Thursday, April 26, 2007

The Agony of deFeet


Here lies the Chevron Yarntini sock. She was agood sock; she had lovely stripes.
Unfortunately her stupid forthought/afterthought heel did not have enough give to accommodate my rather tall arches. (And, I had dropped a stitch near the heel that ran like a red T-shirt in a load of white laundry when I tried on the sock-in-progress. )

Sniff. I was over half way to the toe decreases too.

I cast on for a new pattern last night. I use the term "pattern" loosely because this time I am going to attempt to use the Yarn Harlot's sock "recipe" instead of following a specific sock pattern as though it includes directions on how to diffuse a bomb.

We'll see what happens. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

There has been a LOT of crafting going on around here. Unfortunately, I don't really have the photos to back up that statement. I will fix that situation soon... when I have a few more FO's to share. In the mean time, I do have a few pics.

I know, I know... I am a one-project knitter. Some of you may be wondering where the Veste Evereste has gone.

Well, It hasn't gone anywhere. I have finished the front and have about two inches of the back completed. I feel a little unfaithful for having started the sock (see below), but I needed a portable project to work on while attending this:

I actually had to take a lot of notes in the sessions I attended, but the sock came in really handy in the hours before the two sessions that I presented. I'm a nervous knitter. I am calmed by my knitting and definitely needed some fiber therapy to help calm my nerves before lecturing.

Here she is:

Yay for Yarntini! I took this photo last week. I've actually done quite a bit more since then... sort of. Well, I've knitted a lot more, though you can hardly tell because I have been ripping back almost as much as I have been knitting.

I decided that this luscious yarn needed a pattern to really show off the stripe. And I think I picked a really good one! This pattern, however, has a "forethought heel."This is the author's "spin" on the afterthought heel. It was confusing & cumbersome at first, but I quickly caught on. Unfortunately, I neglected to mark my pattern for size when I started it & when I did the provisional cast on I did so with 22 stitches. The pattern required 33. R-I-P.

On my second go I picked up all the stitches backward & got so flustered that I completely messed up the decreases. RR-II-PP.

On the third try I forgot to let the leg yarn rest & pull from the other end of the skein. RRRIIIPPP. (What can I say? It was Knit Nite, there was hot chocolate & gossip...)

I'm now on my fourth try & so far it's going well. Hopefully I will get this heel done a some point in my lifetime.

And in other news...

SOMETHING IS EATING MY YARN!!!!!!!!!



This yarn was in a basket. Now, in retrospect, it might not have been the wisest decision to place said basket under the window in my bedroom. It's just that I had all this really great sock yarn... and I wanted it nearby... to touch and admire whenever I need to take the edge off.

I am confident that the perpetrators were not moths as I have seen none of the little buggers flitting around the house. So, I cried a little (because of course the little bastards passed up the sock yarn that I am simply fond of and went straight for my absolute favorite!) and then put the whole mess in the deep-freeze in the basement. It's still there.

And I made Hubby spray pesticide all around the house, windows, etc. He was not as sympathetic as i would have hoped, but he sprayed anyway.

I bought a new book.


I had a few book store gift cards burning a hole in my underwear drawer. I dug them out & cashed them in... I got this book exactly a week ago & I've hardly been able to put it down. I'm almost done reading it already! It's hilarious and quite educational. I've learned much about our Knitting culture... and about myself as a citizen of Knitting. I highly recommend picking up this little gem.

So, how was your Easter? Ours was great! Here a a few photos:

The annual egg-dying party. It was a little less messy this year, though (as you can tell from the photo) some of the eggs didn't make it through the process intact.


LilMan had a great time hunting for his eggs (which the "Easter Bunny" hid at 4:30 a.m. on Easter morning).


LilMan left a snack for the Easter Bunny. He made a lettuce sandwich & bread sticks snack all by himself. The Easter Bunny ate some of it, and left a very crumby mess...


Well, that's about it for now. I'm hoping to finish up a few items this weekend. Have a great day!



Monday, April 2, 2007

A Little of This & a Little of That...

Well, there has been some knitting around these parts. I finished the front of the Veste Evereste and I am confident that I have enought yarn to cable the back as well. I was a little concerned that I would run out (okay, nothing new there) so I knittd the fron first. I thought that if I used up more than half of the yarn in the front then I would have to rib the back. As it turns out, I used less than half of my yarn... this makes me a little nervous because I made the front about three inches longer than the patterns called for.

Oh well, I will just wait & see how it turns out. I've cast on for the back, but havent' put a stitch in it yet.

I was... called away. I couldn't help myself. It was the Siren-Song of that new Yarntini that Heather sent me for Christmas. It is well on its way to becoming a chevron sock. It's beautiful. I am loving this yarn. LOVING iT. I'll post a pic later this week.

The other reason I started a sock in the middle of knitting the Veste? We had our Midwest Region American Music Therapy Conference.

Conference=Knitting.

In this case I did more nervous knitting than bored-knitting. I presented two lectures at this year's conference. One was just one hour of a five hour continuing education course that I gave along with four other music therapists that I work with.

The other one was 90 minutes of me. That's right. It was all me, and it was fun. Well, it was stressful to prepare for, and a little nerve-wracking the first few minutes. I had about 25 people from about five different states (and one from Canada!) in my lecture... all of them there to listen to me.... listen to me say lots of intelligent-sounding stuff. No pressure there.

I think I did alright. I received several nice compliments afterward, and my intern assures me that I didn't say anything dumb or embarrassing. That's good, right?

Anyway, the stress of giving both lectures sent me into a knitting frenzy both mornings and I am almost ready to begin the completely wierd heel for Sock #1. I understand the resaoning for it (it shows off the stripes quite nicely) but after reading through the instructions, I'm not sure I really understand HOW to make it happen. It's a little confusing.

Well, that's it for now. Check back later this week for Yarntini photos!