The birthday bonanza continues!

I not only had the most incredible birthday, but it’s not over yet! See, my mom made the mistake of telling Yannick that I wasn’t born until 2:29pm. So neither of them wished me a happy bday until then. But I made Yannick promise I’d get a full 24 hour day birthday to celebrate with him…so from now on every year my birthday with Yannick lasts until 2:29pm the following day. So sleepy as I still am…happy birthday to me! And Happy Birthday Jackie! I know I’m imposing on your birthday today, but we already shared a midnight so I hoped you wouldn’t mind too much. (Plus you stole some of my day yesterday and celebrated early) 🙂

Last night when I finished working Yannick took me for TONS of yummy sushi, and then we went to see The Notebook. To everyone who saw the underrated commercials and wrote it off- GO SEE IT! Everyone should see it, especially anyone in a relationship. (And it’s not just me saying that, Yannick agrees). I just wish someone would have warned us to bring Kleenex.

On the knitting front, I ended up ripping out my sock swatch yesterday. I’m making it flat but faking stockinette in the round by leaving long tails behind the work…and mistakenly did the first 18 rows of the swatch at the exact number of stitches the swatch calls for. But when you leave the long tails the first and last stitch of each row (at least) get all pulled out of shape, and I won’t get a true measurement. So I re-cast on with about 10 extra stitches, and I’ll do a larger swatch and measure within the crappy borders. I just hope I get the swatch done before the holidays next week…I’d like to bring the sock along to work on.

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday dear Jennifer!

Happy Birthday to me!

(No, I will not skip around the room.)

I tried my first attempt at knitting with dpns today- 2.5mm. I’m making my first pair of socks, and they’ll be for Yannick. He had a choice- I do my pair first as practice, and he gets a more experienced pair, or I do his first and he gets them sooner. He chose sooner, figuring I could always make him another pair. I think I got gyped somehow. 🙂

I was horrified at first, ‘cus after I casted on (caste on??) the first row was HORRIBLE to knit! I kept splitting the yarn, and peering at the tiny things like I was blind. The only thing I could think of was what in the world I was getting into, with my birthday gift of 22 entire skeins of yarn waiting to be knitted on 2.5mm circs into a skirt and top. Luckily, once I got into rows 2 and beyond, it went much smoother and is actually kinda fun after big, loopy mohair-type stuff. Here’s a pic (which didn’t come out too bad considering I took it with my Palm):

This isn’t actually part of the sock, but the beginnings of my gauge swatch. Isn’t the yarn cute? It’s by Regia and self-stripes to look almost like Fair Isle. I got myself 2 skeins also to make a striped pair. All the loops you see underneath are because I had to fake my swatch as if I was knitting in the round (stockinette by knitting every row instead of knit 1 row, purl 1 row, repeat) so I let the yarn hang behind the work a bit and then start knitting again at the right side. I only have 2 skeins though so I’ll have to frog the swatch once I’m done.

I tried my first attempt at knitting with dpns today- 2.5mm. I’m making my first pair of socks, and they’ll be for Yannick. He had a choice- I do my pair first as practice, and he gets a more experienced pair, or I do his first and he gets them sooner. He chose sooner, figuring I could always make him another pair. I think I got gyped somehow. 🙂

I was horrified at first, ‘cus after I casted on (caste on??) the first row was HORRIBLE to knit! I kept splitting the yarn, and peering at the tiny things like I was blind. The only thing I could think of was what in the world I was getting into, with my birthday gift of 22 entire skeins of yarn waiting to be knitted on 2.5mm circs into a skirt and top. Luckily, once I got into rows 2 and beyond, it went much smoother and is actually kinda fun after big, loopy mohair-type stuff. Here’s a pic (which didn’t come out too bad considering I took it with my Palm):

This isn’t actually part of the sock, but the beginnings of my gauge swatch. Isn’t the yarn cute? It’s by Regia and self-stripes to look almost like Fair Isle. I got myself 2 skeins also to make a striped pair. All the loops you see underneath are because I had to fake my swatch as if I was knitting in the round (stockinette by knitting every row instead of knit 1 row, purl 1 row, repeat) so I let the yarn hang behind the work a bit and then start knitting again at the right side. I only have 2 skeins though so I’ll have to frog the swatch once I’m done.

I tried my first attempt at knitting with dpns today- 2.5mm. I’m making my first pair of socks, and they’ll be for Yannick. He had a choice- I do my pair first as practice, and he gets a more experienced pair, or I do his first and he gets them sooner. He chose sooner, figuring I could always make him another pair. I think I got gyped somehow. 🙂

I was horrified at first, ‘cus after I casted on (caste on??) the first row was HORRIBLE to knit! I kept splitting the yarn, and peering at the tiny things like I was blind. The only thing I could think of was what in the world I was getting into, with my birthday gift of 22 entire skeins of yarn waiting to be knitted on 2.5mm circs into a skirt and top. Luckily, once I got into rows 2 and beyond, it went much smoother and is actually kinda fun after big, loopy mohair-type stuff. Here’s a pic (which didn’t come out too bad considering I took it with my Palm):

This isn’t actually part of the sock, but the beginnings of my gauge swatch. Isn’t the yarn cute? It’s by Regia and self-stripes to look almost like Fair Isle. I got myself 2 skeins also to make a striped pair. All the loops you see underneath are because I had to fake my swatch as if I was knitting in the round (stockinette by knitting every row instead of knit 1 row, purl 1 row, repeat) so I let the yarn hang behind the work a bit and then start knitting again at the right side. I only have 2 skeins though so I’ll have to frog the swatch once I’m done.

I tried my first attempt at knitting with dpns today- 2.5mm. I’m making my first pair of socks, and they’ll be for Yannick. He had a choice- I do my pair first as practice, and he gets a more experienced pair, or I do his first and he gets them sooner. He chose sooner, figuring I could always make him another pair. I think I got gyped somehow. 🙂

I was horrified at first, ‘cus after I casted on (caste on??) the first row was HORRIBLE to knit! I kept splitting the yarn, and peering at the tiny things like I was blind. The only thing I could think of was what in the world I was getting into, with my birthday gift of 22 entire skeins of yarn waiting to be knitted on 2.5mm circs into a skirt and top. Luckily, once I got into rows 2 and beyond, it went much smoother and is actually kinda fun after big, loopy mohair-type stuff. Here’s a pic (which didn’t come out too bad considering I took it with my Palm):

This isn’t actually part of the sock, but the beginnings of my gauge swatch. Isn’t the yarn cute? It’s by Regia and self-stripes to look almost like Fair Isle. I got myself 2 skeins also to make a striped pair. All the loops you see underneath are because I had to fake my swatch as if I was knitting in the round (stockinette by knitting every row instead of knit 1 row, purl 1 row, repeat) so I let the yarn hang behind the work a bit and then start knitting again at the right side. I only have 2 skeins though so I’ll have to frog the swatch once I’m done.

I tried my first attempt at knitting with dpns today- 2.5mm. I’m making my first pair of socks, and they’ll be for Yannick. He had a choice- I do my pair first as practice, and he gets a more experienced pair, or I do his first and he gets them sooner. He chose sooner, figuring I could always make him another pair. I think I got gyped somehow. 🙂

I was horrified at first, ‘cus after I casted on (caste on??) the first row was HORRIBLE to knit! I kept splitting the yarn, and peering at the tiny things like I was blind. The only thing I could think of was what in the world I was getting into, with my birthday gift of 22 entire skeins of yarn waiting to be knitted on 2.5mm circs into a skirt and top. Luckily, once I got into rows 2 and beyond, it went much smoother and is actually kinda fun after big, loopy mohair-type stuff. Here’s a pic (which didn’t come out too bad considering I took it with my Palm):

This isn’t actually part of the sock, but the beginnings of my gauge swatch. Isn’t the yarn cute? It’s by Regia and self-stripes to look almost like Fair Isle. I got myself 2 skeins also to make a striped pair. All the loops you see underneath are because I had to fake my swatch as if I was knitting in the round (stockinette by knitting every row instead of knit 1 row, purl 1 row, repeat) so I let the yarn hang behind the work a bit and then start knitting again at the right side. I only have 2 skeins though so I’ll have to frog the swatch once I’m done.

At least something good came out of today, besides dear, sweet Julie being born some unmentionable years ago on this very date. I just finished the last sleeve on my To Dye For sweater. Yay! Just the blocking left, and then sewing the whole thing together. I’m still not sure if I’m supposed to use my fake mohair stuff to seam it with, so I sent an email over to my knitting groups to ask. I think I’m really bugging them lately with questions.

As for today not being the best (Julie’s birth aside), I’m grumpy ‘cus I’m sick. And right before my birthday too. I left work an hour early yesterday and crawled into bed at 6pm. Yannick woke me around 11pm with NeoCitran. He’s sweet. Did anyone else know they also made a cherry flavor? It’s absolutely DISGUSTING! He made me drink the entire thing too, damn sadist. I had a bad sinus thing, with fever, coughing, the works. I didn’t go to work today, so he gave me another NeoCitran around 10am before he left. Luckily we had a lemon flavor left in the medicine cabinet, so he gave me that one this morning. Not like a refreshing glass of lemonade, but nowhere near the death puke flavor of that cherry stuff. I think the lemon flavor is for general colds, and the cherry for coughs, I dunno. In any case I’m feeling better so I should be at work tomorrow, but first I have to go force down a glass of that cherry crap before bed.

At least I don’t have the unfinished sleeve hanging over my head any more. I’m not going to post a picture, ‘cus it looks exactly like the other sleeve.

I’m going to bed. Somebody come read me a story…I don’t feel well. 😦

It turned out I had about an hour until Big Brother 5 started (yes, I’m a reality tv junkie), so I worked on the site some. I updated the table over there on the left, and created those cute little angel buttons to link to pages on the site. The pages themselves aren’t done yet, though. What do you think, I’m a miracle worker?

So here’s the thing. I’ve had this site set up for almost a month now, and have yet to post ‘cus I’ve been lazy and haven’t gotten around to creating the rest of the content for the site. I still keep coming up with ideas for posts, though, and then get annoyed that I can’t go and blog ‘cus I don’t feel like doing the rest of the work. So today I decided SCREW IT. My allergies are acting up and I don’t feel like waiting any longer ‘cus I can’t be bothered to get my act in gear. So the rest of the site will be up whenever I get around to it. For now, at least, the blog will be current.

So what am I doing now? I have 3/4 of 1 sleeve left to finish on the To Dye For sweater from the Stitch ‘n Bitch book. I have the back, front and other sleeve done, and the back blocked. I used a wannabe mohar yarn from Walmart, which I did NOT dye with Koolaid like the book suggests.

This is the back, blocked. To block I put a garbage bag over a piece of foam or foamcore craft board, or even corrugated cardboard if I’m stuck. I pin the piece to size with dressmaker’s pins, then spritz with cool water in a spray bottle, until damp (or almost wet in places I want to stretch a lot). Then I leave it to dry. This back was my first attempt at blocking EVER, and I left it to dry for 2 days. I was afraid to take out the pins- I’d added about 2 inches to the width and was afraid it would spring back to its original size. It hasn’t.

This is the front, not blocked. You can see the difference, especially in the width and the curling edges.

This is one sleeve, not blocked. It’s bell-style. The bottom is down here with the 4 garter rows as a cuff, like the body. The rest of the sweater is done in stockinette.

Next up after that is 2 pairs of socks, or at least the pair for Yannick. I bought some cool yarn for those, my pair will be striped, and his will appear to be Fair Isle, without all the color switching work. Eventually there’ll be an eyemask from knitty.com and a tank from whiteliesdesigns.com, but first I have to get to a special project. As part of my birthday present this year, Yannick took me to Ottawa during one of our vacation days and treated me to a pattern book and all the yarn to complete a project. So I got a great book that has over 20 patterns (at least 5 of which I’m really eager to make), and all 22 (plus 2 extra) skeins needed to make a gorgeous black scalloped top and matching long skirt, plus a skein of a “fancy” yarn with blocks in it, to make a contrasting scarf to add a little color. I’m feeling very spoiled and very eager to knit, especially after the last 3 weeks of rush-crocheting for work (see “3 kids” in my completed stuff section, once it’s up).

I think I’ll end here, adding only that I’m really looking forwards to starting my knitting classes on Sept. 20. I know the basics obviously, but I’m looking forwards on how to make my stuff more professional, and then eventually getting to the level 2 class and learning how to design my own patterns.

Oh, and for those who don’t feel like reading about whatever craft stuff I’m doing, there will also be some bits and such about my life in this too, I just have nothing of that type to add right now. My life’s boring. I wanna knit.
There are a bunch of products I want from Amazon.com…I hope my husband sees this message!

Handknitting with Meg Swanson

and

knitting around

and

op knitter

and

from the top

and

raz pacifier