Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Shawl progress

I thought I would post some of the progress in my knitting. It's going slowly lately, because I can't knit with the wrist brace on, and as you can expect my wrist hurts when I knit without it. But last night I passed the halfway mark in knitting on the edging of what I'm calling a shawl (though it can and probably will be used as a tablecloth for tea parties too). It's being knit out of what I like to call hand-plyed cotton. I take Peaches and Cream cotton yarn (comes in big pound cones from wal-mart) and sit there and separate all the plys and than ply it back together as a 2 ply. It makes the softest cotton yarn I have ever used, and it's a beautiful fingering weight.

So I'm knitting a lace shawl for a little girl who just turned 4, as a birthday/baby present. She's getting a baby sister soon. Here's a picture of the shapless blob that it looks like now, and one of the edging.

I'm hoping that once it's blocked it will be 45 inches, in a slight hexagonal shape. It's knit from the Azeala patter in the First Book Of Modern Lace Knitting and it's a total of 3 repeats of the pattern (I think they called it the placemat) but since it's knit in fingering weight and not size 40 cotton, and on size 7 needles, not size 1, I'm expecting it much bigger than the original 15 inches it should be. :) It's over 20 from rim to rim, before the edging has been knit on, and I estimate the edging to be about 3 inches wide before it's going to be blocked. The edging is a pattern I got from my gran, it was written on a scrap of paper tucked in her yarn collection. I have hopes of reversing the decreases and knitting a scarf out of it, with the edging being back to back. I call it my leaf lace edging.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Wheeeee!!

I'm having fun out here. I'm attempting to knit (and type) with a messed up wrist. I get to have a nerve test done on it, because there's these funny things like tingling and numbness and the dr thinks carpel tunnel. :( he told me no repetitive motions, and I was a good girl, I resisted the urge to flip him off.

On the SP front, I'm almost done with a present for her, the sheep scarf is done and waiting until I knit a bunch more repeats of the edging needed on what will either be a baby blanket, shawl for her daughter, or a table cloth for said daughter to use with tea parties. I have no idea how big it will be when done and blocked. But it's pretty.

Scott walks, he'd rather walk now than crawl. He's sooooo cute, even right now when he's a whiny little wanker who's getting all 4 eyeteeth (the pointy ones) at the same time. Why couldn't he have done this last week, when he was at the in-laws?????

Speaking of in-laws, I know what my christmas present is and I want Dec. 25th to hurry up and get here. I could really use it before the holiday season, so I could get my baking done. hehe, it's pretty, and red, and it comes with many attachments.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Happy birthday..........to me

Ok, this makes me laugh to no end. Every year, since I was old enough to get birthday cards from my dad, he's gotten my birthday wrong. And not by a day or 2 either, sometimes by a whole month! Yes, he's not been around in my life that much, for which I'm actually thankful, but still, it's only 6 days before his! He gets my sisters day right, he gets my mom, and he gets my half-brothers (whom I've never met) right, but he can't remember mine. It just makes me laugh.

So for my special day, I'm babysitting (ok, conscripting her to help watch Scott for me) my friends 9 year old step-daughter to be. I know, seems weird, but I like her and she loves helping with Scott. We're just gonna run around in my now very dented car (more on that farther down) and than I'm going to teach her how to cook a little, as we make my birthday cake. Yes, I have to make my own cake. I have to make my own prime rib dinner too, because I won't let J in my kitchen.

As to the dented car, yesterday J changed lanes right into the front bumper of another car. Woohoo! Is it sad when your car is worth so little that the insurance would rather total it out than pay the money to fix it. I'll post pictures, cause the damage isn't horrible, just ugly.

Speaking of pictures, I'll be posting some of my loom. I still can't find my camera cable, but I found the phone cord for the computer, so I can take them with that. Expect those tomorrow, or later tonight.

I love my loom. I'm playing around with a belt, woven out of a rayon slub yarn, that's very pretty. Just have to practice on keeping straight edges. I haven't been spinning much lately, hurts my legs a lot. I have been knitting a lot. I can't find the pattern for the bunnies I was making, because a little person walked off with it, so for now I'm knitting a scarf for my partner, it looks like a sheep. I feel kinda bad though, it's only partly wool. But it looks pretty, and I think she'll like it. I also have a pin for her, but I can't say what it looks like, cause she might read this.

As for partners, something I forgot to mention that I got from my lovely partner. She sent me some Sherbert Lemon candies as well. For those not failure with the British phenomenon of Sherbert candies, think of lik-m-sticks, the powder that comes with those. And not forget the really fruity tart flavor, and make it smooth and creamy. That's Sherbert candy. Usually found with a lolly (sucker) to dip in there, or a straw of black licorice (EWWWWW). So I stick to the lollys. I hadn't seen these candies for a few years, since i moved away from my English neighbors. Thankfully I know where she got them, so I made a pilgrimage to Cost Plus World Market. There I found my wonderful Peach candies again, they're not Juicefuls but they are still good, and chocolate covered marzipan. I can't eat very much of the latter without wanting to enter a sugar induced coma, but it's SOOOOOO worth it.

Off to play with Scott and make up the grocery list for dinner tomorrow. I still havent' decided what I'll do for my cake yet, maybe bread pudding.