Cattywampus

Knitting!

The fugly sweater is coming along nicely.

I am REALLY not fond of the way the colors are patterning out.  Right now my plan is to finish it as planned and then overdye it with a chocolate/chestnut color to make it a sort of textured dark brown.  I think that should work.

These are my new bus socks.  The pattern is Catherine, sort of.  I'm doing them bottom up and I'm alternating the seed stitch diamonds and the outlined diamonds so it looks more like argyle.

Where are the old bus socks, you ask?

The pattern is Aquaphobia, they are seriously dense b/c of the slipstitch pattern, they will be very warm but I'm concerned about getting them in my shoes.  They may end up being house socks.  As you can see I gave up the pattern mid-cuff and just started ribbing.  They felt like they were taking a very, very long time b/c of the pattern & something had to give.

I think I've decided that STR lightweight is heavier than I like in my socks for the most part.  I have a few skeins that I adore that I will make into plain jane socks, but other than that I'm considering selling them off.  I can make them as gifts, I suppose - it is lovely yarn to work with, but somehow having 10 or so skeins of sock yarn that I know won't work for me doesn't seem like so much fun.  Live & learn, eh? 

How traffic affects the space/time continuum

Someone is putting up interesting graffiti in my neighborhood.  It's the first time I've seen positive affirmation graffiti, pretty fun, I think.

This one below is by far my favorite though.  It's a little hard to read, it says "Make today a striped sweater day!"

Duke is finally his old self again.  He says "There is no such thing as too many pillows."

My Ravelympics poll disappeared from my blog.  I'm not sure how or why, it didn't max out or anything, but the Henley Perfected and the Layered Skater's Top were neck & neck, so I will have to choose between the two of them.

I am fairly fried right now.  We were going up to my home town in upstate NY yesterday to visit my grandmother in her new digs, see my mother and stepfather briefly, then drive down to my BFF's house to visit her, another college friend I haven't seen since our wedding.

It's a 3 and a half hour drive to where my grandmother is, then an hour to the next stop, then about 3 hours home the next day, it's a lot, but it seems reasonable, doesn't it?  It took us 6 hours to get to the first stop.  6 hours.  Because of this.  We didn't know why at the time, just that it really sucked.  A lot.  And the people we were visiting had to rearrange their plans numerous times through the day as we called with updates.

However, we did make it and the visits were all good.  Check that off as mission accomplished!  It  was great to see my grandmother's new place & hang with her and the rest of the fam for a while.  It was wonderful to see my two best friends from college and catch up.  The children are adorable (too hectic a visit for me to even remember to take any pictures!) and the dogs were good, if harried.  By this morning Pixie was even going up to the kids for some attention - of course running away when they tried to touch her - baby steps. 

The dogs are both crashed now, finally sleeping off the car rides, the chaos and the attention.  We are both exhausted.  We spent 11 hours in the car (because the 3 hour drive home took 4 hours today b/c of construction traffic) in 2 days. 

When one expects to spend 11 hours in a car in two days, it sucks.  When one expects to spend 7.5 hours in the car and instead spends 11 hours in the car - it sucks hard.  And harder.  And it makes one seriously consider getting one of those GPS dohickies with real time traffic.  Seriously.

The good thing about being in the car for 11 hours is that there is knitting to show for it.  Not as much as there should be - me being too annoyed and frustrated that our visiting time was being eaten up minute by minute to concentrate enough to knit for bits and pieces of the trip - but definitely some things to show.  Tomorrow.

Ravelympics

I decided it would be fun to join the Ravelympics just to see if I can do it.  I do have a question of my ability to maintain project monogamy from beginning to end, so we'll see.

I am wavering between the following things.

(Ravelry links)
Henley Perfected in Brooks Farm Acero

Bianca's Jacket in Brooks Farm Mas Acero

Tempest in Fearless Fibers Merino/Tencel

Coraline in Delly's (?) Delights Alpaca

Layered Skater's Top in Briar Rose Glory Days OR Rowan Calmer

Now then, because all of these are sweaters I'm planning on knitting this fall and I don't feel like making any decisions right now, I'm going to ask you to help me decide!

New on the needles

I am planning on doing one more summer top before I move onto fall & winter knitting.  The Lotus Blossom top, in Knitpicks Shine Sport - Cherry.

I was worried I would have trouble with the lace, but it isn't giving me any trouble so far, so it's all good.

Is it just me or do those little lace insets look like alien heads?

I also started an EZ percentage sweater using this.

I got the yarn at SAFF last year, it is from a small farm in NC, one of the women dyes it herself in their oven.  For that reason dye lots don't really exist so I'm going to have to alternate skeins every other row.  It is a single ply yarn, so I know it won't hold up all that well once it's knit up, but I like the color so much I'm not going to worry about that.  It has all these great neutrals with some yellow and blue bits mixed in, I think it's going to look very autumn-y, which is perfect.

There is the vague chance that it's going to look like mud, but I can't do anything about that one way or the other so I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out. 

I'm not sure what kind of sweater I'm going to make, I might even make it a cardigan...but luckily I don' t need to decide what the top will be until I get to the underarms, so I have miles of stockinette to go before I have to make that decision.

Unintentionally stripey

I love this top.  Even if it is slightly striped.  In person, it's really not that noticeable.  It kind of looks like the shadow of the top of my pants underneath the top. 

This is definitely one of the more wearable tops I've made and I am absolutely going to use this yarn again - even given the weirdness of the dye lot issue.  It is SO soft and drapes SO nicely.  I adore it.

It's Sirdar baby bamboo, btw.

One of these things is not like the other

For real?  I mean really.

This is my Aleita Shell, which is almost done.  I stopped just short of done b/c I am worried that the armhole length is too long, so I left the top unfinished to make it easier to rip out & take a few rows off if need be.  It's also inside out, which is really neither here nor there, I just didn't think to turn it right side out before I dunked it in the water. 

In general, I'm really happy with it at this point.  The yarn is lovely to work with, soft & shiny - it's Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo.

I KNOW these are all the same dye lot.  There is no question about it at all.  I can only hope that they will dry to be the same color once again.  If not, I can only be glad that the spot in question is at the bottom and while I will not relish the idea of cutting the bottom off, ripping out the stitches, and knitting down in a matchier skein, I prefer that than it being one of the skeins in the middle. 

Fingers crossed, maybe it will dry normal.  If I don't have to redo the shoulders OR the bottom, I should have an FO pic for you soon. 

It is blocking on my new blocking board - I picked these up at target, I think it came in a pack that will make a 4'x6' grid, so hopefully it will even be large enough to block a circular shawl.  And they break up and slide right under a chair - an easy hiding solution - a must for city living!

The dogs and I just got caught in one of those sideways torrential downpours on the way back from the vet.  They were dripping.  I was dripping.  My shoes are squishing.  I had an umbrella, how is my hair soaking wet?  And do people NOT realize they are drenching you when they drive through large puddles on city streets?  These are the kind of questions I may never get answered.

Duke had to get IV fluids put in under his skin b/c he was dehydrated (he had lost two lbs since last friday - that's 10% of his body weight).  He is off food & water overnight and I have doggie drugs to give him instead of the kaopectate.  The vet thinks that should do it.  I certainly hope it does.

Yesterday I started test knitting a little nothing for Anne in Sundara Fingering in Burnt Cranberry - from the last seasons club.  It doesn't look like much yet, but I have high hopes for it!

Still organizing

You know how after you move you there is an adjustment period when you realize that THIS doesn't go THERE, it goes THERE but there's already something else THERE and you have to move that and you use the garage or the back porch or the foyer as a holding area while you figure out where everything goes?

Well.  Living in a condo in the city triples that adjustment period b/c there is no holding area, so you put stuff away and it is ever so tempting to leave it in the not so perfect arrangement just because moving it involves moving SO VERY MANY THINGS. 

Yesterday we just went through the one long term storage area we have and rearranged things to take some really, really long term storage things to keep in my mother's house (thank you very much for generous people with attics and garages!), put some of the shorter term storage in OUR long term storage area, and made the closet in the den a functional closet with guest linens and filing and suitcases and normal things that should be in closets and not sitting out somewhere.

It's very good, but of course in the process I dug out a bunch of stuff to go through & figure out if it stays, goes to good will, or just gets thrown out.

I found this.

This is the second quilt I ever made.  A sampler.  I will most likely NEVER make a sampler quilt again, but I learned SO MUCH from making it.  I finished the top 3 years ago before the chaos started, had plans to make it our guest bed cover but then the chaos happened and now it's now and I'm just finding it again.  I'm not going to leave it in a drawer, I'm going to take the silly thing to get quilted and use it as our guest coverlet.  Three years - crazy.

I also found this.  I had to use the flash to take this pic b/c it's SO FREAKING DREARY here, and the colors are way off - that drab green color is actually a lovely pale blue/green that matches quite nicely.

I made this on a whim on three day weekend a few years ago...I am not partial to it, and the little girls in my life already have quilts from me, so I think I'm going to find a charity that takes quilt tops to finish & donate it. 

It amazes me how I could finish these tops and then just let them sit for so long...it's amazing how far down the rabbit hole one can go after a few years like we had.  I feel like my creativity is really just coming back to the surface.

DH's cousin is expecting a baby boy in September, and I took the day on friday and made this.

The little characters are winnie the pooh.  It is AMAZING how fast a quilt can come together when you have a sewing machine that really works.  It's just FANTABULOUS!!!

Now I just need to pick up a blue border fabric to finish it off.  This might be the first baby quilt I will manage to get to the mother BEFORE the baby is born.  That would be something 'eh?

We braved the crowds last night in Olde City and went out on the town, stopped a few places for a drink and then headed to our dinner destination - cafe spice.  It was a series of unfortunate events.  First the waiter offered us a booth and then seemed confused when they were all full, then I sat down on a chair that was so wet my jeans took 30 minutes to dry, then dh used the restroom and the sink splashed him so violently he looked like he was trying to enter a wet tshirt contest, and after all that it had been 10 minutes with no one even coming to take our drink order...so we left.  We went to Pizzacato, which was lacking in effective airconditioning, but the waiter was attentive and the food was delicious.  Including the chocolate cannoli for dessert.  YUM.

The rain started at the same time as the fireworks, but we stood out and watched them anyway, they were pretty spectacular. 

Then the dog had issues again last night.  At 4:00 a.m. I was up dealing with it and at 6:00 a.m. I was outside with him...it's been 4 days on a diet of minimeals of rice and cottage cheese.  He seems fine now, but if this continues into tonight I will need to call the vet to try to get him something first thing in the morning.  I'll have to figure out some way to be home with him for part of the day, he won't make it 9 hours...SUCH a high maintenance little dog.  Updated to add:  we just went & got him some kaopectate, hopefully that will help.

Pixie doesn't understand what his problem is.  Pixie is also crazy.
   

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July everybody - if you're in the US, I hope you are having a grand day off with grilling and swimming and fireworks and all the other things that seem necessary on the 4th. 

Today things are distinctly un4thish here in Philly.  The fireworks will go on in that 'the show must go on' kind of way, but it's cool and rainy and that certainly doesn't bring out the crowds.  On the other hand, it makes for less crowds at the fireworks if we decide to go.

Our day started at 5 a.m. this morning with a dog having severe digestive track issues.  Poor little Duke - he just can't help being high maintenance.  The vet is closed today, of course, so we force fed him some pepto - I should have taken a picture of THAT - it was really funny, and we are sort of trapped in the house now b/c he needs to go out WAY too often for us to go anywhere for more than an hour or two. 

On the other hand, at least I don't have to take a day off from work to stay home with him...

I have some recent acquisitions to share with you.

I had been looking for just the right yarn to make Tempest and after much debating and flipflopping - thank you oodles to Heather who never fails to give me excellent advice no matter HOW MANY TIMES I ask about the same exact project - I landed on the Fearless Fiber's etsy site and Deb (kind and helpful as can be, as always) talked me through the real life color of a few choices I was debating between and I landed on these.

And if I'm brave enough I'm going to use all those little red buttons for this cardigan, red on grey & grey.  Maybe that makes me a tad boring, but I think it will be lovely.  OH - this is the merino/tencel blend (it's SO SHINY in person) and the colors are thundercloud and gunmetal (top).

I also picked up this while I was there - couldn't resist - her regular superwash sock in abstinence.

And after getting those socks from Jenny in Fleece Artist sock, I decided I needed to have some of my own, so I traded for this

YAY for yarn.  :-D

Woot!

I got this quilt top done last night - it went SO fast once I really sat down & worked on it.

Duke is singularly unimpressed.

I am happy with the way it turned out, but this isn't a method I will employ often.  One of the things I like about quilts is how orderly and organized they are, this one is intentionally disorganized and haphazard - I think it's fun, but it kind of makes me cringe a little bit when I look at it b/c it's so nutty.

However, I think it is perfect to bring cheer & energy into a nursing home room.  Now all I have to do is get it to the machine quilter so I can actually take it to my grandmother this summer.  Hopefully we'll be able to coordinate that this weekend.

Random sunday events

My Goddaughter was here yesterday, so she reluctantly tried on the sweater - good common sense really, who would want to put on a sweater when it's 95 outside?

The sleeves are a little long, but on a 4 yo I think that's  a fine thing.

Today we journeyed to NJ to hit Target, there were a few things we needed.  Most certainly we needed a new one of these.

It was time.  The old one had served lengthily & dutifully, but it just didn't cut it anymore.

We also took a shot at those as seen on tv vacuum bags.

We were able to get all our winter sweaters & the guest bedding (including the duvet) under our bed with room to spare.  Very cool things.  I cringe in horror at the wrinkles that will exist come September when we drag them out, but that's easy enough to fix.

There were a number of horse & carriages driving by our place today, not their usual route, but it made for interesting views!

And now I'm off to work on a quilt before Sunday comes to an abrupt end all too soon!