Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday, so I made a trek out to my favorite stitching store (Eye of the Needle in Mineola, TX), and a trek it is, about 80 miles from where I live. I picked up a whole bunch of items I had left for framing. I didn't have time to take pictures tonight, but will in the next couple of days. Sherry is my absolute favorite framer, I don't know what I'd do without her. She takes what I pick out and makes it even better. She's decided to start stocking some knitting supplies in the store due to overwhelming request, so I suggested sock yarns.

I'm still plugging away on the same knitting projects, the Bernat socks, the cable sweater and the afghan. I was bad and cast on another pair of "socks" which are going to be more like slippers, in a terrycloth like yarn. Too thick to wear with shoes, but just right for keeping feet warm on the couch.

The Curse of the Socks

Not a great knitting day, tried on my latest pair of toe-up socks, and they were too tight, I'm thinking the yarn was a different weight then I originally thought, it doesn't really say on the label so I was going by the recommended needle size and making an educated guess. Obviously I guessed wrong, so I ripped them out and started over. No big loss, I hadn't gotten that far. But, of course, this is the sock that I've already frogged three times, so I'm beginning to think this yarn is cursed.

I also remeasured my finished sweater back/front, because it really looks too big, but it was right on the money, a little smaller than the dimensions called for unblocked.

So, I made a dishcloth. That way the day wasn't a total knitting waste. Totally mindless knitting, sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered. It's that kitchen cotton crap you get at Walmart. I use the white to do invisible cast on's, so I have a whole cone. I bought a few balls in colors and like to do two color patterns cloths. This was a free pattern that I got from somewhere on the 'net, probably from a link from Knitlist

September Ornament Finished

Finished the bead work on my September stitch-a-long ornament. This is "A Merry Tree for Thee" by Full Circle Designs from the 2002 Just Cross Stitch magazine Ornament Issue.

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I don't know what I'm going to do with all the ornaments. I'm a terrible seamstress, don't particularly like finishing and usually just have my pieces framed. I haven't even put up a tree for the holidays for years. Something tells me I'm probably not going to be participating in next years stitchalong, especially since it's keeping me from working on almost anything else, and since I've rediscovered knitting.

Wash Day, Nothing Clean

Although Zedd has gotten all the attention lately with his bag, we do have two other cats. That's Morty on the left and Willow on the right. Helping with the laundry, or so they claim.

Power Outage at the Dentist

Forced them to reschedule my appointment. What a shame, I so much love to go to the dentist, unfortunately only postponed until tomorrow afternoon. Rats!

Went to the monthly Day Knitters meeting of my knitting guild. It's just an informal stitch and bitch session, no programs, nothing special, but it sure is nice to have other people to sit and knit with. Two of the ladies were working on Hanne Falkenberg kits, which makes me want to order one even more, but I've promised myself that I will use up some of my stash before I buy anymore yarn for sweaters (socks don't count). I have at least five that are aging nicely, and I really need to control spending since we're trying to stick to a budget.

There are several regulars including myself from all different skill levels, one lady is a total beginner and has tons of questions. She was working on a dishcloth (and must have read the pattern wrong as it's more of a bedspread than a dish cloth) the last time I saw her, I wonder if she finished it up and moved onto something else. I don't know where I fit myself in on skill level. I'm almost completely self taught, and am not intimidated by aran type patterns, but don't have the confidence to attempt a Fair Isle yet.

Got a couple of inches done on the front of the pink monstrosity. I was afraid that I was going to run out of yarn, no worries, the Michael's that I bought the original skeins from still had some of the same dyelot. It's strange, Michaels has more yarn than Hobby Lobby. Usually Hobby Lobby only has four or five skeins on the shelf of any given type, not hardly enough to make anything useful, and just try to get some help finding more in "the back". But Hobby Lobby has a much better notions section. They even had size 0 dp's, which was a relief considering my sock fiasco the other day when I didn't have time to run to one of the LYS.

Good News and Bad

Trip to the eye doctor this morning, the good news is my prescription has improved again, as I was told it would as I got older. Astigmatism. Aging changes the shape of your eyeballs. The bad news, he dilated my eyes, which made it annoying to drive so I couldn't do any of the errands I had planned and impossible to see to do any fine work. So, I didn't finish the beading on my September ornament, which is all I have left to do.

I was able to finish the front of my sweater (which I have discovered is called Cables de Menthe, probably because it is shown in a lovely vomit green color in Knitters, mine is a so much more dignified screaming pink)


I got the latest issue of Knitting Digest in the mail today. I can't wait for my subscription to be up, I don't think I've found a single thing I would like to knit in this magazine. It was a gift, and I know it was the thought that counts, but I would have preferred a gift certificate or dish cloths. This issue features the chick that won the show Joe Millionaire, Zora Andrich, wearing a shapeless fluffy object over a sweater that makes my eyes hurt.

For kicks I looked inside, and what did I find but another awful picture that shows even less detail than the cover, (if anyone wants to make the sweater it's at their own risk), and then I turned to the materials section and nearly fell out of my chair. The cover is titled "Dress Like a Star", and the subheading inside is Celebrity Tunic and Stole, apparently you have to be one to afford the ugly sweater set.

The yarn the sweater calls for is Firenze Boucle, and according to the price guide it is $11/ball. At 14 skeins for the small size (which I am not) the ugly sweater would be $154 (The large is $176), plus the effort and time to make this thing. The shapeless fluffy object turned out to be a shawl which calls for 6 skeins Firenze Boucle, plus 6 skeins Firenze (also $11/ball) totalling $132. Good lord! And I've been worrying about wanting to spend the money to buy a kit from Hanne Falkenberg or Virtual Yarns.

The other patterns aren't that bad, just not really my thing. I'm not a bulky yarn kinda gal.

BTW, if anyone wants the magazine, I'll be happy to mail it to the first person who asks for it. Just send me an email, my address is under the photo of Zedd on the sidebar.

Speaking of Zedd, he is still enjoying his Swank Bag, it's a very nice bunwarmer


And here are the socks that I finally got the toe functioning on after frogging three times:

Finally...

got the sock toe worked out. Metal needles, that's the ticket. Couple more rows on the sweater front done too.

Was the only technician at work again today. Didn't get much knitting done since I wasn't able to take any breaks. We we doing quarantine exams on some of the birds we got in for our planned Interactive Bird Exhibit. Which I call the Imaginary Bird Exhibit, since the wallabys are still living there, and it isn't scheduled to be completed until 2005-2006. Which begs the question, why the heck are we getting hand-raised birds for a project that is 2-3 years from completion.

It's a government thing, you just wouldn't understand - hell, I don't and I work there.

The birds are really special, two red lorys and two guira cuckoos. They are all head sitters, it gets really interesting when you're trying to feed or clean, or especially leave the enclosure.

AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!

Left my post-it note with the row counter for my sweater at work. Darn it, I have almost the whole front done, I have the pattern memorized, but I can't remember how many repeats I have left to do. Should have known that would be just the tip of the iceberg for the evening.

Worked on my September stitch-along cross stitch ornament instead. It has a lot of eyelets, which I hate, so I modified it. Got bored and started a pair of socks with Bernat Sox yarn in Jazz, which is a pink and purple self-striper. Obviously distracted by something, because I had to restart twice, once the needles were too big, the second time I miscounted, and then when I finally got going I broke a needle. I don't think I really like Brittany Birch DP's, they are very fragile. So far I've broken a size 0, a size 1 and had a size 2 split at the tip. I'm thinking of buying a bunch of different types and seeing what I like best.

KBTH Swank-A-Long Penultimate Step

Well, it turns out that the mystery project is a bag...


Dave and Zedd helpfully decided to model some of the many uses for the bag...

Pictures

Here's the eyelash scarf, it is an interesting color combination, there wasn't a color name on the label just a number (35006) so I don't know what Bernat is calling it:


and here is square three of my Aran Afghan, the photo is a little washed out:


and finally the gauge swatch from my drop stitch tunic, I forget the name of the pattern it's from issue 70 of Knitter's magazine.

I'm doing it in Lion Brand Cotton Ease which I had bought to make the Sitcom Chic Cardigan from the Spring 2003 issue of knitty.com, and then decided I didn't really like the cardigan, so I'm actually using up some stash yarn. I guess I'll have to go buy some more to fill in the empty space.

Work is Hard
I really do enjoy my job for the most part, working with the animals is fantastic, and I feel like I'm doing something useful. But along with all that, somedays hard decisions have to be made. Monday the decision was made to euthanize our oldest okapi. He had been going downhill for a year, and we had done everything medically possible to prolong his life. He suffered from progressive degenerative osteoarthritis, and unfortunately this past weekend his condition progressed to the point where he was having difficulty rising, he had stopped eating normally, and walking was obviously painful. Since his quality of life had deteriorated, the head vet and the mammal curator realized that the kindest thing to do was relieve his suffering. Obviously this was a hard decision to make, as this okapi had been with the Zoo since 1982. Everyone was very sad. I wish I had a picture of him to post in memorium.

Current Read
The Gates of Winter byMark Anthony. This is book number five in his Last Rune series. I've really enjoyed them all so far. It's traditional fantasy fiction. Travis Wilder is from modern earth, and thru a series of events becomes transported to a parallel world Eldh, where he discovers that he is a Runebreaker, and is destined to save (or is it end) the world. Obviously this is an extremely simplified synopsis, I am by no means a great writer so here's a link to Amazon.com

Fluffy Scarf Finished

As I thought, I finished the eyelash scarf while watching my "shows". My boyfriend came home and wanted to know if I was knitting another cat. It's a very interesting piece, and it will look good with my leather jacket this winter, and I can take it to show and tell next guild meeting but I don't know if I'd do it again. I'll post a picture another day.

Now I'm working on square #3 of my Great Aran Afghan, and getting ready to swatch for the oversized drop stitch cable sweater I want to make next.

Handknitter's Guild Report

The room was full of people, though I've never been before old-timers seemed a little surprised (and pleased) with the turnout. The meetings are being held at a new location - The Craft Guild of Dallas and it may be more centrally located than last years meeting hall.

At the end of the meeting there was show and tell - I had my lovely rainbow striped sock that I had been working on diligently ( I finished it yesterday), if I had known I would have brought something more interesting, but there's always next month. I really enjoyed seeing what people were working on, and hearing all the stories.

One woman had mentioned wanting a pair of socks a month for a year, so her close friend decided to meet the challenge, she brought the first seven pairs and being a little behind still had number two of pair eight on the needles. I think there was a sign up sheet going around on who wanted to be next to have socks knitted for them!

One woman who crochets (no knitting, just crochets) showed us a strip afghan in progress for a boyfriend who said his favorite colors are black and navy. "Anything else?" she asked him. "No, just those two colors". In order to see the pattern she added some cream to the mix, hope he likes it!

Not to get started on knitting on airplanes but, one poor woman had her knitting taken away from her at Vancouver customs following an Alaskan cruise. After knitting happily all the way there, on the cruise and part of the way back the Vancouver customs agents in their infinite wisdom decided that not only were the needles dangerous weapons, but the yarn could be made into a garrotte to strangle someone with. So they took everything but the finished pieces, apparently not realizing that this could be unravelled and made into a weapon too.

The best anecdote of the night was from a woman who was knitting outside her communications classroom. A man approached her and asked her several questions about her knitting. When he noticed her Guild totebay, he asked her what Guild was, and what did it do. She said that the Guild was a place to get together and knit, and talk and learn. He ruminated over this for a few minutes, and then brightly said "so, it's like AA?" At which point most of us were rolling in the aisles, since it's nothing like AA. I personally have at least 10 new things on my wishlist just from looking at all the fantastic FO's and WIP's.

There were scarves (one made in quivit) and shawls, and afghans, and sweaters, and socks, and ruanas in wool, and cashmere, and angora, and handspuns and any other fibers you could think of. I felt like a kid in a candy store, I do most of my shopping online due to time constraints. I love making my infrequent visits to my LYS, of which I am fortunate enough to have several. I do need to finish making a coulple of things from my stash before I buy more though.

Bye, Bye Faina's Scarf, Hello Eyelash
After dropping an entire row of YO's, and not being able to figure out how to pick them all up and get the pretty twist effect that all the others had, I stepped back and really looked at my work. I came to the realization that the yarn I was using really did not want to be made into the pattern I was trying to make it into. I have some wool coming from Elann.com which may want to be a lovely Faina's scarf.

I think I'm going to try the DNA scarf with the Tajmajal, it may hold up better with a tighter gauge and cable work as opposed to lace.

So I started the Bernat Eyelash scarf. I'm using the label pattern. Goes something like this - cast on 20ish on size 11 needles, knit until you run out, weave in ends, put it around your neck and enjoy. I've never knit with Eyelash before, and I've discovered three very important things:

1. Don't drop a stitch you will never find it
2. If you do drop a stitch and decide to rip out and start over, eyelash doesn't rip out
3. So, be careful - no dropping, no ripping - don't start at 1:30 AM right after you finished ripping out your last project.

I've got about an inch done, and I can probably get it finished today while I watch some mindless TV.

What Fun!

What fun. Last night was the first meeting of the Dallas Hand Knitters Guild that I've attended. (They promised last night that this was the year to spruce up the website) The program for this year is Sweaters 101, and by the end of the year we all should have learned everything there is to know about making the perfect fitting sweater. Yesterday's program was on measuring, and we got a little handout with about 75 different measurements you can take to make the perfect fit. I don't know if I care that anything fits that well! I'll do a little more detail tomorrow.

I'm working on the number two of the brightly colored sock, (these are made of Interlacements Little Toes Yarn in the Las Vegas Brights color), top sock in the photo. The bottom ones are the Red Heart Baby TLC socks I finished on my NY trip.


Still waiting for the last few steps in the Mystery Stitch-A-Long. I still have no idea what the item is supposed to be when it is finished.

I got sucked into some eyelash yarn at Hobby Lobby the last time I went in. The had added a whole section of Bernat yarns, so I bought several skeins of Hot Socks but also couldn't resist some fluffy yarn that will be made into a scarf. That will be my next quick project when the rainbow socks are done.

Faina's scarf is coming along, it's my first attempt at lace knitting, so I do have to tink back at least every couple of rows from counting errors. The other night I got into a groove and was just whipping along, I finished the first body repeat, only 3 more to go!

Mona Monkey Yearly Physical

Yesterday was the day for the Mona Monkeys to have their yearly physicals. This consists of anesthestizing them, radiographing them from head to toe, TB testing, dental exams, replacing contraceptive implants in the females (the troupe is mother, daughter, and son), vaccinating, blood tests, and generally making sure everything is in tip top shape.
Aren't they cute?