A Quick Pic

I had some relatives come into town this weekend. These people are not only relatives, but also close friends with me. (being a relative does not always mean that I like you) And most importantly, these people have BOTH a working camera, and a USB cord. That's right folks, you actually get to SEE my knitting. I'm talking about real pictures, of my knitting. Not me posting stolen pictures and telling you to imagine it in the colors I made it in.

I am in a hurry today (the only reason that I am doing this today is because I realized that it had been a week since I blogged last) So I will only post a quick picture of the sweater that I'm working on, and that will have to be all.

It's the Seamless Yoke Sweater, form Knitting Without Tears. I may have said it before, but I LOVE Elizabeth Zimmermann. And this is very Zimmermann-y

Okay, I can't figure our how to move the picture, so it will just have to stay at the top. (Why don't they make a Bloggers operational manual) (ETA: I figured out how to move it, that was really easy)

As must be done with all of Elizabeth Zimmermann's patterns, it must be heavily modified. I added some Fair Isleing to the bottom of it, and some to the middle of it. I like to think that it looks great, and I do hope that you agree with me.

I finished one sleeve, and have gotten the other up to the elbow. The Fair Isle at the bottom of the body is also at the top of the sleeve. I can't wait to get up to the yoke. Maybe then it will be a little bit more interesting.

Off to Knit Night at the bookstore!!

A cry of the un-rippable

I keep meaning to write this, I even go as far as to form the first few sentences in my mind, but I keep putting it off, and off, until a week (or so) had gone by and I still had no blog entry.

I'll start with the bad news, I prefer to hear the bad news first, so I will just assume (you know what happens when you assume) that you are of the same mind set.

Can you recall that top down sweater that I was knitting. The grey one that was made of recycled (and recycled) yarn. The sweater that will haunt me till my dying days. Well, It was a little tight on me, I could have worn it, but I would have felt like I was on display. It was pretty tight, and I didn't like the feeling of the tight turtle neck, I felt like I was being choked.

I had one sleeve left to knit, so I tried it on and it fit, but I still wasn't pleased with the fit. So I thought that I could simply hack of part of the collar (hack, with scissors) and unravel to the point to where I thought it was the right size, and then bind off. That would have taken care of the collar problem, and for the tight problem I could simply do a crochet steek (I love the crochet steek, I don't know why anyone would do any other kind) up the middle, and knit a couple of really wide button bands. That sounded like a good idea; I much prefer cardigans to pullovers.

I decide to do the collar first, and then steek, so that way I could alter the ribbing pattern, and thus make it easier to cut. So, I pulled out my SHARP scissors, and hacked off the top inch or so of the collar. Then I tried to unravel it. After about twenty minutes, I realized that it was imposable to unravel ribbing from the cast on edge toward the bind off edge.

I threw away the yarn. That was the first time, and hopefully the last time that I ever will do that.

Moving On!!

I finished a couple of presents, but I know that one of the recipients reads this blog, so I will wait till after I give it to them to tell you about it.

(And did you know that 'steek' is not recognized as a word? Ah, what does spell check know about knitting)

I still knit

I really do, quite a lot as a matter of fact. There are few moments were I'm not knitting, and those moments are very far between. I don't talk about my knitting that often. I don't know why, this is a knitting blog after all. But I just feel silly, talking about something that you can't see. I need to hitch a ride to radio shack, so I can get the USB cord that I need to post pictures.

So, I need to work on getting over this silly feeling. I will just tell you about my knitting, (because if I talk about what was on TV last night one more time I will become a TV blog, and I don't want to slip that far) whether you care or not.

So, The Top-Down grey raglan is on the last sleeve. At this point it is no longer a portable project. [sigh] I need a portable project, so this sweater is put on standby (like so much else) until I develop the stamina to do it.

I started a nice wrap to become my next all-purpose project. I need this wrap to be done soon, because the victim recipient's birthday was well over a month ago, and I still haven't even started it. I love feather and fan, so I am making this wrap in that stitch, and I hope that it will be done soon. The colors are tan, purple, and green, in a real soft acrylic, I think that it is Caron Simply Soft . (sorry, I couldn't find the exact colorway)

 I have got a lot of stuff on the needles, and I always do. I try not to let this sort of stuff bother me. But it does when I want to start a whole bunch of stuff. At this time, I am obsessed with Elizabeth Zimmermann. I want to make the Colored Yoke sweater, and I want to make the Totem Jacket. The Colored Yoke sweater is the one that I really want to make, but the Totem Jacket is the one that I kind of need to make. By need to make, I mean that I feel a personal responsibility to make this jacket. I know two people who are about to blow that they are so pregnant, and I need to get moving on this stuff. But, now that I have babies to knit for, I don't want to knit anything for a baby. That is the way that the cookie crumbles, I guess.

All right, you guys know that I watch way more TV than is really healthy, or normal, or sane. So I am just going to say a few things about last night, and then I will move on.

1. Mike Catherwood was robbed. I may have never heard of him before this, but I really liked him and thought that he was the most improved out of all the cast of Dancing with the Stars. I will speak no more of this, not another word. (Maybe a few more words, I have to leave it open)

2. Watch Body of Proof. I may be slightly biased because the star of this show was on Desperate Housewives, (And she also answered the phone when I voted for Mike) but I really liked this show. I laughed, cried, and went "ewww" several times, (each) and if that isn't the making for a great show, then I don't know what is.

Moving on!!

I woke up in a very odd way yesterday. Around five o'clock in the morning, I rolled over and heard a popping noise. (Looking back on it that was probably the sheet popping of the bed) I didn't think anything of it. I finished rolling over and looked over by the fish tank to make sure that there wasn't a cat on top of it. I saw a small red-ish light coming from underneath the fish tank. That coupled with the popping noise made my insane brain immediately think, FIRE!! I race (or as close to racing that I can get) over to the fish tank, and see that there is no fire, but there was a the red light coming from the power strip underneath it. I stare at that power strip for almost ten minutes, almost wishing that it would have been a fire, I was all geared up to put it out.

By that time I was wide awake, and figured that I might as well get up. It was nice to have a little extra time to play with. I would get up that early every day, but that would entail me getting out of bed that early.

About to start the last sleeve of the top-down gray sweater that I'm making. I don't have any books on top-down knitting, so I'm just whining it. That usually doesn't work, but today it does.