Thursday, October 18, 2007

I Love Sivia Harding.

I mean, I really do. Love, love, love her lace designs.

So much that the newest one made me totally forget about all the angst regarding the white zephyr and the Mediterranean Lace Shawl.

And really, it suits so well, considering the fact that I was knitting her Faroese Peaks Shawl (for myself) while I was in labor with Toddler Boy.

(Ok, she's soooo going to think I'm stalking her now... but I'm really a nice little stalker... really... I am.) (Just kidding.)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

My Deck Has a Hole in it.

But at least it's not my roof.

Look what I woke up to this morning.

Hole in our deck

I would much rather have a hole in the deck than a hole in the roof.

Undamaged pedal car.

Fortunately, it missed the new (to us) pedal car.

Undamaged barbecue

And it missed the grill, which is under the roof line, just to give you an idea of how close it was to the house.

The really strange part is that, apparently, it didn't wake any of us when it fell.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Sarah's Pinwheel and My New Shawl

Flower Shawl

When everything goes pear-shaped, what should you do??? Cast on a new shawl for yourself, of course!! I started this one week ago today and I'm almost halfway through the repeats. It's the Flower Shawl from Elegance Knit 11 (Japanese knitting mag) and I'm working it up in Jaggerspun Maine Line 2/8, color Emerald, from the biggest yarn cake ever. Ana is a glutton for punishment so she wound my pound cones into gigantic yarn cakes. They're scary.

Sarah's new cardigan

Sarah's new cardigan

Also up are finished pictures of Sarah's new Pinwheel Sweater. These are FUN to do, especially in my own handspun. Gotta love that stuff. :)

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Mediterranean Lace Disaster

You'd think that I'd used up all of my bad knitting mojo with that felted jumper, now wouldn't you? Alas, that is not the case.



I have another disaster. I've been working on the Mediterranean Lace shawl on and off for a year for my mother.

I borrowed a friend's Gathering of Lace for the pattern and happily used the printed yarn requirements to order 1800yds of mini-coned zephyr, thinking I would have more than enough.

(The edition I was using called for 8 (200yd) skeins of Jamieson & Smith laceweight.)

Here's the kicker. After turning the corner on the first large segment, I started hitting lots of chart errors, so looked up the errata. I had noticed that I was going through yarn quickly, but thought that maybe that first section was just much larger than the "wings." Oh my. In the errata, I found out that the actual yarn requirements were FOUR TIMES what I had ordered.

(Actual yarn needed is 16 (360yd) skeins of Jamieson & Smith cobweb-weight.)

Gah. It's been a year, so no way am I going to try to match dye lots now.

There is no way I can salvage the original piece without tearing my hair out (I really don't want to turn it into a big rose-trellis triangle). So, instead, I need to figure out something I can knit with 1200-1800 yds of white zephyr without driving myself crazy. My mom likes the stole-shaped stuff the most, so I'm looking heavily at a madeira-based Japanese pattern.

Sorry for the novel, I just needed to unload a bit. Maybe another cup of tea will make the pain go away a little.....

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

It's Been A While (no pics)

I haven't blogged in a while because I'm a bit down.

LYS (local yarn shop) that I was really digging is now dissolved. Urgh. We were hoping to move our Sunday knitting marathons over there, but that's not going to happen now, so we still have to look for a new location.

Best friend, Renee', whose daughter Sophia is beloved by my daughter, is moving to Dallas at the end of the week. I'm taking the kids over to say goodbye this evening and am quite torn up about it.

I don't know how to write about being upset, really, so that's why this sounds so stilted.

Oh, yeah. And there's also the fact that my daughter has woken up (for the day) at 3am the last 2 mornings. Apparently, she inherited her mother's insomnia.

ETA: Good-bye went much better than I thought. Sophia, Skull-crusher (my mom gave Toddler-boy that nickname), and Pooka (can't really call her Toddlerette anymore) had a wonderful play-date this evening and Renee' and I gorged ourselves on Chinese take-out. No better cure for the blues than spicy, greasy food -- that and theatre candy (don't tell DH about the Junior Caramels in my knitting bag). I'm still feeling down, but I think I'll be ok now. ;)