See you then!

I seem to be having an odd relationship with time these days in that I can’t seem to keep it straight.  In particular, I can’t seem to remember when we...well...when Myria has a hairdresser’s appointment.  Last time I was prepared to swear that there was no appointment, that we had decided that a delay was in order for some reason.  What reason?  Who knows?  Was there an appointment?  Yes indeedy there was :)

This time there was no question about whether there was an appointment or not - it said so in my PPC!  So, on Wednesday we packed ourselves into the car and headed up to Maine.  It was a gorgeous day for a drive - warm, but not too humid - and we arrived at the salon with time to spare.  When we walked in, Mark (our hairdresser) seemed pleased to see us - in a puzzled sort of fashion.

I don’t have you folks down for today!

Of course then I hauled the PPC out of my purse and took a good look at the August calendar page.  Our appointment was for Wednesday at 1:00 in the afternoon - as always.  However, it was for the 22nd, not the 15th.

Mark, however, being a good man, not given to being thrown off by the vicissitudes of other people’s time-keeping was able to work us in without difficulty.

You might think all this confusion about hair appointments stems from my not having any :) I suppose that could indeed be the case.  Perhaps, like Samson, once you take away my hair, there isn’t enough left to bother worrying about.  If that is the case then by the time of our next appointment in October I should be doing a bit better.  Actually, the hair over my ears is already a bit shaggy but I’ve had this persistent and annoying bald spot right at the crown which finally seems as though it’s going to fill in :)

When I’ve been knitting, I’ve been noodling about things like this:

The stitch pattern (though it doesn’t show up very well here) is based on the one used in the Tidal Wave Socks.  Here it is mirrored out from the center line of the piece.  Unfortunately, the pattern is a little...um...muted?  Further away than a few inches, and all that’s visible is the eyelets.  Arguably, I suppose, that’s what lace is all about but I really want the stitch pattern to be a real and integral part of the piece and, preferably, visible! 

I do like the shape the piece is taking - mostly because of the garter stitch strip start - but the rest of it leaves a fair amount to be desired.  On with the playing!

I also received a package on Wednesday…

...from the inimitable Bron.  She had a contest last week and I was one of the fortunate winners!

I haven’t used Cotton Ease before so I’m really looking forward to trying this stuff - not to mention the absolutely luscious color!  It has a very nice feel (in the ball anyway) and my only problem now is coming up with a project :) I’m going to take my time though - this is lovely stuff and I want to do it justice!  Thanks a million Bron!

Chatters will be on tomorrow night - same time, same place (see sidebar for details).

Have a great weekend!

It was a quiet weekend here - hot, but quiet.  It’s hard to believe it’s the middle of August already!

I had decided to do a more substantial swatch on the Moonlight Sonata shawl since the first one I tried didn’t come out very well - at least I didn’t like it.  So I did that.  Rather than just trying out the stitch pattern though, I took a ball of fingering weight yarn, sat down with my size 6 circular and cast on - just as though I were going to really make the shawl. I worked through the garter stitch edge, the pick-ups and the first repeat of the stitch pattern.

I’m afraid I still don’t like it.  The pattern is quite clear and, as far as I can tell has no mistakes in it - I just don’t seem to like it in person as much as I liked the on-line pictures.  Even taking into consideration that it will look funky until a good stern blocking has straightened things out…





I still like the medallion kind of motif and I may try to work this out some other way, incorporate it into a different setting, as it were.  I’ve also given some thought (yes, it was painful!) to trying the whole thing in plain garter stitch to see how/if that might work.  I’ll tell you this - as much fun as I have piddling around with stitch patterns, doing the math, and making things up as I go along, I could never have come up with something like this and I humbly bow to the person who did.  This took work, this did :)





I do like the strip start.  I was wondering about that here and, as you know, a test of that led to the Meanderthal Shawl.  That kind of start seems to provide a slight curve to the long side of the shawl, encouraging it to stay on your shoulders more easily.  Definitely a good thing!  However, on the MS shawl, there is also a little loop decoration provided for by a YO, K2tog at the beginning of the row.  I like the idea but I didn’t like the look of the loops much.  I think, if I wanted something like that, I might just do the strip in plain garter stitch and add a bit of crocheted lace later on - or I guess you could pick up stitches and knit lace (either along the edge or sideways).  The loop just looked sloppy to me.

So, now I have all this fingering weight yarn to play with :) You know, that’s not such a terrible thing!

I moved ahead a little on the red bag, but wound up ripping it back twice before I could get it right.  No, it wasn’t anything difficult - just my brain going on vacation without notice :)

I’m working down the flap now.  I find that I really only can work on this for an hour or so at a time - not because of the inelastic yarn, but because I find that I’m knitting very tightly.  Probably that’s not a bad thing for a bag, but it is odd.  Generally, with the exception of socks, my work is a little on the loose side.  In this case, I don’t want to aggravate my hands or wrists, so I’m taking it a little slower than I might, say, if I were working on a shawl or an afghan.  A little progress every day and I’ll get there in the end :)

And, while it isn’t anything spectacular, I did finish the first little sock…

...and am ridiculously pleased with the way it came out :) The mate will follow presently.

So, how was your weekend?

C’mon by!

I hate narrow aisles in stores and markets - and it seems to be becoming epidemic around here.  It’s a rarity for a supermarket aisle to be wide enough to turn your carriage around in.  I’m not normally claustrophobic, but when there’s someone both in front of and behind me, I start feeling trapped and a little panicky.  I live in terror of being stuck between the girl who’s having a top-of-the-lungs argument with her boyfriend on her cell phone, and the little elderly person who’s carefully and thoroughly reading every label on the shelf in their never-ending search for a lower sodium olive!

A couple of mornings ago I was doing some minor shopping and came around the end of the aisle only to find a small, plump person - complete with carriage - corked in the end of the next aisle.  She was with a friend who was bent over a display when she noticed me standing there, waiting.

“Did you want to come up this aisle?” she asked.

“Yes, please.” I smiled, trying to be pleasant and not seem impatient. 

She stuck an abrupt, palm-up hand in my face.

“Fifty cents.”

I stood there for about 10 seconds with my jaw on the floor before the giggles kicked in.  We all had a good chuckle about the cramped shopping space and went on our respective merry ways.

---

I started a small project from the Sensational Knitted Socks book.

I’ve been being very careful to follow the instructions as they are written rather than wandering off and doing my own thing, as I am wont to do.  To learn something, one has - occasionally - to listen to voices other than the ones in one’s own head :)

And, I’m pleased to say, I am learning :) I found her heel flap instructions very physically awkward to execute (not doubt I’ll get used to it in time) but it made a beautiful flap and was certainly worth doing.  Likewise the picking up of gusset stitches; Schurch has you pick up a couple extra stitches which you knit together on the subsequent round to close/prevent that annoying little hole that creates itself between the gusset and instep stitches.  Works beautifully!  I have always (well, since I started knitting socks anyway!) despised that hole so I’m not sure that little gem of information wasn’t worth the price of the book all by itself!

I was stymied for a little while on the new bag because in my enthusiasm for the yarn and the stitch pattern, I wasn’t thinking clearly about where I wanted to go with this - and that did require a little thinking about :)

I’ve decided (right now, any way - God knows things could change!) that this is the back of the bag.  I’ve finished the patterning, continued over the top in garter stitch and will proceed down the front flap with, perhaps, a minor variation on the stitch pattern.  The front panel will be plain reverse stockinette with garter stitch borders and I’m thinking the sides/bottom/strap will be about 7 stitches wide, incorporating a single one of the embossed motifs at spaced intervals.

I also had a go at the stitch pattern for the Moonlight Sonata shawl and made a complete hash of it :( I was trying to follow the chart and didn’t have a lot of luck.  I’m thinking I will wind one of the hanks of fingering weight and have a go at the shawl pattern (not just the stitch pattern) over the weekend, following the written instructions and see where that gets me :)

---

You may have noticed a new button on the sidebar?

This links to Flagstaff International Relief Effort (F.I.R.E.), specifically to their Project Mongolia page on which is discussed the types of help (not only knitted items) they are seeking.  If this is something you are also interested in, please feel free to grab a copy of the button (do not link to this one, please!) for your own web page or blog.

---

Finally, we had to replace the toilet seat this week.  Not a major operation, of course - a reasonably bright girl armed with a screwdriver can accomplish this in about 10 minutes.  The old seat (and I mean ancient!) was plastic or resin - something solid and hard.  The new seat, however, is one of these soft, padded jobs.  It’s comfortable enough - but a little disconcerting.  When sitting on the throne feels similar to sitting down in your armchair - getting the bladder to actually let go takes a bit of conscious effort.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it :)

Chatters is on for tomorrow night - same time, same channel.  Hope to see you there!

Have a great weekend, everyone :)

My order came!  My order came!

Isn’t it silly, a great, middle-aged lump like me, jumping up and down like a kid because some yarn arrived?  Heheh… One takes one’s pleasures where one can :)

In best Daffy Duck fashion: Mine! Mine-mine-mine-mine-mine-mine-mine!!!!!

This has hardly been out of my hands since it arrived - I have been reading it obsessively and plotting :) I love the clarity of the patterns and especially the wealth of stitch patterns that accompany the socks.  I’m preaching to the choir, I’m sure, but this is a must have for a sock knitter and I expect I’ll be looking to start a pair fairly soon :)

This is the yarn for the Moonlight Sonata Shawl and oh, what a wonderful, warm scent of lanolin wafted out of the bag when I opened this up!  I’m still fooling around with color ideas, but I’ve got plenty of yarn to experiment with.  The shawl, as written, calls for a bit over 650 yards of fingering weight yarn.  I will be enlarging it somewhat and I wanted enough yarn to play with so I could do gauge and color swatches with impunity.  So I ordered 1760 yards :) Think that’ll be enough?  I figure even if I only use half of it for this shawl, I’ll have the rest for another project.





I’ve been wanting to try the CotLin (DK weight) since I first saw it and I have to tell you this Moroccan Red is the most mouth-watering shade I’ve ever seen.  It’s a 70% cotton/30% linen blend and I was afraid it might be a little stiff - you know, hard on the fingers?  But it’s not - it’s really quite nice to work with and works up absolutely beautifully :)

Ev - you know that bag I was trying to get going with Saturday evening?  It was apparently waiting for this yarn to arrive :)

That’s the size 6 Options needle in there which was also part of the order, along with size 8s.  I love these needles - especially the slick finish and the sharp points.  They make working with a non-elastic fiber a breeze.  I wouldn’t trade in my Addis for anything and I use them all the time too - but I probably won’t be adding any more of them to my collection :)

I have gotten in line for Ravelry and am waiting, more or less patiently for my invite.  Those who have gotten into the playground already seem to be having a wonderful time so I’m looking forward to seeing what this is all about.  At least most of the time I’m excited about it.  Once in a while the snowballing nature of the thing looks a little intimidating.  I guess we’ll see!

Okay - back to dreaming about Moonlight colors and on with the bag!

ACK!

All around me, people are having startitis with abandon and what did I do this past weekend?  Well, I picked up and put down the mitten at least a dozen times working, maybe, one row per pick-up.  I have been casually thinking that a crocheted cotton bag would see me through the rest of the summer in style and so tried that out Saturday evening - tried it out and ripped it out - and after 5 or 6 swings at it, gave it up as a bad job.  Oh yeah, I also cast on for socks yesterday before remembering that with a sock book coming, (soon, I hope!) anything I started now would be doomed to forlorn abandonment :)

Part of my sense of “hanging” is that I have already decided what I want to do next - The Moonlight Sonata shawl as I mentioned on Saturday - but I’m still waiting for the yarn to arrive and so can’t do anything about that yet. 

However, I did receive a package in the mail Saturday - not the one I was expecting though.  This one was a wonderful surprise!  It contained…

...an assortment of teas.  The Lady Grey is in a zip-lock because I, impatient wench that I am, couldn’t wait to try it out and so opened the package almost as soon as I got it out of the box :)





...a wonderful cookbook put together especially with the needs of diabetics in mind and paying attention not just to sugars, but to carbohydrates as well.  The thing about this book is that it doesn’t just tell you to eat oatmeal and fresh fruit.  It has recipes for Singapore Noodles, Beef Satay, Kumara and Coriander soup (sweet potato and cilantro) and a host of other wonderful, interesting and mouth-watering things :) There’s a Daal with egg and eggplant that I’m especially anxious to try!





...and these tiny mini-snips (about an inch from end to end) which are about the cutest things I ever saw.  They will come in very handy and I’m just trying to figure out where they’ll be the most useful.  I’ll probably hang them on my key ring - that way they’ll be handy wherever I happen to be!

This unexpected and much appreciated largess comes from Nat over at KnittingNatty and is a late birthday present.  Nat it’s all splendid.  I’m sampling the teas and absolutely agog at the cookbook.  In fact, I’m going to go out to shop tomorrow with some specific things from that book in mind.  Thank you so much for this package - I love it all!

Finally I sat down last night and started another One Row scarf - my old stand-by when I can’t think of anything else to do (anything else that’s likely to actually be completed, that is!) and need something easy to work on.  Despite my continuing confusion and sorrow over the Dulaan project, there will be somewhere for this to go and, hopefully, someone to enjoy it at the other end :)

Yes, yes, not forgetting the mittens :)