Kris Crafts!

Thanks for all of the wonderful comments on Rosita. asked what s next? Well, the answer is simpler things.

I spent Friday swatching for Birch, , and . Madeleine is still in the works, though I put it aside to cast on for , and then in a moment of weakness, Soleil as well.
Yesterday, I had a work function at Del Mar Fairgrounds.

I have to admit that I have some moral opposition to horse races (though I m much more passionate about irresponsible dog breeders and pet stores). It was still fun, though, and the horses are just beautiful. Pure, solid muscle.

Brad was taking his last final while I was at the picnic, so Sam went with me instead. He did place some bets, and was actually pretty successful, especially for a guy that picks horses based on their names. Brad and I got home about the same time and decided to use the movie tickets that my sister thoughtfully sent us and went to see Wedding Crashers.

Hilarious movie. Anyway, stupid me thought that the air conditioning in the theater would be a welcome change from the heat, but they had seriously under conditioned for the almost full theater. I was knitting Fitzgerald (by feel) and had to eventually put it away because I got too warm.

Oh well.
I m knitting this in lime green Adrienne Vittadini Marissa, a pima cotton/silk blend.
This sweater isn t actually so much Fitzgerald as it is a modified drop shoulder sweater from , since my 5 spi gauge with Araucania Nature Wool doesn t match the 4.

5 spi that Fitzgerald calls for. Also, I m going with 5 Prime; of ease instead of 10 Prime;, thanks to some help from and Andrew. (I was thinking 7 Prime;, she said 6 Prime; looked just a little big on Andrew, so I m going with 5 Prime;.

) I ll follow the instructions for the Fitzgerald collar, otherwise I ll be following Ann Budd s book. I ll credit them both when I do my final project run down (months from now). I used the tubular cast on for this (the same one I tried and scrapped for Madeleine, but had successfully used for York).

With worsted weight wool, this cast on is fabulous, DK weight wool cotton, not so much.
Birch is going on the needles as soon as I buy Addi Naturas in a US 6 (I wanted to yesterday, but didn t leave Del Mar early enough to run up to Encinitas). Or, until I decide to knit it on the 14 Prime; Brittany straights that I have.

I guess we ll see which comes first. I ve got a little post-monogamy project explosion going on over here.
dc:title="Big day today!

" Wednesday: off (spin class cancelled, refinishing floors at the gym) Pilates at home if back is okay Done (not the pilates, the off thing)
Friday: Spin class? It depends on if I have to work on my off-Friday. Not done
Saturday: Spin class, Yoga Tech (depending on back) Done (spin and back and bis)
Sunday: off (Yarn Harlot book signing!

)
I can t believe it s done, with days to spare! Whoo hoo!
Yarn: Schoeller Esslinger Fortissima Cotton, Spring Blue 09, 5.

5 skeins for the smallest size (I thought the recommended 4 Prime; inches of ease for my normal size was too much for this particular sweater, because it is cotton, lace, and has no waist shaping)
Modifications: Added in more shoulder ease, picked up 210 stitches for the collar instead of 154.
Time: 77.5 hours of knitting, 7.

25 hours of finishing (that breaks down to 27.5 hours for the back, 25 hours for the front, 12.25 hours for the first sleeve, 12.

50 hours for the second, 3.75 hours for seaming and weaving in ends, and 3.5 hours for picking up and knitting the collar twice).

1) Use a chart. This would have been impossible to knit had I been following the line by line instructions.
2) Stitch markers.

I didn t use any lifelines in this at all, since I just counted the stitches for each repeat after I knitted it. Most of my mistakes were easy to fix on the return trip (missed YO or PSSO), but on the occasion that a mistake had to be tinked, I was relieved that I had to tink less than 24 stitches rather than an entire row.
3) Another time saver for me - when you have to increase and decrease, keeping in pattern", I wrote down how many stitches I should have at the edges of the last stitch markers (partial repeats) for those rows.

4) Ignore the instructions for the collar. First, I waited until the end to knit the collar (the instructions have you knit it flat before seaming the second shoulder seam). The collar was the last thing I did, and I knit it in the round.

Secondly, when I picked up the correct amount of stitches, I thought they were too spaced out but ignored my gut and went ahead anyway. As a result, I lost the lovely boat neck look, and made the shoulders too tight. I ripped it out and redid it, picking up as many stitches as looked right, and the collar is much better now.

Everything fits the way it should. This is actually why I thought I was done Wednesday night, when in fact, I ripped and redid the collar last night (after I looked at FO pictures and realized it looked bad).
5) Give yourself a selvedge stitch for seaming.

I forgot about this until I was five hours into the back, and I figured I d spend less time seaming and cursing during seaming than it would be to rip it out and start over. I was right, but there was in fact cursing (way too many decreases on the edge stitch for easy seaming).
5) One last tip - pin out the lace to measure.

The pieces seemed longer than they were until I pinned them out to the right width. I m really glad I figured that out before I started armhole shaping.
Now that the dust has cleared, I m absolutely delighted with the finished product.

I truly did enjoy knitting this for most of those 84.75 hours (which is alarmingly close to our original estimate of 90 hours). I watched many, many episodes of Law and Order (both original and SVU) in that time, let me tell you.

came the closest to my completion time (July 28th at 10:33 pm) with her guess of July 27th, 3:23 pm. I ll bring you your the next time I see you!
July 28th, 2004, I started knitting.

The madness started with a copy of I Can t Believe I m Knitting, charcoal grey Wool-Ease, and Susan Bates US 9 needles. Exactly one year later
I ve spent 699 hours knitting and crocheting. There are 8,760 hours in a year, so I ve spent about 8% of my time on knitting.

33% of it was spent sleeping and 22% working.
35 of my completed projects were for other people.
I ve used 143 skeins of yarn.

I have purchased way more yarn than that.
My last FO for the year was Rosita (pics tomorrow!)
There are 54 items on my to knit list.

What have I learned in this year?
I m both a process and product knitter. I love the process, but I would never block or seam anything if I didn t also want the product.

My anal-retentive record-keeping reaches new highs when it comes to knitting.
I can t even pretend that I cross-stitch anymore.
Nothing is impossible to learn.

Challenging, yes - but not impossible. The only way to learn is to try.
I m more selfish than I want to admit.

I m not nearly as interested in knitting for other people as I used to be.
I don t like straight needles. Give me circs - preferably Addi Turbos.

I love cables and lace. Mindless knitting is good to have around too, though, for interesting movies, reading, or class.
It bugs me to have too many projects on the go at the same time.

It bugs me to have nothing to work on.
There is an extremely delicate balance between the last two things.
I m powerless against the word discontinued.

I went to bed at 7:30 pm last night. The sun wasn t even down yet. I was that tired.

I did make it through spin class, though, but it was a struggle.
Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! You guys are good for my ego.

Rosita is seamed. I still have ends upon ends to weave in, and I have to pick up and knit the collar, but the end is definitely in sight. My time on it will be limited on weeknights due to school and maybe dinner with Miyon, but I plan to give it lots of attention on Friday.

Stephanie will be here on Sunday. Rosita fits beautifully, by the way - my shoulder modifications worked well.
I m running late this morning, so I m just going to be quick with some pictures.

Here we are at Moondoggies (Brad and I are hunched over strangely - having the tall people in the back is weird):
On the bottom, from left to right are Sam, John, Bonnie, and Meng. Conspicuously absent is Peter, who turned 26 on Thursday. We always celebrate together, which is what we had intended yesterday, but he got called in to work.

This is after our desert at Forever Fondue. It was a great dinner, though I got tired of the cooking our own entree part. I loved the cheese fondue and the chocolate, of course.

Anyway, it was a fabulous birthday and I wouldn t change a thing. Well, except the part where I have to go to work today.
Here she is nesting among the shoes Brad thoughtfully leaves out for her (I m guilty of this too).

Those are size 13s - she s not quite as small as this picture makes her seem.
She s hanging out on the carpet again instead of just the kitchen tile, so she s obviously feeling better. Wish I could say the same for the rest of us.

Here s hoping the air conditioning in my office is improved by tomorrow.
We re going to hang out with some friends at this afternoon, then dinner for two at Forever Fondue. I might try to sneak in a visit to Needlecraft Cottage in PB on the way to Moondoggies too.

Monday: Spin class, shoulders Not done - I showed up for class and didn t get a spot
Wednesday: Spin class, chest and tris Done (spin only)
Friday: back, bis, and legs Not done, resting back
Saturday: Spin class, Yoga Tech Done (spin only)
Wednesday: off (spin class cancelled, refinishing floors at the gym) Pilates at home if back is okay
Friday: Spin class? It depends on if I have to work on my off-Friday.
Saturday: Spin class, Yoga Tech (depending on back)
After two unsuccessful class sessions with Madeleine, I finally have something to show.

I m so in love with the wool cotton. Knitting this is just wonderful.
The very cool thing is that after class, a woman came up to me and asked if cabling was hard.

I noticed her watching me in class, but that s fairly normal (you can t KIP without people staring occasionally). I told her it was quite deceptive, and everyone goes that s IT? when they learn the techniques of cabling.

She said that someone had told her that at a yarn store (she s been to a real yarn store!) but she hadn t figured it out by book yet. She does know how to knit and purl.

So, I told her that during our break on Tuesday, I ll teach her to cable.
I ve been stalking my birthday present with bloglines (FedEx tracking). It should be delivered today!

Just in time, as it is a space board and blocking wires, and I should be finished with the last sleeve cap of Rosita tonight. Now I don t have to figure out how to handle all of that on my floor. I m a creature of habit.

My life is normally a balanced mix of work, school, knitting, working out, home, and sleep, not necessarily in that order. (Home includes time with Brad and Lani, and keeping the house from looking like a tornado ran through it.) My balance has been messed up recently, and it s really starting to bother me.

I m working more hours, working out fewer hours (and I really wanted to throw up for most of spin yesterday), sleeping less, and man, you don t want to see my condo right now. The irony is that even after knitting more than I have in any other month, the fact that I haven t been able to touch Rosita for two nights straight is bugging me (Rosita was the beginning of the end of the state of the house). Brad s summer schedule is pretty insane, and we have class on alternate evenings.

This works well for taking care of Lani, but it s not good for us. His insane schedule should last for seven more weeks - mine, at least two.
This is where I distract you from the Rosita news (or lack thereof) with my dog.

Here s Lani two weekends ago, following the sun on our patio.
Of course, last weekend she spent sprawled on the kitchen tile, trying to get cool. As much as I don t want to, I think she needs to be shaved to deal with the heat (I think she looks ridiculous shaved).

I think she ll actually go to the groomer for that (we normally take care of everything ourselves) - Brad s been so busy that he hasn t had time to clip her nails, and that s the one thing I can t do. I made her bleed once and never got over it.
When I was deciding on the color for Madeleine (and ended up with blue) I decided against another available color.

When I got my Madeleine yarn in the mail and swatched, I found that I really like wool cotton. I couldn t resist the call of the other cool color (this time Rowan Wool Cotton instead of Debbie Bliss) and I ordered it. Yes, I know I have no will power.

I am below yarn budget this month, but I have potential issues with the keep stash size lower thing.
Anyway, I want to use it to make . You know, with my copious free time.

I started Madeleine again last night in class, and then realized that I couldn t calculate my waist shaping as I couldn t remember what my exact row count was, and my swatch was at home. So I abandoned it after four rows, but luckily, had brought backup in the form of Here and There Cables, which I worked on for the rest of class.
I ve been watching this season of Six Feet Under faithfully, and was excited that one of the characters has started knitting in a group at in Burbank, CA.

The name rang a bell, and I realized that it was the yarn store that talked about going to a yarn tasting party at. Pics of the store with the camera crew are . It s always fun to see stuff like that on TV.

Unfortunately it s the last season of Six Feet Under as well as Queer as Folk, the reasons I have HBO and Showtime in the first place - maybe once the shows are over it s time to let those channels go (we rarely watch movies on them).
Next time I go to Bakersfield (not for a while, as my father is currently on vacation in Thailand, and during the summer he works every other weekend - oh, and Bakersfield is really, really hot during the summer, as in 113 degrees who on earth thought it was a good idea to play miniature golf kind of weather), I ll try to convince Brad we need to check out Unwind.
I m not going to be reading blogs much for the next couple of weeks.

For one thing, I m working more than usual, which means my spare time at home is limited. Also, someone on a knit blog posted a small spoiler about Harry Potter - I m sure she didn t think it was a spoiler, but since I had managed to avoid any news of the book at ALL, it was a spoiler to me. I won t be able to start the book until my work deadline of the end of the month, as well as my Rosita deadline, so I m going to have to try hard to stay in the dark.

I worked really hard on Rosita this weekend. There s a very good chance that I ll have to work overtime in the next two weeks, so I wanted to get as much done as I could. I was actually still having fun with the knitting until yesterday.

Yesterday was ridiculously hot and sticky, and generally just felt too hot to knit. I was thinking about going somewhere air conditioned, but ended up trying to make it work at home. Knitting was much better once it cooled down.

I finished the first sleeve, and then ripped and re-knit the top of the front and the back. That fix, which I thought would take five hours, actually took closer to eight. I worked diligently on the second sleeve yesterday, and am ready to start the sleeve cap shaping.

I ve worked on this for about 75 hours now. I have to finish the second sleeve cap, block everything, seam, and knit the collar. Maybe another 15 hours?

I should make it, if work doesn t get too crazy.
Anyone that has ever seen Leilani at the dog park has been shocked. She looks so sweet, docile, and, well, a little prissy.

But when you get her around other dogs, she becomes a bully. This is a huge problem around puppies, as puppy owners see Lani and think that finally there s a dog that their dog can play with (our dog park is mostly large breeds) and no one believes me when I tell them that my dog is not nice to puppies. There might have been an incident at John s 25th birthday party to illustrate that point.

She was on a 6 foot leash right by me, but the puppy was on a 16 foot leash, which was 10 feet longer than the park allowed. The owners, while very nice people, clearly didn t pay attention to me when I told them that Lani beats up puppies, and that our dogs should be kept apart. The puppy came too close and Lani got very vocal and had a bit of a turf war with the puppy - she doesn t bite, though.

If Lani were a bigger breed, she really wouldn t be welcome at the dog park because of her aggression. Since she s so small and fluffy, though, everyone laughs when she pulls her bully routine - a Pomeranian trying to get the better of a German Shepherd is just comical, ya know? She also never bites - her entire routine consist of mostly vocals.

I never really worry about her because she can stand up for herself. But yesterday, a dog started following her around, and she was quiet (she doesn t start things with dogs more aggressive than she is - size means nothing to dogs). The owner tried to call his dog off of her, saying she doesn t want to play.

Next thing I knew, he had gotten too close, and Lani did her rearing up and growling routine, which normally gets rid of the dogs (once it was a 50 pound Boxer that went running, which was hilarious). Not this time - Lani was on her back with a paw firmly on her chest in seconds. The next step would be teeth, either on her neck or face, playfully or otherwise, but I got there in time, shoved the other dog off of her and picked her up.

She was fine, just shaken up, and the owner of the other dog got him off to the side and calmed down. We checked Lani over for cuts (there were none), and she desperately wanted to be on the ground, so I put her back down. Then we looked over, realized that the other dog was a Pit Bull, and that the owner obviously had no intention of leaving (though he was doing a good job of keeping the Pit Bull distracted), so we left.

I m kind of proud of myself, as I really wanted to lay into this guy, but left without saying anything. There was nothing to be gained by getting into an argument about dog park etiquette with a guy who has a dog that clearly wouldn t mind taking my hand off. Even if all the Pit Bull wanted to do was have a playful tussle, he should have been able to figure out that she was not interested - this is the first time in over two years that there has been a dog that hasn t gotten the message.

Missing the cues is a clear sign of excessive aggression.
Oh, that would be me, with the . Let s just say there was a flaw in my gym plan where I went to Raven s spin class Monday and Wednesday, and did PiYo and lifted legs on Tuesday.

Walking today is a bit of a challenge. Subsequent weeks will have Tuesday as an off day as a necessity (school). Thank goodness.

Pass the Advil.
I did cast on for Madeleine after I got home last night. I did the tubular cast on, which I had done before for .

I like the look a lot better with the worsted weight wool - I m not sure it works well with the DK weight wool/cotton.
I used the by Katharina Buss which covers the yarn over method of tubular cast on. I ll grab my by Montse Stanley on my way out the door - maybe there s another way I could try in there.

I m kind of dreading my first day of class. I need more of a break. I took a break from Rosita (well, I knit for 45 minutes on it) to knit the swatch for .

I d like to have it cast on for my first day of class tomorrow. I have to tell you - I really like the wool cotton (I m using Debbie Bliss, not Rowan). It s a little splitty, just a little, but the stitches are so crisp and pretty that I don t care.

It s a great yarn for cabling, I think, since it has a bit of give from the wool, but the definition of the cotton.
I took a macro shot before the sun came up, so the color isn t the greatest, but here s the swatch (I might add, the biggest swatch I ve knit in quite a while).
The weirdness on the left side is just sloppy blocking.

I want to use the tubular cast on for this one, so I m going to have to cast on tonight so I m ready for class tomorrow. Tubular cast on is not class knitting, though 2x2 ribbing with an occasional cable twist is. Yesterday was filled with news of the .

My heart goes out to those affected by these attacks.
In contrast, Celina has wonderful . I asked her how she felt about color choices and such, and her response is in the comments in yesterday s post.

To summarize, they like the colors of classic Pooh because the colors are more subdued. So now I need help choosing colors - this will be the last thing about her gift that won t be hidden under a link or something. Anyway, my choices are:
1) a combination of banana cream and mint .

Pros - colors won t stain easily and they look nice together. Cons - could not be described as subdued colors.
2) cream Shine from .

Pros - it would definitely fit in with a classic Pooh color scheme. Cons - baby puke.
3) sky Shine from Knitpicks.

Pros - Justification for blue yarn. Cons - doesn t necessarily work with classic Pooh colors.
Please help me out and vote (including you, Cel!

) I want to be ready to start this when I m done with Rosita. (See the optimism? I m still saying when I m done with Rosita, not if.

")
Well, after a four day weekend, I have the back of Rosita up to the armhole shaping, and the front is half a repeat away from the same place.
I m almost at the point where I have to commit to the shaping. I want to see if I can figure out a way to make the decreases a little shallower while still ensuring the sleeve cap fits.

I think I ll cut out pieces of muslin to match the schematics I m shooting for, to see if it will work.
Anyway, so the scary part of all of this is: you re looking at 30 hours of knitting. Realistically speaking, I think I have another 25 hours to finish the front and the back, and then probably another 25-30 for the sleeves.

This is going to be a close one. I m still thoroughly enjoying the knitting, though - although it s time consuming and tedious, the pattern doesn t get boring very fast!
What do you know, a Monday holiday that doesn t come with a Law and Order marathon on TNT or Law and Order SVU on USA.

Hmph.
Luckily, I have a lot of saved episodes on my DVR, not to mention that I put aside my knitting to clean up the house. A couple of people are coming over for a very casual BBQ and general hanging out, which has the side benefit of making us actually clean (though no one should try to go in the second bedroom - my yarn problem is quite apparent there.

)
I have one more repeat before I am at the armhole shaping of the front of Rosita. Pictures and hours spent tomorrow.
I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday - be careful on the roads!

Brad passed by a DUI (pulled over, three police cars, and a partial six pack of beer on the car) on his way to the grocery store at 10 am. Not much to report here - I ve been working diligently on Rosita. I m up to the armholes of the back, and since I m pretty sure I need to tweak the armhole decreases, I decided to start the front instead.

Nothing like putting off important decisions as long as possible. Anyway, I ve been knitting like a maniac, but took time today to go to a baseball game. The Padres won against the Giants, if anyone cares, and it was a fun day.

I m halfheartedly trying to keep up with blogs as I knit myself to death (still enjoying every single minute of it, though - I love the pattern!) I freaked out yesterday when I saw almost 200 updates on bloglines, but then figured out that typepad did something that made everyone with a typepad blog show nonexistent updates.
Back to knitting!

1. Make the two fleece blankets and mail off the Dulaan box by June 9th. Done (but one day late)
4.

Start on a tank knit in the round (either , , or ) Done - started and finished Vintage Cami!
5. Knit thrummed slippers for Grandpa M >Not done - Christmas plan changed
6.

Knit Ed s present Not done - see 5
8. Start on the Rebecca leaf tank Done - started and finished!
9.

Keep the yarn stash at the same number or lower Uh, yeah. I was doing great. I knitted up 12.

5 skeins this month, but there was a Tuesday Morning visit, where purchased some cotton-ease for potential baby use, and supplimented the current 6 skeins of CE in Candy blue with another bag (the sweater I have planned calls for about 5.75 skeins, and I m not playing that game again). So I was fine, even when I bought one more skein of Noro Daria Multi for a belt,which brought me to 11 skeins purchased.

But then the Madeleine badness happened. Oops.
2.

Start Madeleine in class, and be realistic if I need to swap it out for number 1.
3. Don t act stalkerish and crazy when meeting the Yarn Harlot.

4.