Hmmm

Living in a major metropolitan area, I am quite lucky to have my choice of yarn shops to frequent. There is the one that is cramped and dimly lit. Oddly enough, this one is my favorite. I just plain ole like the staff. There is another that just changed locations. I will have to be going there more as they carry Dream in Color. A third caters to weavers and you can purchase yarn on huge cones. The forth store (that I have been to) has elicited very mixed reviews from customers. I've not had the greatest of experiences there, but after a very favorable interaction with one of their employees on Ravelry I decided to give it another whirl.


I took my son with me and we purused the aisles and I fondled new yarns and said hello to some old favorites. But the main reason for going was to pick up some kind of wool wash. They happened to have the best price in town so I went with it. I really like the scent of the Kookaburra. The tea tree oil is divine.


The highlight of the drive up there is this.



I'm not sure how clear it is, but the name of the place is The New Pitts Mortuary. Honestly? The images it evokes make me shudder and giggle at the same time. How hard to you think their marketing firm has to work?


Dont forget to enter for a chance at a prize for my 2 year blogiversary.

Upcoming Anniversary

Business first. My 2 year blogiversary is coming up on February 4th. To celebrate, I would like to give away a few goodies. (No, I CAN'T tell you, it would ruin the surprise! Yes, it will include yarn. Heck - since it is cold out, you might even get chocolate, or some other yummies).

There are 3 ways to enter.

1. Leave a comment on the blog.
2. Mentioning the contest on your blog will get you another entry.
3. Every time someone else mentions that they found out about the contest from you, you get another entry.

All entries need to be in by Monday February 4th.

The fronts are done on Ribby Cardi. I'm not thrilled with how the decreases came out in the last few rows. Either I am stupid or the directions aren't entirely clear...

You there in the back, stop snickering.

I realize that since I am not the first person to knit this lovely pattern, that the issue most likely resides between my ears and not with the designer.

Really, I must put down the Merlot before I knit, it would make life so much easier. The final few rows may get ripped back and redone. You know, so I can live up to my claim of being persnickety.

I've started the sleeves and thought a few stripes might liven things up a bit. I'm not entirely sure yet. To keep the spontaneity going, I will finish off the last row or 2 of the collar in the grey - for balance.

Yes. I am calling it balance, not schizophrenia.

Last week, Caleb and I spent the night at the Dells with my family for a fun-filled 24 hours of swimming at the Kalahari Resort. We had 13 people (including 6 kids) in a 3 bedroom suite with a full kitchen and living area. All the cookware and dishes are included. Caleb had a blast riding all of the slides. He even tried out surfing!

Look Ma, no hands!

We started for home at bedtime and while he wanted to watch a movie on the portable DVD player (it is a 2 hour drive), I was Cruella DeVille and told him that he needed to sleep. He made one protest at the 15 minute mark and that was the last I heard from him!

Fronts 2.0

Finally. I reached the armhole shaping on the fronts. Again. I managed to slog through the tedium and have come out victorious. (Knock on wood – I wouldn’t want to incur the wrath of the knitting gods and get smacked down. Again.)





I’m really looking forward to getting to the sleeves. If nothing else, the change in color will be good.

But to be completely honest, this project will contain a whole bunch of firsts for me. I’ve never knit a sweater with a zipper before, so sewing one in will be, um, interesting. I’ve also never seamed a sweater before. I know, I know. I've knit at least 6 sweaters or vests. It’s crazy that I’ve always managed to get around it by working the piece in the round. But this time, I decided to bite the bullet and actually knit the dang thing as it was written.



I also finished the garterlac dishcloth and I love it. I think it will be great for using up some of the odds and ends that I have left over from various balls of cotton.



I think I'm hooked!

The Price is Right

It was such a busy weekend. I always feel behind and I hate it. I was grouchy and so was Eric. Fun times.

Winter increased the laundry exponentially which just compounds the behindedness. (I want someone to explain how I can go from 1 load of darks in the summer to 4+ a week in the winter. I realize that jeans and sweaters/sweatshirts take up more room, but this is ridiculous!)

At Christmas, my SIL gave me a recipe for making laundry detergent. I’ve waited to post it here because I wanted to see how well it worked for myself.


The very first load of laundry I did was towels that had been used to sop up spilt coffee. They were filthy. I figured it would be a good test load, if it could get the towels clean then there wasn’t much it couldn’t do, especially as the towels had sat for a couple of days before I got a chance to wash them. And if it didn’t work well, then, it was just a bunch of towels.

They came out from the wash without a spot of coffee on them. Pale blue towels, no less. The only other concern I had was fading and while I’ve only washed each article of clothing a couple of times, I haven’t noticed any so far.

Honestly, I am a convert; at this point, I can’t image buying detergent again.


Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup washing soda (not baking) (Arm and Hammer) (~$2.99/box)

1/2 cup borax (~$1.99/box)

1/2 bar of Fels Naptha soap grated ($1.09/bar)

Heat 1 gal. of water on stove. Grate the soap into a 5 gallon bucket. Add the boiling water and stir until melted. Add the washing soda and borax stirring until dissolved. Let cool for 1 hour then add 2 gallons hot water to bucket*. Pour into old milk gallon jugs with a funnel.

Use 1/3-1/2 cup per load
Makes 3 gallons

So, the first batch cost right around 6 bucks and made 3 gallons. (I was able to nab 3 empty laundry detergent bottles from our upstairs neighbor and filled those. The cap is a ½ measure. Milk cartons would work as well.) The next batch will be free because I already have the other half of the Fels Naptha. After that, each batch will only cost 55 cents because I already have the washing soda and the borax.

The only down side that I have notice so far is that when the detergent sits for more than a few minutes, there is a gloppy something that rises to the surface. A quick shake of the bottle takes care of it, so it falls under minor inconvenience rather than deal-breaker.

I have been doing some knitting on the Ribbi Cardy and am about halfway to the armhole shaping on the fronts. I’m still doing both of them at the same time which makes for slow going. I will most likely do the sleeves the same way. I really don’t want to cast on for something else until I get something off the needles. Even though it is the same project, I need to have the feeling of accomplishment when I bind off something.

*I have to admit that I was impatient and didn’t wait an hour for the mixture to cool and added lukewarm water to cool it off enough to bottle it.

Resolutions

Okay - I think it is a fair assumption to say that I am not a serious blogger. I think about blogging much more frequently than I actually sit down and compose a post. Daily, I compose a bit of something in my head, but then 8 pm rolls around and either the thought has flitted away or I am stuck scrubbing some baked on gunk off the stove.

I have been knitting, but the Ribbi Cardy is in time out because of ripping back both of the fronts. It depresses me to look at it. Honestly? I'm sick of the beautiful cranberry color. Which gives me a thought... Maybe I should cast on for the sleeves so I can get sick of the grey. Hmm, this might just work.

While stumbling through Ravelry the other day I found this pattern for a garerlac dishcloth. Entralac has NEVER appealed to me. All that turning and knitting back. Besides, what do you do with it? Wearing a garment composed of teeny tiny squares would look odd on me. I like a lot of shaping in my sweaters and entrelac doesn't seem to have the flexibility to modify things on a whim.

Yes, this means that I am apt to just dive in and make changes, the consequences be damned.

Yes, this typically means a lot of frogging and profanity.

But, it also results in some stuff that fits me pretty darn well and a lot of, ahem, learning experiences. Let's not mention the alpaca and merino blend that sags atrociously.

Anyway, back to my point. I found this pattern and decided that a garter stitch washcloth was the perfect project to try out this new technique. It is much more fun that I thought it would be. I like the modularity of it. I can knit a small square and set it down having a feeling of accomplishment. I can easily see how people get hooked on it.

Now that I have done a few repeats of the pattern, it is somewhat intuitive. At least the squares. Not so much the triangles.

I've done a lot of thinking about Resolutions for 2008. I could be like some and try to knit a pair of socks a month, or more than one sweater. But, keeping up with my business and maintaining some semblance of sanity will not allow such lofty goals. So, I decided that what I will do instead is try a few techniques. I am always looking for a challenge and I think that this will keep me on my toes, without compromising my mental health. I've added a list of my goals to the sidebar. Here's hoping that I can do it.

Recovering from the holidaze

I'm so glad that Christmas is over this year. I always enjoy the holiday, but for some reason this year, I just wasn't in the spirit. I felt like we didn't put enough effort into most of the gifts that we gave because there just wasn't time to find the "perfect" gift.


It didn't help that on Christmas Eve, while driving back from my parents, we came across a terrible accident on the freeway. Eric felt obligated to stop and help. There was one fatality, the other adult had life-threatening injuries and the 3 yo was hurt, but okay because she was in a car seat. The accident just deflated us.



While visiting with my parents, I was able to finish the back of my Ribbi Cardi. It turns out that 8" of fresh snow that fell made a perfect backdrop for photographing the cranberry color. While the background is dim, the color is pretty accurate in the photograph. (On the first try no less!)



I started the armhole shaping on the fronts only to realize that I had knit the 2nd smallest size for the back and the smallest size for the front. Combine that with the fact that I wasn't happy with a couple of other niggling details on the fronts and ribbit. Currently, I am on row 18 of 32 of the ribbing, blech. Here's hoping that I can make up for lost time this weekend.

Imagine this picture, only shorter and slightly wider and you

will envision what I currently have on the needles.

Merry Christmas

I received this today from a friend at work. It made me smile!