Monkey Update

• Ripping done. I *think* I managed to rip back to Row 1, so I'll start Row 2.
• Stitches reacquired - thank goodness for very small crochet hooks. It was done with more force than finesse, but it is done. Now I just need to reknit and see how it goes. Luckily, it's really clear where the heel stitches are, so I'm quite confident that I'm at the beginning of the round so the pattern *should* work.

Uffda.

Not a multi-tasker

As in, apparently I cannot knit and hold a conversation at the same time...at least, not knit something that requires me to think. I had knitting with the library ladies last night, and took Monkey to get some work done, and I have somehow managed to drop two stitches without actually changing my stitch count (really, what the heck??), so I need to actually frog about 1 lace repeat. We'll see how it goes. This is where I have much less confidence in my skills.

*deep breath* Off to rip. Will post an update.

Has anyone seen it?

My motivation, that is.

I just don't feel like knitting, how weird is that? Well, I do feel like starting a new sock, but I really shouldn't - too much on needles. The weather is finally getting nicer (it was GORGEOUS today, 70 degrees!), so we've been spending more time outside. I've got some weird virus that's making me feel like CRAP in the evenings (horrible sore throat, runny nose, earaches etc.), so my energy when I have time to knit is low. And I'm just not...excited by anything I'm doing right now. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have some new things DONE (oh darn, just realized that I forgot to give my mom the scarf I made for her when she was here!), but apparently I don't want it enough to, you know, FINISH things. This happens to me, I know it'll come back...

So, since I don't have any knitting content, I give you a cute baby picture:

We went to the beach today to play (I still can't quite believe that I now live WALKING distance to a beach! Pinch me, someone!) and DD had a lovely time in the swing!

Knitting 1: KWAP 0

Actually it sort of feels more like Knitting 1,000,000: KWAP 0.

I did manage to finish the gusset decreases of the Monkey I am doing (which I shouldn't even BE doing). I'm working on something else that requires gauge and I finally got it, only to screw up somewhere and now I'm three stitches short.

I give up. I'm having a cookie and going to bed.

Non-Knitting Life

I don't think I've knit a stitch all week. It's been one of those weeks, we've been crazy-busy with school, life, playing with friends, enjoying the beginning of spring weather. We had a picnic on the back deck yesterday! I'm also struggling with some bad news on the kitty front.

We have two elderly kitties, one (A) I've had since she was about 5 weeks old, and she'll be 16 this year, and the other (L) came to me through my horrible ex-BF, so I've known her for 14 years, and she's been mine for 12. we think she's at least a year older than A, maybe more. L is just wasting away. She's now down to 4.9 pounds (and this was a cat who got very plump after she was spayed, over 12 pounds). She's got bowel disease, we believe. There's not much we can do, but keep her comfortable. She's still HER, still marching around demanding petting and love, but I don't think we've got long with her. Even the vet, when looking at L, said "I think we're coming to the end." and "I think if she goes below 4 pounds, we should consider euthanizing her." A is now manifesting kidney disease and is also losing weight. We need to figure out how aggressively we want to treat it. It's going to be really hard for A when L goes too.

It's so hard to think of losing them, to know it's coming. They've been part of my life for a long time, much longer than my husband and kids. We've been through some really hard times together. I'm working on not pre-suffering too much, but it's a delicate balance, to live in the moment with them while keeping a strict eye on not letting things go too far.

I also struggle with the guilt of knowing how far down the list they've moved in terms of how much time and attention is alloted to them. Since having children, I haven't had anywhere near as much available for the "girls" (as we call them). Now I'm just feeling sad. DH would like to have more cats, and part of me would like that too. The other part of me is just feeling like I've been sucked a bit dry by all the need around me and perhaps it would be good to renew a bit before jumping back in.

The huge thing, of course, is how much the boys love L and A, and how we're going to explain it to them.

Just in case you were wondering...

Sitting on the computer reading all sorts of blogs about knitting, surfing yarn store sites, and especially spending time pattern-surfing on ravelry? None of these activities actually help you get real knitting done.

Gah.

I just frogged the Mini Mochi sock. It's always a bit heartbreaking, how quickly one can rip out hours of work. I'd only invested...maybe 3ish hours in it? Something like that. There were enough errors that I knew it was going to make me crazy, and if I'm going to put that much work into something, I want it to be right.

Issues:

1. Needle size. I really wanted to try the KP harmony fixed circs, but apparently I bought them in 2.25 mm...well, no apparently about it, I *did* buy them in 2.25, and I seem to prefer 2.5s for most sock yarns. The needles themselves are really pretty but I kept worrying that I was going to snap one. They are nice and pointy though. The fabric they were making was just a bit tighter than I was liking.

2. Yarn issues. Now, this yarn is so pretty. SO SO PRETTY. But, it's not tightly plied at all, and seemed almost unplied at points. I kept snagging so that somehow I had several loops sticking out, which aren't pretty. Now, I could probably have just pulled them through with a little crochet hook, but there were enough that I knew it would bug me, and there was one big error. I don't even know what happened, it looked almost like I dropped a stitch, or perhaps I dropped most of a stitch.

Like I've said before, I have an error threshold, and I passed it. I'm going to try again with nickel-plated 2.5s and see how it goes. But not right away. I need some time to get off my ass and finish some other projects nurse my wounded heart.

Knitting, it's not for the faint of heart.

FO: Another Noro Scarf

I finished another Noro scarf! Nothing really much to be said about it, actually. Details are the same as for the Trinnit scarf. Except for colors of course! I can't find the ball bands for this, but I *think* the colors are 274 and maybe 270? I don't know. I'm not sure who this is going to be for, actually. It's definitely not for me, it's not really my colors overall (which are, of course, green and purple). I think this is pretty, but I don't really love it. It was still a very fun knit, nice and easy with no thinking really involved. I'm glad it's done so I can move on to something else!

I did start a plain vanilla toe-up stock with the Mini Mochi in the Violets Rainbow (see what I mean, green and purple!). I cast on 24 and increased to 64 stitches which look like they it should fit. I'mgoing to do an afterthough heel to preserve the striping. I just needed a super-low-brain-intensity project. Since getting back from the hospital, poor DD is sleeping like CRAPOLA which means I am too, and I am just So. Tired.

And I have the new Monkies that are going well (heel is turned, finishing the gusset rounds). The KP Imagination Wicked Witch is quite possibly the prettiest yarn I've ever seen, really. I am wondering if I'd wear socks made out of it in a different pattern. Because of the alpaca (I think), it's a bit fuzzier than I normally like, but it's so gorgeous!

I am also just OBSESSED with learning to spin. OBSESSED. I think that hobby is 1-2 years off for me, just for time and space issues, but I really want to.

Oh the week that was.

So, after that ER visit, baby girl wasn't doing so well, so on Tuesday we were admitted to the big local hospital, where we ended up staying until 9:00 pm Friday night, to get her vomiting etc. and dehydration under control. Not a fun week. Not fun at all, seeing your baby on an IV. I had time between the doctor's visit that ended with "she needs to be admitted" and actually going to the hospital to pack a few things, so of course, I tossed in some knitting.

Did I toss in any one of my current projects? Nope. I started another sock. I am a bit worried that they're going to be a skosh too small - I got the leg of one done, and I'm in the midst of turning the heel. I'm doing another pair of Monkeys in KP Imagination, the Wicked Witch colorway. SO PRETTY.

Like I said, we got home Friday night, and the weekend has been spent recovering. The boys are up and down. Thankfully the baby is just so delighted to be out of that room that she's in a great mood.

Too tired to knit.

There has been a vast amount of barfing in our household over the last few days, including more laundry than is good for our septic and six hours in the ER to rehydrate the baby girl, and a current looming threat of hospitalization for said baby, should she not pee enough tonight, so my knitting has been pretty much abandoned for the moment. The logistics of cleaning barf off of a WIP are beyond me, so better not to risk it, right?

That being said, I did get in a lace repeat on Falling Leaves when barfing baby kept me from going to a baby shower, but the boys (DH and the little boys) went to a birthday party and the girl napped.

I somehow snagged a hole in the bottom of my heavy winter socks...I think these were the first socks I made, and they're so awesomely warm, semi-felted and just lovely. I don't think I ever blogged them, I think I finished them before I had this blog...I can probably darn them, but I'm bummed. They're so warm and lovely.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled knitting for...

A FO! This is a baby hat for a shower I'm going to on Saturday for one of the neighborhood ladies who happens to be a knitting lady too (there are several knitting ladies in my neighborhood, which is awesome). I know I'm on a yarn diet (I KNOW, ADRIENNE!!), but I didn't have exactly what I wanted for this so I did buy yarn for it. Does it count if it's for a gift? The pattern is my own, and I'm going to write it up and put it on Ravelry, I think. It's terribly cute! Now I want to make one for my own little girl.

Moving Along, Now.

Mainly for my own records because really, I think reading about someone else's knitting progress without pictures is just pretty boring. But it amuses me, so there you go. I am actually getting something done, though now that the weather seems finally to be cooperating a bit, that may stop. I did spend the afternoon outside running around with my kids, riding bikes, and playing catch and baseball with the neighbor kids. Suburban paradise, I think.

So, I got re-enchanted with the Double Gradient Noro Scarf. Honestly, I don't love the colors in this one (and I won't mention the fact that I caved on my yarn diet and bought some more pretty pretty NSG to make ANOTHER one of these, no, I won't mention that AT ALL) but it's so fun to knit and so interesting to see what the yarn does! So that's out of hibernation. I've got more of the super-secret project to do, with the gague issues that are making me crazy. I've got Falling Leaves still in process, and a couple of crochet things. I just remembered that Branching Out is still in process, and I started a big lace project. Lace? It's hard. Mainly I'm having trouble adjusting to the lace-weight yarn. I fear I've got ladders at my joins in my Magic Loop because I don't want to yank it too hard. I can't redo though, I had so much trouble getting started. I don't know, we'll see. But yeah, it's hard. Anything else? I'm going to a baby shower for one of my library knitting ladies next Saturday, so I've got to whip something up for that.

Maybe I'll take pictures of all my WIPs and post them. And then feel horrified at all the things I have in flight.

Around the Riverbend

Yes, I am actually following up on a promise to blog about an FO. And I even have pictures. So, here are the Riverbend Socks. The pattern is from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, the yarn is Regia Cotton Colors (I believe the colorway is 5407, but the ball bands are long gone, so who knows?). I believe I knit these on KP 2.5 mm fixed circs, using Magic Loop (of course). If I ever knit a pair of socks with DPKs, well, I don't know, I think we'll all be a little stunned.

Okay, so the pattern is the issue here, obviously, because this is a plain stockinette sock. On the one hand, I really like the yarn. It's lovely to knit with, has a really nice feel and I like the fabric produced on this size needles. I love the reinforced heel, I've never done one of these before. I really love the Riverbend design. Unfortunately....I do not love the fit. I've worn them a couple of times now, and they're baggy. Not horrendously, not so I can't wear them, but they bag around the ankles. I also think the cotton leads to a fabric that stretches out and doesn't bounce back (I'm not sure if that's the proper term or not, but these stretch as you wear them). Even brand new, they bagged at the ankle. Fit is apparently an issue with these new sockitectures. The thing is, I haven't (so far) really had fit issues in the other socks I've made. People on the Ravelry group talk a lot about how much you have to "tweak" the numbers to get them to work for you. I don't know, I'm just not sure I have that kind of time, you know? I can definitely wear these...perhaps the bagginess would have been alleviated by fewer stitches at the largest part? (Fewer decreases?) I don't know. Maybe I have narrow ankles. :) I just don't have the brainpower right now to do a lot of tweaking of anything.

I'd love to do some more socks from the book, I really do think it's such a neat idea, but I'm thinking now might not be the time for it. So sad, because I love the heel architecture. Maybe I'll do another pair, but not increase as much as she tells you to and see what happens. One thing I love about this particular architecture is that the increases are all on the bottom of the foot (can't take a picture because I've been wearing them all day and they're grubby). This means you could easily adapt any patterns to this architecture. I may try it, I may not. I'm glad I knit a pair (and finished them!), and I do think they're really pretty, I'm just a tad disappointed that I followed the numbers and they don't fit as well as I'd like.

Fo and Gague Issues

I haven't had the energy to take a picture but I finished the Riverbed socks!! I actually finished them on Thursday, but I haven't worn them yet, for shame! And I do need to take pictures...maybe tomorrow. I'm dead today. In the Riverbend sockitecture, the increases are all on the bottom of the foot. I think it makes a nice fitting sock, though there's a tiny bit of puckering around the ankle. I've actually read this as a common complaint for many of Cat Bordhi's sockitectures, which makes me ponder whether they'll be for me. The yarn is really nice, Regia Cotton Color, so pretty! I just did a basic stockinette stitch, simple enough. I will try and do pictures tomorrow, I promise! What's odd is that even though I've finished something, I'm not going to go cast anything else on, I'm just going to go work on some other WIPs.

And now, I'm working on a secret project that I can't blog about yet, but I am having gague frustration. I hit required gague in stockinette perfectly on my first try (yes, I know, *I* swatched! ME!!), and started the pattern. Well, my first round I messed up the pattern (forgetting to add in a P3, which, y0u know, makes a difference). Ripped out, started over. I can't remember what I screwed up the second time, but I did, ripped out, started over. Third time, I realized that I'd been misreading the lace pattern, like, seriously dyslexicly (is that even a word?) misreading. Sigh, rip, start over. Finally nailed the pattern, am sailing along and...it's too big. As in, close to 20% too wide. This is a project where gague really matters. I ripped it, and started again, going down a needle size. Sadly, the only size 8 straights I appear to have are stumpy little bamboo 9-inchers, so they may not work and I may need to head out and get new needles tomorrow too. Just to get it measured, I'm going to have to get it off these needles.

I don't know, sometimes I think I'm a pretty decent knitter, and then sometimes I'm just stunned at my own ineptitude. :)

FOs with pictures...

Okay, so TECHNICALLY these aren't, you know, knitting, but they are things that I did make, so why not share them?

We're at that point where the winter stuff is pretty much all gone from the stores, but we've got at least another month, probably more like 6 weeks, of hat weather. Somehow all of my older son's hats have disappeared. I think I might have left one in VT, I'm not sure. So, sure, I could go buy him yet another hat, but instead I decided to make them! I didn't have a pattern, I pretty much just winged it, and there's definitely changes I would make. So, we're at the stage where it's hard to get a good picture of the boys, but here they are.

Both hats were done the same way, and both have things that make them not perfect, but they're wearable. I did the littler guy's hat first. It's hard to tell, but this was the splurge fleece, it's John Deere. He likes tractors, that kid. Since I am from VT, that seems most appropriate to me. I measured his head at about 19" (I had to use a piece of string, because all of my measuring tapes have disappeared. I used Malabrigo at first but it's too stretchy to get an accurate length). I used about 1.5" of ease, but in retrospect, I should have used more like 3". It fits him, but it's snug. And this was after I cut a piece that was too small! Third time's the charm? I made a rectangle of 14" x 20.5". I put the right sides together and sewed a tube and closed off one end. First I just rolled the brim, but I didn't like having the raw seam showing, so I turned under a deep hem (for that one, maybe about 3.5" or so, I think a bit deeper is better), and then folded that back. Done. I think it's really quite cute, actually! You could also do pom-poms on the points, but honestly, I just don't have that kind of energy right now.

I did the same thing for my older son's hat - this fleece is super-cute, it's dogs and fire hydrants (I'd say he's just on the borderline of being too old for it, it's probably more appropriate for a toddler than a kid his age but he liked it). I made this one a bit taller, 15", I think, and used about 3" of ease for his head. On this one, I did a much deeper hem (5"), which makes the hat a tad shorter. In fact, I think it's almost too short. If you pull the brim down more, you can see the seam where I sewed it. I'm sure there's a more clever way to do the brim than this, but I couldn't think of it.

For the last hat, I really wanted to do more of a stocking hat. I folded the fleece in half and cut down the whole yard of fabric, I think I did a width of about 12.5" (so the whole piece would be 25" wide). This did result in a hat that's a bit loose on him. It's sort of hard to describe how I did the cut. I cut the fabric on the diagonal, but not corner to corner. I hit about 4" up on the long side on each side, and cut diagonally that way. I screwed up the top = I wanted to leave two short pieces hanging to tie fringe with, but I sewed them on the wrong side. Ooops. Oh well. Then I just seamed up the side, and did the same hem thing. Right now this cap ends flat, rather than to a point, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. DS says he likes it the way it is, but I think it looks a bit...well, different from my vision.

Overall, though, I'm really pleased. These are quick and easy projects, and now they have hats! DS2 wants a bug stocking cap too, so I think I'll try to put fringe on his (and make it a bit smaller too).

The top hats are so easy, literally it's two seams and you're done. These would be fantastic and easy hats to make for donation, and you could get about 6 hats out of 1 yard of fleece.

Drive By Post

Just a quick one since I've got to get the kids out the door...

It's a sad sad day here at KWAP. One of my first pairs of socks has developed holes in the heels. So sad! I love the Yarn Harlot's idea that sock knitters are the ultimate optimists because they spend a long time (and, comparatively speaking, a lot of money) on something that you KNOW isn't going to last! I actually have some ideas about how this makes the product all the more dear, and yet, the pressure isn't so great, but like I said, I don't actually have time this morning.

I need to finish some things and then I was pondering setting myself a personal sock challenge. Say...a sock a week, for 10 weeks? Something like that. Details when I actually get there!

A bit of the blahs...

I'm not sure where my awesome knitting mojo went, but it's trickled away. I had the day "off" yesterday - in the morning I went and did some studying and then did a yoga class. The yoga classes offered at my gym aren't really the style of yoga I love, but it was really nice, and it was an actual class I could actually go to, as opposed to those amazing hypothetical classes that don't work in my schedule. I dashed home, nursed DD and shoveled some lunch into myself, and headed off to the movies. YAY! I love going to the movies, and actually love going alone. It was the first matinee of the day, and I think there was one other woman in the theater to me. I chose to go light, I saw He's Just Not That Into You.

Now, I am someone who truly enjoys being entertained and doesn't need everything I watch to be High Art, or even really all that good. So perhaps my expectations were low, but I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I laughed, I teared up (yes, I am hormotional, whatever), and I actually found it quite thought provoking. I could relate to the dilemmas of the women, in some way, and wondered why it took me so long to learn in my own life that men who treat you like dirt and play games just aren't worth it. I also thought it was interesting that while these women were all portrayed as being desperate to find THE ONE and get married, most of the actual marriages were portrayed very negatively. Anyway, after that I had the option to go knit, but I realized that I so rarely get to shop for ME without kids in tow, so I went and got some new yoga wear.

All this is a long-winded way of saying that I haven't been knitting much. DH and I watched a movie on Friday night and I did some rounds on one of my socks, but that's about it. I'm at that point where I'm just BORED with everything I'm doing, or it takes more brain power than I have available. All I want to do is cast on tons of new projects, mostly socks, but I'm exercising restraint and not doing it because I really want to finish.

Also, I went through this phase where I was knitting a ton and I wasn't reading much. Now I am a voracious reader, and I always have at least one book going, usually more. I actually, for perhaps the first time, didn't have a book I was reading! While I was away last week, I got rehooked into reading. I read...5 books while I was there (about a book a day), and now all I want to do is curl up and read. Most of what I read was the emotional equivalent of comfort food, but I did read this, and thought it was absolutely FANTASTIC. (I'm not sure why Amazon thinks it hasn't been released yet...my sister used to work for a bookstore, maybe she got an advance copy? It wasn't a reader. Oh wait, it's book two that's coming out in April. Squee!). Anyway, if you're a Fantasy Fiction reader (which I am) and if you're a writing snob (err, which I am, a bit - I know, it seems in contrast to my statement above, but honestly, so much that's published is just crappy writing), you will appreciate this book.

What else...school vacation is over, THANK GOD. That's how I know I have truly become an adult. It's not that I don't enjoy my kids, I do. But, I'm lucky enough to be a stay-at-home-mom, which means that I'm with them all the time. School gives us all a bit of a break from each other, which is a good thing. My oldest is...intense, and having some time away from him helps me be more present and available when I am with him. I actually hit a point yesterday where I was trying to get something done in the kitchen and both my sons were coming at me. I was backed up against the cabinets, whimpering, and saying "SPACE! I NEED SPACE!! NOBODY TOUCH ME!!" So yeah, school=good. I'll try and get some knitting done tomorrow...

And now I should post this rambling, non-knitting entry before my internet turns off.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

I am back from my trip. Overall it was really nice, it was great to spend time with my family, though I did miss my DH. The kids all decided to have massive sleep upheavals which really was not fun, but we got through it. All of them were driving me crazy at different times, but then they all managed to enchant me as well, which is pretty cool, actually. My daughter is just about to learn to crawl up stairs, oh joy.

I have some yarn feedback to report.

1. This, the Mermaid is much more teal/aqua than I expected it would be. I was picturing softer blues, somehow. Softer colors all around. It's nice, I suppose, but I'm not sure it's really *my* colors. Of course, venturing outside of my narrow palette of purple and green might be good for my soul or something. Maybe? You think? Of course, I also bought the Wicked Witch colorway, which is very pretty, though a bit darker than I expected. Still, lovely.

2. The Cadena is just the wrong shade of green. I knew it was a risk - greens are hard to coordinate, but I thought there was a chance. Their picture is pretty good actually, and mine sort of sucks, but it's too much of a blue-green (it's not a blue-green, but it's a green that's a bit more to the blue side), and I need a green that's a bit more to the yellow/olive side. It's very pretty and I'm sure I can find something lovely to do with it, but it won't be the replacement for my Foliage that I had hoped.

That's okay though, because I happened to stop into a yarn store in my home town...*innocent look* and found a lovely yarn that will work with my coat! The green is in the right family of olives. It's obviously not a bulky, but I think it should work for the worsted weight version of Foliage. We'll see. I also gave into the Noro sock yarn. We'll see how it turns out.

And with these purchases, I am now officially putting myself on a YARN DIET. I really need to just start a knitting marathon and get some stuff done!

The amusing part of all this yarn purchasing is that I did start something new...well, not new exactly. FALLING LEAF #2! I did about 2 rows on my other sock and just wasn't into it, so I pulled out the Tofutsies and cast it on. I managed to get the toe and one whole lace repeat done as well. (Apparently I finished the first one in October of 2007.)

So, yarn diet. We'll see how that goes. Knit a whole lot. We'll see how that goes. Do these count as New Year's Resolutions, if it's already more than halfway through February?

Packing

It's school vacation week here in MA, and since our little co-op nursery school follows the school calendar, we're off for the week. So I'm doing what any sane woman (with an awesome mom) does, and fleeing the state to go visit my family. DH isn't coming with, he's got work and since things have been tough for him lately, I'm hoping a break will help restore him a bit. At least maybe he'll get some sleep.

It turns out that having a baby who wakes up and screams for an hour to an hour and a half in the middle of the night isn't really all that much fun! I know, I'm shocked too. The brochure made it sound so appealing.

I always have this fantasy that I'm going to get So Much Knitting Done when I'm at my folks. I do often get stuff done, but not as much as I dream about. And yet, the question remains, what do I pack?

Right now I've got two socks in flight, plus a scarf, plus a crochet project plus another big project. And I have all this lovely new sock yarn, and I really need socks. I think the smartest thing to do would be to bring the scarf and the socks that are in process, and *maybe* yarn to cast-on one more pair, just in case I suddenly, you know, become a really speedy knitter. Because g-d forbid I run out of knitting options.

Have I mentioned that I'm helpless in the face of sock yarn?

Yeah. It's true.

I had a gift certificate to KnitPicks for Christmas, so a few things are coming to live with me...

This, in Mermaid Lagoon and Wicked Witch....
This, in Leaf (hopefully to match my coat for another Foliage, as the Malabrigo Chunky in Olive appears to be sold out everywhere, and yes this isn't sock yarn, I know)
This, in Tyrian Purple (I did some socks in an older colorway and I really like the yarn, it's durable and soft)
This, in Ash (I have a couple possible plans for this yarn)
And then this, just because I need it.

And now, a few skeins of this are coming to live with me, in Intense Rainbow and Violet Rainbow. One possible plan for this is to stripe the intense rainbow with the Ash KP Essential, either in socks or a scarf (a la Noro 1x1 ribbed scarf). I'm not sure about my sanity, that I'm considering knitting a scarf out of SOCK YARN. Clearly some sort of intervention is required. :)

I also think I have more than enough sock yarn in purple/green combos, and I need to start actually, you know, knitting the darn socks.