Tying up loose ends

Well I guess blogging and knitting are low priorities lately, I am just about to finish up some other life changing issues which took all the creative energy I could pull out.

Not necessarily in order of importance:

I am working my last day at Dr. Fleiss' office on Monday December 31, 2007. My Monday-only part-time job as a front office Lady Friday and Breastfeeding Expert helped to fund the extravagant yarn hoarding over the last 3 years or so. Yarn purchases are slowing to a crawl and will inevitably become rare until I can work again.

Which brings me to another life-changer: the new baby I have diligently gestated is nearing completion, there are 2-4 weeks remaining in this most uncomfortable pregnancy yet. I've heard women say that births get easier but pregnancies get more difficult with age. I definitely agree with the pregnancy part, I hope the birth part goes along with it.

The Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday season is just about over thankfully!!!! How I loathe the Fall-Winter holidays especially because we have 3 birthdays and 4 holidays crammed into 3 months. My dad's birthday is December 27, but since he passed away a couple years ago, that has lightened the load a touch. Now we'll be having the Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday/ Holiday/ Birthday season to look forward to each year.

So that's the news, at least most of it. I am spending all my free computer time at Ravelry, and the projects are nearly all updated, excepting projects that need pictures. There are only a portion of the items I have knitted on Ravelry, because there were so many that never were neither photographed nor blogged about, or maybe I just frogged the darn thing and don't want to put it in Ravelry. Que sera sera.

I am at Ravelry 24/7, since 10/01/07

Late September my Ravelry invite came in and since October 1st, I've been archiving my projects morning/ noon/ night. There is no way to ever finish photographing and listing everything, I don't have pictures for many early projects, and there is too much stash yarn to photograph, I can never take pictures of all my yarn, I can barely take pictures of my kids and FOs.

So if there is anyone who wants to come over and see my work I am juleskim at Ravelry! I am working on a bunch of stuff, but it's all listed there for now.

Nasty Heat Wave

Right now it's 101F/ 38C. This feels relatively cool compared to yesterday, and the preceeding week! The temperature yesterday registered 107F outside in the shade, and 105F inside my house with the windows shut [we have NO AIR CONDITIONER WHATSOEVER], too hot for me. I took a few cold showers then went to the mall where it wasn't exactly an oasis, it was nearly as hot, plus it was MOBBED! Not a vacant seat in the house, standing room only! There was to be no sitting nor knitting.

Instead of knitting, I did join the Hemlock Ring Blanket KAL. I am not sure I like Knitalongs though... takes a lot of energy away from the actual pleasure of knitting.

I see there is also a Skif KAL which I haven't joined for a couple reasons, one being my tepid feeling toward KALs. Skif reminds me of Suss and Habu designs, kind of loosely knit and drapey, like the New Wave Holocaust style of the 1980's. Cool, and likely this is the up and coming retro style trend, but I don't LOVE any of the 4 pattern styles available for purchase, and each pattern costs ::ahem:: $20. I like a few of the other designs, but no patterns! Maybe I'll write a letter...

Cat Bordhi says...

You might think my voice is crazy, but it will help you learn.

In her YouTube video, Cat says this about her use of cartoon voices to explain Judy Becker's provisional cast on, a.k.a. THE Provisional Cast On of the Century. I love Cat for making free knitting videos on YouTube. I felt she was special when I took her Moebius class. She was such a warm and enabling facilitator, I felt ecstatically happy about knitting moebii. Thanks Cat, I *heart* U!

Judy's cast on offers:

1. PERFECT TENSION [oh my god!]
2. EVERY stitch will be present, in both directions [holy cow!]
3. ALL stitches will be correctly mounted [what!?]

Now I wonder if I should frog and re-knit the Jane Crossover Sweater using Judy's method? Tragically, it will be the 4th frogging of this section, and the single ply yarn gets fuzzier and worse for wear, poor yarn. However, my drawn-out, provisional cast on experiment has driven me nuts to this point, and with this one technique all the cons of the other methods disappear, I will feel redeemed.

Devo's song Whip It accurately describes my feelings about Ripping It:

Crack that whip
Give the past the slip
Step on a crack
Break your mommas back
When a problem comes along
You must RIP it
Before the cream sits out too long
You must whip it
When somethings going wrong
You must RIP it

Now RIP it
Into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
Its not too late
To RIP it
RIP it good

When a good time turns around
You must RIP it
You will never live it down
Unless you RIP it
No one gets away
Until they RIP it

I say RIP it
RIP it good
I say RIP it
RIP it good

Copycat Copycat

In production are 2 blankets, one is specifically a baby blanket and the other is a blatant copycat project, a giant lace doily.

Item #1 is a mitered squares blanket, using Handmaiden's Northern Lights Baby Blanket pattern and Sheep Shop I yarn, shade G-17. This kit was purchased from Kathleen at Tidal Brook, and originally included Handmaiden's luxurious 8ply cashmere, but I chose to substitute yarn to reduce costs. Admittedly, I would pay the extra amount for cashmere if there were specific colorways in stock with which I am smitten.

Here's the blanket after 1 skein, pictured with a second skein about to be spit-spliced. In this photo, I cropped one square lengthwise, so each skein actually yields 7 squares instead of 6 as shown. The color is dark and hard to photograph, but this is pretty accurate.

Modifications are small and are mainly due to yarn substitution and personal taste:

• decreased 2 needle sizes
• changed the size and dimensions to compensate for gauge

Item #2 is the nearly exact replica of Jared Flood's Hemlock Ring Blanket, go on and look at his beautiful photos, I think he is genius.

Here are the project specs from b r o o k l y n t w e e d:

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket*
Source: My modification of the Hemlock Ring vintage doily (1942), with added chart repeats and heavy weight yarn. [See full post below for details]
Materials: Cascade Ecological Wool in "Latte" (8063)
Needles: US 10/6.0mm 40" Circulars; KnitPicks Options
Amount: Approximately 311g/11oz; About 600 yards (less than 2 skeins)
Finished Measurements: Just shy of 4 feet in diameter

Start Date: 27 July 2007
Finish Date: 9 August 2007

No major changes here, I am keeping the same yarn, same needle size, same pattern/ chart, yes I am a shameless Copycat! There are only insignificant differences:

• yarn is still Cascade Ecological, but the shade is a medium heather gray rather than Latte
  
• needles are Addi Turbo instead of KnitPicks Options
  
• my version may be larger, I'll continue knitting until the yarn is depleted.

Here's the result of 1 skein, the remaining ball of yarn is smaller than my fist. This is the 9th repeat of 11, though it's hard to see any of the Feather and Fan pattern due to bunching.

Non-Knitting News

Riley's 2 front teeth have gone missing. Yay! Come on over here, Tooth Fairy!

No More Mr. Nice Girl

Ya, I'm totally grouchy! Ask anyone and s/he will agree that I'm intolerant and on my last nerve, 24/7. I have managed bits of knitting here and there, but then am too tired to read directions so everything comes out wrong! No Debbie Bliss patterns until I can learn to take proper notes and use a row counter simultaneously. She changes the row count back to zero in the darndest places: No Debbie Bliss patterns, especially the "easy" ones!

Hey, but good news on the small person within, and the pregnancy progresses nicely even though I feel blech. 17 weeks today.