Beaumont - Part 1

I got going on the Beaumont hat and knit up about maybe 3 inches of the colorwork pattern and realized that the colors were just not popping. The colors pop in the picture - so why not in mine?

After consulting with some friends at lunch today (yes, I have a knitting group at work - I know, a sure sign of sickness) I was told by the Colorwork Goddess, Carole, that the problem was:

1. my tension was waaaaay too tight, and


2. I was doing stranded knitting, which is not needed in a hat ('cause it's not going to catch on anything like a mitten or something like that would). Also, since I'm using a Navy blue and white combo, the whole light/dark color thing - twisted stranded knitting does not help with this.

Carole was also good enough to send me a very useful link from Knitty on Color Stranding, which I though was way cool. Thank you, Carole!

So now I've ripped out the work so far - score is currently Hat: 1 and Jen: 0. But it's only the first quarter. More news to come as it happens.

June Updates

June has gone by so fast! We've had another child graduate high school and had lots of family visits & traveling to visit other family out of the area, so I haven't had too much time to post.

I picked up some yummy Alchemy Haiku yarn (color is "Fern" - slightly variegated deep greens) as a memento of our visit to Ft Bragg and then got the Cascading Leaves Stole pattern to knit it up with. Even thought I think the designer meant it to be more of leaves, that pattern reminded me of the ocean and seaweed and other swirly water-type things. Not sure how long this will take to knit up - it's more of a challenging pattern than I've done before. The lace is knit up on both sides, not just knit or purled on the back. Yikes!

The other project I'm currently working on is Jared Flood's Beaumont hat. The pattern is pretty and the yarn is scrumptious (yes, I got the Classic Elite Fresco yarn that the pattern recommended and it feels incredible to work with), but so far my hat isn't looking as good as the picture. Maybe my tension is off? Stay tuned for more later.

The Clap

The Hubby was cleaning out the garage over the weekend and found, among other things, a "Clapper" device.

For those of you who have missed out of the educational TV ads, a Clapper is a device that allows you to plug in something (a lamp, stereo, etc.) and turn that thing on/off by clapping your hands twice. I don't know how we came to having this thing-a-ma-jingy in our house, but I do remember seeing it before it got put into time-out in the garage (usually the last step before making the long journey to Goodwill or the dump).

So after finding this little gem, the Hubby has hooked our little friend up to a light in our living room. He's been in there ever since playing with the thing.

CLAP-CLAP - the light comes on.

CLAP-CLAP - the light goes off.

And so on and so on.

Then I found out that if you clink your glass on the top of the coffee table it has the same effect. That stupid clapper has kept us entertained for hours, just looking for things that will work in place of actual clapping.

"Hey, do ya think that singing would work?"

"What about stomping your feet?"

Then the kids piped in, "What about burping?" (I drew the line at farting. You've got to draw it somewhere.)

We're so easily entertained. Next up is the bug zapper.

Grrr...

Why is it that anytime one of my boys tries to cook they absolutely tear up the kitchen? And they don't even seem to see it - it certainly doesn't bother them to have a dirty kitchen - and they absolutely do not clean up their messes.

I shuffled down to the kitchen this morning in search of some coffee. The coffee pot was buried, couldn't see it at all. It took me 40 minutes of path clearing to get to it before I could start my brew. That's SOOO not right.

My older (now technically an adult-just-ask-him-but-he-doesn't-have-to-listen-to-you) boy made pancakes for dinner last night. (I had left the building to meet up with some friends for drinks. Lovely, lovely margaritas with chips & salsa... Left the hubby at home, too.) There's now pancake batter all over the counter tops, dripped on the stove, dribbled on the floor and splatter on the cabinets and walls. I do not do polka-dots in the morning. Ever.

When I got home my good hubby pointed out the mess in the kitchen and about how pissed off he was at the boy who made the mess, but I just didn't much care after the margaritas.

Until I couldn't get to the coffee pot this morning.

Happy Friday!

Note: this was supposed to be posted on 5/14/10. I must have been really enjoying those margaritas 'cause I didn't notice it hadn't been published until tonight (7/2/10). Oops.



Today had a great ending. Friends, food & lovely, lovely margaritas... I probably should't be trying ti type rigt now, but ish OK. (You know you've had too much when you can't remember your Ravelry user name. 'Nuff said.)



I do like margaritas, and I really like meeting up with friends I haven't seen in too long a time. We got to meet up and have drinks together like grown-ups. I've missed my friends. We've all been so busy that we haven't been able to catch up as much as we'd all like. But we fixed that tonight.



These are my friends from school. Not college - before that. The kind of friends who remember what your hair style looked like in the 9th grade (and still tease you about). They remember who your first boyfriend was and how many tries it took you to pass your driver's test. Those kind of friends. We've been through life's ups and downs together and I can't imagine better friends.



The start of today wasn't that great. It was grimy. Turns out we all had a grimy day today, so when the idea to meet up went around we all jumped on it. We shared appetizers and gabbed. I got to see new pictures of children and hear stories of what's happening with the new house and we all got to talk about how our day went. It was really nice.



Plus there were margaritas...did I mention that?



Hope you're all having a happy Friday!

New Link Added - Knitting Terms Translator

I just added a new link to the Knitting Help area - it's a link to a kitting language translator. http://www.vogueknitting.com/magazine/article_archive/parlez-vous_knitting.aspx Neat article on translating knitting terms into different languages, so when you're working on a pattern in Norwegian you can finally figure out what stitches are what!

Designing My Own (Really Long) Toe-Up Socks

I'm close to finishing the toe-up socks. This is from Margaret Radcliffe's article in June's Knit 'n Style magazine, "Design Your Own Toe-Up Socks".

I've been trying to get over my pattern dependency issue and this article came along at the right time. Used worsted weight yarn and size 6 needles to make thing move along quicker, but have ripped out the socks more times than I can count before I got what I wanted. Now I just have the cuff left.

I like the pattern/guidelines she gave except for the foot. She writes under the Working the Foot section: "Continue until the piece (foot) is long enough to reach the rounded part of the heel, directly below the ankle bone." I took that (incorrectly) to mean knit until the foot hits the end of your foot and didn't notice until I got back to do the heel.

So I can't read. Wasn't this little experiment supposed to be about getting away from the rigid absolutes of some stuffy ol' pattern? Directions, dischmections...I've turned into someone - cough, a man - who refuses to ask for directions or look at a map! I wasn't about to undo everything at that point and decided to continue on and figure out what to do with it all later.

Now my socks are about 1.5 inches too long for me, but fortunately they will fit my daughter, so not all is lost. Besides, this was just a working experiment anyway, right? I should finish them off and get them sent out to her just about the time she won't need socks that warm. I love it when a plan comes together...