Sunday, June 26, 2011

SnowDrop update




I have gotten back to row 61 so I am only 4 rows from where I was when I frogged it last evening. It really seems to be going faster now that I went down two needles sizes. I also am much more pleased with the look of it.


These are really crap pictures. It is raining outside so I had to attempt this inside. Maybe it will be pretty tomorrow or later today and I can get a pic outside.





Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Tracy Shawl....

Well that was really smart. I posted this post with just a title. Guess it saves on the typing.

Went to Columbus today with DH for a meeting. Afterwards he took me to Knitters Mercantile so I could get some yarn for the Tracy Shawl. I got Jojoland Melody Superwash in colorway MS20. Evidently they do not put word colors on their yarn. It is 100% wool and feels very nice. The colors are a mix of burgundies and blues. I am hoping it turns out ok. I really like the colors so it should be fine to me.

I'll take some pics when I start the shawl which won't be for a while yet as I am working on the SnowDrop Shawl. I am on row 63 and I think I am going to have to frog it and start again. I am using lace weight yarn and Stephanie said to use a size 4mm needle which I am doing, but it is just turning out to open looking. So I think I will frog and go down a couple of sizes. I know it sounds like a lot of work is going to be torn out but you start with just one stitch so it isn't as bad as all that. Besides, I will probably never be happy with it as it is so if I am going to put all that work in I had better be sure I like the look.

I had my Omelet Shawl with me and the ladies in the store really loved it. One was very impressed and asked if it was hard to knit. Really it isn't, it is just that the pattern is so involved that you can't really memorize it. Or at least I couldn't.

Katie and I are sitting outside. It is cool enough that she can stand it, probably in the high to mid 60's. She gets to stay outside so little now that summer is here. Whenever it is cool enough I like to bring her out. She does love the outdoors....when it is cool. LOL I would love it more if the bugs would quit eating my ankles.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Trying again.....

This one is of course before it was blocked. Doesn't look like much of anything, does it? It is really rather ugly looking. But wait....

Now look at it. Blocking lace is such an eye opener. Makes all the difference in the world.

I was not able to upload these from flickr, I had to just do them from my computer. I will keep trying though.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Shawl from H*ll

I joined a KAL in Socknitters Forum to knit the Omelet Shawl from Summer Knitty. It is a beautiful pattern and pretty straightforward to knit. Not too difficult if you just watch what you are doing and put in frequent lifelines. I did pretty good on the lifelines for a time, then got to thinking that I knew what I was doing and didn't need to put them in as frequently. WRONG!!! I had to rip back about 19 rows to fix a major mistake. I had dropped a stitch when tinking back a double centered decrease. There is just no way that I can pick up dropped stitches in lace. Maybe when I have knit lace for a few hundred years I can do it, but right now I cannot. So frogging took place.

After I frogged I could not find where I was in the pattern. I had written down that I had lifelined in row 9 of Chart B, but that just did not work with my stitch count. Instead of simply reading my stitches I kept counting them and trying to make them come out. After about 2 days of frustration I decided to read the stitches and found that I had actually lifelined on row 19 not row 9. So I finally got back to it.

Ok, that was fixed and I was off and running again, putting in lifelines like a good little girl. Again I got cocky and would do about 15 rows before a lifeline. Again tinking back I lost a stitch but this time I only had to tink back about 2 rows instead of ripping.

At this point lifelines were going in about every 5 rows and sometimes even sooner. It seemed I was spending almost as much time doing lifelines as I was knitting. That was ok because I did not want any more major reversals.

Finally got the thing all knit and bound off and was ready to block it. I hate blocking so I waited a day or so but finally decided that it was time to just go for it. So I soaked it for a bit in some Eucalan and then wrapped it to press out excess water and blocked it.

The shawl is supposed to have all these little points around the bottom. Guess what? I had bound off so tightly that mine did not. Ok, no prob. I like it just as well with a straight botton. After blocking it out and being happy with the way it looked I left it alone to dry. I went back to check it and found that I had broken the thread in one place on the bind off. Dang!! I waited until it was totally dry and unpinned it and tried to fix it without taking the BO stitches out. Didn't work. So I had to go back to the last stitch bound off and undo it. Luckily the thread broke about 16 inches from the last stitch so it was not the large of a deal to undo it. I got to where I need to add the yarn in and start my bind off again and found that I was knitting the bind off even tighter this time so I had to tink it back again and came up with a modified crotchet binding off stitch that seems to have worked just fine. I also was able (hopefully) to find all the little lost stitches that popped when the thread broke and fix them so that it looks fine. You can see where the fix was made but it is not a big "in your face" fix so I will take it.

Here it is unblocked http://flic.kr/p/9VLBdZ and here it is blocked http://flic.kr/p/9VPsCo
This will have to do for now.

Soon as I can get pictures to load I will put them on here. Not sure if my connection is too slow or what but it says they are uploading but then nothing shows.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Another weekend came and went

Friday was D's birthday and then of course Sunday was Father's Day. The kids took us out to dinner for his bday and then we had a cookout here at the house for Father's Day.

When everyone started coming in Katie wanted up in the main part of the house with us. I wasn't sure she could climb up her ramp now but decided to give it a try. She came up fine with a little help from me. When she got into the kitchen she came on into the dining room and lay down between D's and my chairs just like she used to when she could come up the steps by herself. She was happy as a clam when she got in there.

I got D a cover for his Holland grill for father's day. Or at least I thought I had gotten him a cover. When he opened the bag up it was actually a bag to carry like a small portable grill in. I guess I will have to try again Thursday when the bakery opens. I tried, honest I did. There was no one at the bakery who could tell me anything about the covers and they were all in bags so how was I to know? No problem, I'll just exchange it.

Katie went for her weekly laser today. It really does seem to help her. She almost always needs my help to get up on her feet but once she does she can walk on her own. I have to help her when she goes to potty because her legs just won't hold her up long enough to do the job. I will help her as long as needed. That is what we do.

Until later.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Birthday Girl

Monday was Katie's 12th birthday. I am so blessed to still have her. In human years for a large breed dog she is now 90 years old. That is quite an accomplishment. Way to go, Katie.

Her health is still good. Her biggest problem is mobility. She has quite a bit of trouble getting to her feet. I have to almost always help her up, but once she is up on her feet and gets her balance she is still able to walk unaided.

I had ordered special doggie cake mix and a bone shaped pan to make her a birthday cake. I ordered it a week and a half before her birthday but it did not come in time. It actually shipped out Monday. Anyway, I made her a brownie cake in a bone shaped tin that I have. The brownie recipe is a doggie brownie. It uses carob instead of chocolate and the sweetener is only 3 T of honey. It REALLY tastes good!!! I had been wanting some chocolate so I ate a bite when I was serving it to the girls. It was good. LOL

The storm that we had pass through yesterday really upset Kate. She would not settle down. She just kept chirping (she has a paralyzed larynix and she very seldom barks anymore, it just comes out sounding like a loud bird chirp) and wanting up then not knowing where to go so she would lay down again. I was going nuts not being able to make her feel better.
The storms are over and she is doing ok today.

Supposed to be another scorcher here today, in the upper 90's. Guess Kate and I will stay in the house today. She has already been out the morning to go potty and we won't be going back out again until it cools down this evening. Luckily she has always been able to hold her potty for long periods of time. There is no way she could go out when it is so hot.

Friday, June 3, 2011

SummerTime and random thoughts.....

Well, it is summertime by the temperature. It has been hot as can be here the last few days. I am not going to complain, though. It beats all the rain and cold that we had been having.

Yesterday it was up in the 90's, which may not sound too bad to some of you but that is way over what we should be having now. Today it is only going to be in the 80's. Since it is supposed to be so "cool" today I think I will try to get the lawn mown. D has decided to let me mow grass again. When I start having headaches and trouble breathing I am sure he will make me stop again. I really enjoy mowing. It was always my "quiet time" when the kids were young and at home. I would get on my mower with earplugs, a hat, sunglasses, and a mouth mask and just mow to my hearts content. The kids would leave me alone while I was mowing. :)

Kate is still hanging in there. I always have to help her when she goes to potty and I have to help her up more often, but we are doing ok. She will be 12 next Monday which is 90 in large breed doggie years.

I am knitting on the Omelet Shawl in a KAL and also doing WendyKnits Mystery Shawlette KAL. I have one more part for Wendy's shawlette and it will be done. The pattern will come out around 4:30ish today. The Omelet is coming along faster than I thought it would. I have made it all the way to Chart D and am about half way through that. I have the rest of it and Chart E to do and I will be done with it Chart E has 34 rows and about a gazillion stitches. The Omelet started small and ends big and the Mystery Shawlette starts big and ends small. I am not really sure which approach I prefer. It is nice to have each row grow less as you go along but then it is also nice to start small and get a feel for the pattern before you have a gazillion stitches.

We got the pool opened over the weekend. We still have not put the steps in. Maybe we will do that tonight. I wanted to get it all vacuumed before we put the steps in. The auto vacuum doesn't work too well after the steps are in. It always wants to hang up on them, silly thing.