half a dozen other small things!).

I hope all your weekends were good and that the world finds you feisty this cold Monday morning!

I got lucky in a thrift store yesterday.  No, not that kind of lucky.  These came home with me.

The set on the left (the rose colored ones) are the thrift shop set.  The set on the right (the green ones) are needles I already had.  Both sets are size 7.

See the points?  The rose set has long, sharp points.  The points on the green set are shorter and blunter.  I know that the metal DPNs I already have are either Susan Bates or Boye.  Does anyone have any idea who makes (made) needles with the long, sharp points?  I would love to find more of them :)

There were two sets like this, the rose 7s and a set of green 5s - both sets with those lovely points.  I got them both for $1.04.  There was also a lot of very elderly acrylic which I left for a better person than I.

I have discovered that I need a gift for next Friday.  I was thinking about the Peony Purse as I have a lot of nice cottons I could use for it.  I just have to decide on size and color - or possibly colors!  I’m wondering if swapping colors for every repeat of the cable design might be interesting or would it just be too much.  You know, cream, taupe, gold with maybe a little flash of crimson in between?  But them I’m also wondering about making something up as I go along - except that’s never a great idea when I’m working to a deadline :)

And, after the gift is done, I’m giving serious thought to this Victorian Lace Shawl which is incredibly beautiful.  Since it’s made in aran/worsted weight yarn, it would be both substantial and warm.  Although, now that I think about it, there’s no reason it couldn’t be made in sport or DK weight either.  You’d just keep working until the dimensions were what you wanted.  Also, any lace pattern could be used.  The ones given in the pattern are lovely, but the possibility of incorporating my beloved razor shell are beguiling!

Anyway, I have a week or so to dream about it while I figure out what to do with the purse.

Have a wonderful weekend all!

...in which your obedient servant strikes out on her own, only to get in trouble.  Again.

I started a pair of child’s socks last night.  No biggie, a small variation on the child’s sock pattern I always use.  Except that I thought I could probably manage without checking things every two or three seconds.  After all this is a simple pattern and I’ve made it a dozen times now.  I did make a couple of changes, but nothing convoluted or difficult..

First, the yarn:

I wouldn’t exactly call these scraps, but they are fairly minute amounts.  I’m a wicked chicken about even trying anything if I don’t know whether I have enough yarn to finish it.  Practically, what that means is that if I don’t have two or three times the required amount, I won’t even start.

So this is new for me.  The creamy tweed I actually do have a fair amount of.  It’s that lovely orange-yellow contrast color I was uncertain about.  I had hauled out a ball of bright fuchsia to do the heels and toes with but decided at the last minute that the sunshine colored stuff was a better match and would present a more harmonious appearance.

As it turns out, I’m going to have more than enough.  In fact I’ll probably have just enough of that sunshine left over to not want to throw out - you know - but not enough to really do anything with?  It will eventually travel to the bottom of my Dulaan bag, forgotten and unloved.  They’ll have to bury it with me because the possibility of my throwing out a few yards of potentially useful color is non-existent :)

Anyway, I get started thinking baby cable - wouldn’t that look cool instead of regular ribbing?  So that’s how I started.  Only it didn’t look quite a cute as I thought.  It’s not the fault of the stitch; it’s the yarn that’s the issue - the cable is small and the tweed obscures it.  It’s not terrible, but it’s not wonderful either.  So I do three twists and abandon the cable for regular, run-of-the-mill 2x2 ribbing.

Nine o’clock approaches and it’s time for Supernatural.  Have you seen this?  It’s about two brothers who chase after supernatural events and try to solve the attendant problems.  Their mother died a horrible, supernaturally related death and their father is missing.  Eh, the premise is only so-so, but the tales are enthusiastically told and the brother are possibly the most gorgeous young men on television.  Oh mommy! 

Well, you can see where this is going, right?  I can apparently turn a heel or watch Supernatural - but not both :)  I had turned the sock inside-out to attach the contrast color which I attached to the right side of the sock and then proceeded to do the heel flap and heel and first few rows of the gusset decrease.  Inside-out.  If the cuff had just been simple ribbing it wouldn’t have mattered as the fabric would have been reversible.  But no, I had to go playing around with things and throw in a little cable :)

Oh well….

This was the final result, as of about two this morning.  I just couldn’t risk putting the thing down and chance having it think it had defeated me :)  Stubborn, eh?

Whee!  Did we get snow!

Of course the bright sun today and the somewhat warmer temperatures (warmer being an entirely relative thing here, you understand) are very different than the heavy snowfall and winds we had yesterday and the temperatures are supposed to be up in the 40s again by Friday.  This probably won’t be around for long but it sure is pretty :)

Oh, and there’s icicles too!

This is out one of the living room windows but there’s one mammoth specimen outside the bathroom that six feet long, I swear!  These will probably have melted/fallen b y the end of the day but they sure are fun to see.  I want to open the window, break one off and lick it - like I did when I was a kid.  Ahhhh…..

It was a fairly quiet weekend here.  I did do a fair amount of knitting, but it was mostly on the entrelac blanket which isn’t far enough along really, to warrant another picture.  Still, progress is being made and I am enjoying this thing all out of proportion.  It’s about the most perfect TV knitting ever and it’s fun.  Every now and again I take a good look at it (as opposed to just looking at the stitches) and think: Wow!  I’m really doing this!

Myria and I started the game Narnia, Saturday evening.  It’s not bad, though quite a few story elements have been massaged for the sake of making a more action oriented story.  The game uses movie scenes to advance the story and does do very well.  When the next leg of the game has been reached and the movie yields to the game proper, it all looks just right - nothing out of kilter, nothing that looks wrong.  The graphics are very nice and the children move realistically and well.

We are playing in cooperative mode and let me tell you, that takes some getting used to.  Either player has the option of being any one of the four children at any given point in the game and you will have to play as all of them eventually, switching back and forth, to find all the hidden coins and such and to get through all the traps and tricky parts (you are being attacked by wolves on a nearly constant basis; crows are a problem as well).  Peter is the strongest, Susan is your ranged weapon, Edmund has fine physical skills and Lucy is the healer.

Oh, and this isn’t an “easy” game either.  I had thought, given the nature of the story and the fact that the characters are children, that this wouldn’t be much of a challenge.  It’s probably not up there with Metal Arms - A Glitch in the System for legitimate challenge, but it’s not a stroll in the park either.  All in all, not too bad :)

I have kind of a busy week coming up.  I don’t expect to miss any blog days, but I tell you just in case because, well, because you never know!

And I’m still thinking about socks :)