Final Sweater Pics!

Here's the FINAL version of the Entrelac Jacket, complete with hand-made dichroic glass buttons!

First, a shot of the full sweater. Next, folded up so I could show the collar as it lays, rather than distorted by the hanger. Last, the best close-up of the buttons I could get with my digi-cam.

Isn't this just 'da bomb! Okay, I'm done posting shots of this one....

Still working on Rona and Jaywalker, and Kitty Pi is currently felting. (Although, I used a lighter-gauge yarn and it's not 'standing up' yet, it's looking more like a round rug! If that's the case, OH WELL! No big deal, I could use a rug anyway!) Nothing's particularly camera-ready right now, so I'll spare you the 'wad of yarn' look.

Project Polygamy

I have a major problem with project monogamy. Not exactly a revalation on my part, but since finishing Maddie's sweater, I've started no less than 3 projects.




1. Rona Shawl for my sister. Jaggerspun Zephyr in Elderberry. Somewhere around row 70.



2. Kitty Pi in some Noro I scored from Destash.

3. The last one is a pair of Jaywalker socks, but I didn't dig them out of my KIP bag to take a portrait.

Last but certainly not least, the obligitory cat photo. Meet Lucille!

MLK Day? Ice storm? Nah, you still have school.

:sigh: Welcome to Western Michigan!

Maddie's Sweater

My niece, Madelene, has a birthday present waiting!

She'll be 3 in March, but I finished this raglan early. (I'm concerned it looks a little smaller than I thought, but that's what I get for messing around with gague/size to use the Malabrigo instead of sticking with the written information!)

If it's too small, I'm debating just knitting another one and giving this one to a co-worker who has a 2 year old. :tee hee: Not that it was difficult, but I just don't feel like frogging a perfectly good sweater due to my own daredevil-ish attempt at pattern tweaking. And, I have enough yarn to make the next size up. SWWEEEETTTT!

So what's up next? (noislily drumming fingers....) Will it be the Rona shawl in Zephyr Elderberry? Gotta get some longer circs for that one, as I all I have in the right size is 16-inchers. BUT- I could start on DPNS until I get to the LYS! Also thinking of some Jaywalker socks in my homespun Lorna's Laces, but I'll have to do some gague checking on that one. Hmm.... Or, I have plenty of other self-patterning sock yarn I could make some generic socks with, but I'm kind of burned out on socks right now.

Decisions, decisons!

Done!

Forgot to post a pic of the finished sweater! Disregard my half-asleep expression and extra 35 lbs. :blush: I was on my way out the door yesterday morning and decided to take a snapshot before I left for work...

:sigh:

I tried. I really tried. The collar kicked my butt..

What started out as THIS ...

<------ Sleeves attatched, no bottom band, no center (button) bands, no collar, no sleeve cuffs

Turned into this ------>

Notice the bottom band, center (button) bands, and COLLAR (that kicked my ASS). It's currently blocking on Em's bed, as she's having a lovely sleepover at a friend's house tonight.

But alas, the sweater won, it has no sleeve cuffs. (I can knit those tomorrow and block them some other day, right?!?!? SAY "RIGHT!" FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!)

Have I told you lately that I love....

...my manicurist? Seriously, some major mojo for Margaret. I am not a girly-girl AT ALL, but when it comes to my natural (jagged, thin, brittle, peely, AWFUL) nails, I am a teensy bit vain. I've been going to Margaret for quite a while (since my previous girl, Kim, quit suddenly. How *could* she?!?!?) and she does a FANTASTIC job. Nails are always as thin as possible, perfectly shaped, never any snags or lifting at the bases, and overal perfection.

So why did I cheat on her? Well, the Friday before Christmas, I had to do some last-minute shopping (who, me?) at a mall I usually don't go to. (They have more stores than my usual mall, where Margararet and her chums are located.) Well, I was in a hurry and realized that I needed a fill VERY BADLY, and that if I didn't get one that evening, I'd be more than a week overdue by the time I could get up to Maragaret, and that simply wouldn't do over the holiday weekend. So, I cheated and went to the big-mall nail place. BIG MISTAKE! Sadly, I was in too big of a hurry to notice how awful they really were before I paid, but after a couple of days more and more flaws were evident. Lifting, snagging, lumpy, thick-in-places... :sigh:

How would I ever face Margaret again? Especially with these awful creations upon my fingertips? She'd *know* I cheated on her! What would be the best approach, blase "Yeah, I went somewhere else, what about it?" approach might damage the beautiful relationship we've fostered. (Oh, and she COULD hurt me with that Dremel! Not that she ever does, but Jeff sure did!) What about the "begging for forgiveness" approach? Sounds more like my style.

I contemplated bringing her a gift as repentence, but decided just to give her a good fat tip if she fixed me up good. I wandered in, asked for Margaret, and waited a couple of minutes while she finished up her last customer. She greeted me warmly, as usual, and began. She always starts with my right hand, and Jeff must have done a moderately-better job on that hand, because all I noticed was Marageret's eyebrows twitch a couple of times. When she got to my left hand, which was terrible, she started making comments under her surgical mask; half Vietnamese, half English, and I knew she was disgusted. Lots of clucks and sighs. I tried to get her mind off the fact that I'd cheated, and talk about her kids (she has two daughters in college, one at U of M Dentistry and one at MSU Vet school, and one son- a senior in High School) but she kept bringing the conversation back to Jeff-the-awful-sculptor. "How much did they charge you for these?" and "See, this is terrible!" and "Ugh, this airbrush job." I felt about two inches high until she alcohol-sprayed my gel sealer and I could get a close-up look at the difference.

Maragret, you are a master. I will never cheat on you again.


Behold- sleevage. I hope to have the final sleeve done and the sweater assembled soon!

Entrelac Jacket Progress

So, Christmas morning brought me this:

Sarah James' Entrelac Jacket pattern & JojoLand "Rhythm" yarn

Okay, so I self-bought a Christmas present and had dh wrap it. Oh, and I got *two* bags of this yummy yarn, but you see.. I was so anxious to start I forgot to take a pic until after half of the first bag turned into this...

Back panel complete!

Since then, the knitting progressed to this:

Back panel, two front panels, finished & blocking!
(excuse the naked mattress pad!)

Now, that was a couple of days ago. (I've been too busy to upload pics! Sue me!) I've since assembled the shoulders and completed both seed-stitch side panel, finished the entrelac panels for both sleeves, and am working on seed-stitch underarm areas.

My original goal for the FO was Monday. Not totally sure I'll make that deadline, so although I'm optimistic, I've reset the goal date. The Ceramic Cafe is having another dichoric glass class the weekend of 1-19, and I WILL have this jacket done by then, hopefully to create dichoric buttons (DROOL ON MINIONS! BWwwwaaahhhhhaaaaa!) for this masterpiece. That goal is totally do-able.

Oh yeah, I have 40-50 pages of math text to format before 1-15. Doh! I suppose I *should* set aside the knitting long enough to actually meet this deadline, since I missed my first deadline by a little. (Totally not like me, I HATE missing deadlines, but that first one was WAY over-optimistic anyway...)

Gotta run! I have a doctor's appointment today (more lectures about my weight & distinct lack of exercise... fun fun fun!) and the housework situation has gotton critical. MUST VACUUM!

Madness in West Michigan

With all of the events surrounding the death of former President Gerald R. Ford, you might think Western Michigan might have thought of some of this ahead of time! I mean, yeah, this is the first time Michigan has dealt with the death of a hometown president, but he *was* 93 years old, it's not like this was unexpected! They figure there were 60,000 people in line last night to pay repects at the Ford Museum in downtown GR. To some of you, 60,000 might sound like a drop in the bucket of humanity. BUT- when you pour 60,000 people into a downtown area IN JANUARY in Michigan, you've got to expect issues. Parking, traffic, crowd control, communication... plan, anyone? An 8 hour wait in line...

From what I have read, the people of Michigan (and from all over, apparently!) were well behaved (for a change.) And the weather certainly cooperated. I mean, it *is* January and we haven't had snow in at least 3 weeks. Unheard of!

Regardless of your political affiliation, GRF was the epitomy of a Western Michigan man. Rest in Peace, Jerry.

Blue Eyed Blogger Strikes Again

Well, I've jumped on the blogging bandwagon... again. There, I did it. I'm not even going to begin to try to explain my 15 month absence from the blogosphere. :sigh:

So what's on the needles???

1. Entrelac Jacket- the Sarah James pattern I "got" for Christmas. (Okay, okay, so I picked out the pattern myself and ordered the yarn from Ebay, gave the box to dh and let him wrap it. Who cares!) Using JojoLand "Rhythm" yarn in the light pink/blue/green colorway. Back & front panels are done and sewn at the shoulders, both side seed-stitch strips are done, and one sleeve is on the needles. I'd *love* to have this done before I go back to work (on Monday) but my lack of housekeeping over the past couple of weeks is catching up with me. Maybe I should extend my target? Nah, who cares about housework anyway???

2. Bula- of sorts. I ordered some JojoLand cashemere/merino yarn just to try it out, and now I have ten balls (YES- ten balls) of non-superwash sock-weight yarn. I hate non-superwash socks (although some of this may become socks someday!) so I'm winging a bula-neckwrap-headwrap thingie. Stupid idea, as it's 200 stitches in the round on size 0's. :DOH:

3. Maddie's Sweater. Madelene is my neice, she'll be 3 in March. I'm working on Ragalan-in-the-round pattern from Little Turtle Knits in malabrigo yarn. So yummy! It's probably next on my FO list after the Entrelac Jacket.

4. Socks. Do I even have to list how much sock yarn I have in my stash????

6. Emily's Cow-print Sweater. I hate that freaking thing. My daughter wanted a cow-print cardigan. Of course, it HAD to be purple and pink cow print. Why? I have no idea. I don't even want to think about that stupid thing. A large-scale intarsia project is just not my thing. I should have just said "NO!" but now that it's started, I suppose I should finish it before it's too small for her. (Or just frog it and admit defeat!)

What else, what else... I know there's more....Oh yeah, my other hobbies!

Quilting- still sitting in the "to do tote" is the quilt for Emily's bed. Top is done, the layers are about 1/3 binded together (hand-quilted, BTW!) and there it sits. I also have most of the squares cut (and a few put together!) for the denim/flannel quilt.

Cross-stitch- I scanned a portrait of my kids into a computer program that converts it to a cross-stitch pattern. It's probably 60% done. My kids were 4 and 9 months when the portrait was taken. They're 8 and 5 now. *sigh*

Sewing- I am a supremely lucky lady- my MIL got me a serger for Christmas! Fantastic lady that she is! However, it's currently in "time-out" for bad behavior. (Admittedly, *my* bad behavior...) I can't, for the life of me, get the tension settings right on this thing! My MIL mentioned that I could sign up for a class at the sewing center she purchased at, but I haven't admitted defeat yet. I should just call the place, eh? Once I get the bugs worked out, I have fabric for a pair of PJ pants for Em.

That's enough for now. I'm stressing myself out thinking about all of these projects!