Monthly Archives: September 2010

Music to my eyes

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I saw these on someone’s post the other day and I want to knit them.  Mr. Aitch was a band director and music teacher for long enough to retire from teaching with full benefits.

Longer than you would want to listen to beginner band students try to make a pleasant sound from a musical instrument.

Add ten more years.

And another ten years.

And ten more.

And a few more years.

Understand why he doesn’t want to hear me practice my bagpipes?

Anyway during his retirement, he decided to pick up a few “hobbies”.  One being smoking cigars.  Now he doesn’t smoke them in the house (end of a long marriage) but he does smoke them outside even in the winter.  I saw these cigar gloves on Knitty and these fingerless mitts and decided I. Had. To. Frankenknit**. Them. For. Him.  Maybe in time for Christmas.  Yeah, Christmas 2010.

The thing is:

  1. I don’t have any solid sock or DK yarn in my stash.
  2. I’m going to Philadelphia for a conference this week.
  3. There are a few lovely yarn shops a few blocks from my conference.
  4. I don’t have any solid sock or DK yarn in my stash.
  5. I can load up on snacks during the breaks so I don’t have to eat lunch or dinner.
  6. I may come home with some solid sock/DK yarn.
  7. I’m thinking  maybe a deep heathery blue or grey and black instead of white and black.  Something subtle but with enough contrast to see the design.  You know, something a man wouldn’t be embarrassed to wear even if it is only in the garage.

Update to follow.

BTW you don’t work with me, do you?

**Frankenknit – adapting two or more patterns into something that works for you.   Frankenstein = Frankenknit

She’s got a ticket to ride…

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I leave Monday morning for four days to a conference in Philadelphia.  I’m looking forward to both the journey and the destination.  I’m riding the train and should have twelve travel hours to knit.

So this morning I planned to decide what yarn, needles and projects to take with me.  What I did instead was look at my yarn stash.  I didn’t write down any of the acrylic yarns so I didn’t have as much as I thought I did.  And that’s a good thing.

I need to get over to Ravelry and update my stuff.

Two WIPs are going to be tinked or rather totally ripped out, yarn soaked and unkinked, and repurposed into something else.  I have two sweaters I started for my grandson that will not fit him now.   I’m not sure what to do with:

  1. One almost completed sock for Mr. Aitch and not enough yarn for sock #2.
  2. One orange and green (Yeah, the yarn was on sale) mitten missing the thumb and enough yarn to make the second one but do I really want to?
  3. One self-striping sock yarn wrist warmer but no info on how I made it so making the second one probably won’t happen.

I did decide to take Ms Ida long with me hoping I’ll finish them.  I’m also taking some cotton for a few more swiffer covers, some wool for the Curly Purly soakers, and some miscellaneous yarn for some seamless slippers.

I suppose I’ll need to pack some clothes, too.

Slow progress

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I’m a thrower when I knit.  I’ve tried to knit  continental but I have a hard time with it.  Practice makes perfect, however I don’t want to change knitting styles in the middle of a project as my tension/gauge changes.  

I’m more than half way into the left hand chart on Ms Ida Chain Link mittens and it’s slow going right now.  Thanks to the little mishap the other night, the bandage on my thumb is getting in the way of the yarn and the way I hold my needles.  The yarn gets snagged on it every other stitch.  

Plus I’ve tinked, frogged, unknit at least an entire mitten during the process.  Knit two rows, tink one.   

I can’t seem to keep my place or read the chart correctly.  I have the chart on my magnetic board with a magnet above the row I’m knitting so all I have to do is follow the bottom edge of the magnet.  I even put a little “x’ to the right of the row I finished and yet I keep knitting the previous row.  

Ms Ida and magnetic chart

 

I blurred the chart as it is copyrighted material.  

See the mess on the other mitten?  Since I didn’t like the pointiness of the top of the mitten, I shortened it by five or six rows.  I’m doing the kitchener stitch on the end and I just haven’t tightened up the stitches yet.

I spy…

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I love reading other people’s blogs and looking at the photos they post.  It’s like a little window into their lives. 

Yep, I’m nosy. 

I like seeing the sweaters, shawls, scarves, hats, quilts, dresses, socks, kids, dogs, plants, food and whatever else you are posting about.   I also like to see what’s in the background.  The books, the mantle, the wine glass, the coffee mug, the tea-cup, the half done jigsaw puzzle, the pillows on your chair or sofa.   I like to see what plants you have in your garden, the arbor, the fencing.   Oh, you have the same deck furniture as I do.  Love that lamp on the table in the background.  Cute stitch markers.  The window to your life. 

My photos aren’t too good.  Some are out of focus, some are too dark, some are both!  I’m wondering if it’s me or the camera.  The camera I’m using has been dropped a few times and I’ve noticed I can’t get the clean edges anymore.  

I try to crop my photos so some of my cluttered life doesn’t spill into yours.  

One of my pictures on Facebook has me sitting on my motorcycle trying to look cool.  In the background were the dead flowers in my porch boxes.  So I had to do some magic to make the mess resemble live flowers.  It’s not the greatest job but it’s better than the brown disaster that was there. 

New flowers