My DH is so cool.

Not only did he download the pictures tonight, but he also bought a new fan and a new power supply for Besse (my computer), but he installed them tonight too. Also, he's offering to buy a new lcd flat panel display for Besse too, with his mileage reimbursement check. Frankly, we already spent that money on gas, but... I swear to you this cheap-ass CTX monitor that I bought more than 7 years ago seems to be dying a slow death. It has a serious case of perma-flicker.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:
1. My current WIP.
2. Age before beauty. This is the back to the sweater that I started so long ago. I got the book containing the pattern either for my birthday or Mother's Day, both in May. I think there are only a few more inches of regular old stockinette to finish the back. I'm a little worried about symmetry between the front and the back - talk about putting the cart before the horse. I haven't even started the front yet. Also, I just don't like regular straight needles, even for non-circular knitting. I guess I need to find a suitable circ for this project. Maybe I can finish it while it'll fit La - I know it's in a color she'd love.


3. The purple wool/silk seed stitch scarf for me. This is impossible to photograph. I swear the picture looked OK in ACDSee. I think you just have to make it bigger.


4.This is the scarf I'm working on for DH. I put the DPN in for scale. I guess that means we had less than 7" done at the time of the photo.


5. This is the start of laptop case for my mom. I think it'll be tragically hip, but I'm no expert.
6. Here's what we've got for La-la's sock. This is actually about where I am-post-frog, post-reknit. My pony puke project. But, somehow, for all of it's pony puke, squeaky acrilicness, it's a lot of fun to knit.

Rule Number 1:

Read the directions.

Rule number 2: Follow them.

I had to frog the sock for La-la back to the end of the flap/picking up stitches for the gusset because of that. I'm using this Opal free pattern. Turns out you're supposed to continue the 3x2 ribbing from the cuff across the top of the foot. Who knew? Well, I would have if only I had RTFM. I had done the top of the foot in regular old stockinette, and it was seeming to be too big, compared to our "control group" (a new Tinkerbell sock that fits La generously).

The yarn I'm using is some kind of Red Heart Baby in the color "baby stripes" (this is probably not the real name, but you know what I mean, even though you don't want to admit it.) I had it on hand because of an ambition to make preemie things for a charity like The Preemie Project. Never came to fruition (for one thing, I still have trouble fathoming that they really need stuff that's that small - trust me, this reflects only on me, I'm not accusing anyone else of anything. For another, we have dog hair here from the fat dog Tiger, and our local hospital, where La herself was born, said no smoking, no pets for their crafting volunteers. These kids are super-fragile. Completely understandable to me.) So, our fair La-la picked it out of the stash, and at long last, the yarn is getting put to good use.

On another note - If my SP5 pal is still out there....You have not yet revealed yourself to me!

One more announcement - I took photos this weekend of all of my WIP. We should have something to see when DH downloads the pics.

All that frogging must have been the right thing...

Because I'm feeling a lot better about my current projects, although it's hard to not start a pair of socks for La-la and the baby blanket for the niece/nephew to be. Or finishing the back to that sweater I started this summer, or do the socks for my aunt, or make a one-skein-wonder for La, or even a pair of socks for the monkey or a pair for the DH, the list goes on....C'est la vie.

DH's scarf is a keeper. Right now it's about as long as my fingers, maybe less. It's got a good amount of complexity, and not too much yarn throwing. It's all good. Everyone's pleased with how it's turning out.

I've got about 8" of the laptop case done. It's all crazy and stripey. I'm doing fibonocci stripes cause I'm geeky like that and need a pattern for my randomness. Let me tell you a secret: Random numbers on the computer? Not so random most of the time. If you give it the same seed, many random progams/functions will give you the same series of numbers. So, the fibonacci series is 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,... where the next number is the sum of the two previous.

Look at these fibonacci spirals. They are so pretty! Fibonacci spirals are seen in nature. This article has more info. Notice how the fibonacci spirals look like the center of the sunflower or the butt-side of a pine cone? If you too a cross-section of an apple, I think you'd see a similar shape through the core.

You can see some fibonacci action in the fibonacci cardigan, these socks, and this scarf. It's a very pleasing ratio, I think. Actually, I have a theory about "matching" and this series probably goes with it. My theory about matching colors is, by picking colors that go together in nature, say, brown pants and a pink shirt, you are using the same palette as the Cherry Blossom Festival. How can you go wrong? Similarly, if you are using a proportion that is found in nature, it'll probably also be pleasing to the eye in your knitting.

Next time fractals? Or scarves? Who can say?

When in doubt....does it felt?

I'm home today because that Lala is sick with another ear infection. No wheezing yet. And a virus that gives her a sore throat (no strep). Probably just as well that I'm here because the monkey left his housekey on the hook by the door.

Well, I tried making a "demo" of my trapezoidal wrap concept. I don't know. The commenter in my last post suggested that the stripes might be wonky. That seems to be the case. Wonky with a side of holes. Maybe the only "short row" experience I have is with turning heels. Maybe I shouldn't have slipped over the stitch at the turning point of my short row. I was working from what would be the slanty side of the trapezoid. I began to question the whole trapezoid concept too, as I was knitting. (which side would be the top? Why would a trapezoid be good?) Ill fated. So...I bound off the demo and put it in my FO pile to await my next felting exercise to see if maybe the yarn is fated to become a Booga Bag. Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha. There's plenty of it. Two very large skeins. New Zeland wool. Manukau Charisma 10 Ply Aran. Can't find a picture of it online to save my life, though I did find a pattern for a crocheted felted bag made with the wool, so I guess that answers that.

DH's red scarf is now farrow rib. One of those delightful "least common denominator" patterns where it's a multiple + 1 wide and you do the same (knit*n, purl*p) + odd stitch*y on each row. The yarn, I didn't bathe post-frog, so it looks like it's got a perm. I'm interested to see what the scarf will "really" look like once it's been washed. I think it will be surprisingly snazzy.

Finished the washcloth, and La-la requested one of her own from the same cotton, so I made her a mini one following this mitered-square pattern. Mine came out kite-shaped, but with right angles. It's still cute, and it's interesting to see how the changes in color arrange themselves differently.

Started the laptop case for my mother, from the fall 05 IK. It'll be in Thanksgiving colors: Pumpkin Pie, Cranberry Sauce, and Evergreen. You may have noticed that I'm not a precise pattern-follower (sometimes to my detriment), more seeing them as a guideline or starting off point (a major difference between me and DH. DH thinks there's usually a Good Reason that rules are rules.) So, I'm not following the striping pattern exactly, but still going for some degree of randomness or apparent randomness. It's nice to work on so far, though I can think it'll turn into a blanket in my lap to work on before long.

I found some size 15, 32" circs when I was looking for something else, and it was all I could do not to start the baby blanket for my sister. Ugh. Somebody stop me! Gonna go work on the laptop case for the rest of naptime.

Time to Reevaluate

I'm re-evaluating several of my WIP. Not because I don't like them. I do. I think they have merit, and I think if they were finished they would be stellar, and they are pretty darn charming right now. But I just don't want to work on them. But I still want to have what they will be when they are done. [Does this make sense? I confess that I'm most of the way through a Diet-Coke-with-Lime and Bacardi-Limon at this point. Mostly because I couldn't think of what would taste good with Amaretto.]

I spent my pretty long commute home thinking about how to rethink my feather and fan stole. I'm about 3 repeats in. It's pretty, but at this point in my knitting career, with so little time to singlemindedly knit, I just can't work a 4 row repeat pattern. I'm just not that together. I have trouble remembering to turn on the crock pot in the morning, even after I put the food together the night before and put the crockery part into the electric part, and it was plugged in and everything. [This has happened, but not today. It's just an example of the simple things that I have trouble with these days, so you can see why a simple lace pattern is taxing.] But I still want a stole. I'm thinking about making a garter stitch stole. How's that for dumbing it down. Get this. I'm thinking about using short row shaping, so that it ends up being kind of fluted. Shaped like the circle skirt that my mom made me for 4th grade chorus. Here's my concept:

Cast on X number of stitches. Work in garter stitch. Every, oh, I don't know, 10 rows, work a "short row" that is about (2/3)X stitches. My theory is that I should end up with something that is vaugely cone-shaped. Or trapezoidal. I'm not sure which. And, the varigated stripes would be vertical, which, is important to me, and the whole reason I didn't just do a dishcloth shawl. Horizontal stripes making a big arrow pointing to my generous derrierre. One of the things that I'll have to do to make this work is to mark which side is the top. Or, I could make it like a very wide garter stitch scarf. Either way would work.

The other project I'm rethinking is DH's red scarf. This pattern is just too darn fiddley and I can't work on it more than a couple rows at a time, and it's on [merely] size 7 US needles, and I just can't see ever getting it done at this point. I'm thinking of ripping it out and either doing a basic seed stitch scarf or finding one of those mathematically genious odd-number-rib patterns (maybe I'll make one up). Not sure yet.

It's all academic at this point - I want to finish this washcloth and then I'll move on to something else, like the wool/silk seed stitch scarf perhaps.

Mischief Monkey and other news

Lala is 2 and 3/4 and recently in panties full time. Tonight, in the pre-dinner chaos, she's walking around with her pants and panties around her ankles, post-potty (clean bottomed and clean pottied). She carries her potty over to the doorway between the dining room and living room and puts it down. [sidenote: my next potty training challenge is getting the little potty out of the living room. ] Lala kicks off her pants and panties and bellies up to the potty in the manner of my husband. She decides that's not gonna work, so she scootches up a little so that she's straddling the potty, still standing, and pees from there. (My goodness. What kind of Google hits will I get with this post?) She did pretty well and got a good amount in the cup and the rest on the seat. Afterwards she told me that boys sit down to pee. This was probably the most hilarious thing I've seen all week.

So, for the knitting news. I finished the baby socks and they are cute! I'll try to photograph them this weekend. They do seem like they might be proportionally funny, though. We'll have to see how they work on a real live baby.

I think my next socks will be for Lala - probably some "baby stripes" red heart that I've had on hand for a while, and this opal pattern. It looked pretty straight forward and the right size and gauge.

I did some math on the blanket I've been doing at work. BTW, an interesting discussion of work-knitting at Wendy Knits I generally knit at lunch, at all hands meetings (there are a lot of hands here, and you should see the fidgety engineers.), and at my desk when I'm caught in a tedious loop of building, resetting the virtual machine, and running the install in order to get to what I'm really interested in seeing. Which, I've been in that loop quite a bit lately. I never bring the knitting to meetings around a conference table. The math that I did to figure this out was much more interesting than any programming I did that day. Now that's saying something.


Here's the math:

Currently a 15" side and 87 stitch hypotenuse. (measured the side by putting two sprial notebooks next to eachother (short side to long side) and measuring against that).
Goal: 36" side and UNK stitch hypotenuse.

UNK/87 = 36/15
UNK = (36*87)/15 = 209 stitches (rounding)

We'll see if we really have 209 stitches along the diagonal when the side is 36" long. More importantly, we'll see if I can hold out that long.

So then I used the
Gaussian formula for arithmetic series to figure out how many stitches (approximately) will be in the whole blanket:

1/2 (209)(1+209) = 21945 stitches, which would be half the blanket.

The whole blanket would be 43890 stitches.

I've completed 3828 stitches so far, which is nearly 9% of the total. However, I'm about 20% done with respect to side-inches. I really like the 20% statistic better.

Inside out!

So, I'm trucking along on the 2nd baby sock. Turned the heel, it's all good. Pick up the stitches along the flap to do the gusset, get about three rows into the gusset, and I see it. It can't be! Everything since the gusset started is all "reverse stockinette". Aka INSIDE OUT! What the heck happened? Did I get to knitting counter-clockwise (or whatever the reverse direction is?) Was I holding the work backwards? I'll tell you that when I start stuff in the round, I generally hold it backwards and knit, then as the piece gets longer, flip it inside out and then hold the working stitch in the front, and continue without much to do. Needless to say, I was stunned to see it. I also have to confess that I was tempted to leave it that way, but then I remembered that it was the SECOND sock, so it needed to match the first one, and even if the baby didn't notice the "undocumented design feature" the mommy would. Poopies.

Since I'm here....went to WalMart yesterday and bought yarn. I bought 3 balls and 1 cone of that cotton stuff Peaches N Cream? Sugar N Cream? and 6 skeins of Caron Simply soft in bright yellow and bright orange for my sister's baby blanket. The K1C2 Fleece would have set me back almost $60, which seemed like a lot to me for a baby blanket. Now, I don't have much problem with buying 1 or 2 skeins of pricey yarn, but 6 or 8? Um. No. I think the orange and yellow will be really pretty held together, and I can use a bigger needle (an 11 or 13 US maybe), so it should go pretty quickly. I also got to thinking that the yellow and orange baby socks would go well with the yellow and orange baby blanket, so I guess both are going to go to the same family.

OK. Looks like it's time to bring the monkey to school. I have Bari Sax duty today (the horn is too big to bring home on the bus, so we need to give him a ride Friday afternoons and Monday mornings).

Baby Socks!

I made a baby sock from Knitpicks Shine in butter (m.c.) and apricot (c.c.) from the Debbie Bliss Baby Knits book. The pattern isn't pictured, it was the socks and hat with a stem in gray with red as the contrast. The socks are so darn cute! They have a turn over cuff, like bobby sox, with just a little edge of the contrast color, and the toe decreases make the toes look adorably elfin. I really liked the feel of the KP Shine. I did get a wonky hole where I picked up stitches around the heel flap, but the turn over cuff hides it, I think. They were looking huge as I knit them, but I think they are smaller than la-la's feet. These are for my neighbor who is expecting. My little sister is expecting too! I think I'm not going to make a pair of these socks for her, although that was the original plan. I think I'm going to look for some garter stitch booties instead. Also, after this update, I'm planning to mosey on over to YarnMarket for some K1C2 Fleece for a baby blanket for that one.

The only other knitting progress is a few rows here and there on DH's scarf. The pattern is fussy, and hard to do anything else while knitting it. Although it's easy to remember, you really have to look at it in order to pick up the right stitch. It's curling a little in the "vertical" direction. Imagine Dilbert's tie. Like that. I'm not so sure about it, but not ready to give up on it yet. I'm looking for a pattern that's manly, but interesting, not ribbed, and a little "artsy". Now that I'm thinking about it, I bet garter stitch would even be OK for it. Only we would call it "running bond", because he's an architect.

In other news:

1. No word from "the monkey's real mom" since last Wednesday's very early morning call. I've been looking for her on various survivor/evacuee lists, and realized that Courtney is a unisex name. I mean, I guess I knew it was, but I didn't know any boy-Courtneys personally.

2. Popcorn season is officially underway. I went and picked up our show-n-sell order today. I may have ordered too much. :^/ La and I got there, we filled up the van, then we had to call DH for reinforcements, making him miss a meeting (he was overbooked to start with.)

Edited to add: We heard from the monkey's "real" mom tonight. She and a whole slew of her family (like 43 of them altogether) are staying with an aunt in Houston. We got a phone number, and it seemed almost back to normal - she called just after I tucked the boy into bed, her usual time. I tell you, I've never been so happy to hear from her. ;^)

Baby Pictures

OK. They may not be baby pictures if they feature a big girl bed.

Where's La-la?


Isn't she cute? It's a good thing, because she's such a mischief monkey.

Finished Objects!

A couple FO's to show:

My first socks. They're seceretly pretty symmetrical size-wise, fraternal twins, color-wise. The stats: Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in Crush, Size 3 needles, pattern based on the Retro Anklets in Socks Socks Socks. I felt that the ankle part was going to be too long, so I shortened them. They only come up a few inches over the top of my clunky sneakers. I wore them to work last Monday, and though they were pretty comfortable, it's still too hot here to wear socks, even in my very air conditioned office.


My first dishcloth. Sugar N Cream cotton. Size 6 needles. Basic biased dishcloth pattern (CO 4 sts. 1st row: K4, each subsequent row until the midway point: K2, YO K to end. Decreasing rows, K1, K2tog, YO, K2tog, K to end. Repeat this line until you have 4 sts. Bind off. I really like how the colors pooled symmetrically. I don't think I could possibly have planned that. It worked well as a washcloth this morning. Was nice and nubby.

Photos from my most recent SP5 gift

I've been darn remiss in blogging photos lately.
See what cool stuff my SP5 pal sent me!

Just some of my most recent SP5 gift.

The pretty soap from my last SP5 gift. In use.

Scarf Schmarf

I guess what I really needed was some garter stitch therapy. I've done about 2" on the scarf. I have 6 projects on the needles. What did I do yesterday? I dug out the sugar and cream cotton that I've had for years in my stash and made a washcloth. It's about 7 1/2" square, and I used the good old diagonal dishcloth pattern for it, the one that I use for baby blankets. It's snazzy. OK. I'm going to get DH's digital camera and go around taking pictures of stuff today, while there's still some light.

La-la is not only using the potty full time, but we got her a "big girl bed", and a new toddler bed Elmo sheet set. Tres snazzy.

Still no call from the monkey's mom, I'm debating whether to post an "In Search Of" thing on the Red Cross's family registry site.

Good News!

I found the monkey's Uncle Lionel on the Red Cross list. He's in Indianapolis, IN. It sounds like a couple of plane-loads of people went there. I think now, most of the monkey's maternal-family is accounted for, just we don't really have a way to get in touch with them to see if they need a ride or something. In my searches, I came across the National Next of Kin Registry and registered our household of people.

In knitting news....I had been struggling in figuring out what to start next. DH and I worked together to find a stitch pattern for his scarf. It's going to be in RED Cascade 220 superwash. We settled on the Horizontal Herringbone. It's October 30 in the 365 Knitting Stitches a year perpetual calendar. I swatched it up a little, and it's nice. It only has 2 lines to remember, one side has a nice herringbone pattern, the other has a reverse-stockinette feel, although it's not quite the same. It doesn't seem too curly yet, but we'll see how it turns out. It's a dense fabric because there are decreases that are re-increased all over the place. Not much horizontal stretch in the fabric at all (would not pick this for a hat, unless, maybe it were a felted bucket). I cast it on in the scarf-yarn and I have about 4 rows done. It's simple, but requires attention because there's a lot of fussing around where if you weren't paying attention you wouldn't pick up the right loop or the whole dang thing would slide off the needles.

More good news: La-la is potty trained! She got her bike yesterday, a Radio Flyer tricycle with retro styling. It looks a heck of a lot like one of the ones that my sister or I had when we were little. La-la really seems to dig it, and she rode it all the way to our former neighbor's house. She's starting to get the hang of steering it too. You know what this means. I can use the diaper storage cubbies for yarn!

I found yarn in the dollar section of Target on Friday. I saw it on someone's blog and was happy to see it for myself. I bought two skeins. The yarn looked like it had been hard hit, too, which sort of surprises me.

FO's and Hurricanes

Here is my hurricane story. You know the monkey? He's my step-son. He's 11 and a delight. I've been a part of his life since he was 4. You know his mother? She lives in New Orleans, in the Orleans Parish. DH went to Tulane. She was a local. They worked together at Ponderosa. They had a baby, he finished college, they got married, moved to Orlando, lived with his crazy family, she left him and moved back home to the Crescent City, pregnant with another man's child. It's a classic story. This all happened by the time the monkey was my La-la's age (2 1/2). She's since gone on to have 3 girls who live with her. Her mom, dad, step-mom, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents all are in New Orleans or nearby.

She rode out the storm at her parents' house. She called in a panic at 4 Tuesday morning, leaving a VM on DH's cell phone [it was 4. She called the house phone first. I couldn't find it in 4 rings, then she tried the cell. I couldn't figure out which one was ringing in 4 rings that time either, but I did manage to get my sunglasses out of my purse], "Tell the monkey I love him and to take care of his little sister." When we called back in the morning, she said the water was still rising.

She called back Wednesday morning at 4:15. I had put the cordless back where it goes on my nightstand, so it was easy to find. She's in Texas. These 4am calls, it's hard to be coherent enough to ask the right questions, like what city (Texas is a big place, from what I understand.) She just wanted to let us know she got there, which I appreciate, but I do have lots of questions for her. Where is she? Who's with her? Are her parents, sibs, and kids OK? Is there anything specific we can do to help them?

I have to confess that after her Wednesday call, I said to myself, "Texas! She should be heading west! What is she thinking? She's never going to get through Mississippi!" Once it was light out, I remebered the correct order of the gulf states - Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and that Texas is west. This is Florida. Everything is West or North of here.

So far, I've.... given a little, and thanks to my employer, we've given a little more through their matching program. One of our Boy Scout friends started a clothing drive. I culled from the monkey's, Lala and my dressers to fill up a tall kitchen garbage bag for that. Tomorrow we're going to round up some supplies for hygiene kits, assemble them, and send them off. It seems like a project where the monkey can really feel like he's doing something useful and helpful.

Now for the finished object! I finished the hat for the Monkey's other friend. (not that I have a picture or anything. Another job for the weekend.) It's another London Beanie, this time emerald green with gold stripes. This too might belong to one of the groups at Hogwarts (Not Slytherin, not Gryffindor, not Hufflepuff, but the other one.) I'm kind of in a dither as to what to start next, so I might make some progress on something else I've got outstanding. I'm feeling like the seed stitch scarf, perhaps. After that green acrylic, the wool/silk feels super fantastic (in the words of Manolo the shoe blogger.)