First things first. Thank you all very much for your incredibly supportive comments to Monday’s post. You helped me to feel so much better (and less nervous) about moving in a new direction with my knitting. You folks are pretty wonderful!
Well, yesterday turned out to be productive despite an iffy beginning.
See, we have a leak. Well, more accurately, the upstairs neighbors have a leak which is ruining our hall ceiling and wall and beginning to impinge on the kitchen as well.
Front hall ceiling and walls
Okay, fine. So we stayed home Friday and Saturday. Think anybody showed up?
Yesterday, we planned to finally get the Christmas tree out, return all our bottles and cans (which have been building up since before the holidays), hit the hospital for my regularly scheduled blood work, do some badly needed general shopping and stop by dad’s. So early in the morning, with Myria in the shower and me still in my nightclothes, there was a knock on the front door. It was the landlord - and he wanted to bring in the plumber in 20 minutes.
Amidst much gnashing of teeth (not to mention pissing and moaning) we were able to finish showering and get ourselves dressed before the gentlemen arrived. And we sat at the kitchen table while our whole morning drifted away to the sounds of drills and hammers. In the end, nothing was done. They’ll let us know when they’ll be back.
Nifty…
We did, eventually, get out and we did get everything done but lost further time at the hospital where they seemed to think I was there for something else entirely. It took an hour (and conversations with three different people) to get things straightened out. The actual blood letting drawing took only a couple of minutes.
Actual Knitting Content
Basketweave Toddler’s Socks
Marguerite also has a little vest pattern that I think I’m going to try too - just as cute as the socks and just as carefully thought out :)
Moss stitch swatch
I have been sort of half-ass planning this for a while now. In fact I’d been thinking about it long enough to decided I would make this first effort out of nice, washable, inexpensive acrylic. The idea was that if I didn’t finish the thing, I wouldn’t have wasted a lot of money and that while acrylic might not make an authentic Aran, it could make a perfectly nice sweater in the Aran style.
All that turned out to be a crock of sheep dip :) When I sat down last night (after we finally got home) to cast on for the cable swatch, I looked at the acrylic (lovely shade of blue violet, too) and then looked at the Fisherman’s Wool. I went for the wool. So, I’ll be getting some more of that :)
Cast on
So I’ll be working on this for the next couple of days and hopefully, will have some cables to show you on Friday!
No trackbacks yet.
well, you *did* have quite a day- good to know things weren’t dull-
i will enjoy your progress with the aran- i’m going to be making peter the aran afghan from the same designer, but i won’t have anything lovely to wear as a result of my efforts- i enjoy working with the fisherman yarn, and i’ve used it in the construction of a lot of different things- it certainly does remind me of the old timex watch commercial that talks about ‘takes a licking and comes up ticking’ or something like that- i’ve had a few unintentional and regrettable felting accidents with it too- umm, just saying-
stay happy-
Hmmm. I’ve been vacillating on the FLAK myself, mostly due to the extreme lack of time that I have right now.
(But I dug up some acrylic out of my stash too. :) Oddly, I think some of the acrylic I have is softer than the Fisherman’s Wool.)
Barb - Well, it’s going to be interesting at any rate. There isn’t much shaping to this so in a way, it’s a good sweater to start with - since I’ve never made a sweater before :)
And yeah, I know Fisherman’s wool isn’t machine washable and know to be careful when washing it :)
Colleen - Well, Caron Simply Soft it isn’t but it’s not Shetland wool either. And I think if I use a bit of conditioner when I wash it I can make it skin-acceptable.
At least that’s my plan :)
Dang, I think what y’all REALLY need for the new year are new neighbors. Or lower rent for a situation that’s not up to par. I find I can tolerate more defects if I get a good deal.
Hmmm thinking that over don’t take that to mean ANYTHING at all about your blog!! eek
On to other things before I really get my foot stuck… I like the feel of wool, even Lion Brand’s Fisherman wool. That’s the only wool I can get without involving some sort of postal delivery system.
I finally made myself do this one thing concerning knitting: IF what I intend to do involves casting on, a set up row or anything to do with counting I make myself do a head check. If I’m tired, distracted or anything less than what passes for sharp I put off doing that activity. Otherwise there is ripping, frogging and gnashing.
From the other day, I’ve got the Go-Go’s ‘Vacation’ stuck in my head now...why?? I’d rather have anything by Betty Hutton. Murder, He Says! WooHooo.
Aarlene - New neighbors would suit me right down to the ground but it ain’t gonna happen any time soon. Better for me to work on my tolerance :)
I like the feel of wool too - and most of the wool blends, for that matter. While I’ll defend the use of acrylic with my dying breath (and, of course do use it too) I’m liking wool more and more and am less and less willing to go acrylic just because it’s more in line with my budget :)
Your “head check” makes perfect sense. I’m going to try to remember that in the future. Especially when I’m trying to cast on something complicated late in the evening :)
