June 2009 – Ms Lindz – My little corner of the internet

Sunshine Socks FO, What to Knit Next, and Blogcation

Posted on June 26, 2009 by mslindz

Last night I finished the Sunshine Socks. Took me exactly a week to knit. If only work and packing didn’t get in the way of knitting, I would have had these done a few days ago! 😉 These are my 3rd pair of socks for the 52 Pair Plunge and the first pair for Summer of Socks 2009!

Bright sunshiny socks!

Pattern: Sunshine Socks from Sock Innovations by Cookie A. (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: June 19, 2009
Completed: June 25, 2009
Yarn: Wollmeise 80/20 Twin, colorway Sonne
Needles: Knit Picks US 1 (2.5mm) DPNs
Notes: I changed a few things about this pattern. After I talked to someone who had knit the pattern already, she said she would have taken out 1 repeat of the chart on the leg and cast on more stitches to start with. I cast on 66 stitches, knit the cuff, then for the very first round of the leg instead of doing the increase chart, I did a knit round and increased to 72 stitches (spacing them out as evenly as possible). This gave me enough stitches for 9 repeats of the chart instead of 10. For the heel, I didn’t decrease any like the pattern says to and instead did a short row heel over 30 stitches. This gave me a few extra stitches when I got to the toe, though. I did the cable decrease round before starting the decreases for the toe and on the first decrease round for the toe, I only decreased on the top of the foot. This evened out the number of stitches so that I then had 30 stitches for the top of the foot and 30 stitches for the bottom. I decreased every other round until there were 9 stitches left on each needle, then decreased every round until there were 16 total stitches left (4 on each needle) and kitchnered it closed.

I’m a bit torn on what to knit next. I want to start four sweaters: Hey Teach (for the second time), Climbing Vines Pullover, February Lady Sweater, and Annette. Usually, when I finish a project, I know what I want to knit next, but this time I’m not really sure. With the move happening this weekend, things seem all up in the air, which always makes me feel uneasy. So much is going on! Right now, a sweater of any kind seems like too much commitment for me.

I thought about continuing to knit the Fountain Pen Shawl I started back in May…

Oh poor neglected shawl!

… but with the charts it makes it not real easy on-the-go knitting which I really need right now with everything being shifted around.

Of course, you know this means that a sock would probably be perfect right now, don’t you? I think I’ll wind up some Lime colored Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn I have and cast on for Absinthe soonish, but I didn’t get the chance to wind up the yarn last night. I need something to knit right away, so I’ve decided to cast on Cotty with the Socks That Rock mediumweight in Dreidel that Laura sent me. Pretty simple lace pattern, so no real worries about having to carry a chart with me or refer to the pattern much. I’ve decided to do it toe-up instead of top down and I’ll probably change the cuff. I find that while picot edges are nice, the socks don’t really stay up, so I think ribbing would be better.

Summer Blocation ™ – I just wanted to talk about this for a moment. Ida, who started Knitting Purls, is hosting a new contest on her blog: Summer Blocation ™.

From the description: “Forget the high price of gas and hotel rooms. Join us and discover fiber-related blogs you might never have visited before. Use your Google, Bing, and other Internet search skills (and don’t forget Ravelry’s search capabilities) and earn prizes. Those who have visited the most correct blogs by Sunday, September 6, will have the chance to win a prize. Other prizes may be awarded during the course of the contest.”

I don’t know about you, but I won’t be doing any traveling this summer. Too much is going on for me with the move this weekend and settling into a house that hasn’t been occupied for a few months and needs some work. This is a great (and free!) way to get to visit some places you might not have been before and get to know some place new through other fiber folks. And come on now, who doesn’t love a good challenge and some prizes?? 🙂

The very first stop along the way was my blog! I was so excited when I saw the first stop and realized it was me. It’s such an honor to be the one to kick off the Summer Blogcation! We’re currently on stop 2 (which closes this Sunday, so get your answers in soon if you want to participate!) and there’s a new stop each week. So come on and join in on the fun! It’s a great way to get to know other fiber folks and maybe even win something, too 🙂

Baby Socks FO and the First Sunshine Sock

Posted on June 22, 2009 by mslindz

Last Thursday, I finished the baby socks I posted about last week. I meant to blog about them on Friday, but completely forgot! Every time I see these, I just keep thinking about how adorable they are! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not longing to make a ton more baby stuff and I’m not wanting a baby of my own to put them on. It’s just that these little baby socks are cute as all get out and so tiny! I’m not used to tiny baby things as no one I know has little babies, so I’m rarely around them at all. I wanted to make a pair to have made baby socks (in case the need to know this ever arises) and to use up scraps of leftover sock yarn I have. Anyway, on with the socks! This is my second pair of socks in the 52 Pair Plunge.

O hai, we are tiny babeh socks!

Pattern: My own (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: June 10, 2009
Completed: June 17, 2009
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, in an unknown colorway (lost the band long ago)
Needles: Knit Picks US 0 (2.0mm) DPNs
Notes: Cast on 44 stitches, knit for 15 rounds, work short row heel down to 6 sts, work 16 rounds, work toe decreasing 4 sts every other round until 3 sts left on each needle, kitchner to close. These would have taken me a lot less time if I didn’t get all determined to finish up the Sprucey Lucy socks, but even so, it only took about a week to get them done anyhow. No idea what will become of them right now since I don’t know a baby that will fit into them! They are cute, though, aren’t they? 🙂

Friday, with only one plain sock on the needles and yarn that was screaming at me to knit with it, I cast on for the Sunshine Socks from Cookie A’s book, Sock Innovations. The yarn that was screaming at me was Wollemiese in Sonne, which says “sunshine” to me! After talking to Sarah R. in my knitting group who’s knitting these with Yarntini yarn, I decided to modify it a bit. She said that starting with 60 stitches for the cuff and then increasing to 80 stitches for the leg made the sock a bit tight in the cuff and too loose around the ankle. She said that if she were to do it again, she’d just start with 72 stitches, making the cuff bigger and not so tight and eliminating one pattern repeat in the leg. Following her advice, I went to cast on 72 stitches, only to find that doesn’t really work with the cuff chart since it’s based on a 6 stitch repeat (k1, p1, k2, p2, repeat around). So, I cast on 66 stitches, knit the cuff, then on the next round, I knit and increased to 72. The pattern says to follow the increase chart, but that would have given me too many stitches, so I just sort of winged it doing the increases on a knit round. I got a lot of progress done on it this weekend and even thought I might get it done Sunday, but I ended up being too tired to finish the toe. Today I did the bind off for the toe of the first sock and immediately cast on for the second one.

It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) sunshiny day! (I can see clearly now, anyone?)

I have a feeling I’ll be showing you the 3rd pair for the 52 Pair Plunge pretty soon! I absolutely love this pattern and the yarn. It’s been a match made in heaven 🙂

PS. You know the Summer of Socks 2009 started yesterday, right? I’m curious to see how many socks I’ll be able to knit up this summer!

Completed Projects, Sewing

Sprucey Lucy FO, Sewing, and Baby Socks

Posted on June 17, 2009 by mslindz

Last night I finished up the Sprucey Lucy socks, which means I also finished my first pair for the 52 Pair Plunge III!

Pattern: Sprucey Lucy Socks by Wendy Johnson (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: June 1, 2009
Completed: June 16, 2009
Yarn: The Yarn Bearer Uber Sock, April 2009 Sock Club shipment with the theme of “Falling”
Needles: Knit Picks US 1 (2.25mm) DPNs
Notes: I changed the heel to a short row heel because I find they fit my foot better. The yarn was great to work with! First time I used this yarn, I made a Marlene sock that I ended up not liking and frogging. Then I decided to use it for this pattern, but I used US 0’s and knit the medium size. I didn’t like the fabric I got with US 0’s, so I frogged what I had and went up to US 1’s (2.25mm) and knit the small. Worked out much better and I love the socks! The lace pattern was easy to memorize, but it wasn’t until the leg of the first sock that it really flowed for me. If I hadn’t put these socks aside to knit Hey Teach, these probably would have been done a lot sooner. Took me 3 days to knit the second sock, but almost 2 weeks to do the first one! Ah well, sometimes I get side tracked 🙂

Pair 1 for the 52 Pair Plunge III! 🙂

On Monday, I finally decided to fix the strap on the purse I made a few weeks ago. When I made the bag, I didn’t think about the size of it and how only having one strap would make it sag in the middle while I’m carrying it. The sagging in the middle was making the D rings for the straps to turn and start damaging the fabric. I needed to do something about this, so I decided it needed two straps. Monday I finally went to the fabric store and got a set of four D rings in a 1/2 inch smaller size so that I could make 2 new straps and attach them to the bag.

This is what the bag looked like before with only 1 strap.

I used my seam ripper to get the tabs on each end out and sewed up the spot where they had been. Then, I used my seam ripper to open up where the new straps should go and I sewed together two new straps and four tabs to hold the D rings to the bag. Once those were all put together (with interfacing and all that jazz), I sewed the tabs with D rings in place, then sewed the straps onto the D rings. Since the initial tabs were sewn into place between the inner lining and outside lining and I wasn’t willing to take it all apart to make it perfect, I had to hand stitch the parts where the tabs were to make it look right and not gap in those places. It probably took me about 2 hours total to do between doing laundry, but it’s done now and I absolutely love how it turned out. So much better then just having the one strap!

“New” bag, now with 2 straps instead of 1!

Right now, I’m just working on a pair of baby socks I started. There’s no intended recipient yet, I just wanted to use up some left over sock yarn. I think I’ll get these finished up before starting something new.

Little baby sock, just started the heel.

I want to start Hey Teach over again, but I also want to cast on for the Lacy Ribs sock. This would actually be the second time casting on for the Lacy Ribs sock since I frogged my first attempt because I thought it might be too bulky in my shoes, so this time I was planning on knitting the foot in stockinette and the leg with the pattern. I didn’t bring Hey Teach with me today, but I did bring the yarn for Lacy Ribs, so I’m guessing that I’ll get started on that first since tonight is knit night and these baby socks shouldn’t take too long to finish up.

This past weekend on Sunday, we washed the walls in the house with help from Alita, Karen, and Than. Without them, there’s no way we could have done it! Thanks for the help!! There was a leak we found from a pipe that had bulged and burst when we were turning on the water for the first time, so now the kitchen has a nice hole in the ceiling that needs to be fixed, but at least we found it now instead of after we moved in. Matt and his dad were able to find and fix it, thankfully. The house is currently getting painted and this weekend, I think we’ll start to move stuff over to the house. Things that we don’t really need and can live without for a week or more. Oh the joys of home ownership and moving! hahaha 🙂

Happy Mid-Week everyone! I’m still trying to figure out how it’s already the middle of June. Where does all the time go?

Current Projects

Another Frogging Adveture: Hey Teach Edition

Posted on June 14, 2009 by mslindz

Friday night I washed and blocked Hey Teach.

hey Teach, Blocking

After I laid it out, I measured it because it looked way too big. The back piece measured 27 inches and each front measured 14 inches. Uh-oh. That’s 55 inches once it’s sewn together, without the button band! The size I knit was supposed to be the 46.75 inch size. See the problem here? Yeah… me too. Once the 1 inch button band is added, that’s a total of 56 inches around which makes it 9.25 inches bigger then the size it should be. I tried not to panic. I told myself “Oh it will shrink when it dries, I should wait and measure it then!” So, I waited, trying not to panic.

Saturday I checked it again. It was really close to being dry. The size hadn’t changed. I checked the gauge and found that I had 3.5 stitches and 5 rows per inch. I pulled out the pattern and found that I should have 4.25 stitches and 6 rows per inch. Uh-oh. I thought about my options here. Washing and drying wouldn’t work to shrink 9 inches away, so I knew that there was only one option: FROG. I was upset and wanted to cry. I thought about what I could have done differently and why my gauge could have changed so much when I washed it. That’s when it hit me: I didn’t wash and block the gauge swatch! I knit a small gauge swatch, saw that I was getting 4.25 stitches and 6 rows per inch on US 8’s, frogged the swatch and started the sweater. I checked gauge again on the sweater to find it was the same, so I just kept knitting. I was impatient and wanted to get the sweater started rather then wait around for a swatch to dry.

I noticed recently that my gauge didn’t differ from the pre-washed swatch to the post-washed swatch, so I thought I could get away with not washing the swatch and going with the pre-washed gauge. I know this may be a shock to you, but not all yarns behave the same after washing! I know, weird isn’t it? Hahahahaa 🙂 Really, though, I know this. All yarns are different and change in different ways when washed, so I think that my impatience convinced me that my gauge doesn’t change when washed and I should just go for it. Here’s the results of my “just going for it”:

Each front piece wraps almost all the way across me

A better idea of what one side looks like and how far across it goes

I knit another gauge swatch on a few different size needles, washed and blocked it and found that I should have used US 7’s. Last night, I frogged the entire sweater, so it now looks like this:

Hey Teach, frogged

I’ll start again soon, on US 7’s and hopefully I won’t be frogging this again! 🙂

Current Projects

Not All Socks Work Out

Posted on June 12, 2009 by mslindz

Last night I went home with every intention to wash and block my sweater parts for Hey Teach, but ended up eating dinner, watching TV and engaging in some interesting conversations with Matt. Ah well, I can do it tonight or this weekend some time.

Instead of working on Sprucey Lucy during TV watching time, I decided to pull out my Mini Mochi sock that’s been hanging around not getting any love lately. Since I decided to do an afterthought heel (for the first time ever), it was difficult to tell how tall the leg really was. I wanted to know how this whole afterthought heel would work and how it would fit. After realizing Sprucey Lucy needed much more to the foot then I thought, I was feeling a bit anxious about the fit of these. I decided the leg was long enough and did the ribbing. I then picked up the heel stitches and knit the heel.

Mini Mochi Sock

I don’t love the heel and I don’t love how the sock fits. Turns out my fears came true and the sock really isn’t long enough in the foot. It measures 8.25 inches from toe to heel and my foot is 9.5 inches long. Since I’ve already cut the yarn, knit the heel and have plenty of yarn left to make two more socks, I’m going to do just that. I’ll knit two more socks and frog this one for heel parts. This time, though, I’m going to do a short row heel while I’m knitting because I really don’t like the afterthought heel or how it fits me. I do love short-row heels, though, and with extra yarn available to knit from as I go, I think this is the best plan. I’ll probably make the sock 62 stitches instead of 60 because 60 seems just a bit too snug on my foot.

In yesterday’s blog post, I mentioned how I wasn’t really sure about the fit of Sprucey Lucy and mentioned I was debating ripping out the heel and adding some length to the foot. After last night’s issue with the Mini Mochi sock, I decided I better rip it out now before I have another finished sock I don’t like! This will be the second time I’ve frogged the heel of this sock, but I think of myself as a “fearless frogger.” If I don’t like it or needs to be fixed, I should just DO IT! I’ll be so much happier in the long run and I know it, so I’ve learned to just accept that sometimes things need to be ripped out.

Sprucey Lucy, frogged back to before the heel

I guess my 52 Pair Plunge isn’t starting out so well, is it? That’s alright though. I don’t want to knit things I don’t love or won’t wear or not happy with, so I’ll keep on keepin’ on! Happy Friday everyone – hopefully all your projects are going better then mine ;o)

Current Projects

Almost a Sweater, Sprucey Lucy, & 52 Pair Plunge

Posted on June 11, 2009 by mslindz

This morning I finished up the second sleeve of Hey Teach, which means all the body pieces are now DONE!

Top: all finished pieces (L), sleeves (R)
Bottom: front pieces (L), back piece (R)

Next step is to wash and block the pieces. I haven’t had a whole lot of experience blocking things. Only one sweater I ever knit needed to be seamed I didn’t block because it was made out of Caron Simply Soft and it didn’t seem worth it to bother with since it’s 100% acrylic. Hey Teach is made from Cascade Sierra which is 80% cotton/20% wool. The pattern says to block the pieces before seaming and knitting the button band. My initial thought was “be lazy, just seam it up now, knit the button band, then wash and block it!” For me, once something is blocking, it means it’s DONE. I’ve done a fair amount of blocking, but that’s mostly consisted of “wash and lay flat to dry” more then “wash, pin flat, let dry, seam together.” I have blocked shawls, so I know how to do that, but I wasn’t sure what the benefit of doing that to the pieces would be vs finishing it then blocking. So, I asked with Laura about blocking. As it turns out, blocking should make the sweater easier to seam by getting rid of the curling ends, so I definitely want to block this before seaming it up. It should also open up the lace and make it easier to pick up the stitches for the button band. My only concern is the loose stitches on the back and front pieces that you pick up when knitting the button band. I think I’ll put them on waste yarn (they’re on stitch holders right now), then block it. We’ll see how that goes!

Since Hey Teach is at the point where I can no longer knit it, I’ve gone back to the Sprucey Lucy socks. I turned the heel the other night and now I’m working on the leg. The first time I knit the heel, I started it too soon, so I had to rip back, add an inch, then do the heel again. It could have used another 1/4 to 1/2 inch on the foot before starting the heel, but I haven’t decided if I want to rip it out again. I’m thinking (hoping) it will grow some when washed and I don’t want it to be too lose, so I think I’ll leave it as is. Even if it doesn’t grow any when I wash it, it still fits well – just a smidge more snugly then I usually make socks. I might end up liking that, though!

Sprucey Lucy, picture taken today on my lunch break while sitting and knitting in my car

While I’m on the subject of socks… I have a confession to make. I joined 52 Pair Plung III. I think in a moment of complete tiredness or craziness, I thought it was a good idea to join, so I did. For those not familiar with the 52 Pair Plunge, the goal is to knit 52 pairs of socks within one year (June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010). Socks can be done in any pattern, yarn, or size (baby, child, adult). I’m thinking I can do it. If I throw in baby/kids socks to be donated or gifted and some thicker socks for wintertime for me (and maybe others), I think I could get quite a few pairs done pretty quickly that way. My goal is to knit as many pairs as I can in a year. Aim for 52, but not stress if I don’t get there. I want to challenge myself, here, and this is one heck of a way to do it! (I’ll be keeping track of my progress here.)

Somehow, this week seems to have flown by without me realizing it. It’s been a busy one, though. This past weekend we picked out paint colors because… Monday, we closed on the house!!

Our New House!! You can see more photos of it on Flickr, here.

This weekend we will be washing down walls in preparation for people to paint before we move in. We’ll be moving after the painting and some other minor repairs get done (before the end of the month is out). I have a feeling that all this moving and new house stuff might get in the way of my knitting for a while, but I’m okay with that! Moving out of the apartment and into a house will be a welcome change. No more Mr. & Ms. Stompy McStomperton upstairs! I get my own craft room, too, which I’m super excited about :o)

I’m kind of glad this week is almost over. Despite it seeming to go quickly, it feels kind of long and drawn out at the same time. I’m looking forward to some down time this weekend. How about you? How’s your week been? I’m still trying to figure out how it’s almost mid-June!

Until next time… happy crafting!

Completed Projects, Current Projects

Decimal FO, New Hair, and Hey Teach

Posted on June 9, 2009 by mslindz

This weekend I had Matt take some pictures of Decimal for me so I can do up the full FO report.

Pattern: Decimal (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: March 19, 2009
Completed: May 31, 2009
Yarn: Elann Lara, color 335 Algiers Teal, 9 skeins
Needles: US 4 Addi circulars, 32″ Lace Addi’s and 16″ regular Addi’s
Notes: I knit the 49″ size. I did make a few modifications. I added an additional border repeat to the bottom and sleeves of the sweater (3 instead of the called for 2). I also changed the sleeves to be short sleeves instead of 3/4 length bell sleeves and knit them in the round instead of flat. Instead of sewing the buttons on at the end, I decided to knit them in instead so that I had less finishing. When I joined the sleeves to the body, I did the bind off for both the sleeves and body where the armpits are at the same time so I didn’t have to sew them later. I wanted minimal finishing and I definitely got it! I had all of 3 ends to weave in at the end since I was weaving them in as I joined new balls of yarn or came to a knot in the yarn (there weren’t many of those, thankfully).

In this post, I talked about how it was too long initially. Then I washed it in the washing machine in warm water then ran it through the dryer, which shrank it an inch in length, which I talked about here. If I were to knit this again, I’d probably take out 2 to 3 inches in the length of the body somewhere. Possibly even in the top/shoulder area because the buttons start a little lower then I expected. I do love how the final product turned out once I washed it, though!

On Saturday, Matt and I went to the Paul Mitchell school to get haircuts. I wanted to just get my hair trimmed and get rid of the dead/split end, but it turned out that I had about 4 to 5 inches worth of that! I was thinking maybe and inch or two needed to come off, so that was a bit of a surprise. Then again, it has been about 4 or 5 years since I last had it cut! I went with it, though, and said cut it off! My hair person, Sam, was really nice and she has family that has really curly and thick hair that she’s cut and styled, so she already knew quite a bit about it (plus the knowledge from school), which I really wasn’t expecting since most people who have cut my hair didn’t know much about how to deal with it. From her suggestion, I decided to get it layered, too, which is something I’ve NEVER done. I really, really love it, though. There’s much more body to my hair now and since it’s no longer weighted down in length, it’s a lot more curly. Best $12 haircut EVER :o)

Old hair, New hair (front), New hair (back)

This weekend I had a lot of time to work on Hey Teach, so it’s coming right along. I have now finished the back, left and right front pieces. I started on the first sleeve today. I haven’t taken a picture since I finished the right front yesterday, so here’s what it looked like yesterday morning.

I’ve done a little work on the Sprucey Lucy socks, too. I don’t have an updated picture, though. After ripping out the Lacy Ribs sock, I decided to go up a needle size for the Sprucey Lucy socks and I like how they’re turning out a lot better. I re-knit up to the heel, then tried it on and realized it wasn’t long enough, so I ripped out the heel and I’m adding another inch before doing the heel again. I really love how they’re working up in The Yarn Bearer’s Uber Sock yarn!

Pictures of Hey Teach and Sprucey Lucy progress soon. Happy crafting! :o)

Completed Projects, Current Projects

Decimal Fits, Lacy Ribs Frogged, Hey Teach Continues

Posted on June 5, 2009 by mslindz

Last night after getting home from work, I measured Decimal in width and length. It measured 20 inches across and 17.5 inches from under the arm to the bottom of the sweater. I nervously went down to the washer, put in soap, dropped in Decimal…

… and waited. It takes 35 minutes for the washer to be done, so after 35 minutes passed, I put it in the dryer which takes 45 minutes. While it was doing its thing in the washer and dryer, I watched a few episodes of The Simpsons on Hulu and knit Hey Teach. Finally, after what felt like forever, it was time to get the thing out of the dryer and see if it fits. First thing I did was measure it. It measured 20 inches in width still (yay, no width lost!) and 16.5 inches in length. I was hoping I would lose at least an inch in length, so I put it on and went to the bathroom mirror to see how it fit.

It fits perfectly!

Matt wasn’t home, so I took a picture in the bathroom mirror to show my Twitter and Plurk friends how it came out. They were all anxiously awaiting the results! I’m hoping that this evening I can convince Matt to take some better pictures of me wearing it since this one isn’t really the most flattering. I have to say, it’s HARD to take a picture of yourself in the bathroom mirror! It’s pretty impossible to get a picture where your camera or arm isn’t somehow in the way or you don’t look ridiculous. At any rate, I really love this sweater and think I’ll get a lot of use out of it this summer. Once I get Matt to take some pictures, I’ll do the full FO report!

Today I was looking at my Lacy Ribs sock and I just hadn’t been really happy with how the toe looked. It seemed too small or short. When I tried it on, the lace starts about halfway up my big toe and I don’t really care for that. I thought about frogging it back to before the lace starts and adding a few rounds of stockinette, but the more I thought about it the more I realized wasn’t happy with the overall sock. Could have been a combination of the yarn and the pattern or just the pattern, but I wasn’t loving it. I was a bit worried that the lace pattern was going to make the sock a little more bulky when I wear the socks with shoes, so I think that was a contributing factor in frogging as well. Ah well, not all projects can be winners, right?

Hey Teach is moving right along. I’m 2 inches away from the back neckline shaping.

Tomorrow Matt and I have haircut appointments at the Paul Mitchell school right up the street from us. He’s been getting his hair cut there for a while and they always seem to do a good job. I’m rather nervous about going, though. It’s been a good 4 to 5 years since I’ve had my hair cut at all and the last time it was just trimmed a little by my mom. Growing up my mom cut my hair. She went to school for it, but ended up dropping out, so until I was 20 I had never been to a salon or had anyone else cut my hair. It was a really nerve wracking experience for me! For a while, when I kept my hair really short (shaved in the back, no more than in inch and a half on the top), I would go once a month. I kept it like that for 2 or 3 years, then one day the stylist I went to left – no idea where she went, so I stopped getting it cut. Until my mom trimmed it for me, I haven’t been to get my hair cut by anyone since!

All that to say, I’m kinda nervous! I think I just want to get it trimmed up, but if they make a recommendation that sounds good to me I might just go for it. We’ll see what happens :o)

Have a good weekend everyone!

Current Projects

Decimal Update, Hey Teach, and My Blog Featured!

Posted on June 4, 2009 by mslindz

Tuesday evening after I got home from work, Decimal seemed pretty dry so I decided to try it on. It was still a little bit damp, but I figured I would at least get a good idea of the fit. I had been afraid that it might be too long after I saw how big it got after washing and after trying it on, those fears were realized. Please excuse the crappy bathroom mirror pictures, but I want to share what it looked like when I put it on.

From the front

From the back, my hand shows where my tush ends and legs begin

Now, I’m only 5 feet 4 inches tall and something this long really isn’t my style, nor do I think it looks very good on me (seems to just make me look even shorter then I am). I was pretty bummed after seeing this and decided to let it finish drying all the way before making a decision about what to do. I asked on Plurk and Twitter for opinions and most people said that since it is 100% cotton, a run through the dryer might shrink it up to a reasonable size lengthwise. Wednesday morning I checked it and it was completely dry, so I tried it on again. This time it wasn’t quite so long. It went almost to the top of my thighs, but not quite. Still not as short as I’d like. Today I’m going to put it through the washer and dryer to see if it shrinks up some. If it doesn’t or is still far too long, I think I’ll give it to my sister. She’s about the same size as me and I think she’d get some use out of it. Here’s hoping it works!

After thinking about it, I realized where I went wrong and I’m going to share so that this doesn’t happen to you! Consider this a Public Service Announcement. For some reason I never looked at the schematic. (You can check it out here.) Normally I do, but I never checked it for this pattern. I wish I knew why I didn’t! That could have solved all of my issues right there. For the size I knit (49″), it says that the measurement from under the arm to the bottom of the sweater will be 16.5″. I don’t have the longest torso, so seeing this I would have realized that 14 or 15 inches would have been plenty and eliminated some rows while I was knitting the body. To add insult to injury, I also added an extra lace repeat on the bottom, which probably added another inch to the whole thing! Yikes! Obviously I didn’t take these things into consideration and just happily knit along thinking “Oh, it’ll be fine, it won’t be too long!” LISTEN TO THAT INNER VOICE! It’s usually right! Ah well… lesson learned, right?

Hey Teach is working up really quick. I’m about to start the arm hole shaping on the back! At the rate I’m going this thing will be done in no time and I’ll be able to get a lot of wear out of it this summer.

Today, Ida who blogs at Knit-A-While and runs Knitting Purls and Station KPFF, featured my blog in her post today! I think this is the first some anyone has wrote about my blog anywhere and it was really great to see. I don’t often get a whole lot of feedback about my blog or content, so it warmed my heart to hear that you (and I’m sure others) have been enjoying my blog! Thank you for such a great review of my blog, Ida. It’s been great getting to know you and so many others through Plurk, Twitter, Ravelry, and blogs.

Today has been a pretty good day so far – I got some other fantastic news on the job front and with the house closing right around the corner (on Monday the 8th!), there’s a lot of good changes going on. Exciting stuff!! :o)

Completed Projects, Current Projects

Decimal is Blocking, Hey Teach, and Sprucey Lucy

Posted on June 2, 2009 by mslindz

Sunday night I finished up the last bit of knitting on Decimal and weaved in the three ends I had once I was done. Yep, I only had THREE ends to weave in! I was pretty excited about that. I knit in all the ends as I went so that I wouldn’t have to weave them in and it really paid off. I did the bind off for the armpits of the sweater together so that I didn’t have to sew them together when I was done and I knit on the buttons on the button band so that I didn’t have to sew them on when I was done, either! I really liked having so littile finishing to do once the knitting was done :o)

Monday morning I washed and blocked the sweater and now it’s still sitting on the living room floor, drying.

Since that was all done and I noticed I had three projects on the needles currently (garter stitch scarf, plain sock, and the Fountain Pen shawl) and the Knitting Purls Sweater and Summer Hotties KAL’s (Ravelry link) had started, I figured I’d cast on something new. I was really considering starting Cassidy, but decided I’d rather have something I didn’t need to wait for fall to wear, so I decided on Hey Teach instead. I had some Cascade Sierra in the stash I got just for it, so I wound up all the yarn and got started. Here is my progress as of about noon yesterday. I had about 4 inches at this point.

So far it’s knitting up pretty quickly. I have to say that the US 8 needles I’m using feel huge in my hands! I was knitting Decimal on US 4’s and I knit socks on US 1’s or 0’s, so in comparison, these seem like gigantic sticks. On the other hand, that’s what’s making it go so quickly and I’m alright with that!

I started a new sock, too. It’s one of the patterns chosen for the Socks from the Toe-Up KAL on Ravelry, Sprucey Lucy. I’m using The Yarn Bearer’s Uber Sock yarn from May’s Nightmare Club shipment (the theme was “Falling”). I really love how this yarn knits up!

I’m still debating about starting the one from the book, Lacy Ribs. I think I want to finish Sprucey Lucy first, but we’ll see.

Soon, pictures of me modeling Decimal (once it’s dry) and more progress pictures of Hey Teach!

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