Wednesday, August 30, 2006

It's (almost) Alive!

Status as of quitting time tonight is just over half the stitches are back on the needle for the baptism blankie. Maybe another night or two and they'll all be back on the needles.

As of this evening, I have all the notions for the Saffron Cables afghan. I ordered a 60 inch pair of Knitpicks Option needles. The needles are just a few inches shy of being my height. Since secret pal exchanges, birthdays, and Christmas are looming around the corner, I also got some supplies for making some presents, too. ;) No details here though, except to say that the new Gloss wool and silk sock yarn from Knitpicks feels and looks fab!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Welcome to my Nightmare

Urgh. Here's the photographic evidence of the mess I caused tonight.


Finished trapezoidal blanket, not the look I was going for.


The left (bind off) side of the shawl was a good 6-8 inches longer than the right (cast on) side. Note the ruffling occuring on the left side edge. Why did I not notice that last night as I was binding off??

After attacking the bind off knotted stitch, I cut too deeply and wound up trimming off four rows of the garter stitch edging. Damn... I tried to pick up the remaining stitches, but they kept dropping quicker than I could cram them back onto the needles.

Eventually, I did have the sense to run a lifeline through the live stitches. That would have been smart before I started hacking into the bind off row. >.< I'm painstakingly picking up all the dropped stitches now and slowly getting the project back on the needles. I'm really hating this yarn now, it sticks to itself when I want it to be smooth yet is smooth enough to drop ridiculous amounts of stitches.

You may want to avert your eyes from the "in progress" picture below. You have been warned.


Employing new tools of the trade - blocking pins to keep tension on the laddered rows, backside of a mousepad to cram said blocking pins into, trusty lifeline, and latch hook thingy tool. Thank goodness I saw on the Yarn Harlot's blog how to use blocking pins to keep tension!


27 out of 167 stiches are back on the needles. Maybe sometime this week I'll cram all these stitches back onto the needle.

Oh yeah, my yarn for the Saffron Cables afghan arrived tonight. After tonight's fiasco, I'm positively giddy with the idea of a project using bulky weight yarn instead of little teensy tiny can't-see-dropped-stitches-easily lace weight. :D

I'm Gonna be Sick

Yargh! Last night, I finished the Kimono Shawl. I hurried home from work this evening to start blocking and recording the big event for the blog. Carefully, I laid out the shawl for its pre-blocked picture when I noticed that I had knitted a trapezoid. My cast off edge was WAAAAAAAAAY too tight. Disheartened, I tried to zhuzh it into a square, but it didn't agree with me. Shit!

Next came the scissors.

And lots of cursing.

Tons of dropped stitches.

It's all safely on a lifeline now so no more damage can be done. Only rows of the garter stitch edge were harmed, easy enough to fix.

Damn, it really sucks to see over two months work literally unraveling before your eyes!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

*squee!*

The Saffron Cable afghan will be mine! Well, after the yarn arrives and I spend loads of time knitting. Allow me to back up a bit.

In a welcome moment of serendipity, yesterday I received $100 job-well-done reward. That happened on the very next day after falling in love with the Saffron Cable afghan pattern which needs around $100 worth of yarn and supplies to make. I called my mom yesterday evening and told her about the happy circumstance. She brought up that using that reward to get the supplies would make the afghan a reminder of a job well done for me. Oh, how I love it when folks justify my spending :) I ordered the yarn specified in the pattern - 19 skeins of Berkshire Valley Yarn and a 60 inch Options needle from Knitpicks for the project tonight. Hope I don't freak out the UPS guy by watching the front door for the next week impatiently awaiting my packages' arrivals!

After my big growth spurt on the Kimono Shawl this past weekend, my progress has been very sporadic this week. I didn't pick up the needles at all last night since I was NOT in a good frame of mind after waiting for the neighborhood water supply to be turned back on. Tonight, I got in a whole row of progress before falling asleep in my knitting chair. Hopefully, I can crank out the last 24 lace patterned rows this coming weekend.

Monday, August 21, 2006

What's This?



Why I do believe that's proof that I still knit! *gasp* This weekend was the first time in over a week that I have been able to pick up the needles. Over watching a few episodes of the new Doctor Who, Doctor Who Confidential, Kingdom of Heaven, Serenity, Benchwarmers, and the Whole 10 Yards, I was able to crank out over six inches of lace! Wooo!


In Window Progress Shot


It's now just over 28 inches in length and is finally longer than its width. I think I'll knit another 24-row section or two and call this baby done!

Which I suppose that's just in time as I received my fall issue of Interweave Knits and have fallen completely for the Saffron Cables afghan. In another color of course, I'm not much of an orange person as it looks sickly on me :)

Friday, August 11, 2006

No Progress

No knitting progress to report. Check out my personal blog Knotts Burrow to see what Hubs and I have been up to.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Slow Poke

Faced with only a few inches of new lace to show after a weekend full of knitting. I'm resorting to desperate measures to find new ways to photograph the same project over and over. I don't think I've shown Bandit with the Kimono Shawl yet....


It's now around 25 inches in length, only 5 inches short of being a square!


I signed up this weekend for Blockbuster Online thinking that having more DVDs to watch as I knit will help me along on this project. It's been very hard finding motivation to knit even in laceweight merino when the weather has been in the 90s recently.


Awwwwww...isn't he cute? :)