Cursed bamboo!

My soleil tank finally finished drying, so I wore it to work on Wednesday. Initially, all was well, but after a few hours I noticed that the edge of my bra would show a bit if I had my lab coat on. Since it was cold in the hospital, I just buttoned up the lab coat. I then got home, and proceeded to unpack boxes in a hot, humid, unairconditioned house...and then I noticed that my bra was definitely peeking our in the armholes. I knew that live bamboo can grow at amazingly fast rates, but it hadn't occured to me that the straps on my tank top would do the same: So I will have to rip back the straps a good inch on both front and back: Sigh.

Blocking!

Soleil is blocking: There are still a few ends to weave in from the crochet border. The top would have been completely done by now except for the fact that I got distracted by this: My cousin and his wife (who live in California) are having a baby in October; we are going to be in Los Angeles for the baby shower, so I plan to give them this jacket as a present. I'm hoping that there will be enough left over to knit a pair of booties to match. I've made the executive decision that turquoise is a gender-neutral colour. I was tempted to convert the sleeves to being knitted in the round, but decided to follow the pattern as written; hopefully the 2 seams won't hold me back from finishing. We move into the new house on Tuesday; I can't wait. On Monday night I slipped and started to fall down the stairs; I somehow got one arm caught in the railing: I also have a big bruise on my butt, but I'm just happy that I didn't break or dislocate my arm. Initially I couldn't figure out how it happened, but then I realized that the first step at the top is quite short - I caught myself stepping onto the edge and starting to slip on the carpet yesterday. Then last night there was a HUGE spider in the bathroom - I of course screamed when I saw it. Greedo came to check that I was OK - he did the same thing 2 weeks ago; I screamed because there was a spider on my arm, which cause Somerset to tear out of the room, a few minutes later Greedo walked up to me, gave me the once over and then walked back to where Somerset was sitting. Finally today, I went to check the mailbox for flyers to put into the recycling bin (my "no flyers" sign has faded enough that it gets ignored), and there was a note saying that the gas was disconnected today because the account is in arrears. After several hours on the phone, my landlady determined that a) the account wasn't in her name, our our name, but was in her ex-boyfriend's name, b) that instead of the account being in arrears for $950, there is actually a credit on the account, and c) that the gas company will need to send someone over to re-light the pilot light. Tomorrow. The day that I go back to work. Sigh.

Almost done!

I took Sophia's suggestion and did a 3 needle bind off to attach the straps to each other. I hadn't done a 3 needle bind off previously, so I was surprised at how easy it was. And I even got extra practice in it when I realized that I had bound a back side to a front side. I think I had once quickly looked at the instructions for 3-needle bindoff in my Vogue Knitting book and found them somewhat confusing, so had semi-written it off as something I would never learn. This is the tank pre-finishing. I still have to block it and crochet around the edges - another technique that I have not had the incentive to learn until now. I'm hoping that the straps will be a bit more likely to cover bra straps once I do the edging. This back view of the tank as it is right now suggests to me that a racerback bra would be a no-go. One of these days I have to get around to buying those clear brastraps for my strapless bra.

Coachella quandry

Hey! Titles are back!! So, as I packed up my stash, I realized that I have 800m of the Colineete Enigma. Instead of using it for Coachella, I might use it to knit a Halfobi So I am now trying to figure out what yarn to use. I do have 2 skeins of Cotton Fleece; the yardage is a bit less than what the pattern calls for. I might just start knitting and see how far I get... Speaking of how far I get - this is how much I have left to knit on the Soleil tank: It's going to take me a while to completely finish it - there's over a dozen ends to weave in, and I'm going to kitchener the straps together rather than binding off and sewing them together. I have 1.6 balls of the bamboo yarn left. Now I just have to figure out what to start next - I've got a 4.5 hour plane ride ahead of me on Friday - which reminds me, it's time to pack!

A Gravitational Field That Absorbs the Light of the Sun Even though I have divided for the neckline and armholes... ...I appear to have entered the Black Hole of knitting. Only 72 stitches per row, but all of a sudden it seems that I knit and knit and knit, but the measuring tape doesn't show any difference. Two more days left here - today we attacked the "storage closets" and went through some boxes that never got unpacked from the last move...disheartening. We realized that I have a heck of alot of billing sheets that contain confidential information, and no means to easily destroy them (our shredder died). So The Gambler had a surreptitious bonfire on our secondary (gravel) driveway, with the garden hose at hand. (open fires aren't very popular around here) He thinks that he got about 1/2 way through them before it got dark. I went through my makeup/toiletry stuff while he was doing that; which brought home that I have gotten into a "don't bother putting any makeup on" slump. Not that I normally do the Tammy Faye thing, but I usually put on eyeliner, eyeshadow and lipstick when I go to work/go out. Makes me look less tired. I still have the blush powder that I wore to my highschool graduation - I have hung onto it because it is the perfect colour for my complexion, but come to think of it, I can't even remember when I last used it - I think at my wedding. In the last few months I have caught a few "makeover shows"; I can see the allure of having someone else come in and toss out what doesn't work for you. It's so much easier to toss something when you have absolutely no history with it. Theoretically this move is a chance for us to "start over", but in reality, it's just changing lanes. I've been spending lots of time on Ravelry; it's way more enjoyable than doing moving-related tasks. I am trying to focus on assigning projects to various bits of my stash. My numbers constantly surprise me - I have 19 knitting books that are in the Ravelry database, plus at least 6 or 7 books that aren't yet entered into the system. And I have FIFTY TWO yarns (not 52 skeins...52 different yarns!)entered into my stash database. And I still have more that isn't in there. Plus, one of the entries is "Regia Sock Yarn", which covers about 8 different yarns. I swear by all that is holy that I am going to devise some system to make yarn usage > yarn development. Sigh. And to add maudlin to melancholy, I miss the cats: Greedo was practicing for the smaller house. Downsizing can be a bitch.

Soleil Rising Still can't post a title. Even if I hit Edit Html. P.O.S. Blogger!Bah!! Spent several hours working on Soleil yesterday: Thus far, I've only twice had to change skeins midway through to minimize pooling. Actually, watching out for pooling has eliminated the "miles of stockinette boredom" effect. The Gambler watched the UFC pay-per-view last night, so I took the opportunity to do a swatch for Cochella out of Colinette Enigma: It's a thick/thin ribbon yarn, and is supposed to knit up at "heavy worsted" weight. The swatch was kind of wonky in that the thick portions kept overlapping. I think I am going to give it a try with these needles. I think it will be a good project to work on when I fly back to Ontario on Friday. I would definitely wear a bra underneath it, given the openness of some of the stitches! In the meantime, we are going through each room in the house, deciding what to toss. Always stressful; regretting having aquired something and not using it, guilt about throwing away something that is still useable, and panic that I might end up needing/wanting it at some point in the future. Speaking of guilt, I have pretty well fallen off of the wagon in terms of not adding to the stash in the last few months. I am hoping that keeping track of my stash and "to-do" list on Ravelry will prevent duplicate purchases and will enable me to match stash yarns to potential projects a bit better. I decided to upgrate to Flickr Pro so that I can get all my stash and WIP photos in there.

I have completed the lace portion of Soleil: I did 4 repeats rather than 3 in order to add to the length. I quite like the way that the variegation works with the lace pattern (I guess that's why Monkey is so popular, duh). I am now having a debate with myself if I want to further add to the length below the waist by doing 6 rows between decreases instead of 5. In the last few days I have been updating my Ravelry notebook. It's a bit tedious, but it will be useful for me to keep better track of what yarn I have available, as well as helping me to keep track of patterns that I want to knit. I'm also giving some thought to whether or not I should start another pair of socks in July. I asked the Gambler if he wanted me to knit him some socks for his birthday, and he said he'd rather I knit him another pair of moozhies (the term his grandmother used for socks that she knit for her family). Since I have several summer items that I want to knit, I may just work on them instead. I have a tendency to set goals or make plans and then feel bad when I don't achieve them...when in reality there is no damage done to anyone or anything. So the yarn sits in my stash for a while - big deal! The Gambler often tells me that I can find more ways to make myself feel bad than ways to make myself feel good - I have to admit that there is some truth in his words.

New stuff

I finished the first Sockapalooza Sock last night: My pal has long thin feet, and this is stretchy yarn knit into a ribbed pattern. So it looks kind of freakishly narrow off the foot. Here's an approximation of what they will look like when they are worn. That's my arm standing in for a leg. Her foot diameter is about the same as my hand diameter. This is why I can never buy commercially made women's gloves. I have also cast on for Soleil: The lace might be a bit hidden by the multicoloured yarn, but the bulk of the tank is stockinette anyways. By the way - I am having issues with my laptop and leaving comments on Blogger hosted blogs. Sometimes the comment page gets reloaded over and over again. Problems arose with error messages when I installed an update related to the change in the Daylight Savings start/end dates. So in other words, it is George Bush's fault.