Wednesday, December 30, 2009

shawl collared vest again

Eco-Wool stretched as it should when blocking.

I think I need smaller buttonhole loops. Or maybe less of a tab. I might redo them later.

Liza sneaks in just to let you know she's paying attention


Tuesday, December 29, 2009

One less sheep to count



Maybe this will mean better night's sleep and less A.D.D.

Monday, December 28, 2009

If cooking were involved

I'd lead a one-car parade down a dead end street.

Seriously.

This recipe COULD NOT be any easier.

1. Melt chocolate, butter, sweetened condensed milk.

2. Add vanilla and nuts.

3. Spread mixture over frozen cookie dough. Top with remaining cookie dough.

My alleged "chocolate revel bars" will be vanilla-free and have the nuts sprinkled on top.

And I was so proud of myself for taking out the recipe book just in case because I've seen my friend Laura do it and it works. I was following the recipe

Attention Deficit Adults were not meant to be cooks.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

as seen on t.v.



I have one of these now. It's pretty slick. The first household appliance that doesn't take up more room than it's worth and requires less clean up than the traditional way of doing things. Eggs, here I come.

I found a home for the giant hat. I think I'll spare the recipient the exposure of her giant noggin but in truth- it's a little big on her too.

I'm about 2/3's of the way through another shawl collared vest in Cascade EcoWool w/size 10 needles. When I was at this point last time I thought I was 90% of the way through. That shawl collar takes some time to knit. I have my fingers crossed. Things are gong much smoother this time.

That's what I know. Egg salad anyone?

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

more bad knitting and other stuff

My lack of gauge checking continues to confirm my stupidity. Just in case anyone was wondering.

You've already read about this one. The shawl-collared vest that was too small. Going to Ms. Deb in the morning. FairyGodKnitter mentioned trimming the steeks in her vest on her blog and I had an "aha" moment and the inside looks much better.



New in the Gauge Fiasco of 2009-

The Lusekofte Cap that's me underneath it.



from this book-



This terrible rendition is by no means the fault of Charlene Schurch. She said to use size 6 needles with worsted weight. The Encore that I knitted with read 5 stitche to the inch with 8 inch needles. Rather than actually checking for gauge, I knit the extra large with size 7 needles, as the hat was intended for Mr. Sophanne and he has a very big brain-surrounded by and even bigger skull.

This version is the "check for gauge" and more willl follow. It's just so lovely. When I looked through the book I felt like knitting each one. How often does that happen?

For you fixers out there, it's 75% nylon and 25% wool. I don't think there's enough there to felt though I'll probably try it. What posessed me to buy acrylic?

In more news, I believe that LizaJane was probably the dog of Captain Bluebeard in a former life. Do you remember reading about his trusty canine pal "BlueFoot?"



Someone around here (some DOG around here) has been getting just a little antsy with the weather and the lack of w-a-l-k-s (I'm even afraid to type that word without spelling it lest she go into convulsions) In protest she's taken to vandalizing the house while we're away. Today it was the blue printer cartridge on the shelf. Can I just say how glad I am when it's something that Mr. Sophanne has "left out" and not me?

And finally- you know they're good slippers when you can remember and imagine what they'll feel like on your feet before they even arrive. I'm not one to promote products but this was the best $50 I've spent in a long time. They've reinforced the back of the heel where the last pair blew out on me so as long as Bluefoot keeps away from them, just call me Happy Feet.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Nature is Having A Party!

And the decorations are AWESOME!


There are even games- this one's called "Find the snowball in the snowpile." It's Liza's favorite.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

If at first...

Yea, so the steeked vest is too small. It's what you get when you think-"gauge? What gauge?" I sort of knew it would be so. There is a lovely smaller person at school that it will be going to as long as the crochet edging holds. I'm hoping the blocking sort of settles it all.

Let me just say I would like to marry the shawl collar. I've cast on another one in Cascade eco-wool. It's marled and I know the cables won't pop but maybe I just like to know as many flaws ahead of time as I can. How else can I explain it? Also I'm happy to be working from the stash.

As the leader of the holiday program, this year's show was no disappointment.

Act I Choir- Sing to yourself the last line of "Have yourself a Merry LIttle Christmas." Here I'll help ...and have yourself a merry little Christmas now.....", Now at the end add a fifth grade boy barfing down the back of a 5th grade girl, respectfully trying to hold it in his hands. He later told me he waited until the song was over because he didn't want to stop singing.

Add the Bob Newhart microphone moments by me announcing there would be a slight delay (followed by the custodian on clean up crew who deserved a standing ovation as far as I was concerned. Also worthy of recognition was the art teacher who wisely suggested to me that we clean it up BEFORE Pre-K comes out.) This was followed by an announcement asking for the 5th grade boy's mother please report to his classroom. Poor 5th grade boy no one was there.

Act II Pre-K- I don't teach these darlings. Their Pre-K teacher prepares them for the show but at one moment there was a 4 year old with his shirt up, going to town on his newly discovered belly button and balancing between the space between two unconnected risers. Disaster was averted as he was engaged by the motions of their second song.

Act III Kindergarten singing and clapping to a little ditty called "Angel Band." One over-enthusiastic clapper bonked another in the nose. The way he was holding it I thought he was bleeding. This K'er is notorious for demanding attention at socially inappropriate times, so when he was shouting "MRS. SOPHANNE! MRS. SOPHANNE!" all of the aides thought he was just doing a little acting out. Kids continue to sing, I continue to accompany on the piano and finally my favorite aide comes to the rescue. Little K'er suffered no blood loss and all was well.

The rest of the program was uneventful other than the fact that I clearly can not read music when I'm not distracted by a million different things. Give me a classroom full of kids, behavior, memorized piano accompaniments, watching the clock, listening to hear if they are singing rather than yelling and I'm full speed ahead. Give me the chance to just accompany and I have the concentration level of a belly-contemplating pre-K-er.

I'm guessing the audience is hoping that Santa brings me piano lessons for Christmas. And Miss Deb, the recipient of the shawl collared- steeked vest is hoping that a measuring tape NEVER crosses my path!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

hopefully the last lesson learned re steeking

So when you set up your steeking you knit 5 extra stitches and cut in the middle one. My newfound knowledge is that there is a reason you have 2 extra stitches. Therefore, when picking up for the edging, use the second one and not the one right next to the cut. Also be very careful. I think I avoided any major disasters but last night was not without some frustration. After finishing one vest armhole and shoulder seam I can say that this is by far the most "finished" looking item I've made in spite of the slips and slides.


more to follow

Saturday, December 12, 2009

more on steeking

Technical knitting stuff post ahead.

When steeking, Brooklyn Tweed said start the crocheting on the left side. Yarnhog taught me that when they say that, they mean the left side "AS YOU WEAR IT."

I followed BT's advice. I failed to follow Yarnhog's.

This means that the crocheted stitches on the cardigan opening were more on the outside of the cut than on the inside. Everything is holding- there's no crisis. The finishing shawl collar should disguise the fact that the cut edges do not gracefully fold inside.

I did follow the directions on the sleeves and they have turned more inward.

Last sleeve cut in 2 minutes. I'll be doing this again (I think) so Donna, you will get to see it some time before too long.

Friday, December 11, 2009

That's Frahnken-steek

My oh so favorite movie Young Frankenstein is on AMC at this very moment. Oh how that movie makes me laugh at every instant.

It's now been 2 work weeks that Mr. Sophanne has been w/out transmission in his vehicle. Dealership-GM rep negotiations continue. This evening I called my 9th grade buddy Miss Mags and told her "I got the car for tomorrow!" and we'll be going for a Red Lobster lunch and a Barnes and Noble Spree. Spree for her. Restraint for me. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Let me tell you this about steeking. Practice steeking is MUCH more relaxing than "real steeking." Practice steeking right after going to the workshop to learn to do it is a laugh, a party, a victory, a dance with wolves (is that a good thing?)

Knitting for two weeks only to cut a column of stitches out is just a little scarier even if you've seen it work a bazillion times (or maybe just twice.)

Before




After



No, it's pronounced Eyegore bwah hah hah hah....what hump.....walk this way I know you don't need a play by play but it's so so funny.

Anyway- the pictures suck but you can see that I took the plunge, cut the sweater and it seems to be staying in one piece. I've yet to cut the sleeves. Donna- I don't think I'll be able to wait until Wednesday.

I also need to read a little more and figure out how Meg Swanson and EZ put this thing together after the steeks. I spent some time mentally processing the steeks as well as the shawl collar but forgot that I'd be connecting the shoulder seams with an i-cord cast off of some sort. I've watched the video but think I better just slow this puppy down and contemplate it's assembly before moving any further ahead.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Cats and Dogs living together



What is the world coming to? Other random signs of these strange times...

It's 5:15 am and I am awake.

This is thanks to the fact that I have to be at work 30 minutes early for a meeting. I don't really need the extra hour and a half that this early hour gives me but I do need Mr. Sophanne home to help me get up. Even Liza stayed under the covers when I got up yesterday so I couldn't count on her one bit.

I learned to change a .wav file to an .mp3 file on itunes

This may mean very little to most of you- as in who gives a rat's a$$- but it was a slightly larger than small victory over technology yesterday and also prevented me from spending another random $25-$50 on a downloadable program that would do it for me.

While I have, in fact, been feeling very weary of holiday hoopla, I watched the entire hour of Santa Claus is Coming to Town last night (the pre-claymation one with Fred Astaire and Mickey Rooney)

Watching it made me feel a little sad for the multi-media inundated youth of today. It was such a special day in childhood when that came on. There was no other way/time to see it other than when the ABC network declared it so. (same with The Wizard of Oz). It makes me wonder what has taken its place in the world of "special things to wait for when you are a kid."

In a matter of days-at least by the weekend- I will be steeking for real (instead of practice)

I had some fiber festival unnamed hand-dyed wool that was going to be an EZ fair isle sweater. In spite of valiant efforts, it was pre-Brooklyn Tweed workshop and I couldn't live with what I knew could be better. I frogged it this summer and even reskeined the yarn. Now I have 16" of Meg Swansons shawl collar vest. Tonight I remove the sleeves, add stitches to the arms for future steeking and begin to create the v-neck. As with most things knit- rushing through the project is for fools and I have thus far been able to avoid that.

Any one of these items might suggest that there's something in the air. The fact that they are all existing together verifies it.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cindy declared a surplus of exclamation points on her blog and I was able to afford some.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Adopt a sweater

Three cheers to finally admitting that a sweater was too small and finding a smaller person to put it on.




This CPH was the first sweater that actually had all the markings of a relatively decently made sweater- other than the fact that it didn't fit. That fact didn't stop me from wearing it. I have since made another that I have been wearing daily. When Mr. Sophanne's petite SIL came to visit this weekend and appeared to be chilly, it was time to turn a not success into a happy time. And so I did. Three cheers for being able to let go.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Owl Mitt



I has one.

Transmission

Mr. Sophanne doesn't.