2.26.2007

Because handknits are comfier



Yesterday afternoon while doing chores around the house, I got a little warm. So I took off my sweater. Shortly thereafter, a certain gray cat made herself comfy in it.


A couple of hours later, she emerged thinking it was dinnertime. It was not. Once she caught on to this idea, she went back to the sweater. (Kindly ignore old brown chair. It used to belong to my father-in-law and is slated to be replaced one of these days.)



Personally, I take it as a compliment that the cat likes my sweater! At least she matches it, so the fur factor isn't quite so bad!

2.23.2007

Comments!

Hey, I got real, live, comments! That's a first. :o) Thank you to you nice people for leaving me comments, you made my day. Now I'll actually have a reason to blog if someone out there is reading!

I think I need to figure out blogger a little more too...some things still confuse me. And one thing that I find frustrating is with this "new" version of blogger...it's perhaps a little more user-friendly, but less customizable... My meager knowledge of html worked fine for me before (ie, adding things to my sidebar was do-able in the template html editor) but now while the overall interface seems simpler, the html seems more complex!

Anyone else out there using the new blogger find this frustrating? Any suggestions??

2.22.2007

Surprises

Last night I finished another project, but it is one that will remain under wraps for a bit. It is a gift for a good friend, and I want to wait until I send it to her before I post anything, just in case she decides to go through old emails and finds a link to this blog! So, I'll be back with more on that later.

I am really excited about the first STR Rockin' Sock Club socks...can't wait to get the first package. This will be such fun, like getting a surprise in the mail every two months! This is why I wanted to finish both the above-mentioned gift knitting and the pink fingerless mittens so I have those out of the way before the socks come. I've told myself that I am allowed to wind the STR yarn and cast on for the project the moment it arrives! That's my treat to myself. :o)

2.21.2007

More pink?!

Yep, that's right. More pink. I can't help it. Pink is my thing. Just like knitting is my thing. Combine the two and I'm in heaven.

I finished the Fingerless Mittens last night. I think they're quite nice, if I may say so myself.

Here's an attempt at a photo of the cable. I think because of the variegatedness of the yarn it is not photographing well, but here it is anyway:

(BTW, the color in the first photo is closer to the real thing.) There's a link to the pattern here. I mentioned before that I had to do some tweaking to make the open ends (for fingers and thumbs) work better, and I like the way they came out. Using the smaller needles for the ribbing on the top was definitely the way to go, because now they lie flat against my hand and don't bunch up either. I also shortened considerably the hand and thumb sections, so now I can be a little more dexterous while wearing them. I think they'll come in handy on those chilly winter evenings sitting around home! I just hope I can knit with them and not get my needles stuck in them. :o)

2.20.2007

Wheeee!

This is fun...just changed the look of this thing. I think I like it. We'll see.

Wineberry: complete

This news is a little old, but I never posted about it. A couple of weeks back I finished the Wineberry Throw. Here it is in all its fuzzy, mohair, warm, woolly, glory:





I love this thing. It was so fun to knit (kept me toasty warm while doing so!) and now it's the greatest lap blanket. It's very lightweight, but oh so warm since it's mostly made of wool, and it's also the perfect size, not too big that it's unwieldy. Love it. :o) And so does Maddie, apparently. (She is quite fond of all handknits, actually.) Here she is helping me with the fringe:





And here she is napping on it in a new spot. She never sat on that side of the sofa before, mind you, but now that there's a new blanket, well, all bets are off!



Pink Stuff

Well, since this seems to be working now...I guess I'll try posting a little knitting content. My current knitting time is being spent working to finish up some gift mittens for a friend, and my hot pink fingerless mittens. This photo is old; I've since finished and re-finished the first one. Note too that I am aware this is a less than stellar photo, I just can't get it to photograph well, can't see the cable detail. Trust me, it's a pretty pattern.






I finished the first one and decided it was too long in the hand section to be a useful mitt while typing or such, and also the ribbing was too loose since it was done on the same size needles. So I painstakingly un-cast-off and then tinked back a few rows (I have little confidence in my ability to pick up loose stitches if I just frog back). I then reknit the ribbing in size 3's and it came out much, much better. Now I'm trucking along on the second one.

The pattern I am using can be found here; scroll down and on the left is a pattern called "*Cabled Fingerless Gloves". The yarn is called Moda Dea Cartwheel in Raspberry.

The reason I am trying to desperately to finish these mittens is because I am anxiously awaiting my first installment of the Rockin' Sock Club shipments. Yay! So excited. I am psyched by the mystery of it all, and I think I'll be happy with anything they send our way because I've looked at all their colors and they're all beautiful. Very excited about this new venture.

Guess that's it for now. Off to see about further customizing this blog. Still annoyed that though they've made it quick and easy to edit, there seems to be no way of doing some of the simple things I did before. sigh.

Third and final test

Okay, one more time. Here, I'll add a cute cat photo to make this one interesting. This is Maddie, all comfy on our bed:




Another test

Well, it would seem that my previous post finally came through. I am hoping that this one is quicker...so let's see...

2.08.2007

New look?

So, I just updated my blog to the new template editor thingy. I can't figure this out yet though, why it doesn't seem to update instantaneously. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if it has some sort of delay. Therefore, this is a test post! Back later with knitting content.