Uli's Creative Corner

 Today I have something to show off.  My new top down cable panel sweater.  The model shot will come later.  Today you only get to see the dark shot taken just before bed time in the spare bedroom.  What do you think?

The cable panel doesn't really show on this picture nor do any of the details.  The design is a basic sweater from Knitting Pure & Simple.  To break up the boredom of stocking stitch I added a 3 cable panel down the center front of the sweater.  The left and right cables are basic cables crossed every sixth row.  The middle cable is 2 stitches wider and crossed every 6th row and then after the 12th row.  The crosses of the 3 cables always coincide except the middle cable panel has some longer uncrossed sections in it.  I'm going to try and get Evan to take a model shot that will show the cables off better.  I altered the number of stitches cast on for the front to account for the cable panel pulling in.  I measured the width cable panel swatch and compared it to my normal gauge and worked out the difference I needed to get the same width as the back.  I also changed the edges on the sweater.  I was a bit tired of rolled edges so I used a seed stitch border on arms and body but I kept the mock turtleneck/rolled stocking stitch collar.  My only complaint is how I handled the bottom edge.  I couple of extra rows might have worked nicely as well, I needed to go down a needle size for the edging and I needed to decrease some of the cable stitches away to make the edge be nice and smooth.  However this is really noticable when it's not worn.  As soon as it's on the body, it's not really a big deal.  So I will live with it for a little bit and then make up my mind whether I am going to change it.  Since it was a top down, the bottom will be easily fixable if I choose to do that.

I started the Ruby Victorian scarf from the latest Knitter's.  I didn't get much done because this is such fine counting work that I can't be distracted.  However, once I get the first border panel done, the rest of the scarf should be easy going until I get to the other border panel.  It's pretty and delicate.  A change from the bulky knitting I've done.

I finally have the little poncho I finished on New Year's eve blocking.  I think it would be a great take-along for Erika on our trip to CA.

Other than that, I puttered around at home.  A little bit of sock knitting and a few rows here and there.  The one project I haven't touched in a while is the top down swing coat.  I'll get back to it..... some day.

Time for coffee.

 Nobody in my house was interested so I'm quickly sharing this here...... the one place I can go on ad nauseum about my knitting and I haven't been told to shut up yet.....

I went to a LYS today just for a quick looksie.  I had Erika with me and she got to pick out a ball of something funky, fuzzy and novelty like to make her a little scarf with.  She picked some Patons Twister in the Fruit Loops colour.  I started it and it's almost done.  I don't know if it will be long enough - I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

Then I browsed around a bit and I noticed that they carried the same yarn I had bought some of at another LYS last year.  It's a lilac superwash wool yarn that I'm intending on making a pretty little sweater for Erika with.  I have enough yarn for the smaller size but I'm afraid that I might not be able to make it soon enough to still have her fit into the smaller size.  I had been meaning to check out the other LYS to see if they, on the off chance, had any left.  But almost a year later.......... probably not likely.  So when I saw a ball that looked like it was the same colour I picked it up just for insurance.  I'd rather have a ball that's not the same dye lot than not having enough at all.  I was pretty sure it was at least the right colour.  So when I came home, I checked the colour.  Colour matched - good.  I didn't expect the dye lots to be the same but guess what........ they were.  I can't believe it.  I now have my extra ball of yarn and if I don't get to make that sweater for this winter season (and it's getting a bit late) I can now safely make the larger size for next fall/winter season and know that I'll have enough yarn.  I was so pleased.  Nobody at my house however, though that this was important enough news to be excited about.  So, here I am, at almost 11 pm on a Saturday night telling you my dye lot story.  Pretty sad, eh?

What else did I pick up?  Oh, just another ball of Regia Jubilee.  I had to have the pinky/brown shade.

Good night - be back soon - maybe even with a FO sweater picture.

 I say that every Friday..... TGIF.  It sounds like I don't enjoy my work.............. I do enjoy what I do for a living but there are so many other things in life that I love doing as well.......... my family, knitting and then there's that ever present housework and grocery shopping that weekends seem to be reserved for.  So after a good, busy week at work I always look favourably upon Friday and look forward to the two short days ahead called "the weekend".  With being sick, this week has been kind of strange but I still feel like it's time for the weekend.

I did an impulse buy at the LYS last night.  I've been eyeing the Ruby Scarf from the latest Knitter's magazine for a while.  It's on the cover of the Ramwools web site right now.  It uses two balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze.  I almost bought the Kidsilk Haze but I couldn't quite justify it.  I mentioned it to my friend at the LYS and she suggested a substitution.  She suggested a hank of Fleece Artist lace weight mohair.  For the life of me I don't see a match on their product listings and I don't have the label handy.  There was only one hank left.  It was in my colours though........... blues with some purple mixed in.  So it came home with me.  The yardage on the hank is about double than 2 balls of Kidsilk Haze so I could possible turn this into two scarves or it will make two projects anyways. 

I didn't really knit much last night.  I didn't get much of a chance to sit down.

I'm getting my hair done tomorrow.  Regular haircuts aren't mentionable because I get them done every 6 to 8 weeks but it's time to get my haighlights redone and it's also time for a bit of a change.  I like changing my style but right now with my hair being fairly short, there's never much that can be changed.  I can go way shorter or I can start growing it out but there isn't that instant satisfaction of seeing a real change like when you go from a long hairstyle to a short one.  My hairdresser did suggest a slightly different cut last time and we'll probably try that this time.  The only problem there is that it will look different when my hairdresser styles it and when I get my hands on it, I will just revert right back to my "old" way of styling it and it will come out looking very similar like before.  So we'll see......  Good things about highlights: 1) I get to go to the hairdresser by myself (usually I also bring in Erika for her cut at the same time) and just enjoy being pampered for a while; 2) I get to bring my knitting because there is all this waiting time while the colour sets etc.

Enjoy your weekend.  We're starting to get ready for our trip.  Evan will do some running around while I'm gone tomorrow morning do start getting some travel related things.  Stitches West is coming closer and I think we hammered out a budget for me so that I know how much I can spend guilt free!!!!

 Well, we're trying back to normal today.  I think we're all feeling better.  Tuesday really sucked.  Yesterday was better.  I hope today will be even better.  What's hard is that you come back to work after an absence of even just two days and you're somewhat recovered but now you have to deal with all the extra stuff that happened while you were gone and catch up and that's just enough to put you back to bed.  But so far so good.

Yesterday at least I felt well enough to knit.  I grazed around on my knitting a bit.  I finally finished one sleeve of the Phil Onde shirt.  That leaves me another sleeve and the front left to do.  I almost finished with the first sleeve of the top down cable sweater but I didn't have 7 mm DPNs to do the sleeve cuff so I stopped and I'll be borrowing those from a friend today.  I almost finished one sock but not quite.  And that's about it.

I'm just glad to be back and to be feeling somewhat normal again.

More news to come in the next few days.  For now I have to play catch-up.

 I will spare you the gory details but both Evan and I are home sick today and we're struggling to deal with Erika who is all better.  We didn't have the energy to drive her to daycare.

I'll make it quick and show you some pictures that I had saved up and then I'll try and hit the couch again - hopefully 15 minutes gave Evan enough rest that he can help Erika on the computer again for another 15 minutes or so.

Brother in law's hat is finished.  See the grey side and see the blue side.  It's totally reversible.  One comment if you make this hat.... weave in the end where you started the second half of the head before finishing it all off and closing any possible opening to get inside and weave that one end in.

I also got RAOK'd yesterday.  Thanks a whole bunch, Karen.  A great black sheep card, a skein of Opal, and a lovely soap.  You made my day.

And last but not least - a cutie shot of Erika:

Back to the couch

 Crazy Monday.......... I'm already ready for the weekend.  With having my little sick girl this weekend, nothing interesting really happened and I didn't even get a lot of time for knitting even though we were home most of the weekend.  Erika is better but she still has her moments where she needs some big time TLC.  She's with Nana today.

One of those TLC moments happened last night when all I could think of was finishing my BIL's hat and I was pushing and pushing and pushing.... well, it never did get finished.  I had to put it down and go upstairs and try and revert a major crisis and try and pay some extra special attention and play with my little bumblebee.  Needless to say, I never did get to finish.

I didn't show any pictures last week and I still don't have anything really interesting to show but I thought I'd show you all my current socks in progress but now that I'm trying to insert them something went wrong.  I must be out of server space again.  Oh, I really have to do something about that.

Let's try that sock in progress picture once more:

So I will leave it at that and go back to work.

 I think I've figured out an option for getting my own feed that actually works.  Brenda was kind enough to help me test it.  Thanks Brenda.

So, if you're looking for a feed for me so you can subscribe to me through bloglines or whatever other service, here it is:  Copy and paste this link - http://rss.icerocket.com/xmlfeed.php?id=561 - into your bloglines and hit subscribe and hopefully it will work.

I've got to be up on technology, after all. 

The little sick girl is pretty much on the mend.  She woke up with a high fever from her nap yesterday.  Tylenol helped get it under control and by about dinner time she started perking up.  She seemed fine last night.  We had breakfast out this morning with her Nana and Papa and she had her moments where she seemed back to normal and other moments where she didn't seem quite right yet.  So she's going to spend the day at her Nana's house tomorrow instead of going to daycare.  Mind you.... the way she's acting this afternoon, she's ready to go back to daycare tomorrow.  But a more quiet day won't hurt.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

My busy weekend turned into a forced stay-at-home Saturday since Erika got sick last night.  She hasn't been able to keep anything down and now she's running a temperature.  I think the last bit of broth and apple juice she had did stay down so I'm hopeful.

We canceled everything.  My Mom was disappointed because she had dinner ready to go including a nice birthday cake for my Dad.  Well, now they are on their way to our house...... pork roast, dumplings, cake and all..... Mom pre-cooked the roast and we'll boil the dumplings here and enjoy a birthday meal just in a different location.  Oh, my Mom and I have had our differences but when she does stuff like that I know how much they go out of their way for me and my little family.  I'm very lucky.

No knitting so far today.  I hope I'll get some done later.

Have a good Saturday and stay healthy. 

 I'm glad it's Friday.  Skytrain knitting gave me the chance to get close to finishing the first part of the hat I'm doing from the free pattern section at Elann.  The pattern calls for 1 ball in each colour for all sizes.  I'm making the men's size but I did change the needle size to 3 mm (it felt way too loose with the 3.25 mm they suggested) and I added 12 stitches to the total number of stitches.  With those alterations, I think the hat will fit nicely.  I still think that even on 3 mm needles the stitches are too loose but I'm not going to argue.  I just want a hat that I can give to my BIL that will fit him.  I think the with the double layer of knitting it's probably good to have the knitting a bit loose and once washed I'm sure the uneven knitting will be evened out.  Just as a note, one ball of each colour after these alterations will not make the hat any more.  I managed to get the navy blue done with one skein but I had to take about 1/2 inch off the total length the pattern called for and I had to decrease more quickly.  The pattern has you decrease every second row until there are about 10 or 11 stitches between decreases.  I decreased every 2nd row until there were 15 stitches between decreases and then every row until only 6 stitches reamined.  By doing that I had enough yarn to finish the blue and now I figure I'll have enough for the grey piece as well.  But I was cutting it close.  I had maybe 10" of the blue left by the time I was done.  Now to knit the same hat again in gray.......... boring.  I did as much as picking up the stitches from the provisional cast on at the bottom of the blue and did a round or two.  Then I went to bed.

That's about it for yesterday.  Times are busy here.  I'm glad it's Friday and we have a very, very busy weekend planned.  We figured we'd get all the family obligations out of the way in one weekend.  So, Saturday looks like this:  Music Class, then to Richmond (at least 45 min drive) to see Grandma Ruby, then back to Maple Ridge (at least another 45 minutes) to see my parents.  That will take up the whole day but my Mom is making my favourite (pork roast and potato dumplings.......... good old German comfort food).  Sunday we're seeing Evan's Mom and Dad.  When I write it down it doesn't seem like so much but when I think about it, I know we'll be on the road most of the weekend.

I will take the hat along for driving knitting 'caus it's easy and I want that thing finished.  At home, I hope to get my top down cable sweater close to completion.

Have a good one.  I'll have pictures of stuff next week.  I was just too tired and grumpy this week to bother with the camera.