Wednesday, April 30, 2008
I love Michigan!
Ok, so that had to be the shortest spring/summer possible. We're back down to the 20's and 30's and frost advisories so the open-toed shoes have been set aside (again) for the warmer closed- toe varieties. I refuse to bust out the long johns again, so needless to say I've been kinda cold recently. I did yardwork on Sunday, just in time for the freezing cold temps. Oh well, go with the flow, that's all you can do in the mitten state.
I've been pretty stressed these last few days since I'm traveling to New York this weekend with my daughter's drama club. I'm so excited but nervous at the same time. The trip promises to be very exciting with 2 Broadway shows and great opportunities for the kids to get some up close and personal contact with a real Broadway cast for an improv workshop. But I'm nervous because I don't travel a lot, other than up north all the time, so I always get nervous in unfamiliar territory. What do I pack for clothes? The weather has been so goofy lately that's a tough call. How much is too much? I'm a chronic overpacker so I have to be careful not to bring everything I own. What to wear for the all day walking and schlepping that will still look presentable at the theater each of the first 2 nights? Sheesh. So what have I done? Not much. Suitcases are still in the basement and the only packing I've done is in my head. Oh well, I work better under pressure, so Thursday will be the night to get it all together.
I whipped out a beaded mohair wrap on the knitting machine for my daughter to wear while in New York. I have the Diamond Fantasy Shawl and I borrowed one from my good friend Lynne, so I'm prepared for the theater and it's unpredictable temps. But my daughter needed something too. So the trusty knitting machine was put into action. It took about 5 hours total for 200 rows with 15 beads every 5th row and 2 skeins of Kid Seta. Not too bad if I say so myself. I'm just finishing the last edge with garter stitch and will block it tomorrow night so it will be packable by Thursday night.
Check it:
Me likey. It has nice drape and the beads give it some stability. I got really good at threading beads on with a copper wire hook I made, since my smallest crochet hook was still too big to use.
I'm off to sleep, cuz tomorrow is another busy day.
Take care and I'll post when I get back from the Big Apple!
I've been pretty stressed these last few days since I'm traveling to New York this weekend with my daughter's drama club. I'm so excited but nervous at the same time. The trip promises to be very exciting with 2 Broadway shows and great opportunities for the kids to get some up close and personal contact with a real Broadway cast for an improv workshop. But I'm nervous because I don't travel a lot, other than up north all the time, so I always get nervous in unfamiliar territory. What do I pack for clothes? The weather has been so goofy lately that's a tough call. How much is too much? I'm a chronic overpacker so I have to be careful not to bring everything I own. What to wear for the all day walking and schlepping that will still look presentable at the theater each of the first 2 nights? Sheesh. So what have I done? Not much. Suitcases are still in the basement and the only packing I've done is in my head. Oh well, I work better under pressure, so Thursday will be the night to get it all together.
I whipped out a beaded mohair wrap on the knitting machine for my daughter to wear while in New York. I have the Diamond Fantasy Shawl and I borrowed one from my good friend Lynne, so I'm prepared for the theater and it's unpredictable temps. But my daughter needed something too. So the trusty knitting machine was put into action. It took about 5 hours total for 200 rows with 15 beads every 5th row and 2 skeins of Kid Seta. Not too bad if I say so myself. I'm just finishing the last edge with garter stitch and will block it tomorrow night so it will be packable by Thursday night.
Check it:
Me likey. It has nice drape and the beads give it some stability. I got really good at threading beads on with a copper wire hook I made, since my smallest crochet hook was still too big to use.
I'm off to sleep, cuz tomorrow is another busy day.
Take care and I'll post when I get back from the Big Apple!
Labels: Machine Knitting, mohair wrap, New York
Friday, April 11, 2008
Rain, Rain Go Away!
It stays light longer these days but it still feels like there isn't enough time to accomplish anything. I spend more time during the day wishing I was knitting, crafting and spinning and then by the time I get home to do it, I'm tired, have to do laundry or just plain wanna veg on the couch. It is very frustrating!
I have managed to finish a few things lately though. I finished the felted clogs I was making for a friend and popped them in the mail today. Hopefully they fit! Also I made another hat for the SO, the fair isle one that he loved so much. I made some mods to the pattern including making it smaller and making the hem longer inside to cover the stranding. Of course it's probably too warm for him to fully test it but if we get the weather they're calling for this weekend he may get a few wears out of it yet. Also the toddler sundress I was test knitting has been done, I just need to get it ON my niece to take some pics.
I played around with making a mohair wrap on my knitting machine, but frogged it (gotta love frogging mohair) to make it longer and somewhat narrower. I think I have it mapped out in my head how I want/need to do it this time, including incorporating a type of ribbing along the longer edges to prevent rolling and I will throw in some beads for added interest. I just need to sit down in front of the dang thing and crank it out again.
I'm also working on a wrap from my Autumn Colors handspun. It's the Frida poncho pattern and like others have done on Ravelry I am bypassing the poncho portion of the pattern and knitting the main panel longer in order to have a wrap. I'm going to New York in a few weeks and I want to have a couple of different wraps to tuck in my bag as we will be attending the theater twice while we're there. This should be a very exciting trip and can't wait to share pics of all the great sights we saw!
My lovely daughter recently proclaimed "I have nothing to knit" so I promptly fished in my stash, found her some sock yarn and a pattern and she is merrily knitting along on a pair of socks, for me, that I have not taken the time to make myself. How lucky am I?
On the work front, lately it has seemed that my company is caught up in some kind of Bermuda Triangle of the utility companies. Between having water issues, and being grossly overcharged for gas AND water, and having intermittent phone and internet services, it's amazing that anything can be accomplished with my regular duties. In the last several months, for our phone and internet service we have lost service TWICE because idiots have dug up the buried cables and cut them to sell for the copper. I did learn recently that they caught ONE idiot, because he had a fire pit in his back yard and was melting the plastic off the wires and a neighbor called in to report a fire/smoke. TWO times our phones got knocked out because delivery trucks ripped our wires off the pole when they were making deliveries to our neighboring party store. And now another problem is some sign was partly demolished by another truck making a delivery and pieces of the broken sign were rubbing against the wires causing sporadic service. Will this ever end? At what point does this become ridiculous and we say enough is enough. In light of all the wonderful things going on in THE CITY as it is, it's no wonder that all public services are in the shitter! Had less time been spent on say, text messages and more on actually improving the city, we wouldn't be where we are today.
I don't mean to complain, this is not what I like to use this blog for, but sometimes I just have to vent.
Also, in the name of venting, isn't it a shame that MagKnits just shut down? I am really sad to see this free publication just GONE. The pattern archives simply vanished and there is nothing left of that site. Was this because of uncontrolled slamming of the magazine on Ravelry? Who knows. It's just a shame that someone can't post about a legitimate problem without countless people jumping on the bitchin bandwagon and tearing someone to shreds. The original complaint seemed valid, Kerrie even attempted to resolve the problem by addressing the writer's complaint, but it was too late. She, personally, got attacked and accused of stealing people's designs and there was no coming back from it. A small can of worms got opened and turned into a giant frenzy of bashing by people that were looking for someone to bash. Are we that frustrated in our own lives that it's pure entertainment to look for an opportunity that may not even apply to us and use it to gain some form of relief or reprieve from our own real problems? While it seems Kerrie and others involved with MK will carry on with new ventures and get thru this relatively unscathed, is it fair to the rest of us, who enjoyed this magazine, submitted designs AND properly got paid for them, to completely lose this as a resource for current, stylish and more importantly FREE patterns? It just so happens the Frida wrap I'm working on is a MagKnits pattern, and fortunately for me, I have several printed copies of this, so I'll be able to finish this project without any trouble. I don't have any hard feelings for the people of MK for pulling the plug on the archives, it seems that couldn't be helped. But do the bitchers realize how much they may have inconvenienced those knitters that were counting on those archives for future projects? Was it worth it to them? Do they even care, or have they moved on in search of their next bitchin bandwagon to hop a ride on? This got longer than I intended, but it really saddens me when people can't find the good in something and have to amplify the negative, even if it doesn't directly impact their lives. To bitch just for the sake of bitching. Very sad.
Well, I need to find something positive to think about now, so I'm going to fondle my stash and dream of future projects and hope I already have the patterns printed for the stuff in my queue.
Take care, enjoy the weekend!
I have managed to finish a few things lately though. I finished the felted clogs I was making for a friend and popped them in the mail today. Hopefully they fit! Also I made another hat for the SO, the fair isle one that he loved so much. I made some mods to the pattern including making it smaller and making the hem longer inside to cover the stranding. Of course it's probably too warm for him to fully test it but if we get the weather they're calling for this weekend he may get a few wears out of it yet. Also the toddler sundress I was test knitting has been done, I just need to get it ON my niece to take some pics.
I played around with making a mohair wrap on my knitting machine, but frogged it (gotta love frogging mohair) to make it longer and somewhat narrower. I think I have it mapped out in my head how I want/need to do it this time, including incorporating a type of ribbing along the longer edges to prevent rolling and I will throw in some beads for added interest. I just need to sit down in front of the dang thing and crank it out again.
I'm also working on a wrap from my Autumn Colors handspun. It's the Frida poncho pattern and like others have done on Ravelry I am bypassing the poncho portion of the pattern and knitting the main panel longer in order to have a wrap. I'm going to New York in a few weeks and I want to have a couple of different wraps to tuck in my bag as we will be attending the theater twice while we're there. This should be a very exciting trip and can't wait to share pics of all the great sights we saw!
My lovely daughter recently proclaimed "I have nothing to knit" so I promptly fished in my stash, found her some sock yarn and a pattern and she is merrily knitting along on a pair of socks, for me, that I have not taken the time to make myself. How lucky am I?
On the work front, lately it has seemed that my company is caught up in some kind of Bermuda Triangle of the utility companies. Between having water issues, and being grossly overcharged for gas AND water, and having intermittent phone and internet services, it's amazing that anything can be accomplished with my regular duties. In the last several months, for our phone and internet service we have lost service TWICE because idiots have dug up the buried cables and cut them to sell for the copper. I did learn recently that they caught ONE idiot, because he had a fire pit in his back yard and was melting the plastic off the wires and a neighbor called in to report a fire/smoke. TWO times our phones got knocked out because delivery trucks ripped our wires off the pole when they were making deliveries to our neighboring party store. And now another problem is some sign was partly demolished by another truck making a delivery and pieces of the broken sign were rubbing against the wires causing sporadic service. Will this ever end? At what point does this become ridiculous and we say enough is enough. In light of all the wonderful things going on in THE CITY as it is, it's no wonder that all public services are in the shitter! Had less time been spent on say, text messages and more on actually improving the city, we wouldn't be where we are today.
I don't mean to complain, this is not what I like to use this blog for, but sometimes I just have to vent.
Also, in the name of venting, isn't it a shame that MagKnits just shut down? I am really sad to see this free publication just GONE. The pattern archives simply vanished and there is nothing left of that site. Was this because of uncontrolled slamming of the magazine on Ravelry? Who knows. It's just a shame that someone can't post about a legitimate problem without countless people jumping on the bitchin bandwagon and tearing someone to shreds. The original complaint seemed valid, Kerrie even attempted to resolve the problem by addressing the writer's complaint, but it was too late. She, personally, got attacked and accused of stealing people's designs and there was no coming back from it. A small can of worms got opened and turned into a giant frenzy of bashing by people that were looking for someone to bash. Are we that frustrated in our own lives that it's pure entertainment to look for an opportunity that may not even apply to us and use it to gain some form of relief or reprieve from our own real problems? While it seems Kerrie and others involved with MK will carry on with new ventures and get thru this relatively unscathed, is it fair to the rest of us, who enjoyed this magazine, submitted designs AND properly got paid for them, to completely lose this as a resource for current, stylish and more importantly FREE patterns? It just so happens the Frida wrap I'm working on is a MagKnits pattern, and fortunately for me, I have several printed copies of this, so I'll be able to finish this project without any trouble. I don't have any hard feelings for the people of MK for pulling the plug on the archives, it seems that couldn't be helped. But do the bitchers realize how much they may have inconvenienced those knitters that were counting on those archives for future projects? Was it worth it to them? Do they even care, or have they moved on in search of their next bitchin bandwagon to hop a ride on? This got longer than I intended, but it really saddens me when people can't find the good in something and have to amplify the negative, even if it doesn't directly impact their lives. To bitch just for the sake of bitching. Very sad.
Well, I need to find something positive to think about now, so I'm going to fondle my stash and dream of future projects and hope I already have the patterns printed for the stuff in my queue.
Take care, enjoy the weekend!
Labels: Felted clogs, Hats, Machine Knitting, Ravelry
Friday, December 07, 2007
Is it summer yet?
I think we got spoiled by the really mild temps for so long, and my body seems completely unwilling to adjust to the colder temperatures. I'm the type of person that starts wearing long johns and dressing in layers about October, that way by the time December rolls around I've acclimated. It isn't working this time. I constantly find myself cold and I HATE to be cold. We either better get a heckuva lotta snow soon to justify these cold temps or we better just zip forward to spring, toot sweet!
I've been MIA for a little while. I haven't updated my blog or Ravelry. I've been knitting, some, but life has been a little hectic these past few weeks. DD is in a play at school, which is this weekend and we're getting down to the final hour. I'm very excited to see the production, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It sounds like it will be very entertaining, not to mention really funny. I had to give DD a lesson in makeup, since she takes after me at that age (12) and she's not really a girly girl. In fact she's a little bummed about one aspect of the show and that is she has to wear some hideous DRESS! Totally uncool by her standards. I've already been instructed that there are to be no pictures of her in said hideous dress. We'll see.
Anyway. I've been knitting. I've got 2 pairs of socks going and still plugging along on the Touch Me gloves, although not as diligently as I should. Winter is here, and I'm sure my friend would love to give them to her daughter, while the weather is relevant. They probably won't be that well received in say, May. I need to kick myself in the butt and get moving on them. Also I've been doing some knitting on my Ultimate Sweater Machine. I made a felted laptop bag, and have decided it needs a flap. No problem, I can whip out 40 or so rows in almost no time. I just made a baby blanket out of some Joann's Rainbow Boucle, and have only to finish the edges off. I'm thinking of an i-cord edging, to keep the edges from rolling. It's 4 feet long and it really only took me 2 evenings to do 48" of stockinette. I promise to take pictures of all my WIP's very soon. I'm sure after the final show on Sunday, life will return to somewhat normal. Whatever that means.
That's all for now. It's after midnight and we have to get up early since DD is supposed to arrive at school by 7 a.m. in full makeup for a final dress rehearsal to be performed in front of the entire student body. Of course it's supposed to snow like mad, so wish me luck that we actually make it there in one piece.
Take care, and stay tuned for real knitting content!
I've been MIA for a little while. I haven't updated my blog or Ravelry. I've been knitting, some, but life has been a little hectic these past few weeks. DD is in a play at school, which is this weekend and we're getting down to the final hour. I'm very excited to see the production, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It sounds like it will be very entertaining, not to mention really funny. I had to give DD a lesson in makeup, since she takes after me at that age (12) and she's not really a girly girl. In fact she's a little bummed about one aspect of the show and that is she has to wear some hideous DRESS! Totally uncool by her standards. I've already been instructed that there are to be no pictures of her in said hideous dress. We'll see.
Anyway. I've been knitting. I've got 2 pairs of socks going and still plugging along on the Touch Me gloves, although not as diligently as I should. Winter is here, and I'm sure my friend would love to give them to her daughter, while the weather is relevant. They probably won't be that well received in say, May. I need to kick myself in the butt and get moving on them. Also I've been doing some knitting on my Ultimate Sweater Machine. I made a felted laptop bag, and have decided it needs a flap. No problem, I can whip out 40 or so rows in almost no time. I just made a baby blanket out of some Joann's Rainbow Boucle, and have only to finish the edges off. I'm thinking of an i-cord edging, to keep the edges from rolling. It's 4 feet long and it really only took me 2 evenings to do 48" of stockinette. I promise to take pictures of all my WIP's very soon. I'm sure after the final show on Sunday, life will return to somewhat normal. Whatever that means.
That's all for now. It's after midnight and we have to get up early since DD is supposed to arrive at school by 7 a.m. in full makeup for a final dress rehearsal to be performed in front of the entire student body. Of course it's supposed to snow like mad, so wish me luck that we actually make it there in one piece.
Take care, and stay tuned for real knitting content!
Labels: Machine Knitting, School play, Touch Me gloves
