Manic Monday

There was knitting, and frogging and even eating on the agenda today....

For those of you who do not knit lace, do not EVER, and I mean ever, try to knit lace when you are running on at best a half hours sleep. Doesn't matter how well you think you are counting....it just doesn't work.

I was looking for a "portable" project...my knit alongs are all caught up until Wednesday and I was under the impression I was going to have some time on my hands in a waiting room that day...things change and I don't need the portable project until the end of the month now. Probably a good thing, as I threw away what wouldn't rip out this afternoon.

The yarn that has made several appearances as bookmarks lately is, IMHO, extremely LOUD. So you know that the Drama Queen loves it, right ??????But she doesn't want a scarf or a shawl out of it....oh no, she wants a tank top. Now I have to admit that the sounds of a laceweight tank top is right up there with going to my stash and finding that nasty acrylic had turned to cashemere, but in neon green/yellow with some nice blues and teals ?????

You knew it, the math is done and she is on the needles now. :)

The story of the knitting, frogging and ripping is complete...

You will all be happy to know that you have all been on my case about the eating.

Sheesh, leave a girl to starve....I mean eat her dinner nicely would you ?

~M

Sunday is for .... well cleaning house actually

Clue 2 of SoBN is bagged and tagged waiting for next Friday....The Drama Queen is prancing around wearing her poncho.....Mystic Light isn't due out til Wednesday....what is a gal to do ?

She cleaned her house !!!

~M

Just one Pic

Yep, that is all you get today....second clue for SoBN is out, I am just over half way through....had to finish up this.

~M

FO Friday

I don't know if finishing a clue on a knitalong counts as a Finished Object or not, but I included it anyway. :)

What is painfully missing from that collection is the poncho for the Drama Queen, which is neither photographed nor finished. Something about that yarn makes my hands itch and I couldn't face more than ten rows on it today - which at least means that there are only 65 more to go.

Technical trouble for the designer meant no second clue for SoBN was published today. I kept myself occupied with bookmarks for a bit......but what I really wanted to do was try knitting Mystic Light in a laceweight and see how the cables turned out. The answer was badly in the lace weight yarn that I had available so that got frogged and I was starting to look around for a different fingering weight online when that little voice in my head started talking.

It went something like this :

"What are you doing ?" the voice in my head asked.
"ummm, looking for a nice yarn." that would be me
"Why would you do that, there are no less than seven rubermaid containers in your basement full of yarn." voice in my head again - funny sounds kinda like my ex, you could substitute the sound of your own ex, or significant other here if you like. :)
"I don't like what I have." oops, probably not the best thing to say.
"Then get rid of it." funny, now it sounds more like me !
"well, I might want to use it for something....but there isn't much fingering weight in there, and I need fingering weight."
"What about this ?" the voice in my head has developed arms and is holding up a fingering weight (baby blue !) yarn.
"It's.....well it's acrylic.." wrinkling my nose.

The voice in my head can be very reasonable at times and did point out that if I am not going to knit with the acrylic yarns I probably should get rid of them - my only "get out of jail free card" for that is someone might have a baby....you know someone who doesn't know to hand wash things ?!?!?

In the end the voice won though, no new yarn for me today. But I did rediscover a silk/cotton/wool blend that will work for my second Mystic Light. I am not a big fan of frogging and will keep working on the original one, I just don't think that the yarn does the pattern justice. I will post pics of the silk tweed tomorrow and you will be able to see for yourself.

~M

Which way up ?

Exercise in dying gone strange ??? But which way should I call up ?

~M

Wip's Wednesday

We have, the lace that I am using as a tutorial in techniques - which also does a good job of showing WHY we block lace. :)

Mystic Light. I am about halfway up the clue that was published today. I don't think I will finish tonight, but by tomorrow I will be ready for the second clue in SoBN to be published.

And, part of the poncho for the Drama Queen - which she loves !

I am one over my usual limit of 3 projects on the needles, but the poncho really is nearly done. :)

To top it all off I had a wonderful brunch with some friends and a lovely walk in the park with the kids and the dog this afternoon.

Every now and then Life is Good.

~M

Late Saturday Update

The first clue of Secret of the Bad Nauheim is done and bagged waiting for next weeks clue. The front of the Drama Queen's poncho is done and I am partially up the back - not quite half but more than a quarter. A quick bookmark that the Drama Queen instantly claimed for her own. We have knitting here folks !

All of the knit alongs that I am in right now are using a provisional cast on and at least one is doing a knitted on the side border.......new techniques for me ! It took me several tries to find a provisional cast on that worked for me, now I am scared about the border, so I cast on for a "scarfette" that uses both techniques in the hopes that I can practice before using them too much on the big projects. :)

Kids are on spring break, so there will probably be less knitting going on around here for a week.

~M

Three Posts ?!?!?

Yep, three posts in less than the time it took you to read them - minus the fifty minutes it took to upload pics - Here she is !!!!

And excuse the muddy footprints on the floor, what can I say, too busy knitting to clean :D

~M

Off the pins

As soon as I had this off the blocking board the drama queen tried it on...."Yeah, I want a poncho like this..." Honey, that is a shawl you know..." Yeah, I want a poncho like this only not so lacey and NOT a shawl."

Yep, that is the drama queen for you.

~M

There be swatching here

Mystic Light swatch on size 7 needles.....this is not how it will really look, I am going to go down at least one needle size but I had other things to work on today.(The reddish brown one and don't bother clicking, for reasons best known to myself I uploaded the blurry one )

Secret of Bad Nauheim (which is a place name as far as I can tell) is the blue on size 3's. On both I am getting the correct stitch gauge but I am way off on the rows. Can't get my brain around that one.

The poncho is halfway up the front. I didn't like any of the patterns that I saw around the net for a poncho - some of them left me wondering exactly WHAT the designer was thinking ?!?!?!? If I was smart enough to add links here I would show you what I mean, but anyhow....so I am making it up on the fly. The drama queen appears happy with it so I must be doing something right. :)

More later - Blogger doesn't like photo's today so I am forced to upload one at a time.

~M

It's Done, It's done !!!

I ran out of room on the bed !!!! Macky, the cat, supervised my pinning her out and wanted to tell everyone that it is not very tightly stretched - she is HUGE...just what I wanted more of a cape than a shawl.

I can't wait for it to dry and see if she fits. :)

Now onto the dreaded poncho and the other knit alongs starting on Friday.

~M

Nope, not yet

Real Life got in the way of finishing my shawl when I had wanted to. Most of the snow had started thawing by Saturday which led to my making a career of mopping the floor and taking care of other things around the house.

I only have 7 more rows, plus the cast off to do......less than 7000 stitches, so maybe tomorrow you will get pictures of it blocking.

Food - yes I am hearing that I am not talking about the food side of this diet. Yesterday I had chicken and today we had breakfast for dinner so I ate a whole wheat apple pancake.

Happy now ?

~M

May I have an extension, please ?

Taller dear son had to model it this time....it is getting longer ! Again, off center so that you can see the side panel. I am not the tallest person in the world, but I was concerned that this was going to be a little shorter than what I wanted, so I went ahead and knitted the extension. For a straight forward diagonal line of decreases and yarn overs I seemed to spend a lot of time tinking this one....guess even though it is straight forward and easy, you have to pay attention when juggling this many stitches.

I am not sure that I am going to make my "end of the weekend" deadline for finishing this, still have the border and the cast off edging to go. All depends on how many times I have to mop the floor. :( yeah, I wouldn't ask if I were you.

Dear Daughter announced yesterday that although she likes the purple monstrosity what she would really like is a poncho. A PONCHO ?!?!?!?!? Does she think I am Martha or something ? Guess I get out the larger needles and get cracking on that instead of the monster......sigh......groan....a poncho ?

I ate today. Veggie stir fry. Lots of veggies, big cuts and shredded ones. Very tasty. :)

Later

~M

Now We Are Six...

Now we are six we are clever as clever.......with a nod to A.A. Milne.....we are not staying six forever and ever, we are moving onto seven. I don't want to buy (more) yarn to finish this, but I think that I have enough to do the extension and the border, so I will start on those today. If I can get this done by the end of the weekend I should have time for a few more bookmarks and the purple monstrosity before Mystic Light starts up in a couple of weeks. Can't wait for that one !

~M

No News isn't necessarily good

Yes, I have noticed that there is no mention of my eating for a while here.

Guess I just have nothing good to say about food right now.

~M :(

Finally Five

Which means two more to go....six is laid out ready to start knitting and then for seven there are choices to make...is this long enough ? no, then knit the extension, or skip the extension and move right onto the border.....The problem is, until I block this I really only have a vague idea how long it will be.....

I think we will have to wait and see if I am tired of this one before I know if I will knit the long, the medium or the short (I have had enough, move on to casting off) version.

If I hadn't decided to clean my dear daughter's room, and shovel the two feet of snow off the driveway this would have been done yesterday...... :(

I laid this on the model a little off center, you can see the center panel running down his right arm, so that you can see the side panel...there are six of those in addition to the center panel, so plenty of "wrap around me" room.

~M

4 complete

Right this minute I am two clues behind.....by the time I pick up my knitting tomorrow I will be back to being three clues behind. :( It is really hard to try and stretch it out to photo, I am surprised I got that good a shot of it. Now to just stay strong and NOT cast on for the swatch for Mystic Light......

~M

Three of Seven?

Well I think it is seven. I could be wrong, haven't been keeping up with anything on the KAL memo's. :)

Rows are getting longer still, but the clues now have less rows, so maybe I will catch up - or not.

~M

Quick Knit

It will be a late birthday present, the birthday is tomorrow and the bookmark needs to travel across the country.

Although this is a lace weight yarn it is not as fine as the blue from the prior bookmark (they're the same pattern) but I like it. :)

Nice day outside today, a dog walk and a couple of outings to do yard work, gossip with the neighbors and watch the kids riding bikes used up my knitting time. Still 6 more rows to finish Clue 3 on my current knit-a-long and the rows are starting to get LONG ! It will have over 800 stitches per row before ending......even at a stitch a second that takes a while.

~M

Two down

It was much harder for "my dear son" to hold the stitches on the needles with Dem Fischer sin Fru draped across his back. I think that until this is off the needles or I get longer ones, that this will be the last picture trying to show "the whole thing".

Clue six came out yesterday, so I am still four behind. :(

~M