Marvelous!
Soon to be another great issue by IK. The Tilted Jacket by Norah Gaughan, how fabulous is
that?
Your Thursday is my Friday. Aahh...
30.9.04
29.9.04
I am just giddy with joy about how the plaid/tartan jacket is knitting up. Not only are the colors rich and autumnal, but it's knitting up so quickly! I also learned a new knitting stitch. How cute would this tartan stitch pattern look on a bag? You could do a chic Chanel like plaid or a traditional Scottish style tartan.
28.9.04
Mad for plaid and just plain mad
Very productive night. Always feels good to accomplish something new. I was a little worried it would take me most of the night to figure out the stitch pattern, but this was pretty easy. It is also knitting up in a snap. My only challenge so far is keeping all the yarn organized and not to get it too tangled. I can't exactly snuggle up on the sofa and knit away with this. I sit in the middle of the living room in front of the yarn trails and knit away, always mindful to detangle after every two rows.
Look, see how pretty it's shaping up.
Oh what a tangled web I weave...
******************
I about blew a gasket today when I opened the mail today. So many knitters write about the joy of getting mail, but my mail was something entirely different. They have been trying to build this @%$#-ing monorail system here for the last five years or more, I can't remember how long, and finally got enough votes to tax everyone last September. People living in the city would pay for this tax through vehicle registration fees. Sure, I understand that taxes are part of living in any community, but I don't want to spend over a billion, yes, billion with a big fat "B", to build a two lines system that doesn't even serve the most populated neighborhoods. The initiative was passed mere months before my tags expired, and the tax took effect right away, so I paid handsomely last year. This year my tags will cost me $284!!!
I understand the benefits public transportation can provide to people in the community. When I lived abroad my existence depended on public transportation: commuting to work, shopping, visiting friends, having a safe ride home when I was too inebriated. It's just that they should have built this thing years ago, and now the time has passed and it's just not feasible. In November I'm voting for the recall on the levy!
Very productive night. Always feels good to accomplish something new. I was a little worried it would take me most of the night to figure out the stitch pattern, but this was pretty easy. It is also knitting up in a snap. My only challenge so far is keeping all the yarn organized and not to get it too tangled. I can't exactly snuggle up on the sofa and knit away with this. I sit in the middle of the living room in front of the yarn trails and knit away, always mindful to detangle after every two rows.
Look, see how pretty it's shaping up.
Oh what a tangled web I weave...
******************
I about blew a gasket today when I opened the mail today. So many knitters write about the joy of getting mail, but my mail was something entirely different. They have been trying to build this @%$#-ing monorail system here for the last five years or more, I can't remember how long, and finally got enough votes to tax everyone last September. People living in the city would pay for this tax through vehicle registration fees. Sure, I understand that taxes are part of living in any community, but I don't want to spend over a billion, yes, billion with a big fat "B", to build a two lines system that doesn't even serve the most populated neighborhoods. The initiative was passed mere months before my tags expired, and the tax took effect right away, so I paid handsomely last year. This year my tags will cost me $284!!!
I understand the benefits public transportation can provide to people in the community. When I lived abroad my existence depended on public transportation: commuting to work, shopping, visiting friends, having a safe ride home when I was too inebriated. It's just that they should have built this thing years ago, and now the time has passed and it's just not feasible. In November I'm voting for the recall on the levy!
27.9.04
Happy Talk
I am trying to keep the negative, unhelpful, and depression inducing thoughts to a minimum this week. I've heard that if you smile often, there by flexing the muscles on your face, it will become second nature to have an up turn mouth. Thus the smile, whatever your mood, affects people around you who will in turn send positive vibes back to you. Good in theory. Let's put it to the test.
I've finished the Vittadini eyelet sweater, technically. The iron is warming up, and I am ready for some blocking. More importantly this means I can start another project. That plaid coat from IK is tempting. I was reading over the pattern last night and saw that it requires size 13! Sure, big needles means fewer cast on stitches, but 13? Those are huge. I only have 13s in Denise, and I've been trying to avoid use my Denise needle. Plastic. Enough said. Knitting with the Denise needles in that size is like knitting with two rolls of pennies.
I am trying to keep the negative, unhelpful, and depression inducing thoughts to a minimum this week. I've heard that if you smile often, there by flexing the muscles on your face, it will become second nature to have an up turn mouth. Thus the smile, whatever your mood, affects people around you who will in turn send positive vibes back to you. Good in theory. Let's put it to the test.
I've finished the Vittadini eyelet sweater, technically. The iron is warming up, and I am ready for some blocking. More importantly this means I can start another project. That plaid coat from IK is tempting. I was reading over the pattern last night and saw that it requires size 13! Sure, big needles means fewer cast on stitches, but 13? Those are huge. I only have 13s in Denise, and I've been trying to avoid use my Denise needle. Plastic. Enough said. Knitting with the Denise needles in that size is like knitting with two rolls of pennies.
24.9.04
Kureyon Mitten Kitten
I did a little re-organizing last weekend and found these mittens in the bottom of my basket.
Mittens are fun to make, so simple and quick. One of the first things I ever made were mittens. My first pair were made of white and purple Red Heart yarn knitted together for a nice chunky tweed-like effect. They were warm and toasty, and actually some what waterproof. This was important for playing in the snow at recess. Though the mittens kept me dry, the cuffs were too short and uneven so when I stretched my arms I exposed my wrist to the cold and snow.
These Kureyon mittens are knitted with size 6 needles. I have teeny tiny wrists, and if I remember correctly, I believe I casted on 36 stitches, and increased two stitches evenly after completing the cuff. Keep knitting for a couple of rows before doing the thumb gusset. Once you've increased the thumb hole to the size you want put the stitches on a holder and work the main piece to the top of the forefinger, and start the decrease. After the the decrease is just slightly above the middle finger, go a couple of more rows if you like roomy mittens, stop and graft the stitches. Half an inch from the top of the thumb is when you'll want to do the decrease.
To get the colorway to match you'll need two skeins. The best bet is to find two that start with the same color,and eyeball that both skeins contain the same color combination. These two skeins can yield two pairs of mittens, though I have small to medium hands.
I have to say that Fern is difficult to wear. The front opening is really wide making it very easy to slip off the shoulders. The wrap front is hard to keep tidy. You'll need a pin or something to keep the left, or inside, front in place or else it will fall and hang unattractively underneath the right front.
I did a little re-organizing last weekend and found these mittens in the bottom of my basket.
Mittens are fun to make, so simple and quick. One of the first things I ever made were mittens. My first pair were made of white and purple Red Heart yarn knitted together for a nice chunky tweed-like effect. They were warm and toasty, and actually some what waterproof. This was important for playing in the snow at recess. Though the mittens kept me dry, the cuffs were too short and uneven so when I stretched my arms I exposed my wrist to the cold and snow.
These Kureyon mittens are knitted with size 6 needles. I have teeny tiny wrists, and if I remember correctly, I believe I casted on 36 stitches, and increased two stitches evenly after completing the cuff. Keep knitting for a couple of rows before doing the thumb gusset. Once you've increased the thumb hole to the size you want put the stitches on a holder and work the main piece to the top of the forefinger, and start the decrease. After the the decrease is just slightly above the middle finger, go a couple of more rows if you like roomy mittens, stop and graft the stitches. Half an inch from the top of the thumb is when you'll want to do the decrease.
To get the colorway to match you'll need two skeins. The best bet is to find two that start with the same color,and eyeball that both skeins contain the same color combination. These two skeins can yield two pairs of mittens, though I have small to medium hands.
I have to say that Fern is difficult to wear. The front opening is really wide making it very easy to slip off the shoulders. The wrap front is hard to keep tidy. You'll need a pin or something to keep the left, or inside, front in place or else it will fall and hang unattractively underneath the right front.
23.9.04
18.9.04
Ch-changes...
It's really starting to feel like Fall. We took a walk to Le Fournil to get some yummy french pastries and lattes for breakfast this morning. The overcast sky and cool weather made it feel like October. It's been a while since we strolled through the neighborhood. Our little 'hood is on the verge of major development, for better or worse. We noticed at least three notices for proposed land use signs. Yes, that's right, condos, condos, and can you believe, more condos. First, Starbucks lands in our vicinity. I think this was the last neighborhood in the city for them to take over. Then, a local restaurant was forced to relocate, that's right, to make room for condos. The Child Haven down the block is also moving out of the neighborhood after two decades. Give it two years and this place will be just like Fremont.
I don't understand why anyone would want to spend money to live under the freeway. There are two buildings that are literally right under the freeway. We walked by one of them and you couldn't hear anything but that droning freeway noise. I would go mad if I had to hear that noise everyday. Sure, they are built with soundproofing, but they also have decks. How enjoyable can that be?
For now we're content to be in our spot. No plans to leave yet. Not until they kick us out to turn the building into condos...
It's really starting to feel like Fall. We took a walk to Le Fournil to get some yummy french pastries and lattes for breakfast this morning. The overcast sky and cool weather made it feel like October. It's been a while since we strolled through the neighborhood. Our little 'hood is on the verge of major development, for better or worse. We noticed at least three notices for proposed land use signs. Yes, that's right, condos, condos, and can you believe, more condos. First, Starbucks lands in our vicinity. I think this was the last neighborhood in the city for them to take over. Then, a local restaurant was forced to relocate, that's right, to make room for condos. The Child Haven down the block is also moving out of the neighborhood after two decades. Give it two years and this place will be just like Fremont.
I don't understand why anyone would want to spend money to live under the freeway. There are two buildings that are literally right under the freeway. We walked by one of them and you couldn't hear anything but that droning freeway noise. I would go mad if I had to hear that noise everyday. Sure, they are built with soundproofing, but they also have decks. How enjoyable can that be?
For now we're content to be in our spot. No plans to leave yet. Not until they kick us out to turn the building into condos...
17.9.04
I've had such a crappy week. I meditate way too much on the negative. I think of myself as an introspective person, but I really focus too much on what others think of me. This drives me to the point of insanity and I get so depressed I can hardly function. It's so crazy; I fixate on the negative and it send me down a really terrible path of self loathing that I can't see the light.
13.9.04
Memory lane
This is the first sweater I ever made. This was back when I didn't bother to familiarize myself with swatching, proper yarn substitution, or learn what gauge meant. My requirement was that the shaping had to be simple, but the stitches had to be more than just stockinette and purl. I wanted easy, but not boring. The heart pattern on the pockets are duplicate stitches and lazy daisy stitches in the cable pattern. It came out way too large for me. It's still too large now.
This is the first sweater I ever made. This was back when I didn't bother to familiarize myself with swatching, proper yarn substitution, or learn what gauge meant. My requirement was that the shaping had to be simple, but the stitches had to be more than just stockinette and purl. I wanted easy, but not boring. The heart pattern on the pockets are duplicate stitches and lazy daisy stitches in the cable pattern. It came out way too large for me. It's still too large now.
10.9.04
Love reading about the London Tube. It takes me back to a time when I was free from worries about career, money, and "adult" resposibilities. I became part of the crowd riding down the escalator, stepping onto the train, grabbing onto the overhead rail, and watching people come and go at each stop. I will forever stand to the right and walk on the left when taking an escalator. In a crowd I will walk with the flow of traffic, otherwise you are just asking for disaster. Anything you want to do you could by Tube. One Spring day riding to work they forced everyone off and out of King's Cross because of a reported fire. Delay time was uncertain so you had to find alternate modes of transportation to get to your destination. Simple enough if aboveground wasn't so darn confusing. Tube lines are color coded anyone could decipher a best route in a minute, but London streets are like a maze, no parallel streets can be found, one merges into another and becomes another name, or simply becomes another name. I got scared. How was I going to get to work? What bus can I take? What side of the street should I catch the bus on, where do I get off? I circled around the station, and thank goodness, it was a false alarm and we were allowed back in the station to resume our journey. It was close, I was almost forced to use the bus.
8.9.04
Does anyone remember the article in The New Yorker back in 2000 about this new thing called blogger? I remember thinking how cool it sounded to be able to send new information to your website without having to code everything and how convenient it was that your message could be posted instantly. Also, I remember that the article was in the Valentine issue and they played up the guy invents new form of communication to be in contact with his girl angle. Now four years later I split my computer time between look at yarn to buy and reading blogs. With the amount of blogs/journals/diaries out there I suspect a lot of people are doing the same.
7.9.04
I saw this and had to do it.
Respond to these movie stars' names with the title of the movie of theirs that you liked most. Also add one name to the end.
* Tom Hanks - Splash
* Jim Carrey - um, funny Jim or serious Jim? The Truman Show. I haven't seen Eternal Sunshine
* Tobey Maguire - Wonder Boys
* Mel Gibson - Makes movies that are too violent.
* Ben Affleck - Chasing Amy
* Nicole Kidman - There's just something I don't like about her, can't put my finger on it so I don't enjoy her movies.
* Liv Tyler - Lord of the Rings
* Harrison Ford - Regarding Henry
* Natalie Portman - Beautiful Girls
* Ewan McGregor - Trainspotting
* Edward Norton - Fight Club
* Angelina Jolie - I can't recall a good movie she's made only terrible ones: Beyond Borders, Original Sin, Life or Something Like It...
* John Cusack - Say Anythinh
* Renee Zellweger - Bridget Jones's Diary
* Johnny Depp - Ed Wood and Pirates of the Caribbean
* Sean Penn - ??
* Will Smith - Independence Day
* Meg Ryan - I'm having a hard time differentiating the characters and the movies she played during the '90s
* Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago
* Sandra Bullock - See Meg Ryan
* Gwyneth Paltrow - Sliding Doors
* Brad Pitt - Fight Club, he redeemed himself in my eyes with this movie. Before that it was tainted by performances in Meet Joe Black, A River Runs Throught It, and Seven Years in Tibet.
* Keanu Reeves - The first Matrix movie
* Cameron Diaz - Being John Malkovich
* Christina Ricci - The Opposite of Sex
* Drew Barrymore - Ever After. Sappy little chick flick, I know. It was fun.
* Kate Hudson - still waiting
* Marilyn Monroe - Can't recall
* Adam Sandler - Happy Gilmore
* Robin Williams - Aladdin
* Arnold Schwarzenegger - (left blank on purpose)
* Bruce Willis - The Whole Nine Yard
* Eddie Murphy - Trading Places
* Morgan Freeman - Nurse Betty
* Sigourney Weaver - Working Girls
* George Clooney - O Brother, Where Art Thou?
* Julia Stiles - 10 Things I Hate About You
* Jodie Foster - Bugsy Malone, no just kidding. Maybe Little Man Tate or Freaky Friday
* Sean Connery - Nothing stands out.
* Christian Slater - Heathers or the one where he's got the baboon heart.
* Julianne Moore - Magnolia
* Michael Pitt - Never heard of him
* Uma Thurman - Pulp Fiction
* Nicolas Cage- Adaptation
Respond to these movie stars' names with the title of the movie of theirs that you liked most. Also add one name to the end.
* Tom Hanks - Splash
* Jim Carrey - um, funny Jim or serious Jim? The Truman Show. I haven't seen Eternal Sunshine
* Tobey Maguire - Wonder Boys
* Mel Gibson - Makes movies that are too violent.
* Ben Affleck - Chasing Amy
* Nicole Kidman - There's just something I don't like about her, can't put my finger on it so I don't enjoy her movies.
* Liv Tyler - Lord of the Rings
* Harrison Ford - Regarding Henry
* Natalie Portman - Beautiful Girls
* Ewan McGregor - Trainspotting
* Edward Norton - Fight Club
* Angelina Jolie - I can't recall a good movie she's made only terrible ones: Beyond Borders, Original Sin, Life or Something Like It...
* John Cusack - Say Anythinh
* Renee Zellweger - Bridget Jones's Diary
* Johnny Depp - Ed Wood and Pirates of the Caribbean
* Sean Penn - ??
* Will Smith - Independence Day
* Meg Ryan - I'm having a hard time differentiating the characters and the movies she played during the '90s
* Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago
* Sandra Bullock - See Meg Ryan
* Gwyneth Paltrow - Sliding Doors
* Brad Pitt - Fight Club, he redeemed himself in my eyes with this movie. Before that it was tainted by performances in Meet Joe Black, A River Runs Throught It, and Seven Years in Tibet.
* Keanu Reeves - The first Matrix movie
* Cameron Diaz - Being John Malkovich
* Christina Ricci - The Opposite of Sex
* Drew Barrymore - Ever After. Sappy little chick flick, I know. It was fun.
* Kate Hudson - still waiting
* Marilyn Monroe - Can't recall
* Adam Sandler - Happy Gilmore
* Robin Williams - Aladdin
* Arnold Schwarzenegger - (left blank on purpose)
* Bruce Willis - The Whole Nine Yard
* Eddie Murphy - Trading Places
* Morgan Freeman - Nurse Betty
* Sigourney Weaver - Working Girls
* George Clooney - O Brother, Where Art Thou?
* Julia Stiles - 10 Things I Hate About You
* Jodie Foster - Bugsy Malone, no just kidding. Maybe Little Man Tate or Freaky Friday
* Sean Connery - Nothing stands out.
* Christian Slater - Heathers or the one where he's got the baboon heart.
* Julianne Moore - Magnolia
* Michael Pitt - Never heard of him
* Uma Thurman - Pulp Fiction
* Nicolas Cage- Adaptation
Uh oh...
Yup, not enough yarn to finish that lovely Adrianne Vittadini eyelet sweater. It's a little disappointing to put so much time and effort into knitting it only to come up short. The thing was that once I got to the armhole shaping where I started knitting the front and back in separately the stitches for stockinette and purl got wonky. The tension was visibly different, and many attempts at re-knitting did not fix the problem. I was going to live with it if I had enough yarn to finish, but not having to look at the inconsistent tension is sort of a relief. I frogged it, rewound it, amd "re-packaged" it. Now what can I knit with ten balls of cotton silk? There is this shell that is knit widthwise but I'm not too crazy about the shaping of the pattern.
Was/Is:
I've got a new regiment. I am doing the stairs that go from Lakeview Boulevard up to 10th Ave. These stairs sort of connect Eastlake and Capitol Hill making it a long ass climb. Today I did two and a third climbs. Walking home my legs were like jelly. I was afraid that they would give out on the way down one of the steep side streets. Also treacherous is trying to cross Boylston where cars zoom by to merge onto I-5!
Yup, not enough yarn to finish that lovely Adrianne Vittadini eyelet sweater. It's a little disappointing to put so much time and effort into knitting it only to come up short. The thing was that once I got to the armhole shaping where I started knitting the front and back in separately the stitches for stockinette and purl got wonky. The tension was visibly different, and many attempts at re-knitting did not fix the problem. I was going to live with it if I had enough yarn to finish, but not having to look at the inconsistent tension is sort of a relief. I frogged it, rewound it, amd "re-packaged" it. Now what can I knit with ten balls of cotton silk? There is this shell that is knit widthwise but I'm not too crazy about the shaping of the pattern.
Was/Is:
I've got a new regiment. I am doing the stairs that go from Lakeview Boulevard up to 10th Ave. These stairs sort of connect Eastlake and Capitol Hill making it a long ass climb. Today I did two and a third climbs. Walking home my legs were like jelly. I was afraid that they would give out on the way down one of the steep side streets. Also treacherous is trying to cross Boylston where cars zoom by to merge onto I-5!
2.9.04
I'm feeling a bit doubtful about being able to complete the eyelet sweater. Take a look. I'm halfway through the fifth ball of yarn, out of ten, and it's only three-fourths done. The yarn was bought at a clearance sale; I took all that was left of this color. It's doubtful that there will be enough for the sleeves. Boo hoo...
So, I've been watching tidbits of the RNC, it's all I can stomach. Cheney, in my opinion, has perfected the sneer. He's got it down to a science, it is textbook. What a weasel.
So, I've been watching tidbits of the RNC, it's all I can stomach. Cheney, in my opinion, has perfected the sneer. He's got it down to a science, it is textbook. What a weasel.