AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

It's a blob!

First of all:
Next Wednesday I'm going to True Jeans for fit testing!  While I'm not a super flush chiquita, I figured that with my birthday coming up I could afford to see about getting one pair of super good fitting jeans (though I'm hoping for something with shorter length for the hot summer months) and a better idea of how I fit in jeans.  I just hate shopping for clothing so much that I need extra encouragement to take all of the steps to make sure something fits right (which is probably why I've bought as much clothing as I have from eBay).

I also need to buy a bathing suit (I love swimming, which is the only reason why buying a bathing suit will happen).  I know I am a lot smaller than I used to be, but that never seems to make a difference when it comes down to looking at swimsuits and finding something flattering that you can actually dive into the ocean and bodysurf in.

Second of all:
My test Bakerloos are getting quite a workout with my long size 1 circular needle wrapping all over the train.  I'm not quite to Kitchener land yet, but I figured a few progress pictures wouldn't hurt anything.

Last week, I finished the front of the foot.  I did a bit of minor math to figure out how many stitches were supposed to be in the sole of the foot versus the cuff, and started working on the next part of the sock.  The fabric is very rolly, typical of stockinette.  This should be curbed when the fabric is brought kitchenered together. This is coming together well, even though I still don't have the foggiest idea if it will make a fitting sock or not.  This is when I wish I had a dress form with all of those measurements just for the foot.  One of the adjustable ones, so I can have it work for my foot, my husband's feet, and my sock pal.

This is where I am.  Exciting and completely inexplicable.  The top of the picture is the front and back of the ankle.  The bottom area (where there is the strip of black forming) is the top of the foot and the sole.  When I kitchener the two sides together, I will then be able to pick up stitches and knit both the heel and toe.  Given how the rolling looks (not bad, but not ideal), I will probably also pick up stitches at the top to knit a cuff.  Probably picot rather than a rib, because I think there is already enough vertical in the pattern.

I will probably need to get another skein of the Regia Silk, so I will try on the socks right after kitchenering the two sides together.  I will then do the other sock and kitchener them together, provided the kitchenering proves that this will fit an actual human foot (not Big Foot, or the Loch Ness Monster, or a strange pinniped).  I am hoping to kitchener this weekend (and that is 96 stitches of kitchener - a lot of kitchener), so I can figure out if I need either another game plan or just more yarn before too long.

I love the vertical striping, so I'm crossing my fingers (when I'm not knitting) that it will work!

Wedding the First

I've been joking that this is the year of weddings for my husband and I.  Currently, I know about 6 weddings, most of which are in September and October - fairly popular wedding months in Massachusetts/New England.

After I finished the half marathon, I toddled on home for some rest and some cleaning up before going to shindig numero uno at the Wang! 

This was a lavish affair in a gorgeous building (the outside is bland to make the insides even more stunning - click on the pictures to see larger images).  The wedding took place in the lobby, while the cocktail hour was held on the second floor balconies overlooking the lobby.  The ceiling and lighting was amazing.  This was the building in which I had seen The Nutcracker Suite when I was a poor college student.  I was as stunned by the beauty of the painting and architecture now as I was then.

The bride was resplendent in her gown and the groom spent the evening all smiles.  The rabbi was humerous and had a great singing voice as much of the ceremony was in Hebrew.  Much joking and comraderie was had by all.

It was actually a bit too much for me.  I'm a basic, down home kind of gal with a luxury fiber addiction.  I was there in a velvet top and black velvet pants, not feeling out of place because I was under dressed but a little bit because I wasn't made up (as in actual make up) to the nines.  The flowers were gorgeous and I kind of wish I had taken one of the bouquets at the table before leaving for the evening.  They were glorious, and structural enough to take a hat!

This was the first wedding I've ever attended that was Jewish rather than interfaith and the differences were more than I was expecting.  It was the first time I had seen the Hora complete with chairs.  There were more readings than at the interfaith weddings I had attended, and it was a little odd seeing the families of the bride and groom standing with the bridesmaids and groomsmen.  That was certainly a touch I liked.

The dinner was simple and involved a very odd potato cube.  This, of course, is just an indication of where I came from that I thought the cube funny.  I was simply grateful that there was vegetarian food I could eat.  The wedding was kosher, which was a new experience for some of us as well (I loved being at the table with all of my friends).  I've made vegan cakes for my Coptic friends (and let me just tell you all that I love Wikipedia) for celebrations that occur during their fasts.  The kosher cake was very similar to what I have done only on a larger scale. 

We danced and ate and sang most of the night away, before my honey and I departed back to Braintree to celebrate with our cat (who left us presents of the dubious variety).

It was a beautiful wedding though I will say I liked mine more - I'm biased after all.  Hopefully the happy couple are enjoying a less stressful time alone after all the hullabaloo that surrounds a wedding (of any magnitude) and will have many happy and healthy years together.  Congratulations! Mazel Tov!

(And thank goodness for friends and family that can actually take a decent picture!)

Almost June

There are days when I wish I wasn't a morning person, or mostly a light sleeper, or well, just about anything.  I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning.  Normally this would mean knitting, but today I collected my berries from Pokemon Diamond and put up a Heracross (because I had an extra one) on the GTS.  Once I was done with that, I reread some of the first Harry Potter book.  Exciting, non?

There just hasn't been as much knitting in the past week or so, which mostly means I've done some knitting while watching the first season of Buffy with my husband.  I'm remembering more of the series than I thought I would given how long it has been since I watched Season 1.  I also tend to knit less when I am a bit sore (funny that).  I spent a little over an hour yesterday playing ball games (adult vernacular for tossing a ball because I'm not athletic enough to play actual football, soccer or ultimate frisbee).

I have been working on Argosy (a little bit) in the mornings and the practice Bakerloos during the evenings over Buffy.  I'm at the point where I am doing the split for the sole.  It is interesting, because this pattern naturally creates afterthought heels and toes.  You divide the stitches into two segments: (foot length - 4 inches) * stitch gauge, and the remainder.  This divides the stitches up into the sole and the leg.  After I am done with knitting the sole of the foot, I will put all of the stitches on a needle and undo the provisional cast on.  The full number of stitches will be grafted together (there are two stitches I need to cast on first).  This will create a sock-like object with a hole for the heel and toe.  You then pickup stitches for both areas and knit a heel and a toe.  You can also pick up stitches and knit a ribbed cuff for a more traditional finished look.  Hopefully I'll have pictures this week.

Wic I am still loving my computer program for the 100 things.  I ran an update this morning.

Also wic, do you ever feel like you need a weekend to recover from your weekend?  Umm, yeah, this weekend was just like that.

Another Tuesday

It's Tuesday Sock Watching.  I feel like the past week has gone by so fast.  It's hard to really look at all of the blogs via the Pligg and really comprehend it all.  A 1000+ socks is just so much!

This week Amanda J has decided not to show any more socks in progress for Sockapaloooza... something about obsessing over the pattern.  But she does have a pair of toe up socks for her daughter.  They are pretty little things!

Jess finished a pair of Go with the Flow socks, which are just wonderful.  I love the fact that she photographed her own socks when her hubby didn't do the best job for her.  I should try photographing that way some time (though my hands shake a lot, so it probably won't work for me).

Jessica (at Common Threads) is knitting a terrific solid colored sock from the Yarn Over Cable pattern in Sensational Knit Socks.  I love the colors.  She says it is an easy pattern to memorize, which sounds perfect for sock knitting on the go!

Marie (at Compulsive Knitter) is contemplating a bamboo sock yarn for her warmer-clime sock pal.  She's gotten a few suggestions, but needs to see what is available (or if she will have to shop online).  It's only a matter of time before she will have the yarn and be off and running!

Pumpkinmama is having a rough time of it with her yarn, though I really like her current attempt.  It's hard to take a variegated yarn and produce beautiful results every time, but she's giving it all she's got!

Grumperina has finished an amazing pair of socks in this beautiful LL navy yarn.  I love the calf shaping she's added.  It perfectly blends in with the rest of the pattern!

Everyone's doing such a great job on their socks.  I love seeing all of the pictures of progress (or stories of progress) as I go about my week.  And it is nice to see all of these yarns worked up!

Crossing the Finish!

That's me!  I love my husband.  He (graciously despite being told numbers of times that he didn't actually need to come to the race) came out to the Boston's Run to Remember.  He cheered me on at the beginning (and took the pictures and carefully pulled highlighted me in the pack) and then cheered me on at the end.

The race takes place relatively early in the day (hey, what do I know, it was my first half marathon) with a gun time start of 8:15 a.m.  I had positioned myself near the 11 min mile pace group. 

Oops, my pace was off from the beginning.  By mile 3, it became apparent that I had inadvertently found myself in the 10 minute mile pace group.  That was hard! 

The route was mostly flat, but even slight hills are more hills than I had in most of my training runs.  Some of the slight hills were kicking my butt so hard, especially in the middle third of the race.  Eventually, I got my walk-run together and finished in a respectable time of 2:30:42 (chip time).  It was my first time doing race longer than 5K, using a Champion Chip, and well, pretty much everything.  I have only been training since the beginning of January, so I feel terrific.

And here is the visual proof!  My honey positioned himself near the front of the finish line, and took a few shots as I neared and passed the finish! Taking pictures of people moving (though by the end calling what I was doing moving was a bit of an overstatement) is hard.  It was a great thing to do, and now I'm looking for another half marathon to do.  The fall is supposed to be a good time for these races (rather than August... I'd rather not die of humidity poisoning), but this is the year of the wedding.  There aren't a lot of weekend days free for this kind of thing.

The next race I've signed up for is much shorter than this.  I normally do the Corporate Challenge through work, and this will be the first year where I can legitimately say I've run it.  The Corporate Challenge is a 5K (ish, I think the Boston one is a little over 3.1 miles), usually held on a week night after work.  A lot of people in the firm walk it, which is great too.  The past times I've done it there has been a great comraderie for people in the event.  This time there will be that, but I'll show that these legs are made for running!

tagged again?

I was tagged for the knitting skills meme.  I pushed it into the sidebar, so feel free to look at it there! 

I love that Typepad has pages as an option now.  I was making pages before, but I would add them as Typelists (and still will, because it is easier) and not have available the sidebar information (without doing a lot more work).  That's fine for my 100 things, because I am using the computer program to generate that one.  It is significantly more annoying for other content I might want to make available (like the mythical patterns I'd love to make, but I am not a designer).

My knitting is progressing along its merry way.  I am working on Argosy (with the leftover pink silk yarn), and my test Bakerloos.  There will be a lot of knitting this morning, because today is a rest day (this is my taper week to the half marathon on Sunday!).  I finally got a needle size that doesn't make my head hurt to work with the silk yarn, so I have gotten through most of section 1.  Unfortunately, this just puts me in the middle of two projects, neither of which are terribly photogenic at the moment. 

This weekend is full of the busy.  Saturday isn't too bad.  I just need to pick up my race packet (and should go in the sneakers I'm using in the race).  This will be my first experience with the Champion Chip system.  Sunday is a half marathon and a wedding (the run is in the morning, and should only take about 2.5 hours).  Monday is bliss.  I'll be home, knitting and hopefully just sit on my duff all day.

Amanda's Squatty Sidekick

Every once in a while something quick is just what Dr. Knit ordered.  Knitting Daily is finally getting off the ground!  The latest pattern I saw on the site (and in the email newsletter) was for Amanda's Squatty Sidekick (all of the patterns are available as PDFs).

I started the knitting on Sunday.  I added the second ball and finished knitting on Monday.  I did the first round of felting on Tuesday.

Today, of course, is Thursday.  I'm home today awaiting the delivery of a new refrigerator (having the old one die a horrible death right after getting groceries was not terribly pleasant), so I figured I would finish felting little Miss Squatty while waiting for delivery (and between cleaning the condo).  I don't really have an appropriate button, so I've been brainstorming.  Because of when the delivery is scheduled, I can't really go to the yarn shop and get a button (if I were going to do that, I should have left about the same time my hubby did to go to work).  I'm thinking about making my own weird button.

(I did make my own button!)

The button is made from Polymer Clay, which is both harder to work with and easier than I thought it would be.  It is fairly hard on the hands though the concepts are easy enough.  Conditioning the clay involves working it until it becomes malleable.  The silver color I used was fairly hard and took a very long time to condition.

So, final project specs?

Pattern: Amanda's Squatty Sidekick

Yarn: Noro Kureyon, two skeins (no ball band means no color #)

Button: Random polymer clay creation made by me

I attached the button with more of the Kureyon, but I am not sure that the look is so hot.  It worked and looks fine in the pictures, but quite a bit odder in real life. 

So, this project is two thumbs up for speed and stashbusting!  (And the fridge finally came!)

Keeping my cool on

My Squatty Sidekick (which I will post much more fully about later) is drying after felting round 2.  While I am home waiting for the fridge to be delivered (my 2 hour window starts at 3:30), I am conditioning FIMO.  I decided that I could walk to Michaels in the morning and get two small packages of FIMO and make my own button for Ms. Sidekick.

I haven't done this before, but I am armed with tutorials and a decent supply of patience so things should turn out all right!

Sock Watching!

We're nearing the end of the first month of Sockapaloooza, and some people are done already!  It's kind of amazing.  I'm still in the test sock stage (I would love pictures of legs, but that is because it socks that go up past the beginning of the calf can require shaping awfully fast), but there are plenty of other people who have socks (These aren't necessarily just Sockapaloooza socks)!

Jess is working on a pair of Go with the Flows.  They're looking pretty snazzy (she says there are mistakes, but I can't see them). 
Carolina Crafts has finished a number of socks!  She also shows off her Sockapaloooza sock yarn (the new Silkie from STR), which looks amazing!
Amanda J has moved onto the Retro Rib in her Sockapaloooza plans.  The socks are looking pretty good, and the colors are playing out into lovely stripes.
Grumperina is also in Sockapaloooza land - her current socks aren't for 'paloooza, but look great. 
Zeska has some Colinette Jitterbug that she is debating between for her sockpal!

I think that is it for this week's sock watching!

Not leaving well enough alone

I'm continuing to plug along mightily on my Bakerloos, but a long skinny swath of stockinette (striped or not) is just not a thrill a minute.  Instead, yesterday I dug through my yarn and found my two skeins of Noro Kureyon.  I started "Amanda's Squatty Sidekick," a felted bag pattern available on Knitting Daily. 

Yesterday, I finished the first ball.  When I got to the straight knitting, I just knit until I was done with the ball.  I am hoping to finish this project without any extra yarn hanging around.  Of course, the Kureyon feels rough on my hands.  The last couple of projects I've been working on included silk and more silk.  My practice Bakerloos are being made from Dale of Norway Baby Ull (overdyed) and Regia Silk.  And then there was the thong, which while rough on the hands is also undoubtedly silk.  I like the change of pace.  The size 9 needles feel gargantuan in my hands and the gauge makes the project fly.

Yeah, gauge.  Do a gauge swatch.  My Bakerloos will probably be more like test anklets, but I plow on ahead mightily.  My gauge is apparently (when I checked last night) 10 spi and 12 rpi.  I don't think I've ever knit quite this tightly before.  Oops?  For this, I am going to keep going and just see what happens.