I'm So Smart!

Finally, a picture of the Einstein Coat/Jacket:

I finished it sometime before Lucy turned 3 (Nov 2005). I only remember that because we had a party and I took my mom over to see a house we were trying to buy, and I let her wear the jacket (hoping it fit her cause I didn't like it on me). I think I won the cream Shetland Chunky in February of 2004, although it could have been 2005. Raffle prize from the Georgetown Knitting guild. I wasn't sure if it'd be enough, and I was in love with Patons Divine, so I used that for the arms and knitted at the same time trim.

Issues! Oh boy, were there issues. The Divine has a slightly different gauge. Not an issue when I used it in the bottom piece as that was done with rows, but continuing the look of the band up the upper piece was challenging. It was 7 sts (why can I remember that?), but every so often I would do an extra short row in just the band. Or was it I did a row without knitting the band? LOL.

The Shetland Chunky has a different gauge than what the pattern called for, but it's pretty easy to go by dimensions for this pattern. I did make it a little shorter, I don't mind it, but as it's mostly acrylic, it hasn't stretched much and a little longer would have been fine.

I didn't knit buttonholes. I wanted to use clear snaps but I couldn't find any that were large enough. I don't want to fiddle with tiny snaps when it's cold out. And once it was finished, I knew it was too big/square, so I didn't have much desire to finish it off.

Another modification--I didn't use all the upper rows to pick up sts for the sleeve (it's knit downwards). I left about two inches which I just seamed up. Even still, the armhole/sleeve is huge.

I did wear it one day soon after finishing, and a woman stopped me in the store and said it was a nice Einstein! It's very recognizable, but like most patterns in that book, doesn't look like a 'beginner' project. I would contemplate making it again....with a much nicer, more interesting yarn! Although I did not like knitting miles of plain, straight, garter stitch. I felt like such a beginner, so I never took it out in public, LOL.

And, I ended up have quite a bit of the Shetland Chunky left over. Even though it's only 25% wool, I dyed it....that would have been Easter.....2005? It was in the old house, and I don't think I would have done that Easter of 2006 when we were in the process of packing to move!

Fuzzy Wuzzy Was A Bear....

Or wuz he a clog? LOL. The standard Fiber Trends felted clog pattern. I used one strand of Lopi (not the 'Bulky' or the 'Lite'), and 8mm needles (don't think I have 9mm) and made the Ladies' large size. My gauge was smaller though than what the pattern says, and they don't give pre- or post-felting measurements. But as an example of how big they are pre-felting, here's Megan last December modelling the lastest winter fashion--the unfelted clog hat!I tried to put them in my lingerie bag, but they were too squashed and I didn't think they'd felt, so they were free floating, along with Huey's jeans, his Crocs, some sandals, and a plastic ball. I know Lopi felts very furry.... But I was a little surprised when I opened the machine, LOL. Fuzz everywhere! Memories of the YarnHarlot's Mr. Washie come floating back....this is a new-ish machine, certainly not built like Kenmores were 30 years ago!

I scooped out as much fuzz as I could several times. Here's your Knitting PSA of the day...after collecting a pile of fuzz on the edge of the washing machine, DO NOT OPEN the lid during the spin cycle!

They took one wash/cold rinse/one more wash to felt (and were a touch on the smaller side).

I had only one ball each of light and dark grey, so I made the inner soles light grey. My scale needs a new battery, but there is not much left of the dark grey.

They're still quite fuzzy, but not as wild looking as when they were wet! These will be going in a gift exchange game one side of my family does. Everyone is so different, it's hard to know what to put in. Last year, my mom got an XXL bathrobe....she's barely a L!

Ooops!

Way back when....around March or so....I won this lovely KnitPicks Shadow laceweight yarn from Curlerchik

(although it's not purple like that!). One thing I thought I might make with it is this:Although the pattern actually calls for mohair, which is usually listed as a thicker gauge cause of the fuzz.

So how did this happen?

It's the Trellis Lace scarf from Interweave Knits awhile ago. I started this in August just before we left on vacation. I wanted it more stole like so I added one repeat, although it's still not near stole width; but I don't wear scarves or stoles anyway, LOL. This picture was taken Sept 2, and I've only done maybe two or three more repeats of the pattern. Although I have to follow the pattern somewhat, I'm already bored. I like lace, but this isn't bringing much enjoyment or enthusiasm. It's not easy enough to be brainless, and not hard enough to be challenging.

So what do I do now?

Recycled Knitting

I made this dress for Lucy when I got the KnitSmart knitting machine (my first machine). She was SO cute in it and it was one of those projects where everything pretty much worked exactly like it should (well, there were some issues--like I misread my scribbles and made the front skirt the total dress length, LOL, and there was a little issue with the waist decreases). Everyone complimented her everytime she wore it, so I made her another one, slightly bigger, but the proportions on it just aren't quite right. This picture is Lucy when she was about 33 months old, when I made the dress. And this picture is Megan, just shy of 24 months! Someone said yesterday that Megan is big for almost two, but I didn't believe it--she's always been on the small size. She could have been wearing the dress all summer/fall (I think she wore it once). She even got to wear a pair of shoes I had bought for Lucy but she never wore because it was winter when she finally fit them.
When I realized she was picking her nose for the first photo, I told her to smile:
Nope, that didn't work. We tried again:
And once more....but still no smile :(

The lace edging on the bottom is from a Debbie Bliss baby cardigan pattern, and I have used it many times on blankets for my neices, but this was the first time I did it in worsted weight, and I like how it came out. The yarn is just Bernat Handicrafter cotton!

Spooky!

I just realized that if I take posts about my kids out of this blog, then I'd have to rename it! When I first signed up for a blog (9 months before I created this one after I gave up trying to figure out what my name and password had been), I had a really creative knitting title, but I don't remember it and I can't access that blog now. And much of my knitting is for kids, and done while I look after kids, or not done while I look after kids....
In late September, Lucy and I decided that we would get a simple dress pattern, and some cheap Halloween fabric, and make a dress for her. We could make a dress for EVERY holiday! I did get it done in time for Halloween, although the hem needs to be turned once more, and it needs a button at the back neck, but all in all, other than the extremely cheap cotton from Wal-Mart, I'm quite pleased. I wish I had made this dress before I made my "EASY!" dress!I made a size 7 cause that was the easiest size to cut out some of the pieces (some of the pieces were 3/5/7 and 4/6/8), and although she's closest to a size 5, it still fits pretty well. In fact, most of Lucy's measurements were actually slightly bigger than Huey, despite the fact he weighs 10lbs more and is 10 inches taller! You can click on the pictures to see the Halloween fabric close up!

I have a Diagnosis!

Check out my other blog if you're actually interested in what has caused the uproar in my stomach!

A Finished Project

I remembered last night where the pictures of my latest project were. Instead of being in the generic knitting folder, I had rightly put them in the Singer folder as it was done on the Singer 327 machine! (But that doesn't explain where the pictures of Lucy in the dress I made are).
This is called "Victorian Shawl". One member of the Georgetown group studied machine knitting at college and gave me a few older magazines (1999/2000, LOL). This was the only pattern in the four magazines labelled Beginner (as different from "Advanced Beginner"). I tried it first back in April when I was still farily new to that machine. I knew how to work the machine, but the pattern was so badly written that I just could not figure it out! I was so fustrated!
But I decided to try again in late summer and just 'fake it till you make it' LOL.

The big issue is that the pattern uses the word 'row' to mean two different things. You make this shawl by having 2 sets of 2 needles in work, separated by 2 needles not in work. Then, you work 8 mini rows on these 4 needles. Then, skip 2, and pull the next two to work, move the carriage to the right, and put the furthest most 2 that you had just been working on, in hold. Now, you have 2 groups of 2, and do eight rows. You keep doing this, going across the needlebed....that is ALSO called a row! DOH!

You can see how one 'row' slants to the left, then the next row is slanted to the right. You can also see how there is two little columns separated by 'floats', each of these blocks joined to the next. You can vary how many needles in work you have, how many inbetween that are out of work, how many times you go back and forth between the two groups (which makes the rectangle higher or squatter). You can do increases, or keep the piece all one width. Very versatile, it can be done on any gauge machine too.

This was the yarn I used. It's a cone I got at the Spinrite sale in August, for $10. It's too large to weigh on my little scale (it's on an Interweave Knits for comparison). It doesn't look like any has been used now! It's not exactly soft, and it's very white, so I don't know what else I'll use it for. There are little slubby's that got to be very annoying too.

That picture of the cone is taken Sept. 2, after I frogged the following:
I realized that the angle of the increases was way off, and the shawl would be 6ft before I got the depth I needed for the middle back! Indeed, I was supposed to increase two groups of two everytime I got to the end of a right moving row, and I had only increased one group. So I ripped it out and started right back. It went pretty quickly until I got to the full width part. Then it dragged on, and I had other projects to work on....blah blah blah. I finally finished it the weekend before our cruise I think, at which point I immediately cast on for another cruise item and ran into lots of other issues with the simple pattern....but that's another day!

A New Computer!

So, Rob finally went and bought a new computer yesterday! Then proceeded to call be stupid and thickheaded because I asked if all my photos would still be organized once they get moved over and he got mad and said I can't have the folders too and don't be so stupid it'll take at least a week to move the photos and if I don't like it than fine I can use the old computer and why do I have to be so stubborn.....blah blah blah. And I'm the one who ruined the weekend?! Anyway, he came to bed last night and said all the old photos--and folders--are transferred, AND all the photos on the original memory card. Uh huh.

Except, now I can't find the photos I transferred, saved, editted, saved, etc last week using the old system....the photos of Lucy in the Halloween dress I made, and the photos of the shawl in progress on the knitting machine (which is no longer on the machine, so I can't re-take the photos). They've got to be somewhere. I know I cropped them, which means they did get saved as .jpg so maybe they got re-routed somewhere.

So, supposively this means I should have NO reason to not have photos with each post. LOL. I haven't knitted much this past month, having been so sick (okay, now I have a sinus infection too! And man, this new keyboard is wierd, the backspace key is set to turbo speed). But I think I'm going to spend a bit of time with the other blogs, get the cruise pictures up, etc. But check back here often. Especially since I don't dare ask about my list of bookmarks, LOL. I have a very long list of blogs and other sites bookmarked....I even had to think this morning if it's 'yarnharlot.ca' or .com!