What am I doing?

Right now I am working on a "Lacy Shrug" in Sirdar's Ocean yarn. It's a ribbon yarn and quite nice to work with. I am about halfway through it and quite liking the way it's working up. The pattern was written by a lady at my LYS for Sirdar's Just Bamboo, but I saw the Ocean yarn and loved it. So, although acording to the pattern I am 2/3 done, actually I am about 1/2 done since the Ocean works up quite a bit more firmly than the Bamboo. Just so's ya know.

And now "in progress" pics:

I tried to get a shot of the lacy effect, not sure the picture is any good, but here it is anyway.

And that's what I'm working on, right now. In between winning things :)

I'm off!

Ciao

And the Streak Continues

A friend held a scavenger photo hunt on Facebook this weekend. The idea was to photograph as inventively as possible, the subjects on the list. Apparently, I won! (Must not have been any other entrants :) Being that it was World Wide Knit in Public day on Saturday, I tried to involve knitting in my photo shoot. so, here are some selections from my entry:

Socks and sandals:

The blue sandal is me and the black sandal is Anne.

Then there was "something soft and round" on the list. That was easy!

A ball of yarn. Duh.

Then there was "Recipe for Disaster" in which we were pretty much allowed free rein. Hence:

Since all us knitters know what happens when you let a cat free in a room full of yarn!

Another topic was "Dirty Qtip". My cat Pagan wandered into the room while I was trying to think up something creative and started licking it! The dirrrrty beast:

Although it WAS quite funny!
No idea what the "prize" is. Probably a dirty Qtip...

Ciao!

Easy Breezy Post

Today I am taking the easy way. I spent yesterday knitting in public and finding things to photograph for the scavenger hunt I am participating in. BUT, I have someprizes I won to show you all! I never win anything. That's what I used to say. Knitting seems to have changed that. Over at Bella Knitting they had a contest as to when the baby would arrive. I guessed right! And the prize?

Mmmmmmalabrigo! Lovely. This is the first time I have had a chance to touch this stuff. Wow! Nice.

Then last week I went into my LYS and entered a draw they were having. I won that too!

Lana Grossa sockyarn, a little, itty bitty, adorable sock yarn holder and some rosewood needles from H.A.Kidd and Company. Lovely. I was thinking socks for the hubby, but that may change....

Ciao

KIP-ing!

Today was international Knit In Public Day. So, of course, I did!

I am holding the camera, so you don't see me, but here is Anne and Christina! My multicoloured Secundus sock got to have some fun today and is in the bottom left corner.

Ciao

Floppy, Floppy.

The hat is dry. Dry, but floppy. It really needs something to stiffen the brim! I tried to take a picture of the hat on me, but it's dark, the pic without the flash is a black hole and the one with a flash, well, lets just say that taking a picture of yourself in a mirror with a flash leads to less than stellar results!

So, the first shot is me dangling the hat:

The second shot is the hat draped artfully over an Easter basket handle:As you can see, droopy!

Ah well, I know what I am doing this weekend! Hat-brim-stiffener shopping. Exciting, I know. I hope you can all contain yourselves!

I cast on for a new project. However, it is in black yarn and taking a picture of that with flash photography results in crappy pictures. With extra crappy sprinkled on top. So you will have to wait for a day when I remember to take a picture during the day. And since I am working 47 hours this week in 5 days, well, that might take a day or 2. Patience, dahlings.

Ciao

An Effed O! Well...Mostly Effed.

For the 2 of you who have been anxiously waiting and wondering what my swatch from the other day was, the suspense is over!

It's a sunhat! The pattern can be found here. However, the pattern calls for DK weight yarn. I had dishcloth cotton. Hence the swatch. I am not sure if this hat is going to be too warm as a sunhat. Being as how it is a heavier cotton. If it is, then I guess the local cancer center has itself a new hat for a fashionable patient!

The next challenge in completing this hat will be to find something to stiffen the brim. Apparently, millinery wire is hard to come by in my smallish town. So, as per the pattern suggests, I will be going out in search of coated clothesline. If that is not rigid enough, then I may go for some crafting wire. I just don't want wire ends poking into my hand when I pick up the hat. I will have to experiment with whatever I wind up finding...

I did learn how to do a tubular bind off with this pattern. 378 stitches worth. The bind off is now engraved on my brain. Until something else comes along and wipes my brain clean......

I'm off to cast on the next project.

Ciao

Still Playing with String

I am still playing with string around here. In the bits of time I have while working a 49 hour week. Makes for slow process. See:

Okay, that's not knitting, but it IS playing with string! The cross-bar on the chair kept coming loose. So I glued it back together. But then you have to clamp it tight while it dries. I don't have a clamp, since I am not a carpenter. But I AM a knitter and I have lots and lots and lots and lots of string. So I used an old trick I heard about somewhere. You wind the string around the legs and through the middle. then you take a pencil or some kind of rigid object and wind it through the "X", then you twist it tight and it pulls the legs together. Thus holding the legs tight until the glue dries. Hopefully this works. I'll know tomorrow. When I sit on the chair. If it doesn't collapse under me, it will have worked. If my next post is from the emergency room at the hospital, you'll know it didn't work....

As for the other kind of playing with string, I have been doing that too. In between obsessively checking my Facebook page.

Remember that swatch the other day? It has turned into this:

I'm almost done the knitting part of it and then the finishing will begin. You'll be able to tell what it is at that point. Or maybe you can tell now, whatever. Better pics will follow once the finishing has begun. At which point we will be able to see if I have made a usable object or not.

Stay tuned for the continuing stooorreeeeyyyy....

ciao

Working my Behind off

Now if only my behind would shrink......This week I am doing a 49 hour week. Which makes having my car out of service for the past 3 days more than a little inconvenient. Saturday afternoon, I had to jury rig it. Actually, I sent the hubby out to jury rig it.

The car window decided to not roll all the way back up. And it's a power window. The annoying part is that it didn't do this until saturday afternoon, long after all the garages have closed. Well, except for Crappy Tire, but I'm not taking my car there. And to put the icing on the metaphorical cake, sunday weather forcasts were calling for rain. Which we got, as you can see in the photo.

So, what's a girl to do? Duct tape, of course. So my car was ghetto-licious.

On monday we brought the car in and the garage said they'd have to order the part. Which we expected. The part came in tuesday , but when they installed it, it didn't work. so they had to order a replacement for the replacement. THAT came in wednesday (ie today) and finally I have my car back.

But it does mean my knitting time has been severely curtailed as I have been walking to and from my (thankfully) relatively close worksites. And the time I was home, I was tired. The walking isn't too bad, it's putting it on top of long working days. Which I am doing all week. Sigh.

time for a nap

Ciao

Cotton-y Goodness

I miss the nice weather. It's only 13 degrees out. I am soooo tired of jacket weather. Granted, it's better than winter-coat weather, but after having lovely weather on my vacation and getting a taste of it now that I'm home, the cold, rainy day today is a bit of a shock....

My cotton-fest continues. Last night involved a little bit of vodka, so trying to convert a pattern for DK yarn to worsted was probably not a good thing to be doing. (that was what the swatch was yesterday.)

So I decided to get started on my mitred square blankie. I figure I can work up a square or 2 when I am between projects. Sort of a palate cleanser.

And here is an "artistic" shot. (I use the term loosely, but whatever...)I wasn't sure how the variegated yarn would turn out, but, as it happens, it turned out rather well!

I'm off to mess around with my swatch some more. And maybe a miter or 2.....

Ciao

Knitting with String

Today I finished my dishtowel.

Based on the ballband dishcloth pattern in Mason Dixon Knitting, but writ larger. Or should I say knit larger?

I then decided to swatch for another project.

This swatch did not do what I wanted. Attempt number 2 will be on the way soon...

Another streetscape from Italy. Arona to be exact.

Ciao

What's With the Socks??

Okay, maybe the problem isn't the sock, exactly. Maybe it's the yarn. The second sock started getting mouthy yesterday. "You never take me anywhere. Primus got to go to 2 lakes and shopping and...."

So, in order to keep some serenity in the house, (a losing proposition under any circumstances, but I digress) I took the sock Secundus on a little road trip.

We went to the local pet store:

And to a little strip mall:

But was that enough? Noooooo. The whining continued, "You took Primus out in public and knit! All you do with me is take me out of your purse for a second and wave me around. I want some quality time!"

Fine. I took Secundus to work with me today.

And knit in public:

So, hopefully, there will be some peace in the house. For a minute anyway.

I now return to my exploits in Italy. My aunt's house is very nice and has a little balcony off the kitchen. From there, it is posible to see the roof of part of the rest of the house:

Our model today is Cenerone. He is lounging on a very typical Italian roof. They don't use asphalt shingles there. The shingles are terra cotta. Very pretty!

Ciao

You're It!

I've been tagged!

The rules:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Allrighty, then. In no particular order:

-I hate pickles. I pick them off of burgers and hate when they include one with your sandwich at the deli because it makes your sandwich taste pickle-y
-Never tasted Kraft Dinner until I was 20, in university, broke, and needed something easy to make.
-Didn't know the English for "housecoat" until I was 5 or or what cuticle nippers were called in English until I was 20 years old!
-when I was a teenager (15 or so) I volunteered at the local YMCA for about 9 hours a week teaching little kids judo.
-I love apricots.
-I learned to knit in 1976 in Brownies. Never even finished the square.
-My first car had a standard gear shift. That thing was serious fun to drive around!
-Never had any real pets (I don't count the gerbil died when I was 5 and bit anyone who came near it!) until I moved out of the house and in with my hubby. Now I have kitty cats!

I'm not going to tag anyone, just because the weird things meme has been around a few times in various guises. If you want it, take it....

ciao

Travelling Sock

As you may have surmised from my post about Barolo, I was knitting while on vacation. Not a lot, after all, I had things to do! So, here is a summary of my travelling sock:

The sock at Casale, Italy. This was taken at the Andre Maurice factory outlet. Not just (just!) cashmere knits. There was a HUGE assortment of knit tops. Huge. I cannot begin to tell you how huge this outlet was! The sock went to Arona on the Lago Maggiore. Beautiful lake. The sock also went to Lago D'Orta. A very picturesque town. Very medieval looking. Totally worth going to see.

Today I finished the first sock. The sock, having been spoiled by all that travelling, insisted on a photo shoot. Not just a photo.

Now the sock is demanding that I start it's partner immediately!

Yeah, yeah, I can hear ya! Give me a second, will ya?

Right. So, I've got to go and cast on the second sock here. Just to keep the peace.

Ciao

Barolo, Italy

One of the first jaunts we did while in Italy was to Barolo. We picked a good day to go as they were having a mini wine festival. There was wine tasting:

My sister and my cousin Guli tasted wine. Carlo did not. I sampled as well. It was quite interesting to taste the difference between the wines. I am not usually very wise to the ways of wine, but actually having the choices in front of me and tasting them consecutively really does make a difference. Even to my untutored palate!

The view of the vineyards from the top of the hill was spectacular.

There was even a Corkscrew Museum! Very interesting.

The sock was quite taken with the castle in Barolo,

Alas, the day did come to an end and we had to drive our car down this street to leave:

Thank goodness my cousin has experience driving these types of roads. He went down this street in first gear!

Ciao

Knitting Content

I promised some knitting content. Here it is.

One of the first things my aunt asked us when we got to Italy was what we wanted (if anything) to do. I responded that a tour through a yarn shop or 2 seemed indicated. Turns out my aunt has a huge stash. Boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes....See for yourself:

Seriously, it was almost impossible to get far enough away from the walls to get a shot that encompassed the hugeness of this stash! However, my sister and I persevered. We extracted some yarn.

A close-up:And we cleared some space out of the yarn room:

A whole half of a shelf! Kinda scary, ain't it?

Stay tuned for more adventures from Italy!

Ciao

Airplane Food! Sucks....

I know airplane food is gross. I usually find something to eat, though.

The airline I was flying with gives you a little menu before they serve the "food". Here are the menus for flying over and return.

Going over: The seven grain salmon curry was gross looking. The chicken was inedible. Rubber chicken. Although the potatoes were edible. Won't mention the peas or carrots. Ugh.

The cheese was supposedly Camembert. It too was rubber. Not sure what the fruit compote was composed of. Didn't eat it. The blueberry cake was, well, weird. Not awful, though.

Breakfast was yoghurt, fruit flavoured. I did eat that.

Coming back: Tomato tarte Tatin looked like a hamburger patty made out of jello with bits of vegetable in it. Couldn't bring myself to try it. The Salmon ravioli Florentine was rubber and inedible. My sister tried the chicken fillets but found it also completely inedible. The short story is that the only thing on the tray I ate was the (stale) bread with butter.

Breakfast was unflavoured yoghurt. Yuck. A cheese sandwich with fennel seeds on the bread. I don't like fennel, but otherwise, bland and edible. And 2 butter cookies. Those were edible.

Suffice it to say that the "airplane food" legend lives.

The food in Italy was MUCH better! Shocking, I know. My favorite was pizza, naturally. Lemon gelato is a close second.

Normally, I get my gelato in a cone. Since they serve 2 flavours per cone there, my usual is lemon/chocolate. The chocolate gelato is lovely. More like the dark chocolate ice cream flavour we have than our regular chocolate. This photo, however, is my usual 2 flavours in a "coppa", or cup. I was in the Orta San Giulio on the shore of the Lago D'orta, or the Lake of Orta. A beautiful town. More on that in another post.

Jetlag is a real drag. It's worse going over, but now that I am back, I find myself needing unexpected naps at 3pm or so. Probably because I wake up at 3am feeling like it's 9am. My body rythyms are just a little ahead of themselves. Sigh. Hopefully it'll go away soon. I'm off for a nap now.

Ciao

I Have Returned!

I'm back! From Italy, that is. I had a wonderful time. The weather was almost perfect. Lovely and warm. I returned to a nifty surprise. My Knitter's Treat Exchange box had arrived!

Thanks Jen! What a great way to be welcomed home.

As for the Italy trip, there will be more posts to come, some are even knitting related. But it will have to wait for another day, as I am jet-lagged, have to unpack and figure out if I need to do laundry. To hold you over, here is a picture of what I was doing over there. Some of the time.

Ciao!