fe, fi, FO, fum!

I *still* haven't figured out what to do for the Knitting Olympics. Although a recent look at my budget has helped me decide that it will be from stash. But as my training for the Olympics, I am trying to tie up all the loose ends per se. I'm shooting for a record number of FO's. (Ok, so record is a bit vague and subjective). I'm shooting for lots of FO's.

So we present, the third FO of the year... the "fashion scarf". Modeled by our favorite fashion model, PJ, aka my nephew, the son of the recipient. This is for my sister. And I *know* she won't let me snap a pic of her.


My sister picked out this yarn up in Fernandina Beach back in October when my mom was visiting.

Project: Fashion scarf aka cast on 12 stitches and knit every row til it's done.
Yarn: Online Linie 67 - label lost. The colorway is a mix of turquoise, blue, and navy.
Needles: Size 15 crystal palace circulars.

This yarn is actually very nice. I'm not a fan of novelty stuff personally, but it's very soft, and it has a pretty mixture of matte/shiny/furry. Did I mention it was soft? ;)

Cuff 'em & stuff 'em

I don't like it. It reminds me of those cuffs people wore in the 70's while exercising (or not exercising). The striped ones. Maybe it's the yarn and beads I chose. They go nicely. The heathered shadow and the softly variegated beads. Maybe it looks like gym socks and not jewelry because the beads are matte? I don't know. But it's done. The second FO of 2006.

Pattern: MaryElla from Knitty
Yarn: Knitpicks Shadow in Oregon Coast
Beads: Sead beeds from Art on Park
Needles: Size 0000 addis

On a clear day you can see forever...

Or at least to the end of your legs. Presenting the first FO of 2006.... Fuzzy Feet!


A nicer shot of them outside on the balcony relaxing.


Pattern: Fuzzy Feet from Knitty
Yarn: Cascade 220 leftovers - the heel & toe in quattro. Less than one skein total.
Needles: Size 10.5 16" circs and size 10.5 dpns (or something like it)
Verdict: Quick, easy, and delightful!

I was reading Franklin's blog and he has the nicest picture of wintery Chicago. Here we don't do so much with the winter. Although we did have to wear jackets today, I don't think it broke 65. So I present...

The view from here...

February is the new January

I really hate it when they do that. "Brown is the new black". No it's not. It's brown. And yes, brown has become more of a wardrobe staple than it was in the past. But go try telling all the goth kids to start wearing brown. Maybe a nice tweedy chocolate? Yeah, right.

Speaking of chocolate, my dieting resolutions have already sputtered out. Well, not so much sputtered. More like I did a spectacular cliff dive into a lake of chocolate ala Willy Wonka.

And I was thinking about knitting vs. dieting. How they are similiar. The effort to result ratio that is. Losing a bunch of weight is like knitting a cabled sweater, or a beautiful lace shawl. Lots of hardwork, but the end result is so very much worth it. And you can strut around with pride in your new shawl (or your new butt) and just bask in the compliments.

And then there's quick and dirty dieting. A couple of days of frenzied effort to drop a few pounds of water weight. So you can wear your rings again and your face won't look quite so puffy in your new work ID card. Kind of like fuzzy feet. Or a washcloth. A short spurt of crazy knitting yields you something little and cute.


Of course maybe it's like one of those crazy big knit ponchos. Yarn the width of a garden hose, size 75 needles. And you're all proud of yourself until you wear it out. And realize that you look like a schmuck. Just like the water weight comes screaming back as soon as you eat a single lay's potato chip. And who can eat just one?

There are differences though. Dieting is about deprivation. Knitting is about burying yourself in piles of gorgeous yarn. And then there's the whole UFO issue.

UFO. UnFinished Object. Knitters are famous for their UFO's. Like my Rogue. I pick it up, I put it down. I've been working on it off and on since August. But everytime I pick it up, it is just where I left it. No stitches have unravelled. Just as much progress as I expected. No backsliding. It's a beautiful thing.

You can't leave dieting in UFO status though. You can't *stop* dieting and then pick up back where you left off. Nope. If you stop and ignore it for awhile your butt will get bigger. And don't even try on those rings. Who are you kidding?

Happy New Year folks. Come February 1st I'll be toasting you with rice cakes and um, rice cakes. At least I can still gorge myself on yarn.

Welcome to the block party!

"Of doom" is such a useful phrase. The jaywalkers of doom. The sleeves of doom. The dirty toilet of doom.

Maybe you're not familiar with the dirty toilet of doom. Here's how you learn firsthand. Have two boys 13 months apart. Then when they are potty-trained they will start creating the toilet of doom. No matter whatcha do, perfect aim will never be achieved. Cheerio targets? Nope. Candy incentives? Nope. The aim will always be bad.

And then you, the mom, will have to don your lady playtex yellow gloves and clean up all the misses. Do you ever wonder why playtex makes yellow gloves and feminine hygiene products? I mean honestly, how are the two connected?

And just fyi, my 37 year old husband recreates the toilet of doom in our bathroom. So you don't have to pop out the kids. Just move in with a man.

Pardon the wide angle picture... But I had to show proof that there were two of them!



I need to do some smoothing and pinning while they are still wet. Yes, I realize it's very late at night. But I have Carolan's and no-bake cookies and diet pepsi. So hang around for awhile, won't ya?

I am very, very excited that I finally finished the sleeves of doom. Next comes the zipper of doom. Do you hear the ominous background music? Well if you do, you've had more Carolan's than I have.

I'll be blaming the boy scouts.

For the record, I don't belive in karma. I believe in God. But it does seem to me that life has a way of giving you ups and downs.

Up the first. My husband's ex-wife called tonight. She and her father will be in town in a week or so and want to meet me and the boys. Um, ok. Not exactly an up. The up is that my husband still has a financial obligation to her, and she's wiping it clean. So yay and woohoo!

Up the second. I think I'm finally in the clear jaywalker wise. I've turned the heel and I'm in decrease junction. I've cropped the below picture to spare you the sight of my pedicure. Usually my toys are pretty darn well pretty. It is Florida, and flip flops (or toe shoes as my mama calls them) are de rigeur. But it's actually been chilly here. (Please let's ignore the fact that I still haven't finished my Rogue).


So where's the downside? Well there's some serious job turmoil for the man, and since he's the only breadwinner my nerves are all just shot to hell. And then there's this...


They're cute aren't they? I know. My boys are cutie patooties. (If you are a Nascar fan, please stop reading now. I'm sorry.)

Do you notice the background? That's at Daytona USA. I spent last Saturday with cars, and more cars, and a lot of people who made me kind of nervous. People who only wore clothing with big numbers emblazoned on them. And then there was the movie. Imax technology is wonderful. And loud. And Nascar on Imax. Really fricking loud. I'm just not a Nascar fan. Although I'm sort of scared that the boys might become fans. It was a boy scouts outing. So when my children are wearing scary jackets, t-shirts, hats, sunglasses, underwear, and tattoos sporting the number of their favorite racer, I'll be blaming the boy scouts.

Return of the Jaywalker!

Sounds kind of ominous, doesn't it?



Please ignore the misshappen rewound skein of sock garden. That's the best I could do until my beloved buys me a ballwinder. But I think they are actually working.

Things I'm doing differently... Since it was clear that the 76 stitch version would not fit over my heel on size 1 addis, I had a choice. Go up in needle size or go up in stitch count. I decided to do the 84 stitch version. But I hated the way the ribbing flared everytime I did them. So I did the ribbing on size 0 addis. I think I will also use the size 0 addis to tighten up the sole area.

Interesting note. Instead of pooling, the 84 stitch version in hydrangea is striping now. Looks pretty though.

Frickin' frackin'....

Insert your own pseudo expletives as desired. Why?

A rogue sleeve (for my size) is 118 rows. At least. Once I get past the increases I might have to add a few rows for my gorilla arms.

I'm knitting both sleeves at once. I have 45 rows to go. It takes me 5-6 minutes to work a row.

Do the math.

It's gonna take me another four-five hours just to knit the sleeves. Let alone the blocking and the seaming. I just don't see that happening today. At all.

Bummer.

Feeling Roguish...

The body is blocking. Supposedly blocking A. takes forever, and B. will help with the sleeve seaming. So....


I'm not sure what to do with the hood. Most pics I've seen of other Rogues blocking show it kind of spread out. I'm gonna fuss with it in a minute.

The sleeves are about 60% done. I'm hoping to finish them tonight or early tomorrow and attach them sometime on Friday. See? I picked a project to finish. It's supposed to be in the 50's on Saturday (chilly!) and we're going down to Daytona for a "go-see-it". We'll be outside a good deal of the time at the track and won't I look stylish?

Methinks...

Actually I probably *shouldn't* think. But that's a whole 'nother blog.

I would really like to be a finisher. As opposed to a person who starts 75 projects but never finishes anything. This is giving me gas today. Today I had a whole lot of knitting time available to me. But instead of knitting I played on the computer, printed out new patterns to try, and even cast on for something else. Something is definitely wrong with me.

So I'm gonna be a finisher. Stay tuned for what I'm gonna finish. I haven't decided yet.

Made in the shade?

Ok. I am seriously confused. The best pics I can get of my knitting and/or yarn are in the shade?



MaryElla from Knitty, in Knitpicks Shadow laceweight, color Oregon Coast. The heathered effect has some nice purples and greens in it. The beads are from Art on Park, a local gallery. They have a subtle variation - purple to periwinkle to blue to green. It's extremely slow knitting on the 0000 needles aka the pokey needles of death. (Just ask my poor thigh about that...)



And this is some antique rose colored cotton along with black for my Via Diagonale. It's thicker than the recommended yarn, so I'm gonna have to do some gauge swatches and some math on that bugger. But it should be pretty.

And eventually I will get this picture crap down.

A (wo)man with a plan.

Today, I have a plan. Would you like to see?

1. Shower - This will include the after tasks of applying makeup and blowing my hair out.

2. Sorting laundry - Gonna take it slow and just get done whatever today.

3. Knit - I can't decide if it will be my leaf lace shawl or my rogue. One or the other.

4. Library - I still have not been to the new library downtown. So today we go.

5. Carolans - The cheaper version of Bailey's. But just as tasty in my oh so humble opinion. Tonight there will be Carolans, and watching TV, and knitting, and general relaxation.

I did make it over to the sit and knit at the last minute last night (boy scouts was cancelled) but I didn't make any progress on my shawl. But it was fun nonetheless.

Leafy and lacy....

Yesterday the man's Christmas presents finally arrived. After quite a run around, I'll tell you. But one of his presents was a video game. So of course he was lost to me last night. So I settled in with my zephyr and some BBC America. And I swatched with the zephyr on different needles and with one and two strands until I found the fabric I wanted.



Double stranded zephry jaegerspun on size 7 crystal palace bamboo circulars. Quite perfect and quite easy to knit. I'm on my 2nd repeat of the ten rows, and I'm looking at doing 10-12 repeats. It's coming together so pretty. I think I might have this baby knit up in no time. Finally, something rewarding.

Lettuce take stalk...

Celery stalk that is. I'm telling you right now, the dieting is getting to me folks. No chocolate makes for a grumpy rincaro.

But seriously, let us take stock. What I'm knitting, what I wanna knit, what I'm not knitting that I should be knitting...

1. Things currently feeling the love...

Rogue - I'm putting in some time most days on the sleeves. Course it's so danged hot here...

Um, that's it. Nothing else is feeling the love.

2. Things that should be feeling the love...

Red boy socks - the poor guy. He hasn't even noticed that mommy hasn't touched his socks in a week or two. I really need to churn those out.

3. Things I wanna show the love to...

Something lacy. I guess that something will have to be the leaf lace shawl. I have the yarn, I have the needles. I just need to decide if I wanna do it single strand on smaller needles or double strand on bigger needles. Cause single strand on size 5's is not making me a happy camper. I ordered lace yarn from knitpicks for the flower basket shawl, print of the wave shawl, and ene's scarf, but they screwed up my order and I have to redo it. And now I won't get $30 free shipping, I'll have to settle for $40 free shipping. Not a huge deal, but now I'm refusing to reorder on principle.

Socks. I am not lucky in socks. I cast on the other day for pomatomus in knitpicks dancing (jig - greens, yellows, and blues) but it wasn't quite right. The needles may have been too big. I have size 0 addis on the way. Those might make it better. I also want to make jaywalkers so badly, but I'm afraid to cast on after all of my false starts. I know that 76 stitches on size 1 addis with the sock garden is too small. Except for when it's too big. But 84 on size 1's always turns out too big. I think. Would 76 work on size 2's? Or would that be too loosey goosey. It's giving me gas. Gas I tell you. I'm tempted to pick up one of the self-striping yarns in my stash and just give the bird to jaywalkers. But it's such a nice pattern. *sigh*

Via Diagonale. I ordered some black & rose cotton for this. I've coveted this bag for awhile and I think pink & black will be a good everyday combination. Or at least less frightening than my favorite color combo - pink & orange! The yarn I ordered is thicker than the rec'd yarn, but I'll figure that out later.

I have yarn for so many projects it's frightening. What is it in me that just wants more?

Malaise

Did I spell that right? Who knows. All I know is that my house is a post-Christmas disaster, even though everything is put up. But yesterday, in the mail, I got this:



And I want to make the butterfly (there on the cover) so very badly. But fat girls do not look good in gauzy lacy things that you wear over tank tops. So.... I guess I will print out lots of pictures of the too skinny model and put them on fridge? I don't know.

I'm done with the charts on the rogue sleeves. Now comes the mind-numbing stockinette and shaping. I need to pick up a zipper this weekend. Of course yesterday I was wearing shorts. But presumably it will get chilly again. I hope.