Thursday, June 28, 2007

FOs!

First, I want to post a picture of my present ♥ !

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I've never owned a piece of original art! Not like the guy is ever going to be famous, but it's still really neat to have something no one else has.



OK, on to knitting! I had knitting group on Tuesday with nothing really in progress. . .well, nothing I actually wanted to work on, at least. My only real WIP is a Stephanie Japel sweater from her Knitty Gritty appearance. It's done and half sewn, but the arm turned out too tight, so I really need to frog the whole darn thing and start again.



Anyway, I couldn't go to group with nothing to knit, so I decided to make a dishcloth. I actually just discovered that people KNIT dishcloths. . .. it was never one of my beginner projects. I had a fair amount of Lion Cotton leftover from my reusable shopping bags, so it seemed like a good way to use it. As an added bonus, I finally had a reason to use the needles my mum bought me for Christmas.




They are lovely Lantern Moon Rosewood needles. They have sat in my knitting bag with nothing to do, since I NEVER use straight needles! But mum doesn't knit, and I think the LYS she shopped at convinced her to buy the most expensive thing they could!




I cast on ~45 stitches and started knitting, but the cloth seemed entirely too big, so I started over with 31 stitches.
Here is the cloth that I was able to finish despite the SnB chit chat!















I took it home, and Jake decided it was too small, so I had to knit another.

This one is actually pretty neat with the seed stitch diamonds. Both shall go to mum as a thank you for the needles! Jake then said he wanted a dishcloth (WHY?!? I don't know!) so since I was already going to Michael's for some T-pins, I picked up some Sugar n' Cream to make two dishcloths for the house.



I finished the Lupine Lace socks with all the ends weaved in. (I tend to say I finished something with I have finished knitting, I HATE the weaving/sewing/etc!)

(sorry, couldn't really take a good picture to see the pattern).









I also truly finished Catherine's Mini Cardi.


Can I tell you how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this pattern and am SO excited to wear it?!?! I finished the knitting about a month ago, but was avoiding sewing on the frog clasps and blocking. I knit it SWTC Bamboo colorway Esquire. The was the first time I knit with bamboo and it is fabulous! I need to come up with another project since I have another 8 balls! (I bought a bag for a great deal - if anyone is interested in swapping for a ball or 2, leave me a comment! I'm open to just about anything).



Finally, knitting group helped me decide on the size 7 needles for my halter design. I'm hoping this weekend to spend some time working out the math and actually writing up the pattern.


And, just so my sewing doesn't feel neglected, here is a photo of my 1980 Singer!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Anniversary

I have the best BF ever. He remembered that today is the one year anniversary of my moving to Virginia and he came home from work with a piece of art I had seen and wanted at a local gallery! I love it and I love him even more for being sweet ♥ ! I will post pictures later, that is it for today!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Designing

So I'm trying my hand at designing a top. I am embarking on this because I went to a 'going out of business' sale at one of the LYS' and found this Silky Tweed by Elsebeth Lavold. I thought it was pretty so I bought ~650 yds for like $12 but had no idea what I was going to do with it. Other than sock yarn, I don't really gather a stash, I couldn't just let it sit around. I have recently knit several top down raglan sleeve cardigans, so that was out. It's summer and so a sweater isn't really on my mind anyway. Never mind that I don't have enough yarn for a full sweater anyhow. Then it dawned on me, a halter top! I LOVE halters and with the tweed yarn, I could make one that I could wear with a suit (if ever I have to don one again. . .) or just out with jeans, which is obviously more likely! I set out finding a cable I really like to knit up the center of the top. I decided on this one. Other than the cable, it will be pretty simple, ribbed hem, reverse stockinette body and (haven't decided) either a mock or full turtleneck rib neck. I think the neck will determine itself based on how much yarn I have. . . I will knit from the bottom up to make sure I cover the body then, if I run short, I'll make it with traditional halter straps.

So I knit up two swatches yesterday to see what size needle I'd use and be able to do the math for the pattern.
Here it is on Sz 7















Here it is on Sz 8
















I have to say I'm not in love with either one as much as I thought I'd be. I think it is because the tweed isn't showing as much as I anticipated, nor is the moss stitch in the center. The stitches are probably because it's only 22 rows and not a full diamond, but I ran out of patience after one repeat of the pattern. (this is why I do not typically do swatches!). I definitely don't think I want to go down to Sz 6, so I must stew on this and stare at them for a while to make a decision. If you have an opinion, leave me a comment!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Aaahh, Vacation

So I'll let you know up front, this will be a long one! A whole week in New York, so lots to tell about. It was set up to be a great week to begin with; a mini-family reunion of sorts. Jake's sister was home from Alaska for the first time in 2 years, his brother & SIL were due with their first baby, and it was Jake's first trip home since we moved to Virginia.
So noon on Friday we hit the road. Smooth sailing until ~3 miles in on 495. . . then we stop. This is to be expected, of course, being DC. 40 minutes later, we're moving freely on 270 and thinking we did pretty good getting thru DC in less than an hour. An electronic sign flashes 'accident I-270 exit' and I can't read the whole thing. . . Oh well, we're moving. For another 10 minutes, cruising in the HOV lane and then STOP! Yuk! This must be the accident. Worst traffic EVER. It took us over 90 minutes to get onto I-70. So much for maintaining the 65mph average! Well NOW, we think, definitely smooth sailing. Which is true, until we hit near Harrisburg, PA. . . construction!! Right lane closed ahead. . . I have no patience for this, which clearly the universe knew and so it sent me a little beacon of hope. This truck driver:
Yes, he ROCKED! He drove in between both lanes for nearly 5 miles of crawling traffic to ensure no drivers could zoom up the right lane and cut in at the last minute. He made the traffic nearly amusing!! Even the puppies wanted to see what was up. Zosia
Jimmy Ray

Thankfully, that was the end of slow traffic and also the end of my shift of driving! Unfortunately, dusk was setting in and I got NO knitting done on the drive! The bag would have to wait until New York. Finally, at 12:32am we pulled into Deb & Bob's driveway. The puppies were happier than both of us to get to run!

Saturday, we got to meet Robert Jeffrey, the newest family member.


Sunday, Father's Day, both the puppies and I got to take our first canoe trip. Jimmy Ray did not enjoy the outbound portion:


But by the time we headed back, both puppies seemed to enjoy it!

We dropped the puppies off and went out fishing, where I caught my 3rd fish ever, and the first with my new rod & reel. I was excited.

(It's a small mouth bass).

Monday all the boys went fishing so Anna went to stay with Megan & baby. Deb was working and so I was home alone. . that means knitting!! I finished up the bag:


The problem arose while trying to sew the sides. Since this is the 2nd time I've knit the bag, I purposely made the handle smaller since I found it too long on the first bag. I cast on 150 vs 196 sts for the handle with no real thought behind it. Then I started sewing and realized if I kept up I would have an opening entirely too small to be useful, so now I have to figure out a fix. I'm thinking I'll make some gusset-type strips that I can sew inbetween the side and handle to allow the bottom to be whole without coming as far up the handle. I think that will sit for a while before it happens though! On the plus side, I had a 29" circular needle and a bunch of excess cotton from the bag, so while I thought about how to fix the bag, I taught myself magic loop. I had been wanting to learn, but I can't decide if I think it's really any 'better' than DPNs. Seems like a lot of effort to keep pulling the work on and off the needles to the cord and back. I think I really need to learn on 2 circulars so I can knit two socks at a time.

I also picked up the sock I had cast on a few weeks ago. It's the Lupine Lace sock from Fiber Trends. I'm knitting it in Lorna's Laces in Envy.


Envy is a colorway that looks much better as a hank than when it knits up. I was not loving the socks, but they had to be knit.

The week went on with lots of fishing and milling around town and of course knitting. Deb was sweet and checked me out a knitting pattern book from the library. I found 4 hats that I plan to make, I was pleasantly surprised by the book. I had checked online before we left to see if there were any hidden yarn shops nearby, and I found nothing. Then, was I surprised to find out one of the teachers Bob works with has a farm and his wife raises alpaca's and sells yarn. YAY! Thursday, I made a dutiful visit to check it out. She had a very small shop with her own yarn and other alpaca blends. I found out she doesn't know how to knit, so she has local ladies knit up her samples and for sale knit items. (Note to self. . . need to find someone who will pay me with yarn to knit!) I left only $60 poorer with 9g of yarn from Ellen's own alpacas and two skeins of alpaca/silk blend.



I don't have anything in mind to knit with it yet, but it will come in time!


We stopped by Luke & Corey's house to see their new baby, Julia Lou.


Friday, Jake wanted to take me fishing in the crick he always fished with his dad & brother. Now this is trout fishing. . . . no canoe, no shore. . . it's walking in knee to waist high water. I don't mind saying I wasn't overly excited about the trip, but it was late June, how bad could it be? Let me tell you, it can be COLD! Barely 60 degrees, no sunshine and a freshly rained in crick combine to make Carly one cold girl. I tried my best to navigate the water to keep it no higher than my upper thighs (who wants wet underwear!!), but that only lasted for about an hour. I toughed it out for the whole time and 3h17m later (who's counting!) I was back in the truck with heat on full blast. I didn't catch a fish at all, but Jake caught the biggest fish in family history. . . a 22-1/4" Brown Trout.
Let me tell you, that is a BIG fish! A 'normal' fish for this crick is 10-11 inches. The previous biggest fish caught by his dad was 17-1/2"! He was a very happy fisher!

In the course of downtime, I had finished the first sock and immediately cast on the 2nd. If I didn't do it then, I never would have gone back to it. With the much shorter drive home in all daylight, I got nearly the entire sock done. Here is where I am today:



Yes, that's right. . . I have 12 rows left to go and I am out of yarn! Not REALLY out of yarn, just out of the yarn from the skein I wound. I bought 2 skeins, like the pattern said. Little did I know the socks were made for GIANTS and if I had knit them to pattern they would have been up to my knees! So I was REALLY hoping I could get the pair out of one skein so I could return the 2nd since I didn't really like the colorway, but alas, I will have to wind it and find some other use for the remainder of the yarn. If anyone has a suggestion, please leave me a comment!


I realize, I have written WAY too long, so I will end here for now. I have to log in to work (boo!) and start catching up on a week of email.


Happy Knitting!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

23 hours of driving. . .

The drive up Friday took 12.5 hours, less than expected but WAY worse than it should have been. . . the drive back home today took 10.5 hours, much more palletable yet still LONG! I have lots of pictures of babies and knitting from the trip, but can't find the camera in the pile of things unpacked from the car, so I will post tomorrow or Monday. Now, off to laundry. . .

Friday, June 15, 2007

Ready to Road Trip

It's 6:20am. . . the goal is to be on the road as soon as Jake is home from work, hopefully 11:30am. Then, a mere 14 hours later, we should be pulling up to the parents house. Well, Jake's parents. ALL the way in the Adirondack's. Not sure if you've ever been to that part of New York, but it is far away from EVERYTHING! It is good and bad, of course. A week and change away from most of civilazation means no work can find it's way to me, but it also means potential for serious bordem. And for once, I don't have 13 WIPs! I only have 3 - a cotton reusable shopping bag, a pair of socks in Lorna's Laces and a mini-cardigan in bamboo. The bag will probably be finished on the drive and the Cardi barely qualifies as WIP, as it just needs the ends woven in. My camera is already packed in the car, or I would post pictures of said WIP, but I will post the FOs when I'm back! I guess if I clear the WIP, I have no excuse to not start working on the halter top I'm trying to design. . . . but we'll see, I'm quite a good procrastinator :-)

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Into the world of blogging. .

So I spend enough of my procrastination time searching and reading others blogs, it seemed only right that I create one too. And yes, you guessed, I am procrastinating right now by setting up my blog :-)

The basics about me. I'm Carly. I'm 27 and I live with my BF of 6 years, Jake, in Virginia Beach, Virginia (well, technically Portsmouth, but hardly anyone recognizes that). We have 2 dogs, Zosia is 2, Jimmy Ray will be 2 in a couple of months. Zosia we got as a puppy. Her mom was a beagle, her dad an american eskimo. Jimmy Ray is a rescue we got in January. He is a 13" beagle. I work out of my house for a big technology company, Jake works for the Navy. The 'working out of the house' leads to a lot of my aforementioned procrastination. We bought our house in November and have been doing various levels of improvements since we moved in, though the wall in my living room is still standing with just studs. I am originally from Michigan, graduated from University of Michigan (go blue!) and moved to Vermont when I graduated. I moved to Virginia last June. Recently, I decided to get in touch with my 'crafty' side and I learned to sew. I also picked up my kniting needles again and have been knitting like crazy.

That's enough for now, as I really do ned to finish work and figure out what we're going to eat for dinner. . . .