green.ketzle.net: knitting

kaleidoscope is done, but for the buttons. all ends woven in, all blocked and happy. this was such a quick and easy knit; i love raglans and their lack of seaming. just a little grafting under the arms and we were good to go.

at first i as leaning toward the grayish buttons, thinking the neutral would be better with the riot of colours in the sweater, but now i think i might just go with the red.

27 january 2005 so close, and yet?

so far. i was so on track to finish the sweater tonight, in time for the baby shower tomorrow afternoon. but then? i looked a few rows back. and saw it:

six rows back, i missed a set of decreases. and there is no graceful way to recover. so instead of knitting the final 16 rows, i am tinking the last 6.

sigh. looks like someone is getting their present a little late.

26 january 2005 kaleidoscope

my new least favorite combination: very long double points + 2 strands of yarn alternating every 2 rounds + very small sleeve.

other than that, it is zooming right along. sleeve number one was completed last night while watching seabiscuit [finally] and sleeve number two has already been started. i'm hoping to finish it tonight and maybe knit a few rounds of the raglan decreases before heading to bed. surely, there must be another movie skulking about somewhere in the living room that can carry me through...

23 january 2005 knitting, interrupted

it would appear, at last, the recalcitrant kidney is now behaving. after yet another procedure two weeks ago, i am stone free, fragment free, and stent free. now we wait for 6 weeks to see if the kidney can remember how to work, and if the ureter is not so scarred that it acts as an obstruction all by itself. here's hoping. i am quite tired of general anesthesia, pain meds and constantly feeling my kidney and bladder trying to do their things. i have a meeting with the gall bladder surgeon on friday, so i may well be entering a new cycle but i expect there is nothing to do but keep moving forward. and spend quality time trying to convince my body that my preferred method of creation is knitting, not stonemaking.

at one point, when i was unable to sleep, i thought about resurrecting the twisty cabled scarf. i love this yarn, and i think the cables look brilliant when they lie flat, but as you can see, they don't really like to do that.

so, i started to knit the rest in a 2X2 rib, a decision which makes absolutely no sense at all now that i am vicodin free. that won't stop the rest of the scarf from twisting, not one little bit. so i need to decide whether i want to knit a facing so that the twists can be set, or whether i want to rip and find a more scarf friendly pattern.

yesterday, i started a little cotton raglan cardigan for a coworker, due to give birth to a girl next month. it is a sample colorway from cherry tree hill and i am very happy with how it is coming along. i'm using two skeins alternately to avoid drastic color issues; it reminds me of a kaleidoscope with all the color fragments. i really wish i had enough of this to make me a little tank, but at least it is going to a good cause.

finally, i have a new office knitting project. it is yet another fluffy bag for yet another coworker. she is paying me for the yarn, and has offered to pay for the time, but as i like her, and she has made efforts in the past to make my life easier, i'll just let her pay for the yarn, and the yarn alone. it is to be gray and pale pink with a bright pink fuzzy top. i expect i'll finish by the end of the month, as it really is mindless and quick.

03 january 2005 obligations fullfilled

that, my friends, is a buttonband that did not kill me, though it tried. fifteenth time is the charm i always say!

and the cardigan all folded up and ready to mail. the weather is rather nasty in new jersey at the moment, and i am sure jim's mom will get some very good use out of this. and now i have finally knit her a sweater that is big enough and long enough and of a pattern she likes. hurrah!!!

green.girl knitting: commentary