skittermagoo!

Crisis averted, sort of!

Okay, so after I realized last night that I had nothing on the needles, I felt like I had to go and cast on for SOMETHING! So that's exactly what I did. I had just bought (and wound into a ball-like form) some cotton chenille to make one of these reverse-bloom flower washcloth thingies from the Weekend Knitting book. I think it was backlash against the Perpetual Boring Washcloth™ -- I wanted to make an Unboring Washcloth™ instead!

So, I cast on. And knitted the entire first petal.

Hmmmm, somehow I don't think the petals are supposed to have corners.

I did follow the instructions to the letter . . . so, is this supposed to be solved with blocking? Has anyone else encountered corners on their petals? I think what I'm going to do is frog it and start again, but use a "softer" cast-on (I used long-tail cast-on for this, maybe it wasn't "giving" enough). We'll see.

Incidentally, the remarkable similarity in color between this and my Tricot sweater is pure coincidence . . . my only other choices for cotton chenille at the LYS were hideous. And I didn't want to make a Hideous Washcloth™.

Oh, oh! And since I found out that my friend Heather doesn't visit here (yet), I can post this:

Two teensy little Umbilical Cord hats (from Stitch 'n Bitch) for her impending baby, made from Bernat Cottontots (which is verrrry soft)! H is due in either August or September, and I will see her tomorrow night for the first time since she told me she was preggers, and probably for the last time before the beebee is born. I can't wait to give these to her!! She and her family opted to not get the answer to the boy/girl question until the birth, thus the yellow and green. Though, honestly, I would have used gender-neutral colors anyway -- I kind of hate that "pink for girls, blue for boys" thing.

And one more thing, for now . . . I will be in the Tampa, FL area next week visiting my grandparents, and am pretty unfamiliar with the yarn store/internet cafe/bubble tea availability there . . . can anyone point me to one or more of the above?

Done !!

I finished it! Tricot is officially my first finished sweater!

Here it is laid out flat:

For once, Cloey isn't inspecting what knitted stuff I put on the floor . . . she must have been taking a nap or something.

And here is Tricot, doing "the Rachael":

I have to say, as much as I bitched about that zipper, it wasn't as hard to install as I'd feared! The moral support of my Stitch 'n Bitch group definitely helped, as did the glass of wine I had just prior to sewing it in.

This was a completely enjoyable sweater to knit (thanks for the great design and pattern, Alison!), and was a great introduction to intarsia -- I no longer am afraid of the "I" word!

OK, now I'm off to work on the baby hat I started yesterday -- I'm going to see my pregnant friend Heather on Thursday, probably for the last time before her wee bairn is born, so I better get cracking! Oh, and I have one row left on my Booga Bag before I bind off and start on the i-cord strap!

New Texas Knitters webring!

Hey y'all! If you're a blogging knitter, and you live in Texas, check out the webring that Steph built!

Almost Friday

Agh, I will be so glad when this week (in work) is over! We've been working on a grant at work nonstop for the past couple of months, and it is finally submitted . . . tomorrow our lab will be celebrating with an early happy hour and multiple margaritas.

Here's the Booga Bag that I've been working on, in Noro Kureyon 126:

I absolutely lurrrve this yarn, the way the colors and the yarn thickness constantly change in front of my eyes. It's like a really good book: in one way I don't want it to end, so I almost want to slow down, but I can't help but go really fast so I can see what happens next.

And here's what was in the mail today:

Yep, it's more Kureyon 126!! I bought this on eBay on Sunday night, and it already arrived! Ten skeins . . . yum. I think I'm going to earmark it for a sweater for ME, though I'm not sure yet what pattern.

In other news, Tricot is done except for the zipper. I have two zippers to choose from (I couldn't decide, so I bought both), and will be installing it on Sunday at Stitch 'n Bitch. I have a feeling that this particular exercise will be more Bitch than Stitch -- I have no clue how to put in a zipper, either by hand or by machine, so it should be interesting. In any case, I will hold off on a photo until she is done.

Of course I did try her on as soon as all those stupid ends were woven in, and she mostly fits.

Great minds think alike . . .

I just found out that Steph is making a Booga Bag, too, and out of the same color as the one I'm working on! Gorgeous Kureyon 126 . . . Her bag is already blocking (she's a speedy one, she is), which is cool because now I have an idea what mine will look like when it's done! Whee!

odds and ends and more ends

Here's what I like: the way a mattress-stitched seam results in a nice, neat, almost invisible (from the right side) seam. I'm not sure I actually like executing the mattress stitch, but it is kind of fun to pull the loose stitches into a beautiful seam! Not bad from the back, either.

Here's what I don't like: weaving in ends. Does anyone like this? If so, I would like to send you my Tricot sweater and let you weave in all the pesky ends for me.

I haven't been blogging for the last couple of days because the finishing on Tricot has taken much more of my time that I anticipated. Why, oh why, does it take so long to weave in all those stupid ends? BUT, I should be done with all but the zipper tonight, so will have pictures to post!! Yay!

I think the next sweater I make will be in-the-round-with-no-seams-and-minimal-finishing. Hah.

Block party

Hey, look who's blockin'!

It's tricot!! I finished the second sleeve last night, and decided to go ahead and block so that she'd hopefully be dry by this evening (Hub and I are going to his mom's house for Father's Day). Since this is the first time I've blocked anything, I was completely clueless, and had to consult several books before starting. In the end, I opted for the "mist and pat" method of blocking, which actually wasn't in any of the references I had. So, who knows. The good thing is that after I misted, I was able to uncurl the edges pretty well. Hopefully will be seaming tonight!

Yesterday my friend Stewart and his parents came to visit:

Cloey looks pissed, but in actuality I think she was just a bit confused -- she purred the whole time he was petting her. I was really impressed with both of them! Abby stayed under the bed for the whole visit, but that's not a surprise -- she does that with big people too.

And in other news, I am in love with Noro. Not Eisaku Noro (the guy behind the yarn), but with the yarn itself.

So in love, in fact, that less than 24 hours after I cast on for my soon-to-be felted bag (that's the bottom of it, above), I bought a bag of 10 skeins of Kureyon on eBay. I'm out of control, I know. But I can't help myself -- the color changes mesmerised me and made me do it!

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' . . . .

Okay, here's a kind of weird coincidence type of thing . . .

We have two clocks in our living room (that's not the strange part). One of them we don't really look at often, and it ran out of juice, oh, probably 6 weeks to 2 months ago:

Ok, that's still not the weird part.

The other clock sits on our mantel, and we look at it constantly -- in the mornings to gauge if there is time for one more cuppa, in the evenings to gauge how much knitting time is left before bed, etc, etc.

Well, this morning we noticed that overnight, it stopped:

Isn't it amazing that both clocks, while stopping on different days, even different months, STOPPED AT ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME TIME??!!!

Well, I thought it was remarkable, anyway. But, then, I'm easily amused.

I do have knitting to report; I'm about 1/4 of the way through the second sleeve of Tricot. But instead of showing you a picture that is virtually indistinguishable from one I probably posted last week, I give you this:

DFW blogs

Hey, I just noticed that I've been added to DFW blogs! Cool!

More later . . . I have pictures to post, but am currently at work, so checking in quickly. Back to the grind!

Tricotliciousness!

Yesterday at Stitch 'n Bitch, Nancy and I introduced our Tricots-in-progress to each other:

They seemed to get along just fine! I just love that blue she's using -- the color is very rich and saturated.

After I got home, I finished the first sleeve . . .

I would have finished it at SnB, but I was busy talking and missed count on the decreases, and had to rip about 10 rows. I'm a bit concerned at how long (and wide) it seems, but have decided not to do any more tweaking and just trust the pattern!

I really love how the decreases look (or rather, don't!) on this pattern . . . virtually invisible!

In other Stitch 'n Bitch fun, I bought 10 balls of Rowan Linen Drape from Keri! I'm not sure yet what to do with it . . .

Movie night!

Last night Hub and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie . . . and I thought it was great! I tried not to go in with my usual high expectations, because I knew that with this book they would have to cut quite a bit out (the book could have been 2 movies if everything were left in, I think), and because I love the books so much -- and the book is always better than the movie. BUT, I think that it was executed very well. A couple of people I know who saw the movie but hadn't read the book said they found it confusing, which I guess I can understand. So, if you haven't read the book, read it before you go see it!

I was also anxious about the "new" Dumbledore being up to snuff (I thought Richard Harris was cast perfectly), but I think that casting Michael Gambon was a great move -- he makes a good Dumbledore!

The only thing that really got me is that the actors who play Harry, Hermione, and Ron definitely looked older than thirteen (their characters' ages), at least to me. I understand that they are currently filming the fourth installment with the same leads (I had recently heard a rumor that they would use different kids), and I sure hope they hurry!

Free Friday!

Yesterday was Fake Friday; I guess that makes today Free Friday! Too bad that it wasn't "free" in the sense of "costs nothing". . .

After breakfast and puttering around a bit, I decided to see if my favorite LYS is open today . . . It is, and this is what I found on the clearance rack (half off!):

The peachy color is GGH Safari, which is 78% linen/22% nylon, and is a LOT softer than it looks. I think I will make something (scarf?) for my mom out of it, as it's one of her best colors. The greeny/yellowy is OnLine Summer Mistral, and the bluey/pinky/yellowy is OnLine Street . . . I only got 2 skeins of each, so I'm thinking more scarves? Maybe for holiday gifts.

So I'm out running around, and it's not even noon yet, so I figured I may as well hit the other LYS I like in town, and here's what I found there:

On the left is a skein of Cascade 220 for a tangeriney Sophie bag. And on the right is, yes, more sock yarn. I couldn't resist the funky color!

I also found something I've been needing for a while now:

Until about a month ago, I didn't even know that size 10.75 needles existed! I thought that they must, since there is a huge jump in metric sizes between 10.5 and 11, and since the rest of the world uses metric, etc, etc, etc. But I'd never seen them. And I have had at least two yarns that didn't produce the right gauge at either 10.5 or 11 -- I needed something in between. So, there it is! Mad props to Kathy (of my SnB) for telling me where to find them!

And that's just one more reason (on the master list of 274 reasons) why I wish the U.S. would catch up with the times and just switch to metric, already! Sheesh!

Tricot progress!

I got the front of Tricot done last night, after a tiny little rip-fest (due to my apparent inability to count); here's Cloey checking it out:

The edges aren't as ripply and uneven as they look here . . . I didn't have the patience to pin them out to the carpet, so there is considerable curlage.

And just so that Abby doesn't feel left out, here's a picture of her just before we went to the vet on Wednesday . . . doesn't she look trusting?

Little did she know that about 5 minutes later she would be forced into her carrier and tortured for an hour. I swear, she made noises that sounded like something not of this Earth. And she's usually SO sweet and gentle.

Our trip to the vet was fairly routine . . . as usual there was a delay after we were in the "little room" because an emergency came in that Dr. Effie had to attend to. This happens every time we go see her. I love our vet, and will even drive out of my way to take the girls to her once we move again, but she works in a VERY busy office that is close to downtown (and close to where we currently live), so we are never seen on time. That's ok, I guess. Dr. Effie is worth it.

Anyway. The girls are now rabies-vaccinated and Frontlined (as a preventative -- fleas are reportedly going to be horrible here this year due to lack of a hard freeze over winter) and weighed and measured and generally checked up. So except for Cloey's periodic visits to her dermatologist (yep, there are cat dermos!), we're done for the year. Yay!

Other than all that fun, I've been knitting on Tricot, and working like crazy (grant deadline next Friday, after which you will be able to find me in the bar) and trying to stay sane. Not that *that's* much fun! Heh.

Fake Friday

Today is Fake Friday for me! Whee! At work on Tuesday we got an organization-wide email notifying us that Friday (the real one) will be a University holiday -- hey, there's one benefit to working for the State of Texas! I feel a tiny bit guilty for being so excited about it, since it *is* because it's a national day of mourning. But not too guilty -- inside I'm doing a happy dance because I really need an extra day off to try and decompress.

Since I am the only one in my household who has the day off tomorrow (with the exception of the cats, for whom it is always a holiday), I am planning to go YARN SHOPPING and also do a whole lot of knitting.

OK, I'm off to go take pictures of the front of Tricot to show you! I'm starting the sleeves tonight -- woohoo!

Where has all the free-time gone?

Sometimes being a grownup really sucks. For instance, my free-time seems to have disappeared lately! By the time I get up, go to work, work all day, come home, give the cats some attention, go to the gym, shower, make dinner, eat dinner, and clean up after dinner, it's 8pm or later. Which leaves me less than two hours per night to do other stuff before it's time to get ready for bed.

Okay, so I really know I shouldn't whine; I have a pretty commitment-free life, relatively speaking -- it's just me and Hub and the cats, after all. But, it just seems lately like I just don't have enough time to do all the things I want to do (i.e. knit and blog, mainly). Where has all my free-time gone?

In actual knitting news, I'm on to the raglan decreases on the front of Tricot! Shoving Green Tea Three into the closet while trying to find a couple yards of yarn to finish it means that the only thing I have on the needles (other than the Perpetual Boring Washcloth™) is Tricot. Maybe I will actually finish a sweater one of these days! I do know for damn sure that I bought enough yarn for Tricot, anyway. Heh.

#&@$%!!!!!

As of five minutes ago, T3 (a/k/a Green Tea Three) is on hold, indefinitely and may end up completely [expletive deleted] frogged, or else stored in the bottom of the back of the [expletive deleted] closet forever.

It happened. My nightmares have come true . . . I [expletive deleted] ran out of yarn. Completely.

Not only did I [expletive deleted] run out of yarn, but I ran out in the most frustrating way -- with 8.5 rows and a bind off to go. Yep, 8.5 rows. Of sleevage. So, that's about, oh, [doing math furiously in head and failing], LESS THAN 200 [expletive deleted] STITCHES LEFT.

ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

The only thing that can save me is if I can find more yarn, somewhere, somehow. I found one yarn store online (I don't even know if they sell online, but they have a website) that might carry the color I need, and I emailed them. My LYS has no more, because, yes, I bought it on clearance, and got the last balls of the stuff they had. Double checked, even, to make sure they didn't have more "in the back". Yeah, as you can guess, I had a feeling it was going to be tight. Have had Yarn Anxiety™ about it for a while (as my Stitch 'n Bitch homies can attest; they have heard all about it). I thought if I ran out, it would be before I got to sleeves, at the very least. But to run out with almost everything done and ready to block, now that's just insulting! I even checked all my tails to see if I had any long enough to warrant splicing some bits together into a large-enough piece, but no dice. Since I had a feeling I might run out, I was veryveryvery conservative with what I had. (just about the only time you'll find me being conservative about anything, actually)

Anyway, here's my last resort plea: if any of you out in blogland have a ball (or even a couple yards of leftovers, or even a swatch you're willing to let me take apart and use) of Gedifra Luisa in color# 1467 (preferably in lot 20, but at this point I'm not going to be picky), and would like to trade me for it or sell it to me, I will name my next cat after you and send you gifts and generally praise your name everywhere I go. Seriously.

Jeez, do have no control?

I went to JoAnn's today to buy only this:

Because I really did need more stitch holders, and they carry the kind I like.

BUT, this is what came home with me:

Yep, I officially have no self control when it comes to yarn. And, I seem to be in a bit of an orange mood! The orange MicroSpun is for playing with -- I've been intrigued by it since I felt it up in Hobby Lobby about a month ago, and I want to see how it knits before I commit to buying more of it. No idea what I would make with it, but you know.

The sock yarn is for socks, probably . . . I'm still a bit entranced by the whole concept that the stuff makes stripes by itself.

The variegated Landscapes stuff is for either felted coasters or felted cat toys or both. And the orange feathery stuff? More cat toys.

Not that the girls don't have enough toys . . . we have a whole vat full of various mousies and balls and who-knows-what-else, and Abby roots through it and pulls something interesting out on a regular basis. But they don't have anything feathery, and I thought it might be fun. For them. Heh.

Speaking of the girls, I had to make an emergency run to the vet this morning to pick up some pills for Cloey . . . as many of you know, she has severe allergies that require bi-weekly injections. Which may or may not work (we're still in the wait-and-see stages). Anyway, there's something in the air that is making her Extremely Itchy (she's licked bald spots onto her tummy and legs), so I had to get her some additional stuff for it. I'm sure that's more than anyone wanted or needed to know.

Extreme focus

Can't post now. Too busy knitting furiously away on Green Tea Three. 6 rows left on front. Almost done. Can't stop. Gotta go. Back later.

Thunderboomers!

Okay, so I totally intended to post some pics last night of my growing Tricot front and my also-growing Green Tea Three front . . . but then the storms got in the way. And since I am still in "overprotective mom" mode with my new computer (which has yet to be named), I felt compelled to shut down and unplug . . . I have no desire to have Fried Laptop for breakfast! Anyway, it's a good thing I did, because it was a bad one! We briefly lost power, and the trees outside our patio were waving their limbs in the air like 15-year-old girls at their first concert. We have trees down in the neighborhood, and a lot of people I know still don't have their power back!

There was at least one confirmed tornado in Arlington (a 'burb of Dallas and my hometown). I was watching the radar (until we lost power and thus satellite), and there was a big purple (!) splotch right over my parents' house west of Ft. Worth. It was much worse out there than here in Big D; they lost their phone until noon today (dammit, I *knew* there was a good reason they need an emergency cell phone! Like when there are tornadoes and my mom's Only Baby Daughter can't get through to make sure they are ok!).

Anyway, they are fine, but many of the trees in their yard were either broken or uprooted, and about a half mile away people had trailer houses not just picked up by the wind but *rolled*. The parents didn't lose the two 100+-year-old trees that live in their yard, thank goodness. But the last standing peach tree is no longer standing, from what I gather.

Luckily, there aren't any fatalities, as far as I know. BUT, we are supposed to get another round or two of violent storms tonight, so the pictures may have to wait. And maybe by tomorrow I will have something more fun to show than just boring pictures of sweater-parts hanging off their needles -- maybe I will be on to sleeves or something!

Side dishes . . .

psssst . . . look to your left . . . there's a button over there!

Yep, I finally got around to putting up a button (actually, I just got around to having Graphic Design Husband make one, because I'm too lazy to do it myself). Feel free to take it, but only if you promise to use it for good and not for evil.

I also updated my "100 things" . . . in case anyone actually wants to know!

More to come later, including my knitalicious holiday weekend (hopefully with pictures!).