My new bud Annie

Today was a load of fun! I got to meet Annie Modesitt and take her Cables and Lace class at my LYS, The Whole Nine Yarns. It turned out to be more of a Cables and Combo knitting class because she got a little confused about what she was supposed to be teaching. And you know what? She's great no matter what she's supposed to be teaching! She tells some delightfullly corny jokes while she's teaching and really goes out of her way to make everyone feel comfortable. She's also great about helping those who have difficulties while knitting.

It was fun watching all the people who had never knit in Combination style before. Just seeing all the lightbulbs go off over their heads was great. That part of the class wasn't new to me since that was the way that I learned how to knit, but I sure did get a kick out of other people learning it.

The Cables part was fantastic. She tells a fun semi-risque fairytale story to help you remember how to do the whole "cabling without a needle" thing. You could get a little carried away with that story and turn it into cabling porn really easily. :)

She was a joy to meet and a great teacher. I encourage everyone who gets a chance to go and meet her and take one of her classes. She even graciously stood still for a picture with me too.

I didn't think about it before I went out of the house, but this is the same shirt that I was wearing when I got to meet Alton Brown. This blouse sure does get around, doesn't it?

Oh, and guess what? I have my first spinning wheel class tomorrow. Woohoo! Can't wait!

Here it comes

Someone remind me why I wanted another child? Especially one that's precocious and hard-headed stubborn?

Remember yesterday's incident of the diaper and shorts coming off? Yep, happened again. Sure sign of almost being ready for potty training. I think he's more ready than I am.

I dread this process. Not just the usual potty training, I'm ready for that. But I am not ready for this stubborn child to dig his heels in and decide that he doesn't want to do it just because I want him to. Also, communication is not all there yet. I don't think I have a choice at this point though, especially if he keeps taking his pants and diapers off because he doesn't like the feel of being wet. Wanna see the Youngest in action?


To make it worse though, not only did he pee on the floor today, but see that cube there in the background? He peed right through that little door there on top of a whole bunch of toys that were stored away underneath it. Fun huh? Pray for me.



Knitting news to come tomorrow.

More Trials From The Two Year Old

Never, ever turn your back. That's my new mantra. I say it over and over, but it doesn't seem to seep in to my foggy little brain.

Never Turn Your Back
Never Turn Your Back
Never Turn Your, Oh Crap!

Today was one of those days. The morning and early afternoon went well (except for finding a knitting mistake and ripping back 3 times), but late afternoon/early evening? Um, not so well.

Guess what I did, twice? Yep. Turned my back. What did it get me?

First I caught the Youngest finger painting on the living room rug with a big handful of sour cream from his early supper which consisted of quesadillas and the before mentioned sour cream. He also decided that his shorts and legs would look much better coated in sour cream too. I caught him before he could do more damage.

Second was a double whammy. The living room was trashed in about 10 minutes. During that time he also decided that he needed to be loose and free. So off came the shorts and diaper and he was scampering all about his clueless brother who was engrossed in a nice 60s Batman movie. He was also climbing on the back of the couch and rolling down onto the seat section of it. Destruction and chaos reigned supreme all around the Eldest and he didn't even notice. Usually he's my alarm system since he's my "by the book" child, but not so much today, obviously.

Where was I during the incidents? Doing laundry during the first, and spray painting a project for the Eldest for school during the second. So I have some good excuses, don't I? Well, don't I?

I really wish I had taken a picture of the sour cream incident for you, but I was in panic clean up mode and didn't think of it. I could take a pic of the trashed living room, but I'd rather not embarrass myself at this point. I don't think I can take much more tonight. :)

Lillian Tank Progress

Progress on the Lillian tank, I'm about 40% of the way through. It's taking me a little longer than normal since I'm having to put in decreases as I go up since I'm making the bottom of the tank in the medium size and the small on the top. Oh do I wish I could say I had to do the opposite! I've got to decrease 14 sts. So I'm doing two sets of decreases on each side on row 13 for each of the last three repeats and I'll sandwich in one more as I get to the ribbing. On one side it's working fine and the other it's playing merry hell with the lace pattern. I'm fudging it and carrying on though. Thank goodness I'm not a perfectionist. I will be the only one that will ever notice the imperfection.

I started this with a "new for me" cast on, the Twisted German Cast On. This is like the Long tail, but is more elastic and good with the ribbing at the bottom of the tank. theknitwitch on Youtube has a great video on how to do it. I, however, really suck at either of these cast ons because I can't seem to guesstimate how much yarn it will take to make it work. One day maybe I'll figure it out.



Heh. See that orange thing at the bottom right of the pic? Yeah, my kids have been there again. It's a pumpkin stencil that someone dug out of the toy box and it mysteriously appeared on my desk. Imagine that. See that ziplock bag? Yep, my knitting tool kit. One day I will either make or buy me a cute little bag to replace it, but for now, it'll do.

Swatch

On Friday I got a gift from my mailman - 6 new skeins of the new KnitPicks Comfy yarn in the color Flamingo. The color is a beautiful blush color. Think of a light zinfandel wine and you'll have the color just right.

I couldn't just let it sit there without playing with it could I? Nope, especially not after messing with the masochist shawl. Away went the nasty shawl and out came the new Comfy.

First, let me say that the new Comfy line is fabulous. It is 75% Pima Cotton and 25% acrylic. It is so incredibly soft and very drape-y.

• It handles the washing machine and dryer very well and, if possible, comes out even more soft and drape-y. I would like to be able to throw this in the washer/dryer, thus the test with the swatch. It shrank a tiny bit widthwise, but not lenthwise (see below).
  
• I haven't noticed any splitting of the yarn as of yet and it doesn't "squeak" a bit.
  
• It absolutely glides on my Options needles.
• Love. It.
  

I'm making the Lillian Tank Top, so I made the swatch according to her instructions. It is supposed to be 4 inches square. It came out a bit bigger, but I think it'll be okay since I like my stuff a little bit roomy anyway, especially in the summer. I may switch to a smaller needle when I get to the top of the tank, we'll see.

I'm blushing

Pre-wash/Dry = The height/length of the swatch came out to 4.5 inches and the width was 4.25 inches.
After washer and dryer = height was 4.25 width was 4.25.

Stitch gauge = 5 sts/inch
row gauge = 7 rows/inch

My Re-Decorator

Proof that the Youngest is feeling in fine form now:

The little booger got a whole roll of paper towels out of the pantry when I wasn't looking and re-decorated the foyer for me. :)


He had an absolute blast. All we could do was laugh. At least it was harmless fun.

The Masochist Shawl

So, how did I spend my morning?

A while ago I purchased a beautiful hank of Cherry Tree Hill yarn. This yarn is called Baby Loop. The band on the hank describes it as "A light sport mohair boucle with nylon binder." It has 970 yards per 8 oz. hank. The colorway? Sugar Maple. The colors are gorgeous, especially for someone who loves red, like me.

I knew this yarn would be difficult to work with, but I've been determined to do it. I looked far and wide for a light airy lacy pattern to use it with. Originally I wanted a sweater, but opted for a one panel shawl instead. There would be less complications that way, and I was right.

Step One of the morning - wind it into yarn cakes. It would be a nightmare otherwise, you'll see what I mean in a minute.

Now when you do this, I thoroughly recommend that you have a two year old who is feeling ever so much better and has a lot of pent up energy to assist you in this endeavor. Trust me, it's the way to go. You can see in the pic below how amazing the colors are in this yarn.


Remember when I said you'd see why in a minute? Here's why. Look at all those tiny loops on the pretty string. Can you imagine trying to work from the hank with all those loops trying to grab each other?


Finally, after much trials and tribulations with the two year old and mega-grabby yarn, you have yarn cakes. Notice the weight on the postal scale. Yeah, I got gypped .02 oz. Can you believe it?



Step Two - Begin knitting.

The shawl pattern that I picked is from Tangle. It's a free pattern called The Purl Shawl. Being a combo knitter, purling is often easier for me to do than knitting and I thought that this would be a fun one to try out. It's an incredibly easy pattern, but it calls for bulky ribbon yarn. The cast on for this is 53 sts. I doubled that, otherwise I would end up with a scarf instead of the shawl that I wanted.

The first couple of rows were tough, but that's true for me with any pattern and any yarn that I use. The third row was no problem at all and I am so far very pleased with the outcome. It's just as light and airy as I wanted. Here's a sample:





For now though, I am renaming this one. My version is no longer the Purl Shawl, it is now called The Masochist Shawl, for only a masochist would make anything out of this yarn.

Saturday Market Bag

I finished the Saturday Market Bag:

This would have been a pretty quick knit if the Youngest hadn't gotten sick. Very easy pattern.

My mods - I basically followed the modifications found on the Distressed blog. However, here is what I changed.
I used size 11 needles since I don't have 15s in my needle set. I cast on 45 sts and did 22 repeats of the lace pattern to compensate for the smaller needles. I did not change to a smaller size needle for the handles, just kept on going with the 11s. I picked up 3o sts. for the handle section. I did a regular cast off instead of my new preferred stretchy cast off that you can find on Grumperina's blog in order to add more support for the handles. I also did approx. 24 rows of garter for the handles in order to make them a bit shorter.
That's it. Now, what the heck to I do with the bag? I began this project with no destination for the bag at the end. Oh well, I'll think of something.

sickness and april fool's

Just a quick update for ya: The Youngest has been really sick. He's been running 103 degree fevers every night and is averaging around 100 during the day. He's drinking liquids, eating no food and has been attached to my lap and arms 24/7.

So guess what? little to no knitting has been accomplished.

I did get the Eldest tonight in a little April Fool's fun. For Christmas he got a cool Lego Star Wars space shuttle. It's quite big. Well, right before he left to go to scouts tonight I told him that "Oh yeah, forgot to tell you earlier, but he (the Youngest) kinda messed up your space shuttle."

He said, "Which one?"

I said, "the Lego one."

He didn't waste another breath, just raced for the stairs. I blew it though. I should have kept a straight face, cause he just happened to look back at me as he jumped onto the first stair. It took him a second to figure it out, then I said, "gotcha. April Fool's."

You should have seen his face. It was a hoot! He's always so worried about the Eldest destroying his toys. It was the funniest thing I've seen all day! :)

Oh Yes I Did!

I did get to meet the man, Alton Brown, himself. Wow!

My Mom & I arrived at the lecture at around 12:15 on Saturday. At first, there was a boring 10 minutes where the Library employees patted themselves on the back for having this shindig. During that time, I spied the main attraction standing about 15 feet away from where I was sitting. He blended in perfectly with the crowd. I don't think anyone but me saw him standing over there very quietly. When not in his usual goofy "get-up" for his show, he's the most normal looking guy, and not bad looking at that. Better in person than in the pics I'm about to show you though.

The set was pretty cool. Very mad scientist-y:

I was struck by how strong of a Christian Alton is. Of course, that's not really surprising since he was raised in the Bible Belt.

He does live in Marietta, by the way, I just don't know where. His wife and daughter were there. His daughter is such a cute little girl.

Alton is not easy to photograph. He moves around way too much when he's giving a lecture. Not one to sit still. He was extremely funny. He got on his soapbox about several things: Chili from China, Chicken's not really having fingers, How stupid we are for buying bottled water and both paying too much for it and ruining the environment, how lawyers are food, etc. It was more of a standup comedy routine for the first half. The second half was all Q & A. He accepted questions from the audience.

The lecture ended at 2:00pm and we got in line to get a cookbook signed. At about 3:30, we finally got up to him. Yes, an hour and a half. Can you believe it? But! In his defense, he took the time out to shake every single person's hand. He asked our names and then made sure to use them the entire time we were speaking with him. He was especially great with the children that went up to meet him. He dropped everything to speak with them. I heard people grumbling about that, but anyone who will spend that much time to talk to a child is my hero.See that little girl? She made the picture on the table as a gift for him. He made a big to-do over it. The kids and their Mom also happen to be related to me by marriage - cousins. I didn't even know they were going, just happened to bump into them.

Here I am smiling and looking like a total dork. Notice his "wish this was over" facial expression:

Me & my new buddy Alton

Of course my Mom always looks fantastic, but Alton forgot to smile. Hey, at least he was looking at the camera. They asked that nobody do any posed photos. Do you think anyone paid attention to that? Umm, no.


And this pic? This is the Youngest being very sick and passed out on the Living room chair. He's on antibiotics now. Very pitiful, but oh so cute.

Alton Brown

So the cool news I promised you?

Tomorrow my Mom & I are going to see this dude: Alton Brown



I got my Mom some tickets for part of her Christmas present. It's in support of our county library. We'll get to meet him and hopefully he'll be signing books too. I'm taking the camera so I can get a pic with him. We'll see if they allow that. This is a great gig for him since he lives around here in the ATL somewhere (possibly Marietta?).

Have a great weekend!

lazy day

Today's been a fairly lazy day. I did pick up a new project though. I started the Saturday Market Bag from Magknits. I'm making a few modifications to the pattern, the first of which deals with the needles since I don't have any size 15s. I'm using 11s instead. I'm also going to be making this in one long piece and folding it over instead of two pieces, there'll be less seaming that way.

I'm still trying to wait to begin the big project that I've got planned next. It deals with cables and since I'm going to be in an Annie Modesitt cables & lace class, I'm waiting to start on it. It's murder. I've had this yarn just sitting there staring at me, begging me to knit it up into something fabulous, wanting me to give in to the urge to knit. ack! But no, it's the light and airy projects for me for a couple of weeks.

Other than that, I've been dealing with a 2 year old who's either trying to get sick (his cousins were sick when they came over this past weekend) or he's dealing with allergies. My allergies are killing me already, so I wouldn't be a bit surprised if his were acting up too.

Here's a leftover Easter pick of him and his friend Roxie checking out the Easter basket:

Got some fun news for you tomorrow about my Saturday plans. See ya then!

Circular Shrug Finished

Yeah! It's finally finished! My hands are killing me from knitting so much so fast, but I'm thrilled that this is now and F.O. I was sick of working on it! I'm not particularly fond of the pics below, but then I dislike just about any pic with me in it. I figure that I've posted worse pics of myself on this blog, so what the hell.

Back View

I had it pinned in front with a barrette that I had lying around, but I think I prefer it unpinned. I'm going to see if I can find a shawl pin or brooch that I like with it.

Front View

Again, this is the Circular Shrug from Craftster. I used Patons SWS in Natural Earth. Done on 9 & 10.5 40" circs. Easy pattern, but boy is it tedious. It might be more entertaining if you substitute a lacier pattern in the middle section instead of mock rib.

Lifelines - not just for lace

You just can't imagine how tired I am of looking at the Circular Shrug. You just can't.

I put it off for a while, Daunted by how much I had to rip out and begin again. 5 inches of 2x2 ribbing across 120 stitches. ouch. Borrrrrrrring. But, I got off my duff and picked it up again.

Before I began ripping out all the ribbing, I grabbed some fairly slick acrylic yarn and put in a lifeline. It would have been ridiculously easy to rip out some of the mock ribbing.

How did I do this? I turned the work so that the wrong side was facing me. Then, working right to left and using a tapestry needle threaded with the acrylic, I picked up the right side of each stitch. This saved me from the headache of putting all the stitches back onto a needle without the fear of dropping every other one and having to rescue it with a crochet hook. Much easier with a lifeline! Why did it take me so long to figure this out?

Here's a pic of it: The acrylic yarn is red and a bit difficult to see.

Since this pic was taken, all the 2x2 ribbing has been ripped away. I did my increase row (forgetting it is what got me into this fix in the first place) and about an inch of the 2x2. Just 4 inches to go! 4 Loooooonnnnnggggg inches of rib. Oh boy.

As promised

I hope everyone had a great Easter Weekend. I did! Saturday night I was knitting bunnies and guess what?


The Easter Bunnies are finished!

Heap O' Bunnies

And as promised, here's the Monty Python Killer Rabbit:

Run Away! Run Away!

I used black embroidery floss for the eyes and brows. Leftover red acrylic yarn was sewn all around the mouth area and over the top of the fangs once they were attached. I created fangs by making i-cord and then sewing onto the mouth area. The Eldest loved it.

The Eldest also received a Mentos & Coke kit in his Easter basket and just had to try it out. Here he is with his Dad racing to get away from the geyser.



We also had an Easter Egg hunt. The Eldest and the older nephew had a ball finding the eggs. The two younger ones? The Youngest found a few eggs, cracked them open immediately and at all the chocolate he could get his hands on. The youngest nephew just wanted to play in the sand box. Oh well. They had fun anyway.

Run away! Run away!

A person on Craftster today had an awesome suggestion. She suggested that we turn one of the cute little Easter bunnies (see previous post) into the killer rabbit from Monty Python's Holy Grail. We are soooo gonna do this. The Eldest is dying to have a killer rabbit.

Now the question is: how do we do this?


I'm going to use embroidery floss for the evil eyebrows and possibly the eyes, though I might use a button for those. That parts easy, but the mouth?

In the photo, (click to enlarge it) there is blood all around the mouth, and a lot of it too. I could, again, do embroidery, but it might take forever. I could also use paint on it or even food coloring. I'll have to think about that one. I might make up a small swatch and test out the paint & food coloring to see how it will work and if it will spread out. We're going to be dealing with acrylic yarn here, so craft paint might be better than food coloring.

There are also the huge fangs. I-cord seems the way to go. It needs to be fairly stiff. Floral wire poked up through the I-cord might make that workable. I've never really worked with i-cord that much. Can you make one end pointy? You know, like a fang? Hmmmm...

So, while I'm supposed to be cleaning house and making cute bunnies for the company coming over this weekend, what will I really be doing? You guessed it! I will, of course, take pics of the whole project for you. See ya on Monday!

Run away! Run away! Run away! :)

Ta-Da!

Finished in 10 days flat. Fastest sweater I've ever knit and it fits to a T! It's now blocking on my freezer, the only flat space that doesn't have a child or animal on it. Oh, and welcome to my red powder room. :)


Got something else for you that I did today at naptime:

This little guy only took about an hour to do. It's a free download that you can get from Heartstrings. Super Simple and perfect for Easter. I'm going to make three more, one for the other son and two for my nephews. They would all prefer cars, but they're getting stuck with bunnies.

Bunny Profile

Same bunny, different view

I'm considering tying a different color yarn around each of the bunny necks so that each kid will know his own bunny. They tend to get a little possessive. :)


Forgot to mention that I modified the pattern. The tail called for you to sew a puff of the stuffing to the rear end. However, this is going to small children and could be pulled off too easily. So I knit a small square about the size of the ears, but without the decreases. Then I sewed the tips of the squares together, stuffed the ball and then sewed it in place. Worked like a charm!

Meltdown, Mommy style

Mommy had a wee bit of a melt down this evening.

What caused the problems? Take a wild guess, no really, go ahead. I'll wait.

Yep. The Youngest again.


Early this morning the Youngest decided to trip and fall in the back yard and bash his little forehead with a great big rock. It sorta set the tone for the whole rest of the day. Not good. Wouldn't eat lunch or dinner. Screamed at me all day - and not in the pitiful I need mommy way either, absolutely evil. I could do no right. So as soon as Daddy came home, I ran away. I also needed to go get Easter "stuff" and used that as my excuse to run away. I left Dad bathing the two beauties and getting them all to bed. Do I feel guilty, ummm, no. Not a damn bit. I feel better now.


Little to no knitting has been done today, but a sweater will be completed by tomorrow's post. I've only a few rows to go, 11 to be exact. See ya then!

Pink Panther Purl Cuff

Hey, I passed my 200th post and didn't even notice. Cool!

I finished one sleeve of the Pink/Gray Sweater. I decided to do 3/4 sleeves instead of full. That way, I can wear it a few more seasons of the year.

On the cuff, I wanted to accent the pink that is in the yoke of the sweater, but I didn't want the pink to necessarily draw the eye to it. So I decided on a pink purl row with three gray rows then another pink purl row. This color of pink so reminds me of the Pink Panther!

The Unblocked Pink Panther Purl Cuff

Knitting and Two Men Without a Shirt

I had a nice weekend. On Friday the kids and I took off to my parents place out on Lake Wedowee, Alabama. The water level is back up in the lake and it was so pretty. The weather was perfect and the kids spent a lot of time playing outside.

My Mom and I were watching the lake from the kitchen window and saw something fairly amusing. There were two boats in the water. Both had three men in them. Both boats had one guy wearing blue. And both boats had a guy in the middle with no shirt on. All of the guys in both boats were wearing baseball caps. It kinda sounds like the beginning of a complicated word/logic problem doesn't it? I tried to take a picture of it for you, but my camera phone won't zoom in clearly that far.

I did a bunch of knitting this weekend and this is the current results:

Inside Out

The body of the sweater is done and I began the sleeves this afternoon. I was too lazy to turn this thing right-side out to take a pic, but you get the general idea don't you? I haven't decided if I am going to do full length sleeves or three quarter length sleeves. Either way, I will have a tiny amount of pink at the cuffs I think. I'll probably do those in purl so that I can get a thinner straight line. I just want to echo the pink a tiny bit. I was going to do the cuffs like I did the yoke, but I think it will be too much.

Either way, I have strayed away from the original pattern. I've changed the waist shaping and the arms and I changed the raglan increases at the shoulders. At this point, it's just a basic raglan, nothing fancy and certainly not the Purple Sweater that I was going to make. It fits beautifully, though I still need to lose some serious weight in the tummy area to really show it off well.

Edited to Add: Forgot to mention why this is wrong-side out didn't I? When I work with two circs in the round, the wrong side is always out. Don't know why or how I began doing this, I just know it works for me. Anyone else do this?