Too Many Scarves

Todays wants...

The Voyager.

I've disliked my Razr since about 2 weeks after getting it over a year ago. I would really love a new phone.  A QWERTY keyboard among other benefits would be awesome.

The Vintage Knits book.

I was first inspired by Lolly's Beau Sweater and after looking at this book I have decided I love Kim Hargreaves designs. I especially want to knit the Salina sweater. Gorgeous, simple.

Another book I want is The Sew Everything Workshop.

There are so many patterns in there that make me want to call in sick to work for the next 2 weeks and sew all day. 

A new bike. Maybe something along the lines of this.

I live in a rather bike friendly area now...I've been wanting to go out and feel like a kid again. Not to mention save some gas money.

I love purses and bags. Something cute and spring-y like these.

Ok, that's enough wanting for today.

Damnit...

I was just about to take a picture of the progress on my Tilted Duster when I thought, "I should try this on."

You can probably guess where this is going.

I am going to have to rip it. It's too big! I guess I really do have to make the smallest size! 

I was making such quick progress on it too....

Remember Isabella?

Remember this?

Well, it's been sitting around, unworn for months. I just didn't really like the way it turned out. I want to like it though. The pattern is simple while still being  a little girly.

Now that I am back in a locale with warmer temps I think I need to rip it. I made a list of mods for it and I'm going to redo it.

The modifications include

• Knitting the first few rows for the picot edging on smaller needles.
• lengthening the body a few more inches
• starting the leaf pattern earlier, bringing the split neck down lower.
• smaller armholes!
• possibly tapering the leaf motif at the neck opening. It wants to roll in anyway, so I may see if I can do away with it altogether.

Quite an undertaking, I know. Lots of mods. I rarely see anything knit for warmer weather that I like though so I feel compelled to make this happen.

Although, if it doesn't work out I may just end up making Orangina.

*Thank you to everyone who contacted me about my last post. Your words were greatly appreciated.

Things have been up and down around here the past couple of days. There have been some high points, but then they've been brought down by some low ones.

My dad had to put our cat, Bear, of 14 years to sleep yesterday. She had been in poor health for a while, but I didn't know it was going to happen yesterday. I am sad that she won't be around anymore but I feel worse for my dad who essentially lives alone and Bear was his companion. He is not an emotional person so it was hard to see him so upset yesterday.

 

I can't even tell you how many pictures we have of Bear like this. You know how most families have a ton of pictures of the little kids Christmas morning  opening their presents and whatnot? Well, we don't really have many small children in our nearby family so we always entertained ourselves with Bear. She liked to climb into empty bags and boxes Christmas morning and play with the ribbons. 

I think I'm going to finally restart the socks I was making for my dad. I started them last year but had some problems so I frogged them. Maybe they'll cheer him up a little.

I also found out yesterday that a woman that I used to work with passed away. She was someone who Randy and I had fond memories of. We have lots of work stories involving her and her strong personality. We often wondered what happened to her since we lost touch a few years back. She had been in poor health even then but it had progressed and the doctors had recently given her less than a year to live.

She was a fiercely independent woman who raised 2 sons on her own and didn't want to burden anyone. She took her own life 2 weeks ago. The details of the event were shocking and I won't get into details because I would rather her be remembered for her who she was rather than how it all ended.

On the knitting front...

I have a few more Gretels under my belt now. Tracey and my friend Brenda wanted ones after they saw mine posted here. So, who am I to deny hand knits goods for some of my favorite people?

Here is Tracey's:

 

Looks almost exactly like mine huh? Well, hers is black instead of grey...not that you can tell in the picture. This was the last official knit of '07. I cast on for this while at Tracey's for Christmas and finished a matter of days later.

A matter of days later I was down here in So Cal all moved in and I cast on for Brenda's. Fast forward a few days later and hers was done. I even added some elastic thread to the ribbing to make sure it doesn't stretch out like mine did. * Here is a funny picture of hers:

 

I tried and tried to get a decent picture of hers, yet the best looking one was when I wasn't expecting it. I was playing around with the self timer and caught this one while going back to reset it. Funny.

In other knitting news, I cast on for the Tilted Duster from Interweave Knits about a week ago. I couldn't hold out any longer. I'm using some Plymouth Encore, probably not the best choice, but I have a bunch of it and it's probably just going to be worn around the house anyway. I don't know why but I don't have high hopes for this one. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love for it to turn out wonderfully and wear it when I am out running errands or whatnot. I just foresee problems with it and doubt it may never see the light of day. We shall see.

I worked on it last week when I *gasp* actually knit with other people! Since I am back in So Cal I wanted to get together with Debbie and Jerry and knit . I tagged along with them to a Knit in Public event in Irvine at a Whole Foods. (Oh how I love Whole Foods...why do they have to be sooooo out of my price range though?!) Anyway...here's some pics:

There's Jerry...proof that straight men knit. Debbie, his wife, is on the left there with her head purposely cropped out.

Jerry and his fashion forward choices:

Knitting needles as jewelry.

Ok folks, it's getting late. Time for bed...

*My Gretel was one of the surprisingly few casualties of the move in the rain. I wore it the whole time to keep my head from getting soaked. It was drenched and so stretched out by the time we were done loading the U-haul. I managed to block it back into submission a bit, but it's just not the same.

Random post about moving...

Where to begin? I wanted to blog about all of the things that have happened involving this move but there is just too much to cover. I guess I could just touch on some of the main points.

A few days before we moved down I was treated to brunch and a movie with my San Francisco friends, Fan and Ianthe. (That is their new title now, my "SF friends".) They took me to Citizen Cake.

Some of you may have heard of this place if you watch the Food Network because it's Elizabeth Faulkner's restaurant. The food was so good that I can't really hold it against her that she tattled on Duff for breaking the rules during a Food Network Food Challenge.

After brunch we went to the newly redone Kabuki Theater in Japantown for a movie. If you haven't seen Juno yet, go now. It's wonderful. I may go see it again.

I really should have gone to Japantown more often when we were living in San Francisco. Fan, Ianthe and I went to the cutest stationary store there and I bought a 2008 calendar with Bulldogs. Too cute.

I'm going to miss my SF friends. I didn't get to spend enough time with them during my 3 year stay but you know, work and stuff took up a lot of time. Fan says she's coming to visit soon and I can only hope that she can kidnap Ianthe since she didn't seem too keen on the idea of visiting LA. Anyway.

On my last day at work a few girls came in on their day off and gave me some flowers and these cute little cakes:

 

For the past two years I have worked at 6 different stores. I was bounced around so much that it was nice to feel like some of the employees at this last store actually got to know me well enough to warrant a sad little goodbye. It was very sweet.

The next day Randy and I got up early and headed over to Fan's. We took her to breakfast one last time at Dottie's. Mmmmm, Dottie's.

The trick is to get there right when it opens, I guess. We didn't have to wait at all. Normally there is a long line outside waiting.

This is where it gets ugly. The rest of the day is a total blur. I just remember picking up the U-haul and lots of trips up and down stairs with heavy items. Most of the time Fan sat in the U-haul reading, so we wouldn't have to lock it up every time we went back to the apartment for more stuff. Man, does it suck moving with only 3 people. Oh, did I mention that it started raining? It was predicted to be the worst winter storm in 4 years.

It was.

You know those clips on the news they show when there is a hurricane coming? Strong winds with rain coming in sideways? Yeah, imagine loading a U-haul in that. This picture really doesn't do it justice:

Pine needles and branches were strewn all over. And you can't tell, but Randy is soaked. This is when we finally finished packing up the U-haul the next day. We ended up just ditching a bunch of stuff on the patio because we were at our wits end. We just couldn't do it anymore. We wanted to leave at 5am, we ended up leaving around 8am. Randy climbed in the U-haul and I got in the Civic. We headed out in wet clothes.

This day was a blur too. There were traffic jams due to accidents on the freeway, traffic signals out due to power outages, naps in the U-haul to regain some energy, holding onto the steering wheel for dear life while driving through the Grapevine and lots of stops for gas. The Civics heater doesn't work so I was freezing the whole time. A drive that should have taken us 7 hours took 13. I can only, sort of, laugh because it is 2 weeks later. It wasn't funny for a while there.

I'm just going to end it there because this is already turning into a giant post of negativity. It wasn't supposed to. Just know that the move really sucked but things are good now. It's January, the heart of winter and it's 75 degrees out here. I may even go swimming. Things are good.

Phew.

Central Park Hoodie

If you recall, I started this back in November because I knew I was going to be seeing my dear friend Sarah. I figured if I had any problems with it she would be able to help me because she was also making one and, really, because she is a far superior knitter than I am. I don't think I ever ended up consulting her though. (Correct me if I am wrong though Sarah.) Oh, and something I never mentioned because I never blogged about our meetup back in NOVEMBER, was that our CPH's are almost identical in color. I didn't know what color hers was when I ordered the yarn and we ended up with the same thing. Funny, huh?

This sweater took me about 6 weeks to complete...which is amazing for me. Seeing each piece completed drove me to finish the next one, then the next one. I was on a mission to finish this by Christmas and I met that goal. I sewed the buttons on it on Christmas Eve.

This was by far the most involved knitting project I have taken on so far. I've been scared off by the "difficulty meter" that the pattern claims. 4 out of 4 dots?! Crap. That's hard. Lots of cables? Different pieces? Pieces that then have to be seamed together?!

Turns out...it's not that hard.

Pattern: Central Park by Heather Lodinsky, Size 36

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash, Copper about 11 skeins

Needles: Denise Interchangeables, sizes 6 and 8

I only made one modification to the easy to follow pattern. I added an inch or two to the body because I like longer sweaters. Thing is, I forgot that I made that mod when I picked up stitches for the button band ribbing. See how it puckers up a bit there at the bottom? I forgot to pick up extra stitches to compensate for the extra inches for the body. No big deal though since I rarely button the bottom button anyway.

There are a few mistakes that irk me a bit, but really nothing big.  Just a few things to keep my eyes open for next time. That's right, there's going to be a next time. I'm already planning it. A couple mods for the next one:

Maybe knit the next size up. This one is totally wearable, but the sleeves are a bit snug if it's worn with a long sleeve t-shirt. Even a really thin long sleeve t-shirt.

Add even a few more inches to the body. Once it's buttoned it shrinks the length up a bit.  And remember to pick up extra stitches on the band for that mod.

I might even omit the hood for a ribbed collar like I heard someone was going to do on Ravelry. I need to see how that one turned out though.

This baby still hasn't been washed yet...I'm always hesitant to wash anything that I am this proud of. Even though this yarn is superwash I'm going to hold off a bit for fear of pulling it out of the machine and having it look like a baby sweater.

Eeeeeeeeeee!!!

We're here. We made it (barely). And we now have internet.

Yay!