Not enough swear words in the universe

Carnival Coat for DD

I am furious at myself. Let me explain. When I first cast on 37 stitches for the skirt as per the instructions, I looked at how wide that was and didn't think it would be big enough to balance out the rest of the cardigan (the skirt is worked perpendicular to the yoke, so the number of stitches you cast on affects the height of the skirt). I held the stitches up the cardigan and thought, yep, way too small. So I cast on another 6 stitches to match the next size up...still a bit small. So finally I cast on another 7 stitches for a total of 50, and it looked good, so I really got going on the skirt. Then, 106 rows into it, the first ball of pink/blue tweed ran out. "Hm," thought I, "I only have one ball of the pink/blue tweed left; I may run out of yarn before I finish." So I did the smart thing - instead of continuing to knit with blind faith that it would all work out, I figured out how many stitches I'd gotten out of the first ball to see if I had enough in the second ball to complete all 15,000 stitches in the skirt plus the extra 300 stitches needed for the graft to the yoke. Turns out I got about 8690 stitches in the first skein. So, 8690 stitches times two balls equals 17,380 stitches - yeah! More than enough for the 15,000 stitches in the skirt! So I kept going. Do you see my mistake? My bonehead, lost-my-mind, threw-the-logic-out-of-the-window mistake? I only figured out what I'd done wrong this morning. I shouldn't have doubled 8690, I should have added 8690 to the 5300 stitches I'd already done on the skirt to see if I had enough. Since 8690 + 5300 is 13,990, the answer was, of course, no. I ran out of yarn 550 stitches from completion of the cardigan last night while watching the Oscars. I am now going to have to rip out all 14,700 stitches of the skirt (*sob*) and do the whole damn thing over again with a slightly shorter skirt. I am so mad. And it is so my fault. Dumber. Than. Sand. Or, in the immortal words of Kirsty Alley, "I am too stupid to live." Sigh.

Itchy-and-Scratchy mittens for baby MacDonald

Mitten #1 is complete. I think it looks great!

As you can see, I went ahead with Scratchy even though I didn't have a really dark grey. I realised that I'd seen pictures of Scratchy in all kinds of different shades - sometimes he's practically black, sometimes he's pretty light grey. So I ditched the idea of mooching off my dad's floss stash, I went ahead and used the darkest grey in my own collection - DMC #414. It worked well. If you're wondering where I got the Scratchy pattern, it's kind of clever, if I do say so myself (not clever enough to make up for my Carnival Coat blunder, but still). I searched on the Internet for Simpsons icons and found a .zip file loaded with icons - headshots of just about every Simpsons character there's ever been, including Itchy and Scratchy. I then got myself an icon editor so I could view the Itchy and Scratchy icons at a high zoom level, and used that as the pattern. I think it worked really well. I can't wait to finish mitten #2 so I can embroider the Itchy pattern.

Feeling relieved

It's been a little worrisome at work for the last few days. On Wednesday, I found out that the reason co-worker Rob hadn't come back to work yet after the birth of his son was that apparently the baby was sick. That's all the information we had. "Sick". Now, I don't care if "sick" is defined as just a little bit of a stuffed nose, if I had a two-week-old in non-perfect health, I would be Freaking. Out. So I've been quite worried about the baby. However, Rob is back to work today, which must mean that all is well. So far no reaction about the sweaters...I would imagine he has yet to even reach them underneath the pile of work that has built up on him over the last three weeks!

From the comments...

Milkshake asked about the pattern for the Carnival Coat. It comes from the book "Top Down for Toddlers" by Deb and Lynda Gemmell. I've done some Internet hunting, and unfortunately this is not a very mainstream book. Neither Indigo, Amazon, nor amazon.com carry it, and it's not available for borrowing at the Toronto Public Library (so I doubt any other city would carry it in their libraries). And while a few of the patterns are available for individual purchase over the Internet (such as the Florabel Sweater), the Carnival Coat is, alas, not one of them. So you will have to buy the entire book to get it. Fortunately, it is available from numerous online merchants, such as:

• Jimmy Beans Wool ($21.95US)
• Yarn Market ($21.80US)
• elann.com ($27.44Cdn)
• The Needle Arts Book Shop ($26.95Cdn)
• Karp Styles ($26.95Cdn)
• A Stitcher's Haven ($21.95US)
• Kinver Beach Knit Design ($26.95Cdn)

Those are the top Google searches, anyway. Hope that helps!

Also from the comments, loulou responded to my subway story from yesterday. She mentioned that she's had people move away from her to avoid injury from her needles. :) For myself, I would feel really bad if anyone felt they had to do this. I am super-careful about not jabbing people with my needles - as long as they are staying within the confines of their own seat, of course. If they're taking up more than their allotted space and encroaching on my seat, they're fair game. :) Usually I find that a few annoyingly repetitive nudges as I knock them with my arm or needle while knitting is enough to make them move their shoulder/elbow/arm/whatever back to their own side. Heaven forfend that I actually say anything, of course. I couldn't do that. Not the Canadian Way, doncha know. :)

Itchy-and-Scratchy mittens for baby MacDonald

The knitting of mitten #1 is complete. I've started doing the duplicate stitch embroidery on it for Scratchy. Scratchy, by the way, is the cat. Itchy is the mouse. I didn't know that before. I had to go to this fan site to figure it out. Ain't the Internet grand? Anyway, the mitten looks like this so far:

I know, it doesn't look like much. It's just the mouth, nose and the outline of the bottom of the face. It will be more recognizable as Scratchy as I keep going. The only snag is that I don't have a dark enough gray in my DMC embroidery floss arsenal collection to do the face. I'll have to go buy some. Oh hell, who am I kidding. I'm probably going to be able to mooch it off my dad. He has a bigger arsenal collection.

Carnival Coat for DD

The skirt gets ever longer. I refuse to take a picture, though - it's just a rectangle. Highly unexciting. At this point I'm over 40% done.

I am neither pregnant, nor elderly, nor disabled, but...

Apparently, just being a knitter can get me a seat on the subway. I got on the train to go home yesterday, as always, and it was crowded, as always. So I found myself a little spot where I could stand and keep my balance while knitting - again, as always. And the young man in front of me insisted on giving me his seat. He wasn't getting off the train, but he wanted me to sit because it isn't easy to stand and knit while the subway is going. How about that, eh? Just when I thought courtesy was dead in this city. I thanked him a lot, sat down, and felt guilty as sin the whole way home.

Be warned, today's photos are not exciting.

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

I have discovered possibly the most generous seller on eBay. Prior to my winning the auction of the pale apricot possibly-silk, the seller had sent me a sample and had advised me to bid on the cone anyway if I wanted it, and if I didn't like the stuff, she would be happy to refund my money. (!!!) Well, the sample arrived before I had a chance to pay her for the auction, and unfortunately the colour wasn't as I had hoped (the vagaries of monitor differences strike again) and it didn't really feel like silk (I'm thinking maybe cotton). So I emailed the seller again, asking her if I could take her up on her refund offer, and if so, I offered to pay her insertion fees, final value fees and the postage costs for the sample. She emailed me back saying no problem and told me not to worry about any fee reimbursement. What a totally nice person. Needless to say, I left her extremely positive feedback. If anyone's interested, she's Mad Angel Creations. Unfortunately, as nice as this transaction was, it means that I am still yarn-less for this project. I shall continue to hunt.

Itchy-and-Scratchy mittens for baby MacDonald

Mitten #1 is nearing completion:

I should point out an error in my last blog entry. I referred to the yarn I was using for this project as 'wool' - trust me, wool it ain't. :) It's baby-soft, 100% acrylic. I must stop using 'wool' as a synonym for 'yarn'!

Carnival Coat for DD

I have begun the skirt portion of the cardigan. It is entirely uninteresting, but here it is anyway:

This may well be the only picture you see of the skirt on its own. I'm having trouble seeing the point of displaying an increasingly long rectangle. :)

You know your blog has 'made it' when...

Snort.

Yesterday I got my first ever comments spam. Groan. Needless to say, I didn't let it hang around for long. Happily, it was replaced by some compliments from Roberta, who likes the Hillhead slipover I'm working on. I agree about the beautiful pattern, and the way the turquoise 'pops'. The moment I saw the picture in the book, I knew I wanted to make it. That's usually what defines a 'good' pattern for me - if the ol' fingers start itching to try it. :)

Itchy-and-Scratchy mittens for baby MacDonald

These got taken to work today. However, I spent most of the commute dozing (thanks to DD waking up in the middle of the night, due to a number of factors which DH and I agree were his fault, but I'm not bitter, honest), so only about a half inch more got done on the ribbing of mitten #1.

Carnival Coat for DD

The entire top of the cardigan is now finished! I am all ready to start the "skirt" part, which is knitted separately from the rest of the cardigan and then somehow grafted (perpendicularly) onto the yoke. It looks like this:

I suspect the sleeves are too long, but I will worry about whether I need to fix that once the whole cardigan is finished and I get a better perspective on how the sleeves measure up.

Violet, who is working on a lovely shawl called "Shoalwater" using variegated yarn in a gorgeously rich colourway (I'm a sucker for red), is a kindred spirit in the need for multiple WIPs. She gave me some lovely compliments in the comments. Thanks!

Itchy-and-Scratchy mittens for baby Macdonald

Started these last night! I'm having to work with fine fingering weight wool and 2.25mm needles in order to have enough stitches in the mittens to embroider the Itchy and Scratchy motifs, so the going is slow. At the moment I'm still doing the ribbing on the cuffs.

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

I won an eBay auction this morning for 15oz of what the seller thinks is 100% silk in a pale apricot colour. I'm hoping that when it arrives, I will find that it works perfectly for this project. I suspect I will have to double or triple the yarn to get gauge, but with any luck, the yarn will look beautiful in the texture pattern of the sweater.

Hillhead slipover for Grandpa

I made a mistake in my last blog entry - I said that each row at the moment is 330 stitches. I double-checked and found I was wrong, it's actually 352 stitches. So...quite a lot of time is required to finish one row. It doesn't help that my fair isle technique is extremely unsophistocated. I suspect seven-year-olds on the Shetland Isles have more efficient technique than I. As you can see from my Knitter's Geek Code (right-hand side of my blog pages), I throw my yarn with my right hand. Moreover, when I throw the yarn, I hold it between my thumb and middle finger. The idea of not having my thumb to secure the yarn to my working finger while I throw is incomprehensible. I've tried looping a strand over one finger and then just moving the finger over to wrap the strand around the working needle. Quite frankly, doing it this way sucks rocks. I find it incredibly hard, slow, and scary - like doing the trapeze without a safety net. Plus it gives me nothing that remotely resembles even tension. I need that thumb. So when I switch colours in fair isle, I have to drop the strand of the colour I'm working with, and then pick up the second colour. Needless to say, this is a colossal waste of time, even though I've gotten pretty speedy at it. I know I should practice the better ways of doing it. I have found videos online showing me how to knit with one strand in each hand, or the two strands on the same hand (just different fingers), I have books which illustrate this technique, I could probably sit down one day and really go at the practicing of one of these techniques and improve my speed. But...well, I'd rather be knitting. :) I'm also nervous that the new technique might alter my gauge. But probably the biggest reason I keep putting this off is how "scary" knitting feels without that thumb. I hate the idea of feeling awkward and unpracticed after years of feeling pretty darn savvy about how I knit. So...I keep putting it off. One day I will hold my nose and figure it all out. But today is not that day. And in the meantime, I have now done this much on the slipover:

Self-designed poncho for baby Ashthorn

Done! Blocked it yesterday - it's now drying.

Carnival Coat for DD

This is what the cardigan looked like before I left work this morning:

However, after monstrously bad traffic extended my morning commute by over an hour, the second sleeve grew by several inches.

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

Got quite a bit of work done on this over the weekend! I haven't finished a single set of the pattern yet, but it's definitely starting to emerge nicely. It now looks like this:

Naughty and proud of it

You will notice a distinct lack of photographs in today's blog. This is not because no knitting got done since yesterday's entry. (Perish the thought.) It is because last night was my wedding anniversary, and my hubby and I forewent our usual evening past-times (which for me includes taking pictures of knitting) for - well - an extended amount of time in which to engage in other pursuits. So sue me. I regret nothing.

Last night I dreamed of my grandfather. Specifically, I dreamed that he was back. None of my family members could understand how this happened (we were all in the dream), but there he was. The weird part is how real it all felt - it seemed like he was really and truly there. The way he talked, the stories he told, the feeling of his presence - the whole thing, as he was before he got sick. It was marvellous. Wow, I miss him. At any rate, I decided this was a sign - I took his slipover on the commute today so I could continue knitting it.

Hillhead slipover for Grandpa

Two more rows got done this morning on the commute. I know that doesn't sound like a whole lot, but there was a lot of untangling that had to be done, too. Plus, each row is 330 stitches - not exactly a fast knit. But I love the way the pattern pops more and more with each row I finish.

Carnival Coat for DD

Sleeve #1 is almost finished - I've got about five rows left on the cuff, which is done in garter stitch with the pink-and-blue yarn.

Blanket for baby Gelman

I got a few more rows done on this while DH was preparing supper last night. Nothing to write home about. (But enough to blog about, obviously.)

It's a miniscule world

So I get on the subway this morning and lo and behold, there's a woman crocheting in a seat next to where I was planning to stand. Neat! Then it dawns on me...wait a minute...that's my mom! We figured, what are the odds? Anyway, we had a lovely little ess-n'-bee all the way downtown. Most of the conversation revolved around the wondrous advancements of my kid. :)

In blog news, here's an incredible fact, courtesy of my stats tracking: I am the number one hit on Yahoo! Search for "lewiscraft AND yarn winder" and for "colourway wool soakers". Weird, eh? Actually, I do feel a little bad for the first searcher, who was probably trying to find out if you could buy yarn winders at Lewiscraft. If it helps any, I've never seen' em there. Yarn winders aren't mainstream enough for Lewiscraft, I think. I'd go to your LYS, or order one online - there are even Canadian online vendors who carry them, such as YarnForward and elann.com.

And today is my 4th wedding anniversary. I know this isn't knitting-related information, but, ya know, watch me not care. :) My husband is very possibly the world's sweetest man and even though Life is rough for our family right now, I can honestly say that there is nowhere else I would rather be than in the home we build together.

And now for something less cloying...

Cape Cod sweater for MIL

I've started milling around on eBay lately for the yarn for this project. I know I originally wanted to do this in lilac, but now I'm thinking maybe that wouldn't look so hot on my MIL. I'm instead leaning towards something creamy. There are a few very promising-looking auctions at the moment, so we shall see how it goes.

Carnival Coat for DD

Raglan shaping is complete, and I now have a few inches done on sleeve #1. Unfortunately, in all the nice chatting with my mom this morning I forgot to start decreasing on the latest row, so at lunch I'll have to tink a bit and redo. My mistake is only 23 stitches back, not a big deal. Here's what it looked like this morning before I left the house:

Blanket for baby Gelman

Held my nose and started another sample hexagon last night, with 7mm needles. So far it's very, well, awkward. Also, I seem to have a bit of laddering going on on one side. Bleagh. But I'll keep going and see how the whole thing turns out. So far it doesn't look so great, but then again, none of the hexagons have looked terribly impressive this early in the game:

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

In hunting around for some knitting stuff last night, I happened once again to touch the cone of alpaca yarn. A trancelike state was immediately achieved. My husband, watching me at the time, thought I'd hurt myself or something. Then he realised I was merely communing with alpaca. I believe eyes were rolled. But then about five minutes later he touched the stuff and said, "Hey! This is really soft..." and started stroking it reverently. I HAVE CONVERTED HIM. Muahahahaha.

5 months till Harry Potter!

Colleen left a comment to say that she loves the argyle sweater. Thank you very much! You should enjoy today's pictures, then (I finished it). Alas, I will not be keeping it long after DD outgrows it, because it is actually destined for one of my co-workers. I know, I know, it's hard to tell exactly which of my WIPs is for whom. :) This is entirely my fault. I've lost track of the number of baby sweaters and cardigans I'm working on right now. Part of the purpose of this blog is to keep track of that stuff for me so my brain doesn't have to. Although, I must admit, DD would probably look smashing in it. (I am biased, though - I think she would look smashing in just about everything.) I'm sure my co-worker will really like it. And one of these days I plan to write up the instructions for the argyle cardigan and post them here so others can make it, if they wanna.

Carnival Coat for DD

Got a bit of work done on this last night, but not enough to merit a photograph before I left home this morning. But by the time I got off the subway, I was only about 4 rows away from the end of the raglan shaping. So it's coming along nicely.

United Way argyle cardigan for Jack Rosatelli

DONE! Yeehaw! Finished weaving in all the ends last night, and sewing on the buttons.


I should add that the photos of the completed cardigan were taken before it fell out of my bag this morning into dirty road slush. Yes, you read that right. Disgusting, dirty road slush. How bad do I feel? Pretty damn bad. Fortunately, only a few parts of the cardigan here and there at the back made contact with the slush, and I didn't give the slush enough time to really "sink in", so it didn't look too horribly bad, just wet. But I'm still kicking myself over it. Hard. (I am also hoping for wonderful, glorious things to happen to the lovely woman behind me who actually noticed that it had fallen out of my bag, without whom I would be frantically pawing through my bag right now in a panic, wondering where the damn cardigan was). Anyway, this morning when I came into work, I folded it nicely and placed it on my co-worker's chair. I will definitely be warning him to wash the cardigan, and apologizing profusely for my clumsiness. Doh.

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

Work continues. Here's an updated photo:

Big Brother redux

I forgot to mention yesterday that I added another site stats monitoring system to my blog: SiteMeter. The stats you get are less detailed than StatCounter, but the advantage I do get is that I'm not limited to a log of just the last 100 users. So I figured, what the hey, I'll use both.

My mother told me last night that I should be keeping track of what I spend on all this knitting I do. She did not, however, come up with a satisfactory answer as to why I should be doing this. My mother, I should point out, seems to constantly be nervous that my husband and I spend too much. She even complains every Christmas that we shouldn't be giving so many gifts, regardless of my assurances that we have a non-extravagant, set-in-stone Christmas budget which does not affect our ability to pay for food, shelter, clothing, or DD's education savings. :) Of course she is more nervous now that we are a single-income household, but still - the constant lack of confidence in my money-management skills is starting to get wearing. One of these days I'm going to sit her down with our anal retentive budget spreadsheet as proof that I know what I'm doing.

Sorry, I guess that was quite rant-like. My mom is an awesome, awesome lady, but every now and then...well, I guess most people are like that with their parents. Naturally, my feathers ruffle more when the value of my knitting is called into question - them's fighting words! :)

NEW - Magic Carpet sweater for DD

Haven't I already got enough projects on my plate, you ask? Why yes, yes I do. I freely admit this. However, I also freely admit that I am undaunted by this volume of projects, and that this volume has no restraining effect whatsoever on my ability to be inspired to do more. So nyah. "Magic Carpet" is a sweater pattern which appears in Alice and Jade Starmore's The Children's Collection book. It is an absolutely gorgeous pattern - it's got animals on it, plus some funky designs on the borders, all in an Africany/Middle-Easterny style, and I want to make it for my kid. However, there's no hurry. I actually prefer the pattern as written for the 4-5 year or 6-7 year sizes, so this will probably be a project for 2007 or later. (Yes, I do plan that far ahead. Yes, I am that anal. Yes, the fact that I have a detailed budget spreadsheet should have given that away.)

Carnival Coat for DD

I finally went into the pattern book and took note of what the cardigan pattern is actually called: "Carnival Coat". Yesterday I got a lot of work done on this. The collar is now finished and a fair bit of work has been done on the body:

I avoided folding the collar over for this photo so as not to obscure how much work I've done on the body. This pattern is pretty unexciting, but it does have a few good things going for it. Firstly, as I mentioned yesterday, it is interesting to be knitting from the top down. And secondly, the yarn really is lovely. It feels lovely and it looks lovely - I'm pretty jazzed on all the tweediness.

United Way cardigan for Jack Rosatelli

Wove in more ends this morning in the car. I'm starting to see a distinct improvement in the tangle on the inside of the cardigan.

Spanish Knight for Mom

Took this with me to work today, and got a few more rows done on my subway ride. The cables are now discernable and it's looking very cool indeed.

Persian Tiles afghan for master bedroom

I've been considering axing this project lately. Now that we have a comforter on our bed, DH is no longer complaining about how cold he is at night (in fact, quite the opposite - he regularly throws off the bedspread on his half to avoid sweating buckets). So we no longer really need an afghan. I'm a bit reluctant to frog this because I've spent so much time on it already, and it is a very kickass pattern. However, it would free me of some WIP guilt, and would let me do my Persian tiles shawl project for my grandma without feeling, "Oh lord, not this pattern again, will it ever end?" :) It will probably take me a few weeks to work up the courage to really be okay with cancelling this project. I suspect that my husband, on the other hand, will never let me hear the end of it.

Patons sweater for Jack Rosatelli

I brought this to work yesterday along with a gift bag and some tissue paper. I wrapped it and put it on his desk next to the MAMMOTH gift basket that our department bought for him. So it is now officially "given" and off my plate. Hooray!

What a tangled web of WIPs I knit

I think I alarmed my husband this morning by suddenly uttering, "Crap!" I had realised that my plan to bring my Spanish Knight project to work today was not going to fly, since we're going to my mom's for dinner tonight and working on her Christmas gift in front of her is not the world's best idea. So I had to think of something else to bring.

(Sorry, I know that's not the most rivetting (sp?) knitting-related story you've ever heard, but it's the only one I have for today. I'm sure something more exciting will come along eventually.)

Cardigan for DD

Brought this to work today. I finished the collar and have started on the body. Doing a raglan sweater top-down is a bit interesting. Not immensely interesting, but still, better than a kick in the pants.

United Way cardigan for Jack Rosatelli

The cardigan now looks like this:

But don't get too excited. The inside still looks like this:

Have I ever mentioned how much I despise sewing in ends? I've worked endlessly (it seems, and no pun intended) on this already and I'm still only about halfway done. I did do a bit of weaving-in-as-I-go when I was knitting the thing, but I got lazy and stopped. Turns out that was an incredibly dumbass thing to do. Oh, well. Stay tuned, because I'm going to be doing a dance of triumph when all the ends are tucked in.

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

Got a bit more done on this over the weekend. Bottom edging is done, and the cabling has (albeit barely) started. It now looks like this:

Quivering with antici...pation

2005 is shaping up to be the Year of Cool Book Releases. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is coming out in July, the Yarn Harlot's book is coming out in March...I couldn't take it anymore. I finally broke down and pre-ordered them both. However, Cruel Fate decided to step in. Both Chapters/Indigo and amazon.ca have this nifty deal where you get free shipping on orders of $39 or more. I believe at both sites, my total for pre-ordering these two books came to $38.55. ARGH! (Damn you, online bookseller discount wars, damn you.) So I caved into their fiendish marketing tactic and bought something else. It will be my husband's anniversary present. But I will probably steal it from him and read it first. (My guilt over this is minor - it's an anniversary gift, ergo it should be for both of us. Yes? Yes. Shut up, the logic works.)

And so now my husband will have to live with a wired-for-book-delivery woman for the next month while I go nuts waiting for the knitting book pre-order to come through.

United Way argyle cardigan for Jack Rosatelli

I have even more time to finish this than I thought - Rob is coming back to work the week after next instead of Monday as I assumed he would. However, I'm still hoping to get it off my plate pronto. I'm now on the neck shaping of the left front:

I decided not to bring it with me to work today, because I would probably get to starting the sleeves, and I couldn't be bothered this morning to hunt for a 4mm circular needle. But I expect much progress will be made this weekend.

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

Brought this to work today. I've gotten several rows done so far this morning, and I've been making sure all along that I have the correct number of stitches.

Back into the swing of things

Well, I'm back. It's been a sad week so far. My grandfather was an absolutely wonderful man. One of those people who never seems to have a hard word to say about anyone. One of those people who makes friends everywhere he goes, who loves all his family so deeply and cherishes every moment he spends with them. A true gentleman. And so, even though it is not a tragedy when a man who has lived a full, wonderful and well-loved life dies at the long-lived age of almost 91, it feels like a tragedy to me. And judging from the reactions of my family, I ain't the only one who feels this way. However, I'm moving on. It doesn't hurt that I have this wonderful little girl at home who appears to be made primarily of giggles. :)

Thank you Aven, for your very kind words of sympathy.

Knitting, however, has not stopped.

Big Brother is watching you

Last Thursday, I added stats to my blog. I was interested in seeing just how many people were showing up here and where they were linking from, so I signed up with StatCounter. This service provides really nifty information, although they can only archive data from the last 100 visitors. However, I'm only getting 100 visitors every several days, so this is not so much of a problem. In fact, having conclusive proof that I do get visitors is very cool indeed. Hello, visitors! :) Welcome, welcome.

Back to knitting

In the comments, Aven echoed my sentiment about my camcorder's still-image-taking capabilities. "Yay for pictures!" indeed! Unfortunately, I don't have too many new photos today. I do have more pictures sitting in my camcorder than are posted here today, but I haven't had the time to transfer them over to my computer. Stay tuned.

In other commenting news, you coulda knocked me over with a feather - I got a comment from Stephanie, the Yarn Harlot herself, who loves the ribbing on my grandfather's slipover. Coolness! As I've mentioned before, I think Stephanie writes a truly kick-heinie blog, so for her to have read mine and liked one of my projects was a fine moment indeed. Actually, I'm kinda embarrassed to admit that for a few nanoseconds I came over all sycophantly with the hysterical screaming a la Beatles fans (inside my head, of course...don't want to wake the baby or scare the beejeezus out of the husband) and the "Omigawd the YARN HARLOT read MY blog I'm soooo not worthy, blah blah blah", etc., before my sense of reality and proportion came back. Ahem. I'm fine now.

Hillhead slipover for Grandpa

I got this far before I put the knitting down and went over to my grandfather's bed to be with him as he breathed his last:

Doesn't it look awesome? I love this pattern. The day before he died he was unable to talk and almost complete immobile, but you could see in his eyes that someone was still there. So, I told him about the slipover. I showed him the picture from the book of the completed garment. I showed him how much I'd done so far. His eyes went really big. I think he was very impressed. And I think he really liked it. It is really too bad I couldn't have finished it sooner. It would have been an honour for me if he could have been buried in it - it was a perfect match for his suit. However, I can only do so much. Sadly, his death has really taken the mickey out of me for wanting to continue the slipover right now, but I'm sure I'll get back to it since it's such a damn good knit. Plus, my uncle would also look great in the finished product, and he's been so awesome taking care of my grandparents this whole time - perhaps having this slipover would be a comfort to him.

Self-designed poncho for baby Ashthorn

Knitting is complete! The poncho is done and the ends have been woven in. I just have to block it. It looks quite good.

United Way argyle cardigan for Jack Rosatelli

Wonderful news - the baby was born on the 7th. With any luck, I will have the cardigan completed by the time my co-worker gets back to work. (This is my hope, anyway.) Lots of work has been done on this - the back and right front are completed. I'm now about to start working on the left front.

Secret Garden cardigan for Madison

No progress, but I did take a picture. I know I'm just going to frog this and re-start the thing in a bigger size, but I wanted to record how lovely it is before I did that:

Don't expect too much

My grandfather died on Saturday. Obviously, I'm very sad.

I'm still knitting...but it will probably be some days before I have the time or inclination to continue blogging.

Stay tuned...

I don't think things are getting out of hand with this photo-taking...yet.

Took some more shots! (Surprise.) Some of the new photos are of in-progress stuff, but I've also got some more completed pieces: Short-rib hooded jacket, Little Boy Blue and Heart-Warmer sweater. In fact, taking pictures of the sweater and "Little Boy Blue" set reminded me that I had forgotten to include them in my list of completed projects, so they're now there. Enjoy.

Hillhead slipover for Grandpa

Even though I'm still on the bottom ribbing, it's really coming along (hey, give me a break, there are 328 stitches per row, each one takes a while). Here's the latest pic, which was taken last night. I've since done about three more rows.

Laurel Crib Counterpane for baby Gelman

No progress, but I do have a picture of my first hexagon attempt:

Stunningly good discovery

It dawned on me...doesn't our digital camcorder have the capacity to take still images? With excited hope, I checked the manual.

Why yes, yes, it does.

Is there any chance that the teeny 8MB memory card that the camcorder came with has some space on it to store some photos? Not daring to believe this might be the case, I checked.

Why yes, yes, it does.

Oh. My. Gawd.

I don't NEED a digital camera to take in-progress shots of my knitting!!! Nor do I need to wait for visits to my mom to steal the use of her digital camera! (To say nothing of having to lug my projects over there to be photographed.) I CAN DO IT RIGHT HERE AT HOME.

To think...all this time my blog has been pathetically photo-poor. Now it can be photo-rich!!!

Now granted, the quality of the shots is no great shakes. But it is definitely better than a slap on the belly with a wet fish, and it is with immense pride that I present several new photographs of various WIPs for your viewing interest.

Hillhead slipover for Grandpa

I had a terrible moment yesterday afternoon about four rows in, when I believed that I had, despite doing my very best to make sure I hadn't, twisted the cast-on when I joined the ends in the round. After further investigating, I realised I had done it properly after all and resumed breathing. When the following picture was taken, I was working on row six, and was on my third colour combination. (You can't tell from the photo, but it's true.) Since this photo was taken I've done several more rows. It looks very cool.

Cardigan for DD

No progress, just a photo:

Poncho for moi

No progress, just a photo - aren't the colours gorgeous?

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

No progress, just a closeup photo:

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

No progress, just a photo:

Persian Tiles afghan for master bedroom

No progress, just a photo. Isn't the pattern awesome?

Elizabeth I sweater for moi

No progress, just a close-up photo:

Hillhead slipover for Grandpa

The yarn is here! The yarn is here! Lovely stuff. Just one concern, other than a niggling worry that I might not have enough - one of the colours which the pattern calls for is white. But the colour code of Jamieson & Smith wool which was specified in the pattern is actually a cream. I'm not sure if this will end up looking right. Obviously this is the fault of the book, not the yarn company, which has indeed sent me a lovely product. I suppose I could always go back and ask them to send me a skein of white instead if it ends up looking wrong. But in the meantime, I cast on all 328 stitches for the bottom ribbing last night, and got some more done this morning on the commute. There's no white in the ribbing, so I don't have to worry about my cream dilemma until I get to the actual fair isle pattern several inches from now. Nice yarn to work with so far. I'm enjoying myself!

United Way argyle cardigan for baby Rosatelli

Due to the large amount of untangling that needed to be done last night, not much more actual knitting has been done on this project since my last journal entry, but I have begun to split up the cardigan for the armholes, and am now working on the right front. I also have a picture, sorry about the out-of-focusness: