Monday, June 27, 2005

Back from a conference in Las Vegas. Most of the knitting had to be torn out due to edge stitch problems. I had a nice time at the craps tables. I remembered that craps is as much about playing with the other people at the table as about the dice So, it was fun, and yeah, I won some too!

We drove to Austin Sunday to drop off daughter at a camp. Rocked through about five repeats during the drive. So, here we are at twenty six of thirty one repeats.


Hope daughter likes the camp. We'll find out on Saturday when we pick her up, and watch the show.

Monday, June 20, 2005

No update on the shawl, as I seem to be ripping out almost as much as I knit. Something is not right with my edge stiches , and I'm ending up with one extra, or one short. Not sure how that happens. Good news is that the hands seem to have nupp problem resolved. Even with the ripping, the shawl is moving along, and I'm thinking about another project.

I did learn that I have become a very loose woman. I did some swatching for a Rogue hoodie for my daughter. The yarn label said 18st/4in on #8 needles. In my past, I knit exactly per most yarn labels. I know I've been loose, so I started with #6's. Then #4's. Then check the label to make sure I'm reading it correctly. Then #2's. Finally. I brought it on my business trip with me, and may cast on later today.

Yesterday, after getting packed for the week, I played with my yarn. I've been thinking that I had stash yarn for this sweater from "Poetry in Stitches" and decided to try it out.

So, here's a swatch in vintage Bear and Fleishers "wool and shetland wool" won off Ebay during my Ebay yarn binge. I'm not sure about the green stripe. It was a more muted shade in the book, but this is ok too. I remembered I have some more avocado yarn about the same weight, and my duplicate stitch over to see if I like that better.

Not bad, but not quite to gauge. 25 1/4 stitches to 4" instead of 26. I did some calculating, and should be able to re-write the pattern. I also noticed that this pattern comes in one size in the book. Cheesy. But then, who am I to whine. I want a cardigan, but not cropped, and not asymmetrical, so I'd be messing with the pattern anyway.

So, I'm channeling Meg Swanson, or Deborah Newton. To get the bust dimension I want, I can reduce the repeats of the large flower pattern to nine instead of ten. But then I have to mess with how the patterns line up around the body. Now, I could reduce it to eight repeats, and "leak" the leaf pattern down the sides. Make sense? From the front you would see two flowers on either side of the buttons, the back would have four flowers, the leaf pattern would start on the sides, and then blend in on the body. I'd have a vertical line for the flower pattern so no stitch jumps. Hmmmm.

Monday, June 13, 2005

The results of a long weekend car trip to New Orleans.

Well, I'm not counting the extra pounds on my butt. This is about ten repeats of Madli's Shawl from last summer's Interweave Knits. Part of my scarf/shawl stash for Christmas gift project. It took me way longer than normal to figure out this not so complicated 12 stitch/12 row repeat. Here is why:

First, there are these little nupp knots; sort of little wads of yarn, but not like a bobble. Basically, knit/yo three times and finish with a knit so there are seven stiches in one. Then purl them all together on the way back. I found that I either left out a loop, leaving an extra stitch, or knit the next stitch into the nupp, thus losing a stitch. Even after so many repeats, I still am messing this one up.

Second, because the way the edges work, there was not an obvious way to place markers so that the repeats would line up. There is an extra k2tog at the start, then an extra yo at the end for three pattern rows, then it evens out for the next three pattern rows. The effect is the piece does not seem to slant, but yeesh, it was hard to keep track of my whereabouts until I had the pattern feel under control.

So, New Orleans - fun for a weekend. We walked all around French Quarter, the river, the garden district, the gallery district, uptown, downtown. Snaps for the Ogden museum. Shame on what's happened on bourbon street. We walked all over the Chalmette battle ground, where the United States whoooped the Brits to end the war of 1812, but couldn't tour the plantation on the site due to the park service closing down an account of the silly storm. For the record, Saturday was a beautiful day in New Orleans. It didn't even rain, and the cloud cover and breeze off of Arlene kept us cool. We also took an air boat tour around the swamp, and I held the alligator. Yes, it is alive. Am I a "coon ass" now?

Monday, June 06, 2005

Lookee what I finished this week. What fun!


And the TDA is off the needles for now, and fits my husband nicely. I may need to re-think the collar. He likes them tight around his neck. I think it looks nice the way it is. He thinks it is too open. When the sweater is just lying there, it looks as if I picked up too many stiches, and the collar is floppy. However, it lies flat when he puts it on. It looks very square, even though I put some shaping on the front. I'm thinking that I could pull it out, pick up fewer stitches, and make it a bit deeper.

I need to work in a lot of ends still, and will probably not mess with the collar until I'm done with that. When I was knitting, I tried splicing and weaving the new skeins but I didn't like the way it was working. So, I just left then ends, and am working them in with a needle now.

My daughter is off to GirlScout camp, and will be backpacking most of the session. Shout out to girls in middle school ( or their parents ) - GirlScouts gets really cool once you are in the 7th grade. Check it out. http://www.girlscouts.org/ and http://www.studio2b.org

Husband and I are going on a little adult vacation the end of the week. Sweet.