Cottage46 Knitter

Score!

Finished SB just under the wire with a little less than 30 minutes to spare.  And got to use my new wooly board to boot.
Pattern: St. Brigid by Alice Starmore
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers
Needles: US 5
Mods: Changed the sleeves from drop shoulder (please, I'm schlumpy enough without drop shoulders) to set in, the first time I've attempted such a maneuver.  The collar may be a little large; if it is I'll add some ribbing above the braid.  All in all, I"m quite pleased.

Because I'm a knitting fiend, I'll be getting back to my FLS when I'm done posting this.  Fall projects are swirling in my brain.  Must finish the moose.  I have a few rows of Ingeborg on the needles from before I set her aside to do the moose.  I'd like to knit myself a v-neck FLAK this winter.  Colorwork or cables?  Cables or colorwork?

Thanks for all your good thoughts on the overload of iron in my blood.  I've calmed down considerably.  I'll find out what the deal is tomorrow.

I think I'm going to win a medal!

Almost done!  Both set in sleeves fit perfectly on the first try.  The Ravelympic gods must be smiling on me. 

I have the braid done for one sleeve.  Only about 1000 more miles of braid to go. 

There was a snowy egret hanging out here last week.  We don't see those very often. 

Our wildflowers are finally blooming.  We got them planted late because of the willow tree that we had to cut down and burn.  Glad to see blooms so it doesn't look like weeds.

Short post today.  I'm a little freaked about some blood work I had done this week.  I've taken an iron supplement for several years since I had a bad case of colitis-related anemia.  I questioned my (former) GI about how much I should take and for how long.  He assured me that he had many patients who took much more than I was taking and I should just keep taking it.  A couple of times I've stopped taking it but soon felt fatigued and started the supplement again. 

Well, one of the iron-related blood counts was WAY over where it should be this week.  As in it should be around 15 and mine was around 750.  Fabulous.  So I quickly googled "too much iron" and found that possible problems are numerous.  The two that stood out for me were heart and liver failure.  So I'm going in tomorrow for some more blood work.  Hopefully this will turn out to be no biggie.  Rest assured, I am knitting on through all crises. 

Ravelympic progress & VK speaks

St. Brigid's sleeves are progressing from the bottom up. Don't know why they look so purple.  The second picture is more true to color.

This (below) is my fourth attempt at going from the top.  I kept getting this lumpiness above the side cables.  I tried picking up more stitches around the armhole, I tried using more stitches as the center starting stitches, etc.  I finally decided that shaping the sleeve cap from the bottom was worth a try.  Janet Szabo's Aran Sweater Design has a nice discussion of that.  I haven't decided whether to shape both caps together so they are identical, or just do one at a time since there may be ripping back involved. 

I'm enjoying the knitters' husband interviews that I've read.  Here's Kevin's take on my knitting. 

Me: What is your favorite thing about my knitting?

VK: The joy that you derive from what you're creating. 

Me: What is your least favorite thing about my knitting?

VK: Hearing how much Alice Starmore books cost, and the fact that my moose sweater is not done yet.  (Always the friggin' moose!)

Me: What is something I have knitted that you recall as good?

VK: Everything that you've ever knitted is absolutely beautiful.

Me: Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?

VK: No.

Me: Do you have a stash of any kind?

VK: Yes, I stash fly fishing reels.

Me: Have I ever embarrassed you, knitting in public?

VK: No.

Me: Do you know my favorite kind of yarn?

VK: Dale of Norway  (I've only used Dale of Norway once.  Guess which project it was.  Yes, the moose.)

Me: Can you name another blog?

VK: No.  I don't even know the name of this one.

Me: Do you mind my wanting to stop at knit shops wherever we go?

VK: Nope.  I just bring a book.

Me: Do you understand the importance of a swatch?

VK: Yes, I do.

Me: Do you read Cottage46 Knitter?

VK: Yes, I do.

Me: Have you ever left a comment?

VK: Not yet.

Me: Do you think the house would be cleaner if I didn't knit?

VK: No (chuckle)  (The man did know me before I was a knitter.  Grad school was my excuse then for not cleaning.)

Me: Anything you'd like to add?

VK: I think you're an elegant knitter, and I'm very happy that you knit.

What a keeper. 

I'm thoroughly enjoying the Olympics.  I do wish NBC would refrain from making every event in every sport the most dramatic/important/crucial EVER.  It's exciting enough without all the breathless hype. 

Wool sweater progress in August

There is progress to show on St. Brigid.  I'm knitting the saddles now which I'm going to attach and then knit the sleeves from the top.  I love knitting this project.  It better not turn out badly.

Also made some progress on the February Lady sweater.  What a wonderfully mindless pattern.  And the heathery green yarn is very soothing.  I bought some wonderful wooden buttons for it, but I forgot to photograph them and now the batteries in the camera are dead. 

Not much going on here besides knitting.  I'm waiting for more pages on an indexing project, and the library's budget paperwork for 2009 is done.  I searched high and low for a Bonnie Raitt CD that I wanted to put on my ipod tonight.  Finally found it!  But the CD isn't in the case.  Bugger.  How does a thing like that happen?

Unimpressive progress

I'm plugging along on St. Brigid's front.  Notice the nicely (correctly) mirrored side cables.  I'm about half a repeat from beginning the armhole shaping.  Finishing SB is going to be my Knitting Olympics project. 

I've also been working on Cabaret Raglan from the Summer 2004 Interweave Knits.  I'm just getting to the lace pattern on the bodice, so the pictures are pretty stockinettey.  But hey, it's not purple!
The back:    The front: 

We had a nice 4th of July weekend.  We worked on cleaning out the junk/sewing room and the shed (which was exhausting BTW), in part to make room for this:

It's a Singer Model 99 from 1928.  It's electric but I'm planning a motorectomy and a hand crank conversion operation.  And a refinish for the bent wood case. 

I have a couple of sewing projects nearly ready to show off.  I'll wait until next time though since I just accidently posted this.  Aaargh!

How long have I been knitting swatches?

I started the TKGA Master Hand Knitter Level 1 adventure in 2004.  Yes, FOUR years ago.  I've worked on it off and on since then.  Somewhere in the middle they changed the program so I basically started over.  I finally got serious and knit a bunch of swatches last weekend.  One more swatch to go, a hat and some written stuff and I'll be sending it off either this month or next (depending, of course, on my current indexing project).  I've learned a lot!  Of course when I started I'd only been knitting about 18 months so that's to be expected.

I finished the back of St. Brigid.  About halfway up I realized that I wasn't doing the right &^%%^& chart for one of the cables so my side cables aren't mirrored.  CarrieK had the unfortunate experience of emailing me during my meltdown.  Being the good woman that she is, she talked me down and helped me to rationalize, I mean realize, that it's the back and who's gonna notice.  I have been very careful to do it correctly on the front. 

I often say at the beginning of project that it's my favorite project EVER.  This usually fades pretty quickly.  But here I am at nearly the halfway point and St. Brigid is still my favorite project EVER. 

I'm heading to knitting camp this weekend.  I'll be taking classes from Lorna Misner, originator of Lorna's Laces.  Speaking of which, I better get my homework knit up. 

I've always known that Zoey is the coolest, but this just proves it.  I'll let you just guess how happy she was at this moment. 

I do love spring

Because we get to see the heron.  Here he is sitting on the end of our dock.  This could be one of many herons of various genders, but we choose to think it's just one and he's a guy.



And we have the obligatory flower shots.  Note that there is only one overwhelmingly purple shot.  Personal growth, I say.



I got to spend the entire day at a budget workshop today.  Oy.  These things generally cover the same thing from year to year.  But we had a lot of legislative changes this year, so I went.  It's broadcast over the web so while you can hear the speaker, you can only see the power point presentation on the screen.  The exact same one I have printed out right in front of me.  We also got to hear lots of loud paper russling (sp?) in the microphone.  Sheer bliss, let me tell you. 

The upshot however is hours of nearly uninterrupted knitting time.  I had about half an inch of this sock started last night.  The rest I did today during the workshop.  On #0s.



Progress on St. Brigid continues.  It goes very smoothly once the first repeat is under your belt.  I have decided to change it to have set in sleeves.  I've never done anything remotely like this, so prayers would be appreciated.  I had seen a couple with set in sleeves on Ravelry so I PMed Larisa (whose St. Brigid is gorgeous) and she sent me a link to a wonderful series of Jenna Wilson articles on Knitty about set in sleeves. 



And Sitcom Chic #2 is done except for blocking and the cool spiral clasp that I'm waiting for.  This one doesn't fit quite as well as the first one.  Something is a little different about the neckline.  But I still like it.  I hope the clasp comes soon.  It's going to be too hot to wear it soon.



I watched the PBS documentary about FDR over Memorial Day weekend.  I just love that guy.  He's always been my favorite president, faults and all. There were wonderful video shots of him laughing and playing with kids in the pool at Warm Springs.  And one 4-second shot of the "walk" that he developed with braces on his legs and holding the arm of one of his sons.  To think that if his paralysis would have been known he wouldn't have been elected.  But it was the experience of polio that made him the perfect president to lead the country through the Depression and WWII. 

Then I happened to watch the Waltons episode that had FDR's death.  At the end, the Waltons all go to Charlottesville before dawn to watch the train carrying FDR's body back to Washington go by.  His casket was in the last car, the only car lit, with four soldiers standing guard around the casket. 

I don't know what my point is here other than that they just don't make presidents like they used to.

New WIPs and St. Brigid yarn

Sitcom Chic #2 is coming along nicely.  I have one sleeve done and the other one is about halfway.  I ordered a sweater clasp for it instead of a button, but it hasn't arrived yet.

I went on a little cast on binge at knitting group.  First, Lupine Lace socks from Fiber Trends in ONline Supersocke cotton.

And then Branching Out from Knitty in Dream in Color Smooshy.

I haven't touched either project since then.

My St. Brigid yarn arrived!  It's Cascade 220 Heathers, Colorway 9463.  It's a little less pinkish than shown in the picture.  More burgandy.

Although it was in the house all last weekend, I did not touch it until my Economics index was done.  So I wound all 10 hanks last night and Actually. Swatched.  Got gauge with #5s and happily cast on, carefully placing my stitch markers between cable sections.  On the first row I realized that there 2 sections where I hadn't cast on enough stitches. Duh. So I ripped it out and will try again tonight.  Evidently it takes at least 2 tries for a 5-years-of-knitting-experience knitter to cast on the right ^&$*!%& number of stitches.

I also picked up another hank of Smooshy.  The colorway is Pansy Golightly.  I love that.

Brigitte tagged me for a meme!  (Appropriate to be tagged by Brigitte on my first St. Brigid post.)

 

The rules: Posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer. Play nice, children.

 

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Hmmm... working at the same library, but as a part-time circulation clerk. And commuting 3 hours round trip to Kalamazoo's Western Michigan University for my history masters.  Glad gas wasn't $4 a gallon then.

 

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today - in no particular order? Cast on the appropriate number of stitches for St. Brigid, run library payroll, read some more of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (great writer, great book), avoid the chocolate cake in the staff lounge, pick up some groceries.

3. Snacks I enjoy - potato chips, popcorn (not microwave), pretzels, really anything covered in salt.

4. Places I've lived -Indiana and Michigan.  Well that's just sad.

5.  Things I would do if I were a billionaire - Set up various friends and family for life, travel, add a few hundred square feet to the cottage, adopt several children, try to reduce the number of kids in the world who starve to death or die of stupid treatable disease.

 

6. Peeps I want to know more about - Skipping this one since most knitters have been tagged by the time I get around to doing memes.

Monday is Memorial Day in the U.S.  I'm looking forward to a 4-day weekend.  (I see no reason to work Friday.)  It's supposed to be in the upper 70s which will be nice since it's been pretty cool.  Sunday will be the running of the Indy 500.  This is the only car race that we watch and we both get weepy when they sing Back Home Again in Indiana.  "When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash, then I long for my Indiana home."

There will be much knitting and reading; hopefully we'll get the kayaks in the water too.