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August 24, 2005
If I Was a Rich Girl And.... {nonknitting post}
I think the stuff my friend told me to get for blocking this shawl just does not exist in the Midwest. Therefore I will block it tomorrow on the bed and hope it dries before my husband gets home. It will be my typical cheesy blocking job but at least we will have a reasonable idea of finished size and drape. Maybe my friend will send me some of this magical blocking aid and we can have something looking even more fab later. Til then electronics!
I am not an electronically minded person. I appreciate modern marvels but really don't care to know how or why they work. The first time I ever saw a home computer was 1975. To tell you the truth it looked just like my home computer now~ a screen and keyboard. If there was some hidden room sized thing making it work I never noticed. My husband assures me I am confused about playing a D&D sorta game on the computer back then. But really my friends, or actually my parents friends, worked for the gov't doing some sorta secret stuff and they had a computer. The training used for becoming used to the competer, according to their children who were my friends, was to randomly get some skill sets[roll the die] til you were happy with strength etc. and then meander through some land dealing with various potions and magical artifacts and treasures and enemies. I recall playing this vividly. 1975. Fast forward to the next time I handled a computer.... 1995. Luddite am I. Luddite enough to hit buy it now, bid and read or send emails. Good enough for me. So I have been thinking about electronics because I misplaced my phone. To be honest I know exactly where I left it:
I have been window shopping for phones. How totally kewl is that Razr? The black one? You can check emails with it! You probably can check emails with any cell phone but I just didn't know til now.
Ummmm begin rant Now when I told my hubby I couldn't find my phone he said well OK he was planning on ordering one to add Auntie onto our plan and would just order another for me~ did I want a camara etc etc etc. I dunno. He mentions he wants a special phone for himself. Anyway later on after reading reviews and coming accross this nifty phone I ask him what he thinks of it. You can't have that phone. Its too expensive and fancy for you. Thats the phone I want! grrrrrrrrrr. I had thought of getting two of them for Xmas but that was just too insulting. If anybody gets the Razr its ME and not US Ummm rant over.
Anyway if I was a Rich Girl And I could figure out how to make it work and you know sign up for a plan and such I would get myself a Razr. I don't deal with stuff like that.
While perusing cell phones I thought of my other pet peave :
There is yet another unphotographed room with another 2 computers on it. We have a network and our own server whatever that means. I want a nice notebook. I know we are set up for wireless computers since whenever I mention how nice and steamlined they are and how portable and blah blah blah they are my husband kindly mentions he has a notebook. Bully for him. Why do computer's have to glom up two rooms? And he is even thinking of getting desks for the girls rooms and putting computers in their rooms. As far as I am concerned the girls can do their homework at the kitchen table under my watchful eye and use a notebook instead of turning my entire house into a maze of wires. My sister has a VAIO and her apartment looks a bazillion times bigger without the desk and components. She carries it everywhere with her but since I am generally non mobile I am eyeing this baby. My husband, being a computer and electrical engineer, is picky about brands and probably doesn't approve of either. But what I can't figure out is how do they work? I mean if you take a laptop to campus, for example, are you glomming offa some hapless soul's connection? Do you have to step into some cyber cafe? I mean why be portable if you can't just whip it out? And where do you connect the Razr and printer and such? If I were a Rich Girl And could figure out these things I would so be insisting upon a laptop. Two. One for me and one for the kids. Ditch those bohemeths.
Speaking of Bohemeths:
I hate those wires. I hate all those things connected to the TV just to make it work~ VCR, Stereo, Stereo speakers, DVD player, some other stereo thingie, and of course the Dish thingamabob. Plus the Tv itself is fatter than I am. Heck the speakers are fatter than I am. For reference sake I am a dress size 22 aka fat. For several years I thought of saving my knitting money and purchasing some Virtually Invisible Speakers but whenever I mention the brand[fishing for gift suitability] my husband shudders and says they sux. Whenever he does his ugh routine I think of that scene from Ruthless People where Judge Reinhold is selling the pimply faced teenager the concert arena sized stereo system on tetosterone value. BTW Hilarious Movie. And now they have skinny televisions such as this one. They so should have a built in DVD player like the aforementioned Desktop replacement. If I was a Rich Girl And could figure out how the heck the speakers and DVD and dish could connect without looking like some frankensteinian lab subject I would so be stomping my feeties. Which are small.
OK thats the wonders of modern technology as far as I can tell. Oh if only....
Edited to add...OH Lordie almost forgot the thing that made posting my gadget-y dreams worthwhile. The Prius which was just a dream 12 years ago. Or at least plug in and hybrid cars were a green person's wet dream. My hippy dippy self so wants one of these. I wonder if I can talk my husband into trading my SUV for it. Maybe I can talk him into trading his 9 year old Grand Am for my SUV and a loan for the Prius. That car was so my wet dream years ago.
Posted by Elka at 02:04 PM | Comments (1)
August 23, 2005
Stitches Report~ Picture heavy
OK I went to the hardware store to pick up some blocking materials and they didn't have what I was looking for. I need to go to the big boys [Home Depot etc] instead of my helpful Ace dudes. Therefore no AFTER pix yet.
I am in a bit of a knitting slump and had planned on putting the Stitches report and some FO's spread out over the next week or so but my good friend, Miss Toni, sent me an email insisting I spill already.....
I took 3 classes and enjoyed all three of them. The first was called Nordic Color taught by Nancy Bush. I have so many plans for using this technique its crazy. Why just before leaving Zoe was complaining about her lack of wintery hats and after consulting with her I was mad as a hornet. She wanted a hat with leaves flitting around into a pile. Not a repeating pattern or a leaves on vine sorta pattern but an intarsia pattern. Ha ha ha. Nancy Bush to the rescue. Look for hattie goodness when I get some stuff off my knitting platter.
The second class was on Russian Grafting and I think its a very interesting technique needing some field testing. As mentioned yesterday I have utilized it on my STTS[actually Shetland Tea Shawl or STS] so will get a better idea of how much I like it once blocked. Plus other occassions to test general lovability. The most intriquing use seems to be in seaming as far as I can see so Must. Knit. Sweater. Pieces. Again knitting plate.
The third class was called ummmm Off the Cuff or something of that nature. I actually was half asleep during this class since I left my sister's apartment at an ungodly 6am and knit for the 1.5 hrs I had between arrival time and class time. I have taken to knitting when I can't sleep cause it ummm puts me to sleep shhhhhhhh I didnt' say that but you know relaxing soothing nerve and worried mind calming meditative bs I actually finished half of my class project since returning home:
Toni actually doesn't give a rats ass about my classes and just wants to know about the LOOT. Tough she, and you too, have to see my progress in dealing with WIPS first. I noticed that Toni actually blogged about what I did last week:
That pile o' yarn consists of: Donegal, Rogue, and the BW topdown. I had purchased some BWA for Celtic Dreams and didn't feel like plodding through 3 sweaters before getting to it. Not that I have CO mind you. I will be stuffing the yarn for those three sweaters on my yarn caddy in case I choose to restart one of them soon. The yarn caddy is the reason for my funk. Upon my return I arranged my purchases and was shocked. I had been shopping daily and stuffing the bags under the car seats between trips. I really did not realize I had picked up so much yarn. To remind myself that I was living in land of plenty I went to the main yarn stash area and picked up similar yarns ex: Douceur et Soie and Kid Seta for Rowan KS Haze or other yarns I had picked up since my daddy got sick 10 months ago. Talk about retail therapy gone haywire. Anyway here is the caddy sans ripped stuff but with extra yarns for ripped stuff ;^>
Unfortunately I can honestly say I have more yarns I purchased in past few months that didn't make it onto the caddy AND that there are CONES OF YARN hiding behind the laceweight on lower shelf. Not bulky weight cones but cones of ummm Zephyr and Cashmere. No wonder I am broke and being pathetically into retail therapy[not normally just recently] I still have an overwhelming urge to shop on a daily basis. My favorites from Stitches:
Laceweights from Skaska designs also available from Dimity's Dry Goods The top two are cashmere/silk blends and not the same blend~ one is 50/50 the other 80/20~ which was not my intention the other 3 are my faves esp the loverly taupe yak and silk blend. Another laceweight Alpaca from another vendor proves to be my absolute favorite couldnt' have walked out of Stitches without:
The seller told me it was Crea[first shearing] Suri Alpace from her own farm. 3000 yards of the most wonderful stuff I have ever seen for real. And I have seen some pretty awe inspiring yarns in the past 30 years. Just saying.
Being the sock knitting addict that I am
Stop Laughing
I picked up some sockyarn that is a nice heather instead of the handpainted the was all over the place:
I am still waiting for some kits purchased from Nancy Bush and have picked up some CP Kid mohair blend[why I had to pull out the similar yarns to stop myself from buying stuff I had tons of already] and beads for River since returning home:
By and by I did finish the first of my socks for yarn purchased mere hours before going to stitches:
Ok thats the highlights of past two weeks shopping and reduction of WIPS spree. Toodles and happy knitting
Posted by Elka at 04:40 PM | Comments (2)
August 22, 2005
STTS
Stitches was a blast and I am still recovering from the wealth of information and OMG! the market. It was a dark and rainy weekend in Chi town and the weather followed me home. I actually had to pull over twice the skies were so dark and the rain so thick. Mind you it was between 1 and 7 pm. Power was down in some areas of St Louis when I got home and my computer needed a reboot which didn't occur til Thursday~ the radio silence really was all about timing last week.
During the interim I finished STTS. I keep thinking I should maybe block her before I show her but lets make it a before and after dealie.... Before:
There is some serious 3-D stuff going on in this shawl:
See all the bloops around first lace pattern~ before increase round? The epitome of peaks. Again near the increase round of second lace pattern and the third lace pattern is all lumpy bumpy. This probably means I will be blocking sooner than later to see how it all looks in the end. For the edging BO and sewing together I substituted the Russian Graft technique I learned at Stitches and I am gonna close up when it is blocked to decide how much we lurv it. OK I could go on and on about stuff from last week but then what would we blog about the rest of week hmmmmmmm? Til tomorrow~
yarny days and knitterly evenings ;^>
Posted by Elka at 09:09 AM | Comments (2)
August 10, 2005
Un~freaking~believable
I have finally finished all the getting ready for school prep: new socks, panties, backpacks, wardrobes, haircuts, teeth cleanings, check-ups on top of school supplies. My girls are so very ready for next week. This being the last possible day for slumber parties preschool beginning we, of course, invited over Zoe's BFF. I had planned on taking the girls to the City Museum or Magic House or at the very least depending upon how tuckered out I was feeling the Science Center. The girls vetoed all of these ideas for this! Damned TV.
The teeth cleaning occured yesterday and I left the girls at the Dentists to shop for IK the one with Madlis shawl which they didnt' have and I have no clue which issue. One would think I wasn't going to be at yarn heaven tomorrow. Whoa Nellie back up there~ did you say left the kids? Yes I sure did. Auntie Carol~~ you know the auntie that watches the girls whenever we leave town for the weekend~~ just happens to work at a Dentist's office. I am thinking that maybe when they do the office days if they still do the office days I will send my girls there. For my foreign readers my Jr Highschool aka Middle School aka 6th grade onward sent me to a parent's workplace to learn all about what it means to work. See what it did for me? I stay at home. Either that or I will, if feeling particularly unappreciated, keep the girls home that day. I plan on putting on an act which involves fusing June schedule with Lucy kinda day. I shall do my best to convince them that I work that hard everyday and don't sit until 4.29.99 which is why I park my patootie in front of the computer, or on knitting chair and look harrassed should they require anything.
Not having the mag I decided to peruse the yarn offerings and picked up two balls of sock yarn:
This is Trekking 100 which is making the rounds in blogland due to the evershifting and artful color changes. Mine isn't doing the shading most often seen and its probably because I picked a nice dark 'manly' kinda shade. Still we get to test macro skills to show you this:
What in the world did I do to deserve yarn 2 days before Stitches extravaganza? OMG you wouldn't believe the insults I endured just before going to the dentists. Really you wouldn't. Sigh. We go to get the hair cuts and I decide to have my lip waxed since I will be seen in public by other knitters who are obviously more important than other kinds of people[including spouses and spouses' coworkers/friends/family] and don't deserve to face this when trying to knit. The lady who was gonna do the deed started right up on these. When I asked her what she thought she was doing since they had been done already { aside: I had just done them myself tyvm } she told me they looked 'terrible' The result of her handiwork. The indignity....
Posted by Elka at 04:11 PM | Comments (5)
Slow but Steady
We are just now finished with edging repeat 65/115. Can you stand it?
As always a yarny day and knitterly evening to all my readers~ toodles
Posted by Elka at 01:41 AM | Comments (3)
August 08, 2005
It's here it's here it's here it's here it's here
Do you wanna know how totally sweet and adorable Miss Toni is? She is this sweet: So I loaned her some magazines to fuel her doily fixation and she sent me two Fiddlesticks patterns and the cutest little ceramic tiles/magnets you could ever imagine. Hey and do you see how she crossed out the price of the patterns as if I hadn't sent her a link to exactly which patterns I most coveted? Just in case she really insisted on purchasing me something for loaning her a few magazines. Which I did assure her was totally unnecessary. Well I have been sitting on these for a few weeks and today I get the shetland cobweb yarn I ordered from J&S. On super sale click the stock clearance button for bargain of the century. Retail therapy does work sometimes ;^>
In knitting news I started another shawl. This one is Sharon's hap shawl. My friend Liz gifted me with the kit for the holidays last year and it is just so perfect right now~ not as bulky as the almost done STT and not as chart intensive as Spiderweb. Retail therapy again~~ I purchased the newest HK offering: Shetland Lace Wedding Ring Shawl. Did you know that it costs as much as if not more than the book did when it came out? For some reason I think HK cost $40 when it was originally published but it is now listed at $55 is that right? The shawl came out to $50 can you believe that? When oh when will our economy improve...I know 2008 unless our reputation is totally demolished by then.
OK off for today. Yarny days and knitterly evening
Posted by Elka at 02:19 PM
August 05, 2005
Its all about timing
First off a big Mwah to all who sent cards and notes. They really did help keep me in good cheer.
Being the bad blogger that I am I didn't take pictures of all the work stuff I completed and sent off. No pictures of the Shell for LB or kid sweaters for Unique Colours. I didn't mean to be a bad blogger. Yesterday I was thinking ok take some pictures for blog~ check. Look at clock hmmmmmmm bad time to blog lets wait til later tonight but I forgot. Then today I was ugh Friday already I might as well wait til Monday since there will be no progress by then leaving me blog fodderless. It really is all about timing over here. But I did have pictures and might as well. Hey don't forget I am going to Stitches next week so dont expect anything Thursday onward OK? I will try really hard to find something of interest for beginning of week. Anyway the pictures with lead in....
Semi-regularly I get asked 'Do you really wear shawls?' Why yes I do. Actually I might stop wearing shawls cause I wear them to sit on my porch and smoke. The very glamourous reason shawls were invented I am sure. Don't forget Im a SAHM of 3 wee ones so I don't really have occassion to wear them and I do knit them rather obsessively. Oh so I might have to stop wearing shawls cause I am trying to Quit smoking. Day 5 here. But there is the shawl obsession which preceeds summer of or whatever other knit along you can think of. I am currently working on two shawls which you very well know if you have been paying any sorta attention. Shetland Tea Time was last mentioned when I had 15 out of 115 edging repeats done. I took pictures yesterday when I had finished another 25 repeats[40/115] so here she is:
Not very glam at all and I suspect one reason some people don't knit shawls at all. I mean you look at a picture of some loverly gossamer bit of gauze and you get some crumpled up bit of bleh. We all know that the transformation occurs during blocking but since shawls are not gauge dependent some enjoy knitting them sans gauging and can get a teeny bit concerned Here is a picture of a semi stretched out shawl to reassure my temid self:
The second shawl? Spiderweb shawl. Just as I am a bit over a quarter done on the edging for STT I am also a bit over a quarter done with center panel:
Oh yeah baby that looks so gooooooooood. Natch. Grab kidlet and take another picture to reassure oneself before getting to end and get this:
Livin' the vida loca~ yarny days and knitterly evenings to all, Elka
Posted by Elka at 09:35 AM | Comments (6)