Persistent Knitter

After acquiring all that neat stuff Saturday and having a nice relaxing knitting get together (Yay - I got to meet Ingrid in person finally! And she was wearing her Flashy Lace. Even better!) - the weekend just got worse. My new laptop? Gone. I returned it. I was using it Sunday, had email open and was playing Solitare of all things and it CRASHED. No damn reason. Bye-bye laptop. It was nice knowing you.

And that was my birthday present this year! *pout* Dearest Husband says I should just get a different brand, but at this point I’m fed up with the idea of having to reinstall all my stuff for the 3rd time, and hope another one works. The real kicker of the whole thing? I’m now the proud owner of a Windows XP Home disk, because despite the fact that I returned the laptop and everything that came with it, because god-forbid-I-used-the-OS-for-more-than-two-seconds, they are making me buy the damn OS. Whee. Maybe I can use it as a coaster. A coaster that I paid $109.99 for. GRRRRRRR.

Oh yeah, this should be about knitting…
So what did I do knitting wise? Well, I did some knitting on Hardangervidda Saturday. I did one DPN of knitting on the evil Summer Solstice socks Saturday morning. I started to swatch for the Borg last night too, but didn’t get very far. Something about Hardangervidda must not like me. I checked my gauge again. *sigh*. (Did I mention I was grumpy?) I’m now getting 6.5 st/inch. (Pattern calls for 6/inch in case you weren’t following along)

insert picture of me running away screaming now

The sleeve looks lovely. It’s making a beautiful fabric, and the sleeve is fitting the intended arm perfectly. The problem is I don’t have enough yarn for a tighter gauge than what the pattern calls for. I didn’t take a picture of it yet because I was too depressed/upset/annoyed/you-name-it. So I took a step back. Being curious as to why the sleeve was fitting so well when the gauge was tighter, I remeasured DH. (and my daughter, because she thinks it really fun to be measured. She’s 36″ tall and her head circumference is 20″ in case you were curious) My wonderful husband has the chest/shoulders of an XL man, and his arms are a bit … shorter than the XL size for this sweater. That was why the first sleeve attempt looked so silly on him so soon (plus my gauge was also off the other direction). He doesn’t look out of proportion, but that’s what the measurements tell me! (He asked if he should start working out so his arms were beefier) Given that this is a drop shoulder (which actually makes things easier), I need to replan what size I’m making. I still need to do the body for the XL, but will do shorter sleeves, not really following the pattern in any one size. I’m tempted now to start the body (and rip the sleeve I already have) because I will want to know exactly how long to make the sleeves when I get up to the top, so I can insert the patterning in the right spot.

Meanwhile I’m going to play with colors for Ingeborg. I’m going to do my swatch in the round because I think it’ll be easier and more accurate if I actually decide to check my gauge. insert maniacal laughter here

Check out my new stuff:

The cones are my yarn for the Ingeborg knit-along. I’m going to be making the sweater for my mom, who just loves the color red. We picked out these colors while she was here visiting, but now that I have them I’m still undecided as to which color will be which part of the sweater. Originally I was thinking the bright red (on the left) would be the main color, the tan/grey (which actually is a bit more taupey than I thought from the shade card) the CC1, and the darker red the button band & hem.

Just looking at the colors together, I really like how the dark red and the taupe look together - I think that would be very striking! I don’t know how the brighter red would do as the button band then. Another option - doing a tone on tone using the dark red as the main color, the brighter red as the first contrasting color, and then the taupe or something else ???? as the button band. I have tons of the yarn, so I can swatch liberally to see what colors I like. Judy today suggested that I might want to use navy as the button band on one of the combinations. I actually have a small ball of that so I can try that out too.

I also picked up some really neat Cotton/Acrylic (75/25) yarn that I just love the colors in. The first one is shades of demin, the second one is a blue/green/light color combo. I don’t think the skein does it justice, so I’m going to knit it up and see what happens. I was thinking maybe a Rogue sweater for myself (once the belly recovers from having been invaded by growing another human being for 9 months), but am not sure I’ll like the color or the way the cotton will knit up. I got two skeins (two colors) to play around with.

Oh, and I’m sure you noticed the needles in the lower left of the picture. The are NOT for Hardangervidda! (although I could use them on the cuffs instead of the Pony Pearls I’ve already got). They are really for Ingeborg. I’m almost done with ball #1 (again!) in Hardangervidda… I’m staying on gauge, and swear I will NOT have to rip out again. :) Pictures of that tomorrow hopefully.

And other days you can’t. I haven’t done much knitting the past two days - I got a replacement laptop from the shop and am busy "exercising" it to see if it will really work. I have until Monday to decide to keep or return it for a full refund. If it gives me ANY problems, back it goes. So far so good, but I haven’t really done too much with it except install software. Next on the pile is actually knitting related - The Sole Solution, which I received as a gift a while ago, but haven’t really used much.

Hardangervidda is staying on gauge using DPNs. I inquired of Wendy how she does her sleeves when they are at the small part - and she uses circulars the whole way - all the way down to a 12" length. I might have to give 2 circs a try as I’m not doing any fair isle on this portion of the sleeve as it gets too big for DPNs, but not big enough for only one circular. Of course, that would mean — buying another needle! My other project - not much progress on the critter blanket. My knitting group meets on Saturday and I’m looking forward to some good knitting & social time.

A possible new project idea that is bouncing around in my head - a felted knitting bag. My current bag doesn’t have stiff enough sides, so it always squishes my projects somewhat when I put them away. This is a problem when I am using DPNs and the stitches slide off the ends! I do love the way it looks.. I made it out of some fabric I had leftover from making myself a windbreaker-style jacket in the late 80’s early 90’s, and some quilt fabric.

I’ve taken to carrying my project in a basket just like this one (mine has double handles, but no colors on it), but I get lots of "ooh what a nice picnic basket" from my less enlightened co-workers. Plus there is no lid, so if it rains or anything my project might get a bit damp on the way to/from the car.

Here’s the current state of my critter blanket:

The yarn splits easily (at least when crocheting) and I can’t say I love the way the color variations are coming out. Not my favorite project, but mindless, and I do really like the wavy edge. Which apparently is what I need to offset all the joy Hardangervidda is giving me lately.

This is a tablecloth I started forever ago. The pattern is for an oval pineapple tablecloth about 70″x something. I have never owned an oval table, I never really plan on owning an oval table - so I have no idea why I picked this pattern, except that it was pretty.

It uses white cotton string (SouthMaid brand I believe) which isn’t really very pleasant to crochet with. I probably don’t have enough yarn/string to finish it either, even if I were planning on finishing it. I think I either just gave all the leftover yarn/string to my mom or it’s all hiding in a box in my sewing room. I have also used this yarn/string for tying around the Turkey at the past few thanksgivings, and probably a few other non-crochet uses as well.

I told my friend Rebecca that I was thinking it’d be nice to do a tablecloth like this (not oval though) out of some really nice Pearl Cotton (cone form rather than annoying small ball form). She said it was the hormones, and I’ll get over it. I think she’s right.

Non-Crochet
I spent enough time on Hardangervidda today to put it back on 2.75mm DPNs. I was getting gauge fine with the DPNs, it’s only when I switched to the circular that my st/inch started going haywire. As a fun exercise, let’s see how many words we can make out of the letters in “Hardangervidda” (without rearranging any. Thanks for the idea, Jill!):

hard
danger
dang
id (for those who don’t know the definition: In Freudian theory, the division of the psyche that is totally unconscious and serves as the source of instinctual impulses and demands for immediate satisfaction of primitive needs.)
anger

Hmm… that’s all I could come up with without rearranging the letters. I’m sure if we allowed that we’d come up with lots more!

Hardangervidda. It’s a beautiful sweater. If I ever get that far!! I’m making progress on sleeve #1 - nearing the end of MC ball #1. So I’ve already ripped and switched needle size once. Once again, I measured my gauge. Guess what. No really - go ahead - guess! I’ll bet you can’t guess. I’m STILL too large on my gauge. According to the number of stitches I currently have (93), the sleeve end should measure 7.75″. Reality check - it measures 8.5″ if not a bit more. I’m getting closer to 5.5st/in now. Sometimes a bit closer to 6st/inch, but not quite. It’s obviously making a difference given the measurement of the end of the sleeve. I ripped the sleeve back this weekend (not as far as I did last time), and am going to either change needles again, or stick with the 2.75mm circular and do my decreases less often.

Surprises!
I had the best surprise this weekend. I went Sunday to go to my monthly spinning group - and my friend Rebecca had arranged to throw me a baby shower! I was totally clueless, and had NO idea until I walk into the room and see the cake, presents and food all laid out. A few people were there that aren’t spinners too, so that was a bit of a clue… it still took me a minute to figure it out.

Being a group of knitters as well as spinners, of course I got some fabulous hand knit baby sweaters! (In addition to the totally cute onsies and other items that are a prerequisite for these types of events). And I just have to share:

from Judy:

Aren’t the bear buttons on this one adorable? Judy is the queen of fair isle in our group, and I just love the colors she picked for it.

from Jenny:

Totally cute, made with Rowan Botany. This will be great for the spring/fallish weather.

and from my sneaky sneaky friend Rebecca (who arranged the surprise baby shower):

Look familiar? :) She told me she wanted the pattern I used for the snowflake sweater to make one for her son. She was very insistent that she wanted to work on it right away before my baby came, so I managed to get it done and a basic pattern put together. She had offered to “test” the pattern for me, and I was totally happy to oblige. Little did I know that she was actually making a sweater for my baby!!! What a totally sneaky person :). The hat is adapted from the Sprouts pattern at magknits, she added the border pattern onto it from the sweater.

Thank you to everyone who was there, it was so neat and wonderful of you to do this!

Shopping
Finally, I stopped by my LYS on Saturday and picked up this little gem (after exchanging and buying yet another needle for hardangervidda):

I had been toying with the idea of using crochet to make the critter blanket I bought yarn for. I learned to crochet when I was little and used to crochet fancy tablecloths out of cotton string with my mom, so crochet is a skill I have, but it’s kind of boring sometimes. This book was exactly what I was looking for. It’s a great little book - has pictures of everything, explaining all the “mysterious” crochet terms which I’ve forgotten over the years and has over 200+ patterns in it. I didn’t have any crochet books before, and I don’t know that I’ll need another now. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for basic information on crochet and needing a good stitch library for it.

I’m making good progress on the critter blanket, and will take a picture of it today or tonite for tomorrow’s entry. If you’re really lucky (and want to see it) I can drag out the tablecloth I started crocheting about 10 years ago and never finished, and I’ll show you that too.

The past few days I haven’t accomplished much. I’m almost done with the first ball of main color on Hardangervidda, but it’s pretty unexciting right now. I haven’t started my critter blanket yet (hopefully today!). In the bad news dept my new laptop is still crashing left and right and it’s very very very very irritating. I’m trying to decide how diplomatic I’ll be when I tell the shop I want to return it completely (even though it’s past the “7-day to return for full refund” dates).