A Child's Bicycle, a Street Sign, Doggie Chew Toys, and More!

Those are some of the things that we've found under the bushes in our back yard! And that is part of the reason I have been writing so little. I don't know if I've explicitly stated this before or not, but we have a crappy old house house that is terribly in need of love. I shouldn't say too many bad things about it -- truth be told, I think that will simply create bad karma/tension between us and the house -- so I will simply say that we have our work cut out for us. Anyway, we just moved here at the end of September, got married at the beginning of October, etc., etc., and we have been slightly overwhelmed. But, this week, we finally got through THE EVIL VAULTS in our back yard and can now both stop spending money on the darn things every month and go through some of our stuff. Hopefully we'll feel like we've moved in one of these days.

Needless to say, this work around the house has not prevented me from getting myself started on way too many things lately. By things, of course, I mean knitting projects. Yes, despite Ms. Harlot's warnings, I have been struck by ...duh, duh, duh... (loud announcer voice) START-itis....

My WIPs:
1) I STILL haven't finished that darn baby blanket. I hate sewing in the ends.
2) I am finishing sock number one from the Rockin' Sock Club. I have never done cables before and it is an interesting experience. I'm psyched to be doing something new, but I have the unfortunate feeling that these socks are not going to go onto my feet w/ these darn cables. Maybe this feeling is the result of the KAL/blog that is associated w/ this sock club. I love it for many reasons -- it's nice to see who's out there knitting with me and I've definitely learned a lot from the comments (for example: cable loosely because the socks may not fit otherwise!) -- but I also find the comments made on the blog a little discouraging or frightening. I mean, I read them and I think: If these people can't do these socks, how could I possibly do it?? But, I carry on anyway. The only way to get anywhere with them is to just do it, right?
3) I am working slowly on a very simple cardigan out of Noro still. I love the colors so much that it really keeps me going, but for some reason (surely not the fact that I have a million things going at once), I don't seem to be getting through it very quickly!
4) ... boy, who knew that this list would be so long? ... I started a hat (yesterday!!) for the Harlot's tour. I don't know if they'll still be collected or not, since it seemed to be primarily for the NYC event, but I'm making one just in case. My best excuse for it: I'm getting a chance to practice cabling a bit more before carrying on with my socks that may be a failure.... Hope to have it done for Tuesday when she'll be out in Oakbrook, IL.
5) I have to finish the dress I started for my mom's dog, Trixie. Yes, you read that right. I don't know if it's the right size and shape for her really. I started it when she was 3000 miles away from me and I couldn't check (I was in Boston, she was in San Jose, CA). Now I can hopefully fix it before I hand it over. My mom is really hoping that I have it done before Easter. Yes, really. We'll see about that.
6) Well, we won't talk about the rest of the things in the bin waiting to be worked on -- like the sweater I started for my husband a few years ago....

I have to say that writing that all out was therapeutic and has definitely helped convince me that I need to stop starting for a while. Go team go! I will finish these items...really I will.

And, I won't even begin on the list of books I'm in the middle of (two Salman Rushdie books, one John Irving book, etc.), but I WILL mention that last night my husband and I went to Women and Children First to hear Rebecca Walker (daughter of Alice Walker (Color Purple), but writer in her own right) talk about her new book. She was delightful!! She was so funny and charming. We both really, really enjoyed it. And, my husband gets major points for being the only man in the room.

No, no pictures this time. It was all I could do to write this time. :/ I know it makes the posts exceptionally less interesting.

Just Do It Already!

Uff, there are a lot of things that I've been putting off lately. Instead of doing those things, I have written in this blog or done other things. So, what has been good about this week, while I have been putting off this blog is, I have finally not been putting off other things. This is good news!

First things first, though. This past Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and so I went downtown with my mother and my husband to see the dyeing of the Chicago River green. I've never really seen it before and so I thought now was the time. The crowds were horrendous so we gave up entirely on the whole parade idea, but the day was beautiful and it was enjoyable. Here is the place where they put the dye in:




I know it doesn't look all that green, but trust me when I tell you that it was very green. Check this out:









Also good is the fact that my mother completed the knitting bag that she was making for me.


Here is a photo of the inside and the outside:








Things I finally started:
1) My Noro sweater that is sooooo yummy. I am loving the colors, which is great since I was a little concerned that I might not once I began to knit it. Sometimes skeins that are made of so many different colors are much more beautiful in theory (in the skein) than they are in practice (the worked product). I am farther than this now, but here is proof!



2) My Socks that Rock socks! Hooray! I was so afraid of starting these things. I don't know if it was the comments that other sock club members made about how difficult these babies were or what, but avoid them I did. Well, I was afraid of the provisional cast-on for one thing. But, I have taken it one step at a time (no pun intended -- these are socks we are talking about, after all) and it has worked out okay so far. Though, they are taking forever because I am working the foot in 0s. Yep, tiny. I am still afraid of the legs -- whether I'll have the right size needle or not -- and more specifically, the cables. I've never done freaking cables before, let alone doing them in something where their apparent ability to completely zap the stretchability out of something can be life-ending (for the project)! That alone strikes fear in me. But, I shall carry on -- especially since I don't want to deal with sewing in the million ends on the Teddy Bear blanket. Or with finishing the bear himself.

This is just the swatch that I knit, but still it does make me feel like I've accomplished something just seeing it. In reality, I am past the toe. But no further.....

3) Emptying out the pods that are in my back yard. Well, we didn't get all that far with those, but often with fun projects like that, starting is half the battle.... Right? Maybe....

Things that I am still successfully putting off:

1) My teddy bear blanket finishing. The good news is that I was able to fix the terrible shaping by simply re-binding off the outside with needles that were one size larger. Simple fix, right? The problems that I'm having with the connection between the seed stitch portion of the blanket and the stockinette portion is not all that fixable at this point as far as I know. It is not warping nearly so badly w/ the outside fixed, but the seed stitch still doesn't want to lie flat with the blanket so much. I am hoping that blocking this thing will help some, but honestly, it's cotton and acrylic, so how much can really change?

2) Looking for lots more jobs to apply to. I had an interview today which was good, but I won't know what they've decided for a few more weeks. I need more places to apply to! :( I don't really feel like looking, though.

Well then... (Rockin' Sock Club Spoiler)

So, I have had some good moments and some bad ones over the past couple of days (primarily yesterday). Mostly things are very good: there is sun, snow is melting, my cats (and husband) rock, and I got my first Rockin' Sock Club shipment yesterday. That shipment was like manna from heaven. I thought it was never going to get here -- I've been reading for what, a week?, about other people's drooly moments when they got their package and I've just been dying to see it!! I avoided all the spoilers, etc. and finally it was here.

I nearly tackled the postman (recurring theme among us in the club) when I saw that he had a package that looked like the ones posted on the Sock Club blog, but I was so afraid that it wouldn't be the package that instead, I sat in my car holding my breath, waiting to see if he would take it into my yard and put it on my porch. Much to my amazement, he did, and I got to fondle the yarn finally.

I will start by saying that this yarn is not a color that I would normally pick out and neither is the pattern. However, as I stated on the RSC blog, I am truly excited about the opportunity to delve into different patterns and colors than I have before. This is exactly why I joined the club -- to do new things! So, I am very happy about this shipment -- I think the yarn is incredible and beautiful even though it's different from what I would normally do. It is soft and the colors are soooo rich. I have spent more time fondling this yarn than is healthy and I don't think I've spent quite so much time just holding onto my yarn before. Seriously. It's kind of sick.

Just to prove how sick I am, here is a picture of the yarn becoming part of the family (please ignore the nasty walls, etc. -- long story).


And, here is my cat Chopper welcoming the folder and all of the package contents into the home (I just hope he's willing to give them back to me some time -- I DO need that pattern, after all).


So, what is the bad news? The puckering on my blanket. The puckering, amazingly, does not come from the tying together of the loose ends, but from the seed stitch on the outside. This is
what I think is the problem, anyway. I think that when I switched to seed stitch it changed the gauge of the knitting and therefore, it tightened up -- hence the puckering. So, I have devised a clever plan (hopefully) that should fix it. Maybe. I realized that it would be impossible for me to change my tension through that whole bit of knitting around the outside of the blanket, so I am going to frog to the beginning of the seed stitch and I am going to go up one size needle to see if that will loosen it up enough to do the job.

Of course, that won't help w/ the puckering in the center, but I plan on pretending like that isn't happening. Maybe I can block some of that out? PLEASE keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Not Much New

Well, I don't even have any cute pictures of the animals to post today. I just thought I should check in here because it has been a while. I'm trying to be disciplined about something, for heaven's sake! I have been getting sloppy about so many things.

I have been working on my Teddy Bear blanket at a rate of about 3 rows per sitting. That means that I'm not getting very far, obviously. The thing about this blanket is that it has mitred corners, so it gets bigger every other row by 8 stitches, which means it takes longer and longer to get through a row. I also think that I must be doing something wrong with it. I have 800,000,000 ends that I'm going to have to sew in.

The blanket uses a different color every row and becuase there are 5 colors, there are 5 rows before there is a repetition of the color that you're using. The dilemma here is that I don't know how else to do this but to cut the yarn at the end of each row and start it again when I get to the next use of that color. I don't know if I'm being an idiot -- I have a history of making things more complicated than they need to be -- but I can't figure out any other way to make this work other than what I'm doing. ANY help would be appreciated. I just keep coming to the conclusion that if I left the string connected and just carried it up to the next row where it is used, I would end up with a corner that is really messed up and definitely not neatly attached. Or attached at all, really -- not in a seam sort of way.

The unfortunate thing is that this darned book, as the comments on Amazon stated (I read them AFTER I started with these patterns (bought the book elsewhere) thank you very much), does not give me a clue as to what I should be doing with these ends. Maybe this is the only thing to do, but it doesn't seem very elegant a solution. Uff. I just hope it looks good in the end.

On a brighter note, I finally got to go to the Stitching Salon downtown yesterday and it was wonderful. I mean, there wasn't much to it, but it was a nice environment for knitting purposes (great, comfy looking seats) and they had some FANTASTIC artwork up on the walls there that, as far as I could tell, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Stitching Salon. I appreciated it nonetheless. I was not able to stay and knit there, however, as I had things to do. If I had, I'm sure I would have lots of good stuff to say. But, the people I did talk to there were really nice and welcoming. Good stuff!!

Also, the Socks that Rock shipment was supposed to have left Oregon yesterday, so I hope to get that soon. But, with the Chicago mail system the way it is . . . well, who knows? I can dream, can't I?

And on it goes...

Well, the Hey Diddle Diddle blanket is finally done. Here is a picture of the backing. My mom did that part and I think it saved the blanket. Please ignore how bad my intarsia is . . . .





My cat Chopper has given it his endorsement as well. Thank goodness.




My knitting of the Teddy Bear blanket goes on. The recipient baby was born a couple of weeks ago and now I definitely feel the pressure to finish this thing up! I do NOT plan on putting a backing on this one. I really don't have the patience for that stuff -- which is sad, considering the fact that I haven't been the one to actually sew on the backings. Oh well. Some day I too will learn patience. Maybe. At least I can say that I am happy to actually be finishing projects. That is something. I'm not always too good at that. It helps that the things that I'm knitting are for other people -- puts more pressure on me finishing!

On a related note, I hope to start knitting something for myself soon. I went out on Valentine's Day with my mother to find myself a knitting bag (her V-Day gift to me) and instead I cam home with a bag full of Kureyon. Again. Yes, I know I complained previously about Kureeyon's scratchiness, but really, the stuff is just beautiful, so I couldn't resist. Here is the color that I picked. I love the brightness -- wonderful for this grey, icky, COLD, time of year. I am a little worried about what it's going to look like when it is knit up. It may not turn out to be the sweater I am hoping it will. I want something I can wear with everything, etc.


Here is a picture of the design (you can almost tell what it looks like). There was another one I wanted that looked warmer -- that was the whole point in allowing myself to get yarn for myself -- but, I couldn't find an Iro that would go well with it and the gauge of the Kureyon just wouldn't do. So, I'm doing this one instead.

I have to admit another fear with this project (besides the color fear): I am afraid I will get bored with it. Besides the fact that I'm not too good at knitting stuff for myself anyway, a boring pattern could do me in. I am hoping that the delight that I feel as I watch the color pattern unravel (metaphorically) before me, I will be so excited that I will enjoy knitting this thing. I am a process knitter, rather than a project knitter, I guess you could say. I don't normally knit so that I can have something. This is a new experience for me. The good news about this project is that I think it will be some thoughtless knitting that will keep the hands busy and the mind meditating, rather than cursing. I could use some of that, I think.

Lastly, I am excited to say that I am a proud new member of the Socks that Rock club! Yes, I too succumbed. I can't wait to get the package. I am not one of those people who spends 90% of her time knitting socks, but the thought of getting a mystery package of yarn with instructions in the mail every other month was just TOO much for me to resist. So, on we go!! I'll let you know when it shows up.

The Windy City

I don't have much new to say about the knitting I've been doing. I'm STILL not done doing the embroidery on the blanket that I posted photos of the other day. I've been seeking solace-giving knitting lately and that ain't it. The teddy bear blanket I'm working on is a little better for what the Yarn Harlot calls "Idiot Knitting." But, honestly, I'm going to have SO freaking many ends to sew in when I get done it makes my blood curdle. Ahem.

So, I thought I'd write about a bright spot in my knitterly life: the city of Chicago. I have moved back here after 5 years' absence and I am so glad that I did. It's the best city in the world. For me, at least. Of course, when I say the world, I mean the very limited part of it that I've experienced.... I really like London, though.... But I digress.

Anyway, one of the coolest things about this city is how much fun stuff there is going on here and one of those things happens to be knitting!! The city has been doing a Stitching Salon this winter. I don't know if they've done it before or not, but I never knew about it. Anyway, they just extended it until the end of March. I have not yet had a chance to check it out, but I am very excited about it and am pleased that it has been extended, as that increases the chance that I will be able to see it before it closes. Obviously, it has been popular, since they've extended it. More converts!! The only bad thing about this is that it means less room for me.... But, I think I shall survive -- especially since I haven't yet made it there. But I WILL!! muahahahaha.

Will it ever end?

I am STILL finishing up my Hey Diddle, Diddle blanket.... I have finished knitting it and have FINALLY woven in all the ends. Happily, I did get the camera out and deal with it, so here is a sample of what I had to work with:

I have blocked it and am fairly pleased with it. This is a terrible picture, of course, so you can't really see anything, nor can you tell that I've blocked it, but I promise--I have. I still have to do some embroidery. I have to put the details on the faces and some stars on the blanket. I will add that while the book does show where to apply much of the embroidery, it does not show everything -- like the violin strings and bow. Also, it does show approximately where the stars go, but it does not show the exact location and size of them all. Yes, I am capable of working this out on my own, but it would be so much easier to just be told where to put these things -- this way I have to worry about balance and proportion. It is frustrating to me.


After doing this, I am going to put on a backing. I purchased some lightweight flannel the other day with a very simple baby-ish pattern for this purpose. I didn't want something that would stand out too much, so I it's hardly exciting enough to show you. My mother, who loves to sew, will probably help me with it. I don't really enjoy the finishing/sewing aspect of knitting. It is the part to which I always say: "Do I have to?"

I do hope that the mother and/or baby enjoy this blanket. It will make the embroidery stuff worth the time, if they do. But, who am I kidding? I am nuts and will continue on with my knitting addiction, which means I will continue to knit blankets or whatever for every baby or non-baby that I get an excuse for! Whether they appreciate the blankets, etc., or not. Maybe some day I'll even allow myself to feel justified in knitting things for myself....