Thursday, September 28, 2006

Updates all around...


Senora Fuerte lives! No Sock of Doom has arrive at Casa Fuerte...

The Odessa has found its head and is living comfortably with its new owner. I am told it fits well and she likes it. I am pleased.

The red fishtail is coming along swimmingly (ha ha ha). I am about half-way done... at least, I have used up one of two balls of Rowan 4 ply soft... I need to figure out a treatment for the ends of this pattern, though. Due to the unidirectional lace knitting, one end pokes out and one end pokes in. It's all very Escher, but unless you are trying to tesselate with your friend in the next scarf over, it's not that attractive. I don't want to add tassels, as I am capable of something more intricate at this point in my knitting career, but I don't know if I am up to inventing something... Any suggestions from any knitters out there? Are there any knitters out there?

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Today I made peace.

I signed up for myspace after all. It is going to make planning a high school reunion so much easier! And after all my bitching and paranoia... it does seem kinda fun.

www.myspace.com/senorafuerte

I give up.


I went home at lunch today, mostly to sleep off a migraine from this morning... but I checked the mail (on arrival and on departure) and the mail has not come yet... so it is unclear as to whether or not I have survived to round 2 of Sock Wars... I am waiting both for my victims half-knit socks and my assassin's death strike. Which will arrive first and how soon? Soon enough to finish another pair and off another honorable knitter? We shall see. Oh yes, we shall see.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Sock of Doom!!


The Socks of Doom are on their way to meet their mark. I dropped them off at the post office today, and they are now winging to Michigan to meet Sheri. Sheri will then send me her started socks, and I will attempt to finish them and send them off to HER target before I receive any socks in the mail for me. So far, I'm alive and I'm LOVING SOCK WARS!!!

Here's the Fishtail:



The color doesn't show up quite right. It's a lot more deep and a lot less glarey.

I am now working on a maroon version of this same scarf for my mom. Now that I've memorized the pattern, it is going really really quickly! And it looks awesome now that it's blocked.

My First Odessa!



Friday, September 15, 2006

Weekend Progress

Well, I say weekend, but it's still only Friday. What is going on here?! I'm all confused. Monday is going to be a rude awakening after all of this time off.

So, what have I been doing. I have worked a lot on Fishtail (photos to come Monday), and it is up to 27 pattern repeats, and I can finally knit without the pattern, and I can finally knit without undoing every third row. I should be running out of yarn soon, and that is when I will stop. I am pleased with it, but it will need some serious blocking.

I also finished an Odessa hat (thank you Grumperina for the wonderful pattern). I did it without the beads, though. It's a nice buttery yellow color. I knit it for my girlscout troup leader from my childhood. She has ovarian cancer, and I have been informed that all of her pretty yellow hair is gone... So I wanted to help her look like herself until it comes back. I plan to knit more Odessas, but this one, as my first and as a gift for someone in need, has been especially satisfying.

I also purchased my yarn and needles for Sock Wars 2006. It is the colors of wasabi peas... so pretty in a wasabi kind of way! I can't wait! It all starts in a week. I told the lady at my LYS about it, and she seemed to think it was a very strange concept. I enlisted her help in finding a good DK yarn... but she seemed to disapprove a bit. Oh well...

In other news... I saw "Hollywoodland". It was very close to being very good, but in missing the mark, it failed. If you are going to get that close to greatness, to miss it is criminal. In my opinion, the actors did their jobs very well. I think either the writer or the director did not have a good sense of what this story was REALLY about. Or there was an important scene left on the cutting room floor.

So there you go. Currently cleaning house for a dinner party of 12 on Sunday. The Fuerte apartment only fits about 5 or 6 comfortably... if you get my drift. So it will be cozy and jolly around here. But I'm sure everyone will be well fed and well "hydrated"-- so no one will care about the lack of space. AND I'll get to use the ENTIRE SET OF WEDDING DISHES! Good thing we got 12 of everything. And I thought that was indulgent... little did I know...

Stay tuned for photos on Monday.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Brother's Birthday Hat

Incorrect:



Correct:



I knit two hats this weekend... One that was too small (thank you to my lovely model, Senior Fuerte) and one that was just right. Both were patterns of my own invention, which explains the vast failure of the first. I call the second one "Grover" because it is the color of...

I shall give the second to a small child. But the cables did turn out well for my first attempt at cabling in the round.

In other news... I have a 4 day weekend coming up. What will I do with all that empty time?! I must come up with a list, or I risk doing absolutely nothing.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

The wandering sticks...


Just yesterday I professed my fidelity and constant love for one project (at a time)-- the scarf for my co-worker, which I hearby name the Fishtail (quicker to type)- and already my sticks have been tempted to stray. It's a good thing my temptability applies only to my knitting habits and not to any other part of my life, or Sr. Fuerte would be in for it! Here's how fiber affairs begin...

... I worked happily for two hours or so last night on the Fishtail, and I even began to feel that I would soon be able to knit without referring to the pattern, which will speed things up tremendously. I brought my beloved Fishtail to work and what met me when I arrived but a bag of yarn from my mom for a new comission: matching baby sweater and hat. There was only one problem with the lovely choices she made. Two of the colors are acrylic (gifting on a budget) and one is cotton. The cotton will shrink, leaving little bunchy bits in the baby's sweater after the first washing. Not good. Even with this temptation, though, my honor held true, and I pulled out the Fishtail at lunch.

... And then a lightbulb went on! I could both correct the yarn content problem AND earn activity Points for my diet AT THE SAME TIME by walking up to the yarn store on my lunch hour. What a brilliant idea! And out I went.

Bad news: The yarn store rearranged AND got a bunch of new stuff. So in addition to purchasing the appropriate red acrylic yarn to replace the cotton... I shopped for the stash. I got an amazing, crazy, knubbly, colorful wool yarn to knit a crazy, knubbly wonderful hat that I will admittedly keep... and the needles on which to knit it.

Now I ask you: How am I going to go home and work AGAIN on the Fishtail when this gorgeous yarn is sitting there watching, winking, flirting with me from its bag?

Someday I'll claim that it was the yarn's idea to end my one day old career as a serial moknogomist. "I was seduced. It made me feel young and alive. I couldn't help myself."

Man, I've been watching too much Secret Lives of Women.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Updates for the loyal

Hello, you three... Thanks for stopping by once in a while. Here's what's going on in my world.

BigDaddy has been at bartending class for the past two nights, and will be for the next week and a half (weeknights only). I have made it my mission to do three things while he's gone so much.

1) Workout like crazy-- or at least consistently. Here I am touching my toes... thanks for this, Pat!



2) Finish at least one knitted project. While the second sock is about 3 or 4 inches long so far, I have decided to focus first on a scarf I started for my co-worker, as it is a commissioned piece (gotta go where the money is). Once that is done, I will choose something else to knit until it's finished... Of course, this all ends when Sock Wars begins on 9/22. After the scarf comes a washcloth I started, as I have to return the pattern book to the library.

3) Eat following the WeightWatchers plan. And here is the main reason why:
Monday was a bust, as holidays tend to be, but yesterday I did a good job. Today I will do a good job. Tomorrow I will do a good job. Friday is my day off, and that is a lot of time spent at home, trying to decide whether or not to eat "something else".

Also, I have made a decision. I am no longer going to limit this blog to the comings and growings of my projects. I am going to also include real stuff because, let's face it, whether I knit or purl, whether I cable or cast on, most of you are not knitters (dare I say all of you are not knitters?), and that means you don't know the difference. If that is the case... then you are reading this for another reason, not my things, but me. So I feel a bit obligated to provide a bit of me along with my things.