What have I been doing lately? I've been disillusioned with my knitting. The last time I picked up the baby blanket for Astra, it looked a bit funny. I folded it over and realized I had loosened up in my gauge so much that the width of the blanket was almost 2" wider than at the cast-on edge. I was horrified. I argued with myself about letting it go and working it out in the blocking, but in the end I just couldn't continue. So I'll be ripping about half of it out and reknitting. Sorry Astra! I swear Sebastian will get this blanket before he goes to university.

Starsky went swimmingly along until I got to the plain stockinette sleeves. I knit the back and two fronts in record time but for some reason, when I started working the sleeve, I just couldn't keep gauge. What is wrong with me? I ripped out the sleeve back to the ribbing twice. I think I need a smaller needle to get gauge with the stockinette. I was using a 4.5 mm for the rest of the sweater, and I'm going to try again with a 4 mm for the sleeves. Believe it or not, the pattern calls for a 6 mm. How tightly do you people knit?

In the meantime I have almost finished a pair of socks. I made the second one a bit too short, so I have to rip back the toe and add about 4 rows before I reknit the toe. Not only can I not keep gauge, I also cannot measure. I have just been so frustrated!

Jeremy had the last couple of days off, so we decided to get something done around here. We used a gift card from Christmas for Home Depot to buy a new door for Alex's bedroom. We have plans to replace all the doors because they are awful, but Alex's came first because it was hung the wrong way. It opened into the centre of his room instead of toward the corner; when the room in question is so small this is awkward and stupid. Particularly awkward was the fact that the door, when opened, obscured the lightswitch. You had to enter the room and close the door in the dark before you could turn on the light.

We've never hung a door and jamb before, but lack of experience doesn't stop us. We tore off the trim, ripped out the old jamb and started shimming. On the top and left side it was easy to get the jamb plumb. The other side was a nightmare because the framing for the door was way too big. The new door is exactly the same size as the old door, and we discovered only after ripping out the old jamb (which was shimmed in the most creative manner!) that we were going to have to get creative as well. What we ended up doing is screwing the old jamb directly to the 2x4 of the frame, and then shimming the new jamb from there. It sounds confusing but I took some pictures and it'll all make sense when I post them later on.

Anyway, with some struggle we managed just fine, and that jamb is perfectly square! We are awesome. It's probably the only square thing in our house. Right before we went to hang the actual door, we decided to read the instructions.

Now, we used some vague directions we found online. That combined with watching countless doors hung in countless frames on countless home reno shows gave me the confidence that we knew how to do this. When we looked at the instructions that came with the door, they said we should hang the door before we shimmed the jamb. Wha? I guess that would work when your jamb actually fits into the frame with millimetres to spare, but we were working in a space that was about 3" too wide. Anyway, the door hangs correctly, but it doesn't swing because the bottom needs to be trimmed about a half-inch to allow for the bedroom carpet. Jeremy's going to saw it off this morning, and tonight Alex can have his room back!

Continue reading "Lookit"

My Knitpicks order for Starsky arrived this morning. I wasn't going to actually place the order until my birthday since I'm using my mom's gift to pay for it but I was drunk and I didn't know what I was doing! Okay, I was impatient. But I could have just as easily been drunk. Don't judge me.

Anyway, the yarn is here so I swatched it up. I can't get row gauge. The pattern calls for 16 stitches and 18 rows to 4 inches and I can't get any closer than 16/22. I'm getting a full row per inch more than I should but to be honest, I don't see how you could. If anyone can achieve 16/18 with Knitpicks Sierra I wanna know about it! It's not that big a deal, I'll just work to my own row gauge and slightly alter the sleeve caps to fit. I still haven't decided on which size to knit, nor whether or not I want waist shaping.

The needles I need for Starsky are in the baby blanket right now (I pulled them out to swatch) and that's making me knit a little bit faster. The blanket seemed to show no progress no matter how much I knit until this afternoon; now it's suddenly so big! I've got about a third left to knit before blocking and a crochet edging. It's just a simple basketweave but it's so, so pretty. I want to make a bigger one as a throw for my living room.

I also spent some time working on Durrow. I read about Ken's neckline being too big, looked at what I had so far and realized that the neckline would be too wide for Alex, too. As yet I've only knit the back and one sleeve, so I ripped the back down to the underarm bind-off, calculated an appropriate raglan shaping and reknit from there. I must have used the wrong needle because it looked like shit. Rip. Reknit. Wrong needle again. Rip. Reknit. Fuck. Anyway, now I'm pissed off so I shoved it back in its bag and I'll give it another try tomorrow. I can't believe I couldn't remember what needle I was using. I've got to get better at keeping notes.

I must have this.

It's all Mi's fault, she linked to it and now I need it like nothing else. I can't afford the yarn, but the timing is good: my birthday is in exactly one month today so it'll be a birthday present from my mom. I'm going to use it as incentive to finish other projects as well...I have to finish the baby blanket for Astra and Durrow for Alex before I cast on for anything else. Socks, as usual, don't count.

Speaking of birthdays, Jeremy turned 33 on Saturday. Natalie and some friends came over and brought their Xbox 360 and satellite radio with them. I got quite drunk; I hope I wasn't too obnoxious since I really enjoyed myself. Jeremy got some really nice gifts. I can't get him away from his PSP since Nicci and Aaron gave him Battlefront II. Natalie gave him a few Michael Connelly books that he wanted and some new pyjama pants which is good because I am just so tired of looking at his crotch. Now I can throw the old holey pyjamas in the trash.

Continue reading "For Sebastian"

As soon as the cats decide it's time to nap, I'll be finishing the cardigan for Astra's baby. All I have to do is put it together, weave in the ends and lightly block it. I'm also almost finished the second of this pair of socks, and I hope to get that done later this evening. I've only finished one pair this year so far...sad sad sad.

For dinner tonight I'm making Jamaican Rice and Peas along with some fried plantain and roasted jerk-seasoned chicken legs. I haven't made the rice and peas in ages so I'm really looking forward to it. The beans have soaked and I need about two hours to cook it, so I guess I'll start around 3:30.

More kitty pictures? This way, please.

Continue reading "Waiting for Naptime"

Last night I defrosted an assload of chicken breasts for today's dinner. I'm making roast chicken with stuffing and everything, I even have fresh sage, it's a whole big thing. However, I completely forgot that Alex was spending the weekend with my parents and Jeremy is working until late, so now it turns out that I will be enjoying a big family dinner for one. I decided to just prep everything and I'll cook in time to have it ready when Jeremy comes home at 11. Duh.

Otherwise, I had a really great day today. Astra and her daughter came over to meet my kitties! They brought us little valentine chocolates which was so very sweet, and a fantastic sisal scratching post which was so very needed. Thanks guys! Ingrid, who is three, loved the cats. She loved them fiercely and with every fibre of her being. She told them all of her secrets and was heartbroken when they decided to spend the rest of her visit hiding under the bed. She then moved on to Jeremy and Alex and bonded with them. Lots of running, laughing and catching. Then the poor thing was heartbroken again when Jeremy had to go to work and take Alex to my parents' house. She is so sweet and confident and bright. I adore her and the way she throws herself right into everything.

I showed Astra my secret projects, which no longer need be secret because they are for her and her new baby who is almost here. I suppose I could have waited until they were done and wrapped them up all gift-like, but I couldn't wait. The blue project is a teeny hooded cardigan which is missing only its sleeves, and the ivory one will be a baby blanket, knit in a knit/purl checkerboard pattern. She said she loved them and I'm so happy; I hope they keep him (the baby) very warm. During Astra's first visit I deftly swung the conversation over to colours of baby clothing and lured her into telling me she didn't like the traditional pastels (neither do I) which gave me a starting point for the cardigan. I am sneaky like that.

He Whose Name is Pending's name pends no longer! I woke up yesterday morning humming My Name is Jonah by Weezer and realized that Jonah, in fact, was his name.

I love the idea of the Harlot's Knitting Olympics. How can you not? As it stands the number of participants is somewhere around 4000. I'll be cheering from the sidelines instead of casting on for my own project today. I've got too much on the go already and while knitting something challenging in 16 days is right up my alley, I'm already overextended.

While everyone is watching the opening ceremonies, I'll be watching Arrested Development's closing ceremonies. The last four episodes are airing tonight and I'm fanatically excited to see them. I'm also depressed as hell because the thought of no new episodes of the greatest, most brilliant sit-com ever produced makes me want to cry.

And while everyone is casting on for a project, I'll be finishing one. Cardamom is ready to seam! I won't be able to knit the button bands today because I want to use washed yarn for that and I forgot to wash it yesterday, duh. Anyway, all seams will be sewn and I have very few ends to weave in because I spit-spliced everything.

While my fronts were blocking last night I made some progress on the first part of my secret project. I should have it done in a few more days.

Right now Footloose is on tv and the sinning school dance is about to begin. I love this movie.

Today has been a lot less productive than I would like. Usually when I get up I think about all the stuff I mean to do during the day and somehow it never works out that way. I let time get away from me just fooling around online and chatting with friends; before I know it Alex is home from school and I've got to start the crap job of cleaning up the kitchen so I can make dinner and my day is gone. At least the place is clean so I don't have to feel guilty about that. After dinner I'm parking my ass in the corner of our sectional couch and I'm not putting my knitting down unless there is a fire.

Yesterday was our SnB and on the way into town I stopped at my LYS to pick up some yarn and a pattern for a new project. I've been planning this project for a couple of weeks but didn't get started because I couldn't decide between two things. In the end I still can't decide so I'm making both. Unfortunately I can't really discuss it because it's a secret sort of project, but I will show you the yarn.

The yarn I bought yesterday for the first project turned out to be a bit thinner than I liked when I swatched it up, but here I'm doubling it with a strand of sock yarn and now it's perfect. The difference in colour of the two strands adds to the heathered yarn and I just love it. It's Sirdar Country Style DK in Highland Blue. The sock yarn is this, the blue one.

This is some Pengouin yarn my sister had but hadn't used, and it was exactly the colour I wanted so she sold it to me. I haven't swatched it up yet, I'm concentrating on the first half of the project first.