Baby sweater 101 Continued…… March 30, 2007

 

The lightbulb just keeps coming on folks, it turns out with knitting you don’t just get it from reading a pattern.  See, I can do this with crochet, I can look at a sewing pattern and "get it" (granted DOING it is another thing entirely, but I can see how all the piece parts go together to make it work) Looking at a knitting pattern does nothing for me.  I just don’t get it. But I CAN follow it, and when the directions are followed… well, things begin to make sense 🙂

Look at how this is starting to be a sweater…. (and ignore that mistake in the neck ribbing.  Thats my plan and I am sticking with it!!!) I am thinking that necklines are a case of practice makes perfect, but am pleased with how well this came out 🙂 

OH and for anyone with baby knitting experience, despite the fact that this photo could mislead you, there will eventually be little crocheted loops for buttonholes at the neck, so baby’s big head will fit through it 🙂

I have sleeves cast on, and frankly, the more I knit, the happier I be.  Plus it is a bit reassuring that this is for a baby shower.  No one ever pulled anything out of a box at a baby shower and had the response be MY GOD THAT’S UGLY!!! So I will walk away never knowing anything other than Awww, and how cute, and You Made That?   even if the sweater ends up at the Goodwill. And I am actually OK with that 🙂

Baby Sweater 101 March 28, 2007

Or How I learned to search online for how to do stuff before I tried it.

OK, here it is, this is the type of person I am… as I was making my 2nd Calorimetry, it occurred to me that casting off stinks.  Why on EARTH am I trying to do something with two pointy sticks, when I know with complete authority that I could do it with considerably less frustration if I only broke out the crochet hook. I did then verily proceed with said crochet hook, making what can only be called a beautiful cast off.  No here is where it gets ugly folks, I sit smugly thinking to myself how VERY clever I have been, and just LOOK what I have done….. When out surfing later for a bind off called for in a pattern I dream about making, I come across this. Yup that’s right, I have only reinvented the wheel all on my lonesome. Still, I didn’t need them to tell me that, I figured it out on my own!!!! Who needs the Internet anyway??

I am:

1. To cheap to pay for primo knitting classes at my LYS.

2. Clearly to smart to need help, I think of classic techniques on my own.

3. To scared to attend the FREE classes they offered at the library. (What if I just DON’T get it, how dumb will I look then??)

4. Incredibly stubborn. No really, I am, what’s worse is that sometimes I will do things my way even AFTER you tell me not to.

Do you see where this is going???                                

Here I am making baby sweater for a niece to be, the back is just OK, I was using needles that stuck to my cotton yarn like glue. I got all the way to the end of the back before it dawned on me that I have brand new cheapo aluminum circular needles in the same size, and that I should try them.   I cast on the front on the new needles only to find they are slick and wonderful, knitting proceeds far more quickly now….

But my gauge is WACK, WAY off…. I forge ahead despite all this, follow the somewhat deceptive and vague directions regarding shaping a neckhole, and look at my finished product.  There is no picture, I am too vain to post just how wonky this neck looks. I know deep in my heart of hearts that this is not going well, what appears cute to the naked eye is quickly rolling into something resembling disaster.

The neck on my sweater looks like a brick wall that had a mack truck hit it and run off, it is wonky to say the least.  And now that I am done… Look what I find.

Sigh. 

I still refuse to stop, and am committed to knitting the damn neckline the way it is.  I am imagining just how well the ribbed neckline will hide the wonkiness. It will either work, in which case there will be triumphant pictures, if not…..well….lets just pretend this didn’t happen eh?

SOCKS!!!!!!!! March 23, 2007

I have always said I would knit meself some socks someday…..

I had a few misconceptions about the difficulty of creating socks.  Those have now been corrected.  Socks are in fact not hard.  I still think lace must be hard though.  I am not committing to lace, not now nor ever, but do think I am going to do a lot more knitting. So hopefully, these things that are just now beginning to make sense will make complete sense soon.

I must admit the first sock is a tad wonkier than the second.  Both are probably about three rows shorter in the foot than they should be.  But until you have had/worn hand knit socks, how the heck are you supposed to know, and for what its worth, they are still comfy.  The first one wal also knitted inside out.  Yup, took to knitting in the round all the wrong way.  Only when I cast on the second one did it dawn on me to knit on the OUTSIDE of the circle.  So the second was knitted in proper sock on dpn fashion. 

I have howver discovered that I truly do like nice expensive fibers…these babies are alpaca and wool, and they are SOOOO soft.

I decided to photograph my socks in their natural environment, the cube farm.

Really this would be a one picture post. but these are my FIRST socks people!!

And just to show I did not cheat and knit a tube…. I really did turn a heel…..

Knitting messes with my space time continuum. March 21, 2007

It does.  Put knitting needles in my hand, and well… it changes the very flow of time itself.   My son is loving it because I have been knitting while he is in the tub.  So he has been getting baths over an hour long.  My daughter loves it cause I forget to tell her to go to bed. I have been getting very disagreeable grumblings from the dishes, they believe there is such a thing as too long to "soak".

Really, how come no one warned me about this.  One would think that if there was a giant hole in the space time continuum it would have been noted by now.  The only reference I can find to the problem is in a Douglas Adams book, and frankly, no where does he mention that knitting might cause it. 

The really disturbing thing is that it is all thing knitting related as well.  Try walking into a yarn store, if you are not a knitter, you might not even remember being there, if you are a knitter, you might not remember the existence of the rest of the world. 

 

Speaking of which: I was out and about on Sunday, and found my ethics highly challenged.  We happened to be by my favorite yarn store, I checked the sign in the window, and it clearly read OPEN, so I proceeded to walk in, only eerily enough, it became clear within nanoseconds that it really was NOT open.  I know you are all HOLDING you BREATH….have you EVER been so seriously tested??? For the record I did the right thing and stayed right by the door of the store until the security I called got there.  I did not stay to see if they got a hold of the owner or any other non such, but think next time I drop by I will mention it and make sure all was well. 

I do not think it is a crime that I daydream about the possibilities…

Spring has sprung…. March 14, 2007

The trampoline is in desperate need of new pads.  Yes, take your collective gasps of horror, I am a trampoline parent.  You dread sending your child over for fear they will return broken.  And they just might. 

See kids have little to no sense about these things….put one in your yard and you will find that adults have even less.

I have resisted pads….partly thinking that I would be able to get rid of the thing if I refused to care for it.  But then you realize this arm breaking, child injuring, whine maker means something big to them.  The tramp is a little slice of play freedom.  You can jump on it, you can play under it… even thought the rules say not to, you can share it with your friends.  You can lay on it and absorb the sun or lay under it, and rest in the shade.  My son has an entire dirt village under the trampoline, complete with cars and action figures and mud if things work in his favor. 

So the tramp is getting new pads.  And just what you might ask would push a mother over the edge and make her really want to keep this behemoth grass killer????  How can you argue with this…..

 

At least I know when I have lost.

Oh since this is a craft blog….

I made another one of these 🙂

FRIDAY :-) March 9, 2007

TGIF….

Need I really say more??? 

Lets see good things this week….

I have been keeping a secret from my blog… I am dieting…..this week I reached the 20lb mark!!! In fact by today I had hurled it with a total of 22 lbs. down.   I am feeling a lot better in a lot of ways…the crappy weather has finally stopped, so I have been walking practically every day….we have a great path at work…well maybe great isn’t a good word for it, but it is a path, and it is paved and it is pretty 🙂

I have made crafty progress on a few things and am getting more comfortable knitting.  Mostly through the tedious process of casting on, deciding after three rows that it stinks and casting on again. 

I have finally settled my mind on a gift for a baby coming into the family soon…. I get to be an aunt again… and I wanted to make something special. I finally decided sometimes it is worth making things for the sake of making them.  So I will make what I want anyway 🙂

I do have finished objects to post, and this is a first for me, cause this may end up being a swap spoiler….I do not think she will recieve until tomorrow…but this swap is a touch unusual so I figure it is OK.  The theme of the swap was weight loss. I made a yoga bag, a water bottle bag, a food journal and a gym towel with a pocket for a locker key.

For the longest time I have struggled with embroidery on dark fabric.  I hate tracing stuff and white pens and other nonsense, so the following solution is perfect for me.  Water soluble stabilizer.  The added benefit here is what stabilizer can do for your stitching!!!

so here is after stitching but before its bath…… 

and here is after dissolving the stabilizer……

Since I forced DD to model the yoga mat bag…..

 

And last but not least, a group shot 🙂

and a reminder to pay attention to  background color…..

Knitting….. March 5, 2007

OK, this particular post is very important to me.

 

Because I have knit something.  For the first time this something is NOT a scarf, and even more importantly, it is not fun fur.

Fiber snobs cover your ears, it is red heart 🙂

 

This is my Calorimetry. From knitty.com.  A real pattern. 

What makes this the best knitted thing ever? I did it.  I swatched, I figured out I only needed 100 stitches to go around my fat noggin.  I figured out what size needles….I cast on no less than five times….I knit wrong and it was horrid, but I studied videos and picture books till I got it right…..on the fifth try I knit until I had this wonderful thing of greenness that looked horrible with my hair.  I wore it anyway (thankfully, four year olds are proud of their mommies, even when the rest of us know she looks silly with her hair hanging out like that!!!!)

I even wore it to check out a new yarn store….and the owner complimented me… she said my knitting looked lovely!!!!!AND when I told her it was my first thing that wasn’t a scarf…she said she never would have guessed….. SO here my friends is my little bit of knitting triumph.  I have purchased a skein of alpaca to celebrate and to try again…. I only twisted two stitches… and I had to undo some stitches to go back and fix pearls where there should have been knits…. all in all I am far to proud of this simple thing… yet I can not help but have visions of sweaters dance in my head.  (a knit sweater takes SOO much less yarn, it can make even the good stuff seem economical!)

Sigh.  See what you all have done to me!!!!!

I hate winter. March 1, 2007

OK, Hate may be a little strong, but this year I am ready for winter to just GO AWAY!

I have always lamented about the state of traffic.  On a weekend, I can get from my office to my house in no more than 15 minutes total.  Add weekday traffic and that total jumps to 30. Then add an accident or some other what not…still only 45 minutes or so.

Yet last night we added something new.  Ice.  Rush hour drive plus ice equals Two and one half hours. You heard me.  I drove 17 miles in the amount of time it normally takes me to get  from Denver to Kansas.  I wanted to cry.  I saw people crying. 

Here is one good parking lot picture:

  

See how we are just parked there?  Coming and going? This stretch of road is less than two miles, and it took me an HOUR to traverse.  The worst part is that there was no better way to go.

Mr. Winter:

YOU have worn out your welcome.  We are TIRED of you.  You know how you invite someone into your home cause they are kind of nice and you like them and then they stay forever?? You are like that only WORSE.  It was nice the first time.  I got a day off of work, and the snow was so pretty……and it was kind of fund to slosh through the snow with everyone else (even then it only took me an hour) but I am over it now.  The second time was OK, after all, where I work it is always busier and better when bad things are happening.  A few cracked roofs and some frozen pipes, and I am in for a good end of year bonus.  Really though, I think this is overdoing it.  Perhaps you have forgotten that this is Colorado…..maybe you meant to be in Minnesota, or maybe you forgot about the passport rules in Canada and they won’t let you in.  See I don’t care where you go, but I must insist that you leave NOW.  I no longer want your company.  One more drive like that, and I am going to build a global warming army. 

Yours Truly,

Mintlatte.