The Wearing of the Green, or, Durrow is Done!!!

This past weekend found the husband and moi on the road again, headed back to New Orleans for the first "normal" family gathering since Katrina - the yearly pilgrimage to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Metairie. The weekend was packed with experiences.

First, I finished the last sleeve of Durrow somewhere in central Alabama, at which point I realized that I has no idea whatsoever how to put all the pieces together. (experience #1 - panic!) I forged on ahead in sheer stubborn refusal to allow this irritating little fact to get in my way, and by the time we hit N.O. I was completely finished! Possibly wrong, but finished! (My husband really loves me. He modelled this in Metairie in 80 degree heat and OMG% humidity for the photo.)

What a fun and satisfying experience it was to make this sweater. Many thanks to Jodi Green for this design. The sleeves came out a bit long, but not too bad, and the Husband loves it! So do I.

Durrow by Jodi Green for Magknits
Yarn: Donegal Tweed by Takhi/Stacy Charles
Color and lot: Lost! I don't know how, but I lost every one of those tags! I used the better part of 7 skeins.
Needles: Addi Turbo circs US6

So we stayed in the FEMA trailer with my parents. It was really nice! We had a great time, absolutely everything turns into a bed (not that I would really want to put more than 4 people max in one of those things). It was very heartening to me that the trailer was as nice as it was. Here is a taste of the FEMA trailer experience...

If you look carefully, you will see evidence of lace knitting.

On Sunday, we went to my sister's house for the parade party. Now that my folks are in their own space and my sister is back home from her exile in Houston, there is much to celebrate. Now for the St. Pat's experience.

We ate some bugs...


Kissed some Buzzards...

Marvelled at how anything can become Irish with a little paint and a new sign.... Here's the very Irish "Geisha O'Grady" (I'm not joking, read the sign)

Drank lots of beer, caught lots of beads, 3 cabbages, a handful of potatoes, some onions, carrots and even a lemon, and generally had a great time!

Happy St. Patrick's day from yours truly! If it bothers you that it isn't actually the 17th yet, you haven't drunk enough beer.

Also in late breaking news: Today in a stunning reversal, the heavily modified Coronet hat I was attempting finally convinced me it was way beyond my current knitting abilities and presented itself for frogging. What I was attempting to do was an intarsia design on the crown of the hat. What I failed to realize was that not only was intarsia tough enough to try to wrap the old brain around, but that I was also attempting it without nearly enough forethought on a hat which is knit in the round, and I am not even sure that can be done much less how to do it. No biggie, it just means I have achieved my finish or frog goal a few days shy of my deadline (for those of you who are saying "hang on a minute...", the Clapotis is still in the "Bag of Denial" and the lace scarf was started illegally during my self-imposed 'no new project' period, and therefore doesn't count. Glad we got that straight.), and I now have a zillion useless cut lengths of several colors of DB Merino Aran on intarsia bobbins with which to amuse myself. I am thinking of attaching them to a coat hanger and making a mobile out of them. I frogged back to the cable band which is separate, so I'll save that to be a cabled sweatband against the day I find myself in a flashdance kind of mood. I'm so freaking crafty, eh?

Lazy Sunday

As the weekend draws to a close, great progress has been made on the last sleeve of Durrow. Saturday morning I cast on and spent all of the morning knitting like a fiend. Then my best friend who is currently suffering from a lovely case of bilateral dry socket from wisdom teeth extractions came and spent the rest of the afternoon knitting with me. I feel so bad for her, I can only imagine how bad the pain must be. But she is quite a trooper, and after settling in cast on the mate for her sock. By the end of the knitting day I had made it halfway through the second repeat of the second chart. Not bad. Knitting the second sleeve has been much easier now. When I first had to deal with a chart I really thought I'd never catch on. First, there's the symbols, then the reversal of both the symbols and the direction of reading the chart for the wrong side rows. I thought my brain would split. Now it's old hat, and there's lots of times I know what needs to be done next without consulting the chart. And you know what that means.

Yep, I got cocky today, all pro with the charts and stuff, and ended up having to rip and re-knit several inches. That's the thing I like about knitting. It teaches you humility. Yeah, right.

So now it is Sunday evening, I am past all that craziness, and settled in for a nice relaxing evening. I'm making great progress again, and as evening falls I am plugged in to the audiobook of Order of the Phoenix and am covered in cats. The husband is in the library, playing his new WWII biplane game on the computer. I have my Girl Scout Thin Mints close by, my Diet Coke (it's caffeine free after 6pm or I'll never sleep) - all in all, it has been a relaxing day. The cats are relaxed, too.

Hang on, what's that? Or rather, who is that and what is he doing? Let's get a close-up.


Ladies and Gentlemen, it's "Action" Jackson who has face-planted in the center of the yarn and has fallen asleep. My pulling the yarn doesn't even wake him. That's how exciting it is around here. Woo.

What is exciting, though, is that I got an email from Jodi Green, the designer of Durrow, who sent me words of encouragement and general good knitting vibes. I think it is just awesome that she took time to check out what I was doing and send me a note. I can't get over how cool this whole knitblogging thing has been. I have "met" so many really wonderful folks - I never would have expected to be a part of an international community like this. It just floors me. I don't know of any other venue that has connected me with so many people - I am really happy to say that my experience with my blog has been as fun and satisfying as the knitting itself, which is truly amazing.

So from a comfy chair covered in cats this lazy Sunday, I am sending good kntting vibes back out to all of you wherever you are. Hope your weekend was as good as mine.

Seriously Shrinky-Dink

Durrow is coming along very nicely. I have only one more sleeve to go then to whole thing goes together, gets a neckline and I have another FO. I really can't wait, because this will be my first FO of 2006 (one sock really doesn't count, you need a pair) and I will be making good time for my end of February frog or finish deadline. The unblocked 4x2 rib does make it look a bit on the slim side, but it stretches like crazy so it will fit just fine.

Honestly, this biggest problem I am having with this sweater is getting good pictures of it. I am no photographer, but my digital camera usually does pretty well. This yarn is so dark, however, that I can't get anything to show up well and my backgrounds burn out every time. Hopefully, by the time it is done I can get it on the husband and get a decent pic outside on a sunny day. Maybe that will help. Any suggestions on photography are welcome.

As I progress in my knitting endeavors, I find the hardest thing to do is to trust directions I don't understand. So far I have been pretty fortunate to have worked with good instructions - which is a really good thing. I would be totally unprepared to strike out Grumperina style and rewrite bad or error laden directions. But turning a heel is learning about faith, let me tell you. From the Fuzzy Feet to the 1st real sock, I have to blindly trust in directions which seem to make no sense at all, and that just goes completely against everything I stand for. Even in Durrow, which is the first neckline shaping I have done, the directions looked weird until I followed them and the thing just happened. It is so cool to learn to let go like this.

That being said, I have no idea now what I'm going to do about the Clapotis. I am completely sick of it, but it looks so beautiful...I don't know. Most of my wool and WIP's reside in gargantuan Ziploc bags where I can enjoy them while keeping them clean and bug free. Cat free, too, which is a very big thing in this house. I have one sack about the same size as the Ziplocs which is a cloth drawstring bag I got as my only souvenier of Riverdance (yes, the souvenier selection was that lame...) and I might just put the clappy in there and forget it exists for a while. I shall call it the denial sack, or my +2 magic sack of disappearing, or something, and it will be my new best friend. That way I can decide not to decide on things like this until later. Ah, the underrated joys of procrastination.

It's Christmas Eve and I'm.....Home! Knitting!

I can't tell you just how exciting that really is! I have been so busy lately, I was beginning to feel like I would forget how...

One cool thing that happened the other day was that the new Boss asked me to do his radio show with him. He does a pharmacy hour on a very small very local radio station, and his diabetes guest cancelled out, so he asked me if I would want to do the show. The next day. I could pick any topic. It was fun, and although I have a picture of me while on the air, it is possibly the WORST picture of me I have ever seen. So I ain't gonna post it. I know I need to lose a few pounds, and I know cameras add weight, but this damned thing makes me look like I weigh 300 freaking pounds. Ah well, more fuel for the upcoming New Year's resolution.

The cooler thing is that I am knitting again. I will post a pic of this - a sleeve in progress for Durrow! Click on this, it helps make the sleeve clearer. And the cat bigger.

Modeled by Butch, one of three white cats who are responsible for shedding on the dark fabrics. They think it's their job. This is a really cute picture of him, however, it is a lousy picture of the sleeve. I tried moving to a dark background, but it didn't help. I tried the flash, without flash, and finally I tried to adjust the color, but the cat washed out, and I like this picture.

So, I am knitting, blogging and killing time till 10:30, when I get to do the crust on the giant steak and ale pie I am making for the post Christmas Liturgy potluck at church tonight. The pie smells wonderful - I am using the recipe from All Tangled Up and I can't wait to taste it. But I have to, so it's back to knitting for now. Merry Christmas, everyone!

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

First, I have been knitting. I haven't been knitting as much as I would like because my life has been insane. I don't know why I am not just used to that by now, but there it is. I have started Durrow from MagKnits, and I have finished the back and started a sleeve. I am having the same frustrations with the cable chart that really got to me when I tried Forbes Forest, but now that I have a clue of what I am doing I have only had to frog it once before getting a good start. I am using Donegal Tweed from Takhi in the darkest green I could find, as that is the husband's favorite color.
Lookee... and remember 4x2 rib = stretchy - this looks more like an arm than a back, but it is a back.

And here's the yarn with the Merlin for proper color comparison...

As I have been moving through my knitting projects I have tried the different ways of knitting to see what works best and what I was more comfortable with. Because this rib pattern was perfect for it, this is the first time I tried "combination knitting", and I really like it. I figured out a cheat way to set up my stitches so I didn't have to start with a purl row. From the cast on I just transferred the stitches to the other needle, twisting them or not for the pattern setup, then when they were done (since I used circs) I slid them all back down to the side I started from and I was ready to knit. I noticed my speed increased, and my knitting was almost painfully even and perfect. But since there were 3 new factors to this project, I am not sure what is responsible for the change.

Was it the needles? (this was the first time I've used Addi Turbos)
Was it the Combination knitting style?
Was it the yarn?
Was it all of the above?

Or am I just that good.....HA!

Three days of slacking and I still finished Coronet!

I am the slack knitter. Right now we are playing host to my parents until they return to N.O. and start the cleanup/rebuilding project. So I started Coronet Friday and worked on it in odd moments over the weekend and still got it finished by last night. I changed up a few things. First, I didn't want to do it with the flip up band, I just knitted it straight. I used a different yarn and had to change needle sizes to get gauge. I didn't wait for Grumperina to post her instructions on picking up the stitches before I forged on ahead, and then I reversed the direction of the knitting to do the hat knit side out. Then I went crazy and put a row of 6 5-stitch i-bobbles a la Annie Modesitt just above the band. This was really interesting because I didn't know what the hell I was doing, but I got something bobbley out of it, so I didn't do it completely wrong, which is pretty surprising. So here is yours truly, looking a little Blair Witch, but there you go - oh well, it is the season for it.

I think I am going to make another one now, the right way, do the flippy cable band, drop the bobbles (I like them for this hat, though) and make it red. Just because.

Pattern: Coronet
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Merino Aran Color 325702 - 2 50g balls
Needles: Aluminum dp's size 6

W00T! Cable Enabled!

Instead of slogging through a frustrating Forbes Forest scarf, I decided that maybe a single cable project would be a gentler introduction to the world of cables. I chose Coronet from the Knitty site and achieved almost instant success. Instead of aggravation, I have a lovely and addicting pattern going, and I am enjoying it so much that I'm sad it is so short. I started the band last night and I'm nearly done. More than just learning to cable, I also had to learn about a provisional cast on (which I sort of figured out myself and I might not have done it right, but the end product will work just the same so who cares) and I will soon know the joys of grafting and picking up stitches. I await Grumperina's instructions on picking up stitches "the pretty way" so that I can learn the pretty way from the beginning. We'll see how that goes, but so far here is the cable band.


I am using Debbie Bliss Merino Aran instead of the Lambs' Pride the pattern called for and so I have had to switch to size 6 needles to get gauge, but that just means I am already riffing off a pattern which is pretty cool considering how new I am to knitting. I am considering making other changes (get a little confidence and I go wild), so we'll just have to see how this all turns out in the end.

To be continued..........

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hedwig

the Angry Inch

At least I have proved to myself I am not totally cable impaired, merely cable challenged. I'm gonna go knit something else for a while.

Lost in the "Forest"

OK, did I mention that I'm new to knitting? I don't know what came over me, but some deranged part of my brain said I ought to be able to handle cables. Hey, I'm a college graduate, I can knit and purl, no problem!

The most positive thing I can think of at the present moment is that I am learning just how much frogging this yarn can stand before it totally craps out and I have to cut it off and start fresh. I believe I may have identified a special talent I did not know I had. I can poke myself in the glasses with a tiny cable needle from about a foot away, and I wasn't even drunk at the time.

Undoubtedly I'll post a picture of the first proud inch I can manage. But for now I am having much less of the relaxing stroll through Forbes Forest I had imagined and going at it more like having to machete my way through a jungle. Ah, well, one day I'll look back at all this and smile serenely.

Right.