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July 22, 2005
As my faithful readers may have guessed I have not been posting due to my fathers untimely death. I hope to be back next week with knit related stuff.
Elka
Posted by Elka at 11:54 AM | Comments (13)
July 13, 2005
ummmmmmmmmm
OK no knitting yesterday *again*. My dad is doing worse and I am preparing to leave thursday to see him. I did buy fabric yesterday so that great grandma could sew while she is here~ I watch her 3 days a week. Some patterns too. It took her all day to figure out how to thread the machine I bought over from her house. She has 4 or 5 sewing machines and I took her least used one. Maybe that was a mistake? No wait I did knit a teeny weeny bit late last night insomnia is my constant companion A new WIP called Spiderweb Shawl. I will show pics when I get a bit more than ten piddly rows done.
Posted by Elka at 08:53 AM | Comments (3)
July 11, 2005
I had planned on being finished or at least crochet trim shy of finished on the Giotto sweater today. Alas and Alack this was not meant to be. Instead of knitting I spent the day upset. Now I can be a bitch and have said so on many occassions but I don't think I am mean spirited.
Yesterday I came accross a post written by a lady I have met in person not just via net about another lady I have also met in person not just via net. Not a blog post but a post to a knitting list. Now I have always liked both of these gals. You know how it happens when two people with whom you enjoy corresponding are at odds with each other? If this has never happened to you let me tell you its no fun. I try not to get involved because.... typical Elka tangent:
I play pinochle quite a bit and over the past decade I have partnered several people repeatedly. At one time I was ranked #1 in the yahoo pinochle games rooms [out of millions] and after several months of not playing I came back to find myself lower ranked. Respectable 100 ish nothing terrible but the people who were ranked in top ten decided nobody should play me because of people I was friendly with. Nothing personal against me mind you. Now the way to get to #1 is to beat people closer to #1 than you and you move up the ladder. So I was blacklisted big whoop like I cared to prove I could be #1 again. BTW I was #1 in three different yahoo pinochle ladders so it wasn't a fluke like you care. Anyway I was getting ready to play a game which would move me up the ladder and I sent a message to a friend whom I had partnered many times and who was further away from the top than I was and he replied he wouldn't partner me because he didn't want to be blacklisted. Let me tell you I cried for hours and hours that somebody I considered a friend would care about a stupid number more than my feelings. My husband, when he saw how upset I was, told me listen baby they don't matter these people.... they don't make you soup when your sick, don't hold you when your down, don't pay your bills they are just electronic blips and mean nothing. I don't exactly cotton to this~ I know your real people with feelings and my net buddies have offered much comfort over the years. The paying of bills and soup hasn't happened tho ;^> Anyway over the years whenever two net buds start sniping at each other I avoid getting involved cause really its just plain stupid to get upset over something somebody who lives halfway around the country writes.... unless its a flat out personal attack instead of a simple misturn of phrase/statement of dissenting opinion. End typical Elka tangent.
OK so friend #1{the writer of post} is a very attractive woman. Can I say that? She is well put together~ well dressed, carefully made up etc etc etc. Friend #2 is more of a hippie chick/earth mama kinda gal. The post basically stated that friend #2 was vulgar and crass and not in the least bit attractive. Tactless was the exact word used but stuff was implied. I am totally appalled. Frankly I am so upset over the poor taste shown in the post that I don't care about friend #1 anymore. Tactless? Tactless is insulting somebody else's physical appearance and limitations~ friend #2 is physically limited due to medical conditions and yes these were brought up in post. In the mean spiritedness of the original post and I am nowhere near bitchy umm witty as the original author~ I sincerely hope the makeup pot is full cause lady your insides will never look as good as my still friends outside.
Posted by Elka at 10:11 PM | Comments (2)
Weekend Report
A good time was had this past weekend. Tom Jones was so worth the 12 hr drive! I came back refreshed and ready for life once again. Did I knit? Sure. Last weekend I finished the last lace row of Shetland Tea Time Shawl from GOL. This weekend I completed the 6 plain rows between last lace row and edging and started my edging. Woo Hoo. 15 down 100 left to go.
I find this edging particularly fiddly. First I was confoozled about the stitches. Normally, when working from charts, a knit square is purled on the wrong side~ correct? Well faggoting is usually garter based but the chart showed purled squares on all rows. Eyeing the photo in book didn't help since the gauge is so scraggly. Just my opinion and the reason I went with a smaller needle size. I turned to the edging chart on next shawl which is clearly garter based and saw all white squares so figured the XRX folks decided to chart the stitches as they were worked from whatever direction/side they were knit. Then there was the whole issue of cutting yarn and using an auxillary CO for edging. Normally I skip the cutting yarn and work the edging whichever way works but I was determined to do it "right" after all the months put into this baby. Cutting the yarn and using the auxillary CO means that we join the edging on Odd rows and we have to slip the next shawl stitch onto dpn[or other circ edge if your me] every Even row so that it will be in position for the k2tog. Like I said fiddly. One could just use an invisible CO, without cutting yarn but by adding an auxillary yarn, and join on Even rows by knitting tog last st of edging with shawl stich. You will now be working counterclockwise around the shawl~ my usual mode. Sure you will be working the rows backwards* but big whoop dee do da day. Anyway here is the shawl edging pinned out gently to show the pattern:
Great yarny day and knitterly evening to all
* from left to right on Odd rows and right to left on Even rows.
Posted by Elka at 09:53 AM | Comments (1)
July 08, 2005
Vacation
I am off to Memphis area for the weekend. I don't feel much like going but I am hoping Tom swoon Jones and my wonderful husband can shake me outta the doldrums. See you on Monday
Posted by Elka at 10:23 AM | Comments (1)
July 07, 2005
Silky Chic Peplum~ed Pullover
OK here she is. Late. Not too late since its officially due August 1st and today is July 7th but I had planned on mailing it out say the 5th. Anyway I received bad daddy news yesterday and didn't sit down to seam til oh 4 am. Haven't been sleeping well and nothing puts one to sleep faster than mattress st. Woke up super early this morning to hear about London from a frantic mommy.... baby sis lives in the area and often spends time there. All is well and I hope all is well with our UK knitters and their families. Well I wish all were well with everybody but newscasts assure me thats not the case. Mid afternoon the phone rang again for Great grandma illness update. Depressing enough? To chear us up~ and lets face it soothing repetive motions such as knitting calm the most worried of minds~ the slightly askew FO:
Knit on through all crisis, Elka quoting EZ duh
Posted by Elka at 03:35 PM
July 06, 2005
another FO
Last Friday I gave up on finding my chibis and purchased a new improved chibi. Instead of finishing the Silky Chic jobbie I completed the Point Five thingie. After seaming that baby up I sat down for the Silky Chic sewing up. Man how I hate seaming Silky Chic! I personally think all garments made out of eyelash yarn should be done in the round. I am so disliking seaming the Silky Chic I started on the Giotto sweater. I am giving myself until 5:59CST to sew up the last seam so that I can FedEx the first 3 sweaters sent to me outta here. I am a master procrastinator... Anyway here is the Point 5 cardigan again sized for a 4/5 year old. 4 balls people. 4! For a 4 year old. Well its not a lotta yarn but at $30 a pop its a lotta mulah. I was thinking on this last night BTW. $120 is a lot for a little 4 year old's garment but then I have spent that much on shetland yarn for Ashley's Reef. 
There is just some part of me that thinks months of knitting a shetland garment which will theoretically last for generations is worth the cash but a quickie project [done in @24hrs] that may not survive a wearing much less a washing isn't. Still a frugal heart I guess.... OK enough tangents and on with the picture already:
OK I am off to Memphis area this weekend so I wont be posting on Friday and probably not on Monday. I will try to show you the Silky Chic thingie tomorrow. BTW I do love the fabric produced by the yarn just not the knitting and seaming of the stuff.... Great yarny day and knitterly evening to all
Posted by Elka at 10:26 AM | Comments (1)