green.ketzle.net: knitting

the dad dropped off the camera when he picked up the grandchild, so i can end the month on a colorful note. first up, the third, and possibly final, critter blanket.

next, the barter bag. the bottom is to be red and the top black, with a maroon and red eyelash at the top. i am a little concerned about the eyelash, as there is quite a span of thread between the eyelashy pieces. i may have to strategically double it to get a proper fluffy effect.

the chain-mail cami with the edge that continues to roll even though there are at least five rows of garter stitch sturdily standing at the bottom. i have no idea how i am going to coax it into submission. maybe beads. maybe a lining. maybe beat it with a set of double-points.

the back of the baby cardigan. it's lovely isn't it? it will just about break my heart if i can't find the rest of the bloody yarn with which to finish it.

and speaking of the yarn, i have no idea who made it or what the content is. careful testing via flame and bleach leads me to believe it is an acrylic of some sort, but it is awfully soft, and feels like cotton as it knits up. i don't even remember where i got it, maybe goodwill, maybe a yard sale. but the strangest thing is how it is balled up. i tried to find the end tucked into the middle, assuming it was a center pull skein. nope! it is wound around a foam tube. i've never seen such a thing.

still haven't made it to the mama's to retrieve the digicam, so no pictures, yet again. and soon there may be no knitting as i have completely misplaced the bag of yarn for the baby sweater. i bound off the back last night, went to look for another skein, and could not find it anywhere. and i do mean anywhere. checked the office in case i'd taken it there, no luck. the car? the bedroom? under the dining room table? no no no. i have even gone so far as to clean all sorts of strange nooks and crannies and still the elusive bag'o'yarn eludes me. it makes me crazy.

the chain-mail cami made it off the needles for a fitting and is now happily back on the needles, having passed the bustline test. i've just finished the fifth ball of yarn, so it is exactly halfway done. no work on the christmas presents this week, because i am making another fluffy bag for a coworker. she gets the bag, i get a necklace; i love bartering crafty things.

21 june 2004 summertime, and the living is easy

it was all about go go go this weekend -- the drive-in movies, the symphony, a visit to my parents, a dinner and a lunch out... i have a blessed life, i truly do. sophie made her dad the happiest brightest tshirt ever for father's day and i finally found the pattern i will use for his sweater. i have the yarn, the pattern, now to find the time.

no pictures today as i left my camera at my mom's on sunday. there was more work on the chain-mail cami, which may be heading for the frogpond one more time as i suddenly do not have gauge. i didn't think my gauge was so drastically different knitting flat versus in the round -- it is more than a stitch per inch different with this yarn, which may make the cami a little snug. i need to get it off the needles and try it on before making any drastic decisions.

i also finished the third critter blanket and worked a pattern repeat on the baby sweater, so progress continues apace. as does acquisition; i had a few yarn purchases this week. they seem to happen twice a year, like clockwork.

the chain-mail cami was not giving me the loving feeling; the curl was getting to me, as was all the purling with ribbon. for some reason, i find purling with ribbon to be particularly loathsome. so, i ripped it. and then started again, with a garter stitch border, in the round. it is just flying off the needles now--i am almost up to where was before i ripped, with less than half the effort.

i'm having a little trouble staying true to any one knitting project. i finished the increases on the chain-mail cami, but rather than zoom straight away to the armholes, i dropped it and picked up the third critter blanket.

then i got tired of that, and started a new baby sweater for my niece emily, who will one year old any day now.

so i am officially ignoring the quarry/garden tank, the christmas presents, the chain-mail cami, sophie's lacy sweater, and the final finishing of mom's cardi and g's blanket. but i did redesign the webpage!

while living in denial over the two-toned tank, i started something new. a double rolled snake!

actually, it is destined to be a little sparkly camisole. it is a shiny lavendar ribbon yarn that is knitting to gauge, but rather densely. maybe i'll call it the chain-mail cami.

06 june 2004 whoa, woe

so, i finished the back of the tank.

and, in a moment of let's start the other piece right away, i went searching for the second hank of yarn to wind up and start the front. only, it doesn't look quite right, not quite right at all. and that's when i notice one skein is quarry hill and one is country garden, and while they are kissing cousins, they are by no means identical twins.

i took a series of pictures outside, with flash and without, in an attempt to convince myself there wasn't much difference. but there is. the country garden has more turquoises, the quarry hill more grays and greens. so i have a few options: rip it out and make something else; rip it out and remake the back, using both skeins in a 2 [or more] stripe pattern to minimize the differences; leave the back as is, knit the front from the other color and just deal with the two-toned top.

i didn't feel like making a decision this weekend, so instead i finished off critter blanket number 2. and started in on this year's christmas presents. no pictures of those, though; you never know who might be reading...

01 june 2004 slow knitter at work

not much progress to show for over a week, but it is progress. i finished the first critter blanket, a single crochet square with a single crochet border.

and i started a second one. knit this time, in garter stitch.

and finally, the back of the tank, just about ready for the armhole decreases. i am quite liking this yarn, even though it is absolutely unforgiving, but it seems as though it is taking forever to get anywhere. i am beginning to think i should have done the back and front at the same time, in the round, to avoid the snail's pace that has overcome us.

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