Knutty4Knitting

Musings on machine knitting, the art of knitting, and the mechanics of knitting. Maybe once in awhile I'll talk about my kids, but I'll warn you first, so that you can skip that part.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

CRUNCH TIME!

Okay, it is crunch time. I have finished the skirt (well, almost: I need to put the two pieces together), and have done all the pieces for the jacket, including the sleeves. All I need to do now is to put the edging on the jacket and do the bands for the shell. And sew it all together! It is 9 p.m. and I am still here at work because I have a lot of paperwork to get through before I leave for Boston at 5 a.m. Friday morning. Why oh why do I procrastinate so???

I decided to unravel the sleeves of the jacket and just redo them. It was so easy! (Newbie here!). And it looks so nice! Except for one sleeve, because I re-used the yarn I had unravelled and and so that sleeve has a kind of wrinkley look. Hopefully, it is nothing that a lot of steam can't undo!

I had wanted to knit an apple-green cardigan to match a shell I had made a couple of years ago, but I just didn't have the time.

I am really getting into knitting on the standard bed. So much more practical than shawls. I want to knit lots of stuff to show off here!

Got to go.....I've finished backing up my hard drive and am going home to KNIT!!!!!!!

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Countdown to the Brown Suit Finale

Countdown to the brown suit finale. I have hemmed the skirt (thanks for your lesson, Sonja!) and added sleeves to the long jacket. Problem is, I think I made the sleeves too narrow. I was at Newtons yesterday and showed the ladies my jacket and asked what I should do. Their suggestion was to add a gusset to the seams of the sleeves and down the sides of the jacket. Yes, the jacket is a little snug (as in, I wouldn't be able to button it), but I wasn't planning on closing the jacket over my boobs. I am thinking about that suggestion. I could add a lacy or textured panel to those areas, but wouldn't that be creating more work for me? Wouldn't it be easier for me to just unravel the sleeves and re-do them? I wanted to finish all the parts by tomorrow (Monday) night so that I would have time to crochet the edges, if that is what I've decided to do. I have to think about this.

Another thing I have to take care of is the edging around the jacket. I think I might borrow once again a technique from Sonja's knitting blog and do the cabled edging. She did it recently for her Dusk. It is pretty and she said it was easy. If I decide to go the gusset route (as opposed to the frogging route), then my panels will have mini-cables.

While I was at Newtons, I bought new ribber clamps for my standard machine. When my kids came home for the holiday winter break, I took down my machines and misplaced the ribber clamps. Now that I have a set, I can finish the bands on the camisole/tank for the brown suit. I also bought a ton of magazines at Newtons, since they were on sale for $1. I prefer the old Knitking magazines, because the patterns seem more professional, and do not look so home-made. But, I've discovered (through my current stock of Knitking, Machine Knitting Monthly, and Machine Knitting News) that the 1980s were a dismal decade for knitting patterns because of the darn dolman sleeve. It just looks so dated. Most of the Knitking magazines I bought yesterday were from the 1970s. The styles then were more crisp and professional. I bought the magazines with suit patterns, since suits and wardrobe enhancement will be my new knitting obsession this summer. Aside from the suit patterns, I bought the Knitking magazines because there are usually some new techniques that I might like to add to my repertoir.

I also found some other really neat reference and pattern books: 137 Crochet Edgings by Yo Furuta, Finishing Techniques also by Yo Furuta, Brother Chunky Knits, several patterns by Sandee Lightfoot (Summer Twin Set in Thread Lace with Pleated Skirt, Bomber Style Jackets for the Bulky Machine, and Head to Toe [lined mittens, circular knitted socks, gloves, and mittens, etc]), some punchcard designs by Tricia Shafer, Woven Coats by Jill Stern, and The Garter Bar by Alles. I love all of my new books! I know and have bought patterns from both Yo and Tricia, and I love anything that the late Alles Hutchinson wrote. She was a genius when it came to the knitting machine.

Okay. Confession time. I lost 2 pounds last week at Weight Watchers, but I gained 1.4 this week. What a bummer. One of my friends wrote me a pleading e-mail to join her at a WW meeting, so now I have a WW buddy. We met yesterday morning, but our regular day will be on Thursday. The pressure is on!!!!! I went to the gym this morning and was so disgusted to see how big my body has gotten because I haven't respected it enough to feed it right and exercise. I was truly grossed out. So now, I am doing the WW Core Plan, and I pledge to work out at least 3 more times this week before I leave for Boston. No more fries for me!!!! No more fried zucchini! No more breads, cakes, or other desserts! My gym buddy and I have figured out a way for me to work around the food at the hospitals. The food is catered, so it's usually not the yucky stuff they serve the patients or in the cafeteria. I will eat my oatmeal and drink my decaf coffee in the morning, and then at around 10:30 a.m., I will have my pre-lunch meal of tuna and veggies. That way, I will be full by the time I get to the hospitals at 12 or 12:30. I will eat a salad and ignore the desserts.

Okay, that took care of the diet part of my Looking Good Plan. For the exercise component, I will try to go to the SuperSport gym in Glendale in the morning, do the bikes, swim, do weights (not necessarily all on the same day!), and stay there and shower and dress for work. The SuperSport is 10 miles away, kind of on my way to work. My favorite gym (the Panorama City gym) is 10 miles in the other direction and it is in the 'hood. My daughter will not even set foot in that gym because it is in the ghetto. I like it because I've worked out there for the last 4 years (except for the 1 year I was doing chemo and radiation) and I am familiar with all the machines and the people and the parking is free.The Glendale gym is so much better, but I am philosophically opposed to paying for parking when I pay so much to the gym already. More importantly, the people are nice and they are REAL. I was a member of the Spectrum Club in Santa Monica (used to be part of Sports Club L.A. group of clubs) for seven years and it was really a scene. Lots of movie industry movers and shakers, as well as other high powered professionals, and let me tell you, a lot of them were so superficial. That old saying "you are only as good as your last picture or big deal" is true. Not all the people were like that, of course, but a lot were.

Plus, the hours at the Glendale Club are limited. I like 24 hour access, JUST IN CASE I FEEL LIKE DOING THE ELLIPTICAL AT 2 A.M. It's rare, but it's been known to happen.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

AT LAST!!! My daughter Likes Something I Made!

AT LAST!!! My daughter likes something I made! My 23-year-old daughter usually turns her nose up at my shawls and scarves (not her style, she says), unless she desperately needs a last-minute gift for someone. The other day she asked me if I had something she could put her ipod in so it wouldn't get scratched in her purse. Well, I had just the thing: the little "phone sock" I made back in March at Newtons and hand-felted. She loved it!!! It is a ragged-looking little thing, and it needs a type of closure, such as a button or velcro, but my daughter is very very happy with it, so I think I will knit another one especially for her in her favorite color, purple. And it was so easy to make (although it does involve the use of a ribber for circular knitting)! Here is a picture of it:


Perfect size for an Ipod! I will include a pocket on the back for the headphones.

Sorry for the messy blog. I still have not figured out how to put the pics exactly where I want them and how to put more than one pic in a post. Help me, please!!!! Any and all advice/tips appreciated.

Okay, now I've decided to go to the 10:30 Weight Watchers meeting so I have time to write a little bit about my Spring Fling boutique yesterday. In a word, it was a HUGE FLOP. Okay, that's two words. The powers-that-be failed to publicize the event, so all the vendors sold about 1 item each. One of the other vendors bought a shawl from me, and that was it. It was so disappointing. Nobody made any money, especially since it cost $50 for a table, $15 for valet parking, $10 for tips to and from the car for my boxes. I was pissed, and complained in a major way to the management, and just to shut me up, they let me pay $12.50 instead of $25 (I shared a table). Ha! My sister-in-law and the other vendors got a $10 discount.

And this is a major weekend for gift-buying. Tomorrow is Mother's Day. I was so so disappointed.

I guess this concludes my holiday boutique/bazaar knitting until October. I'm disgusted with my yarn buying habits and do not even want to think about buying yarn until I've knitted enough to use up at least a quarter of the yarn I currently have. I have enough yarn to make miles and miles of scarves and shawls and ipod holders. I have enough yarn to make tons and tons of baby blankets and hats for gifts. I have enough yarn to make at least three suits and at least 5 sweater sets. It's time now to work on building up my work wardrobe, which is, after all, one of the main reasons I took up knitting. I guess I will put away my bulky machine for awhile and use my standard bed. I will focus on completing my brown suit (haven't we all heard this before?) and starting a cardigan for my other daughter's graduation later this month.

Not to complain, since all the yarn I have is through my own fault, but I have such a major weakness for yarn. When the yarn lady calls me to describe what new yarn has arrived and how beautiful it knits up, I am all ears. I start salivating and making plans to drive the 70 miles to her place. I mentally go through my bills-to-be-paid list and start trying to figure out which bill can wait another month or figure out what I can do without this month so I can buy yet another boxload of yarn. I am truly yarn-addicted! This is so wrong wrong wrong. I worked through one of my friend's drug addiction with her and it made me so sad to see she was so utterly helpless when it came to her dependence on the drug. Her dealer was calling her day and night, enticing her, threatening her, manipulating her. She was powerless to resist. Her body craved it. It was only when we got her back to the West Coast, into rehab, and under the care of a wonderful doctor was she able to beat her addiction.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do not want to equate the lovely V (the yarn lady) with a ruthless drug dealer. She is wonderful. Rather, I just wanted to describe my helplessness when it comes to buying yarn. I cannot resist. I cannot say no. I crave to be surrounded by cones and cones and balls and balls and skeins and skeins of beautiful yarn. The problem is, I cannot afford it on a monthly or even bi-monthly basis.

I am off to the showers and then Weight Watchers. I think the acupuncture is working. I lost some weight last week and can't weight to see if I lost weight this week. According to my scale, yes. Let's see what WW says. My acupuncturist just called and she she has time to see me this morning. Yippeee!!!! Off I go.......Have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Bleary-Eyed But Happy

It is 4:30 in the morning and I have been up for 3 and a half hours FRINGING, taking pictures of my shawls, and trying to download picasa into my laptop. I also took inventory of the stuff I'm going to sell at the Spring Boutique tomorrow. I don't have a lot, but even if I sell half of what I've made, I will be able to pay off my considerable yarn bill. Also, if people want to special order a shawl with a certain yarn, then I certainly can do that! NOW I'm starting to get excited about the boutique. I should have gotten excited 2 weeks ago so I could have cranked out more shawls. I forgot that this weeked if Mother's Day and that people might want to buy presents for their mother. Well, my friend was right: fringing does open up the shawl and adds something to the whole look. Okay. I'm sold. And fringing wasn't as bad as I thought; I didn't want to make a lot of fringes so I didn't position them too close together. Smart, huh? When I come home tonight after work, I will take a nap and then do whatever finishing needs to be done, including fringing 2 more shawls.








A better view Posted by Hello

My fringing job. it looks better in real life than in the picture. Posted by Hello

F-mole diamist with a slinky in the color "lime". It's really a brown and gold shawl with bursts of lime green and tangerine running through it. It looks really nice. Posted by Hello

Blue woolray with metallic thread running through it. It is cute, but I think I will make skinny little scarves with this yarn. I saw on tv that this is the latest trend. Posted by Hello

This is one of the prettiest shawls I've ever made. This photo doesn't do it justice. It is made with F-mole diamist and hand dyed rayon boucle. Also, the knit side is facing, when I should have shown the purl side with all the little bursts of color Posted by Hello

A closeup of the yarn (I think it is railroad from Silk City Fibers plus black venetian from Newtons) Posted by Hello

Some knitted items start out as a poncho, but end up as a scarf.....because I didn't do a swatch!!!!! Posted by Hello

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Another picture. This is fun!


My messy desk 3 days after I cleaned it up. It is a mess again. Posted by Hello

Okay, enough playing around.....next photos will be knitting shots!

Got My Camera in Order! Pictures on the Way!


Here is a view of Dodger Stadium from my office window. See the lights of the stadium? Posted by Hello

The card reader I bought so I could download pictures from my new-to-me digital camera to my computer arrived this afternoon. A lthough I wanted to take care of business tonight here in the office, I think I will go home and knit some shawls and spend all night fringing them (Mmmmm.....FUN!!!!!!) and take pictures for the world to admire. I have to do it anyway; Friday is the Spring Show and I'm committed. I've been playing with the camera and here is another pic:

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Cleaning Day at the Office

Here I am in my messy office. Posted by Hello I came in today--Sunday--to clean it up. It's 4:30 p.m. and I still haven't started.


Okay, it is 7:30 now and I've gone through my desk a few stacks on my desk, but to go through them, I had to create a new stack on the other side of my desk. Why did I do that? I want to get home in time for Desperate Housewives. Maybe I'll just bring the new stack home and put it in file folders while I am watching Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. Thank God, too, for laptops. I'll do some of my computer work at home.


Why the crunch? Because I am taking tomorrow off to hang out with a friend. And I want to surprise my boss, who was gone for two days last week, with a clean office.


Don't have time to knit. Don't really care. My sister-in-law called to ask how my shawls were coming along. Well, they aren't! I am just too busy to work on the shawls. I did make two shawls this weekend, though. And anyway, I'm not into shawls anymore. I'm more into my brown suit, which I will not be able to touch until after this spring boutique is over. I was looking at the pieces of the suit this morning and boy, is it long! The skirt and the jacket almost hit my ankles. I forgot I was in the planning stages of this suit during winter....and before my bad ankle and knee doomed me to wearing ugly orthopedic mary janes. I had planned to buy some cute brown boots to wear with the suit. I think I will make a shorter skirt and keep the long trailing jacket. I don't know what kind of shoes I should get for this suit, though. This would look great: http://www.bloomingdales.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=43508&CategoryID=336. but my orthopedists and physical therapists would kill me!

I guess I am doomed to get a brown version of one of these ugly shoes: http://www.dansko.com/Our_Products/Collections/Golden%20Gate.aspx?PageID=ALL. I promised them all that I would do everything they said to get my knee better. But wait....this is my daughter's college graduation! I can suffer for one day! I'll wear my ugly orthopaedic shoes on the subway, and when I'm sitting down at the graduation, I'll slide my pretty high heels out of my huge bag and put them on. I'll truly be "sitting pretty"!