CarpeAcum

One Step Forward, Two Rows Back

I went to get new tires for my car on Friday. I had to get them on before driving up the freeway to the dentist (My dentist is about 20 miles north of me, but that's a different story). I took my Philosopher's Wool sweater with me to work on. It is in a great big basket, but I figured I would be at the tire place long enough to work on it.

Instead, I started taking balls of yarn out of the basket and untangling them--the cats had discovered the sweater last week sometime. I took out several balls and wound them up, and then came to the balls hanging off the sleeve. I thought I would start working on the sleeve so I could release the yarn ends to another use, and realized that I had used the wrong color. For 2 rows. Well, 2 and a half. So I spent the entire time I was waiting at the tire place tinking back two rows of color work. I have no idea how I messed up the colors. I could tell just by looking that the bright orange color on the sleeve was no where on the chart.

So instead of making progress, I regressed. And although I got 2 new tires, I need some repair on the back hub assembly. One step forward, two back. Sigh.

Bridge

I played bridge with my regular group tonight. We met in Woodinville at Barb's house. She is a GREAT hostess and she fed us well. And lots. And I won! I got to take home $4, which was great, since I had to borrow my $1 stake from Punkin. I never have cash (sigh). I was able to pay her back and nearly have enough to buy a mocha--all that and great cards, too! Lots of fun.

I felt guilty for leaving the house for so long on the last day of break. There is always so much to be done to get ready to go back to school. For instance, Punkin is still not asleep, and it's midnight. She is going to be one tired little Punkin tomorrow! There is laundry to get done, room organizing, a test to study for (taking the test after break seems like a good idea *before* break--she was sick and missed 3 days, so she can take the test late, but I encouraged her to get it over with before break), piano practice, and so on. She and The Beard went to the library and picked up some new books, including a Percy Jackson book on tape for us to listen to.

As we were listening tonight, I picked up my Philosopher's Wool sweater and found that I really am nearing the end! I am all the way up to the second button from the top, well actually, a little farther--maybe 3/4 (yay!). If we keep reading /listening as a family, I may get it done yet. It takes some concentration, since it's color work, and it isn't very portable, since there are 10 balls of yarn that have to go everywhere with it. I worked on it quite a bit last Jan-Feb while Punkin was doing exam coaching. This year, I'll be playing for exam coaching, so I may or may not get to go to her coaching sessions. Also, she only has tap exams this year, so no ballet coaching (sniff).

I was saying that I felt guilty for leaving the house on the last day of break. I made up for that by going to the store this morning, emptying and filling the dishwasher, cleaning out all the clean but not yet folded laundry from the laundry room and watering the poinsettias, all before leaving. I feel pretty accomplished, even though I wasn't here much.

I have been checking the sub line all night, and there is nothing available for tomorrow. I guess everyone is healthy and rested up after break. Maybe Tuesday. . .

I'm not dead yet!

So. . .

I signed on to bloglines the other day and a post popped up from a blog that I used to read regularly. She hadn't posted in a looooong time, so I was excited to see her post show up. I was thinking about how long she had gone without posting and when I went to check the last post date, it was in July. That *was* a long time ago! Wow! Oh. Almost exactly as long as it has been since I posted. Oops.

Well, I'm not dead yet, as they say in Monty Python. I went to a party last night where the festivities opened with a Quest for the Holy Grail. We all got in our cars and drove around our little burg looking for clues. After we gathered the clues we could get from the cars, we ended up at QFC (local grocery store) where there was a clue posted on the community bulliten board that sent us to the library downtown. In the history section, there was a book with a clue that sent us to the school where the hostess teaches (they have llamas!). From there, we went to behind the ice rink, and then to an alehouse owned by one of the guests of the party. At the ale house, The Beard had to say to the bartender, "I'm on a grail quest," and she gave him a glass with the last clue, leading to the party house. All in all, it was great fun. It was my friend's 40th birthday, and we presented her with two shrubberies (rhodedendrons), not too large, not too expensive--two, so she can plant them with a multilevel effect and have a path between (go review Monty Python and the Holy Grailif this makes no sense. Ni!).

I also attended a Girl Scout event this weekend, during which I nearly finished the second of two Fuzzy Feet. I was already down to the toe decreases on the first one, but I hadn't brought my dpns with me, so I placed the stitches on a stitch holder (an obliging paperclip, now unusable--except as a stitch holder), measured off 12 yards of yarn to complete the toe, broke the yarn and cast on for the second sock. I have about 1-2" left to the toe decreases on the second sock. Then I can felt them and wear them this winter. Yay!

The family and I also attended New Moon on its opening weekend. Click the link if you've been living under a rock for the past week. I think the movie, its stars, its clips, its ads and its hype have been all over all the media this week. Even if you don't care that it's out, you can't avoid hearing about it. And I have a 12 YO daughter. We all 3 read all the books (yes, The Beard, a librarian and an adult male, made it through all 4 books--the things we do for our daughter!), and so we all went to the movie together. It was fun and visually beautiful, but I can't imagine how you would enjoy it if you hadn't read the books, which explains the reviewers reactions. One reviewer said he didn't like it, but it wasn't made for him. It was made for his 16 YO daughter, who, he reported, called it "hardcore legit." He assumed that was good. I think he's right. I know I enjoyed it, but I probably won't see it again until it comes out in DVD.

In other news, I went to fall sewing retreat and spent the ENTIRE weekend working on a bed quilt cover for Punkin. On returning home, satisfied that it was nearly complete, I totally changed the size and concept of the quilt, and now need to make 18 more squares. And a comforter. How do these projects grow with their own momentum? Maybe it's just the way I do it. Na ja. I spent a couple hours in my sewing room last week, and cleaned up the floor (Fala can find her way to the heat register now) and set up another 20 or so flannel squares and the strips of fabric to make the quilt squares. Maybe this week, between turkeys and pumpkin pies, I'll make a couple of them.

I had an interview (the first in about 15 years!) to be a substitute teacher in our district. I haven't heard back from them, but I expect to. There was nothing weird in the interview questions.

I'm sure there are other highlights of the past few months, but I'm going to have to skip them or add them in as they occur to me. Right now I have to go start on laundry and dishes, the never-ending scourge.

I'm back!

Is It Less Wrong?

Is it less wrong that when the Beard mentioned going to visit the in-laws (4 hours one way) I immediately started planning knitting for the trip? I do usually bring a big project along and make great progress during the car time, and there's also quite a bit of knitting time while we're there. Somehow that seems less weird to me than planning knitting for a HS field trip.

In Sissy-Fuss news, I used reading time last night and GS leader meeting time tonight to finish up the second sock, except for the ribbing. So all I have left on the second sock now is about 10 rows of 2x2 ribbing! Yay! Excitement!

I started a felted bag for DD's ballet coach. I try to work on a gift for the teacher during the 4-5 weeks of exam coaching. We go to 2 classes a week, as well as an hour-long coaching class on the weekend. That's a lot of knitting time! I figure it's a good trade-off: I get knitting time, and the teacher gets the finished product. She's working on my kid while I'm working on her present. It all evens out.

I got Cascade 220 and Lamb's Pride. I'm making pink fuzzier stripes (the LP) on a black background. I am sort of using the Lopi Tote pattern, except I'm not making the handle. I bought a handle to attach to the finished product, so I'm just knitting a tube so far. I like the bottom of this bag better than trying to pick up stitches.

I also completed the headband part of the chenille cap I'm improvising. Now I need to pick up stitches and knit the crown.

I'm off to bed. . . to sleep. Morning comes early around here.

Is It Wrong?

Is it wrong that when I was invited, all last-minute like, on a bus trip with my SIL and her 35 HS students, my first thought was, "What knitting should I bring?" My second thought (no surprise here) was, "I wonder whether there are any good yarn shops there?"

I'm not sure whether this indicates a problem or a healthy obsession, but either way, the Sissy-Fuss socks are nearly done (just a few more rows!), and I have yarn for Twinkletoes in two different shades of pink, for my little ballerina. I think they might be a wonderful post-exam gift for her. Ballet exams are coming up fast, the first week of March.

The trip to Leavenworth was nice. There is a small, but nice, yarn shop (Wooly Bully--cute!) not too far off the main road. SIL teaches german, so we made a 5-hour round trip over two different snow-covered passes to eat lunch in german restaurants and chastise teenagers for smoking on a downtown street. I got lots of knitting done, though, and I met some of the students who will be going on our GAPP trip this summer (more later, and with pictures!). All in all, it was fun, and I'm exhausted.

Branching Out Done

I forgot to mention in my FO post yesterday that I completed Branching Out. I haven't blocked it yet.

Turns out that what I really needed to do was work on it daily. I did about one repeat per reading session, and it was done before I knew it. I hardly made any mistakes that required removing an entire row, like I did earlier in the scarf. At the end, I got 8 rows into a repeat and ran out of yarn, so then I had to tink back 8 rows and knit the final 5 rows on, but even that only took one evening of reading.

Unfortunately, I'm so proud of myself now that I keep thinking of starting another one. Somehow the frustration and determination to never knit more lace faded with the finished product. Go figure. On the positive side, I'm currently trying to finish as many things as possible, so starting a new scarf is out of the question. I did see some ivory Silky Wool, and wondered how it would take Kool-Aid. . .

Elizabeth Zimmerman: My New Hero

I ordered a birthday present for The Beard a month or so ago, and I included a little something for myself. After all, when you're ordering from Amazon, you need to make sure that you get that free shipping, right? So my movie afficianado got 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I got Wendy Knits, and The Knitting Workshop. Okay, admittedly, that last one was a bit of a stretch, but I have wanted the Baby Surprise pattern for a really long time, and so I threw it in the basket, so to speak.

Anyway, I was reading through some of the chapters this morning, and I discovered why everyone goes on and on about Elizabeth Zimmerman. I have now added all of her available books to my wishlist.  I'm so impressed. Couple her wonderful knitting with her love of wool, and add to that our first really hard frost this morning, and knitting a sweater is a no-brainer. And the one that I want to knit is this one, with a close up here. Isn't it wonderful? I've been thinking about a yoked sweater since I saw this one, and now it's almost everything I can do to not go and order that book from Amazon as well. Not order. Don't do it!

I'm being strong, for the time being.

I am almost done with Branching Out. I'm still starting on the Red Scarf Project scarf--I can't get it to look right. I need to stop thinking about it so much and just knit!

I went to a sewing retreat a couple weekends ago. I got some things done, but not nearly as much as I always think I will <g>. There's food to eat, books to read, people to visit with. But still, I got 3 pairs of flannel pants done for Punkin, some with fancy stitching, and also another pair (that matches hers) for her friend who got the ballet bag. I also finished Punkin's ballet bag, which she immediately started carrying to dance, abandoning the lovingly felted one from years ago. Well, I made both of them, and the felted one has seen lots of use.

I also fitted a jacket pattern. I had to trace it once, make the test lining, and fit that. Then I had to trace it again in (get this!) a smaller size, remake the lining and it fits really well. So then I cut it out of the test fabric. Next stop: finish the test garment, and cut out the real garment with confidence that it will fit. Maybe.

That took a lot of Saturday and Sunday, and then before you know it, it's time to pack up and go home. And be tired from sleeping in a foreign bed for two nights <g>. My sewing room is still not back to normal, but maybe it will be soon. I think I'm going to pack up about 3 totes worth of scraps and go through them later with a finer tooth comb. I threw out a bunch, but I need to throw more! The room is only so big. Other than that, it's looking pretty good, and it's definitely useable. I can find all kinds of things fairly quickly--things that I haven't seen in years!

Saturday was The Beard's day to work, so Punkin and I went to the Girl Scout store, where she was coerced into selecting uniform pieces to wear to her Rededication ceremony tonight. Then we went to Mervyns to buy a winter coat (for the first time in 3 years!). She fell in love with the very first one she saw, and would not be moved. And not a moment too soon (see previously referenced "hard frost").Then she tried on about 15 pairs of pants. We came home with two pairs of kickaround pants and three pairs of school pants.

Sunday afternoon, we invited 10 9YO girls for a Halloween party. That took most of the day, including going back to the Party Store (20 minutes awa) to return the helium canister with the faulty valve. Argh. The house is now suitably Halloweeny, though, and the party went very well, with lots of costumes and pre-adolescent screaming. We served pizza (which one guest ground into the carpet under her chair [who ever thought that a carpeted dining room would be a good idea--argh!]) and one mom brought a cupcake cake--where the cupcakes are bunched together and frosted like a cake. I was supposed to make cookies to decorate, but the cupcakes filled the bill nicely!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty accomplished today, and I'll feel even better after the GS rededication is done tonight, and after the class Halloween party is done tomorrow!

But I need to keep moving and get my list completed today. I'm already wildly off schedule--surprise!

And I haven't ordered that book yet.

Stop the Presses

OK--so who noticed what was left out of the "Future Knitting" list yesterday. Hm? Anyone?

How about those pink clogs for Punkin that I blogged about, including links to the colors of Cascade 220 I'm using? What? You didn't take notes?

Well, alright then.

I wound the pink yarn today, and then stupidly left it out on the counter. Punkin saw it and approved the colors, although she probably promptly forgot having ever seen it.

But today, the entire list has come to a screeching halt. I saw my friend Barb yesterday, and offered to make her a hat for her chemo-denuded head, and she said she wanted a Fun Fur one. So the Orange Fun Fur hat has zoomed to the top of the list, hopefully to be completed by the end of the week, since a screaming orange hat wouldn't be nearly as fun after Halloween <G>. I have a couple more hats up my sleeve (as it were), since you can never have too many!

Orange Fun Fur Hairy Chemo Cap in 133 (tangerine)

Dale Stork Shedir in 7 (lavender) OR

Microspun Shedir in 148 (turquoise)

I also found some lovely, soft cotton chenille that I would love to make another hat out of. I need to find a pattern in the right gauge. But first, the Fun Fur one, because it was requested. Then I would like to make another hat every couple of weeks and mail it off. That way, she gets a hat wardrobe (since her head is bound to be cold, even after her hair starts to come back in), and she gets a little reminder that she's being thought of. Hats are fun and quick, and don't take a lot of yardage, so that even an expensive yarn is affordable.

So that has moved to the top of the list.

I am also heading out this weekend for a sewing retreat (love those!), so I have to get planning, packing, rooting around in stash and generally preparing myself, my sewing stuff, and my family for a weekend away. Whee!

Oh, and while I was out shopping for just the right yarn today, I also picked up 16" circs in a couple of sizes (for hats, natch!), size 3 dpns and some size 13 straights. I think I'm going to have to rip all of the scarf that I worked on yesterday. It just seems not drapy enough on 11s. I hope that 13s will take care of that.

Quilt Day

Thursday was the day that we put the quilt on the bed. We've had the blanket on for some time, but Thursday was the day that we finally decided that it was too cold for a quiltless quilt cover, and put the quilt in.

I know that some people play chicken with the thermostat, not turning on the furnace until the last possible day, but not me. The Beard would like to turn the thermostat down to 65 degrees, but I just can't. No matter how many sweaters I wear, my fingers and my nose just get cold at 65 degrees. The nose thing is no big deal; I just go through lots of tissues. But having cold fingers is a very bad thing for a piano teacher! I can't function. Not to mention that students come to my house every day in flip-flops and t-shirts, regardless of the season or weather. The appropriateness of this aside, it doesn't seem fair to freeze them to death while they're already busy being nervous because it's a piano lesson.

However, at night, I like it pretty cold, but with a nice heavy quilt. Consequently, I do my best, most restful sleeping in the winter. Mmmmm. . .

I went to JoAnn's today and bought a set of size 8 straight needles. I figured out that my set is in a scarf that Punkin has been working on since. . .well, for a while. I figured that $4 was a decent investment! I had been using a couple of dpns, but they're really short, and I was afraid that the work would slide off the far end when I put it down. Now it's all settled.

I also bought 2 balls of Lion Wool Ease Thick and Quick in a maroon color for the Red Scarf Project. I think that Chenille is on sale starting tomorrow, so I may get some of that and start in. That would mean that I would send in the exact same scarves that I made last year. I call that "consistent" not "boring." Hopefully, they'll go to different people.

I almost got some Paton's Classic Merino, because I really want to try the Irish Hiking Scarf, but the Paton's looks so tiny. I'm not sure I can commit to finishing a scarf on tiny needles. Maybe later on. Besides which, my local JoAnn's didn't have any kind of variation on the color red in the Paton's. I'll keep looking, and see how the other ones go.

I was looking over some old posts and photo albums, and got to thinking how productive I used to be. I don't seem to be finishing much any more. I think I need to get a move on!

WIP List:

Olive Branching Out scarf

Hedgehog (must felt and stuff)

Cascade 220 sweater

Philosopher's Wool sweater

Planned Project list:

Snowman

Ugg booties (for as-yet unnamed recipient--I just think they're cute)

Wool Ease Red Scarf

Chenille Red Scarf

More Socks with the pile of sock yarn that I already have waiting

purple-ish vest for me

There. That ought to keep me on track <GGGGGGG>. Maybe .

Lace in Progress

I've been working on the Branching Out scarf.  The lace is turning out fine now. I'm trying really hard to read the stitches so that I can get a grip on how the lace is progressing. I think it's part of learning to do lace, and this is my first lace project, but I'm not enjoying it all that much; it may be my last. I need to go search through my current projects and see if I can find my size 8 straights. I started this one on circulars so I could take it on the airplane last summer-- summer 2005 <gulp>-- but now they're curving around and driving me crazy. I'd rather work on it on straights, but it seems that my straight size 8s are tied up in other projects.

I also finished the first Sissy-Fuß sock. Pictures to follow. I've started the second sock, but I'm not past the toe yet. No doubt, I'll be doing that one again, and again, and again <sigh>. Somehow I've done the wraps wrong, and I think I may have to start over. But that's par for the course with this particular project. It just wouldn't be Sissy-Fuß if I didn't have to do it twice. Or three times. Or into eternity, up the hill, down the hill, up the hill. . .

In other knitting news, I'll be winding the pink Cascade 220 today to make Punkin’s christmas belted clause. Christmas felted clogs. Voice recognition software can have a mind of its own <g>. I thought that one was too funny to erase. Then I had to train it to recognize “erase” instead of “the race”. But the point is, I have three hanks of Cascade 220, 2 pink (9469) and 1 quatro (9440), to make my little darling new slippers for her gigantic feet. She's 9, and I'll be making women's size 6. Granted, they should be a little big, and size 6 is as small as the pattern goes, but still: Size 6. Yike!

My big project today is to get all my piano music and other things onto the brand-new shelves that are in the living room. I always mean to take a "before" picture, but it looks so horrible but I'm always reluctant to take the "before" picture, but then when I get done, I'm sad that I don't have a "before" picture so I can compare it to the "after." So today, I will try and take a "before" picture, although I reserve the right not to put it on the blog. But I'll know.

I'm off to tote books around the house. More later. Maybe.