This is why I like lace June 26, 2008

My blocking wires came yesterday!  So this:

became this:

It’s just magical.  Too bad I don’t have much use for shawls.  I guess I’m going to have to go buy some dresses to wear with them, and then find someplace to go wearing them.

I’m now officially in my third trimester, and I’m starving all the time.  It’s miserable.  But since I’m still carrying around weight from my first pregnancy, I’m trying extra hard not to gain any more than necessary with this one.  I want to get back into my clothes already.  I’m looking forward to not being pregnant anymore.  I love my daughter, and I’m sure I’ll love my son, but I’ve had enough of pregnancy.

Waiting on Wires June 24, 2008

So the first square of my Raku Suri Stole is finished. It’s waiting on the blocking wires I ordered to get here, so I can block it and see how it’s going to look.

I thought about waiting for the wires before I start the second square, but I want to finish it, and get on to the next big project. I’m going to start the second square tonight. I did take enough of a break to knit a baby hat.  I used yarn leftover from my Cables and Lace sweater.  I still have more…

I’ve started another one that’ll be my mindless knitting for when the shawl is driving me crazy.

I’ve also decided to never take baby clothes to Once Upon a Child again.  A few weeks ago I took 5 boxes out there and came back with 5 boxes and $13, which probably didn’t even pay for my gas.  I broke the clothes up into lots and sold every one of them on Ebay.  Some of the auctions aren’t quite finished yet, but so far, I have $50 in my Paypal account.  The post office is only a couple miles from my house, too, versus the 30 to OUAC.  It’s been a long time since I’ve sold anything on Ebay, and they’ve made some really obnoxious changes, though.  Like now sellers can only leave positive feedback.  Why even give the option of leaving feedback if people aren’t allowed to really leave feedback?  I get that some sellers use feedback as retaliation, but so do buyers.  What recourse do you have when someone doesn’t pay now?  I’ve never really been fond of ebay, but unfortunately, it’s still the best option for things like this.

There’s carpet at the bottom of the closet! June 20, 2008

I’ve spent the past 2 days rearranging and clearing out, and I’ve really just started.  I’m not sure how I became such a packrat, but I have way too much stuff that I should have gotten rid of years ago.  I just took my third load of stuff to Goodwill today.  I cleaned out the living room closet, the floor of which I haven’t seen in at least 3 years.  I cleaned out the hall closet which, in addition to my good yarn, also held 3 trash bags full of acrylic.  I used to love acrylic, then I blocked something I knitted from hemp, and it changed me.  Now I won’t knit with anything that I can’t block.  I know there are a lot of people who call that a “yarn snob”, but blocking really does make a difference.  Still, I can’t throw away otherwise good yarn, so I listed it on ebay along with the rest of Norrie’s old clothes.  I have one cluttered closet left.  I’m hoping to get Norrie all the way moved this weekend.  Kelly still needs to put together her bookshelf and move a couple more pieces of furniture out of the way.  Then once the nursery is re-set up, I’ll start on the garage.  It’s pretty serious nightmare.  Specifically, it’s the place where most of the things that should have been given or thrown away were “stored”.  I swear, I’m going to stop saving every little thing.

I have 18 rows left on the first square of my shawl.  Since it’s blocked with live stitches I decided it’s time to invest in some blocking wires instead of trying to pin it like I usually would.  I’d read about cheap wires from the hardware store, but after walking through the store for an hour, I gave up.  I couldn’t find anything there like what I’d read other people were using.  Joann.com had the same ones that Knitpicks had for $7 cheaper, and they always have coupons.  So I googled Joann coupons, thinking I was being sneaky, and after going through about 4 links, I found one for 50% off.  Then I went back to Joann’s site, and there on the front page, was a 50% off code.  So after their insane shipping costs, I got the set for $20.  Still less than the $30 Knitpicks charges.  Of course, I’ll finish the square before they get here, which is going to drive me crazy.

How my toddler taught me about lifelines June 16, 2008

Not the best day here.  I got to row 37 of the Raku Suri Stole today.  Then Norrie walked over to me and plucked the knitting from my hands, pulling out 2 needles in the process.  I’ve never used lifelines because I’ve always been able to catch my mistakes before I got too far, so no lifelines.  I stuck the stitches back on the needles and started counting.  Three of the four needles now had a different number of stitches.  I spent 2 hours carefully ripping back 3 rows stitch by stitch, but somehow, I still had the wrong number of stitches on each needle.  I just gave up and frogged it again.  Either I’ll start using lifelines in lace or there won’t be any more knitting that complicated during baby’s wakeful hours.  I’m feeling very depressed.  This is day 3 on this project and I don’t have a single stitch to show for it.

Also, Ram Wools’s website says that orders to the US ship UPS and arrive in 7-10 business days. I placed an order and it finally arrived today, 21 business days later via US Mail. The yarn was supposed to have 155 meters per ball and be aran weight. It actually has 93 meters per ball is is closer to DK. It’s labeled blue, but it looks more like green.  It says it’s silk, but it feels like cotton.  I’m thinking of sending it back, but I’ve already contacted them twice over the order not arriving and the second time they’ve so far ignored me. I don’t want to send it back and have nothing to show for the money I spent. Although, I don’t know if I’ll use this anyway. So here’s my warning to anyone reading this, Ram Wools is no good.

Rip it, Rip it June 16, 2008

I’m about to start hating this shawl.  I got to about row 27 or so last night, and around 2:30 am, I spread it out between my needles for a better look.  It just looked messy.  I could see the design starting, but it still looked messy.  I gave up and went to bed.  First thing this morning, I frogged it.  I re-knit to about row 16, spread it out again, and it looked too holey.  My gauge was dead-on, but it still looked like the yarn was being knit on needles too big for it.  I frogged it again and went down a needle size.  I’m on row 17 again, and I’m determined not to find fault again.

And the house is a horrible mess.  We got the cabinet to my parents’ house and a friend of ours took the couch.  We bought Norrie’s new bedroom furniture and a bookcase for our bedroom.  We still have to move the desk and end table out of that room into the garage, move the bookshelf into the living room, rearrange the living room to fit it, and set up her new room.  Since things from that room are going to be redistributed throughout the house, the entire place is a wreck.  There are piles of books and boxes everywhere.  Kelly’s got the bookshelf up in our room and the new crib set up in Norrie’s room.  He’s going to try to get her dresser put together tonight, then there’s only her bookshelf to put together.  We’re going to clean the carpets before everything gets put in place, too.  I had no idea this was all going to take so long.  I can’t wait for it to all be finished.  That little girl is going to have the coolest room in the house.  She’ll have so much space, and her furniture is really, really pretty.  It makes me feel like I ought to go by the baby a nicer crib.  Although, really, the living room probably needs new furniture next…  Tomorrow’s going to be spent shifting things around.

The knitting down begins… June 14, 2008

I think I’ve mentioned before that I usually don’t have more yarn than the project I’m working on, one project out, and single oddballs leftover from previous projects.  My stash has started to grow, though, so I’m making myself knit through it before I buy any more yarn.  First up, Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Iris Heather.  This yarn was part of my Chanukah gift from Kelly last year.  Yes, my husband buys me yarn and knitting paraphernalia for gifts.  He knew I’d been wanting the Harmony sock needle set, so he ordered it for me.  He also knows I like alpaca, so he tossed this on to get free shipping.  6 skeins, so I have more than enough for a single shawl.  I spent a lot of time looking for the perfect pattern for it, and finally chose the Raku Suri Stole.  It’s June now, and the yarn and pattern have been sitting in my hall closet for at least 5 months now, which is not at all like me.  I finally pulled it out last night and wound the 4 skeins this shawl should take (swift and ball winder being a birthday present from aforementioned wonderful husband), but didn’t actually start knitting until this morning.  I’m feeling a little frustrated.  The pattern consists of 3 squares with a large flower in the middle and several joining panels.  You knit the squares, and then pick up their edges to add in the panels joining the squares together.  What I didn’t realize until I started knitting, was that you make the squares by casting on 8 stitches, joining to work in the round, and then knit the squares from the inside out.  It’s extremely difficult to hold 5 double pointed needles with 2 stitches a piece on them without ending up with a tangled mess.  Also consider that this is lace weight yarn, which is pretty thin.  I must have started over again about half a dozen times, because I couldn’t see what I was doing.  Once I finally got about 4 or 5 rows in, it was easier to see what order the needles should be in, but I kept dropping a needle out of the knitting and scrambling to get it through the loops again before a stitch got dropped.  I’ve just completed row 12, and it’s much easier to hold.  I’m just not sure yet if it looks the way it should.  Maybe if I can’t tell, no one else can?  If it is right, the finished product will be beautiful though, and I’ll only have to go through that twice more.  Even if casting on and beginning this project aren’t much fun, the pattern is one of the prettiest shawls I think I’ve seen.  I’m working up to the Forest Path Stole.  It was originally published in Interweave Knits not long after I started knitting.  I bought the issue just for the stole, but didn’t have the courage to try something that complicated yet.  Once I was ready, I spent, oh, about 3 years looking for the right yarn.  I finally bought some Knitpicks Shimmer in spice for it.  It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but it’s time it got knitted already, and I was really taken by the colorway when they added it to the catalog.

Today is the big baby move day too.  Someone from Kelly’s office stopped by to help us load my grandparents’ cabinet on the company van, and Kelly’s already driven it up to my parents’ house and unloaded it.  I’ll miss it.  It’s really beautiful, but there’s nowhere to put it right now.  If we ever sell our house and move, maybe there will be a place for it.  (Like we’ll ever sell our house!  Four showings and no offers since November is not promising.  A big thanks to W for the crappy housing market.)  When he comes back we’ve got a friend coming to load the sofa on the van (they wouldn’t both fit at once) and then it’ll either go to said friend’s house or Goodwill.  He hasn’t decided yet if he can get it in his house.  Lastly, we get to go furniture shopping.  That part should be fun.  It’d be more fun if it wasn’t so expensive.  I feel pressure to get Norrie moved into her new room, though, so I can start getting ready for the new baby.  She’s going to have so much space now!  The nursery was the smallest room in the house, which for a new baby was plenty.  This room is almost as big as the master bedroom, but she’ll have smaller furniture leaving her more floor space than us.

The Tortoise and the Tot June 13, 2008

When I went for my morning walk, I found this tiny little turtle about to get squashed by early morning commuters.  I carried him about 1/2 mile back home so Norrie could see him.  She wasn’t as impressed as I’d hoped, but I got a cute picture or two out of it.

I just pulled my completed Cables and Lace sweater off of the blocking board.  I think it looks pretty good, despite my disappointment with the yarn.  I won’t know for sure for another 11-14 weeks, though.

I also finished knitting another felted yarmulke.  It’s in the the washer felting now.  I used the chart this time, and it looks better, more like the picture.  So, if you buy a copy of this pattern from CozyColeman on Etsy, which I recommend, use the chart not the written instructions.  They aren’t quite right.  I might write to her so she can correct it.

My Color Work Needs Work June 10, 2008

So the yarmulke I was working on didn’t turn out so well. I don’t do color work very often, which you can tell by this bunchy, pre-felted…thing:

The Etsy seller said since it felts, you don’t have to worry if you’re no good at color work. She wasn’t entirely right. See, when it’s all pulled into itself like that, what you get after felting more closely resembles a bowl:

But it knits up really quickly, and I had a lot more yarn that I needed. So after my initial heartbreak, I knitted another:

It’s now blocking, and it looks much better, as you can see in this comparison shot.  Even though it turned out okay this time, my strands were too loose in some places instead of  being too tight.  There’s still room for improvement, but at least on the second go, the finished product works.

Not only do I not do much color work, this is the first thing I’ve ever felted. It’s a little nerve-racking. I’ll be doing more of it though. I’m also going to make more of these. The band around the bottom doesn’t look like it did in the pattern picture. The designer both wrote out the instructions and included a chart. I used the written instructions, because they came first, but I think the next time, I’ll try the chart. If the chart comes out differently, I’ll write to her so she can correct it for future sales. Overall, I’m still pretty happy with it. I’m looking forward to seeing it on a head.

What are you making? June 9, 2008

I bought this beautiful pattern on Etsy for a felted yarmulke with a Star of David in the middle, ran to AC Moore to pick up a couple skeins of Patons Classic Wool, sat down to start, and realized I didn’t have double pointed needles in the right size.  My needle collection is pretty complete, so I’ve long ago stopped checking before I get ready to knit.  They closest yarn shop is at least 30 miles away, and I didn’t want to drive all that way at $4 a gallon for a set of needles, but Kelly was nearby for work.  I called him and asked him to pick up a set of size 10.5 dpns, and even though he doesn’t knit, he speaks knitting and knows where the shops are.  So when he left his meeting, he drove over there, went in, found the needles and was at the register by the time the lady working there noticed him.  She came to wait on him, and cheerily asked, “So, what are you making?”  “Uhhhhh…Errand for my wife?”  Needless to say, the yarmulke is on the needles right now.

My Cables and Lace sweater is blocking, and then I only have to put the finishing trim and belt on it (and block those).  I block in pieces as I go since I don’t have a proper blocking board.  Then when the entire project is finished, it all gets lightly blocked again.

Then there’s my big steal!  Before I got pregnant with Norrie, Kelly and I went to the beach with his father & co., and while we were out we stopped at this store where we saw a beautiful stuffed dragon.  It was sitting on a shelf labeled 50% off, but had no price on it.  We fell instantly in love with it, and went to the register.  We were told that it was $50, and we said, oh, so it’s $25 on sale?  Suddenly, the dragon was not on sale, but misplaced.  Now I should mention that this dragon was on a shelf 12 feet off the ground and out of reach.  Whoever put it there had to be an employee with a ladder.  We felt led on, so we left empty-handed.  A couple of years later, we saw the same dragon in a local mall and then in a craft shop.  Every time it was $50, which we felt was a bit much for a stuffed toy, gorgeous as it is.  When I got pregnant this time, I told Kelly if we found out we’re having a boy, we’re getting him the dragon.

Sunday, we went to a tea tasting (which isn’t as pretentious as it sounds) with my mother-in-law.  When we left, she started walking Norrie down the sidewalk in the general direction of a toy shop.  We were in sort of on outdoor shopping center.  I’d never been in that toy store because it’s in the middle of a bunch of specialty shops and between that and the store’s name, I always thought they sold those expensive toy trains that adults buy and don’t let children play with.  Nope.  Actually a very cool toy store with loads of variety.  While we were browsing, I saw the dragon again.  I picked him up and showed Kelly, but couldn’t find a price tag.  The girl working there heard us and offered to look up the price.  She checked and said, “It’s $40.95.”  I looked at Kelly and said, “Well, we are having a boy and that’s the cheapest we’ve seen it.”  The girl then said, “You know large stuffed animals are 40% off right now.”  So we finally came home with the beautiful dragon for the incredible price of $26.    It’s the first toy we’ve bought our little-boy-to-be.

Isn’t he pretty?

We stopped at Target on the way home to look some more for Norrie’s “big girl” furniture.  We found a bed that goes through several stages that we really like with a matching dresser.  There’s also a bookshelf that should go pretty well with it, so I think we’re going back to buy them.  They’re cheaper than Rooms to Go Kids, not to mention that RTGK didn’t have any bookshelves.  I found that hard to believe.  We have bookshelves in every room of our house, and every one is jam packed with books.  We’re going to have to put the one in what’s to be Norrie’s room in the living room, making 3 in that room.  Books are the first thing we bought for our children each time we found out we’re pregnant, and I can’t imagine people not having bookshelves in their kids rooms.  End bookshelf rant.  Now we’ve just got to find someone to take the couch away, and hopefully help us move my grandparents’ cabinet to my parents to live until we have room for it again.  I’m ready to go ahead and get the room set up.

Planning for the Big Girl Room June 6, 2008

So, with a baby brother on the way, Norrie will soon be getting a big girl room. We’re going to move her from the nursery which is also the smallest room in the house, to the room beside ours which is currently being used as a “study” (a room filled with books, a desk, and a couch). We’re trying to find someone who wants the couch badly enough to come haul it away for us, and then we’ll only have to figure out what to do with the books. Hopefully we can work it out pretty soon, because Kelly’s expecting a bonus in a couple of weeks and I want to use that to get her new furniture, even if she doesn’t move just yet. We stopped by Rooms to Go Kids yesterday to look around, and Norrie had a blast. She loved all the tiny chairs and the bean bags. She ran from one pretend room to the next squealing with delight. It was really pretty cool. They had some beds I would have sold my sister for when I was a child. I always wanted one with a canopy when I was little, and they had several, including some that looked like princess rooms. The store overall, was probably more expensive than what we want to spend, so there’s going to be more window shopping before we buy anything. Then it’ll be time to look at living room furniture. We’ve been using ours for 7 1/2 years, and I’m afraid the couch is getting pretty worn out. I don’t even want to think about the dirt…

We’re also starting to accumulate things for the baby, with nowhere to put them. Right now everything is in a box in our closet, but he’ll need more than a few newborn clothes and a couple of books. We didn’t start getting much for Norrie until my third trimester, but she had lots of books by now.  I feel guilty spending so much on Norrie’s new room when he has so little, but then I feel guilty spending money on a baby that’s not here yet when she is.  Sigh.

I’m also getting tired of waiting for the yarn I ordered from Ram Wools.  Their website says it should come in 7-10 business days, and yesterday was the 10th.  Still no yarn.  The site also said they ship UPS in the US, so there’s the problem.  I hate, hate, hate UPS.  The mail is faster than UPS.  I wish more places used FedEx instead of UPS.  They’re so much faster and nicer, too.

I’m getting ready to start the sleeves on my cables & lace kimono sweater.  I’m not all that happy with Elann’s Superwash Bamboo, though.  Once it gets wet, it doesn’t hold its shape well at all.  I love the color, but I’m worried that it’s not going to look good on, because the yarn is insanely stretchy.  It’ll be, what?, another 15 weeks before I can try it on and find out.