All Dressed Up

There is nothing that will get you over the ehhs like words of encouragement (thank you) and getting part way done with your next project. I about half way there. The funny thing is that I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking of the finished garment.

This is the front (or back) half of Butterfly from Rowan 37. This is the project that I started, frogged, and then started again during our tailgate two weeks ago. I can't wait to finish this project. I feel like a little kid with a new toy. I know I said that I was going to make this to wear to a holiday party, but I like it so much I may just wear it everywhere like the gym, the grocery store, bike rides. Could you imagine? Me playing softball in Butterfly?

Ehh

That pretty much sums it up. Ehh. That is how I have been feeling lately. Last week as much as I wanted to, I couldn't. I pretty much was a hostage in my own home with all the blinds drawn because light was just too much for me to handle.

Though my head feels better, I still feel ehh. The thing is I know why. I think my house is falling apart right before my eyes. Thursday our garage door broke. Well not exactly the door itself, but the cable broke and the door was stuck in a half open crooked position. Fortunately I have a handy hubby and he was able to fix it, but everytime I go to open or close the door, I hold my breath.

What was supposed to be a nice relaxing weekend (hubby was out of town) turned in to the weekend with no hot water. Our water heater started leaking. I was able to turn the water off, but there was no way I could fix the water heater even if I wanted to because our boat was blocking it and there is no way that I would let anyone move it in fear that the damage to the boat would be worse than the stink that I would cause by not taking a shower.

The water heater broke on Friday, hubby got home Sunday. Luckily my parents live relatively close by and we were able to hang out there all weekend.

The hot water heater is fixed now and I can once again do what needs to be done for the house.

Oh, there is one more ehh. It's this.


Though I like the way it turned out, there is that little ehh factor to it. I should have made it a bit longer and the sleeves should be a bit wider at the shoulder. But...I won't frog it. It's not that ehh.

Will be back soon.

I have had a migraine since yesterday. I will resume my regular posting as soon as I am better.

Tailgating Anyone? / Eye Candy Friday

One thing that you may know about me is that I am a sports fan or should I say as a family we are sports fans. Baseball is at the top of my list followed by collegiate football. In fact football should probably be my first choice since my dad has been taking us to all of the home games since I was much much younger.

Around the time hubby and I got married, our team played against Hawaii for their season opener. My dad was born in Hawaii, but had not been back since he moved to Southern California when he was in his early teens. Football was all the motivation he needed to go back.

Unfortunately, hubby and I were not able to go on that trip with them. The school year for me had just started and hubby couldn't get the time off of work either. So while the rest of my family was enjoying Hawaii, hubby and I were here working.

Last year, we played Hawaii again for our season opener. We were able to go this time, all fourteen of us. It was great! This was the first time that I had been to Hawaii and I do look forward to returning. I'm thinking 2010, because that will be the season opener for us that year. Though in all honesty, I don't know if we (hubby, kiddos, & I) will be able to go for football because both of the kids will be in school at that time.

Why all this football talk? Saturday is our home opener. This means two things for me. Tailgating and knitting. Yup, that's right. The two actually go together very well. Since we will be there pretty much all day that means lots and lots of knitting for me.

There is another reason for the football talk, Eye Candy Friday.


This is a picture from the top of Diamond Head in Hawaii. It sure is great to reminisce.

Have a great weekend!

Huh

Have you ever felt that you are just is a perpetual state of tired? Ever since school started for the kids, that is how I have felt. I am just tired all of the time. The thing is on the weekends, I always plan on sleeping in, but since I am a relatively light sleeper, every little noise seems to wake me. Usually it is the noise of little feet running all over the house.

With me being tired all the time, my knitting has really suffered. Not that I am not knitting or anything, it's just I'm not knitting as fast as I normally do. The pullover that I have been working on, it feels like I've been at it way too long for this particular type of project. I think I have been going at it for at least four weeks.

It's not as if I have had to frog much of it. In fact the only part that I had to frog was the collar and this was last night. What was supposed to be a deep neckline turned into one that was very shallow and pulled the front up and neck down just so. I think if I would have kept it that way, I may have become a hunchback or something.

I was going to post a pic of it for you, but the battery on the camera was out and is charging as I type. So instead I will leave you with this.


Ahh, to be a kid again and have that much fun.

Slugger

We had our championship co-ed softball game on Sunday. It was hubby's first game back since his surgery (against my better judgment) and he did well. He had been itching to play for so long that when the manager of our team asked if he wanted to play he was on the field before the sentence was complete.

I am still in utter shock, but something exciting happened to me during the game. Let me give you a little background. I think the entire time that I have played co-ed I have hit a double maybe two times. I'm not complaining though, as long as I get on base I am good. Though today I did even better than a double, I hit a homerun. That's right, I hit a homerun **grin** Now it was not an over the fence homerun or anything (I wish I had that power), what I did do was drive it through the gap and then it rolled all the way to the fence.

When the base coach (hubby) told me to keep going after I got to first, I thought "cool I got a double." Then when I was rounding second, I saw that the fielders were approaching the ball and then I thought, "I can make it to third, wow a triple." As I was approaching third, the third base coach was telling me to go home, I honestly thought something was wrong, but I went and I was safe. I hit a home run!

Enough about that though. This is supposed to be a knitting blog afterall. Though I haven't been showing you much of what I have been working on, I am working on something. I just haven't had a chance to take a decent picture of it. Hopefully hubby will take a picture of me in the UFO tomorrow. I will show you this though.


These are the socks I made when I was working on the tutorials. These are actually the first socks that I have made for the kids. It's so cute because ever since I finished them, K has decided that whenever they are clean, they will be on his feet. Which means he has worn them a total of four times in two weeks.

BTW We won our championship game and I hit a homerun.

K's First Day and Eye Candy

What a crazy week! K started school on Tuesday. Before he started hubby and I were talking about how we were worried because K is a bit on the shy side and very attached and also the fact that he didn't sound too enthusiastic when we would talk to him about starting school.

On Tuesday morning, K was an emotional wreck. He started crying over things that normally wouldn't bother him. I attributed it to him having first day jitters. In fact this is what he looked like on the way to school.

If you look close enough you can see the tears on his face. It broke my heart.

While we were at school waiting for the classroom to open K kept saying, "You stay wit me at scoow today mommeeee."

I told him that I wasn't going to be able to stay with him, but that I would come back later with brother to pick him up. After hearing that, he got that little I'm about to break down into tears look on his face and then it registered that B and I would be back to pick him up (B starts school an hour earlier than K and was not with us at the time).

When his teacher opened the door K grabbed my hand for dear life and was reluctant to enter his class. I walked him into the classroom and honestly he really was not into the whole school thing, but I knew I had to encourage him.

"K do you want to play with the trains?"

"Wes, mommy."

But he was just standing there next to the trains, looking at them all the while I could tell that he was scared. Heck, I couldn't blame him, afterall this was the first time that he would be in the care of someone outside the family.

Then all of a sudden, he got a little spark in his eye and he was off. I looked to see where he was going to and wouldn't you know, look what he found:

The play-dough table. Needless to say, I was old news after that. At that point he could care less about me being gone. K looked up, gave me a kiss and then said, "Bye mommy, see euww waeighter."

Now for some eye candy.


Have a great weekend!

Jogless Rounds

Many times when people add stripes to things they knit in the round, you can tell where the color was changed. This is because when you are knitting in the round, you are actually knitting one continuous spiral. To avoid what I often hear referred to as the jog, I like to do the following:


Step 1: Knit one round in the new color and have your working yarn in your preferred hand (I am a thrower, but if you knit continental, this will work just the same, just imagine the yarn in the left hand).



Step 2: With your right-hand needle pick up the loop from the stitch on the previous row. This loop will be in the "old" color.

Step 3: Place the loop from the previous row onto the left needle beside the next stitch.

You will now have two stitches next to each other, one of the old and one of the new color.

Step 4: Stick the needle through the two stitches knitwise.

Step 5: Draw the yarn through both of the stitches.

Step 6: Slide the two stitches off of the left-hand needle as you normally would after having k2tog.

You now would continue to work as you normally do, changing colors as you wish or as the pattern indicates. It should be noted that when attempting jogless rounds you should have a minimum of two rounds of each color for this to be effective.

This is what my finished sock looks like.

Though you can tell where the color was changed, it is definitly less obvious than if I would have just changed colors without taking the steps mentioned above.

Adding Color in the Round (English/Thrower)

This is the second post regarding adding color to the round. In my last post I showed you how to add color in the round for those who prefer to have your working yarn in your left hand or continental style. This post will show you how to add color to the round when you prefer to have your working yarn in your right hand also known as the English or Throwers style of knitting.


Step 1: Get your yarn ready. Have your working yarn ready to work in your right hand and your non-working (yarn you are changing from) in your left hand.




Step 2: Just as you normally would do to knit a stitch, stick your right-hand needle into the next stitch on the left needle.



Step 3: Rest the "old" yarn (the yarn in your left hand) over the right-hand needle.




Step 4: Wrap the working yarn (yarn in your right hand) around the right needle as you normally would do to knit.

Step 5: Draw the working yarn through the stitch on the left needle.

Step 6: Slip the stich off of the left needle as you normally would do after knitting a stitch.

You have now completed changing and twisting the yarn while working in the round. You can now continue to knit as you normally would do.

Next post will be how to avoid the jog while knitting in the round.

Adding Color in the Round (Continental)

Sachi had mentioned a while back that adding color in the round was something that was a little intimidating and then asked if I would do a tutorial on adding color. I am happy to oblige and hope that you find this information useful.

Adding color in the round can be just as simple as adding color to flat work. The only difference is that I like to twist my yarn when adding the new color as to avoid a hole in the work. Here I show you how to twist the yarn when your working yarn is in your left hand and the yarn that you are changing colors from (or the old yarn) is in your right hand.


Step 1: Get your yarn ready. Have your working yarn ready to work in your left hand and your non-working (yarn you are changing from) in your right hand.

Step 2: Just as you normally would do to knit a stitch, stick your right-hand needle into the next stitch on the left needle.

Step 3: Wrap the yarn being held by your right hand around the right-hand needle as if to knit.

Step 4: While the yarn from your right hand is wrapped around the needle, wrap the working yarn around the right-hand needle as if to knit.

Step 5: Now that you have both of the yarns wrapped as if to knit, you need to unwind the yarn from your right-hand counter clockwise back around the working yarn.

Step 6: Draw the working yarn through the stitch.

Step 7: Slide the stitch off of the left hand needle as you would normally do when knitting

You now have your first stitch complete. You can continue to work in the round as you normally would.

Once you are comfortable and familiar with twisting the yarns, it will eventually become almost second nature. Twisting the yarn in this manner is the same way that I do it for working the right side of intarsia.

I will do two additional posts regarding color in the round. Tomorrows post will be for adding color for the English or Thrower and then how I avoid the "jog" when working color in the round.

Friday Eye Candy

Have a great (and safe) Labor Day weekend!