knitabit

Cool Web Thingy...Oh, and some knitting, too

Okay, the knitting first. I'm about six inches up from the bottom of the Cascade pullover. Maybe it will be pictureworthy in another day or two. It's good TV knitting; I'm just not watching much TV lately.

Why?

Oh, I just discovered the way cool world of RSS feeds in general and www.bloglines.com in particular. I'll be saying 'goodbye' to www.blogroll.com in another day or two.

Then I found this which will enable me to build my own cool kind of home page with feeds from all my favorite web sites. I will share a link to it once it's built.

I'm also reading up on CSS page layout so that I can finally figure out what my blog templates are doing (and fix them so they do what I wish they were doing.)

New Knitting Show on TV

I got an email today from Interweave Knits announcing the premiere this Friday of a new show on the Do-it-Yourself (DIY) network - "Knitty Gritty." I believe this might be the show that Neophyte Knitter was in the audience for. (I know, I know, bad grammer alert.)

Unfortunately, we've got the most basic Dish Network package, and DIY is available only on their "Top 180" package which lists at $49.95 per month. I can hardly justify the $24.95 or whatever it is that we're already paying.

Still, what I wouldn't give to watch American Movie Classics, Turner Classic Movies, and a lot of HBO stuff... Uh, obviously, I guess I wouldn't give $25 a month.

In other news, I took At My Knit's End's advice and installed Mozilla Firefox as a replacement for Internet Explorer. I read a horror story recently about the nasty virus you can get that hijacks IE and takes away your default home page. The article went on to tell that the fix sometimes involves re-installing Windows. Yikes! This all brought to mind Kerstin's unfortunate adventure that I had read about just days earlier, so I decided to give Gates the boot.

So far, so good. It seems to be a little smarter about downloading web pages so that you can at least read some text while the images load. For us losers that have to use dial-up.

Reading instead of knitting

I spent the weekend finishing the 5th book in the Harry Potter series - I started reading book 3 earlier in the week, on the recommendation of my sister. And you know, those books are real page-turners (as any kid can tell you.)

To twist this around into a knitting-related entry, I can tell you that Hermione takes up knitting in book 5 for her pet charity cause!

I'm going to quiz my kids, the older two anyhow, about their feelings on these books, since they've both read all five of them. The books get successively more dark and complex as they go foward, touching on many subjects and ideas that I hadn't expected: totalitarianism; freedom of the press; capital punishment; bullying; slavery; tolerance; inter-racial marriage; class warfare and poverty (I'm sure I could think of more if I didn't have to rush off to get some coffee started.) What I'm curious about is whether the kids have been able to extrapolate these concepts from Harry Potter's world to ours. Did they see the parallels to Hitler? to the civil rights movement?

Well, it made for good reading for ME, anyhow.

Highly recommended.

Sidetracked

In order to pick up a new obsession, I generally have to jettison an old one. My current bout of hand knitting obsession started sometime in 2002, and in retrospect I see that reading was the old obsession that got jettisoned.

While on vacation three weeks ago, I often did not have a comfortable place to knit (particularly inside the trailer) and found myself reading instead. I read "Plainsong" and "Isaac's Storm."

Yesterday, in the middle of the afternoon, a reading urge came upon me so I picked up "Prisoner of Azkaban" - the third Harry Potter book. I'm a rapid reader - I had it finished by about 9:00 or so. Now I'm hunting around the house to figure out where the kids stashed "Goblet of Fire."

Knitting might be further compromised by my desire to see a certain movie.

Herringbone

Just a simple crew neck pullover, an interesting texture yet not too complicated, knit in the round... I knew I didn't have a pattern that interested me in any book or magazine, or I would have flagged it long ago.

So I flipped through my Vogue knitting book for a good stitch pattern and found this:

It's called "Herringbone." I like it because, if knit in the round, you never have to purl. The fancy stitches are either lifted increases or k2tog decreases.

So I'm making up a sweater as I go along. I've got 230 stitches on a tubular cast on according to Lucy Neatby's fabulous instructions in "Cool Socks, Warm Feet." You use a crochet hook to make a provisional cast on with a contrasting yarn, then you knit three rounds in the main color with a needle 3 sizes larger than the rib. To make the tubular edge, you go back and pick up extra stithces from the main color in between the stitches of the provisional cast on. It reminds me of making a knit-in hem.

Anyway, you get this beautiful edge without having to do all that slip-stitch stuff that the other methods call for.

The only problem with this pattern is that it's hard to tell where you're at if you lose track. Right now, it seems I've lost a stitch and I might have to frog back a couple of rows to find it. I hate it when that happens.

So, you're probably thinking, what's up with a wool pullover in the middle of summer? Well, a couple of things. For one thing, we're still waiting for summer here in northeastern Colorado! We had a few days of heat in early June, but the last week it's been cold and rainy (is the drought finally over?) and more of the same is forecast for the upcoming week. And you know, by the time I get this sweater done, at the speed I knit, it will be sweater season for real once again. And besides, I wore my Everyday Cardigan quite a bit on our camping trip a couple of weeks ago, and was glad I had it along. If you venture up into the mountains much, sweater season is a year-round proposition.

On the home front, I had a very good week of orderliness and tidiness that I hope becomes habit. I'm not getting very far beyond the daily routine stuff, however. I really need to get moving on a bunch of projects and I keep getting sidetracked by, well, knitting!

My walking program has been compromised by all the mud. It cleared up a while yesterday afternoon, and the whole family went out on a walk. When we got back to the house, there was another big deluge and yet more rain again this morning. The farm lanes are just a big mud quagmire and the county roads out here are too hazardous for pedestrians. I suppose I could go to town and walk, or go to the school athletic track. Nah.

Dueling Swatches

A couple of days ago, I picked up the Ljod sweater again. I had made a mistake in one of the cables and decided to frog back and fix it. And knitting it just wasn't making me happy. The yarn (Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool or whatever it's called), although very nice, is just too fine and string-like for the knitting mood I'm in right now. So I decided, hey! Let's get going on Rogue!

So I got out the Cascade 220 I had purchased for this purpose, and knitted up a couple of swatches; the one on the left using Size 7 needles, the one on the right Size 8.

Well, neither swatch is to gauge (too tight) and going up to yet a larger needle size would make the resulting fabric too loose and sloppy. Bottom line: this yarn isn't quite bulky enough for this project.

Poo.

So I'll have to buy some other yarn for Rogue, and in the meantime I have this very nice olive-ish tweedy yarn for a very nice sweater!! So I think I'll browse through my books and magazines and see what I like.

By the way, in response to a comment from yesterday: I have no idea what yarn I used for the "sockies." It's an acrylic from my stash - probably purchased from Hobby Lobby more than three years ago.

2 Cute

Finished the second one last night:

The pattern is "Multicolored Sockies" from Elaine Rowley's "Socks Socks Socks."

The pattern is so easy, it's committed to memory already!

Sweet Nothings

From the garden:

The one at far right - though not visually impressive - smells the best by far. My husband is the gardener. I get no credit - I didn't even pick them or put them in the vase.

And now for some actual knitting content:

My son's teacher had a baby, so I'll be sending off a pair of these in the mail, perhaps tomorrow. I used a cheap acrylic from my stash (shhh...don't tell anyone) and this first one took maybe three hours start to finish, including a couple of false starts, a tubular cast-off, and the I-cord. I worked on most of it while watching "The Godfather" on Spike last night. They're showing Part 2 next week - another night of must-see TV for me.

And finally, the blog comment feature is working now. I've got it set up to manually approve each comment before it appears on the blog. We'll see how that goes for awhile...

Welcome to Knitabit's New Home

After a moderate amount of pain and anguish, I have finally relocated my blog to my new domain. A few links might not be working yet (particularly the non-blog portion of my knitting website) but all of that will be coming along in the next day or two.

More organizing

First, the obligatory knitting content:

I have a craft room/office in my basement that would surely be the envy of any serious-minded crafter. It's at least 15' x 18' if not bigger. Two walls are lined with countertops and cabinets. The problem is, my crafting interests have changed, but the contents of my cabinets have not. Probably 1/4 to 1/3 of the space is devoted to knitting machine supplies - and I don't machine knit at all anymore and I'm not sure I ever will again. There's also quite a bit devoted to sewing stuff, and I don't really sew any more, either.

Think of all the yarn I could put in this space! That's another project on my list for this summer.

Today is Day Two of a new morning routine that I think might actually work for me. I had several problems with the way I was doing things before. First of all, I was fixated on the Flylady morning routine (rigid, and not right for me) and when I couldn't keep up with that one, I had no routine at all. My other problem was that I wasn't allowing myself enough time to get everything done. My regular office hours used to start at 9:00 a.m., and I was habitually leaving the house behind in a state of chaos.

So my new routine extends all the way until 11:00 and actually makes time for things that have often made me feel guilty (blogging, for example.) My new routine includes a 3-mile walk (I started that about 10 days ago, and it has become a wonderful start to my day), breakfast and the newspaper, a shower, helping my daughter with her violin practice while also enjoying a cup of coffee, a whirlwind pick-up/clean-up, and some fun time in front of the computer. There's plenty of slack in the schedule, allowing me some freedom to go off track (I apparently need that, or I get rebellious) or - like today - to fit in a housecleaning project that was otherwise scheduled for the afternoon.

Even though my house is far from clean and organized, I can at least sit down at the computer and surf the knitting blogs and not feel guilty - I know the house will have come around by the end of the summer.

From Russia With Love

My parents went to Russia last month and my mom brought back this for me:

It's a wool/mohair lace scarf, beautifully knit. I wore it around my neck for a few minutes as I was picking up clutter upstairs so I wouldn't forget to bring it down here where the camera is, and in only about 90 seconds my neck was hot! It's rectangular, and might work equally well as a wrap. Thanks, mom!

OK, today starts the beginning of a total organizational overhaul at the Knitabit house. I've collected some resource books over the years, and was a visitor and sometimes participator over at www.flylady.net over the course of a few months more than a year ago. I think I know what it is that I need to do; it's just a matter now of making the commitment to do it. My house is not a total disaster - it's reasonably clean and not terribly cluttered. But it seems as though chaos is lurking in the shadows, waiting for me to fall just one day behind and the house of cards will collapse.

Last spring, I had whooping cough and although I was recovered by the time school started last fall, in some ways my house never did recover. I lost all track of everything, and I've not felt in control or organized since. About a month ago, I forgot to go to an important early-morning meeting because everything was in chaos. So that was my wake-up call, and my pledge was to spend the summer fixing all that is broken.

Hope you don't mind a few brief blogging notes about all this over the next few weeks.

My first discovery over the weekend is that my beloved PDA (a Palm Tungsten) is not serving me well. It succeeds marvelously as an up-to-date address book and notepad, but it fails miserably as a calendar and to-do list. When you can't see a whole month laid out before you, you're lost. And while I can scroll through my calendar day-by-day, I just can't get the big picture. Also, I've tried over time to use the built-in task (to-do) feature, but for whatever reason, I never seem to get focused on it. I need a system to prioritize my tasks while still allowing me to see what needs to be done today, as well as what's coming up tomorrow.

So it's back to the pen-and-paper analog method.

I bought a 'family organizer' at Borders Books yesterday - the one by Amy Knapp. I have no idea whether it will actually work or not, but it appealed to me because it's small enough that it might actually fit inside my purse. Also, it has tear-out grocery lists for each week.

The calendar starts in July 2004 and goes through December 2005, so I have a couple of weeks yet to get it set up.

Tomorrow: a disciplined morning schedule.

True Confessions

My blog-moving intentions were seriously compromised the failure to obtain wireless high-speed internet access. However, I do have a deadline of one week from today so it will have to happen soon.

I am also going through a major personal organization effort which I will probably blog about in the coming days. I am cutting back on my knitting somewhat (*gasp*) in order to get this house whipped into shape. Still, I intend to continue sock knitting at ball games, and sweater knitting in the evenings. It's just that it stays light so late, by the time I'm off my feet and in a chair, I'm almost too tired to knit.

In the meantime, read this and talk amongst yourselves:

(Inspired by Theresa)

What was the last...
..book you read: "Plainsong" by Eric Haruf, while on vacation
..movie you saw: "Secondhand Lions" tonight with the kids and their cousins
..movie you saw on the big screen: "Shrek 2" on Friday night
..show you watched on tv: News on CNN
..song you heard: Beethoven's Leonore Overture #3
..thing you had to drink: Diet Coke
..thing you ate: M&M's
..time you showered: this morning
..time you smiled: this evening
..time you laughed: this evening
..person you hugged: my mom
..person you talked to online: my little sister
..person you talked to on the phone: my youngest son's friend

Do you..
..sleep with stuffed animals? no, never did.
..play an instrument? Piano and flute
..believe there is life on other planets? Yes , but it's not particularly relevant to my outlook on life
..read the newspaper? yes, two of them
..believe in miracles? yes
..consider yourself tolerant? yes
..consider police a friend or foe? ...friend (but I hesitated before answering)
..believe in astrology? no
..believe in magic? no (c'mon, I'm an engineer)
..go to church? yes
..have any secrets? yes
..have any pets? 2 dogs; 2 cats; 1 parakeet.
..go or plan to attend college? yep
..talk to strangers? yes
..have any piercings? yes - 2 in one ear, 1 in the other
..have any tattoos? no
..hate yourself? no
..wish on stars? no
..like your handwriting? I used to, but it's gone steadily downhill with age
..believe in witches? no
..believe in ghosts? no

Random Acts of Meanness

But before I get to that, the wireless internet installer came and determined that we do not have line-of-sight contact with the transmitting station and thus I am stuck with dialup. That really blows. My brother-in-law and neighbor - maybe 200 yards away - has the service but alas, his house sits up maybe 20 feet above ours and is also on a different sight line.

One of the moms on my son's baseball team told my husband that she's really glad our son joined the team because now that he's on first base, "the really good players are now freed up to play more important positions." (The more you think about that one, the funnier it gets, I must say.)

A spammer was able to hack into my work-related website and upload emailer.php and send massive amounts of spam. Eventually, I got the problem solved and my web hosting provider was actually pretty helpful.

And finally, I have added Carrieoke's Knitting Blog to my blogroll and have dropped a prominent blog that shall remain nameless.

I leave you with:

Bart:

and Scuz:

Yay Carrie!

Packing my bags

I'm getting ready to move - my blog, that is.

Now that summer is here, I'm tackling a project I've been contemplating for months: installing high-speed wireless internet, and establishing my online presence at a new domain.

I'm packing my blog today, the moving truck comes this afternoon, and I should be all unpacked and hosting an open house at the new digs by the weekend!

See you then!

What I Did on My Vacation

First, the knitting part.

I finished the first sock of pair of Koigu socks (thanks again for the yarn, Lisa!) I did a shortrow heel per the instructions in a book I purchased recently - "Simple Socks Plain and Fancy" by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. I also did a shortrow toe which I thought turned out especially nice. I did modify the heel to include 2/3rds of the stitches on the sock, not just 1/2. I actually think the heel turned out too deep but in the end I think that's better than too shallow.

We had an incident at the house while we were gone on vacation. A brief but windy thunderstorm blew open a back door that hadn't been securely closed. So the animals got to spend a night in the house! They partied with some of my yarn:

It's all in pretty bad shape, so I think both skeins are off to the trash.

While the animals were having their yarn party, we had lots of fun in the northern great plains area. Here are some actual vacation photos, not pirated as were the ones I posted day before yesterday.

One of two bison grazing; spotted on our hike near Wind Cave National Park in SD.

Devil's Tower, as seen from the trail at the base.

Now I don't normally like to exploit my kids for blogging purposes, but this one just cracks me up. Note how the two younger ones are trying not to laugh.

Rushmore Redux

Back from the Wild, Wild West

I was gone so long, my blog almost disappeared!

Here's where I've been:

and

Although an extended car trip should have been the perfect opportunity for knitting, I was too busy looking at

(pronhorn antelope)

(bison)

and

(bobcat - the first we've ever seen in the wild)

to do much in the way of knitting. I did manage to finish one sock and start on another one.

(By the way, none of these photos are mine. I'm too tired to go get them out of the camera.)

Regular knitting posts will resume tomorrow.