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Turns out one of my friends has been secretly reading my blog for a while now. I don’t know why it was secret, but I could have sworn I gave her $hit once for not reading it…and today she confessed she reads me daily. So that means Julie and Debbie read me…I’ll forgive Jackie ‘cus she’s got an infant and all, but when he’s in high school I fully expect reading to be going on!

Back in early June Robyn and I had attended the MKG’s indoor (due to rain) “Garden Party”. At this party we were reminded that the upcoming MKG charity project would be baby blankets, and that if we wanted, we could be given kits for the blankets, so we wouldn’t have to use our own yarn. We each took a bag of the yarn with the pattern. The yarn is Tessin by Muench Yarns and it is the Harlequin Baby Blanket pattern. I really like the way the yarn feels knitted up, although the colors are a little “off” for my taste.

(Semi-off-topic- I went to their website earlier and looked up the Tessin yarn to see what other colors it comes in. They have a link to “view knitted sample” so I clicked on it. Call me crazy, but that sample is crocheted!)

Anyways…the pattern as written calls for knitting a square, then casting on for another square, then knitting across the first…doing the same on the next row then working a full square up at 3 squares wide, then repeating for 5 squares, then back to 3, then to 1. This means that at times you are working from 3-5 balls of yarn, having to twist the joins. I had advised Robyn to knit the blanket the other way…working in strips upwards so she was never using more than one color per row. Now that she’s almost done, she told me that she was running low on yarn. Plus, now she needs to seam. After thinking about it I decided to try knitting mine as written. I feel bad about counselling Robyn to work it the other way and forcing her to seam in garter, which I don’t know if she’s comfortable with. We’ll see how mine turns out. In any case, they are for charity, so they will be loved regardless, right?

The latest challenge from the Amazing Lace is this: if you were to bind off your wip right now…what could it be used as? I couldn’t come up with something, so I asked Sam for help. I’d been through enough with him by not including him previously, so I honestly thought I was being nice in asking for his help. Hmph.

Warning: what follows is all Sam*. Blame him, the evil C.A.T. (seen slinking away on the stairs).

What the deuce? No, I’m not Stewie. I’m…Sandra. Yes, Sandra. Lois will never suspect a thing! Cross dressing will one step closer to my ultimate goal: WORLD DOMINATION!

*Don’t look at me like that. I told you this was all Sam’s doing.

To Julie: I told you I’d post. I didn’t promise it would be good!

To Knitting World Cup’ers: I’m thisclose. Just have some ends to weave in, then the knitting part is done. Well, all but the strap. But considering I’ve knit about 12 balls of black wool in the last 3 weeks…I won’t cry if I don’t get a medal. Maybe just sniffle a bit.

I’m feeling particularily emphatic this afternoon. :]

This weekend was fun, but not long enough!

Friday night I spent on my own while Yannick helped a buddy move. It was great to have the night free, though, and I ran around to Fabricville and Bouclair getting supplies I need as I reach the completion of the Perfect Knitting Bag. Project update: I will have all the knitting done by July 8th. I’m not sure if I will have the finishing (attachments, lining, etc…) done by then, but I don’t care. I’ll still feel like I scored a big goal during the Knitting World Cup challenge. I’ve had this bag in my wip list for almost 2 years, and it feels great to see it taking shape, especially since it’s my design!

Saturday afternoon Yannick and I went to see Superman Returns (our verdict: unlike Batman Begins which was an amazing movie with amazing graphics, SR was an ok movie with amazing graphics. No regrets in seeing it, or in paying full- not cheapie night price to go. But it didn’t blow me away, plot- or acting-wise.) After the movie we grabbed a light supper at Bocaccinos then went home to get together with Julie and Rich to play cards. (Shout out to Julie!) (Am I too white to be doing “shout out”s?) (Probably).

Sunday we cleaned house, then I went to Robyn’s house. She hosted a little girl’s knit-night out and I went over early to watch Knitty Gritty with her. What a cheesy show! It was the episode with Lily M. Chin and other than 1 cool technique I learned, everything else was so dumbed-down! It was like “Cosmo” for knitting. Lily ACTUALLY pronounced the knitting acronym “yo, k2tog” as “yo-ke-two-tog”. Who says it as a word? People don’t SPEAK in acryonyms! You don’t tell your friends “brb” or “lol” or “roflmao”, and if you DID you’d pronounce it sarcastically, like “el-oh-el”. Tres annoying. Then Jennie, Karine and Kadi got to her house and we gabbed, knit, gossiped, ate, watched movies, did riddles and just had a nice fun girl’s night. I’d be up for that anytime, we laughed a hell of a lot and I had a great time. I’m really glad I started going to more knitting meetups because I really like everyone I’ve met.

The only annoying thing about yesterday is that I brought 2 projects with me to Robyn’s, and didn’t really accomplish anything while there other than scrapping them. The black acrylic will be way too hot to do the tank in, and the Goldilocks I brought to do a shrug in is too thin of a yarn to work with the pattern. Then I swatched the acrylic for the shrug, but THEN noticed that the pattern’s largest size is for a bust 3″ smaller than mine (with a bra on, anyways). Spent a long time last night looking up tank patterns online.

Anyone out there have any great tank top knitting patterns? I’d look at free and pay patterns. Suggestions please!

Today my goal is to work on the PKB. I DID go to the gym this morning (yay me!) but I’m under pressure because not only is the wedding OFFICIALLY 2 MONTHS AWAY AHHHH but my gym membership expires August 16th and I doubt I’ll renew it.

So here’s my dilemma. While cleaning I found some yarn I’d forgotten about. It was a kit from Fleece Artist. It’s listed as 150 (total) g of yarn for making socks or mittens. I don’t want to use it for that, so I emailed her a long time ago to ask the yardage, as it’s not listed on the label. She said that both the Blue-Face Leicester and the MO (mohair) should be approx 75g and 100m. I wound up the 2 yarns into cakes with my ball winder.

Ahem.This is the Blue-Face Leicester. The color sucks, but picture it in the colors below.
I weighed it- it is 72g. Ok, I can believe that this is approx 100m.

This is the MO. This pic is VERY accurate for the color. It reminds me of Easter.
It weighs 94 g. I can’t believe it is only 100m. NOT because of the extra 20-ish grams.
No…because of

This. It’s misleading when you see them apart, but side-by-side the difference is huge! The B-F L is clearly smaller, and even wound a little loose. The MO is so dense that you can’t even see the layers. If you look closely in the good-color photo, you can barely see the rings of the layers (think rings of a tree slice)…it’s PACKED with yarn!

I really really really REALLY really can’t wait to ask for a yarn meter counter for my birthday or hanukah, because I really REALLY need one!

P.S. To “Anonymous” who left me a comment on my last post…um…thanks for commenting, I think. I’m just not sure why I want to know about the diapers you wore when you were a baby… am I missing something?

I got your stitch markers in the mail yesterday!You can’t tell they’re your first time, honest! They are really pretty. And I’ve never seen the metal wrapped around the way you did it, makes it look almost old-fashioned. Thanks so much! :]

I’m off to go sit outside for a bit with my neighbors, as there is a Canada Day parade about to go parading down my street, right in front of my house. Does this mean I have to bring some red knitting with me outside?

I fell in love again.

I feel a bit adulterous, as I’m crazy for the lacy shrug, head-over-heels for my own design, the Perfect Knitting Bag, and enamoured with the Herringbone Haze Tunic. And yet…

And yet…

I stumbled across this today:

Isn’t it gorgeous? And it’s a FREE pattern! From here.

I must *not* cast on new projects. I must *not* buy more yarn. I must…

…not?

Did I ever say how lucky I am to be with Yannick?

Who else would come all the way into CSL from the WI at 9:00pm just to pick me up from a knitting meetup, AND would park the car and come in because he thought I’d rather him come in and say hi than call my cell and say “I’m outside”?

Who else would not mind stopping on the way home so I could go tan, AND decide that rather than just sit there waiting for me, he’d run into the pharmacy and buy me tampons so we didn’t have to stop afterwards?

And now, who would let me explain all the different ways I thought of to attach straps to the knitting bag I’m designing, then add one unique twist to make the bag so damn special and unlike all the other felted bags out there, AND remind me of a change I forgot to make which means I have to undo and reknit about 1/8th of what I’ve done so far but it doesn’t matter because the new way will make the bag a million times cooler?

Only Yannick. I love him.

I’m on black overload.

The Perfect Knitting Bag is black. Black wool. Black wool knitted up in summer in a (thank Gd) air-condition house, but while sitting on a HEATED waterbed. Is it any wonder I can only manage a few rows at a time? The PKB is also my entry for the Knitting World Cup, so I am trying to finish it by July 8th. I’ve been ODing on black wool.

The Lacy Shrug in Kid Merino is black. Well, the name of the color is black. In reality it’s black from far away…but really only a dusty charcoal up close. Whatever, it’s still black. It’s my pleasure break in between miles of stitches on the PKB. It’s currently about 6″ long. It needs to be finished by the wedding weekend, Labor Day weekend, because it is my entry for The Amazing Lace. I don’t get to work on the lacy ruffled border until it’s 47″ long. I’ve got a long summer of black lace knitting ahead of me!

So this morning, while perusing the latest (July) issue of Creative Knitting, I come across a tank top. I’m always looking for tank top patterns, because most of the tank tops I see in stores would not be appropriate for work. So I see this cute tank top, the Herringbone Haze Tunic:
Great, I tell myself. I’ll swatch up a tank top to have on the needles as my “treat” knitting, when I need a break from all the black. Unfortunately I can’t afford to go out and buy more yarn right now. No biggie, I’ve got a sizable stash. There must be something I can knit it with…

There is. A big, no dye lot, pounder bag of Red Heart. I don’t mind using acrylic, I like the idea that I can throw my clothes in the wash. (Especially since I’m a klutz and usually end up wearing whatever I’m eating). I don’t even care that its WalMart acrylic. Or that it was cheap. But guess what color it is?

Black.