Tuesday, February 28, 2006
I don't need to explain this....
Greetings All!
From D-Dawg Knittin Fool, so dubbed by my posse of sorts. Guess we're going to have to think about re-naming our Michigan Detroit Chapter to something a little more phat! That's p-h-a-t , for clarification to any sensitive peeps out there, we're not talking about thighs or anything!
We all have choices. We choose to go to work or not (course that "not getting paid" thing usually motivates us in the right direction), order tea or latte, eat Mickey D's or Wendy's and the like.
Knitters have choices too. We can make do with some of the tools that Joann's or Michael's provides for us for minimal cash, OR we can take our creativity to a whole new level, and expand our minds.
Would you rather knit with these? The ring on the far left is actually from a now dead battery operated toothbrush, used to mark which brush head is yours. Hey, I'm into recycling...
Or these?
Ooh, aahhh, c'mon say it with me!! And look how they jazz up my otherwise dull black wool socks.....
And speaking
of aforementioned socks:
We all have choices. We choose to go to work or not (course that "not getting paid" thing usually motivates us in the right direction), order tea or latte, eat Mickey D's or Wendy's and the like.
Knitters have choices too. We can make do with some of the tools that Joann's or Michael's provides for us for minimal cash, OR we can take our creativity to a whole new level, and expand our minds.
Would you rather knit with these? The ring on the far left is actually from a now dead battery operated toothbrush, used to mark which brush head is yours. Hey, I'm into recycling...Or these?
Ooh, aahhh, c'mon say it with me!! And look how they jazz up my otherwise dull black wool socks.....
And speaking
of aforementioned socks:
They are finally starting to look like they might get finished sometime soon! (Never mind that this picture appears to have been taken on my desk at work-did I mention the bosses are on vacay?) As I run dangerously close to end of my yarn I am almost ready to decrease for the toes! Whoo hoo!! Not that I wouldn't want an excuse to go to the yarn store, I really don't need the temptation as I have a very full stash at the moment and several projects awaiting the completion of these "longer than I anticipated to be knitting" socks.
I am thinking about posting a message on The Knitter's Review Board about my Touch Me questions, but feel free to leave me a comment if you have any tips!
Oh, and to let you know how super special the above socks will be for their recipient, I'm choosing not to pick out the JRH (Jack Russell Hair) that I picked up in them over the weekend. Thanks Amby! I'll be sure to have the SO send you a thank you note!
Have a great day all! I'm so excited to check out Yarn Harlot tomorrow, she says there will be prizes; I thought my gloves were my prize!! Hooray and wish me luck!
Monday, February 27, 2006
Gimme the GOLD baby!!
The first picture shows what a dork I am, the second one is
my "pretend Vanna" pose showing off
the lovely cabinet behind me,
and the last pose is cuz I work in Detroit and I want to send a "shout out" to my peeps!! 
I came, I saw and I conquered. My official end time for knitting was about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, and the rest of the day/evening was spent washing, flinching, freaking, stuffing the fingers, freaking a little more, and a short trip thru the dryer. I've never dealt with Touch Me before, and the washing process scared me so much that I truly believed these gloves were going to be given to the nearest Barbie doll, as they shriveled up immensely. Hence the stuffing the fingers, and freaking out as the next process. I am happy that they aren't too small, and in fact I'm considering washing and actually fully drying them this time, in order to tighten em up a bit. They're very soft, but just a little too loose now. If anyone has experience with Touch Me, please let me know if the drying acts to loosen/soften the fabric or if that contributes to more shrinkage. I might just knit a 3 x 3 swatch and test it that way, but for all the work I did, I'd like these to fit just a tiny bit tighter. I also have started cutting up the purple leather gloves I mentioned previously, and will at a later date, sew these to the palm of the gloves, as soon as I've figured out the "will I wash em again/won't I" dilemma.
I went to a great party yesterday and celebrated with other Olympians, some who finished their projects, some who did not, but made commendable progress on their projects. A fun and happy time was had by all!
My next post will include some stitch markers that I whipped up over the weekend, and you will see noticeable improvements from the first to the last ones I made, as my wire bending skills got alot better by the 10th or so time.
Congratulations to all the Olympians, knitting and otherwise, we have all made history in our own ways!!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
And another one gone...
This was where I left off last night at Caribou in Troy with all the knitters. The pinky was complete and I was almost halfway up the ring finger. As of today I'm proud to say the ring finger is now complete and I'm halfway up the middle finger. That leaves only 1 finger and 1 thumb to completion!! Then weaving in ends and felting/drying for the final unveiling/wearing on Sunday. Go ME!!
Oops, forgot to say thanks to Amby for taking the lovely photo above, thanks for helping me out!!
We had a great time at the 'bou last night, I believe Kirsti said she counted 11 in all. We're getting large enough that we may have to request the entire coffee shop to ourselves, now if we could just get the heating problem resolved and get them to quit all that annoying coffee bean grinding. I mean really, can't they see we are trying to carry on a perfectly respectable conversation and they are interrupting!! Can you talk over a bean grinder? I certainly can't.
I'm anxious for this project to be complete as I have several other pending WIP's that have been cast aside for the chance at GOLD!! I will feel more complete when some of these other lingering projects have been cast off and given to their respective new owners and I am really going to try not to have too many projects going at once. My poor little pathetic self esteem can't take that many balls (skeins) in the air, so to speak. One or two at a time, and the second can be no larger than socks. Or a hat. Or another pair of Touch Me gloves, this time for my daughter. Really, I must resolve myself to this form of limitation. It's for my own good. And I will achieve a greater sense of accomplishment when I actually finish a project, instead of being overwhelmed by all the little "not quite done" things staring at me.
Maybe I'll have pics tomorrow, not sure, since I'm once again camera-less. Dang SO and his need to have action shots of him and his son snowmobiling in the great outdoors of Up North!! I mean really, it's snow. How exciting can that be? It's all white, seen it once-seen it a million times.
Have a great one!
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Olympic Update
It seems I might actually make this deadline! My goal is to have them finished by Saturday so I can felt them and actually have dry finished gloves to wear on Sunday during the closing ceremonies.
And for those of you checking in, thinking I must be some lame kinda knitter, let me just tell you. I am NOT following a pattern, I'm winging it. I do have a pattern that I consult, but since the yarn/gauge are completely different (I'm using Touch Me on size 2 Addi's) the stitches don't line up at all. I'm doing it all by eyeballing it, and the cuff is adapted from the picot cast on from Miss Dashwood that I knit for my niece way back when. So there!
I'm very excited to complete this project for 2 reasons. 1. It's cold out and these will be toasty warm, especially when felted. 2. I have other projects that have completely stalled so that I can meet our deadline.
I'm thinking about cutting up an old pair of leather gloves that happen to be purple, and sewing the palm to the palm, for a grippy pair of gloves. The leather gloves are short (to the wrist) and I like longer ones, and they feel about 2 sizes too small. I've worn them regularly and have owned them for almost 10 years I think, so I feel this would be a great way to turn them into something useful instead of leaving them in the closet as the "in case of emergency" gloves, since they don't fit very well. If anyone else has experience with this, feel free to leave me a comment, as I'll be winging this portion of the project as well and could use any tips you may have. I won't consider my project incomplete if I have not completed this part of the process, my goal was to have finished, wearable gloves, and they will be wearable with or without the leather palms.
Hope everyone else is having success with their projects, and I look forward to seeing my friends meet their goals!!
Take care!
Friday, February 17, 2006
Houston-we have PINKY!!
I can't believe these are actually starting to look like real gloves. Having the first finger completed really makes me excited to keep going...darn job and the need to sleep! The pinky is a little bit tight, so I'll have to stuff it well before I felt it, so it won't shrink any more, but I'm making some adjustments for the next fingers so they should fit just fine. The pinky is about 1/4" longer than the end of my finger to allow for some shrinkage. I'm so excited, they're coming along very nicely with out any major holdups. I've had to make sure I have enough stitches left for the last 2 fingers, and with some selective increasing there should be enough. Now as long as my notes don't fail me, the second one should zip by pretty quickly. I was at a bit of a standstill the other day, and was in a quandary. I couldn't decide to leave the pinky as it was or rip back and start over. I had accidently knitted on the wrong side, so there was a row of purl stitches on the right side of the glove. I was pretty sure it wouldn't show after the felting process, but it was staring back at me looking rather ugly. It bothered me too much so I ripped it back and am very pleased with how it came out.
I thought this was kinda cute to mention. My daughter takes gymnastics and there is a very nice young man who works there who is always commenting on my knitting and admiring my work. It seems his grandmother taught him to crochet some time ago, so he is very interested to see the different projects I make with knitting. A few weeks ago he was checking out some hats I had made and was kind of hinting that he would love for me to make him a hat. I said "I'll make you a deal, you bring me the yarn, I'll make you a hat". Seems fair enough...I mean how often do we have non-knitting cheerleaders patting us on the back for the projects we complete? Here is a completely unsolicited spokesperson for my work, should I choose to capitalize on it sometime in the future. Plus, he's such a sweet kid, that I just couldn't help myself. So, last night he sees me and lights up (I swear, you'd think I pay him to like me or something) and says "I'll be right back". He comes running back with a bag with two skeins of yarn, one black and one cream colored. "I remembered your yarn" he says, all breathless from running. I was beaming, because how cool is this, that someone is THAT excited to have something made for them?! I saw the yarn and said "How do you feel about stripes? I have the perfect pattern for a striped hat, and it has a matching scarf with fringe." I thought he was going to leap over the counter and hug me! I told him that as soon as the Olympics were over, I would happily start his project. I even went home and pulled the pattern out and put it with his yarn, so I'll be all set. It was very sweet, his reaction to seeing me knit every week, so I wanted to share that with you.
I played hookey yesterday afternoon and went bowling with my daughter and her class. What a blast!! I got to bowl and at one point they turned on the Cosmic Lights, and cranked up the music, and I just looked around at all the happy people and thought "sheesh, I almost passed this up to stay at work". I'm SO glad I went, my daughter and I had a great time and I met a few great people as well!
I'm not sure what I'm up to this weekend, but you can be sure I'll be knitting up some more fingers.
Stay warm, and have a great weekend!!
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Couldn't resist...thanks Amby!
For the record...
All men don't suck.....today!This was waiting for me when I got to work today. Just when you think there's no hope, they go and do something....charming and loveable! How exasperating! Needless to say, I much prefer to start my day this way, so if only this could happen every day-I'd never be cranky, right? Well, while I'm holding my breath waiting for THAT to happen, I'll post some pics to update my Knitting Olympics progress.
This was yesterday. I'm trying to capture the picot edging that I cast on for the cuff but it's not translating well in these pics. Trust me, it's very cool AND fancy.
This is today, with the pinky finger about to get started. It's positioned atop my nifty Team Tote that Amby was so kind to make for our Detroit Team. It's getting dragged all over town so I can keep making progress, the clock is ticking. I'm hoping to have the first glove complete by the weekend, and cast on this weekend for the second glove. I expect the second one to go much faster, I'm creating the pattern as I go along for the first, and then I'll only have to follow that which should make it much faster. And thanks, if you actually understood that. It made sense to me. It's very exciting, this project. I believe I chose well, since this is challenging and fun!! If I was following a straight pattern, the challenge wouldn't be as great, but since I'm combining a few patterns, it's kinda tricky and therefore more difficult. But still exciting, nonetheless. I can't wait to actually get the pinky done, it will really show my progress.
I'm making these out of "Touch Me" on size 2 Addi's (thanks Amby), and the yarn is really nice to work with. It twists a little, and fuzzes a little more, but I'm hoping once they make it thru the felting process, that will all be resolved. I'm trying really hard to make them a little big, to account for the shrinkage (I read they average about 15% shrinkage), so the fingers should be no problem as I make them each individually. I'm a little worried the thumb gusset might be a little tight, but hopefully with heavy blocking/stretching they'll fit well when finished. Wish me luck!!
I'm enjoying reading about everyone's progress with their projects, I'm so excited to see our Team's Finished Objects!! I think we are representing our Country well!! Great job everybody!
Have a great day!! Remember, take breaks and drink lots of......yeah water, of course that's what I was going to say. I mean, after all, we're athletes!!
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Super Secret Sock Pal
+ 
= Sock Pal FunFluted Banister or Diagonal Fixation are the two patterns I'm considering, though I'm leading toward the Diagonal which, in the pattern, calls for Cascade Fixation. Since it's winter, I decided to go with a 100% Virgin Wool yarn and will use nylon thread to reinforce the heels and toes. I have to say thanks to the ladies at Wool & theFloss for letting me wander aimlessly, randomly picking their brains. They acknowledge that their sock selection is somewhat sparse, but it sounded like she was working on that.
That's all I have for today-have a great day everyone!!
Oops, almost forgot, check out my FO's site, MY socks are done!! Whoo hoo!!
Friday, February 03, 2006
I've been knitting...really!!
First of all, I want to start with a little venting. I'm really new to this whole world of blogging and I attempt to update during free moments at work, so I don't have tons of time to learn all there is to know about it. I'm having the hardest time posting pics that will correlate with text describing the picture! It all gets jumbled around and I get all these huge gaping blank spaces and I really don't know how to fix it. So, having said that, I welcome any suggestions about how to get all my "ducks in a row" so to speak and I apologize for the amateur-ish look with everything askew.
I have so many things going right now that it feels like NOTHING is actually getting done. But slowly some of my WIP's are winding down. The pics above show the black SO socks that I'm working on. I'm almost finished with the heel flaps on BOTH socks, so that's making me happy.
The next pics (blue) show the latest progress on Marnie's test knitting. I'm flying thru the chart now even though I didn't get to work on it that much this week. It's good to see it coming together though, and I can't wait to finish it. The second pic is a closeup of the cabling pattern that is charted out.
Here is the latest progress on the Christmas present I'm still trying to finish. The gray fabric behind it will be the lining and I have the handles sewn on, I'm just finishing the second magnet cover on the center of the bag.
Also, I know I said I was on a yarn diet, but that was until I saw Grumperina's Odessa hat, which is absolutely adorable. I've never knit with beads before, but that usually doesn't stop me so I had to pick this up and I'll be giving it a try very soon.
Aren't these gorgeous?
And finally, I got my Sockapalooza pal info yesterday, so now I need to figure out which socks to make and out of what......very exciting indeed! I've been studying up on my pal, checking out her blog and trying to analyze her likes/dislikes, favorite color and the like. Like a detective, a Knitting Detective if you will. I've found out alot already, so I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll pick something she likes. The only scary thing is, based on her blog, she looks like a very accomplished knitter, but hey, no pressure!
This is a big weekend for all of us here in the Detroit area, and while I am not a football fan, I only hope that everyone behaves in the city this weekend, and it would be nice to get positive feedback from all the visitors that are here and not confirmation of previous events where things went bad.
Go Knitting Fans!!
I have so many things going right now that it feels like NOTHING is actually getting done. But slowly some of my WIP's are winding down. The pics above show the black SO socks that I'm working on. I'm almost finished with the heel flaps on BOTH socks, so that's making me happy.
The next pics (blue) show the latest progress on Marnie's test knitting. I'm flying thru the chart now even though I didn't get to work on it that much this week. It's good to see it coming together though, and I can't wait to finish it. The second pic is a closeup of the cabling pattern that is charted out.
Here is the latest progress on the Christmas present I'm still trying to finish. The gray fabric behind it will be the lining and I have the handles sewn on, I'm just finishing the second magnet cover on the center of the bag.
Also, I know I said I was on a yarn diet, but that was until I saw Grumperina's Odessa hat, which is absolutely adorable. I've never knit with beads before, but that usually doesn't stop me so I had to pick this up and I'll be giving it a try very soon.
Aren't these gorgeous?And finally, I got my Sockapalooza pal info yesterday, so now I need to figure out which socks to make and out of what......very exciting indeed! I've been studying up on my pal, checking out her blog and trying to analyze her likes/dislikes, favorite color and the like. Like a detective, a Knitting Detective if you will. I've found out alot already, so I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll pick something she likes. The only scary thing is, based on her blog, she looks like a very accomplished knitter, but hey, no pressure!
This is a big weekend for all of us here in the Detroit area, and while I am not a football fan, I only hope that everyone behaves in the city this weekend, and it would be nice to get positive feedback from all the visitors that are here and not confirmation of previous events where things went bad.
Go Knitting Fans!!
