Knitting Olympics, Day Seven Update

While I ran around this morning, desperately trying (but failing) to get ready before our ride to work arrived this morning, Allen took this picture of my Olympic progress for me:



It's not that impressive, but I think being a little more than half-way done, with a little more than half the time left, is not too terribly bad.

I didn't actually do much knitting last night, as I was very distracted. When I got home, I found a box on the table from Amazon.com!!! My first reaction was "Oh, crap! What did I buy? I don't even remember buying anything!" But then I opened the box discovered that my friend Tammy had bought me some knitting books! Huzzah! I was so excited, I called her right away to alternately yell at her for spending money on me, and to thank her profusely.

So, I FINALLY own Loop-d-Loop, and I want to make EVERYTHING in it. And I also got the extremely excellent Ann Budd book, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, which is GREAT because it eliminates the need for the dreaded PATTERN MATH.

SO EXCITED.

So, you can see why I didn't get very far, Olympically speaking. But at least Aku looks like he likes it - he seems to be licking his lips and staring at the yarn, anyway.

Knitting Olympics: Day Five Update

Oh boy. You knew it had to happen. Hell, I knew it was going to happen, I just didn't think it was going to happen this quickly.

This picture I posted two days ago? You remember? It looks so nice?



Yeah, well, it actually sucks. I did the decreases all wrong, choosing to interpret the pattern in my own personal way, as opposed to the way it was actually designed. Thankfully, Liz walked me through the changes I would need to make, and I was able to rip out about 25 rows. So I went from this (close up of BAD decreases)



To this instead:



Which actually, I think, looks pretty nice.

This is as far as I got by the end of the night, in between watching Curling and making Allen chocolate chip cookies for Valentine's Day:



Not too bad, considering when I was finished frogging, it looked like this:



All this, of course, and I never bother to mention that the first time I cast this project on, I cast on with the blue and knit four rows before I realized it. Sigh.

Meanwhile, Allen apparently has some elaborate plan for Valentine's Day, but he needs rubber cement???? I don't know. Anyway. I will update you all later.

Knitting Olympics, Day 3 Update

 


This is how much I have gotten done so far. I was not able to pick up my needles at all on Friday, and Saturday there was still decent amount of running to meet people at the airport and talking on the phone with various parents. Also, it was a slow start because I HATE seed stitch. I have to admit, it does look lovely though. And I can see the shaping already, and I'm happy with how it is coming along. Only another 9 1/2 inches and I can do the straps! Wheee!

Thankfully, Beth is feeling better, though the doctors still don't know what is wrong. We're on our way to Allen's mum's (in a blizzard!!!!) but I just wanted to through a picture up, so I would feel a little better about my progress.

Ta! 

And We're Off!

I finally made it onto the list of Olympic Knitters! Huzzah! There are over 3900, which means that there are more Knitters than actual Olypic Athletes.

Unfortunately, I can't start knitting yet, as I am at work. And it looks like I won't be able to start at all tonight - at least not until very, very late! It's like everything that can possibly go wrong has, and then some things I hadn't even thought of, too!

Allen's sister Beth is very sick, and no one (including big, important scary doctors) seem to know what's going on. She's being admitted to the hospital today INDEFINITELY, which is very freaky.

Allen's OTHER sister, Alison, her hubby, and baby are coming to see Beth. They just lost their dog, Chobe, a Rhodesian Ridgeback. He went into kidney failure and died very suddenly.

Allen's Dad, Dr. Cowett, is on a plane right now, also to come see Beth. Dr. Cowett will be staying with Allen and I, and supposedly flying out tomorrow night, which is of course going to prove to be impossible because there is a HUGE ASS winter storm on the way. So now we have to rush home, clean the house in five nanoseconds, run to the grocery store, drive to Boston, visit with Beth, and then come home and hang out with Dr. Cowett. (!!!!!) Usually, my Friday night consists of taking a 2-3 hour nap and then watching trashy television. But not this week!

EDIT:

Wow, I guess I had no idea how much was going on. Allen just heard that his old roommate from after college was killed in a bicycling accident in September.

Which makes the fact that I just found out I've been walking around with a hole in the ass of my jeans a lot less of a big deal.

Only 2 Days Left!

Two days until the official start of the Knitting Olympics! I am not as excited as I would like, however, because I STILL haven't pieced that baby blanket (all 56 squares of it) NOR have I finished my coworker's scarf. It looks beautiful so far, but I've been trying to give my left hand a little break.

In a truly inspired bout of self-destruction, I ended up pouring a large quantity of BOILING WATER over my hand. Needless to say, knitting was out for the next couple of days, as my hand was too sore. Now the burn has reached that lovely cracked, peeling, itchy stage, which is SO attractive and I can't stop wishing I could PICK at it all day. I have so far resisted (mostly) because I don't want a great big scar. I don't think there's much getting around it, though.

I never used to mind scars, but ever since my emergency appendix operation, which left me with a GREAT BIG abdominal scar, I have been pretty anti-scaring. Scar tissue is creepy. It's a part of you, but it doesn't FEEL like it.

Anyway......sorry about the gross-out factor. Just wanted to let you all know that I am feeling terribly unprepared (SHOCK to you all, I am sure) because now I am not only committed to finishing Anouk in 16 days (which isn't too bad) I will also have to finish the baby blanket, which is a gift for a baby shower on the 26th, the last day of the Olympics!

I will need everyone's support. And cookies. I will need all of your cookies.

One Trick Pony

That would be me. Because all I have to share right now is another knitting update!

I finished the pink hat for my co-worker's daughter this weekend. I actually started knitting it in the car right after purchasing it. Allen says at one point I was alternately knitting and dozing, and that I was definitely knitting with my eyes closed at one point.

This is actually the second hat, as the first, modified for a child's head, was too small.



I am almost done with the tiny squares that are to be made into a baby blanket. I only have one ball left to knit up!



I'm trying to keep the cat hair to a minimum in this project, so it's been stuffed into a paper bag which follows me around.

Allen says that this is actually a more accurate picture of the blanket in progress -



but that's kind of psycho so don't look at it.

That is the update for now - I really should get some work done this morning. And I should try not to play Kingdom of Loathing all day.

But I really, really wanna.

Me-me-me Meme!

The Meme of Four! Oh no!

Tagged by drinker/thinker, so here I go.....

Four Jobs I've Had:

1.) Produce Clerk
2.) Coffee Shop Gal
3.) Ticket Sales Representative
4.) Financial Aid Officer

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:

1.) This is Spinal Tap
2.) State and Main
3.) Labyrinth
4.) The Blues Brothers

Four Places I've Lived:

1.) Elizabethtown, PA
2.) Brattleboro, VT
3.) Rockland, ME
4.) CRANston, RI

Four TV Shows I Love:

1.) Good Eats
2.) House
3.) Law and Order: Criminal Intent
4.) Numb3rs

Four Places I Have Vacationed:

1.) Montreal, Canada
2.) Outer Banks, NC
3.) Jellystone Park
4.) Seattle, WA

Four of My Favorite Dishes:

1.) Beer-Brined Chicken
2.) Clam/Fish Chowder
3.) Spanakopita
4.) Salmon and Avocado Maki

Four Sites I Visit Daily:

1.) Planet Dan
2.) Yarn Harlot
3.) Achewood
4.) Google

Four Place I Would Rather Be Right Now:

1.) In Bed
2.) Knitting on the couch
3.) At the movies
4.) Touring the British Isles

Four People I Am Tagging:

Yeah, right. Sure. I'll tag Tori and Dan. Twice each.

BOOOOOOOO. Boo.

It appears I am having photo-blogging difficulties. I won't be able to correct it until tonight, boo. What a drag.

Speaking of drags, I had just put a big blog of hand lotion on my hands when the phone rang. There is just no way to NOT make a giant mess of things when that happens.

On the plus side, I did get to go to the yarn outlet this weekend, and I picked up 10 skeins of Sirdar Snuggly DK in Kaleidoscope, #329, for only $24, which is pretty spectacular, as it usually retails anywhere from $3.69-$4.99 a ball.

So now, of course, I am looking for a quick, not too boring baby blanket, and I think I'll have enough left for matching hat and booties, and probably even a small sweater.

I am SO not allowed to do that until I have finished all my other projects, though, and I really want to have them all done before I go into the Olympics. I consider the ridiculous schedule that I have now to be training.

More Finished Objects!

Yes, I know, another finished objects blog, but I really did finish a lot of objects!

This is the baby sweater I made for our friends Dawn and Ian, and their new baby Elijah. It's the Baby's First Tattoo from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation, and I used the swallow motif because Dawn has two large swallows on her back, so I thought that they could match.

 
 

This is a close up of the duplicate stitch detail. Yes, I know I made a mistake. I tried to fix it after the fact, but it was making it look worse, so I decided to leave well enough alone. Also, the collar was not my proudest moment, but then, hey, it was my first baby sweater. The yarn was soft and wholly impractical, but it's their first baby and I wanted it to be special. I used Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino, and it was so wonderful to use that even on size 3 needles it knit up rather quickly.



I made a few things for my brother and his roommates, David and Brandon. Eric got these half-mitts from Weekend Knitting:



And then I sent them 3 scarves - instead of assigning them I told them to fight amongst themselves.

This one was made with red/black Patons Divine and some french white mohair from the stash, donated by my friend Matt's mom, Big Nance. This scarf took forever, and the crappy picture does NOT do it justice.




I made another out of a discontinued color of lion brand Homespun, as I had a ton of mill ends kicking around that I picked up at A.C. Moore.



Wow, also a really crappy picture. hmm.

Last, but not least, a bi color scarf made from some extremely soft Bernat Solo, one half in blue, one half in black.




I did all three of these in about a week, and was heartily sick of scarves after that. In fact, Allen's Christmas scarf still isn't finished.

And I won't get to it this weekend, either, because I have to make another one of these in pink for a co-workers daughter.



This one went off to my mom. I really liked how it came out. It's from the first Stitch 'n' Bitch book, and is the first hat I ever made.

I just remembered that I am actually facing forward in this picture - Allen requested that I pose like Cousin Itt. But you totally can't tell.

For Tara, who gets this purple Bernat Galaxy scarf...




...and also for Allen's mum Katherine, I made the Hello Lopi tote. Tara's is the purple that has been partially felted and Katherine's is green, and shown here before it's first of three trips through the wash.



These were both done with Reynold's lopi. I made another in Denim Heather for a Secret Santa gift at work, but I added Trendsetter Eyelash to the handles to give it an icicle effect. It came out really beautifully, which of course means I don't have a picture of it.

And just so this isn't completely about knitting, here's Matt and Aku taking a snooze together....



I just know Anne will love that one.

I can hear Allen snoring from the bedroom, so I guess I should go to bed. Oh, he's turned off the light, which means he's given up on me entirely and I will have to stumble to bed in the dark. My own fault!

Waiting For Spring

Here's something for everyone who's sick of my yarn-blather. Here's my poor cat Loki, wishing it was warm so mom would open the damn window already. He looks so wistful in this picture, when in reality he's probably just taking a break before kicking the crap out of one of the other cats again. Click for a larger image.  

Buttons, Buttons, More Buttons!

Besides the fabulous Knitting Olympics button I have managed to add to my blog, here are some others I am contemplating adding.

It seems that there are many knitters who don't wish to participate without acknowledging which nation they hail from. There are still other knitters (Drunken Pirates included) that feel that declaring their nationality isn't enough - they must also declare which vice will be supporting them.

To that end, and in case anyone wants to add one to their blog (HA! As if I have KNITTERS actually reading this thing!) here are some other buttons, all via Yarn Harlot comments.

The Classic! 

Go Team USA! 

Essential! 

Cheese, Gromit! 

I Am A Great Big HTML Pleeb

I have no idea how to post buttons onto my blog without stealing someone else's server space. I admit it. Mostly because I am generally blogging from work, and so am either a.) afraid or b.) unable to download software that might actually be useful.

But here is a "knifty" button image for you anyway -


Thanks to Imbrium! 

EDIT: Oh, my god. I am an idiot. I figured it out. Jesus. Note the Pirate button on my sidebar. Also note that I didn't remove the above portion of this post and act like I am a button-posting know-it-all. Because I am not. I am totally faking it.

Thank you, Liz, for the code you sent me the other day, even though it took me this long to actually figure it all out.

The Knitting Olympics

While banging around on Craftster the other day, I came upon a thread about the "Knitting Olympics". It seems the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (she of the fantastic lace, sock, and other god-I-wish-I-could-do-that work) has decided that just because her knitting isn't technically a Olympics sanctioned sport, doesn't mean she can't get involved.

Thus the Knitting Olympics are born! I am signing up to be an "athlete" myself. The rules are that you can't start knitting (not even casting on!) until the torch is lit, and your project has to be completely done by the end of the closing ceremony.

Lizzy and I have decided to do a knit-along of Anouk, so I have decided that that will be my project. We weren't wild about the colors, so we're doing it in green, blue, and yellow.

Now I just have to finish this baby blanket before then -



I'm doing it in 7 colors instead of 5. I'm crazy like that. I'll post a picture when it's all done.

Basically, the knitting schedule is as follows for the next few weeks:

Finish baby blanket, if time allows, also make baby mittens and matching hat.

At same time, knit boucle' scarf and hat for co-worker.

Finish these projects by Feb 16th, so can knit Anouk like crazy person.

It's good to have goals.

The Dim Sum Experience

That sounds like the name of a progressive rock band. But it isn't, at least, not one that I know of.

Instead, it is meant to refer to the fact that I had dim sum for the first time this weekend.

We went to Boston to meet up with Lizzy, Ethan, and Reid for the dim sum-ness. Allen and Reid had been playing phone tag for about 2 weeks, so it was nice to get the two of them together finally. Reid is moving to Wisconsin in either May or September (he hasn't decided yet) for at least a couple of years, so we're trying to spend time with him while we still can. Dim sum was the perfect excuse, especially since Reid actually speaks Chinese.

I highly recommend bringing a Chinese-speaker with you, if you can, to your first dim sum experience. The folks who push around the carts full of bamboo steamers really, REALLY want you to try everything, and it's easy to get overwhelmed. It's easier to deliver a firm No Thank You in the server's actual language.

The food was fabulous, if a little shrimp heavy - "hey, let's get that, that looks good, what's in it, oh - shrimp". I must have had 48 cups of tea. There were a few stand-outs for me -

One of Lizzy's faves, and a definite must-try is the Char Siu Bao, or steamed pork buns.



You wouldn't know it from the picture, but the center of the bun is filled with delicious barbequed pork.

I also really enjoyed the Shu Mai, which are another type of pork dumpling, w/chinese cabbage.



And the Ha Gau, one of the many shrimp dishes we sampled.



This shrimp rice noodle dish was the first thing I tried, actually, and it was good but difficult to eat with chopsticks, though they cut some of the larger food so you can share more easily.



I did manage to share one of these with Allen after mutilating it with my chopsticks, I'm not sure what they are but it was some kind of steamed beef meatball w/ scallions, I'm pretty sure. It wasn't the best looking thing we tried, but was still very, very good.



There were some sweet foods, too. There were the "donuts", a deep fried sweet roll with a ton of granulated sugar on them, and then the fried sesame balls, which I think out of everything were my favorite.



We assumed they were filled with red bean paste, but everything I've read about them online says "lotus seed paste", which makes me worry that I might forget all my friends and family, but then again, it's been more than 24 hours, and I still remember everything. Besides, would it really be all that bad if I forgot about my family? Ha! Just kidding! A-Hem.

(I'm sure no one really wants to read the whole poem, but it's really fantastic. If you were willing to sit through TROY, goddamn it, then read the frickin' poem.)

I think we're going to try to surprise my brother Ivan with a dim sum trip this weekend, depending on money, time, and other issues which may or may not be lotus related.

Christmas Packages and Other Things That Are Late

Christ on a cracker, it's been a long ass time since I blogged. I have long since alienated my readership, I am sure. The holidays are a stressful time, and I made it more so by deciding to make a lot of my gifts this year. Also, there was a decided lack of eggnog that I found quite distressing.

Just to prove that I have been actually doing something with my time, I wanted to show you folks some of the things I banged out (with LOVE, dammit!) for the ChrismaHanuKwanzamass celebrations this year.



This is a hat I made for my friend Matt, just a simple roll brim hat made with a "thick and thin" yarn, Araucania Magallanes, in colorway #302.

I also knit a lovely blue with brown trim rib-knit hat for my dad in Cascade 220, which he is modeling in the next pictures:





I discovered that while I love the finished product, I hate doing a project with too much ribbing because it takes flippin' forEVAR. I had to do it extra long, too, because my dad wanted an earflap hat, but I didn't want to make one (too much finicky measuring!) so I settled on an extra long hat that he could double up over his ears, as it gets frickin' cold in Maine. In fact, the day after I gave it to him we got hit with a snow storm and got stuck there an extra day.

I also made the white scarf he's wearing in this picture, I know it doesn't go with the hat but it's what he wanted!



I made the scarf out of one skein of Cascade Magnum, and I thought it was going to be too short, but then I had the brilliant idea of actually BLOCKING the damn thing (imagine that!) and it was quite long indeed.

And here is the attempt at the Booga Bag as photographed in the Sea Dog in Topsham, ME, after a LOT of Katamari Damacy.



And as modeled by Allen and Emma, but not Tori (who the bag was for but who declined to be photographed with it).





I think it came out pretty well - I used Noro Kureyon in colorway 157. I love the gorgeous, ridiculously beautiful striping of this yarn, though it's not the softest wool, and it doesn't felt nearly as well as Cascade.

Here's Allen again, modeling a hat I made for my friend Tara (and is being mailed tomorrow because I am a terrible person) MONTHS ago, in fact, I think it was the first thing I made from a skein of Noro yarn. It's Silk Garden, the Rainbow colorway.



OK, that's all I can post right now because Blogger photos is very cantankerous this evening. I will put up some more pictures tomorrow!