| older posts | categories & tags | photos | send me an email |
Random snippet overheard in the caf while settling in with an unhealthy sandwich and the People with Pax Jolie on the cover: "... And then you can get these stamps at the Post Office! ..."
I have a new love/hate relationship. The rowing machine at the YMCA is very satisfying in its ability to work the entire body at once and is located in front of a nice window. However, I do not appreciate the propensity for the seat to roll over ipod headphone cords--especially since those headphones tend to cease functioning on a fairly regular basis. I am sure that this is a problem with the manufacturing of headphones and not with the user of said headphones who maybe does things like run over them with the seat of the rowing machine at the YMCA. [Note to self--wear gym clothes with pockets.]
Due to the magnificence and wonderous link sharing of my darling Mammacita, I have a new internet crush. OMG! Kristy! I love the way she just walks with it.
I am disappointed in myself for enjoying the newish JT album. I mean, even though Dick in a Box is brilliant, his music career is just depressing--he is just a honky hip-hop wannabe. Still, my booty moves to SexyBack (insert funny joke here mentioning something like "it takes a honky to spot a honky", except, you know, funny).
Relatedly, it is too early to be posting on the internets.
I cast on another knitting project this weekend, the Picovoli tee-shirt in Knitpicks Shine. I am super impressed with the yarn--it isn't just passable, it is honestly nice. It is soft and smooth and shows some nice stitch definition, but also creates a nice drapey fabric--just what you want out of a sport weight cotton! The sweater is knitting up very nicely and I think it is going to look lovely on the intended recipient (my mom). However, some gals would rather have a little sleeve, and my mom is one of those gals. As I knit my way through the waist shaping (and I think I'm going to LOVE how the darts end up looking--much nicer than if the shaping was done on the side, methinks) I am scheming how I will attach a little cap sleeve.
Work with me here people, and tell me if you think there is something here that is going to lead to mass distruction, or at least a great deal of ripping. I put the sleeve stitches on some waste yarn, and once I'm done I plan on re-needling them, NOT picking up stitches under the armpit, doing some short-rows for the shoulder, and creating a little flutter cap, not a full sleeve. It will give the impression of sleeve, but it won't end up tight in the armpit nor will it add the warmth commonly found in the armpittal area of the knitted tee. This is important as I am hoping this will be some sporty summer garb for La Mommy. This scheme of mine, however, seems like it is too easy. What am I missing? What disaster is about to befall? I am planning on keeping my waste yarn threaded even after I re-needle the live stitches in case all goes horrifically awry, so I guess even if I have to work it a couple of times it won't be that bad. We're talking about a span of about 50 stitches, or just a couple of hours even if I have to work them two or three times.
Plus, the more I think about it, the more I think they are just going to work out like magic, with the faint hint of a shoulder seam at the short-row turns, and a nice little cup around the upper arm. In case I have never mentioned it, I love short-rows!
I recently finished my father's birthday present--a pullover based on the Avast cardigan pattern available in the Fall 2006 issue of Knitty. Before Christmas, I followed the same pattern pretty closely, making the cardigan for my brother (the only major change I made was working the sleeves in the round). While I thought Pop would love having a matching sweater to his son's (even though my brother would not be super hip on the idea, he lives a few states away and can deal), he's not much of a cardigan guy. In fact, I think the only sweaters my father has ever willingly worn have been crew neck, stockinette pullovers--usually in red. Fortunately, the one he's worn the most in recent years is starting to look worn, so knitting him up a replacement wasn't totally insane. I found myself a couple cones of Brown Sheep Company's Lamb's Pride Worsted in the color Spice and cast on.
I stitched up the cable band for the bottom of the sweater, but instead of binding it off as a strip, I picked up stitches on the CO side and worked some Kirchiner grafting magic, creating a loop. From there, I picked up stitches along the side as instructed in the pattern, joined in the round, and knat in circles for ages and miles. At one point I thought about inserting some sort of cable detail on the chest, but after making a few attempts, I decided this was tomfoolery of the sort Pop would never willingly wear, and left it simple, easy peasy stockinette.
The sleeves I made exactly as I did for the first Avast--in the round. For about 10 seconds I thought about creating cable bands like at the waist for the wrist, but decided a) they wouldn't be stretchy enough, and b) the repeats wouldn't work out right for the correct circumference. When the math got too convoluted, I decided to stick with the prescribed cuff (though I didn't sew in the hem--the stockinette roll actually looked pretty awesome). I did something slightly smarter in the sleeve join, but I hope I mentioned that earlier when writing about this sweater because I can't remember what it was anymore.
As I worked my way up, each step seemed obvious--body of sweater equals a big tube. Sleeves equal two smaller tubes attached evenly spaced around the circumference. The shoulder decreases fit my brother just fine and he and Pop are very similarly shaped in the shoulderish area--but I was worried about the neckline from pretty early on. While I assumed that I was not the first person to ever create a bottom-up sweater in the round, I had not done so before. For that matter, I had never made a sweater with any sort of shaped neckline before (Tempting? no neck shaping, and a cardigan is totally different). I wrote a little about this after my first attempt, and by following my own directions, I knocked out the perfect neck on only the third or fourth try! To keep my short-row turns bulked up, I did include some crazy version of M1, K2tog/SSK, wrapping, whatnot. No lacework spotted anywhere by the time it was finished. I also spaced the turns by 3 stitches, I think. 
The neck was finished off with a purl row on the RS and then 5 rows of stockinette on smaller needles--just like the arm cuffs. I didn't sew this hem down either, and honestly it wasn't laziness. I liked the more casual look of the rolled hem. When I was all finished, the thing did require quite a lot of blocking--the spirals of stockinette really wanted to lay sideways and I really had to tug the side-seams into hanging the way they should. I'm not sure if this is typical of all-in-one-piece pullover construction, but I thought I would note. After a dunk in the sink and a day or two pinned to a towel on the floor with a fan softly blowing over the top, it was ready for wear.
Overall I am in love with this pattern. I'm almost tempted to make another one (again a cardigan, with A LOT of additional shaping) for myself. The cabled band gives a very simple sweater a lot of interest and charm, and I love the simple method of construction with the band turned on its side and the body of the sweater picked up along the edge. To a novice knitter, it appears that you have done something incredibly difficult (and I thrive on the ohhing and ahhing of my fans). Now if only I had some pictures of my Pop in his sweater to add to this post, all would be perfect. In the meantime, you'll have to look at his blurry back behind my SIL at lunch in San Francisco.
Recently I have been doing some work on my website, and unfortunately in doing so I broke the weblog feed of another site I host. This mostly happened because when it comes to geekery, I am actually pretty dumb. So if you have been subscribed to the advertised feed on the So Pedestrian website, you have ended up here. Oops! I thought that fixing this was going to be easy-peasy, but I was wrong (see aforementioned "pretty dumb"). The solution I have come up with requires an eensy little bit of work on your part. I need to to resubscribe to their feed. Click on the link below and you're on your way!
While I was in the shower this morning I wrote an entire weblog post inside my head. Of course, I can't remember a word of it, or even the theme which I thought I might highlight. Let us assume that shower-induced weblog post was witty, pithy, and wise.
Instead I will write something else to put an end to the slogging around here. Spring has decided to, well, spring on us here in the Treasure Valley, and I am love-love-lovin' it. I rode my bike to work this morning wearing short pants and a jacket and didn't freeze (instead of the long-johns, coat, hat, gloves, etc. I've had to wear on other recent bike-to-work jaunts). Hooray! Good weather always makes me feel like getting off the sofa, and I've been skiing, putting in the hours at the YMCA and planning early-spring backpacking trips. Yes my friends, the Knee of Doom is no longer holding me back. I'm off to have fun, and it better come along with me--kicking and all.
If'n you are local(ish) and would enjoy doing some activities in the outdoors (as varied as an evening stroll through the Liberal Containment Zone to a weekend camping trip), gimme a holla (my new phone works in the house!* or shoot me an email).
And just in case you thought I'd forgotten, I have photos of completed knits to share. These two (my brother and sister-in-law) are sporting their Christmas presents before heading out to dinner with the 'rents in SF a few weeks ago. She's got on Intolerable Cruelty in Knitpicks Merino Style color Storm, and he's showcasing Avast in Brown Sheep Co. Lamb's Pride Worsted color Olive. These are the first clothing knits I'd ever actually completed (Tempting still doesn't have a ribbon), and I'm very proud of myself. Hello, they fit! I'm hoping to someday get those two crazy kids to do an actual photoshoot for me, but until then this will have to suffice. (Also, in the background, Afghan of Love.)
Now if only I would take some other finish projects outside into the sunshine, I could show you that my hours of Not Blogging and sitting on the sofa actually do lead to more than me knowing way too much about pop culture. Yeah, whatever, camera.
*Trust me, you don't want to hear the story about how my REPLACEMENT phone went kaflooey and I had an aneurism and hit up ebay and now all is well in the world.
So here's the thing about Drunk Girl. When she gets home at an unreasonable hour (2-5 times a week), she doesn't go out of her way to piss me off. Her floor is really squeeky (though as the third upstairs neighbor, I can verify she is the loudest walker by far), and when she turns on the music it really isn't that loud (though I can guarantee there's a little subwoofer sitting on top of my head). But the noise she is making, while irritating, isn't really something I can get all "yo, bitch, stop your messin'" because I think she should have a reasonable expectation that it is okay to Walk In Her House, whatever the hour. Her new little boytoy is totally clueless--but Drunk Girl, even when inebriated, seems to be making at least a partial effort.
That said, I am really at a loss about what to do. They came in last night/this morning at 2:58 am. I don't know about you, but that is really an hour that doesn't exist in my world. It is for sleeping. But there I was, flat on my back (the only way to sleep when your nose Isn't Running) snoozing away when the clomping began. The clomping went on for about 45 minutes, and then they went to bed. I was still laying there praying to go back to sleep well into the 4:00 hour. Once I am awake, it is next to impossible for me to get back to sleep ... ahh how I love the dread insomnia. I finally did get my peepers to stay closed, but I almost wish I'd just stayed up and done some yoga or something. When the alarm went of shortly after 6:00 am, I really really wanted to tear it out of the wall and throw it at Drunk Girl.
Instead, I listened to some music (no Wu-Tang, and not very loud) while getting ready this morning. Just enough to be irritating if one is trying to sleep right above the SoundSticks. And there is maybe a strong chance that in my rush to make the bus, I forgot to hit the stop button on iTunes. For someone who is as irritated by passive-aggressiveness as me, I am feeling awfully hopeful that she had a lot of the day to sleep today. Which will now be filled with my shuffle. Does anyone have some helpful advice on how to deal with a not-an-awful-but-really-bleeping-irritating neighbor, especially when one is insomnia prone? I really don't want to be the biddy pounding on the door telling the kids to shut the hell up. Is there something I can say to her that won't read as "my downstairs neighbor is psycho"?
