Previous FO

To distract you from the fact that I have nothing to photograph. Here is a hat I made, in fact it was my first (and so far only) colourwork project. I just did this in February so it is not that long ago.

This is hat is very warm. Over the ears there is 4 layers of fabric (plus all the stranding). I thought it was great to learn stranding work with since it is lined you never have to worry about how big your floats are. (A more experienced blogger would have thought to take a picture of the inside of the hat.)

Pattern: Sweedish Bubblemosa from School House Press
Yarn: Misti Alpaca worsted weight - 5 balls (yes this hat takes approxiamately 450 yrds
Needles: 3.5 mm (US Size 4)
Mods: I left out one motif, near the top. I don't think I would have had enough yarn without.

My face normally doesn't look this jaundice - honest.

AHHHHHH

I just posted to realize that something with my template got F-ed up and I lost all the styles and stuff.
CRAP CRAP CRAP.

It will take me a bit to pull it all together again.

Finished Jaywalkers

Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina
Mods: Changed to a picot edge cuff from Amelia
Needles: 2.25 mm (US1)
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport - Iris colourway purchased from Knit-A-Bit


The Jaywalkers are my first FO since starting the blog. I was able to finish them Saturday morning while getting the oil changed in my car (except for the toe grafting). I do enjoy how they feel, as I was finishing them up I realized this is the first pair of socks that I have made for myself that are not just plain stockinette. All the pattern ones that I have made up until know have been given away as gifts. I will continue to make pattern socks for myself, as I just love how they feel.

I might make myself some anklet socks from the leftovers, or maybe get a skein of coordinating green or purple to make a full pair of socks. I think I have enough leftover yarn for 1 sock. So one more skein should get me another pair. However I am sure the leftovers will go into my stash and linger there for a while. Stash is like wine it improves with age.

I thought I had a better picture - I'll try to get one to better show off the pattern.

Edited to add: Here are a couple of new photos of the Jaywalkers.

Back to NJ

So back in NJ, the trip down was uneventful, hardly anyone was on the roads.The more I make the drive the easier it is. That being said however I really don’t want to do the drive much any more.I want to finish school, and move back to Ontario for good.

Completed the gusset in the second Jaywalker – should be able to finish these this weekend.I think then for my next socks I am going to make my husband a pair out of the grey Trekking XXL I got at Rhinebeck. I don’t have the colourway in front of me so I can’t tell you what number it is. I am going to do a toe up pattern in a waffle rib. I am beginning to be a fan of doing a simple rib in socks as it allows the socks to have the little bit more of a fit. The toe up as I have learnt for men’s socks is great – this can give them a longer leg with ribbing for their calves without the dread of running out of yarn. Did that once – PITA!!

The sleeves of the Samus are sitting again in time out. The sleeve that I ripped out and was making smaller –with the yarn from the originally sleeve – not enough yarn – WTF. Smaller sleeves should require less yarn. I was knitting in denial for about ½ the sleeve. I was thinking – I am not going to have enough yarn, - that can’t be right I should have extra the ball must be deceiving me. Denial, denial, denial. When I finally accepted the fact I decided to continue to knit it to see how much I would be short – 10 rows, yes 10 rows. I don’t know how. I am going to double check my gauge. I am on the same needles. Is it because yarn properties are drastically different after blocking? Does the yarn bend some sort of physics rule? Is the sleeve actually bigger than before and I just haven’t realized it yet. These questions and more are yet to be answered.

House issues – just trying to get property insurance, finalize electrical quotes and all that boring mundane stuff that is very important. I have a whole list of things I want to do on the house, which 90% will wait until I have a job. Somehow it is just easier to get things accomplished with a pay cheque.

Internet woes

As either Blogger or my internet connection is not allowing me to directly post the photos on the blog, I have to add them from Flickr. I am getting very sick of all the time outs this internet connection gives me. Crappy crappy crappy. We have VoIP and several times, if I make a phone call, I can hear the other person but they can't here me. It is like I am stalking them. Since the connection is crystal clear on my end, I can't tell I am going to have this problem until I speak.

On the knitting front, I ripped out one sleeve of Samus including some of the cable. I then changed the rate of increases and started the sleeve cap about 3 cm before I did before. The yarn shouldn't grow anymore - correct - since while I was doing this third sleeve, I realized that I am still following for the length pretty close to what I did before - it is just blocking caused it to grow in length. I didn't bother taking pictures of the sleeves, you have seen them.. Making them a little smaller doesn't make them any different in photos.


This is half the hemp bag. I as I have run out of yarn this is where it is going ot stay. It is about half done.


I promised you photos the other day of the house, here is one of the kitchen from the dining room. (It really is all the same room). I am thinking of painting it dark green - the same green as in the my Denby dishes. I had always planned on having a mustard yellow kitchen to go with all my cobalt blue stuff but I think with this woodwork and tiling it won't look good. I do think the dark green will set everything off. We are going to move the island, and make it more of a peninsula.

I haven't posted in a few days so I thought I should update everyone on what is going on.

The house inspection went well, most of the major issues were things we already knew about. The electrical system is not up to code, the grading in the back yard needs to be changed as water should not run towards the house. There were a few minor things that fixing will be better in the long run - putting silicone caulk between the tile and tub join in the bathroom instead of just tile grout. I say this however after a couple of days. Going through the house with the inspector was a different story. All the minor things seemed major, this despite the fact that he kept saying this house is solid, the house is in great shape etc. I did have a feeling of "what am I getting into". We should get the final report tomorrow.

We also had a couple of electricians in to give us a quote to update the electrical system and move the meter outside. The first electrican didn't listen to what I wanted at all, I think his quote will be the lower of the two, but he also didn't look through the entire house. He was looking at cheap ways to do the job. "There is a lot of things that two prong outlets is fine - lamps, clocks etc- you don't need to update all of the wiring." Um, I want to update the wiring, there isn't enough outlets in the rooms, so I want more outlets added. He was suggesting doing half of a job instead of doing the full job and I don 't think the difference will be half the cost.
Hopefully we get the quotes tomorrow. The electrical utility will give us a rebate for moving the meter outside which will be helpful.

We have until Wednesday to finalize the deal, except that I am driving back to NJ that day so we should do it on Tuesday. Our lawyer came back from vacation yesterday and so should look over the paperwork tomorrow. Did I mention the closing date is April 28, in some fronts very soon in otherwise not soon enough.

On the fibre front. I havent' done anything on Samus, I do need to rip out the sleeves still. I may work on that this afternoon. My second jaywalker is started but not worth posting a photo of.
The hemp bag though - is almost done- which actually where it might stay for awhile. I am pleased with how it is turning out. However I only bought one skein of the yarn, I realized afterwards I should have bought at least two skeins. I wanted to wait to see if I needed one or two skeins more, and before I bought more if my idea would actually work. I haven't figured out what to do for handles yet, this yarn is very stiff, and I don't know if I can get I-cord to look nice with this yarn or if I should knit garter handles. The issue is also the strongest way to attach the handles, I have a feeling the hemp yarn is stronger than a simpler join and I want this bag to be able to withstand some weight for a period of time.

Spent the day yesterday with my brother, SIL and nephews. Lots of fun and we discussed homeownership and closing fees etc.

I was going to post some photos of the different rooms, but I am having problems uploading them.

Samus sleeves

I have one sleeve seemed in to the body of the sweater, I thought this would be an exciting time. My first sweater is almost wearable and this would push me on to finish. However, I am not happy. The sleeve seemed to grow with blocking which the body didn't. While the sleeves were blocking, I thought maybe I just didn't pay close enought attention to the change in the body, it did seem a little longer. I think I am going to rip out the sleeves although I will be leaving it for a day, for the final decision.

Problems with the sleeves

1. The cuff is huge. I would just like to say, how much it flares is not evident when the sleeve is flat.
   
2. The sleeve is too long- the first sleeve I knitted I got carried away knitting before the sleeve cap decreases, I had to remove 5 cm of knitting. I still think it is at least 3 cm too long - maybe more.
   
3. The sleeve cap kind of puffs up some, in reminescent of 80's fashion - I was thinking I would just try to block this out, but since I have other issues with the fit I might as well disclose this as well. It probably is not near as bad as the 80's but it still bothers me, when I was going for clean lines.

So the question is, should I just make the sleeves for the small size instead of the medium size - the body of the sweater is medium?