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. ;) |
