Monthly Archives: March 2010

Progress

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Bitterroot

There is a little knitting progress in my house this week.  I have moved on to the third chart on the Bitterroot pattern.  I’ve been knitting on it before I go to bed at night since it’s fairly easy and I don’t really have to watch what I’m doing.  I can’t wait to see how it looks blocked out, the yarn right now is so soft and sparkly and the variegation doesn’t distract from the pattern at all.  I really like this so far.

Calluna

Then we have Calluna.  All of the knitting is done, at last, and I need to weave in the ends on the sleeves, I already did the ends on the body, set in the sleeves, and sew on the buttons.  I hope she likes it, I do.  And it’s going to look so much better once I block it, I just need to figure out how I can do that without anyone seeing it.  I’ll probably just steam it instead of washing it to block since the air is so wet here right now, it’s been rainy most of the week and is supposed to be next week, too, if I wash it now it will never dry.

Nap Time

Sally knows what to do on these rainy days.  She’s laying sideways on the bed under both pillows with the blanket covering her feet.  I guess she’s cold.

Sleeves and Shawls

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Sleeves!

Lookie there, I knit some sleeves.  I took a few days off from my mom’s sweater to let my shoulder rest and then I slowly knit the second sleeve.  It really did take a while to knit since I could only do a few rows at time for so long, but yesterday and today I was able to bust it out in just a few hours, if I stopped and took a break every 30 minutes or so.  So the sleeves are done and now all I have left is the collar and the little bit of finishing.  I don’t think I’ll have any trouble finishing it by her birthday on the 23rd.

Bitterroot

Since I have officially knit three quarters of my KnitPicks project and I still have three weeks before it needs mailed back I decided to give myself a couple days off and knit on something for myself.  The green and white merino/silk that I spun last month has been calling me to knit with it so I wound it up last night and started Bitterroot which is what I had in mind to knit while I was spinning the yarn.  I went down to size 4US/3.5mm needles since my yarn gets really thin in the middle and it’s really stretchy and I’m not using any beads since I don’t have any and I don’t want to go buy any.  Besides that, this yarn has a ton of gold sparkle in it and and that’s plenty of bling for me.   I have about twice the amount of yarn that the pattern calls for so I’m thinking I could either make it bigger or I could possibly squeeze out a small scarf with the leftovers.  I’m extremely happy with this yarn it is just so pretty, and that is all from the fiber.

Cloudy

You can tell Spring is coming to Southwest Missouri when the sky starts to look like this in the afternoon.  It’s supposed to storm tonight, I just hope it waits until after Lost.  I love the light in this picture.  It was so dark outside but the two houses at the end of the street were in the middle of this little puddle of sunlight.  And I always like the way the clouds look here when a storm is coming, they get so dark and heavy and this deep blue.  I may not like it here much but our weather is always entertaining.

Doggie Birthday

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Happy Birthday!

When I was five years old I got my first dog.  She was a black miniature poodle and I named her Gina.  Gina was everything you would want in a dog, well behaved, playful, loyal, warm and cuddly and sweet.  For a big chunk of my life she was truly my best, and sometimes, my only friend.  She died when I was 22 and I was devastated.  I never imagined having another dog and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would love a dog anywhere near as much as I did her.  Then this stinky, dirty, lazy, gross, spoiled rotten beagle came along and stole my heart.

Happy Birthday!

Sally is four today.  I know it’s kind of hokey and cheesy to celebrate a dog’s birthday but to me, this dog is really special.  If you read this blog you know I’m a bit of a loner now but I wasn’t always.  I used to be the type who stayed out all night every night.  I was the girl that everyone knew, a sort of social butterfly, if you will.  I went through some very tough times a few years ago and a lot of my friends (most of them, actually) quit talking to me and through the years I’ve lost touch with most of the rest of them.  Sally came along at a time when I was very lonely, feeling abandoned and unloved and she gave me that unwavering affection that only a dog can give and it was just what I needed.

Happy Birthday!

When my mom bought her I didn’t want a puppy, I didn’t want to take care of her and I was mad that I had to train and spend most of my days taking care of her and now I wouldn’t take any of it back for the world.  It’s strange how such a small animal can brighten my day, everyday.  She steals my pillow when I try to sleep, she burps in my face after she eats, she rolls is anything she finds in the yard that stinks and then won’t cooperate when I have to bathe her, she used to chew holes in my clothes and she sheds in my knitting, but I couldn’t ask for a better dog.  Happy birthday, Stinky.

Not Quite at the Podium

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Calluna

I’m so close.  A collar, a sleeve plus a couple inches of the first sleeve is all that was standing between me and knitting Olympic gold but I just couldn’t do it.  Since Thursday I’ve only been able to squeak out five or six rows a day on this, my poor should just doesn’t like the sweater.  I think it has to do with the big (heavy worsted) yarn and the big (US8) needles, like I have to move my arms and hands more to make the motions to knit.  I’m working on a project for KnitPicks where I’m using much smaller yarn and much, much smaller needles and I can knit on it all day without so much as a twinge but after five or ten minutes of Calluna and I’m screaming for ibuprofen (or beer).  Now I just have to try to finish by my mom’s birthday and, thankfully, that isn’t until March 23, so I have 23 days and I’m pretty sure I can manage that.  I think I’ll take a few days break from even attempting to knit on Calluna and try to finish my work stuff and, possibly, cast on some lace.  That big skein of merino/silk lace weight I spun is calling to me.  I’ll probably make one of the stoles from Knitted Lace of Estonia with it. 

So, no gold for me.  I’m happy that I big chunk of knitting on the sweater done so fast and I got to watch a ton of the Olympics while I knit.  In fact, I watched most of NBC’s wretched evening coverage of the games.  It was so annoying, I hated how they would show about five minutes of one sport, then switch to something else, then interviews, then more of the first sport.  And they didn’t show half of the figure skaters and what they did show was on at 10pm, my mom missed it all.  But that last Canada vs. US hockey game was a nail biter, that was some seriously good hockey.

The spinning bug has bit again.  I pulled out the very last bit of my superwash wool and I think I’ll blend it with a bit of soy silk and spin some sock yarn.  Later, though.

Peanut

I award Peanut with the gold medal in napping in the Kitty Olympics.  That cat can nap with the best of them.  Check out that claw.  I bet she’s saying “Get that camera out of my face before I cut you”.