I'm Back

Mr B and I had a phenomenal trip in San Fran. I'm amazed at how much we fit into a week (well 6 days). Highlights include: the Bridge (of course), having my fortune told by a mechanical wizard, the sea-lions on Pier 39, Muir woods, wine tasting, knitting on various modes of transportation (love public transport in SF), Uncle Vito's Pizza, Artfibers and ImagiKnits - both wonderful, friendly experiences, North Shore Jazz festival going up Coit Tower (what great views) among other things. Here's some random shots from the trip.

One downer was that when we got back our mailbox was empty, I called USPS to find out what happened, finally got a call back from the local office. After some 'discussion' it turns out that they don't know where my mail is, they think that the postman just took it all out when he thought the mailbox was too full and he may have kept it, or just returned to sender. We were away for a week, a WEEK people!! So now I have to go in on Monday to see if they have my mail. I don't know if they have my Netflix movies (LOST - Goddammit!), any cards and/or gifts for my birthday. I'm pissed! I've never had this happen before, I've never had my mail confiscated for going away on vacation for a week - WTF!?

The upper is that I had a nearly finished top to finish off waiting for me when I got home. I finished it this morning, and here it is, please excuse my San Fran t-shirt tan (yes, for me, this is tanned).


Yarn: Suss Cotton in Chamois
Needles: Denise's in US 9 and 10.5
Pattern: Lelah Top modified. By Knitting for Boozehags.
Mods/thoughts: The most obvious was the straps I added, I did them in a ribbing pattern. I did a single crochet edging. The top feels a tad too big, but I still love it!


I've had a test knitter (thanks Harriet!) give me excellent feedback on the twisted tweed socks and just have to tweak the pattern a little. Trouble is, I have to go out for dinner this evening, then Mr B has a gig tonight - technically tomorrow since it's at 1am! So I hope I get a chance to get it out in a few days. Thanks for your patience.

Ooh La La!

Feeling French? I certainly am today! I can keep you in the dark no longer, I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with with this FO, I love the color and the style, thanks Veronique! It is a slightly bigger fit than anticipated, but I'm okay with a little more breathing space :)

Excuse the electronic drum kit in the background, Mr. B. needs hobbies too eh?

Close-up of front detail

Pattern: Phildar #30, Débardeur, from Spring Tendances 2004
Yarn: Toccata by Lana Grossa in color 98
Needles: US 3 & 4 Boye Needlemaster (not my fave, but hey! they work)
Mods: Mostly the same, except I left 7 stitches at the end of the pattern on the front and did a k1, p1 ribbing for the straps, just giving a little extra thickness. It also looks a little neater to me.

While I'm on the French mode, I notice that my hit count went up on Tuesday, and I was curious enough to look at why. I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had translated my supple rib armwarmer pattern into French. Il est fantastique! I feel so Cosmopolitan now.

Yoooo Hooooo!

EDIT: while I wrote this blog on 9/25, it seems that blogger is not my friend. I had to republish again today. DOH!

If anyone out there was wondering, yes, I'm still here, and no I haven't given up on blogland yet. The dastardly cold virus got me, and it got me good. I had to work through it [well, went home early one day]. I had to bow out of the genius, and fun sounding Sock Wars. I was such a warrier at work, that I had no energy to get the unexpected goods required for battle. Did anyone see dk yarn and #5 dpns coming? I sure didn't. Having seen some of the socks that have already been completed, I'm impressed. I wish everyone good luck in the battle, may the best sockster win!

Naturally, I had to share the bloody cold with Mr. B. so the poor man had to suffer our exceptionally busy weekend going here and there, but struggled through. Weekend was fun, I wasn't so keen on the whole 80's theme of the party in CT, but had way more fun than expected.

I did manage to finish a knitted item though, here's a sneak peek. More photos to come when I can find some daylight, it's getting a bit shy.


Right, I better get going, I have a bunch of blog reading to get to - I have to admit that it's a little daunting to be so far behind. If I don't say hi quite yet, don't worry, I haven't forgotten you.

Pictures.

I debated about posting this, but finally decided to. This was the view from our roof last night. It was a strange and emotional day, but the tribute in lights is a beautiful and touching tribute.






On a lighter note, come and have a looksie at the yarnmail I got last week:

Some cotton, for a secret pattern.

Some gorgeous cotton by Lana Grossa for a gorgeous Phildar Cami, probably will be complete just in time for the cold weather :)

Finally, some black cotton/acrylic (pretty soft and nice) for the Men's Zipped Raglan from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" [YAWN] for Mr. B.

Anyone seen the new Knitty issue? I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. You should check it out.

Spiders, Oysters and the blood bath.

So, I got up the guts decided to meet with the Spiders at their favorite haunt the Point and I have to say that it was absolutely lovely to finally meet the girls behind the blogs I've been stalking reading over the past months. I am not so great at names (make that terrible) so I can't remember the names of everyone who was there. I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to name all the Spiders that I met, I'll only end up missing people out or (worse still) making people up. But everyone seemed really great and I want to say a big hello and thank you to all of you that were were there yesterday, it was a pleasure to meet you all, and you made my first time knitting with a group most enjoyable. I do have to say a big thank you to Michelle, who originally invited me when I met her on the way to the Suss sale in July (I also briefly met Carrie) and thanks also to Veronique, who actually persuaded me to be there yesterday.

As I promised... the bloodbath story. It's the story of my Soliel and the shitty yarn Cotton Patine. I was hand washing it and had actually forgotten about the purple fingers I got when I was knitting it. Not for long though, I look and it bleeds the moment it touches the water - I figured they might have put too much dye in it, so continued to wash it. Oh my God!! I couldn't believe how quickly the water turned the richest deepest purple - more purple than my Soleil. So I rushed to the kitchen cupboard (don't worry, it wasn't that far away), grabbed the vinegar and added it to the water to stop the bleeding. It worked, but my top had a more distinctive odor and was about 10 shades lighter (one step away from frigging lilac). Don't believe me? Look, see:

See? Believe it or not, this is the same yarn.
Needless to say, I'm totally disappointed with this yarn, to anyone who plans to use and wash this yarn, I have one word to say to you.....vinegar.


On a lighter note, I will be heading off to the Riverside Park Oyster Festival later on this afternoon. Some music as well as Oysters and Guinness galore - I like neither oysters, nor Guinness, but it's a fabulous excuse to get out into that beautiful September day, enjoy the sunshine and have a laugh with friends.

Hope everyone else has a wonderful weekend.

Warning - contents in this post may be upsetting and/or offensive.

So Mr. B and I went to BODIES The Exhibition on Saturday (yes! this last Saturday, the Saturday the skies opened and the wind blew mightily! And yes! we did get wet, really, really wet). Anyway, I emailed a good friend back home about various things, including this exhibit and she emails me back telling me there is a big controversy about this exhibit (I guess I was living under a rock, cos there are a ton of stories about this). God damn! Can't a girl just go and look at her plastinated cadavers without all this guilt?

Needless to say, I didn't know this before I went, and the biologist in me found much of it fascinating - my favorite part was the blood vessels, the body can truly be beautiful.

Knowing what I know now, I'm not sure if I would do it again...

Coming next: the blood bath - or how my Soleil lost it's lustre.

Finally! Photos.

Okay, okay, my blogging has been a little lacklustre recently. I don't have a valid excuse really, all I can say is that I haven't had an awful lot to photograph, and I really couldn't go with 3 photo-less posts in a row.

I had started the very famous, very lovely Pomatomus socks which I continue to call 'potamus' socks, even though I realized about 6 months ago that it not what they are called. However, after casting on 3 times already, this is as far as I got.


I decided that I currently suck at reading patterns with more than a couple of different rows and have put them down (they still needed to be frogged). The yarn is the fingering weight Kona yarn that I dyed in turquoise.

Instead I decided to use up the rest of my pink bamboo yarn to knit up the razor cami. There were so many lovely razors popping up in the blogging world, that I decided that I couldn't be left out. Progress has been considerable compared to the darned socks!!



And up close...

Soleil

Complete! Finito! Done!

EDIT: Here are the stats as promised.

Pattern: Soleil, I did have to adapt the pattern slightly as I used US 7 to change the gauge a little, so I knit less rows, somehow this worked for me.
Source: Spring '05 Knitty.
Yarn: Cotton Patine in color 05 - Damson
Needles: Denise Interchangeable US 7 - these are fantastic for knitting tops, and I can add more cable, so that I have the room to try on the top while I'm knitting.

It's coming...

I have no idea if I told you what pattern I [finally] decided upon for the Cotton Patine from the Suss Sale. So, just in case I've been leaving you out of the loop. I opted for the Soleil Pattern from Knitty as it was mostly knit in the round, it was the right gauge and I had enough yarn for the pattern.

Now, the top is very nearly finished, just finishing and blocking to do. And I should have FO pics to show very soon, here's a little teaser to whet your appetite...


The yarn itself is pretty nice to knit with, soft and no 'ouch' factor commonly associated with knitting cotton. However, there are two things that could be an issue for some. The yarn can be a little splitty (bit like the Madil Eden bamboo I was using for the Picovoli), I did find that I had to 'go back' sometimes, to re-knit a stitch that had split, luckily I've become pretty practiced at picking up dropped stitches, so no frogging or tinking needed for just one stitch. The other thing is that the dye in the yarn has come off on my hands. I first thought that my eyes were playing up a little, but no, my nails are purple-pink where they should be white, and don't even ask about what my ibook looks like right now!

Disaster

Disaster has struck! I know it's not the end of the world, but it's pretty upsetting to me all the same. This weekend, while knitting my socks in the the cool [self] hand-dyed yarn the following 3 things happened:

1. The pattern I originally decided on was not showing the yarn the way I wanted. But, thinking I could get past that, I carried on past the instep. Trying on the sock I realized that it was waaaaay too tight for my elephantine ankles. So I spent several hours trying to find a new pattern, then frogged the 1/2 a sock I had - I was very strong, no crying for me. I cast on again for the River Rapids sock pattern by Sock-bug.

my sock! my beauuutiful sock!
2. In getting past the ankle I tried on this sock, it fits!!! Yay for me. However, half-way through the foot I look at what I have in sock, and what I have in yarn - there is no way that I have enough to finish this sock. The sock needs to be 2 (maybe even 3) inches shorter so that I will have my toes covered. I haven't had the heart to frog just yet, because...

Toeless River Rapids sock
3. During all this sock knitting I started noticing a numbness in my right ring finger. I put it down to holding the needles very tightly (the reason why avoid metal needles at all costs). It is still numb today however, and after a quick symptom check on the internet I have come to the conclusion that there is a 99% chance that I have developed Carpel Tunnel Syndrome from knitting the socks. I have to put down my knitting (certainly the dpns) for at least a week and see if the numbness goes. I could weep!

I'm a strong woman, I know think I can survive not knitting for a week without a complete breakdown, although it's going to be hard. At least I have my spinning, which has been neglected somewhat recently, and I have a little more yarn to dye - which will keep me out of trouble for a little while. I also have plenty of time to find that 'perfect' tank pattern (I'm hoping that circs will still be okay - for some reason I don't hold them as tight with a larger project).

That's enough sympathy-seeking from me. Hope you're all staying cool.

Picovoli

Picovoli

Here are the pictures, as promised. Not too much to say on this one, I'm pretty pleased with it, esp. since it's my first top for me. I only wish that I were a few pounds lighter so I wouldn't feel the need to suck in my stomach when wearing this pretty top. The pattern is Grumperina's Picovili. I knit it using Madil Eden which is 100% bamboo, in color 623 (called coral or pink, depending on the site you go on). I love the feel of this yarn, it's soft and has a super-nice drape (hence the stomach sucking), very much like a cotton in weight. As some other knitters have found. I have 5 more balls left, and now have decide what tank I would like to make with it - I REALLY enjoyed knitting with it. I like Paulina, the Honeymoon Cami and another one that I can't find, which was a stockinette tank, with a lacy bottom, they are all very different, I think that I should stick with simple as I only have 5 balls. Anyone have any ideas?

Shoulder detail.

I'm back

Well, I returned safely from a wonderful trip away, which involved beaches and sand and mini-golf and go-carts and the solving of murders. As well as enjoying the 4th of July celebrations on the beach surrounded by wizzing and explosion - kind of terrifying, but lots of fun. The pics are a little blurry, but give you an idea of just how many were going off around us on.




I also very, very nearly finished Picovoli (just a few more rounds and she will be complete) pictures of that to follow. In terms of knitting, that is all I can tell you about. I even dragged everyone out in search of a yarn store that was supposed to be close by - but it was either closed down or totally made up, little disappointing for me, but nevermind. Other parts of my trip involved, beach, pool, chilling, beer, great friends, more chilling and sun and beach and pool. Altogether and very relaxing time away. Thanks Courtney, Chris and Jeff.