Dogs Steal Yarn

Button, button...

My wonderful mother has made me a button:

Handy to have a graphic designer in the family.

My dsl went down on Friday afternoon and I just got it back late this morning. I was surprised and a bit embarrassed by how cut off I felt without my email and web access. Yes, I can argue that as a freelancer who works from a home office, connectivity is essential. But it was SATURDAY. Was it really all that important that I be able to check my email on a Saturday when the sun was shining (and finally not in the awful oppressive manner of earlier in the week)? I could tell you I was just concerned with the connection still being down once the workweek started. And that would be true. Kinda. I think I need to make a pact with myself to keep the computer turned off for one day of each weekend. I don't want to be that dependent on it. I don't like the fact that I actually felt a bit anxious without it.

Perhaps I'll start small...like no computer before three pm. on Saturday, and work my way up to a whole day. I almost said work my way up to a whole weekend, but that made me a bit nervous--just the thought of typing it. I got along just fine in the pre-Web days, thank you very much. I think I need to get just a touch of that back.

Ugh

The heat...the heat...the humidity...the heat. My poor little window air conditioner is barely making a dent in it.

The thought of touching wool today is not appealing, so my brother's sweater goes off to the side until the heatwave breaks. I haven't cast back on for my mother's sweater body yet after the gauge fiasco of the other day. I'll probably do that tomorrow.

Today is for the tank I promised myself. I cast on for it and did a seed stitch hem (LOVE seed stitch) last night and am now all set to dive into the waist shaping. I'm doing it in black Cotton-Ease, which knits up fairly quickly, so I'm hoping to have a new tank to wear in a week or so. It was a long week of work and deadlines, so I'm looking forward to just sitting in front of the AC and knitting today.

Oh--and today is Alicia's 30th birthday. She'll get that red tank I made for her at her party tonight.

strangely unattractive legwarmers?

Nope. These are the sleeves for my enormously tall brother's enormously long sweater. When the boyfriend saw the two sleeves finished he said, "Uh oh, you forgot to put a stripe on one of them." Sigh. No, dear, I didn't forget. My brother will like the single band of gray, anyway. It will compliment a single band of gray on the body.

I've cast on for the body and only have 3 million or so rounds to go on it before I can join it up with the sleeves.

Potentially good news regarding my brother's unit in Iraq, but nothing I can talk about in public. Keep fingers crossed, please, and I promise to talk about it when I can.

well...

I found out this evening that I didn't get a book deal that I really really really wanted. This comes close on the heels of two other rejections. It's part of the process, the rejections. I know this. It still sucks. (I do have a book coming out next spring, but it's a Spanish phrase book--not exactly the book of this fiction writer's dreams. It's a job, though. Not complaining!)

To top it off, I had to take my mom's pullover off the needles tonight to rip back a few rounds to recapture a rogue stitch. No big deal. Except once it was off the circs and free to relax it opened up to about four inches wider than it should be to fit my tiny little mom. Yes, this happened with the tank top too. Yes I swatch. I really don't know how I've managed to make this mistake twice now. Only in cotton--I never make this kind of mistake in wool. Clearly it's a cotton industry conspiracy. Certainly not my math skills.

So I've frogged the whole 8 inches and will cast on again tomorrow. And the rejected story will go into a fresh envelope and out to another lit. mag. And the book idea that had me so excited...well, I'll keep working on it and hopefully my agent will find a home for it elsewhere. I mean, really...what other choice is there?

Here's some good news--the knitting circle meets here tomorrow night for yarn and pizza!

Welcome!

Well, here's the new webspace. Movable Type has been an absolute joy compared to Blogger. And to underline that point, Blogger has been down for two days so I haven't been able to post my moving notice. Typical.

Anyway, all's well that ends well etc. I'm excited about the new site. Will finally be able to post an FO gallery, among other things.

Not much knitting done this weekend, as I've been playing with this site design. Today though, back to my mom's pullover. I hope to get that done in the next two weeks.

Let me know what you think of the new site!

PS: There was no way to move the comments over, so they had to stay behind. Sorry! The old site will remain up for a while, so for now they can still be viewed there.

Yarny conquest number one: Embossed

Yarny conquest number one: Embossed twining vine leaf from Vogue Knitting:



It's not a square yet, but it wants to be. As soon as I add a bit to the sides to meet that 6" mark, I'll be blocking this baby and popping it in the mail to Becky for her swatching project.

I know, I know...red again. Well...it's the leftover Takhi cotton classic from the baby sweater I made last month. Not the greatest picture in the world, either. It looks better in person, I promise. :)

So as I started my

So as I started my swatch for Becky's swatch project (WONDERFUL idea), something occured to me. I have knitting books filled with stitches and techniques that intimidate the hell out of me. For no good reason. I mean...the worst that happens when you try something new is that you have to rip it out and try again. And eventually you get it. So what's so scary about a little bit of texture or color work?

The plan at the end of this great revelation? I'm going to use my odd ball stash to start to swatch like crazy. I'm going to work my way through every stitch and pattern and technique that scares me until I've conquered them all. Maybe impossible but worth a try, anyway. At the end I'll have a patchwork quilt of yarny conquest. Can't beat that. :)

Happy Monday, folks. It's a lovely day to try something that scares you for no good reason.

Ta Da!!! I present to

Ta Da!!! I present to you Finished Suki With Straps!:



So there's one project moved to the FO category. The question now is, what do I finish next? I've got so many WIPs piling up and so many planned projects waiting in the wings. I feel like I need to finish up a couple of the WIPs as soon as possible.

OK. I think I'll finish my brother's second sleeve today, then concentrate on my mom's 3/4 sleeve cotton fleece pullover until it's done. That makes sense, yes? Finish her warm-weather top as soon as possible? So that's the plan, then. And somewhere in there, I give myself permission to cast on for the tank I have planned for myself.

Okay...I'm amazed. Absolutely thrilled and

Okay...I'm amazed. Absolutely thrilled and amazed. Felting is magical, simple as that. I was less than crazy with my finished, pre-felted suki body. Well, it's been felted and now I absolutely love it. I still need to sew the straps on before I send pictures to Mare for the felt-along page and officially call it done, but here it is in all its strapless glory:



And here's the wonderful bottom, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE:



And here's a shot of the inside, which is cool as hell:

The whole felting process was interesting. Reading the instructions in the pattern, I expected it to be felted after 15 minutes in the washing machine. Not so. After the first wash it was stubbornly the same size. I decided to abuse it as an experiment, figuring if I destroyed it I could just make another. I ran it through again, and let it go through the full cycle, spin and all. It came out 8 inches smaller and seemed no worse for the spinning wear. It was too late to go for another round, but the bag was still bigger than I wanted. I let it dry overnight, then yesterday evening tossed it in for a full wash and spin again, then stuck it in the dryer for a half hour. What the hell, I figured. Well, maybe I broke some felting rules, but it worked out great for me. The bag started out at 27" deep. It's now 14" deep, a perfect size for me.

The body of my suki

The body of my suki is done. I like it but I don't love it. The color repetition worked out WAY better on paper than in yarn, and I'm really hoping it looks better when it's felted. I made the bottom bands narrower so it would form the bottom the way I wanted it. Here's the body:



And here's the bottom. I LOVE the bottom:



So basically I sacrificed the look of the body to have the bottom come out in lovely rings. A choice I might not make again. We'll see how it felts up before I make my final decision.

Then again, maybe I won't felt it at all. The boys of the house seem to really be enjoying Suki just the way she is. Here's what the boyfriend immediately did with it:



And Diego thought it was great to snuggle with.

With all the headaches I've

With all the headaches I've been having with my unreliable comments and blogger issues (sorry to anyone who's wanted to leave a comment and couldn't), I've decided to definitely switch over to Movable Type. I get free server space with my dsl service, so I guess time to take advantage of that. So as soon as I can get the site, or at least the blog page, built, I'll get that transferred over. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do a redirect to the new URL or not, since I'm hosted on blogspot now. We'll see how that goes.

In knitting news, the suki is progressing nicely. I'm on to the last full size band before I start the thinner bands of color that will form the concentric rings I want on the bottom. I might even be able to finish it during our knitting circle tonight. I'm on deadline today, though, so no knitting for me until this evening.

Suki is growing... I didn't

Suki is growing...


I didn't get as much done on it as I'd hoped to this weekend, but I hope to have it finished by the end of this week at the latest. I'm not sure if I'll be able to use the coin-op machines in the basement for proper felting, or if I'll have to schlep suki out to my mom's in Jersey.

In other suki news, Andrea is almost finished with hers. Just the strap and the felting await. Behold, the lovely guest suki:


Andrea is not only a member of my knitting circle, but also the woman responsible for passing the knitting bug along to me. You may recall her from earlier posts--the Typhoid Mary of Knitting. That's her official title. We're having a Miss America-style sash made for her.

I finally started my suki.

I finally started my suki. Here's the progress so far:

The band I'm working on now is a true red. For some reason my camera wanted it to be pink.

I've got a friend visiting from out of town this week. Actually, she's a fellow New Yorker who ran away to San Diego for grad school. I hadn't seen her since she moved out last summer so it's been fun to have her around. I taught her to knit the other night and she took to it right away. (Heh heh heh....the illness spreads...) We're heading over to Knitting Hands today to get her some yarn for her first project. I'm going to do my very best to not come home with any yarn for myself.

I don't need yarn. I don't need yarn. I don't need yarn....

I delayed the start of

I delayed the start of suki a bit longer because I was so very close to finishing this:



It's for my friend Alicia's birthday at the end of the month. She hasn't been given the url for this blog specifically so she wouldn't find out about this gift. As soon as I give it to her, I'll let her in on the blogging secret.

I tried to take a picture of me wearing it, but got all kinds of weirdness trying to take my own picture in the mirror. It doesn't fit me so well, anyway, since she's taller than me and less busty. I made the neckline nice and wide to show off her beautiful collarbones. I'll post a picture of her wearing it once I give it to her.

So now...on to suki!!!

PS: Blogger and my commenting script are both giving me nothing but headaches. I'm thinking of switching to moveable type. How do those of you who are already using it like it?

Yesterday was a hard day.

Yesterday was a hard day. I wasn't going to post at all, because frankly it didn't feel right to chat happily about knitting on such a day. Then I thought, well, if I actually addressed what the day was, and talk a little bit about what smoking took from my family...well, maybe it would put a bug in some smoker's ear and do a little bit of good. I hope it did.

So I met my deadlines and I have time to do some knitting again. I'm going to get Suki started today. I wound all the skeins into balls the other night and the Cascade was just so wonderful to handle. I can't wait to get my needles into it.

Today is the tenth

Today is the tenth anniversary of my father's death. He was fifty years old, a heavy smoker. In the ten years since, I've graduated from college, bought an apartment, got married, got separated, had two careers and and am now on the third. My brother went through four years of active duty as a Marine, became a cop, got engaged, and is now in Iraq as a reservist..and our dad wasn't there for any of it. I've missed him every day of these ten years. If any of you out there are still smoking, please do quit. If not for yourself, then for the people who love you.

Sweet sweet sweet tea. Suki

Sweet sweet sweet tea. Suki Asado....

Ok...15 Lit nerd points to whoever can name that rather silly reference. Sorry--couldn't resist. It's been running through my head like a little song all weekend. It's Suki Sunday!!!

Here's the Suki prep:



Unfortunately I think this pile is as far as I can go with starting Suki today. Fifty percent of the book I'm writing is due to my editor tomorrow and I'm two chapters short of the mark. I've been cranking away at it all weekend and that's gonna be the story for today too. Must keep the editor and agent happy. They keep me in yarn. So hopefully Suki will meet the needles tomorrow. Tuesday at the latest.

What you see here is the yarn in waiting (no eyelash--not my cuppa tea) and my plans. I'm going to do a different striping pattern but stick with the shaping in the original. I'm really excited about it...now if I could just get those chapters done. Sigh