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I Want to Knit
Friday, June 30, 2006
why do i keep browsing when i have a full knitting plate?
I fell in love again.

I feel a bit adulterous, as I'm crazy for the lacy shrug, head-over-heels for my own design, the Perfect Knitting Bag, and enamoured with the Herringbone Haze Tunic. And yet...

And yet...

I stumbled across this today:

Isn't it gorgeous? And it's a FREE pattern! From here.

I must *not* cast on new projects. I must *not* buy more yarn. I must...

...not?

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 3:45 pm   2 comments
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Eureka! (Or, Why I Love Yannick)
Did I ever say how lucky I am to be with Yannick?

Who else would come all the way into CSL from the WI at 9:00pm just to pick me up from a knitting meetup, AND would park the car and come in because he thought I'd rather him come in and say hi than call my cell and say "I'm outside"?

Who else would not mind stopping on the way home so I could go tan, AND decide that rather than just sit there waiting for me, he'd run into the pharmacy and buy me tampons so we didn't have to stop afterwards?

And now, who would let me explain all the different ways I thought of to attach straps to the knitting bag I'm designing, then add one unique twist to make the bag so damn special and unlike all the other felted bags out there, AND remind me of a change I forgot to make which means I have to undo and reknit about 1/8th of what I've done so far but it doesn't matter because the new way will make the bag a million times cooler?

Only Yannick. I love him.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:44 pm   1 comments
The Summer I Blacked Out
I'm on black overload.

The Perfect Knitting Bag is black. Black wool. Black wool knitted up in summer in a (thank Gd) air-condition house, but while sitting on a HEATED waterbed. Is it any wonder I can only manage a few rows at a time? The PKB is also my entry for the Knitting World Cup, so I am trying to finish it by July 8th. I've been ODing on black wool.

The Lacy Shrug in Kid Merino is black. Well, the name of the color is black. In reality it's black from far away...but really only a dusty charcoal up close. Whatever, it's still black. It's my pleasure break in between miles of stitches on the PKB. It's currently about 6" long. It needs to be finished by the wedding weekend, Labor Day weekend, because it is my entry for The Amazing Lace. I don't get to work on the lacy ruffled border until it's 47" long. I've got a long summer of black lace knitting ahead of me!

So this morning, while perusing the latest (July) issue of Creative Knitting, I come across a tank top. I'm always looking for tank top patterns, because most of the tank tops I see in stores would not be appropriate for work. So I see this cute tank top, the Herringbone Haze Tunic:
Great, I tell myself. I'll swatch up a tank top to have on the needles as my "treat" knitting, when I need a break from all the black. Unfortunately I can't afford to go out and buy more yarn right now. No biggie, I've got a sizable stash. There must be something I can knit it with...

There is. A big, no dye lot, pounder bag of Red Heart. I don't mind using acrylic, I like the idea that I can throw my clothes in the wash. (Especially since I'm a klutz and usually end up wearing whatever I'm eating). I don't even care that its WalMart acrylic. Or that it was cheap. But guess what color it is?

Black.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:27 am   2 comments
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
See? I Told You I'd Post Pictures
These are the adorable stitch markers I got from Jenn. The little candy beads are
so cute! I love the bright colors, and the little tin they came in!
These are the stitch markers I got from Adriane. They are so sweet!
I love the little flowers on them, they are very "girly" which is usually the
mood I'm in when I use decorative stitch markers. I love them!
This is my Perfect Knitting Bag in progress. What does it take to design a pattern from scratch?

Well...it takes a very large needle for knitting the wool open enough to have room to felt.

It takes swatches that were measured pre- and post-felting so you can calculate the rate of shrinkage.

It would normally also take the careful notation of how many rows/stitches your swatches were, if you hadn't begun this bag 2 years ago and lost the scrap of paper those notes were on.

It takes a $hitlo@d of wool to make a very large bag, which is rediculously large pre-felting. It takes a row counter and enough skill to know when you've clicked it, and how you miraculously wound up with 10 extra body rows.

It takes graph paper to chart out incs and decs, and a pad of sketch paper to keep track of your design notes, especially when you change your mind half-way through. It also takes a much larger bag to shlep it all around in.

P.S. All you can see here is a lousy pic of the unworked side of the bag. I'm not going to give away a pattern before I shop it around! :)
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:26 pm   2 comments
I'm a Bad, Bad Blogger
So I haven't posted in a while. In fact, I have to go check my own blog to see when the last post was...brb...

Huh. A week ago (not counting pics of Sam and my Amazing Lace Poetry entry). So I have a week to catch up.

Well, not much happened.

Sunday the 18th I went for my wedding dress fitting. The dress was just how I remembered it, only I didn't realize how pale I was! I had my shoes, so the seamstress was able to pin up the front so I won't trip, to show her where to hem it up. We didn't pin the sides to be taken in yet, because I'm hoping to need to have it made smaller as the wedding gets closer. We had some veil issues, but hopefully that will be resolved soon. There was a minor snafu when the power in an entire 4-block radius went out, but luckily the store had huge windows and we were able to continue with the fitting. After the fitting I went back to my parents' house and worked on one of the submissions I did for the new SnB book. We had Father's Day dinner, then a birthday cookie cake for my brother Mike and my cousin Robyn, whose bdays were the 18th and the 16th. Once I got home I stayed up really late sending out the submission via email.

Monday the 19th was spent knitting non-stop for the 2nd submission I did. I'm not happy with what I sent, but I wasn't able to knit up a full swatch in time for the deadline, so I had to make do. Oh well. If I don't make it into the book, I will definately shop the designs around somewhere else.

I started tanning...the fake & bake kind, not the lie-out-in-the-sun kind. I'm not a heat person. I don't really like summer, other than the fact that you can run out and the only preparation that takes is to slip on shoes (providing that you're already dressed). I would love to live in permanent Fall (you know, kinda like Spring without the mud). In any case, I would much rather spend 6 minutes two-to-three times a week for a few weeks in a tanning booth than a few hours a week out in the sun, sweating and squinting. Don't send me emails with the horrors of tanning, I'm only doing it until the wedding. Right now I'm the color of my wedding dress, and Yannick has been working outside all summer...so he's rather...orange.

I went to the Montreal Knits meetup on Wednesday. We had a small group, but it was fun. Robyn brought her ball winder and a large cone of something black-and-white, and wound a cake each for me and Jennie. Yannick showed up just in time to pick me up.

I've been working like crazy on the Perfect Knitting Bag pattern since the Knitting World Cup deadline is coming up. I have the body of the bag done, and was working on the sides all weekend. It's really cool watching something of my own design taking physical form in front of me. Even if this pattern never sells, I know I will use it and love it.

I also recieved stitch markers from 2 of my swap pals during the week- Adriane (sp?) and Jennifer. Thanks so much! I love both sets, and think it's cool that you both send me glass stitch markers!

I will post pics of both the markers and the perfect bag progress tonight, hopefully.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 5:16 pm   0 comments
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Amazing Lace Challenge # 3 - The Poetry Challenge

*Sung to the tune of Madonna's True Blue*

I've had other knits
I've looked at a thousand kits
But I never knew love before
'Til The Kid walked through my door

I've tried all the charts
Your simplicity stuck me through the heart
I can work on you no matter where I go
You're the one for me baby this I know

'Cus it's
True love
Your YOs are what I'm dreaming of
Your lace fits me like a glove
And I'm gonna be
True blue baby I love you

I've put in all the lifelines
I've k2tog oh so many times
Those complicated charts don't scare me now
I'm with you 'til the end baby this is my vow

So if you should ever doubt
Wonder what my love is all about
Just think back and remember dear
Those words whispered in your ear, I said

True love
Your YOs are what I'm dreaming of
Your lace fits me like a glove
And I'm gonna be
True blue baby I love you

'Cus it's
True love
Your YOs are what I'm dreaming of
Your lace fits me like a glove
And I'm gonna be
True blue baby I love you

No no more cables / I kiss them goodbye
The chart was memorized / on my first try
I've searched the whole world / for lace like you

Don'tcha know, don'tcha know that it's

True love / oh baby
True love / oh baby
True love / oh baby
True love...

I have to say...I'm sitting here giggling like a maniac for no reason other than I've managed to add sound to my blog. For some reason this amuses me to no end!
And to those sticklers out there who say songs aren't poetry...to you I say :P thththththt Yes, that's right. I spit at you with lots of drool!

Ok, for you guys here's a limmerick:

There once was some lace yarn from Toronto
Whose pattern I had to knit pronto
The pattern drove me insane
I had no choice but to proclaim
"What trouble have I gotten myself onto?
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:04 pm   4 comments
Silly Cat
So I woke up this morning and was wondering why Sam wasn't asleep at my feet like usual. That's when I saw it...the open closet door could only mean one thing...
Evil Genius, Stick-Fetching AND The Ability To Open Doors...is there anything this cat CAN'T do?
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:18 am   0 comments
Saturday, June 17, 2006
long boring post with no pictures
I didn't do much this week, other than knit my little butt off on some swatches. I'm still unsure about Court, but Plunger is coming along swimmingly. I keep meaning to take some vague photograph that doesn't show anything, but haven't yet. Maybe soon.

Last night I stopped in at Jackie & Kevin's to see Jackie and Bradley. He's so cute! He just started crawling, and has got two adorable little teeth poking in on the bottom. I swear if I wasn't already engaged... ;P

Then Yannick and I met Julie and Rich at Scores for some dinner. Funny moment: the waitress was slow. I mean you can get ketchup out of a bottle faster. We sat around for at least 40 minutes after eating waiting for her to come back to bring us refills, gd forbid she bring the check.* 15 minutes AFTER that when we got the bill, she presented it to us, saying, "Here you go. Take your time in paying, I'm in no rush." REALLY? YOU THINK SO? We managed to wait a split second after she'd left the table before all 4 of us burst out laughing.

Tonight I'm going out for dinner with Robyn and some of her friends for her birthday dinner, then going home after to knit all night. The submission deadline is ACK! Monday and I need to have everything photographed by tomorrow night.

Oh- speaking of Robyn...her blog is now open to the world! So please go and visit my cousin over at
http://www.knitpurlknitpearl.blogspot.com and say hi!

In case I don't get to blog tomorrow, here's the plan:
-go for my first wedding dress fitting! ACK
-wish my brother Mike a happy birthday! (ok, maybe this will go first)
-go to my parents' house for Father's Day dinner
-go for coffee with Steph and Steph
-go through all the swatches and photograph and prepare and send out my SnB submissions

*I have nothing against service staff, I was a waitress and barista and bartender myself. But in an almost-empty restaurant at 10pm there's no excuse to bring us our meals and then disappear for over an hour.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 4:03 pm   1 comments
Friday, June 16, 2006
Happy Birthday Robyn!
A big bunch of birthday wishes to my cousin Robyn, the mommy-to-be!
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:22 am   1 comments
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Sharing
I'm very excited right now. I should be knitting, but I'm popping over just to blab because Yannick's not home.

There are 2 designs I want to submit to the next Stitch 'n Bitch book by Monday. One design is being worked through, but is taking some time as it's...well...unique. Did I ever give this one a nickname? I think so but can't find it in my archives. Assuming I never named it, I'll call it Court from now on.

The other design is the one I called Plunger, the one that was delayed by the Superwash wool fiasco. By dipping into my stash to have a temporary solution, not only did I end up with a working pattern, but I managed to solve some things that were bugging me about the original design! Yes, I changed it a bit, so it's not the first thing I had pictured in my head, but so what? I'm beginning to understand that designing is not only about creating the vision, but at times requires adaptation for what is actually possible. And I'm totally ok with this design being adapted, as I am very proud of the finished result. Go Plunger!

Ok, back to knitting!
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:26 pm   0 comments
World's Longest Knitted Scarf?
Knitting World Cup related:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2043964,00.html
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:26 pm   0 comments
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Shower and an Explanation
The Shower
Today was my bridal shower!

I got up at 9 to shower and put up my hair so it would be full later. As much as I love really long hair, it goes flat fast. I put it up in large rollers too keep it up until I was ready to leave. (Yannick asked me "Why are you curling your hair?" I said, "I'm not." He said, "But you have rollers in..." I said, "It's for volume baby!"

I got to my aunt Fran's by 12:30- the shower was being hosted by my 3 aunts (Fran, Miriam and Carol) and was called for 1pm. I have no photos 'cus I forgot my camera, but since there was a flash or 8 going off every minute, I'm sure I'll be emailed photos and video within the next few days. People kept coming in and coming in...and coming in... and by around 2pm we started with the food (oy there was so much food!) and the games. First I judged a toilet-paper wedding dress contest (and almost started crying with my mom when we saw my 18 year old sister "made up" as a bride, all pristine in her white toilet paper) then we played some other games while opening gifts, like guessing the amounts of candies and almonds in jars, matching off traditional anniversary gifts with the years, and so on. I also had to answer questions about how well I know Yannick. I don't know how many were asked, but I got only 2 wrong.*

If anyone who was at my shower reads this, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for the beautiful gifts. Everyone was really sweet and I hope they had a good time, I know I did!

The men (Yannick, my dad, my brothers, his dad, an uncle and one of his nephews) came by around 4:30 to help eat all the food. It actually took until 6:30pm until everything was done and we started saying most of the goodbyes!

Now it's 9:30, I just got home and changed into some comfy clothes. Yannick has a party to attend, so I'm going to flop on the couch and watch Aeon Flux on DVD, along with some World Cup Knitting.

The Explanation

The "X-Treme Lace Knitting" post has been generating some comments. First off, a big thanks to everyone who has left me a comment laughing about it. I tried hard to come up with a truly x-treme knitting situation, and when we saw how the photos came out (especially the one with Sam) it was easy to write up the scenario. For those who are totally confused: I'm part of the Amazing Lace knitting group. Every two weeks there will be challenges, and we post our responses on our blogs. This week's challenge was to show an example of x-treme knitting, so my post was my contribution towards that. I didn't realize until afterwards that I'd forgotten to leave an explanation in that post, and I will try to do so in future ones.

To Amanda Cathleen: Yes, I have the spreadsheet. I'd love to email it to you, but I don't have your email address! You can email me directly if you want (link in the sidebar) and I'll send it to you!

*The first one I got wrong was what he noticed first about me, way back when we first met. It was multiple choice, and I guessed c) my beautiful blue eyes. The answer was b) my cute and sweet personality (note: their words, not mine). I swear I was going to say B but last night he commented on my eyes so I thought that was what he'd said to them. Turns out it was B after all. The other one was what food would he never eat. I took it literal and said either "gefilte fish or cats" since one he hates, and the other he loves too much to try. He's tried almost everything else. His answer was "shepherd's pie". He's eaten shepherd's pie, he just doesn't like it very much. Turns out he answered "what food do you dislike most" instead of how I took it, as "what food would you not eat- even if bribed, or under death penalty or whatever". If he'd known how I was going to hear the question, it would have been the gefilte fish, so I would have ended up with a perfect score. :)
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:18 pm   0 comments
Knitting World Cup Kickoff!
So the Knitting World Cup kickoff was on the 9th at whatever time the whistle blew. I didn't worry about starting on time because I knew I had a time delay, which I calculated as follows:
Time it took to knit 1 base row: 1 min 46 sec - we'll round that up to 2 min.
# of rows in the base knit so far: 50

Time it took to knit 1 body row: 6 min 58 sec - we'll round that up to 7 min.
# of rows already knit in the body: 36

My calculations told me a delay of 6-ish hours was needed. I played it safe and only started working on it today at the Montreal Knitting Guild's year-end meeting, the Garden Party (held indoors due to rain). Robyn came with me, and we had a pretty good time. Afterwards we went to Wal-Mart, then she came over and knit for a bit after helping me choose what to wear to my bridal shower tomorrow.

Tonight Yannick and I had some dinner and watched X-Men 2 and a DVD I will only refer to by its initials: P.O.T.P. Thanks Robyn! *groan*

KWC day # 1 update: I started today on row 37. I am now at row 54. Of a really big, really boring knit. In all black. This is going to take forever.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:37 am   1 comments
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Challenge # 2-X-Treme Lace Knitting
*pant pant wheeze*

Ok, lemme catch my breath. That was a close one!

I don't know what happened...there we were, the Kid and I, cruising along our merry little way. We were following all the signs, narrowly avoiding pitfalls to both our confident knitter's esteem and our delicate lacy ego...when all of a sudden WHAM! There we were- stuck in a trap!

I really can't explain it...we had followed the clue exactly as written! Instead of arriving at the next pit stop, we were ambushed from behind...then everything went dark as I felt a black mask being slipped over my eyes. The next thing I knew, padded hands were pinning my wrists together behind my back, securing them with a long, animal print scarf. There must have been two of them, an evil genius and lowly henchman, perhaps, because one of them held me to the chair while the other bound me with a 75% wool/25% acrylic blend. The cads! Knowing that there was no way I could force the acrylic to break with my will alone!

I felt the Kid shudder but didn't know the full extent of the horrors until much, much later. I must have blacked out, because when I came to there were the signs of a struggle, and three sets of footprints leading away. Hmm...three? One must belong to whomever rescued us!

I scoured the internet all evening, trying to find any clue about those who held us captive, or our mysterious savior. Finally I came across some video footage of our ordeal. I did a screen capture to show you the worst of it.
It was worse than I'd thought! Not only was I being forced to knit while captive, tied to a chair and blindfolded, but look at the poor Kid! Threatened by a scissor-wielding tiger! One false move on my part...one accidental tug on his fragile body...and it would be all over for the Kid. It was truly the stuff nightmares are made of!

Closer examination of our Amazing Lace clue revealed that it was not in fact a clue, but rather a very clever fake. Someone had gone to the trouble of duplicating a clue, down to the destinctive gold and maroon colors, all for the sake of leading the Kid and I into his nefarious plan. Who was this evil-doer? Who would go to such lengths as to put our lives in danger? I'm not sure, but if I know my evil villains, (and I know my evil villains), then something tells me that he must have stuck around to watch his plans unfold...much like the ruthless cads in those James Bond movies. Maybe if I freeze frame again, and watch that video footage frame-by-frame, I might catch him. Maybe...

Maybe......there.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:30 pm   9 comments
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
It must be the germs.
I have to blame it on the germs. Otherwise, why would an ordinarily sane knitter go through her knitting bag to find a wip that wasn't too taxing on the brain, choose the Clapotis that was for her her HER, knit on it for about 3 total hours through the day (when she wasn't sneezing, napping or coughing), then, right before going to sleep, decide to take all her progress, all of this:and turn it into this?
It took a lot out of me to frog it, let me tell you. But the more I worked on it, the more I kept coming to the same realization. I love the pattern. I wanted to knit a scarf. A nice, squoushy winter scarf. Following the pattern as written I ended up with something about 20" wide, not counting the stitches that were still to be dropped. Normally I wouldn't mind having another shawl, but the colors of this yarn are so similar to the Noro I used for my Tasha Tudor shawl, that I don't see the need to have 2 shawls the same color. I really want this Clapotis to be a scarf. The only way to fix that? Rip it out, start over, this time stopping after 4 repeats of the increase section (for a total of 5 dropped sts, a scarf of about 10" wide-ish). Plus now I'll have enough for a really, really long scarf, the kind you can wrap twice around your neck and still have long enough to tuck into your coat or have trailing behind you in the wind. I'm going to love this scarf.

Once I have enough strength to cast on and start over.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:27 pm   1 comments
Monday, June 05, 2006
Question.
Q. Does wearing newly-finished, handknit socks make one feel better when one has the flu?
A: No. Absolutely not. But, when one's feet look this cute, who cares?
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:46 am   1 comments
Sunday, June 04, 2006
I'm going to kill him.
Yannick has been sick since Friday. Since Friday I've been holed up in the spare bedroom, refusing to touch any surface that he's been near. I've been taking my vitamins. I've been drinking lots of water. I've been avoiding him.

Guess who woke up sick at 5:30 this morning?

I so wanted to stay in bed all day. Except for the sore muscles, sniffles, clogged ears and the uncanny way it felt EXACTLY like I was digesting burning pins each time I swallowed, I almost felt like it was something a few more hours of sleep could cure. No such luck.

I had to buy my wedding dress shoes. My mom and Laura picked me up and we went to BCBG downtown to get Laura's maid-of-honor dress, then to St-Hubert street for my shoes. I love my shoes. I LOVE my shoes. I love them so much I can't wait for the wedding mainly because of how much I love my shoes, and I can't wait until after the wedding when I will re-dye them black and will get to wear them with a skirt or dressy pants. They are cute, sexy, can be dyed to match my dress, and are comfortable to wear. Love. My. Shoes.

I knit on the silly Fun Fur Purse in the car, because it was stockinette and dark and made me concentrate so I couldn't think of how awful I felt. I also want it finished so I can free up the needles and not feel too guilty about starting something new.

Now I'm home and just took a NeoCitran, which means I'll probably be asleep in 15 minutes. Want proof of how crappy I feel?

There are 4 rows left to knit on the last Sunrise Sock. 4 rows. That's it. Knit 4 rows of 2x2 rib, BO then finito. Done. Empty sock needles waiting for the next pair. 4 rows.

And I'm not knitting.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 7:21 pm   1 comments
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Talk About Timing!
So, as I've already posted, I'm busying working on submissions. Knowing how soon the 19th will be here, and how much work I have to do to get my swatches ready to photograph, I spent a few minutes browsing online looking for yarn in a dk weight that will felt. I tried the usual suspects, but nothing really caught my eye. Finally I decided to check some local shops. This felt risky, as I've only been to one LYS as it is the only one "local" to my home. There are quite a few more, but I've never driven in those areas and their work hours conflict with mine, so I've just never gotten around to shopping there. I did a local.google.com search for yarn shops, and went through the list looking for names I've heard before.

The third name on the list is La Tricoteuse, on Rachel Ave. I called them up, and yes, they do have a dk weight yarn that felts, and yes, it does come in the colors I need. I got excited, then realized that their hours are the same as mine, which means I have no way of getting there.

Desperate, I called my cousin Robyn. I know she goes there occasionally, so my plan was to ask her to call me the next time she's in that area. If I find something else first, fine. Otherwise I'll ask her to pick up what I need and I'll pay her back.

Imagine my surprise when Robyn told me that she was having lunch right across the street from La Tricoteuse, with plans to go yarn shopping there after eating! What a coincidence! I called the store back right away, asked them to put the yarn aside for me, and told them that someone would be picking it up shortly.

So now I only need to wait until the next time I see Robyn to get my yarn! That means I'll have it by Wednesday at the latest, at the Montreal Knits meetup. Woo hoo!

THANK YOU ROBYN!
UPDATED TO ADD: I just found out that they gave Robyn superwash wool. WTF? I told them over and over I need it to felt! They told her that it will felt if I use hot water. Why on earth would you give someone superwash when they call you looking for yarn for a felting project? Why? They'd better have a return policy, because I'm not happy about this. I don't know which yarn it is yet, nor what brand, although according to Robyn the 3 colors I asked for were from different brands. WFT again? I'm doing a felting project! I want yarns from the same brand, as everyone knows that different brands felt differently! So now I have 3 different brands of superwash wool, for 1 felting project. I'm very annoyed. It's not Robyn's fault, she just picked up what the person at the store put aside. But I'm annoyed at the worker, for sure!
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 3:24 pm   2 comments
Yannick Sick & Sleeping = My Swatch Success!
I don't know where he caught it, nor do I know what he caught, but poor Yannick is sick as a dog! He left work around 4 this afternoon and crashed. I don't even think he's sleeping at all, as every 5 minutes I can hear him coughing. I tried to get him to go to a clinic, but he's a guy, so... He is taking Advils and NeoCitran (not together), but I don't think we have any cough medicine in the house (well, besides the one brand that can kill him- allergy). He's trying to sleep it off because he has more jobs to work tomorrow, but right now I don't see how he's going to make it. It's all I can do to get him to stop touching every single surface in the house so that I don't catch it too.

After work today I met my mom at the Plaza Pointe-Claire. While waiting I stopped in at the Wool Shop and picked up some of the yarn I need to work my swatches. I had realized that there was a second pattern I'd like to submit as well, but they didn't have the right yarn at all so I'll have to go stash diving to see if I have anything that would let me start right away.

My mom came to meet me in the first place because there was a shoe store that was supposed to have nice stuff, as I need to find my wedding shoes before my first dress fitting. They didn't really have anything that appealed to me, so we both headed our own ways, her going home and me going to the gym.

Once I got home I made some supper, including some soup for Yannick. Since he and his germs are holed up in our bedroom, I brought my tapes downstairs to the living room and settled in with my box of knitting needles, my new yarn, some stash yarn and my knitting notebook.

The first swatch is one to see if some yarn I already have would work for a particular project. I forget if I've already given it some secret code name in the blog before, but I will now start calling it Plunger. So here is Plunger's swatch. It is Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes in Carrot, on 6mm needles. It IS to be felted, once I measure it. As a side note, I have discovered that I love the way WotA feels knitted up, pre-felting. I would really love to make a jacket or cardigan out of it, although I'd probably carry a small square around for a day or so to see if it pills badly.
I have included a CD for scale. Ignore the crappy pinning job, it's late and I work tomorrow, so I grabbed the few pins I could find easily. I'll pin it out properly with my blocking wires before I measure it.

The next "swatch" was with some of the new yarn. I was really disappointed when I pulled out the center of the ball to find the end- someone must have bought then returned this ball, because the entire piece I used to knit the "swatch" was cut from the original ball. As in, I pulled out the center of the ball plus a little wrapped section of yarn that was actually cut. Makes me mad, but anyways... Luckily it was just enough for what I needed right now. This isn't a swatch to test the gauge, rather a little piece I needed to test some crucial elements of the pattern design. I am thrilled to announce that I achieved success. I was actually dancing around my living room, that's how pleased I am! I have included the same CD for scale. :)

Now I'm off to guzzle a NeoCitran of my own before bed. I don't feel too sick, but knowing that I have been feeling a little run down lately, and that Yannick has touched nearly every wall, light switch, door knob and sink faucet in this house, and knowing how easily I catch colds, well...better safe than sorry.
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:08 am   26 comments
Friday, June 02, 2006
No One Here But Us Toys
What? Oh, did I leave the spare bedroom door open?
I'll go close it before Sam gets in there...

Who can be mad at that face?
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 8:12 pm   0 comments
On the Back Burner
I will be taking a small, temporary break from the knitalongs I signed up with. I am still participating (and eagerly awaiting the next Amazing Lace Challenge!) but have something a little more pressing to occupy my knitting time in the near future.

About a week ago I was browsing through the Knitlist emails, and found one from Debbie Stoller, author of Stitch 'n Bitch, Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, and Stitch 'n Bitch: The Happy Hooker, not to mention related knitting journals. She put a call out for submissions to the next "Stitch 'n Bitch" book, which, in her words, will "be an advanced knitting manual, and I'm looking for patterns that incorporate a bit of fancy-pants knitting such as cables, lace, color work (either intarsia or fair isle or, hell, both!), beading, etc. The book will be covering these techniques in great detail, as well as much more."

Remember that pattern idea I hinted that I'd be looking into starting soon? Well, I thought it might be perfect for the next book. However, it's such an "out there" pattern, that I didn't want to waste my time working up swatches and taking photos unless it would actually be considered, and not deleted right away because of it's uniqueness. So I sent an email outlining my idea and asking if such an animal would be considered for the book.

I just received an email back from Debbie's assistant telling me that it would definately be considered, BECAUSE it's so unique and original. :]]]]

Guess who's off to the yarn store tonight? I had really wanted to use Knitpick's Palette yarn, but there is no way I could order it and have it shipped to me in enough time to work up some swatches before the submission deadline. So it's LYS yarn hunting time!
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 3:59 pm   1 comments
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Tuesday Wednesday
On Tuesday I was a naughty girl and skipped the gym. It wasn't my fault- by the time I'd made it out of the grocery store and home through all the traffic I wouldn't have had time to do the required 30 mins before the gym closed at 8pm. So I went straight home, made some supper and knit my way through the premiere of Last Comic Standing. There are a few new comics I like so far, and one old one I've always liked- Nikki Payne.

I used that knitting time to start working on the Lacy Shrug, which I'd already cast on for. I did about 4 rows (1 pattern repeat) then ripped it completely and cast on again. This time I actually READ the pattern, which specified doing 2 rows of stockinette stitch BEFORE getting into the pattern repeats. It helps when you, you know, pay attention. I didn't take a pic because it's only about an inch long. I like working with the Kid, but it does have one bad habit- it scrunches up just like the Lion Brand Homespun did. Every few stitches I have to stop and push whichever yarn content that's getting jumbled back down, or try to knit it in. It's not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying. I haven't found any shedding so far, so that's a huge relief!

I worked a bit more on the Sunrise sock and stopped just before the short-row heel.

Last night my cousin Robyn had a little knitting get-together at her house, so I went over straight from work. At first it was just Robyn, Angela and myself, but little by little knitters showed up, and we grew to a group of seven people. Robyn, me, Angela, Sharon, Isabelle, Jennie (with cornbread!) and Kadi. I had such a good time! We had the TV on in the background, so we spent from 8-9pm making fun of B-list celebrities playing The Price is Right on Gameshow Marathon, and then 9-10pm making fun of wanna-be dancers on So You Think You Can Dance?. I worked on the Sunrise sock some more, turned the heel and started the short leg portion. I left at 9:30pm because of the downpour, and dropped Angela, Sharon and Isabelle off at the metro on my way home. I was much too tired to knit once I got home, so I curled up in bed with the Yarn Harlot's first book (I just realized I've had it on my bedside table with only 10 pages left to finish for the longest time, and her 2 other books are waiting to be read).

Now I'm at work, waiting to see if today ends up having yet another rainstorm. I took a quick lunch with Debbie over at Deli Boys, and once she'd left for work I enjoyed a decaf coffee with my knitting. I'm so close to finishing this sock! I'm at row 151, the 2x2 cuff starts at row 160, and I BO after row 180. If all goes well I'll have some empty needles tonight!
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 2:38 pm   0 comments
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