HOLY KNITBALLS!: July 2007

Well well you CAN teach an old dog new tricks....

Say folks, remember the sweaty older man at the gym who wouldn't wipe off the gym equipment when he was done using it? (See gym rant in July 15, 2007 post below). Well I discovered you can teach and old dog new tricks. My dirty looks and over-exaggeration of cleaning off my gym equipment before and after use has paid off. The boy learned. I am really impressed that a man of his age maintains that level of activity and vigor to stay healthy, but it does not excuse anyone from lack of cleanliness at the gym. You pay the membership and so do I. I'm happy now.

On to the knitting.........what I did on my Friday off...continued. Nothing like a big tall, frosty class of ice tea, new deck and some knitting to decompress for entirely too many hours wasted working too many years of long days. For those of you who don't know my job, I work from home and manage clinical trials. Let's just say my company would owe me 7 extra weeks vacation a year if comp time were a reality. 6 years of dedicated service, and although still dedicated, the hardest lesson for a workaholic is to walk away at 5:30 to enjoy a decent dinner and a little sunshine before you start all over again.

And here I am on my lunch hour....not checking emails, not running a meeting...nope I am BLOGGING and actually EATING my lunch. Who knew???

And this little gem is my colorway for Cookie A.'s "Monkey" socks. I forgot to take a progress picture, and quite frankly, I'm too lazy to load one at the moment. I finished one sock and had to frog part of the second started. I dropped a decrease stitch somewhere. The yarn is Koigu KPPM and I misplaced that ball band somewhere. I'll find it.

Have a great day all.

-S

What I did on my day off from work......

"What I did on my day off"

By Sharon "Holy Knitballs!"

New deck- $1000

New manor stone wall - $500

New Hibiscus for the patio - $15

Walking away from your home office to do a little of this...

*pay no mind to the severely curling edge there*
PRICELESS!!!
*for everything else there's a frontal lobotomy and a red wine chaser*

OH AND MY UBER HISBISCUS ON STERIODS- Isn't it purdy?

Oh right, you just come here for the knitting right? Silly me. Of course, I have knitting kids, no worries. Check out the new digs. Sandra Knitting magazine "Waistcoat in Lime" with some Gedifra Tiago 50/50 silk and viscose. Little blue flecks. Very nice.

I'm on a mission to finish up knits languishing in hell like oh that darned Doctor Bag from Knit2Tog. I can't bring myself to sew. My friend. Kelley, who also knit this, is going to kill me if I don't work on it at some point.

An FO and a gym rant

As promised, here is the Garnstudio bolero which is free from the website. I used Catalina Alpaca which is *wipes drool* LURVELY YARN BTW. Soooo soft.

And of course, the rear view facing the back yarn and my neighbor's forest of trees.

And then on to the crochet detail of the bell cuff. For those of you that don't know, I crocheted since I was eight and that is a LONG time before I ever started knitting. Like oh maybe 20 years with hook in hand. Wow that is a long time. I only picked up knitting about three years ago so it was fun to crochet again. I lost interest when I felt that I could knit better fitted and shaped garments through knitting, that is until the wonderful Teva Duram came along and had folks drooling over her new book. She is a genius with shaping details but the patterns often call for a bulkier yarn than my fat butt will allow to put on.

Specs:

Pattern: http://www.garnstudio.com/

Yarn: 4 skeins of Catalina Alpaca (Tangerine) and 2 skeins Catalina Alpaca (Ecru) all held double

Needles: Size 10.5 Circulars

Started: June 16, 2007

Finished: June 29, 2007 only due to yarn availability

Mods: Only did three rounds of the crochet pattern because the yarn was slightly thicker than called for when doubled.

Recipient- ME!

And now for the gym rant:

*steps on soapbox*

Ahem. For those of you who use machines at the gym, sweat like a pig and don't wipe off your machine when your done, go back and read your freakin' gym rule book folks. It's time for a remedial lesson. It's disgusting and doesn't show courtesy to your fellow gym-goers. The next time you see the firey redhead holding a dumbell, very upset her husband drug her tired, fat ass to the gym at 5:30 AM, don't get too close. You're in throwing range. Which do you choose? Rule book or deal with the redhead beotch?

*thumps older sweaty gym man in the head with gym rule book*

Ahem. Back to your regularly schedule knit programming.

Go on.

Nothing more to see here.

Ok so I lied

ONE finished object to show you. The Puff Sleeve Feminine Cardie by Stephanie Japel from her book Fitted Knits. The other FO is an alpaca bolero with crocheted trim. It has so many ends to weave in I would be almost embarassed to post it. It look like I'm a ragpicker or something.

So anyhooo, here's the cardie:

And a close-up of my lurvely pewter flower buttons

Specs:
Pattern: Puff-sleeved Feminine Cardie by Stephanie Japel
Yarn: 8 balls of Rowan Pure Wool in "Cypress" (nice stuff BTW)
Needles: Size 6 Addi Turbos and DPNs
Modifications:
Shortened the sleeves by 8 rows otherwise somehow they would have been down to my elbows.
Knitted my buttons on courtesy of a crochet hook and Lily Chin on Knitty Gritty
I will need to reinforce them later
I never used a smaller needles size for the button band. I never liked that idea.

Overall I liked the pattern. I need to block it. The peplum comes right at my waist which I know it's supposed to, but makes me nuts. Nothing a little wetblocking can't cure.

Up next you say? Monkey socks by Cookie A. and Bed Jacked from Knitting Lingerie Stye. Go check the KAL out.

Knit and be merry

Shar

2 FOs to share but photoless today

Yes friends, the knitting dry spell is over. I have finished by Puff-sleeve cardie from Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel. I also rec'd the yarn to finish the crocheted edge on my Garn Studio bolero.

Pictures this weekend I PROMISE. They are already in the camera but I don't have my cord with me to transfer. I'm in the Cranford office of my company for a Project Leader Summit. Doesn't that make it sound like I'm all important like a NATO summit or something? ahem. *not*.