Obsession

I have become an obsessed woman. Oh wait, I knit, you already knew that. Well I am even more obsessed now. What is it this time. It is still knitting involved, but now I am becoming obsessed with socks. Now for some of you this may not be a big deal, but for me it is for many many reasons. You see, I live in Southern California. Technically, I don't think there is a need for wool socks except for the two maybe three months that it is actually cold over here. Also, if you know me, I am usually either in flip-flops or running shoes (comfort baby). And up until a couple of months ago, the thought of knitting with long toothpicks did not spark an interest. I have however made socks for some special people in my life who always are complaining of cold feet (grandparents, uncle) but for me to make socks for myself, well, I just never really thought of it. I do however have yarn that I purchased for socks in my stash for gifts for my special peeps. One of the girls at my LYS told me that hand knit sock were the best, but at the time I wasn't really interested so all I did was smile politely and tell her some day.

I have a ton of Cascade's Fixation that I had purchased when I thought that I was going to knit nothing but swimsuits for myself after seeing the swimsuit episode of DIY's Knitty Gritty (I am not going to post finished photos of myself in it I want you to stay as readers not scare you off, but I will tell you that you really can wear the swimsuit in water, I wouldn't wakeboard or surf in it though, although, I can't do either, but that is another story.) So I have a ton of fixation in my stash and initially decided to make these for me.

But when grandma asked for them, how could I say no. So when I went to replenish my stash a couple of weeks ago, among other items that we will not talk for fear of hubby reading this, I purchased two skeins of this:

I had no particular pattern in mind at the time, I just thought that they would make a cute pair of socks for somebody someday. Well, that somebody is me and that day is today (or whenever I finish them).

When I initially was working on my gauge swatch, I thought that they would make a cute pair of plain socks, nothing fancy shmancy, but when I saw the color, I thought hey wait, I think I know what would look good.

They are Jaywalker's by Grumperina for MagKnits. When I first started to work on my Jaywalker, I went to try and pull the yarn from the center of my skein and look what I found:

It is reinforcement yarn. Hooray! I feel like I just hit the jackpot or something. Though if I would have looked and really read the label for more than just yardage, needles size, and care instructions when purchasing the yarn I would have noticed the part where it said "+ 5 g of reinforcement yarn" just under the yardage. Even if I had noticed it, I probably wouldn't have figured out what they meant by that anyway.

A Sweater and Socks

Hubby keeps asking me to make things for his friends daughter. Remember the gator and duck mitts? When I was done he had mentioned that I should make some for Valerie, his friends daughter. I think he thinks that she is our adopted daughter. I don't mind though, I do love making things, especially for little girls. So without further ado, here is the finished picture of the ruffled edge sweater I promised you:

Did you notice the socks? I made those as well. They were very simple to make. The only thing that they needed besides socks that can be purchased, fingering weight cotton, and a small crochet hook were 60 of these beads:

And they can be purchased at any craft store. I have seen these socks all over the place and they are not that cheap. I could make at least a dozen for the price they are asking for one pair. And mine even match the outfit perfectly.

*^&%#@

I am so pissed. I was just about to publish a post and it somehow got erased.

It Was A Good Day

It sure has been a long week and it is only Wednesday. On Monday, I had a doctor's appointment. No biggie, just my yearly physical. I dropped B off at school, then K at my grandmother's. My appointment was at 10 and by 9:20 I was by myself. The thought alone gets me excited. I went to my appointment after having fasted for over 15 hours. You know your not supposed to eat after midnight on days like this. So having dropped the kiddos off a little earlier, I went to my appointment earlier as well and to my shock was seen as soon as I got there. Cool! While I was waiting for the doctor to come into the exam room, I was working on my "travel" project. When she was done with me, I went to the lab to get the blood work done. Now, I am no doctor or lab technician or anything, but when they were done drawing blood, I had asked them, if they were sure they got enough blood. Afterall, there were an awful lot of check marks next to the different tests that were going to be performed and they only took two vials. The nurse/tech/whoever said that it was enough.

Well, four hours later I get a call from the lab. It seems the nurse/tech/dumb*%$@/whoever did not get enough blood and I had to go back to give them more. That is why I asked before the first needle was out of my arm.

But it was a good day. Between picking up B & K, I was able to go to the bookstore. And you know what I got? Do you give up? I got this book. When I went in I had told myself that I was not going to get anything because I would order anything that I was interested in online, but when I saw it I just could not resist. I feel as though I am stalking her and anything she does. I had purchased her first book before I understood what a blog was, and found it hilarious, because afterall, I was reading about me.

Now I know I should post a picture of the book in my lap or something like that, but it has not actually seen the inside of my house yet. You see, it is in the car and I have been reading it while I am driving. I do not recommend this as it could potentially cause an accident or someone shooting you because you are not moving at the green light. I live in Southern California, didn't you hear about this phenomenon last year? Yeah, people shoot at others in cars, it gives a whole new meaning to the word drive-by.

In knitting news, I finally have pictures of the socks that I had started last month.

It was funny because after I started making these, I liked them so much that I decided to keep them for myself. I was working on them at my mom's house when my grandmother asked me what I was knitting. I told her that I was knitting socks, she came closer and tells me, "I want those!"

"Uh, okay grandma, I thought you didn't want any socks"

"Well, I like those, but you need to stop knitting them at the ankle because I like ankle socks and can't find any really good ones"

Who am I to say no to grandma? So these are now for her. The only problem that I have noticed with the socks I make is that they are hard to get on. I am not quite sure what to do. Should I cast on/off at the cuff with needles a few sizes larger or should I add a few sts? If anyone could help me with this one, I would appreciate it.

Gators and Ducks

There are times when I am between large projects when I need some instant gratification. During those times I will usually go into my stash and see what I have and try to come up with something from there. Usually it is a hat. Well after finishing the sweater for my husband's friend, I was in one of those I want to finish something fast modes, not to mention that I didn't have enough* yarn to complete any projects that would take longer than say, oh, um all of ten minutes (I have since taken care of that problem).

I dug into my stash and finally made something that I had been wanting to make for a long while.

They are the Later 'Gator Mitts from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. They are the smallest size mitts for my youngest son. While I was knitting them, hubby looks at me then asks or should I say tells me, "You are going to make a pair for B, because you know if he sees K with them on, he is going to want a pair of his own."

Gee, I had never thought of that. Afterall, I am the mother, the one who is with them all day long. The one who knows that if one has something, then the other has to have it or they will be chasing each other around the house trying to get it from one another while screaming and crying. But, I wouldn't have thought of that.

After I had finished making the gator mitts, I let B see them and asked him if he wanted a pair. It was so cute because his eyes lit up and with that little excited voice that he gets said, "yes, mommy."

So then I asked him if he liked the gators where his reply was, "yes, but could you make me ducks instead."

"Uh, yeah, sure."

So after a few modifications, here is what I finally came up with:

I followed the basic pattern of the gator mitts. When I finished them, I had asked B to try them on. His reply to me was only if he did not have to take any pictures of them. He knows me so well. Mom knits something for me, mom wants a picture of me in it. Although, I have to admit I was a bit embarrassed when he said that.

These are great stashbusting projects. Though I can't tell you exactly how much yarn was used, I know it was not very much as I still have some left over. I may even try and come up with some other animals for some fun little gifts. The best part is that I think I finished the gators in less than 3 hours which included the seaming. The ducks took a bit longer, but that was because I was not working straight from the pattern and trying to come up with something as I went along.

Here is a pic of duck and gator playing with each other.


At any given time during the day, you could substitute my kids for the mitts. K is always jumping on B's back for "horsey" rides saying, "Yee haw tahowboy, gitty yup."

And here are pics of the boys playing with their mitts.




*I have since taken care of that little situation ;b

Bad Habits

I have some bad habits. I post about projects that I start and for some reason, do not seem to follow-up when I am done. Do you remember this post? Well, it is finished, but I don't have any photos. How about this one? Finished, no photos.

The reason there are not any photos of some of the projects is because I usually have to wait until hubby gets home from work to take the photos or trust my 5 year old to do it. I did the tri-pod thing for this post, but it took a lot of pictures to get those two and hubby gave me funny looks when I left it out in our room.

I apologize for my thoughtlessness and disregard for you. I say this with sincerity. I will try to be a better blogger. I will post pictures of finished objects especially when I post about their beginnings. And to show that I mean it, look at this:

It is the sweater that hubby asked me to make for his friend's daughter. I actually had it finished last week, but it has been sitting all by itself on our desk waiting and waiting for me to sew in the little label I made for it. As I had said in a previously, I wanted to try a few new techniques with this sweater, which I was able to do. There were three to be exact.

The first was a top down sweater. Thanks to this wonderful book. I don't know why but I was really intimidated to try the whole top down thing, but I did it and this is how it turned out. The second thing that I wanted to try was the whole knitting both the arms at the same time with two circs. I have to say, I did not care for this one. I think it actually took me longer to finish the sleeves than if I had done them individually on double points, but I have to admit, I do like the fact that I know without a doubt the sleeves are the exact same length. I love symmetry what can I say? The third technique was the magic loop. I used this method for the ruffled cuffs. If I don't have dpns with me, I will definitely keep this one in mind. The only thing about this was that I did notice a bit of laddering. It is probably me and not the technique that caused that.

The only thing left to do is block* the sweater and sew the label in, which has to be done by this weekend.

When that is done I will post more pics, I promise.

*A funny story (well to me anyway). Hubby was looking at the pictures from this post at about the time I was working on this. When I finished the sweater he asked me if I was going to block it. Now I hadn't planned on it, but since he actually asked and knew what he was talking about, I feel compelled to do it now.

Death and Taxes

You know the saying there are two things in life that are certain, death and taxes. Well, I just got done with one and I am not looking forward for the other. This is the first year that we have ever owed Uncle Sam and Uncle Ah-nold. If that weren't bad enough, do you see how many envelopes are being sent out?

That's right three, so not only are we paying this great nation and the great state, the county of Los Angeles is right there with their hands out as well. It really sucks! Although, I really can't complain, it is not as though I did not know that taxes were due. In fact we knew even before we went for out tax appointment in February that we were going to owe this year (hubby goofed when adjusting his tax withholdings this year), but we did not imagine it was going to cost us our children's future education and vacations for the next thousand years. The thing that really sucks though is our property taxes. Why are they always due at the most inopportune times? Like two weeks before Christmas and five days before the other taxes? Wouldn't it be nice if they were due when we had more money, like never?

Anyhoo, did you notice the knitting next to the taxes? It is that sweater that I had mentioned before. The one hubby asked me to make for his friends daughter. Here is a better look at it:

This is the first sweater that I have started from the top down using this book. Initially I was very intimidated to attempt this for a gift that is due in less than two weeks, but if not now then when? After all of the increases, I really became more comfortable and really like the way it is turning out. My design ideas for this has changed about sixty-five million times since I cast on only to go back to what I initially had in mind. A ruffle going all around.

The birthday party for the little girl is going to be in about a week and a half, so there is not really any pressure on me to hurry. I will keep you posted on the progress.

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Initially I was not going to post regarding this subject matter since it has nothing to do with knitting, but something has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks.

I was doing my usual I have all of my things completed, I have nothing to do for a while routine of knitting and blog surfing when I came across a blog that basically slams others. This blog was judging others by nothing other than them having so many kids, a woman gaining weight after marriage, etc. Now don't get me wrong, I love my tabloids and joking with friends about this and that. I am not prude, but I have to say that this was the most judgmental blog that I have ever come across. I am hoping that she is tongue and cheek, but I have been wrong before.

So anyway after reading a couple of her posts, turning off the computer and dwelling on it some more, I am brought back to the computer regarding something that happened to me a couple of weeks ago.

My older son started his first year of baseball/t-ball in early February. He is the second youngest child on his team having turned 5 mid-February, the oldest children are a good 2 years older than he is and have been playing since they were B's age. He is also the second smallest child on the team. The only child younger than him is actually one of the oldest on the team. The point is my son is one of the youngest and smallest children on the team of 14 children. That is something that we do not have a problem with, it is what it is.

As I was saying, my son started playing when he was still 4 years old. Being four, his skills aren't that of some of his team mates, meaning he doesn't throw the ball quite as far, does not always catch the ball, etc. I will say that he is not at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to playing, but he is definitely not the star at this point either. In fact I would say that he is in the middle if I had to compare him to his team mates.

I am one of three team moms for his team, so I have been at every practice helping out where I am needed. At the last few practices, though I have been there, I have been pre-occupied with my younger son because I could not arrange childcare for him. Well two weeks ago my husband and I noticed that my son started having problems throwing the ball. For the life of me I could not figure out what had happened. B went from being able to throw the ball relatively decently to hesitating and shuffling his feet so much that it looked plain strange and awkward when he would throw the ball. During this time, we were not able to work with him outside of practice or the house because there was a lot of other things going on (me having the stomach flu, rain, B having the stomach flu, rain, and more rain) that prevented us from doing any legnthy type of practice. So for a few weeks we were kinda dumbstruck. My husband did however, practice throwing with him inside the house (they were soft balls that would not damage anything). Hubby practiced with B and what little time he/we spent did seem to help. I would shout out little pointers from the couch B would listen, hubby would reinforce. It was all good.

Two weeks ago I was at practice again with my younger son, when I happend to notice that one of the fathers was working with my son. I was about 30 or so yards away as I looked at the two of them working together. I see this man, whom I really don't know instructing my son on how to throw the ball. I see him pick up the ball and tell my son to SHUFFLE HIS FEET not once not twice but three times before he throws the ball. WTF?!? All of the confusion on why B was having problems throwing the ball was no more. I finally got it. So me being me, walks over to where they are and as politely as I can start talking to B, but also to the father. I casually say, "B, when you are throwing the ball you are taking too long to throw it, you need to throw it as fast as you can." My son says to me, "Okay mommy." The father looks at me and snaps saying, "I am trying to teach him the right way to throw the ball!" I must have looked at him with the most blank and surprised look ever. I stayed silent for a good couple of seconds and then told him, "Oh?" And he came back with, "See he is throwing the ball straight now." Me, "I see," in a really that is what is happening tone of voice because my son was throwing straight until he became your pet project. At this time the kids were all called in by the coach for some batting practice, I sent my son on his merry way, but looked at this dad who was looking at me with the type of look that you can not mistake. You know the look that is basically saying what does she know, a woman trying to teach this little boy how to throw. That was the look. I was so stunned by this exchange, I really did not know what else to say so I just walked away.

I know I could have been a be-atch and told this man to #*%& off, but children were present and like I said I was stunned. I was also insulted by his sexist attitude. First off this man was rude, he undermined me as a parent in front of my child. Fortunately my son did not really understand this mans blatant disregard for me. Second, the man does not know me or my background. Who was he to judge my abilities?

What this man did not know at the time was that I, a woman, have been playing baseball/softball for the majority of my life. When I was my son's age I played baseball up until junior high school, that's right baseball. When I got to high school I played softball for one year. I have never been away from the sport for more than a year or so at a time and the last time I did not play was because I was pregnant and the doctor told me that I could not play during pregnancy, not that I didn't want to. Another thing that this mad did not know was that before I had children I was in education, not just in the class room teaching, I was a physical education teacher to elementary school age children. Yes, I taught elementary school PE. You should have seen the look on his face when he found all of this out, not from me mind you.

This man was offensive for many reasons, but the thing that gets me is this, I am very reluctant to coach other children on the team unless asked to by their parents or the coach. I would never go up to a parent and tell them they are doing things wrong on any subject matter (unless health and safety were a concern), I am not that child's parent. I know from having lived life, that parents no matter what their personal skill levels, will get offended especially if someone tries to teach their children another way to do something and are treated rudely when this person is doing so, especially when they do take the time to work with their kids and are at practices with their kids. As bad as you may want to show kids something you think is better, you sometimes have to bite your tongue and just let it go. The only one that should be showing the kids what to do at practice is the coach and anyone he decided should be helping the kids or that kids very own parent, not just the person who went to the local sports store, purchased a glove, can catch and kinda throw, comes to practice, and plays themselves off as a coach. Because you did this doesn't mean you are capable of teaching kids (although getting a degree saying you can doesn't either). But the thing is this, you don't just assume that your way of doing things is the right way and don't assume that because someone doesn't fit the "profile" or the stereotype doesn't mean they aren't. In other words just because I am a woman doesn't mean I don't know anything about sports or physical activities.

I could go on and on about this, but hey this is a knitting blog. And now for your knitting pleasure:

I Have Starsky, Where's Hutch?

I have a finished project. I have a finished project. WooHoo!!! I actually finished Starsky on Sunday, but it has been such a hectic week that I did not have time to take photos. I kept waiting for hubby to get home from work early enough to take the pictures, but it just never seemed to happen. Then I realized that one we own a tri-pod and two our camera has a self-timer mode. So after about one hundred gazillion self portraits, here are the two that are the best:

Back shot of the sweater.

Front of the sweater

I have actually been wearing the sweater all week. I love it! It is warm, but not too warm. The only thing that I have noticed while wearing it is that the ribbing around the front and collar tend to pull the sweater up and make it a little shorter. I think if I block it again and with a little wear, it will soften up a bit.

It was a little weird towards the end of this project. I started feeling a little sad in some ways. I know I am a dork, but I was feeling sad because I didn't know exactly what I was going to work on next. This happens to me at the end of every project I do. Remember, I am not the knitter who has multiple projects going at a time. In fact I just graduated from only having one to having two, a home and a travel project and that is only because of this project that I just finished. So bear with me. Anyway, I was feeling a little sad and then when I was working on the belt hubby asks me if I could knit something for one of his co-workers daughter. Instantly I was happy again because this would give me a chance to try a couple of techniques I have been looking forward to. I will post about them later.

Oh, and by the way sorry about the photos, it was very early and I had no caffeine in my system, you're just lucky I am awake enough to have realized and been able to edit my jammies out of the back shot.

Happy 8th Anniversary!

I can hardly believe it, but guess what today is. Today is my eight year wedding anniversary. That's right, eight years ago I was walking down the isle. It has been an amazing experience thus far. Look at us now.

I can't wait to see what the next eight has in store for us.

Happy Anniversary Honey, I love you.

I see London, I see France

I just read the funniest post in a long time. If you haven't seen it already go visit Crazy Aunt Purl.

You know we're from Los Angeles and yo dats just wut we do ova heerre.

Block Party

I did it. I really did it. Remember my last post? The one where I was kinda freaked out about blocking. Well, I did it. I think I was shaking the entire time, but I did it and it worked. I used the steam method. Though, I still do not have one of these. I managed to do it with my trusty iron. And it worked. To be quite honest I am feeling really good about it.

Here are some pictures:

This is before I did anything. I guess you could call this the before shot.

Here it is after I pinned it down. See my trusty iron over there?

Here it is after I blocked it.

It really did make a difference. Who woulda thunk? I am in the final leg of the Starsky. I have finished the short row section of the collar and now all I have to do is finish the rest of the collar, make the belt, and do the seams. I am hoping that I will have a finished project by Monday. But you know how it is, when you (or should I say, I) are this close. I might not do anything else until it is done. I can practically feel the sweater on me.

These are my Confessions

I have a confession to make. I am afraid to block. Did you hear me? I am afraid to block. Ok, one more time. I AM AFRAID TO BLOCK. There, I said it. Are you happy now? I don’t know what it is, but there is something about blocking that I cannot seem to perform it correctly or anything. Part of me thinks that it is a waste of time and the other part just can’t seem to get it right.

Let me explain. I have blocked three times in my past. The first time I blocked was for Hopeful and I used the spray bottle method. The one where you put some warm water in a spray bottle, lightly spray the garmet, pin it in place and let dry. When I did that, it did not seem to do anything for it. I was using Rowan Cashsoft DK and to be honest, it really did nothing.

The second time I blocked, it was for something that I had designed using some kid mohair. This time I used the steam method. The method where you can use an iron or a steamer thing thingy. This time I was trying to convince my hubby that I needed a Scunci Steamer because I had just seen Annie Modesitt on Knitty Gritty using one, and I knew that I needed one, too. Long story short, I found a steamer thing that I have had for years, the one people use for travel. It did a little, but not much in terms of a positive blocking experience. Now I don’t have any pics of that one either because after I blocked it, it became 3 sizes too big for me.

The last time I blocked, I did not do so by choice. What happened was my youngest son got bright blue toothpaste all over this. So I don’t know if you would call it blocking or washing. I am calling it blocking though. The soak method. It took 6 days for the jacket to dry. Though I have to admit that the way the yarn looks now is much nicer than before. That is one instance of where blocking has not been so bad.

Why you may be asking I am telling you this? I have decided that I am going to block the back and front panels of Starsky, and I am a little scared to do it.

Oh, by the way look what I bought:


And yes, I am afraid to use them.

Groovy

Do you remember this from yesterday?

Well, this is what it looks like from a distance:

This is actually made in one piece. The stitch pattern is a [k1, wyif sl1] over an odd number of stiches. The handles were attached while I was binding off. I am thinking that it is going to be a little summer/spring bag that I take with me to the pool or something like that. The yarn is called Groovy. I forgot who makes it, but it was purchased at my LYS. This is the yarn that inspired me to attempt this. Reason being that for the amount that I paid at my LYS, I could get about eight times as much by doing it myself. And you know what, I am thrifty like that.

The Blob is Here

I feel like such a blob. I have not done any type of exercise in over two weeks (snowboarding and softball do not count). For some that is fine, but for me I am really feeling it. I need my gym time. It is the one thing, besides knitting, that I do that actually relaxes and relives me from stress. I've noticed that I have been a little wound up lately as a result.

There are two main reasons why I have not gone to the gym. The first being that I have been sick, so sick infact that I could have probably coughed up a lung or two during any portion of a work-out, especially the hard part where you pull into the parking lot. Now that I am at about 85%, I feel I can resume my regular work-out routine. But no, that would bring me to the second reason why I can not go to the gym. Kev, my 2 1/2 year old, has decided that even though he is no longer coughing and the like, is going to continue to let his nose run. I know that some mom's would just say fughetaboutit, but with all of the yucky germs and my luck I would bring home something much worse than what he left here with (which is not easy to do). So one (or two) more days (weeks) at home will not damage me anymore than usual. I will try to go for a run after hubby gets home from work, I just hope I remember how. It's left-right-left-right, breath in-breath out, all at the same time or something like that.

I thought that I'd post a picture from something other than what I am working on right now. What do you think of this stitch pattern:

It is actually a FO that has been off the needles for quite sometime now. I'll wait to post the entire picture. Afterall, I know how you all like these little guessing games.

What Happened to the Knitting

There is a reason why one (Michelle) should not KUI (knit under the influence). I have been fighting a cold for the last week and it sucks! Last week on the morning we had decided to go snowboarding, I had lost my voice. I didn't think anything of it because it happens quite frequently with me (at least twice a year), so it was no biggie. Plus the day before the snowboarding, we had played softball and it was a bit cold. I really did not think that it was a big deal about my voice.

Well low and behold, by Monday I had a full on cold. I was miserable. My head has been so congested, the coughing, and the aching (whine, whine, whine). Anyway, I was finally feeling good yesterday until my softball game. During the game I broke out in a sweat (and not because of physical activity) and I started to feel as though I was breaking a fever (which I didn't even know I had), by the evening I was feeling good. Good enough to have a glass of wine. OMG! You would have thought that I had never had a drink before in my life, but hey, I was feeling good. My knitting though, that is another story. This is what was on the needles last night:


I woke up to it like this this morning. At least I wound it back up into a ball. Right?

Criss-Cross Applesauce

I am officially a member of the Starsky KAL. It is my first KAL and to be honest I am excited. I have the back and about two-thirds of the left front complete. When I was working on it earlier today, look what I noticed:

Do you see it? This should make it a little more clear:

I must have done this a gazillion times so far. I keep crossing the cables the wrong way. Why you may ask. Because I am a moron. Or, it might possibly be because when I am knitting I do things like watch TV, talk on the phone, read blogs, you get the idea. No, it can't be that, it has to be because I am a moron.

When I first noticed that I did this on the back panel, I thought that I could just live with it because I really did not want to frog it back, but I couldn't. Anyway after a couple of rows I had a lightbulb moment. I would just drop the stitch down to the offending row and work it back up. Worked like a charm. Now my criss-crossed cable(s) looks like this:


It's all good now.

I Am So Confused

If you haven't guessed by now, I am new to the blogosphere and everything associated with it. I do know how to read them. But as for rings, KAL's, and the like, I am pretty much clueless.

The reason I started a blog was to possibly meet others who I share a common interest with. In fact, I don't even know if anyone is reading this. But it is good for me, cheaper than therapy.

Anyway, I am not sure what is the proper way to do things if there is a "proper" way. I signed up for a KAL earlier today. The first one ever for me. Now here is where I am confused. I don't know if I should wait until being accepted to continue working on it or if I should just keep on truckin. I know (or at least I think) that the purpose of a KAL is to be working on a project at the same time as the others. Technically I am working on the project at the same time as the others that are part of the KAL, but I am not officially part of the KAL. Does that make me not eligible for it? I just don't know. So this is what I am going to do. I am going to stop work on that particular project until I hear about the status of my submission. Unless someone tells me otherwise.

May These Two Be Joined Forever

I did it. I finally did it. For most this may seem like no big deal, but for me it is ginormous. I finally did a felted join. You see, I am always on the quest to find the perfect way to join two ends of yarn. I hate the way sloppy ends look. I usually do a Knit In Join (though I didn't know it was called that) which works pretty well, but sometimes the bulk of the double strands of yarn looks a bit funky. I have tried the Russian Join, but to be honest, the way that my ends seemed to fray, it looks a little sloppy, too.

So last night when I was working on Starsky, I was coming to the end of my first skein and was dreading the join. Then I thought that I could try the felted join. I had read about it before, but for some strange reason, never considered doing one myself. Well that ended last night, I had some of the yarn that Knit Picks had used to tie the hanks together and tried it. Now look at the results:

I put them into steps so you could see what I did.

• Step 1: two ends of yarn.
• Step 2: I cut half of the plies.
• Step 3/Finished Results: Add a drop or two of water, rub vigorously between the palms of your hands, and voila, a felted join.

Here is a close up of the stitch pattern.

Here is a pre join photo

After taking the pictures above, I noticed that I goofed on some of the cables, I have since fixed them, and here is a photo of my latest progress, post join.

Can you tell where the join is?

X Games, Knitting Style

Let me tell you a little something. Generally I am the type of knitter that only has one WIP at a time. Yes, you read me right. I only have ONE project on the needles at a time. I don't know what it is about me, but I can not have multiple projects going on at a time. That was until this past weekend.

I finished the shrug I was working on for my aunt on Saturday evening (finished photos will come soon), and I was all ready on Sunday to start my next project when hubby and I decided to go Snowboarding. See, I have been itching to go for the last 6 years or so, but being pregnant, having a newborn/toddler (twice). It just did not feel right to go. But that is a story for another post. Anyway, my parents agreed to watch K, while we took B with us. I had nothing on the needles and I really wanted to work on Starsky, but I have a tendency to get car sick if I am reading, so following a chart while knitting in the car was out of the question. That is when I had a bright idea. I will be one of those knitters who has a traveling project and a home project.

I had been toying with the idea to work on a pair of toe up socks with a broken rib pattern on it. It is a small project and even though I had never done a pair from the toe down, I figured what the heck. So I started on the socks as we pulled out of the driveway. So on the way to the mountains, I completed the toe portion of the sock (wahoo). On the way back I started working the foot portion of the sock. This is what I had by the time we got home:

Not bad for about 2 hours of knitting in the car, half of which was in the dark. But there is a problem, or should I say a couple. First off, the sock is way to loose for my foot, and if it is too big for my foot, there is no way that it would ever fit any person that I could give it to I have big feet). Second look closely at the picture. Do you see it? On the left, the bottom needle, the one that is a different color than the rest. Yes, that one. That needle is oh, only 1mm smaller than all of the others. So you know what I did? I frogged it. Yup, sure did. And now it fits better and all of the stitches are being worked on the same size needles.

I should have listened to that inner voice when I was knitting in the car that was telling me, "Michelle, I thought that this set of double points only came in a set of four". Unfortunately my reply to myself was, "You bought another set so you could have five".

It was dark, I had been snowboarding for about 5 hours, and all common sense was left on top of the mountain.

So anyway the point of the story is this: I am now a knitter that has two projects going at a time. The home project and the traveling project (let see how long this lasts).

*By the way, I only fell 2 times while snowboarding. Not bad for having been gone from the sport for so long.

March Madness

This is such a great idea I just had to post about it. Major Knitter has this March Madness Contest. This is the first thing that I will be participating in and have to admit, that I am a little excited. So in honor of this great idea:

I Am Such A Biter

Hi, I am Michelle and I am a blogstalker! I read a lot of blogs. So many that hubby swears that is the only reason that I am ever on the computer. On the brightside of that I do get a lot good ideas from them.

Do you remember these?

Well look what I made for them:

I got the idea for the sleeve here. And I did not realize until I was looking up the link, that she even used a Sanrio character too. I am such a copy cat. I can't think up anything on my own.

I really loved the idea of a sleeve for the socks. It gives it a finishing touch that ribbon can not come close to. So in the future, I think all of my gifts of socks will have a sleeve.

There Has To Be A Better Way

Usually when I am making dinner, I try to have something to do during my down time (the time I am waiting to turn the food, when I really don't have anything else to do). This busy work often included doing the dishes, sweeping, straightening things out, etc. On the occasion when I don't have things like this to do, I will bring my knitting in with me. So last night I decided that I was going to dye some more of the nylon rope. What a mistake.

I don't know what it is, but everytime I unwind this stuff to measure, I always get this:

No, these are not noodles!

I don't know why. I try and try. I am ever so careful, but obviously not careful enough. So after 3.5 hours, I finally have this:

I am not even done yet. I dread undoing it to dye it.

I'll Take Knitting for $200 Alex.

Can you guess what this is?

Yes, it is two Light Sabers holding some knitting. But, that is not really what I was asking. Can you guess what the knitting is? I will give you a hint. I was working on something a couple of weeks ago and when my aunt saw it she said that she wanted one, too. The conversation went something like this:

Aunt: Ooohh. What is that you are making?

Me: A ________. Do you like it?

A: Yes.

M: Do you want one?

A: Yes!

M: What color do you want?

A: Purple.

M: What shade of purple?

A: What do you mean?

M: What shade of purple? Like a light purple, medium, or dark kind of color?

A: I don't know what you mean.

M: Would you like something the color of the lavender flowers or something the color of eggplant?

A: Oh (eyes got bit with the, I get it now look). Eggplant. Yes, eggplant (a big smile comes on her face, the I am excited that I am going to get something that I want look).

M: Okay. When I finish what I am working on, I will start on yours.

A: Okay.

I have seen my aunt at least 3 times since this initial conversation took place. The second time I saw her, she noticed that I was knitting something else and mentioned to me that she thought I was going to make her item next. Then I had to explain that I had left my knitting at my grandparents house so I did not have all the supplies that I needed with me, but as soon as I got it back and finished the project on those needles, that I would make her item.

That was 3 objects ago (oops).

No Wire Hangers!!!!

I finally finished the socks that I was working on. There was such a sense of accomplishment when I was done. I honestly enjoyed working with the little needles. I enjoyed it so much that I am already planning for some more socks in the future. And yes, they will be on tiny little needles.

The only thing that I did not realize, was that I was going to have to block the socks. Now instead of going out to buy one of those sock blocking things, I decided to make my own. I read in SnB Nation that you could make them out of wire hangers. This you have to understand was not an easy feat considering I don't use wire hangers, in fact as soon as we get them in the house, I will go and take the dry-cleaning off the wire hangers and place them back on plastic hangers and put the plastic back on them and then throw the wire hangers out (I think I watched Mommy Dearest too many times.) After searching my house I only found one.

Now me being me, I needed to make a pair and not just one, so when I was at my parents house I scoured their house as well and only found one. You would think that between two households, there would be more than just 2 wire hangers (I guess the apple doesn't fall far.) But, I now had two whole wire hangers. So this is what happened:

Lone wire hanger.

I pulled the center down to form a diamond.

Next I pushed the side in to form the shape of a foot.

Voila! A sock blocking thingy.

Ta Da!!! A pair of socks.

Thank You My Friend

It has been a very interesting week for me and my family. In fact I was unsure if I was even going to post about this. You see, my grandfather who was 93 passed away over the weekend. Though I am generally a private person when it comes to these types of matters, I realize that everything is somehow linked.

My grandfather was very dear to me, though there was a language barrier. He was born in China and after immigrating to the United States, he never really learned to speak English. Me being of mixed heritage, never learned to speak fluent Chinese. The last finished object that I made was Wack the duck. I gave this to my grandfather while he was in the hospital hoping to lift his spirits and never imagining that would be the last gift that I ever gave him. On subsequent visits to the hospital, he would tell me how he would sit there and just touch and feel Wack when he was there alone. At the time I felt that the goal I had set out in knitting and giving him Wack was accomplished. I wanted my grandfather to know I was there to love and care for him, even if I was not physically there.

After I received the news of his passing, I sat and knit. For the first time I realized exactly how much knitting meant to me. Though I had known that I enjoy knitting, I do not think that I really ever knew how much I needed it. Knitting was the perfect thing for me to do at that time and I did not even know it. At first I was hesitant to knit. I was unsure if I was going to be able to concentrate enough to accomplish even a few stitches, but as I sit knitting that evening a certain amount of calm came over me with each and every stitch. The stitches seemed to glide off of the needles so effortlessly almost as if I was not even the one knitting. I had always been able to sit and relax while I knit, but this time it was so different. I can not really explain it, but it was just different.

Knitting is my friend. My friend that was there when I really needed someone. I am her friend. She listened, calmed, and soothed me when I needed it the most. I will forever be grateful to her for that.

Can We Drink It

I went to visit my grandfather twice last week. After getting home the second time, I realized that I forgot my current WIP (work in progress) at my uncle's house. Not only was my wip there, there were also some beads that I had purchased to attempt some bead work. That will have to wait until I go and visit again, which will not happen for a little while because everyone who had visited my grandfather has become ill with some funky stomach virus. I am one of the lucky few who has recovered rather quickly. Everyone else has been out for at least 4+ days.

So having left my Mia Shrug and the beads for a future project, I had no choice but to start on this:

They are the Rib and Cable Socks by Nancy Bush from the Fall '05 Interweave Knits. Though they are not my first attempt at making socks, they are my first attempt using the wee little size 1/2.25 mm needles. Up until this point the smallest needle that I had used was a size 4. It is almost like knitting with toothpicks, but I am actually enjoying the process. I am enjoying it so much that I have already started to make mental notes about who will be receiving handknit socks for Christmas. So far the count is up to 6.

I also have my first attempt at Kool-Aid dying under my belt. I was a little skeptical at first, because for starters, I was not dying a natural fiber. I was dying nylon, and from what I had read, you can only dye "natural" fibers using the Kool-Aid method. I did not want to have to purchase another set of pots for this (I wanted to be non-toxic and all), so I did it anyway. I used 4 packets of black cherry and it took about 1.5 hours rather than the 30 minutes that was suggested here, but this is what it looked like:

When I first put the cord into the pot.

After 30 minutes.

After 1 hour

About this time is when hubby called home to tell me he was on his way. During the conversation, I was telling him about the Kool-Aid and the next thing he asked was, "Can we drink it after you are done with it?" Now I am not completely sure if he was serious or not, but let's just hope he wasn't.

The water never actually got as clear as I thought it would, so after 1.5 hours, it was a little clearer than the picture above. (I forgot to take a picture of it because I had to start dinner, and well, you know how that goes.) The next thing I did after taking it out of the pot was to rinse it and to my amazement, there was no color that bled or ran. I really have to say that I was really impressed. I then let it dry overnight and spent way too much time winding it (there has to be a better way, if you know any ways that would prevent ten gazillion knots, advice would greatly be appreciated.) Finally, this is what I ended up with:

The color is showing pretty true on my monitor. Not bad for my first attempt at dying.