knitabit

The Second Century

This entry is my 101st since starting this blog! As if anyone cares!

I survived the big DARCA conference. It was both well-attended and well-received, and nothing went too horribly wrong. Just the standard stuff - some minor audio (microphone) problems and a speaker who very rudely exceeded his allotted time (after being flashed repeated signals, he publicly admitted that he'd been asked to stop but then CONTINUED TO TALK ANYWAY.) The fun thing about being in charge is that I get to secretly blacklist such people. Wielding supreme executive power - it's a good thing.

I collapsed on the couch yesterday evening and drank two beers. I feel very refreshed this morning.

One of our conference attendees was a knitter, and she very boldly knitted during most of our presentations. She was a good knitter, too - continental style - younger than me, and knitting some very fun stuff (one of those baby hats shaped like a raspberry, etc.) We talked about how knitting actually increases your attentiveness at these kinds of affairs. She gave me the inspiration to bring along my knitting to the conference I'll be attending next week.

Glove and worm

I didn't start the next pair of socks after all - I saw my partially-finished Koigu glove lying in the stash pile and it was looking kind of lonely. I ripped it back all the way to the cuff (I had completed three of the fingers) because I wanted to do a thumb gusset.

There are some interesting glove instructions in the Winter issue of IK. Unfortunately, I started knitting the glove before I found the article about gussets - about 5 pages back from the glove article. Since my own personal thumbs stick out from the side of my hand and not from some spot inside my palm, I decided the glove would be a lot more functional if its thumb protruded in a similar fashion.

I could not find the notes I made when I started the glove, although I wasn't looking very hard for them. And I couldn't find my tape measure, either, which would have been useful to compare my design to what is recommended in Ann Budd's "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" which I only recently realized includes some detailed glove instructions.

So my knitting efforts were about as disjointed as this blog posting. Which, not coincidentally, mirrors my mental state with my big convention approaching. Too make everything even more complex, we are also babysitting two nephews this week and making plans for my father-in-law's surgery tentatively scheduled for Thursday.

And to put the proverbial cherry on top, I got an email worm yesterday evening courtesy of an engineering department head at Colorado State University! I know it was not intentional, but I find it interesting that every single worm or virus my computer has contracted has come by way of the State of Colorado - either a state agency or a university. Norton Antivirus 2002 was giving my computer fits last year, so I disabled it. Last night I installed the 2004 version which I fear will also create as many problems as it solves. However, I think it got everything taken care of before spreading the worm further. But if anyone got a suspicious email from me yesterday - well, now you know why.

All of this brings to mind the other things besides virus protection that I have been negligent about: making regular backups, and de-fragging and cleaning up the hard disk. Bleh.

Sock-Knitting Rocks!

I finished the boys Regia striped socks just now:

Note how well the stripes match up! I can get pretty anal about that.

I really have no business knitting on a Monday morning, but I just had maybe 15 minutes worth of finishing to do, and I couldn't resist.

I thought I'd list a few reasons why I just LOVE knitting socks. I don't know if it will be a 'top ten' list but let's see how many reasons I can count:

1. Perfectly portable. The sock, the needles and the skein of yarn can all fit comfortably into just about any purse, or even a good-sized pocket on a jacket!

2. No pattern needed. Now some socks are more complicated than others, but I tend to stick with basic socks. After only one or two socks I got the hang of it and now can knit them without toting along any sort of reference material.

3. Instant gratifcation. I like knitting sweaters a lot, but for me the project time frame on a typical sweater is two months or more. I got this second sock done in about 2 1/2 days.

4. Useful. I am enjoying wearing my hand-knitted socks, and my kids are loving them, too. It feels good to knit something that someone else can enjoy and appreciate.

5. Stress-busting. Well, for me ANY knitting is stress-busting, but because I can knit a sock without a pattern at hand, it has even higher stress-relieving abilities.

Okay, I made it to five - and I could think of more I'm sure if I didn't have to scoot off to the office.

The last of the boys' socks will go onto the needles this evening. My oldest son wears a size 11, and the yarn is sort of mottled rather than self-striping, so I don't think this pair will be quite as fun.

At the knitting group on Saturday, one of the women brought the Lucy Neatby book which appears to be excellent. I'm either going to order it off her website, or ask DJ's Fibercrafts to get it for me so I can pick it up when I'm in there next week.

Sock Fever

In times of stress, I turn to sock-knitting, it seems. While up at the cabin over the weekend, I was still feeling puny because of my cold, and wasn't up to the rigors of the raglan. I finished the first of the boys grey socks, and since I didn't have a tapestry needle with me, I had to put the toe stitches onto toothpicks. I finished the second sock after we got home. It's nice to knit smaller socks for a change, they go so much quicker.

The picture is blurry and I'm too lazy to go re-shoot it. I'll take a nicer picture after I graft the toes.

I started on a second pair of boys socks, this time for my youngest son. This Regia striped yarn is just darling, I think:

I made good progress yesterday afternoon while watching a wrestling meet. Now that wrestling season is here, I should be churning out socks over the next few weeks like some sort of factory worker.

Next week is my huge membership convention for work. Although there's an event planner handling all the details, it's still a lot of work for me and just a lot of stress. I find that socks strike the right balance between mindlessness and attentiveness for my current state of mind.

Speaking of wrestling, I'm still wrestling with that raglan sleeve. I thought it was too skinny, but after comparing it to some other sweaters and actually putting in on my husband's arm, I'm not so sure. I'm afraid it will have to sit idle a while longer until I'm no longer paralyzed with indecision.

I'm really looking forward to the conclusion of this big convention; I've got so many projects in the back of my mind (the Koigu pullover, the Lavold sweater, maybe Rogue) - I can't wait to get started on something new. I was down in Florence on Tuesday and visited DJ's Fibercrafts, just the cutest yarn shop. Their inventory seems to have really expanded since the last time I was in there. I bought a couple of skeins of froo-froo stuff to make a scarf to go with my black leather jacket. I have TWO more trips down to that area in the next four weeks; I'm looking forward to making a major purchase next time I pop in.

Not knitting tonight

I had another episode of comment-spam, so I decided to upgrade my Movable Type installation to take advantage of some of their anti-spam tools. I did that instead of knitting tonight. As other MT-users are well aware, this involves downloading an upgrade, unzipping it, then uploading the files into their proper directories. Not too difficult; it proceeded without incident.

But if any of you other knit-bloggers out there are experienced with MT, maybe you can answer some questions for me:

- Why does it still say 'Powered by Movable Type 2.64' down at the lower right (should be 2.661, and my main index template has a variable for the version number - it's not hard-coded.)

- Anyone know how to selectively delete more than 100 previous comment spams without using MySQL (please, I don't want to have to learn something new), and without deleting all of the old comments? Is there a script somewhere? A shortcut? Doing it manually within MT will take more time than it's worth to me.

- Similarly, does anyone know where to find a script to close comments on old blog entries? I found a reference to one, but the link didn't work.

I poked around the Support Forum for a while and came up empty-handed. I'm not losing sleep over any of these items, so please - don't go to any extra trouble.

The Winter of Our Discontent

I watched the PBS show about Shakespeare tonight so I felt a little Shakespeare in the posting title was somehow apropos. We then watched - also on PBS - the show about the Medici family (the "godfathers of the renaissance") which was also very cool. I wish I'd seen it before we went to Florence three years ago.

But from whence does our discontent cometh?

1. This is the second time I've typed in this blog entry because it got lost when I tried to save it the first time. I hate it when that happens.

2. My stupid cold has settled in comfortably, robbing some of my sense of taste. My voice is starting to go, too.

3. The outside temperatures are now miserably sub-zero; I just haven't been able to re-acclimate since returning from our beach vacation. Yes, I know I'm whining.

4. I'm having some sleeve frustrations with the raglan, the result of poor planning I'm afraid. I'm not following a regular pattern; rather, I'm using a "percentage system" approach. The first attempt resulted in a cuff that was too tight. The second attempt improved on the cuff, but now I'm about halfway up and this sleeve is still too skinny. My math all checks out - the problem lies, I think, with changes in fashion. Men's sweaters these days are pretty bulky and oversized, whereas the percentage approach produces something like the old-fashioned ski sweaters like they might have worn in the 50's or 60's. I'll get some sweaters that he likes out of the closet and see what I can come up with in the way of more sensible percentages for today's tastes. And I'll frog the sleeve back down to the cuff and have another go at it.

Still, I don't mind all that much. Plain stockinette has been very therapeutic for me the last couple of weeks, and makes for easier TV watching.

And we're headed up to the cabin this weekend...that means primo knitting time.

So I guess I'm not really all that discontent. Just whiny.

Lunch with sis

I was supposed to go to my meeting in Denver this morning, but the alarm went off and my first response was "I don't think so." I'm catching a cold and my throat hurt, my head was clogged - I will spare you the rest of the details.

But after the kids were off to school and I was showered and dressed, I had perked up considerably. In fact, I sort of second-guessed what might have been a rash judgment about the severity of the cold. So I decided to give my sister a call and spend the day with her. I met her at the auto dealership where she had dropped her vehicle off for a minor repair. We went to the local yarn shop first, then picked up lunch to go, ate at her house, and then went to the local Barnes & Noble bookstore. What a fun day, and how nice to catch up with her.

The book, "Knitting in the Old Way", was purchased at the book store, not the yarn store, and is one I've had my eyes on for a while. While looking at it this afternoon, I discovered instructions for the exact shoulder shaping that I want to do on my husband's sweater so that was the last little bit of motivation I needed.

At the yarn store, I picked up the circulars I needed for the sleeves on that same sweater (man, I've spent as much in needles as I did on yarn for this sweater, I think. I'm justifying it by telling myself that DK yarn is my favorite weight so I'll be using these lots and lots. Right?) I also got two more skeins of Regia to do more boys socks. My stash doesn't have much in the way of masculine sock yarn.

The evening was spent at the older kids' parent-teacher conferences, doing a couple loads of laundry, and finally getting going on a sleeve.

And yes, nursing that stupid cold. One night last week, our daughter came into our room in the wee hours of the morning crying because "one side of my nose won't sniff!" I believe I've got that same exact cold now.

A new sock started

I made it to the little knitting group at the Borders book store in Longmont yesterday morning and met some wonderfully nice women and had a good time. I'm looking forward to dropping in on the scene as often as I can. I wish I'd known about this before now...

I started a sock Friday night - I haven't had a sock going for a while, and they're the perfect thing not only for taking along to Borders but also for filling the gap when other projects are on hold. I'm using the same yarn I did for my husband's socks (Regia Short Color), but these I'll be making for my middle son. So often when I do things for the boys, I'll go oldest to youngest or youngest to oldest - this time I thought I'd start in the middle. (My daughter's already had TWO PAIRS of socks come her way.)

OK, when I'm done with my husband's sweater, time to go back to knitting something for ME. I'm a selfish knitter. It's my time; I like to do it for my benefit. The Lavold sweater is at the top of the pile. I still want to do that Koigu pullover; maybe I'll order the yarn for that this week.

Nothing pictureworthy today, but I should have the raglan back up and running tomorrow evening.

A brief pause

Last night, I didn't knit at all. Mostly, it's because the raglan is stalled without the right needles, I don't want to start a Lavold until the raglan's done, and I didn't feel like swatching.

Actually, I was too busy watching TV. My husband found some old unlabeled VHS tapes in the basement, and we decided to fast forward through them and see if any of them were important. One of the tapes was of a bunch of old SNL episodes from the mid-90's, I think. (When the kids were little, we were always too tired to stay up and watch Saturday Night Live, so we taped it.) One of the tapes had the Partridge Family practicing in their garage, and then the Brady Bunch came over and they sort of had a battle of the bands. What a hoot. Another one was the "lost ending" to "It's A Wonderful Life." That one was funnier yet.

Come to think of it, we STILL are too tired to watch SNL most Saturday nights.

I think I need to start a pair of socks! Lord knows, I have plenty of sock yarn in the stash. So I think I'll get started on something this afternoon. The boys have been asking me to knit socks for them, so I think that's what I'll do.

I joined DenverKnits at yahoogroups and found out they're getting together THIS SATURDAY at the Borders book store RIGHT HERE IN LONGMONT. I'm supposed to go to a meeting at 10:00, but I'm going to ask to be put on the agenda first so I can cut out early and make it to Borders maybe 45 minutes to an hour late.

Needle Disability

Yes, that's right - a needle disability. When I get to a yarn store, I am incapable of remembering not only what needles I already have but also what needles I might be needing for a current or upcoming project.

I thought that my collection of circular sock needles (Addi Turbo's, sizes 0 through 3) and my Denise's needles (sizes 5 through 13 or whatever the biggest one is) had me covered. Hmm...what's the missing number? Yes, I need some #4 needles for the cuffs on the raglan. Dang it.

I do have a 32" #4 circular, but I would need a pair of them or else dpn's to do the cuff. And I don't have (nor think I want) #4 dpn's.

The raglan is being knit from the bottom up without seams. I'm up to the armhole, so now I'm supposed to knit the sleeves partway up and then get everything all on one big circular to do the raglan shaping. I made it up to the armholes last night, and now I'm stuck without the needles I need.

To address the needle disability, I downloaded the KnitAble program for my Palm and have input all of my needles, books, magazines, and selected yarn from my stash (yarn that is unassigned to particular project.) A very cute and fun little program for a gadget geek like me.

With the raglan on hold, I decided to pick up my TKGA master knitting stuff, and am pleased to report that I have now completed SIX swatches. Each one is looking better than the last; I might go back and re-do a couple of the early ones.

I started getting everything organized into their page protectors and also got to working on some of the questions:

I will need to get to an office supply store to buy a binder. I'm also going to get some higher quality colored paper - something that will show off the cream colored yarn. It looks dirty (even thought it's not) against white paper.

The next several swatches are pretty easy, so I might stick with swatching over the next few days. I'm holding off on starting a Lavold sweater because it will draw me away from the raglan. Now when am I going to get to a yarn shop to get some needles? And don't you readers get tired of me singing that refrain on a weekly basis?

Stash Enhancement

Oh tra-la-la, what a happy thing it is to add to one's stash.

Let us first take a look at progress on the brown raglan sweater:

I purchased an Addi circular needle yesterday, but when I used my needle sizer-thingy it seems just ever so slightly smaller than the Denise needle. I'm afraid I'll have to finish off the sweater on the Denise needles. I'm trying to be more careful with them but even so I've had the connectors separate a couple of times. Readers are leaving me comments about similar experiences with their interchangeable needle sets. A pox on them all! (The needles, that is, not the readers.)

Yesterday was my early morning meeting down in Denver which wrapped up before ten. Yes, boys and girls, that means PLENTY of time to haunt knit shops. At the recommendation of one of my readers, I went over to the store at Evans & Monaco. They had a wonderful selection of yarns, with many not found in other stores around here (Sirdar, for example.) But I have never in my life seen such a junked out store. The books and patterns were a complete mess. When I brought my selection to the counter to pay, I got out my credit card and woman very tersely said "we don't take plastic here, and I thank God for that every day." Well alrighty then. (The other two clerks seemed much friendlier.) The store was quite busy and the phone was ringing off the hook. At one point I overheard them say that all their classes were full for the next two weeks (or something to that effect) and that we're in the middle of a "knitting craze." I also heard them say that they will be moving to a new location in late spring/early summer.

This shop is really out of my way; I don't think I'll be back anytime soon.

But look what I got:

Yes, this is Elsebeth Lavold's 'Silky Wool' yarn and her new book. I bought a whole package - 10 hanks - enough to make pretty much anything in the book. I'm still lovingly studying each of the patterns before I make my selection.

This particular store didn't have Addi needles, so of course I had to make the trek over to Showers of Flowers. I ended up getting only the circular needle, but I had lusted after and even gathered up several selections of yarn. But in the end, I decided that I'd rather think through some options here at home and make a more studied decision than just doing another impulse buy.

The good news is that the circular needle was not bought in vain - it is the very size recommended for the Silky Wool yarn.