I think my knitting mojo had come back. Didn't know it was gone, really. I've just been frustrated at the lack of progress on some projects. Making promises to myself, then not keeping them. Of course the projects don't progress unless one works on them, and I've just not wanted to touch them. I even put my purple vest in a pretty basket, and carried it around the house with me. Still didn't touch it.

Then, yesterday,
WHAM
Back came the mojo, and I could hardly put the vest down. Now, understand, it's a wierd thing. Side to side vest in the round? What was I thinking. But, here is progress in a strangely tubular sort of way:


I've been sort of guilty working on a new project when I have three that have been languishing. However, I rationalize it by claiming that I need a "traveling" project. The other three need too many colors, not to mention that one is hanging on a knitting machine. The pink vest and the machine knit blanket will be travelers when the time comes to attach their I cord borders, but not yet. So, I have this project, out of the frog pond, and about half way to the arm holes:


Usually, it's the dog I catch snoring, but yesterday, GingGong was the snorlax. She was snoring, and her little fangs were sticking out. I thought it was worth a shot to try to get it in a picture.

OOOOOOOhhh Comments. I get so few, it really excites me to see them there.

SO, Dave is a Disney guy, on the Disney channel, so those of you who don't get Disney won't see him for a while. As far a purling, I did notice he knit on straights. The cartoon artists didn't really clearly show the stitch patterns, so he certainly could have made a garter stitch dog sweater. Something tells me too much time has already been spent on contemplating Dave's cartoonish knitting skills.

In the mean time, I held a retirement party for a friend, and spent the weekend preparing for that rather than working on my project, so I've missed my first milestone on the "finish the stupid vest" goal. Urg.

A new knitting television star!

Dave the Barbarian. Not a great cartoon, and I find from reading Dave's background that gourmet cooking and origami are his lead hobbies. However, on the episode my daughter forced me to view, he did knit several dog sweaters, demonstrationg excellent design and shaping skills. I expect we can see better knitting interviews from Dave than Daryl Hannah, don't you agree?

Ahhhh, the joy of shopping with a pre-teen. Too young to go alone; too old to want advice from Mom. I notice that there are some nice sofas in the Junior depts these days, just fine for sitting with the purses, shopping bags and all important money. My daughter grew sooooo much this year that all relatives sent clothes in sizes too small, so we returned and exchanged this weekend. The traveling project made some progress:



And I found a picture of the pink vest. I really should work more on this. Especially if I want to have it done by the end of February:



OK - Deals with myself:
Jan 25th - 50% point.
Feb 1 - 75%
Feb 7 off needles and steeked

I have a silly secret.

Every morning, (before) I click on Wendy, I check out the comic "For Better or For Worse". It's a sweet soap opera of a comic. Well, she dropped a big romantic bomb on her readers today. Now, if you don't read the strip, you may have to go back about a year to figure out what the deal is, but for those who follow FBoFW, what do you think will happen next week?

Hmmmm......

SO, I think I have the camera thing figured out. Win98 and Win2000 are different in a lot of ways and I'm still adapting. So, here is the poor bit of yoar that went to the frog pond:

There is a bit of ribbing done again, but not enough to photograph. I found my swatch and measured it. I must have read the ruler wrong before, because the real knitting was the same guage as the swatch.

Now, I've gotten moving on the purple/pink vest. What was causing me trouble, I think is that I've gone off and started a rather creative construction method. I'm knitting side to side because the recipient is rather large and wants the patterns to go in the "slimming" vertical direction. Because of the trouble I had working the pattern back and forth, I'm also knitting in the round. So It's comaing out as a rather odd shaped tube. Again, due to the large size of the target, the armhole needs to be big big big. Her center back measurement was a normal 13". However, the finished size at the bust will be lose to 60". You do the math. The thing is going to be half armhole. Needless to say, the thing looks really wierd.

Now, with all the messing around trying to get the camera to work withthe new computer software, I've worn down the battery, so no pictures of this today.

Sniffy nose all around today.

I noticed my hit counter reset some time or other.

Comments are nice. Don't see any here, do I?

Well, no blog pictures for a little bit. I had to have my pc re-imaged, and seem to have lost the connections to the picture editing software. Maybe later in the week.

I'm guilty of not finishing some of the projects that are challenging me. The GS vest should be done by now. I worked on it some, and it's really not that annoying, and really does work up fast, as it's worsted weight. It should be interesting once it's cut open.

After that, I need to remember where I was with Hank. Once I start on him again, I think he will finish up quickly.

My husband is out of town for four weeks. Could I possibly finish both by then? He's anxious to see his Hank finished.

Lucky Mistake
In the mean time, I like to have a "travel" project. I started a sweater for our friend "M". However, a lucky mistake that caused me to take the piece off the needles to fix also caused me to measure. The guage was off by enough to have to frog and start again. Not a bad thing, thought. I was not happy with a few of the design choices I had made. I'm using a slip stitch pattern in the round. Because of the particulars of the pattern, I was concerned that the "seams" would be too tight. I've decided that this pattern would work out better done in pieces, so I've re cast on for the back. There we have the "lucky" mistake."

Happy New Year.

After a few weeks of vacation, not blogging, and really not knitting I'm back. At least I think I am. Did anyone miss me?

Here are some pictures from last year:
The blue vest if finished:

I brought it to our family Xmas party, and tried it on my aunt. She liked it so I gave it to her. I was thinking of someone else, but that someone can be picky, and I wasn't sure she would like it. Auntie did, so auntie wins.

Now, for those who pay attention, I did make some adjustments to the shoulder. I personally don't like vests with shoulders that extend over where a fully fashioned shoulder should extend. I think they look floppy and "home made" rather than "hand made." I doubled all the arm hole decreases in the pattern except the initial underarm decrease, and was happy with the results. I liked the pattern a lot, and will probably make it again, with another adjustment. I read so many positve remarks in the summer about waist shaping, and I see no reason not to put some into this vest. The way the garmet hangs, you can almost see it, but I think some more shape will be pretty nice here.

Also, if I neede proof, which I don't, that my husband loves me, look what he brought me from Peru:

If you can't tell, it's six bags of alpaca knitting yarn. Yum yum. Now, I need to get my WIP's finished so I can dig into that.

And, someone is really happy that we're home:

Back from a lovely Holiday trip to California to see friends and family. The house is a mess with stuff thrown all over, and the pets are almost calmed back down again. I'm currently watching a lady wipe goo out of my laptop so that it can be re-imaged to Windblows 2000. Ick. This is taking longer than I expected.

I finished the blue on blue vest, and it fit and pleased my aunt. She now has it, and I hope she is wearing it in good health. Pictures later if this re-image ever happens. I worked some on the pink and purple vest. Again, I got ahead of myself and thought I could get it done this holiday. It is too awkward to work on when I travel, so I will have to make some quality time for just it and me.

Happy New Year.

Is it the weather, or holiday blahs?

I've not done much knitting since the weekend. I'm in a funk about the I cord for the blue vest, and haven't touched the KM blanket or the pink vest. How's that for news?

I looked at my project bars, and updated them. I took out the bear sweater project, as that is done, and got real about making Christmas socks for various people. I really did intend to make socks for my FIL and his GF. GF's sister raises sheep and spins. I thought she was going to send me some wool from her sheep for the project - to make it sort of meaningful. The price was a little high, but the connections were there, and I was more than willing to pay. Well, GF moved, and sister has not communicated with me. I guess if she figures the relationship is off, I have no business bugging her.

On a more positive note, I think I heard the wood ducks return today. This is about a month early for them. It was too dark to look, so I'm not really sure if it is them, or me just hoping for them to be back.

Not so much knitting over Thanksgiving. A full airplane, reading, cooking, skiing, and surprise, some beading. I bought a bead loom for my daughter, but started a little project myself while I was waiting for her to do something else.


Ooooooh pretty.

Now, the blue vest did get finished to the sholders during some driving, but I'm not happy with the way the I cord edging is working out. I seem to have made some assumptions about the guage of the I cord relative to the twisted garter that were incorrect. So the I cord is too tight. I finished the arm holes, and started on the front before I really evaluated what was happening, so I'm ripping away. Quite an experience, as the brushed mohair is sticking to everything. This puts the RRRRRR into Rip.

Ooooooh a comment. I knew I put that link there for a reason. Just have to post a response.

Yes, that knitting machine looks scary, but bear in mind, I'm working intarsia with a bunch of colors. Eighteen color changes per row if you are counting. If you were hand knitting it would look scary about now as well. Unless you were the kind of wierdo that weaves in ends as you go along. Actually, the mess that is pictured is quite under control.

To learn, I started with one color, then moved to basic 2x2 cables, then tried stripes. After that I did an intarsia heart on a sweater front. Then I tried the chicken sweater from a book called "animal knits". It got scary. It became a mess. I left it on the machine for three month's hoping it would go away. It didn't. I finally ripped it off the machine and threw it into the trash. So, there's the answer to what happens when things turn into a tangled mess. Avoid, then destroy. This may be a deviant aspect of my personality.

This is the first time "back in the saddle" since the terrifying chicken incident.

My knit guild has an impossibly huge supply of craft yarn that is being used for charity projects. We just drop by one of the storage locations, pick what we want and bring back what we make. I took a good sized shopping bag home when we sorted it over a year ago. I am taking advantage of this to develop my skills and confidence with the scary machine cost free. Because of the abundance of the yarn, I don't feel the need to conserve, so tossing a mess away rather than picking it apart and re-using the yarn is an option I can live with. And sometimes, I even end up with something to donate. When I began I made several toddler child sweaters that were donated.

So, everyone in the United States, have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

We're off to Colorado tomorrow. Yippeee. Our friends heat with a wood stove, so us southerners will be freezing our pants off. I just sorted all our long underwear, and I bought some jeans with some space so I can layer.

I checked progress on the pink and purple vest against last week. I may have done two whole rows. Hopefully, I'll have some sit by the fire time to finish this vest. I'm alternately annoyed and enraptured with this project. I wanted to be about done by now.

And I must have had trouble counting in Lousiania. About eighteen extra rows. It's looking nice I think.


Now, all these projects would be farther along if I had'nt gotten the urge to dust off that Bond knitting machine upstairs, and make a charity blanket for an ongoing guild project. For those of you toying with the idea of a knitting machine, understand that machine knitting is nothing at all like hand knitting. I thought that the thing would help me work through the embarassing amount of yarn I have collected. It's a bit faster than hand, but not as quick as one would think, unless you are doing straight stockenette. In fact, I had to get rid of the concept of "fast" before getting anywhere with the machine. It took a long and frustrating amount of time to get the feel for the thing. I still don't quite have the feel, to be honest.

So this urge is to get the hang of knitting machine intarsia. I started to get it, then the stitches started popping off the needles and the carriage began to jam every row. I remembered this morning that I need to hang some weight on the piece once it gets so far. Does it not look like a disaster? It's about a third done.

The stupid part is that I'm already dreaming about Fasset intarsia designs that I could work up on the Bond.

Gakkk is the sound of the week

I'm out on a two night biz trip, and my suitcase managed to get away and visit Hartford CT, and Columbus OH, before joining me at the hotel. This seems to happen when I absent mindedly pack my medicine in my checked bag instead of throwing it into my purse. When I finally met up with my bag, I found that the purple/pink vest was missing a needle, and could not be worked on. I sure hope that needle is in my living room chair rather than in New England.

On the good side, the weather is nice, and I've got the back seat of the rental car claimed for our three hours of driving today so progress will be made on the blue vest. For sure half the front will be finished, and the second half will have good progress before we return tonight.

And just for fun, and a bit late - Shiloh trying to figure out what happened to his walking path on Monday night after a day of torrential rain. We live near a bike/hike path that runs by a bayou. To the regular eye, it looks to be a lovely recreational area. To a civil engineer it looks like a flood plain. It's both. Gotta love dual purpose development. For reference, the "keep dogs on leash" sign was under water except for the last six inches.

Ahhhh
Don't we feel better now?

Jason at blogroll has restored from a backup files and all our precious links are back. I feel sorry for the poor Laura whose link was inserted by the nefarious geek. Congratulations on that pregnancy too, girl.

I will admit that my initial response was anger and hostility when I saw that my link list had been hacked. I calmed down considerably when I saw that all the other blogrolls I saw had suffered the same attack. A few hours later, I checked the news at Blogroll, and found that they were aware of the attack, and had put things to right. A traffic snarl on the information highway.

Progress.
Blue vest has the back done, and I'm working up the front. Garter stitch sure is slow, and it's pretty dense. The mohair makes it lighter. I'd be concerned about the weight if this were made in cotton as suggested in the pattern.


The pink/purple vest is at the armhole. I wanted to be there last week, but had to rip rip rip. With all the decreases, it ought to spurt along until I increase up to the back. It 's looking nice, but I've done the last five rows a few too many times, trying to get the shaping right.


And finally Shiloh sez:
My bed, my toys, my blanket and I'm happy.
><

busy busy
I had to drive to Austin today. I subscribe to Audible, and prepared for the long drive by burning the first half of "Life of Pi" onto CD's before I left. It worked really well, and lasted until two exits before home. Love it when a plan comes together. Pi is currently on a life boat with a live hyena, a live tiger, and a dead zebra and a dead orangutan. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Needless to say, not much progress made on knitting. I don't really like to drive.

Friday I had a three hour line of up useless conference calls. I worked on the donation vest, and almost got to the end of the first shoulder. I then learned that one of the analysts I work with, a very skilled person, has been laid off. Sunday, when I was walking the dog, it occurred to me that I had sloped the shoulder in the wrong direction. It seemed appropriate that the time wasting calls should be doubled by having to take out all the progress in the knitting too. Talk about a work funk. I try to improve my attitude, but it just keeps getting mashed by upper management.

Sunday night the thing got pulled apart, and I was able to re-knit about half of what was done. I wasn't going to offer a progress shot, as I was so irked, but it's a nice cool sunny morning, and I feel a bit better. Here it is in all it's purple and pink glory:


Saturday, we went to the Houston Space Center, so that daughter could attend a parking lot Pokeman event. I had enjoyed the Johnson Center tram tour before, and my husband had not taken it, so we abandoned her in the parking lot, and did the tour. I was sort of disappointed in that it's been toned down considerably since 9/11. You used to be able to view the real working mission control. I did enjoy the dinosaur exhibit that's running right now. Lot's of stories of people digging for a swimming pool and finding mammoth bones. Kind of weird to see dinosaurs at the space center, but we take advantage of what we find.

Daughter had a decent time, but was not happy about the judging standards of the karioke contest. We explained how fair really didn't have much to do with reality, and went to lunch on the Kemah boardwalk. I still haven't' had a nice meal at any of the restaurants there, and I wonder why we end up eating there at all. We did enjoy watching the J80's come in from racing.

What this has to do with knitting is that I did accomplish a few inches of the back of the blue vest.

Both vest projects have made progress, and little by little the family is recovering from the nasty flu.

The blue/blue mohair vest in one is at the armholes. I'll work up the back first. The GS vest I'm knitting side to side, and just finished the neck increases. At 4.5 stitches/inch it moves quite quickly.