Monday, January 31, 2005

I have a big, booming headache and I'm behind on a couple of deadlines, so I'm not the happiest of campers right now, but I wanted to stop in and say hi.

Hi.

I'll be fine tomorrow -- I get a migraine once a month, and it never lasts more than 24 hours.  It's an estrogen thing.

Not only did I have to pay my webhost for an extra GB (Gig) of traffic this month, but I had to pay for TWO extra GB, and possibly a THIRD, depending on how these last two days went.  While my blog's stats have been creeping up month by month, the stats for my work website have skyrocketed, and while that's fabulous, I'm not exactly sure what's going on.  I don't suspect bandwidth theft, but I'm not sure how to rule it out, either.  Anybody want to help me with that?

Here are a couple of shots of some of my students' work:

This is Kris's toddler sweater from the Beginning Finishing class:

And this is Annette's seed stitch scarf from the Easy Beginner Scarves class:

Fabulous work, ladies!

Maybe if I quit linking to my class pages my stats will go down.

Maybe if I go lay down in a dark room I can keep my head from exploding.

Sarah

Friday night, January 28, 2005

I found a photo of the stockinette stitch throw, although it's not shown as a table cover.  You'll have to do a little clicking around to find it.  Go to www.eighteenkarat.com, which brings up the Fall/Winter 2004 catalog.  Click on "ginger", then "click here to select and view products", then go to page "3".  There's another one on page "1" of the "white" collection, but the picture isn't very good.  See how simple it is?  We can make those!

I accomplished everything on my list except the grocery shopping (which I'll do tomorrow) and the pattern writing (which I'll start in a few minutes), and I traded in the "eat lunch in the car" for "eat lunch in a restaurant with a friend".

Frankly, I didn't expect to get half of that list done.  Posting it for the world to see made me try harder.  Thanks for your help!

Sarah

Friday morning, January 28, 2005

The latest issue (February 2005) of Midwest Living magazine has a feature called "A Warm Touch", in which a couple of knitted table covers are pictured.  One of the secretaries at Son Number Two's school brought it to my attention.  I looked at it and said, "It's just a big stockinette stitch square with a garter stitch border, knit with really fat yarn!"  I can't find a picture of it on-line anywhere -- the product information provided didn't lead me anywhere useful.  What a simple idea for an elegant table cover, though!

For lack of anything else (I've been doing a lot of paperwork this week), here's more crap about me:

22.  I will never use emoticons.  Mostly because I don’t like them, but partly because when I complain about them, I don’t know how to pronounce the word “emoticon”.  Is it e-mote-eye-con, or e-mote-ih-con?  I don't have a problem with anyone else using them, mind you, but they're just not me.

23.  Wire hangers give me the willies.  You won't find any in my house.

24.  I stopped buying paper napkins when I left my full-time job about six (?) years ago, and made the switch to cloth napkins.  When we have dinner guests, they think we're being "fancy".  I'm not sure it has anything to do with being environmentally correct, because . . .

25.  I use paper towels like they're going out of style.  Ziploc bags, too.  I should probably try to wean myself off of those.

26.  I can’t stand repetitive noises or motions, like a swinging foot, a tapping pencil, a ticking clock . . . they're worse than fingernails on a blackboard to me and will turn me into a screaming meemee in a nanosecond.  I realize I need to learn to deal with this, but it's not easy.

27.  It appears to be completely impossible for me to call my kids by their own names on the first try.

28.  I used to turn orange sections inside out and peel the juice globules (my term -- you can use it if you want) from the membrane with my teeth.  I wouldn't eat any of the membrane-y stuff.  My husband made fun of me (and it sure was messy!), so I stopped, but if you ever try it, you'll notice the oranges taste much more orange-y. 

Today's schedule:

• Supervise homework corrections

• Get the kids on the bus

• Eat breakfast while writing a blog entry

• Walk the neighbor's dog

• Invest in a tank of gas

• Teach a class

• Eat lunch in the car

• Pick up some yarn and needles

• Return some yarn

• Pick up a sample scarf

• Buy groceries

• Return a library book

• Visit the post office

• Do laundry

• Write a pattern

• Pick up Son Number One's friend

• Take three boys to dinner

• Try to find a parking space

• Take three boys to see the Harlem Globetrotters

• Try to get out of the parking space

• Oversee a sleepover

• Breathe

Sarah

Monday, January 24, 2005

Here's what the patio looked like on Saturday:

This caused the cancellation of Son Number One's SAT and Son Number Two's first basketball game of the season.

Amazingly enough, the snow plow cleared our street ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW SNOWFALL.  That's happened three times in a row now, breaking the tradition of leaving us snowbound for days while the rest of the world gets plowed out. 

I spent most of the weekend being a busy little knitter.  I finished the four mitten designs for my Easy Beginner Mittens class:

Stockinette stitch mitten with rolled cuff, made with Basta from Filatura di Crosa:

1x1 Rib wrister, made with New York from Lanas Stop:

Color Striped mitten with ribbed edge, made with Lamb's Pride Worsted from Brown Sheep:

Thrummed mitten with afterthought thumb, made with yummy yarn and roving from Abby (whose work can be seen on Cecilia's site):

I worked on the thrummed mittens late last night and thought I was doing just fine, but I guess I didn't really understand the thrumming technique until this morning when I finished the thumb, so the thumb is the only place you actually see the little "V"s.  Everywhere else they just look like blips.  The inside looks right, though:

You may have noticed that there is only one of each mitten.  I could pretend that the others are off camera, or I could have used Photoshop to fake some mirror images, but the truth is that:

• I only had enough of the Basta left to make one mitten.
• I did make two of the ribbed wristers, but have the second one hidden away so the other mittens don't get jealous.
• I'm going to re-knit the thrummed mitten, because it's a little too short in the hand and thumb for me, and I want to re-do the thrums now that I know the right way to do them.
• There were 28 ends to weave in on the striped mitten.  I'm not repeating that anytime soon.

You may also have noticed (if you've been paying attention) that three of the mittens match hats from my Easy Beginner Hats class.  Only two of the hat and mitten sets have matching scarves from the Easy Beginner Scarves class, though.  I AM knitting a scarf to match the striped set, but it won't be added to the scarf class because it's knit on a 16" circular needle, and I was trying to stick to back-and-forth knitting for that class.  Maybe I'll add it to one of the other classes as a bonus pattern.

ANYWAY, now I just have to get the class notes written up before Thursday when the mitten class starts, but I'll probably do that Wednesday evening, so that gives me time to do a little more catching up.

Or to finish the body of my Revelation cardigan.

But you didn't hear me say that.

Sarah

Friday, January 21, 2005

I've been having fun with my new classes -- the Easy Beginner Scarves, Hats and Mittens classes.  I'm drawing in a lot of new knitters as well as repeat students, and some of them are getting very creative in their yarn choices and how they use the patterns I've provided.  It's very satisfying to watch both skills and confidence increase.  I resisted teaching these basic courses for a long time, probably because I'm interested in knitting from a very technical standpoint, and a lot of beginners just aren't ready for that, no matter how hard I try to convince them (and myself) otherwise.  So I've lightened up, and have supplied what was demanded, and I think everyone is happy.

And then there are the people who don't feel any urge to knit, and who hire me to do custom knitting for them.  I've been seriously neglecting this aspect of my business for far too long -- since I don't work with deadlines, I just keep postponing and postponing until I feel so full of shame that I drag the knitting-for-hire projects out and toil away guiltily until I get distracted by something (anything!) else. 

For example -- Cree.  Cree is the fourth (at least) in an ongoing series of Intarsia sweaters that I've been knitting for Virginia.  Virginia is extremely patient with me.  I finish about one sweater a year for her.  She called right before Christmas to check on my progress, and I thought "oh, no -- she's expecting this to be a Christmas present!"  But no, she was hoping to get it in time for a May birthday, which is certainly doable.  I seem to work better with deadlines, anyway, so I said that would be fine, and started working on Cree again.  But I still haven't finished a shawl design for Karen.  And Sister Number Two has been waiting even longer than Virginia for St. Brigid and the Maidenhair stole I'm supposed to be knitting for HER.  And I have to design and knit at least four mittens before the end of the weekend, so I can get some materials lists posted for my Easy Beginner Mittens class by Monday.  And there's the finishing jobs and repairs I've got lined up, and the Christmas stocking and the Rowan sweater that are also in the line-up.  And, oh yeah -- I might want to knit something for myself sometime.

Like this:

Lorna's Laces Revelation in the Amish colorway (purple!  blue!  red!  black!).  Little Red Schoolhouse Yarn Shop has all of their Lorna's Laces yarns and patterns on sale right now, and I just couldn't resist.  I'm thinking of making something like this, and I'm thinking of casting on for it, like, now.

My apologies to Virginia, Karen, Sister Number Two, Pat, Louis, Diane, Judy, and all the people signed up for the Mitten class.

Sarah

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Presenting Anjuli, with buttons, thank you very much! 

I didn't notice when I purchased the two little bags of buttons that they were two different purples.  Thank goodness the difference was pointed out to me BEFORE I sewed the buttons on, so I could alternate them and pretend I had bought two different colors on purpose!  I probably wouldn't have figured it out on my own until AFTER I had sewn them on, and you KNOW they would have been all mishy-mashy, and I would have had to cut them all off and sew them on again in a different order.  And I would have hated them forever.  But instead, I've managed to convince myself that I was quite clever to choose a dark purple and a light purple that mimic the dark and light purple stripes in the sweater.

I haven't taken Anjuli off since I finished it, except when I go to bed (and for its little photo shoot).  It feels fabulous, although I have to stop looking at myself from the side in the mirror -- horizontal stripes are NOT particularly flattering.  I'm going to delay washing it for as long as possible, because I'm afraid it's going to grow when it gets wet, and the sleeves are the PERFECT length right now.  I purposely knit it firmly, so I hope that helps it to hold its shape.

Here's Cree:

I've been sewing ends in when I'm with people, and knitting when I'm alone.  This Intarsia stuff is actually starting to grow on me.  The SWAK book made a big difference, as did the example set by Tracy (formerly Sweatergirl) with Elizabeth's British flag sweater.  Most notably, I'm starting each new piece of yarn with the tail on the right side of the fabric, which helps set the first twist properly, and I've learned to cut and start new sections instead of trying to carry a color from one area to another -- for example, when, toward the top of the black motifs, I switch from the widest row (9 stitches) back down to the narrowest row (3 stitches). 

I sewed the buttons on baby Rosie's red sweater:

I'm amazed at all the different reds I got when I tried to take photos.  Here it is with the flash:

Here it is at night without the flash, but with all our lights on:

And here it is during the day without the flash:

And would you believe it?  None of them are the same color as the sweater.  It's actually what I would call Porsche red -- you know that beautiful blue red?  You'll just have to imagine it, though, since I'm unable to capture it with my digital camera.

My stats page shows a huge increase in traffic for my "work" website.  It's only halfway through the month, and I'm already getting the warning from my webhost that I'll need to fork over more money if I go over my allowed whatchamacallit.  I usually get that warning with only a few days remaining in the month, and never actually go over my allowed doohickey (the technical term is escaping me right now, obviously).  I've noticed that I'm getting a ton of hits from this directory -- my free patterns are listed under a bunch of the categories there.  The increased traffic is fabulous, and the extra fee is miniscule (well, okay, it doubles my usual monthly fee, but my usual monthly fee is also miniscule), so there's not really a problem.  I'm just wondering if I should be worrying about it, or trying to generate more income to cover the difference . . .

My husband would like me to let all of you know that when I suggested that it would be nice to snack on some jalapeno poppers but that we didn't happen to have any, and that I would happily go get some except that I was already in my p.j.s, he proceeded to drive to the grocery store, purchase a box of jalapeno poppers (along with a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread), brought everything home, cooked the contents of the box and presented me with a plate of 4 1/2 (exactly half a box) steaming hot poppers for my eating pleasure.  All while I was sitting here in my p.j.s writing this blog entry.  He seems to think that this makes him special, and that it's worth mentioning.  That's great, hon -- you're the best husband I've ever had!  Now where's my change?

Sarah

Sunday, January 16, 2005

I finished Anjuli!  I'm postponing the photo shoot until after I sew the buttons on (okay, so I've ALMOST finished Anjuli), but I've been wearing it sans buttons in the mean time.  I walked into ThreadBear today and heard Rob say, "There's Sarah Peasley and Angelina Jolie!"  I was confused for a moment or two, and then realized he had said "Anjuli".  That made more sense.  I didn't think Angelina and I were scheduled to go on a yarn crawl until NEXT week.

With the completion of Anjuli, I've begun to focus on Cree, which is a knitting-for-hire project.  It's Intarsia (gah!), but only four colors, and consists of fairly straightforward geometric patterns, so it's not too bad.  I'm trying to stop after every couple of pattern repeats to sew in yarn tails, so I won't be overwhelmed by them at the end. 

I'm teaching a Preventing/Fixing Mistakes class at the Little Red Schoolhouse Yarn Shop next Wednesday morning, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  I'm looking for a few more students -- anyone interested? 

Sarah

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Progress:

So now we have our very own water supply again (for the first time since Christmas), but due to the digging and the weight of the trucks, our yard, gardens, and driveway are ruined and can't be fixed until Spring.  Lovely.  Having water is a big plus though, so I'll try not to complain too much. 

I also won't complain about the fact that when my dad went knocking on Death's door this weekend, Death wasn't home, so I get to keep my Daddy for a while longer.  Bigger plus.

Nor will I complain about having to leave Pittsburgh a few hours later than I had intended, which may have kept me from being involved in the 200 car pile-up on I-96 yesterday.  Another bonus.  The hour and a half detour I had to take to get home was cake compared to what so many others had to go through.

Highlights of the week included:

• The phone call from Sister Number One telling me how much her doctors enjoyed seeing her knitted uterus when she went to have her staples removed.
• The rubber tubing wedgie I accidentally gave my dad when we were trying to disentangle his oxygen tube and cannula from his pajama bottoms. 

I'm totally blanking on what to say next.  I think I'll just go to bed.

Sarah

Sunday, January 9, 2005

I've got the hats for my Easy Beginner Hats class in various stages of completion: 

Stockinette stitch with rolled brim, made with Basta from Filatura di Crosa:

1x1 Rib, made with New York from Lanas Stop:

Color stripes with ribbed edge, made with Lamb's Pride Worsted from Brown Sheep:

Garter stitch stripes with hem, made with Pop Art Fantasy from Adriafil:

I'll be out of town for a few days -- see you when I get back!

Sarah

Friday, January 7, 2005

Look!  It's the elusive Sweatergirl, aka Tracy, aka tracy_a, aka E's mommy:

What on earth is she doing?  Take a closer look:

Why, I believe she's using a bodkin to successfully pull a pipe cleaner through a frilly piece of i-cord.  What you CAN'T see in this photo is that just moments before, the very impatient Handknitter (me!) had just thrown the whole mess down with a cry of disgust and a long, colorful sentence containing the word "bodkin", which prompted Son Number One to come to the top of the stairs and ask why his mother (me again!) was yelling about "vodka", which caused said mother to smile adoringly at her son and run into the other room for a little pick-me-up.

After which she (still me!) successfully completed this:

Which is going in the mail tomorrow to Sister Number One, as a replacement for the parts which were surgically removed from her body this afternoon.

Quote of the day (aside from the bodkin/vodka one, which was a close second):

Me:    I just tore out part of my sister's uterus.

Him:    I thought she was having the whole thing removed.

Sarah

Thursday, January 6, 2005

Well, I'm not sure I have anything too exciting to report, but I didn't want to let another day to go by without saying anything.

Still getting our water through a hose from the neighbors.  Still marveling that plumbers don't seem to want to do any actual plumbing.

Started my 2005 teaching schedule with a bang today -- three classes.  Exhausting, but fun.

My kids stayed home from school today -- it was declared a snow day, but the roads were clear enough for my husband to get to work and for me to get to class, so I'm not sure why the schools were closed.  I ended up ignoring my kids all day since I was teaching, but they didn't seem to mind.  They even shoveled, vacuumed, dusted, and fed themselves, which was absolutely fabulous (my afternoon and evening classes were at home, and I had mentioned before I left for my morning class that it would be nice if they could help get the place cleaned up a little -- never dreaming that they would even be able to drag themselves off of the couch before I got home!).

I'm working on the samples for my Easy Beginner Hats class -- one done, one started, and one ready to cast on. 

I haven't mentioned that all the knitting for Anjuli is complete -- I just need to weave in a kabillion ends before I sew the sleeves into the armholes, and then it's DONE!  Oh, and I need to find some new buttons, too, because the ones I purchased for it many moons ago are a) fewer than I need since I decided to knit the longer version, and b) bigger than I need since I changed the buttonholes to from the kind where you bind off and cast back on to eyelet buttonholes, which I like much better but which are much, much tinier.

Hmm.  Anything else going on?

Probably, but I'm kind of tired, so I'm going to go stare at some yarn before I go to bed. 

'Night!

Sarah

Tuesday, January 4, 2005

Sarah A-A. sent this photo of her lovely rendition of Cameron's Cap (another free pattern):

Isn't it gorgeous?  What a great idea to use beautiful handpainted yarn!

Sarah

Monday, January 3, 2005

I've posted some class schedule changes on my website -- we've decided to take a very rare family vacation in mid-February while the kids are out of school for their mid-winter break, so I had to do a little re-arranging.

I've also posted yet another free pattern on my website.  I've called it the Stripey Hat (oooh!), and you should recognize it as the hat I made from the Guild's annual bag of mystery yarn this year. 

Okay, I also posted the "pattern" for the pretty frou-frou scarves I made as teacher gifts.  I called it -- are you ready for this? -- Frou-Frou Scarf!

I've ALSO posted the photos and materials list for my Easy Beginner Scarves class, and just in time, too, since the first class is on Thursday.  Here's a peek at the scarf samples I made over the holidays (I've been BUSY BUSY BUSY!). 

Garter Stitch made with Mango Moon recycled silk (still in progress -- the knitting needle is barely out of sight!):

Stockinette Stitch made with Basta from Filatura di Crosa (probably discontinued -- it was from my stash):

1x1 Rib made with New York from Lanas Stop:

Seed stitch made with Misti Alpaca Worsted (hasn't been blocked yet -- since I'm still knitting it!):

A lacy pattern made with Stacy Charles Ritratto and Jaeger Extra Fine Merino:

Jenanne's Ruffled Scarf (used with permission!) made with Lion Brand Matrix:

AND, as if all that isn't enough, I re-modeled my Finished Projects pages -- I, for one, am much happier without all that clicking you had to do to see any photos.  You can still click to see bigger versions if you want to, but now you can scroll through to see if anything is worth looking at.

The book club hosted by Woven Art met yesterday (first Sunday of each month) at the store's beautiful new location.  The new address is 325 Grove Street, still in East Lansing, just about a block northeast of the old spot.  If, like me, you've lived in or near East Lansing for over twenty years but have no idea what any of the street names are, you might prefer to hear that it's behind the 7-11 which is next to Dooley's (which is now called Harper's), directly across from the parking ramp (which is called the Grove Street ramp, which implies that the street in front of it is called Grove Street, but do you think I could make that connection in my feeble brain?).  And it's on STREET LEVEL, so we no longer have to stop halfway up the stairs to catch our breath.  Do stop by and check out this very welcoming space.  I'll try to get some photos on Thursday.

I'm still waiting on estimates from plumbers -- the hose between our neighbor's house and ours is truly a lifeline right now!

Have a great Monday!

Sarah

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