OCD....Knitting: April 2007

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A plea to the knitting community....

Aww, that sounds so pathetic and desperate. It's really not that serious. I'm looking for 3 skeins of Touch Me in the purple color. A friend has asked me to make gloves for her daughter, and the LYS in my area doesn't have that color and might not get it any time soon.

I am posting this in case someone has this in their stash, and they don't plan to use it, for whatever reason. I KNOW I can purchase this online, so please don't send me a gazillion links for it (unless you have some reliable source that is super discounted-this stuff is kinda pricey!).

I was hoping to find someone looking to get rid of theirs and this way it would be a win-win for both of us!

If you have 3 skeins, in purple (there's a few different shades, I'll have to check with my friend for final approval of color), send me an e-mail with a picture if possible or at least the color number from the band. You can reach me at mnangel13 at yahoo dot com (make the appropriate changes for e-mail).

Thanks very much for your help! Have a great one!

Labels: Touch Me gloves

// posted by Dana @ 3:34 PM 4 comments

Friday, April 20, 2007

T.G.I.F.

At least I wear my hand knits. Nobody can say different.

This is to distract from the real stuff I'm supposed to post. I have decided that I suck at photographing knitting instructions. My hat is off to those that can. I took about 30 really blurry un-informative pictures of my toe up method this morning, and only about the last 3 are actually viewable. But since you need the front end of that whole process the last 3 are pointless. I'll try again over the weekend and see what I can do.

Have a great weekend-it's supposed to be great weather here in the mitten state!

// posted by Dana @ 10:59 AM 2 comments

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Toe up socks

These pictures were taken, this morning, pre-caffeine (this is important to know). Please note some of the challenging angles one faces when attempting to photograph one's own foot. Photogenically. Luckily the blinds were drawn on the door wall or the neighbors may be ordering up a paddy wagon.

My first toe up sock.

(Well, first as in the first-one-I'm-actually-keeping, since I frogged it about a hunnert times).

Nearly invisible increases along the edges.

My first short row heel (I only frogged it once).

I would have tried to photograph the other side too, but you know, no caffeine, too early for yoga.

Almost done:

Still not finished, but dang she's purty!! And it fits like a glove... I mean a custom built sock! I'm thinking of some sort of picot bind off for the top. Does anyone have a favorite they like?

When I cast on for the second sock, I will attempt to photograph the steps to document my New-Made-Up-Way-for-Toe-Ups, that way if anyone has seen it done before they can correct me.

Also, for those that are interested, I have compiled a list of all the Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and surrounding area bloggers that attended the last Yarn Harlot visit to Ann Arbor, MI. Forgive the longhand links, I cut and pasted the list and didn't take the time to go in and list everyone's proper blog name.

If any links are broken, leave me a comment and I'll work to fix it. Also, if you were in AA and I don't have you listed, leave me a comment and I'll be sure to revise the list. I think I have 2 or 3 bloggers that I couldn't locate links for, so I'll go back thru my pictures to check it out.

Have a great day!

ETA: The above blogs are in no apparent order, just my normal random slapping of links on a page. (Amby!)

// posted by Dana @ 1:31 PM 9 comments

Monday, April 16, 2007

I'm baaaaccckkkk!

Did you miss me? I'd say I missed you, but would you believe me?

Hopefully you all had a great Easter/Passover. Mine was awesome.

Oh and before I forget, SO and I celebrated our 5th anniversary recently. 5 years together, 4 engaged, on 4/5. Maybe we'll actually get married one day. AND live under the same roof. Now that would be nice.

I did lots of knitting on my vacation. I made up a new toe up sock method-I think-since I haven't seen it done this way on any other toe up patterns. I missed the Knitty Gritty episode with Cookie doing the figure 8 cast-on, that would have been a great one to watch. (I'll post my new way as soon as I can document it with pictures-then you can tell me if you've seen this method before.)

I finished another pair of socks for SO, cast on the Diamond Fantasy Shawl, have another sock in progress for SO (dang, he's a lucky guy) and am up to the leg on my first toe up sock. I'm so excited by toe ups, that I can't wait to cast on for some ankle socks I've been wanting to make. I also successfully completed a short-row heel, and only had to rip it out once. Progress!

I am proud to say that my future step-son (12) has now started knitting. I even took him to Michael's yesterday so he could have needles of his own. He's making a blanket (for his dad) and he's embarking on a hat for himself. He's a very ambitious young man. Circular knitting scared the crap out of me at first. I'll keep you posted on his progress. I didn't want to take pictures of him knitting in case it spooked him. Take my word for it, he's doing it AND enjoying it. Pretty cool.

The weather was fairly nice up north, if 6 inches of snow is your thing. Luckily, the kids were digging it, so all was good in their world. It put a slight damper on my plans to check out the new LYS in Gaylord, but oh well, I'll try again next time I'm up.

I'll post again soon, with pictures, so hang in there just a little bit longer. Take care!

// posted by Dana @ 1:45 PM 2 comments

Thursday, April 05, 2007

So I don't get yelled at!

By Kelli, no less, I will be out of town for the next week and therefore will NOT be updating my blog. But 3 posts in one week should impress the heck out of you!

I am still compiling my list of Michigan (and surrounding) bloggers that attended the YH convention in Ann Arbor last weekend. I haven't even gotten to the pictures of name tags yet, and I'm already up to 30 on the list. I will try try try to complete it by tomorrow, but if not, as soon as I get back in town.

I've been doing lots of knitting with zero to show for it. I've gotten thisclose to achieving toe up skills, and they're actually looking less sucky than when I started. Still looks a little moth-holey but much better on each attempt. I'm trying it with Iris and I think part of why I don't like it is the colors don't line up with the short rows. So I'm going to try a different method (read, I'm going to make something up and see if it works) with the stripey Iris and try the traditional short rows with a more solid Lorna's Laces that I made my hippo socks out of. I should have enough for ankle socks, so I'm anxious to knock those out. Without the whole leg part they should go pretty fast.

I need to start planning my up north knitting bag too. Who knows what the weather will be like so I want to make sure I have enough variety to keep me entertained. I'm hoping the Diamond Fantasy shawl pattern shows up by Saturday, since that's what I'll be using the laceweight Malabrigio for. It met the yardage requirements, and since I saw that YH made one for herself I thought that would be a fitting momento from her recent visit. Plus it's just so dang pretty, who can resist?

I will keep plugging along on the blogger list, so be patient my pretties! Cuz the dang job is still getting in the way!

Take care.

// posted by Dana @ 2:20 PM 6 comments

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Two in a row?

Ok Kelli, hold on to your socks. Two posts in two days? Amazing!

First of all, hi to everyone that commented. It's so nice to come to work in the morning and see hello's from all my new friends!! It brightens up this otherwise gloomy weather day.

Hi Pat, thanks again for the compliment on Tempting. If you check out my FO page, and scroll down to the February 23 entry, you can see all the details for this sweater.

Hi Teyla, it was great meeting you too! Actually, as I told everyone when I was handing out the name tags, it was completely self-serving. I'm incredibly nosey, and I just couldn't stand the thought of attending another big YH event without knowing who blogs, who doesn't, who I read, and who I may be missing out on! But if you all think I did it for you, then major bonus!! And yes Karen, it falls into the OCD category just a little bit. Which reminds me of one particular blogger that I photographed. Her blog name is Indecisive Knitter, and while this fits my personality as well, the thing that comes to mind is that as she was writing her name tag, she asked me for a second one, since apparently she didn't like how she wrote the first one!

Totally perfect!

Hi Kathy from Colorado, your socks look fabulous! I can't wait to get my toe up's right so I can enjoy the colorway as well. Hey Sue, uh yeah, I'm not sure if it's an OCD thing, or just my inability to short row, but the toe ups aren't looking so good, so no classes have been scheduled at this time. But hopefully in the near future.

I need to give Amby the proper credit, because she actually came up with the phrase "get your dork on", and she graciously allowed me to throw it around like I invented it. Thanks!

Hi Beth, thanks for allowing me to photograph your chest. I will be sure to include your blog in the list, as soon as I can get it together.

It was so funny to see everyone's expression change as soon as I whipped my camera out to photograph their name tags, and I let them adjust themselves, their hair, their smile and then AFTER I snapped the picture I pointed out that I wasn't really aiming on their face.

See:

But thanks for smiling at me anyway ladies!!

And yes, Kristi, I'm definitely up for a summer blogger reunion. Maybe to Threadbear?? Keep me posted!

I'm so sorry you missed it Amy, I really hope you're feeling better!

Hey Miranda, go ahead and make dork-page part of your vocabulary. That's what knitters do, we come up with great ideas and pass them around for our friends to share!

Don't worry Tracey, you weren't in the way at all, great hoodie! And for the record I found these in my files as well:

Lookin good!

That's all I have for now, have a great day!

// posted by Dana @ 9:00 AM 6 comments

Monday, April 02, 2007

Hello My Name Is.....

Well, I couldn't find the ones that said Hello My Name Is...so I had to settle just for Hello stickers. (sorry about the rock and the finger-it's windy today)

I truly went on a dork-page and handed out stickers to any and all that would take them from me. I didn't even mind the occasional strange looks I got when I asked if there were any knitbloggers in the vicinity. Apparently, shocking as this seems, not EVERYONE talks about their knitting accomplishments on the infamous World Wide Web. Go figure! But I'm pretty dang sure that everyone that was in attendance to see Ms. Harlot, that blogs, got a sticker from me. To the point I think I was almost ridiculous about it. I went to the overflow room, not once, but TWICE, to make sure they weren't left out of my blog report. I photographed a whole lot of chests, to be sure to document all the bloggers in attendance. I will compile this list and post it here, within the next few days.

Also, thanks to my long-lost buddy Kelli, for coming prepared with stickers of her own, to be sure no blogger went sticker-less.

Holy crap! What a fabulous weekend I had. Since my friends and I have been looking forward to this since the second Amby spotted the Harlot's visit to our state, we have been planning and planning and planning. We got a room on the outskirts of downtown and arrived in AA early Saturday afternoon. We checked out a great sushi restaurant for a late lunch and then decided to pay Busy Hands a visit Saturday, knowing how slammed they would be on Sunday. Rebecca (not sure if I spelled that right), the owner of Busy Hands, was on hand and you could see the anticipation in her expression when the subject of the Yarn Harlot came up. I made a few purchases, because face it, it was a knitting weekend, and I discovered 2 fabulous yarns I'd never seen before. The first was a Malabrigio laceweight, in the Velvet Grapes colorway.

I cast on for toe up socks but I'm thinking this might be too delicate for socks, and will have to re-think it's final destiny. I'm open to any lacey suggestions, so leave them in the comments.

Then Amby and I discovered this amazing laceweight Merino/Silk blend with 1500 yards of glorious softness.

It's so gorgeous, you have to just squeeze it for yourself.

And this next purchase was purely impulsive, but the colors were too pretty to pass up. Maybe a shrug, or a little sassy wooden handled purse of sorts.

Decisions, decisions!

While we were waiting for Stephanie to move mountains and such to make her way BACK to Detroit for the second time in the same day, we were entertained by a parade of youngsters that were participating in a hat making adventure in honor of April Fools Day.

Because I am not keen on posting pics of children I'll only put a couple up here, but trust me when I say, this was a win-win for everyone.

It kept the knitters entertained and somewhat distracted and the children were so well-received and obviously comfortable with parading in their costumes

that they came back for a second pass.

And finally, the moment we had all been waiting for. Roughly 3 hours late we were surprised by this:

She came running in at top speed in true people-pleaser form and the first word out of her mouth as she got her camera ready was "Crap!"

How else do you start an event after the day that she'd had? It was very cool that she did all that she did when it would have been so much simpler to throw up her hands and say, yep I tried, but I just can't get there. She even took her life into her hands by accepting a ride from a total stranger (although she did reveal that his mom AND wife are both knitters, so he must have felt obliged to help her, for his own safety).

And just so you don't think we were alone in our endeavors, Ms. Yarn Harlot herself agreed to get her dork on and put on a name tag too!

How cool is that?! AND, she remembered that I was the one she created the petition for previously as I showed her my digital camera and told her I had acquired it with absolutely zero resistance from my SO! He didn't give me a funny look when I told him I was going to Ann Arbor and why! He even told me to have a good time! Now that's true progress.

I got so caught up in the moment that I took a picture of HER, but completely forgot to get my picture taken WITH her. Duh! Oh, silly little star-struck knitter.

It was a very long day, but so worth it. I even got to meet the infamous, blogless Rams, and it was awesome to meet Kristi, since I had participated in the virtual baby shower, Knitter (previously) Unkown.

I'd like to say hi to my new friend Nia (thanks for the safety pin by the way), hello again to Barb (possibly blogless-I'm still checking my pictures) from previous Knitter's Night Out events at Have You Any Wool, and of course a big hello to Kelli, and I promise to try to blog more frequently. I'm glad at least YOU think I have interesting things to blog about! Thanks for the vote of confidence. Oh, and thanks again Karen for the compliment on Tempting! It was great meeting you too.

Oh, I almost forgot. I got my sock yarn in the Iris colorway, from my new favorite online source for sock yarn To Knit, Perchance. I just loved the bright colors and had to have this.

I cast on for toe up socks, since I'm desperately trying to learn how to do this. Short rows may be the death of me. I have officially gone back on my yarn diet, after this weekends adventures!

That's all for now. I need to organize my pictures and compile my blogger's list, and hope to have that up here in a few days. Once again, dang JOB getting in my way!!

Have a great day, enjoy the sunshine and GO Tigers! (that's for you Amanda)

// posted by Dana @ 1:30 PM 13 comments

OCD....Knitting