February 2008 Archives

Back in January or so, I was all jazzed up with New Year's Resolution spirit, and I posted that I was going to start writing every Friday about my running and other fitness pursuits.  Since then, I have posted exactly ZERO times on that subject, and actually exercised.... maybe 8 times?  Not good. 

I want to thank Kelli for gently reminding me in the comments about my running, and double kudos to Heather (Ravelry link) for getting up at the crack of dawn and running with me this morning!  She's pretty committed to working out on a regular basis, so I'm really excited to have her as a new running partner.  

So anyway, I am recommitting to running and blogging about it!  I (finally) got a cellphone with a camera, so I might start carrying it with me on my morning runs.  It's such a peaceful, pretty time of day.  Plus, pictures always motivate me to blog.  

Have a great weekend!  I know I will.  My sister is coming to visit me!  Don't forget the Knit-In tonight at Simply Fibers if you're in the Springfield, MO area.  I won't be able to make it this time, but there should be lots of other friendly faces there.  

In honor of what would have been Mister Rogers' 80th birthday on March 20, Mr. McFeely -- aka David Newell, the public relations director for Family Communications, Inc. (the nonprofit company founded in 1971 by Fred Rogers) -- has a special request.

"We're asking everyone (including members of the media) everywhere (from Pittsburgh to Paris) to wear their favorite sweater on that day," he asks. "It doesn't have to have a zipper down the front like the one Mister Rogers wore on the program, it just has to be special to you."

 

There was at least one good reason for my lack of posting recently!  Last week I was knitting like a maniac - It's my first shop model for Simply fibers!  The really great thing is that I get it back in 3-4 weeks, which is just about the time when it will be warm enough to wear it!

Project Details:

Pattern: Cropped Lace Cardigan, by Sandi Rosner, from North American Designer Collection No. 6 (Nashua Handknits)

Yarn: Nashua Cilantro. 7 balls, color lavender gray  (This yarn is kinda weird - it's mostly cotton, with about 25% acrylic, but it's  really squishy and stretchy)

Needle Size: Size 7 Denise needles

Pattern Modifications: Switched the shoulder bind-off to three-needle bind-off.

Time to knit: 6 days!  (To be fair, three of those days I didn't have to work.  Hooray government job and your wonderful holidays!)

Final impressions: Pretty cute!  It's also nice to knit a sweater that I can actually wear in the same season when I decided to knit it.  Plus, it was fun trying a new yarn.   

Didn't I do a lovely job seaming all those squares together?

It's no secret that I'm sick of winter.  I'm doing my best to hurry the season along by starting some spring knits.  Let's hope it does the trick!  

First up, the ever-popular Leaf Lace Shawl in Numma Numma Saucy, a gift from my friend June.  This picture has pretty accurate colors - very springy!  One of my challenges to myself for the new year was to learn to knit lace, so hopefully this will be a good first start.  Susan (our lace muse in the Scary Lace group on Ravelry) recommended knitting on smaller needles than the pattern calls for to avoid that feeling that the stitches are totally loosey-goosey.

So far, it's working well - I can stretch out the knitted section and see the stitch pattern very clearly.  I haven't learned the whole pattern yet, but I definitely feel like I'm getting the hang of it.  (Knock on wood!)

Also in the spring mood, I started a Cropped Lace Cardi in Nashua Cilantro.  The pattern is so new that it's not even on the Nashua website or on Ravelry yet.  I'm  almost done (less than a week - woo hoo!) so I'm going to loan it to Simply Fibers for a few weeks as a shop model.  Hopefully the weather will turn nice just as it's time for me to reclaim it for my spring wardrobe!

 

Thundersleet sounds like it would be pretty cool, until you have to use a sledgehammer to break the ice so you can open your car door.  

Hooray!  I finally found a pattern that looks good with this yarn. It's still pooling afer I switched to smaller needles for the ankle, but I just don't care anymore. 

Okay, for those of you who weren't at Simply fibers last Sunday to witness me throwing a royal hissy over yarn pooling, of all things.... 

I have this big plan to knit up a bunch of my sock yarn in advance of The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling that I'm going to in April.  I have all this really pretty brown and dark green yarn that I have earmarked for socks for my husband, so I figured I'd knit some of that.  So, I pull out the Colinette Jitterbug in Copper Beach colorway.  It's so pretty in the hank, and still super pretty would up into a ball.  THEN I STARTED KNITTING.   

I tried Monkeys, Jaywalkers, Child's First Sock (all slightly modified to avoid YOs).... and they were all pooling like crazy.  at one point, I literally threw my needles across the table and pulled my coat over my head.  I'm not sure why I was so upset, but I could only chalk it up to a residual case of "Sunday dread."  That's what I call that black cloud that descends on Sunday afternoons when you would rather do anything than go to your job on Monday morning.  It's really bad, because it ruins the time off that you do have!  Anyway, I have a new job now so I really don't have any reason for Sunday dread.  But I think I was getting that feeling for so long that it still happens sometimes by instinct.  

Anyway.... (back to the subject at hand) that black cloud was really killing my knitting mojo.  Later in the week, I restarted - new pattern and top-down instead of toe-up - and it finally worked.  There is still a little pooling - I'm further along now than that picture shows - but I'm okay with it.  

Whew!  No more Sunday dread, PLEASE! 

I'm going back to Simply Fibers today (open every Sunday in February, yay!) so hopefully I can redeem myself with some more appropriate behavior.  =) 

I think I have post-ice-storm-stress-disorder.  Yesterday we received another think coat of ice (almost an inch!) and lost power for a total of about 8 hours.   Last night we went to bed with the sound of limbs snapping and transformers exploding all around our neighborhood.  Way too much like the first night of the ice storm last year, where we lost power for 10 days.  I really don't think I could handle that again. 

Thankfully (!) this morning our power was restored, and they're predicting temps to rise into the 50s by Wednesday.   The bad news is that somehow we managed to get way worse damage to our trees last night than last year, when the trees were coated with ice for over two weeks!   I'm hoping the winds that we're supposed to get today don't make it any worse. 

ETA - Tuesday afternoon - my husband just texted me - the power's out again and a large branch from my pecan tree is breaking my beloved dogwood tree.  Dang, dang, dang!!!

Good ole Clapotis.... she's sort of like a model. Very pretty, but not so much with the conversation. But the final photo shoot will be worth it!

In other (random) news....

I'll be starting a new pair of socks soon - another pair of Child's First Socks from Vintage Knits. It's our February Knit-a-long for Knit Together.

Exciting news from my friends Matt and Meredith - they're starting the process of adopting a child from Vietnam, and documenting the process here.

A slightly sketchy looking place in my living room ceiling finally reached a critical mass this weekend. We peeled back the drooping popcorn ceiling texture, and saw a corroded and water-stained drywall above it. That's not good at all..... time to call a plumber, then a remodeling crew to close the hole that the plumber's going to have to make! I don't even want to think about how much it's going to cost.

I taught three people to knit in the last two days!

(See, I told you it was going to be random!) I'm off to bed now, I've got to get up early and VOTE! (Go vote on Tuesday if you're in a Super Tuesday state!)