A BIG Happy Mother’s Day to all Mommies, Bubbies, and Mommies-to-be!

Enjoy your Sunday!

A BIG Happy Mother’s Day to all Mommies, Bubbies, and Mommies-to-be!

Enjoy your Sunday!

I’m feeling a little goofy ‘cus I’ve been up since 6am. I need to take penicillin for my stupid tooth every 6 hrs, so I put myself on 6-12-6-12. Unfortunately I don’t need to leave for work until 9:15am, but I couldn’t fall back asleep. So here I am. Hi! Good morning! I wish I were sleeping!

This is a swatch I made over Wed and Thurs. The gauge is 22st x 30 rows = 4″ st st. Supposed to be with a 4mm. I tried it and got just 1 st and row short. I tried again with the next ndl size higher up- 4.5mm- and got it. It still seems a big small to me, but for this project fit isn’t important so I’m not going to worry about it too much. But I am a little thrown at how .5mm can only ad 1 st and row over all those sts and rows. I thought I’d be too big with that size ndl. Hmm…..
EDITED TO ADD: No, this isn’t for the lacy shrug. This is for another pattern I felt like trying out.

This is a swatch for that lacy shrug I showed off yesterday. Here’s my dilemma: I don’t know what yarn to use. I’ve heard that Crystal Palace Kid Merino sheds, from the mohair content. So I don’t want that. I want to start soon, so before going shopping online I checked my LYS. They had 2 options: since the CPKM is supposed to be doubled, and laceweight doubled is roughly dk weight, I can use Zara. Or, I can use Schjeepees (sp?) 4ply sock yarn doubled. I don’t know what to do. I love Zara, but here’s my swatch. See the problem? Check out the pattern gauge: 8.45 sts and 12.45 rows = 4″ blocked in lace patt. Right. So I did a swatch of 7 st wide, because that was the minimum I could use to fit with the lace repeat. It was that or 11 sts, and I wanted to be sure I didn’t get 4″ ‘cus I had too many sts. The pattern repeats over 4 rows, so I did 3 repeats. I’m aware that I’m almost a row short, and about 2 sts short. However, I don’t get much more than 3-3.5″ square, and that’s with SERIOUS blocking. So I’m not sure if I can trust that the Zara will work. I’d like to hope it would, ‘cus this shrug in black Zara would be too cute.

I can also use something from Knitpicks, or look elsewhere online. Here’s my problem: there is no given gauge for the CPKM. It says “various gauges using needle sizes 3-8”. Thanks, that really helps. They claim it’s a laceweight, but doubled becomes dk to worsted. So can I just substitute any laceweight and double it?

Speaking of Knitpicks…I just remembered that I’d ordered the color cards, and never opened the box! It arrived about a month or more ago- what was I thinking? So take a look at these pretty things:
I ordered one of each line they carry that offers the sample cards. So if anyone from Montreal Knits is thinking of buying from them, but wanted to see the colors close up and IRL (sorry, holdout from my mIRC days when I was an OP), let me know and I’ll bring them to a meeting. Heck, I’ll probably bring them to the next Wed meeting anyways.

It would be really cool if someone could help me figure out what I could use to knit the lacy shrug. *hint, hint*

Think I can somehow manage to fall asleep and get at least another hour and a half before work? I didn’t think so either…but I’ll go try.

EDITED A FEW HOURS LATER TO ADD: I did manage to get an extra hour of sleep, and as a result I’m a much more pleasant person right now. :]

The added rest did give me a bit of a brain boost, as I remembered another option for the shrug:

I have 22 balls of Sisu in my stash. I was supposed to make a long-sleeved top and matching skirt- the birthday outfit from Yannick. The pattern and yarn were gifts for my birthday when I really got “back” into knitting. I’m sure I can have enough to make the shrug, and still have left overs to make the top, and just skip the skirt. I’ll get more use out of the top anyways, who really needs a long, black, A-line, eyelet skirt?

So will the Sisu work? I don’t know. It’s 80% Virgin Wool (although I think it’s hysterical that in the original language on the label it says 80% god), 20% nylon (polyamid). This lace pattern needs a good blocking to open it up…will the nylon stop this yarn from holding the blocking? If I knit it, then pin it out, let it dry and have to watch it spring back to how it was before…I think I’ll have one hell of a hissy fit.

It’s a sock yarn I think, or around that weight. 160m for 50g. I *think* it’s machine washable, but I’ll have to find a label translation online to know for sure. It says “shrink resistant”, so does that mean it’s superwash? Can you block superwash? The little icons say I can wash it at 40 deg but no tumble dry. Suggested gauge on the label is 27 sts x 42 rows = 4″ on 2.5-3. I’m going to assume that’s mm, not US values.

Would I use this doubled, or singly? It’s not laceweight, but not as thick as a dk.

Oy this is getting hard. I’m going to put a call out for help- Montreal Knits to the rescue!

Isn’t she gorgeous? It’s a free pattern, found here: http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/KidMerino-shrug.html

I want to make her in black.

Isn’t she gorgeous? It’s a free pattern, found here: http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/KidMerino-shrug.html

I want to make her in black.

Isn’t she gorgeous? It’s a free pattern, found here: http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/KidMerino-shrug.html

I want to make her in black.

I need to add some pictures to this blog. I tried on Tuesday night, but the batteries in my digital camera died. Soon, my pretties, soon.

I’m listening to Inkheart in the car, by Cornelia Funke. Really good book so far. It’s being read by Lynn Redgrave, and she’s doing a great job at portraying everyone from a really evil man to a 12 year old girl. I think it’s cool how it keeps matching my moods. I started it on Friday on my way home from work. I was in a great mood, and the story was just zipping along with all the hope in the world. Today, on my way to work, the story took a turn for the worse for the main characters. This was just perfect, as I had just been to the dentist this morning and he confirmed that yes, I would need to meet with a specialist to see about having a root canal done.

I’m so not thrilled about this. It’s not the pain- I’ve had a root canal before. When I was bartending 7 years ago we had a popcorn machine at the bar, and I often filled up a basket to keep with me behind the bar. (Popcorn is my biggest snack craving). I was probably eating my 3rd or 4th handful when CRUNCH my tooth went down on a hard kernel and broke. It was my last tooth on the top left, and I didn’t realize it was broken until I couldn’t get the kernel to crack, and realized it was 1/2 my tooth. Yummy.

On the plus side, breaking my tooth led to the first really sweet thing Yannick ever did for me. We had just started “hanging out”, weren’t officially dating yet but more like friends who were interested. He’d told me he wasn’t coming to the bar that night to see me because he had plans with his mom. His dad was working late so he told his mom he’d stay in and watch a movie with her. So just before starting the movie he calls me to say “have a good night” and that he’ll call me the next day, and I mentioned the tooth thing. Wouldn’t you know it, 10 minutes later he walks into the bar! He couldn’t stay long because they had the movie to watch, but he was concerned that my tooth was hurting me or would start to soon, so he brought me some pain-killers!

Root canal #1 wasn’t bad, primarily because a) it was about $1000, but b) I had insurance so they covered it. I finally realized, about 4 years later, that it had never stopped hurting, so the guy had to redo it, but he didn’t charge me because he was fixing his own work. This new one will be a b!tch. I don’t have insurance. I also don’t have $1000. Based on the x-ray, it seems that a filling I had done back in ’02 could be a little close to the root. Why it’s hurting now is beyond me. All I know is that since waking up Sunday morning, there have only been brief 5-minute lapses when I didn’t think about the tooth. Killing me. Probably the cause of my recent migraines, too. My dentist can’t even fix it, he needs me to go see a specialist*. Why do I get the priviledge of getting to visit this specimen of the dental elite? Because, lucky me, my tooth has 3 roots. Not 1, boring old Vanilla root. Not even 2- with chocolate chips thrown in. Nope, I get to have 3 roots- the Rocky Road of dental procedures.

Tuesday night I finished the FNWC, which I guess I can say is a sweater. (That’s a bit like saying I read LRRH, which is a book. Not exactly giving it away. Although- my dad and I often talk with acronyms, and I’ve gotten freakishly good at figuring them out. Sometimes I need a context to put it in, but other times I can just “get” it. Wierd.) Anyways, I finished the thing, save for a little glitch that I couldn’t do anything about.

Last night was the Montreal Knits meetup. Yannick was running late (and enduring BIG teasing from his buddy about “being late for the knitting meeting”) so Robyn came to get me. My headache wasn’t too bad, more like a dull thud than a migraine, although my tooth was killing me. There were many of us there, and I met Diana and Kelli Ann (and Zoé) for the first time.

I had no idea what to bring to knit. The pay job is finished, the pay finishing job is finished, my friends who are having babies don’t know the sexes yet, and I have no knitting priorities. Feels odd. So I brought out the Goldilocks shrug and worked on that. It doesn’t ever seem to get much longer, but it must be because I can slip my arm into it and have it go from my armpit to my hand, so I’m probably 1/3 done. No matter what I’ll need to stop once the ball is done because I only had the one hank, and they are hand-dyed yarns. I could probably call up Fleece Artist and describe it but it wouldn’t match *exactly* so it will be what it will be and that’s that. I think I’ll gain some extra room if I block it, so depending on the final length I might just get a little more out of it.

So what now? Do I pick a new pattern? Do I dust off an old wip? Do I get off my butt and work on one of my own designs?

I don’t know. But I’m sure I’ll be knitting something in the meantime!

*someone who does the same work but gets to charge 3x the price for it.

I was tagged by Robyn, so here goes. I am at work though, so this is from memory, although IMHO my memory is pretty darn good. 🙂

What’s In your Fridge?
eggs, skim milk, butter, margarine, light mayo, diet soda, Brita water filter pitcher, baby onions, olives, pickles, 3 kinds of coffee, ketchup, jams, jellies, hot salsa, some kind of coffee-flavored syrup (like chocolate milk but for coffee- don’t ask me it’s Yannick’s), lettuce, some apples, mini fruit cups, mini applesauce cups, wet cat food, juice

What’s in your Closet?
my pants, skirts, dresses, sweat pants, sweat shirts, dressy shirts, button-down shirts, shoes, a fur coat, a bunch of belts, a bag with a bunch of smaller bags inside

What’s in your DVD Player?
Ooh..I don’t know. There are 5 or 6 spots but Yannick watches movies often without me. Knowing him, there are probably at least 2 seasons of Smallville in there!

What’s in your car?
2 books on CD, Sanitary Hand Wipes, a water bottle, gum, some CDs, my library books, an umbrella, my snow-scraper, a tool kit, a mug, some old mail, a yoga mat, my sunglasses

What’s in your purse?
my wallet, my keys, my cell, a knitting bag, some pens, some sugar-free breath savers and candies and gum, Advil Migraine, a “cheat-sheet” for my diet, my Palm, about 4 lip balms/ lip sticks, a flashlight, some “thank you” notes I’m writing for the engagement party, old receipts, my Lotto folder

I tag: Kadi, & anyone else who wants to participate.

I was tagged by Robyn, so here goes. I am at work though, so this is from memory, although IMHO my memory is pretty darn good. 🙂

What’s In your Fridge?
eggs, skim milk, butter, margarine, light mayo, diet soda, Brita water filter pitcher, baby onions, olives, pickles, 3 kinds of coffee, ketchup, jams, jellies, hot salsa, some kind of coffee-flavored syrup (like chocolate milk but for coffee- don’t ask me it’s Yannick’s), lettuce, some apples, mini fruit cups, mini applesauce cups, wet cat food, juice

What’s in your Closet?
my pants, skirts, dresses, sweat pants, sweat shirts, dressy shirts, button-down shirts, shoes, a fur coat, a bunch of belts, a bag with a bunch of smaller bags inside

What’s in your DVD Player?
Ooh..I don’t know. There are 5 or 6 spots but Yannick watches movies often without me. Knowing him, there are probably at least 2 seasons of Smallville in there!

What’s in your car?
2 books on CD, Sanitary Hand Wipes, a water bottle, gum, some CDs, my library books, an umbrella, my snow-scraper, a tool kit, a mug, some old mail, a yoga mat, my sunglasses

What’s in your purse?
my wallet, my keys, my cell, a knitting bag, some pens, some sugar-free breath savers and candies and gum, Advil Migraine, a “cheat-sheet” for my diet, my Palm, about 4 lip balms/ lip sticks, a flashlight, some “thank you” notes I’m writing for the engagement party, old receipts, my Lotto folder

I tag: Kadi, & anyone else who wants to participate.

I was tagged by Robyn, so here goes. I am at work though, so this is from memory, although IMHO my memory is pretty darn good. 🙂

What’s In your Fridge?
eggs, skim milk, butter, margarine, light mayo, diet soda, Brita water filter pitcher, baby onions, olives, pickles, 3 kinds of coffee, ketchup, jams, jellies, hot salsa, some kind of coffee-flavored syrup (like chocolate milk but for coffee- don’t ask me it’s Yannick’s), lettuce, some apples, mini fruit cups, mini applesauce cups, wet cat food, juice

What’s in your Closet?
my pants, skirts, dresses, sweat pants, sweat shirts, dressy shirts, button-down shirts, shoes, a fur coat, a bunch of belts, a bag with a bunch of smaller bags inside

What’s in your DVD Player?
Ooh..I don’t know. There are 5 or 6 spots but Yannick watches movies often without me. Knowing him, there are probably at least 2 seasons of Smallville in there!

What’s in your car?
2 books on CD, Sanitary Hand Wipes, a water bottle, gum, some CDs, my library books, an umbrella, my snow-scraper, a tool kit, a mug, some old mail, a yoga mat, my sunglasses

What’s in your purse?
my wallet, my keys, my cell, a knitting bag, some pens, some sugar-free breath savers and candies and gum, Advil Migraine, a “cheat-sheet” for my diet, my Palm, about 4 lip balms/ lip sticks, a flashlight, some “thank you” notes I’m writing for the engagement party, old receipts, my Lotto folder

I tag: Kadi, & anyone else who wants to participate.