Watch this...

I loved it. Laughed my ass off. And, he makes some very good points!

I did it!

Well, I did a couple of things. First, I finished the pinwheel blanket. I haven't blocked it yet, and I suspect it'll grow a bit when washed. It's meant to be a small blanket, good for the car seat or buggy, or stroller as the baby gets older.

(Click any of the photos to see a large version)

So, here's the blanket on the floor, all done-


Here's a close up of the stitches and edge. I ended up doing 3 rows of seed stitch, a yarn over row, two more seed rows, then bound off in seed stitch pattern.



I started a picot edge, but it looked a bit too bulky with the yarn, and because I was dreading the laborious process of a picot bind off, since it didn't look stellar, I just bound off in pattern...




Finally, here's a pic of it thrown onto the large leather chair I have... gives you an idea of the size.




Hey... did ya notice my orchids?? My friends Andy and Kelly (who are having one of the babies I am copiously knitting for- a boy!) gave this to me when we planted Adam's garden, back in September of '05, and it's blooming again!!





Speaking of Ad's garden, I had noticed some crocuses blooming by the back door, and was all excited for Spring. Then last week I got nearly another foot of snow!
But the snow has almost all melted now, and look! They're tough, aren't they?



And finally, during said snowstorm, my mailbox was knocked off the post. Today I finally managed to mount a new box on the post. I used Ad's drill, removed the damaged bracket and then put the new one on, but then the holes didn't line up for attaching the box, so I moved the bracket and drilled some new holes and then voila, it worked. I even had a couple guys in a truck yell, erm, endearments out the window. Apparently a woman with a power tool is a turn on to some people. Ha ha!!

Here's the mailbox. I also mounted that flag, but that was a while ago.




I know, it's not a huge deal, but I'm kind of proud of it.

So that's all for now!

Egding Choices...

I'm nearing the end of the pinwheel blanket and I'm trying to decide how to edge it- there are so many possibilities! I'm thinking of a moss stitch border, or maybe a ruffle? Or how about a picot bind off?

Thoughts?? I got some inspiration here.
I'd love to hear your thoughts- I want to keep it simple!

Still Knitting...

Mostly baby blankets!

First, here's a photo of progress on the entrelac blanket... It's getting there, and I wish I could just hunker down and finish it, already, but... it's getting there!



I also frogged the eyelet blanket and started a pinwheel blanket with it!




And then... well, then there's the SAFARI BLANKET OF DOOM! My best friend in the whole world came across the Knit Baby Blankets! book and fell in love with the safari blanket. She asked if I could make it for her, as my new niece or nephew will be arriving this summer... and I had a look, swallowed hard and said I'd give it a go.
Now, do any of you have this book??






This blanket is scary stuff. Here is a photo of it...



Here are some photos of the intarsia charts...






And that's all well and good. It SEEMS that the way it's done is you cast on the beginning and then using dpns you start each triangle on a dpn knitting the intarsia chart... mmmmmkay....


But then they toss in this handy diagram for how to put the blanket together, and seriously, what the fuck??





Ok. So I have all the yarn. I ordered Knitpicks Swish superwash to do it, and I think it'll be good. Plus, I read some reviews about the yarn called for in the pattern, Briggs &Little Regal, and it seems that it's nice, but very rough, and so really not suitable for a baby blanket.

So. Do any of you have the book?? I've searched the internet and can't find anyone who has made this thing. Hold me. I'll be getting started on it soon. Oi.


I also got some fantastic packages!!

Pam sent me some baby hat's for my dad's charity- we just had another snow storm and burst of cold weather, so these are just wonderful!!





And then, a little while ago, I posted on Knitty that I was looking for scraps of silk garden. I am doing a Lady Eleanor, and having failed to lock on to one color way of silk garden that I liked, I decided to use a bunch of them. And I thought about all the quarter skiens of the stuff I've put into the bin, and how I now wished I'd saved them, and petitioned people to pass on any scraps of silk garden they might have lying around...

Yarnit sent me a great package, with an abandoned Egdar, some candy, tea and a lovely card- (I drank the tea this week, when I was sick!)



And Abesmama sent me some fantastic little bits, and also some Transitions to try out- which is very exciting!





So, thank you to Sheryl and Regina! I'll keep you all posted with the project, and if you have any scraps or unused skeins of silk garden, send them my way, or let me know if you're interested in a swap- I have stuff.

That's it for now!!

Sick.

Ugh. I have some sort of nasty cough/sore throat/headache thing happening. Got some antibiotics today, but I'm a mess. So that's why I haven't been on much the past couple of days. Back when my head clears... Hope you're all healthier than I am!

Neckline woes

Ok. I finished the Top Secret Sweater. And I did it all correctly, for the most part, but I don't like the way the turtleneck looks on me. And this may be, in part, psychological. When I was on the steroids I got very swollen, and my face was enormous (known as moon-face), and my neck literally disappeared. So I wore a lot of turtlenecks. Well, two, actually, it was hard finding things to fit me, as I was an XXL.
Yeah.

So anyhow, I tried taking a pic or two, using my macbook, so I could show the boyfriend, and here is one of them...







I just... don't like it. And also when folded over, it shows reverse st. st., which is fine, but seems weird. And I thought maybe I fucked up someplace and was supposed to be knitting in reverse st. st., but that doesn't seem to be the case. But really, that isn't the issue. I just don't like the way I look in the turtleneck.

So I frogged it back to the point where I was to increase one side of the yoke by two rows, and just bound it off there, but the thick/thin, nubbly nature of the yarn isn't really working with this- it isn't rolling down enough, and it just looks sloppy. Should I try picking up stitches and knitting a few rows along the bound off edge of the neck and binding off again? Would that create the stockinette roll?
I'm just not sure what to do.

Arrrrugh.

Any suggestions? Because I'm about ready to just frog the whole thing and make a cardigan instead with the yarn. Ugh.

The Weird, The Sad (and kinda gross), and the Triumphant

The Weird
Today was my trash day. I live in a fairly affluent town (small house in a nice area), and we do not have trash pick up (or sewers- all septic here), and I'm pretty sure my exorbitant tax dollars (for my fellow Massholes, I live in one of the "W" towns in Metro West) go to the fab school system and the new Dodge Chargers the town police seem to be rockin' around town in. I pay for Waste Management to come and collect my recycling and trash, and today was bottles and cans week. I noticed a woman outside, all bundled up, going through my recycling bin. It was cold today. Really fucking cold. About 5 degrees, and windy as hell. So there's this older woman, and she's rifling though the recycling looking for things she can get a 5 cent deposit refund on. And I am looking out the window and pulling on my boots, because I want to run out and tell this poor woman, who has walked from God knows where, in this freezing weather, that I have more cans in a bag in the garage and she's welcome to them. But before I have a chance, she takes three empty ginger ale bottles and walks across the street, and hops into the drivers seat of a brand new Lexus SUV!! Seriously!! And drives away.
Laughed my ass off, and thought to myself, maybe if I returned all those bottles and cans myself, I, too, could afford a Lexus. But seriously. Weird, right??

The Sad (and kinda gross)

Boyfriend gave me a juicer for Valentine's Day. A really nice, fancy one. So I've been juicing, and there is all this pulp and seeds and stuff that comes out, and goes into the trash. The other night, just before bed, I had to change bin bags, and it was late, and I was tired, so I put the trash bag in the little mudroom by the back door (which also acts as my storage, pantry, laundry room, coat room, and medicine chest- seriously, my house is TINY), and I go to bed. Yesterday I notice that there is a really unpleasant smell in the mudroom, and I assume it's probably rotting fruit bits, and figured the smell would dissipate. But it didn't, and so I thought maybe there was a teeny, tiny leak in the bag and maybe some nasty fruit slime had seeped out and soiled my tile. Not that my tile is very clean, but it isn't smelly. So I got some clorox wipes out and cleaned the tile where the bag was sitting, but that didn't help. And then I remembered... my little friend. Do you remember that story? Well, I'm afraid he may have passed away in the vents. Yeah. Gross. And sad.

But mainly gross. It really smells in here. It's not a nice smell, and it reminiscent of... I don't know... decomposing chipmunk?

The Triumphant
I joined the sleeves to the body of my Top Secret sweater- so far, so good. Kind of fucked up the decrease round, and realized I had somehow mis calculated and needed to still do a couple decreases when I finished the round, but I just slipped them into the next row, because I couldn't face unknitting 160 odd stitches and starting over. But I think that'll be ok. Or, you know, not.

I do not, in any way, feel secure that this thing will fit properly, and not be misshapen in some way, but we'll see. It's my first sweater, so I'm not expecting perfection, but if I could actually wear it, that would be very cool.

3 miles of Stockinette Stitch...

I'm knitting my first sweater. It's "Top Secret" from knitty. I'm using Rowan's Yorkshire Tweed Chunky in Flame. So far, so good. I think. Probably, when I'm done it'll be a complete mess, but so far I've got the body knit, one sleeve, and a quarter of the second sleeve. Joining the sleeves should be... interesting.
It's really hard to photograph this yarn, but here's one photo. It's quite thick and nubbly and is a deep merlot red with tweedy chunks of gray, bright red and the occasional fleck of orange...




Fingers crossed.



And in other knitting thoughts, I love Stitch Diva Studios- I love them. Usually, but what were they thinking with this?




Can this new design, "Goddess" look good on anyone? Because it's looking all sorts of wrong to me. I don't know if they put a too-big sample on this model, or if it's just a bad design... and why no photos of the back? I'm assuming it is backless...

I love this style, because I've nothing of a chest to speak of myself, but I really don't know about this particular design. Thoughts?