05.31.09
Posted in odds 'n ends at 5:54 pm by Shari
And that’s a good thing.
Growing up on a farm wasn’t my idea of fun. No, we didn’t have tons of fields planted and no, I didn’t have to work in the barn except for when we were haying. But, we had a HUGE garden. All 3 of us kids shared in the planting and weeding and picking, and as the only girl, I did tons of the “putting up” of what came out of it. When I left the farm, I didn’t want anything to do with planting and weeding and putting up of ANYTHING anymore.
Not so much anymore (it’s been 30 years, about time, huh?). I’ve done strawberry jam and apple butter from time to time over the years and actually have contemplated putting in some raspberry canes at the end of our pole barn. I’ve even planted flowers a few times. The last couple of years, though, nothing.
I had good intentions last year and even got some great pottery for planting in - and then did nothing.
Yesterday I got inspired. I called home and told hubby I wanted the planters brought up before I got home and then went to Lowes to get some plants and soil. When I got home I started right away with getting some of it planted.
I started with the “wavy petunias” in these planters that look like they’re coming out of the house. I loved the pots as soon as I saw them last year, and we have them again this year. I kept looking at them yesterday since I was doing a demo right by them and just really wanted to finally make use of them. So, I did.
Today we FINALLY got out onto the deck (we didn’t use the deck at all last year - access was blocked all summer long). I had already planted the cherry tomato plants in the strawberry pots last night, so those got moved to the deck, as well as pots for the regular tomato plants. There’s some cukes waiting to be planted (I have a huge tub they’ll go in) and I also started some chives, rosemary and basil that’ll get added to the strawberry pots once they are ready.
I have a couple of hanging baskets out front that I want to fill, and I want to do a planter to put on the well cover. Chuck suggested something else on the front porch, but knowing the dog, it’ll be tipped within the first hour of her being out there, so I’ll skip that one.
Amber remembers being out on the deck and took advantage the moment she was able to do so. There’s lots to be done out there especially after 2 winters, but now that I can get there, I’m looking forward to hanging out there.
The Gin and Tonic socks are very nearly done. I’m just rows from starting the decreases. I’ll probably do that tonight and make sure I have something else to work on tomorrow at work since these socks a) won’t last all day and b) will probably get screwed up if I keep picking it up and putting it down during calls.
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05.28.09
Posted in odds 'n ends, daily life stuff, knitting at 10:47 pm by Shari
Work’s been going fine lately. short breaks between calls but enough to feel like I’m making a contribution. I’m still trying to adjust to the best way to deal with the schedule and optimizing my use of non-work hours, but I guess it’s coming.
The socks I’ve been working on are coming along. I realized that I wasn’t doing the gusset decreases consistently/correctly, so I slowed down while I assessed where I was. I’m about back on track now. Here’s how they look at the moment:
The color isn’t quite right and I expect the lace is going to be more obvious once they are “blocked” on my fat legs, but I’m liking them now (now that I’ve got the number of rows between cable crossing rows memorized)
I’m holding off on the purple sweater at the moment, but expect to be back at that very soon.
When I took these pics off the camera card, I realized I never took off the pics from Christmas. Here’s a few:
Knitted Ornaments: 
Mom’s knitted shoe bag
Gift bag(s) :
Mom’s casserole carrier:
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05.18.09
Posted in knitting at 6:57 am by Shari
I got the G&T socks back on track and they are going along nicely. One complete repeat on both socks completed and into the second repeat. Decided on plastic tapestry needles for the cable needles and it’s going well with that too.
So this morning I get out the computer, Excel and the graph for the purple sweater to start charting the bindoffs vs the lace pattern so I can work on that today. Then I go to see where the front neck starts doing it’s thing so I can incorporate that into the chart too. Yeah… The armholes start at 15″ from the beginning. The front neck decreases start at 11.5″.
Now I have to think about whether I wanna
- rip out some of the sweater (ugh!)
OR
- hope I have enough yarn to start the neckline decreases now and just make it a bit longer (it was short in the first place and I DID get extra yarn so I’d be able to do longer sleeves, so I’d probably be okay there, but then probably have to stick to the shorter sleeves)
OR
- rip a bit but not all the way back to 11.5″and hope that I’ll have a little more length but still enough for long sleeves.
Decisions, decisions
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05.15.09
Posted in knitting at 8:32 pm by Shari
The socks with the fiddly cable… got frogged to the ribbing today. I’m beginning to be sorry I was doing them both at the same time - would have only frogged 1/2 as much knitting. Oh, well - the major mistake I was making causing the cables to come too frequently, so in the big picture, I’ll be doing fewer fiddly cable crossings than the path I was on.
Onward ho… Gotta get a repeat or two done while I remember what’s wrong so I can read the knitting going forward (and find a substitute for tiny cable needles)
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Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting, wls at 12:39 am by Shari
There’s definitely been a change in the call volume at work. Mondays are busy since the centers were closed all weekend, but as the week goes on, the volume goes down.
Therefore, I get to knit!
I remembered the magazine for the sweater. It’s Knit ‘n Style June 2009 and the sweater is the Lacy Summer Cardi - upper right of the 4 shown on that page. I’m doing it in VC Eggplant. I decided that since it’s not a buttoned sweater and I can liberally block, I’d go for the size L and hope it doesn’t look too small. So far it’s looking pretty good. I started it and did a skein worth of knitting and decided I’d made too many goofs and needed to rip it out and restart. Now I’m nearly finished the 3rd skein of yarn and about to the armhole (I’m doing the fronts and back as 1 piece, at least to the armhole). I bought 9 skeins of yarn for this, hoping to have enough to full length sleeves rather than the elbow lengths shown. I think as long as I make the armhole with the first 3 skeins I’ll be fine.
The pattern isn’t too difficult, but somehow I keep managing to mess it up. I’ve gotten much better at detecting and correcting the errors. The best thing I did was to chart the pattern (it’s just written out in the magazine). I do find that there’s just some times that I just gotta put it aside until I can do something on break or lunch and focus just a tad more. I’m thinking, too, that once I know what row I’m on as I start the armholes, I’d better chart the bindoffs and decreases, figure out where I am in the lace for each edge, so I can work on all 3 pieces and keep it all straight.
The other current knitting project is a test knit of socks for Nicola, an acquaintence from Ravelry. She calls them Gin and Tonic because the cable and lace element looks like slices of lemon and lime that you’d have adorning your drink.
Gotta admit that the cable is more fiddly than I enjoy doing. I usually do cables sans cable needles. This one, though, puts 1 stitch on 1 holder, 4 on another holder and has 6th (and 1st) stitch crossing a total of 5 stitches. Not really doable without cn’s, so I have to improvise. I don’t have any cn’s small enough, tapestry needles are too slippery and heavy, toothpicks (at least the ones I have) are too rough and keep grabbing the yarn. Like Goldilocks, I’m sure I’ll find something that will be just right, but in the meantime I’m fighting it.
I love the pattern apart from the cable crossings every 6th row. I’m loving the yarn - Jojoland Melody Superwash. I’m also trying some new to me needles - KA 36″ circs in size 2. I need to file the tips of this just a tiny bit because I’d prefer them a little more pointy for this pattern. I’ve deviated from the pattern a bit in that I’m doing Magic loop rather than working w/ 5 needles. I have a feeling I’m going to deviate when I get to the foot - maybe skipping the actual cable crossings and just using the lacy portions on the top of the foot. I will revert to the pattern as written, though, when I get to the toes.
However, the socks hit timeout yesterday because I dropped some of the damn stitches. I grabbed them, but need to rework a couple of rows of stitches in one section, so need the time and brainpower to fix without having to tink 2 or more rows of both socks.
I tried to get girly this week and do my nails… They looked so nice on Monday when I did them. By Wednesday they were looking worn at many tips and a big old gouge in one. Tomorrow the polish is being taken off and we’ll see if I bother again.
My other girly thing this week was wearing the new necklace I made. This weekend I’m going to demo this necklace at the store. I decided I’d make one for myself in advance and wear it Saturday. I used hex cut beads, using a dark blue w/ ab for the darkest color, a light but w/ ab for the middle color and a crystal for the light. I also did longer strands (remembering how I always felt choked by what others considered a “standard” length - not anymore, but that’s a lesson learned) and not quite as many strands (do I ever follow a pattern as written????)
Anyway, it turned out great and I wore it again today. I need to make a bracelet to go with it, but there’s lots of beads left and I figure that’s a good project to do during the demo. Hmm… I’d better think of doing some earrings to match too. I’ve also done some poring over the bead stash at home, thinking of who needs one in the colors that I have available in appropriate volumes.
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I started with the “wavy petunias” in these planters that look like they’re coming out of the house. I loved the pots as soon as I saw them last year, and we have them again this year. I kept looking at them yesterday since I was doing a demo right by them and just really wanted to finally make use of them. So, I did.
Today we FINALLY got out onto the deck (we didn’t use the deck at all last year - access was blocked all summer long). I had already planted the cherry tomato plants in the strawberry pots last night, so those got moved to the deck, as well as pots for the regular tomato plants. There’s some cukes waiting to be planted (I have a huge tub they’ll go in) and I also started some chives, rosemary and basil that’ll get added to the strawberry pots once they are ready.
