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I Want to Knit
Thursday, March 31, 2005
To Jenanne from the comments
Hi! I'm glad to remind you of the sweater lol. I loved it when I first saw it, then returned the book to the library. When I spent 3 days thinking of it I knew I had to go back for a photocopy. I'm so glad to be making it, it's such a pleasure to knit, plus it's fun seeing the picture appear. You're not the only one to like it, since I posted the pic I've had a few emails from people asking where it's from, so I'll clarify: I think the book is called Vogue Knitting, it is the big (12" x 16"?) hardcover book that tells you how to cast on, inc, dec, etc... In the back are about 6 patterns by famous designers like Calvin Klein. This one is by DKNY but I think it is only referred to as "oversize cardigan". Someone else told me they found it under the name Enchanted Forest, but I can't confirm that.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:17 pm   0 comments
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
It's nice to have no deadlines!
For the first time in 3 months I don't have any knitting commissions outstanding. This means I can knit *gasp* whatever I want! I'm in heaven!

Yesterday my dad wasn't feeling well in the morning, so we went in to work a bit late. Wanna see what I did in the morning? I took out my bead and started to make some stitch markers! Yay! I want to make a whole bunch then send out some RAOKs 'cus I haven't sent that many yet. Here's what I did so far:





They're a bit hard to see, but I made an assorted bunch of knit-related terms. Since they're all similar, this whole lot will go to one lucky FiberRAOK member! :) I had so much fun making them! I wish I actually owned some myself, of any kind, since my current project is using 12 stitch markers and I'd love to put "jewlery" on instead of my little plastic rings. This Sunday I've asked Yannick to make some with me, since his brain works differently and I want to see what he'll come up with to do with the beads. I think I'll keep some of our efforts, and send out all the rest.

Wanna see what I did last night? A SELFISH project! Yay! It's the DKNY-designed one-size-fits-all cardigan in the back of the big Vogue Knitting reference book, and it uses cables to make trees, flowers, a fence, etc...

Here is a (horrible) pic of the pictures from the book:

This shows the front (in my handly little plastic document holder).




This is a close-up of the little pic up there showing the back. You can't see it well, but trust me, it's cute.

This is what I've done so far. It's the Left Front piece of the cardigan. After the ribbing you see some grass and a little meadow with flowers. :) I'm right at the point to start the different trees, which is why I decided stitch markers would help. There are no repeats, but I marked off my chart with similar divisions to break down the long row into more manageble sections. I also spent 3 hours coloring in each different key in the chart a different color with 24 colored pencils but that's not something we need to talk about. :)

Now let's see if I can squeeze some knitting time into this morning before my dad calls to say "leave now!".

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:27 am   1 comments
To Shell from the comments
LOL! You always make me smile! If you want to be half the knitter I am, then you need to be 13.5 years old with 3/4 of a year knitting obsession, plus a few months of knitting at 4 years old. (Ha, double all that for my stats). Really, I'm no expert! I just do a lot. It was kind of funny in my knitting class, we'd taken a 2 week break for Thanksgiving or something last year, and after the break Nicole asked everyone what they'd done. Everyone proudly showed off the completed sleeves and such of their class projects. I showed pics of my completed class project, and the mittens for my dad, and the felted bag for my mom, and.... It doesn't mean everything was any good, it just means that I can squeeze a lot into my time. :] I have an advantage too 'cus I'm not married yet and have no kids, so my free time is still my own. Yannick's out a lot for work or bowling and stuff, so I have every Monday all day, every Tuesday night, plus free time during the week and weekend to knit. I also bring it everywhere and I'm not shy to whip it out say in the bowling alley if I don't feel like bowling and I'll just watch everyone else. But a million thanks for the compliment! :]]]]]]

Um...what are "hoons"?

Hey! I just checked out your blogger profile to find your blog address, and you're a Virgo too? Cool! I'm born year of the Snake, how cool is it that a knitter is year of the Sheep? Lucky!

I just "plucked" your blog so I could read through on my Palm later. After a quick look your knitting looks great! I'll be stopping by more often, promise! :)
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:07 am   0 comments
To Noreen from the comments
:] I'm glad you enjoyed the surprise of the mag! Don't feel bad, I was the one who didn't think about the digests. I hope you knit tons from it, or at least enjoy the articles!
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:59 am   0 comments
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
To Lu from the comments
Thank you for stopping by! I am feeling much better now, thanks for the well-wishes. :) I don't know what's with the weather lately, but I've been getting tons of headaches.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:16 am   0 comments
To Shell from the comments
Thank you for always leaving a little note. It really feels good to know people actually come and read this thing I try to update, and even if it's just a "hi", your little notes always bring a smile to my face. :) Happy Easter to you and yours too. I don't celebrate but passed on the well wishes to Yannick when we celebrated with his family. (I'm Jewish)
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:14 am   0 comments
Monday, March 28, 2005
Tired!
Oh my gosh I feel like I haven't sat down or rested in 5 days. Ok I have sat down quite a bit as I've done a lot of knitting, but still.

Friday I wasn't working so I raced over to the LYS to take a pic of the Duffle Coat before it's owner arrived to pick it up. I was going to wait and see if she'd take a pic for me, but as it turned out I had to go down to my dad's store anyways so I just made a detour.

Here it is, buttons and all:





Then, since I was still off the rest of the day, I got a huge chunk of progress done on Spoilt Rotten, the 2nd dog coat that Urban Pet asked me for a few weeks ago. I feel horrible that I still haven't given the sweaters to them, but besides Duffle Coat I had spent almost a week and a half trying to get gauge on the Classic Cabled Aran and no matter what needle size I used I just couldn't get it. I'm officially giving up on that one and taking it off my available list. There is an Aran dog sweater in the book that has Spoilt Rotten, if they insist on one (even though the weather's changing now) I'll make that one. Besides, after reading through the pattern for the CCA it really wasn't that nice. It was mostly moss st, very boring, with only one diamond on the bag. Ehh.

Saturday I hurried home after work to take off for up north to have Easter dinner with Yannick's family. There was still tons of light outside so I got more knitting done in the car. It was a really nice drive up. I'd been listening to a great book on CD in my car and had finished the first 2 CDs. I knew Yannick would like it too, so I brought it along in the car for the ride. It's called Artemis Fowl. I forget the author at the moment but it's read in a wonderful Irish accent and is a great tale of underworld crime, deceit, and faeries.

We spent the night up north, stuffed on a yummy rack of lamb dinner, and woke up bright and early for brunch the next day. Truthfully, it's hard not to wake up bright and early when there are 4 kids under 9 running through the room searching for hidden chocolate eggs. :)

When we left we had to come straight back because my grandmother's 81st bday party was at 2pm. We made it just in time, and I had enough of a long car ride to finish all but the pocket on Spoilt Rotten. It was fun to be at my bubbie's. It had been a while since I'd seen her, plus it was nice having my whole family there. My mom's sister Mimi was in from TO and Fran was there with my cousins Mark (in from Ottawa) and Jon, plus my cousin Warren was there and cousin Barbara Anne and her hubby and daughter, PLUS my parents and my 3 siblings. Once you add in the other residents of the home and the on site staff, it was a full house! In keeping with the productivity theme of the weekend I had a chance to discuss my parents' 30th anniversary gift ideas with my siblings (I have a great idea but I can't discuss it here 'cus you never know who might be reading...lol), AND discuss an upcoming trip to Las Vegas. See, a year or so ago my auntie Mimi took my brother Michael, my cousin Mark and my cousin Barbara Anne to Vegas. Why I was skipped I don't know, since only Barbie is older than me. In any case, this year is mine, my cousin Warren and my cousin Mitchell's turn, and then in a few years it will be my brother Aaron, sister Laura and cousin Jon. Mimi hopes to travel in May or June, so we're trying to work out everyone's schedules and come up with a fun itinerary. Warren has been there before, as has Mimi, I'm not sure about Mitchell, but I've never been. We'll be going down for 5 days so I don't know what to expect!

Hmm...any Vegas wool shops I should know about?

Finally last night after a quick dinner and more of The Making of The Incredibles on the extra features DVD Yannick took off for my parents' house to play poker with my dad, brothers and a bunch of others. I stayed home and (guess what?) knit. I finished SR but for the embroidery on the pocket, and started swatching for a very selfish project- one for me! I started looking through my wips still outstanding. Right now there are:

-To Dye For sweater from Stitch 'n Bitch. It's all knit up, just needs to be blocked and seamed.
-Mini Plain Cardigan. It's a 6" high cardigan that just needs buttons sewed on.
-Entrelac Throw. Only a row and a half done. No where near completion.
-Birthday Suit. Ha! Only 6 rows done out of an entire long sleeved shirt and long skirt knit on sock yarn.
-Yannick's Thrum Socks. Not yet started sock # 2.
-Lace Socks. These are the ones for my knitting class. I'm working on the foot, almost at the toe decreases. Only on the first sock though.
-Heart Warmer. This is a baby sweater for charity.

I really should have worked on finishing some of these, especially the first 2 since they really are almost done. But instead, faced with the thought that I couldn't finish SR until today when I met with Nicole for embroidery tips, I knew I had a few hours of selfish time, so I worked on selfish knitting. My DKNY-designed Landscape Cardigan. It doesn't really have a name, but since the main feature is all the cables that work up to trees and a fence, I named it the Landscape Cardigan, and before bed I finished my swatch. Yay!

Today I slept in until a door-to-door guy rang the bell. Then I made my way through the rain to my LYS armed with a huge bag of projects that I wanted to go over with Nicole. (And I mean huge bag, it was large enough for over 30 sk of yarn!)

First I decided to swap my 11 or so sk of Alafoss Lopi for 11 sk of Classic Merino Wool. I'm told that when it felts it is much less fuzzy and simply a dream to knit up, so I ordered it and will swap once it comes in. It's cheapter than the Lopi too, so bonus!

Then we measured my machine knit swatch on Paton's Astra so I could get an idea if it was feasable to use to make the charity baby sweater. It turned out to be spot-on for the rows, but too big for the stitches. I'm going to have to arrange a meeting with Nicole just to learn how to recalculate a pattern.

Then she showed me that the embroidery on my SR pocket was no more difficult than backstitching in cross stitching, so I knew I could do that later.

Finally I remade my LC swatch 'cus it was too big. With a 5mm instead of 5.5 I was good on the stitches, but a bit off on the rows. I was given the go ahead to make the cardigan body and then Nicole will help me recalculate the set-in sleeves to fit.

Armed with all that, I finally made it home around 3:30 pm. Whew!

I finished SR and just need to cut out my custom labels. I think it's cute. The words were a bit difficult to embroider, but they are on a kangaroo pocket which looks really cute on a dog sweater.



While I was working on it I got a call from my contact at the hospital auxiliary about the charity baby stuff. She'd given me the yarn in January, unfortunately right before I started making the dog sweaters, so I have yet to make her anything for the hospital gift shop. She's understandably a little upset. After I call her back I'll know if I'm to continue working on the sweater, in which case that's what I'll do tonight, or if she wants all the yarn back, in which case I'll work on LC and give her all her stuff back next Monday. But first I'm going to eat supper! :)
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 6:26 pm   0 comments
Thursday, March 24, 2005
FO: Duffle Coat
In keeping with the "I'm a dolt" tradition of this week, I don't have a pic to show of the finished Duffle Coat. (And I almost typed the Finnish Duffle Coat. See: dolt.)

I stayed up until 4:00am last night/this morning to finish it. Everything was done except the buttons sewn on, because a) I was 1 button short, and b) it was 4:00am!

I stopped at the LYS today after work, sewed on the buttons and left it to be picked up tomorrow.

And then got home and realized I'd forgotten to take a picture even though I'd brought my camera just for that purpose. Not only do I not have one to show here, I don't even have a film picture for my scrapbook.

I called Nicole and she said she'd ask the woman to take a picture of her granddaughter wearing it and give me a copy, so hopefully I'll have one in the end.

And now I have a migraine so I'm going to lie down. I'm not working tomorrow so I'm going to get a really good night's sleep!

And then rush like mad to finish Spoilt Rotten. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do about the cabled dog coat. It's giving me a lot of grief for such a small thing.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:33 pm   1 comments
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
I'm ferklempt!
Had such a great night tonight! After work I went straight to the Wendy's/Tim Horton's at the corner of Sources and Hymus 'cus Cynthia from the MKG arranged a meeting for people interested in helping out with the upcoming fair in October. I didn't feel like going home first then back out, so even though the meeting didn't start until 7:30 I got there around 6:30 and was planning on just hanging out. Turns out Cynthia was already there (with someone else- shoot I need to start learning everyone's names!). I was going to get a snack at Wendy's and then go sit down so I ordered a fruit bowl...and waited...and waited...after 25 minutes I finally asked for my money back. Everyone had to wait, they were so far behind! To give you a better idea of how messed up they were: while I was waiting a man came up to the counter and asked for the manager. He told her that he'd ordered a whatever burger with no onions. He opened up the burger wrapper- there was the bun, lettuce, tomato, onions- but no burger!

I wound up getting a cheese croissant from Tim's. Knit my way through the meeting. Yannick came to join us 'cus he wasn't home last night and was trying to spend some time with me to make up for it. Oh, and the whole ferklempt thing? (To those non-Jews it kinda translates to overwhelmed, emotional, mishkabibbled...ok I can't really translate it well.) One of the MKG members (I think her name is Daniella, again I really need to learn all the names!) brought her son Colin (or Collin). He's 14 months old. And adorable. And spent most of the meeting in Yannick's arms. [insert double-take here]


Picture me stunned!

For those who don't know him, Yannick isn't exactly a kid-friendly person. He'd sooner hold a cat than a baby, and runs at the first sight of drool or spit-up. Which is why stuff like this is such a good omen for the future!

[insert big, relieved grin here]

Now I have to go finish the Duffle Coat so I can deliver it tomorrow. I called the Wool Shop this morning and they have more of the buttons, so I can attach the last one there. I finished the button bands at the meeting, so I just need to sew the side seams, sew on the hood, pick up and rib the hood ribbing and sew on the buttons I have.

I feel really horrible that the pins I used to block the sleeves turned out not to be stainless steel and wound up rusting. I hear that Oxyclean gets out rust stains but I don't have any, so I'll have to give it as-is and just let them know. :(

To Shell: Is his pronounced Ah-ron or Eh-rin? My bro is Eh-ron. Funny thing is at his old doc's office when he was a kid there was a girl with his exact name! Erin instead of Aaron and our same last name but with a K instead of a C as the first letter. So we always had to specify if we were booking appointments for the boy or the girl. :)

To Danielle: Thanks for posting! :) I hope you find those patterns eventually...or are really good at "winging it" lol. I had a crocheted sweater like that once. At least 3 years went by between starting it and finishing it, but by that point all that was left was the end of one sleeve and the seams. Took me 4 days to find where I'd stashed the pattern.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:06 pm   0 comments
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
I'm such a dolt.
The knitting machine adventure went well yesterday.

First I brought it downstairs 'cus I was a dummy and didn't realize it clipped on to the front of my workspace. I thought the clamps went into the back and I wasn't about to reach forwards over my kitchen table to use it. Luckily (even though it turned out unnecessary) I had a small, unused coffee table that worked perfectly. So I brought everything downstairs.






I had no problems setting everything up, but it took some trial and error to get it all working in what I imagined to be the right way. I decided to be productive with my playing around and make samples with the 3 yarns I plan to use, in the various tensions the machine has. Here's a pic of me underway:

After 3 hours I was left with over 600 rows of knitting completed- definately not something I could have done without the machine!

The white "snake" is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 using Patons' Astra. The pink is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 with Patons' Canadiana, and the blue is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 8, 8.2, 9, 9.1, 10 with Patons' Decor. The yellow lines are pieces of cotton woven through to mark off the sections. The snakes were all done Monday, and this evening I started measuring 4" squares in each to see what gauge I got. I've measured the pink one so far. Unfortunately none of the gauges matches the 20 sts x 26 rows I normal need with the Decor or Canadiana, so I think I'll have to go back and make more swatches using the middle tensions (each whole number has 2 other divisions before reaching the next whole number).

I stopped using the machine around 7pm and spent the night relaxing with Yannick, enjoying some Domino's Pizza (I had $5 off) while watching Medium and CSI:Miami. Yannick and I have a mutual dislike for, well, we affectionately refer to him as "the arrogant redhead", and greatly enjoy making fun of his character flaws. Especially how he takes himself so seriously. Hysterical stuff.

Today I got home from work intent on making some progress. Earlier today I had a chance to make a st st gauge swatch using the Alafoss Lopi. I started one in garter too but didn't get to finish before leaving for work. I need to mark off a 4" square with a contrast yarn then felt the swatches so I can measure how much they shrunk. Because I'm making the bag larger than the original I need to be able to calculate how much larger to make it in each direction. So when I got home I finished the garter swatch, measured one of the above machine swatches, then sat down to do as much work as possible on Duffle Coat.

That's when I became the dolt refered to in the title above.

First, as directed, I seamed the shoulders. It took me a few minutes to figure out their placements 'cus there's no schematic included, but finally I matched up the cables and st st stripes and did a very nice seaming job. See-

Look how nicely those peices line up! They're only bunched 'cus I left my tape measure underneath before taking the pic.

So I did both sides, then moved on to the next step: button bands. I picked up all the required sts, did my required number of rows including the buttonholes. That's when I realized it. Look:

This is what it looked like right before doing the button band. I kept thinking to myself "man that neck opening is small! How will that fit around a kid's neck?" Once the button band was done, it was even smaller. I mean, the neck opening was no more than 2" wide- in circumference! What did I do wrong?

Easy. See the cutouts on the armhole sides? Those L shaped wedge openings that I had assumed were to fit in the sleeves? Nope. Those are the neck edges. I'd seamed the two front panels on the wrong sides.

Luckily I don't weave my edges until I'm done. (Thanks Nicole!) It wasn't hard to frog the button band and pick out the mattress stitch joining the shoulder seams. I even had time to rejoin the seams the right way and pick up the band sts and do a few rows before stopping for the night.

Oh well. At least doing the button band gave me a chance to realize that I wasn't given enough buttons! I was given 6 but this size sweater needs 7. So I won't be able to finish the sweater after all. I'm not going to sew on any buttons and take the chance they have no more of that type. I'll wait and see what they have in stock first.

To Shell from the comments: A) I'm SO SORRY you don't have addi Turbos there! I love them for non slippery stuff. And thank for the "talented" comment, it's really sweet of you to say so! B) I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one who wasn't wild about Robots. My brother's name is Aaron! Wait- was it you who already told me that your son has my brother's name? I really should take notes on who's who! :)

To Kadi from the comments: Hi! I hope you'll be at the next meetup! I had a good time there. I purchased the issue of Rebecca at RedBirdKnits in December, and the link to the page with all their Rebecca magazines is here. I just took a quick look and saw they have 3 issues available: one in the original language (is it Danish? German?), the one I have that you looked through, and a new issue.

And a big HI! to Bernie even though you only emailed me when you needed something. ;]

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:37 pm   1 comments
Monday, March 21, 2005
What a weekend!
Last night was wild! After work Yannick picked me up and we hurried home to change, then picked up Pat & Gina to drive down (up?) to Chambly. It's about an hour's drive away although Yannick took a wrong turn and we made it in 45 minutes. We still arrived about an hour late 'cus Yannick didn't know what time the party was called for. At least we didn't ruin the surprise!

The dinner was at Fourquette Fourchette, the Quebecoise theme restaurant in Chambly right on the site of the famous Chambly Fort. (Don't ask me what it's famous for, something historical and Quebec-related. I'm not up on my hometown trivia. Something good I think. Maybe we won?) The food there is fantastic, and since the restaurant is also a brewery, there were many, many drinks going around. There were some novelty breasts being thrown around....one broke a glass and spilled beer everywhere...there was lute playing...there was dancing...there was water spilled over 3 peoples' heads...it was madness! First time in a long time I was out, never mind up that late. We only left the restaurant around 1am! Plus we still had the drive home and dropping off Pat and Gina, we went to bed after 3am, that's for sure.

Sunday Yannick and slept in for a bit then went over to the West Island mall. He did some shopping at Winners then bought me some ink refills and stationary at Bureau en Gros. The stationary is to replace the thin loose leaf in my knitting journal, it's really nice with an etching of a ribbon on it. He even waited with me to use the copy center's slicer to cut the paper in half since my journal is the half size. He slowly cut all 100 sheets in half for me so I could use them. How sweet!

In the mall they had an Easter treat for the kids. Ok, it was also a treat for me! Voila:








Future Sweater

Future Scarf & Cuffs

Sweaters in Training

After a quick lunch at Saint Cinnamon's and the time spent at Bureau en Gros, we stopped at the library. I think I scored big time with my finds. Not only did I get 6 books I've been wanting to read, but I took out about 15 audio books. I've been wanting to have something to play those times when I want to knit but don't feel like watching TV. They had a few on CD so I took those for the car. The ones on tape are for home. The coolest thing is that 5 of the tapes I got are narrated by Tim Curry! Dr. Frank N. Furter himself! I love him. For the next 3 weeks I get to listen to him growl his way through 3 crime mysteries and 2 of the Lemony Snickett books. :]

From there it was off to Loblaws and then to Nicole's (my knitting teacher). She so graciously offered to lend me a knitting machine, so Yannick and I went by to pick it up. She has such a beautiful home! It has such a charm- it's one of the ones in Pointe Claire by the water, and I love that whole area.

My original plan was to whip up a bunch of KM (knitting machine) swatches so they could "rest" over night and I could start working away today, but it was already 7pm and we hadn't eaten yet. By the time I'd made supper and put everything away it was 8:30. I wanted to at least finish the second Duffle Coat sleeve before bed so I could let the two sleeves block so I did that, but then realized that the hood wasn't picked up from the body- instead it was to be cast on and knitted separately. My conscience wouldn't let me go to the KM when there was still stuff I could do on the Duffle Coat.

I worked on the hood while we watched Shall We Dance?. It was a cute movie. I liked how it reaffirmed a marriage without resorting to an affair.

Today I finished the hood in my knitting class and bought a skein of a variegated gray blend Alafoss Lopi. I have a bunch of charcoal Lopi I'm going to use to make my felted knitting bag but since I'm planning on making it larger than the original I was afraid I'd run out. They have no more charcoal but they do have the gray mix that ranges from light gray through charcoal and to black, so I'll use that for the base. The bag should look really good once it's done.

Now I'm off to play with the KM monster. Here it is in its box, taunting me. It's a Singer HK-100, bulky machine. Wish me luck!

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:28 pm   2 comments
Friday, March 18, 2005
Friday, after the fact
After showing up really late for the cake 'n coffee at B's (blame Yannick who only got home after the time we were supposed to be there and STILL had to shower) we hung out there for a while then went to see Robots.

Eh. Nowhere near as funny as Shrek 1 or 2, nowhere near as INCREDIBLE as The Incredibles, and most of the humor was directed at kids not adults. I'm not disappointed we went though, it was cute. Plus we got to see another preview of Madagascar which we can't wait to see, and our first preview of Star Wars 3.

Didn't get any knitting done.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:55 pm   0 comments
Good times
Am I the only one loving the nice weather we're having lately? Ok there have been some cold spells, but the temps lately really remind me of Fall, which is my favorite season. (Ok, I'm also really looking forwards to snow-less days that aren't too cold so I can buy a pomander like seen on this page and head out for a really productive walk.)

This is Yannick's nephew Justin:


(yes I'm only showing pics to show off the hoodie I made him)

He's the 3rd of Yannick's sister's 4 boys. (I know!) Today Justin is 4 (YAY Happy Birthday!) and we're leaving in a few to go over for cake and coffee with his family. The lucky boy will be getting 2 presents from us just like he does for every occasion 'cus he's Yannick's godson. He will soon be the proud owner of a bike helmet and The Incredibles on DVD.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 6:39 pm   0 comments
To Shell from the comments
Hi!

The needles are my usual addi turbos. That pair is size 6mm (10 US). For needles I got a good deal on RedBirdKnits' Christmas sale, so I picked up all the addis I was missing in common sizes, for 40% off! Now I have sizes 2.5mm through 7 or 8mm. I use them for everything unless it's a lace project, when I'll use my Denise set 'cus the plastic has more grab and the points are pointier. I buy them all as long as I can find so I can Magic Loop any smaller sizes, and don't use dpns at all (unless I'm making socks. I still love them for socks).

Have a great day!
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 8:34 am   3 comments
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Quick pics from last night
Here's proof of the KIP I'm so fond of:




KIP= Knitting in Public

I also caved and gave Yannick his Valentine's Day gift last night. We were going to wait for a night when it wasn't already almost 1am, but I'm a sucker for giving gifts so I weakened. He thought the Sweetheart Mittens were really sweet, extremely adorable, and very me. :] He also couldn't resist playing around with them:

These mittens took you HOW long???

I can't believe you went to all that trouble for ME! I'm so touched. * sniff *

and finally

A sincere thank-you.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:46 am   0 comments
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
I'm happy.
Had a good day today. Actually it's been a good week but I've been trying to get to bed early so been posting a bit lazily. Monday had some good news in my knitting class when Nicole (my teacher) offered to lend me one of her knitting machines. Woo hoo! Yannick and I will be heading over on Sunday to pick it up. Tres cool indeed.

Did some knitting on sleeve # 1 of Duffle Coat last night, went through until I was finished the current skein and didn't have any more near me. Luckily this occured after 11pm so I felt justified in going to bed instead of going into my office to grab another ball.

Tonight went to my first knitting meetup organized through meetup.com. Had a good time! I got there early 'cus it starts at 7 but I finished work at 6 right around the corner. Good thing about going early is that the meters are free but there are still spots available. I already knew Nadine from the MKG, but I met Mary, Mary, Jennifer, Ada, Cady and shoot another really nice woman who is a friend of Nadine's and I feel really bad I just blanked out on her name but she was knitting a gorgeous spring colored scarf. I hate forgetting stuff. RRRRR And she was really nice too! In fact, everyone was. I'm looking forwards to going next month!

Managed to finish sleeve #1. Was pleasantly surprised 'cus I'd checked my Palm yesterday and saw that the "sleeve" directions end on row 165 (the rows being the way I break down the patterns in my database). I was only on direction row 1-0-something so I figured I was in for a spell, when all of a sudden I'm into BOs and decreases. Next thing you know the sleeve was done, just a few short rows later. Turns out instead of adding a direction row "repeat for second sleeve" I'd actually created another set of directions, so both sleeves took until row 165. Was very happy 'cus I was beginning to think this thing would never be done. Although, it's only been a week and a half since I was given the yarn and pattern and I've finished the back, both fronts and 1 sleeve. Only got 1 more sleeve, the hood, then joining and some ribbed bands. I'm kinda impressed with me here. (Ok, truth time: it's not too hard to knit fast when the yarn is chunky. Shhh don't tell anyone!)

Now I'm going to get my 2nd good night's sleep in a row. TRANSLATION: I'm going to get into bed, play a few games on my Palm, realize that at least an hour has gone by, decide to read for a bit "just to make me sleepy" and finally close the Palm once my eyes are falling, somewhere around 1:15am like usual.

Oh, and if anyone reading knows of an easy way to add mood indicators to blogger templates, please let me know. I'm trying to find something cute without being obnoxious. I've found moodsmilies.com but don't like the final format that it puts on the site.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:50 pm   0 comments
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
FO, Hi, Thanks and Sorry!
First a FO:
I finished the Sweetheart Mittens that will be Yannick's Valentine's Day gift. For those who were absent at that time I didn't give them to him then 'cus of personal stuff.


The pic's not the greatest, but you can see them well enough. I'll probably give them to Yannick this week.

I also realized when going through my inbox that there were some people who came by and left a note or a "hi" or other pleasant comment, and I forgot to reply. So if you've stopped by recently and didn't receive a personal note in the blog from me, I'm very sorry. I sometimes forget to check my email when blogging to acknowledge everyone who comments.

And I also have another sorry to say about the Knit It! contest I ran yesterday. I really didn't take into account that some FiberRAOKers read the group emails on the digest and that they might not get the digest until after the contest had closed. As it turned out that's what happened. So I just wanted to apologize for that error on my part, and next time I run a contest I'll leave it open for a week so the digest readers can play along too. My bad.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:43 am   0 comments
Monday, March 14, 2005
Knit It! Winner
Last night I posted on the FiberRAOK group that I had an extra copy of the (spring?) Knit It! magazine. I really need to keep a log of which issues of what I already bought, 'cus I tend to buy up knitting stuff when I see it.

I asked group members to email me with a number between 1 and 100. I'd already asked Yannick to pick a number and jotted it down. The deadline was this morning when I got ready to leave for class. I have to leave in 20 minutes, so deadline's up!

These were the guesses:

Marianne picked 18.
Debbie picked 55.
Allena picked 13.
Natalie B picked 73.

The winning number chosen last night before the contest began is:



Please ignore the model. It's early and he's cranky.

Congrats to Natalie B! I'll be stopping at the post office this morning to send it out.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 8:24 am   2 comments
Major progress: ACHIEVED!
This is really quick 'cus it's late, but I did a whole whack on the Duffle Coat today! (BTW, is it only me who thinks it should be Duffel Coat?) Anyways, not only did I finish the left front, but I am 8 rows away from finishing the right front! This means I did almost an entire back today, if you consider that the two front pieces equal about the size of the back, minus the ribbing. :] Now just the sleeves *sigh* and the hood *groan*.



posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:36 am   0 comments
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Catch up post before I get back to work!
Friday night after work I managed to finish the back of the Duffle Coat. I'm not posting a pic 'cus it looks just like the pic from Friday morning but with about 6 more rows done. If you can't figure out what it looks like...should you really be allowed on the internet?

I also started the first of the 2 front pieces. I'm not posting a pic 'cus it looks just like a skinnier version of the pic from Friday morning. Or a sleeve. I have a feeling I'll be really bored by the time I get to the sleeves. It's not even like it's a raglan style so I can look forwards to the paired slanting decreases as I work my way up. (I really like decreases. Not such a big fan of increases.) Instead it's a drop shoulder, so I pretty much make up rectangles. Still, I should be starting the 3rd skein today, so that's good. But then there's a hood to do. *sigh*

Wednesday night I had started talking to Yannick about getting a knitting machine. I'm never going to give up hand knitting, but I thought if I could get one that could help me knock out big portions of the stuff I make to sell, fast, then I could have the time to, oh, I dunno...maybe actually make something for myself?? He thought it was a great idea and even offered to buy it for me as my birthday present!!!!!! My birthday isn't until September, but he's willing to buy it now! We even went to Wal-Mart because I remembered them having one there, but when we got there it was already sold. I didn't know anything about it other than the fact that it was on clearance for around $99 CAD.

When I got home that night I spent a while online putting together a word doc of all the stuff I could find reviewing different machines, what they could do, etc... I read through it at work on Thursday and was REALLY disappointed. The reviews made it seem like there really wasn't much you could do with them, plus they all showed prices of $400-$1000 CAD- MUCH more than I'd given Yannick as an estimate! I decided that a knitting machine probably wasn't in my future.

When I got home that night I remembered reading about the Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine in a knitting mag. None of the reviews or emails I got after posting questions on knitlist, knittingnovices, knittinginCanada or FiberRAOK really mentioned the USM, other than about 2 positive reviews, and 1 absolutely negative one. I decided to do a search on that as a last resort and found some good info, plus a woman (Amanda) on a knitter's forum who was looking to sell hers. I took a shot 'cus the message was only posted a few days previous and emailed her that I might be interested in buying it. She got back to me the same night and YAY it hadn't been sold. She told me she'd put together some pics and a price and get back to me by Sunday night.

Yannick seemed pretty interested in it too. He wants me to get one so I can actually have some free time to spend with him where I'm not knitting. :}

Friday night we had a nice supper together. Ever since we moved in together we had a funny looking thing in the kitchen. I never knew what it was even though it had recipes written all over the top. He tried explaining it to me but I didn't get it. Well when we were up north at his parents' place the last time, we had it for supper. No, not the machine...we used it to make supper. It's called a Raquelette and it works in the same style as a fondu pot where everyone makes their own food. It kinda looks like a round broiler with that's open all the way around, and there are 6 or 8 little triangular trays that fit in it. So you put what you want in your tray and then put it in the machine so it sits under the broiler, then wait for your food to be ready. You can put in stuff like sliced potatoes, baby gherkins, baby onions, cheese, dried meats like pancetta or bacon, maybe some salami, etc...or you can whip up some eggs with milk or cream and make a little omelet. The one Yannick's parents have also has a grill plate on the top, so while you're cooking inside you can also cook on top, so we also had shrimps, scallops, sausages, beef, chicken and veal with it. Ours just has the inside part. Anyways, I'd set it up on the marble coffee table in our living room, and gave each of us a little plate with all the stuff you could put in, and we watched tv and had supper, and then after cuddled on the couch and watched more tv. The meal takes about an hour 'cus you're waiting for your stuff to cook, so it was a nice way to unwind after a long week.

Plus I was excited 'cus Yannick worked for me on Saturday so I could go to the Suzanne Atkinson workshop with the Montreal Knitting Guild! :] Oh, and he was nice enough to stop by The Wool Shop (my LYS) on his way home from work to pick up the yarn I'd forgotten to buy for tomorrow's classes. What a doll!

I was going to post a little blurb about Suzanne here but when I went to my January newsletter that has it I realized that I'd cut it out because it was on the back of the registration form for the workshop. Suffice it to say she's really talented, and really nice.

Oh, I also found out that one of the MKG members, Ruby, reads my blog! Yay! *waving* Hi Ruby! :)

The workshop was fun. The morning was spent doing lace. Our project was supposed to be a mini shawl with a border. After learning an eyelet cast on that I admit was a pain to learn but comes out kinda cool, you work up to row 34 of the chart we were given, then do a couple of garter rows and put it on a holder. That's when you work a border around the shawl to learn how to short row the corners to make a nice turn. I'm glad to have the instructions but didn't want to start doing the border so I bound off after finishing the garter rows. Voila:



What looks like a row of eyelets then a row or two of single crochet then another row of eyelets at the bottom before the garter rows is actually the whole eyelet cast on row. You make that caterpillar-looking thing like a long piece of i-cord's bastard cousin, then turn it on it's side and pick up your sts in one side of the eyelets, leaving the other side to make a nice decoration (or to work the edging in later).

The afternoon was spent on cables, and Suzanne gave out a gorgeous pattern for a cabled seaman's scarf. It has an exquisite cable, then a section of ribbing to hug the neck, then the cable on the other side. It's also done really smart because you do a provisional cast on, work 1 side's cables to the moss stitch border, then pick up from your cast on and work the ribbing then the other side's cables. That way both cable sections are knit in the same direction and end with a bind off, so they match. Tres cool. It's not reversible for those who prefer that in their scarves, but it is simply gorgeous! Once I saw it I was so glad I'd picked a color for the yarn that I like for me and bought enough to make the whole thing, 'cus I can't wait to finish this for myself! (Ok, with all the projects I have going on it won't be until next winter, but that's not the point).

I did about half the cable then spent a bit of time talking to Norma about the pros and cons of a knitting machine. She left me feeling very positive about getting one, and very eager to get home and see if Amanda had emailed me a price yet! (She hadn't). Here's what I have on the cables so far:

I'd also like to say thanks to Annette, Angie, Cynthia and Ruby for squeezing me in on the end of their table when I got there a few minutes late and couldn't find a seat. I had a good time at the workshop, and a big part of that was the company. :) Plus it's fun looking up every few seconds and seeing how many more inches!! Annette would have done.

Even though my fingers were killing me by the time I got home, I did still use the free time I had to knit up about 20 rows on the Duffle Coat Left Front. That was all I had time for before leaving with Yannick to meet Julie and Richard and Howard for dinner at New Kam Shing. A very yummy dinner was had by all with lots of leftovers for me to go eat today for lunch. Then we all (minus Howard) came back here and played a fun bunch of rounds of poker. After a $2.50 initial cash-in and chips worth $0.10 each, I came out the big winner with not only all $10.00, but also an additional $1 that Yannick used to buy some chips off me. :]

Now off to have lunch then knitknitknit all day. We were supposed to have Yannick's family's Family Hockey Game today, on skates!!! I was going to watch the kids, 'cus really, me on skates? Please. Give me an opportunity to hurt myself and I will. Don't put me on skates. But since Yannick has to work today and technically so do I (Duffle Coat) we are only going to go to meet them all later at Le Cage Aux Sports (sports-themed restaurant) for dinner. What? I get to avoid skating, knit all day, AND go out for a nice dinner? SCORE! No sports-related pun intended of course. ;)

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:57 am   0 comments
Friday, March 11, 2005
Quickie
Shoot I wanted to leave a longer post but my dad just called and said "Leave now!" which means he's already in his car on his way to work, and I'd better get moving too.

Sorry no post the last few nights, Wed night went on a "date" with Yannick and even though I did some knitting before, only got home late and too tired to post.

Last night stayed up knitting until around midnight, then talked to Yannick a bit about an Ultimate Sweater Machine we might be buying. I'll get more into that tonight, for now here's a pic of where I'm at with the Duffle Coat. I've already started binding off for the shoulder shapings, and have only a few more rows to go to finish the back. I'm also in the middle of the second skein. The thing is over 17" long so far.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:21 am   0 comments
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
An all-around good day.
Today started well. My dad was running a bit late so I got to sleep in. This hasn't happened much lately so I covet the few times it happens!

Work seemed to fly by, probably because I knew I had a fun event tonight.

Tonight was the March meeting of the Montreal Knitting Guild. I always enjoy the meetings, but was really looking forwards to tonight in particular because 2 of my friends from my knitting class at the LYS were coming to see how they liked it. It was their first meeting, and I hope they liked it enough to join.

I got asked to take on a few things at the meeting, so I might end up handling the website in the future. The person doing it now wants to stop after this year, so I might do it in the future. I was also asked to help with the computer aspect of advertising for an upcoming exposition that we'll be having.

I did a little bit of knitting while there, now the Duffle Coat looks like this:


posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:17 pm   1 comments
Monday, March 07, 2005
The Duffle Coat has been started
I had my knitting class at the LYS this morning. Well- I thought I did, until I got there and it turned out only Suzanne and I were there. I knew Kim was no longer in the class, but Jacqueline and Mia should have been there I think.

Oh, if you're reading this, hi Suzanne!

I'm very happy, Suzanne and Kim are coming to the Montreal Knitting Guild meeting tomorrow. My evil plan is to slowly but surely bring in tons of new young knitters. Then we'll take over the world! (Think Pinky & the Brain style mayhem).

I discussed my gauge problems with Nicole, my knitting teacher. She gave me some ideas on how to make it work, so when I got home I called the pet accessories store and let them know I'd be able to get the yarn on Thursday. This gives me both a possible solution and some time to work on the Duffle Coat in the meantime.

Speaking of which....

It's not that easy to knit when you don't like what you're making. I know this was something I risked when letting myself be a KFH (knitter for hire). And there's nothing really wrong with the pattern, it's from Sirdar but I've already figured out their unique way of writing things out, plus I always go through the patterns when I enter them in my Palm so that was fine. It's just the yarn...which is nice and soft and thick...but doesn't quite work with the pattern. The coat is thick, probably not something I'd ever make by choice but just 'cus it seems too bulky for my taste. I think my problem with it is that the coat has panels of stockinette and cables, but the yarn is a thick blue and white twist, which, once knitted up, becomes too busy for the pattern.

Here's a pic so far (although I'll still be knitting through CSI: Miami tonight so I'll have more finished by bedtime):



I know the pic is busy, but I left the bag in the shot so you can see the yarn in the skein. You can see how you can barely see the panels through the marled color. I think that's what's bugging me most. It might as well be all stockinette for all the detail that shows.

Here's a closeup, for as much as its worth:

Even with the closeup, you still almost need to be told there is a cable there to see it.

Well, it really doesn't matter if I like it. All that matters is that the granddaughter of the woman I'm knitting it for likes it. She's who I need to please. I'm just glad it's an easy 4 row repeat.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:46 pm   0 comments
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Spoilt Rotten is now started
I did a bit of work this afternoon on Spoilt Rotten, after completely giving up on the CCA. I didn't do much, just about 3". I need to get to 3.75" on the ribbing before I continue.


That's all I have though 'cus we went to my parents' house for dinner. Now I'm back home and ready for bed after checking over 100 emails. Man the knitting groups are prolific!

Oh, and the addi turbo I'm using to knit the above is currently on the floor under a few phone books after sitting in boiling water (not the joins) 'cus the curl was driving me nuts! It kept flipping into me or twisting around my hands. It's the only addi I have that does this. If the curl doesn't come out after being "blocked" over night, I'm bringing it with me to my LYS tomorrow to see if I can exchange it.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:34 pm   0 comments
Words of Wisdom
This just arrived in my inbox "Knitting in Canada" yahoo groups email folder. It was sent by Lorraine Armstrong of Fort Smith.

Enjoy! :)

---------------

There was once a man and woman who had been married for more than 60years.

They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoebox in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box; but one day the little old woman got very sick, and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoebox and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box.

When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money totalling $25,000.He asked her about the contents.

"When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was never to argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily."

The little old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears. Only two precious doilies were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

"Honey," he said, "that explains the doilies, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?"

"Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling doilies."
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 3:35 pm   0 comments
At peace.
The brief note that I posted shows up as Saturday, but I actually posted late Friday night (after midnight) before bed. Classic Cabled Aran in Paton's Decor was not working.

Saturday I went for dinner with Debbie, Yannick, Julie and Richard, and another friend, Steve. We had a nice Italian meal at Spaggio's and I'm very happy I managed to eat sensibly, even surrounded by all that pasta-glorious temptation! I have Yannick's cousin's wedding this summer, my cousin's wedding in September, plus I assume I'll be getting married at some point within the next two years. ;) (Good thing Yannick never reads my blog, eh?) So I'm trying to lose the extra pounds I put on when I quit smoking over 2.5 years ago. (Little secret: the pic of me up in the corner there is about 6 years old. Shhhh!)

After dinner we headed over to Laurentian Lanes and bowled. Well, mostly everyone bowled. Debbie didn't 'cus she's not a big fan, plus she's so tiny and was afraid they wouldn't have any 6 lb balls. :] Just kidding, I love to tease my little midget. Ok, so legally she's 1" beyond being labeled a midget. Technicalities.

I didn't bowl 'cus baby, I got deadlines! I spent the entire time working on the CCA. I like the pattern, it's quick and easy, but MAN am I aggrivated at having to repeat it now for the 4th time, just to see if it's working! My plan was to work up to 24 rows, 1 full repeat, and see if I hit 4" high and 17" wide. If yes, I continue. If no, I accept that I just can't get this one to work, and I move on.

To Jenifer from the comments a few days ago: Thanks for the encouragement. I'm really not liking doing this, but, like you said, I know it's the right thing to do. BTW that's the first time I've seen our name with 1 n. It's kinda cute. I like things that are asymetrical. :)

To Keri from the comments a few days ago: *sigh* I'm not brave. If this was for anything else but for sale I'd have just fudged it to make it fit. And the "next try" turned into 3 more! LOL I'm going to dream about this pattern!

By the time bowling ended I'd made it to 21 rows, so I packed it up.

This morning I started again. Can I just say how much of a hard time I had actually taking the knitting out of my bag? I just couldn't bear to look at it! Nevertheless I pushed myself, and soon enough was at 24 rows. Then I went to 26 to make it easier to measure. I measured. I had 17". Yay! I measured the height. I had 3.75".

That just of wind you all just felt ruffling your hair as you faced your computer screens? That was me letting out a huge sigh of relief.

No, I still didn't have gauge. But after a full week of attempt after attempt, I feel fully justified in saying: I tried. It ain't working. Therefore, I'm not doing it.

Now, much calmer, I'm going to park myself in front of The Food Network until Yannick gets home from Costco, and work on the other requested dog sweater. This one is called Spoilt Rotten, from a Leisure Arts booklet my parents picked up while in Florida. It's simple, in stockinette and ribbing, and has instructions like "work even until 5 inches" or "rib for 3 inches".

Piece of cake.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 3:06 pm   0 comments
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Quickly before bed...
Just a quick note 'cus I work tomorrow. I started over on the Classic Cabled Aran with a 5.5mm. Yes, I know I'd said I'd start with the 6mm. Sue me. In any case, I measured the width after about 6 rows, and had at least 18.5" (it was hard to measure on the needle). WAY over my req'd 17". I frogged AGAIN and started back over with the 5mm. I know it didn't work yesterday, but that was after doing 24 rows on the 4.5mm. I'm hoping that working with the 5mm right from the cast on will make a difference. If not, I give up on this sweater.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:19 am   0 comments
Friday, March 04, 2005
&^%$*@!!!!!!!!
RRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Ok. Calm down. Breathe. Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh.

Tonight, after another hour of knitting on the Classic Cabled Aran, I turned this:



into this:

"But why?" you ask, "It looks great! The cables all twist the way they should -except that first one on the bottom right, but no one will ever notice. Besides, you've already started over once before."

I know. But still, even after going up from a 4mm (req'd needle) to a 4.5mm (the first 24 row repeat) then to a 5mm (the next 24 rows) I STILL DON'T GET THE %f@!#$ GAUGE!

Yes, I'd wanted to finish the sweater by Sunday so I can start the child sweater Monday with only 1 more dog sweater outstanding.

Yes, I've worked on this sweater now Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights in a row.

Yes, I know it's just for a dog and I could *fudge* it a bit by adding more ribbing, etc...

But I've already frogged.

The stupid thing should have been 8" high after 2 repeats- I have 7". The first repeat with the 4.5mm gives me 3.25". The 5mm only gives me 3.75mm.

The width should be 17". The first repeat with the 4.5mm gives me about 13.5-14". The 5mm gives me 15".

I have no choice. I can't keep going and keep a clear conscience. I had to start over.

I'm resentful, but I feel better. Tomorrow -not tonight, I feel better but I'm still resentful- I will start over yet again, this time jumping straight to a 6mm. I know there is a 5.5mm in between I could try. Save it. I'm a tight knitter. I acknowledge that. I embrace that. Tonight I'm going to go to sleep and try to forget all the wasted hours this week. Tomorrow I knit. Give me a 6mm addi turbo circ and get out of my way.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:06 am   2 comments
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Gauge is a Four Letter Word
There wasn't much on TV tonight that I watch, so I got to catch up on some tapes while knitting away, until 10:00 when I watched Law & Order because I was already taping CSI:NY. I got some good knitting time in...BUT for that $%&$ gauge.

If anyone read yesterday's post you'll remember that I didn't get gauge with the recommended 4mm needle. So I frogged and started over with a 4.5mm. Well I measured again at 24 rows and was still a half-inch short. I decided not to rip again. If this were for a person, or even made to measure, I'd frog. But this is for stock, and just an approximation of the size. If the medium calls for a 12" length and I fall a bit short, I can always make the ribbing longer. I'm not worried about the width as my stitch gauge is spot-on.

So I'm continuing but now with a 5mm. So I have 24 rows at 4.5mm, I'll do 24 rows with 5mm. According to my patt, 48 rows should be 8". I'll see when I get to that point. If it works then I'll do my ribbing at the end with the 4mm or 4.5mm to keep it constant, instead of the 3.5mm called for.

Here's where I am so far:



Because I will have the sweater to do for my LYS as of Monday, my plan until then is to work like mad on this. The other dog sweater is in stockinette and won't take too long, but I need to follow a chart for this one, so I'm trying to finish it first. The plan is to do nothing but knit tomorrow after work, Friday before Julie & Rich come over, Saturday night after supper (I work Sat) and Sunday all day.

Here's another 2 pics, just 'cus I think they're cute:



posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:17 am   1 comments
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Knitter for Hire!
I got a great phone call at work today! Nicole (my knitting teacher at my LYS) called to see if I would be interested in knitting up a sweater for a woman who'd planned on making 2 but had to stop after the first. Of course I would! The pay isn't much, but hopefully next time it will be a bit more. I think it's supposed to be something like the cost of the yarn...? I'm not sure. Anyways, I agreed for this one, and I'll see how long it takes, etc... It's a child's sweater in a bulky yarn so I'm not worried it will take forever.

Now I just need to hurry up and get moving on these latest two dog sweaters! I hope by the time I stop tonight I'll at least be up to where I had to rip last night, about 4" (1 full pattern repeat).

*fingers crossed*
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 7:59 pm   0 comments
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Back from the Frog Pond
I'm not happy. I had finished 24 rows of the Classic Cabled Aran using Paton's Decor. I had done this much...

...finishing the first diamonds and the 24-row repeat. The plan was to do another full repeat and be at 8", ready to start the shaping.

Ahem. This would mean that 24 rows would be 4". Yup, I checked the pattern and the gauge is 24 rows x 18 sts in moss st/cable st pattern. I have measured 18 sts. I have 4". I measured my 24 rows. I have 3.5". ARGH. No I did not swatch. This is a dog sweater. The sweater is the swatch.

I shouldn't be surprised. I know I knit a bit tight, a habit that stuck after making a sock one of my very first knitting projects and trying really hard to avoid ladders. (I did, for those curious).

So I frogged. All of it. And started over. I think Sam realized I wasn't too happy about this, as he stopped trying to catch my yarn or needle, and instead tried to appear as inconspicuous as possible:

I did 6 rows before realizing I'd had enough of the Classic Cabled Aran for the night. So it sits at this much done...

...until tomorrow when I can bear to look at it again. (As an aside, a big "thank you" to my mom for bringing me back the metalic magnet-board from her trip to Florida over the holidays. I didn't think I'd ever use it 'cus I put all my patterns in my Palm, but the lace socks taught me that I really prefer working from a chart v.s. a written-out "k4, C4B, p1, k1, p4, C4F, blah, blah, blah".)

Because Law & Order: SVU was still on and I needed something non-aggrivating to work on, I pulled out the blue charity baby sweater. I'd started it yesterday by doing 5 rows of the ribbing during my knitting class. Tonight I made it up to 23 rows before stopping to come post and go to bed:

The sweater is using Paton's Astra that was donated to the Lakeshore Hospital Auxiliary and given to me for these sweaters, and a pattern called Heart Warmer from an old Paton's book that calls for the Astra. Only another 13 rows and I begin the raglan shaping.

I really love raglans. I didn't like them at all until I started knitting, and now I love the neat little paired decreases and the ease it is to seam when you make the decs 1 st in from the edge. I'm looking forwards to putting this together, which is odd 'cus I'm only 23 rows in of the only piece I've started.

Now to bed, to hopefully wake up tomorrow and forget that I'd ever worked the full 24 rows of CCA (even though I'm still really proud of myself for dropping those 5 sts 6 rows and working them back up in cables, no less).

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:33 pm   0 comments
Funny Knitting
I know I said I'd be knitting, but I couldn't resist catching up on a few blogs and found this link in Mindy's post of Feb 1. Truly hysterical knitting patterns. Tres original. Go see.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 7:58 pm   0 comments
Getting ready to settle in...
I'm home from work, have changed into my shloomphy clothes, have an onion soup heating up in the oven, and Yannick's at bowling tonight (on a league team with my dad, my brother and my cousin). This means I have the night to myself...to knit!

I'm hoping to make some really good progress on the dog sweaters this week so I can use Sunday to make up a bunch of stitch markers. I'd really like to send some RAOKs out on Monday when I'm at the mall with my LYS as they have a post office branch there. I know some RAOKers read my blog, but I figure that no one will be able to tell in advance that I'm sending them something, and even though I will be posting pics once they're made, it will still be a surprise when they come in the mail.

To Keri from the comments: thanks for making plans to stop by! It's encouraging to know that people read me. :) And I get Mondays to knit 'cus I work Saturdays, so my weekend is Sun-Mon. (This stops for the summers when I work Mon-Fri, and since Yannick is home those days, I'm supposed to hang out with him, so I get less knitting done). I like the way it is right now 'cus he's home Sat to clean the house, we see each other Sundays, and Mondays I have to myself to do what I want while he's at work.

To Julie from the comments: that duck outfit sounds adorable! I look forwards to having kids for the torture, I'm already planning on making the corn cob baby bunting to start the torture when they're young!


(click the pic to get taken to Lion Brand's site for the free pattern)

To Amanda from the comments: thanks for the sweet words!

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:36 am   0 comments
Cable excitement
I didn't post my progress last night because my computer started acting all wonky and lost use of the mouse, and then keyboard. Once I finally got them working again I was too stressed to want to use the offending devices.

So here is last night's report. I did this much on the Classic Cabled Aran:



I think it's about 4" or so. Wanna know what the best part is? I've only ever made one cable before, a little one on the front of the purse I knitted with my Reader's Digest Learn to Knit kit last year. That cable was made with a cable needle. I remembered it being fiddly. I also remembered lots of knitters online singing the praises of knitting without a cable needle. Guess what I did? Yup! Each and every cable above is made without a cable needle! (As you can see by the lowest twist of the right-most cable, it took me a few rows to realize how to insert my needle depending on whether I wanted the first sts to go to the front or the back. I know that one is the wrong way. Tough.)

But wait! That's not all! There's more! I did something last night that I am so incredibly proud of myself for!!! :]

This is a closeup of those cables. See the mistake? Oh, wait, you can't see the mistake. The mistake was that the left-most middle point of the left-most diamond actually twisted the wrong way before the side of the diamond went up from left to right. It looked really silly, because although the diamond shape was there, the point of the diamond went the wrong way. Know why you can't see the mistake? Because I, fearlessly armed with my favorite little crochet hook, deliberately dropped the first last 5 sts of the center cable section down 6 rows and then worked them back up properly, including the 3 rows that had cable twists!! I really can't believe I did that! Fine, I already knew how to pick up a dropped st even if it ran a row or two, and I knew that if I picked it up from the front it would create a knit stitch, whereas if I inserted my crochet hook from the back it would create a purl. But I'd never gone back more than 2 rows. Never on purpose. Never 5 at a time. And never had to cable while bringing those sts up 6 rows. I really don't think it shows at all that there was ever a mistake there.

I knew this was possible in knitting, since almost anything is possible in knitting. I just didn't think I'd be able to do it. And I did! Yay!

Now I have to leave for work during this nice blizzard we're having.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:24 am   0 comments
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