So you must think I'm a terrible blogger now... missing days, not pluggig in my camera battery, crap like that. And you'd be right to think that.
I have, at least, not been a terrible knitter. I finished the Barbara Selesnik square which means that I have 10 complete GGAAA sqaures; the two remaining squares for the 12 I plan to do are well underway: I have finished the border of the Kathleen T. Carty square and have to pick up the stitches for the central square. I also have to finish the "mini-sweater" for the Susan Rainey square, then we're ready for the block-fest! We're going to try MarQ1's idea of foamcore as a blocking board.
And I promise to charge the camera first.
Anyhow: I have a couple "NYC" blog things that I figured I'd talk briefly about.
First of all, why is it that if you forgot your coat and it's just cold enough that you decide to take a taxi instead of walk home, that the taxi you end up getting into invariably ends up having a driver who smells so terribly of curry and body odor that you have to leave the window open and freeze, thus negating the initial purpose of the taxi ride (albeit while getting you home faster?). Maybe I should start carrying my own deodorizer!
Today should be a fun day - I get to see Harry Connick in "The Pajama Game" which is one of Broadway's hottest tickets, so that should be fun. Evidently, he looks really good with his shirt off. Yay!
I honestly know how to plug in a camera battery charger. Really, I do.
But for some reason, I can't seem to get myself to remember to do it. Right now, it'd look silly if I did, because there's a man in my apartment putting a new lock on my door. Because we need to keep our knitting safe. Hopefully when he leaves, I'll remember to plug in the camera battery charger, and then tomorrow you can see photos of the square with the medallion from Tara, as well as the Barbara Selesnick square, which I should finish tonight. Then I just have to finish the mini-sweater square and the one where I have to pick up a bunch of stitches, and after that, it's on to the blocking and sewing!
Which leads me to this: while I've been a good cable-r, and thanks to the inspiration that is Wendy, I have taught myself to cable without a cable needle, I still have never seriously blocked anything, and some of these squares are in major need of blocking. Because, well, some of them are nowhere near square. So I'm asking you, dear readers, especially those of you who might live in tiny apartments and don't have room to own a big ole blocking board or something like that, what do you use to block on? If I covered a cardboard box with a towel, then pinned the squares to that, would it be a good solution? Your advise is desired!
And your advice will be rewarded with photos of green squares, or at least rectangles...
Anyhow, last week was spent, most joyously, in the company of my two favorite babies, She of Rosetta, and her older brother. Her older brother is at the potty-training stage, and he went for me three times, which is a good track record, particularly given that he is travelling and was jet lagged and so forth. But it was hard to leave him. He and I were both crying a little bit. So here's hoping we get to see each other again soon!
So I finished the knotwork medallion from "Tara" by Alice Starmore on my current Afghan square. The medallion is gorgeous - it's one single line, woven in, under, through and around itself, and if my camera were here, you'd see how great it looks in green.
And I'm not with my camera because I'm with some family, including the lovely little girl for whom I knit the Rosetta Blankie. And the great news is that Rosetta has survived multiple trips through the washer and sustained no damage whatsoever. The better news is that said baby girl sleeps wrapped up in Rosetta just about every night, and what could be sweeter than that?
In other news, the Rosetta Girl's grandmother (on the paternal side, so no technical relation to me) has evil plans to bring me to the dark side of the universe known as Patchwork. I believe we're going to have lessons tomorrow, and I can't wait. Given my proclivity for color and form, and my lack of patience for sweaters that don't fit or have the right neck line, I think that patchwork could be very rewarding for me. Not that I'd give up knitting, but who knows what will happen here chez Jon...
Fun:
Helping my sister re-learn how to knit, and setting her up with yarn to make a baby blanket.
Not Fun:
Writing large checks to the IRS and to New York State.
Fun:
Dinner at Serendipity 3 with my sister and her husband.
Not Fun:
The thought that I have to go to the post office now and stand in line. Ugh. Maybe I'll bring knitting...
We're free of cable needles for the first time. Sadly, we're also free of the appropriate Nickel Ion or whatever it might be that keeps the camera battery charged. Anyhow, I'm making Aran Braids and the Tara Emblem, and only using the bamboo straights.
And you're all right! It's a lot easier to cable without a cable needle than I thought.
Hooray!
Pictures soon...
So I went to the new knitting store which is not even a four minute walk from my house. They don't have cable needles yet, though.
Can you imagine opening a knitting shop without cable needles? I mean, I know you "cable without cable needle" jock types don't care, but what about when I tell you that they only had Inox circs and no Addis!
So we're not sure how much patronage this yarn shop will receive from me. Particularly because I don't need any yarn.
Anyhow, knitting this week will be delayed (and not just due to lack of cable needles) but due also to more family stuff going on. It's all good, though! And you'll hear more from me (and even see some photos) soon enough.
There's enough of it, I mean. I have so much on the needles right now, partly because I haven't found a cable needle yet. I guess I could try the "without a cable needle" thing, and I may start that out in a bit, but I'm just not... ready. And that does not make me a wuss.
The exciting news? I think that there's a new yarn shop two short blocks from my house, so I'm going to check there for a cable needle in the morning. I didn't get one on Friday because I didn't make it to Boyz Night, due to some work problems.
Anyhow... I'm happy because next week, my favorite little kiddos will be coming over to the States from London, so I'll be headed over to Ohio to see them. If I needed yarn, I could do that there, too, but I think that I have enough for a while!
And that's the Monday update from here. Comment Poll: Which Knit Blog are you going to visit next? I'm curious, so share, share, share!
I have just added yet another email address to the drama that is known as my life.
Wish me luck!
Confession time: I have a maid. Love having a maid. She comes every other week, but the last time she was here, she moved a couple things around, causing the disappearance of a very important item for someone knitting a cable-y project: my cable needle.
So since I didn't have the time or the inclination to make a special trip to an LYS, I did the next best thing: I started the Matinee Coat. Sure, I probably should have dug out the Big Gay Wedding Afghan, but you know me, I love to start projects so much more than I like to finish them.
Now I have no more cable-y goodness than the last time I blogged. But I do have a few inches of moss stitch baby sleeve. Let me tell you, though: there's nothing photo-worthy about pale yellow Baby Ull in Seed Stitch. Trust me on this one! Perhaps once the sleeve is finished. The good news? I was spot-on with the stitch gauge for the pattern, even though I'm using a different yarn. I didn't worry about the row gauge since aside from the sleeve increases, the whole pattern is based on inch lengths.
I am going to modify it to knit the body in one piece, which is why I'm knitting the sleeve first. As Nathania pointed out, the pattern has drop shoulders (ie, no shoulder shaping) so you need to know how wide the top of the sleeve is in order to know when to divide for fronts and back. Hence the sleeve. I will, just for giggles, knit the body before I knit the next sleeve. Although I will be (probably) going to Boyz Night at KNY on Friday and I'll pick up a (few) new cable needle(s) there so that I don't get stumped again. I may also go to Ann & Kay's event tomorrow night at Knitty City, in which case I could resume cabling even sooner!
And I want to be knitting some cables. I also decided what I'm going to do for the "last" square. I've thought all along that I wanted to do one square that wasn't from the GAAA pattern book, and last night I figured out what it's going to be. I was reading Alice Starmore's "Celtic Collection" again (yes, I read knitting patterns for fun; call me a freak) and I remembered how much I love the cabled emblem on the front of Tara. So that's what the last square is going to be. [Wendy, hope you don't mind my using your photo; it was the first link that came up on Google...] It'll take a little bit of trial and error to figure out how to make it work as a square, but I am looking forward to it, largely because it's just a super-cool emblem. Yay!
The only problem? I have started craving intarsia again...
I finished the background for the mini-aran sweater square. Wouldn't you know that I ran out of yarn about two and a half rows before the binf off? That felt a tad silly.
Said silliness was banished promptly after I cast on the ribbing for the mini-sweater (for the second time, of course). I ribbed, then I started the mini-sweater pattern. First of all, I have to say that I love the feel of this yarn (Zara) knit at such a tight gauge. (I usually knit Zara on US6's, the GAAA, being heavily cabled, has been knit on 7's, so the ribbing on 4's seems really tight but I am lusting for the way it feels.
Then I started the main body pattern and it's just... sexy. I don't know what it is. There's just something about those 8 rows of pattern before I became to tired to knit more; it's making me happy.
And it's giving me something to look forward to tomorrow. I get to come home and knit more! Yay!
In other news, I may be teaching one of my clients (from my regular day job which has nothing to do with knitting) how to move beyond Garter stitch... that could be fun!
First of all: How hysterical was Meredith and her knitting. Not to mention Izzie having time to knit a sweater and then wear it for an hour, all while being a surgical intern. Granted, it was on huge-ass needles that looked more like hot dogs than needles, but nonetheless, you have to love the lack of realism in television knitting.
Next: I've started another square that is both the simplest and a rather complicated one. It's the one with the mini-sweater, for you who know the GAAA book. I wasn't even going to do it, but last week at Boyz Night, everyone basically insisted that it is the cutest one and has to be included. All I know is that I have a few more squares to start, a couple to finish, and many to block. And I've actually started to plan out a square of my own invention which will be the final one. I think that's a better idea than just doing them all from the patterns, not that the book has anything wrong with it, but because I think it would be extra cool to have one that is my own!
After that: I have another pregnant friend. This one is the wife of someone who I've known since I was probably five or six years old, and she's great too. They have asked for a sweater for the baby girl who is due in August. My mom and sisters were in town the past few days (hence the general lack of blogdom), and I put them in charge of picking a pattern, while retaining veto power and final yarn choice. What did we pick? The Matinee Coat from Debbie Bliss's "Baby Cashmerino" book, only I decided, being the knitting freak that I am, that I will knit it out of Baby Ull instead. I just like that it's 100% natural, I guess.
I have also decided that I'm going to adapt the pattern so that it's knit in one piece up to the arm-holes. Since it's a flowy garment, I think it will be prettier without a seam, and since it's a baby garment, we know that it doesn't exactly require a seam for "strength." Anyone know this pattern or have any comments on whether they think this is a good or bad idea?
I probably have other things to talk about, but I think I'm going to sleep now. That way I can survive another day of work, then come home to knit some more!