« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »
March 23, 2005
Relapse
I am probably not gonna post on any regular basis for a while. My dad has had a relapse and will probably be going into surgery a week from Friday. Worse we cannot really visit since we are all struggling with the persistent tag you've got it cold. I get to sit at home and fret.... I hate that my dad is sick. He has always been solid like a rock and watching him lose weight and sleep 12 hours a day is tough.
Posted by Elka at 07:24 PM | Comments (14)
March 21, 2005
Hey I'm back!
Ahhhhhh vacation was so nice. Came back all refreshed and ready to knit ;^> Actually before I left I went to the local nail place and had a manicure. While I was there I noticed a gal getting a parafin treatment. She said it makes your hands soooooo soft so I sprung for one. Being eczema prone I figured any little help I could get you know. Knitters pay attention: that parafin treatment relaxes your hands so much! Any sore achey fingers from overknitting will disappear. Remember that come Holiday Knitting time why don't you. My place offers the treatment with or without a manicure and I know where I plan on being when trade show deadlines have my hands all cramped up. Best $5 you can spend for your knitting. Trust Elka.
Here is the 9-Scarf Vest all sewn up. I actually finished knitting her a week and a half ago but the mere thought of all those seams and ends had me quaking in my sheepie slippers. In the end it wasn't too bad. Just a few hours for finishing. I sure wish I had just done it instead of putting it off. Another project late out the door.
I've gotten tons of yarn in the mail lately via trades and I will show you later in the week. For now let me talk about my visit to Memphis. We ate, we slept, we putzed around. Great time. I also visited with a fellow blogger~ Jessica I have been corresponding with Jessica for a little while and I think she is too kewl. My intuition proved correct... she is too kewl. Lurv her! And, as usual, my feelings that any semblence of social graces that I may have at one time possessed are totally gone was confirmed. Yep Miss Ditz[that's me] kept wandering off to the car while poor Miss Jessica was speaking. And I twirled my hair and acted all femme when my husband pointed this out. Gah. Anyway my husband and I met her and her children for burgers and then I dragged Jessica to a LYS. Why is it that knitters always get together to visit yarn stores? I realize its a safe form of entertainment for out of towners but still... Anyway I purchased yarn!
Two hanks of Bearfoot sock yarn because we all know I am a sock knitting fiend. Well I cannot think of a local shop that carries it and Miss Liz has mentioned her love of Anne sock yarn, also not carried locally to my knowledge, which has the same fiber composition. I am of the mind that hand dyed yarns often come from the same source but I could be wrong about weight. Fiber content check/weight ??? And how could I possibly resist that Mountain Twilight colorway? The Wild Raspberry was pure indulgence. Not often I manage to talk my husband into a yarn store crawl. Actually the first time in a decade of marriage. Score one for Elka!
OK toodles~ great yarny day and knitterly evening to you alls....
Posted by Elka at 08:51 AM | Comments (5)
March 16, 2005
Vaca time
Oh sure you believe I am gonna just up and take a vacation during prime knit season. Well prime trade show knit season that is not roaring fire and snowy views knitting season. But our 10 yr anniversary is ummmmm Friday so we are dumping the kidlets and running off for a 4 day weekend in Memphis. Our last vacation, before Zoe was born, was in Memphis. We're living the vida loca over here. Being daring we are also planning our next vacation in, you guessed it, Memphis area. Am I a huge Elvis fan or something? Well sure there was the pre and early teen crush thanks to La-La land. More like the blues thang mentioned in Music Meme. Going clubbing egads. Next vacation is for a very specific reason which will fully illustrate how old I am and the extent of my squareness. Go ahead and click~ you know you want to know exactly how unhip I really am ;^>
Posted by Elka at 11:47 AM | Comments (3)
March 14, 2005
Bleah
Ok I still feel craptastic but not as bad as before. No knitting for days and days and days. Are you in dire need of some eye candy? My new gallery home is up and it is a shared site with several members of Fibertraditions which is a nice multi fiber list. Mainly knitting and spinning with some dyeing. The gals there are muy talented~ way more talented than me. Check out the new gallery site, which so far contains some oldies from last year since I do not have energy to take pictures, and the other talented FTers work here.
Posted by Elka at 08:34 PM | Comments (2)
March 08, 2005
Bent
We have a sick household here at casa d'Elka. 5 sick puppies. Sick, sick, sick. Sick me taking care of sick kids and husband. Sick. With deadlines. Just eff me.
Posted by Elka at 09:53 AM | Comments (3)
March 07, 2005
The Weekend Report
New Yarn! Not for me new yarn but new yarn nonetheless. From Classic Elite Yarns Renaissance yarn for a striped man's pullover. The yarn arrived on Friday but I didn't get to it until Saturday for swatching and ribbing fun. Friday my husband and I went out and I stayed up way way late. 5 am late. Slept til almost 4 on Saturday. And Saturday the kids struggled with colds and allergies. Ashley is actually home today. This is my way of saying practically no knitting over the weekend. Rather disappointing. I had secretly planned on finishing the 9-Scarf Vest by now. At the very least the knitting of it but nooooooooooo. I am on the 7th scarf. Here are the 6 finished scarves laid out:
Thay are much brighter in real life. Despite scarf status they are not TV watching fodder since I need to change yarns and stripe and stitch patterns. I really want to be done because the Artyarns and Alchemy projects are also pay attention things. Small but attention oriented. At least the pullover is pretty brainless.
Hey guess what? I got personal mail as well! This is two weeks in a row that some Maya trickled into my life and more importantly I got a card. I love cards. This one came from Jenny in NJ{no blog} who claimed the Jo Sharp kitlet from me a while ago. She mentioned enjoying the bloggity blog greatly and that made me feel so good. The Maya came from an online buddy ~ Fran. Also blogless. Fran is very sweet to me. She purchased me a copy of the oop Three Cornered Shawls book when another box of it was found and I was broke. Of course I paid her back but it took me a month to get paid during which I would have missed out on the chance to acquire this gem. She also found a copy of AS Charted Knitting Designs and several oop Spin Offs with lace patterns in them for me at a LYS. I pray that one day she will have a desire for something that I can get for her.... I really am blessed by the online knitting community. Anyway here is a picture of the bootie:
Have a great yarny day and knitterly evening you alls~
Posted by Elka at 10:01 AM
March 04, 2005
Peanut Head
One of Zoe's friends favorite slurs is 'Peanut Head' I am not sure what it means. You have a small head? If thats the case why not sesame seed head or poppy seed head or .... You would be better off mushed with jelly? Don't mention hot tossed with noodles~ thats just ewww. And what does this have to do with knitting? Very little.
Sure I worked on scarves yesterday and even finished one. Here is scarf overview picture:
Oh you thought I was a strong enough woman to put down the Alchemy and work on the 9 scarf vest? Peanut head
yarny fun you alls!
Posted by Elka at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)
March 03, 2005
Scarfing Along
Well I worked on the second scarf for 9-scarf vest but I am not gonna show it to you since its the second bias strip and you will think I am trying to cheat by posting yesterdays picture, doctored up, and merely claim I finished two. I also started the Artyarns scarf. Has anybody done dbl knitting? I have done it where you knit or purl a stitch and then bring yarn forward as if to purl and slip next st so that you have to work to and fro to complete 1 round or row. This pattern has me knitting or purling every stitch with instructions to make sure such and such yarn is over or below the other. I am finding it fiddly. Is that how 2 color dbl knitting is done? Gonna spend some time in research mode. Especially since I made a mistake in bottom border pattern so had to rip back. Obviously I didn't take that to the drs office with me this morning. Instead we worked on this:
Japanese Lantern yarn is so wonderful you couldn't possibly believe me no matter how much I raved. Really. Go buy a hank and play with it. This is a one hank scarf pattern and I notice the tag that came on yarn said 155 yds but the website said something like 80 yds? I want to knit a sweater for myself out of this stuff and mentioned it last night to Gina. She apparently hasn't designed a garment in it for fear of it being cost prohibitive! Oh Nooooooooooooo Mr Bill. I mean I am not petite and I personally would knit this yarn more densely than the label calls for in st st** and guessing ~ not like I am swatching maniacly for a garment isntead of doing the scarf. I wonder how much I will have to knit to earn a sweater's worth of this yarn?
TTFN knitbuds. You know the drill... go fondle yarn and spend some time knitting already!
** I like my fabrics kinda dense to begin with and often either knit really loosely for drape effect or firmly for body effect. Hardly ever at gauge specified.
Posted by Elka at 11:16 AM | Comments (1)
March 02, 2005
Ah Scarf update and more mail
So you thought I hadn't posted today because I failed to meet my scarf/day goal? Silly mortal. Just kidding. The scarves for the vest are small~ 2.5" wide by 14" tall for the first one which I did finish last night quite easily. Here is a picture:
I think its upside down in the picture but I didn't feel like rotating it again after cutting out all the desktop and rotating once already. I don't think I will be casting on for the second right away because I want to start the Artyarns one right off. The postal code was incorrect on the pkg and it took a full week to get to me plus its a simple 2 row pattern repeat which makes it good going to Drs tomorrow knitting. I wound the silk ribbon last night and ended up having to file my nails and ultra moisterize my hands. Vaseline and gloves. My hands are rough due to excema which was cleared up until the whole stomach flue fiasco. Stress makes me break out worse. The silk ribbon is narrow and reminds me of the very first sweater I ever knit from French Chic[if anybody has a copy....]which was Black and Blue Bernat Casino striped with a Spool of white silk ribbon for intarsia bits along one shoulder. I don't knit much with cotton anymore but I do miss Casino. That particular scarf will take longer than a day to knit but I figure I can get underway long enough to know I am still getting gauge on project and then work a few inches every day while I try to keep up the scarf-a-day with the 9 scarf vest.
The benefit of posting late is we got mail! The ab fab Anmiryam read of my Maya love and took the 'even partials" to heart and sent me this:
Leftovers from French Market bag join the two partials I already had in stash shown on right[tangerine and chartreusey pea soup green] Come On folks. I happen to know that the French Market bag was big ol knitalong fodder and I am sure somebody else has partials they can send my way. Big Mwah to Anmiryam.
Also in the mail was some yarn from Alchemy for one of Mare's Magical Hats and a scarf. I can hardly wait to Cast On for those and I challenge you all to resist this yarny goodness:
And as if I don't have enough work knitting lined up I just got a call from Classic Elite. I almost never say no to work so look for more yarny goodness by next Monday.
Yarny days and knitterly evenings y'all
Posted by Elka at 02:08 PM | Comments (3)
March 01, 2005
Ah so I have been really bad at announcing the fabulous mail of late. I was RAOK-ed by Illana with a fabulous Post Card that was most complimentary of the blog. I also received my 'its mine all mine bwahahahahah' sheep from Toni. She's so mellow and happy! I plan on draping her artfully[and we all know how artful I am] over the back of my knitting couch. No freaking way is she spending any time on the floor:
Of course I do have to fight my kids for sheep time. I swear sometimes I have no clue why I wanted children. I should have gone for two or argh four of these babies but only 6 were up for grabs and I was trying to be nice. Idjiouts have managed to leave some in stock so I guess Toni and I will be doing some pow-wowing.
Today is my husbands 38th birthday. For the attentive I will be 40 in April and our tenth anniversary will be St Patricks day. Not only was I brazen enough to marry a younger man but we were romantic enough to get married halfway between our birthdates. Since he has commitments on Tuesday nights we celebrated last night and I did not knit a single stitch in an effort to look like a living doll. Waste of effort if you ask me. So you may be thinking 'poor Elka still has 9 scarves to knit' Well I guess you would have to know how I feel about knitting scarves.... a fun diversion but nothing I want to spend weeks on. You are wrong. 500 yards of hand dyed silks from Artyarns for you got it~ a scarf!
Rumor has it another scarf is in the mail to me. 11 scarves! Since I knew about the last two I suppose that explains my disappointment in the 9-Scarf Vest. I was hoping for some cables or something non scarfy. Helene is a sweetheart and the yarns are muy fun.... I have Cast On and am gonna try to whip out a scarf a day. Stay tuned for progress.
TTFN knitbuds~ yarny day and knitterly evening for you
Posted by Elka at 11:35 AM | Comments (4)