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02/28/2006
Not again!
I'm starting to feel stupid. So much freakin impulse online shopping. And I just ordered another 3 skeins of Regia Canadian Fashion Colors on ebay after Alison and Elemmaciltur have constantly been raving about it the last week. And those coloUrs are just lovely and I'm going to love wearing socks named after cities I've been to. Aaarrgh! What IS it about sock yarn, I mean, REALLY?!? With all the yarn in my stash, I have sock yarn supplies to last me years!
17:40 Permalink | Comments (12) | Email this
Woo-hoo, one more on our side!
I'm so proud!
My good old friend and former room-mate Doroshi left an excited message on my answering machine this week-end that she'd just bought a pair of circular needles and some balls of yarn and she had already started with the cuff of a shrug. Woo-hoo! She hasn't knitted in years, as her last knitting experience turned out to be a bit of a disappointment (funny story, LOL!), but she's been complaining about having cold shoulders while she was writing her master's thesis, so I recommended she knit a shrug! I kept sending her online patterns assuring her it was a real easy knit and ummm, she is a master of procrastination like me, always willing to dive into a new distraction, so I finally succeeded!:-))
She underestimated the importance of gauge or rather, didn't know about it, and cast on the stitches by rule of thumb, so she said the sleeves were a little too wide. But I talked to her yesterday and she was more than half way done already, that's so cool!
So wanna hear the knitting related story? A few years back (TOO FEW years!), Doroshi had a little adolecent relapse and madly fell in love with Brandon Boyd, the admittedly cute and hot singer of Incubus. We'd been to a show just before the band got very popular and when we got tickets for a show in Cologne, she decided to make something for him to throw on stage. I was in my hat knitting frenzy and she wanted to make a had for Brandon as well. We designed a really cool surfer-style beanie together and kind of took turns knitting it;-)
At the show (of course she was in the first row), she managed to have one of the bouncers pull her across the bleachers so she got close enough to throw the beanie on stage. She was so excited about actually getting a chance to 'give' the hat to Brandon AND the little note with her name and e-mail address, LOL!!
At the end of the show, though, Brandon saw the hat, picked it up, took a quick look and then tossed it back off the stage into the crowd.
He probably thought someone had 'accidentally' thrown it there and wanted it back. You can imagine Doroshi's disappointment and resulting knitting aversion...
I love remembering that story. What a fun time that was... I just wish we had actually been teenagers at the time....
12:20 Posted in Knitting (general) | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
02/26/2006
You know you're too immersed in knitting when...
you go to the zoo, see the Alpacas and all you can think of is: 'mmmh, what a nice color! I wonder when they shear these animals!'
15:58 Posted in Knitting (general) | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
02/23/2006
I'm back again- with a surpri-hiiise!
Hey everyone,
first of all I must say how much I appreciated all of your get well soon comments! That was so sweet of you! Johanna's ear are still a little affected, but she's been a complete angel the last few days! She's been such a pleasure to be with lately, which has immensely lifted my mood and I'm doing much better now. And I'm treating her with a visit to the zoo this afternoon!:-)
Another thing that's kept me from blogging last week was a blogging-related disappointment I had. I've been debating whether to complain about it here, but I'm fairly certain the person in question is not reading my blog anyway.
Okay, here it goes: I offered a woman whose blog I'd stumbled upon to do a translation of an English sweater pattern she'd wanted to make for her son. Maybe I shouldn't have offered to do this in the first place, regarding all the other tasks I'm struggling to master, like writing 4 papers in a ridiculously short period of time, but I wanted to be a nice supportive blogger and add to the community, blabla.
I started with the translation and since you can't really just write it all down, but you have to actually understand the pattern, which is usually a hassle anyway, it took a while. Mind you, a mere of work really focussing on what I'm doing is a HUGE effort for me these days... and she said she wasn't in a hurry, either. I sent her the bits I'd finished so she could at least start with the sweater and told her I'd do the rest whenever I got a chance to do it. Every couple of weeks she'd send me these reminder e-mails which really started bugging me up to the point where I got a little upset.
Anyway, I finally completed the translation which took something like a total of 5 hours to finish. We never clearly talked about what I expected in return, but of, course, she sent me a little package. So formally, I probably shouldn't complain and I'm feeling a little bad about my utter disappointment with what I got.
The package held some of the regular bits and pieces, tea, a little candle, printed napkins, and then- sockyarn. Good quality sock yarn, I might add, but in a hideous pastel pink and baby blue and white and purplish colorway I would have never chosen and nobody who'd put any thought into it would have chosen to give me. First I thought I'd make something for Johanna with it, but I didn't even want to make her wear anything in these colors. Sigh.
The first days I was in quite a shock about this and didn't know how to react or what to write to the person in question. I still can't stand even looking at the yarn and maybe I'm just going to put it up on ebay and buy something I actually like.
I hope you understand where I'm coming from- I just felt like I'd deserved better than that- the whole package gave off the impression that the person simply collected some stuff she still had at home and wanted to get rid of.
Deep sigh- I needed to get this off my chest...
Now to the surprise: I've been thinking about what kept me from finishing the Star Sweater- it's been lying around with only one sleeve for so long now. The reason were the 40 cm long circulars I was working with, which are just too tiny for my big hands. It was so uncomfortable to work with them! THen I had a little technique epiphany- if socks can be worked on two circs, my sleeves can, too! And man, sleeves, too, soar on two circulars! It was relatively easy to get the technique after seeing the knitting help videos on this topic and ta-daaaa!!! I finished the sweater at midnight last night. I'm so proud!!! My first sweater!! Finished!! I designed to whole thing from start to finish! And it fits! (click to enlarge pic)
There are a few things I still want/need to do on it- weave in the ends;-) for one thing, and I also want to make the bottom hem a little longer. No big deal, as it's a top-down sweater.
11:20 Posted in Blog , Sweaters | Permalink | Comments (12) | Email this
02/21/2006
sniff sniff cough
HEy there,
today's the first day i've turned on the computer in days. that felt weird, it's usually the first thing I do in the morning. Johanna was really sick last week and I caught a cold this weekend. It was so bad, I couldn't even knit!! last night I started feeling a little better and worked on two of my sweaters... I'll post more about later and I'll upload some pix, but I've got SO much housework to do now- there's a huge pile of dirty dishes waiting right now, ech! I hate doing the dishes.
until soon, Julia
11:50 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this
02/13/2006
Les Jaywalkers sont finis
Another FO in the mama-of-purl house! Here's a shot of the finished pair:
the colors are somewhat okay after I've messed around with the flash pic a bit...
After looking at another tutorial on the Kitchener stitch for EVERY SINGLE STITCH at the end, I managed to get it right, hooray!
I love having new socks!!!
Now the specs:
pattern: Jaywalker by grumperina
yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Multiringel color 5122
needles: 2.5 mm Prym DPNs
started: Jan 10th 2006
finished: Feb 12th 2006
21:55 Posted in Knitalongs , Socks | Permalink | Comments (15) | Email this
02/10/2006
Super sock progress:-)
Hello my darling fellow knitter- you're probably all excited about tonight (Europe)/this afternoon (US) already;-) Geez, it's the first time I've ever known exactly when the Olympics started! I used to figure out that they're on just when I turned on the TV to watch some show I watched regularly that's been 'eaten up' by the games.
I've started my sockapalooza socks! After much debate and a first try with a folded picot edge (I now knit it with 2.0mm needles and the rest with 2.5mms) that had to be frogged, I cast on again on Tuesday and man, do those socks knit up fast! At the end of the night (and a 6CD audiobook:-o), I was ready to turn the heel.
It's so hard to pick a pattern for someone you hardly know anything about! I'm pretty sure she'll like the colors, but I tried to be somewhat on the safe side with the pattern -it's really got a certain kick (or twist;-)) to it, but it's still classic and sophisticated...
When I recently did some online research on how to knit socks on two circulars, I watched a video at knitting help.com which included such a neat tip - knitting in the yarn end in the first few stitches of the first row of a sock. Of course! Such an easy solution, one less end to weave in:-) In the case of the picot edge, I didn't even have to cut the remaining end of the cast-on tail, because it elegantly hid in the folded up seam. Aaaah, the pristine beauty of knitting...
Then I did some more jaywalking last night, I really want to finish this pair until the end of the KAL next Tuesday.
The little raglan sweater I'm making for Johanna is also growing, although I've mis-designed the neck/button line. I meant to make a diagonal opening which would've had to be in between the raglan increases, but I was unsure about how to get it right, so I thought I'd place it left of the increases- umm, of course it's a vertical line now. Duh. Oh well, it'll just be 'different'. An off-center button line...
Oh, and my friend Jytte came over yesterday to pick up her hat- it fit! The merino and the cable made it quite stretchy. She really liked the colors& the pattern and spent the rest of the afternoon sneaking off every now and then to admire her new hat in the mirror:-)
10:20 Posted in Baby Stuff , Hats , Sockapaloooza , Socks | Permalink | Comments (10) | Email this
02/07/2006
COAA
People, please stop me. I should start a support group. Either the COAA, or maybe KADD (Knitter's Attention Deficit Disorder)?
Instead of working on any of the gazillion running projects, I felt an urge to cast on for a raglan sweater that I've been designing for Johanna. The yarn was right there, and I've done my math for the number of neck stitches... and everything inside me was yelling: CAST ON!! CAST ON!! CAST ON!!
I caved in. Seriously, I've been debating whether to blog about it or not. I was trying to hide my stitches!
Here it is now:
I did do a few rows on my 2nd jaywalker sock and the 'cheerful' sock, and I decided to frog the Noro ganomy hat I made Christmas. It was way too tight and short, it totally annoyed me the 3 times I wore it. I'm going to reuse the yarn to make a bigger hat some time soon. Since I've lost my beloved Turkish pattern hat, I've been running around in the WORST hat which I'd picked up for 50 cents at an army surplus store in Winnipeg a few years ago. It hurts the knitter in me to be seen in this hat, so I won't put up a picture of it either.
Had to rip the beginning of my sockpal's sock as well. Didn't like the bulky picot edge.
Speaking of socks, here's the my other new addiction: buying sock yarn. Just got a new delivery: 
that's my idea of being a Trekkie;-)
10:50 Posted in casting-on addiction | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this
02/04/2006
Silence and pattern search...
Well, I'm glad nessienoodle and Carola commented on my non-participation and the button- I was getting nervous about the silence after that post!
It's definitely cool to hear that the Knitting Olympics have more participants than the actual Olympics and I'm going to be an online spectator- hopefully you're all going to have a spectacular casting-on parade as well. I want cheesy music & emotions!
Now the hard part: have you all found patterns for your sockapaloooza socks yet? I've had a few nights where I - kid you not- lay awake in the middle of night contemplating which pattern would be perfect for my pal, whom I know faaaar too little about. No blog, no further personal info besides foot measurements and color preferences. Deeeeep sigh!! So far, I've somewhat settled on Steph's Mata Hari Socks in a variegated teal yarn. I tried a folded picot edge for the first time last night and was very pleased with it, but I should've known better than to knit it with the same needle size I intended to use on the rest of the sock. Even after only a few rows of the cuff, I know the edge will be too bulky and loose and it will lean towards the outside... I'll try it again tomorrow (pix later & links later, okay?)
21:20 Posted in Blog , Knitting (general) , Sockapaloooza | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
02/02/2006
I'm not a knathlete
I feel urged to post something about me not participating in the Knitting Olympics... it's because...well, I just don't care much about it. I can see that it's a cute idea, it connects knitters in the world, etc. and I hope you're all enjoying this knitting event, but it's not for me. Maybe because I don't care about the actual Olympics either, or sports in general. Or I don't want to sign up for something that'll put further pressure on me. I've got so many other non-knitting related deadlines to meet already!
Anyway, here's a button for all you non-joiners, I know you're out there!
13:20 Posted in Knitalongs | Permalink | Comments (9) | Email this
Sock pal
Haah, there it is, my info... too bad my pal is blogless (is that too much said already?! :-o), it would've been nice to check out what she's into...
I'm a little confused about the sock sister's duty, my friends. Why do I send her my updates? What do I have to do as someone's sock sister?
12:25 Posted in Sockapaloooza | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
Oddly peaked hat
So I promised my old friend Jytte a perfectly fitting hat for her birthday. She gave me some vague color and pattern preferences (it's supposed to match a red coat she's wearing) and we measured her head at her party 2 weeks ago.
Now I finished the hat last night, I thinks the yarn, color and pattern are cool- Wolle Halle 100% Merino, pattern vaguely based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's ganomy hat, sporting an extra cable running up the front.
I've knit 2 hats somewhat according to the ganomy hat already, but I was never entirely happy with the crown. The original pattern creates a kind of pointy crown, which I dislike, and I wanted to change it so it'd fit snugly at the top. Well, that didn't work out. 
While the sides and front fit nicely, there is the weirdest freakin' bobbly thing in the back which looks like the peaks of British Columbia. I stayed up extra late last night, eager to finish the hat, but now I hate to admit it- there is some froggin' action required. I think I know how to fix it- after the increases in the back, I shouldn't have knit a few even rows over it but started with the decreases right away.
I really want the hat to fit VERY WELL for Jytte, as I've made her hats in the past she doesn't wear because they're too tight or too short. Her head's circumference is an entire 4 cm larger than mine, so I hope at least the with is okay. Sigh. Unfortunately I don't get so see her very often, or I'd make her try it on...
12:15 Posted in Hats | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
02/01/2006
Boo-hoo!!
Sigh... I've been checking my email a gazillion times today! At times I got so excited, I checked every 30 seconds or so. I want my sockpal's info NOW! Stupid time zones!
The only consolation is that I'm probably going to have it 1st thing tomorrow morning. But for tonight, I give up.
I'm going to have confusing dreams of yarns, colors, PATTERNS...
22:46 Posted in Sockapaloooza | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
Bling bling
I don't know if you've come across Leslie Hall yet...
WOw. Just wow.
20:35 Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this