“Mommy, did you cut your hand on a dog?” (referring to my now mostly healed dog bitten hands)

Knitting update:

Yesterday, Monday, was a super fun day for me. I went to Chris’s place to spend a lovely, peaceful afternoon knitting. She knits like the wind!! I finished the heel and got an inch done on the cuff, while she knitted 12 or 13 baby bibs (slight exaggeration). Muchly inspired me to practice up on Continental as soon as I finish Dickinson Pullover. The kitties were so beautiful in person and it was quite nice to see them in their natural habitat. Chaos didn’t appreciate the Aretha Franklin and Rolling Stones ringtones on my cell. I got to see the Mayhem/Goldfish fun, too. Mayhem reminded me so much of my beautiful kitty, Babu. Really made me miss having a cat that likes hanging out with us. We have a cat, he just never wants to hang out upstairs with us. Anyhoo, I was a very bad blogger and didn’t bring my camera or anything.

Dickinson Pullover : Front, back and now one sleeve finished. Second sleeve, sewing up, and neckline to do. This project has definitely reached the “when will it all be over stage?” I’ve got about 1.5 inches done on the second sleeve.

Jungle Juggle Socks: Heel turned on first sock. Half way up the cuff. Going slow, but the yarn is a total dream to knit with.

Forest Plains: No progress to report. I still need to skein up the formerly kinky yarn.

Sorry for the crappy knitting pics. It’s evening here, but if I’d waited for the good daylight, I’d never get anything posted.

Knitting night: Held at Cafe Bene in St. Paul and I had a blast. We discussed a group yarn crawl, saying how fun it would be for 10 of us to descend on several different stores just to see their faces. It was even funnier when Theresa suggested we all dress as zombies for the event. So, you know, if you see zombies invading your local yarn store, don’t be afraid. It’s only us. Actually, be afraid. After all, it’s us.

the Rock Star took him to Edinbourough Park this weekend and they had a ton of fun. Here’s a couple pics.

Knitting update:

Fetzensocks, started August 28th, 2007, finished October 9th, 2007
Pattern: Fetzensocks from the Sockamaniac Yahoo Group. I converted it to toe up and did my usual CTH toes and heels.
Yarn: Lisa Souza Pumpkin
Pattern Notes: The pattern itself was fine, but my ability to keep track of where I was, was horrible and I had to unknit rows several times. I just never got into a rhythm.

I’ve officially put the LFFCS/BOBA in hibernation. Since the broken cable incident, I haven’t had the heart to pick it up again.

Dickenson Pullover:

Finished the back:

Started the front:

You can see from this picture how far I’ve gotten on the front. Only about 3 more inches til the armhole/v-neck decreases.

New technique:
Taught myself how to cable without a cable needle. Wendy’s excellent instructions and pictures are here. I highly recommend this technique. So much faster and less fiddly.

Started:

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport Forest. Nothing fancy here, just a plain stockinette sock with my usual CTH toes and heels.

Socks done before I started blogging again:

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Gold Hill. Feather and Fan pattern from Wendy (link opens a pdf file). These have been sitting in my “need to change something pile” for a long time. The first sock I knit a plain stockinette rolled edge for the cuff and the second sock I did picot on the cuff. I like the picot better and kept meaning to go back, tear out the cuff on the first sock and redo in picot. Today I finally decided, I’m never going to get around to so fuck it. That’s why you can’t see the whole sock in pic. I covered the cuffs with my pants. Short row heels. Too snug, but wearable. I need gussets. Can’t remember how I did my toes, but I do know I knit these toe up. The feather and fan cuff is really pretty and I love it.

I bought the yarn on eBay. I love it. It’s soft and pink! A fun pink. A cheer me up pink. I’m wearing them right now and the happy pinkness of them is helping me survive this day. Toe up, short row heels. Don’t fit great, but are wearable and comfy. I’m not sure if they are superwash wool or not…I guess I’ll find out the first time I accidentally mix them in with the regular laundry.

New Yarn:

Knitpicks Panache, 12 skanks each of Coal (the Black) and Dusk (the Blue). Panache is being discontinued, so I snagged a bunch.

Friday night she was so bad off, I was absolutely sure I’d be taking her in to be euthanized on Saturday…but by Saturday morning she was doing better. She’s on a new pain medication, and it seems to be helping her a lot. She still can’t use the right back leg, but the left is doing it’s job better. It’s Sunday now, and she is as good as she was 2 weeks ago, which isn’t great, but better than she was last week…so, it’s not time to give her up yet. I know it’s coming soon, but I have some time left with her.

Today we worked on our 2006 taxes. Yup, we’re that far behind…but I took a chunk out of what needed to be done.

Later in the day, I drove the Boy with me to drop off a doggie and to pick up some cat litter and dog treats. He fell asleep in the car so I got about an hour of knitting in. Check this out:

See the rain on the windshield? It was just pouring down. The rain sound was quite nice. I’d have preferred a big easy chair and a steaming mug of coffee…but it was still very nice.

Knitting. Hmmmm…look how much difference one needle size is making:

The one on the bottom is the one I’m knitting now. On top is the one that my gauge was off on. I’m actually feeling pretty glad I started over! I think this is going to be much nicer.

Same concept, different angle:

Notice the helping hands. That photo is the last one of my handy little tape measure before it was heinously tortured to death by those “adorable” little hands. This supposedly sweet little boy did wantonly and viciously stretch that innocent tape measure so far out of its container that it broke, and now won’t go back in. *sad* It’s a horrible thing when toddlers go bad.

I’m sure I’m breaking some cardinal rule of knitting, but frogging the 17 inches and rewinding the yarn made me feel pukey, so I’m just knitting right off the dead part. I cast on directly from the part I’m ripping out and just frog as I knit. It sits in my lap and my knitting bag so nicely.

Do-overs are a bitch.

Our neighbor gave the Boy a pumpkin. Do you think he likes it much?

I think I may have to start all over on my Dickenson Pullover. I did knit the gauge swatch, but figured it was ok when it came out a quarter to a half inch to short. I was anxious to start knitting, so I told myself the sweater would be a bit snugger than on the model, and that’d be ok. Well, snugger IS ok, but it’s turning out to be quite form-fitting. My unblocked, unstretched work so far measures about 16 in. across. Extrapolating from that, the whole sweater will be only about 32 inches around. My bust is 38 inches and my waist is 34. Unless, I stretch/block it out wide every time I wash it…it’ll be quite snug. Snug can be good, but clearly this sweater is designed to be loose fitting.

I’m so stuck. I’m sort of having a hard time facing facts that I’ll have to start over. And it hurts to have wasted an entire weekend of knitting. Especially because I should have taken my time and knit the swatch a few times with different size needles, doing it right from the start. *sigh* Moral support will be muchly appreciated.

The second Fetzensock is coming along nicely. I’m past the heel and working on the cuff, so it won’t be long til these socks are ready for the fork! Next socks? Dunno. I have some Wollmeise (Lowenzahn) coming from The Loopy Ewe. I’m desperate to knit Bellatrix…but I’m holding out for Wollmeise Poison #5. It’s hard to get a hold of, but I have patience…wait a minute…no I don’t!!

Did I ever show you my Clapotis? I finished it more than a year ago when I wasn’t blogging so it never made it up here til now.

Brooks Farm Fourplay in Varsity. It’s yummy!!!

After the roaring campfire turned to coals, we put a couple racks of ribs on. mmmmm, I just love ribs for dinner when we’re camping. We let the Boy set his own bedtime on camping trips. Whenever he’s sleepy enough, he just lets us know and we help him get snuggled into his sleeping bag. This time the Rock Star had purchased a new pad for my sleeping bag. It’s about twice as thick as the thermarest I’ve been using. It was super comfy but Ididn’t sleep all that well, cuz the meds I left behind were my sleeping pills. The next night I slept like a rock, though.

Boy Pics:

I knit every possible moment. I absolutely love knitting by firelight. I have a very nice headlamp called a Petzl. It works great!! I always bring a supply of charged up rechargeable batteries and between that and the firelight, and even a bit of help from the nearly full moon, I can see just fine for knitting.

I worked on the Dickenson Pullover the entire weekend. I got about 12 inches of the back done. It’s turning out great!! But. There’s always a but. My gauge is way off, so the sweater is knitting up small. I’m actually ok with that. It’s big and baggy on the model, and I think I’ll like it closer to form fitting. This is my first serious cable project. At first I had a hard time figuring out how to keep track of all the different pattern repeats, but once I figured it out it was easy. The work is immensely satisfying!

Here’s what I have so far:

That color isn’t really accurate, but it was the nicest picture. Here’s one of the main cable section:

Here’s me eating breakfast, notice the knitting bag within reach:

I’ve gotten to the gusset increases in the second Fetzensock. I love this sock, but I don’t seem to be able to get in any sort of groove with the pattern. Seems like bout every 5 rounds I make a mistake and have to tink back.

We’re going camping this weekend. 2.5 hour drive to Sibley State Park and I’m hoping to get lots of knitting done.

the Boy is loving his big boy bed, but hasn’t exactly settled into the idea of SLEEPING in it. It’s more like a giant toy at this point, and the bedtime routine has been very much disrupted. I know if we stick to it, he’ll get used to it and go to sleep sooner than the 2 hours he’s been averaging all week.

We taught him how to say “You feel lucky, Punk?”. The effect is a bit diffused by the huge grin on his face! Music Class starts again tomorrow morning! He’s excited about that, plus the camping trip, plus breakfast with Curious George we have scheduled next weekend.

I’m volunteering in Al Franken for Senate office these days. I went last Thursday and helped fold a stuff a mailer. I go back again today (going to try for every Thursday)

That’s one done. and the second one is started. I got the toe and one whole pattern repeat done last night. I haven’t been enjoying this pattern as much as I thought I would. Not the pattern’s fault, though. It just doesn’t lend itself to to one or two rows at a time, and that’s really what happened with this sock until after the heel was turned. I kept losing my place in the pattern and was too stupid or lazy to get a sticky to mark my place on the chart when I was done for a session. Then when I’d come back, I’d try to figure out where I was, knit a round, realize I wasn’t where I thought I was, and have to tink back and do over. So, not the pattern’s fault.

My heart has really not been into the LFFCS/BOBA since the cable broke, I’ve yet to go back and repair that spot and continue on. I think if I could just bring myself to repair that spot, it would be a good time to just let it rest. My knitting desires have turned to warm sweaters and socks and hats. Fall is in the air!

I’ve been trying to do a gauge swatch for the Dickenson Pullover from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. I have that nice pile of Cascade 220 Heathers Blue for it. I’m completely confused as to what to do for the swatch and am plucking up my courage to post a question on Ravelry about it. Here’s what the pattern says about gauge.

21 stitches and 27 rows = 4 inches in 8-stitch textured pattern from chart on larger needles, after blocking & 62 stitches of 42-stitch center cable combined with 10-stitch rope cable on each side from chart measures 10″ wide on larger needles, after blocking

If anyone is reading this, and help me understand how many to cast on, what to knit, and how to measure it (count stitches per inch), I’d be very, very grateful.

1 tiny baby
2 tiny knitted booties

Fold baby into booties. Don’t shake or stir. Preheat your camera flash. Take pictures until the other coffee shop patrons start shooting you dirty looks. Serve warm. Makes 1 serving, 0 carbs, 0 calories.

This is a high smile, high squeee treat. Very rich, but you can never get enough.