Restless Knitter

I thought I’d at least try to fix the hole in the Maltese shawl. I could tell before I even got into it that it was going to be more trouble than it was worth so rip it went. I’m still being rebellious and not using a lifeline (aka I am a dumbass). Eighteen repeats in, so far so good.

Hey, here’s something you don’t see everyday. Every other day, maybe.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get tired of this pattern. I really like the way it looks with multi-colored yarns. It’s perfect for car knitting, which is where this one came to be.

To keep from getting burnout on the shawl, I started a baby cardigan. Ahh baby knitting. It doesn’t have to be exact, within reason. It will fit some baby eventually. If only knitting a sweater for me were so flexible. Though I’m not sure I like the idea of thinking I’ll grow into something. This will be the Cabled Cardigan from the Knitting For Babies: Blankets, Booties, Bibs & More booklet. I was moving right along on this. Both sleeves and the back are done. The fronts are too. And then…

Seriously, why! You may have to click for bigger to see it but it’s still quite glaring for me. Why did I miss that one cable? Why didn’t I notice before I finished the whole front? Both fronts really, since I knit them at the same time. I’m not going to rip the whole thing out but I will have to rip down to the neck shaping. I will fix it while I contemplate only knitting garterstitch squares for the rest of my knitting life.

Daughter has gone home, making me very sad face. We had fun though. We went to Venice Beach to people watch, and while later watching Dancing With The Stars, saw the same man in gold that we saw at Venice. (Dudes, some of you do NOT need to be walking around in nothing but a speedo, yuck.) We also went to the the LA Fashion District. I’m not a big shopper (unless it’s yarn) and didn’t find anything for me, but I plan on going back when I have more time.

After picking up Daughter at the airport and arriving home, we took her out to show her where the rattlesnake had been. The little bugger was back. Unfortunately for him, The Man was home and the snake lost his head. Last night, a gopher snake decided under the deck would be a good place to get away from a barking dog. Once we got the dog in, he made his way over to the side yard. This one was probably 4 ft long. I have to tell you, I’m not too fond of all these snakes in and behind my yard.

Oh yeah, knitting. There has been some of that going on. I was searching for who-knows-what and came across something that was double-knit. The original search long forgotten, I moved on to looking for charts I could use and came up with this.

It’s a hotpad/potholder/dishcloth, I haven’t really decided yet. I used Sugar ‘n Creme, on a US 7. I’d played around with this before but had never actually made something. My original thought was a baby blanket I dreamed up in my head. After doing this small piece, I’m having second thoughts on the blanket. I enjoyed knitting this one but I’m not so sure I’d enjoy a full blown blanket. I’d also need to treat the edges differently. Sloppy is ok for this but not for a blankie. Oh, and speaking of baby blankets, I’m going to be a Nana again.

From some leftover Jaggerspun Zephyr

I picked an easy pattern out of a stitch dictionary and knit until I ran out of yarn. It was a partial ball so I can’t tell you how much I used.

After I finished the scarf, I started The Maltese Shawl from Victorian Lace Today (page 162) using the Misti Alpaca Lace yarn I got while in San Fran.

Oops, do you see what I see? There’s a hole. Yes, I know there are a lot of holes, however there’s one that is bigger than the others. It’s not supposed to be. It looks like when I did a k2tog, I missed one of the yo’s that was supposed to be in that k2tog. No one would probably ever notice but me, but it’ll drive me batshit crazy that it’s there. Because there’s lace knitting on both sides, I’m not so sure I can fix it. Should I attempt to fix it? Leave it? Rip since I’m not that far in? Attempt to fix it then get pissed that I couldn’t fix it and rip it? It goes in time-out until I can decide.

San Francisco was nice. We did some touristy things, like seeing the redwoods

visiting the Cakebread winery

and driving on steep winding roads that scared the crap out of me.

There were also a couple of yarn shop visits. First stop was Marin Fiber Arts, where I bought Drops Alpaca for a Wrapped In Comfort shawl. The other shop was Imagiknit. There I bought some Misti Alpaca Lace, possibly for something from Victorian Lace Today. I liked both shops. They were both friendly without being overbearing, which is why I felt the need to purchase something. Both had nice ranges of yarn to choose from, though Imagiknit had a larger space so a larger selection.

I started a sock before I left (something about trying to make sure that first round isn’t twisted on an airplane doesn’t appeal to me) and ran into a bump. I emailed the designer for clarification but I wasn’t able to check email until after I got home. I did get about 2 inches into the sock after we got home but I’m going to frog it. The socks (Dream Twister Socks) are pretty, I’d really like to make them, but they’re too fiddly. It would be a miracle if I finished the first one, let alone get up the motivation to do the second one.

Bella found a new friend yesterday. You can click for bigger if you want a better look.

That is what is known as a Western Rattlesnake. Also known as OMG BELLA GET IN THE HOUSE WHERE IS THE SHOVEL I HOPE IT DOESN’T GET ME BEFORE I GET IT! The Man was visiting family over an hour away so I was on my own. This little guy was right outside the back door, against the house. The wood in the bottom right corner is the decking that he slithered out from under. I’m assuming he slithered, I didn’t see him come out. Bella was giving little barks at him where he is. Our lawn chair has a nylon canvas back and seat so I turned it on it’s side to make a barrier between me and the snake. I got the shovel but with the lawn chair and the snake being right up against the house, I was having a hard time getting the shovel pointed just right. I slowly started lowering the shovel to make sure I was going to hit him and not just rock, and he finally had enough. He retreated under the deck, rattling his little tail off. Fantastic, he still has his head! By the way, I didn’t get as close to him as it seems. Thank goodness there’s a zoom feature on cameras.

I’ll end with a more pleasant picture, taken by The Man

I was browsing patterns on Ravelry and a couple of things came up.

1. Why do people post a pattern but not take a good picture of the item? Some of them have more cat in the picture than the knitted item. Hey, I love kitties just as much as the next person, I have two of them myself. However, I want to see what I’m going to end up with. There’s one picture that the item is folded/rolled/wadded up, I shit you not. WTF people. Free or for purchase, show me what I’m going to spend my time on.

2. What is it with lines across the boobs in tops? I’m talking about the ones that have a divider type line between the boob and belly sections. Why can’t the line be under the boobs? Why does it have to go across the boobs? Are we trying to make them look saggy? Look smaller? Is it a measuring tape? Is it bondage? Help the boobs, move the line! Someone explain to me because I really want to know. Perhaps if I know the “why”, I’ll see it in a new light and not hate the line.

3. Rant - If I see a picture of an item I want to knit, then I look at the pattern and see that it’s different than the picture, I want to reach out and touch someone. I’m just pulling things out of the blue and it in no way is part of the actual pattern so searching would be fruitless, but let’s say there was a section of flowers, then a section of bees, then a section of trees, and when you get to the pattern there is no chart for bees but skulls in it’s place. It was a fair isle pattern so I don’t know why I’m bitching since I don’t mess with fair isle, but it still irritated me. What if I decide to do fair isle tomorrow? I can’t make that item because the designer chose to not give all the same charts he/she used. I don’t want to have to go searching for the chart, I don’t want to have to think about it, I just want the charts used for the item in the pattern.