I have been working more on the "boring sweater" which is becoming less and less boring. I did some half-assed seaming and blocking last night to see how it would fit before I started working on the sleeves. See, that piece fit quite nicely into the back of the sweater:
And the mysterious front unveiled:
Unfortunately, my brain was a bit fried when I calculated the armhole, and I ended up making it too big. I'm going to have to unseam and rip back an inch on the back and front.
I am really loving the blog contest entries. Just a reminder that anybody can win the random prize, even if you're not up for writing something witty. You can always fall back on Gizoogle to enhance your knitting posts. I should also come out and say that I don't have an ounce of wit in me, and that is why this spectacle of wit awes me so. I am touched. If I were to write an entry for my own contest, I would probably be a big old dork and write one up in the format of a math proof. I would wish that I had the mad skillz to write rap lyrics in the vein of Chemical Calisthenics, but alas I don't.
... another blog contest!
First let's go over the prizes.
1. Sock knitter's paradise. Vogue Knitting Fall 2006 issue with oodles of sock patterns, one hank of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock mill end in browns/blues, and 2 skeins of Hand Jive Knits Nature's Palette sock yarn.
2. Red hot mama. 4 ginormous hanks of Rainbow Wools 20ply in red.
3. One skein wonder snob. 1 ball Jaeger Chamonix, 1 ball Rowan Cork, Noro Big Kureyon, 2 balls ArtFibers Plouf!, and one ball of sock yarn of unknown origin.
How to win these fabulous prizes?
Create a knitting prose entry to your blog using as many polysyllabic or obscure words as you can muster. Your entire blog post, including title and pictures, is part of your submission to the contest. You will be graded on:
You can enter multiple times, but each entry must be a separate post on your blog. Size or sheer quantity of polysyllabic words won't win this for you, it's how you use them. Post links to your entries in a comment to this post.
Three winners will be chosen by The Judge (me):
Entries must be received by 11:59pm PDT (GMT - 7) on Sunday, September 10, 2006 CE. I will select winners by September 13. Whichever post I like best (which could be the most obnoxious post) will get first pick at prizes. Then 2nd best. Then the remaining prize is given to the random winner. I reserve the right not to disclose which winner was the most obnoxious.
Questions about rules will not be tolerated unless poetically, humorously, or pretentiously phrased.
(Looking for the Sarcelle pattern? Click on the Sarcelle button on the left side of this page.)
I've been working ever so slowly on the boring sweater, except it's getting a little less boring. Still not sure what my problem is, but I only managed to do two rows all weekend:
You may be wondering what part of the sweater that is. Well, I'm going to keep that a surprise for now, but let's just say it'll fit in somewhere. At the rate I'm going, it'll take a good two weeks before I finish this sucker.
While I wasn't knitting, I had my first ever camping experience at Lassen Volcanic National Park. This week's wilderness sightings include deer and a chipmunk. Note that we did not feed the chipmunk, and we made the little kid who did feel really really bad about it. We also didn't get too close to the critters which is good because there was a warning about chipmunks and bubonic plague at the trailhead that we didn't notice until our way back to the car. Bubonic plague!
Lassen was a lot of fun and included a hike through Bumpass Hell (is that not the best trail name ever?), frolicking in snow, and watching a bunch of Corvettes driving through the hills. The rest of the pictures are here in case you want to see pics of our friends sharing a special moment in the lake.
And, as promised, there will be another blog contest soon. I'll post details on that by the end of the week. I gotta get together some prize yarn.
Today the hubby and I went up to Carolina Homespun so I could pick out some fiber. I've been wanting to play with color, different preps, and different kinds of wool. So I picked out a few:
Honestly, I'm not sure what kind of wool this is. Corriedale, I think. Hm. Not the best for wanting to learn more about the fibers, not knowing what it is. But the colors are pretty cool.
This one is merino in the Twilight colorway. It's pretty dark, with blacks, dark blue, purple, and some gray. Merino is supposedly not the easiest to spin, but it's all a learning experience, right?
Finally, some teal (of course). I should admit that at first, all the wools I had picked out were teal in some way, but I put them back (mostly) because I wanted to experiment with color, not just spin all of the same color.
Sorry, I decided not to take it out of its plastic bag just yet. This one is a Romney, and is carded rather than combed like the other 2. Supposedly carded like this is easier for beginners than combed. I guess I'll find out!
While driving up to Seattle, I realized one reason to take pictures of one's knitting while on the road. It's so that you can pretend to be knitblogging, when really you're just taking a picture of the scenery. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying, it all became clear to me.
Then I thought about Cookie and how she was starting to have questionably knitting-related blog content, and seemed to be feeling a bit awkward about it. Here's what you do:
That, my friends, is a Pomatomus, almost done, thinking about climbing Mt. Lassen. Mt. Lassen was beautiful, by the way. Cookie will be there this weekend, so I thought she could use this tip. Though she is traveling with more non-knitters than knitters (I know, right? Who would do such a thing?), so they might have to question her sanity.
Also, at BobaKnit tonight (again, knitting and boba, the two great things that are great together) we somehow got on the topic of my love for the Sundial Bridge again. You know, somehow, as in, I love the thing so I probably brought it up. Anyway, one of my night time shots:
See how I did that? Segued from knitting group to Sundial Bridge picture? Oh yeah. And that, Cookie, is how it's done.
Yay! I'm sorry it took me so long to get this all ready, but I really really wanted it to be just so. Now let's hope there are no problems so I don't have to eat my words!
The Sarcelle pattern is ready. You'll see a link to the page on the sidebar, or you can click here. As you'll see on the page, I will be sending out the pattern once per day for now. So you should expect to get the pdf via email within 24 hours of purchase. Make sure your email address for PayPal is correct!
Thanks again for all of the kind comments you've given regarding the Sarcelle shawl. I really appreciate though I still haven't had the time to respond to each of you individually.
... and the winner is ...
Al with Fly on a Lime!
I have to admit that the movie poster with tag line and everything is what pushed Al over the top here. The Coronas Would Have to Wait. Hee hee.
Thanks to all who entered, I had a great time seeing all of your pictures!
And, I thought I should note that at my brother's wedding I was snapping the photo below when Mr. K said to me, "Why are you taking that picture?" and I said, "Dog on a boat!". He stared at me for a few seconds, then it clicked, and he just shook his head at me.
It feels good to be home, though we had a great time on the road! Seeing my brother and new sister-in-law get married was of course the highlight of the trip, but any pictures from that event will have to wait until I'm a little less tired and more able to go through them all.
I mentioned I was going to start the Ripple and Weave socks from the new (Fall 2006) Vogue Knitting, right? I got started on those after finishing up the Pomatomi (again, pics later). I started happily knitting away and was a little confused by the chart but kept right on knitting. About 8 rows into the chart I realized it just wasn't right. The chart was wrong! I'm sure Janice won't be surprised, she's had some issues with their patterns before. I think this mistake is a) fairly easy to make and b) fairly noticeable once you actually know what's supposed to be going on, or even if you think about it before knitting. Of course, I neither knew what was going on nor really looked over the chart before knitting, so I had a problem. Anyway, love the socks, but check VK online for any errata before starting their patterns. If you do the Meg Swansen socks from this issue, the pattern was THE WRONG PATTERN, so that would have been a lot worse. Now that one I noticed within 2 lines of reading the pattern. Anyway, row 3 of the chart for pattern 10 should be (from R to L): p2tog, ktbl, p, ktbl, p, ktbl, p, ktbl, yo, ktbl, yo, p, ktbl (basically, the yarnovers are one too far to the right in the chart).
And here are the socks now:
Ok, I like my socks short, so I've already started the heel.
Other highlights of the trip to be fleshed out more fully later were:
1) Lassen Volcanic National Park
2) Oregon wine country
3) Visiting with Gene in Eugene!
4) The Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA
I am obsessed now with this bridge. This is not the really bridge-y part of the bridge, but those cables are holding the bridge up, yo. I have so many pictures of this bridge, it is absurd. The bridge at night was also awesome. That's right, we went twice.
Tomorrow I'll announce the winner of the contest and let that person know by email as well! Thanks for all of the entries, I had a great time checking in on them when I could from the road!
I've probably been boring you to tears with all my non-knitting content. This probably isn't going to help the boredom issue, but at least it's knitting. Here, I present to you, the start of a very boring looking sweater:
Yep, stockinette. Don't worry, that's just the start of the back. The front is more interesting, and I haven't gotten to the cool part of the back and sleeves yet. I have some awesome ideas for it. I feel like this sweater is taking FOREVER, and I'm not sure what my problem is. I'm using Karabella Breeze I scored on sale at the Knitting Zone a few weeks ago.
The yarn isn't as luxurious to knit as I thought it would be considering the fiber content is 40% cashmere, 60% silk, but I do think it will feel divine after washing and blocking. The lack of elasticity makes tensioning more difficult for me, sort of like knitting cotton, especially on the purl rows. One thing that is absolutely fabulous about Breeze is the yardage -- over 200 yards per ball. I finally made it up to the armholes on the front and back, and I've used less than 2 balls so far.
On a tangent, does anybody else feel the compulsion to squeeze balls back into shape when they've become boxy looking from packing? The poor Karabella Breeze looked like this before I squished them back into shape.
DH and I saw SoaP Friday night, and it was every bit as good as I thought it would be, even better. (This really isn't saying much, since I was expecting a very very bad movie.) I'm loving all the entries for the Kristi's blog contest. To continue in the summer blog contest vein, I have an idea for another contest after the _____ on a _____ contest is over, so stay tuned for that.
In other snake-related news, the hubby and I saw a rattlesnake on our hike at Windy Hill yesterday. Here's a bad picture. The rattle is on the left. (You can click to see larger pictures and a note on where the rattle is.)
Apparently the rattlesnake is the only venomous snake native to California. I did some googling after we got home and found some pictures from someone's surgury after having been bitten by a rattlesnake. WARNING: DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE SOMETHING VERY VERY VERY GROSS. DO NOT. (I'm especially talking to you, Kristi. For all that is holy, do not click that link.) Suffice it to say, I'm extremely relieved at not being bitten.
Elspeth tagged us with a meme asking about ten favorite yarns, and I'm really at a loss. I don't think I could name ten specific yarns, but for general "everyday" use I like a good sock yarn (STR, KPPPM, Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra) and luxurious extrafine merinos (Karabella Aurora 8, Jaeger ExtraFine Merino, Rowan 4ply Soft). Other notable yarns have included Blue Moon Fiber Arts Bambu, Pakucho Organic Cotton, Jaeger Chamonix and Noro Lily. There, that makes ten.
I thought I'd throw out some _____ on a _____ pics for the blog contest, even though I'm sure I'm not allowed to win. You'd better believe I'm excited about the movie. The hubby and I pre-ordered our tix for tonight, and we're gearing up for some HOT SNAKE ACTION. I'm actually more excited about how crazy the crowd and line is going to be before we get into the movie (knitting time!) and how crazy the audience will be when Samuel L delivers his infamous line than the rest of the movie. The crowd's gonna go crazy! I kinda wish I still lived in the south side of Chicago because I bet the crowd there would be better than the more subdued suburban crowd we have going on here.
Anyway, in following all the other absurd hoopla regarding this movie, here are a few _____s on ____s.
1. Frog on a Boot
2. Crab on Dessert Wine (This is a cheap ploy to appeal to K's inner lush)
3. Cuttlefish on a Cat (she counts as inanimate, right?)
4. Stingray on a Sock Yarn Stash (of course that's not the entire sock yarn stash, or even half of it)
That's actually my entire stuffed animal collection minus a couple more frogs. Strangely, all the frogs were given to me. The others I couldn't resist. Who can resist a stuffed stingray?!
I am saving this entry on Wednesday, just before leaving on the road trip to Seattle for my brother's wedding. So I think that the pomatomi will be done by the time you read this, because here's where they are right now:
I really thought I would get these done yesterday while taking the BART to work because my car was in the shop. In the end, I decided to wait to go to work until my car was done. Not as much knitting time, but less overall time spent commuting in the end for sure.
For the road trip, I'm taking the new Vogue Knitting so I can make the Charlene Schurch socks from that issue and I'm also bringing Abigail's Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole from Scarf Style. Silly Abigail and her choosing to knit with wool even though she's allergic! I'm excited because I've been wanting to do entrelac, so this should be fun. I have to hurry and finish it so that if her homeopathic allergy method works I still get a chance to knit on this stole!
Pictures of these projects when I return ...
You've all heard about Snakes on a Plane, right? And just how awesome it's going to be? I mean, come on, how could a movie called Snakes on a Plane with Samuel L. Jackson not be awesome? The excitement is really building with the movie opening this week, and I've seen a few other websites with fun contests/posts of other possible ______ on a _______ movies that will truly strike fear in your heart.
So I've decided it's time to hold a contest. In a complete non sequitur, the winner will receive a copy of the Sarcelle Pattern, which will be available mid-next week, when I get back from Seattle. I will also buy the winner a skein of the yarn (Filati's Merino Oro) I used to make Sarcelle (though not necessarily in the same color, I'll have to see what I can find).
For the contest, I want you to come up with a picture and post it to your blog with an animal in or on an inanimate object. I feel it's only fair to tell you that my favorite movie poster that I saw on Snakes on a Blog was "Lemur in a Rollerskate".
So, you post the picture on your blog and comment on this blog post telling me where to find your picture. The contest will be closed as of Sunday August 20th at midnight Pacific Time. I will choose the picture that I like the best and post the winner on Tuesday ...
For now, I leave you with a starter picture:
Hippos in a Sock Drawer!
ETA: Since I'll be out of town, I won't actually be checking in that much, so I want the contest to be as open as possible.. No real rules, just animal on/in inanimate object -- and don't harm any animals in the taking of the pictures :). You can have multiple pictures if you like, I just want to see lots of pics on those blogs of yours!
[Warning: Don't read if you want real knitting content!]
So I haven't had much knitting to show over the past few weeks. Why not? Well, the past couple weekends have been chock full of hiking. My darling schmoopie has it in his head that we have to do something like trek Mt. Kilimanjaro or the Inca Trail before we can have schmooplings, and he wants to have schmooplings soon (his biological clock appears to be ticking a bit faster than mine). So we've been trying to get in shape only to find that I am hopelessly out of shape. On Sunday we hiked up Montara Mountain at McNee Ranch State Park.
It didn't start well. We went the wrong way which enabled me to take this picture.
I'm starting to come around to the idea that Northern California actually is very pretty, even if all the buildings are short. It was a bit overcast that day, but that just meant a nice walk in the clouds. This was the last picture before we were surrounded by fog, about a quarter of the way up.
After a few wrong turns and over 4 miles of uphill hiking (it would have been less without those wrong turns!) we finally reached the top. Just look at that view!
The sun peaked through occasionally on the way down.
My feet did really well because I wore my trusty handknit socks made from everybody's favorite yarn--Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock. This led to a very exciting discussion about socks for the hubby. I actually think that knitting him socks could be rewarding for both of us, and I'm glad to have found a knit item he would actually appreciate! Normally he wears sweaters that are very finely knit. He did say that if I ever got good with a knitting machine, he'd buy enough qiviut for me to make him a sweater. That would be awesome. But the socks! He wants shortie socks that are nice and plain which should be a pretty quick knit. Now I just need some nice solid colored merino sock yarn.
Oh yeah, and Schmoopie likes to pass out after we get home:
We're going to Lassen Volcanic National Park at the end of the month, and it has been suggested that I knit knee high socks in preparation. I'm actually quite tempted...
I haven't blogged in what seems like forever, but luckily Kristi has been holding up the fort. I'm really excited about the Sarcelle pattern. The shawl is so pretty!
Ok, here's what I meant to blog about but haven't:
1. I finally got off my ass and sent out a Dye-o-Rama package. I was an Angel, so I didn't get an assignment until after most people had already sent their packages. I really hope my buddy likes it, and I wish I could have sent it in time for her to take on her recent trip. The color theme is because she likes reds/pinks/purples.
Because her buddy flaked, I also sent her some extra goodies.
2. I also meant to post a picture of Kirsten's Baudelaires a while back. As far as I know, she was the first to finish a pair, and they look awesome in these shoes!!! Kirsten is also co-hosting the Baudelaire KAL which has lots of Baudelaires finished and in progress.
3. I've done a lot of knitting and ripping recently, so I really don't have much to show. Sigh. For example, I started a Forecast and then ripped it out in the interest of destashing the yarn. I'm not even sure why I started when (a) I wasn't so sure about the color choice, (b) I didn't have enough yarn, (c) I OBVIOUSLY didn't have enough yarn. I think there was a vague hope of possibly doing a short sleeve version. Probably a bad idea.
Also, I must apologize if you've emailed or commented and I haven't responded. I sort of fell of the knitblogworldplanet and haven't read any blogs in WEEKS! (Okay, except BloggingProjectRunway which I'm still hopelessly addicted to.)
I finished my first pomatomus!
And, I even started the second one ... so maybe it will be done sometime soon? I can see how making pomatomi has been addictive for some people!
I am still knitting (when I'm not working on the Sarcelle pattern and spinning, of course). Now, I feel like I should warn you before you see this picture ... it looks like it is on a dead person's foot. Granted, the picture is huge so you probably noticed that far before you read this itty bitty text, if you even read it at all. I swear, there are no dead bodies in my living room. I don't know why my foot looks dead-ish, but I think that in the morning light, the only light available at the time of day in which I can take pictures, things seem to come out blue. So there you go.
I find it kind of funny to be one of the last kids on the block to make Pomatomus, seeing as Cookie designed it and all, but I was waiting for the perfect yarn. When Cookie gave me this yarn, she said "I think this would make great Pomatomi". A subtle hint, no?