I've taken up jogging.
Now this wouldn't seem strange to most people. Some might even give me the thumbs up and say "Good for you! Jogging is good exercise!" But those people weren't my friends in high school, or in my gym class. I hate running...or jogging. With a passion. Unless something is chasing me, I don't run. And even then I'd find a blunt object to defend myself with first before I start running. Which really put a dent in my Gym grade because I would always be one of the last people to finish a mile at the end of the year (after slacking all year while others "worked their way up" to a decent time). During my Senior year my teacher looked at me one day and asked if I was "actually going to try today"
"Nope," came my reply as I did a pathetic jog past him (it was more of a fast walk really). See, I hate running.
Which makes my decision to start jogging every other day a strange one. But I realized as I was furiously knitting away on a simple sock, stabbing into each little stitch as if it could convey my frustration to my husband (which is didn't) that I had to find a different means of venting. I can only bitch at my friends so long before they get annoyed with me after all. And I'd run out of yarn soon.
So far it's going pretty well. I downloaded a few running podcasts from iTunes onto my iPod and they make the jogging much more bearable. I also discovered the PodRunner Intervals series which switches back and forth between walking and jogging for 30 minutes (which makes me cover about 2 miles). It's designed to get me running 5k (or 3 miles) at the end of the 10 week series. I'm determined to get there. What's funny is that I used to walk 3 miles to work every day. And then it was almost 2 miles from work to my Mom's (she was nice enough to give me a ride back home if she had errands to run in town). So 5 miles every day, 5 days a week, for 6 months would make you think this would be no problem...yeah, right.
My Mom snickers every time I mention my jogging, and my Mother-in-law usually just arches an eyebrow and goes "Well what do you expect?" when I mention that it's hard to breath, or that my legs are achy. The loving support of these people is staggering. *insert heavy sarcasm*
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
I love/hate roving
Since I started spinning I've come across a whole new world filled with gadgets, and tools, and fiber, and people, and squishyness. I've also come across a new love/hate relationship. This time with roving...the stuff you spin into yarn.
So far (I've only been doing this for a year, so don't quote me) I've established that there are two kinds of roving; batts and roving/top. Basically with one the roving has been processed into one long string and then braided so it stays together (top), and with the other one the roving has been processed into one large sheet (batt). And I hate batts. With a passion. Like, you guys don't even know, man.
The braids are easy to pull apart once you've upbraided them. You pull a chunk off, separate it into smaller sections and away you go. The batt however is so much more cumbersome, in my opinion. You have to unfold them damn thing and suddenly it's 4 times its size, then you pull a section off with stray bits of roving flying every which fucking way. And stuffing the thing back into its bag in any sort of dignified manner pretty much goes out the window too since it fluffs up the second it hits air -- at least that is the way it seemed to me.
I have a purple batt of roving laying around here right now, and I keep putting it off because it annoys the crap out of me. I had roving in my coffee for Christ sake! Not cool. Plus it's on my Turkish spindle, where the shaft was unfortunately snapped. Which reminds me I should e-mail KnitPicks and see if I can buy a replacement shaft.
In other news, I finally got around to taking pretty pictures of the yarns I have spun up so far. So here, have some pictures.
The teal on the left is the Corriedale I received from KnitPicks. It was interesting to work with. The fibers didn't draft out as nicely as I had first thought they would. It's also a bit scratchy, so I'll mostly be making a hat out of it I think (oh wait...I mentioned this before, didn't I?) Sadly the Louet Dyed Corriedale's are no longer available as 4oz bags. Now they come in these packs of 8 1/4oz samples. Which would be great...if they would offer the actual rovings as well! But no....why would be be accommodating like that?
The roving on the left is from that lovely etsy shop, to-ply-fiberarts. It's a Merino/Tencel blend and was incredibly fun to spin. Although the tencel was rather slippery so suddenly I'd pull the fiber apart and have this tiny sliver of spun yarn. You can't really see it in this picture but it's also rather shiny. Which make taking picture in the sunlight rather interesting. It also isn't plied together very tightly, which I could kick myself for. But I figured that pair with something equally loose, it will look great. I hope
And then you have the luscious orange...thing on the side of there. It's another one of to-ply's rovings and came in a top that changed from creamy yellow into deep orange and back again. I loved working with this fiber. It's 100% polwarth and drafted out so smoothly I was kind of sad to see it go. xD
So far it's one of my mom's favorites and every time she sees it she attempts to steal it from me.
Speaking of my Mother, she purchased some 100% merino from to-ply that she wanted me to spin up for her. She totally forgot about it though and came across it again just yesterday. I see no downside to that. I get to play with fiber, get better at spinning, and she get's a yarn that is exactly the weight she wants it to be. It's pretty much a win-win me thinks.
So far (I've only been doing this for a year, so don't quote me) I've established that there are two kinds of roving; batts and roving/top. Basically with one the roving has been processed into one long string and then braided so it stays together (top), and with the other one the roving has been processed into one large sheet (batt). And I hate batts. With a passion. Like, you guys don't even know, man.
The braids are easy to pull apart once you've upbraided them. You pull a chunk off, separate it into smaller sections and away you go. The batt however is so much more cumbersome, in my opinion. You have to unfold them damn thing and suddenly it's 4 times its size, then you pull a section off with stray bits of roving flying every which fucking way. And stuffing the thing back into its bag in any sort of dignified manner pretty much goes out the window too since it fluffs up the second it hits air -- at least that is the way it seemed to me.
I have a purple batt of roving laying around here right now, and I keep putting it off because it annoys the crap out of me. I had roving in my coffee for Christ sake! Not cool. Plus it's on my Turkish spindle, where the shaft was unfortunately snapped. Which reminds me I should e-mail KnitPicks and see if I can buy a replacement shaft.
 |
| Teal Twist |
The teal on the left is the Corriedale I received from KnitPicks. It was interesting to work with. The fibers didn't draft out as nicely as I had first thought they would. It's also a bit scratchy, so I'll mostly be making a hat out of it I think (oh wait...I mentioned this before, didn't I?) Sadly the Louet Dyed Corriedale's are no longer available as 4oz bags. Now they come in these packs of 8 1/4oz samples. Which would be great...if they would offer the actual rovings as well! But no....why would be be accommodating like that?
 |
| Pair-o-keet |
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| Goldenrod |
So far it's one of my mom's favorites and every time she sees it she attempts to steal it from me.
Speaking of my Mother, she purchased some 100% merino from to-ply that she wanted me to spin up for her. She totally forgot about it though and came across it again just yesterday. I see no downside to that. I get to play with fiber, get better at spinning, and she get's a yarn that is exactly the weight she wants it to be. It's pretty much a win-win me thinks.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Summer update
It'll have to be the readers digest version of an update though. There is too much to cover other wise.
After the family left on Thursday I spent the day laying around doing not much of anything. But it was nice to not have to check with the family if anyone needed the bathroom before taking a shower, and that I could simply walk from one end of the house to the other in my undies when I was getting dressed and forgot something. I think that cat enjoyed the peace and quiet too. She pretty much slept most of the day or curled up in my lap. It was a lovely 4 days.
On Friday night I received a text from my friend Diana asking if I wanted to go with her and Irma (my friends mom) to see a band. And even though I had to be up by 5am the next morning to head to Sock Summit I went with them. I didn't get back to the house until like 2:30, and didn't go to sleep until like 3:30. So with only an hour and a half of sleep under my belt I took a shower, got coffee, got dressed and then walked to the bus stop to meet my Mom so we could head to the train station and go to Sock Summit down in Oregon. It was a very, very long Saturday for me. I ended up falling asleep on the train actually. Which wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't been opposite these two "interesting" men. Talk about awkward.
Sock Summit was a blast though. We got to meet some of the ladies from Ravelry, and proudly wore our Minion hats for one of them. The inside joke with that is that my Mom is knitforfoods (Rav name) Minion and that I'm my Mom's minion. So Kelley's Mini-Minion? We walked around the market place, bought yarn and roving, I got to try out a spinning wheel again and did much better this time around. So much better in fact that mom is thinking about buying me one at the Madrona Fiber Festival in February. The festival is conveniently located in Tacoma (although the name makes me think of the Midwest) so we'll probably make another day trip out of it. On Sunday I did nothing again. Just walked around in my PJ's.
Monday marked the beginning of my Texas adventure, and quite frankly I have never been this exhausted on Vacation before. Ever. I won't give you all the horrible I-wanna-hit-you-with-a-blunt-object details, but it all started on Monday when DH wouldn't stop calling me while I was at the airport! Cierra had picked me up late from my house, so when DH called the first time I was in the car and couldn't hear him. Told him I'd call him back inside the airport. Call 2 came through as I was in the checked baggage line after I had texted him that I had agreed to be on the "later flight" list. I didn't know the family had plans already for that afternoon and that I couldn't fly in later. Call 3 came in as I was hustling up the security line. Call 4 (this time for FIL) came in as I hurried across the terminal to get to my gate. Until then I had already picked up said "Not now!" and hung back up. FIL informed me that I could not be on a later flight. They had plans to see the Alamo and so I needed to fly in on time, so to please tell the front desk to take me off the list. Done. Call 5 came as I was talking to said front desk ladies. Call 6 came in as I was sitting at the gate, taking a deep breath, and pretending that the family wasn't stressing me out. I let that call go to voice mail too. Then I got a text from SIL who wanted to confirm I would be on time. I said yes, and that was the end of it.
After a relatively easy going flight (although my tummy did not enjoy descending into Austin) I was swept away into Grandmother Cardwell's car (she drives like she has a death wish), arrived at the Alamo, was hurried around, got stressed out and fed up when people were arguing back and forth about going here and there, and by the time I finally was able to eat something (did I mention I hadn't eaten in 15 hours by then?) I was ready to slap people. I dread to think how short I was with our poor waitress.
The rest of the 10 days was pretty much the same. Between the constant driving around and the bickering between DH, SIL, and BIL, I'm sure I got a gray hair or two somewhere. On the bright side I ended up with a great little tan because I spent most of my time outside away from them.
Second Day we went to Seaworld. And since we got there in the early hours we managed to do everything. Third day we stayed at a cabin resort where I lounged by the pool all day long and wadded in the nearby river when the others napped. Day four and five saw us mostly on the road, going from one place to another and then to another. It was a great, crammed 4 hour drive either direction. We spent the next three days on the lake, where I got to go tubing for the first time ever. It's a ton of fun, and once I went out on my own (before I'd gone with SIL and DH) they had to work to toss me off. Working out pays off after all. =) On day nine MIL, FIL, SIL, one of Brandon's Uncles and Aunt, and I visited two vineyards were we did wine tastings. We bought two Orange Muscato's from Vineyard #1, and a Port from Vineyard #2. Delicious.
I now also know that Brandon's family is friggen huge. I think I met like 30 people during the Short family reunion and according to MIL that's not even all of them. O.O Is it too late to change my mind about being married?
After the family left on Thursday I spent the day laying around doing not much of anything. But it was nice to not have to check with the family if anyone needed the bathroom before taking a shower, and that I could simply walk from one end of the house to the other in my undies when I was getting dressed and forgot something. I think that cat enjoyed the peace and quiet too. She pretty much slept most of the day or curled up in my lap. It was a lovely 4 days.
On Friday night I received a text from my friend Diana asking if I wanted to go with her and Irma (my friends mom) to see a band. And even though I had to be up by 5am the next morning to head to Sock Summit I went with them. I didn't get back to the house until like 2:30, and didn't go to sleep until like 3:30. So with only an hour and a half of sleep under my belt I took a shower, got coffee, got dressed and then walked to the bus stop to meet my Mom so we could head to the train station and go to Sock Summit down in Oregon. It was a very, very long Saturday for me. I ended up falling asleep on the train actually. Which wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't been opposite these two "interesting" men. Talk about awkward.
Sock Summit was a blast though. We got to meet some of the ladies from Ravelry, and proudly wore our Minion hats for one of them. The inside joke with that is that my Mom is knitforfoods (Rav name) Minion and that I'm my Mom's minion. So Kelley's Mini-Minion? We walked around the market place, bought yarn and roving, I got to try out a spinning wheel again and did much better this time around. So much better in fact that mom is thinking about buying me one at the Madrona Fiber Festival in February. The festival is conveniently located in Tacoma (although the name makes me think of the Midwest) so we'll probably make another day trip out of it. On Sunday I did nothing again. Just walked around in my PJ's.
Monday marked the beginning of my Texas adventure, and quite frankly I have never been this exhausted on Vacation before. Ever. I won't give you all the horrible I-wanna-hit-you-with-a-blunt-object details, but it all started on Monday when DH wouldn't stop calling me while I was at the airport! Cierra had picked me up late from my house, so when DH called the first time I was in the car and couldn't hear him. Told him I'd call him back inside the airport. Call 2 came through as I was in the checked baggage line after I had texted him that I had agreed to be on the "later flight" list. I didn't know the family had plans already for that afternoon and that I couldn't fly in later. Call 3 came in as I was hustling up the security line. Call 4 (this time for FIL) came in as I hurried across the terminal to get to my gate. Until then I had already picked up said "Not now!" and hung back up. FIL informed me that I could not be on a later flight. They had plans to see the Alamo and so I needed to fly in on time, so to please tell the front desk to take me off the list. Done. Call 5 came as I was talking to said front desk ladies. Call 6 came in as I was sitting at the gate, taking a deep breath, and pretending that the family wasn't stressing me out. I let that call go to voice mail too. Then I got a text from SIL who wanted to confirm I would be on time. I said yes, and that was the end of it.
After a relatively easy going flight (although my tummy did not enjoy descending into Austin) I was swept away into Grandmother Cardwell's car (she drives like she has a death wish), arrived at the Alamo, was hurried around, got stressed out and fed up when people were arguing back and forth about going here and there, and by the time I finally was able to eat something (did I mention I hadn't eaten in 15 hours by then?) I was ready to slap people. I dread to think how short I was with our poor waitress.
The rest of the 10 days was pretty much the same. Between the constant driving around and the bickering between DH, SIL, and BIL, I'm sure I got a gray hair or two somewhere. On the bright side I ended up with a great little tan because I spent most of my time outside away from them.
Second Day we went to Seaworld. And since we got there in the early hours we managed to do everything. Third day we stayed at a cabin resort where I lounged by the pool all day long and wadded in the nearby river when the others napped. Day four and five saw us mostly on the road, going from one place to another and then to another. It was a great, crammed 4 hour drive either direction. We spent the next three days on the lake, where I got to go tubing for the first time ever. It's a ton of fun, and once I went out on my own (before I'd gone with SIL and DH) they had to work to toss me off. Working out pays off after all. =) On day nine MIL, FIL, SIL, one of Brandon's Uncles and Aunt, and I visited two vineyards were we did wine tastings. We bought two Orange Muscato's from Vineyard #1, and a Port from Vineyard #2. Delicious.
I now also know that Brandon's family is friggen huge. I think I met like 30 people during the Short family reunion and according to MIL that's not even all of them. O.O Is it too late to change my mind about being married?
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Oh Sunday...
That is all I could think of tonight as I curled up on the couch with a glass of Merlot, my knitting and the TV remote to watch TrueBlood; I was very excited when season one came out as I had read the first book, but as time passes I find the show is starting to get stupid. But I digress.
Remember how I said "What else can possibly go wrong?" in yesterday's entry? Yeah, I ended up sewing on one of the sleeves inside out. So that bring my grand total of screw ups on the single baby cardie to like 15 I think. But it's finally done and I've moved on to the second one. I'm hoping this one will go with less issues. I'll be modifying the pattern just a tiny bit too because frankly I hate the way the shoulder seems looks on the first one. So I'll be keeping the stitches on scrap yarn so I can kitchener them together later. And this time I'll be sewing the left and right borders to left/right pieces a few rows in. None of this fiddle with it and try to make it work stuff. On the bright side Suzie loved the cardie and even the ladies at the yarn shop liked it. So that's always a plus. Oh! and as luck would have it, the shop only has one skein of the yarn I'm using left. So yay! for having all the yarn I need and then some. Suzie wants me to make hats if there is enough yarn left...I think I can manage that somehow. Or more socks...whichever.
Aside from going to the yarn shop we stopped by Shipwreck beads, mostly so my Mom and Suzie could get beads for shawls and scarfs and whatever else they use them in. As I was looking around, getting steadily bored and overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place, I decided that maybe I should get myself some new beads for the sock design I made. You know, the one I have to re-design 'cause the stitches aren't doing what I want them to? Yeah, that one. The beads I'm using now are clear so they would show up in the knitting, the new ones are milky and feel like they have a matte finish on them. These ones will certainly show up in the knitting.
And we ended the day with a little road trip through the middle of no where (well, it felt like that to me because it was a back road going through farms and forested areas) to avoid the huge back up on I-5. It might have taken us longer to get back home but the scenery was pretty. We spotted a large sign that said "Cherries, $1.00 a bucket" and chirped that we wanted some cherries, please. We passed three more signs and still saw no stall on the side of the street. At this point my sister demanded to know where the hell the cherries were and I chimed in with "You know what, they can keep their bucket of lies!" It all went down hill from there. We blame it on the lack of food in our systems....delusional with hunger we were. But we finally found the blasted cherries and purchased at least $10 all together; and they were delicious! totally worth the wait.
The family is leaving for Texas on Thursday...in just 2 days! *blissful sigh* That means 4 days of it just being me in the house, by myself, with the cat....although one of those days I'm going to Sock Summit (insert excited internal squeal here) so the cat will have the house to herself for a whole day. I might lock her up in her room though so she doesn't get into a ton of trouble and make a huge mess; that is something I certainly wouldn't want to come home to. And then it's off to Texas myself to meet up with the chaoticness that is my family. I wonder if I could convince the pilots to just drop me of in like Arizona....hmm....
Remember how I said "What else can possibly go wrong?" in yesterday's entry? Yeah, I ended up sewing on one of the sleeves inside out. So that bring my grand total of screw ups on the single baby cardie to like 15 I think. But it's finally done and I've moved on to the second one. I'm hoping this one will go with less issues. I'll be modifying the pattern just a tiny bit too because frankly I hate the way the shoulder seems looks on the first one. So I'll be keeping the stitches on scrap yarn so I can kitchener them together later. And this time I'll be sewing the left and right borders to left/right pieces a few rows in. None of this fiddle with it and try to make it work stuff. On the bright side Suzie loved the cardie and even the ladies at the yarn shop liked it. So that's always a plus. Oh! and as luck would have it, the shop only has one skein of the yarn I'm using left. So yay! for having all the yarn I need and then some. Suzie wants me to make hats if there is enough yarn left...I think I can manage that somehow. Or more socks...whichever.
Aside from going to the yarn shop we stopped by Shipwreck beads, mostly so my Mom and Suzie could get beads for shawls and scarfs and whatever else they use them in. As I was looking around, getting steadily bored and overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place, I decided that maybe I should get myself some new beads for the sock design I made. You know, the one I have to re-design 'cause the stitches aren't doing what I want them to? Yeah, that one. The beads I'm using now are clear so they would show up in the knitting, the new ones are milky and feel like they have a matte finish on them. These ones will certainly show up in the knitting.
And we ended the day with a little road trip through the middle of no where (well, it felt like that to me because it was a back road going through farms and forested areas) to avoid the huge back up on I-5. It might have taken us longer to get back home but the scenery was pretty. We spotted a large sign that said "Cherries, $1.00 a bucket" and chirped that we wanted some cherries, please. We passed three more signs and still saw no stall on the side of the street. At this point my sister demanded to know where the hell the cherries were and I chimed in with "You know what, they can keep their bucket of lies!" It all went down hill from there. We blame it on the lack of food in our systems....delusional with hunger we were. But we finally found the blasted cherries and purchased at least $10 all together; and they were delicious! totally worth the wait.
The family is leaving for Texas on Thursday...in just 2 days! *blissful sigh* That means 4 days of it just being me in the house, by myself, with the cat....although one of those days I'm going to Sock Summit (insert excited internal squeal here) so the cat will have the house to herself for a whole day. I might lock her up in her room though so she doesn't get into a ton of trouble and make a huge mess; that is something I certainly wouldn't want to come home to. And then it's off to Texas myself to meet up with the chaoticness that is my family. I wonder if I could convince the pilots to just drop me of in like Arizona....hmm....
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Halfway to the finishline!
(For some reason this entry was marked as draft, so it was never posted for you guys. It's about the horribleness that was those two baby cardigans I knitted last August.)
Yeah, I'm halfway to the finish line, meaning I have almost one cardigan finished all the way. That is if the damned thing start behaving itself. Oh yeah, when I said "baby cardigan, that will be easy!" I was definitely speaking too soon. This thing has had more mistakes in it then a first graders math paper. Here is what I all messed up on!
Oh, did I mention that I also miscalculated the amount of yarn I need for both, so now I'm having to go back to the yarn shop with the lady that commissioned them (alright, so that's not so bad, after all it is a yarn shop) so we can buy another skein.
Honestly it can't get worst from here.
Yeah, I'm halfway to the finish line, meaning I have almost one cardigan finished all the way. That is if the damned thing start behaving itself. Oh yeah, when I said "baby cardigan, that will be easy!" I was definitely speaking too soon. This thing has had more mistakes in it then a first graders math paper. Here is what I all messed up on!
- Cast on the wrong amount of stitches for the back 3 times,
- mess up shoulder & neck shaping on back,
- add neck shaping onto arm hole shaping on left front, undo it,
- cast on right front with wrong needle size,
- knit one more row with smaller size then I am supposed to,
- cast on wrong amount of stitches for sleeve 1,
- knit one sleeve more often then the other,
- don't pay attention to what decreases I'm doing,
- tink back both sleeves because of messed up shoulder shaping,
- undo sleeve 1 all together,
- mess up on final shaping again anyways,
- knit too many rows for left border,
- forget to put in button holes for right border,
- knit not enough rows for right border,
- pick up and knit too many stitches for neck band
- pick up and knit 22 of those neckband stitches with a randomly long end thread,
- then knit 2 rows with said random long end.
Oh, did I mention that I also miscalculated the amount of yarn I need for both, so now I'm having to go back to the yarn shop with the lady that commissioned them (alright, so that's not so bad, after all it is a yarn shop) so we can buy another skein.
Honestly it can't get worst from here.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Spoke to soon
I was asked by a family friend to knit two baby cardigans for a friend of hers. No problem! I thought. They're for babies, hence they are small and easy to make. WRONG!
I have come to the sleeve part of the first cardigan and figured to save myself time I would knit them at the same time. In hindsight that was a bad idea. Instructions say to "Work 41 rows, inc 1 sts at each end of 5th and every following 18th row." I should have 50sts in the end. So I started knitting, then realized that I might want to start marking off my rows so I know when I need to increase. After a bit I counted my rows in my knitting only to realize that without paying attention I had knitted on sleeve 1 more then sleeve 2. Easy enough fix; I just had to knit the same rows on sleeve 2 and I'd be okay. Mind you, this happened like 3 times. I finally had all my increases done, and was told to "work without further increases until pieces measures 6inch" Done! At this point I was feeling confident and proud. I could totally get everything knitted tonight. Totally.
Then I was supposed to decreases one stitch on each end of the next 8 rows for the shoulder shaping. I should have 34 stitches on the needles afterwards. I lost track of my decreases and figured that as long as I was doing one decrease at each end I could just count stitches and figure out where I was. Yeah....sleeve 1 contained 31 stitches and sleeve 2 contained 36 stitches. Now I'm feeling a bit frustrated, and decided to just tink back each sleeve until I get back to 50 sts, and I'll do the decreases again. Which brings us to now....sleeve 1 (which is the one that has been tinked back already) now has 43 stitches...and I have tinked back all the decrease rounds. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY OTHER 7 STITCHES?! I can only assume that aliens took them away. The same aliens that keep drinking my beer, 'cause I had a full bottle when I last blinked.
I have come to the sleeve part of the first cardigan and figured to save myself time I would knit them at the same time. In hindsight that was a bad idea. Instructions say to "Work 41 rows, inc 1 sts at each end of 5th and every following 18th row." I should have 50sts in the end. So I started knitting, then realized that I might want to start marking off my rows so I know when I need to increase. After a bit I counted my rows in my knitting only to realize that without paying attention I had knitted on sleeve 1 more then sleeve 2. Easy enough fix; I just had to knit the same rows on sleeve 2 and I'd be okay. Mind you, this happened like 3 times. I finally had all my increases done, and was told to "work without further increases until pieces measures 6inch" Done! At this point I was feeling confident and proud. I could totally get everything knitted tonight. Totally.
Then I was supposed to decreases one stitch on each end of the next 8 rows for the shoulder shaping. I should have 34 stitches on the needles afterwards. I lost track of my decreases and figured that as long as I was doing one decrease at each end I could just count stitches and figure out where I was. Yeah....sleeve 1 contained 31 stitches and sleeve 2 contained 36 stitches. Now I'm feeling a bit frustrated, and decided to just tink back each sleeve until I get back to 50 sts, and I'll do the decreases again. Which brings us to now....sleeve 1 (which is the one that has been tinked back already) now has 43 stitches...and I have tinked back all the decrease rounds. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY OTHER 7 STITCHES?! I can only assume that aliens took them away. The same aliens that keep drinking my beer, 'cause I had a full bottle when I last blinked.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Going to Texas!
The family is going to Texas at the end of the month for Grandpa Cardwell's 80th birthday. Because I have other, pressing, engagements up here, I will be joining the family on the 1st of August (well didn't that sound posh?). Mind you, this other pressing engagement is Sock Summit '11 down in Oregon. Hey, I will not miss out on my first ever knitting convention just because the man is turning 80, with one foot halfway in the grave. At least I'm going...that is the important part, right?
Now with a 3.5 hour flight looming in my near future the first thing I looked up was whether I was allowed to have knitting on the plane with me. And I'm happy to say that yes I am. =D I'm thinking I'll take a sock with me on my double point bamboo needles. They are 5" long, rounded on the end, and since they are a size 2 they are so flimsy that the wrong grip could snap them. If anyone feels threatened by that I'll be happy to point out the nearest pen/pencil...that will probably do more damage then my tiny needles. Then again realizing that would require someone to apply logic, and how often do people do that, hmm?
I'm rather excited to be going actually. I've never been to Texas before (I've never actually left Washington to be honest) and from what I've been told our tentative schedule is pretty friggen full for when we are there. Between visiting family (yaaay =.= ) and going to random attractions, I'm not sure if I'll get a moment to breath' let lone a moment to knit. On the bright side I'll come back with a serious tan hopefully...that is the plan at least.
As of right now I'm also spending my time knitting a lot of baby things. Not for myself mind you, but for all the people that are breeding like rabbits. I swear everyone I know is either pregnant right now or having babies. It's crazy! But so far I'm only knitting for one of my friends (the other baby stuff is commission work). I'm rather glad most of my other friends don't know about my knitting; otherwise I might be up to my eyeballs in request for baby stuff. And then I'd have to sound like a bitch when I tell people "NO! No more babies!"
Now with a 3.5 hour flight looming in my near future the first thing I looked up was whether I was allowed to have knitting on the plane with me. And I'm happy to say that yes I am. =D I'm thinking I'll take a sock with me on my double point bamboo needles. They are 5" long, rounded on the end, and since they are a size 2 they are so flimsy that the wrong grip could snap them. If anyone feels threatened by that I'll be happy to point out the nearest pen/pencil...that will probably do more damage then my tiny needles. Then again realizing that would require someone to apply logic, and how often do people do that, hmm?
I'm rather excited to be going actually. I've never been to Texas before (I've never actually left Washington to be honest) and from what I've been told our tentative schedule is pretty friggen full for when we are there. Between visiting family (yaaay =.= ) and going to random attractions, I'm not sure if I'll get a moment to breath' let lone a moment to knit. On the bright side I'll come back with a serious tan hopefully...that is the plan at least.
As of right now I'm also spending my time knitting a lot of baby things. Not for myself mind you, but for all the people that are breeding like rabbits. I swear everyone I know is either pregnant right now or having babies. It's crazy! But so far I'm only knitting for one of my friends (the other baby stuff is commission work). I'm rather glad most of my other friends don't know about my knitting; otherwise I might be up to my eyeballs in request for baby stuff. And then I'd have to sound like a bitch when I tell people "NO! No more babies!"
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