Friday, January 23, 2009

Baby steps...

Dealing with all this ice and snow, and battling the water that's pouring from the questionable roof into my bathroom, have definitely cut into my knitting time. But some progress has been made...




Cambridge Jacket

by Ann Budd, Interweave Knits, Summer 2006
yarn: Di.Ve' Zenith superwash in ginger, 12 skeins = 1440 yards

The Boy's Cambridge Jacket is finally, really, completely finished! I gave in and put the whole zipper issue into the hands of our local tailor after making myself sick about my sewing abilities, or lack thereof. It came back looking... well... like butt, frankly. I mean, the zipper was in and all, but the edge looked terrible. Probably mostly my fault, although the pattern doesn't really provide an edge other than single crochet, which I omitted. So I took the sweater back in hand and did a small applied i-cord down both sides and that really did the trick! It gave it a lovely finished look that makes me very happy! I hope The Boy still likes it in the final form as much as he did in his early fittings!

The part that does NOT make me happy AT ALL is this fracking yarn! Jesus H. Christ on a piece of toast! Who knew that a superwash wool would stretch like a cotton, fer chrissake! The damn thing grew two inches in length just with blocking (I was blocking for width, by the way), and then at the tailors the stored it on a HANGER, which added another two inches! Thank god The Boy is ridiculously tall - I'm sure he'll appreciate the gorilla arms this sweater now has. :-(

Note to self - suck it up. No more superwash. Any sweater recipients will just have to deal.

So one more down and two left to go. I've been working on The Mister's second sleeve every chance I get, but the seedstitch is boring the hell out of me. I'm forging on diligently anyways... albeit with martini in hand. ;-)

Another thing that's helping the mojo, particularly the spinning mojo (of which I have had.. ummm... none) is the redefining of my space within the apartment. Building 19, god bless 'em, had a big sale on sample orientals, so I took my trusty Subaru Baja and picked up two lovely new rugs for the living and dining rooms (thereby enabling me to move the heavy wool carpet into the bedroom to help ward off the chill from the only-partially-insulated floors). The end result are two actually quite fiber-friendly areas!

My knitting and computer area...


















and - drum roll please - my spinning area! At long last!


















Just this little thing has caused the return of my spinning mojo. To actually have a little corner to leave set up all the time has really made all the difference. Nothing puts me off more than having to re-place and re-adjust the wheel every time I feel like spinning for a half hour or so. And as a bonus this arrangment allows me to watch my blue jays and squirrels enjoying the birdfeeder! Joy! :-D

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Success! One down...

A head cold and a clean living room enticed me to give myself the day off Monday to sit in my pajamas, drink tea, watch really bad movies (Battlefield Earth, anyone?) and finally sit down to seam Lizard Ridge. With the distraction of the movies and the peace and quiet in the house I was able to finish the whole thing in one day.

Now not only is my beautiful blanket finally done...



















...it works! lol!!

I decided not to do any edging at all at the present. I tried the i-cord and hated it. I tried single crochet and hated that too. So, since everyone likes it fine the way it is, edge-less it shall stay. For now, anyways.

The Boy's Cambridge Jacket is happily blocking on the dining room table, and I've picked up the stitches down the side of the first sleeve for Mr. Tim's Uber Cool Sweater. I'm still not sure about the instructions for the decreases, but I'm going to carry on, follow the instructions, and see what happens. Should be interesting.

And finally, a late holiday gift from Miss Kath -














Aren't they adorable? I totally love these. They're by ScaryMerry, handmade out of clay. Think there could be some significance to the black sheep in the bunch? ;-) heh heh.