The Summer Finishes...

Now that they are officially above board, they spend all their time in the back window. Cats. Sigh. I managed to finish 2 projects since I last posted: These booties took me almost 3 years to make. Okay - truth be told, the knitting part took a weekend, crocheting the first 2 button loops took about 5 minutes, and then there was a 30+ month interval between that and me crocheting the last 2 button loops and sewing on the buttons. I am able to rationalize the time out because they were definitely boy colours, and the babies born in the interval form whom I would knit something were either girls, or were unknown genders and thus required gender neutral colours. (I realize that that excuse does not apply to the rest of my long list of UFO's.Oh well. )But now the wife of one of The Gambler's fencing coaches is expecting a boy. So I had the incentive to finish them. I also finished knitting my Honest Tee: In this case, it's just the knitting that is finished. I am still going to have to weave in ends, block it, and sew it up. I had toyed with the idea of knitting it in the round, but since this yarn apparently stretches after washing, I decided the seams might minimize bagging. And even though one of the benefits of knitting in the round is being able to try the garment on as you work it, it's possible to do it with pieced garments: I created temporary seams with T-pins that my Secret Pal so brilliantly gifted to me: The shoulder was "seamed" by alternating front and back stitches on the needle: There were 2 key learning points to doing the temporary seams: 1) Insert the pins with the points facing upward if you are going to pull the garment on over your head. This minimizes the likelihood that the pins will jab into you. 2) It is best to leave a bit of a gap below the underarm join, because if the pin sticks into the armhole proper, your armpit is going to get stuck. Now my goal is to get it to wearable state by Labour Day. Labour Day 2010, that is.

Letters from the Iditor

Welcome to a new feature on my blog - directly inspired by this hilarious post. Dear neighborhood yoga studio: It is super convenient that you are a mere 3 blocks away from my house, and it's very convenient to register for your classes on line. It might seem very New Age and non-hierarchical to label your classes with titles like "Activating" and "Awakening" rather than Level 1 and Level 2, but these vague titles might lead to people accidentally signing up for fairly advanced classes, and spending the better part of 90 minutes breathing through the pain. Sincerely, Ladylungdoc Dear City of Toronto Department of Solid Waste Management: Thank you for making it very easy for me to figure out the collection zone our house belongs to. That was a good joke on your part inserting a graphic of an out of focus calendar under the heading "Residential single family dwellings collection calendars". Would you consider getting a 10 year old to design a web page which includes a downloadable calendar so that I know if it is Thursday 1 or Thursday 2? Perhaps you could pay her with parking ticket revenues. It might also be a bit more efficient than having a dedicated automated phone line specifically for the purpose of leaving requests to have calendars mailed out to one's residence. Sincerely, LLD Back to the knitting: I have finished knitting the Plain Vanilla Stockinette Socks, but they aren't off the needles yet: They tried to use their protective colouring to blend into their surroundings, But the Intrepid Knitting Hunter Somerset is not easily foiled. Saartje Bootie #1 is off the needles: I hope to get the second one done this weekend. Almost forgot: Dear Kaleidoscope Designer: Thank you for designing this beautiful sweater. However, I'm kind of funny in that I tend to buy enough of a single sock yarn for one pair of socks, rather than enough to knit 3 pairs from the same colourway. Do you realize that this means I now have to go out and buy extra sock yarn just to use up what I already have? Did the yarn store owners put you up to this? Sincerely, LLD

Knitting Update

I managed to get alot of knitting done during our roadtrip. For the amount of time that I have spent on my sockapalooza socks, I should be completed them by now. However, after knitting about 7 inches of the foot, I decided that I should make the socks a wee bit wider, so I frogged back to the toe and added 4 stitches. I of course had the brilliant idea of ripping the toe back just before we got on a ferry; nothing like sitting out in the wind trying to slip stitches back on the needle. However, I was able to switch from addi bamboo needles (which have a slightly annoying join)over to addi lace needles, and I was extremely happy with the lace needles. Too bad they don't come in a 2mm size. The heels are done, although again I think I knit each heel at least 3 times; first I overestimated the depth of the heel for the number of stitches, then I made a mistake on the yarnover, then it turned out that the 2 socks weren't quite the same length (I do the short row heels one at a time - I switched one sock over to the addi bamboo needle, and added to the length of the socks separately rather than putting them back on the same circ). Next up is the cuff, which will include beads. Last night I threaded the beads onto the yarn and rewound it (watching CSI lessened the tedium of the task). I' m curious to see how they will look; they are very similar to the yarn colours, as you can see in this photo. Other projects that I cast on during the trip include Purple Pi: a second Kitty Pi cat bed - this one should be larger capacity than the first one. I'm also working on some baby booties - The Gambler's brother's wife is due any day now. I am considering knitting I cord rather than using ribbon for the tie, although knitting I cord on 3 mm needles might drive me insane.