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Zip, zip, zipping along. My thumb still feels a bit odd, but I forged onward. I would love to have it finished to wear saturday but I really kinda doubt it unless I stay up very late Friday, and HEY no deadlines for this girl!
A little sleeve shapping and then a nice, straight and ribby neckline.
Work has been a mess and busy. I have a document due tommorow, well two documents due tommorow.
meh
Well 1 more inch and then some ribbing and I'll be done with one side.
I just love the fabric and color this yarn creates.
I didn't push myself tonight, still giving the hands a bit of a rest. I have been catching up with Sex and the City at nights, and I just love watching Mikhail Baryshnikov (pssst, I know how to pronounce this one hehe). Do you have any idea who this man is? He is so amazing. My mother had a big thing for him when I was growing up. We used to sit and watch his Ballet's on VHS all the time, over and over. My mother loves Ballet, she had this one tape of him and he was like a mad scientist and he kills himself at the end and it was so amzingly done.
I reccomend the movie "White Nihgts" (1985 Drama), it was really good. Not only was he an artist, but he could do amazing things with his body, there has been no great ballet dancer sence him. He was I guess the end of an era.
Well today my sister had her 2nd baby boy! They had not settled on a name as of 1am this morning and I have yet to talk to her. But it's a boy and he's 6 pounds even though he was 3 weeks early! Everything seems fine however, I guess he was just ready to come out!
I didn't knit a stitch last night as I decided to give my hands a break.
Here is my "iPod Shuffle" meme:
1. Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc
2. Death Cab for Cuttie - Soul Meets Body
3. She Wants Revenge - Tear Your Apart
4. BT - Shame
5. Modest Mouse - Float On
6. Cascada - Everytime We Touch
Update:
It's a perfect day when you get Spinoff! and yarn in the mail :) I got some phildar de-stash from mygomi for a good price, go check out her cute new haircut :)
I plan on making a stripey essential-stripe with this one day, probably next fall.
We have a visitor at our house several times a week. I have named him Mikey. He comes and knocks at our big kitchen window now and then. It drives the cat wild. I have no idea why he knocks on our window, maybe he wants to come in. He sits on the branches of our giant butterfly bush and taps away. I usually have to just walk into the kitchen up to the window and he will fly away.
See how he sits right next to the cats climbing tree? Maniacle little bird!
Last night I worked for a while on my "London" and then decided my poor fingers needed a change of pace. I thought it might be a good idea to finish an actual sock to get my motivated to knit my Sockapaloooza pals socks in April. When I got needles on Saturday I also grabbed some sock yarn for the sole purpose of not worrying about how the sock turns out. Most times I love the sock yarn and rip, rip, rip, wanting the perfect sock... to do the yarn justice! So this time I got some sock yarn that I could stand to knit with, but wasn't so pretty that I hated myself while knitting it.
"London" is on the straights for the front now and coming along well.
Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn Handpaint in "Rhapsody", in my mind I have named it "Fruit Punch" because it reminds me of all the wonderful dark shades you get in various fruit punch. It's not in too many of my favorite colors because I didn't want to like it too much, however I do think it's pretty.
I'm pretty tired, the dogs woke me up at 2am because the cat knocked the alarm clock off the table. This was messing with my special healing time! My trainer informed me that between 10pm and 2am is when your body heals in a sort of auto-mode. I yawned from 9pm till Midnight. I should have just gone to bed when I started yawning, but of course I was stubborn and stayed up. Last week I was fairly depressed in week 4 of my new workout life style. Then this past Sunday night I looked in the mirror and saw some CHANGE! I was very excited by this, and weighed myself and actually did weigh less. I'm not so much focused on the weight though, I'm more focused on my butt lol! I am not doing a lot of cardio, only to warm up. Mainly I am doing weight lifting to tone my body.
When I warmed up yesterday on the elliptical I managed to go for 15 minutes and burn 90 calories. Again I don't care so much about the number but 2 weeks ago when I got on that stupid thing I only burned 60 in the same amount of time. This means I am getting stronger and more endurance! I'm getting healthier yay! I do fall asleep way easier since I started working out. Last night was an exception, if I had not been determined to watch Star Wars and knit through the ribbing on the sock, I think I would have gone right to bed.
My work out guys name is Josh, and I really hope he doesn't quit. The girl I started with who I liked a lot quit the second week I had her. The other guy who is supposed to be really good, is always late or doesn't show up. They pay these guys around about $6 bucks per half hour session, but they are charing customers $40 to $50 per session, maybe less if you haggle them down. How disgusting is that? I don't know the name of the company, but it's at LA Fitnesse, however it's a seperate company.
So yeah Josh, he's a lot of fun, probably about my age. We talk about boats and knitting. We talked about knitting because yesterday when doing crunches my right arm was hurting and I started laughing and he wanted to know why I was laughing. I was laughing because my arm muscle was sore from KNITTING and well how do you tell someone that?! So well I did, and he asked what I knit and when I said socks he went "Oh wow cool now that would be neat to have! A pair of soft hand-woven socks!". I thought it was funny he appreciated the idea of hand knit socks, even if he used the word woven. I informed him about the sub-culture of knitting blogs on the internet and he was very impressed.
Yes, I am a complete dork because I talked about knitting with my personal trainer. I don't think it gets worse then that! In other news I have a topic now for my next podcast, Knitting Controversies!! Oooh!!
I spent all weekend knitting on my tank. I just love the color of this yarn! I have gone through 2 balls of yarn sense friday night, so about 230 yards of yarn, 100g. Doesn't sound like much saying it, but it sure felt like a lot! This yarn just glows in the sunlight.
I wish I could get a detail shot of the yarn. I think it's 2 ply and the two ply's are ever so slightly different colors. It creates a very pretty fabric. I do think this yarn is less "strong" then some of it's descriptions imply. Cotton in any blend is splity and sometimes will fray.
I put it next to my shoe for scale. I am 9.5" in, and once I hit 11" I'll split the front and back to work separately. This is the fastest I have knit anything, though Tivoli went fairly fast. I am listening for once, and just knitting one thing at a time. I feel like I have hit a new level in my knitting abilities (even if it's more mental then physical).
The day was sunny, with a strong and crisp chill in the air.
Sunday night we had a bit of an adventure. The front door got STUCK closed earlier in the day. The husband tried as he might to open it, and take off the door-nob, and take the door off the hinges, but the whole entire door was stuck. Even though it was un-locked, the lock got stuck in the locked position. As in broken, no way to un-lock it.
So we called a 24 hr locksmith and $200 big ones later (have to LEAVE the house for work you know!) we have a new door nob, that happily works with our old house keys. I had no idea they could do that on the fly like he did. Kinda neat. The dogs wouldn't stop barking when he had to cut through the old lock. It was neat, he put two blow up thingies in the door and pumped air into them. That gave him enough room between the door and the door frame to stick the skinny saw blade through and cut the bolt through. Then he was able to open the door.
At first I was thinking, hrmm that's an easy way to break into a house, but then the sound of the sawblade made it clear it would not be a wise choice for a criminal.
I'm don't really care for any in this collection, they are all pretty, just not things I would knit. I likw to sleevless things in the winter, or very simple light cardigans. Nothing too fancy or too short.
Saturday afternoon I went to Gainsville to a fun knitting gathering! I found it via JenLa's blog, it's a yahoo group. Apparently they have been meeting a few months but you would think they have been meeting for a while. Everyone was so nice and knitting all kinds of fun things!
Before I went I had DH take photos of me in the top, but I opted not to wear it because it was fairly chilly out (below 50 all week, what the heck georgia!).
My husband is not the worlds best photog, but it gets the job done!
One of the most rewarding effects of doing a Podcast is all the new people you meet! Another knitter, Wendy from KnitSanity, is also knitting the Dalegarn Trend London tank! Hers is nearly done too! Go check it out, it looks perfect!
We all know the feeling, that's why we have KAL's to begin with! All us knitters love knitting things and watching over people knit it too! It's motivational, inspiring! It's just plain fun. I love for example Grumperina's gallery with all the Picovoli's. It's neat to see how they all look knit up in different fabrics and colors.
Well the sun appears to be out, so I'm off to get some small darning needles.
I am through the ribbing and into the miles of stockinette. I wish it would go faster, but I havn't had time to knit as much as I would like.
I think these photo's are fairly color accurate.
I have struggled with this knit, as sometimes I feel it's gong to be to large, I am just going onward with it and not allowing myself to frog. I appear to have gauge so everything should be fine. It's just like shopping for clothing in the mall, all sizes are not the same even if the number matches.
No head ache last night! Apparently I am making up for the past 4 days of misery with an extreme bout of energy. Last night I jammed away on a Dalegarn Trend sleeveless top. I was going to knit the cute little v-neck shell but decided against it because it starts out by knitting two bottom bands and THEN slip stitching them to get them in the round. I just *really* wasn't in the mood and was craving some more circular madness. So I opted for the cute ribby top in this photo:
I am not going to be doing any stripes or anything fancy. I think if I like how it turns out I might knit one with stripes for my sister in the cover colors while are pinks and blacks. It's also a tad short so I'm going to make it an inch longer. All of these shells in this book are different lengths!
I was pleased with how much I got done in 2 hours last night. Casting on 200 stitches and knitting the first 2 rows for me is always frustratingly slow. I knit over an inch of 1x1 ribbing. It calls for nearly 3 inches then after that its stockinette heaven. I can't wait 'cause I know I can jam through it after that! I just adore this pale sea-foam-ish green.
What's a girl to do when she gets an FO? Stash Enhance of course!
The Somewhat Cowl Kit - from kpixie.com
Blue Sky Alpacas
Alpaca & Silk i27 Dark Faded Blue
I love this yummy faded blue. Everything I have right now is kind of a bright shade of green or blue so this will be a nice change.
Check out Amanda's FO Cowl that had me all inspired to make it! Lisa has a really good picture of it here.
I felt awful Monday at work, I hope Tuesday is better!
It was very dreary out Monday as well:
Late Monday night I got Picovoli finished up. I'll take some pictures of it on me if we have better weather and more sun light this week (and a good hair day!).
Update:
It's a crappy photo but it's better then nothin I guess. I felt awful again Tuesday AM, horrible headache. I think it's allergies. What should I knit tonight after I seam? I love this time, picking what to knit!
I had to stop knitting Picovoli in order to do my podcast, soooo hard I am like 30 rows from done!! AHH!!!
Waist Increases and decreases! It just so happens I am doing the same thing on two different knits.
Picovoli
Picovoli Detail - 2 rows till the end of the decreases
Salina - 4 rows till the end of the increases
That is a very acurate photo of the color of the Rowan Felted Tweed. I have no wants at all to rush this knit, I adore how light-weight this yarn is, and how beutifully it knits up. Picovoli in DB Cathay, eh, not so much. I never enjoy cotton, even though this yarn is nice it's a bit splity which is a problem at times. Also yarn joins always show far worse in cotton.
The husbeast and I spent the evening watching videoes on youtube.com and Albino Black Sheep all night together.
I love getting things in the mail, so much fun! This is the last of my bonus stash enhancment.
Debbie Bliss Simply Soft from Supercrafty
Cashmerino Chunky from The Cucumber Patch
I plan on making that oh-so-pretty bolero on the cover! As luck would have it (and I am half Irish after all! Yes you heard it, a Jewish-Catholic which my mom likes to call me a Cashew!) the book and the yarn came in the mailbox the same day!
Oddly enough I saw it in person at my LYS when I went to go get the 12mm needles. I did not like it in person but it was in a much larger size then I would wear. I am crossing my fingers it was the size and yarn color that turned me off, because it looks so pretty in the book. I put it away in my stashbox, not allowed to be touched till I finish something else! Also I began to read the pattern and there is some really weird stuff in there I have never seen before. I hate reading patterns!
Wow, check out this modified knitty pattern. Just wow, thats beutiful enough to be in Vogue knitting, or any book for that matter.
I knit lots on my Tivoli last night, and a few waist increases on Salina. I considered starting the wayfarer jacket but stopped myself. if I start it, it will only take longer to finish all the others. So instead I put two skeins into a ball to prepare myself. Knitting is afoot, but I'm not in the mood to photograph anything. I'm having fun brainstorming my next podcast on the commute home!
I like irony, I paid off the last of my husbands car last friday (it was acutally the first car I ever bought, he wound up driving it after we got the Element) and last night he was going to come meet me at the Sushi place for dinner and it wouldn't start. Irony! It's only 5 years old :( I am thinking it was due for a check up anyways, so I don't think it will be too bad because it hasn't had any problems before this.
MJ of Yummy Yarn linked to these amazing patterns in her latest blog entry. These are from the latest Gedifra;
Damenpulli, Größe:38-42
Magazine: Highlights 052
Damenpullover; Größe 38/40 und 42/44
That first one just blows me away.
So far I have 30 people subscribed to my podcast via iTunes, and 2 from some other place. That is sooo wild! In 24 hours over 2 dozen people around the country listen to my dorky self! To celebrate (and ehem.. this is why doing a podcast is BAD it makes you want to buy yarn!) I went to Cast on Cottage today. I had a reason to go you know, last night I spent over an HOUR cleaning up my craft room and organizing my stash and the motivation was I wanted to find my Colinette Wayfarer book so I could get needles for the jacket.
Oh before I digress by talking about yarn, I plan on talking about spinning in my podcast for sure, and I will talk about it in my next podcast which I have planned to create this weekend.
I nearly tore the room up and finally found it under a stack of fabric in my sewing cabinet. Size 12mm, US 17, wowza! I only have to cast on 37 stitches for the back heh! I just had a Caramel Macchiato Short from Starbucks (a very rare event that I drink coffee) and I think I might start bouncing into things!
So I found the magazine, and headed to the LYS to get some Daisy’s. Don't loose faith in me, I looked them up online last night hoping to avoid the LYS because I have no self control. The shipping in most places was the same PRICE AS THE NEEDLE! ($5) So if you know a good source of Crystal Palace needles with free shipping I would love to know about it. So well I HAD to go in you see?? When I went in I walked around the whole store, and then I passed the Dalegarn section. Svale just wouldn't leave me the hell alone! So I bought some in 7432 (50% Cotton/ 40% Viscose/10% Silk).
I had to see, cause in 2004 I got this wonderful book, Dalegarn No. 123
It has loads of very classic and modern summer knits. I am going to knit this:
Cast on Cottage actually still had a copy in the store which was surprising. It’s hard to find online.
Well It took the last 7 hours to get the dang thing up but I did it. Saturday and Sunday I spent a lot of time knitting and catching up on Podcasts. Knit Cast had a really fun podcast which featured nearly all of the Knitting Podcasters. One of them mentioned they just had used their powerbook and the internal mic it came with.
I thought to myself, heck why not! I always wanted to be in Entertainment, why not give it a whirl.
So I may sound like a total dork but you can download the podcast here.
If you want to subscribe via iTunes simply go into iTunes and go into Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast > Enter http://feeds.feedburner.com/PixiePurlsPodcast into the text box.
It took me about 2+ hours to record this 15 minute segment! I think I need to talk slower, and I think also take a break in the middle so I don't get so tired by the end and mess up so much with the edits.
It then took me an additional 5 hours to figure out how to get the dang feedburner thing to work with itunes. THAT was frustrating!
I just did it for fun, let me know if it's semi enjoyable! My podcast blog is finally up, http://podcast.pixiepurls.com
As I sit in my beloved knitting chair in my craft room, I look around and notice the pale lime green throw over my feet, as well as my pale lime green coat sitting on the book case. I also spot the lime pale green pillow on the floor and I realize I have become my mother.
I grew up in a lime green house. I wish I could show you a picture. It was a pale green with a slight florescent hue to it. Mom always said, they never got the color just right, she didn't like it so florescent, but a pretty pale lime. We also had a room which we called the "green room" which would have served as a dinning room in most houses, in ours it sometimes served as my fathers office and other times as a room with a couch and a desk that went unused. The carpet was the same light lime green as the house. I always thought to myself. I will not ever decorate with that color green!
Yet here I sit and look around myself as I knit, surrounded by that very same green, and it makes me very happy as I think of my family up north.
I cleaned up my office some, and then attempted to cut some biased binding for a quilt but it didn't go well so I put that up. Then the electricty went out for about an hour so I knit atleast an inch on my Picovoli.
I was pretty much sore and whiney all evening!
Update: Photo of the perty yarn I got to learn the combined knitting on;
Cascade Teseo - Reminds me of berocco foliage!
So yesterday I had read Desiree's blog and found out Annie Modesitt was going to be in The Whole Nine Yards in Woodstock teaching her combined knitting class for $5. Now that's a deal people! I defnitley liked this yarn store, very friendly staff.
So I called Sarah my good friend at work and she was all up for it as she lives near that area. I stopped by her house and got to meet her wonderful dog Charlie. Biggest dog I have ever seen! I wish Jesse could have met him. He was very well behaved too! Sarah let me have some cake (yum!) and then we ran over to the shop. I saw Desiree and Alison, she blogs most every day like me!
So yeah lets talk about Annie. I enjoyed her talk so much! She taught us a few tricks which I know Sarah and I loved, and then she talked about her life, her knitting life. There was a part when she was talking about the combined knitting (she taught herself to knit) and how people all the time told her she knit wrong. This really bothered her, and it happened so much (she knit for a living and KIP'd a lot) she actually stopped knitting for 10 years in a sort of fit of anger and frustration. You can probably learn more about it in her book which is self published by the way; Confessions of a Knitting Heretic. It's on her website.
So she was talking about how it was the first time in her life she felt she truly knew what it felt like to have everyone tell you your wrong (I hope I am not butchering her story, I'm trying not to say too much!), or have everyone around you believe your not normal, your not doing it right. Why, just because they say so?
Well in my mind, I made this connection and well honestly during that part of her talking I was so inspired and it was like wow cool, I KNOW exactly what she means! I realized this is sometimes how I feel about being Jewish and living in the south. I feel like people believe I am wrong, my way of belief is wrong, I am not normal, they are right and I am wrong. Okay I know religion is a sensitive thing so sorry I don't want to offend, but this is my blog after all! :)
All I can say is, I knew exactly what she meant and it made me realize something about myself, I always worried I was insecure but then I realize why I am so uncomfortable about religion in the south, because I feel the way she felt about her combined knitting.
Well enough about my enlightenment, but thought I would share. She just said it in a way that made so much sense to me.
So okay about combined knitting, another light bulb moment for me. I always thought it had something to do with "how you knit" meaning, how you hold your yarn. Now I realize, the whole continental thing, is just how you hold your yarn, NOT how you knit! Did you ever learn to knit and 6 months later someone told you "you're twisting your stitches!" That happened to me! They didn't tell me I was knitting wrong thankfully, just that I was twisting my stitches. Now they are right in my mind, I was twisting my stitches, because I was purling I believe in the Eastern method, by wrapping my yarn UNDER and away from me, not OVER and towards me. This was not bad at all, but then I was knitting through the front loop, and in order to not have a twisted stitch I could have continued to purl the way I did, but I could have knit through the back loop. It would have created the knitted fabric I like which is stretchy with open stitches. So the Eastern/Western thing has to do with how you knit the stitch, and the Continental/English thing is HOW you HOLD the yarn! Everyone in that place was a "thrower" for the most part and held their yarn in the right hand.
I'm not 100% sure I'm right, but that's what my brain got out of the whole thing!
Oh and The whole Nine Yards carries Drops kits! OH!! You know I want one of those, Sarah even tried to enable me hehe! I resisted the urge, go me!
well I frogged that sock out in anger over how those cables looked to me. I know they photographed okay but that stretched stitch looked awful. I was thinking maybe 4 stitch cables instead of 6 would be less stress on the yarn. I also considering just doing a stockinette sock just to be able to finish a dang pair!
So after reading Desiree's blogging about Annie M. I decided I would go cause its in woodstock and most importantly it's at night. So I am going to run over to Sarah's house and meet her dog charlie and we are going over together! It's $5 for a combined knitting class, ya know the other place was $50 for the same dang thing! I'm glad it wound up this way cause I saved $45 (actually had it redunded after I decided to go skiing instead).
So happy! Tonight I work out with Jason the football player trainer man and tommorow night yarn with Sarah! I won't love the hour long or plus ride home, but it's worth it and won't be traffic hour!
See you there Desiree!
Last night I worked on my cabled sock while watching my second husband John Stewart host the Oscars.
I tried cabling without a cable needle but I think I prefer it with a short DPN. My main problem is the last stitch of the 6 cable stitches like.. stretches across at the end, it's seriously annoying me!
I adore this sock yarn however, I cast on 60 stitches and in the cable pattern it stretched out far more then I thought it would, meaning it wasn't as loose as I imagined it would be. I had only cast on like 48 the other day and it fit too. It's soooo hard with socks to know how many stitches will make the best sock. I'm still learning.
Jesse and I spent the weekend with the dogs at the Cataloochoo Ski Area in Maggie Valley, South Carolina.
It's about a 3 hour drive up in the mountains. We got there very late at night. I had taken the day off work but i wound up having to go in, and Jesse couldn't stop working until about 6pm.
Willow went straight over to lay down by the fire Jesse made.
Toby went straight for the couch with no intentions to snuggle with us.
The next morning was beutiful and sunny, the cabin was perfect. It had big giant glass windows all the way around.
We went skiing as soon as we woke on Saturday.
No that is not me snow plowing, that guy kept doing that straight down the mountain over and over. Me and Jesse wanted to yell "Turn!" lol. If I had done that my legs would have given out after the first 2 runs.
We enjoyed the trip, but it was a little bit shorter then we would have liked.
I managed to do a little drunk knitting last night on a sock with my Secret Pal yarn. That was the only knitting there was even though I brought a few things along.
I can't seem to kick the habbit! Well I think I took a one night break, and then have knit a bit the last 2 nights on salina here and there.
The color is wrong in this photo, but esh do I like knitting with Felted Tweed.
Tonight is work out night, 45 minutes and counting. Everyone says I'll be exhausted and sore, we shall see!
I think I prefer the center button. Gives it a little spark and contrast. I want to keep it conservative cause thats my sisters tastes, do you think the middle button is too funky?
Whats this?? Yup, I did...
Well I heard about our bonus last week, and I just could not STOP myself from hitting the "add to cart" button.
Colinette Point 5 - Velvet Damson
This is a very hard color to get! I have 6 skeins on their way from Europe some place. These came from NY so they cost a tad bit more but still I think a good price considering no one has this color-way. It's not nearly as bright in person, but just as rich. Looooooooooove it. It's knit on size 12mm needles. Can you say "quick knit"?
