Nuthin' But the Knittin'

Since I've strayed so widely from the whole point of this blog, I decided that today's installment will be about The Projects.

First, the biggie:

What you see here are the sleeves, back, and one front half. I still haven't decided how long to make this, but since my hands are killing me, the short (hip-length) version is getting more likely all the time. I really wanted this to be almost knee-length, but I don't think I can do it.

Here's a close-up of the cables and how terrific this yarn (wool/mohair blend from Brown Sheep) makes them look:

For those mindless TV-watching moments, I give you the Sock Yarn Blankie:

This was originally done by Shelly Kang, and the info is on her blog. After doing Summer of Socks '08, I had lots of little bits of sock yarn left over, so what else could I do but start my very own blankie?? There's a great group on Ravelry that does yarn swaps, so we trade all over the country for everyone else's leftovers. We even have swaps with new yarn, which has been great because I've gotten to fondle yarns from lots of indie dyers. Another nice thing about this project is that I'm in no rush to finish it. It will take a lot of little bits of yarn to make a good-sized blanket, and as time passes I'll get to add new, fresh yarns and colors. It's nice to be working on a project and feel no pressure to get it finished.

Of course, would I ever not be knitting socks?Click on the picture to make it bigger so you can get a better idea of the colors and textures:

The yarn on the left is from Creatively Dyed Yarns. It's Calypso yarn in the color Barbuda. She has an overabundance of fabulous colors, and this photo does not do it justice. I've also read that her yarn base is the same as the elusive Wollmeise yarn, so I wanted to try it. It's very different from "normal" sock yarn. It feels almost like cotton, and is made up of about eight verrrry fine plies. That makes it a little splitty to work with, but the knitted fabric feels wonderful.

On the right is Numma Numma Toasty in Blackberry Jam. My skein is much darker than the website shows, and again, the picture doesn't do it justice. It's the most mouthwatering color I've ever used, and the yarn is soft, squishy, and a total delight to work with. It's my new favorite yarn. Unfortunately, it's hard to get hold of, but I happened to snag some at The Loopy Ewe a couple of months back.

Speaking of socks, I won a contest! I get to pick out a skein of Mathieu's manly hand-dyed yarn. How cool is that? I mean, I'd hate to run out of sock yarn!

So that's what's going on here, besides the Great Sewing/Stash/Weaving/Knitting/Quilting Room(s) Clean-Up. I hope to have pictures that show clean and organized rooms soon.

It was a beautiful day today, so I planted some yellow violas around Emmy-cat's little gravesite. I still can't quite believe she's gone, but I'm getting used to it. That makes me sad too.

My Final Caturday

This will be my last Caturday post--not that I did many of them, but I have put a few pics of my little Emmy-cat up. Thursday I had to have her put to sleep. I've had lots of kind comments on Plurk and Ravelry--so many people know what it's like to lose a pet, and they've all been comforting.

It was the right decision, given her age (14) and health issues, and I was really expecting to have to do it when I took her to the vet. But it was harder than I could have possibly imagined. Part of me wishes I'd brought her home for another day or two, but part of me wonders if that would have been worse. At any rate, she's not suffering, and she was a good kitty. Ok, she wasn't always a good kitty, but she was my baby, and it hurts to lose her. I keep expecting to hear her little chirps and mews as I go through my day, but it's awfully quiet around here.

We won't be getting another cat. DH never was crazy about having cats, and my brother is so allergic that he can't come and visit. So yesterday I did what felt like burning a bridge--I threw out the litter box.

Here's a picture of her final resting place under my lilac bush. I put down some pink poppy seeds, and I plan to get some Johnny Jump-ups and transplant a Bleeding Heart. I'll mulch it and this fall I'll put in some little bulbs and make it a nice little garden spot.

It's very odd to be a knitter without a cat. My lap feels empty. So does a little place in my heart.

I've Almost Recovered

The wedding went off beautifully. Not perfectly, which I knew already, but beautifully anyway. Here are a couple of pictures of the lovely-though-ill bride. I'll wait while you ooh and ahh.

Done? She cleans up nice, doesn't she? I can finally post a link to the dress page so you can see it in more detail. She really was stunning, and her waist looked like it was about eight inches around. Fabulous!! Poor baby, she was really sick, and only a big slug (or two) of DayQuil got her through. Once the dancing started, though, she seemed to forget all her troubles! She nearly killed me on the dance floor. I'm sure there's a picture of that little incident somewhere...

As soon as my son gets the rest of the photos uploaded and fixed to his liking, I'll have a few more. I figure I'm obligated to show one of me, so I'm hoping there's one in which I don't look totally frazzled and exhausted (or lying sprawled on the dance floor.) And I hope there is at least one of Rugrat taken before her ringlets drooped!

We had tons of desserts left over, so I was begging people to take things home as we were cleaning up. And we had about a hundred twenty five pounds of cake left over too. It was delicious, but the cakes were the only real issue we had with the entire event. We were so excited about the groom's cake, because we ordered a carrot cake because the Fiance/Groom loves it so much. We were specific about the decorations--tiny carrots with a little piped vine, a few forget-me-nots to match the flowers on the topper, and the sides were to be decorated to match the main cake. Here's what we got:

I can laugh (sort of) now, but when we walked in and saw that, we were speechless. I really wanted to cry, and my mantra did not help a bit at that moment. Missy just looked at it and then staggered off to the dressing area (probably for another shot of DayQuil) and I tried to deal with the hideousness of it all. There was nothing to be done but to scrape the orange "poop" blobs out of the center so we could put the topper on. You can see a little bit of orange still there at the base of the topper, but the friend who was serving the cake took a little frosting off the back and covered it as best she could. We were soooo disappointed, because we wanted that cake to be sooper-special for The Groom, and I was actually embarrassed to show it to him. Here's the kicker: when we were ordering the cake, she had one like this in the display case. I said, "Now, our cake is NOT going to look like that, is it?" and was reassured that no, it would have tiny carrots, vines, etc. and space open in the center for the topper. Epic Fail.

This was the main cake:

This was closer to what we had ordered, but you can see some problems with it. Besides the gap between the tiers and the cockeyed swags, the color was wrong, and there were supposed to be swags of roses on the top tier--even more roses than on the bottom. Like I said, we told the baker all this, and she carefully wrote it down and drew diagrams, and even had the picture from the Martha Stewart wedding cake book to refer to. I don't think her decorator read those notes very well!

But it tasted wonderful, and it ended as well as could be hoped. When I returned the cake plates, I told the baker that we were not happy with the cakes, showed her the pictures, and said that I really hated to complain and had been putting off the trip to the shop because I just did not want to have the conversation. We talked a bit, she apologized (what else could she do after seeing that groom's cake???) and said she appreciated that I was being nice and polite, while expressing my disappointment. She ended up refunding all but about $100 of the cost of the cakes before I even could ask her for a refund, so that was very cool and upstanding of her. (I'd like to have heard the conversation she had with her decorator!!)

So now we're settling back to normal life, whatever that is. I'm swiftly reclaiming Missy's room for my sewing area, and have already moved in the fabric shelves, my portable cutting table, and my sewing machine. The next step is to get the window AC unit in, because it's already getting too hot to work up here. I got DH busy with painting one of the downstairs bedrooms which is now the office because I'm working from home. Once that's done, I can move my office stuff out of the sunroom, and then the sunroom can be reorganized into my sitting room and music room. It also needs to be painted, but I haven't dropped that little tidbit on DH. Next is the kitchen, then the bedroom, and then...maybe the bathroom, but we'll have to wait and see.

I have been knitting. I got quite a bit done on my Jo Sharp cardigan. I've finished the sleeves, and I've gone as far as I can on the back, and I've started one of the front panels. The fronts have to be finished, then the back finished to the same length, so the back is on a holder for right now. The original plan was for this cardigan to be somewhere between mid-thigh and knee length, but I'm not sure if that will happen. It really hurts my hands to work on this, and I am nervous about whether I'd have enough yarn to make it that length. The pattern shows it as hip-length, so I estimated the extra amount I'd need, but I worry about getting through the whole sweater and coming up short when it's time for the shawl collar. I think I'll make the fronts to the point of decreasing for the neckline, then make my final decision based on how much yarn I have left. Here are some older pictures of the sleeves, but I'll take some of recent progress when I get a moment.

You can see how much cabling there is in this pattern, and it's turning out beautifully. The color in the top picture is pretty accurate--a lovely silver-gray. I think I've put these pictures on the blog before, so sorry for the recycling!

I also have my usual sock project going, and the sock blankie as well. Now that I have the space again to work on quilts, I may get back to the one I was making for my bedroom. I haven't decided yet. I have so many UFOs that it's hard to decide which one takes priority, and now that I've been sorting and moving things in my sewing rooms, I'm rediscovering things I'd forgotten about. I did not need that!

The Final Countdown

It's the final few days before the wedding, and I'm not sure that I can do anything that needs to be done until Thursday and Friday. I need to make cookies, but it's too soon. I need to get my hair cut, so that will happen tomorrow. I need to get DH's clothes ready, but he has to go buy a new shirt and tie--so all I can do is nag and get his black suit to the cleaner's no later than tomorrow. I need to clean...no, I don't need to do that. No point. I need to iron my dress, but we're borrowing a friend's steamer, so I have to wait until we get that. I need to make Rugrat a slip to wear with her dress, but Missy hasn't bought a little tank top yet, so I have to wait for that.

In short, by Wednesday I'll be starting to get wound up, and Thursday and Friday will be insane.

Good news: the MOB dress now fits, due to dieting and a nifty waist cincher that hides the back fat but still allows me to breathe and move.

Bad news: I still have not gotten a check, so I have no more money. I can pay some bills this week, but I'll have to put some wedding stuff on a credit card, which REALLY ticks me off, as I had plenty of money set aside for the wedding that ended up being used for bills.

Good news: today is baseball's Opening Day. (OK, technically they made last night Opening Day, but it's not really Opening Day until the Cincinnati Reds have the parade and throw out the first pitch. I don't care what the baseball Powers That Be say, it ain't Opening Day until the Reds SAY it's Opening Day.)

Bad news: the Reds probably don't have a snowball's chance of making it to post-season play. But we're used to that now, so maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised this year.

And my mantra for the week: "They will still be married." As in:

• If we don't have enough styrofoam coffee cups, they will still be married.
• If we don't get the decorations perfect, they will still be married.
  
• If Rugrat doesn't walk down the aisle like we hope she will, they will still be married.
• If we run short on food or people think the food is crappy, they will still be married.
• If this giant zit on my chin doesn't go away and looks like a stoplight in the pictures, they will still be married.
  

It's a rather comforting mantra. I plan to repeat it often.

Hey, It's Only Been a Month!

So I'm not setting the world afire with my blog. Meh.

That pretty much describes my mental outlook these days. A lot of things are combining to make me feel like my head is going to go all 'splodey, so I'm only doing the bare minimum to keep going.

I'm now working from home, which is a good thing. But because the parent company is having a cash-flow issue because of some things that happened last year, I haven't been getting paid regularly. Which is a bad thing. I know things are looking up, and I'm sure the money will start coming in soon, but in the meantime there's a tiny person running around in the back of my brain screaming, "OMG, we have no money and we have all these bills and the wedding and I need new glasses and what if I don't get paid and what if they raise the interest on the credit cards and should I make an appointment with the endodontist or just start flossing regularly and geez I haven't had a mammogram for five years so I really should do that and how am I going to get this weight off before the wedding and I just got an invitation to the 30-year class reunion which means I'm really old and OMG we have no money and we have all these bills OMG OMG OMG!!!!"

Which is why I've been sleeping a lot.

In knitting news, because of the maniac running around in my brain, I'm doing simple things like the Sock Blankie. I'm part of a group on Ravelry, and we trade sock yarn bits for our mitered-square blankies, and that's what I've been doing. I'm expecting three packages in the next couple of weeks. It's always fun to see what surprises you get from the trades. I'm not picky about my blankie--I'll put just about any kind of sock yarn in it, except Tofutsies (and I might even use that if I double it.) I'll put up a picture sometime soon, I promise.

The Fiance has moved into an apartment here in town, so we've been back and forth, taking boxes over and putting things away. We can actually see the southwest corner of our basement now. Missy has a lot of household stuff from her first marriage, like pots and pans and dishes, and those were all packed away in our basement. We're looking forward to clearing out some of the things stored in the garage once it warms up.

To tell the truth, because of the wedding planning and all the moving about of stuff in my house, I feel like my life is on hold right now. I'm not cleaning much, because I figure that once she and the baby are moved out, I can do a major clean-up which will include painting and possible re-flooring in a couple of rooms. (I haven't shared this plan with the husband yet, so it's kinda iffy.) AND I can re-claim and rearrange my sewing/weaving/knitting rooms! I'm so looking forward to that. But it's going to be tough when those two leave us. I'm glad they'll be living close by!

No pictures this time. It's more than my tiny little brain can handle. Give me a month or so and I'll get going again. I'm coming up on my first Blogiversary on the 14th, so I'd like to do a little contest, but I think it will have to be postponed. Everything is on hold until this wedding is over. Then maybe we'll return to what passes for normal around here!

Score of the Century!

I decided to take a day just for myself. I wanted to go to the half-price bookstore to pick up a book on writing and anything else that might catch my eye. Something always catches my eye in the half-price bookstore, so I had high hopes for an extremely pleasant morning/afternoon (depending on how long I browsed and whether I felt the need to hit a yarn shop while I was at it.)

Boy, did something catch my eye. I stood and stared in disbelief, while my mouth opened and closed like a trout snapping at a fly. Ready? Check it out:

Yes, it's the infamous "Tudor Roses" knitting book by Alice Starmore (who may be a mythical creature instead of an actual flesh-and-blood designer.) For those of you who are not knitters, and know nothing of the legendary status of this book, check out this link. I'll wait here. What was that? Used copies selling for anywhere from $175 to $292??? Look closer at the picture below. See the little price tag? It's hard to read, but, yes...it does say $9.98.



Now you understand the hyperventilating trout imitation I was doing in the store. I managed to contain myself after the first audible gasp, but believe me, it was tough. I clutched it in my sweaty hand and didn't put it down until I checked out. I think I would have let someone snatch my purse before I would have given up the book! I couldn't resist telling the clerk about how much this book was commanding on Amazon.com (after I paid for it.) What makes me wonder is that the original owner's name and phone number are inside the book. Many of the other knitting and quilting books I looked through had the same name, so I don't know if someone was just clearing out her stash and had no idea what she had, or if perhaps the lady had passed away and her family disposed of her hobby books this way (a fate I expect most of my fabric, yarn, and books to have.) If I were a ridiculously nice, self-sacrificing person, I'd call the phone number and ask if she wants it back (if she's still among us.) Hmmmmm....I'm not that nice.

Whatever the case, I can't believe that I found this book. I haven't had a chance to look at it, so I plan to make myself a nice hot cup of tea and savor the reading of it. Wouldn't it be ironic if I don't like a thing in it?

I'm Still Alive. I Think.

This blogging thing has gotten way off track. Part of it is that I hate to blog without picture content, and I can never find the camera when I need it. Well, that's not always true, but getting pictures done and uploaded is my biggest obstacle. I'll try to stick a couple of random ones in, just so I feel like I've done my bloggerly duty.

Life pretty much feels out of control right now. We have a wedding gown, we have a mother-of-the-bride dress, we have the reception hall, we have a cake ordered. So now we have to order the flowers, then knuckle down for the really big job, which is the food for the reception. We're not doing a full-blown dinner, so it will be finger foods like little sandwiches and such, and bite-size dessert thingys. It's mostly a matter of deciding what we'll have, asking friends to help out with the making of everything, then figuring out how and when to get it all to the reception hall. Now I know why people have these things catered, but it's not in our budget.

On the needlework front, since this blog is supposed to be about how I'm finishing UFOs (hush--I can hear the snorts of derision from here), I have three projects that I am focusing on at the moment. One is a Jo Sharp cabled cardigan that I originally planned to make almost knee-length. It may end up being hip-length as called for in the pattern. I do need to set some limits for myself! Another is a needlepoint pillow from Ewe & Eye & Friends, which I'm doing for my bedroom. Said bedroom is on the list for repainting and decorating after The Wedding, so I want to finish a few things for the decor. Third project is a pair of socks. How could I not have a pair of socks in the works??

Why three projects? Why not just work on one at a time? Well, the cardigan takes a lot of concentration and marking off rows, because I'm doing two different cables while increasing. I have to have silence while I work on that (which is why progress is so slow and it will not be knee-length!) The needlepoint is mindless and can be done while I listen to the TV or any other hideous yammering going on around me. But that's not portable, so the socks are the portable mindless project. See, there is a method to my madness, at least in the needlework department.

I figure the house will be trashed until at least a few weeks after the wedding, because Missy is starting to go through the boxes that have been stored in our basement. The boxes contain what we moved out of her house during her divorce, so she's figuring out what she has in the way of kitchenware and dishes and such. Those boxes are stacking up around the edges of various rooms. In other rooms, decorations and tiered dessert plates are piling up, awaiting The Big Day. So we hit the middles of the rooms with the vaccuum cleaner, clean the bathroom occasionally, and keep the dishes and laundry done. Otherwise, housework is not at the top of the priority list.

So that's the life for the moment. Maybe next time I'll have pictures of the three projects. And I'm planning another giveaway, so stay tuned. Speaking of tuned...here is a picture of something else I'm trying to focus on right now, not very successfully:

 

Ah, my lovely violin. The brief moments I spend with it are not enough, but I'm trying to do at least a little every day. The goal is to finish the 2nd Suzuki book by the end of May, and I'm about halfway through it. So I need to get off the computer and start working on those scales and etudes! 

It's All About the Dress

I have lots of catching up to do since my last post. I'm still sick, so that's part of the reason for neglecting the blog. I don't know what this is that's hanging on so long, but I'm sick of coughing. From what I hear, though, so many people have the same thing, and it takes forever to go away. I've been sick for a solid month, and it's getting a bit old. Especially as I'd planned to go back to ballet class when the studio reopened after the holiday break. Instead I sit here trying to cough up a lung and getting fatter by the minute. The fried-egg sandwiches that have suddenly become an obsession haven't helped.

First things first. I showed you the proposal pic earlier. Here's the response:

 

Tee hee. Isn't that too cute!!

Next up, due to the demands of Daniele and Jessica, we have pictures of the knitted Wedding Dress in progress:

See, I told you it wasn't much to look at.

Hope sprang eternal that it wouldn't look like a gray rag once it was spread out over a crinoline, perhaps with a pale pink or blue underskirt, but the more I knitted, the more I worried. For one thing, it took me an hour and a half to knit one round of 2400 stitches, and those stitches had to be doubled after twelve inches. I realized that I was seriously going to have to do nothing but knit for the next three months, and there was no guarantee that this thing would look good.

So Saturday, when we went to the bridal shop to pick out bridesmaids' dresses, which we had left way too late so they have to be rushed (for an extra fee, of course), we bought a wedding dress.

That was SO not in the budget, but you should see how she looks in it. It's a FairyTale Princess dress, without being over the top. When she stepped into it, pulled it up, and got it zipped, the bridesmaids all screamed. I kid you not. The owner of the shop said she was going to hire them as professional squealers for the fitting rooms. She was sooooo beautiful. The color is perfect for her. It's deeper than ivory--the tag calls it gold, but it's not a blazing gold that you might first think of. I think of it more as a dark champagne, and it has the most beautiful silver trim. It's taffeta, which makes the color even better than shiny satin would.  I would love to show you a picture, but since The Fiance checks in here occasionally, you'll have to wait for the actual wedding pictures. (Neener, neener, Douglas!!) I think they'll be better than the pictures on the retailer's website anyway, because you can't see the true color and the sheen of the fabric. I can't wait 'til she starts down that aisle!! And I'm so happy that she'll get to wear the dress of her dreams. She's earned it.

So now this leaves me free to knit whatever I want. Or I don't have to knit--I can work on a quilt, or my needlepoint, or I can just sit and watch eight straight hours of DVR'd "Law & Order" episodes! Oh, the freedom! But what am I going to do with 10,000 yards of cashmere/merino/viscose blend laceweight yarn?

I do feel bad (sort of, kind of, in a way) because many of my fellow Plurkers and Ravelers were looking forward to seeing the finished knitted dress. I think I might have persevered if it hadn't been for the color. It was just too gray. That's what happens when you order yarn online sometimes. You can't be sure of the exact color. Well, cheer up. Maybe I'll put some of it up as a blog giveaway. It could make a lovely shawl. Just not a wedding dress.

While I'm throwing pictures in, here's what I decided to put in the giant Mason jar:

 

That's merely a fraction of the roving I have stashed, but it sure looks cool in the jar! (Maybe that will be today's project--spinning!)

And here's a pic of the Manspun yarn I bought a couple of weeks ago:

I think you can faintly see the twinkly bits in it, and it has a cool, crunchy feel. I've had to pry it out of Missy's hands a couple of times. She tried to trade me a couple of balls of Plymouth Boku for it. Now, really. Boku?? I don't think so. I haven't decided what this will become yet. I just pet it now and then. It's a little over 200 yards, so I'm thinking maybe a pair of Fetching mitts?  Ideas, anyone?

So, to wind up, we are all about weddings here at this house. April 11th isn't far away, and we still are trying to sort out the food, dishes, tablecloths, punch, music, flowers, cake, and the other ninety-bazillion details of the whole thing. (Plus we have to figure out how to pay for it all. Do you think a PayPal "Donate" button on this blog would be approprate??) There probably will be very little knitting or finishing content here for the next few months!

I leave you with pictures of Rugrat helping Mommy with the handmade invitations:

 

You have to hold your mouth just right, you know...