Jofrog is Knitfrog!
February 25 2005
I have had very little knitting time lately and when I am knitting, I'm so tired that I haven't wanted to concentrate on anything harder than socks or the baby hat! I was so excited about the quick progress of my Diamond FI sweater though and found time to pick it up again yesterday.
I did from the beginning of the lightest color band up to the top yesterday. That's almost one full repeat. Hopefully another good chunk tonight, but doubtful that there will be any weekend knitting because I'll be spending the weekend with my husband in Maine... and as crazy as this sounds, I may not bring any knitting with me at all. (It depends on what books/journals he brings with him!)
Enjoy your weekend as much as I plan to enjoy mine.Back On Track
February 23 2005
I made this little baby hat and sock set this week to welcome a newborn into the world in one of the local hospitals!
I used my favorite cool baby hat yarn... Regia 6ply on size 4 needles and made it up from there! This will be the coolest baby in the nursery!Welcome Baby!
February 22 2005
I felted my sister's Easter basket on Saturday night at a friends and I love it! Here it is pre-felted with my dog Naomi for size comparison.
...and now post felting.
And one more very washed out picture to really tell the size of it. (Naomi is a twenty-two pound daschund terrier mix.)
If none of that really helps you get a perspective on size it felted down to a finished height of seven inches and is almost round with a diameter of ten inches. It is about three-quarters the size that it was when it was knit and it is just perfect. Yeah!Little Washie, Little Shrinky, Me Likey!
February 21 2005
When I signed up for Alison's February fixathon the plan was to rip out Grace. Well, here I am, mid-February, Grace is still intact and I ripped out an entire clown sock. If you look back to the picture I posted a few days ago, (or click for a popup), you may see that the one on top is quite a bit larger than the other. I've known this since before I did the heel on that sock, but have been living in Egypt, (on the banks of de Nile). Finally I took the plunge and ripped back the almost completed sock entirely. I'm slowly making my way up the foot again...
...slowly because I started knitting a baby hat on Saturday night. About half way into the hat I decided that it's too big and yup... ripped it back to the beginning again. Le sigh.
What do I have to show for this weekend's knitting? Lots of skeins with yarn wrapped around them, and that is way too sad of a picture for me to show you. Tune in tomorrow for a more uplifting story!The Fix is In
February 18 2005
Knitsmiths founder Dava, and fellow knitsmith Lisa B. gifted me some Lambs Pride leftovers that they had in their stash after I told them of a project I had in mind. Yesterday afternoon they looked like this.
About five hours later they looked like this.
Now I see the appeal in the felted bag. You can do whatever you want, they go super quickly, and use up yarn that you have around (or that other choose to gift you). This bag will end up being an Easter basket for my eleven year old sister Alice. She's at that tween stage so who knows if she'll use it as a bag or purse or if it will never get used past this Easter, but I'm pretty sure that however it gets used she'll love it!Mmm, Leftovers
February 17 2005
Another book followed me home from my LYS... can I keep it please?
How could I resist, it uses my favorite yarn! Right now the two I'm most interested in are Audrey and Halle. Ahh, another silky wool tank. Oooh a fitted ribbed, wrappy sweater. Le sigh. Well, no need to ponder it any longer, I have the book, now the question is only what color will I do it in?Oops I Did it Again!
February 16 2005
The speed at which my clown socks are growing would imply that there is a lot of knitting time around here. Alas, that is not the situation, but still they continue to grow!
I'm just working my way up the cuffs now and oh so excited to wear them. I got a bit done on them last night because I'd forgotten to wind another skein of yarn for my Diamond FI sleeve! Doh! Isn't that always the way. Certainly no good knitting time is expected tonight. I'm teaching an advanced beginning baby sweater class at my LYS. It makes for a late night, but it's always so much fun.
Enjoy your knitting.Awe, Aren't They Growing Up So Well!
February 15 2005
I cast on for the first sleeve of my Diamond FI sweater at Knitsmiths on Sunday. Although I was working all day yesterday I'm already through the picot edge and the cuff chart! Every row goes so quickly... do you think it could be because I only started with sixty-one stitches? (I have more now, because of increases, but still, nowhere near 288!)
I know it's still a while off, but I can't wait to wear this sweater!61 is a lot less than 288
February 14 2005
My old RSS feeds are not working, as I'm sure you can tell by the red exclamation points. Motime has just added RSS feeds to all motime sites so (hopefully) this will be the last time that you have to subscribe to "Jofrog is Knitfrog!".
The catch is, you have to subscribe to the new feed by clicking the "Subscribe to Bloglines" button on the right top of this page. Add the motime feed. Done, hopefully no more problems ever. ...hopefully.
Thanks for your patience, back to the knitting in the morning.Attention Bloglines Users
Triumphant Return of the Diamond FI
I ran into Lisa B. at my LYS on Saturday. We chatted for a bit and she asked what was going on with my Diamond FI sweater. Well, if you gauged it by what I talk about here, nothing! That's what she was afraid of. The real truth however is:
Click to see the full frontal.
February 11 2005
I've been working on my clown sock, but now that I'm on the cuff it's just knitting until it's long enough, which will be a long time. I started thinking, "hmm, this sock thing is fun, I remember really liking it. I have some great sock yarn that I really want to see knit up, maybe I'll start those tonight".
Well, I didn't start those, but to give me some sense of starting something else I started clown sock number 2. As evidence I give you a toe. I hope that isn't considered rude in some parts of this world!
Have a great weekend, I have Sunday off! Woo hoo, what will I do? Definitely Knitsmiths, maybe a nice breakfast out as well. Oh the possibilities are endless, but I know that I won't be at work. (Unless they call me in the morning, then I'll be at work... but still at Knitsmiths, just late!)Is it Startitis if...
February 10 2005
My husband and I made a bet on Tuesday night. The stakes... $30 of frivilous money. Money to be spent on fun stuff that we might not buy otherwise. I won, and this came home with me yesterday.
I've been wanting this book since it came out. Much like Knitted Embelishments I looked at it often, sighed, and then put it back on the shelf. Well, today I took it home with me. What's the first thing I'll use it for? Well, Melanie and Colleen seem to think that a ruffle is a good idea on my clown socks, though ladies, it will not be a little ruffle. Nothing about these socks will be little or subtle!
**Oh No! I just went to find an image and link for the new book and found that she has a new book "Knitting Over the Edge" due out in July. I'm sure I'll NEED that one as well!**I Won!
February 8 2005
New England loves their sports teams and I love my socks! I got to a superbowl party mid-second quarter on Sunday, settled in with some wings and chili, and then when that was done, I settled in with my clown sock.
In the last seconds of the game I finished turning my first short row heel. To answer your question from the other day Jen, no hole at all on one side and a little itty bitty gap that isn't big enough to call a hole on the other side. I picked up a stitch tbl at each gap and then worked it together with another stitch when I got back to it the next round. That seemed to do the trick.
I've had a little bit more sock knitting time since then and I'm making my way up the cuff. I have a ton of yarn though! I'm not sure if I'll use the whole thing or not. They might be thigh high if I do!
Go Pats, Go Sox
February 7 2005
My twin great aunts,
daughters to my 100 year old great grandmother, send me their "Word of the Day" yesterday. I thought you'd enjoy it as well.
*1 : to enter by gradual steps or by stealth into the possessions or rights of another
Example sentence:
Did you know?
I've actually been very enamored with a project in Hip to Crochet lately. I keep thinking about it, the yarn, the final product. Do you know which project it is? Care to hazard a guess? Maybe someone will want to crochet along with me in the future! I definitely have higher priority projects first, but at some point I think that I will actually have a crochet project thrown in the mix, by choice! Oooh, isn't this all so mysterious, aren't you dying to know? Eh, don't put too much thought into it, enjoy the day instead!A Post About Crocheting?
encroach \in-KROACH\ verb
2 : to advance beyond the usual or proper limits
The police offered a compromise that kept the sidewalk clear without encroaching on the protesters' rights.
The history behind "encroach" is likely to hook you in. First appearing in English in the 16th century, the word derives from the Middle English "encrochen," which means "to get or seize" and whose Anglo-French predecessor "encrocher" was formed by combining the prefix "en-" ("in") with the noun "croche" ("hook"). "Croche" also gave us our word "crochet," in reference to the hooked needle used in that craft. "Encroach" carries the meaning of "intrude" both in terms of property (as in "encroaching on one's land") or privilege (as demonstrated in our example sentence). The word can also hop over legal barriers to describe a general advancement beyond desirable or normal limits (such as a hurricane that encroaches on the mainland).
February 4 2005
Welcome back. We will end sock week with, gasp, could it be? ...a FO. Not only a finished object, but two of them. I present you with Amber's Socks. Who knows when these were started, it was a long time ago! Amber gave me this yarn as a trade for some Opal yarn I had after an Ebay binge. Well over a year ago, that's for sure!
Finally they are finished. I worked on them very here and there but sock week got me motivated to finish them up. Alison, what do you think about the pooling, not only do they pool, they do so completely unevenly! I have plenty of yarn left and actually thought of making a third sock that would probably match one of them, but hey, this is why I love sock yarn, you never know what you will get. I'll wear them, and love them!
See you next week with my sweater.The Grand Finale
February 3 2005
To continue with Sock Week I present to you, my newly concieved, and still developing clown socks!
This is my first toe up sock ever! I got this yarn last year at a big sale at my LYS. I'd seen a former knitsmith knit up this colorway, and loved it. These socks were originally going to be toe socks from the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, but then, a year later, they told me that they really wanted to be tall socks, worn with a short black skirt. Who knows if I'll actually wear them with a short black skirt, (it's very outside of my normal style), but they will be tall socks, and the only way to use up all of the yarn and maximize their tallness is with Wendy's Toe Up Sock Pattern. For some reason I'd been afraid of knitting a toe-up sock, but once it was tackled I just soared with it. Yeah! (Of course, this is a sock, so don't expect much progress on it, they are always just peripheral projects, rarely the main course.)Never Before. Again? ...probably
The color is much brighter when it isn't 6:30AM in a dark apartment!
February 2 2005
Don't worry, the Diamond FI is still in full swing, but I needed a little break, so I picked up some socks that have been langishing.
Remember back in October when I presented Mike with his birthday socks? Well, I have a bit of a confession to make. I picked up the yarn on sale at my LYS and by the time I figured out that I didn't have enough (how embarassing to admit) they were out of the yarn! Better yet, it's discontinued. Of course, I'd broken into the second (of two) skeins to finish the first sock because I was sure I'd be able to get a third, (obviously before the fateful trip to my LYS), because at least one sock needed to be done for Mike's b'day. Once the day came and went I dropped the socks. I was ashamed at my inability to correctly estimate yardage requirements. The only option seems to be unknitting the toe of sock #1, giving some of that yarn to sock #2, and finishing both in black... that is unless one of you has a partial skein of Knit One Crochet Too "Creme Brulee DK" in color #557 (dark green) in your stash and are willing to part with it. Do you, could you save Mike's socks? (He could use them, it's mighty cold out!) Name your price and I'll pay up!
Stay tuned for tomorrow's instalment of "It's Sock Week". (Check your local listings.)It's Sock Week
February 1 2005
It seems as if it's my turn. Funny how it's so easy to ignore emails like this but when you are called out to all of blogland you are obligated to do it. Honestly, thanks Lauren, it was loads more fun than I'd expected.
1. Total amount of music files on your computer?
Zero. I have lots of CDs in a 300 disk CD player so no need for music on my computer.
2. The last CD you bought was:
Catalpa and Escondida by Jolie Holland as recommended by Cari. I love them, thanks for the heads up!
3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
Searching for the Satalites by Bleu. Another wonderful artist, great guy, and super performer.
4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you:
I'm horrible about knowing song titles. I really just find groups that I like and go with the whole album approach so, that said, here are my top five bands, (though I could go on and on and on with other close contenders).
James- I have all of their albums, I absolutely love them and found them by accident when they were the opening band at a concert in 1995.
Bleu- He was opening for Jump Little Children, and again, loved him more than them, although they rock as well.
onelinedrawing- Jonah was opening for Bleu at a concert in Boston (see a theme of how I find new bands?).
Carbon Leaf- They had a song "The Boxer" that was almost big last summer. They are from Virginia, I think, but sound like they are genuine Irish.
Swan Dive- Who knows if they are even still together. Another band that should have done well here and didn't though I hear that they were very popular in Japan.
5. What 3 people are you going to pass this baton to and why?
June is just the coolest. She never lets me down with advice or inspiration.
I want to read Kerrie's responses because, as you can see by James being my favorite band, I love British music and am always looking for more.
Finally, it has to be Melanie. There's just something about that girl. She keeps throwing more and more interesting things out there. Don't dissapoint me this time!
I hope that none of you hold this against me!
Time to Face the Music
