Aria

I received word two days ago that basically puts all my whining about frogging socks and warm weather into perspective. Aria, 24 years old, mommy of an almost 2 year old girl and a newborn baby boy, passed away on July 26th. I knew her from a close knit mommy community that I have been a member of for the past two years, and I liked her. She was feisty, strong, fiercely loving, loyal, funny, and she adored her little girl. When she got pregnant again, she mentioned several times that she didn't have a good feeling about it, that she didn't feel like it was going to have a happy ending. We responded with "oh honey, that's just hormones, everything will be fine, you'll see!". We meant well, but we pretty much told her she was being silly.
And then things started going wrong when she was induced. She was unconscious when they delivered her baby boy by emergency C section, and she passed away a few hours later due to a amniotic fluid embolism that traveled up to her heart. She never got to see or hold her little boy. He will never know the loving touch of his mother. Their daddy will have to explain to the little girl that mommy is not coming home, ever again. Why do these things happen?

Yeah, about the weather...

So the weather changed again here in beautiful, fickle Massachusetts, and it is now frigging hot. Since I am working on a pair of woolen socks I am NOT happy about it. My hands get sticky, the needles (I work on metal DPNs size 0) get sticky and the yarn keeps getting stuck to them. Ick. Could we moderate the weather for knitters please? I would say a temperature of between 60 and 70 degrees, sunny, dry, with a bit of a breeze but not so bad that your yarn gets tangled when you knit outside. How does that sound? Oh, and no bugs either, please. They scare me and make me jump up, and losing a dozen stitches on a lace patterned sock is a pain in the... well, you know.
All those that are in favor of weather specifically geared towards knitters, say aye!

Felted bags

Long overdue pictures of my not-so-Booga bag. I made it wider than the pattern told me to, I cast on 50 stitches instead of the prescribed 34. Subsequently it didn't turn out as high as the one in the pattern, which was what I was going for. I love how the colors turned out, and the felting has really exceeded my expectations. Unfortunately the edges are a bit wavy and it doesn't keep its shape very well.



My next project was supposed to be this one:




















Pretty, no? This is what it turned out as:

I stuffed it to the gills with books so it has at least a little bit of a boxy feeling to it, but it is a complete flop. The zipper opening is way too small, the zipper was put in in the clumsy manner of a six year old's first attempt at sewing (I did it, but the result is really pretty bad looking), and it's much more floppy than I expected it to be.

So... This is why I stated that although I still love bags, they never seem to work out the way I want them too. Socks however, as long as they have an opening on one side, are closed on the other side, and have something resembling a heel in the middle, are pretty much impossible to foul up. Yay for socks!!

Why kids and lace knitting don't mix

I had this new sock set up. A daring project, all lace. An intricate pattern, or at least for me. And I was doing really well at it too. I was up to two repeats and it looked as perfectly geometrical as the pattern picture said it should.
Until Ariel got her little mits on it. She pulled out all four needles and then grinned up at me with this cute little face that said "look mommy, I helped you with your knitting!"
Nineteen months old, cute as a button and smart as a whip. I should have made sure she couldn't reach the knitting, and usually I do. I just count myself lucky she didn't poke her eye out or something horrible like that. A lace sock is a small thing to sacrifice in a situation like this.

Socks socks socks

I have a new craze, I think. I moved on from bags (still love them but somehow they never pan out the way I want them to) to socks. There is something very manageable about knitting socks. It takes one ball of yarn, a couple of needles (okay, a LOT of needles, since I knit them with 5 DPNs) and two hands. Once you have a "recipe" for a basic sock, you can just go ahead and make up the rest as you go along. Socks are easy to take along and are interesting enough to keep you amused for hours on end. And for such a small project, socks take a lot longer than you would think.
Joe and I spent the past week up in Canada with his parents, and I knit a pair of socks for myself during that week. Need I say more? It was one of the longest weeks of my life and I knitted all my annoyance and frustrations at Joe's mother's meddling, whining, passive-agressiveness and just general annoyingness (yes, that is a word. Well, it is now.) into my socks. They are knit from a beautiful self patterning yarn in various shades of brown, cream and gray, and looking at them gives me cravings for chocolate. They hold a lot of evil thoughts though, so hopefully they won't give me gout or hammertoes as a result.

These are my chocolatey socks before washing and blocking properly:

What kind of knitter are you?

I'm a sucker for these silly quizzes, and since I am also a sucker for knitting, this one was perfect for me:

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!








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Felting woes

Joe and I live in an apartment without washer or dryer. This has always been a pain as far as I am concerned, but never more so than now. I have a felting thing going. I started working on a Booga Bag with Patton's SWS in the color way plum, and it needs to be felted. I could do it by hand, but it would probably take me a day of scrubbing and rubbing to get it done, and to be honest I have neither the stamina nor the time for that. But using the complex laundry room is costly (1.65 a pop!) and time consuming, especially if the bag takes four or five turns in the machine.
I have no idea where this felting kick comes from, but it's got a fierce hold on me. I already have my next few projects lined up, a Sophie bag, a Lopi tote, and a free form knitting bag. Unless my Booga doesn't turn out well, of course. I modified the pattern, that is to say I want the bag to be more rectangular bottom wise, and not as high. So I cast on 48 stitches, knit 48 rows, and will knit only the 68 rows in the round that the pattern dictates. I will of course post pictures once it's done.

The Dollar and a Half cardigan is slow going at the moment, I am working on the sleeves right now but I am too psyched about my felting thing to sit down and finish it. I have read about so many problems with this pattern, nobody likes the sleeves and the original pattern in Interweave Knits actually got the two front panels mixed up. The needles need to be changed to two sizes smaller for the reversed stockinette panels or there will be major puffiness that even extreme blocking won't fix. Needless to say, if you knit it in 100% acrylic like I am doing, there is no way you can block it anyway. I washed the back and the left front panel and pinned it down to the measurements described while it dried, but it already looks like it's bunching up again. Oh well, if it turns out to be a disaster it will have been a good lesson, and not a very expensive one.
Live and learn! I so wish I had the cash to knit only with excellent material like wool, silk, bamboo, alpaca, mohair, and the like. But as long as Joe is in charge (which will be forever hehe) that is just not going to happen.