espress-o-no!

for some reason, the kid has taken to waking up at 5:30 am. what a god awful time. and over the weekend he figured out how to pull himself up to a standing position in his crib. but can't figure out how to sit back down. so squawking ensues. at 5:30 in the morning.

our morning double shot of espresso has never been more mandatory, our need for caffeine never so great.

sunday morning the boy was downstairs steaming the milk, grinding the beans, etc. the kid and i were playing with puzzles and dinosaurs awaiting our morning milky beverages when the boy walks into the room with his eyes almost falling out of his head.

"the machine is fried!" he cried out in anguish.

"what?"

"daa daa daaaaaaa bleag be ah da dada daaa" (that's baby j talking)

"the machine just died! i was steaming the milk! and the power kinda surged! and the display went wooom! and then i smelt something burning! so i unplugged the machine! and! the! machine! is! fried!" (which i know makes it look like he had just done 6 shots of espresso but those are exclamation marks of disbelief not hyperactivity, trust me.)

"what time does starbucks open?"

"not soon enough"

actually, we've been surviving with drip coffee. though the boy did admit he went to starbucks this morning -- and that the $4 bevy tasted like ass. them starbucks employees don't know how to make a drink if it doesn't have some kind of syrup in it and whipping cream on top. sheesh.

anyway, dead machine + 5:30 am wake ups = tired kitten.

in knitting news, i finished the green (plum) gable. wee! i need to wash and block it. and our tuesday night knit club is up and running again.

in book news, i'm re-reading the golden compass. my sister in law gave it to me in 1999 or 2000. i know i read it and the rest in the series but wow, i have no recollection of the story at all except for the daemons.

by the power of grayskull!

we rented "hot fuzz" this weekend. weeee! so fun! simon pegg's special brand of genius is to take on a genre and tweak it just so to reveal the absurdities but in a gentle and loving way. for "shaun of the dead" it was zombies, in "hot fuzz" he goes after big action and traditional buddy cop movies -- referencing "point break" and "bad boys II" more than once. it is the attention to detail that is absolutely brilliant. the movies are spot on. so funny.

and hey! knitting news: thanks to hot fuzz and a down with love viewing i managed to finish the body and cast off the green (plum) gable. next up, three rows of ribbing on the sleeves and casting them off. a quick wash and some blocking and i might actually get to wear this sweater a few times before the weather cools off. yippee! pictures soon!

WIP friday

here's where i am on the green (plum) gable; trucking along just fine. the rows are going faster and faster thanks to the decreases. it fits fine but i think i could've probably gone smaller. the sleeves will be less bat-like once i add the ribbing. they wont be tight but they also wont flare out so much which is a good thing.

i need to take a small break from the sweater. the guild issued a felting challenge for the next meeting and that's tuesday. eep. i think i'm going to make the clutch from one skein (i love this book) using some stash (!) patons classic merino. of course i do have some lovely lopi in the stash (!!) that would work just as well...

p.s. please ignore the slightly stunned look on my face. the wee one just had a traumatic launch into his nap. nothing serious but oh the tears.

p.p.s. ms. hedda, did you know crazy aunt purl has a book?

getting away

where does the time go? i'm here, i'm healthier, i don't have much to blog about.

plum gable: i'm into the decreases on the body. i think i'm on the 4th decrease. i'm happy the decreases are according to length not stitches because my row gauge is way off. i'll just decrease until it is long enough (11.5 inches, i think) and then see if i need to add in some of the hip increases. maybe a try on picture later this week.

painting: i've pretty much painted every single wall and ceiling in this house except for the basement stairs. last year some time i tore off the horrid wallpaper and then stopped because i was pregnant and didn't want to TSP the walls, inhaling fumes. anyway, i TSPed last night. i spackled. today i sanded and spackled a bit more. i even filled the quarter-sized holes from where i ripped out the banister (it is 2 steps to the landing. no banister required.). i plugged the holes with drywall and spackled it in. a hack if there ever was one.

anyway, i'm going to pain the ceiling and walls. i think i'll even paint the door to the garage. i've got leftovers from the kitchen so the project isn't costing anything. i bought a little recycling bin to hang on the wall to catch flyers and such. i'm kinda excited about having basement steps that are not so assy. it is the door i rush to close when people are over. wee!

baby stirs...

hmmm

here's the plum (green) gable on. i'm feeling hmmmm about it.

(it is hard to get a flattering picture of the chesticular region. i had to cropped the girls to keep them from dominating the picture and encourage you to instead look at the sweater.)

anyway, the sweater. the sleeves are a good length but roomier than i was hoping. i'm glad they are not tight sleeves but...i...hmm. they aren't bad-awful. i think they'll be ok. i think the sweater will be much improved when it is longer and covers the girls, helping tug the thing down and into place. and blocking the neckline will help with the curl.

so i maintain hmmm for now and will see what i think after a few more inches. i do like the top-down construction of the sweater. it's neat-o keen.

progress

the plumb (green) gable update as requested by ms. hedda. where are your pics, missy?

i am about 5 rows past the lace. wee! (apolpgies for the flash; it is a dismal day out there.)

rippit rippit

curses!

last night we popped in season 1 of angel and laughed at how bad the vampire makeup was while remarking how it was so much better than the first two seasons of buffy. the makeup came a long way in seven years.

i debated over knitting a few more rows of part C on the green (plum) gable. i counted up the number of stitches on the arms (49) and compared to the pattern (47, 53, 65, 75, 84). i decided to increase to 51 and started knitting away, only to change my mind midway through the first sleeve section. i tinked back, slipped the arm stitches onto spare yarn, knit, slipped the other arm, and then slipped half the sweater onto a second needle and tried that sucker on!

and it looks great! i love it! i was convinced it was going to be ginormous but it sits perfectly across the chest, the lace ends at a decent spot just above the cleavage, the neck is wide enough but not too wide that my bra straps will show. yippee! (no photo evidence because it was dark and taking a picture of myself in the mirror with a flash wasn't going to work.)

the arms are a bit too short and a bit tight under the arm. a few more increase rows should solve that problem clickety-click.

i was admiring the lace in the mirror when i noticed this:

see it? a couple days ago, i was waiting for a friend to pick me up and was standing and knitting in the front door, watching for her car. when i dropped the right needle and lost a bunch of stitches. i thought i picked them up correctly but was worried i missed a yo. i couldn't see it though. i knit another round and still couldn't see it. so i kept going. but last night in the mirror, that missed yo is way obvious. it is front and centre. curses!

i am considering my options and trying to remain positive.

1) keep going because no one is ever going to notice unless they are staring very closely at my chest. which if they are, they are not going to admit to it.

verdict: meh. i won't be happy. if people are staring at my chest i want to know they are looking at my breasts, not my knitting mistakes.

2) put in a lifeline and mark the offending spot. rip back.

verdict: i've never done a lifeline in a lace pattern (i don't think the clapotis counts), it seems way complicated and time consuming. i'll likely miss another freaking yo, the whole thing will look like ass and i'll end up frogging it.

3) frog it and start over.

verdict: currently in the lead. i started this sweater last week, i think. i've barely had any knitting time all week and yet i'm just about finished the complicated part of the sweater.

opinions and words of encouragement are welcome!

bottles and cans, baby clap your hands (where it's at II)

i brought green gables with me to tuesday night knitting and managed to knit a couple rows last night during america's next top model. ahem. i can't help it! antm is like a car accident.

anyway, i've knit maybe 6 rows of just plain st st (part C in the pattern) and i'm thinking that my sleeves are long enough. i might knit 2 more rows just to be certain but if i hold it up to where i think the neckline should be sitting, the sweater sleeve is the same length as my t shirt sleeve.

so i'm not even close to the 15 rows of part C with all the increases that go with it. (we've already established that i am not getting stitch gauge, i'm definitely not getting row gauge.) i need to take another look at the pattern and figure out if i can continue on with the fewer stitches. it'd be like making a medium upper part and an extra small lower part. that can't be good. or maybe it is pure genius!

when i'm done the next few rows and can try it on, i'll know if i need to frog. stay tuned!

have you read the yarn harlot's tale about being trapped at the chicago airport? it has everything! it'll make you laugh, make you cry, make your heart swell with pride. go read it!

i have my own tale of woe concerning chicago and the airport but it pales in comparison to stephanie's. at least she didn't puke in the middle of an El station at rush hour. or in the back of the cab on the way to the airport. i haven't had many truly bad days in my life but that day in chicago is right up there.

where it's at

(got two turn tables and a microphone...)

i'm on the last row of the lace repeats. the sweater is knitting up quickly but i'm still a mite concerned about the size. can't wait to get the sleeves done so i can try it on.

the colour is a bit more plum-y, less purple.

green gable: 1 trixie: 0

i cast on green gable last night while watching borat. bad idea.

the movie was painfully funny but you gotta wonder how they did not get their asses sued off. and i read somewhere that they did not have any permits. at all. and that two crew members were tossed in jail and ate a piece of paper with the day's shooting locations or something wacky like that.

anyway, casting on took forever. the backward loop method is just a pain but will look nice as the neckline. the first row was hard to knit because of the backward loop and kinda splitty yarn. making sure it wasn't twisted took massive amounts of time. about a third of borat has subtitles so i was watching the tv more than my hands. i finally got the markers in place, did the first row of lace, kept knitting and couldn't figure out why i had like three bars on the needle. sometimes my stitches are a bit sloppy when knitting in front of the tv but three bars in a row? weird. i corrected them and knit a couple more stitches and then realized that i am an idiot.

those bars? yeah, the YOs for the lace pattern. idiot*. i tinked back but wasn't sure if i picked up the YOs correctly. i knit a round, started the next round, realized that i forgot the increases, tinked back, added the increases, knit the lace pattern and realized yeah no, i didn't pick them up correctly. i just frogged it.

the wee one is down for a nap. i think i'll pop in a movie (that i've seen before) and start again.

* this is my first lace project if that counts for anything.

green gables KAL

ms. hedda and i are doing a green gables KAL. i'm so excited! i love that sweater.

here's where i am:

swatching with some rowan all seasons cotton. i bought the cotton for a song, furthing justifying the purchase by intending to knit a sweater for baby j. but really, i bought the yarn because it was so cheap and i had been eyeing it up for a while. i checked the shade card for it on yarn index and the color is called "pansy". not exactly masculine...

this is all to make me feel less guilty about absconding with the yarn for my own purposes.

here's more knit math fun. the rowan yarn calls for 4.5 to 5.5 mm to get 16-18 st / 4 inches.

the green gables pattern calls for 4 mm to get 20 st / 4 inches.

according to my measurements, i'd be a medium but everything i've read about green gables (thanks to the official KAL), indicates that this sweater fits small unless you yourself are very small and trim. i am neither, being busty and curvy. so i should probably make a large.

except that the pattern calls for 4 skeins brown sheep cotton for a large. the cotton fleece is 215 yards/100g ball. that's 860 y/400g.

i have six skeins of the rowan all seasons cotton 98 yards/50 g ball. that's 558 yards/300 g.

but what if i made the medium? that's 645 yards/300 g. still not enough yarn. i could go back to LYS and see if they have two more skeins of the pansy colors (i think they do maybe) in the same dye lots (can lightening strike twice?). if i made the medium, since i am so far off gauge with the rowan yarn, the sweater would actually fit bigger... right? i need to do more math and i need to swatch with different needle sizes...

here's what i love about knitting. and maybe this makes me a process knitter. if it doesn't fit i can rip it out and i can try again. i love that. there's nothing permanent about it, really. this knowledge makes me rash. i make decisions on wonky math that i would never in a million years make otherwise. because in the end the worst thing that could happen is that it is too small and i have to knit it again. i don't see it as wasted time at all. i knit in front of the tv so my time is being wasted anyway. i knit so i feel like less of time waster in front of the tv. it all works out very well for me.

i do wish the pattern has some more measurements included in it though. it'd be nice to have a bit more to go on.