More adventures in lazy knitting

Ok.  I'm a new knitter (1 year) and sometimes I come up with these theories and they are crap.  Sometimes, I come up with something that ends up working.

Here is another that I'm not sure will work, but I'm going to investigate and get back to you.

I don't mind purling.  My tension is fine and I have no troubles with it, surprisingly since many people hate to purl.  Tomato : Tomato.    Currently, I'm sort of in a hurry to do some Christmas gifts which led me to a cowl.  The pattern consists of 4 rows where 1 and 3 are knitted and 2 and 4 are purled.  (P1, S1)

Here is my query:   Could I just turn my work and K1, S1?

I've called my LYS and it was decided that in theory this might work but they really aren't sure.  So, I figure if it'll save me some time on a Christmas Cowl for my mom, then it is worth a little effort to figure out.  I mean, IN THEORY it should work right?

Family Photos

A friend of mine took this photo (and a bunch of others) a couple weeks ago.  Of course this leads me to a dilema...because...well...I am me and I always over think stuff.

Who is the friend you ask?   Some of you may remember (or not) my post earlier this year No Good Deed... .  A person's (I knew peripherally in high school) son was in an accident around the New Year last year.  This would be late Dec 2010.  Several of my friends were rallying around and trying to do a fundraiser to help with potential medical expenses.  I asked what I could do and was put in charge of the silent auction.   It went off great and we raised a total of something like $25K total.  "My" auction raised about $10K.  His son has made a full recovery.

Everytime I see Fred he thanks me obnoxiously (in a good way).  I get it, he's thankful but I don't do so well with the praise.  I say "you are welcome.  Now get over it".   So when I asked him to do my family photos this year I expected to get a bill.  He refused to tell me how much.  I did eventually find out.

Now the dilema is, do I pay him or not, and if so, how?

If I don't we'll be "even" and he'll feel better.  But that leaves me with a sense of having taken advantage of a friend.  I know this is not the case but that's how it feels.  If I send him something he either won't cash a check, we'll fight over handing over cash etc.  So my only real option is a gift card.  I was talking to another friend and they said to just let it be, to suck it up and live with it.

I still haven't decided.  It bugs me to not have paid him for his time.  He probably feels the same way about me doing the auction but x200 because of all the people that helped him at the time.

Either way, the photos are beautiful and I'm more than happy with them.  Thank you Fred.  You may or may not get a gift card in the mail.    :)

Here are a couple of my favorites.

My glass is half full...

Yes, I am in Disney World.

Yes, I'm also stuck in the room with my little one because she's vomiting.  :(    While I hate to see her sick, and God knows she's thin enough, I've had worse days.  In between bouts of holding her hair back, rubbing her back and generally soothing her, I've been able to sit on the balcony and either read or knit the scarf I'm making for my mom.

Z came out on the balcony and said that at least she's got a good view in between bouts of throwing up.  That's my girl!

Love

I love these people

Taking Bets...

TMNC (The Many Named Cat). I figured I'd take a photo before we went out of town since he'll either be half dead or missing when we get back if going by past evidence.

If you give a a cat a cookie...

My life is sort of like one of those If you Give a Moose a Muffin books.  Seriously.

My husband and I didn't go anywhere for our 15th wedding anniversary and I was turning 40 two months later so we took our first trip to San Francisco and Napa.  While in San Francisco I, of course, went to Artfibers for some yarn shopping.  I found a lovely yarn called Tsuki which is 40% silk and 60% kid mohair.  There is a swatch of almost every yarn knitted up in the store.  I loved this look and wanted to replicate it in a shawl or scarf.  

Beautiful right?   Photo is of two colors held together and I bought both.  I was told the pattern was some sort of K1B (knit one below) and after much searching I couldn't find anything remotely similar.  

A friend sent me a link to the Horai Scarf and I love the look of it...but well, we all know my past record with lace.  Not so good.  After studying the pattern for a few weeks I decided I'd do a practice Horai with some Filisilk.  (Lace + Me + Mohair = Disaster)

So far so good.  Finished this project in 10 days!   Now to block:  

Spent 10 days knitting this thing and then soaked it and another 1.5 hours getting the blocking wires in. Ahhhhh....now for it to dry and be a perfect ending to my first finished lace project.  

As I'm walking by the hallway where my masterpiece is drying this is what I see:

Thinking this rotten cat might need to find a new home.  

Life Happens and my brain is broke

We got a little bit of bad news today.

We have three clients on the programming side of the business and one of them canceled recently.

This is a total bummer since we are basically loosing 1/3 of our income.

I have taken to cutting back on some of our bills.  I started with health insurance.  For a family of four who rarely go to the doctor, we were paying 1138 a month in health insurance.  I've been bitching about this forever!   Let me start by saying that my husband was in a networking group and we have our health insurance though one of those people.

I called the guy I used to use and low and behold, our new payment is ... DRUM ROLL PLEASE ... $429 a month!   A lower deductible, a slightly higher co pay and the rest is pretty much the same.

WTF took me so long to do this????   I'm so irritate with myself.

I moved on to DirectTV.  Let me just say that to work at Direct TV, you obviously don't need to be a brain surgeon.  I can't even remotely explain my 2 hour (YES you read that right TWO FREAKING HOURS) conversation with them but let's just say that my bill went from $150 to $80.

Next was home insurance.  Yet another person set us up thought the networking group.  You see where this is going?   My old homeowners was going up $1100 to $5300 a year and I've gotten it down to $2500 with a lower deductible.

Now if I could just get my market totes moving again I'd be in good shape!

Too pretty to be dripped on?

In my ever-going quest to enjoy knitting while not making a scarf that I won't wear....I saw this pattern in a book which I borrowed from a friend.  Too cute.

Of course I'd like to take a minute to complain about that Signit.  I purchased a box of Signits for $23.  On the back of the box it explains how to put them on.  You pull the yarn through the available holes HORIZONTALLY.  However, when I get home I realize that the Fleur de Lis's have the holes VERTICALLY!   WHY??????   Now I have to figure out how to put the darn thing on my yarn without it being upside down.   

Turns out that it doesn't really matter so much as it always ends up crooked anyway.  UGH!

My complaints about Signits aside, I like this quick project.  Definitely makes giving a bottle of wine a little more pizazz (sp?).

First Socks

Here is my problem with knitting.  I love to knit.  I love to shop for yarn.  I love to peruse Ravelry and look for patterns to go with my yarn.  I love to cast on (sort of).  The problem?   I don't generally wear scarves or shawls and that's what I've been knitting.

So I decided that I'd take a class and learn how to knit socks.  Whenever I've got jeans or pants on, I've normally got some sort of store bought (*GASP*) funky socks on.

My first attempt was started on April 6th but I ended up missing a class or two when Zoey was sick and when I went to Stitches South.  Hmmm...which basically left me with no knowledge of the important things like turning the heel!  

Here is the finished product:

 
I'm happy with the finished product and think they are very cute!   After purchasing some Lisa Souza sock yarn I really want to get started on another pair BUT I really don't know how to turn the heel!  

What's a girl to do?  

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Ready to ride

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Plated

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Chicken taquito with like and cilantro sauce

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Whole wheat goldfish crackers

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Me and Ridley Pearson

Me and Ridley Pearson

I am a lazy knitter

So I'm kinda figuring that I'm not really a scarf girl.  I want to be, but it just isn't happening for me.

What's a knitter to knit if she isn't a scarf wearer?   How about a skirt?   A knitted skirt?   Yea, I'm going to go ahead and try it.

The problem I ran into is that I have to CO 190 stitches!  Man!   What a total PITA!  So I sat here for a few days looking at the daunting task of figuring out how much tail yarn I needed.  I ran the risk of being too short or way too long.  Hmmm.....

So, I decided that I would take TWO balls and just go with it.  I've mentioned this to several VERY experienced knitters and they had no idea what I was talking about so I'll explain it here.

Take one piece of yarn from ball 1 and a piece of yarn from ball 2.  make a slip knot but don't count this stitch as you'll just knock it off at the end.  Start casting on and CO as many stitches as needed.  When you get to the end, snip and weave in.  Set ball 2 aside for when you need it later.

If you only have one skein, then you can still use this method but you take from both ends at once.  I personally can never seem to find the end when it is tucked in the middle.  But that is a different complaint I'll save for a different blog entry one day when I am in need of some material.

I'm POSITIVE that I'm not the only one who could think this up...but I'm sharing with you in case it has never dawned on you to do it this way.

Oh, and here is my finished skirt.

Phone Books? What are those?

Went out to my front porch today and was shocked to see 6 (SIX) phone books!   Are you kidding me?   I'm not a tree hugger type of person but hello????   First of all, I don't need 6 phone books.  SIX!   Second of all, I haven't opened a phone book in probably 20 years.

Listen up Yellow Pages...85% of America does not use a phone book!  Save a forest and use the internet.

Wearing the shawl

I really like how this turned out.  Generally.  As previously reported, I basically learned how to knit continental on this project so my tension isn't 100% even but even so, I love this and will definitely knit the pattern again.

The yarn is just lovely in both color and softness.

Here are a couple pics of me wearing the shawl.  (sorry for the blurriness...I think it did that because it was dark?)

Finished 1st Shawl

The First Shawl is currently blocking.  (which was an experience in itself!)

Here is a close up photo:

Color is hard to get to come out right using the camera phone inside but it is a light light lime green.

The pattern is Boneyard Shawl and I really enjoyed the knitting.  It was fairly mindless and felt like time off for good behavior after the lace I've been knitting.

Yarn was Wispy by Reynolds and I'd use this again in a heart beat.  It is soft and smooshy and just lovely.  The only problem I had was when I was binding off it was splitting quite a bit.  I used Jenny's Stretchy Bind Off and kept having to pull to get it tighter and that's when the yarn was splitting.  I didn't have too much of a problem with that during the project.  Splitty yarn makes me cranky and I'd knit with this again so that should tell you something.  I blame the bind off and not the yarn.

First shawl - Check!   Moving on to First Skirt...Yikes!  I'd just like to add that no one I know who knits has ever knitted a skirt.  I feel like I'm going into unchartered territory with this one.

Gumbo cookoff

Worker bees

Gumbo cookoff

Abby and me

Abby, Camille and Mike

Gumbo cookoff
(with Chef Ellen in the background)

Shawl - looking good!

When I got home I decided that I'd take advantage of my recent class on knitting continental and only knit that way throughout the rest of this shawl.  I know it won't be perfect but if I don't use the skill I'll never get good at it.  Sooooo....here goes nothing.  Here is a couple photos of the shawl being modeled by my 5 year old Z.

Think I'm going to have to invest in a blocking board and some pins.  

Who invited the Tiger for tea?

Abby enjoyed a cup of tea after dinner.   Z chose to go to the kids club rather than a 2 hour dinner.

Shirts in action!

Very happy with the way these came out!

My first shawl

Working on this in the car on the way to disney.   It is the boneyard shawl.   Instead of M1R and M1L I'm just doing YO's.

Apps for Traveling?

We are getting ready to go to Disney and this will be my first trip with an iPad. I've been collecting apps for travel helpfulness and also for entertainment purposes.   Myself, Hubby and two girls ages 10 and 5.

Here is my list so far:

• WDW Lines - info on wait times, park hours, crowd levels etc.  
• Yarnphone - searches for nearby yarn stores!
• Flower Garden - grow your own flowers (more fun than it sounds)  You can even clip various flowers in order to make a bouquet and then send that bouquet via facebook or email
• Where - searches for various things (food / lodging) nearby
• SitorSquat - user reviewed public bathrooms!
• Beat the Traffic - uses maps to tell you how to get around traffic congestion
• Road Trip LE - keeps track of MPG etc
• RT Bingo HD - a road trip bingo game that can be played by one or two players 
• Faces iMake Premium - I got the premium version ($1.99) since I read that the .99 has ads and I don't want my kids seeing inappropriate ads on accident.  
• WhiteNoise - love this app for blocking outside noise
• Sally's Spa or Salon - this was already on my iPad and my iTouch but I just have to mention it because it is the best all-time time waster app ever!

Shirts for our upcoming Disney trip

A little embroidery goes a long way.  :)   Been working on these shirts for a while then my machine broke so I had to have it serviced in order to finish!   ACK!   $500 later here is the finished products.

Men

Need I say more?

I wonder why my husband is able to change my mood in a second?   I was so excited about our upcoming Disney trip and thought I had done a nice thing by going shopping for new shorts for him.  God forbid he shop for himself!   I asked him to try the shorts on since I HAD ALREADY PACKED FOR HIM!  And he gave me the eye rolling and the huffing and puffing.

I just don't get it.  The clothes are not only purchased, but washed and laid out.  All you have to do is step into a pair of shorts to see if they fit and you are going to get shitty?   WTF?

Totally took the wind out of my sails and the shine off my upcoming trip.  Why do I let him do that to me?

Ack! Lace!

Had my last lace class today.  I think I may finally have the hang of this!   I just don't understand why it is so hard!  I mean, I can k2tog, I can K, I can P, , I can YO and I can slip a stitch...so WHY OH WHY do I keep messing it up?????

The girls at the knit shop were going through a basket of glass buttons today and I was able to do several rows without messing up.  They were over and across the table I was sitting at.  YEAH!  I can't tell you the amount of concentration that took.  Whew!

Here is a photo of the project...

Thank goodness for the life lines!

No good deed.....

I found out that someone I know from High School's son was in an accident on 12/30.  To make a long story short, some mutual friends started a fundraiser to help with medical expenses.  I haven't seen this guy since high school and we weren't particularly close then.  Sort of mutual friends etc and are "friends" on facebook.  natch!

Well, someone volunteered to head up the fundraiser, his wife works at the Wax Museum downtown New Orleans and got the venue donated and another friends was helping them.  They just needed someone to do the silent auction.  <raises hand stupidly>

So...here I am volunteering to head up a silent auction.  There are two things that I didn't realize going in to this:

1. that we would get so many things donated (well over 250 individual items)
2. that people would be so mad at me at the end of the event!

We put things into packages since we just didn't have the space for almost 300 individual items.  I believe that so many people came out to help this family because we all were thankful it wasn't us that had to go through what they were going through.  Given that we didn't have to go through that, the next thing was to help someone who was going through it.  And a whole community did!

The event was last Sat night and I'm glad it is over and I'm also glad I was able to help do some good.  The silent auction raised in the neighborhood of 11K and the fundraiser raised in the neighborhood of 28K (tickets were sold as well as t-shirts and a raffle)

Put a fork in me...I'm done!

Needles make all the difference?

I'm working on a different looking scarf in my Mardi Gras Malabrigo colors (207 or SM Gold) and while I like the pattern I have been dreading working on it. I think the reason is that I hate the needles I'm using! They are bamboo needles which I normally love, but it seems the slick finish has come off and so they just aren't sliding nicely. There is nothing like that feeling of sslllliiidddiiinnnggggg your yarn to the next needle.

I'm heading to my LYS this evening for an event and I think I'll either pickup some Lantern Moon's or some Laurel Hill needles.

Here is a photo of the project I'm talking about. Still a scarf, but a tad different looking than the regular rectangles I've been doing.

Not So Scary Scarf - Completed

I messed up the Not So Scary Scarf (really called My So Called Scarf) AGAIN yesterday as I was in a hurry to have it done for Valentines day. Went into my LYS to beg for help (Thanks Heidi!). Came home and worked on it most of the rest of the day and FINALLY finished that sucker. My hands were killing me but it is done and I'll be able to wear it on Monday which is Valentine's Day! Woo Hoo!

Update: 2/14/2011: Did I mention that the yarn I used for this scarf is 85% WOOL???? It was 72 freaking degrees today and although I was fairly warm...I wore it anyway! Too much work went into this thing to have a little heat wave deter me.

UGH!

I have messed up three projects in the last 12 hours! WTHeck is wrong with me?

I messed up the lace project. I knitted the wrong row on the wrong side.

Then I frogged the Mardi Gras Malabrigo since I still thought it made me look like a jester.

Figured I'd go back to an old faithful my Not So Scary Scarf and I just messed that one up too! I was running out of yarn and was not quite sure how to change the yarn on this scarf. I can't double the yarn like I do normally because the scarf is full of YO's and P2tog. Thought I could try it but ran out of yarn almost through the row and then messed up the tinking. UGH!

I really wish I'd have learned to tink in one of my classes. I can tink a knit stitch, I can tink a SSK and PSSO but not sure about tinking a purl stitch and the rest. I'm very frustrated this morning.

Just a general update

I have several projects that I'm working on and I'm sort of stuck since I can't decide what I want to actually work on. Does that happen to anyone else?

I'm close to being finished on my Half the Calories scarf. I decided to just finish it off and hopefully I'll be able to twist the scarf so it looks less clownish. I have more of that color so I'll do something else with the rest.

I've decided to return one of the three skeins that I bought to do the Goldfish Tails lace scarf. I'm just not loving the pattern all that much and it seems silly to finish out 3 skeins when I have no idea what to do with it. Plus, I only did three repeats of the pattern so I think I'll be ok using only two skeins. Feel like I need to work on this one the most since I'm doing it in a class for the next three weeks. I seem to be ok with the pattern so I'm not sure if we'll move on to something else or if it'll just be a knit along.

I really really really want to start my nemesis La Novia again. I seem to be doing ok with the Goldfish Lace so maybe I can finally sit down and tackle this one.

Also have a WIP that would be great for Valentines Day but I need to start working on it again.

It has also come to my attention that the leg warmers for the 5 year old are not perfect. They seem to not stay up on her thighs like she wanted them to. Not sure if that is a problem with the yarn or because I didn't change the needle size down to do the ribbing or if I just need to put some elastic in there. ???

Video's are something I'd like to work on as well. Mainly for myself to refer back to. If I put the video's here of different stitches then it'll be a good place for me to remember where they are! Thinking about that....

Proud Mardi Gras!

Drop stitch scarf using Trendsetter Segue on size 19 needles. Lantern Moon are my new favorite needles. :) Trendsetter Segue Yarn 118 Moss & Lilacs

Very happy with how this turned out.

Clowns are not my thing!

I was so excited about my one ruffle potato chip scarf...but when I finished it...not so much.

LOVE how the potato chip scarf turns out and I really enjoy knitting it. I can knit it mindlessly while watching tv, or on an airplane or even while riding in a car. It is my "go to project" that can always be in my purse.

The problem with this particular one is in the color that I'm using: Malabrigo color 207
What's the problem you ask? It reminds me of this:

I don't want to look like a sad clown girl while I wear it. I'm thinking I might frog the whole thing and do it again but subtract stitches from the 20. I like the idea of it and I'd like it in ANY other color. I just can't get past the clown thing. While it is cute and several people have seen me working on it and complimented it...I just can't get past the clown thing. Here's a photo:

Lace!

Finally! I'm taking a lace class this month and I hope that it teaches me to make my nemesis the La Novia scarf. I really want to use that Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend that I have. So hopefully 4 classes will help me in my ability to make the La Novia.

We are making a scarf out of a pattern that is for a shawl. I'm not overly excited about the pattern but I am keen to learn lace, so I guess it's a trade off. The yarn we are being required to use is either Firefly or Linarte.

Originally I thought I'd go with the Firefly but many people on Ravelry have said that they don't particularly like working with the yarn so I'm wary of it now. The Linearte is pretty enough but I like the colors that my LYS has in the Firefly better. Guess I'll flip a coin. I certainly don't want to be fighting with yarn when I'm trying to learn something new. I have to decide by Wednesday so I'll report back.

Manos Del Uruguay Manos Silk Blend Multi Yarn - Wildflowers (# 3113)

Griping

I need to complain a little. It irritates me to no end when I read patterns and people say "quick knit". For whom is that a quick knit? By saying "quick knit" you are basically telling me that I suck as a knitter because that project was not a quick knit for me. Maybe change the phrasing or ad a cavate to say "quick knit - if you know what you are doing". What is a quick knit anyway? A day? A week? A month? Is it quick if it is ready in the season in which you are making it? WAY too arbitrary for me.

I was also the girl in school who preferred to fail a test with a green corrective pen rather than red. Red was like telling me that not only was I an idiot for failing, but the teacher hated me as well. Green, was sort of a lighter failure but the teacher still liked me and knew I could do better.

Just a suggestion.

Presents from China

My good friend Vickie lives in China and has been talking to me about yarn and knitting etc. She's been threatening to send me a box of mish mash which I would obviously LOVE to have. Got a note from her this morning on facebook saying that she has indeed sent my box of goodies out...but alas it has gone surface mail which takes 6 - 8 weeks. She also mentioned that she's headed to Hong Kong for a family vacay and has heard that they have nice Japanese yarns there. She'll scope out the LYS in HK and get back to me. :) I love having thoughtful friends like that!

I'll be sure to share photos when the long awaited box arrives!

Lessons in Legwarmers

So, the 4 year old refuses to wear pants to school and they eat outside. ?? While trying to talk her into some pants to cover her little legs she suggested that it would be fashionably better to wear a pair of legwarmers. (again, she's 4!)

Me: I don't know where to buy legwarmers that would fit your little legs...let's maybe just try the pants on?

Her: {looks disdainfully at the plaid uniform pants} How about if we buy yarn and you can knit me a pair????

I am not an overly lenient parent, but I do admit to picking my battles. We were at Hobby Lobby one day soon after, buying project supplies for the 10 year old, and passed the yarn isle. They both want to meander down the isle and the 4 year old comes up with a nice soft light pink bamboo and announces that this is the yarn for the legwarmers. UGH!

This is what we ended up with:

The problem is that 1) This particular bamboo isn't very stretchy 2) she wanted them above her knee which she neglected to mention before they were finished and 3) Did I mention she was 4 and picked out light pink???

We tried again with a darker blue using Comfort Solids by Berroco with the knowledge going in that she wanted them long enough to cover her knees and the dark blue would not show all the dirt from the playground.

I used Jenny's Super Stretchy Bindoff and ended up dropping two stitches but didn't notice till I was finished and had weaved in the ends. UGH! During the binding off the yarn slipped off and obviously I didn't pick it up right. Note to self: Learn to tink the JSSBO. What's a girl to do?

This particular girl goes to the LYS to see if someone there can help! Took three people and I still ended up with a knot and a loop but just gave up and wove that in. The (she's had a birthday between the pink and blue legwarmers) 5 year old loves them and all is right with the world especially since she isn't required to perpetrate a 5 year old fashion faux paux by wearing plaid pants to school. Whew...disaster averted.