Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Quick Update

Just a quick note to say I've been thinking about it, and just haven't posted yet. I'm still exhausted (and I think I'm starting a sinus infection, cold, or other general sickness) and I'm hoping to get caught up on some sleep, pictures, knitting, cooking, and other things this weekend. I hope I can make it until then. I've cast on a new project, and I'm working on my daily routines still for a rhythm with blogging, knitting, pictures, and everything else. I'm also playing with the digital camera to get better pictures. We'll see how that goes hopefully this weekend as well. Back to work for me!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

This is not working.

Ugh...what can I say? The best laid plans of mice and men...get screwed up beyond all recognition. I have no energy, but the weather is GORGEOUS and it's now chilly. I'm certain the lack of energy is the weather. I'm hoping next week I'll have more energy and will post more, with pictures, and hopefully I can set up more in my Ravelry account. I'm just flat out tired. It's time for a nap.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

No progress again

I wish somehow that I didn't need sleep. If I didn't, I could get SO much more done. I have worked on the Cromarty, and I've worked on the crocheted baby blanket. I haven't picked up the Baby I.Q. afghans yet, but I did get more yarn for them. I think this weekend I can get more progress done since we're headed up to Toccoa for the weekend. That will mean knitting and crocheting time in abundance for me. I don't have to clean house (can't since we won't be there) and Sweet Baby Boy will be taken care of by the grandparents. That means my hands will be empty (yay!). Of course I want to take care of my baby, but I don't have to do it all. The grandparents can take over and feed, water and change his cage...I mean diaper. :)

Friday, October 19, 2007

So much for Picture Pages

Well, wouldn't you know it...I forgot the digital camera. Today though, I'm hoping to update Ravelry some more. Maybe I'll get to this site as well. I have basically all day and nothing to do (again). I spent yesterday crocheting at work (no, really...I paid to crochet yesterday). It was either sit and do nothing or sit and crochet or knit.

In the knitting realm, I cast on for Cromarty. I didn't knit any rows, but I did cast on. That's progress, right?! A friend of mine came over last night and started to organize my patterns. She's going through the nesting phase of pregnancy, and doesn't have much to do at her place, so when she came over last night, she started going through my stuff. It works for me...there's a lot to do around the house, and I can't get to all of it right now. I'll get to all of it, just not all at once.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Conquering the Swatch

I finished the swatch last night, and I re-started another afghan for my baby. I liked the pattern on the Sedge Stitch washcloth from Lion Brand, and ripped the start of the afghan I started on Saturday (a good 4 inches in crochet). I might be able to work on it some today at work (shhh! Don't tell anyone! It'll be our secret!).

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

I'm not as dumb as I look

I figured out what was wrong with the swatch for Cromarty. I stopped by Cast On Cottage and got some very useful help yesterday. I talked with one of the women there, and I was doing almost everything correctly, but I was reading the chart backwards. Note to self: it helps to read the chart correctly in order for the end product to look right. Interestingly enough, if you read it backward, it doesn't even come out backward...just wrong. Go figure. So now it's right, and it looks MUCH better. Pictures later. I didn't do it last night (I was on a knitting roll and didn't want to stop) and I didn't have time this morning. I'll either get it this evening and post tomorrow or Friday. Maybe by then the swatch will be done. There hasn't been much progress on any other front this week. Of course, it's just Wednesday. Tonight promises to be productive in some fashion. We're having friends over tomorrow night for dinner and to see the house. Cleaning MUST be done!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Too tired to knit

It's amazing how just sitting down and stopping for a few minutes can make you realize how tired you are. I have so much to do, yet I sat down last night for dinner, and within 30 minutes, I was ready to go to bed. So, I went to bed at 8:30. 8:30 p.m...can you believe it?! I think I might swing by a LYS this afternoon on my way home. It's on the way, and I can check it out. I haven't been there before, and a quick look won't hurt, right?

Monday, October 15, 2007

Getting the groove back

Isn't it odd how just spending some time flipping through others' sites will get your groove back? I'm ready to get started not only with Ravelry, but also with crafting now. I started checking out some aspects, and it looks like I'm going to be kicking the hubby off his computer more frequently and updating Ravelry.

Ravelry!

I finally got my Ravelry invite, and I need to set up a Flickr account to upload pictures, and start working on that. This weekend was not filled with knitting, but instead with some crochet. I fixed the Baby I.Q. blanket, and my son sleeps deeply under it. I started a new blanket for him. The Hoover blanket got deleted and is now a crocheted blanket of my own design.

I'm in a blah phase for here. I have no motivation currently to work on anything online. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I don't have a computer at home. My husband has scavanged the decent (but old) desktop I had, and the laptop (also old) has no internet access. I'm biding my time until I can get a new one (tax refund - here I come!).

I hope to get something accomplished at home, either something in the craft room or something ready for Ravelry. Maybe I'll get a kick in the pants soon. :)

Friday, October 12, 2007

Friday Pictures

Remember this?
Now it looks like this:

Here's a close up of one of the squares.

In case you wanted to know the progress of the swatch for the Cromarty, I took a picture of that too.
I'm not thrilled with the way the swatch is turning out. The cable isn't looking so hot. Has anyone else had this issue? It's either the pattern or me...and I don't think it's the pattern. I could be wrong. This weekend promises to have some serious knitting time. We're heading to a farmer's market about 2 hours away, and since hubby knows the way (we're taking back roads) he gets to drive. That means I'll be free to knit!!! Woot!




I still have to finish up the Sheldon for a friend who delivered on Sunday, and several other projects waiting in the wings. I started moving stuff in my craft room, but more will be done once all the electric work is done. That will hopefully be done next week. I'll take progress pictures tonight, and maybe if there's time this weekend (not likely, but possibly) I'll post them. Otherwise, you have to wait until next week.
There are issues with the blanket that I don't think you can see in the picture above, but I did some close-ups:

The holes are easily fixed, and I'll probably do that tonight. No worries for that issue. I have a a couple of squares of two other blankets started, and I'll finish those up hopefully before the year ends. I'm hoping to have a lot of FOs this year, even though it is late in the year. It's just a matter of finishing the projects already started.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Frustration

I can't seem to make the swatch work for me. I hope the color coding I did will help me pay closer attention and let it finally work! Crochet work update: I finished the Baby I.Q. Afghan for Sebastian this past weekend, and it went into the wash (pictures should be ready on Friday - I have to get it out and take them). Friday should hold many pictures for you.

I'm hoping to spend at least a little time this week in my craft room. If I get in there, pictures will be taken as the transformation happens. I have more pictures to take of the house as well, to show you what we've done (not much, but something's better than nothing).

Monday, October 08, 2007

Sweater Mondays

Well, I didn't get as much progress as I had hoped on the sweater swatch this weekend. I was hoping to complete it, and that just didn't happen. Of course, when you spend all day Saturday and Sunday involved in activities that won't let you knit, you can't really expect much to get done. I also had to restart the cable swatch about 3 times because something just wasn't happenin'. It wasn't working for me. Eh, maybe tonight?! I also have to finish a Sheldon for a friend...she delivered yesterday. Yea! New baby!

Friday, October 05, 2007

New set-up

Well, I listened to a wonderful podcast about altering knitting patterns. Thanks to Lara at Math4Knitters for the help. I started working a swatch for the major cable in the sweater pattern and we'll see where that takes us.

I'd really love to go back to college and get another degree. Perhaps if I got a second degree in something like English, I could then get a teaching job, and work on my music degree. This is all theory of course.

In case you can't tell, I'm slowly but surely changing some things around on the website. Hopefully it'll be completed over the next month, and we can start having some real fun around here! I'm also going to try and post at least three times a week for a complete year. Ha! Maybe if I do weekly posts with a theme, that would help. I could do a sweater update on Mondays, a toy update on Wednesdays, and something fun on Fridays, like a great picture or something.

More math and a new picture

Here's a picture from...2 weeks ago! I can't believe it's been that long already! In any case, you can see I went RED. I love it. It's a nice change.

More math is in my future. I plotted out my measurements last night on graph paper, and we'll see how the measurement for the sweater map out, then there's the whole issue of putting the two together and making the necessary changes.

I need a list. There's so much to do...and I keep adding more. Not necessarily craft stuff either. I think I'm going to pick up German again. My hubby needs help with it before he returns to school...that's his biggest obstacle. I, being the good wife that I am, will help him with it. That means I have to re-learn it (or learn it for the first time, since when I took it I didn't learn much either).

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Argh...swatching...again.

Well, I decided I don't like the new swatches...either of them. The first one is better. How crappy is that?! However, I did find an excellent resource for modifying patterns at Knitty. Here's the link. I love having the internet as a constant resource. This saves me tons of time and energy (the energy I'm sure I could burn; the time - not so much). It also saves me a lot of frustration. This means I can devote more time to doing the important things: work, playing with my baby, knitting, cooking, etc. Washing clothes and cleaning are way down on the list.

One thing that's not is getting the roof fixed. Apparently, it doesn't leak in a heavy rainstorm (we have several of these in Georgia), just a gentle one. We have two tracks of water that stream down one wall in the living room. This is distressing, mainly because the inspector didn't find anything really wrong with the roof (of course, he also didn't get up on the roof, just looked at it through binoculars, the lazy doof). Fortunately, we do have coverage from our home warranty on the roof, so hopefully it'll just be the price of a service call.

I'm hoping once I get all the schematics down for the Cromarty sweater, I can actually start knitting. I've never had to do this with crocheting before, mainly for 2 reasons: one, if I made something to wear, I could manipulate the stitches enough without the math to make it fit and two, I haven't made that many things to wear in either crochet or knit. That's all about to change. I hope all the math pays off. It's a good thing I was pretty good at math. Otherwise, this would all suck. I do however need to pay attention and run the numbers 3 times, preferably in different ways. I might even get someone else to run the numbers for me, just to make sure it's all working correctly.

New swatch watch

The swatch I did before (on size 6 needles), though accurate for gauge measurement, just isn't cutting it. I'm swatching again, this time on 8s. I tried 9s, but the gaps between stitches were a bit much. I think I knit the last sweater from this yarn on 8s, so it should be alright. I don't want it holey, but I think the 6s were a little small. I started the front on the 9s, but fortunately, I only got the first row done. I think this will set up the sweater well, so the bottom doesn't draw in too much, and will hang nicely. I can switch to the 8s for the next row, but only after the swatch. I'm sure people around work think I'm insane, since I seem to be doing the same thing over and over and over again. But, if it doesn't work or fit, what's the point?

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Guessing Gauge

I knitted a swatch for the Cromarty Sweater from Alice Starmore's Celtic Collection book. According to my swatch, to get the measurements I need for the sweater, I still cast on the same number of stitches. I just think that's weird. Maybe my math is off...with the gauge she gives, it comes out to 6.25 sts per inch. My gauge is 6 sts per inch. She says to cast on 184 sts. That means it should be 29.44 inches across the bottom. The diagram shows 22.5 inches. Where did the other 6.94 inches go? Am I insane? Are they eaten up by seams or the pattern? I need the extra inches. I guess I can knit a couple of rows and see how it measures. I just hate to do all that work just to rip it out and start all over again, when I'm sure someone else has done it already. Duplicating work just isn't my thing.