Category Archives: WIP


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half an elephant is better than no elephant at all…unless you’re the elephant

It’s getting close to crunch time.  I’ve got 1 week left to get the elephant done if I want it given away before I go off of work, and I don’t know how likely it is that I’ll be finished in time.

Jakob slept at my parents’ place last night, so this morning I snuck in some study time while Henri was still strapped into his booster at the table.  He’d finished eating but was on an art kick, so between helping/admiring/cleaning as he colored with crayons, painted with water, then smushed around various colors of Playdough, I sat next to him a the table with my school books and tried to get today’s studying done.

I DID manage to get tonight’s work finished by the end of the afternoon nap time.  I would have preferred to have been finished earlier to get in some knitting time during the nap too, but at least once the kids were in bed for the night I knew I didn’t have anything else to do but sit back, put my legs up and watch some TV with the elephant on my lap.

I’ve finished the first half of the elephant, and have started side 2.  I included the Addi bag for scale, since Maaike had asked how big it’s turning out.  I would have preferred it a little larger, and I think I could have done it easily by using larger needles, as my fabric is quite dense and even if I stretch it I can’t see light through it.  Still, I’m NOT restarting, and it will make a nice, solid toy.  As of this writing I’m about 10 ridges away from splitting for the head and body, and the rest of it is done on shorter rows so hopefully will be done by tomorrow night…or at the latest Monday afternoon.  That will leave me OH…wait.  Hmm.  Technically that would leave me until next Monday to knit the underbelly and ears, seam and stuff.  Possibly doable.  The problem is that I don’t work on Saturdays ‘cus I’m home with the kids, and the store is closed on Sunday.  Which means that if I want to be able to give the gift to the baby’s family, I have to have it ready for Friday.  And since I can’t work on it AT work, it needs to be complete by Thursday night before I go to bed.  I really wish I hadn’t JUST figured this out as I was typing.

Now I’m not sure if this will be possible.  I’ll have to really try to squeeze in each night’s studying while still at work, to leave me the nights free to knit.

I’ve realized that I often mention the study schedule, but I wonder if you all think I’m just talking about a vague outline, or something.  NOPE!  Last year we were just studying each section as it became available, and only looking at each page as it came.  Some nights we’d work harder than others, but there was nothing formal about how we tackled it.  If we didn’t feel like it one night, we’d just put it off, and stay up later the next night.  Then one session we got totally blindsided.  We knew we had about 10 different sections in that session, and each had a decent amount of textbook sections, or notes to read, or whatever.  Then right towards the end, when we’d nearly reached the deadline for our test on that section, we get hit with having to read 2 chapters from our textbook.  Not bits here and there from the chapter, as had been the usual so far.  No- we had to read the ENTIRE 20+ page chapters, of detailed lens/wave theory/algebraic formulas/etc.  I don’t know how we pulled it off, but ever since I have made us a monthly schedule.

I actually go through the section BEFORE it is due, and break it down by pages so we can see exactly what we have coming up.  I break that up into manageable chunks for each night (with Thursdays off, of course) and as long as we do at least what is required for that particular day, we are on track.  (Actually, ahead for this year, since I have us doing everything early, as I’ve mentioned).  I know it looks like there’s only 5-10 pages-worth of studying each night…but those 5-10 pages require about 2-3 hours to process into cohesive notes and some actual comprehension.  Especially when those pages are comprised of stuff like this:

Just for fun, this is just a quick example of the kind of stuff we’re covering.  Now can you see why stuff like converting the pattern to the round is easy for me?  It’s a relief, compared to the obnoxious calculations we’re doing in school!!


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what do you have if you have an elephant with a trunk, half of a leg, and no ears or tail?

This!

🙂

I have had VERY little knitting time lately, but I deliberately don’t schedule studying for Thursday nights because Yannick has bowling, and I figure- if HE doesn’t have to study… LOL

So last night, as soon as the boys were down for the count, I sat down with a few episodes of Face Off (the special effects makeup reality show competition) and knit.  I managed to do the last 2 ridges before the split for the head/body, complete the trunk, do 13 more rows on the body, and just under 1/2 of the first leg.

What’s cool about the pattern is that instead of just being a flat elephant shape, the decreases actually cause the panel to curve, so when stuffed, it comes by its round shape organically.  I like that.

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I got word from KP today that they received my pattern, and it will be going live sometime next week.  WOO HOO!  You can be sure I’ll be posting it here as soon as I get the word.

In the meantime, here’s a little tease…any guesses?


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i’m stubborn all right

When I’m determined something will work a certain way, I have this overwhelming need to get it done.  I looked at the elephant pattern and I KNEW it could be knit in the round, it would just take some understanding of the construction.

I made my excel sheet, changed half of every round to be purl directions, and changed each round so that the purl directions were on the opposite half each time (ie: one row is knit half in knit, then half in purl, and the following row is knit half purl, then half knit.  That way each side gets garter ridges and remain each knit from the outside-in).

Confident that I had overcome the foolish mistakes I’d talked about last post, I sat down and got to work.  I even put in 2 stitch markers; an orange one (for stop) to show me the end of the round, signify the tail end of the elephant, and be a location for the increases, and a green one (for go) to show me the face end of the elephant and remind me to just keep on working past the marker so I’d have nice, unbroken garter ridges.  It worked perfectly.

It worked so well that I got into a rhythm of knitting while watching tv, only occasionally stopping to glance at the chart just to see if the next round had the increases twice or five times.  I got about 6 ridges past what you see above when I stopped, and stared at my knitting in disbelief.

I’d done it again.

I’d gotten so caught up in my own cleverness that I’d forgotten the most basic rule, the fundamental core of following a written pattern: READ the pattern.

I couldn’t figure out why the front of the elephant was curving so nicely but the back was flaring so much.  Well DUH- any glance at the INSTRUCTIONS would show the answer to that.  The increases weren’t ALL on the tail end.  The rows with 5 incs/row had them at the tail end- but all the rows with 1 or 2 incs per row had them at the head, so the body would grow towards the head too!

Is this what they mean when they say someone was hoisted upon their own petard?  It feels apropos.

Sigh

After realizing what I’d done, I caved.  I symbolically speared a Kleenex with my knitting needle and waved a white flag.  Enough.  I give.

I will knit the damn thing flat, and seam it, smiling the whole time.

So I started again.*

Since I was already starting over I gave the whole thing a critical eye and thought I`d like it to be bigger.  I could kind of estimate the final dimensions based on what I`d already knit, and I really wanted the elephant to be larger, more like the size of the baby, instead of a small toy.  So this time I cast on with the yarn held doubled.  I had 2 full balls of the Red Heart Misty left over after knitting Esther`s Slippers and I thought it would be enough…

I got about 5 ridges past this point when I started to worry about not having enough yarn.  I only had the 2 balls, and it was from many years ago, so it`s not like I could get more.  Plus I was still knitting the elephant on 3.75mm needles so I`d get a dense (read: stuffing-proof) fabric, and we all know how much garter stitch likes to eat yarn.  After going to all this trouble I`d really hate to have both sides of the body done and run out of yarn halfway through the underbody, or whatever, so I had no choice but to start over, AGAIN.

This time I`m pairing the Misty with some Pingouin Safira (that Robyn gave me at guild a few months ago, thanks Robyn!).  The colors work well together, and I think the overall heather-y mix of purples is still boyish, but soft enough for a baby.  The fabric I`m getting is dense and squishy, but even if I stretch it I can`t quite see through it, so I know it will hold up to a good stuffing.  And yes, Maaike, since I`m knitting it flat, it will regain the structural integrity of the seams to help it keep its shape.  😛

I`m hoping to have the elephant done before my surgery (not next Monday, but the one after) because I will be off work and unable to drive for a bit afterward and I would like to give it to the new mom myself.  Plus it would be nice to have one less obligation over my head while I`m home, especially since if this one is anything like last time, the first week will pass in a haze of pain meds and sleep, only this time I still have school work to do.  I`ve got about 2-3 hours of studying to do each night to stay on track, but I think in 2 weeks I can still manage to knit a garter stitch elephant.  I may not get much sleep…but hey- I`ll have plenty of time to sleep soon, right?

*I DO still insist that it CAN be knit flat, and if it comes out cute enough to make another one, I will probably attempt it.  Probably.  But either way, I KNOW it can be done.  Really.  It can.  Uh huh.


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permission to cast on granted

It’s done!  The KP pattern is finished, has been edited and is now flying its way off to Washington!

It feels good to get something crossed off my to-do list that isn’t school related.  Though, now that I have a little breathing room on my plate (nice mixed metaphor, huh?) I will be casting on tonight for a new project!

I recently found out that an acquaintance of ours had a baby boy.  It’s the sister of the husband in the couple I knit the sari silk pillows for, and when I asked the husband if there were any special colors or animals with meaning in the Indian tradition, he told me that elephants were very popular and a sign of good luck.  So I will be knitting a stuffed elephant for this new baby.

I did some Ravelry window shopping yesterday and was torn between the elephant in World of Knitted Toys (which I have) and Flo, the vintage pattern reissued by Franklin Habit in a recent Knitty.  I’d settled originally on the first pattern because the trunk is upturned, which I’d always thought was good luck.  But today the husband told me that all the elephants they have around, or that he’d seen in relation to Indian culture, have the trunks pointed downwards.  So Flo it is!

I’m going to modify the pattern by using a thicker yarn to get a larger toy, and will also be knitting it in the round.  It’s garter stitch, so I will be sacrificing the ease of knitting every row…but I will gain time with not needing to seam up the entire toy.  It will work…at least it does in my head. 🙂

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Here’s the Featherweight cardi to date.  The lower border is done and bound off, and I just need to do the body border, then the sleeves.  It’s been languishing ‘cus I will need to pay attention to properly pick up the hundreds of sts around the entire neckline, but once I get that done it will return to being an easy, pick-up-and-knit project.

df


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a sweet way to start the day

Yannick and I alternate mornings and since he gets a late sleep-in on Saturdays (the store opens later that day), I get the late sleep-in on Mondays (our day off), and he takes the boys to daycare.  Neither of us sleep in on Sunday ‘cus we take the kids to swimming lessons early in the morning.  I woke up this morning to a “homemade” Valentine’s Day card from my hubby:

I’ll admit this breakfast left me with 3 distinct thoughts:

1. Awwww!

2. Wow, he has touched every square inch of my food with his fingers.  Yum!

3. What else am I going to eat?  (Seriously, that’s like 3 bites of egg and 1.5 of cut-up pepperette.)

🙂

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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(Completely unrelated to anything except that I’m typing this with Much Music on in the background:  I just can’t get through the music video for Pink’s latest song (F*n Perfect) without crying!  This time I managed to hold out to the end, but those tears still sprang up when the girl mouths the words to her daughter.)

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I forgot there was a little knitting done last week.  Early in the week I’d swatched to see what border treatment I’d want to do.  The pattern calls for 1×1 rib, but I was afraid it would pull in and look “sweatshirty”, and Maaike suggested maybe a moss stitch border would be nice.  I swatched both, and decided that while I love the look of moss stitch, it was too heavy for such a light, airy top.  The 1×1 rib, because it was worked on the same number of sts and with the same size needles, barely pulled in and gave exactly the look I wanted.  (In other words, the designer was right, LOL).

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There’s been a lack of delicious on the blog lately, so here’s some more sweets for Valentine’s Day:

Yes, my boys do cuddle voluntarily, while watching TV.  [insert awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww here]


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and it goes on

More of the same ’round here.  Been playing phone tag between the vet and my parents, trying to figure out what’s going on with Nikki.  I’ve been to visit her at the vets’ a few times, and on the outside she’s doing ok (playful, eating, etc) but there’s something going on inside that they need to figure out.

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More studying, still 2-3 hours every night.  I am really, really looking forwards to never having to be in school again.  I enjoy the testing aspect of it, and I enjoy grades, and all that.  Even the math is fun- I never thought I’d ever use higher algebra again, but when it comes down to it, it’s only a puzzle that needs to be solved, and I like the challenge.  I just really, really don’t miss the studying part.  Especially when the studying mostly entails lots of very detailed note-taking.  Very REPETITIVE, detailed note-taking.  Our course has a textbook, a formulas workbook, and then some online text that the instructors put together just for our class.  It hasn’t been uncommon for the textbook to spend 20+ pages covering some obscure, random knowledge that I will never need to use again, just to then be directed to the formulas book where, before getting to the examples, spends a few pages reviewing the same knowledge, and then finally we have to read the relevant online section, which quite often is an almost straight summary of the previous 2.  Thankfully I learned my lesson last year and got better at making my notes, including leaving room when making my textbook notes for the odd bits of possibly relevant stuff from the online part, so I can include it without having to waste time (and notebook pages) writing out the same thing over and over.  I think my hand is starting to cramp LOL.

We’ve had 2 tests so far, and we’ve both done well on them.  There’s a discussion assignment (quiz) due by Feb 6th, and then the next official test isn’t due until Feb 28, but we are going to do it this week.  That will put us a full month ahead of schedule, which was my goal all along.  I need us to be ahead this year so when I have my surgery next month I don’t risk falling behind if I’m zonked on pain killers.  Even if I only miss about a week or so of studying- a week or so of 2-3 hours a night adds up fast!

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Brought Henri back to the hospital yesterday for yet another blood test.  This one tests for the same thing that we’re testing for by giving him a trial run on a certain medication.  The medication is serious but the dosage is low, so it is possible to think it’s not working simply because the dose isn’t high enough.  The blood test is 100% accurate if it comes up positive, but it if comes up negative you can’t trust it.  Stupid, I know.  Hopefully between the two tests we’ll get a conclusive answer one way or another, and can move on.  If Henri doesn’t have what they think he may have, then I’d like to get him off the meds asap.  And if he does have it, then I’m looking forwards to being able to do research and get informed, especially on what to expect.  (I’ll talk more about it once I know anything definitive).

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The Featherweight Cardi is zipping along.  Because it’s at a stockinette stitch part, it is very easy to pick up and put down.  Whenever I have more than 5 minutes to spare, and access to my computer, I have been working on putting together for the KP pattern I’ve been mentioning for a while.  But I leave the project on my couch, so when I see I have only a few minutes here or there, I can still get a row or so in.  The little bits of time add up, (plus Saturday night when Maaike and I watched The Life of Brian and vegged and knit) and the work has managed to grow faster than I’d thought it would.

The first photo (above) was taken the same day I posted the other one for you- Jan 28th, right before bed.  This next photo was taken yesterday (Feb 1).  If you look at where the first one stops (a good 2″ above my bent elbow), you can see that 4 days of free minutes adds up to quite a few inches of knitting!

Now I’m going to get back to work before braving the wonderful weather to go pick up the boys from daycare.  Stay safe until the weather clears up!

ETA- I didn’t realize the photo was so dark.  Here’s a lighter version:


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soooo tired

Usually Yannick and I take turns getting up with the kids while the other gets to sleep in a bit longer.  The store opens only at 10am on Saturdays, so that’s his morning to sleep in until 9, and Mondays (our day off) is my morning to sleep in while he takes the kids to daycare.  Sundays we both get up ‘cus that’s swimming lesson morning.  Well there has been so much going on lately that I don’t think I’ve had a chance to sleep in in almost a week! 

Last week we had another hospital appointment for Henri, followed on what should have been my next morning to sleep in by his 2-year checkup, then Monday (yesterday) I couldn’t sleep in ‘cus I had my annual physical, and this morning I got up even earlier to go down to the hospital for my preop for my hernia surgery (again!) in early March.  Well…I *thought* I had to go today.  Of course, I only found out that my appointment was actually TOMORROW after arriving at the hospital and waiting long enough to have to pay for parking.  Great, not only do I have to pay again tomorrow, but it’s one more day I can’t sleep in.

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Sunday was our first swimming lesson of this session ‘cus we skipped last week as it started too close to Henri’s birthday party and we didn’t want to rush it that much.  Now that Henri’s in “white”, it’s the first time that neither Yannick or I went in the water with him.  I honestly didn’t think he’d sit on the side of the pool, I fully expected him to keep getting up and running around the pool.  Luckily he stayed put!  He did cry quite a bit, but he stayed where he was supposed to, and was laughing and splashing by the end of the class, so there was definately improvement!

I don’t remember if I mentioned that Maaike came over to do a photoshoot for the latest KP pattern.  We had to use Jakob’s room and since he wasn’t sleeping anyways we just opened the lights and went in.  He was being EXTREMELY silly and playful and while I was setting up some shots Maaike snapped some really cute photos of him.  This is one of my favorites. 

I just realized- can you see the two blankets in the photo?  The blue/white one to the right is the entrelac blankie I knit while pregnant with him, and the white one to the left is the alphabet blankie I knit while pregant with him.  He likes having both in bed with him, and sometimes asks me to “wrap him up in Mommy’s love” to go to sleep.  🙂

Since I’ve had some good wait times lately, either in the car while Yannick drove, or while waiting at doctor’s offices, I’ve had a chance to work on my Featherweight Cardigan.  Last week I split the arms and body and now am continuing on the body part first.  Once the body is to length I will do the front band, THEN move onto the arms.  I don’t mind if the arms are three-quarter-length or even short-sleeved, but it will really suck if I run out of yarn doing the front band, ‘cus this yarn is from my grandmother’s stash and I don’t think it would be possible to get any more.  Besides the bit shown I’ve still got 7 more balls.  What you see so far (including the ball still attached) is 3 balls.  I don’t think I’ll run out…but just to be safe that’s how I’m going to handle it.

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And now I’ve just finished some paperwork for work that I started at 7:00pm and just finished about 10 minutes ago (11:40pm).  I have to be back at the hospital for 8am tomorrow for the REAL pre-op, so I’m going to take 2 Tylenol 1s (for the pain in my leg and belly) and hopefully fall asleep right away.


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2010-12-16

Does anyone else set a pace car for themselves when driving?  Like if you need to choose a lane at customs, or pick left, middle or right lane on the highway, so you find a car up ahead in another lane and then see if you ever pass that car, so you know you chose right?  Maybe I’m the only crazy one LOL. 

It’s stuff like that that I do when stuck in traffic, like this morning when on my way to the hospital AGAIN for more tests for Henri.  I swear, soon it will be easier to just deposit my paychecks right into a fund for the Children’s parking lot, ‘cus I’m at the point now where I can drive there in my sleep. 

No news yet with what’s going on with him.  All I know right now is that the first round of blood tests had the amino acids a bit high, but on the repeat they were ok.  What’s annoying is that on the repeat test his lactate was high, so that’s what we had to go and redo today.  It’s one of those tests that can be altered by stress and pressure, just like blood meter glucose readings for diabetics.  Pressure, as in force- meaning if you have to squeeze to get the blood out, the result will read higher than it actually is.  It’s a blood test done from a finger, not a vein, and the blood is kinda sucked into these skinny little tubes, and the first time we did it Henri was struggling in my arms and twisting around.  Today he cried but was pretty still, so we should get an accurate reading this time, and I’m sure it will be back down to normal.  Still won’t give us any answers, but at least nice to rule things out.

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I’ve had to keep him home for the last two days with a bit of an upset stomach, and today besides the blood test he has a WICKED cold complete with the rough, red cheeks, constant cough and sneezing, and a bit of mucous from his eyes (something my kids get when they’re sick).  I swear this poor kid can’t catch a break!  And it sucks ‘cus we have one of my best friends’ daughter’s birthday party this weekend and I really, really want to go as a family.  I hope he’ll be better by then!

I’ve kept him home from school and he naps for 3.5 hrs in the afternoon, so I was able to get a good chunk of knitting done.  Dog sweater the second is almost finished:

I’ve only got the tail-end (no pun intended) to go, then the body and cuff ribbings.  Yannick’s got bowling and the kids are in bed so while I don’t know if I can finish it tonight, I do see an end in sight.


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2010-12-10

Here’s another project finished long ago that completely missed the blog.

After a trip to Michael’s (I think) my mom brought me some sock yarn.  I didn’t know that Red Heart had a 70% wool/30% nylon sock yarn, with aloe even, and was eager to try it out.

tatusockfo01

Pattern: Toasted Almond Toe-Up Socks (Ravelry link)

Size:  68 sts around

Yarn: Red Heart Heart & Sole in Toasted Almond, 0.75 each of 2 balls (one ball per sock)

tatusockfo02

Needles: 2.5 mm

Notions: none

Dates:  March 11 2009 – March 21 2010

tatusockfo03

I can’t believe it took me just over a year to knit a pair of socks!  I remember casting on for them right after my mom gave me the yarn, and I remember my struggle to find a matching repeat, only to find out that I’d found the repeat- but upside down.  Oh well- they were meant to be fraternal.

BTW the yarn was lovely to work with.  It felt softer than Regia, and I love my Regia workhorse sock yarn.  It wears beautifully, and all handknit socks in this house are thrown right in the wash along with all the clothes, jeans, etc, into the washer and dryer.  I have put this pair through at least a dozen times so far with no signs of pilling, sagging or stretching.

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I have been asked to knit 2 dog sweaters.  What started as a “you can knit those?” somehow turned into emailed measurements and chosen patterns, and now, as if I didn’t have enough on my plate, I have 2 dog sweaters to knit.  The pattern I’m using is Icelandic Beauty (Rav link) from the Dogs in Knits (Rav link) book which I had purchased back in ’05 when I was selling dog sweaters to a local boutique.

I’m not sure why the photo has rotated, since my original and the upload were both straight.  Oh well.

I’m doing the sweaters in solid red, as per the request, using Red Heart Super Saver acrylic yarn.  I had thought of getting a nicer yarn but then realized that I’m knitting dog sweaters.  And these dogs have legs *maybe* 6″ long.  These dogs are tiny, and very close to the ground, which means that these sweaters will be getting snow, slush, road salt, and probably a healthy dose of pee and poop on them.  100% machine wash-and-dryable acrylic is just perfect, I think.

This sweater is for Chopsy and while the chest size is perfect I already changed the neck opening and will be customizing the length, length to leg openings and width between leg openings.  Yay for knitting to gauge!


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2010-12-06

It’s Hanukah and we surprise the boys every morning with a little gift for each of the 8 days.  Just little things like a matchbox-type car or coloring book, and occassionally a chotchka from the dollar store.  This photo was Jakob trying out his new horsie.  (Yes, same clothes as the party yesterday…the outfit did double-duty this weekend).  I have one of him actually facing me but it is really blurry ‘cus it’s mid-jump.

Henri got one too but wasn’t as interested as Jakob. 

I LOVE this face!  I can’t believe he’s going to be 2 in just over a month…I don’t have babies any more, I’ve got big boys and I love them!!  I just can’t stop kissing these kids…I could eat them for supper, they’re so yummy.

I’ve got a bit of a sinus cold and took some Clorisiden (sp?) which makes me sleepy, so I didn’t risk another “knitting while impaired” moment and instead FINALLY got around to putting all my knitting projects into my iphone.  Yes, I only got the iphone 2 months ago, but this project has been delayed for almost 2 years.  I keep my own records similar to Ravelry, and was using a program called MobileDB in my Palm.  When I upgraded my last Palm to the TX it had a different OS and MobileDB just wouldn’t work right for me, no matter what I tried.  I caved and started copying my projects one-by-one into their own Memos, which worked quite well to view and update, save, etc…except I got lazy and stopped adding all the backdated ones.  So I had a small group of  projects from 2004-2007 in my Palm, along with everything from 2008-onwards, but the bulk (over 150 projects) was exported from MobileDB to an Excel worksheet and I was deleting each record as I added it to the Memos.  Then I got the iphone and had to retire my Palm…and now I had records in 3 locations.  Finally now everything is in one spot with 2 backups.

Getting all the projects in order gave me a chance to update my yarn ball too.  Didn’t I mention the yarn ball once?  I keep a few yards from the yarn for every project I knit/crochet and tie it on to this ongoing yarn ball…not sure what I’ll ever do with it, but for now I like having it sitting around.

The needle is for scale.  It’s about 4-5″ high.

Finally, here is the progress so far on the Featherweight Cardigan.  It is fine yarn and will take a while, but I really like the coral color and I think it will make an addition to my wardrobe that I’ll actually wear.