Cherie Update

Cherie's back is completed:

Yep, looks like a big blob of gray. Pret-ty exciting. I decided to cast on for the arms next (much better representation of color):Both sleeves at once, to avoid the dreaded second sleeve syndrome! I am working the sleeves before the front so I can determine whether I have enough yarn to finish the sweater. The back took a little over 2.5 balls, and the front is exactly the same, so that is about 5 balls accounted for. I purchased 9 balls, which leaves only 4 for the sleeves and neckband. Hmmm...I think I really need to start buying an extra ball (though you know if I did, I would never need it).

I went to a baby shower on Saturday for my co-worker's wife. I gave her some baby clothes, and also these:Cute l'il baby socks! These are the "Better than Booties Baby Socks" from the Summer 2005 Interweave Knits (pattern is also available on-line here). I knitted these a few months ago, using Sandnes Lanett Superwash Merino (green socks) and Laines Du Nord Baby Star Merino (yellow socks). Both are very nice yarns, and the pattern was great too. They were a big hit at the shower!

The mother-to-be wasn't supposed to be due until March 18th. But when I came in to work today, I got a call letting me know that the baby was born TODAY at 2 AM! They had a baby boy, and both the baby and mother are healthy and doing fine. Hooray!

I will leave with some peaceful scenic pictures I took the other week. Look at them, and breath iiiiiinnnn and ouuuttttt....and relax...ahhh...doesn't that feel better?? ;-)

Rowan Arrives

This weekend in Boston was fun but...brrr! The wind howling through those high-rise buildings will get ya! It wasn't an overly eventful weekend. We went out for a couple of yummy meals, walked around and checked out some stores, went to bars, etc. We also saw Blue Man Group, which was kind of dorky but very entertaining. I'm not generally into the whole 'audience participation' thing, but the show was fun (especially since they didn't pick me to do anything). My friend also took a photo of me with the Blue Men after the show, which I can't wait to see (has to be developed first). I also gave my friend the scarves I made, and she loved them!

While I was gone, the new Rowan made its appearance in my mailbox. My general thought is...eh. There are some cute things but nothing that I am dying to make right away. Here are the items that I'm digging:
Left: Bliss, a little cropped wrap sweater.

Right: Jewel, a fair isle tie-front cardigan

Left: I think this one is called "Lizzie." It's a cardigan in All-seasons cotton, which is a fave yarn of mine. I have a feeling that this may be the most popular pattern in this issue.

And to the right, "Nicole"...I love this design, except for the crop length. Gah! Who can wear that stuff anyway? I might try to re-work this pattern to be regular length...we'll see.



I managed to get Tidal Wave blocking last night:

I am sensing that this sweater might have the same problem as I did with the other sweater I made with this yarn...too long! The body seems to be about 3 or 4 cm too long and the sleeves are about 4 cm too long, even though I swear I measured carefully while knitting. At least this explains why I ran out of yarn. Oh well, I'll put it together and see how it looks. If it's bad, I don't know if I can rip this yarn again, it was already looking a bit ratty from the first time. I did manage to find an extra ball of this yarn over the weekend to do the turtleneck...if I get that far! I really need to work on my sizing/gauge issues, as it seems to be the one thing that trips me up a lot.

I also cast on for Cherie: I did the famous tubular cast-on, and it looks great. This is the ribbing for the bottom of the sweater. I think this will be a pretty boring knit (lots o' stockinette), but at least that makes it easy to do while watching movies!

Minor FO

I finished up the Sunset Scarf last night, and just in time. I'm going down to Boston this weekend to for my friend's birthday, and this is one of her gifts. Project notes: Plain ol' garter stitch scarf knitted with one skein Lion Brand Color Waves, in color "Mai Tai." This is a really nice yarn considering it is Lion Brand and acrylic (the yarn snob in me coming out). It is quite cuddly and soft, though knitting with it is a shock to the hands after natural yarn. The colors are very interesting too, and are much softer than the picture shows.

I also finished the sleeves for Tidal Wave: See that ball of yarn on the right? That's all the yarn I have left...definitely not enough for a turtleneck! I'm going to block out the pieces tonight, and hopefully I'll find an extra ball of yarn this weekend so I can finish the sweater when I get back.

It's been a pretty boring week, so there's not much else to say! Here is a silly quiz:

You Are Lisa Simpson

A total child prodigy and super genius, you have the mind for world domination. But you prefer world peace, Buddhism, and tofu dogs. You will be remembered for: all your academic accomplishments Your life philosophy: "I refuse to believe that everybody refuses to believe the truth"

The Simpsons Personality Test

Somehow it doesn't surprise me that I got this result...G frequently taunts me with "She admitted it! She's going to marry a carrot!"

Have a good weekend, everyone! :)

Huge Bummer

See that bare ground in the photo? That's because we didn't get a lick of snow from the storm on Sunday. Nada, zilch, zero...not even a dusting. Blah.

I had a good time skiing this weekend, although I really stink at it. I only get to go maybe once or twice a year, so that obviously makes it hard to improve. I also really need a new pair of skis. Mine are 12 years old and are the old straight kind, and they're a bit too long for me, too. Which was fine in high school when I went skiing more (and wasn't as wimpy), but I think the new shaped skis will give me an edge (sorry, bad pun)! I'm gonna try to go skiing at Sugarloaf in March--if you go on a Wednesday, it's only $26 for Maine residents. Then I could demo skis and see which ones I like, though I'll have to wait until this summer to buy them. I am praying we get some snow soon, too. Trail conditions weren't all that great--lots of ice and man-made snow.

On to the knitting news...I put the zipper into the wallet thingie, so that's all done:

I am also plugging away at the Tidal Wave Pullover. The front is now done and I am working on the sleeves:

As you can see, I decided to work both sleeves at the same time, and I am so glad I did! Much easier than worrying if the second sleeve will match! The only problem now, is that I'm 99% sure I'm going to run out of yarn before I'm done. I should be able to get the sleeves done, but there is a turtleneck collar that needs to be knitted on at the end. I'll have to see if I can scrounge up another ball, though I doubt I'll be able to find the same dye lot, since I orginally bought this yarn over a year ago. Let's hope that the variegated nature of this yarn hides the differing dye lots!

Ho-Hum...

I think the winter doldrums have set in. And they're especially bad this year due to the lack of snow. Blah....

Not much exciting going on in the knitting realm. I (sadly) had to frog the seed-stitch beret. It came out looking like a shower cap! My gauge was fine, so I'm going to blame it on the pattern. The picture that was with the pattern was really cute, but mine looked nothing like it. I think I'm gonna give up on knit headwear for a while...too many troubles with them lately.

I started something that should not cause any problems whatsoever...a garter stitch scarf using the Lion Brand Color Waves yarn:

I am calling it the Sunset Scarf because the colors look like the sunset (duh). I will give this to my friend for her birthday, along with the Jimi Hendrix spiral scarf I made last month. As dull as garter stitch is, I have to say that it's good to know even I can't screw it up!

I also made a little wallet/pouch thingy for G. He is seriously the pickiest person when it comes to buying anything. This is probably a good thing, because he doesn't buy tons of crap. But still, it is a bit frustrating when we are standing in front of a display of 20 different styles of wallets and he doesn't like any of them! He looked at them and tried them out for about 15 minutes, too.

He likes the fair isle pouch, though. Here is a picture of it, it just needs the zipper put in:

Quincy seems to approve, too! As for the Tidal Wave pullover, I finished the back and have completed about one-third of the front. I can't get Blogger to upload the picture right now. Just picture a big blue blob and you'll have the idea.

I am supposed to go skiing at Sunday River this weekend, on me and my friend L's annual ski trip. Hopefully the conditions will be decent and temps not too cold. "Only" 95 out of 128 trails are open, but I think that will be more than enough to keep us busy!

Goodies!

It's been a busy week at the post office here in Lobstah-land!
Lookee here:

Guidebooks for our BIG TRIP TO EUROPE this April!!! Woo hoo! Can you tell I'm excited? I started reading them last night. G and I have already been in hysterics at the books. So far we have determined that "you should not consume only beer and soft pretzels" during your vacation, or you might end up in the "krankenwagen" (make sure you say it in a silly German accent). Bwa ha ha...we're going to be the rude Americans...but hey, we make fun of Americans too. We're equal opportunity snarkers.

I also received the yarn I ordered last week, hooray! Kelly gets a big gold star for guessing what I was going to purchase: A bunch of Yorkshire Tweed DK in dark gray to make "Cherie." I think I will start this right after "Tidal Wave" is done. I am already almost done the back on "Tidal Wave", so Cherie should be coming up shortly (famous last words).

Next up, two skeins of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-Ply (superwash) in Strawberry. This is coming with me on our plane flights, and will become a pair of socks. I figure this is an ideal project for traveling because it will be very light and portable. Plus, the socks will be knit with US size 1 DPN's, so I'm pretty sure I don't have to worry about having them confiscated by the TSA.

I also picked up some GGH Soft Kid in pale blue to make the Rebecca Wrap Cardi that I've seen on a few blogs here and there (sorry about the shiny glare): As soon as I touched this yarn, I seriously almost started drooling. It is that nice...so soft and light and pretty. The yarn appears to have a "chain" construction, which must be why it is really light and springy. I hope it knits up nicely; if so I think it might become one of my favorite yarns. My favorite part of this project so far is this:Hopefully you can read that caption. Yes, the whole reason I'm knitting this cardigan is so I can meet an "exciting male" and wear it in a "super, great town." Ha, ha. In case you don't know, Rebecca is a German knitting magazine, and I'm pretty sure for the English version they just run the German text through one of those on-line translators . This reminds me of the instructions you get with cheap electronics, that have been poorly translated from Japanese. OK, it's not quite that bad, but still funny!

I also notice that I had a comment for my last post from Sam, who said: "I was wondering about the lobster reference in your title." I guess it is obvious that this blog has nothing to do with lobsters...it comes from my nickname that I got when I was hiking the Appalachian Trail. I was dubbed "Lobstah" and G was "Chowdah," because we had been living in Maine prior to hiking. We aren't even natives of Maine (we both mostly grew up in Connecticut), but somehow that's what we ended up being called. Anyway, thanks to Sam for your comment, please come back and visit :)

Well, that's all folks. Have a fun weekend. It's raining here right now and ruining the snow we got this week. I think I'm doomed never to use those nice new skis...

Recycling

After much trial and tribulation, I managed to frog an entire sweater and get it back to this state: I had a funny photo of what it looked like before this week (a half-frogged, tangled mess!) but I accidently deleted it. Which is a bummer because now you can't see the dramatic transformation. So much for drama.

Anyhoo, here we have Rowan Plaid that was once my very first sweater, Freya from Rowan 36. It didn't come out very well...let's just say it was about two sizes too big. Plus, the trim along the bottom made it sag even more. Altogether not a pretty sight. As soon as I finished the sweater, I started ripping it, but got frustrated and threw it in a plastic bag. There it sat for the last year. Finally last week I decided it would be a shame to waste all that nice (expensive) yarn. I sat down and patiently ripped the entire thing, washed the yarn to get the kinks out, and wound it into balls.

Then I laid them out on the floor as you see in the photo above and left them there for a day.

Yesterday, when I came home for lunch, this is what I found: "I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, can't prove anything." Luckily he didn't cause much of problem, mostly he just pulled off a yard or two from each ball. Love his oh-so-innocent look. Quincy is absolutely fascinated by this yarn. I'm guessing it's the stripiness that catches his eye. If I have some leftovers, I'll have to make a cat toy out of it.

Last night I cast on and starting knitting my new project with this, Tidal Wave (scroll down just a tiny bit, it's the pink sweater right at the top) from the Rowan Plaid Collection booklet. Here's what I have so far:This should be a pretty quick knit, which would definitely be a novelty for me. I think this pattern should be a much better fit for the yarn, since it has no heavy trim and is much shorter than Freya.