Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Appendage Problems

Well, hello there!

Just a brief post tonight to tell you what I've been up to.  

My Scott Base socks are rockin' along:

Love. These. Socks.

This is my second sock.  I still need to knit the first one.  According to Lady L, you always start with the second sock, then knit the first.  That way, you avoid the boredom we all feel when working on the second sock (assuming you knit one at a time).  If you don't realize this is all very tongue-in-cheek, you'll be scratching your head for a while.  Thanks for the tip, Lady L!  *wink*

In other news, I've finally found the perfect buttons for my baby project, and the backordered yarn has come in so I'll be finishing baby stuff this week and hope to ship it this Saturday.  I'd better, because my expectant friend is telling me she's feeling like this baby's gonna be here a tad early.  No time to waste!  Pictures to come once the package has arrived at it's destination.

The biggest news of the week concerns "The Lacy Beast" which I've been slaving on for many, many weeks now.  The body is knit up to the sleeves and I began the first sleeve a couple weeks ago and made great strides.  Unfortunately, I realized last last night that there was something decidedly wrong.  The sleeve is too un-freaking-believably big around.  I mean seriously wacked.  These pictures are of the sleeve knit exactly to instructions for the smallest size:

This shaping is...er, interesting.

I am not even pulling on the sleeve...honest!
I could fit another freaking arm in there.

Um...no.

I made the painful decision last night to rip back the sleeve to the ribbing and begin again, adjusting the increases in a way that makes sense to me.  It is unfortunate that I wasn't smart enough to see the weird direction the sleeve was going BEFORE I got to 15 inches out of a total of 16.75.

Foreseeing a problem - not my strong suit

I'm not that great at modifying patterns, so I know I want to end up with the same number of stitches the pattern calls for when joining the sleeves to the body, so I've determined that the best way to adjust it is to space out my increases considerably.  I had read some comments on the pattern page on Ravelry remarking that in the original photos published in Interweave Knits, they had pinned the sleeves for the photo.  Now I know why.  I don't get the shaping at all.  At. All. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to throw this whole thing across the room, but I persist because it is a rather lovely pattern (when it's finished) that I've drooled over forever, so I WILL prevail.  

On a side note, remember these that I bought to help work on the sleeve?


I mentioned they were cheap but I didn't realize how cheap.  I apologize in advance to anyone who loves Knitter's Pride stuff, but quite frankly, after just using these on the one sleeve, and then not for the entire 15 inches, these tips have small divets in them from use already.  Maybe I'm spoiled with my Addi's, but I would never, ever buy any of these again.  My rosewood needles offer less friction than these.  Boo...

On a final note, The Husband sent this to me weeks ago because he thought it was funny and would be a good addition to my blog.  So, because I love The Husband and think it's sweet that he'd find ANY picture that had anything to do with knitting/yarn for me, here it is:


And with that, I'm out...

Lisa 
xoxo

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Progress

Helloooo!

I know it's been a while since my last post and I know I keep telling you I'll get better about it or that I hope I'll get better about it and I'm definitely NOT getting better about it so you'll have to chalk it all up to my being completely delusional about how much time I'll have to do stuff and I totally beg your forgiveness.

That said...

I HAVE made some progress on the knitting front. It is hard, you see, with this view drawing me outside:



Unfortunately, artificial light outside not only defeats the beauty of the sunsets, but also draws all of the mutant bugs that are native to South Mississippi, so I don't get any knitting done while I'm sitting on our deck in the evening.

I have pressed on in between sunsets and am happy to report I cast on my Scott Base socks a short while ago and I absolutely love these socks already. The stitch pattern is simple and easily memorized, but not boring and is totally addictive! So glad I chose this pattern!



I've also gotten to the point with my Midsummer Aran (aka The Lacy Beast) where I have started a sleeve:






Knitters Pride Nova


I had stalled for a bit due to those bamboo needles you see in the picture. The problem is, I hate them. With a passion. They slow me way down and the tips are as blunt as the tip of a pencil eraser. I know it's hard to believe after having sworn off DPNs early in my knitting experience, and especially metal DPNs, that I bought these--->

They came in yesterday. I'm getting ready to switch after I post this so I can make some real time on the sleeve. I'd like to actually wear this thing before I need a jacket outdoors.







For everything else in the works (baby stuff still waiting on yarn and buttons, and mom's vest still unseamed and unfinished), I'm in complete denial. What baby things? What vest? It's not that I don't want to finish these things. I can't wait to see them all finished. But getting buttons requires a trip to the only store around with buttons worth buying in the next town, the yarn still isn't in stock, and seaming...that requires seaming, which I don't enjoy and anything I don't enjoy requires something called discipline. Discipline is what I use up every day when I get up and drag myself to work. There's none left when I get home. I'm sure I'll come up with some extra trickle of it eventually, but today's not that month week day.

The three pictures above are lousy. Lousier than usual. This is due to the fact that my nearly 13 year old dachshund, Daisy, is spoiled and hasn't been feeling well. This combination means she gets to sit with me on the sofa in the evenings. The pictures above were taken while said dachshund was firmly ensconced in the middle of my personal space. If you look at the picture of the sleeve, you'll see a portion of Her Highness on the left. Yes, I'm a sap and I didn't want to move her. Not only is taking pictures in this fashion not ideal, but trying to write a blog post ends up looking like this:


Spoiled rotten

You may be surprised she would allow me to perch my tablet on her back, but when she settles in with me, she's pretty much a moosh. An old, fat moosh. Love. This. Dog.

Do you ever procrastinate on something? Do tell!

Lisa 
xoxoxo