a dillydallyknitter: May 2006

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

You Know You Knit Too Much...

...When You Find Knitting Notions Hidden in Odd Places

Sunday is bed sheet changing day chez cpurl and I picked up the duvet corner to give my comforter a good shake and heard something rattling around. Assuming it was a cat toy, I reached in to the far corner and found this:



Ever since I read "At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much", I constantly discover how many apply to me. Now, if I could only knit in my sleep...

Last night, I finished my first pair of Cascade Fixation KAL Socks:


Our Kal Hostess, Knitpastis, (could she be any cuter? I think not) knit a pair of ankle socks from one ball of Cascade Fixation and I was doubtful when I started that I could do the same but she was right! At $5.00 a ball, this is pretty economical knitting. And they knit up fast, so my need for instant gratification is easily met (why I chose knitting, which takes infinite concentration and patience as my addiction,is beyond me) .

And last but not least, last Saturday was Cary's 3rd birthday. He was clearly in a "no photos, please" mood and pushed my camera out of the way.


Me thinks somebody had a few too many dips in the cat nip.....

posted by cpurl17 @ 11:23 AM   8 comments

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The Road to Beautiful Hair is Paved With Good Intentions

or "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute"



I cleaned out one of the cabinets in my bathroom today and couldn't believe the amount of money I've spend on beauty products, or as your favorite hair dresser would say, "Product", only to be disappointed when it failed to make my hair as thick and shiny and glorious as promised. Where's the bottle of White Rain?

Of course, now that I've discovered YARN, it's easier to not waste money on something as silly as hair products.

Speaking of suckers...


...today I wandered into a little yarn shop to just "have a look". I had no intentions of buying yarn but you know those shops where you walk in and no other customers are there and you just feel like, eventhoughit'sYOURhardearnedmoney that you should buy something? So, I bought some Cascade Fixation (only $4.50 - $5.00/ball) yarn to make some little ankle socks out of. A few days I ago I was reading Zknitter's blog and she mentioned there's a Cascade Fixation Ankle Sock KAL going on, hosted by KnitPastis so naturally, I joined in.


(question of the day: why does the word "blog" come up in spellcheck when you're using BLOGger to work on your BLOG?)

posted by cpurl17 @ 5:43 PM   5 comments

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

"J"....is for J-E-L-L-O


Last winter my Mother, sister and I went to Disneyland and, unfortunately, my sister caught a stomach flu and could only eat really bland food. She called room service and asked for some Jello and, naturally, being Disney, they wouldn't just slop some jello in a bowl, and this is how it was presented. With the domed silver food cover and everything.
Oh, and being the supportive sister that I am, I showed my solidarity by eating both her and my share of the Mickey Mouse ice cream bars, pancakes and churros.

In knitting news, I finished my sister's socks, yay!

Regia sock yarn Cotton "Tip & Top": 41%wool, 34% cotton, 25% polyamid. Knit in a 2X2 rib pattern on U.S size 0's


and immediately cast on for some socks for my Dad (belated B-day present).


The colors didn't come out very well in this photo--the green is actually a dark forest green and the yellow is more deeper golden-yellow than it shows here. They're going to be lucky Oakland A's socks.

I've made some progress on my Noni bag as well--got halfway on the the body.

posted by cpurl17 @ 8:26 PM   5 comments

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Project Spectrum May: Green

This is the first month I'm participating in Project Spectrum. I missed the first two months of the project, March (Red & Pink) and April (Orange & Yellow). As you can see, the color this month is GREEN.


Project Spectrum - May
Originally uploaded by cpurl17.
With the exception of the photo showing the nearby rolling hills of green (now rapidly turning brown), these are all items around my house.

I'm also part of the Project Spectrum postcard swap for the month of May and this it the postcard I created for Joanne of Keep Talking .


In truth, I signed up for this thinking "This will be a piece of cake" and then I googled "project spectrum postcard" so I could steal borrow get some ideas & inspiration and was blown away by the postcard creativity out there. Gulp. This is one project where even the teensiest bit of scrapbooking skills would come in handy and I have zilch.

Anyway, I decided to create a collage of green things. In the upper right hand corner is a little knit swatch using one of the Brittany needles I broke last week. The teeny quote is Elizabeth Zimmerman, "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises."



posted by cpurl17 @ 9:08 AM   8 comments

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Baseball, Sox 4 My Sister and SP Madness

My sister modeled one completed sock before we headed out for an Oakland A's vs. the Seattle Mariner's baseball game. I knit this pair on size 0's and it was coming out just a skosh too small for me but perfect for her size 4.5 feet.

Here, in homage to the Yarn Harlot school of traveling sock photography, Mr. Sock enjoys the view from the BART train:


And here he takes in the warm up while waiting for his cold beer. (Cup holders make great yarn holders)

Two things of note happened during this game:

1) In the 3rd Inning, Adam Melhus hit a GRAND SLAM which pretty much set the pace for a 12-6 win over the Mariners. (Hey K, he was born in Santa Clara!)
and
2) In the 5th Inning, I turned the heel on my sock from memory and without looking at my cheat sheet! So, as a have-to-repeat-something-100-times-before-I-Get-It-knitter, this means I can now knit a sock from memory, yay!

Note to self: when your Team hits a Grand Slam and you throw your arms up in the air--don't forget that you're holding knitting needles. Luckily, there was no one next to me and no eyes were poked out but I did manage to pull about 4 feet of yarn out of my bag

In other news, I have become the Tracy Flick of Secret Paling and, in a bit of overzealousness, I realized that I have signed up for:

1) Knitty.com's SP 07
2) The One Skein Swap
3) The Cheap A$$ SP 2
4) Project Spectrum's post card swap

Luckily, these take more creativity than cash and it's fun so I won't need to take out a second mortgage in order to play.

posted by cpurl17 @ 6:40 PM   9 comments

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Blog-goggles, Knitting Needles, Some Progress (Finally!!) on a Sweater and a Half-Finished Sock

1001 Other Uses for Knitting Needles:

Use #106: A number 15 bamboo needle makes an excellent tool for helping the vertically challenged get that summer blanket down from the top shelf.

My darling sister is coming to town (yay!!) so I vacuumed up the mounds of cat hair and put fresh sheets on the guest room bed. (Don't tell the kitties it's a guest room--they think they have their own private bath. Ok fine, they DO have their own private bath--don't tell my guests, they think the nice fluffy towels are for them).

So fellow knitting bloggers--do you find yourself going through the day looking at the world though Blog-goggles, e.g., "Damn, I wish I had my camera! I could use that photo for my blog?" or "Hmmm...I wonder if that growing pile of dryer lint will make a good 'L is for' photo?" Since my photoblogalism world right now covers a good three foot radius of my computer, I make do with what I have (with the occasional trip outside for good behavior).

I've finally made some progress on one of my sweater projects- the Cabaret Raglan and my first time reading a chart so there was a lot of tinking & ripping. Since it's getting warm around here, I can't see making much progress on the Sunrise Circle Jacket for the next few months.

Unblocked Front:



May sock progress:



Apparently, Cary had a rough day at the Office:

posted by cpurl17 @ 10:43 PM   13 comments

Friday, May 05, 2006

User Error


I boo-hoo'd to my sister that no one left a comment on my last post (alright,so the Iron Trail isn't that interesting but the kitty photo was kinda cute) and she pointed out that apparently, in a spazmatic moment, I set my comments restriction on blogger to allow, uh, no one. And for the, oh, 3-4 of you out there who so eagerly await my next brilliant captivating way to kill time while I'm at work post, I offer my humble apologies. So please comment. Please?

posted by cpurl17 @ 8:08 PM   8 comments

Thursday, May 04, 2006

I is for Iron

The Iron Horse Trail is a 23 mile trail converted from an old Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way established in 1891 and abandoned in 1977. It's also part of a nationwide effort to convert old rail lines into trails.



But the iron horse is nothing compared to the iron will of a knitter who baffled over a pattern but is determined to knit on. In my year of trying things new...I am learning to knit from a chart and am starting with something simple--an old Norah Gaughan pattern. Last night I was knitting along on the second line of the chart and came out 2 stitches off so, since it was late, I put the knitting down and went to sleep. Tonight, at knit club, my knitting buddy from *left coast knits and I tried to figure out what was going on, counting, re-counting and, I was about to give up, when I noticed the row in question (purl row) had two decreases printed on the chart that no other purl row had and, voila!, the two off stitches! Chart error, not user error!

It may not be as exciting as breaking the Da Vinci Code but it made me feel pretty smart.


I couldn't be a CCL without sneaking in another gratuitous cat photo so:

I is also for iris:

Nefertiti had nothing on Mika's eyeliner.

posted by cpurl17 @ 10:40 AM   9 comments