HaNdKrAfT

Note to self: Gauge swatches are important, but even MORE important is BLOCKING the swatch!

I pulled out my Gauge swatch for the alpaca lace cardigan: completely unblocked.  This, of course explains why my finished cardigan is too big.  I religiously knit gauge swatches.  Block them? Not so much.  I won't make that mistake twice.  And since I really want to start designing my own knit-ware, I have to avoid these mistakes.  The finished sweater is GORGEOUS. But it does not fit well.  Should I consider undoing it? Not as such, no. So lesson learned: BLOCK the lace gauge swatch. 

I am on to another project, and am going to be taking some time off next week.  I have had a week that has been hell on wheels both at work and personally.  I don't know if S is going to get to come visit before he deploys.  I need that kind of stress relief!  My  friend D has a massive kidney infection... she is on a super high protein diet (who knows if there is any connection) and I have not heard from BJ in about two weeks.  I need to be able to "calm down and de-stress" pronto.  I am feeling overwhelmed with everything just now.  Oh, and did I mention, I am not sure what to knit next?

This Just In...

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have given their daughter a name shared with a four-legged type of fur bearing mammal: the Alpaca.  Way to go scientology!  Go support your local Suri Alpaca everywhere in support of their little girl.  Oh, and pray for the child as well.  Her name is not her fault.

Good Dog, Bad Dog

          I normaly think that Jack is a Good Dog.  He is not yappy, occasionaly sits on my lap or lets me rub his tummy.  He is housebroken and a good watchdog. But this morning he was a capital “B” Bad Dog.  For some reason he decided that chewing up a pencil was a good thing to do at 5:30 in the morning.  I was still asleep.  His chewing plan was going ok until he bit off about a two inch section of the pencil, and it got lodged between his upper teeth.  Not fun anymore was it Jack?  Needless to say, he was making unusual noise, and thrashing about.  This of course woke me up early. Urgh.

          One of the benefits of having an eight pound dog is that you can pick him up easily.  Jack was put into the kitchen sink, so he would not have a lot of room to move, and I pulled the pencil out of his mouth.  No cuts, no slivers of pencil in his mouth, and no real harm done other than me panicking.  No $300 emergency vet bill.  Where did he get the pencil you might ask?  From the dining room table.  We have both learned our lesson: Jack’s was not to chew on pencils, and mine was to put all pencils (along with pens, just as a precaution) up where he can’t get them.

          And after all of that, himself became a piece of velcro untill I left for work.

Entering the Home Stretch

So I am 14 inches done with the sleeves on my lace cardi.  I took a look at the pattern, and from the top of the cap to the bottom of the armhole.  I don't think that is enough.   I am going to tweak the length some to make it a little longer.  Hopefully it will fit in the hole for the sleeve.  I am not sure why it is so short, but I am going to do some adjusting. I think that if I increase the cap length to about 6 inches, I will be able to work it with the arm-hole.  Since this is the first sweater I have ever designed, I am just going to go with it until it works.  I don't think that I am going to make the pattern available for it though.  I have made too many tweaks and adjustments to write a decent pattern.  The arrowhead lace patten I borrowed from several sources, including Interweave knits and Barbara Walker's books.

Coming soon: my first self published pattern - the Ipod sweater.  A long sleeve raglan with several pockets for your Ipod Nano.  Y'all will have to stay tuned to see how it turns out.   

In other news, I have decided not to go up north for vacation.  I am going to use the money to put in my first order with Henry's attic, and spend some time spinning. 

Cupcake. Wherfore art thou Cupcake?

I knitted a cupcake. It had a green base, and a white frothy frosting like top.  I embellished the top with pretty beads.  And then I left to go run a load of laundry, and this happened.   He took it.  And of course, I can't say no. 

My dog is not spoiled, I am just well trained.

So of course, I knitted him a ball out of the white yarn, and stuffed it very tight.  Because the cupcake, as it was, is no more.  It is now a mangled mass of fiberfill and yarn.   Note to self: the next cupcake gets put up where himself can't get it.

So, I got a call from S the other day, and he is talking about coming over to visit for a few days before he is deployed overseas.  Right when I was supposed to go up to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  I am conflicted.  I want to go, but I don't want to not see S. either.  And if I don't see S, now, then the next time I will get to see him is in late 2007.  Of course the other consideration is that I will just be finishing up a trial, and won't want to drive 12 hours.  But the other dilemma is that S. is not sure that he is even going to be able to come, and won't know for a while if he will be able to or not.   

The Icks

Good news, and not such good news.  To start off with, the not such good news: I caught whatever stomach flu was going around this weekend.  I have never felt so weak in my entire life.   I was a 28 year old woman who had to sit down in the Super Target several times, because I just did not have the energy to move.  I even considered using one of those motorized carts, but by the time I realized that I could, I was ready to check out.  I am feeling better, but I have not had any solid food in about 48 hours.  (What a way to kick start a diet!)  Of course Jack was on top of me the entire time.  He laid down with me the whole weekend, on the pillow behind my head.  This is an old picture, but it perfectly illustrates my eight pound furry magnet.

The Good news is that I have been accepted into Secret Pal 8.  I am really looking forward to starting this, so I can get to know someone new.  As y'all can see from the side of my site, I have also joined the One Skein Secret Pal Swap.  I am looking forward to that too! I think the neatest thing about that swap is that you actually make something and send it to your pal.  The item should be inspired by the book, or one of the patterns in it.  It would be neat to do the "baby" knits - as I don't have children myself, other than my fur-baby Jack.