Zipper Madness

And here you see the zipper, finally installed in the sweater:



And here is the sweater blocking:



Now I just need to sew it up and I’m done! Yay. Although sewing up is my least favorite part, I must say. And I'm afraid I may run out of yarn. Turns out I didn't do the math right when I was buying the yarn in the first place (I know this is a shock to all of you because I usually have such fine-tuned math skills).

I dropped another stitch on Clapotis last night. It’s addictive, I feel like every time I sit down I have to do 12 rows so I can get to the next dropped stitch. I can’t wait to see how it looks when it’s done – I’m guessing it will take a fair amount of blocking to keep the edges from curling.

I talked to KnitPicks again. They had my credit card number wrong, even though I had called and verified it already. Ugh. Now I won’t have my yarn until the end of this week, giving me two weeks to finish the sweater. Luckily I think we’re going to Flagstaff for the weekend to relax, so I’ll have some drive time to work on it.

Some people are wondering why I was so interested in the frogs yesterday. Doesn't it seem strange to sell frogs for people to cook? I mean, exactly how are you supposed to kill and clean the frogs? Do you only eat the legs? It's just such a bizarre thing to see in a grocery store, in my opinion.

Tomorrow is a mini-SnB at Lux. So far people have confirmed for noon - if anyone wants to go earlier let me know. I am right down the street so I can be there in a jiffy. I love that place - for some reason it puts Jack into a weird baby trance and I can knit all I want.

So far we have 2 walkers signed up – me and Nancy. I think Jen was talking about it, and I know Shannon will be signing up in the future. Who else is in? I’m setting up a blog for the group so if people want to walk together or share stories they can. I’ll put the site up as soon as it’s ready.

Leaping Lizards!

Joe went grocery shopping yesterday at the 99 Ranch Market in the Chinese Cultural Center. We go there from time to time to get vegetables and look around – it’s a really cool place. Now I wish I had gone, because he told me they were selling live frogs out of a laundry basket in the fish section. I may go by today to see if they still have the frogs so I can take a picture, but imagine! Live frogs for sale in Phoenix Arizona. Joe was pretty certain they were not local frogs.

I dropped another stitch on Clapotis yesterday. I’m not sure how exciting these pictures are, but they make me happy anyway.

dropped stitches3, originally uploaded by Brooke Streech.

dropped stitches4, originally uploaded by Brooke Streech.

The zipper will be installed today. My mom leaves tomorrow so we have to get it done today, no question. She is coming over at noon with the zipper and I won’t let her leave until it’s safely sewn into the sweater.

Poor Harlot.

The Yarn Harlot made two right mittens. Not like my little girl plain wool mittens mind you, she knit Latvian braid mittens that are so intricate I think they would make my eyes pop out of my head. And she made two right ones. When I saw the picture yesterday my stomach dropped – I can't imagine how horrified she was when she realized the problem.

Not surprisingly, my mom and I did not get the zipper done yesterday. She is going to come tomorrow and do it, and this time we have to get it done because she's leaving for a week to Jamaica. I will deliver the sweater to Kim this week, I swear it!

The Knit Picks people are having trouble processing my order. Ugh. I want that yarn to get here.

It's rainy and cold today, a perfect day for knitting. I don't know how much I will get done, but I want to get to the next drop in my Clapotis at least.

Dropped stitches

I finally got to the point where you start dropping stitches on Clapotis. I don't know why this is so gratifying – it seems I'm not the only one excited about dropping stitches. It is going to look really cool I think. Here are the first two dropped stitches up close:

dropped stitches, originally uploaded by Brooke Streech.

And here is the entire thing:

dropped stitches 2, originally uploaded by Brooke Streech.

Today Jack and I had lunch with the Dallas family – Kim, Jonny, Gemma, and Angus. We went to Panne Bianco and Lux Coffeebar. Something about that place makes Jack go right to sleep – he just hung out and napped most of the time while Kim and I knit. Jonny and Gemma played Tic Tac Toe (or Knots and Crosses as Jonny called it) and visited the local pawn shop. A good time was had by all.

The thing I hate about ordering yarn online is waiting for it to get here. I want to start my cousin's shower gift, but the yarn won't be here until next week. It has to be done by the 17th when my mom leaves to go back for the shower.

Clapotis along

Here is the latest picture of my Clapotis – I’ve officially finished the increasing rows and am moving on to the straight rows. Soon I will get to start dropping stitches! (That's Guido my beagle in the picture. He desperately wants under the covers.)

straight rows, originally uploaded by Brooke Streech.

Shannon cast on for her Clapotis last night – now there are four people in our group working on one. Shannon’s is in silk garden, which I think will be beautiful. At the next meeting I’ll try to get a picture of all four together.

We’re meeting at Lux next Tuesday during the day if anyone is interested. Kim is going to try and make it and I think Becky and Pam may be there as well. It’s on Central just North of Indian School on the West side of the street.

And Jen, where were you last night? I was certain you said you were coming. I know it was raining, but it had stopped by six or so…. You were missed!

Stitching and Bitching.....

We had a mini SnB meeting tonight and it was so fun to see everyone. Pam, Illana, Becky, Latoya, Kirsten, Shannon, Alison, Michelle, a new member named Karen, and other Becky (the pregnant one). We met at Mama Java's for a couple of hours and got caught up with one another. Shannon has lost a ton of weight (I think 67 pounds) since her surgery! Stop by her blog and give her a big high five – that's incredible I think.

Here we all are (well, except for me, as I was the photographer)

mama javas, originally uploaded by Brooke Streech.

I broke down and bought the cheap KnitPicks yarn. I am going to make my cousin a sweater similar to the one I made for Angus, but she lives in Maryland so I thought wool might be a better choice. So I got 7 balls of the wool and it was $12! And then since shipping is free for orders over $30, I ordered a few other yarns. A total of 12 balls of yarn for $32. You can't beat that with a stick.

My mother has finished knitting a kangaroo for my nephew. All the pieces are done, now she just has to sew it up. This is just further proof that if you can dream it up, my mother can make it for you.

I got to work on Clapotis tonight – I'm finally almost done with the increases and will get to start dropping stitches. We all compared our progress – Kirsten is making it with the intended yarn (man is that stuff soft), and Michelle is making it out of Cotton Twist. We're having our own little knit along without knowing it.

Tomorrow the zipper will go in. At least I think so. Then blocking, sewing, and the sweater will be done. I hope to see Kim next week and deliver the sweater then!

Still No Zipper

Buying a zipper is hard. I need a 14" navy jacket zipper, and you would think I needed it in solid gold or something. We went to JoAnn's at Desert Ridge to find it and they had every other type of zipper imaginable (not very well organized, mind you.) So I am still without a zipper for this sweater. I did however buy a board for blocking – we'll see how it works. So I am going to block the sweater and then sew in the sleeves before I put the zipper in another day.

I finally picked up Stitch and Bitch Nation to read this morning. Jack got up at six and was not interested in going back to bed, so he and I read for a while. Of course, the text got the best of him and he fell back asleep.

,
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I love the beginning of this book. I'm so excited to finally learn how to substitute yarn of a different gauge. It has always annoyed me that I couldn't get the exact gauge sometimes and so I had to use different yarn. Now I can just modify the pattern easily. And I am going to learn about how to change a neckline, because I don't love the neck of the cabled sweater I'm making.

Lasagne for Breakfast

Last night Joe and I made our famous lasagna – he makes the Bolognese sauce ahead of time and I assemble the lasagna for baking. Always the next morning I have to have it for breakfast because it's so good I just can't get enough.

Today I am going to do the zipper in Angus's sweater, and sew the sleeves on. I need to block it before the sleeves go on, and I'd like to find one of those official blocking boards with the marks on it – I think that would make things much easier. If anyone knows where I can get one please let me know. Anyhow, here's a picture of the sweater almost done:

No sleeves yet, originally uploaded by Brooke Streech.

Our group is getting moving for the 3 day walk. Nancy just signed up and I think Eva already has, but she's not yet affiliated with our group. You can find her blog on my sidebar. I've posted a link to the donations page as well as posted my participant number if anyone needs it. They are both on the side as well.

For the contest, we are going to follow in the Yarn Harlot's footsteps and raffle off some knitted items. There will be two categories – walkers/volunteers and donators. If anyone would like to knit something for the raffle just send me a picture and I'll post it. For now, I plan to knit the Shedir hats from Knitty to give away. Here is a picture:

Shedir from Knitty, originally uploaded by Brooke Streech.

I love these hats, they are made out of the softest yarn.

I will continue to post pictures of the items we will knit, so you can all be motivated to donate to our team. I've set our goal at 10 walkers and $21,000. That's a lot of money!

KNIT 1 WALK 3

No zipper to report, no finished pictures of the jacket for Angus. My mom came over and got my life back in order instead, and thank goodness she did. This week has been semi-upside-down with a new sleep schedule in place for the little man and very little sleep for me.

I've heard from several group members regarding our group name, and I think everyone likes Knit 1, Walk 3. I agree. That is our official name – I've signed up and so can you. Go to www.the3day.org and click Register Now. The group should be available for you to join.

Some people are afraid of the fundraising. $2100 is a lot of money. It will not be easy. But everyone who signs up will have my full support – I will help us all reach our goals and walk 60 miles.

I don't have a really good reason for doing this walk – I haven't lost anyone to breast cancer or even really know anyone who has died of the disease. I do have a very dear friend battling breast cancer right now – Diane Bickford – and she's been but for me it's more about my son than anything else. I've suddenly become very aware of my own mortality. I used to think, Well, if I die, I've lived a fantastic life. Some people will be sad, but at least they can say I have lived. Now I feel like if I die I will be severely impacting Jack's life, and how he views the world. It is devastating for people to lose their parents at a young age. My mom did it, and I have always regretted the fact that I did not know her parents. So I am walking to save myself in a way.

So yes, I think it will be hard. And yes, I think in some ways it may be merely symbolic. I mean, will my $2100 (minus expenses to put on the walk) really make that big of a difference in the fight against cancer? I'm not convinced it will, but put in a pot with everyone else's $2100 I think there is a significant impact.

On Monday I will be unveiling a contest to get everyone involved – walkers, donators, volunteers, etc. Please stop back by and see what you can win and how you can help our Knit 1, Walk 3 Group to meet our goals.

Hot hot hot

It was 80 degrees in Phoenix yesterday. For those of you in the Midwest or back East reading this, I am very sorry to have to complain about our weather consider you have all frozen to death by now. But 80 degrees? For crying out loud it's January. This is ridiculous.

I did not make knitting last night. I went to the orientation for the 3 day walk where Jack promptly began to scream and fuss at me. I tried feeding him, but to no avail. We ended up leaving. So now we know, he hates church and breast cancer walk orientations. He was still crying in the car, so I took him home.

So here's the deal with the walk. We need to come up with a group name, and then as everyone signs up you can designate that group name. There is no additional fee to walk as a group. Everyone will still be responsible for raising $2100 in funds before the walk begins. We can have group fundraising events as well, so if anyone has ideas for that let me know.

Has anyone already signed up? I am going to do so today but I'd like to have a name first. I don't have any good ideas right now, but I'll keep thinking.

Cheap Yarn???

Did you see this yarn??

I can't believe how cheap this yarn is considering the ingredients. (Is that the right word, ingredients?) Has anyone bought this yarn yet? $2.29 for 123 yards of Merino Wool just seems awfully inexpensive, so it makes me think there must be something wrong with it. And the silk/alpaca blend is $3.29 for 110 yards. Did these people steal the fiber from somewhere?

The sweater for Angus is ALMOST done. My mom is going to help me put in the zipper on Thursday. I love this pattern and I think I might make one for Jack, but in a different color. All I have left is to put a border of navy where the zipper goes and sew on the sleeves and it will be done!



The orientation meeting for the 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk is tonight and I will have all the info we need tomorrow, including ways for people to donate if they are so inclined. If you want to go to the orientation, it's at Tempe St. Lukes on Mill at 5:30 p.m.

Also tonight is another SnB meeting at Mama Java's. I plan on being there after the orientation if Jack cooperates. (and if I'm not too tired. Right now I feel like I'm going to die I'm so sleepy, but that may change. Maybe I'll get my second wind.)

My brother commented that he doesn't think I produce very much knitting. Ouch. I don't know what he was expecting, but my finished project list is pretty minimal since you-know-who arrived on the scene. Maybe when he leaves for college I will have more time to knit again.

Secret Project Revealed!

Did you know Melanie had a blog? I didn't. I've added her to my sidebar and my bloglines, so now I can keep up with another SnBer. Too bad Kim refuses to write a blog, huh? Julie too. How am I supposed to keep up with people if they don't have a blog?

Yesterday we met at Coffee Rush in Chandler for a little MLK day knitting. I unveiled the double secret project – a jacket for Kim's son Angus. Of course it's not done, but it's going to be super cute. The yarn is so soft, I really wish Debbie Bliss would make this yarn in solid colors.



It's no wonder my laundry isn't done, all I've been doing is taking care of the boys and knitting!

I still need to finish a pair of socks for my mom. I should do that before I go back to Clapotis and the cabled sweater.

Tomorrow night is the orientation for the 3 day walk and then we have another SnB meeting at Mama Javas. I put together a t-shirt for review – we can change the words on the front, but I thought it would be cute to have our names on the back like football players. Also I picked red with pink writing because I think almost everyone wears pink. Click Here to see the shirt I picked.

The boy was up most of the night – I don't think I'll be knitting much today. Hopefully I can take a nap here in a few minutes when Joe gets up. I'm so tired the backs of my eyes feel like someone rubbed them down with a nail file.

Beware the Ides of March

I have just come up for air for a quick post to remind everyone there is a SnB meeting tomorrow morning at Coffee Rush in Chandler at 10 a.m. – hope you all can make it.

Joe got food poisoning Friday night – the violent and scary kind that turns your life and stomach inside out. I was fearing for his life, but he seems to have recovered okay. Between that and trying to finish the double secret project (the deadline was yesterday, but under the circumstances I did not go to the party so I have until tomorrow), I haven’t had a free moment.

More later, with pictures…..

The Little Professor

My double secret project is coming along great – if I knit all day today I may get it done. I haven’t touched Clapotis or my cabled sweater all week because I’ve been working on this, so no pictures. (this is the worst part about knitting something for a person who reads my blog - I can't post my progress!)

I do have a picture of Julie's baby Mack wearing the sweater I made him for Julie's shower. I think it makes him look like a little professor:



I talked to Kim last night and she is sick! This is one of my biggest fears, because I can’t imagine taking care of the baby and being sick at the same time. And Kim has a 3 year old as well. Luckily her in-laws are still in town and can help her, but it’s still rough. Of course I felt like I was getting a sore throat last night so now I’m doing a wellness dance and hoping I didn’t catch anything.

Our walking group continues to grow - here are the walkers so far:

Julie
Shannon
Eva
Heather
Nancy
Parley (no, you don’t have to be a girl to walk!)

Nancy had a great idea to sign up as a team and have a name. I have a contact in the t-shirt business so we can have shirts made, and she also suggested we all knit pink scarves while we walk!

I’m so excited, this is really shaping up to be a fun group. Nancy’s suggestion for a name is “Knit One, Walk 3” or K3tog, both of which I think are cute. If anyone has other ideas let me know and we’ll decide on our name.

Hey Jen, my mom finished her bag!

Apparently there was a SnB meeting last night and I wasn’t invited. I wonder if everyone was afraid I would try and bully them into walking with me? I have heard from Alison’s blog it was a fun group and they knit until 11! I never would have made it that late….

My mom finally finished her felted bag:



The soy silk/wool mixture felted in an interesting way – there are ridges up the side of the bag. I think it looks fabulous. Proving yet again my mom has a great eye for color. She is concerned that one handle is shorter than the other – I had this same problem with my Grover Bag until I started carrying it around and the other handle stretched out.

I have to knit the rest of the day today – my deadline for the double secret project draws near. Not likely I’ll make it, but who knows?

So far we have a good group for the 3 day walk in October. If anyone else wants to join us for the orientation meeting next Wednesday let me know – I think it starts at 5:30.

Swatching is for the birds

What is with me and swatching? I cast on for my double secret project yesterday and I needed a gauge of 4.5 stitches per inch on size 8 needles. I did my swatch, it came out right, I started knitting. I had maybe 3 inches done and I thought to myself, this looks way too wide for what I’m allegedly making. Let me measure.

Ugh.

My gauge was 4 stitches per inch. So instead of being 15 inches wide as it needed to be, my knitting was over 17 inches wide! This is a big difference. I ripped the entire thing out and started over, and since I’m under a deadline this was very disappointing.

At least I love the yarn – Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim Aran. It’s soft and light and pleasant to knit, even more than once.

I’ve been doing more thinking about the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk. I had a friend do it in San Francisco a few years back and she talked about what a great overall experience it was. A group of women got together to train twice a week – training only consists of walking mind you – and then they all walked the 60 miles together. All of them lost weight, got into better shape, and had fun while doing it. And of course they benefited a wonderful organization at the same time.

So are any of my knitting friends interested? (I know you guys are reading, I can see you on my site meter. You can’t hide from me….Kim, Becky, Jen, Pam, Amy, Alison, Kirsten, Illanna, Julie, Shannon….)

So leave me a comment if you think you want to join me, or if you’ve done it before, or if you don’t want to join me but you want to give a good excuse as to why you can’t. I will be going to the orientation session next Wednesday night so I should have more information then, but the website is very thorough so I can’t imagine what else they will tell me.

10 Days to Clapotis

I just read the knitty.com blog. She (meaning Amy) completed Clapotis in 10 days. On January 1 she posted about how much she loved the pattern. Today she is done. There is photographic evidence even.



I’m not even to my 84th row (the end of the increasing), and I may have to do more rows because I’m using smaller needles.

You know, this new kid is really getting in the way of my knitting. I would be done by now if it wasn’t for him. And do you think he will appreciate my sacrifice? I doubt it. If he wasn’t so darned cute…..

Nancy mentioned on her blog that she is interested in doing the Breast Cancer 3 day walk in October. She’s worried that when she moves out here she wouldn’t have a buddy to complete the walk with, and I am pretty confident we could get a group of knitters interested. The downside is you have to raise $2100, but from what I’ve heard it’s a truly amazing experience. If anyone is interested email me and maybe we’ll get a group together to train. It’s 60 miles total (20 a day I’m guessing), so I imagine you need to do a lot of walking to prepare. There is an orientation session next Wednesday in Tempe – maybe we can get a group to go to that as well.

We met at Lux yesterday for some knitting and coffee (or tea for me). I love the smaller knitting groups – it’s so much easier to talk to people. I found out that Illanna is in the tourism school at ASU and she wants to be a consultant for hotels. I learned that June has been through some incredibly tough times and come out a strong and successful woman. I learned that Mary Lou works at the Lincoln Learning Center and is going to teach the kids to knit. And I saw Mel’s Manos pillow – really lovely.

I’m off to Fiber Factory this morning for a double-secret knitting project. They open at 10 and I have to be back here by 11:30 for lunch with my parents, so I don’t have a lot of time.

What wine goes with Beenie Weenies?

Sunday afternoon, 3 p.m. Husband runs off to work to clean off his desk for the week (a practice I respect in him) and baby is fed and happily cooing in his chair. I didn’t go to knitting, I’m too darned tired. So I made my own version of Beenie Weenies (organic baked beans and cut-up turkey hotdogs from Trader Joe’s), and consulted the fridge for the appropriate beverage to accompany my afternoon snack.

Kim Crawford Pansy stared out from the bottom shelf. Perfect. I continue to contend there is the right wine for every mood.

I am sorry I didn’t make it out to knitting yesterday. Jack and I were both still exhausted from the weekend and he was doing weird feeding things. Like eating, falling asleep for a while, eating barely a little more and falling asleep for a long while. Not his normal pattern to say the least. And today he’s still eating weird so I may be staying in yet again.

I knit four rows on my sweater. That doesn’t sound like much but any progress is good in my opinion. I probably won’t get to wear this sweater until next winter (or over the summer if we go somewhere cold). It’s going to take some time to finish and I’m making it in my normal size, not this nursing-goddess size that I am today.

Shannon and Illanna both mentioned it looked like the Marilyn Sweater from interweave. I looked it up online and indeed there is an uncanny resemblance:



The neck is different and the cable is a little different, but this picture uses the same yarn I am using. I think I might steal the sleeves from this pattern because I like them better than just straight stockinette.

Knitting at Lux Coffeebar today at 10 – we’ll see how the little guy behaves and see if I can make it!

Busy Weekend.....

We saw Pirates of Penzance Friday night. For those of you who don’t know it, this is a musical about a band of gay pirates, a band of gay cops, and some women who I can only guess are men in drag because why else would the Pirates want to marry them? The singing was fabulous – I was very impressed with the lead woman (Mabel I think is the character) and the Modern Major General.

We had tickets from a woman who is on the board of directors for the Arizona Theater Company and they were great seats. (Except the guy in front of us was wearing too much cologne. I didn’t realize people still wore Drakkar Noir – I had a flashback to my brother in high school. Ugh.) I think we’re going to see Macbeth in May. I am a huge Shakespeare fan – I saw Midsummer Night’s Dream by this same company years ago and was impressed. (Parley, this is where the line “I am amazed. I know not what to say” came from.)

Anyhow, that adventure took up our Friday night and Saturday night was spent at a wedding. It was another work engagement for Joe – seriously I think 75% of the guests were from his firm – so it was pretty tiring. I don’t know when the tradition of cutting the cake so very late in the evening got started, but we had to leave before that event because I needed to get home to the baby. (I will spare you all the details of going six hours without feeding the child, but I will say it is extremely painful. I am still sore today.)

My parents watched the baby last night, and my mom brought over our finished quilt! It is beautiful, seriously some of the best work she’s ever done. Take a gander:



And here’s a close-up of the colors.



The fabric selection alone is incredible – just notice how the fabrics compliment one another and your eye is drawn to different areas of the quilt. She is a master that woman.

We are meeting at Pita Jungle today at 2 to knit. I don’t feel up for it really, but I know once I get there I’ll be glad I went. Tomorrow is at Lux Coffeebar at 10 but I might have to miss it for a lunch with my friends from high school.

What is Clapotis?

Yesterday afternoon Joe called me and said "What the heck is a Cla-PAW-tis?" It looks like a bikini. Are you making a bathing suit?"

I responded

"'Cla-po- TEE' is a scarf or shawl that I've showed you and talked about for weeks."

Shortly thereafter my brother called and said

"What is a Clatapotamus? Are you making underwear? Is this some type of knitting porn?"

So for those of you who don't know, Clapotis will look like this when I'm done:



It is a shawl knit from the corner, so in the end it will be a trapezoid. For all you knitters it is very popular. Cari over at Dogs Steal Yarn even wrote a poem, complete with some great photos. Go HERE to read it.

This brings up another interesting point. Other than my knitting friends I have three daily readers. Joe (husband), Greg (brother), and Parley (very old friend. He's not very old, but I've known him for 11 years.)

Notice they are all men, and none of them knit or are interested in knitting. In fact they all think knitting is kind-of dumb. Parley has a link to this site from his blog and it's called "Knitting as a Cult". But if I don't post every day, or if I'm late posting, all three of them start to complain. What's up with that?

I suppose the lesson is that I have to respect my audience and realize they may not be up on the latest knitting craze to hit the internet. (Not that Clapotis is even near the latest craze, I'm way behind on the craze-wagon.)

Speaking of crazes, The Yarn Harlot is having a contest for people who donate to the Tsunami relief fund. AND, the US government just extended the date for charitable contributions to count on your 2004 taxes, as long as the donations go to the Tsunami charities. (If I was a charity I would be mad about this, but I'm not. I'm a taxpayer who has a penchant for procrastination, so I'm pretty happy. And Joe's work is matching donations to the Red Cross, which I think is pretty cool.)

So many crazes, so little time….

I HATE MATH!

Ok, it’s not really math I’m bad at, unless I’m in kindergarten. It’s counting. I was working on Clapotis last night while feeding the little man (I think it was 4 a.m., but I could be wrong), and I could have sworn I had one too many stitches for the row I was on. If you haven’t looked at the pattern, it has a series of increase rows, 84 in all (I used a calculator to arrive at that number because it’s a set of 12 rows repeated 7 times. I know better than to trust myself to multiply 12 by 7 in my head.) You increase at the end of every row and then every 12th row you have to add new markers. So I thought I was on the 8th row, but I had the number of stitches for the 10th row.

I put the knitting down and went to bed. When I picked it up I decided to undo the increase from the last row and just leave it at that. As you can see from the picture there are far too many markers involved to rip anything back and get the markers back where they belong, so I just decided to live with whatever mistake I had made.

Only I hadn’t made a mistake. I went to knit the row and now there were too FEW stitches. I had it right the first time. That shows me I should not knit in the middle of the night. Or I should count things twice (haven’t I learned this lesson before?)

So here is Clapotis now, 56 stitches into the increases:



It curls up a ton, so I’m hoping that goes away when I drop the stitches. I had to use my stitch counted at the bottom to hold it in place.

There is a mini SnB meeting this Sunday at 2 at Pita Jungle, and another one Monday at Lux coffee bar at 10 a.m. We’ll see if the little guy cooperates and lets me knit!

Those pesky knitters

We had a meeting of the local SnB group last night at Changing Hands. I’m starting to really dislike meeting there – the room is WAY too small, the lighting is weird, and there is no good way to set up the chairs and see what everyone is doing. I wish we could come up with an alternate location, but I know the store really likes having us. (Who wouldn’t? There were over 30 people there last night!)

A few pictures to prove I was there, since my knitting didn’t advance one tiny bit (Seriously, I knit 2 rows on Clapotis. Between walking around and talking to people and minding the baby, I didn’t get any knitting done.)


Becky and Michelle – Becky is our last pregnant person, she’s due in March


Jen is saying NO to me in this picture. Too bad Jen!


See Pam Smile?


The famous Illanna, who tried to cover her face.

Kim and I had a long discussion about our good friend, I’ll call her Jan to protect her anonymity. Anyhow, Jan is one of those great women – smart, beautiful, funny, interesting, talented – and she’s stuck with a guy we don’t like. It’s not fair to say that actually, because none of us have ever met this gentleman. But the information we have about him is not complimentary to say the least, and Jan seems like she’s missing out. I can’t exactly explain it, but every time I see her I want to take out my scissors and snip that man out of her life. If only it were that easy.

As all good meddling friends will do, Kim and I hatched a plan to take her to a rugby game and meet some men. I’m certain these men will be attractive, and I’m also certain they will pay a good deal of attention to our good friend Jan. And in case you are worried we are whispering behind her back, Jan was in on the conversation so we’re not as bad as we look.

It’s funny to me how involved women get in one another’s lives. If Jan were a guy he would show up to knitting (ok, maybe not knitting, maybe woodworking group or something), and his friends would drink beer with him and hang out and never know the depth of his unhappiness. They might not even know he has a girlfriend. I think men are strange. But then again they don’t have people constantly getting in their business either. Hmmmm.

The truth is, women always think they can run one another’s lives better. Maybe this guy is perfect for Jan. Maybe she will be deliriously happy for the rest of her life. Maybe I have completely misjudged him.

Nah.

Rainy Day Schedule

How can someone go to the store to buy cucumbers and end up spending $100? My only defense is that I've been living the life of a shut-in lately and I got a little carried away. Tomatoes for $5 a pound? Hand them over. (And my god, they were good.) Mangos sliced and stored in a cute plastic container? All mine. I just couldn't stop the buying frenzy, whipping around AJ's with my sleeping baby perched safely on the cart while the rain poured down outside. I even dressed up for the occasion in a pre-pregnancy sweater and my new jeans.

I returned home and poured myself some wine. And got out my knitting. I'm cabling like mad up the back of this pink soft sweater, and it was perfect for sitting by the fire with my little man.

One of the cool gifts I got this Christmas was a small tape measure that looks like a sheep:



Apparently Guido thinks this somehow belongs to him, because I have twice had to remove it from his jaws.

Tomorrow night is SnB at Changing Hands. Beforehand I am going to Fiber Factory with my mom and her friend Mary Francis, and then to dinner at the Turkish restaurant nearby. The little guy and I will be tired by the time we get home. If anyone wants to meet us for yarning or for eating let me know. Otherwise I'll see some of you tomorrow night!

Chunky Sweaters are Fun

The sweater is moving along nicely thanks to Joe watching over the baby a bit yesterday. I still hate the pattern but have figured out its quirks, so I’m keeping with it. The pattern people thought it would be fun to put instructions in three different places, and then have the row counts not be the same in the three places. So I ended up pulling out some rows because I missed a decrease row, but all is well now. I’ve got the pattern down and the yarn moves very quickly.



Clapotis is still in the bag, I’ll probably work on it Tuesday night during the SnB meeting. I’m also dying to cast on for that Lush scarf, but I haven’t come up with a pattern yet. I’ll probably browse through my new Vogue Knitting before I find just the right stitch.

And I recently remembered the brown blanket I’m making and stuffed in a drawer in order to make my Christmas gifts. Guess I’d better get it out. It’s made of Rowan Cork and has fabulous cables. I think it will look great in our front room but I’d better get moving on it before it gets hot again.

Knitted Gift in Action

My brother went goose hunting yesterday and put his skull hat to good use:


It’s nice to see people using their gifts so quickly. I’m not a big fan of the goose hunting aspect of it, but at least his head was warm.

I was able to start on my cabled Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky sweater yesterday. Here are the first few rows:



and a closeup of the cable detail:



I hate the pattern with a passion – it is confusing and unclear. I am going to keep up with it however because I think once I get the hang of the cable it will be fine. I know it’s hard to write good patterns, but it’s so annoying to me when people don’t even put in the effort to have both a chart and directions.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new years eve. We took the little man to our favorite wine bar Cheuvront’s and had a great dinner. The wine was a little much for me, but otherwise it was good. I did wake up with a stomach ache – I don’t think I’m used to eating that much in one sitting. Of course I slept through the ball dropping, but our neighbors were nice enough to set off illegal fireworks and wake up the entire household, so I was able to wish the family a happy 2005.