Just reporting progress (and some not so much progress)

Posted on 02/27/2008 by Barb | Comments (2)
Filed under : Finished Objects, Knitting, Stash

Ravelry’s Stash Knit Down 2008 Group issued a January Challenge to knit a mile, which I did (yea for me). The total for the group was reported by the group’s moderators, Angela and Karin, to be a whopping 66.21 miles!

I haven’t accomplished tons since The Challenge, but I did finish my Stow-Away Bag (pictured below) so I’m all ready to yarn shop at Double Ewe.

I also have a tear-out in my future. The project is a vintage Christmas stocking I’m trying to recreate. I think I've mentioned it before. It’s coming along but I have a mistake a few rows back and since I should really be using a smaller needle, I’ve decided to rip it out and start over. Sigh. I have the motif all figured out, which is probably the toughest part … or at least the most tedious. So now it’s just a matter of knitting it up. It's been hard to get into it since it's months and months away from Christmas. But I do have to return the stocking to its owner soon so I have to keep on it. More on this when I have something to show, and have had a chance to take some pictures.

Moms, this one's for you.

Posted on 02/22/2008 by Barb | Comments (0)
Filed under : Knitting

I've been working on a simple cotton shopping bag. I worked on it during our Tuesday evening sit 'n knit group. Andrea worked on her project. Other people worked on their projects.

Everything was going along nicely except that Andrea decided she really didn’t like the way her project was shaping up. I did the mom dissertation about how it was much better to just bite the bullet and rip it out. “It’s great yarn; you’ll be so glad you did … blah, blah, blah.” Can’t you just hear it?

I no more than got it out of my mouth than I commented, just offhandedly, that my pattern had something funky going on with it.

Andrea said, "Here, let me take a look at it … mom, you’re reading it wrong.” (She was right.)

Originally uploaded by AMK

Then I made the fatal error and said: “Well, it probably won’t be too noticeable and I can make some adjustments … blah, blah, blah.”

Quick as a heartbeat, the 14-year-old sitting next to me, not even my own child, murmured in a quietly mocking tone, “... it’s great yarn; you’ll be so glad you did ….”

Moms, those pearls of wisdom you dispense will come back to haunt you. If it's not your own kid, it'll be someone else's!

I had it coming, I don't deny it. So I ripped ... and of course I’m glad I did.

Saturday, February 16

Posted on 02/19/2008 by Barb | Comments (3)
Filed under : DIY, Food, Knitting

It was a great day for just hanging out with Andrea, balmy almost. We've had a pretty cold winter here (it was -5 degrees this morning, brrrr). But Saturday it actually got above freezing!! We (and I hardly dare whisper it) left our coats in the car while we shopped!

First, we went yarn shopping at Double Ewe, a yarn store near where Andrea lives that I had never been to. The owner, Kelly is very sweet and helpful. It’s a smaller shop but nice – go there if you get a chance.

This is the yarn I bought from Kelly. Today we have our after-work sit n’ knit, and I’m going to work on this. I love the colors, and the cleverness of the stow-away pocket design.

After Double Ewe, we headed for Mall of America – the 2008 Knit-Out was there last weekend. We watched a round of the speed knitting competition. The fastest person there did (I hope I’m remembering this correctly) 170 (stockinette??) stitches in 3 minutes. Andrea said the winner is someone famous ...?? Andrea (or someone), help me out here, please, who is she?

On the subject of speed knitting competitions, I saw in the August 2007 issue of Knit ‘n Style (given away at the Event) that Lisa Gentry completed 209 stockinette stitches in some competition, and does 2 stitches a second in garter stitch. That’s 120 stitches a minute ... 360 stitches in 3 minutes! That’s flyin’! I see she also broke the Guinness World Record “Fastest Crocheter” in 2005 … now, that’s being an over-achiever! She was apparently at the Knit-Out event but I didn’t see her.

And while at MOA we bought a little something for Steph ... I can't talk about that, though, in case she reads this post. So even though she's way out in Boston, we were hanging out with her, too, in spirit if not in fact!

Finally, we ended up over at my house cooking Andrea's vegetarian chili, which has now become my favorite chili recipe.

It was a really fine, fine day.

February, continued

Posted on 02/13/2008 by Barb | Comments (1)
Filed under : Knitting

I baked cookies Sunday and sent them to Steph in Boston. They should arrive today so she has them for Valentine’s day. I took a picture of them before shipping so if they arrive in crumbs, she can read the love in the photo.

This a knitting blog, so I feel obliged to give you a knitting update. We rescheduled yesterday’s after-work knitting night to next Tuesday. I finished another pair of wrist warmers over the weekend (just like the navy and light blue ones but these are dark green and gray, pretty). And I’m working on replicating what I would consider to be a vintage Christmas stocking for a friend. More on that as it progresses.

In my world, it’s still February. Last night, while I was on the phone with my pharmacy ordering up blood pressure medicine (which, believe me, I sorely need), my husband yells from the kitchen, “Barb, help me, quick …!” I rushed in to find him desperately supporting the middle shelf of one of the upper cabinets. I grabbed plates and moved them to the counter top. He finished gathering together his snack, grabbed a beer and said “Well, I’m going to go watch the Timberwolves.” And walked away from the mess. I called the pharmacy back. Like I said, I need that blood pressure medicine.

Update on the kitchen light fixture: After work I’m headed to Menards to get supplies to repair that cabinet, and to return the light fixture I bought last week. Well, here’s the update: I bought the new fixture, called the handyman to come by and install it, left work early to meet him at the house. I got there, he got there … he changed the light BULB in the old fixture, I paid him $15. Done. It works. What can I say, it’s February.

And after Menards, I’ll go pick up that prescription. Which I sorely need.

February ... ugggh!

Posted on 02/05/2008 by Barb | Comments (0)
Filed under : Knitting

I just finished a pair of entrelac wrist warmers. I know, it’s not much but it’s something. And I like them. And they keep me warm. And it’s February and I need that.

I need it because February is a dangerous month. Cabin fever sets in every February and it’s sort of a literal thing for me, cabin fever. I hate my surroundings in February. I’ve done some really questionable things in February. Like tear cabinets off kitchen walls without a plan. Things like that. I have come to understand and guard against February but even acknowledging I’m crazy in February, I still struggle. Right now, for example, I have a kitchen light fixture that isn’t working. It just doesn’t turn on. It’s not the fluorescent bulb … it’s not the ballast. Every morning I get up and walk into the kitchen for that first cup of coffee. I hit the switch. Every evening, I walk into the semi-dark house after a day at work and … you got it … hit that switch. And every time I do, morning or night, my gut clenches. It feels physical. I resent it. If it were, say, June and this happened, it wouldn’t seem so serious. I tell myself that. But it’s not June, it’s February!

And it seems that I’m the only person in my world that finds any of this a problem. So I’m going to have to man up and take care of it myself … and I know that’s dangerous in February.

Oh, and I also have a burned out bulb in the dining room chandelier. And I’m out of that style of light bulb. And it’s February and I apparently have no control over darkness.

So anyway, it may not be much, but the wrist warmers are nice. I like them. They give me some comfort against February.