Well, the sweater didn't even make it to the final stages. The pattern called for picking up only 60 sts on the whole left front side and there was no way that would happen even if it was the length the pattern called for. I tried the Ravelry thing and no one posted any problems so that meant 1) I was the problem or 2) the pattern was one that everyone could spot the issues to begin with and didn't attempt it in the first place. I washed the pieces as they were and the darn thing didn't even shrink (better quality dishcloth cotton than I thought!) so it's going in the frog pile and will make a nice cotton cardigan sometime. Just not now. And I'll need a completely different pattern.
So everyone, when your project looks like it will fit an elephant and it's not supposed to, don't rely on the shrinking/blocking theory. Quit and start over.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
The fabric of our lives?
I've been taking a break from knitting which means there is only 2 things in the works: a sock for M-i-l's birthday and a light, cotton, mostly sleeveless sweater for me. It's knitted in 3 parts (back, left front, right front) and I've finished all but the right front. For some reason, it's taking me the time equivalency to do that one than the back and the other front. I have several theories why: I've actually burned myself out on knitting (the horror!), I have other things to do that are more important (the HORROR!), and when I sit down in the evening or go somewhere I don't want to be carrying yet another thing I have to finish (YE GODS! WHO IS THIS WOMAN!!!)
So anyway, LSU is playing baseball badly, we are at the I-Ls (in-laws), and I am determined to finish this thing and sew it up within the next week at most. Why? Because I really need to wash it and make sure it's going to shrink as much as I thought it would. If it doesn't, I got another too-big sweater to give away and I'm sure there are several readers of this blog who would love it. Me? I might just cry.
So anyway, LSU is playing baseball badly, we are at the I-Ls (in-laws), and I am determined to finish this thing and sew it up within the next week at most. Why? Because I really need to wash it and make sure it's going to shrink as much as I thought it would. If it doesn't, I got another too-big sweater to give away and I'm sure there are several readers of this blog who would love it. Me? I might just cry.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Sing a Simple Song
Cleaned out the cds today. Little Guy had done a number on their order system these almost 2 years he's been mobile and it had gotten downright impossible to find anything other than the cds we had bought since the last time he "rearranged" everything. I've kept my musical plethora (is there any other way to put it?) in 2 identical cd shelves all these years since college and they've been living next to my side of the bed in our bedroom (no other place to put them in the house) along with my knitting WIPs and yarn stash. When Little Guy could crawl and felt like visiting me (usually I was folding laundry or something) he soon discovered this and, totally ignoring the yarn and bags thank goodness, he proceeded on numerous occasions to take cds out and put them back. Sometimes they went on the same shelf, sometimes not. Sometimes they were upside down, sometimes labels didn't show, and sometimes they were stacked on top. Sometimes they were left on the floor for me to find. NEVER were they in the same spot or organized genera. NEVER were they in any way shape or form anything but chaotic in their order. He never tore them, took the cds out, or threw them; he only wanted to arrange them. I did try to stop him on several occasions but due to the evidence above, didn't hold to it because, well, he really wasn't hurting anything other than my need for order and it kept him busy while I did whatever it was I was doing. So what if I couldn't find my Lovin' Spoonful Greatest Hits when I needed to get that "You Know You Gotta Make Up Your Mind" song out of my head. I at least knew it was there somewhere.
In the midst of all this financial redo-ing I've been cleaning out (I know, I never needed a financial situation as an excuse to "clean out") and it had hit the point where everything had been gone through. Even the two storage boxes of random electronic junk had been cleaned out 4 months ago when we were on the search of the Sirius satellite radio (a search that continues to this day). All closets, Christmas decor, dishes, cabinets, shoes, kid clothes had been organized and cleaned out at some time in the past 6 months and the WIPs had been dealt with, including stash stuff. Even my fabric was organized. All had been distributed, donated, and anything not being useful was gone. I kept thinking that there was something else I wasn't cleaning out, possibly avoiding, and it didn't come totally clear until I cleaned out the truck of all the cds what that was. The music collection. It had to be next.
Before I was into much anything I was in to music. Not all kinds but I've always enjoyed good music. And I bought a lot of it. It never bothered me much because everything I bought I listened to a lot. Now times have changed, tastes have changed (but some are the same), and some things get collected for the sake of collection, not for true listening appreciation, and those things needed to be weeded out and moved on. I needed to take off the rose colored glasses and be perfectly honest with myself on what I will continue to listen to and what I have not and WILL NOT listen to ever again.
It was a little wistful, a little painful, and a little dirty. They had gotten dusty. The Beatles were hanging out with 1995 Boys II Men and Prodigy (I told you he did a number on my organization) and Coltrane was lost in the middle of Bob Dylan. I did find Lovin' Spoonful and now have that song stuck in my head again. And I was reminded yet again of my crazy fascination with 60s rock and funk. LOVE that stuff! It's kind of funny how rock has kinda gotten back that way and those are the current bands we are listening to and own. I could tell what we had fished out and listened to because they were in stacks rather than lined up in rows and in even a crazier order but at least were more current. Gnarls Barkley and the Raconteurs were staying cozy with Flight of the Conchords and Frank Sinatra could still hold his own (that's Hubby's cd; I was always a Bobby Darin fan). But I digress. I found the old high school cds that helped me through teenage wasteland and the college cds I bought because it was cool to listen to them and anyone with music sense did, who cares that I didn't really like them. I found my year of Phish, Rusted Root, and Talking Heads and my long love of Belle and Sebastian (Hubby steers clear of that collection). I found those cds that I really liked them but HATE now because they became so over played (Paula Cole, leave us be. Please.) and I found those that I'm not sure why I have them but I still think I need to keep (help! "Blonde on Blonde" and "Highway 61 Revisited"! I only listen to "Nashville Skyline" because Bob sings on those, I only like a few songs on the others. I turn in other cds for that, do I hang on to these because it's Bob?). I realized I only truely liked Radiohead through "OK Computer"; Kid A spoke a totally different language I knew others appreciated but I'm never going to listen to by choice. I also have a bigger collection of jazz and swing than I thought (really nice surprise!) and my classical collection is slowly filling out as we broaden our horizons and need the genius of those. And I'm a harpsichord nut.
So now there is a stack of cds to go now (I think I'm going to wait until I visit LMSS and subject her city to my rejected music tastes; plus there are some pretty good cds in there, I just don't want them anymore), a stack to listen to to make sure I don't want them anymore, and the 2 cd shelves still nearly full but now with things I know we want to keep. I feel ok about it but I still feel like I could go through it again and weed out more. Oh well. You gotta start somewhere. And I'm keeping Sly and the Family Stone to help me through it.
In the midst of all this financial redo-ing I've been cleaning out (I know, I never needed a financial situation as an excuse to "clean out") and it had hit the point where everything had been gone through. Even the two storage boxes of random electronic junk had been cleaned out 4 months ago when we were on the search of the Sirius satellite radio (a search that continues to this day). All closets, Christmas decor, dishes, cabinets, shoes, kid clothes had been organized and cleaned out at some time in the past 6 months and the WIPs had been dealt with, including stash stuff. Even my fabric was organized. All had been distributed, donated, and anything not being useful was gone. I kept thinking that there was something else I wasn't cleaning out, possibly avoiding, and it didn't come totally clear until I cleaned out the truck of all the cds what that was. The music collection. It had to be next.
Before I was into much anything I was in to music. Not all kinds but I've always enjoyed good music. And I bought a lot of it. It never bothered me much because everything I bought I listened to a lot. Now times have changed, tastes have changed (but some are the same), and some things get collected for the sake of collection, not for true listening appreciation, and those things needed to be weeded out and moved on. I needed to take off the rose colored glasses and be perfectly honest with myself on what I will continue to listen to and what I have not and WILL NOT listen to ever again.
It was a little wistful, a little painful, and a little dirty. They had gotten dusty. The Beatles were hanging out with 1995 Boys II Men and Prodigy (I told you he did a number on my organization) and Coltrane was lost in the middle of Bob Dylan. I did find Lovin' Spoonful and now have that song stuck in my head again. And I was reminded yet again of my crazy fascination with 60s rock and funk. LOVE that stuff! It's kind of funny how rock has kinda gotten back that way and those are the current bands we are listening to and own. I could tell what we had fished out and listened to because they were in stacks rather than lined up in rows and in even a crazier order but at least were more current. Gnarls Barkley and the Raconteurs were staying cozy with Flight of the Conchords and Frank Sinatra could still hold his own (that's Hubby's cd; I was always a Bobby Darin fan). But I digress. I found the old high school cds that helped me through teenage wasteland and the college cds I bought because it was cool to listen to them and anyone with music sense did, who cares that I didn't really like them. I found my year of Phish, Rusted Root, and Talking Heads and my long love of Belle and Sebastian (Hubby steers clear of that collection). I found those cds that I really liked them but HATE now because they became so over played (Paula Cole, leave us be. Please.) and I found those that I'm not sure why I have them but I still think I need to keep (help! "Blonde on Blonde" and "Highway 61 Revisited"! I only listen to "Nashville Skyline" because Bob sings on those, I only like a few songs on the others. I turn in other cds for that, do I hang on to these because it's Bob?). I realized I only truely liked Radiohead through "OK Computer"; Kid A spoke a totally different language I knew others appreciated but I'm never going to listen to by choice. I also have a bigger collection of jazz and swing than I thought (really nice surprise!) and my classical collection is slowly filling out as we broaden our horizons and need the genius of those. And I'm a harpsichord nut.
So now there is a stack of cds to go now (I think I'm going to wait until I visit LMSS and subject her city to my rejected music tastes; plus there are some pretty good cds in there, I just don't want them anymore), a stack to listen to to make sure I don't want them anymore, and the 2 cd shelves still nearly full but now with things I know we want to keep. I feel ok about it but I still feel like I could go through it again and weed out more. Oh well. You gotta start somewhere. And I'm keeping Sly and the Family Stone to help me through it.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Fresh air
It's funny what people ask God for. It's also funny how God answers. Sometimes it's somewhat the way we expect it to come where the miracle comes out of the blue and BAM! everything works but sometimes it's not that easy for God. See, God has to deal with us PEOPLE and our little people ways. He knows that too. He knew that I was praying for some kind of answer to our financial stress. He also knew that hitting me over the head with some answer would only knock me out cold and have me waking up a few hours later not remembering a blessed thing, thus no progress and a painful bump on the head.
It's funny in what ways the answers come. Ours came in the form of my little brother who got his finances right 6 months ago and decided he wanted to do the same with us because he knew what a load it took off of his mind. We thought we were ok so I didn't think too much of it until he just happened to plug in our numbers one day a few weeks ago. What I saw made my jaw drop and brought tears to my eyes. The only thing he was able to say was "Um, is there ANYTHING you can cut out?" and the only thing I could think was "How in the world have we survived this long?"
We got real. We tightened our belts and got to work on what we really could live without. We finally got the emotions out of the way and thanked God that nothing was hurt and no damage was done, we were simply living outside our means. We had fooled ourselves into thinking we were fine because we're not lavish spenders AT ALL. So now we are the proud owners of the car we had been leasing and are selling the truck. We have no tv service (our pediatrician would be proud) and are learning how to really enjoy eggs and peanut butter (not at the same time.)
And it feels great. Sad at times for giving up the truck but great that we only have a few years of this and everything will be fine. In fact, everything is fine because we are finally where we need to be: stable. And that's what I was praying for.
It's funny in what ways the answers come. Ours came in the form of my little brother who got his finances right 6 months ago and decided he wanted to do the same with us because he knew what a load it took off of his mind. We thought we were ok so I didn't think too much of it until he just happened to plug in our numbers one day a few weeks ago. What I saw made my jaw drop and brought tears to my eyes. The only thing he was able to say was "Um, is there ANYTHING you can cut out?" and the only thing I could think was "How in the world have we survived this long?"
We got real. We tightened our belts and got to work on what we really could live without. We finally got the emotions out of the way and thanked God that nothing was hurt and no damage was done, we were simply living outside our means. We had fooled ourselves into thinking we were fine because we're not lavish spenders AT ALL. So now we are the proud owners of the car we had been leasing and are selling the truck. We have no tv service (our pediatrician would be proud) and are learning how to really enjoy eggs and peanut butter (not at the same time.)
And it feels great. Sad at times for giving up the truck but great that we only have a few years of this and everything will be fine. In fact, everything is fine because we are finally where we need to be: stable. And that's what I was praying for.
Friday, March 26, 2010
One day we'll forgive you, Georgia Nicholson
I have turned a new corner in my knitting. I say new corner because I'm not a new knitter anymore, I've knitted the heck out of anything that would sit still long enough to let me for a while now (thus able to read and produce most patterns), and what I'm doing is nothing like what I've usually done. Hubby calls it "burn out," I call it "re-prioritizing."
Everyone knows of the "Knitted Christmas" that just passed in which, thankfully, everyone appreciated what they got. Everyone knows how that carried into January and February, trying to catch up on other gifts I said I would do or just thought they were a good idea. Then there was the frogging of the sweater and baby blanket that not only liberated knitting needles and supplies, but my personal sense of accomplishment. In the past month I have been knitting on one pair of socks (that's it. No new sweater, no nothing (um, anything), and I wasn't getting any inspiration and enjoying it) and I was getting sick of it. Not just sick of the project, but sick of knitting. I was (finally) looking at the stack of books at my side of the bed thinking "those look interesting." I was gazing outside thinking "Playground. That sounds like fun." Those things have never happened. So here it is. I am actually playing outside with the kids again. I still carry a sock or knitting project to car pool and various appoinments but not to the playground. Gosh-durnit the kids are only little once and they love that Mommy goes down the slide and plays chase. I haven't quite caught up to the reading but I'm working on that. The regular schedule still isn't allowing sit-down time longer than 5-10 minutes but it should soon. Hopefully the stressors then continue to be eliminated and we aren't running everywhere hauling everyone at all times.
But I digress. To sum it all up, I discovered that I'm addicted to stress and I'm going to cut that out. I know it won't be easy, especially since I do get a sadistic thrill of piling on the projects and responsibilities, but I've decided I've had enough. I'm saying no to anything new and only sticking to the few things left that I can't get out of. Anything new isn't limited to knitting, it involves lots of parts of my life and the great thing is everyone understands, even if they are a little curious to what all really is going on. I just say it's nothing that no one hasn't been through before, no one's hurt, nothing serious, just lots of little things piled on at once and I've hit my breaking point. I don't like going into all of it because compared to most everyone else's problems, mine sound like a whiny little pig. And I'm also trying to cut out the complaining. :)
In all this, I also discovered that everything I knit I give away. I like only a few knitted things. Everyone else seems to enjoy my knitted stuff more than I do at times so, yes, I will finish my special, for-me-every-day-wear dark blue cardigan one day but the pattern hasn't shown up yet so I will wait until that prince comes. I really do love knitting and I'm reclaiming it for myself by choosing NOT to do it all times just because I felt like I should be busy at something.
I also had a laugh but a thought while reading the last of the Georgia Nicholson books. She was talking about one of the teachers she has who's single and a little out-of-touch with the "modern" life. This teacher had been the one supervising after-school detention and walked with Georgia out to the gate of the school and Georgia was not just appalled to be seen talking to a teacher, but that this teacher was wearing a knitted hat with (of all horrors) BOBBLES!!! She didn't want to be associated with "knitted people" ever! I had a good giggle, thinking of all the knitted things I have, have knitted, and people adore but then paused when I realized I hadn't worn much of anything knitted in a while. I have 2 wraps I wear on Sundays, sometimes as big scarves, and a short-sleeved cardigan I wear once in a while but the hats, the scarves, etc. only came out in the real cold we had this season because it was so darn freezing. Otherwise, Hubby and the kids wore theirs all the time but me not so much. Am I really a knitted person or do I just like making things?
Makes you think, especially with the kind of money it's easy to drop on certain hobbies. Georgia Nicholson is by no means an authority on anything (but very entertaining series to read) but here she unintentionally exposed a personal possibility. I'll keep contemplating but there's one thing I know no matter what, I love you knitted people.
Everyone knows of the "Knitted Christmas" that just passed in which, thankfully, everyone appreciated what they got. Everyone knows how that carried into January and February, trying to catch up on other gifts I said I would do or just thought they were a good idea. Then there was the frogging of the sweater and baby blanket that not only liberated knitting needles and supplies, but my personal sense of accomplishment. In the past month I have been knitting on one pair of socks (that's it. No new sweater, no nothing (um, anything), and I wasn't getting any inspiration and enjoying it) and I was getting sick of it. Not just sick of the project, but sick of knitting. I was (finally) looking at the stack of books at my side of the bed thinking "those look interesting." I was gazing outside thinking "Playground. That sounds like fun." Those things have never happened. So here it is. I am actually playing outside with the kids again. I still carry a sock or knitting project to car pool and various appoinments but not to the playground. Gosh-durnit the kids are only little once and they love that Mommy goes down the slide and plays chase. I haven't quite caught up to the reading but I'm working on that. The regular schedule still isn't allowing sit-down time longer than 5-10 minutes but it should soon. Hopefully the stressors then continue to be eliminated and we aren't running everywhere hauling everyone at all times.
But I digress. To sum it all up, I discovered that I'm addicted to stress and I'm going to cut that out. I know it won't be easy, especially since I do get a sadistic thrill of piling on the projects and responsibilities, but I've decided I've had enough. I'm saying no to anything new and only sticking to the few things left that I can't get out of. Anything new isn't limited to knitting, it involves lots of parts of my life and the great thing is everyone understands, even if they are a little curious to what all really is going on. I just say it's nothing that no one hasn't been through before, no one's hurt, nothing serious, just lots of little things piled on at once and I've hit my breaking point. I don't like going into all of it because compared to most everyone else's problems, mine sound like a whiny little pig. And I'm also trying to cut out the complaining. :)
In all this, I also discovered that everything I knit I give away. I like only a few knitted things. Everyone else seems to enjoy my knitted stuff more than I do at times so, yes, I will finish my special, for-me-every-day-wear dark blue cardigan one day but the pattern hasn't shown up yet so I will wait until that prince comes. I really do love knitting and I'm reclaiming it for myself by choosing NOT to do it all times just because I felt like I should be busy at something.
I also had a laugh but a thought while reading the last of the Georgia Nicholson books. She was talking about one of the teachers she has who's single and a little out-of-touch with the "modern" life. This teacher had been the one supervising after-school detention and walked with Georgia out to the gate of the school and Georgia was not just appalled to be seen talking to a teacher, but that this teacher was wearing a knitted hat with (of all horrors) BOBBLES!!! She didn't want to be associated with "knitted people" ever! I had a good giggle, thinking of all the knitted things I have, have knitted, and people adore but then paused when I realized I hadn't worn much of anything knitted in a while. I have 2 wraps I wear on Sundays, sometimes as big scarves, and a short-sleeved cardigan I wear once in a while but the hats, the scarves, etc. only came out in the real cold we had this season because it was so darn freezing. Otherwise, Hubby and the kids wore theirs all the time but me not so much. Am I really a knitted person or do I just like making things?
Makes you think, especially with the kind of money it's easy to drop on certain hobbies. Georgia Nicholson is by no means an authority on anything (but very entertaining series to read) but here she unintentionally exposed a personal possibility. I'll keep contemplating but there's one thing I know no matter what, I love you knitted people.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
SBJ camoflauged... with duckies!
And I am very happy to say the mommy was thrilled. She's put in an order for knitted footie pajamas. I said sure. Next year.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Recycle day
There comes a time in everyone's life when they have to clean out the dirt in their lives. Sometimes that's literally what is going on but sometimes it's in reference to the dysfunctional relationships hanging around like a grease ball at the prom. Mine came in the form of those projects I started knitting nearly a year ago, knowing full well I was knitting enough as it was, and they were still sitting in their bags with all the supplies I had desperately needed for other projects (since finished, regardless) no where near completion.
Like the previously blogged conversation, this has been brewing for a while. It came to a head last night when I was knitting away at the "Amazing Technicolor Dream Cardigan" while watching "Lost in Translation" (she was knitting a scarf in that, briefly!) I looked at the WIP and started thinking, "you know, this looks way too small to fit an adult." I slipped the sleeve stitches on ribbon and tried it on. Guess what. It was a little too small. Getting it over my bust was literally a stretch and the bottom with all the cabling had drawn up so much it was barely seen from the front. This led to me trying to bend my mind around any way to salvage the project (wider button bands...?), sleeping on it (not literally, of course), and an early morning phone call to LMSS to get the knitting shrink's opinion. She said frog it, frog it, and don't look back, trust your mind and don't resist. Stop before more time is wasted, time wasn't wasted because you learned so much from the project, rewind the yarn and use that knowledge to find the RIGHT pattern for it.
So I did. And I feel so good about it. I loved the cables but HATED the bobbles and the stripes were all off on my body lines that I wanted to accentuate. Frogging that led to me taking the other long-a-waiting projects out (just 2 more, thank goodness) and looking at them without the rose-colored glasses. The Calming Wrap was saved (good construction, good quality pattern) but the baby blanket that resembled a Muppet wig was laid to rest. It took me an hour to frog that thing and rewind the colors (I considered just throwing it away) but I did it and I FEEL SO GOOD. It's like finally cutting ties with that loser college boyfriend who was only dating you to cheat off your papers: there's always hurt and regret but once the weight is let go you feel like you can fly.
My list is updated and it's holding less "to-do." I'm almost finished with one of the paying "to-do"s and that will be crossed off today. I have nothing to add to the "to-do" and I'm not letting myself find anything either. Keep it simple, stupid, I keep telling myself.
And I feel so good about it.
Like the previously blogged conversation, this has been brewing for a while. It came to a head last night when I was knitting away at the "Amazing Technicolor Dream Cardigan" while watching "Lost in Translation" (she was knitting a scarf in that, briefly!) I looked at the WIP and started thinking, "you know, this looks way too small to fit an adult." I slipped the sleeve stitches on ribbon and tried it on. Guess what. It was a little too small. Getting it over my bust was literally a stretch and the bottom with all the cabling had drawn up so much it was barely seen from the front. This led to me trying to bend my mind around any way to salvage the project (wider button bands...?), sleeping on it (not literally, of course), and an early morning phone call to LMSS to get the knitting shrink's opinion. She said frog it, frog it, and don't look back, trust your mind and don't resist. Stop before more time is wasted, time wasn't wasted because you learned so much from the project, rewind the yarn and use that knowledge to find the RIGHT pattern for it.
So I did. And I feel so good about it. I loved the cables but HATED the bobbles and the stripes were all off on my body lines that I wanted to accentuate. Frogging that led to me taking the other long-a-waiting projects out (just 2 more, thank goodness) and looking at them without the rose-colored glasses. The Calming Wrap was saved (good construction, good quality pattern) but the baby blanket that resembled a Muppet wig was laid to rest. It took me an hour to frog that thing and rewind the colors (I considered just throwing it away) but I did it and I FEEL SO GOOD. It's like finally cutting ties with that loser college boyfriend who was only dating you to cheat off your papers: there's always hurt and regret but once the weight is let go you feel like you can fly.
My list is updated and it's holding less "to-do." I'm almost finished with one of the paying "to-do"s and that will be crossed off today. I have nothing to add to the "to-do" and I'm not letting myself find anything either. Keep it simple, stupid, I keep telling myself.
And I feel so good about it.
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