Tired today

I've started the raglan shaping on the second sleeve for the Onde. Hopefully it'll be done this weekend, sewn up and everything. And hopefully I'll have enough yarn to finish it. I had ordered one extra ball, because I made the sweater length a slight bit longer (1 inch) and it screw up all the yardage calculations.

I had planned on sitting home and knitting on Friday, because I learned that no one will be in the office. I asked the bossman if I had to be in, considering everyone else was out and he said yes, the morning. To do what? Look at my fingers and call all my friends who won't be home because they have lives? I could do that from home. Ugh. I'm totally annoyed by this. So I'm going to knit til I'm allowed to go and then meet up with a friend and knit til I have to pick up my son from school. Maybe I'll go get a pedicure as well. Is it rude to sit in the chair and knit while getting your toes done?

Ok, going to get another couple of rows done before I hit the hay...I'm extremely tired today.

Off Topic

Completely off topic: If you are able to, please donate blood. There is a shortage, and every little bit can help. I donated this morning. I have donated previously, but haven't in a number of years. It shouldn't have taken this long, but I wanted to give back because my son benefited from donated blood when he had 2 blood transfusions when he was born. Please, please donate.

Homemade needles

Howdy! I'm back into my knitting, and my wrist hasn't hurt at all today. Maybe because I've been taking breaks. Who knows. I finished the front of the Onde this evening, and I've cast on for the first sleeve. Woohoo!

I have some photos to share tonight...the needles I made. The larger ones are a size 11, the smaller ones, a size 7.



A closeup of the purpleswirl tops:


A close up of the red/white/blue tops:

Knitting against drs orders

My husband (evil glare) has left the camera at work for several days, so I haven't been able to take pics of my handmade needles. Maybe one day soon he will bring it home.

I was bad. I knit last night. I took it easy though. I did a few rows on a purple scarf done in Rowan yarn on #11s. Its been sitting in the basket for awhile, and I figured that it needed a little love. The second my wrist started to hurt, I stopped. I knit while watching Secondhand Lions, and while hubby slept on his side of the couch.

I did a couple of rows on the Onde this morning, again stopping once it hurt. Speaking of Onde, I got my shipment of Onde that I ordered last week. I opened up the package and saw the most gorgeous shade of hot pink I think I've ever seen. And for it to turn into a hot orange color! I cursed the ace bandage and the bad wrist.

I also got some really nice sock yarn from the great guys at Threadbear. I bought enough to make 2 pairs of socks in Lorna's Laces in Gold Hill and Mother Lode (you can see pics in the 6/17 entry on Black Dog).

I'm thinking of making my mom a Charlotte's Web for Xmas - what do y'all think? I've already got a list written out...just need to get a knittin'!!

Picture perfect

I think I got it! Took a few tries, but I think I got it. Yay!

Shannon's socks

Now lets see if I can hunt up another photo for you guys to look at....

Ok, here's the cake I made for my son's 3rd birthday last October:

Spongebob cake

Awesome! I'm loving this!

A cooking entry!!

Ok, here’s where the cooking part of Cooking n Knitting comes in. I’m going to share with all of you how to make some of my favorite dishes. We’re going to start with what I’m making for dinner tonight. It’s got a traditional Chinese name, one which I can’t spell. The traditional recipe has been altered at my house, so we altered the name; we call it Danny’s Food. I will give you the traditional recipe, followed by minor alterations.

1 lb ground beef
Scallions, chopped
1 can bean paste
Asian noodles (or spaghetti, or your choice of pasta)
½ box Frozen peas (optional)
Garlic cloves (optional)
1 cucumber, sliced (optional)

Cook pasta according to directions on package. While pasta is cooking, brown the beef, making sure to make the chunks of beef small. Drain. If using peas, toss in now. Toss in scallions (amount to your liking), heating til they are softened. Toss in the bean paste, mixing completely with beef/scallions and heat for just a few minutes more. Serve over individual portions of noodles, with/without raw cloves of garlic and cucumber slices.

At my house, we use Ditalini macaroni, and toss the beef mixture in with the macaroni. The beef loses some of the saltiness by being mixed in with the pasta. If you don’t mix it, the cucumber slices helps with the saltiness. And the garlic? Well, you’re not supposed to eat them whole. You take little bites of the clove while eating.

You can find bean paste at your local Asian mart. They come in small blue cans. Though, I have had a hard time finding them lately, and have turned to a different brand, in a glass jar, and that’s labeled soybean paste. Both are ok, but I prefer the blue can.

On the knitting front, I went thru my stash last night. I baggied up stuff for the Knitty yarn swap, and tossed small bits of yarn. I gathered up ball bands and wrote info down in my knitting diary. I organized my circular needles/DPNs. I looked longingly at my now neatly organized basket of yarn to be knit, ignoring their cries of “KNIT ME!!” Oh yeah. And I made 2 pairs of knitting needles out of wooden dowels and handmade clay knobs for the ends. Was fairly easy to do with one hand, and quite fun. Will take pics and show you all soon.

Playing around, since I can't knit...

I've been playing around, trying to vamp up the blog since I've got all this free time. I've successfully signed up for and added a button to the Knittyheads ring. I've also managed to screw up the alignment of my WIPs list and center everything below that. I'm still not sure how to fix that, but I'm working on it.

I have also learned how to do thumbnail photos that open up into bigger photos, like so:


Am quite pleased with myself for learning all this. NOW, if I could just figure out a way to create another page with just pictures for my finished objects, I'd be a happy camper.

Sigh. So I've been told it's either carpal tunnel or arthritis and I can't knit for a week while I wear this ace bandage. I'm already having withdrawal. What will I do with my time? Ack!

I ordered more Phildar Onde yarn. They've discontinued it, so it was really cheap. I'm going to make a wraparound sweater from the mag I've already got.

Here's the yellow/green socks. I call them Shannon's Socks. They're for a friend's daughter, and her name is Shannon. So original, I know. Bleh.

I probably shouldn't be typing...it hurts like hell.

I will have to come back and post again later, but this is just to say that my wrist is in so much pain. It felt like it needed to be cracked (like your fingers get every once in awhile), and then turned into a dull aching pain. This was 2 days ago. Why oh why then, have I not contacted a doctor? I hang my head in shame for this: I know the doc is going to say to either slow down or stop completely with the knitting for awhile...and last night was the meetup. How can you go to a knitting meetup and not knit? Right? It's all logical, in my little world anyway. But I am going today. Will update from home, with pics of the yellow/green socks and possibly some ace bandage/brace on my wrist. :(

Today was a good knitting day. As I prepared to set out of the house this morning, I packed up my big messenger bag with the yellow/green socks to finish, the Pretty yarn to potentially start as socks (wound up last night), and my Onde. Also packed up patterns for all 3 projects. I finished up the last yellow/green sock at my desk (the boss was out of town and is again tomorrow), leaving the stitches to be grafted on the needles. I was going to head to a LYS to ask for help in grafting the stitches, buy a needle, and buy size 2 circs to start the Pretty socks.

Can you believe that the woman at the LYS told me that she couldn't help me graft 8 stitches together because I didn't purchase the yarn there? Even though I spent $20 in the store. Sigh. It's going to make me think twice about going there again.

Anyway, I managed to graft those stitches. They're not great, but they're socks for a 2 year old. I don't think she'll care if they're not perfect. I cast on and worked a few rows of the Pretty socks. I'm using a pattern in the Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles book. It's called Columbine Peaks. It's pretty.

I headed off to the International Meetup day just before 6pm, and I think that even though this was my second meetup, this was my best one. I met some really nice ladies (and Joe!) and we knit and talked and laughed. We've planned to meetup again next month, and I'm counting the days. :) I did 20 rows of the Onde at the meetup and it seemed like I was knitting faster than usual. I guess that's what sitting with other knitters does to me.

Pics tomorrow of the yellow/green socks. Maybe progress photos of the Pretty socks as well.

Yay! The baby blanket is completely done. Finished it during my day at home "mourning President Reagan". It's been blocked and everything. It is currently in the mail room in transit to its new owner. Here's a pic: Baby Blanket.

So, sadly, the only thing on my WIP's list is my Onde sweater. And I'm a good 3 inches into the front of it. Something tells me, however, that I may need one more ball of the white, since I made a slight change in the pattern to the length of the sweater.

Oh wait! I started a pair of socks from the leftover yarn from the baby blanket for a friend's daughter. They're yellow with green for the heel and toe. I finished one, and have to do the other. They're really cute.

I have started on and off a shawl. It's really fine yarn, and either my needles are too slippery or I'm not used to working with such fine yarn or a combo of both. This is the yarn: Blue Heron yarn. Maybe once the Onde sweater is completed (next week?), I can focus solely on this. Or maybe I'll start socks out of this: I call this Pretty. I still need to search out a pattern and yarn to make me and my boys matching hooded sweatshirts for the winter...

I added more pics to the Finished Objects list. There's the Broad Street Mittens, the Strappy Tank and Paton's Lacy Cardigan. The baby blanket pic will come tomorrow when I'm done with it. I have just the last border to do and blocking. Woo hoo!

Here is the back to the Phildar Onde: Back. It needs blocking and isn't really that small looking. The top curled down and I couldn't keep it uncurled so I took the photo as is.

My company decided last minute to close for the national day of mourning tomorrow (today? It's 12:10am), so I'm planning on sleeping in a little and then knitting, knitting and uhm, knitting. :)

Just have to say, this is one of the most beautiful pieces I think I've seen: Jon's Blog. It's the picture in today's entry.

I weaved in almost all of the loose ends of the baby blanket last night. I also did one side of the border. 3 more and then we're good to go.

I have to confess that I took the Onde sweater with me this morning and did 10 rows on the train in. I figured, it's easier to take the Onde on the train then the baby blanket and I DID do a lot of work on the baby blanket last night, right? Does anyone else play mind games with themselves when knitting on the train? I like to see if I can complete x amount of rows by a certain station. For example, today I wanted to see if I could get through 10 rows after skimming through the June issue of KnitPicks and get the 10 rows done by the time I got to 34th street. And I was done. And the small smirk on my face was because I did have it done. Ok, so maybe I need to look into renting space at Bellevue.....

Hubby has given me an evil eye and told me that I should really work on the baby blanket. So, because I am such a good little wifey and do as I'm told, I finished sewing up all the squares. I have SO many tails to weave in and the border to knit, but hopefully that will be done by the end of the week.

Because I want to finish the blanket, I have refused to let myself do anymore work on the Onde sweater, even though I'm on the armhole shaping of the back piece. I want to work on it so much, that I know I will do the weaving/border knitting of the blanket quickly to get back to the Onde. I love the way the color slowly changes. It's beautiful. And even though it's all stockinette stitch, it's working up quite quickly.

I'm almost to the armhole shaping on the back of the Onde sweater. Woo hoo! I've finished the first ball, the pinky shade, and have now started on the all white. It looks great! I can't wait to start on the front, because then I'll know I'm that much closer to wearing it!

The girly hat on the side in the works in progress list has been taken off. I started and stopped that hat so many times, and have come to the conclusion that I can't stand the pattern. So it's back to looking for the right pattern again for the Koigu.

The recipient of the Krazy Socks loved them, and I hope that she will take a picture of them when she wears them out to her birthday drunkenness tonight.

The mittens were finished yesterday. Ok, so I still have to sew the ribbing of the mitten part onto the sides of the glove, but it's a 5 minute thing. It's technically done. :P I'm working hard on the Onde, and have about 10-11 inches done of the back. I'm at a point now where the pink is starting to slowly turn white...it's really cool.

I'm determined to try and use up a good portion of my stash on little projects before I go and get yarn for another big project. Right about now my husband would utter, "uh huh, right." That's because he knows I'm a yarn addict. But that's ok, I can admit it. I have planned, once the summer is over, to do sweatshirts for hubby, child and myself. Different colors of course, because we don't want to look like geeks. But I know that's going to take up a lot of room, all the yarn I'll need, so I want to clear out a bit before doing that project.

And hell, maybe before my friend's baby is born end of the month/early next month, I'll have finished sewing up that gosh darned baby blanket....