Actual Knitting...and an Introduction

My knitting time continues to be drastically curtailed by the beads. I am reminded all over again that knitting is slow and steady, while beads are nearly instant gratification. This week, doing beads spiraled into some paper crafting, which is like an old shoe for me. Anyone who has met me anytime since I was old enough to hold a pair of scissors will tell you how easily I fall into the trap of snipping up little bits of paper.

Luckily this weekend did provide some knitting time. I made some good progress on the sock. It is a little slower going than would be ideal but that is of my own doing. Here is sock one at 4.5".
I am making the body of these socks in a K6, P2 ribbing, with a 1" K2, P2 ribbed cuff. Knitting around and around on this sock, I am reminded that I really do like to zone out when I am knitting and lately the K6, P2 ribbing doesn't allow my mind to wander too far. But I like them and I'm happy with the look so they are worth it.

I did a bit on the baby blanket yesterday but it is temporarily in time out. Can you see why?Yesterday afternoon, I got together with some friends to - imagine it - do some knitting! In the last few weeks, one friend who has never tried knitting before said she wanted to learn and two others who had learned to varying degrees many years ago, wanted to get a refresher so that was fun. Maybe they will all decide to take up knitting more regularly. If I can't meet knitting friends, perhaps I can create them.

One last thing. Friday night I spend the evening hanging out with my twin sister, Katy. I've mentioned her before and since we both had on make-up, I took advantage of the opportunity to take our picture. (Her on the left, me on the right.) Katy, who is ten minutes older, is a nurse. She is funny and smart and snide and sarcastic and really mostly wonderful. She has a wicked, sometimes disruptive, contagious laugh. She is largely responsible for my love of both quotes and rollercoasters. As you might expect, I've known Katy longer than I've known anyone in the world and there has never been a time I wasn't glad to be a twin, to be her twin. She isn't a blogger but she has recently purchased herself a Mac, discovered Yahoo messenger and connected her own "air internet", and we are thoroughly proud of her. So I thought it was high time to introduce her to the knitters.

Today's Quote:


"Cushion the painful effects of hard blows by keeping the enthusiasm going strong, even if doing so requires struggle." - Norman Vincent Peale

Progressing

Knitting time this weekend was fruitful, if minimal. I did make progress on the F13 Resolution projects and I didn't start anything knew so the weekend was a success. (I have low-ish standards for a good weekend.)

I finished Lori's Sophie bag. See? There's the lining peeking out of the top.

And here is a look inside.

I finished the first row of the Almost Amish baby blanket (pictured) and I finished the first 4 blocks of row two, though I didn't take a picture of it.I have decided to only go 8 squares wide instead of 9.

Today's Quote:

"You always have certain strengths and certain weaknesses, and you want to compensate for your weaknesses..." -Erskine Bowles

Pick Your Path, Then Follow It

Nothing brings joy to a knitter's heart quite like being asked to knit something for someone. Even showing someone something you like and saying "I think you'll like this" then having them nod in a vaguely non-committal way is about all the encouragement we need. (I am assuming this is true for other knitters - correct me if I am wrong.) And of course, there are to-be-gifted knitting projects that the recipient knows nothing about and those are always great, too.

My proclivity for this kind of knitting has generated a bit of a backlog. This is no one's fault but my own and so I am taking responsibility for my knitting to-do list. I am enacting a Resolution. I am resolving to complete my current list of projects before casting on for any more projects.

New Year's resolutions would be inappropriate in the middle of April so I'm making a Friday the 13th Resolution. This Resolution will be in effect from Friday the 13th to Friday the 13th. Conveniently enough, the next Friday the 13th falls in July of this year and three months is a very reasonable amount of time for tidying up the knitting landscape. (On an irrelevant but serendipitous note, that is the amount of time I am going to need to continue being gentle to my ankle.)

So without further adieu. . .

As Blog is my witness, I declare the following Friday the 13th Resolutions:

(In no particular order)

1. I shall not start any new knitting projects between today and the next Friday the 13th.

2. Between now and 07/13/2007 I will only knit on the projects as itemized below. (Some of the listed projects are literally started - as in already on the needles - and some are just on the docket.)

3. My little Christmas ornament sweaters are exempt for the following reasons:

a. They are an ongoing project that was started before the Resolution was enacted.

b. They are the aperitif and thinly sliced ginger of my knitting life these days.

c. It is my Resolution so I get to make up the rules.

4. Swatching doesn't count.

5. Charity knitting doesn't count. (Hey - there might be some sort of knitting emergency.)

6. This Resolution is purposefully silent on acquisitions.

The Approved List:

1. Mama's hedgehog herd. I need to make her a total of five. Hedgehog-1 is complete - knit, felted, stuffed, seamed. Hedgehog-2 has been knit but not felted or anything else. Hedgehog-3 is on the needles. Hedgehogs-4 and -5 are in the stash.

2. Socks for my ankle surgeon. (This is my current on-the-go project. This has a slightly different deadline in that I want to take them to my July 9 appointment.)

3. I need to sew the lining in Lori's Sophie bag. (Not technically knitting but the knitting project isn't done until the non-knitting part of the project is done, too.)

4. The Almost Amish Baby Blanket. (The challenge of this blanket is that the Pima Cotton Silk sheds. I can't take the shedding knitting with me to work on when I have to then go back to work or anywhere else. This is at-home knitting.) 5. Socks for my oldest niece. (I have made significant progress since this picture was taken. This sock is beyond the gussets and the second is just past the cuff, however, both of these socks are on holders at the moment because I have borrowed the needles to work on Item #2.)

6. A white llama for Carrie. (She got a brown one for Christmas and now wants a small white one with a black face, too.)

7. Felted magazine bag for my friend Donna. (The pattern for which I need to work out. Right now this pattern is only in my head. A dangerous place for a pattern.)

Should the stars and planets align causing a shift in the fiber of the universe which then results in me finishing 1-7 before 07/13/2007, then the following projects are permissible.

8. Mama's Tahki Cotton Classic Colorific Daddo blanket.

9. My Briar Rose Knitalong Abundance shawl from the Cozy pattern.

10. Socks for me from Susie's yarn or the Trekking. I will cross that bridge in the unlikely event that I come to it.
Well there you have it. The Resolution. So now I've said it "out loud" which should help keep me on task.

Today's Quote:

"However vague they are, dreams have a way of concealing themselves and leave us no peace until they are translated into reality, like seeds germinating underground, sure to sprout in their search for the sunlight." - Lin Yutang

Too Much Information

I hope ya'll had a good Easter. It was a great weekend, here. (Yes, I realize it is now the middle of the week but I have last weekend stuff to talk about.)

Saturday we colored some eggs.

I got frustrated with the stupid little paint brush and decided to take matters into my own hands. (Sometimes it's just more fun if you make a big mess.)

I had some time to knit on the baby blanket. It is going to be so soft and wonderful - I am going to want to keep it for myself!


I am knitting it in strips about 4.5" wide and then I will just have to sew up the strips. I am contemplating doing a three needle bind off to seam the strips but that is a lot of picking up stitches. I want the seams to be as invisible as possible from the front side. Any thoughts?


I'm working on the fifth block of the first row of blocks (the black one in the middle) and it is going pretty quickly - I haven't had much time for working on it. I was knitting on it at the doctor's office on Monday and a very nice lady came and sat down beside me and started talking to me about knitting. It was a lovely conversation - we talked about the best way to secure the ends at the color changes. I considered this a good omen prior to seeing Dr. Doctor. I will show you a picture when I finish this first strip....which will hopefully be this weekend.


I hope I don't bore anyone to tears with this next part: More than you probably ever cared to know about origami.

In non-knitting crafty goings on, I mentioned on Friday that I was working on some origami. My origami-ing has been on a steady decline ever since I learned to knit. I still buy origami paper when I come across something that really stands out and on a skein to package-of-paper basis, I probably have as much paper stash as I do yarn. (Origami paper is much easier to hide, or rather store.)


Origami uses only a few different folds but the art of paper folding comes, of course, in the way the folds are combined. As a general rule, origami is created using square pieces of paper which are folded any number of ways but without cutting, tearing or otherwise altering the square pieces of paper. There exists a similar but separate discipline, called Kirogami, where cuts are used to create the finished piece.


Over the years, I have folded my fair share of paper cranes and dogs and cats and dragons and complicated birds and flowers but the vast majority of origami I do is modular origami. I have many books on origami and all but one of them are on modular origami. Traditional origami uses one piece of paper (sizes vary widely) to create one form - bird, boat, person, spider, whatever.

Modular origami appeals to the technical, analytical part of my brain that gets very little exercise from paper cranes. (Similarly, it is this part of my brain that is never going to let me rest until I knit a moebius scarf.)

Modular origami uses many pieces, folded into identically modules that are then fitted together to form geometric shapes. (In rare circumstances, a form will employee perhaps two or three different modules but at that point, it really veers off into the (very loosely defined) realm of multi-piece origami and mathematical origami.) But I digress . . . . In its purest form, modular origami designs interlock and do not use any glue, tape, thread or other adhesives to hold the modules together.


What I did on Friday night was this.
One module (folded from metallic paper, 6" square)30 modules
The prescribed number of modules (in this case, 30) are then creased and prepared to suit the intended final design.

Then the modules are interlocked to create a form.

A form that I had some difficulty photographing.

And there you have it. For the one or two of you who are still awake, here's today's quote.

Today's Quote:

"To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all." -Helen Rowland

Making Plans

The Misti Alpaca Pima Cotton Silk arrive from Web's. Hurray. It is so soft and yummy.

I know you will find this hard to believe but I have changed my mind on the pattern. I've decided not to do the Moderne Baby Blanket. I've decide to do this Amish inspired layout instead. (I'm calling it Almost Amish.) I know it looks a little harsh in these computer generated approximate colors. Here is the layout using the swatch clips from the Misti Alpaca site. Please forgive the spacing issues. My eyes were starting to cross. This is hardly an original concept. Quilters everywhere have been using it for ages. There is a similar baby blanket pattern in either Weekend Knitting or Last Minute Knitted gifts, in different colors. What do ya'll think?

That's the high point in knitting news around here. I'm knitting on two different pairs of socks and this blanket and the ubiquitous hedgehogs. I've been puttering around with my camera, discovering that I really can take a close up picture of my yarn and have it turn out worthwhile. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to show you in the next few days.

Tonight I've been doing some origami again. Have I ever showed ya'll any of my origami? I'll take some pictures when I'm done and show them to you next week.

I go back to the ankle doctor on Monday. Wish me luck. Four weeks ago he said I'd be in the boot for eight more weeks so I'm not expecting fireworks or miracles...I'll be content to hear that everything is progressing on schedule.

Have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter!!

Today's Quote:

"For the Christian, heaven is where Jesus is. We do not need to speculate on what heaven will be like. It is enough to know that we will be forever with Him." - William Barclay

Miscellanea

Knitters & Good Causes

If you aren't a regular reader of Dorothy's blog, go over for a visit and consider supporting her Relay for Life plans. She is selling seeds from her beautiful sunflowers as well as some stitch markers made by me. I so wanted to show ya'll what I ended up doing with the beading but I wanted to let Dorothy post them first for the sale. So go - visit Dorothy! Buy some seeds and/or stitch markers. It is all for an excellent cause.

Apropos of Nothing

Thursday evening I went to the grocery store. I had to do some significant shopping and so the young man who bagged my groceries helped me out to the car. (I know this is a very common occurance and generally not blogworthy but it is something that has been stuck in my mind.)

Every time I go to the store and buy enough groceries that someone ends up helping me to the car, I want to tip the guy. I have even tried on occassion over the years to slip them a dollar or two, unthinkingly, and been told that they can't accept tips. I don't know why I do this - or even think to do this. There has not been a time in my adult life (at least in my major grocery shopping years) when it was expected that I should tip the bag boy so I am not sure why it feels like a habit to me. I remember when I was growing up, my mother would always tip the person (usually boy/young man) who carried out our groceries. It was always the appropriate thing to do. I've been told that, at least here, all of the grocery store employees are unionized and they aren't allowed to accept tips - Still, I just feel like I should. I seldom let anyone help me out with the groceries because, in the end, I feel guilty that I didn't tip them. (I know - it is completely irrational, but still true.) What about you? Do you tip the bag boy?

Baby Blanket

The yarn for the baby blanket has been ordered and should be here...soon. I don't have a shipping schedule from Web's yet. I'm eager to get my hands on it. I am not taking odds, though, on whether it will get done in a timely manner or if, when it is all said and done, it will look anything like the Moderne Baby Blanket from MDK....Ya'll know how it goes.


Knitting, Barely

The only knitting I got done this weekend was a bit of work on Lori's bookmark. (I've made considerable progress since this picture was taken.)It is almost done. I am going to have to figure something out about a border. I was hoping (the stupid kind of hope - the hope that is not based in any sort of fact or reality) that this little slip of a thing (stockinette from top to bottom) wouldn't curl too bad and I could just gently block it. Why do we dilute ourselves? I am considering - GASP! - some sort of little crocheted edge. I will have to get out the books, though, as I have little to no idea where/how to start such an undertaking. Any words of wisdom - quicky edges that work well and aren't too fussy?


Today's Quote:

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl." - H.L. Mencken

Puppy Love

I apologize for the screwy spacing issues in this post. I don't know what the problem is but I got tired of fussing with it.

Update on the Co-Worker: He had a 5 vessel bypass Friday night and is doing as well as can be expected. Thanks to all of you who sent well wishes. I haven't asked his girlfriend if she gave up on the knitting but in the end, I think it is the sentiment that matters.

In Knitting News: There is no knitting news.

In Baby Blanket News: Palette #2 is the clear winner. (A lucky thing, since it is my favorite, too.) I will be ordering the yarn from Web's on Friday. (I love that Web's offers a 20% discount on yarn purchases over $60.)

In Other News: Ya'll remember my little dog Sally, right?Sally who is usually a sucker for the camera and loves to have her picture taken? Last night I tried to take a cute picture of here but she would not cooperate. This is the best picture I got.

She was very distracted. She wanted to be in my face but she also wanted to make sure that she kept her eyes on the interloper in her house.

This is the interloper.

(One dog, three pictures.) This is the newest resident at our little house. She is a less than four month old short-legged Jack Russell terrier. The people who owned her before were not good dog parents. She has been living outside in a cage since they got her in January and they never even gave her a name. It made me so sad when I heard about that and my husband loves short-legged Jack Russells...which all adds up to: we have a new puppy. Such a sweet little face.

Considering the circumstances she has been living in, it should come us no surprise that I couldn't get her to chill out long enough to take a cute picture. She is very happy to be in the house and very excited to be around people. That first one she is about to dash under the bed, in the second I had to strong arm her to sit still (you can't see her tail wagging 90 miles a minute) and lastly, she is trying to get up on the bed to Sally.

Sally and Xena both apparently think she is crazed but other than that, they seem ok with her. Maybe when she calms down a bit, I can get a picture of all three of them.

Today's Quote:

“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.” - Emily Dickinson

Swatch You Talkin' About Willis?

It is a universal knitting truth: Swatches lie.

Sometimes, though, swatches tell the cold, hard, inconvenient truth. Swatches say things like

"700 miles of stockinette in this color will make you look like a blotapatomus."

or

"This is not an appropriate yarn for a man's sweater."

or

"All the hard work of your beautiful cables will mean nothing after one wash."

or

"Surely you are not contemplating a knitted skirt for your rather amble hind end."

All sad, painful truths, none of which (thankfully) were uttered at my house this weekend.

In the case of this hemp swatch
the truth telling went something like this: "Dude, we are talking yarn investment here. Are you really prepared to make a $135 baby blanket?"

The hemp yarn is very nice. All the things I said about it before are true. When it comes right down to it, though, I am not prepared at the moment to make such a significant commitment of the yarn budget.

So I turned to the stash.

Cascade 220? Right out. (A [non-knitting] mother operating under "new baby" conditions cannot be trusted to insure the baby blanket doesn't felt.)

Dishcloth cotton? Nope, not this time. (Though there are baby bibs to make....)

Brown and black eyelash? Nope. Destined to be a hedgehog.

In the end, I knit several swatches and returned to a yarn that I have loved from the very first moment I held it in my hands. Yarn that, indeed, I knew I would love even before we met.Misti Alpaca's Pima Cotton Silk. So soft. So cushy. So full of good mojo from Kim and the International Scarf Exchange 3. So doesn't require a $135 investment. My only concern (and it is a minor concern) is that it wants to shed a little when I am knitting with it. I noticed that before, too, when I was making Kim's scarf but one good trip through the wash seemed to remedy that so I'm not going to worry about it.

I have decided to stick with the plan to do the Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Of course, this yarn knits to a very different gauge and on larger needles than the pattern calls for and will thus be a version of the Moderne Baby Blanket, but the adjustments should be pretty straight forward. I am very happy with this plan.

All that remains is making a decision on the palette. They are having a baby girl but I have decided against the pales and the pinks. I've decided springy and warm and still feminine. (I've borrowed these color pictures from the Misti Alpaca site.)

Option 1: Black, Lavender, Eggplant, Buttercream

Option 2: Black, Kiwi, Buttercream, EggplantWhat do you think?

Before anyone asks, yes, I have already made up my mind about the black. I know conventional wisdom and tradition dictate that a baby blanket should be black-free but I am throwing caution to the wind here. (And, yes, I realize how that statement reflects the absence of much excitement in my life.)

Today's Quote:

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” Edgar Allan Poe