Month: June 2005

I posted a new photo to WorksinProgressPhotos.

I have just been steadily plugging along on a few things. I started an

Adrienne Vittadini pattern with classic elite provence yarn color japanese lilac. I bought it at craft essentials before they realized they were selling if for $6 less than everyone else. Unfortunately it’s the last large amount of any color that I have. I have lots of leftover hanks, some full, some partial. I love this yarn! But I won’t pay full price for it. That is the thriftiness coming out in me.

And of course I am working on Sadie’s blanket. Not as much as last week but it’s still on my chair & that is where it will stay until I finish it. I don’t care how dumpy and overrun it looks. I did get the green cotton boucle to make the fringe/edging. I am thinking it will either be loopy chain crochet or some other fun crochet edging. I will try a few different things & decide once the blanket is finished. I am going to do the fringe on 3 sides & leave the top plain like a normal bedspread would be. I think it will be cute and best of all, it matches Sadie’s personality perfectly!

I made a fun headband out of some left over shachenmayer microbig yarn. XO cables, nothing too fancy but with the stretchy yarn it is perfect! I think I will make a few more out of microspun that I have laying around. On that topic, my mom is an equestrian and she lives in Idaho. She also rides through November & it gets damn cold there! So my thought was, make a headband that had a wide, maybe even double thick yarn, section where it would cover her ears! I am going to test it out and see if I can get it just right then surprise her with a bunch of them that she can keep in her saddlebags.

Don’t you just love giving people handmade gifts that they love & actually brag about? I love it!! My parents seem to be the biggest Chauny-braggarts so they get the biggest, most illustrious christmas gifts this year! I love them, I am feeling a bit homesick for them right now so I will just knit them many things! Off I go!!

Today was a day spent on the computer, in my dark office with the volume muted. I got out of bed at 1pm with a horrid migraine, I stayed in bed that long because I knew I had a migraine and as soon as I stood up I wished I hadn’t.

As a horrible mother, I left the kids to play & for the most part fend for themselves. Then again, our house is small & they play pretty well together. I only had to break things up a couple of times. Sadie even offered to make dinner for them, pb&j sandwiches with carrots & milk. Fine by me!

I have never clued all of you into my music interests, so I think now would be a good day since I spent it focused on ripping cd’s into the computer and organizing my music files.

Top 10 favorites (based on who I think has had a major effect on music in the last 20 years or so, none of the generic answers like elvis or the beatles here. They did change music permanently but let’s move on.):

#1- 311

#2- Led Zeppelin

#3- Fugazi & Minor Threat (I know it’s cheating but come on! I need the space)

#4- Face to Face

#5- Metallica

#6- Stavesacre

#7-Sarah Mclachlan (gotta love the pipes on that chick)

#8- Bob Marley

#9- Beastie boys

#10- 7 Seconds

Playing right now:

computer: 311

bathroom: 311

car: lord of the rings symphony,modest mouse, disney #3 & #4, Save ferris, 311(okay I am on a little 311 high right now, I admit it!)

entertainment center:  linkin park, face to face, beastie boys

That is quite the mix! My better half isn’t a big fan of punk so we mix it up with a bit of everything. He is more of the metallica, linkin park, sublime, beastie boys with a little rap mixed in every once in a while. We are quite the classical/symphony connoisseurs also. But summer time lends itself more to the hard stuff

Every couple of months I find myself lost in life, not really paying attention to where I have come from, my past. Unfortunately for me that means music gets lost. Then for some reason the cd changer in the car goes from disney to 311 and I have a heart attack & shudder from pure delight! Surrounded by little ones all day isn’t too conducive to hard core punk like fugazi, even if the boys do like it they have to wait until they are at least 8. My parents made me wait until 13, the horror!

Not much about knitting but still it is my blog & I may write about whatever I wish! Thanks for listening to my musical rant~ rock on!

Quite the nice turnout for out thursday night back at Java Station. 2 new people came, Tawny & Betsy. Oh & I got to meet Oliver, Suzanne’s man! Nice, nice, you go girl!

I was in my own little world a bit with Tracy, Tawny & Betsy but it was really nice to see everyone & reconnect after the last few months of hit & miss on Monday nights. Of course all the knitting projects were phenomenal! I just love our group!

Today I am working on the hot lava & of course Sadie’s bedspread. I figure I am about 1/3 of the way done with the latter. I keep thinking that I am going to actually do a pattern repeat of the stripes so I don’t have to keep making decisions on what color should come next & how many rows. Yeah…that isn’t happening! I just can’t give up the control over the stripes! I love them & I must stripe as I see fit.

The hot lava was cast on, ribbing finished in about an hour. Then I put it down for the rest of the week & worked on it again for the first time last night at knitting. Gotta love how fast circular knitting goes! I am almost to the armpit after an hour this morning. Somehow I keep finding myself on this damn contraption looking at more patterns! What, 8 binders isn’t enough? Crikey woman, you only have so many hours in the day to knit! I try to tell myself that but it’s not working so well. Okay I need to go & do something, anything productive!

Be there or be  a party pooper! Hope to see a lot of you there! I have missed Monday nights immensely & hope to hook up with all y’all!

I have to say that since I tried the magic loop the first time over 6 years ago, I have pooh-poohed it. Well the other day I found a new pattern that I LOVE, the Hot Lava sweater,  that uses the magic loop. So I thought, okay dammit, I will try it again. Luckily in the pattern she has a link to a different explanation of the magic loop that made perfect sense to me! The booklet of the magic loop had too much explanation & for some reason I hated it years ago. Then again I have never had an issue with dpn’s so I didn’t seek out a different form of small circumference circular knitting. I may never use dpn’s above a size 3 again! Why didn’t I try it again sooner, I ask myself??

I suggest all you out there to give it a try when you do that next circular sleeve on size 10’s. It has made me a firm believer!

So I ripped out the carqueja cardigan and used that yarn to cast on for the hot lava mentioned above. So very excited! I am working away at Sadie’s blanket, I am happy to say it is 1/4 finished! Simple stockinette on 10.5’s can’t be beat!

Tracy and I found an ebay store last week that sells lambs pride on cones. They had a 4lb clearance cone of a wild oak color that was too tightly spun. Seeing a deal, we had to buy it! It came in the mail yesterday, Tracy brought it over & a-balling I went! It was a total of about 2200 yards we figured. Nice amount for a couple of sweaters. Pretty sure it will turn into a couple of fair isle cardigans. I did my swatches yesterday for gauge, size 9’s up to size 11’s just to see in a week or two how much the yarn fills out. It is a bit more tightly spun than normal lambs pride worsted but I think once knit it will fill out quite a bit. Now the swatches can sit & fluff. Then when I get some of this other crap off my needles I can use it at the correct gauge. Sounds good, fantastic!!

I am also on a serious reduction rampage. I am going to list a bunch of my cone yarn on ebay, Tracy & I went through & decided on 18 cones that could go. You read correctly, 18 cones!! Then there are a bunch of old wood mounted stamps from my sisters stamp business that I can sell. I am hoping to get myself I nice little yarn savings balance in my paypal account. Sweet!

So off to work on the blanket, I figure I should focus on that since I seem to be motivated by it. I never expected to get this far on it in the first week. I thought I would have put it aside LONG ago! But look at me, I am rockin’!

Pics to come soon!

Well I just found a new fun site, the daily knitter, thanks to Tracy! The only thing so far that I had to smirk at a bit was the following statement:

“And finally, swear to put yourself on a yarn diet. No more new yarn purchases until everything you already have is used up. “

Everything….I just don’t think that is possible! I think it is reasonable to say go a month or two with no new purchases but hey if I am finishing a dozen projects and I feel I deserve something new & pretty you better believe it’s gonna be new yarn! Although I could just make my yarn stash into some kind of store where it’s all organized prettily and ready to use instead of on cones or all shoved in plastic ziplocs  inside their canvas cubes. But that just means more organizing & cleaning & I am done with that!

On to knitting. I took time this morning, on the first day of the kids summer break, and organized all my loose patterns. I have two 3″ binders with just knit adult sweaters/tops, six 2″ binders organized as follows; kids, hats/scarves/ponchos/shawls, crochet & knit afghans, gloves & socks, my patterns and finally a binder with instructional materials ie knitting guild info, stitch patterns, specialty techniques, blahblahblah.

After all that I decided to use a sweet folder I got from Thuy as my upcoming project folder. So I put the pattern & swatch in the plastic sleeve together so now when I want to start that next project all the info is there at my fingertips. Grab the pattern, yarn & go! I love it! Unfortunately with how many projects I like to have going I am afraid my folder will fill up fast. It’s like my eyes being bigger than my stomach but with knitting. So what would that be….got it, kinda lame though…my folder being bigger than my entire needle collection. I will run out of needles to have everything on well before I run out of yarn or patterns!

Today was a stockinette day. Just working on Sadie’s bedspread. Got another 4″ or so done in an hour. I didn’t knit much, I found myself either folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, telling the kids to clean up the play-doh or the pirate ship that moved from room to room or out here mindlessly looking at crap online. See? I knew I was more productive when the computer was at the office & my pc was broken! Damn technology! Too bad I don’t make any money off of this stupid thing! It just sucks money out of me, how is that right?? Oh well, such is the American way!

Happy Solstice tomorrow everyone & Happy birthday to my mom!!