Thursday, March 31, 2005

As of 2:30 and 3:30 this afternoon, respectively, Son Number One and Son Number Two are officially on Spring Break. 

As of 8:30 this evening, I'm officially on Spring Break.

Ten days off.

Nothing to do.

Nowhere to go.

Everyone join me in a big happy sigh: 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . .

-------------------

Okay, so technically, I have a zillion things to do.  And we're planning on going to Pittsburgh at the end of next week.  And there's the knit-in on Tuesday night.  But still . . .

-------------------

Son Number Two's Entrelac Pillow was received with glee:

And for the record, here are the final shots:

Hooray!

Please send lots of good knitting vibes to Janeen, who is obsessed enough to be taking three of my classes at the same time.  In two weeks, she needs to knit four toddler-sized cardigan pieces (out of five total pieces), an entire Fair Isle pillow cover, a row of giant Entrelac squares, and two i-cord handles.

I think she's in the running for Student of the Year*, don't you?

Sarah

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

UPS delivered a box to me yesterday that contains knitting but has no identifying information of any kind on the inside or the outside, and no directions as to what I'm supposed to do.  Anybody send me a package lately?  I'll just set it aside until I hear from someone . . .

I've been spreading the rumor that the Little Red Schoolhouse Craft and Antique Mall, which contains the Little Red Schoolhouse Yarn Shop, would be moving across the street in the coming months.  There's been a change of  plan, which means that not only are they staying put, but they're also expanding into the empty space next door, which means they'll be twice as big!  Hmm . . . does that mean Linda can expand the boundaries of the yarn shop yet again?

Thank goodness Linda called me yesterday to let me know how many students had signed up for the Beginning Finishing class that started this morning.  I had all of the class information posted on my website, but had forgotten to write it on my personal calendar, and so, thinking I had the day off, I was planning an out-of-town shopping expedition today!  Yikes!  And I had just remarked to someone that in my six years of teaching I had never forgotten to show up for a class.

Jinxed myself, didn't I?

Sarah

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Sunday's Finished Project: 

This is my swatch from Melissa Leapman's "Untangling Cables" class two weekends ago:

Unblocked, of course.  That would require more work that wasn't actual knitting.

Monday's/Tuesday's (Almost) Finished Project:

Here's Son Number Two's Entrelac pillow cover, ALMOST finished.  I still have to graft the end of the three needle i-cord bind off to the beginning, sew the back together at either end of the zipper, and weave in a few ends.

The front:

The back:

I sewed the zipper in by hand (while watching "The Punisher" on DVD -- ugh, but there's a hilarious scene involving a popsicle), and did a pretty darn good job of it, if I may say so myself.  It may appear to be a bit uneven in the photo, but it ISN'T.  Or at least it WON'T be when I get those ends sewn together.

And here's a pathetic brown cuff (and an adorable purple Peeps bunny, who keeps me company at the computer but who turns his back on me when I bite the heads off of the purple bunny Peeps I've got hidden in the cupboard next to the excess chocolate eggs):

What's the significance of the pathetic brown cuff?  Well, it represents the start of the first sleeve of Cree, which means I'VE FINISHED KNITTING THE BODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That's not counting the gabillion ends that are waiting to be woven in, but I'm ignoring them for right now.  Don't worry -- I'm sure they'll be the subject of an upcoming photo essay here on this very blog. 

And that's about all the excitement I can stand, so I'm going to go finish my library book and then head for bed.

Sarah

Monday, March 28, 2005

Well, I managed to get another tiny project finished in time to count for Sunday's Finished Project, but I haven't photographed it yet, so you don't have to believe me if you don't want to. 

Monday's Finished Project, however (Son Number Two's Entrelac Pillow, requested almost a year ago), is taking longer to finish than I had hoped it would. 

Here are the ingredients:

The zipper is now in place between the two triangular pieces, and I've opted out of the seaming option, since that looked sucky.  I've decided on a three needle i-cord join, which involved picking up way too few stitches (merely as a warm up, apparently) around each square piece last night, tearing that out and leaving everything in a heap overnight, then picking up the perfect number of stitches around each square piece tonight, only to realize that it's almost midnight and I'd really rather be sleeping than working a three needle i-cord join on three hundred stitches.

And so it waits for Tuesday.  Mindless Tuesday night knit-in knitting, perhaps?

And just because I impressed myself today, I'll tell you this little boring story:

I opened a bottle of wine last night (to help with the picking up of the way too few stitches), poured a glass, took a few sips, and thought to myself "Hmm!  That tastes kind of peppery!"  Had another glass tonight (to help with the picking up of the perfect number of stitches), and thought, again, that I could taste pepper.  Googled the wine (my apologies to those of you who don't think "Google" should be a verb -- I agree with you, and put that in just to yank your chain), and, lo and behold, it has a "ripe pepper bouquet" (scroll down to the Merlot).  Am I a fabulous wine connoisseur, or what?  Usually, I can't come up with much more than "Mmm!  Yummy!"

Now I'm wondering, though -- I'm thinking BLACK pepper, like the spice.  Are they saying GREEN/RED/YELLOW/ORANGE pepper, like the vegetable?

No, it's too obviously black peppery.  Very interesting.  I'm buying more of this one. 

I think I'll try that Cabernet Sauvignon, too.  And that Carmenere (too lazy to find the dueling accents) says it's peppery, too.  Gotta try that.

Is late March a good time to dig out a wine cellar?

Sarah

Saturday, March 26, 2005

I'm squeaking in at the very end of Saturday (11:59 p.m.) with Saturday's Finished Project:

Front:

Back:

This is my sample from the Top Down Aran workshop I took with Beth Brown-Reinsel in Marshall Michigan about a year ago.  I finally sewed up the sleeve and side seams and wove in the ends, so this counts as a finished project, although it IS a tiny one.

On the front, we were practicing different kinds of bobbles, which is why they each look a little different.

Cute, eh?

Oops -- I think I hear the Easter Bunny!  Gotta hop -- I mean run!

Sarah

Friday, March 25, 2005

Friday's Finished Project:

Yet another pillow cover for my Intro to Fair Isle class:

Why can't I make a square pillow look square?  Let's blame it on the lumpy pillow form inside, not on lumpy finishing.

The yarn is Kona Superwash, hand dyed in gorgeous neon brights by Nancy McRay of Woven Art in East Lansing.  The class starts next Thursday morning at Woven Art, if you're interested (and even if you're not!).

My collection of sample pillow covers from various and sundry classes is growing:

Princess Mica doesn't seem to mind!

Sarah

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Thursday's Finished Project:

One more (last?) scarf!

I made this scarf for a bunch of different reasons: 

Reason #1:  My friend Tracy had made a similar scarf as a gift for a man, and I really liked the way it looked -- hers draped very nicely (my version is rather stiff -- she used a thinner yarn, maybe?  Looser gauge?).

Reason #2:  Knitting in the round for miles and miles is a good stress reliever (except for that part where I used it to show my students how to purl, and then forgot about the purl stitches until I was two feet past them).

Reason #3:  I thought this would be a great stash buster (until I had to buy an additional two skeins of yarn in order to finish it).

Reason #4:  I was challenged by my local knitting friends to make two DIFFERENT striping sequences, which was probably a very good experience for me (although it almost killed me to do it).

Reason #5:  I had knit oodles of sample scarves, hats and mittens for my Easy Beginner series of classes, but didn't have any complete sets.  Now I do!

What's the next lucky project in the line-up?  How about something bright and cheerful for a change?

Sarah

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Wednesday's Finished Project:

Socks! (duh)

I knit these along with my Toe Up Sock students.  The yarn is Paton's Kroy Socks, and the pattern is my own, from the class I teach.

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of socks on your own feet, without making it look like you have huge calves and tiny toes?  I haven't figured out how to avoid that yet, obviously.

I have officially resigned as host(ess) of the monthly Master Knitter events at ThreadBear Fiber Arts Studio.  As Rob noted, each month I was going through the exact same explanation with a different group of (dis)interested knitters.  I haven't been working on the program at all -- I've got too much "work" knitting on my plate.  One of the former attendees, who has actually made it through Level 1 and is working toward Level 2, said she viewed each level as a separate project so she could devote her attention to getting it completed.  I had thought I would do a swatch here and a question there, but I've come to realize that I can't do my best work that way.  So, because I don't have anything to offer beyond explaining how the program works, I stepped down.

In separate but related news, I'll keep the TKGA Level 1 knit-along active, but I'll probably move the list of names to the Archive page.  The swatches will stay in my Pile of Things to Do -- I WILL get to them eventually.  Just not in the near future.

And now I'm off to work on something else that's been languishing in the aforementioned Pile . . .

Sarah

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Tuesday's Finished Project:

I know it's been all over the knit blog world, but here's my first Multidirectional Scarf:

I originally finished this scarf a week or so ago while watching Troy on DVD, and the final little bit looked really bad (of the scarf) (okay, and of the movie).  Apparently k3togs and fighting Trojans don't mix.   

The free pattern is from Karen Baumer, and the yarn is Diaketo Diadomina.  I used the variation at the end of the pattern, although I ended up doing SSSKs instead of k3togs.  No, they weren't SSSKs, either.  I slipped two together as if to knit, then one more as if to knit, then finished the decrease as if it had been an SSSK.  I can't remember what my reasoning was, but there you have it.  The corner is no longer wonky, and the scarf is done.

The colors are beautiful, aren't they?  I bought the yarn because of the colors you (and I) see in the photograph above.  In person, I see a lot more brown, which makes me LIKE this scarf rather than LOVE it.  I've often noticed that my knitting looks different in photographs.  Does the camera show me what everyone else sees?  Am I too "close" to the project to see it in its true colors (pun intended)?

I taught my Preventing/Fixing Mistakes class at the Williamston Community Center last night.  I thought I recognized the name of one of the attendees, but I couldn't place where I knew her from.  She hadn't taken a class from me before.  At the end of the evening, she pulled out her stunning Celtic Dreams sweater, explaining that she had participated in the knit-along ("I notice that yours is marinating," she said).  What a gorgeous, rich shade of dark blue she used, from Black Water Abbey.  Beautiful!  Thanks for letting me know who you were, Dawn!  (And hi to Lauren and Sam!  You girls did a GREAT job last night!).

Ooh!  I get to go to the knit-in tonight -- first time in about two months.  Yippee!  Yes Ola, I'll bring my new yarn.  See you there!

Sarah

Monday, March 21, 2005

I found Son Number One reading my blog Friday morning. 

"Mom, I saw the bad word," he said.  "What are you hiding in that picture?"

"What?" I said.

"You said you're blocking something.  What's behind that board?"

"Oh!  I was using the board to pin the sweater pieces into shape.  That's called 'blocking'.  I'm not hiding anything behind it."

"Oh, I wondered," said my son.  "I was afraid you were hiding the body of someone named Audrey in the laundry room."

Aha!  My secret is out.  My son has discovered that I'm a foul-mouthed murderess, disguised as a mild-mannered knitting instructor.

Speaking of Audrey, here's the Hot Knits version on the extremely talented and lovely designer/author/teacher Melissa Leapman:

And here's the Sarah Peasley version on the extremely stiff and boring Dummy Sheila:

She's still waiting for buttons, but I've been wearing her anyway.  She knit up quickly, went together beautifully, and fits like a dream.  The yarn is Araucania Nature Wool Chunky.  It reminds me a lot of a smoother Manos del Uruguay, without the propensity to pill.  I actually have a Knitting Pure and Simple cardigan knit with Manos in this same color.  Didn't realize it until Audrey was well underway.

I didn't get the sweater done in time to wear to Melissa's classes on Saturday, but I did finish it in her presence shortly after class Saturday night.  When I handed it to her, the first thing she did was inspect my underarm seams -- can you believe it?  Apparently it passed her test, because she was pleased with the finished product!  Sorry, tracy_a, I didn't even think to get a photo of us in our matching Audreys!

I seem to have a big chunk of free time today, so in between piles of laundry (I've been absent for two weekends straight) and digging the house out from an overabundance of unsupervised testosterone (how many remote controls is too many, and why are they always on the floor?), I'm getting caught up on some paperwork. 

I'm declaring this week "Finish Up Those Danged Projects Week".  Audrey counts as Monday's entry, even without her buttons.  Sewing isn't knitting, so that's a whole different UFO pile.

Sarah

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Here's my half-assed attempt (Son Number One, if you're reading this, don't you EVER let me catch you using that word.  You know which word I'm talking about, young man!) at blocking the body of Audrey:

After I downloaded this photo, I went back down to the laundry room to move some of the pins around.  I didn't use enough wires, but I was in a hurry because Husband Number One was taking his World Famous Cheesy Potato Skins out of the oven (I wanted to get there before the Cheesy congealed).

I'm on a mission to try to finish Audrey before my classes with Melissa Leapman (Audrey's designer) on Saturday.  Yes, I know it's currently Thursday night.  Yes, I know I haven't finished my homework for class yet.  The sleeves are just stockinette stitch, and we're talking 3.5 stitches to the inch here, so they're going very quickly.  I figure I can block the sleeves while I assemble the body and add the button/buttonhole band, and then sew the sleeves in Saturday morning before class?  Or maybe during class?  Whatever. 

And then I have to get back to Cree.  It was very naughty of me to stop and make myself a sweater when Virginia would like to see Cree completed before the month of May.

I'm way behind on e-mail again (and I was doing so well!), so please bear with me if you're waiting for an answer.  Thank you!

Sarah

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Here's what I bought at Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion:

That's 680 yards of "Bloomfield", a 50% wool/50% silk blend, in the Lupine colorway, which is very vibrant blues and purples that look washed out in the photo.  I also picked up that cute little zippered pouch, because it makes me happy just to look at it. There were quite a few little Guatemalan handcrafted items to choose from.  My other purchases are intended as gifts, so aren't ready for public viewing.

We also visited Skeins on Main in Rochester, and Crafty Lady in Macomb.  All three stores were lovely, each with its own distinct personality.

This arrived yesterday (Hooray!):

I've only read page 5 so far, which is a brief autobiography by Elizabeth with a few additions by Meg.  I was in tears by the end of the page.  I guess I'm going to have to pace myself with this book.  Or get that estrogen thing under control.

And here's what I worked on over the weekend:

Surprise!  It's not purple!  That's the back to "Audrey" from Melissa Leapman's Hot Knits (click on "Search inside this book" and then on "table of contents" -- Audrey is in the middle of the page).  I LOVE how the sweater has no shaping and yet has the ILLUSION of shaping because of the traveling cables.  A very cool design, which promises to be quite flattering.  I'm using Araucania Nature Wool Chunky, and it's knitting up quickly.

Melissa Leapman will be teaching in East Lansing this weekend, hosted jointly by ThreadBear and Woven Art.  I'll be taking "Basic Pattern Drafting" and "Untangling Cables" on Saturday.  Sunday's classes include "Fully Fashioned and Fabulous" and "Crocheted Shawls".   There's homework to be done -- I'd better get cracking on that!

Sarah

Sunday, March 13, 2005

I'm back from a very lovely knitting retreat to "Northern Oakland County" (i.e., somewhere around Detroit), arranged by Jessica, Social Director Extraordinaire.  Thank you, Jessica!!!

I'll take photos of my purchases (all two of them) in daylight tomorrow.  I was the picture of self-restraint.  It helped that my on-line buddy Abby, the night before I left for the retreat, challenged me to tell her how many sweaters worth of yarn I have in my stash.  I would have guessed about twenty, which would have been stressful enough, but I checked the Excel spreadsheet I made last summer (oh, just shut up!) and saw that there were FORTY-ONE (that's 41).  If you count the yarn I bought after class on Friday (before Abby made me figure that out), we're up to forty-two.  And that's NOT counting yarn for socks, shawls, mittens, bags, etc., and remaining odd balls of stash.  AND, I haven't updated my spreadsheet in who knows how long, so I may be missing some.

Egad.

So I figure that if I knit a sweater a month, it'll only take me three and a half years to knit up my stash, and that's assuming I don't buy any more yarn.  I don't see anything wrong with that, do you? 

Sarah

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Well, I THOUGHT I had pre-ordered The Opinionated Knitter from Schoolhouse Press, but I was starting to think maybe I hadn't.  Lisa got hers days ago.  I haven't seen diddlysquat.  I just checked my credit card account on-line, and saw a transaction dated 3/7/05 for Schoolhouse Press, so WHEW!  That means it's on its way.  Hooray!  If it arrives tomorrow, I can take it on the knitting retreat this weekend, and read a few selections aloud if anyone is interested.  Or even if they're not.

What's that?  Did I say "the knitting retreat this weekend"?  Why yes I did!  Sharon's not the only one who gets to go!

I've been knitting, although mostly at breakfast time.  I get to sit through three breakfasts each and every weekday:  Son Number One's, Son Number Two's, and then mine.  My sons leave for school an hour apart, so one wakes up as the other is walking out the door.  I wait until EVERYONE is out the door (and the hot water has been replenished) before I begin my own preparations for the day.  So that means three breakfasts.  Lots of knitting time. 

I'm up to the underarms on the front of Cree (up to my armpits in Intarsia!).  No photos -- trust me, you'd just see a tangled mess.  I'm thinking of taking the front and back with me on the retreat and just weaving in ends all weekend long.  Just a thought.  Not a particularly good one.

The two scarves I've been working on are each just moments away from completion, and yet they sit in an undignified pile beside my knitting chair.  The Color Stripe Scarf underwent a little surgical operation recently:

I was using this scarf (stockinette stitch knit in the round) as a sample to demonstrate Continental Knitting to my Continental Knitting students (sounds logical, doesn't it?).  I apparently also used it to demonstrate knit 1 purl 1 ribbing, and then forgot and continued on in stockinette stitch for, oh, two feet or so.  When I discovered the purl bumps way back there (which you may be able to see just above the crochet hook in the photo above), I said a few choice words (like "Shoot!" and "Darn!", but not exactly), and then pulled out my trusty crochet hook, dropped way down to those naughty stitches, gave them a stern talking to, and then worked them all back up.

The two halves of the Color Stripe Scarf have since been grafted (kitchener stitched) together, and all that remains is for me to weave in the ends.  Perhaps this would be an easy little project to take on the retreat?  (What?  More ends to weave in?)

I've done some doctoring on my Fair Isle pillow, too, but I keep creating more work for myself with THAT project.  Last time I showed you this, I had removed the blue section from the pink section and was re-working it.  Today I grafted the blue section onto the orange section, where the colors are  much happier together.  Here it is in the middle of that operation:

Then, for reasons that probably will only ever both me, I decided to replace one of the green stripes with a different charted pattern.  I could tell you that each of the color sections is supposed to consist of two stripes -- each the reverse image (colorwise) of the other, and that the stripe I don't like surprised me by appearing as a purple motif on a green background even though it was supposed to be a green motif on a purple background -- but I think you'd think I was crazy, so I won't go into that here.  I'll just show you what I'm doing to fix it.

Here's a needle I'm inserting underneath the stripe I want to replace.  I'm inserting the needle tip under the right hand side of each V-shaped stitch across the row:

Ooh!  Great focus!

And here I've flipped everything upside down, and am inserting another needle just above the stripe I want to replace:

Unfortunately, I got distracted and stopped taking pictures at this point (Me?  Distracted?), but the next thing I did was to snip a strand of yarn in that purple row next to the green stitches, and then I picked out that row stitch by stitch, separating the two sections.  Then I unraveled the stripe I didn't like.  That's where it stands now.  My next step will be to re-knit the section using a different charted pattern that's more to my liking, and then I'll graft the two sections back together.  And THEN, I can cut the steek and finish the pillow cover.  Maybe I'll take that on the retreat, along with Irene's Fair Isle pillow cover that I'm supposed to be finishing for her.  Hey Irene, are you going on the retreat?

So I probably won't check in with you again until I get back (did I mention that I'm going on a knitting retreat this weekend?).  I can virtually guarantee that I won't have worked on any of these projects, and that I will have started something completely new (anybody wanna guess what color it's going to be?). 

Or maybe I'll just sit back and enjoy the scenery.

NOT!

Sarah

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

First, welcome Karen V. to the TKGA Knit-along!  As I said to Karen V., this is probably one of the lamest knit-alongs I've seen. I haven't heard from anyone for months, and my own swatches have moved to the back burner while I get some "work" knitting done.

Next, a clarification for Sharon and anyone else who thinks I've gone over the edge.  I wasn't saying that the two purple socks in Friday's entry don't match.  What I was saying was that within one sock, the widths of the stripes are not consistent.  For example, there's a quarter inch stripe followed by two half inch stripes, followed by three inch wide stripes, followed by two half inch stripes . . . THAT'S what I'm talking about.

And finally, it was suggested at my annual exam this afternoon that I need

a) exercise,

b) uninterrupted sleep, and

c) a more constant level of estrogen

in order to function as a normal human being again.

Hey -- then maybe those stripes won't bother me quite so much!

Sarah

Friday, March 4, 2005

My digital camera is ailing.  I'm still able to use it, but the part that closes over the lens when the camera isn't in use (like an eyelid) isn't functioning properly.  Right now it's stuck open, which is better than when it was stuck shut a few hours ago.

The camera was fine before my husband took it to the Science Fair at the elementary school last night while I stayed home with my Knitter's Choice class, and now it's not working.  That's all I'm saying.

I was able to take this shot a few minutes ago:

Here's the story behind the socks.  In my Basic Sock class, I have my students start by making a swatch in the round on double pointed needles, on 60 stitches, three inches in length.  I did the same with this pair of socks.  After we determine our stitch gauge and measure our foot circumference, we do some calculations to figure out how many stitches to cast on for the sock.  My calculations worked out to a cast on of 60 stitches, which I already had on the needles with three inches worth of stockinette stitch.  I start all of my socks with an inch or so of ribbing, though, so I was all ready to start over with the exact same number of stitches and a 1x1 rib when it dawned on me that I could just continue on with the swatch and let the top roll.  So I did.  That makes for a really boring story, but I felt almost giddy when I picked up my swatch and just kept going. 

I hadn't planned on carrying any knitting on the plane to Florida (I had two projects packed in my suitcase), but I tucked my sock in my purse and it became my airport/airplane/beach knitting.

The yarn is Opal Magic.  The colors are beautiful (purple = beautiful), but the inconsistency of the striping REALLY bothers me.  I'm way too anal retentive to be happy with all those different widths.  I understand, though, that when I wear these socks, they'll be way down there on my feet, hidden in my big black boots and underneath my flannel lined jeans.  I can handle that.  We'll re-evaluate the situation when the snow melts and I switch back to my clogs (those white heels aren't going to be white for long, methinks).

Oh, and get this . . .

When I turned one of the socks inside out to weave in the ends yesterday, tiny grains of sand trickled out.  Imagine that!

Sarah

Wednesday, March 2, 2005

Have I abandoned you?  No.

Am I insanely busy?  No, but my teaching schedule is heavier than usual right now.  I've added a Beginning Knitting Workshop at the Okemos Public Library on Tuesday nights for three weeks this month.  That class, some meetings, and my little Florida getaway have been keeping me away from my weekly knit-ins, so I'm missing all of my local knitting friends (HELLO, LOCAL KNITTING FRIENDS!!!).

Is there any knitting going on?  Yes, but there are no photos to prove it. 

Progress report:

My color stripe scarf is half of a skein of black wool and one kitchener row away from being completed.  B-O-R-I-N-G!

I finished the back of Cree, unless you're counting weaving in the ends, in which case I'm nowhere NEAR being done with it.  The front has been started.  The completed sweater is due in May.

My multi-directional scarf is one hour-long t.v. show away from being completed. 

My purple Opal socks will be finished during my sock class Thursday morning.

My Revelation cardigan is still marinating, although I think I had an epiphany (a revelation!) about the edging earlier this week, but then I forgot what my brilliant idea was, so I'll have to keep that project on the back burner for now.  Although I could finish up that last sleeve . . .

My Intro to Fair Isle sample looks EXACTLY like it did in the photo from last week, but I hope to rectify that before class next Thursday (that's a week from tomorrow).  And no Irene, I haven't touched your Fair Isle either, but I will very soon.

I still have to finish my thrummed mittens, too.  Why aren't they on my "On the needles" list anymore? 

I'm thinking of starting another pair of socks with my Toe Up Sock class on Friday morning, because you can never have enough pairs of hand knit socks, right?  I used to think I had enough, but I was wrong.  I either need more socks, or I need to do more laundry. 

Hmm . . . sock knitting . . . or laundry . . . ?

Sarah

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