Friday, February 27, 2009

A Knitting Quandary

It's nasty rainy here today in Marietta, GA and we're supposed to get even more. Two of the testosterone members of this household have decided that it would be great to go camping this weekend in it.

I've come to the conclusion that Testosterone = Stoopidity. That leaves me stuck with the last little testosterone filled menace. I'm going to try and pawn him off on his grandmother for a while tomorrow to get a little peace and quiet.

Anyway, the Youngest and I decided to go look for yarn today in that nasty rain. I want to make the owls sweater that is taking the knitting world by storm. It's a bulky yarn and I don't have any of that in my house, so an excursion was called for. We went to Joann's and found nothing. Then it was over to the lys and we found more nothing. Wasted all that gas for what? nuthin'. :sigh:


So I have this sweater that I've been working on for far too long and it has a far way to go before it's finished. Remember yesterday's discussion?

Do I:

a) keep plugging at it, it'll look great on me when I'm 84.
b) burn it. the red color will look lovely in the fireplace.
c) frog it to use in another sweater that's more appealing.

That's the quandary that I have at the moment.

You know, if I frogged the bajillion cable sweater and held two strands together, it would make a lovely owl sweater, wouldn't it?

What does do you think? Please, if you lurk here occasionally, come out and give your opinion. I'm feeling guilty about the hours already put into that damn sweater, but I don't want to keep on working on something I'm beginning to hate and that hurts my wrists.

I think I need help. Perhaps a beverage would help?

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The cursed project

So I picked up my long time nemesis, the Zara Cabled Tunic, again. I got about two more measly inches done before my wrists began aching again.

This cable stuff should be easy for me at this point, right? Am I tensing up my wrists? Holding them and my arms at a bad angle? I just can't figure it out.

You have no idea how badly I'm wavering between trying to get this thing finished or frogging the whole damn thing. It's kind of a love/hate relationship we have going at this point.

Anyone got any tips for working on cables without wrist pain?

I'm cabling without a cable needle. I've never learned how to cable with a needle and think this would slow me down worse than I'm going now on this thing. Maybe I'm getting tense everytime I have to pull the needle out of a couple of stitches, leave them loose and cross them before putting them back on the needle.

I did not have this trouble while working on Rogue. This is the only cable project that hurts me. It could be caused by the eleventy bajillion cables on this sweater. Couldn't it?

Is it me? the yarn? the cursed project? the world working against me? what. is. it. ???

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Designing

Look-y what came in the mail today:


I joined Swaptree in order to swap some of my other craft books that I have no intention of ever re-using for some cool knitting stuff. I saw some stuff over on Ravelry that people had made using the inspiration in this book.

There's some truly wild stuff in this book. Designers do some odd things sometimes. Most of the stuff is unwearable "art", but the profiles on each of the designer/artists is pretty cool.

I can understand how the designers that make patterns and sell them either in books/magazines or self publishing make a living, but i can't for the life of me understand how the so-called artists do it. If I made some of the stuff in here and called it art, I'd be a laughing stock inside 20 minutes. really. There's no way people would "cotton" to this kinda stuff in the community where I live. There's very few artsy folk here, mainly snobby, wealthy "old Marietta" types. No, I don't qualify as one of those, nor would I want to, except for the wealthy part - that would be nice. :)

I have been tinkering with designing. Wealth will most never come to me by designing. But I am trying! Here's a pic of what I was working on (fingerless mitts) in my spare time in SC this past weekend:


The paper in the pic is pretty washed out, but you get the intent I hope. The knit on the right is a prototype that I wasn't quite happy with. I'm working on the corrected version now, but haven't been putting a whole lot of time into knitting the past few days. Give me a few days and I'll be back in the swing of things, I promise.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Rogue FO!

Sometimes I'm convinced that technology conspires against me.

My brother gave me all sorts of computer pieces and parts. So yesterday I took apart my pc to plug what I could use into it. Turns out, I couldn't use a dang thing. Either the stuff wasn't compatible with my pc or it couldn't be secured into the casing. I'm so bummed. So if you were wondering where I was yesterday, I had my pc spread all over my office.

Today, I took some pics of my finished Rogue Pullover. Guess what? More pc problems. But, I finally got things squared away and now bring you this:



I had help during the photoshoot as well:


He thought it was hilarious that Endora has now grown a purple head.

I finished piecing the sweater together on the drive up to Florence, SC this past weekend and got to wear it while I was there. Of course, not one person noticed, but I loved it. It fits like a glove and is incredibly flattering on.

Despite the trouble I had interpreting the pattern, I would highly recommend this pattern to anyone. It's fun, doesn't get boring at all and looks great on just about anyone. If you don't believe me, head over to Ravelry and look at the photos of over 900 finished Rogues and you'll become a believer too.

We had a great time seeing family, both boys behaved and so did my nephews and that alone, my friends, makes for a great weekend. I also got to do some geeky family genealogy stuff and visited a graveyard and got lots of info. about dead people. Doesn't that sound like fun to you? :)