Wednesday, April 9, 2008

And some knitting

Believe it or not, I have knitting progress :)

I'm very happy to report that, thus far, Maude fits! Granted, 'thus far' is a few rows short of splitting for the sleeves, but still, it didn't totally fall off my shoulders or anything, which I was worried about. I've finally managed to complete a whole row without a mistake, either, which is good! No picture, as it's not really that interesting or much different than the last photo yet. I adore the color, though, and I'm hoping maybe I can finish this before my school project deadline so I can wear it with my black pinstripe pants for my presentation. It will match perfect with the turquoise pinstripe :)

My Baltimore socks are stalled because I don't know how to do a heel flap on a toe up sock. Well, I know how to knit it, I'm not sure where I stop knitting the foot and start the heel work!
Last toe ups I did a short row heel, but since there is no nylon in this yarn, I want to do a heel flap. I know this probably isn't that tricky, and I just need to take 5 minutes and think about it and flip through my sock book, but I haven't done it yet. If anyone wants to enlighten me, feel free :) The foot is currently knit up to where, if this were top down, the gusset would have ended. I totally adore this sock, and it fits totally perfect to boot!

Jake wore his socks the other day. It's pretty hard to capture the pattern at all while they are on his feet, so just imagine :) He liked them, except they didn't stay up any better than his regular socks. I can't believe 35 rows (~3 inches) of ribbing didn't help them stay up! For the next go 'round I may try knitting in some elastic thread at the top to help. (And please ignore my really REALLY dirty floors and remember that we are in the middle of a remodel!)

I'm planning on casting on Picovoli now, so that I have something easy to carry with me. I need mild concentration to not mess up the lace on Maude, and my socks are stalled. I had to sit at the chiropractor for 20 minutes yesterday with no knitting. Sucked. And, speaking of MagKnits (the pattern source for Picovoli), good LORD! Have you been on the Ravelry boards recently? There is some serious negativity over there these days. It's a pretty big turn off, IMHO. Even the site owners have posted some serious snark, which I'm pretty sure is not in the spirit of the Community Guidelines they themselves point snarkers too. I guess they are on a 'do as I say and not as I do' path. Leaving a bad taste in my mouth for now, though, so I think I shall be limiting my time there. . . at least on the 'main' boards. (besides, I'll probably need plenty of time to sort through the barrage of hate mail disagreeing with the gods of Ravelry will elicit!) The groups are still nice, particularly the newest group for folks planning a wedding :)

In wedding news, there is not really news. I've started to get info from some venues in Sonoma and I'm still hunting for a ring. I went to Long Jewelers Monday and saw a few things I like. They are ordering in some samples for me to look at. If I don't like any of them, I think I'll just order the Sholdt ring. I started calling some stores that do carry the ring to price it. If I can't buy it local, you can be sure I will call every store and find the cheapest place to buy it. I'm totally shocked by the range in prices so far! $550 difference from lowest to highest price. Ironically, the lowest price right now is the store in Vermont where I originally saw it, but there it is 150% more than it was 2 years ago! Gold isn't up that much, so I really can't figure out why it got so expensive! Perhaps the designer is getting more well known or something, but I'm keeping in perspective that I'll be wearing this every day for the rest of my life, so if it costs a little more than we planned, well, it's not that much spread out over 50+ years :)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can try my toe-up heel flap formula. http://forwardmotion.typepad.com/becca/toe.html Looks to me like you are almost ready to start some gussets.

Jake's socks look great, but I think you're right about the elastic thread. Tell him his manly legs are too much for ordinary wool.

Jen said...

The Socks look great, both his and yours. Also, interesting pose you've got him in!

I noticed all the crap going on at Ravelry, too, and sort of attribute it to the fact that as the community gets larger things like this are bound to happen. Not everyone is a winner and personalities clash, etc.

Really, i just want the hours of my life back that I spent reading it all after I got sucked in.

Anonymous said...

I haven't noticed the bad vibes on Ravelry, but I mostly stick to my small groups: cooking, biking, and others.
Jake's socks look fab. Have you tried decreasing the amount of stitches in the ribbing to help with a tighter fit? I don't know if that would work. Nylon sounds like a good idea too.

kemtee said...

Well, you know how I feel about Rav nowadays… me and my queue and that's about it.

Hold out for the Sholdt. Though have you tried D.B. Bowles? He's done a lot of work for me (relatively speaking) and though I don't know if he can beat a price, he's trustworthy.

Anonymous said...

Hello Carly,
Came over from the blogging train on Ravelry. I had been skipped on the train once, as you did, and I was happy to see you hopped back on and said that this happened rather than let it go by.

Laughed that you learned to knit during a long, cold VT winter. Oh how I know about THOSE winters, living in southern VT myself these days. It was back in '85, during the first time we lived in VT, that I truly learned to spin during one of those cold winters.

Congrats on your engagement and best of luck in finding the ring of your dreams for the best price.

Cheers, Jenny

Casey said...

"Even the site owners have posted some serious snark"

We did? I don't think that Jess or I posted anything snarky...