these are o.r. scrubs. oh, are they?

Satin Coat, Versace, $2143. I should take my mom's advice and marry a doctor. There were a few comments about that coat - yes, it's way too expensive, and yes I love it. I would almost spend my savings for that coat, that's pretty bad. It's my favorite color, too.

Anyway, enough about that. I have been working on my forever unfinished sweater. I was a wondering if it was going to be the right size, and I couldn't tell if it was too big or too small, but it seems to be just right.

I am getting near the last repeat of the pattern. Then there are just a bunch of eyelets and ribbing to the collar. I hope that part of it goes faster. Knitting cables and ribbing on size 2 needles seems like it's taking forever. It looks pretty, though. It will be nice when it's finished.

I got a lot done while I watched Rusmore on Sunday afternoon. Rushmore is one of my favorite movies - it brings back lots of memories. When I was 15, I went to see it with all of my friends and they all hated it and I was in heaven because it's awesome. It also has Luke Wilson in it and he's pretty yummy.

The poor sock has been abandoned for now. It has been left to the size of my bed, waiting to be ripped. I figured out what I'm going to do about the heel - I'll do what Cara did here, make a regular heel flap, just backwards. It should make it a bit less plain and hopefully fit better. I think I'll leave the rest of the sock in plain stockinette, the colors make a nice enough pattern.

I haven't done much knitting this weekend. My mom's in town for the week, so I've spent a lot of time with her. It's so nice to see my mommy everyday, especially at night before bed. It makes me really happy. She's also been feeding me - I haven't had Cheerios once for dinner since she's been here. She bought me some sleepy vitamins to help me sleep better, too. I love my mommy.

Since this post is about all kinds of crap, there's one more thing. I bought Push Barman to Open Old Wounds by Belle & Sebastian. It's a collection of songs from different EPs they did. I have some of the EPs already, so disc 1 is pretty useless, but I don't have any of the songs from disc 2, so it's like getting a new B&S cd. It's very cool. I'm pretty sure that mostly no one that will read this will know what I'm talking about, but that's okay.

home sweet home

First off, I LOVE this shawl. I love the color, I love the design. I want one. That will have to be my next lace project, and I will have to steal that color because I love it. She did an excellent job of it.

My brother's 21st birthday party was a lot of fun. Everyone had a great time and no one was too drunk, so I was happy.






There he is, with his new Excalibur pool stick one of his friends gave him.



There are some more pictures of us. Mike and I in the top two, Mike and his friends bottom left, and the bottom right is his new girlfriend Jenny. She's a sweetheart.

It was a great trip, except for the way back. We sat on the plane near the runway, but not at the gate, for 3 hours. They played failure to launch, which I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. There was no thunderstorm at Dulles and nothing at Tampa, but there was something in between. There was an awesome lightening storm near us once we were in the air. I couldn't get any good pictures of it though.



Even my Starbucks was bored at the airport. This, of course, was before we boarded the plane, where all they had for us to eat for three hours were some really crunchy granola bars. Nevermind.

I did do some knitting during all that waiting. The sweater is slowly growing.



I already miss my friends and my house and my parents and mikey. August will come fast and I'll be up there again before I know it. Sure.

ps sorry for the mostly non-knitting content tonight. I just had to share the pictures of my mikey. :-)

the big switch

I can't take it anymore. Those fancy pants bamboo needles are driving me crazy.



Look at that gap where the wood joins the metal. It's a ravine! I tried to sandpaper it down a bit, but that did nothing except scratch the metal. Also, this wool doesn't slide very well on the wood, and is quite annoying. It's much better on the turbos. I do like the naturas for my lacy scarf, despite the gap. I don't know how I would make a huge shawl on those bamboo needles. Maybe more sandpaper would help.

I have spent a lot of money on knitting needles. My favorites are the turbos, like most people, but I can't stand them for lace. I would like to try some lantern moon circulars. They are so expensive, but I'm sure it would be worth it. I love the double points that I have.

Tonight I organized my yarn. I'm happy to say that it all fits in an Ann Taylor shopping bag. I don't want to have a closet full of wool. I hate the idea of having more yarn than I can use in my lifetime.

There was a sock that I had started right after Christmas. I bought two balls of yarn for the pair, and used up the first ball by the time I got to the heel of the first sock. Since I bought the yarn in England, I decided I should just scrap the socks and use it for something else. So, I had some more fun with the ball winder!

one of my friends is a ball winder

Since I apparently have the attention span of a 5 year old, I decided to make a really big yarn cake tonight, instead of knitting the sweater that the yarn is for.



I russian joined 4 (maybe 5, I can't remember) balls of the baby cashmere, and then used my new friend the ball winder to make a really big ball. Those little balls are only 25g, so they don't go very far. I wanted to get ready for my trip, so I made enough of a ball to last the whole weekend. (I'm sure I won't have very much time to sit around at home and knit, so it should be plenty.)

I managed to knit about 4 rows of the sweater, and 2 or 3 rows of the lead or follow scarf tonight. I don't know why, but I can't seem to be really bothered with either of these. Maybe I just don't like them enough, but I don't think that's it. I'll get there one day.

so slow

Not much progress on the sweater. After last weekend's marathon finishing demi, it's been hard to get back into it. This is all I got out of the first 25g ball.





Then there's the Russian Join. I have never done this before, but it seems like it worked pretty well. There are a few sticky out pieces, but it's been knit and you can't see it at all. I'm going to use this as much as possible, because i'd much rather do that than have to sew in ends. I also like the idea of my sweater being made from a single unbroken strand of yarn (even though in reality it will be about 22 balls).

I have decided what I want for my birthday and just bought it! The Ashford Umbrella Swift and the standard ball winder. When I get it, I'm going to join a bunch of the baby cashmere balls together and make a bigger ball so I don't have to stop so often. I still like winding balls by hand, but I don't know if I ever will after I get these presents. :-D

ribby lace

I started the Ribbed Lace Pullover tonight. The pattern sizes are all really big, so I'm making the smallest size. I have to figure out some waist shaping, because the pattern is just straight on the sides, and that never looks good.

I also made a swatch! I never make a real swatch, I always just knit 10 stitches and half an inch worth of rows and then measure. This time I made a real swatch of the cable part of the pattern, and then actually washed it! I'm proud of myself.

Swatch before washing.



The swatch after washing. It definitely flattened out a bit. I also didn't cross the cables right on the left side. I'm glad I did that, it will make me pay more attention to the actual sweater.

I like this yarn, it's really soft. I think it will be a lovely sweater.

amazing lace challenge #1

This is my team for the Amazing Lace. There are three projects so far, and they are all brand new. I like to see lots of pictures on blogs, so there are lots of pictures here!



The first one is the official project - Lead or Follow Scarf by Heartstrings Fiber Arts. This is a present for my mom. Ever since she saw my Print o' the Waves stole, she's wanted something lacey from me.

I am using Zephyr 50% wool 50% silk in the color admiral. It's a very rich blue, deeper than the picture shows. And Addi Naturas because that's what Eunny uses for her lace (and they're way better than turbos!). I hope one day some Latern Moon circulars will be part of the team, because those are my favourite.

I bought the Zephyr a few weeks ago, the needles a few weeks ago and started a few weeks ago. This scarf is just a baby.



Project number 2 is the Pomatomus socks from Knitty that so many people are making. I think they can qualify as lace because there are a few holes, and I think that in the description on Knitty they call them lace socks. Those are Latern Moons and they're lovely.

Most of the first sock was made in the sunshine by the pool at my boss' house, so they have some nice fresh salt air in between some of those stitches.



Number 3 is the Ribbed Lace Pullover from A Gathering of Lace. I have been trying to find some good yarn for this pattern, and finally found it thanks to brooklyn tweed. He is using the baby silk from elann, which I considered using, until I saw the baby cashmere. It is the same yardage/weight as the yarn for the pattern, so I'm pretty sure it will work out okay. The color isn't as bright as I thought it would be, but it will do. See?



And this is the captain of the team, nat. I have been knitting since I was 9 when my Grandma Dot and my Great Aunt Katherine taught me how. They used to knit and crochet blankets for us and the first thing they taught me to knit were some washcloths out of sugar 'n cream cotton. I made quite a few of those before I started making hats from Bartlett wool for my friends. I have probably knit 20-30 hats, and a few pairs of socks, but not much of anything else. Lace is so fun to make, so I am looking forward to the next few months of the race!



I tried to get a picture in front of the water view, but was unsuccessful. So, here is a nice one of the sunset outside of the old people's condo that I live in. It's nice here.