Jofrog is Knitfrog!
June 29 2005
Let me show you why the knitting has slowed down, but not stopped around here: An Explanation
My new lamp, complete with separate knitting light!
Woo hoo, aim that puppy over here!
This so helps the knitting process!
My biggest hinderance.
Lots of itty bitty stitches don't go well with wrist strength.
This is the second brace I tried, the first one I couldn't knit with, and what's the use of that?
June 28 2005
I'm all about helping someone get their Ph.D. If you have a blog of your own, take 15 mins out of your, ahem, coffee break, ahem, today to help free Cameron. Thanks to Shannon for the link.Help A Brother Out
Not much knitting progress around here last night. That's because I was recruited to play on my husband's soft ball team for last night's game. As we were walking into the stadium I was told "Oh, we might need you tonight". Luckilly I was dressed for it, all except for my clogs. Whoops. I've been told in the past that "they might need me", (co-ed league, not enough women), but someone has always shown up last moment... not last night. Last night I traded in my sock purse for a baseball glove. People that have known me for a while know that Johannas do not play baseball! Yes, there was wiffle ball at the wedding, and yes, sometimes Mike and I will go out to play catch or hit the ball, but the last time I actually played in a game was 8th grade gym class... and I was not good. I certainly held my own last night though and will probably be called on again. There goes Monday night knitting in the stands, but it sure is fun to be able to tackle something you've never felt you could do. We'll see if they need me again; I'll be sure to bring sneakers!Put Me In Coach
June 27 2005
I somehow made two left fronts for the sock yarn baby sweater. Time to rip out this section and start over a third time. Third time is the charm though I guess and I'm back to working on the back again. This sweater will continue to grow! It, however, did not grow at all this weekend because I was in Newport with my friends and had a wonderfully relaxing, enjoyable, and bacheloretty time! Here are a few pictures for all of you who don't think I share enough personal moments! Know Any Babies With Two Left Fronts?
Whoops!
...and the happy bachelorette and bachelor the morning after!
June 24 2005
I'm trucking along on my lace cardigan whenever I have the time and it's coming along nicely! I can't wait to wear this one. Despite my grosely different row gauge I've gotten everything to work out proportionatly and only have a few straight inches to go until the back is done! Woo hoo. The even better news is, though I was SURE I was going to run out of yarn because of my differing row gauge, and the fact that the sleeves took A TON of yarn, the back took a lot less than anticipated and I think I may be able to return the extra ball of calmer I'd bought, (rather than having to buy another additional ball and settling for a different dye lot)! Maybe I'm jinxing this by writing it "out loud" so if you belive in such things, knock on wood for me! Happy weekend knitting. I'll be spending oh so hot Saturday in Newport RI with my best friend for her bachelorette weekend! I may even wear my Mexico top, we'll see if I chicken out. It is very revealing after all.Up To My Armholes in Back
June 22 2005
I think it does. Sure, I don't have a FP(air), but I sure have an object that is finished, right? Mike's happy, comfy, and soft (all the words he used to describe his sock) foot would agree. I wanted to finish this before I started on my first sockapal2za sock. I'll be off to wind my yarn today... one of these days I really need to get my own ballwinder and swift! le sigh, ball winder and swift or use that money for yarn? I think you know the answer.Does One Sock Count as a FO?
Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock "Safari"
...and yes I know it's blurry, but it's the best color representation.
Look forward to a nonblurry FP shot!
June 21 2005
I'm getting myself in the right mindset for "Sockapal-2-za". I've got an awesome sock pal that wanted any color, the brighter the better! I've got a pattern that I wanted to use that is fun and exciting. I picked up this yarn, now it's time to start! Okay, so I may wait until the baby Opal sweater is done first, but then I'm all over these socks! Woo woo woo woo yeah! Happy first day of Summer! We are enjoying as much of it as possible. Just look at how Naomi spent most of her morning "walk"! Woo Woo Woo Woo Yeah!
Koigu of course, #P446 for those who care
June 20 2005
Do you recognize this yarn? It’s Dani’s first self striping Kool Aid dyed yarn! I LOVE IT! Can you believe that she didn’t? I thought that it needed a good home and so did she so Saturday she hand delivered it to me. I know exactly what I want to do with it, though I won’t be able to start it quite yet. After I’m done with this one I’m planning on doing one with Dani’s yarn. Don’t you think it will be cute? Dani, thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m so excited about this yarn and there will definitely be some dying in my future!Wonderful Generosity
June 16 2005
Wednesday night was the second in a three week felted bag class. One of the objectives of the class was to teach advanced students how to knit with two colors. No one decided to take me up on that, but it's how I wrote the pattern, and it's how I'm going to knit my sample! By the end of class I'd just about finished the FI band, (twice actually... I did it the first time without the solid pink border and it looked like it was missing something). I'm using one strand of Malabrigo and one strand of LPW for the pink. You may notice that they are different colors than I'd orignally shown, but my LYS had this Malabrigo already balled up from making the swatch so it made sense to use it. I wish now that I'd used the other color because it would have given more variation, but this works well too. Beautiful, but more subtle. Once again I'm doing some late night/early morning blogging! I'm sure that I don't have to tell you why. It's been productive though, I'm already through the decreases half of the waist shaping for the back of my lace cardigan! The lace just flows, and the Calmer is so smooth and wonderful, it won't let me go to bed!And The Class Goes On
June 15 2005
I'll wake up in less than six hours. I'll leave my home in less than seven to start my day. I have two sleeves. I can go to bed now! Does this qualify me for the "Summer of Lace"?Sleeves!
I took Mike's safari socks with me this weekend, and despite Lisa B's comment on Friday's post, with a bit of finagling, I was able to get back the striping! After creating a short-row heel I pulled out a bit of yarn to get it to the right place to start and off I went! I love the way that the yarn looks in the short row heel. What a bonus! Wanna see the yarn I had to pull out? Click to see the inside of the sock. Let's Talk About Socks Baby
In other sock news, I got my sock pal yesterday! Alison did a great job of pairing me up with someone fun! I can't wait to pick out my yarn today. To echo three hundred and fifty one other people, thanks Alison! One last sock matter, does anyone have a creative guess on what this will be? Hint: It's not for my sock pal!
June 14 2005
Hot Dog
Could felted bags be any easier? I love the simplicity of a felted bag and the fact that you can do so much with them. The possibilities are endless! ...not to mention that they knit up SO QUICKLY! Last night I pulled out the felted bag I'd started at last Wednesday's class so that I could knit it up to the point where the FI band will go. What seemed like minutes later I was at 10 inches and ready to put it down until the next class. Now I just need to pick my design and get it ready to show the class! Ahhh, isn't everyone impressed with my black stockinette heap! Have a knitworthy day, (and try to keep your homes cool enough to avoid exploding beer. I got home yesterday to a mess on the floor and glass shards everywhere! I think that is a good indicator that it's too hot in the apartment.)Instant Gratification
June 13 2005
We spent the weekend at Ellis Island for a family reunion. My great-grandparents on my mom's side came to Ellis Island 100 years ago. What better cause for celebration? People came from all over for this reunion. There were the family we see often from CT, and then others that we'd love to see more often from farther away. There were also family from California, Hawaii, and Zimbabwe! Family from all over. The most interesting family, however, were the Rio family originally from Columbia. They have been living in the US for 22 years now. They were there with their son who had just had his first communion, and their parents who were visiting from Spain! They signed in at the front table, had name tags, and were eating lunch with us. The interesting bit came when it was time for everyone to introduce themselves. Somehow they were skipped over and when my cousin asked them how they were related they responded that they just came in for lunch! Not related at all, I guess we just seemed like a nice group to join! Never ones to turn family away my cousin got their address and phone number and they will be invited to the next reunion I'm sure! Family is a good thing, invite people into yours today!Mi Familia
June 10 2005
Under my WIPs list there is a new entry. It appeared about a week ago, and has no link to it... just the mysterious "Safari". Today is the day to fill you in. Aren't you excited? I'm obviously back into knitting socks. I really enjoy the flow. I especially enjoy the magic loop flow. I didn't expect to be a full convert, and if I were to do a pair of socks on a size needle that I had DPNs and didn't have a 29" circular needle, I wouldn't even think twice about it and I'd do it on the DPNs, but I do enjoy this magic loop! That said, Mike doesn't want me to make him any more sweaters. He's very picky, he doesn't wear sweaters often, and he doesn't want me to put too much effort into something that may not be worn. He will wear socks though, so socks I shall make him. Hey, I'm knitting socks anyways, why not be for him? The two of us took a trip to the yarn store for him to pick out his manly color and after one speckled, non-striping, non-patterning, non-interesting veto, he came up with this. Of course it's Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock. I've never had the perfect opportunity to knit with this yarn but I've always wanted to (especially in the Vera colorway... ahhh someday for me!). I had a good idea of what this yarn was going to do when I bought it and it's behaving very well. I just love knitting with it. The wound ball was a bit of a surprise and if it had come like that I never would have bought it but the skein and the sock look amazing so I'm willing to forgive the ball! Now, my question to you... If I do a normal heel flap heel I'll mess with the striping, right? I'll probably get it back after I finish my gusset decreases, and I'm okay with that, but if I do a short row heel will it all stay pretty much the same? I'm going to do the heel in the same yarn, and I'll probably run some reinforcing thread through it if I do a short row heel to get back the heel flap stability. Lorna's Laces veterans, help me out. Is it worth it, what would you do?You May Have Noticed
June 9 2005
Well, Dani was right! Yesterday's yarn is going to be a bag of sorts. I'm teaching a bag class at A Good Yarn (who is having a huge sale right now with really great stuff). It just started last night and I have a very diverse group. I have a mother and her law school daughter. A very flustered mother of a boarding school girl, and a wonderfully pleasant good knitter whose last bag didn't come out as great as her first so she's taking the class. The first mother knit ages ago but has never finished a project, her daughter has never picked up needles before. Interesting class. Needless to say, a lot of my time was spent with the law student, but by the time she left she was half way done with the base of her bag and had learned how to pick up stitches on my demo bag. I have high hopes for her. The idea of this class was to keep it open to all knitters and more advanced knitters could learn how to knit a Fair Isle band into the top of their bag. Enter the pink yarn! Those will be double stranded together for some undetermined design on my demo bag. I don't know what the design will be, but I'm pretty sure it will come from this book: What Else?
June 8 2005
Yarn follows me home on a fairly frequent basis, so it was no surprise yesterday when yet another bag of yarn came home with me. Surprising though that it was bulky weight wool, and black! That's some Lamb's Pride Bulky in Onyx, Lamb's Pride Worsted in Rosado Rose, and a "Little Lovely" Malabrigo cloud! Oh my, the hype is not wrong, this is fabulous yarn! Any thoughts on what this will become? Don't worry, you won't have to wait long to see progress, I started on it last night! I didn't get too far though, it was just phone knitting and then I switched over to the second Calmer sleeve. Ahh, so calming it put me to sleep. (Maybe I shouldn't knit in bed if I don't want to fall asleep while knitting!) It's a good thing though because Naomi decided that rather than waking up at 8:30 this morning she'd wake up at 7! The extra sleep was worth it. Off to the dog park, have a great day! New Project, New Project, What Could it Be?
June 7 2005
Now that the party planning is out of the way, our vacation is out of the way, and things are falling into place at work I'm starting to feel a bit calmer... of course this sleeve could have something to do with it as well! I've been sneaking in a row here or there on my Sirdar cardigan in Rowan Calmer and finally got through one sleeve. Inspired by Colleen, Alison, and Paula, I checked my row gauge as well as my stitch gauge and found that I was getting 36 rows to 4" rather than 28 called for in the pattern. Um, that seems like a big difference to me! Again, inspired by these women, I recalculated the increases for the sleeve and decreases for the sleeve cap and all should fit together now for seaming, (assuming I remember to change the armholes on the fronts and the back too! First things first though, I cast on for the second sleeve and I'll get them identical before I forget what I did and can't interpret my notes! Ahhh calmer.Feeling Calmer
June 6 2005
The wedding shower was an absolute success! I got to wear the new Rebecca cardi: There was lots of great food, tea sandwiches, fruit flowers, and madeleines of course! Miranda loved her gift, (which I couldn't show here before now in fear of ruining the surprise!) It's Iris from Knitty. I am not a sewer and my sewing machine and I tolerate each other but not much more than that! The finishing, including all of the sewing and attaching the fabric to the knit part, but not including any of the finishing for the knit part, took about three hours! Phew was I glad to finish this project. It's hard to get a good picture of it, but here's the best I could do. Miranda wouldn't model in it for the blog... can you believe that? And of course, what's a bridal shower without a picture of the bridal party. We had a great day, everyone enjoyed it, games were played, toasts were made, food was eaten, and there were lots of hugs to go around! Especially for June, but for anyone else who asked here is the madeleine recipe. This recipe was given to me by a former co-worker. It was given to him by a friend, but I think originally was found in the newspaper. The recipe itself says "Adapted from Delphin Gomes". It's a tried and true recipe, but if I were to make them again I would search for the recipe I'd seen in a Gourmet magazine some time in the last twelve months or so. These taste great, were easy enough to make, and were recieved well. I used an old metal madeleine pan that I got at a garage sale years ago. This was it's first time into my oven, and although it didn't look in pristine shape nothing stuck and they came out beautifully. I only own one piece of silicone bakeware and it is a mini muffin pan. You really need to wait until things cool to get them out of the silicone and so it can really increase cooking time if you are making lots of batches. When I try to rush it only the muffin tops come out and that is obviously not a good solution! Now on to the recipe! Lemon Madeleines Unsalted butter melted, (for the pans) I used cooking spray instead.Miranda Has Been Showered
1.25 sticks unsalted butter
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
grated rind of one lemon
1.5 cups flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
.25 cup milk
June 3 2005
While Colleen was at home knitting Madeleine I was at home baking madeleines. These are for my best friend Miranda's afternoon tea bridal shower this weekend. In between batches of madeleines I wove in ends on the croched flowers and made little tags for the bags they would be adorning. They went from lounging in the grass on Tuesday to this: Not bad I think, just a few more things to do, a present to finish up, and lots and lots of food to make before Sunday... did I mention that I'm working today and Saturday? No problem, this is what I do best, cook and craft under pressure!Crafty Gal
June 1 2005
That crumpled heap I showed you yesterday is now a fully seamed, ends woven in, sweater! It's too late and too dark to take a modeled picture now, but if my photographer gets home while there is sunlight you may see my body in this cutie outfit! This was a fun, and quick knit... (that is it would have been if I hadn't been interupted by so many other projects!) It is not a beginner project like the magazine says, and would be impossible without stitch markers. I got gauge on 7s as stated though I've read that many others had problems and had to go up a few sizes. I moved the side hole down to make the sash fit better and did a three needle bind off on the shoulders. Other than that I picked up stitches for the ties rather than sewing them on later. I figured less sewing of mohair was better! All in all, I think it's cute, and I'm glad it's off my needles!Crumpled Heap No More
