vegas kal #2 also done!

26Jan12

Remember I said I’d figured out how to fix/finish the too-small, too-”not me” Vegas scarf?  It was simple- I’ve got an engagement party this weekend for an old friend- my grad date, actually- who’s getting remarried.  He’s got a daughter from his first marriage who’s 2 months older than Jakob, and we’ve been having playdates with them for years.   Back “in the day” both he and I used to play Vampire: the Masquerade (though not together, except for one truly epic HUGE game at UofM) and he went through a bit of a goth phase, and his daughter definitely has some of that in her too.  Her winter coat is black, and I decided to put the hastily-ripped-from-the-needles scarf back on, and finish it to give to her as a gift.  Her dad (and his fiance) will be getting a gift from their registry, but the daughter is a part of this new family being created and I wanted her to have a gift to open too.

Last night after finishing MY scarf I slowly ripped back the last row of live sts- a fun fur row…making this not much fun at all.  Still, eventually I had all 264 sts back on my needle.

OH!  Guess what?!?  Part of the reason the scarf wasn’t doing it for me, is that I could sense it was kinda small.  Well, no wonder- turns out I wasn’t using a 5mm after all- I’d been using a 3.5mm!!  BIG difference!  I’d had both loose with their Addi bags in a project bag, saw the 5mm bag and nearby a needle and grabbed it, never stopping to see that it wasn’t the needle from that bag.

Anyways, I got it back on the 3.5mm, and did about 4 more rows just so it would feel “finished” to me.  I confess I didn’t roll or flip, I just used the yarns I wanted to use, and made the scarf look slightly asymmetrical, yet balanced.  I got through about 1.5 of those rows yesterday, but it got late and I put it off ’til today.

This is both halves of the same scarf, showing the two different sides.  You can see the split down the middle, though it’s hard to see through the fuzz.

This morning I went solo to the non-zoned French school’s open house.  It turns out it’s not an option for us.  The problem is that you have to apply every year for permission to transfer to your non-zoned school…even once your child is registered there.  So even if Jakob gets in for kindergarten, we’d have to reapply for grade 1, 2, etc before each new school year.  To begin with, they refuse over 85% of transfer requests because they need to keep a minimum of kids in their zoned schools, and what really is the clincher for me, is that even if he gets in for kindergarten, if any random year later our zoned school doesn’t have enough kids, they can refuse us and we’d have to transfer to the zoned school.  There’s no way I can have Jakob in a school and making friends and have to worry every single year if he’ll have to transfer away.  And then in a few years go through the same thing with Henri.  Uh uh.

Once I got home I had some lunch, then sat down to start catching up on the last 2 weeks of Once Upon a Time and Desperate Housewives.  While watching I did the last few rows (everything from the white section to the end from the pic above), and then I bound off with the same yarn combo I’d cast-on with, and twisted the fringe with Maaike’s handy-dandy fringe twister.  Man that thing is awesome!  Gonna have to get Yannick to build me one of those.

Now both scarves are done and I get to head over to my original surgeon’s office to see if he can find my hernia(s) yet, and to let him know that I’ve seen another surgeon, and have got the diagnostic laprascopy scheduled.  Not sure which is going to be more uncomfortable…the examination or the confession.

Filed under: FO, KAL, Vegas Scarf (Knitting Game)   |  Leave a Comment

organized chaos kal vegas scarf

25Jan12

It’s done!  And it’s awesome!!!

I love this scarf.  Have I mentioned that yet?

I don’t know what’s going on with my eyes or cheeks here, but Yannick’s not home and it’s the best self-portrait I managed to take.

These colors suck ‘cus it’s late and there’s no natural light, and the flash completely washed them out.  But still, I just finished twisting the fringe-

(See- fringe!  It’s colorful!)

-and I couldn’t wait to take pics.  Look- it’s a sequin!  I love how the thinner mohair yarn around the thicker yarn makes that “scribble” effect.  I need a whole shawl like that.

Sorry for the flash, but this was the best I could get, color-accuracy-wise.

So in the end this scarf was 63 rows (61 if you count first and last as co/bo), all designated by rolling a die/flipping a coin, as per my Vegas Scarf AKA The Knitting Game free pattern.  I cast-on Jan 21st and finished Jan 25th, but really didn’t knit at all on Sunday or Tuesday, and not very much on Monday, so if you’ve got a bit of time here and there, you’ve got a scarf.  You could also use this same technique for a larger shawl, or tuck the fringe in and make a pillow cover, or a blanket…there’s a lot you can do, and every one will be different.  You can find more pics of mine, and those others have made, oven in Ravelry.

Completely unrelated, but I’ve got Much Music on in the background as I type this and there’s a song that has the guy from Marianas Trench doing a guest vocal.  I love his voice-oh and that scream at the end…amazing!  I’ve been too busy with podcasts to buy any music in the last few years, but I keep meaning to get a MT album, I love their sound and the wit behind their lyrics/videos.  Them, and Pink.  I think she’s my favorite female singer but I’m at least 2 albums behind.

Filed under: FO, KAL, my patterns, my published patterns, Vegas Scarf (Knitting Game)   |  Leave a Comment

mmm wasabi peas

24Jan12

Work was very swamped so I couldn’t post this earlier.  We had a guild exec meeting at my place tonight, so I couldn’t post this evening, so I’m posting now, even though I’m very tired.  I only got a row or two done but at least we accomplished a lot, guild-wise.

Very good outcome of tonight- I discovered a new brand of wasabi peas.  Mmmmm….wasabi-y.  Not only are these yummy, but they’re also salted, so they’re twice as good.  And every now and then you get one that makes you dance up and down and pound your foot on the floor because it’s so hot and you’re trying to distract your brain and your nose from the power of the green goodness.

I normally don’t like spicy foods, but there’s something about wasabi peas that’s got me hooked.  And my sinuses have never been clearer.

Oh- and I came up with an idea on how to save the original KAL Vegas scarf!  Stay tuned…

 

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this love is strong

23Jan12

Today we’ve got an appointment to visit one of the two elementary schools we’re zoned for.  Jakob will be starting school in Sept and we’re still torn about whether to put him in the French or English sector.  (Please don’t lecture me in the comments, both sectors have very strong pros, and very few cons, which is why we’re going to the open houses).  The English school (immersion until grade 2, then bilingual for 3-6) is very well rated.  The French school (all French, all the time, except about 30 min/week as of grade 1) is supposed to be good, but I don’t know anything really about it and they don’t do open houses until after the registration period, so it’s only for the parents who are enrolled.  I know they’ve redone the building and the playground, but that’s all I know.  There’s an excellent French school in my area, but their zone ends LITERALLY 3 houses down from me.  The whole rest of my street is zoned, except for the 20 houses at this end.  It’s kinda stupid.  Anyways, they do have an open house coming up on Thursday, so I’ll be going to check them out and find out about transfers, etc.

My plan for the rest of the day, once I get home, is to knit.  And knit, and knit, and knit.  I’m loving this scarf so much that I don’t want it to end, I want to keep seeing how the colors mix and mingle.  (And I need to finish it so I can get to another commission with a deadline).  (Ok technically I don’t NEED to finish the scarf first, but this new project will take about a month of knitting, it’s due in just over a month, and I want to wear the scarf in the winter…not wait until spring).

Oh, and I’m going to bake a quiche too, ‘cus my neighbor had a dozen extra eggs and I’ve got broccoli and bacon and cheese that really want to find a convenient way to get into my stomach.

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so sleepy

22Jan12

I think everyone in my house is tired today.  Last night Yannick, Jakob and myself went over to Jakob’s girlfriend’s house for dinner.  Yes, Jakob’s girlfriend.  They’ve been in the same class for 3 years, and unfortunately won’t be together any more as of Sept (different school districts) so we’ve been making extra efforts for playdates outside of school.  We had her family over for a nice raclette dinner right before Christmas, and now that our exam was over they invited over to repay the favor.  I deliberately left Henri at home with my sister because a) we were only going there for 7pm and he’s asleep by 7:30, and b) their place has a big central staircase and I’d worry about Henri falling on a good day, I didn’t want to worry about him being overtired and trying to keep up with Jakob and E.

It was a good thing I did!  We ended up having such a good time, great food and even better conversation, that we only left there at 12:30am- and the kids were STILL UP!!  I couldn’t believe it!

It turned out that Henri had only fallen asleep late himself too, so when this morning rolled around and I woke up in time to get the house up for swimming lessons…I totally bailed.  All 3 boys (Yannick included) were sound asleep, and I couldn’t wait to rejoin them, so we played hooky today and had a lazy, sleep-in morning.

I didn’t get much knitting done, partly from the late start, then partly from having to go into work for a bit, and once I got home I was still exhausted to called it early.

Since there’s nothing else to share, here’s a pic of Jakob, Henri and my brother Mike from yesterday, playing with our new lightsabers:

[insert Star Wars joke here]*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*bonus points if instead of Star Wars, it’s a Spaceballs quote!

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so in love

21Jan12

Oh my gosh.  I didn’t know I could fall so hard, so fast.

I love this scarf so much.  I cast on while the boys were playing after breakfast and I made it through 20 rows before calling it a night.

Totally gratuitous shot of my sparkly nails.

I love these yarns so much.  Each row is so delicious to knit I can practically taste it in my mouth.  I love seeing the colors line up, and seeing the mix of garter, stockinette and reverse stockinette.

I will confess that this is going to be called my “Organized Chaos” Vegas scarf for a reason.  I wanted to stay true to my original plan, and my original rolls of the die, and flips of the coin.  Luckily I’d prerolled 63 rows for the original scarf, and I decided to use them all, exactly as is.  I only did one teensy bit of pre-planning.  Two of the yarns (Bonsai and Tiara) had pretty short yardages, under 100y each.  I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t run short, so I quickly tallied up how many rows of each color I had prerolled, and assigned the rarest number to the Bonsai, which had the shortest yardage, and the 2nd least common number to the Tiara.  The rest were nearly the same, so I plugged them in randomly.

I did find it interesting to note that although the rolls didn’t seem “random” in the sense that threw people off on FB and in Rav (some numbers occurring repeatedly, or too close together), in my case it turned out that my non-appearing random numbers actually had a pretty even split of the rolls.

Wait, did that come out clear?  Let me rephrase- some people rolled the same number in succession, and chose to re-roll the “non random” number, or swap it for something else.  While the rolls really were random, it was bugging some people that they weren’t turning out “even”.  So what I found entertaining was that even though in some sections of the 63 rows the same colors kept coming up, so that area didn’t feel “even”, overall I got a pretty good split.  See:

Yarn 1: Polaris (gray with sequins)- 11 rows

Yarn 2: Bonsai (green tape)- 8 rows

Yarn 3: Marble (jewel tones)- 13 rows

Yarn 4: Campus (darker green/purple)- 12 rows

Yarn 5: Tiara (mauve with sparkle)- 9 rows

Yarn 6: Party Angel (fuchsia with sparkle)- 10 rows

Which means that yes, out of 63 rows (of which I counted row 1 as my cast on and row 63 as my bind off) I had each of the 6 yarns coming out with 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 repeats.

That’s pretty cool to me!

Filed under: KAL, Vegas Scarf (Knitting Game), WIP   |  Leave a Comment

new beau

20Jan12

I was originally planning on just hitting up Walmart or Zellers and grabbing some random chunky yarn in colors I liked, or assorted random yarns in 1 color I liked, but Maaike convinced me to check out my LYS first.  I’d been hesitant ‘cus I didn’t want to end up with an $80 scarf, but I went.  And I fell.  Hard.

I’d been thinking something with blue in it, something bright, something to make my eyes stand out, since I’ve got a black winter coat.  I was looking at first at the chunky yarns, trying to find one yarn in 6 shades that I liked, but Diana who works there counseled me to just pull out anything that made me happy, and pile it on the table, and we’d go through it together.

These are what I decided upon.  The huge (almost 400y!) Marble Chunky was the first one I was drawn to, and we kept with the jewel tones and played with texture.  The Marble is 100% acrylic but I don’t care.  I’ve worked with the DK weight before (Jakob’s blue cardigan and my burgundy Clapotis) and I always enjoyed it.  I knew this ball would leave me a ton of leftovers and I plan on making at least a pair of slippers for myself from them.

Going clockwise we’ve got  Kertzer’s Tiara, which is a 72% Wool, 27% Nylon, 1% Polyester aran weight.  It’s the mauve one and it’s got a sparkly strand wrapped around it.  Next we’ve got the fuchsia ball of Debbie Bliss Party Angel, which is 72% Mohair, 24% Silk, 4% Metallic.  I don’t find it sheds at all, and I love the sparkly core it has.  The gray/white ball might be my fave of the bunch, and I hope to make another project with it one day.  It’s Rozetti Yarns’ Polaris, 65% Acrylic, 31% Wool, 4% Other.  That “other” is sequins!  It’s got sequins!  They’re prestrung about every 18″, and I. Am. In. Love.  It’s super soft, cushy, amazing.  Next up is Berroco’s Bonsai which is 97% Bamboo, 3% Nylon  and a lovely tape-type yarn with wonderful drape and shine.  The dark-looking one is another I fell for, Berroco’s Campus.  It’s 50% Wool, 40% Acrylic, 10% Alpaca.  Cushy, lovely, and I think my first time that I can remember knitting with an alpaca content.  Another amazing yarn I hope to use again.

I’m even more excited to re-start than I was to start!

Filed under: KAL, Vegas Scarf (Knitting Game)   |  Leave a Comment

i’m sorry

19Jan12

It’s not you, it’s me.

I’m just not that into you.

I love you, I’m just not in love with you.

However you wanna put it, I’m breaking up with you, Vegas Scarf.  I knew it wasn’t going to work out between us, but rather than change the rules I decided to keep going.  Every row made my feelings obvious…I didn’t like where this was going.

I know you didn’t expect me to end things tonight- I didn’t either, honestly.  That’s why I was right in the middle of a row when I pulled you off the needles.

I know I made you think we’d work it out.  I’m sorry if I teased you by holding you up to my neck to be sure, even though I secretly knew that we didn’t “click”.

You’re good enough, long enough, but not wide enough though I take full responsibility for that, having ended it where I did.

Somewhere out there is someone who would have loved you.  Loved your Fun Furry kitch, your insane amount of black, and your combination of colors that I really had thought I’d grow to love.  That someone, unfortunately, isn’t me.

I’m moving on.  Tomorrow I’m going to go out and pick up someone else.  I hope you’ll be happy for me.

Filed under: fail, Free Patterns, frogged, Vegas Scarf (Knitting Game), WIP   |  2 Comments

study study study

18Jan12

I try to be good when it comes to school work.  I make a study schedule for Yannick and myself, and in it I break down each section into daily pages, and as long as we read/make notes on those pages on that day, we’ll be on track.  Usually he falls behind, and I nag.  This time it’s my turn.  First I was so busy on Sunday that I didn’t have a chance to get my pages done.  Then Monday I was out all day and had such a headache that night that I told myself I’d catch up at work the next day.  I did get some done yesterday but not as much as I’d hope, and work was busy today too, which means tonight I can do nothing but study.  No knitting.  No visiting the forgotten loom.  Just notes, notes, notes.  Study, study, study.

I did cast-on for my first socks of the new year.  These were cast-on last week, en route to visit my 3rd surgeon for my 2nd second opinion, while my mom drove.  Long story short, since neither my surgeon nor the 2nd opinion surgeon could find the hernias that I swear are there (and I’d know, as I’ve already had 3 fixed), I visited a laparoscopic surgeon to see if she could help.  She also couldn’t find the hernias, and focused more on my pain and less on my claim of the physical symptom of the hernias popping out, but in the end she thought she could help, if to do nothing else but to rule out the hernias.  I’ll be having diagnostic laparoscopic surgery in May.  If she finds hernias, she’ll fix them as they’re found.  If no hernias are found, hopefully she’ll find whatever is causing the popping and the pain.

I was sore, dejected and feeling ignored after the appointment, so I didn’t knit on the way home.

Here’s the tiny amount of toe I did get done on the way there.  My January sock.

Filed under: Celery Socks, Sock-A-Month-2012, Uncategorized, WIP   |  1 Comment

slippers and capes and friends from the past

17Jan12

Tonight an old friend from high school came over.  I hadn’t seen her in at least 5 years, and it was great to catch up.  Because of her visit, I didn’t get to knit.  I did, however, get to witness the exploits of two very hyper, newly-minted superheroes.

(Capes by Maaike, as a birthday gift for Henri and one for Jakob so he wouldn’t be jealous.  Secret Identities of “Jakob” and “Henri” by me).

Aren’t those capes awesome?!?  She made them herself, and they are absolutely everything a young superhero could ask for.  They originally had a lukewarm reception, as I’d expected since my boys are not good with change.  But a few days later suddenly the capes were all they could think about.  Seriously, you have no idea how hard it was to get this photo- every other pic I took was very much an “action shot”.

I found another project that I haven’t shared yet- Ribby Slipper Socks.  Back in October my aunt had surgery and I made her a pair of slippers to keep her feet warm and cozy while she’d be resting.

Let me say, this project has an obvious flaw- it looks UGLY off the foot.  Long and skinny and seemingly non-atomically correct.

But on the foot they’re transformed!

Cozy and form-fitting, warm and snuggly.  I think I want to make a pair for myself.

I used some no-name chunky yarn in the teal color, the stuff I’d recycled from the failed crochet deep v vest.  I still think it’s Bernat Softee Chunky.  The black is Bernat Pounder worsted yarn, and I carried along some teal LionBrand Fun Fur for the last 4 rows, then bound off in the black only.  I’d only had a small amount of the fur yarn, so I divided it in 2 and just did as many rows as I could in each sock.  I used 5mm for the foot, and 4mm for the cuff.  It’s a free pattern, I forget the source right now, but if you search for them on Ravelry you’ll find them.  (Something is making me think they’re a free Interweave pattern, but I won’t swear by that).

Before my next surgery (which will be in May, as it turns out), I plan on making myself a pair.  That way I can be cozy and squooshy too. 

Filed under: FO, Uncategorized   |  2 Comments