PS: I love PINK!

March 21, 2006 By

Who knew?! I’m not a girly girl by any stretch of the imagination. I wear comfortable shoes. I don’t wear make-up. I really couldn’t care less about my clothes as long as they aren’t binding and don’t make me look much fatter than I already am. The only thing I spend money on appearance wise is my hair, which I cut and color regularly and have for years.

So what’s the fascination with PINK? I don’t know but I’ve been loving it lately. I have a few pink shirts and a great pair of pink courderoys that I love to wear and lots of pink in my socks.

You can imagine how happy I am with this month’s Project Spectrum color. SO. HAPPY. I told you all how I was going to use this particular a-long to concentrate on my spinning and man am I glad I did! I was sort of in a panic and didn’t get my roving in time for the start of the month, but I’m making up for it now. I called my favorite intrepid dyer, Tina, and asked her to bail me out. She sent me 8oz of HOT FLASH Biffle (and I’ve got another 8oz on the way!)

Oh my god this stuff is GORGEOUS! (Photographing it, though, is very difficult. Reds and pinks by extension get very very constrasty and your exposure has to be spot on and even then lightening or darkening even a little bit is very difficult and the colors never seem true. This is the best I could do.) Predrafting it has been a DREAM.

On the left is a third of the big hank. Then split in two. Then the final draft of the middle strand. Predrafting, it turns out, is key to spinning, thank you very much. Essential. This was by far the best spinning experience I’ve had so far. My last attempts taught me much about tension and the revolutions of the wheel and spin and this time out I paid very close attention to the feel of the yarn beneath my fingers. I set the drive band on the second whorl and therefore was able to treadle at my usual slow-ish pace but still get a really nice spin to the yarn. I felt the spin travel down the fiber under my fingertips and for the first time I think I really, really got it.

I made yarn. Every now and again I did the Claudia test and pulled it out from the bobbin to test it’s sturdiness. Yup. I made yarn. I’d like to think that 99% of this bobbin is actual yarn and will not pull apart when I go to ply it. I now know that in all my previous attempts I was NOT getting enough spin on the wheel – therefore there wasn’t enough spin in the yarn. It was falling apart all over the place.

Besides figuring out what SPIN actually is in the yarn – feeling it – really feeling it for the first time it seemed, this Biffle drafts like freaking butter. This is the most even yarn I’ve spun. And even then I was deliberate about it – pulling it back if it was thin in places and breaking off and rejoining the fiber to thicken it up, or pulling it out and respinning thicker parts. I wasn’t successful all the time, but I tried to be conscious of what I was doing. And I think it shows.

I had the MOST FUN last night. Just a blast. Thanks Tina and thank you Lolly for the inspiration of Project Spectrum! Tina sent me some beautiful Red Biffle as well, but I don’t think I’ll be able to spin it up before the end of the month – especially since I’m going to try to get the whole pound of this pink stuff spun up. It’s too good! I ordered some batts from Grafton Fibers today for next month’s challenge too. I can’t wait!

Filed Under: Project Spectrum, Spin

To stripe or not to stripe….

March 21, 2006 By

It’s not the best, but I think it gives a good idea. What do you think?

Thanks to Urraca for the link to the picture!

Filed Under: Short Rows

Where Diamonds are STILL a Girl’s Best Friend

March 20, 2006 By

First, let’s get Short Rows news out of the way.

I joined three of the four raglan shoulder areas, as the pattern instructed, and now I’m at an impasse. The pattern says when knitting the collar to continue the stripe sequence for the front and back and the main color for the area over the sleeves. You know, because knitting a million short rows isn’t enough. When you’re so close to the end you need to add intarsia to the mix. Striped intarsia. Where the colors change every freaking row. Margene has told me a few times that I’m crazy and I should just knit the collar in the main color as a nice contrast but I was all like I’ve come this far I’m going to do the insane intarsia collar and guess what? I’m completely confused. The pattern says continue in the stripe sequence. Well, the stripe sequence for the back and the front is different. The back comes up higher than the front, duh, and while the teeny tiny tips at the raglan shaping on the front may match up with the back, the mini scoop doesn’t. So if I follow in the stripe sequence it’s all going to be off anyway. I’m thinking a solid collar is the way to go and then I don’t have to really think about it. (Ann had a brilliant suggestion – that I photoshop a solid collar onto the picture from the magazine. I was going to post it but the picture I have on my site is somehow corrupted and I can’t find another picture on the web and I can’t find the magazine either. Maybe tomorrow.) And the pattern also has you knitting in stockinette then switching to garter stitch then folding down the collar for a hem and the ends of the sleeves and bottom of the body are all in seed stitch. Should I knit the end of the collar in seed stitch to match? Since I’m doing it all in one color? It’s all kind of mute at this point because I don’t have a circular needle to work. I have to look because I should have one – I mean I have 5 different size 7 addi circulars in like 3 different lengths, it seems kind of ridiculous that I only have one 6. Oh and I pseudo tried it on. I think it will be fine – if anything it will be a bit short, but hopefully not. I’m not thinking about it anymore so as not to torture myself. That’s that – MOVING ON!

Black Diamond

I am so freaking EXCITED about this project!!! It’s going to be really, really hard to photograph, but I hope you can get a sense of it. You may remember that last summer I made the Diamond Fantasy Shawl from Sivia Harding. Possibly the most beautiful item I’ve ever knit, it sits on my couch, all laid out, in a place of honor. I just like to look at the perfect diamonds and crisp border points and well, I love it. I really do. Anyway, as soon as I finished it I was thinking about the NEXT one I would knit because it’s such an amazing pattern NOT to knit it again would be a sin and the idea I had was for a very elegant black shawl with beads at the center of each diamond! Completely and utterly impractical but oh my god it would be gorgeous! It was in the back of my mind all the time, and finally! An excuse to make it!

G and I were invited to a wedding at the end of April – it’s an old friend and one of those situations where even if I looked like Halle Berry I’d still feel a little bit ugly and self-conscious and fat. You know what I mean? So I’m thinking if I’m wrapped in handknit luxury I will feel a little bit better. And c’mon – who else there will have a fabulous handknit shawl? I’m thinking I’ll wear it with a simple little black dress – or even if I decide to go with a color – it will look fabulous.

The yarn is from Sundara and man is she a pleasure to work with! I sent her an email telling her about my project and what I wanted it to be and she gave me suggestions on color and yarn. This is her sport weight superwash merino dyed in an ULTRA black. Like blackblackblack. For that superfantastic black feel. I give Sundara three thumbs up for service and product and expecially her enthusiasm for MY project. She’s a great cheerleader. Kay helped me pick out my beads last week. All together they seem like a nice gunmetal color that would compliment the black, without being too bright against it. Perfect! Ends up the beads are actually transluscent and when I stopped into another bead store looking to see if I could find anything else, the guy there told me that my beads are actually glass – not seed beads like I thought. In retrospect, it may be the shape that makes them not seed beads, not the glass.) I think they are the bomb!

I’m putting a bead at the second stitch in from the end on the row before you bind off for the points on the border, and I’m putting one on the stitch you slip in the s1-k2tog-psso sequence that lands you square in the middle of the diamond. The beads end up being a bit off the right of center, but they’re all in the same place and when it’s all blocked out and gorgeous all you’ll see is beauty, not wonkiness. I’m already three repeats in – I absolutely ADORE this pattern. I would encourage everyone and anyone to make it – it’s not that difficult at all – and use stitch markers! They make things a lot easier!

Oh yeah and I got a package from the girls at Blue Moon. Click on the extended entry if you want a peak. 😉

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Filed Under: BDFS, Short Rows

I’m looking over a Four Leaf Clover….

March 17, 2006 By

Can I just tell you? I’m so NOT a fan of St. Patrick’s Day. There isn’t an ounce of irish blood in me or my husband, I’m not a drinker, and I’m not so into green. Add to that I used to live on the same block as McSorley’s, where people would literally line up around the block to get in on St. Pat’s Day. The street would be lined with Porta-Potties and still there was a river of puke and piss. I also worked a few blocks from Fifth Avenue in the 50s (around the corner from St. Patrick’s Cathedral) for many years and basically you couldn’t leave the office on March 17th. BUT today. Well today I am as Irish as they come. All for my friend Vicki! She sent out the bat signal yesterday and I’m here to respond. It’s been a tough month over at Vick’s and I want you all to go on over and wish her brother Michael a happy birthday and send a big ol’ pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for him. He’s got some surgery going on today and all my wishes and hopes and prayers are with the Knitorious family! I LOVE YOU VICKI! (And don’t forget – tell Vicki and Ann congrats on their YEAR QUIT DATE!!!! I’m so PROUD of both of them! YAY!)

What’s that you ask? Why I’d be happy to tell you!

You know, I thought I was the proudest ever when I completed the first back of Short Rows. Then I thought I was the TOTAL SHIT when I finished REKNITTING the back because of gauge issues and FINISHED the front. When I finished the sleeves, well, let me tell you baby it was going to be all ends all the time at Chez January One. Yeah. Right.

NOTHING. None of my other knitting accomplishments, with this project, or any other project, prepared me for the elation I felt when I did this:

I DID IT!!!! I WOVE IN EVERY SINGLE FREAKING END! Now, in case you’re not suitably impressed, we’re talking 1,472,039 ends. Literally. That is no exaggeration. Want a reminder?


Click to see it bigger so you can actually count the ends.

Yeah. I thought so. I’m SO HAPPY I didn’t take any shortcuts! I’m so freaking happy. Who cares if I never sew it up and give it a collar and ever wear it. I WOVE IN THE ENDS! Sigh. It’s the little things in life, right?

Don’t worry all you short row freaks out there. I will sew it up and I will knit the collar and I will wear it. Although I have to say I’m really really really nervous about it. I mean, what if I put it on and it doesn’t fit? Or I put it on and someone splashes spaghetti sauce on me? Or I just eat normally and get crap all over it? What if I sweat in it (I’m a bad perspirer) and I get all kinds of deodorant stains on it and then it’s ruined forever? What if it doesn’t ohmygod fit? So see, if I procrastinate a little bit it’s only because I’m afraid that if I actually finish it I might have to wear it and then I might ruin it and it’s been a year since I started this and it will be my greatest knitting accomplishment and is that pathetic because maybe this project isn’t as great I thought it once was and it’s like a pullover with some stripes easy peasy and who will care? And what if it doesn’t FUCKING FIT?

Filed Under: Life, Short Rows

Closer…closer….

March 16, 2006 By

If all goes as planned, the blocking rug will be out tonight. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. Jinx buy me a beer.

Want to see what we had for dinner last night?

Yeah. Delicious! We order from this place once a week and without fail, if the owner guy answers, the order gets screwed up somehow. WITHOUT FAIL. It’s very strange. Anyone else and the order is delivered fast, hot and yummy. This guy? Not so much. So we were prepared for the slop that greeted us at the door. No worries – they delivered a new one ASAP and wanted the old one back. Good thing I snapped a picture before hand.

Pizza is my transition home meal. When I told G I wanted pizza for dinner he was like of course you do – in a very nice way. Apparently I always have pizza my first dinner home from being away. Maybe because it’s easy and I usually have leftovers for lunch the next day? Maybe because pizza outside of the NYC metro area sucks ass? Hmmm. Not sure, but he’s right. You can never go wrong with pizza. Ever never.

So I’m back home but my home is driving me crazy. It’s actually kind of depressing. We’ve been living in squalor (as we like to say affectionately) and it has to end. Last night G came home to find me crawling around on the floor picking up all the trash. Do you do this? Whenever I’m switching bags or the crap in my current bag gets to be too much I dump it on the carpet and start over. I’m usually running out of the house at the time and can’t sit and go through everything so on the floor it goes. And I can’t just dump it over the trash because there are receipts I need to keep in there. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. So I was crawling around trolling for trash making neat little piles everywhere of things that don’t get thrown out. And finding stitchmarkers. And yarn. Everywhere. I was also procrastinating because I have work to do. I’m out of the work loop so I don’t feel like doing it and yet it needs to be done because another job is coming this weekend. I’m grateful for work – don’t get me wrong – but there are so many things to help me procrastinate! I’m trying to look at it in a glass half full kind of way. At least I picked up the trash on the floor, right?

Today I’m going to get shrunk and then meet the FAMOUS AUTHOR Kay to buy some stuff I need for a new project. I’m SO excited about this project! So excited! But you’ll have to wait. Hopefully not too long as I’m waiting with you, but soon my pretties. Very, very soon.

Have a great day!

Filed Under: Life, Short Rows

Dosh…or…Jonna…anything but RONNA!

March 15, 2006 By

Have I mentioned how much I love my DVR? I mean really really really really really love it? I’ve have just wound and rewound and re-freaking-round the KISS!!!! OH MY GOD FINALLY MY FANTASIES HAVE BEEN FULFILLED!

And while I’m on the subject of TV, can I just say that THIS is the way a series is supposed to end? Everyone wants Josh and Donna together, so now that the series is ending, we can put them together. And they can ride off into the sunset. UNLIKE Gilmore Girls – that show should’ve ended with Luke and Lorelei kissing and Kirk running out of the inn naked. C’mon. You SO know what I’m talking about. And you know I’m right.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Frantic

March 15, 2006 By

Hi! Let me introduce myself. My name is Cara and I used to blog. A lot. Oh god how I miss it. I’m home again folks and I can only hope you missed me as much as I’ve missed you. And miss you I did! I’m SO out of the loop. I forgot not one but TWO birthdays: two of my best blog buds Margene and Wendy. How awful am I? I pride myself on being an excellent friend – I work hard at it – and I totally dropped the ball. So much so Margene sent ME a present for HER birthday! How ridiculous is she and how much do I suck?

Bunnycrack from Kim! Awesome, no? That Margene. She rocks. Happy happy birthday to you! And a FANTABULOUS birthday to the BOOKISH Girl! Sorry guys. Next year I’ll do better. I promise.

So G and I had our homecoming last year night (But oh man it felt like a year! Being at my sister’s – no matter how much I love her, the kids, spending time with them – is NOT a vacation. I work hard. This time there was lots of work and lots of sick so I’m happy to be home.) and it wasn’t what I had anticipated to say the least. I’m on the train coming up from Philly and I get a call from G-Love. He had arrived home a couple of hours earlier and when he finally got home from the airport he realized a mistake had been made! Right out of our favorite movie, G had picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport!!!! Now, before you start snickering and think to yourself WOW! She bagged a winner! I saw the suitcase he picked up and it was identical to his bag. And to make matters worse, the bag itself is very different and easily identifiable. Georgie is the last person on earth (I guess, now, one of two) to NOT have a roller bag. Know what I’m talking about? He carries a soft suitcase (not a duffel) and it’s got this bright orange/yellow trim and the word LUCAS on it. So here comes the same bag on the baggage carousel and right next to it – TOUCHING it – is his other bag. He was on the phone arguing with the car service guy about where to meet and I was ringing in on the other line and he just picked up his bags and left. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized he had the wrong bag. When he called me I was all like OH MY GOD it’s FRANTIC and what if there are drugs in the bag?! Apparently only an I-POD, ten pairs of sneakers and some condoms. Somebody had fun in Miami.

When G called me I was like no biggie – pick me up at the train station and we’ll head over to the airport. I always come into Newark Penn Station and the airport’s like ten minutes from there. One problem though – G flew into La Guardia. Nothing like a midnight run to LGA. While we were going through the tunnel we got a call from American Airlines informing us they had his bag. Whew. We got to the airport with a little detour (missed a sign) switched out bags and headed home. Thank god we made that little detour because we took the BQE home and there was like a ten mile back up going TOWARDS the airport. Which we would’ve been stuck in. Maybe until today. Sometimes there is such a thing as luck.

So we’re home. Safe and sound. I miss the kids terribly – I’ve spent A LOT of time with them this month and now they’re off on a fabulous family vacation. The baby and I had some great bonding time. As sad as it is, it’s a great ego boost when the little guy cries every time you’re out of his line of sight. Awwww.

Knitting was sporadic. I found that weaving in ends on Short Rows was a great nap filler. I’m almost done, believe it or not. I have another new goal for this sweater – I want it done by Passover. And I have a FANASTIC new project on the horizon – details later in the week I hope. I need it for an event at the end of April so I have to start it soon, but it’s something I’ve been dreaming about for awhile and I think it will be phenomenal if I can pull it off.

Socks, socks, socks! I finished a jaywalker and cast on for a mate (not this sock’s mate – but you know how I like to switch socks up.) And the embossed leaves saga continues!

Looks like I haven’t made any progress, doesn’t it? Uh uh uh! Looks can be deceiving! No sillies! It’s not the second sock or anything as ambitious as that – it’s still the first sock. Only a brand new incarnation! I got to the turning of the heel, believe it or not, and decided it wasn’t right. I had done about 15 rows of ribbing and the 3.5 pattern repeats called for and, well, it looked short. So I ripped back to row 12 of ribbing and started knitting the pattern on size 2 Addis. I continued on 2s for two repeats, then switched to 1s. Right now I’ve got about 3.5 repeats done and I’m planning on doing 4.5 and then starting the heel. Everything’s going along pretty well now. I’m happy with it.

Anyway. I’m back. And I hope to be back for good – for a while at least. There’s still a lot of running around this month and now it’s extending into April and May but, it’s okay. I’ll deal.

Hope you’re having a GREAT day!
L, C

Filed Under: Embossed Leaves Socks, Jaywalkers, Life, Socks

E is for

March 10, 2006 By

Eggs

G was such a sport for this photoshoot – I sent him out find me some roe. The yellow is whitefish roe in its natural state and the red is whitefish roe colored with beets and saffron. YAY G! Otherwise, I’m just playing around with the incredible edible egg.

Thanks for all the well wishes. I’m still not eating much but I slept good last night and I haven’t puked in a while. My stomach is not completely back to normal and the cold I originally thought I was getting is still working its way through me. Tomorrow I’m back at my sister’s until Tuesday. This month I feel like I will barely be home – G’s traveling a lot which means I’m traveling a lot. I hate to sleep alone. I’m by myself all day long, mostly, and I just can’t stand to extend that to the nights. I need company. So I go to my sister’s. But in a couple of weeks G goes away again and my sister will be on vacation so I have to find somewhere else to stay. Luckily I’ve got great friends who are more than willing to take me in.

Have a great weekend!
L, C

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Filed Under: ABC-a-long, Photographs

I’ve ruined Junior Caramels forever….

March 9, 2006 By

Sigh. The love affair is over and it’s all my fault. Let me announce to friend and foe alike: I AM AN ASS. That’s about as plain as I can state it.

So I was down at my sister’s helping out – she has a big project to finish up which is kind of impossible with an eleven month old who can now climb the stairs. On Monday, when all three kids were home, she got some kind of stomach virus. It lasted a day – literally – but she felt like crap and I tried to help as best I could. I feel like I didn’t do enough though. The big(ger) kids went to school Tuesday and Wednesday and I was on baby patrol. Tuesday night I started to feel like I was getting a cold – scratchy throat, start of a runny nose – Wednesday I felt kind of crappy all day and I went home Wednesday night. I started to feel nauseated five minutes before we left for the train station – but then it went away on the train so I thought I was okay. G and I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought all kinds of stuff completely inappropriate for a stomach virus. Get home, find out Max threw up as soon as my sister got the kids in the door – his first time since a big kid. Completely freaked himself out. I’m still feeling okay stomach wise so I don’t eat any dinner but proceed to finish the box of Junior Caramels I left on my nightstand before I left.

Do I need to go on? Really?

At about 3AM we’re talking PuKeFeSt 2006. There is nothing, I repeat NOTHING, I hate more than throwing up. Control issues? Check. Throwing up equals complete loss of control? Check. Junior Caramels? Yeah. It will be a long, long, LONG time before I eat any more of those.

I’m not puking anymore, but I’m having really awful stomach pains that I can’t seem to make go away. G stayed home with me this morning, but he’s about to leave for the office, so I’m on my own. I hate being sick. If you sent an email and I didn’t get back to you, I’m so sorry. I’ve been computer-less for the week and now I don’t even feel like looking at the computer let alone reading anything on it. I hope you’re all feeling excellent. My advice for the day – if there’s any chance you might be sick – stay far away from your favorite candy. Learn from my mistakes.
Thanks.
L, C

Filed Under: Life

I’d like to thank the Academy….

March 6, 2006 By

I’m blaming it on PMS, otherwise I’m a big ass cornball, but I totally lost it during Reese Witherspoon’s acceptance speech. She was so poised and beautiful and yet still retained her spunk. I feel like Ryan Phillipe isn’t good enough for her – you know? And despite myself I like George Clooney. He’s so Cary Grant, except not as effete.

Hi everybody! That’s from Max, my nephew. He’s sitting with me while I’m writing on my website. He wants to know when he can get his own website. We told him when he’s ten.

y y h,ugyhhm M,MNJMM. (That’s from Baby Eli! (Who’s actually a big boy these days crawling up the stairs and standing by himself!))

I ripped the Embossed Leaves socks and started them over. This time I did a regular long tail cast on and simple 1×1 rib and they’re so much better. The ribbing is nice and stretchy (on size 2 Addis) and I did the pattern on 1s, but it’s all good. Most people say the Koigu stretches a lot so I thought sticking with 1s on the cuff was the best move. I’ve gone through 2 repeats and it’s all good. I’m happy with them. It was the cast on and twisted knit ribbing that I didn’t like – way too tight.

Thanks for all the good wishes about this weekend. I go by the “imagine the absolute WORST possible thing to happen then be pleasantly surprised” way of life. A lot of the time it works great and this weekend was no exception. It’s still not an ideal situation – but it could be much, much worse. I’m down here until Thursday. I may be on everyday, but I may not. Thanks for reading. Pictures when I get back.

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous
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