One piece at a time

Well, I’m nearing the finish line on my Malabrigo sweater, formerly Clementine’s Cardi.  I frogged the two fronts as far as I needed to and they have become the two back pieces, because they’re in rib and I didn’t like the look of the rib as much as the stockinette.  Then I frogged back the “sleeves and top back” piece that I couldn’t get to fit with the fronts, and made them into two front pieces, in stockinette with a 1 x 1 rib border.

I am FINALLY done with the fronts and the backs. I have knit on this sweater everywhere: knitting group #1 in Belmont, CA; knitting group #2 in Burlingame, CA; walking with my kids before school; the San Francisco Zoo; and today at the park near the Maker Faire, among other places.  I also started the first sleeve (I’m thinking 3/4 sleeves) at the “Night at the Museum 2″ movie yesterday.

Sorry for the crappy picture. I’m short. I have a crappy camera.

I’ve been busy otherwise, as well. I started the Cherry Bomb tank from Big Girl Knits, and finished most of the front and back on my knitting machine this weekend. I just need to finish the upper back and the edges so the stockinette doesn’t curl, then I’m done. What to do with the rest of my Dale of Norway Sisik?

Lazy Monday

I spent last night watching the SNL Shorts show. As per usual on SNL shows this century, there were 5 amazing ones, and the rest could have been kept in the vault. Of course one of the best was “Lazy Sunday”, where Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell (one of my favorites on SNL – I was unhappy when he was fired and happy when he was brought back) discuss the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia”, Magnolia cupcakes (I went there last summer in NYC and I was unimpressed, but then again I don’t smoke so maybe when you have the munchies they taste better? ), and other snacks.

On one of my more recent trips to Portland, my friend A. showed me the You Tube sensation, Mark Feuerstein (“Caroline in the City”, among others) doing his answer to “Lazy Sunday” – “Lazy Monday” (“because in L.A. none of us have jobs so every day’s Lazy Sunday”). If you have spent any time in L.A. you will love it. I loved the Thomas Guide reference, the Coffee Bean, and watching the Color Me Mine references (one of my other favorites was when Snoop Dogg had his show on MTV and he did a sketch about his posse spending time at Color Me Mine. Classic!)

Of course I’ve loved the Martin Short, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest “Synchronized Swimming” sketch, “You’re not angry, you’re just pointing …” and another classic that A. introduced me to, “D*** in a Box” with Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake. But one of the funniest was one I had never seen before.

There was a sketch, apparently, where Ricky Gervais tells that his inspiration for the British version of “The Office” was based on a Japanese show, and he shows a clip. Of course this Japanese The Office is exactly like the American version of The Office, only they have added some Japanese stereotypes (the girl laughing with her hand in front of her mouth, the bowing, and Karaoke) and everyone is talking in Japanese. Sooo funny!

Meanwhile, I was getting my Clementine’s Cardi ready for updating. I ripped back at least 30 inches of knitting on four pieces, and am knitting each of the 4 back to 15 inches long, where I’ll follow a pattern from The Knitters Handy Book of Patterns and make a new cardigan. So far so good.

Also yesterday, my MIL and I did our Mother’s Day outing – the most delicious brunch at the Ritz in Half Moon Bay. It was so nice to get out of our heatwave (it’s gone, thank God, today and was around 70) and to the coast. She also lent me her camera cord, since Brett’s is the same as hers. So without further ado, I give you my Clapotis by Machine:

and modeled by Oren (as our neighbor calls him):

The Kids are Alright

It’ s a heatwave here in Northern California.  We rarely have air conditioning in this area because we “don’t need it” but some days we really do! It’s on or about 90 here today and I’m sweating!

So in order to get some relief, I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese.  It has air conditioning.  I’m not one of those Chuck E. Cheese snobs (I think I only know one other mom that can stand it) – I don’t love it, but it entertains the kids for a bit, it’s air conditioned, or it’s a break from the rain, when we have it.  Even though I forgot to bring some of my directions, I did bring each one of my WIPs so I could work on them.

I only have about 3 inches total left on my Juliet:

I’m also done with my Lollipop sweater, I just have to seam it up. It’s from Knitovation, and thus is *very* boxy, but it was easy to make and is a good stash buster. I used up 6 1/4 skeins of one color of Silk Garden, and 1 skein each of the other 2 colors of Silk Garden that I had. I’m down at least 8 skeins of yarn! (and I haven’t bought any in a month, although I did do some trading on Ravelry and we’re off to the Ritz in Half Moon Bay for brunch tomorrow so I’ll have to stop by Fengari …)

I’m also working on a version of Cherry Bomb from Big Girl Knits (alas, I finally fit into their smaller sized pattens). I just started it yesterday and I’m up to the armholes using Dale of Norway Sisik yarn that I got from Little Knits years ago. More stash busting!

I also have a plan for my HUGE Clementine’s Cardi. I’m going to rip back as far as I need to to get into one of the sweater patterns in The Knitters’ Handy Book of Patterns and go from there.  Of course I brought the whole sweater with me, but not my plans! Oh well.

Last but not least, I have sent an old project to the frog pond. I started this sweater a couple of years ago. I started with a pattern from Knitting Over the Edge, then continued in the round, but it never fit me. I found another potential project in Edgar from Knitty but I haven’t started it yet. Here’s my former Gedfra Fashion Trend project (I bought the yarn at La Knitterie Parisienne in line behind Mrs. Kotter – Marcia Strassman!)

So much yarn, so little time!

Missing You

I’m on a Knit Picks sock yarn kick.  First Chris was nice enough to send me some Knit Picks Felici in the Firefighter colorway and I just love it!  I had seen it before in the catalog but I guess I thought I would order it sometime in the future.  However, I hadn’t read the fine print that KP is making Felici have limited edition colorways, and once they were gone, they were gone.  Lame!  I had those 2 skeins, and then I was lucky enough to get 2 more in a destash, and then I traded for the leftovers someone had after making kids’ socks.  Not that I can ever have enough, mind you.

Before my introduction to KP Felici, I had bought some KP Sock Garden.  I didn’t realize the gorgeousness of the colorways until I tried to knit them up.  I love the red, pink and green of Geranium, and didn’t really appreciate the yellow, orange and reds of the Zinnia colorway until I used some for my Sockapalooza (2) socks, and I was hooked.  I’ve been collecting this since discontinued colorway, and ended up wtih 5 skeins after the Sockapalooza (2) socks (Thanks, Zonda!!!

Well, I had to use more of my Zinnia stash this weekend.  My friend Cathy invited me to her birthday party, and I asked her what her favorite color was.  She said orange and yellow, and of course I immediately thought of my Zinnia yarn, but I didn’t want to part with it!  I went shopping at our last remaining yarn shops (we’ve lost quite a few lately) and just never found a good replacement.  So, I had to use it.  I was very happy when I only needed 2 balls, though, so I’ve got at least 2 left.  Of course my camera ran out of batteries, I had to rush to the party, and now I can’t find the cord to Brett’s camera…

(I have a great new idea on what to call my husband and kids rather than their initials, but I can’t remember 2 of the ones I thought of!  My new naming scheme has to do with the mistaken names they are called in public – like you give your name somewhere and they get it close, but no cigar.  When people call me Elizabeth I say “sure” because I don’t really care/prefer it, but when I suggested Brett as a baby name, my husband wouldn’t consider it because he’s called it by mistake often.  So … DH = Brett; DS1 =  Dylan; DS2 = Oren; DS3 = I can’t remember! )

Anywho, I made another Clapotis by Machine – it took me from 9 am to 2 pm on Saturday, including finishing and ironing.  It looks gorgeous and maybe someday I can get it from it’s hostage situation in Brett’s camera.  I didn’t do it on the bias this time, which took a lot less time and was less annoying on the machine, and it looked gorgeous.  It looks similar to Lorna’s non bias oriented Clapotis:

More photos to come!

What Do I Get?

I am relatively monogamous. I knit forever in boring ribbing and then stockinette. Then I attempt to see where I am and I have no idea how to put the damned pattern together! It’s got at least 23 projects on Ravelry so someone understood it, but I just don’t.

This sweater almost fits across a queen sized bed, mind you, so it’s definitely BIG!  I was happy to reknit some of it  but I pretty much can’t tell what I need to do.  There are 2 fronts, which I’ve put on the left side of my photo. They’re definitely too long, so I need to pull those back, but if I can’t figure out how to attach the upper back/sleeve pieces I’m thinking of just frogging. What a pain!

Something Becomes Nothing

(not only a great Golden Palominos song, but reminiscent of a very funny sketch by Heywood Banks with cards reading “something” and “nothing”)

Okay, I gave in this weekend. I turned this collection of two useless, stalled WIPs:

into this HUGE ball of yarn. It’s triple stranded grey yarns: Caron Simply Soft, Crystal Palace Wakiki and Cascade Pima Silk.

I was thinking about making a grey version of my black shawl that I wear often:

but right now it’s just sitting around waiting for a cat to come and play

W(h)IP it (good)

I just can’t stop starting new projects! Currently I’ve got 5 current works in progress.

I started Clementine’s Cardi first, and got stalled by having to resize the pieces I already knit.

Then I started Juliet, and I’m currently stalled by the lace at the bottom – it takes more attention than I have when I’m knitting this week.

Then I started Baccarat Player because I needed something that was just stockinette to take with me to the movies. (I saw “Haunting in Connecticut” – good, and “Observe and Report” – very bad.) I got stalled on that because I lost it, believe it or not!

Then, I started a new Clapotis. I have the leftovers of my Cascade Pima Silk from my huge machine knit sweater, and I wanted to use them up. I thought I had 2 skeins plus a bit, so I started it by double stranding with some Caron Simply Soft I bought for waste yarn on my machine. I got really far, then I ran out of the first skein of Pima Silk, so I decided to double strand the Simply Soft until I got to the decreases, then bring in the second skein of Pima Silk again. My “creativity” got the better of me, and I decided to double strand the Simply Soft with some gray Wakiki that I have.

I’m not convinced of the “stripes” it might create, so I’m tempted to rip the whole thing out. I’m not sure. Already I ripped out everything I knit at my knitting group on Tuesday. Then I found THIS:

Yes, another attempt at using up this Pima Silk (and another skein?) that got lost and forgotten. Ugh!

Meanwhile, I was planning on going to the movies today as well, and as I’m confused on my current WIPs, I decided to start yet ANOTHER one! So I cast on with double stranded Noro Silk Garden, for this Lion Brand Red Hot Sweater Jacket (sorry, it’s a Ravelry link, you know what a pain it is to look at the Lion Brand website with their logins and all). It’s 15″ of garter, so I can do it with my eyes closed. Not sure what I’ll do when I run out of this colorway of Silk Garden, though. I don’t plan on buying more. I don’t like this red-based colorway at all, but I do like the yarn.

WIP-wise, I’m also working on a lot of books and magazines at the same time too! I’ve got a stack of magazines I should be reading at the gym, if I actually went, that is. I also have been working through the Charlaine Harris books. I’m on “Definitely Dead” and am waiting for “Club Dead” from the library. Then I’ll have read all the older ones and be ready to read the new one when I can get it and it comes out next month. I also borrowed a “new” (I really don’t know if it is or not, because I read the other – I think – 3 already) Dexter book and it should be fun. Of course due to the economy we had to give up our Showtime and HBO so the only Dexter I’m going to be getting is in book form. Sigh.