Another one bites the dust

I love my Monkeys. Love them with this yarn. Lovethemlovethemlovethem. Unfortunately, they don't love me. I can't fit them over my heel. Damn cankles.

So, I frogged.

Again.

I tried a different yarn, but I didn't feel the love.

Going up a needle size isn't an option because the fabric will be too loose.

I tried a different pattern, but it did nothing for me in this yarn.

The Sweet Georgia Yarn wants to be Monkeys. It needs to be Monkeys. I've added a stitch on either side of the pattern repeat so that each repeat is 18 stitches instead of 16. We'll see how it goes. I just finished recharting the pattern. and am off.

Monkey see Monkey do

What a week.

Caleb has been sick. Over the weekend he had a playdate with a friend he doesn't see very often. While he had a great time, the end result was yet another round of the flu.

Tuesday he said he wasn't feeling well, but he went to school without any more complaints than we normally get. On Wednesday, he came home from school with a fever. Thankfully, Eric had discharged his only patient the day before and was able to wheedle a day off on Thursday.

Today, he seemed to be feeling better so we shoved him off to daycare and school because I had a three hour training session that was required this morning. A quick call to daycare at lunch proved that this was the right decision, he not coughing so much and isn't listless.

As promised, here are a few pictures of the Hedgerow Socks. They too are following the seasons, but apparently those in the southern hemisphere as they have just now entered hibernation.



I'm about 3/4 of the way through the leg on the first sock and I'm not feelin' the love. The pattern is painfully easy, but entirely too fiddley. And its too snug for my cankles.

As I see it there are a few ways to resolve the dilemma:

1. I could just keep going and be much more generous than my selfish little heart desires and gift these lovely socks to someone who's anatomy is more slender and graceful than mine.

2. I could add a repeat to the pattern. It would be only 6 extra stitches which would probably be enough to accommodate my large bone structure. But, this would mean that I would have to divide for the heel flap unevenly and for some reason this seems irksome.

3. It could be that it is that this yarn is destined to be a different sock and that Hedgerow is entirely the wrong look for it. (I've been thinking this as I've been knitting it.) It wants to be lace or cables or something fancier.

Because I am chronically undecided, I've done the only sensible thing and cast on for a pair of Monkeys using the Sweet Georgia yarn* that I won from Shan.

The cuff of the first is done and I've finished the first pattern repeat. I can see how this pattern is wildly addictive. Deceptively simple and easy to memorize with lots of rows that are easy to read. Cookie A is brilliant. Obviously.

This is my first experience using a Sweet Georgia yarn. The Merlot colorway is delightful. In the skein and while knitting, the plies tend to separate easily, making it a bit splitty. But, the hand once knit is exquisite. It is smooth and luscious.

*By the way, Felicia has decided that the siren's call of the dyepot was too strong to resist and she has reopened her online shop today. Don't bother looking for sock yarn. It's already gone.

Rain, rain go away

Please don't come again another day. It seems that the weather hasn't gotten much better now that the temperatures are a bit warmer. On Thursday we got 2 inches of rain. I shudder to think of how much snow that would have been.

Yesterday, I nearly gagged walking into work because of the smell of worms all over the parking lot. It was a hugely powerful smell. I won't describe it. Normally, it doesn't bother me at all. I wonder if it is just because it is the umpteenth day in a row without sun that I want to crawl into a cave and never come out. Or run away to Burmuda. Hmmm, or Brazil, or anywhere that has sunshine.

Today they are forecasting a rain/snow mix. Yipee.

I have actually done a wee bit of knitting for myself this week. I've been working on the Hedgerow Socks (ravelry link - sorry) in Regia Silk 4 ply in Red. It is really a tomato red and I love the color. The stitch pattern is deceptively simple, just a 4x2 ribbing where the center 2 stitches of the knit section are replaced with seed stitch. So, a 2 row repeat. But DAMN is it hard to remember that I need do the oppositite of what I see in that section. It is not TV knitting by any means, not if I want to actually look at the TV. My camera is MIA, so if I locate it, I will come back and drop in a picture.

Knitting a top down sock still makes me nervous, what if I don't have enough yarn, I sure as Hades don't want to have to rip back, nor do I want to pick up another ball of yarn. I have lots of sock yarn and don't need another partial ball laying around staring at me. I don't have anything that would coordinate that nicely either for heels and toes.

I've also been sewing. The sucess, however modest, at the show last weekend energized me to keep moving forward. I've finshed off four bags that went over really well at the show as well as the only custom order that I took. I'm just waiting for the check to arrive and it will go out in the mail.

Again, if I can find the camera, I will post pictures.

Survived

So, the spring show is over and it went so well. I had some pretty modest goals heading into the show and blew them away in the first day. The second day was painfully slow, but I am still really happy with what I accomplished. I am pretty sure that I will be able to put myself in the black now. It is such a relief knowing that I should be able to pay back the money owed to our personal accounts and that the business can stand on it's own moving forward.

Needless to say, no pleasure knitting has gotten done recently. I'm still working on the same projects I have been; ribby cardi and the Hedgerow socks are still both on the needles with pathetically little progress made.

But, I have decided to take 2 weeks and do some research for E's residency applications and then I am off to the races to get ready for the fall shows. I am hoping to do two of them, both near my hometown. There I will be able to focus more on doing knitted items. I've consistantly sold out of felted hats and am hoping to have tons available for the fall.

Final Countdown

All is well here Chez Wool. I have been sewing like crazy to get ready for the craft fair next weekend. In the last couple of weeks, I have cranked out an average of 5 bags a week. I realize it doesn't sound like too much given that there are 24 hours in a day, but given the following constraints, I think I'm doing pretty damn well.

• I do have full-time employment which guarantees me a paycheck, provided I show up (they are sticklers about this point). Not to mention health insurance. (-8.5 hrs: 15.5 hrs)
• Said employment requires a commute of nearly an hour each way once I factor in dropping off the kiddo at daycare. (-2 hrs: 13.5 hrs)
• Sleep. This one is important as I tend to get a bit, um, grouchy if I don't get my beauty sleep. (-7 hrs: 6.5 hrs)
• After such a restful (*snort*) night's sleep, I must go through my patented beauty ritual in the morning and get the aforementioned kiddo out of bed, into presentable clothes and out the door. (-1.25 hrs: 5.25 hrs)
• Dinner. For some reason certain people in the house do not think fending for themselves is an appropriate strategy for a 5 year old. Where is Darwin when you need him. (-.75 hr: 4.5 hrs)
• Housekeeping. You in the back. Shut. Up. Even using this term loosely, I need to scrape the top layer of crud off the horizontal surfaces of our home at least occasionally. And do some laundry. I draw the line at reusing certain articles of clothing. (-.5 hr: 4 hrs)
• Childcare. Caleb seems to think that he needs to have parental attention every so often. Greedy child. (-2 hrs: 2 hrs)

That leave a whopping 2 hours to check email and do everything that I deem necessary to my sanity. Oh, and sew.

Let's not mention that for some reason every craft store in the area has stopped carrying magnetic snaps in the last 2 weeks. So, yesterday after going to 3 separate stores and calling others, I was searching frantically online trying to find someplace that would be able to ship them to me via 2 day service and still be reasonably priced. Luckily, I found a place, but I feel sick thinking about how much it is costing to have it shipped. Blech!

But, honestly, things are going well. Eric got back his grade for his last rotation and he got an A. He is done with one of the rotations from hell. Only 3 more months before he gets a couple of "easier" rotations.

We were even able to squeeze in an honest-to-goodness, real-live, no kids allowed, date on Saturday. You know, where the restaurant has glass glasses and candles. There are no play structures or cartoon characters involved. Just dinner, a movie and a drink afterward. A very nice time was had by all.

Set up for the show is on Friday. After it ends on Sunday, I am planning on taking a couple of weeks to start researching some of the locations we are looking at for residency. I am both excited and nervous about this next step. It is an awfully big decision to make and we get so little say in where we finally end up. I just hope that we end up someplace family friendly.

See you all next week and hopefully I will be able to do some knitting of my own!

A very good day

I am so excited today. I met up with a local woman who makes handmade soaps and took 26 bars on consigment to sell with my washcloths. I am pretty excited, they smell great and are reasonably priced. I think I will make up a couple of quick drawstring sacks that can accomodate both and sell the sets for $10 bucks. To me it seems like a great end of school year gift for teachers.

And, today I love the mailman (or at least the service he provides) because this arrived at my door bringing yarny p0rn to my home. Thank you Carrie! She custom dyed this lovelyness and I don't think she could have gotten the colors any more perfectly. There is enough variation to provide interest, but not so much that it will obscure a pattern. Now, I just need to find the right pattern!

FO: Shetland Shawl

Just popping in for a very quick update. Any knitting lately has been of the dish cloth variety and I can't imagine that even die-hard knitters are really that interested in yet another pink variegated Grandma's Dishcloth. Even I am bored with them. But they sell, so what's a girl to do? I am also looking for a local person who makes soaps to pair up with the cloths at the craft fair in April. I've found a couple through Etsy and am looking to seeing/smelling the options!

Shetland Triangle is off the needles!

I lovelovelove this pattern and can easily see myself making it again in a variety of weights.





The color is somewhere between the values in the photos. I'm quite happy with how it all came out.

Pattern: Shetland Triangle by Evelyn Clark from Wrap Style by Interweave Press.

Yarn: Rowan Magpie in the Mexico colorway. Sadly, this lovely yarn has been discontinued. It is the same yarn that I used to make Twist.

Needles: KnitPicks Options Size 9

Started: February 2008

Finished: February 2008

I know it is the fir cone pattern, but when I looke at it all I see are candleflames which marry up beautifully with the rich burnt orange color of the wool. It is cozy and airy, lacy but substantial all at the same time.

Now, I just need to know how to wear it without looking like I'm 80 years old!