WhiteStar

The New Black

For the third time in three months "Where do you keep your cable needle on rows you don't cable" is the hot topic of discussion on one of the lists I'm a member of.

The THIRD time. In TWO months.

It will soon morph into "Do you even use a cable needle?"

The THIRD time. In TWO months.

It's apparently the 2006 version of "Can I take knitting needles on an airplane?"

Craving....

Neopolitan candy.

Why?

Outta Here

Babe, Max, Ilsa and I leave for the big 4 day dog show in Denver in about 3 hours. Thank God. Work has totally sucked the past three days and the only thing keeping me going has been knowing that I don't have to work a full 5 day week for the next 4 weeks!

Enjoy the Process!

Anne at 11:58 AM

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Pony-Up

A couple years ago I bought myself a ceramic horse figurine just because I really liked it. I'd pass it in a shop window everytime I went to one of my local yarn stores. One day it was missing from the window... so I went in and discovered it had simply been moved. I bought it on the spot. I am by no means a "horse person", but I just really liked it.

I later found out that it was one in a series called The Trail of Painted Ponies. My husband really got into the ponies, he knows which ones are retired, which ones are new, how much they are worth, etc. Me, I just think they are pretty.

Last night he surprised me with this one:

It is so beautiful in real life it took my breath away when I opened it.

Here's a detail of the wing:

Tuesday Morning Round-Up

First up this morning is FLAK. It's not exactly the V-neck cardigan I'd planned to make.

I started to worry that my neck opening, at 8 inches across, was going to be too big. I figured the easiest way to remedy that was to make a crew neck pullover that can have a nice wide neck ribbing like so many of Alice Starmore's designs incorporate.

Can you see the dog hairs knitted in there?

Next is Pi @ Sunrise. Still a nice, enjoyable, although slightly boring, knit. The Crazy Monkey yarn makes it a real pleasure to work on.

It is becoming painfully obvious that I will be increasing beyond the 576 stitches that I thought would be the total circumference.

Last but not least is Jaywalker:

I'd say I'm about halfway thru the cuffs. I try to do a few rows a day, it's just that I am so much more fascinated by the FLAK, and Pi @ Sunrise is really perfect knitting to watch the Olympics with.

Yes, poor Violets by the River and the Victorian Shawl were ignored AGAIN this week. I really need to admit I'm not going to make the Victorian Shawl and just rip it out.

The Numbers

865 balls, skeins or cones. 169,615 yards. So far.

The Young Prince

Yes, he knows how cute he is.

Enjoy the Process!

Anne at 11:12 AM

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It Is With Sadness (Yes! Really!) I Report....

..... that Am-Kamin has been removed from my list of Works in Progress.

Why? you ask?

Because of my pledge to Buy No Yarn.

I actualy settled down this weekend and did some serious swatching. And I realized that it NEEDS to be made out of a smooth yarn. The yarns I was swatching with had too much of their own personality. The Harris DK was very pretty and the fabric was "pleasing" but in the end it was too much work (in some cases, cabling on every row, not every right side row, EVERY ROW) for too little result. It just didn't have the stitch defintion. Might as well have been a nice knit-purl brocade pattern for the impact it carried.

Ditto for the Rowan Magpie. Not too mention it was way too dark as well.

And since I can't buy any new yarn this year, well, looks like Am Kamin is on hold until next year. Unless my husband takes the hint and buys me yarn for my birthday!

Isn't it bizarre that with all the yarn I have (100,000 yards and counting) I have virtually NO large quantities of solid, smooth, worsted weight yarn. I do have lots of single, double and triple balls, but for the most part I'm just not a solid color sweater kind of girl.

Enjoy the Process!

Anne at 7:50 AM

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85,559

I recently mentioned I had purchased HanDBase for my PDA and desktop so I could create an inventory of my yarn, projects and knitting needles. I have really enjoyed playing around with it, getting my databases created and starting to enter information in it.

So far I have entered some of the yarn laying around my office, the yarn in my "lace box" (which is not all my lace yarn) and all my Lorna's Laces sock yarn as well as most of my Koigu. I'm know it's less than 10% of my total yarn stash, maybe closer to 5%, probably less.

So far the total is 289 balls, skeins or cones of yarn. 85,559 yards.

I'm scared.

Anne at 10:29 AM

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Deja Vu All Over Again

Does this sock pattern look familiar?

How about this one?

I mentioned in my last post that I was finally jumping on the bandwagon and making a pair of Jaywalkers. That's the picture of the sock-in-progress above.

As soon as I started knitting them I realized I'd been been here before. The picture at the top of the page is of a pair of socks I made about 4 years ago using a FiberTrends pattern called Peak Experience. Just goes to prove everything old is new again. Instead of being behind the curve with the Jaywalker pattern I was actually way out in front!

Tuesday Morning Roundup

Janet released Part 5 of the FLAK pattern yesterday, and I have progressed as far as picking up the stitches for one side of the front and knitting a few rows. Now it's decision time. Crew neck or v-neck????

Next up.. the Angora Fingerless mitts are complete! I had a nice note from Louisa Harding yesterday, there was indeed an slight error in the directions for the "medium flower". Once I knew what the correction was, I whipped the flowers out in no time and got them on the mitts.

Another (and larger) picture here.

Sliding on down our list of projects in progress we slide right on by Violets by the River, Am Kamin and the Victorian Lace Shawl which were all ignored this week.

The Pi @ Sunrise Shawl continues on.

I so enjoy the Crazy Monkey Lace yarn I'm using on this. 588 stitches per round now so easily visible progress is slowing down quite a bit. I've only used about 25% of the yarn so far so I still have a long way to go. In the directions in Knitter's Almanac, Elizabeth Zimmerman states that the shawl will probably be "big enough" long before you increase to over 1176 stitches.

Maybe if done with heavier yarn on size 10 needles, but not when worked in laceweight yarn on size 6 needles. I'll be hitting that increase round with still no clear end in sight!

Comments

I've been lax in responding to comments so it's catch up time!

Way long time ago Maus asked if the picture of the moon that I posted was taken with a digital camera.

Yup. Took it with my little Sony, the one in the commercial with Aerosmith :) It has a "night" setting that turns the flash off and uses a very slow shutter speed, that's the reason for slight blurriness.

Caroline asked where to find the toe I used on the Blueberry Socks.

It's the Priscilla Gibson-Roberts short row toe/heel which can be found in her book Simple Socks and also in a pattern she did for Interweave Knits a few years ago called (I think) Priscilla's Dream Socks.

Saleknitter asked what cable I substituted for the "wave cable?" in the Flak?

I didn't substitute anything! The wave cable is right there... although I did switch the positions of the wave cable and the baby honey comb.

Ilsa Says:

Don't you even THINK about waking me up!

Anne at 7:45 AM

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Fate? Or Was it Just Max?

Remember how I just was not thrilled with the finished Pineapple Jacket? And how I was trying to decide if I should hang on to it or give it away? Sometimes fate decides things for you. Or maybe it was just Max being a nine month old puppy.

I got home this afternoon and discovered the Pineapple Jacket which had been carefully and neatly folded and placed atop a box which was on Max's crate had slid off and onto his crate.

You know what's coming right?

In the process of eating 7 of the 9 buttons Max managed to chew holes all along the front edge. And a hole in the bottom ribbing. And one on each sleeve.

I really couldn't be too mad at him. After all, *I* left it in a really stupid place.

sigh.

Finished!

The Blueberry Socks are done and I'm really pleased with them. Plain and simple is sometimes just what's needed.

Almost Finished!

Just need to weave in the ends and add the trim and the Angora Fingerless Mitts will be done too! Don't hold your breath though.. I think there is a mistake in the directions for the trim so I've emailed Louisa Harding and am impatiently waiting to hear back. It's been three days already....

Meanwhile...

As usual, I'm behind the curve and have only just now finally started a pair of Jaywalkers. Only have two rows of ribbing done so they are not worth a picture yet.

I also have a non-knitting project that's been sucking up my time. I had been trying to decide if I wanted to buy e-Knit Cards or Knitable for my PDA... and after long and overly careful consideration, I decided both were over priced and underfeatured. So I bought HanDBase and am creating my own inventory. Much more powerful and I can tailor it for exactly what I want to keep track of.

Anne at 9:55 AM

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Wordcloud

Make yours here.

Anne at 2:31 PM