limedragon :)

Catch-Up

I finished the first week of two subbing fulltime at work. It wasn’t too bad, but next week is after Daylight Savings Time begins. Eek. On Wednesday, I couldn’t find a scarf I was wearing… I thought it had fallen onto the road or some such awful thing. I’d rather it get found and adopted by someone. Mom found it yesterday, though, so I’m happy! I had uploaded pictures of this scarf last week, but they’ve disappeared. Sigh. And after I had recycled the labels. I need to go and knit before I can cope with my long To Do list. : )

Red Pomi are all done

It was overcast again today but I was able to get two good pictures using the flash.

I’m happy with how these turned out, even if the ankles are just the tiniest bit baggy (probably because I blocked; next time I’ll just dry flat). I will definitely be wearing them tomorrow. :)

Adventures with Continental

I’ve been able to progress farther along on my left-hand scarf project. I was able to finish 8 inches in one sitting, yay! Some observations: Tension, tension, argh! It’s always been a problem when I try Continental knitting. If anyone has ideas/suggestions/wisdom to share, I’m all eyes. Practice does help… I think the number of wonky spots where the tension suddenly loosened is decreasing. I’m also moving my finger less and less when I purl. At the same time, my right arm moves more and more. Before Christmas 2005, I knit a Stashbuster Stole (by Clara Parkes, Knitters Review with the same yarn and same size needles (Classic Elite Montera; US 10.5). I put the Continental and English scarves side by side… there’s not as much a difference as I expected. My Continental gauge is about half a stitch looser than my English. Pleasing news for me! PS: My Red Pom socks are blocking; they became amazingly soft after a quick wash. No pictures yet, though, of the socks or the scarf, it’s very overcast today!

Quick Update on Red Poms

I am just about finished–I just need to graft the toes. I always seem to finish the toe decreases in the evenings. I’m usually a bit tired by then (close to bedtime), so I snip a long enough tail for the grafting and then leave it until the morning. Pictures later today, I hope?

Is third time the charm?

I’ve been obsessing thinking about trying Continental-style knitting again. I’ve tried it once in each of the past two years. I cannot remember the details of the first time (perhaps I blocked the memory?). I’m pretty sure I used straight needles and some cotton yarn. Oops!Last year, I joined the Thing-Along and used my sampler to practice Continental. I noticed two things right away; it’s much easier with circulars (somehow, there’s less stress/weight), and I have difficulty keeping tension with my left hand. I experimented endlessly with different ways of holding the yarn. The result was so ugly, because of the crazy tensioning and becasuse I couldn’t manage to stay in ribbing (gulp!). I frogged my Thing and tucked all thoughts of Continental knitting into a far corner of my mind.

The naughty persistent Continental thoughts have pushed their ways out of the depths of my mind. I really want to improve and hope this time it will work out. It’s really all a matter of practice. I commited myself to knitting a one-skein K1P1 ribbed scarf. Yes, for the whole skein, I must knit Continentally (is that even a word?). Luckily, I had some perfect scarf yarn handy: Classic Elite Montera, 50% llama, 50% wool, in 3883 Strawfield. I actually don’t like this color very much (it was part of a grab bag), so it’s perfect for Continental practice. I have one inch completed so far. It seems to go faster this time around, but my left hand was tired after a half-hour and the stitches were getting sloppy. Time for a break. Later I will practice more.
PS: The “I want to be a Continental Knitter” part of my mind snuck a Cro-Knit Tension Keeper into an online purchase last summer. I’m embarassed sorry to say I don’t remember where I put it.

Less “eh”

After yesterday’s site meltdown, I spent all morning cleaning up and removing errors. I think I’ve got everything ironed out. There are still a couple of weird errors I’ve contacted my host about.

I took some extra time to try out a few skins and still can’t find anything I specifically like. This one comes close, but is limited in the way only right-sided sidebars are allowed. But I threw together a quick header logo and will keep this until I get time to work on something better. Right now, it’s more important to be able to post stuff here, and be accessible, compared to the past two years, when the site wasn’t accessible. : )

Red Pomatomus

I LOVE this pattern! I LOVE the yarn!

For Project Spectrum March, may I present to you these red Pomatomus socks?

Pattern: “Pomatomus” by Cookie A, Knitty, Winter 2005
Yarn: Over the Rainbow (eBay store) Twinkletoes, Rosegarden
Needles: US 2 DPNs and 24″ circulars
Started: March 2006
Completed: TBD

I haven’t been able to work on these much lately–the gusset decreases seemed to take forever, but I finally finished that part. I got to about 5″ total on the instep while watching Veronica Mars. I should have another 2-1/2″ to go before I start the toe. Tonight, maybe?

OMG!!

I had some problems with the site earlier today… For a while, I thought I had lost everything… but I preserved, and voila! It’s working again.

Now I need to get some kind of skin/theme up and going. This one is soooo white.

Project Spectrum

I confess… I’ve always liked rainbows. There’s something about seeing all these colors together, and that’s what Project Spectrum reminded me of, even if we’re working only on a color group each month.(Does anyone remember the rainbow shirts from the early ’80s? They were white and had a rainbow going up one arm, across the chest, and down the other arm. I wanted one so badly!) Anyway, when I read about Project Spectrum, I signed up! I’ve also setup a sidebar for KALs and stuff.

The PS button is now there. :) Lolly wrote about colors I’ll quote here:

Colors elicit deep emotions and memories. Colors symbolize life events and the changing of the seasons. We surround ourselves with color - in our homes, in our gardens, and even on our dinner plate.

And my current sock project, which I’ll post about later today or tomorrow, I promise, is a perfect for celebrating red/pink!

Work Schedule

Normally, I work Mondays and Tuesdays. I don’t get to knit very much on these two days. But I usually make up for that during the rest of the week. :)

I’ve been asked to work full time for two weeks starting Monday. I couldn’t say no, because I didn’t have any valid reason for doing so. The extra money will be nice. Less knitting time, though, that’s not so good.