Pixie Purls

A few more inches on ES 2.0 and I am humming along as best I can given my long work days and monthly women woes.

So to cheer myself up I created and purcahsed my MS&W shwag. I wanted to print screen it myself but I am having problems getting the image to look good in black and white for the way I do the screen printing. So I went to Cafepress and got some color love. I think it looks great, and it all cost under $35!

The front says "Pixie Purls, Knitting & Spinning" in small writting above the pixie.

The back says "Pixie Purls .com Blog & Podcast" in bigger writting below the pixie.

I got 20 of these to give away for fun:

I hope someone actually wants one, hah! Or I will just pin them to things all over our house, maybe even to the DOGS!! MUHAHAH!!

Posted by pixie at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I love a sunny sunday! I also love having people over because it means I will buy flowers.

I am pms-ish this weekend so I have been moody and tired. Despite all that it's been a very lovely weekend.

The sweater seems to fit well. The instructions say to knit until the diagnal measures 10" but I compared it to my existing Essential Stripe and it matched, so I stopped knitting. Measuring it says its 9". I think I suck at measuring, but well the other sweater fits so this should be good.

It seems good to me, hopefully tonight I can make a good dent in the length and try it on again.

I love my doggys! Here I sit on the couch watching Top Gun, willow curled up to my right on the couch and toby on the floor at my feet. Life is good.

I wanted to photograph some cute stuff I got in the mail Saturday but my camera batteries died and I have no more. GRR!!

Posted by pixie at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Knitty is supposed to come out monday, that's kinda crappy isn't it!! They should have it come out on fridays so we can spend all weekend drooling and dreaming!

There is a Knitty Tubey KAL going on over at craftster.org. There is one solid purple/pink one that I just love on there.

I just love solid colored sweaters. I can knit this up in my Karaoke, or in my Silky Wool. Both are slightly off gauge and I can probably make it work better in the Silky Wool because I can go down a needle size, and I tend to like to go down a needle size for most yarns. So it's nice to see a sweater, want to knit it, and decide to use stash for it!

Essential Stripe 2.0 Progress Photo

It may not look like much but it is progress! I am through the neck increases, so all that is left is to keep increasing and knitting the sleeves until the increase line measures 10 or so inches. Hopefully this weekend I can get to the join and work in the round all next week and get the body finished.

Note for self:
What is really weird is, by the math that sweater is 34". But when I measure it with a measuring tape its 30" (15" wide) and I checked the gauge, it's correct at 5st per inch as when I swatched it before I made it. I can't figure out why the math and the finished measurments do not match!

I am knitting this next sweater with a 5.5 st per inch gauge, but knitting I believe the same size as the other one, BECAUSE the math says it's going to be 30" wide!! So I have no idea what the heck I am doing wrong, but hopefully this fits. So far it looks only a smidge smaller then the other one in the neck which is fine by me, besides its a top down raglen so I can just do more increases before I remove the sleeve stitches.

Posted by pixie at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's a dreary dark day, I am so tired of rain. It has rained every night for a week. The husband is home and I finished a sleeve, sunday is the best day of the week!

Well needless to say I'm not happy with the sleeve but it's okay.

I decided on a 3/4 sleeve, but i decreased to much near the end and it puckers funny. It's not noticable if I'm wearing it and if I have it on correctly, but it looks odd if i dont wear it just so. Oh well!! I need to let go of my perfectionism sometimes. You can kinda see my new hair.

In my spare moments I worked on this to give my hands a break.

I just adore trekking. I am supposed to be quilting right now people.

Can't.
Put.
Down.
Needles.

Posted by pixie at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I feel all fuzzy but the picture looks good. (I took an ultram and I be fizzuzle zizzle)

I am a LIGHT WEIGHT so any sort of drug just totally messes me up, I have also never had to take anything for pain that was presecription, and ultram is actually a muscle relaxer. Ahhh my neck isn't hurting for the first time in well over a week. AHHH!!

Okay yeah, about this sweater. I'm all out of it but ECK I didn't like how it looked in the mirror, I would for sure have not purchased a sweater of this variated pattern. But then I look at this photo above and I think.. ehh not to bad. I'll give it a chanse. I wish I woulda done it about an inch longer, and I also fuzzed up and did 1" of ribbing and it was supposed to be 1.5, so should I do the sleeves in 1" as well or 1.5??

I'm about to take the stitches off the holder for a sleeve, wish me luck on the underarm, it makes me nervouse.

I normally don't like to post if at all tipsy or out of it, but well DAMN I have to celebrate casting off!

Posted by pixie at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Side Note: Check out this really cool Steeking Info on See Eunny Knit's blog >>

Now that is about the rarest site there ever was. I dragged the cat into the bed with me around 11:30 when I was trying to get sleepy, but also trying to get to the first k1p1 row of the end of the Essential Stripe Sweater. Then willow came over and I thought a fight was assured, but instead willow put her head down and looked longingly at Tala. Tala was fine with the whole thing, but of course left shortly there after.

So by 12:05am I was two rows into the ribbing and finally felt far along enough to put it down and go to sleep. I brought it to work today because I am going to see the doc for what I think is a sinus infection so yay, I will get to hopefully finish out the ribbing then and cast off at home tonight (because casting off requires some patience because I always cast off to tight and get really mad).

Basically I have an infection in my gums. It's nothing truly gross cause you can't tell to look at me, my teeth are primo, no cavities and my breath, well I brush at least 3 times a day and I am very careful not to have stinky breath because OMG nothing grosses me out more. I have these issues with my mouth from not flossing, and I think it was stress related. Lots of people have health problems from stress. The only problems I have ever had is getting sick cause the immune system goes down, or a sore neck.

So well I knew my gums had issues but I kind of forgot about it for a year, so here I am. Going to have to have a "deep cleaning" in 2 weeks. Did you know that your dentist will tell you not to get pregnant during these issues? It's very common to have preemies born to people with any sort of infection in the teeth/mouth. So well not that I am going to get prego right now, but well maybe in 8 months or something. So well now I REALLY got to do something about it. But I digress, I think the infection as it is, has given me these mock sinus infections. My glands will get sore, and then my ear hurts. But I don't often go to a doc for it, a lot of the time it's subtle and I wait for it to go away.

Why am I telling you all this? I have no idea, I want to complain and whine about it I guess. It's just a real pain in the rear. While I may be a slight bit of a hypochondriac, when I truly really have issues, I find it highly annoying.

Posted by pixie at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ahhhhhh save me from the miles of stockinette! Actually I don't mind it too much, it just seems it should go faster.

There it is up against a Gap sweater to see about the length. The pattern calls for a 19.5 inch length, but that gap sweater is more like 23 inches. I'm going to see if I can go to 21 inches. I hate short sweaters so I better pay attention and not rush myself just because I am near the end.

The husbeast just did the dishes and I am SOOO happy! i did them twice this week already and was at the point when I refuse to do them again until he does.

Update
I did another load of dishes after he did, then I vacumed, took down the tree and put it on the back patio and cleaned up my little knitting pile (took out the items I need to rip) that sits on my cofee table. No spinning this weekend still, I am very focused on finishing this sweater, after all it requires NO seaming, so I have no excuse to stop like with other sweaters I have started.

Today I also attempted to take Willow to petsmart. It went *very* badly. She flipped all out from the noise and the wind and I couldnt get her INTO petsmart, actually had to ask a man to carry her back to the car as I was afraid she was going to get away from me. Then right after he got her in the car and I sat down in the drivers seat, I smelled a very putrid smell. I think it was some sort of pee, but the most putred pee in existence. I couldn't really find the source of it (as in if it got anyplace other then the dogs crotch) but I couldn't find any wet spots except a smudge on the seat. I was soooo exhausted after the whole ordeal I threw them in the house and sat in the tub to start reading "Prep" by Curtis Sittendfield.

It's been an overall crappy weekend overall with frustrating things happening, but hopefully next weekend will be better. Now we are going to have to focus on socializing willow, but she's not spayed yet and really, walking her in the neighborhood would be the best first step. So now I'll have to get her spayed... and I have no vet I like and REALLY having a dog go through surgery right now is NOT a stress I want to endure.

Posted by pixie at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I knit about 4 inches last night, and a bit more today at the dentist.

Here is a close up of the pooling, it's changed a bit. I'm not sure if I like that it changed but DUH I should have realized it would.

It's not at all orange, even though it photographs that way.

Why men have no brains
My father calls me this morning and says "Hey, did you get our message yesterday".

Well he knew damn well if I had, I would have called last night. Course I didn't check my voicemail after 6 last night. Apprently at 5am mom and dad had to, well you know. I don't want to try cry so I can't type it. Anways..

So I say no, then he tells me very matter of factly. SEE it happend at 5am, mom didn't call me till 5pm cause she knows better then to call a person IN THE MORNING while they are at work and tell them this.

So well, morning didn't go well. I cried but only in the car. I had a dentist apt so that was good timing. So I just did it in the car. Well I'm not going to say anymore i still have 2 hours left in the day and don't want to cry. Men are dumb.

Posted by pixie at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Well I broke my rule and knit past midnight, but HOW COULD I STOP? When I was just 1 row away from being able to put the sleeves on a holder and join in the round. How hard can it be to knit and place some stuff on a holder? I even increased in the armpit and kept the tension good! I didn't have to look have to look anything up!

Sorry for the b00b shot, and for your having to see our half painted bathroom!

Update:
I know all durring lunch at my desk, I can't stop. My left hands index finger hurts now! Tonight I'm gonna make lots of progress on this!

Update on Macgyver:
Mom has decided it's time to put him to sleep. The vet agreed to come over Friday. I don't really want to talk about it but figured I owed you all an update.

Posted by pixie at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Jesse and I love Sci Fi Fridays!! Tonight was the season premiers!! Ahh... 3 hours of sci-fi goodness!!

I continued working on the neck/shoulders of the essential stripe sweater. I adore this yarn and how it knits up. I hope I like the final product.

We got fairly drunk, but I think Jesse was a bit far gone...

After the shows he lay on the carpet like this for about 10 minutes, until my complaining that he misplaced the remote got him up. Hah! Pissy drunk man!!

Oh and I created a Yahoo group for the Knit and Tonic Essential Stripe Sweater. Feel free to join up if you are knitting this.

Posted by pixie at 01:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My swatch is 5st = 1" and the pattern calls for 4.75 = 1". I like how it knits up and I don't want to go up a needle size, so I'll go up a sweater size, and to think in middle school I didn't think there as any use for math. So I went to "Only Ewe & Cotton Too" today durring lunch and got size #6 and #7. I got the 7's just in case. I think I will knit up the size 34, which maybe will wind up a size 33" or 32" with the .25 higher stitch count.

I got some Crystal Palace as they didn't have Naturas (mmm I love Naturas) and they have a sticker on them saying "New Design!". Apparently they improved the joins.

I knit some last night, then did that swatch and then spun up some more burgandy corriedale. I am nearly through the 8oz bag, I am trying to get it to fit on one bobbin. Then I can take the other 8oz back I bought and spin it, and ply it all and make a hat! I am excited about that, the only frustrating thing is the thiness/thickness of my spun yarn kind of varies from night to night. I'm sure I will get consistant with time.

Posted by pixie at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Books Picked up from the LYS (2)
The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook - Lynne Vogel
Hands On Spinning - Lee Raven

So I finally decided on a good use for the Encrore Worsted Colorspun - Knit & Tonics Essential Stripe Sweater

It seems wise for me to knit something that doesn't require seaming, after all I did finish that tank top and it's the only top finished to date. I have just enough yarn for the long sleeve version of this sweater and it's a cute pattern. I was torn between that and the cowl, but I think it will be cute in the sweater, and warmer in this cold weather. I'll save the cowl for when spring comes and I'll do it in alpaca for fun (MAYBE some of my own I spun up ONE DAY?!).

Do you know like 8oz of Alpaca roving costs like freakin $30?? *cry* I was not allowed to get any when I got the books, I am not allowed to spent THAT much on roving when I have so much more coming to me. I am so anxious to get that color roving, but it's best that I run through my dark teal and get better at getting a thinner yarn so I can create some worsted weight yarns.

Speaking of spinning here is my ball of that blue stuff I spun up:

I am going to visit a friend in NC the end of this month and if I could get it figured out onto the right needle size I could turn it into a baby hat maybe...

That's willow looking striken because we had lightning and hail and she was sooo worried! Oddly enough she went out in it, my husband thought it would be good to build her confidence, heh.

Oh yeah and tonight is the knitting meetup at starbucks, yay!

Posted by pixie at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)