Making progress (slowly)

I ripped out that sleeve, all the way back and re-cast on. And am regularly checking the results against the pattern. Rather frequently. You can see the comparison below of my progress of reknitting against where it was. It's not too bad really.

I've also cast on Eunny Jang's Print O' The Wave stole. It's in Knitpicks Shimmer colourway Mountain Mist. A little stripy, but I'm giving it some time before I make a firm decision.

I've done about one and a half repeats of the 34 that make up the main body. It's a long-term gift project. And painfully slow. I think I've ripped back about 4 rows so far.

And I got a spoken-comment aired on Craftlit. Which was great, but.... I realise now just how many times I say um. I also sound kind of incoherent as I try to explain one of my points. All kind of embarassing. Which is, interestingly, at odds with my own quiet giggly pride I felt at being aired. Good thing I never became a radio talk-back host, huh?

Annoyed with self. Cos I am dumb.

Cos I can't count, apparently.

See this ? One of these is wrong. Cos I can't count. One of these is 4 stitches too short. FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.

I don't know wether to throw it at the wall, rip it out or cry.

I really want to finish this, but I don't know if I can face ripping this out right now.

My new lace project may get a starting run while I cool down...

I'm designing a new meme : What do you wish you had been when you grew up?

I've been mulling this over in my mind ever since I wrote my response to the '7 things' meme.

Here is my new meme.

What did you wish you had been when you grew up?

Think of the child's game, playing what they want to be when they grow up. This is the adult's past-tense version.

Now you've grown up (whatever that means) what do you wish you had become?
Rules:

1. You can be any number of things you choose to be
2. Ability, talent, location and other realities are not a requirement.
   
3. A comment about each thing you choose is encouraged, but not required
4. Time/place realities can be assumed to have happened (e.g. assume the love of your life would still have met you, even if you never had become a school teacher/violinist/whatever you are now) and should not prevent the game.
5. You can add to your list whenever you like.
   
6. Please send me a comment with your blog post so I can read responses!

That's all.

Spider_knit: What did you wish you had been when you grew up?

• An architect. I love buildings and design and how spaces are created with walls.
• A sculptor/potter. I like the forms of ceramics very much. Second choice would be oil painter.
• Italian. I love the food, the art, the clothes and how they seem to have this whole thing going on. My family also mirrors the Italian thing.
• Better dressed. Now don't get me wrong, I like how I dress, on the whole. But have never really been satisifed with my ability to find clothes I like, or how I portray myself to the world.
• A furniture/household stuff designer. (looks at piles of design mags/blogs)
• A (successful) actress. i.e. I'd like the job, but only if I earn enough to pay my bills etc. I don't like the 'poor/doing other jobs' bit.
  

That's all for now. I may add to it later :)

YOU ARE NOW TAGGED!

Cool things I have found - house & Design

Firstly, today I found out that one of my favorite TV programs - Grand Designs - has it's own magazine! (which of course was immediately bought to be persued at lunch)


And, this fabulous site - which has all of its back issues articles availible, free online!

So far my browsing has shown I want to make:

• these jars;
• these etched glasses;
• the scrabble pin board;
• maybe more. :)

Geek joy!

Heeheeheeheehee!

Just in case any of you were fooled into thinking the heading was just a joke..

Look! My Cthulhus arrived!
And the 'my little victims' have REALISTIC DISMEMBERMENT ACTION!! And the limited edition "Angry" 'thulu :-)

LOL LOL LOL..

Well, I made progress on Raspy!

Here you can see the finished back (the front's already done) of Raspy.

Unfortunately, I then decided it was a bit too Raspy, and I've ripped some out to reduce the length of those neck-edge drop stitches.

And I'm even eyeing off the ones on the front, thinking maybe I should stop them being dropped 2 rows before the edge, rather than all the way to it, to stop the neckline curling so much as I have seen online..

Still, I am reminded by the Elizabeth Zimmerman saying - "You are the boss of your knitting!" and am remaining most-unlike-me calm in the face of this ripping/reknitting.

Finished Object : Red Light Special Hat

Subtitle: Go Western Force!

So, the beanie is done and in use. It does seem to fit okay (on him) rather than the really way to big (on me) that got a bundle of laughs at Mt Lawley SnB on Moday last.

The hat is not the exact version of the pattern of Brooklyn Tweed fame - mostly because of the need for a much larger size. I scaled the number of stitches up, worked out the nearest multiple of 10 that would work (the pattern is a 10 stitch repeat) and didn't do the fancy false seams down each panel.

Still, I am happy with the end result. And he seems happy (I'm sure he'd be singing my praises were he not to have a flu right now). ;-)

Onto .... Heroes and Raspy!

Duplo. It's not just for building anymore. (New! Improved!! Knitting application!!!)

So. What to do when you need to block a fair isle beanie?

Use what comes to hand!

Here is my man's beanie blocking away happily.


What on?

Here is the peek under the covers - a large Chinese bowl on a tower of duplo. Nice, solid, and adjustable!


And to show you that, 'yes Virginia, blocking does make a difference', here's a pre-blocking, 'lumpy' photo.
I'm back to knitting on Raspy (!!)

Okay, clearly this post should have been subtitled 'where I make use of inappropriate numbers of exclamation marks' ..

So, tomorrow night I do believe I shall geek out, watch episodes of Heroes and knit away happily.

(And, very quietly on the uber geek front... I dinged 70! Yay me! All the knitters, just nod knowingly and look at me like the people on the bus look at you. You know the one. :)

Yep. That's the look.

Can you tell what this is?

Hint : Okay, it's knitting progress.

Decreasing! Whee! I'm closing in on the end of the beanie project! (Which means I might actually finish Raspy for me, you know, THIS winter!)

(Just quietly, I was actually disappointed the Knitpicks order arrived promptly, as the required Telemark yarn meant more beanie, rather than more Raspy!)

And to show it really has grown...
It needs a serious blocking, but generally I think it is okay. I noticed the square-type patterns seem to have more problems with floats/tension than the less regular ones. Still, its a 'note to self' for next time. I hold knit-faith that this IS a "blocking will fix it" thing. *crosses fingers*

I was going to sew some cushions this weekend, but instead got caught playing computer games with my man and decided that spare time should be spent knitting - as I want the knit things now, but the sewing things not really for a few months.

(more) Photos of hat when done!