WIP

Two posts, one day. Try not to die of shock...


Showing off the slightly-more-than-half-finished Lissajous from Knit.Sock.Love by Cookie A. Check out those charts!! The second one has been SOOOO much easier!

Only other knitters have even the vaguest idea of what an act of fortitude it was for me to cast on the second sock.... The first is so very lovely, but it was so hard and took so long.... I SO wanted to wind another sock yarn and start something else! Something not quite so tall!! Just started yesterday and have finished the medallion at the top already. I am motoring through it, partly as an act of sheer determination. Partly because the picture above shows what "working from home" looks like on the evening shift.

Shh, don't tell.

Look what we got!!

Office!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hear angels singing. How about you, do you hear angels singing?? It is the most perfect office, ever!

Here is the view left from my desk. I work in a call center and about every other week I work the entire week from home in the evenings. If I didn't have a tv for the hours between 7PM and 10:30, I would go stark raving mad.... And see the beautiful cat bed- er, futon? IKEA, I love you.


View of my desk from the door. Soothing blue, desk lamp- the latest addition, pets and signs of pets. Happiness in my brother's former bedroom.


And, saving the best for last, the view behind me at my desk. That is right, it is YARN STORAGE. Knitter heaven. The Mom and I share, which is not any hardship at all. This is more space than we ever DREAMED we would have. Sigh. Heaven.


I love IKEA. Have I mentioned that before??

September 2009.

I have finished the socks, 23 years after starting them... Tomorrow I will find time to take pictures that don't involve my toes waving in the breeze...

So here is the next ancient project. And this one is not being grossly exaggerated for your amusement. Here is the state of my Minimalist Cardigan in September 2009.
Can you guess what it looked like on Saturday, September 24, 2011? That is right, other than the sheet and the sunshine, exactly like this! I finished the socks and don't have all the yarn for the thigh-high stripy socks that are next, so I thought I would work on... A different cardigan. Couldn't find the pattern for that one, though, so here it is. The long neglected Minimalist Cardigan. I love this sweater. What made me stop working? Shiny new yarn? Who knows.... But you should see this baby now! I finished the rest of the front-on-the-needles 24 hours and now have the sleeves- both of them!- on the needles!!

By the way, any of you made this? It has a SERIOUS bias. Not like it doesn't like women or jewish people, it has a FABRIC bias. A major slant to the left (HA!). Is that just the moss stitch? Will it block out? The last time I had this many questions about a project on the needles, it ended up being so big that three of us could have worn it. Makes me nervous....

Socks, forever in progress.

I may have been working on the Almondine from Sock Knitting Master Class since 1978. Horrible head cold leading to knitting ennui.... They may never be finished!

And not because they aren't beautiful! Anne Hanson and Malabrigo Sock- who could ask for anything more??

Trevi Fountain, Rome

I don't remember it being this hot OR this crowded!! Of course, it is still one of my favorite places in the world...

In the beginning.... Rome Airport!

I love this photo! Didn't so much love waiting on the terrazo floor for four hours before we got to see Rome! This may have been right before or right after I got a suitcase dropped on my face....

We'll come back to the Greece trip!

First, here is my big brave dog. What horror has the dog cowering behind the furniture? What terror has befallen the household, requiring that the Mom save her?


There was a fly in the den. That is right, the big old barky thing is terrified of flies. All 23 pounds of her! She is a nutty dog!!

Next, fresh from a glamorous backyard photo shoot, is the felted bag whose name I can't remember. It was nice and easy and came out very, very cute! Sadly, this photo was snapped right before I delivered it to its forever-home. It became the bag I promised Brenda for a Christmas present two years ago. Sigh. I'll have to knit another one. Good thing I like knitting, huh?


Good lining, too, if I do say so myself! I am so happy with the way this came out, especially since I totally winged it. Next time, pockets! (Btw, I hate hand sewing. I am the only person I know who can manage to jam a needle under my thumbnail AFTER FINISHING sewing....)

And that brings us here, the winner of the land speed record for fastest knitted sock! I just started it on Thursday of last week, and four days later, I finished sock number one. Amazing!


I swear I am going to cast on for sock number two tonight! Despite the blasted Old Norwegian Cast-On.... If I can do it once, I can do it again!

The Mom and I got Ann Budd's Sock Knitting Master Class last week, and have made the possibly-self-destructive decision to knit every last one of the bastards! Yeah... We shall see....

Next post, vacation photos!

A Tale of Two Yarns.

I have decided to take some artistic license today with the Knit and Crochet Blog Week Day one prompt.... I am making "A Tale of Two Yarns" work with my current project, the Lace Saddle Tee from Inteweave Knits. Watch, I can make it happen....

Ok, so here is the yarn I am working with, Louet Euroflax in a lovely emerald green. Seriously, it is emerald, not teal. I CANNOT take a true-to-color photo of this yarn. (Maybe it has a touch of non-photo green to it? My own personal green-screen.) I love linen. I buy lots of linen clothes, love the flow and drape, love the crumpled, casual feel.... Wouldn't you think that I loved working with linen yarn for the very first time? Sadly, as I believe many have discovered before me, linen yarn sucks. Sucks! It is like knitting with fine gauge kitchen twine! Any slub in the texture leaves a huge hole when the stitch won't even up with it's little friends. The fabric could be used to scrub pots. My fingertips are so sore that it has become a slog. I may be getting arthritis in my right index finger. Not to mention that it has absolutely no bloom, so it is working up like a mesh shirt from the Madonna Lucky Star era!

(Here is how I make it work with the two yarns theme... You have been so patient.)

HOWEVER, I am led to believe by a score of Ravelers that this yarn will undergo a magical transformation into the soft, smooth, supple fabric I so love. All I have to do is trust the kind knitters who have gone before me, trust that they will not lead me astray when they tell me to PUT IT IN THE WASHING MACHINE. AND THE DRYER. EEEEKKKK! Can I do it? Can I perform this magic trick, transforming from twine to divine?

So you see, Euroflax is not a single yarn. It is the werewolf of yarn! Two-natured!

So, imagine the below picture in its more verdant reality, and see all the progress made, what could potentially be destroyed by running it through the WASHING MACHINE.

The first lace saddle shoulder is finished. Onward, then, to pick up approximately 1000 stitches for the right arm. Me and the werewolf yarn....

Christmas in March

Or Christmas present giving, anyway! Hadn't seen Meredith since August, went up to help her move to her very cute new apartment.... This blue is the color of her eyes, hope she likes it....



The pattern is Branching Out from Knitty, works up absolutely beautifully... Got VERY boring before the end, but it wasn't hard. And I have previously expressed my love for the Valley Yarns Alpaca Silk. This didn't use even a noticeable amount of a cone! It was finished well before Christmas, but I don't remember the date. Somehow I missed recording any info in Ravelry....

Back to working on the Lace Shoulder Tee!

I can't believe how easy it is....

The people who are all over the internet saying, "I just couldn't believe how easy the first week was, it made me tempted to push myself harder.... I had to restrain myself and follow the program...." are either big fat liars, or they all sell hundred-dollar running shoes. Or alternatively, I am the person starting this who is in the worst shape of all time.

I would have included pictures, but how do you do a self-portrait showing that all of a sudden, each leg ways 300 lbs individually??

Week one may have a replay over the next two weeks....

Pictures from a dew covered morning....

Jennifer or Weeble? You decide.

It turns out to be REALLY hard to take a picture of ones-self with a zoom-lens bearing DSLR camera. Fun, huh, how it looks like I have a giant round belly that nearly eclipses my tiny, far away feet? It may be the internet's most flattering picture....

Anyway, I finished the Bondi in Berroco Origami. It is entirely too cold to be wearing a summer weight sweater, but I couldn't resist! I love it! I don't know why I put it aside.... The pieces knitted right up, all I had left to do was knit on the neck edge and sew the thing together.... But there it sat for almost a year.... I have to have something to wear on our yarn tourism outings for the warmer months!

Ohhhh, and look what came in the mail today! Shakespeare in Lace, the Venice yarn! So beautiful.... Now what was I working on again??

Still life with running shoes.

They weren't so still this morning, though!! The mom and I started our version of Couchto5K, which entails WALKING in all capital letters, walking, walking, walking. We HOOFED it for twenty minutes. We are going to do this every other day for two weeks, alternating with walking the Maggie Dog, which is necessarily at a slower pace, then start the official podcast program. It is absolutely amazing how proud I am of getting off my butt....

A plague on our house....

My brother has come down with the genuine article flu. He is one miserable puppy... I feel really bad for him. However, I am probably annoying the crap out of him by hovering and making him drink things....

In the meantime, I am knitting away on the Lace Saddle Tee from Interweave Knits Summer 2010. I am really excited about this. The color is more emerald than it looks here, truly, intensely green.

I can't say that the Louet Euroflax is a pleasure to knit with, but I have high hopes for how it will wear! It is stiff as kitchen twine right now, but I hear stories about miraculous transformations after machine washing and drying. Some of my favorite store-bought sweaters of all times have been linen-- can't wait!!

Working from home....

What you can't see from that picture is the complete chaos of a total network outage!! There has been calling from cell phones, driving around like a chicken with the head cut off.... Anyway, what I was trying to show off is my bee-you-ti-ful new desk, freshly put together!! Almost makes up for having to work on the holiday when everyone else is off!!

Inching along....

So, I opened up Ravelry today to complain about how very little progress I have made on Pea Vines by Anne Hanson. I feel like I have been slogging away on this one for AGES, surely a month.... This is as far as I have gotten. Hard to tell without context, but that is about 2 inches....


Turns out that I started it on 1/27/2011. That is right. Five days ago. Hmmm.

Can you see the peas? Can you, huh?

Never go to Ikea alone.

Trust me on this. You WILL find more than you should buy, and you WILL drag it off a shelf that is at higher than eye level, even if it weighs almost your body weight. Then you WILL truly believe that you can turn into the Incredible Hulk and heave a box of furniture that weighs nearly your body weight into the back of your car. And you WILL suffer for it later.... I survived the trip, thanks to a very nice Greek stranger in the parking lot who helped me heave the heavier of the boxes into my car.... He kept saying "Is ok." I think he thought I was crazy, but he helped me nonetheless.... Perhaps to give his wife and children time to escape.....

On a happy note, however, see my new Malm-in-progress above! That was yesterday, and while it resembles more a piece of furniture rather than an angry black octopus now, it is still in progress. It came with 14.8 million pieces, and I didn't have the fortitude to finish in one sitting. Pathetic.

However, I DID finish something this week! Ariel Shawlette, finished but not blocked!


Not only do I love this shawl, I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA. I am a happy crafter. Sigh!

Oh, by the way....

Finished object! I got distracted by doggie cuteness earlier, but better late than never!! Here is Damask:
I absolutely love the pattern. I absolutely love the yarn. I really like the the finished shawl.... But I have a sneaking feeling that probably I shouldn't have made this pattern in this yarn. I think that this gorgeous shawl would have shown better in a semi-solid yarn. So I bought more yarn to make it again when we went to Charleston yesterday! I do like it. I just feel like I could have loved it. Sigh.

Anyway, that was shawl 1 of 2011. Done in 11 days, amazingly enough... It is looking good for 11!!

Here is a look at number 10 from last year, all blocked and pretty:


I have already worn it twice, just blocked it two days ago. Shawl love. Knitting makes me smile.

Story of a photoshoot...

Ariel in progress....



Maggie loves the Shakespeare in Lace club!

10 Shawls in 2010

Everyone is doing 2010 recaps, and suddenly I got jealous. I have decided to recap by gathering together images of dubious quality of my shawls crafted all within the bounds of the year just past...

Here they are! Ten shawls in various stages of completion.... I didn't get to keep them all, some went to good homes, but they are all my babies!!

Citron- soft, gossamer and wearable.



Swallowtail- Julie's wedding shawl.


Haruni- the most complicated thing I had made to date. Why haven't I worn this 100 times already??


Hanami- would have passed through a wedding ring if not for the beads. Wore it today!



Aeolian- award-winning, what more can I say?


Annis- most worn shawl of 2010, at least at my house....


Skuld- I ADORE this shawl, if only I could figure out what to wear traffic-cone orange with!! What will make it look NOT-Halloweeny?


Little Arrowhead- turned out so much better than I ever expected. Nobody deserves it more than Roberta!



Saroyan- fun construction, blocked so well.... So HEAVY here in the land of sweating in the wintertime.... (And sideways. Don't ask me, I only work here.)


Arabella- last but not least! Seriously, need to block this. I already love it and it can only get better!!


And the first of 11 in 2011 has already begun! I have broken out the luscious Malabrigo Sock in Stonechat for Damask. I hope this pattern and this great yarn work together! I love the pattern and don't want the variegation to obscure its complexity.... Or the patterns complexity to take away from the beautiful color pooling taking place in this rich color combo.... We shall see!

I am feeling pretty excited about the possibilities!

In this economy!

I emailed a media/graphic design firm here in my little berg the other day to ask for a quote on some work.... Got a cupcake catering company to launch, after all. They emailed back to say that they weren't taking new customers at this time. Who is not taking new customers??? They seriously have so much money, so much work, and so much reputation that they don't need little old me?? Or was that a judgement on how valuable a client I would be for them?? I couldn't believe I got brushed off as a customer!

Anyone know of any graphic artists who AREN'T too good for me in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina?? I gotta get a logo!!!!