Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Progress Continues....

I'm up to row 243 now. That's halfway through Chart E or 1/4 way through Clue 4. I am away at a meeting part of this week, so I don't know how much I'll get done. I ought to get some progress made though, perhaps even to Row 260.

I ended up driving the corporate vehicle today, but I did pack a sock as car knitting. I'll be driving back at the end of the trip too, so it's highly unlikely there will be sock knitting this week.

Now I just need to work on not overeating and on getting up in the morning to use the fitness center. I have all of the Lord of the Rings DVDs with me in case there isn't anything fun on the TV, although Mr. and Mrs. Smith just ended, so perhaps TV will be entertaining afterall.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Slow Going

I did get in a good bit of knitting last night. I don't feel like I'm making much progress though, even though I am still checking off rows in the pattern. I think it's because this is the section where there's a 4 row repeat and nothing new is introduced. I'm up to row 237 now, which is 1/4 of the way through Clue 4. I have just a few non-knitting things to accomplish today, so I might get to row 265 today.

I'm looking for a new charity to send knitted things to. I got used to knitting a hat every couple of weekends for The Dulaan Project. I came across a link to the Friends of the Pine Ridge Reservation in the past week. The site lists various organizations which take donations of clothing, school supplies, knitted or sewn items and craft supplies. Today there were three sewing circles listed which accept donations of fabric, notions, yarn and knitting needles. I do believe I'll be able to clear out some of the yarn I am unlikely to use any time soon as well as some of the fabric I've been hoarding. It's all new fabric and yarn, just not items that I'll actually use because my tastes have changed or because I'm just not going to accomplish all the projects I had in mind when I bought it. Donating these things will help me clean out my fabric closet *and* do something useful with the items at the same time. Yay!

Friday, August 24, 2007

Knitting Night!

The Fellowship of the Ring is on TNT tonight. Of course it's got commercials and it's full screen and it's not the extended version, so I'll put the "real" DVD on in a little bit. But I'll knit my way through the whole movie this evening. That should enable me to add an inch or two to the stole's length. I haven't touched the thing at all this week.

MS4 Announcement
Melanie said that next year's project will start in August instead of June/July so that it won't interfere with the Knitting Olympics. Her mom will actually be the designer. I have seen some of Georgia's other work and I might have to buy a new pattern or two.

Sock Cravings
For some reason I'm starting to angst for a bit of sock knitting. It's certainly not the weather bringing this on. Perhaps I can sense that fall is around the corner. I don't know. I really want to finish the 2nd sock of the Mountain Colors pair. Of course last week I really wanted to work on the Trekking sock. Who knows what I'll want to work on next week.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Miniscule Progress

Just four rows accomplished yesterday on MS3. The good news is that I'm watching My Sister Ilene on TCM tonight, so will have plenty of knitting time. I figure I can get a dozen rows done with any luck. I'm in the middle of the less interesting honeycomb section. In looking at the pictures of finished stoles others have done, I'm not entirely keen on the transition to the wing section, but I don't know that I want to make the symmetrical version either. I think I'll keep on with the pattern as originally designed. I don't have to like it or wear it. I can always give it away. It's still been fun.

I very nearly cast on the second blue Trekking sock tonight while I was cycling on the trainer, but I got distracted by the sweating. I'm looking forward to working on socks when the stole is finished.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Clue 3 Finis!

I was, however, too lazy to pin it out for you. I'd rather get started on Clue 4, which is twice as long as the preceding clues. I'm on row 200 now. I'll be on row 335 at the end of Clue 4. It'll take me more than a week to get there, I suspect.

On the reading front, I've started Debbie MacComber's third book about the Blossom Street knit shop. I can't remember the name of it. I've read fewer than ten pages of it. I hope that it doesn't assume that I've read the first two books. The library here doesn't have the first two books, just the third one. For some reason that seems to be how book series work at this library.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Clue 2 Done!

I stayed up a bit later than I intended, but I did manage to get through the last twenty rows of Clue 2 this evening! Yay for me!!!

Now I'll have to find my copy of Clue 3. I think I printed it out, but I could be confusing things. I have a good couple of audio books on my laptop. I could get most of the way through Clue 3 by Friday night. If I don't get distracted or knit myself some errors.

Three Bags Full finished!
I've finished the sheep mystery. I know who killed the shepherd. The sheep didn't quite get it right, but it all ended well. And their new shepherd reads them stories just like George did. It's quite a good book and I'd recommend it if you like mysteries. There were a few parts that were a bit slow and I skipped ahead a bit, but I found the characters to be well-rounded and interesting. The fact that most of them were also sheep just made it more fun. Mopple the Memory Sheep ate a bag of marijuana and slept for two days which really confused his flockmates. The flock also entered itself in the Smartest Sheep in Glennkill Contest. They lost, but they put on a good show.

Hurt Shawl Pic

It's really not all the bad if you look at it from a distance. The rip is about 3 pattern repeats (plus the border) from the bottom of the shawl. I did recall correctly that it's 4-6 stitches wide. That's the three stitch garter border, plus the edge yarn over and one or two stitches from the first leaf. What I can't quite tell is if I'm missing a row of stitches in the middle. If I am, it's just one row, but it doesn't look like it.

I think I can do the garter grafting without much trouble. The only thing that worries me is the end of that leaf motif and getting that picked up/grafted neatly. Of course this rip is right on the edge where I'll be looking at it just about every time I wear it. On the other hand, at least it's not in the middle of the back of the shawl where everybody else will look at it. Heck, I'm just glad that it's not smack in the middle of a lace motif.

And on that note, I'll be letting the Kiri rest on the couch tonight while I keep going on the MS3. I really do think that I can finish Clue 2 tonight if I get started soon and stop being distracted by my blogs. Remember, another clue comes out Friday. I am at least not losing ground against

Shawl Shapes
I've been considering the various shawl shapes and which would be easiest mentally to knit. Not such much the technical part of things but which shape would be least likely to result in loss of motivation. I'd like some day to knit a circular shawl from the center out, but can't imagine the seemingly endless rounds once the shawl gets big. I remember talking ot a knitter once who said they had over a thousand stitches. Wow. It'd take a week to get around once. A square shawl from the center out would at least give you four sides to work on and break it down into more manageable pieces, even if the total number of stitches were the same.

Triangles are either slow to start or slow to finish. Casting on hundreds and hundreds of stitches could be a disaster, but you'd be accelerating as you approach the finish. Or you could cast on a few stitches and end slowly. I don't think I've seen any side-to-side triangle shawls.

Stoles are typically the same width all the way across though the ends may be pointed or irregularly shaped. Somehow that seems like it would be boring unless the pattern were challenging. Having knit an afghan in four panels, I know that it can seem interminable. I like the MS3 with the pattern coming in manageable chunks. I may have to divide all my knitting projects in to smaller chunks like that so that I can mark my progress more easily. Even if it's just ten rows at a time. I might have the big solution to my loss of interest in a large project!! Gold stars (or even just check marks) for finishing sections.

Monday, August 13, 2007

I am a bad shawl mommy!

It's true. I am. I discovered today that I apparently wheeled my desk chair over the edge of my Kiri Shawl last week at work. And put a 1 inch rip in the top edge. It's a pretty neat rip as far as rips go. The stitches aren't distorted or fraying at all. Just no longer connected. I think I can graft it back together. I hope I can graft it back together. I won't rip out half the shawl to fix this. If I rip that much, I might as well rip the whole thing out and I'm not going to do that.

Of course, I failed to bring said shawl home with me tonight, so I can't even ponder the repair process. I'll put it in my bag first thing in the morning when I get to work. I hope I won't need to wear it at the staff meeting. The conference room tends to be absolutely frigid in temperature. I'll post pictures of my poor little Kiri tomorrow. I know the garter stitch edge is torn and I think the rip goes in a few stitches into the pattern as well. I hope it's not too hard to make it whole again. I'm really not very good at grafting things. :-(

On a happier note, I am on Row 133 of MS3. Clue 2 ends at Row 150. I might actually get Clue 3 started this week! I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Clue 1 Picture!

Here it is! I can see a few places which might be errors, but might not be errors. In any event, I'm going to ignore them. It would most definitely pass the galloping horse test and that's good enough for me.


Speaking of Lacy Things...
Here's a vintage WIP. It's a back buttoning tank top from a Samuel Charis kit.
I think I probably started it 7 years ago. I did knit the front, but frogged it since my gauge was too tight. This is as far as I got on one of the backs and if I recall correctly, my gauge might have been a bit too tight again and that was why I set it aside. It would be a great summer top if I'd finish it. Perhaps about January I'll start working on it so that I'll have it for next summer!

Knitting Weekend Plan!
The temperature this weekend is expected to be around 100 degrees for a high. This will rather limit what I'll be doing outdoors. There is a Vincent Price movie marathon on Turner Classic Movies tonight. Tomorrow is Doris Day Day. I can think of nothing more fun than to park myself in my comfy chair or on the couch and knit away. I wonder how far I could get on MS3 Clue 2! Clue 6 came out today.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Clue 1 Done!!!

I finally finished it last night. Only 4 clues left to go and I'm caught up! Of course, I'm entirely too tired to knit tonight.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

I Have 96 Stitches.

I am not supposed to have 96 stitches. I'm supposed to have either 95 or 97 stitches. I've ripped back two rows and I think I am about to rip back row 93 to check it for errors. Sooooo close to finishing the first clue too. *pout*

This silly stole will *not* beat me. I will finish it!!! Then I'm going to nail the silly thing to the wall like a trophy. Or something.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Good News!!

No mistake in the knitting afterall! It would seem that I failed to check off the last row on the chart that I had knitted. I kept thinking about it after I went to bed last night and finally had to get up to see if I had perhaps just ended up one row past where the chart was marked. I tried to wait until morning, but my brain just wouldn't let me. I was far too tired to keep knitting after I figured out the problem however. So now I'm four full clues and 14 rows behind things. Oh well....

Apparently Yahoo Groups has decided to quit sending my Mystery Stole mail. I'm set up to receive digests, but alas nothing appeared the past few days. It's not in the spam folder. It's not in the inbox. It's AWOL. Of course, given the fuss today, I'm not sure I'm terribly upset. It would seem that the stole will not be symmetrical. This has disappointed some folks. When said disappointed folks shared their opinions about said disappointment, they were called rude. This of course started the de rigeur battle about whether or not differing opinions were allowed or could be considered rude. I guess if you're needing to get your panties in a knot about something, that's as good as anything else. Melanie chimed in and said it was perfectly fine for people to be disappointed with the design and that she had expected that given that you can't please everybody. This might have had a calming effect on the group. I'm not really sure. I had given up following the disappointment thread.

The beginning of the stole is pointed. The end of the stole will be rounded. The theme is Swan Lake. The rounded section is meant to be a wing. I think it'll be fine. I'm not normally a fan of the asymmetrical, but I see no reason to not try it and see what I think. If I don't like it, I'll give it away to someone or even to charity. It'll be fine.

Movie Knitting
It appears to be Mel Gibson war movie night on TNT. The Patriot is on now and We Were Soldiers is on next. Oddly enough both movies feature guerilla warfare, though the firepower in The Patriot isn't quite equal to that see in the Vietnam War.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Progress Halted

I found a boo-boo. The center stitch isn't in the center any more. It looks like I'll have to rip back 3-5 rows. I might get back to where I was yesterday by they end of the night. Here's how things looked yesterday....
Looking more closely at the center of the stole, I'm now not convinced that I goofed. The center yarn over might be where it should be. I wonder if I failed to mark off a row of the pattern and that is why I had "extra" stitches at the end of row 81. I'll have to count and see if that's what I did. I'd be way happier about that than having to rip and redo a couple of rows. Depending upon how I look at things the yarnovers are symmetrical and non-symmetrical. Sigh. Perhaps I just need a glass of wine....

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Ready to start Row 81

I'm just not making rapid progress on this silly stole. It's not that I'm having trouble with it. I seem to be lacking knitting time or, if I *do* get knitting time, I seem to be easily distracted by other things like cleaning the kitchen, cooking dinner or reading a book.

On the other hand, I *am* making progress, so that's a good thing and I don't know that I can really complain too much. I still want to finish Clue #1 by the end of the week.

The Knitting Schedule
I had proposed rotating projects pretty regularly so that I would actually get projects finished. I have decided to suspend that plan until I get the Mystery Stole done. Once the stole is done I'll put the red lace sock, the Freedom Sweater and maybe the newly chosen Fawkes socks into rotation.

Holiday Knitting Plan
I haven't decided if I'm going to knit presents this year or not. I might knit toys for my niece and nephew. I haven't a clue which ones. I could make them different animals/toys or I could make the same animals/toys in different colors. I'm not sure which approach would result in the least amount of strife. I've also been thinking that it's time to start the gift sock rotation again. I've knit socks for all the female members of my family, but it's been a number of years. I could knit a pair for each of the four of them again. Not for any particular holiday, just because. It went over quite well the last time and the socks are still being worn! I still owe my sister an Alice Starmore sweater (started it over ten years ago). Perhaps that will enter the knitting rotation after the Freedom Sweater is completed.