Life begins at 40...but blogging stops??

It's not that I haven't finished anything.....quite the opposite. I have a lovely lace sweater to show, and socks, and tons of yarn, and a fab new book......but my blogging energy has been nil. Partially due to technical camera difficulties, but still. I think I am bogged down.....er, blogged down?

OK, so I have a little journaling to do. It can be done!! More tomorrow.....

The Big One

I turned 40 yesterday. 4-0. Check out knit and tonic for her post today, it pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole aging thing.

I don't feel a day over, say, 28. But isn't that what every forty-something says? The number just sounds so, so, big. As in, "a 40 year old Kent woman is missing tonight", or "the 40 year old mother of two was on her way to soccer practice when she disappeared...". I can't wrap my head around that number applying to ME. It's all very surreal.

One thing for sure, time marches on. No stopping it. Might as well enjoy the ride.

Anatomy and Physiology....

What is it about pinning out a sleeve for blocking that always reminds me of anatomy and physiology, where we had to pin out the edges of, say, a frog. Or worse. Really; the way you carefully uncurl the edges, then pin them to a mat...thankfully, no smell of formaldehyde. Anyway, here is the first sleeve, pinned and ready.

Meanwhile...

In between all the yarn-overs and ssk's required in my little lace lattice number I've been working on these. One bright beauty done, one to go!

Project Update

Here is a little update of project lacey lattice. One back and two fronts done! Please don't look for mistakes, yup, they are there, and they are staying. So there. Now on to the sleeves.....I just have to close my eyes and not think about the implications of sleeves, just do them.

I have the sweater pieces laid out on my "blocking rug". I got this idea ages ago from Bonne Marie and it has worked great for me. Love that I can roll it up when I'm done!

Bonehead moment

Aargh. So I am merrily working away on the second front of the Lacey lattice cardi. And watching an old BBC video (Inspector Morse...I'm a sucker for those old BBC mystery movies.) I get to the armhole decreases and think to myself "wow, I am really cranking, here. Almost done with the second front... *chortle chortle*". My next thought is "hmmm, but something isn't, well, quite right. Maybe I should count...." Egads. While I'm merrily doing the waist increases, I glibly forgot to do the neckline decreases. And there are a lot of them. Every 4 rows 16 times, to be exact. (How did I not notice that I had, oh, about 20 extra stitches on my needle? And I was drinking tea instead of wine. In fact, maybe that was part of the problem.) Did I mention that the lacey lattice design is a 12 row repeat? 6 inches of ripping, my friends. 6 inches. Not only that, but don't you love trying to put all the stitches of a lace pattern back on the needle, without dropping yarn-overs, etc.

Eye candy Friday

Ooh la la, lookie what I got for an early birthday gift. That's Alchemy Haiku plus one hand of their bamboo yarn......

I know, I should be showing off my latest progress on my Lacey lattice cardi, but I figured it could wait.

Portable knitting

As I plug away at the lacey lattice cardigan, I still need to have something portable to work on. I saw this BRIGHT yarn and had to have it. It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd sport, color 630 Bittersweet. My 6 y.o. daughter fell in love with the pink, purple and tangerine color combo. Actually, I also fell in love with the color combo. I was thinking how it would brighten up my humdrum-mommy jeans and clogs. So, I merrily cast on 56 stitches, the normal number if I'm working top down socks in sport weight yarn. I thought I would do a feather and fan design on the leg, a'la Wendy. So far, so good, very cute. Guess what? The leg is waaaay to small for me. Lucky 6 y.o. girl will get socks after all!!! That'll teach me to be so selfish....

Lacey lattice

Here is the project that I'm using the Aurora 8 for, from Vittadini Spring 2005. So far so good, except I h*te doing increases while trying to stay in pattern...apparently my shriveled brain can't handle that kind of concentration at 10pm each night after the last child has finally gone to bed! Fortunately, any small "imperfections" are pretty well hidden in the dark chocolately brown color I am using. That is my 3 y.o. son helping me stretch it out to measure!

Good things come in....the mail

Lookie what came in the mail a few days ago. Mmmmm, Karabella Aurora 8 from kpixie! Slated for a lacy cardi from Adrienne Vittadini, Spring 2005. I'll be starting this right away!

Of socks and Magazines...

Here they are, in all their sockiness. Plain vanilla cuff-down pattern, but the yarn makes them cute. AND (drum-roll please......), I can officially allow myself to start my Adrienne Vittadini lace cardi.
In other news, I picked up the new Rebecca magazine this week. Actually, my mom picked it up for me, bless her. But I must say, if I had seen it first, I probably wouldn't have purchased it. (OK, that is a big fat lie, because I am sick in the head and feel I have to purchase almost every new cool knitting publication, even if I am disappointed with the contents....). Which, by the way, I am. Disappointed, that is. There was maybe one design in the whole issue that turned my crank, a pullover with a cool stitch made out of GGH's new yarn called Tara. Otherwise, I looked through and thought "ugh, nothing." Rats.

When in doubt......

When in doubt about what to knit next, I make socks. OK, I went through a period of total sock-burnout. I made a toe-up sock out of light denim blue on size 1 needles, and then never had the chutzpah to make the second. Total second-sock-itis. But here I am, between projects, with a sock stash that is, well, embarassing, so I am making socks. I prefer the hourglass heel and toe, toe-up version as far as appearance and wearability. HOWEVER.....I find that I have to use my brain too much for this method, so with this pair I am doing the old top-down, heel flap version. The yard is some hand-dye yarn I picked up at my LYS, Renaissance Yarns. I am really liking this colorway, which has brown, dark brown, rust and some magenta thrown in. When this is done, I am on to, hold your breath now, an Adrienne Vittadini lace sweater. More to come on this.....

First FO of 2007!

Yay, Pinkie is finished! I actually really like how it turned out...perfect to wear as a workhorse in this SNOWY, ICY weather we are having in the PNW! The only changes I made were to make it one inch longer than the pattern said, and I had to decrease the number of stitches picked up around the neck by, wow, ten stitches. The first time I picked up the number the pattern asked for and it looked like a ridiculous stand-up boatneck thing. So I ripped it and tried again, and I think the results are good. Hooray, on to something new! But what? Hmmm, so many options....

Pinkie

Do you name your sweaters? I don't, as a rule. I often wish I could be that madly creative person that comes up with witty, clever names for their work. Generally, I refer to them as "that one pink sweater from Interweave Knits...you know the one?" Anyway, here is the progress on that particular sweater from Interweave Knits , Spring 2006.

Out with the old.....

Well, the first official project of 2007 has been officially scrapped. I was making a sweater with unusual construction....you knit it in one huge piece, then the fronts are crossed and invisibly seamed to the shoulders. This unsual construction is what kept me going...and going...and going....on what seemed liked miles of endless stockinette. (I tolerated it by doing lots of car knitting while on a Wintery family vaca...) Long story short, once I completed the sleeves, I found that they were WAY....TOO...SMALL. When I say small, I mean cut off the circulation to your wrists and forearms too small. I double-checked my guage (YES, I did do a swatch to start off with...) Looks like my already tight knitting tightened up some more. By a lot, as evidenced by said sleeves. So, here's the dilemma: do I frog and start again?? Can i just tell you, the thought of re-knitting all that stockinette makes me feel rather queasy. Currently, the project is stuffed in the bottom of a bag, out of sight.. What would you do?

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all, and a wonderful New Year!! See you in 2007!

Keeps getting better...

Heh heh....now how does 2 1/2 days without power sound? We've had a big storm in the PNW, lots of wind, lots of power lines down. Our family went without power for a couple of days, and luckily the kids thought it was an adventure. The second night we barbecued frozen pizza on our Weber grill, and then toasted marshmallows. Yum. But the cold and dark does get to you after a while, so were we ever glad when the power came back on. Unfortunately, my Mom and Dad still don't have power at their house, so they are camping with us. Kind of fun.....um....kind of. It comes with it's own type of adventure, you know?? I should be able to post some FO's in the next couple of days, though, now that my household is slowly re-entering the 21st century!

Technical difficulties

Say, have you ever had your hard drive crash? Suddenly? For no particular reason, with no particular warning? Yeah, me too. Replaced said hard drive, and gosh, all of my photos are, ahem, gone. Yes, I know, they should've been backed up somehow, burned to disc, etc. Guess what? Some of them were. Lots of them weren't. Guess I won't make that mistake again. So, as we reload stuff onto our computer, I'll need some time to get back into the loop, as it were.

Cutey-pie

Here she is, Miss Cutey-Pie. My first attempt at a knitted toy. My 6 y.o., on a LYS outing, picked out the book "Knitted Babes" by Claire Garland, and requested this little cutey. Aforementioned 6 y.o. rarely commits to wanting any knitting-type projects. She has a whole closet full of fabulous sweaters, but wears nary a one. So to fill this bizarre, DNA-driven maternal need to knit for my children, I agreed and knit up the dolly. I must say, it was fun to knit, and I even SEWED a dress for her, yes, uh huh, sewed. Better yet, my own little cutey-pie LOVES the doll!! Only downside? She is wondering when she gets "the brown doll, and the pink and red doll, and all her other friends?"

Next up

Here is the beginning of a sweater I started months ago.....a sort of "in between" project, meaning I work on it "in between" other things. Does that make sense? it is one of those projects that I don't have any real hurry to finish, so I work on it here and there between other things that I find more, um, exciting? Motivating? Nevertheless, a bit here and there adds up. I am doing this in Cascade 220, and the pattern is from Interweave Knits. It is sort of a modified gansey, and i actually really love the stitch pattern, it is called rice stitch, and it creates sort of a waffle-weave texture.