Kaffeinated Knits

Hello Again

If anyone is reading this... hello again.  It's been awhile.  Like almost a year kind of awhile.  Almost a year of airports and hotels and then another airport then home long enough to do laundry, feed the cats, sleep a little, then back to the airport and another hotel.  I really intended to post - but the road to hell and all - well, it leads to another airport and a hotel with iffy internet connection.  Thanks to those of you who emailed to find out if I was still here.  If I didn't answer, I'm sorry.  Please don't take it personally.  I got a bit swamped with all the travel.  (And a very BIG I'm sorry if you got spam from me recently... someone or something hijacked my site name and sent all kinds of spam all over the place.  Sheesh.  Do people have nothing better to do????)

I'm now in Dallas on a long term assignment.  It's too far to fly back home every week, so I'm staying at a long term hotel, which is basically what a pricey NY studio apartment would look like. It's cute.  A little brown on the color scheme side, so maybe cute isn't really the word, so nice maybe...  and best of all, it's got free high speed.  Help me say it people, hall-e-high-speed-lujiah! 

And yes, there is knitting...

Meet Lords and Ladies from Rowan #41.  She's a wrap around sweater with a lace border knit in Crack-Silk Haze.  And I do love me some crack-silk lace.  I'm using color # 637, ice cream.  It doesn't really look very ice-creamy to me - more like a really creamy tan, but I like it. 

Here she is all laid out - I think she kind of looks like a snow angel.  Without the snow and all.  The body is mostly stockinette, and then the fronts are bordered in around 8 inches of lace that is picked up from the bottom of one front, knit all around then neckline, then down the other front.  One row is 395 stitches.  Yeah.  8 inches at 395 stiches per row.  Good thing I like the lace. 

It's good knitting, and I like the way it's coming out.  Despite some early problems with the lace... don't ask me about tinking back 6 (or more) rows more than once (or three times) after I stayed up knitting later than my eyes could actually focus.  (Did I mention the 395 stitches per row?  Oh yeah, I did.)  Note:  knitting lace is best done when one's eyes are o-p-e-n.

Here's a close-up of the lace, sans blocking, but you get the idea.  I'm done with the front border now - and as much as I love the lace, can I just get another hal-e-done-with-the-395-stitch-rows-lujiah?!  I'm working the borders on the sleeves now - another 8" of the lacy goodness at a mere 75 stitches per row.  Hoo boy. 

Or I maybe I should say Yee Haw.  Since I'm in Dallas and all.  At least for a spell. 

So, um, ya'll come back now, y'hear?

The Root of All Evil...

In case you were wondering, the root of all evil is DIAL UP.  You may have been thinking it was something like p5tog, or a knot in the middle of a skein that you don't see until you are halfway through a row, or even the one skein that is from a different dyelot that somehow got into your bag for the perfect sweater...  but no.  The root of all evil is none of those - it is DIAL UP.

I am on the road in Cincinnati where the promised free wireless connection at my hotel is non-existent, and I am not able to connect any other way than sporadic DIAL UP which seems to love to drop me more often than not.  So my posting has been just like that - sporadic and dropped more than not.

I will be home for the long weekend and promise to post then - with pictures and updates and sheepies (oh my!).

Hope you are all well - I miss you guys!!

Yarn Guts

                             

I give you yarn guts.  I know - it's a little gross, but tell me that's not what it looks like.  This is the back of the front of the Sheep Dress - I finished the collar and the arms first before I bravely went back in for another round of intarsia sheepies.  This dress is coming along a LOT faster than I expected, and I'm now hoping to finish it up this week.  Hoping being the operative word there...

There's actually quite a lot going on in my little corner of New Jersey - this week I'm finishing up a job I've been at for 5+ years and will start a whole other position next week.  (How's that for jumping right in?)  The new position will have me traveling constantly - and I'm all over the place about all of it.  I'm excited and I'm nervous and I have no idea what to expect.  It's a good change for me and although there are a lot of people I'll miss from my current job - it's time.  So, I'm feverishly wrapping things up and at the same time, preparing as best I can for all the changes that are coming at me pretty fast.  (If any of you travel a lot with work and have any "wish someone would have told me that" kind of things... let me know!!)

More later - for now I'm off to knit a few more rows on the sheep dress before I call it a night - it's another crazy day of wrapping up and getting ready tomorrow.

Knit Kitsch

Have you heard?  New from Patternworks... it's the Knit Lite!!  The world's first illuminated knitting needles.  Can you stand it??  For all those nights you wanted to knit with all the lights out... just to see if you could... or even if you just wanted to put a little *spark* into your knitting - these babies are just the thing for you!! Each needle is a different color and they come in sizes US6 - US15.  They're battery powered - each needle takes 3 batteries (which are included) and there is a "convenient" on/off switch at the end of each needle so you can power up your stitches as soon as the lights begin to dim! 

Can you imagine the looks of wonder you'd get as the light streams out of the ends of your sticks as you whip through rows of stockinette?  Or the jaw dropping amazement as the light dipped and swayed as you worked the purl side row?  And all for only $15.95! 

And hey, just a thought, but those 15's could probably guide in a small prop plane or direct traffic if you live at a busy intersection.  (Now there's a hoppin' Saturday night...  have a few margaritas or more, then get yourself down to the busiest intersection in your neighborhood and direct traffic with your neon colored light-up knitting needles.  And when you stop a row of traffic - stand right in front of them and knit a row so they get the full effect of your knitting genius (with the light streaming out around you and all) and then wave them on.  You'd be the talk of the neighborhood, if nothing else.)

Seriously - don't you just want a pair because they are so kitschy you have to have them??  Or is it just me??

Counting Sheep

The Amazing Lace is taking a Pit Stop this week, and apparently so am I.  The new yarn came for both the Debbie Bliss Sheep Dress and for Sizzle.  It was a tough call, but the lure of the little sheepies won out.  I mean, come on, could you resist these little guys?

                         

This is my first intarsia knitting.  Fearlessly, I wound little bobbins and tried to remember when to cross the yarn and when not to... and cussed like a sailor at the tangled mess of yarn that looked like the guts of a yarn explosion coming out of the back of my work.  Weaving in all those little ends took FOR.EV.ER.  But look!  I have sheepies!

                           

The edge will get a little white picot trim after the pieces are all sewn together.  I'm working on the top of the back right now - it's fiddly as you work the cabling on both sides, but it's quick and definitely not boring.  And no picture, but I finished one sleeve as well - it was my gauge swatch.  I'm making the 6 month size, so sleeve is not that much bigger than a 4" square.  (Okay, it's 7.5".  But hey... I've got a sleeve done!)

I'm off for now to count some put-you-to-sleep kind of sheep.  I'll leave you with Elmo, in his new favorite sleeping place.