I don’t know where he caught it, nor do I know what he caught, but poor Yannick is sick as a dog! He left work around 4 this afternoon and crashed. I don’t even think he’s sleeping at all, as every 5 minutes I can hear him coughing. I tried to get him to go to a clinic, but he’s a guy, so… He is taking Advils and NeoCitran (not together), but I don’t think we have any cough medicine in the house (well, besides the one brand that can kill him- allergy). He’s trying to sleep it off because he has more jobs to work tomorrow, but right now I don’t see how he’s going to make it. It’s all I can do to get him to stop touching every single surface in the house so that I don’t catch it too.

After work today I met my mom at the Plaza Pointe-Claire. While waiting I stopped in at the Wool Shop and picked up some of the yarn I need to work my swatches. I had realized that there was a second pattern I’d like to submit as well, but they didn’t have the right yarn at all so I’ll have to go stash diving to see if I have anything that would let me start right away.

My mom came to meet me in the first place because there was a shoe store that was supposed to have nice stuff, as I need to find my wedding shoes before my first dress fitting. They didn’t really have anything that appealed to me, so we both headed our own ways, her going home and me going to the gym.

Once I got home I made some supper, including some soup for Yannick. Since he and his germs are holed up in our bedroom, I brought my tapes downstairs to the living room and settled in with my box of knitting needles, my new yarn, some stash yarn and my knitting notebook.

The first swatch is one to see if some yarn I already have would work for a particular project. I forget if I’ve already given it some secret code name in the blog before, but I will now start calling it Plunger. So here is Plunger’s swatch. It is Knitpicks’ Wool of the Andes in Carrot, on 6mm needles. It IS to be felted, once I measure it. As a side note, I have discovered that I love the way WotA feels knitted up, pre-felting. I would really love to make a jacket or cardigan out of it, although I’d probably carry a small square around for a day or so to see if it pills badly.
I have included a CD for scale. Ignore the crappy pinning job, it’s late and I work tomorrow, so I grabbed the few pins I could find easily. I’ll pin it out properly with my blocking wires before I measure it.

The next “swatch” was with some of the new yarn. I was really disappointed when I pulled out the center of the ball to find the end- someone must have bought then returned this ball, because the entire piece I used to knit the “swatch” was cut from the original ball. As in, I pulled out the center of the ball plus a little wrapped section of yarn that was actually cut. Makes me mad, but anyways… Luckily it was just enough for what I needed right now. This isn’t a swatch to test the gauge, rather a little piece I needed to test some crucial elements of the pattern design. I am thrilled to announce that I achieved success. I was actually dancing around my living room, that’s how pleased I am! I have included the same CD for scale. 🙂

Now I’m off to guzzle a NeoCitran of my own before bed. I don’t feel too sick, but knowing that I have been feeling a little run down lately, and that Yannick has touched nearly every wall, light switch, door knob and sink faucet in this house, and knowing how easily I catch colds, well…better safe than sorry.

I will be taking a small, temporary break from the knitalongs I signed up with. I am still participating (and eagerly awaiting the next Amazing Lace Challenge!) but have something a little more pressing to occupy my knitting time in the near future.

About a week ago I was browsing through the Knitlist emails, and found one from Debbie Stoller, author of Stitch ‘n Bitch, Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation, and Stitch ‘n Bitch: The Happy Hooker, not to mention related knitting journals. She put a call out for submissions to the next “Stitch ‘n Bitch” book, which, in her words, will “be an advanced knitting manual, and I’m looking for patterns that incorporate a bit of fancy-pants knitting such as cables, lace, color work (either intarsia or fair isle or, hell, both!), beading, etc. The book will be covering these techniques in great detail, as well as much more.”

Remember that pattern idea I hinted that I’d be looking into starting soon? Well, I thought it might be perfect for the next book. However, it’s such an “out there” pattern, that I didn’t want to waste my time working up swatches and taking photos unless it would actually be considered, and not deleted right away because of it’s uniqueness. So I sent an email outlining my idea and asking if such an animal would be considered for the book.

I just received an email back from Debbie’s assistant telling me that it would definately be considered, BECAUSE it’s so unique and original. :]]]]

Guess who’s off to the yarn store tonight? I had really wanted to use Knitpick’s Palette yarn, but there is no way I could order it and have it shipped to me in enough time to work up some swatches before the submission deadline. So it’s LYS yarn hunting time!

On Tuesday I was a naughty girl and skipped the gym. It wasn’t my fault- by the time I’d made it out of the grocery store and home through all the traffic I wouldn’t have had time to do the required 30 mins before the gym closed at 8pm. So I went straight home, made some supper and knit my way through the premiere of Last Comic Standing. There are a few new comics I like so far, and one old one I’ve always liked- Nikki Payne.

I used that knitting time to start working on the Lacy Shrug, which I’d already cast on for. I did about 4 rows (1 pattern repeat) then ripped it completely and cast on again. This time I actually READ the pattern, which specified doing 2 rows of stockinette stitch BEFORE getting into the pattern repeats. It helps when you, you know, pay attention. I didn’t take a pic because it’s only about an inch long. I like working with the Kid, but it does have one bad habit- it scrunches up just like the Lion Brand Homespun did. Every few stitches I have to stop and push whichever yarn content that’s getting jumbled back down, or try to knit it in. It’s not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying. I haven’t found any shedding so far, so that’s a huge relief!

I worked a bit more on the Sunrise sock and stopped just before the short-row heel.

Last night my cousin Robyn had a little knitting get-together at her house, so I went over straight from work. At first it was just Robyn, Angela and myself, but little by little knitters showed up, and we grew to a group of seven people. Robyn, me, Angela, Sharon, Isabelle, Jennie (with cornbread!) and Kadi. I had such a good time! We had the TV on in the background, so we spent from 8-9pm making fun of B-list celebrities playing The Price is Right on Gameshow Marathon, and then 9-10pm making fun of wanna-be dancers on So You Think You Can Dance?. I worked on the Sunrise sock some more, turned the heel and started the short leg portion. I left at 9:30pm because of the downpour, and dropped Angela, Sharon and Isabelle off at the metro on my way home. I was much too tired to knit once I got home, so I curled up in bed with the Yarn Harlot’s first book (I just realized I’ve had it on my bedside table with only 10 pages left to finish for the longest time, and her 2 other books are waiting to be read).

Now I’m at work, waiting to see if today ends up having yet another rainstorm. I took a quick lunch with Debbie over at Deli Boys, and once she’d left for work I enjoyed a decaf coffee with my knitting. I’m so close to finishing this sock! I’m at row 151, the 2×2 cuff starts at row 160, and I BO after row 180. If all goes well I’ll have some empty needles tonight!

I still haven’t heard back from Knit Simple, but I’ll post more on that as I do. I’m still seething.

Sunday afternoon I had some free time while Yannick and my mom went tux shopping, so I had some brilliant foresight. If I wanted to be able to work on Sunrise Sock the Second while at Aaron’s grad, I needed to have the toe finished because I didn’t want to have to fiddle with doing or removing the provisional cast on in the semi-dark. So by Sunday evening, the sock looked like this:Then Yannick had a little surprise for me. He’d made a reservation at Le Milsa a really funky Brazillian restaurant downtown. I couldn’t get any nice pics to come out with my phone’s camera, but check out the link. It’s really cool- the waiters come around with all different kinds of meat (rib steak, roast beef, filet mignon, chicken, turkey wrapped with bacon, pork, sausage, lamb and others I can’t remember) on these long skewers, and they slice off pieces right at your table. The meat is all-you-can-eat if you choose the “Turnstile” menu, and there are little disks at each person’s seat that is green on one side with “yes please” and red on the other with “no thank you” so the waiters know if they should keep coming. The meat is served with what are supposedly the best sauteed mushrooms around, rice, baked sweet potatoes, and salad with a delicious dressing. It also includes dessert, which is either vanilla ice cream sprinkled with cinnamon, or grilled pineapple. The pineapple is on the skewers just like the meat, and the outside is basted in cinnamon as its grilling, for a delicious flavor. Really, really amazing meal! And, as a special treat, at 8pm a Brazillian dancer came out and spent at least a half hour dancing around the place to fun music, interacting with guests. We had a great time, and I really recommend it (but not to vegetarians). 🙂

Yesterday was a looong day. First my mom and I went to the florist to see a sample of the wedding centerpieces. There was some confusion, but in the end they look great, and we now have our florist booked too. :]

From there we went to St-Hubert St to see about finding shoes. I need them soon because I have my first dress fitting on Father’s Day. We found one pair that I really liked, but they were a teensy bit narrow, and after stretching them they were a bit too large. The salesgirl was suggesting cardboard inserts. As in, torn pieces of cardboard. You know what? If I’m spending quite a bit of money on shoes, I don’t want to have to tear up a cardboard box to get them to fit right. We took a card, but we’ll still keep looking. At least now we know the style I like.

Then we went to McGill for Aaron’s grad. He actually finished in December, but they do the grad for everyone at once, so it was today. It actually took less time than I thought, as a lot of students weren’t there, so their names were skipped. After just about 2 hours, here is the proud new graduate:After the same just about two hours, here is the new sock:
Now that I’ve heard back from the Lacy Shrug people, I am able to start on that for The Amazing Lace, so I might toss the sock into my purse as portable knitting. Or, I might just try to finish it so it frees up my needles for another sock. We shall see…

p.s. Robyn feel better!

I was just reading the Spring/Summer 2006 issue of knit simple, a subdivision of Vogue Knitting.

I’m seriously flipping out.

On page 21 they BLATANTLY RIP OFF my Vegas Knitting pattern! Check this out:

ROLLING FOR RANDOM
Diane Kozak, owner of Unraveled in Douglasville, Pennsylvania, recommends experimenting with stash knitting through this “exercise in randomness,” also referred to as Vegas Knitting.
You can play this game with a group or solo.
YOU’LL NEED: two dice; six different yarns
DIRECTIONS: Assign each yarn a nimber from 1 to 6. For example; red worsted-weight, No. 6; orange ribbon yarn, No. 4, and so on. One die will tell you which yarn to knit; the other will tell you how many rows to knit. Roll both dice. Say your yarn die lands on No. 4 and the row die lands on No. 6. You will knit six rows of orange ribbon yarn. Roll again and continue until you have knitted a piece of stash fabric.
You can play with one die, but do not knit the same number of rows for each fiber. Remember, the idea is randomness, not stripes.

They changed the coin to a second die, and didn’t mention the fringe, but still! I know that people have knit random stripes before, I’m not claiming to have invented that concept. However, I will stake a claim to coining the term “Vegas Knitting”, which is what they call their concept. How dare they? I even took a chance and Googled it, and guess what? The only references to Vegas Knitting out there are links to MY site. I coined that term back in 2004 and spread the word about it. It has appeared in many guild newsletters and even in the 2006 Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar.

On top of that, see how they call it a “game” up there? That’s because my Vegas Knitting pattern IS the original Knitting Game! Again, Google Knitting Game and guess how many come up? ME. That’s it!

I’m seriously pissed. I don’t mind putting the pattern out there, in fact I have it available on my site with a disclaimer that it CAN be posted around, but you must give credit where credit is due.

Guess who’s off to write an email?

Thanks a lot Kadi. ;]
I’ve gone and done it. I’ve joined the Knitting World Cup 2006. Details here:
http://yarn-monkey.blogspot.com/

The basic premise is that you CO once the whistle blows June 9th, and have 1 month to complete the project. I’m going to work my little butt off to finish my Perfect Knitting Bag that I designed a year or two ago. Since this project is already started, I will have to abide by a Time Penalty to compensate for what I’ve already accomplished, since most KWCSers will be only allowed to CO on June 9th. So I’ll knit a row, see how long it takes, then multiply that by the number of rows already completed to see how long I have to wait to be able to start working on it. I need to finish knitting the bag, the pockets, the handle, felt it, choose a lining, sew in the lining, choose zippers and then sew those in. In 1 month. It’s a BIG bag.

I always finish work at 8pm on Thursdays, so by the time I get home there’s nothing more I’d rather do than climb into bed in some comfy p.j.s, space out in front of the TV and knit. I had been planning on working on the concentration-intensive Enchanted Forest Cardigan, but instead an old WIP caught my eye. So I turned on the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance and knit for a while on its easy stockinette.I know, I know. It’s Fun Fur. And Self-Striping. And I know that by the time I finish the knitting and sew it into a purse around the clear, round handles, neither fun fur nor fun fur purses will be in style. (Are they still in style?) But I thought the finished bag was very cute, and I’m already picturing the hidden hot pink lining I would sew in to keep it from stretching…and yes, I am cheesy enough to use a fun fur, self-striping, animal print-ish funky purse with clear handles and a hot pink lining. Wanna make something of it?

I had wanted to make the bag larger than the original pattern, so once I finished the first of three required balls of yarn, I measured and multiplied. Turns out that 3 should be plenty big enough.
When the fun-furry goodness started getting to me, but I was still in a stockinette mood, I pulled out the Sunrise Sock and turned the heel. I came to a surprising discovery in terms of the yarn amounts. I had originally taken the large skein of yarn and divided it into what I thought were 2 equal cakes. I had turned out that 1 was 48g and the other 64g. I figured I’d make the first sock with the smaller cake and that way I would for sure not run out of yarn from the 2nd cake, to make the 2nd sock. Well. All I have left to do of sock #1 is the leg and cuff, and it occured to me that the remaining cake #1 still looked pretty big. So I weighed it. Out of the original 48g, I still have 33g left. So now there’s a change of plans. I will make sure to only use a maximum of 24g on this sock, and make the second sock from what’s left of cake #1. I have no clue what I’ll use cake #2 for. And as for why there is so much yarn per cake? I finally checked the label yesterday. The original skein was 500 yards. I probably should have checked that in the first place.