Leaping and leaping

It was 4:30am this morning when I finally got the finally stitching done and the black wool (Berella Muskoka) cap for my dear friend off the needles! I had it almost finished a few days ago and ran out of thread before I had the double-layer finished. So rip, rip, rip, and work a rib cuff til I ran out of thread. It is packaged up and ready for the post tomorrow. I did take photos, but they will stay on the camera for a while: I seem to have misplaced the cable to connect to my computer! Just one more thing on the MIA list, which includes my close-work glasses with the clip-on magnifiers and my thermal-eaze gloves. In the mail yesterday arrived a poncho pattern, which, of course, I *had* to begin today. Actually, I'm supposed to meet up with another knitter tomorrow (which also means KWR -- knitting while riding -- time), so I wanted something sort of simple to take along. Didn't get my dance costumes sewn this weekend as I planned... again. But, at least the room is in better shape for some sewing now, and I have the fabric ready to be sewn, including three pairs of harem pants, three skirts and some veils. Back to the poncho, LC

woo-hoo!

It's 70 degrees outside, and I just finished my first sock! Also, all four hats for step-grandsons, and am doing the neck on step-daughter's caplet! Photos later, as well as much updating for these past couple weeks I've been gone. LC

February is for Secrets

  Adapting from Allison's NY Street Cap and Stasia's pattern (see her 1/23/04 blog entry), I finally have a hat I'm sort of happy with -- I think it is a bit too long for as wide as it is -- I have already started another one using the tan (which is the contrasting color in this one) as the main color. I like working them top down, as Stasia's pattern instructs. I don't care for the I-cord though. I started with 12-stitch temporary cast-on for the second hat, as the 6-stitch beginning of the one below ended up with a little bump on top. I had to frog out that first row to fix it. I'm using some balls of Wool-Ease that were among my mother's things. She has bought a lot of the Heathers for an afghan. I was going to make it up, but... well, she loved Granny Squares and I don't. So, I'm not going to make it afterall.   This is the first time I have tried to 'carry' a contrasting color thread. I'm not doing it right... so will be doing some reading on that.   One down and four more to go -- still finishing Christmas gifts. Other knitting:     I ran out of yarn for the Shapely Tank Top (1/26/04 entry has in-progress photo), so that is on hold for a few days. I only have the last few rows of the back/shoulders, the edging and sleeves. Then I'll return to the lower edge and decide just what to do there.     I have received several packages this week -- purchases from knitters on Yahoo's Knitswap list! Needles, yarn, and magazines! I found the answer to my problem with the item I was knitting for #2step-daughter in the new Knit-It -- I am going to use the shaping from the capelet in that magazine to finish her piece. However, I need to be thinking about what I'm doing, so I have set it aside for a couple days because....   I'm having computer woes!! My Baby (laptop) is running a fever. No, it's not a virus, thankfully, but the fan is running constantly and the area where the graphics card and the processor are get very hot. Of course, BestBuy won't work on it locally; I have to send it away. Which means hours of transferring files to backup my data. Fortunately I have a spare desktop, but -- in typical Murphy's Universe -- it still hadn't been cleaned up from some other backups as we have moved/changed computers and hard drives among family members. So, in a way it is good that I am taking the time to wade through all the useless and duplicated files. Just very time consuming to go from a 2GHz to a 500Mhz processor! Yikes.   What's the secret?? Well, it's a secret... can't tell. I will say the focus of my knitting will change this month, in honor of my mother's birthday on the 15th. LC