Sea Anemone Knits

Seriously.

I’ve been in my new home for about a week and I’ve got a A/C system that doesn’t listen to me and a fridge that talks my ear off. None of this is particularly bad though. The A/C cools the place down and the fridge keeps my milk and beer cold. (Notice, however, that it’s closing in on mid-November and I’m still talking about my A/C and running it. Welcome to Hell.)

I’m back in Houston and in love with every aspect of my new apt except for the kitchen. I’ve not put hardly anything away yet because, well, I went from having a kitchen that was probably more than 100 sq. ft. to one that is 7′ x 6′. It sucks just a little. I want to buy some contact paper though before I start trying to whittle down my kitchen accoutrements and putting those that make the cut away.

I did get a really nice welcome back to my SnB. I was trying to take a picture of something, who knows what, but when I looked at the camera afterwards, I had this:

Wow. Mo, Nice to see you too! We all cracked up as I passed that picture around the table.

A couple weeks ago now, Jet came into town for a wedding and the next day, we all trucked out to have a meal and grocery shopping and tea together.

While grocery shopping, I got the notion to take pictures and well, you can find some weirdness in grocery stores, like the people you hang out with. (Meant with love folks. Meant with love.)

and

But wait, Susan’s got her camera out too. I wonder what she was taking pictures of…

Yeah. That is not really bird, but I love cultural grocery stores for the stuff on the shelves. Even if alot of it leaves me glad that I don’t have to eat it.

Lest you think that in all of this, I’ve not been crafting, I have!

I decided to have a Christmas party this year and of course, as a knitter, I’ve got to find a way to include yarn in the decor. (Duh.)

What better way than to take $40 of yarn and cut it up into little pieces??

And to encourage some cold air action down here in “Still Need A/C” Land, I’ve been working on fingerless mitts and a scarf.

and because I really like the scarf,

I’m using some Noro Silk Garden with the Clapotis pattern but I’m not spacing the dropped stitches evenly. I’m screwing them up and in a fit of cleverness one night, I titled the scarf “Mis-diagnosed Clap”.

The Fetchings are done (obviously) and the scarf is not. But I do have some other stuff in the works. Namely, more Fetchings for a lady from work who wanted to know if I would knit two pair for her to give her daughters for Christmas. I’m apparently a sucker.

On this note, I’m going to retire and go get some sleep. I have to be up at 6. Bleh.

Edit: if you’ve made it here from Yarnival, I say “Welcome and shake you warmly by the hand” Lovely to have you here! I do hope you’ll come back.

Disclaimer:

It’s usually not the best idea to drink and knit. That being said, it’s NEVER a good idea to drink and knit LACE. You can see where this is going right?

I’ve been having a hard time coming up with things to blog about because well, my two current projects are both secret knits for people who could very possibly stumble across them here. Makes for lots to talk about knitting wise. Until tonight.

Tonight, I went to happy hour with a friend from work and had a few drinks. I show up to knitting group and brashly proceed to whip out some lace. I’m sailing along, feeling pretty cocky - I mean, I am after all, successfully knitting lace after a few drinks. Before I know it, I’ve done two and a half rows of edging on Secret Knit #2. Then disaster stikes. I paused, talking with the girls and when I look down…

I have DROPPED a nupp!! But not just any nupp, it is a nupp on the previous pattern row which was twenty million two and a half rows back… *begin sinking sense of doom*

I freaked and as Kelly is our resident lace person, I turn and hand it to her and make a strangled noise that somehow was to the tune of “GASP-ohmygodhowdoifixthis?????” She takes it, looks at it a minute and hands it back saying that I can either fix it or rip SK#2 back a couple of rows.

Know right now that ripping back was NOT an option. So I wrap up SK#2 and head home. Once home, I take out my handy dandy wee box o’magic (wee box containing my magic and some of the stitchmarkers were given to me by the wonderful PlumTexan - who I might add has not blogged in over two months…ahem.)

On the left, I keep a wee tin with some moo cards in it, a wee nail file and some darning needles. On the right, I keep a set of kitchner stitch markers, a wee pair of newborn nail clippers, various stitch markers, a tape measure, and last, but most importantly not least (at least in this case!) a wee ball of pink cotton yarn for lifelines and emergency corrective nupp sugery.

(I wish I could have gotten pictures of the entire process. Oh well, I’m single, thus I’m my own photographer, stylist and model. I’m also my own grandpa!)

First, I picked up the yarn behind that loop floating free in that red box up top and wrapped it around the needle 5 times. (5 times because thats how many stitches my nupps call for. If your nupps call for 7 stitches, by all means, wrap it 7 times, capisce?)

Next I beg forgiveness for this really crappy paintbrush drawing I’ve done to illustrate how to fix a nupp…

Ok, you see those burgundy stitches on the knitting needle? Those are your newly wrapped stitches.

Then, you see that green phantom floating loop? (It’s the original dropped stitch) Take a small piece of pink yarn and thread it carefully through that loop. Now holding both ends of the pink yarn together, thread them onto a needle. Now use that needle to pick up all 5 wrapped stitches, pulling the green phantom floating loop through.

Last, put the green phantom floating loop onto the knitting needle and collapse from exhaustion.

You, my dear dear partners in crime, you have now performed an emergency corrective nupp surgery. You should pat each other on the backs.

(More disclaimer-y goodness: This is by no means the correct way to fix a nupp in a technical sense. But it will simulate a nupp and be virtually undetectable to the nekkid eyeball in yore head once you knit past and keep on keepin’ on!)

I could tell you about my progress on the Swallowtail Part Deux, but really, there’s no point in showing you photos of the shawl looking the same as it did a few days ago. It’s grown. I’m not saying it hasn’t. I’ve got one row left before I start the three edge charts and then it’s time to block it! and block it good! (sorry, got a little carried away there!)

Saturday found me making a quick trip over to High Fashion Fabrics with Meredith where I picked up a dress pattern and some contrast fabric for the loteria fabric I picked up last week. I also stumbled across this fabric which I’m fighting the urge to go back and get!

I bought this pattern:

I bought the pattern so I could sew the green dress pictured there. I’ve done a little digging around the internets and found a website that has a very pretty merlot colored jersey fabric that I want to use for it. Their fabric is like half the price of jersey that I’ve fondled seen at fabric stores here in town. So I may be placing an order with them sometime soon. If I do, I’m thinking about also buying a dress amount of the jersey in a nice grey color that I saw as well. I do want to change the straps though. I’m going to eliminate those pesky bowtie straps and make the straps slightly wider and of the variety that do not tie. Now to get over my fear of zippers…

Tonight, I got up close and personal with my sewing machine again for the second time in the last couple of weeks.

It’s not tall enough to hold straight needles, but it’ll hold a coupld of circulars and some sets of both short and long dpns. I wish I’d had some interfacing to make it feel a little sturdier, but really, this is one of the better sewing jobs I’ve done. I even pressed the fabric as I went to keep it all nice and neat. Going out on a limb here, but I say that the pressing as you go thing was an insanely brilliant not a bad idea.

I also finished my Gardenia Leaves footies a few weeks ago. The bind-off is a bit snug, but really, since I don’t get to wear socks really anywhere but at home and on the weekends, I’m ok with the snug bind off. I won’t have to tug the socks up! I got the yarn from The Fiber Denn. I’ve bought yarn from her before and I’ve always been impressed with the lovely softness of the yarn as well as the freakin COLORS. Hello perfect fat stripes much?? Currently until the 15th of May, she’ll donate a hefty portion of the proceeds from the sale of certain of her yarns to her local pug rescue and I think that that is pretty cool. You can check out better details here.

I’m just way too glad to have them done. The plain stockinette sucked my soul was a little bit boring.

“what do sea anemones look like when they are dying?”

If you do a google search on that phrase, I am the top two results out of 120,000. What gives?? While going over some stats for the site, someone found me yesterday by searching that phrase. Thats just sick. Of course, now that I’ve quoted that phrase, I’m almost certain that I’ll end up with a few more hits. Ew.

The International Crimefighter was in town this weekend. So Saturday afternoon, a few of us converged upon my apt.

The Crimefighter showed off her STDs

We were shown the cookie love by Plum Texan

And at the end of it all, Liz (sadly blogless) gave me a new headband made out of my Hourglass Sweater leftovers

Lots of fun was had by all and my normally deathly quiet apt was for an afternoon filled with laughing and chatting and knitting and baking and all around good times and it felt really good.

I worked on a “new” shawl this weekend. It is my 2nd swallowtail shawl (IK Fall ‘06). I made some fantastic progress. I am 3 days and 14 repeats into it. (Bragging much?? Perhaps a wee bit) I did some maths and like everyone else, came to the conclusion that if you want the three edging charts to work out perfectly, then you need work the budding lace chart #2 in multiples of 5. (Ex. 19 repeats and then the edgings; 24 repeats and then the edgings, etc., etc.)

One amazing (to me) little bit is that with being 14 repeats into the body of the shawl, you’ll never guess how much yarn I have left… ok fine! I’ll show you!

Honestly, considering that I have one more untouched ball of this stuff, I think I’ll be able to finish the shawl with no problems.

Now the astute reader may notice something familiar about this shawl besides the fact that I’m working the same pattern. That’s my challenge to you. What here is the same??

I had been planning to keep this shawl when I am done. I mean, I L.O.V.E. the yarn and I would love a bigger shawl, but in the end, I’ve decided that this will go to live with my good friend Anne (who has started knitting! Yay Anne!). Back in January, we were emailing back and forth one day and she mentioned that she could use a shawl and I jokingly told her I’d get started on one for her - in pink. (She is a wee bit averse to pink). And now, the more I get finished on this shawl, the more I know that it is her shawl and not mine. She will love it and treasure it accordingly and really, what knitter could ask for more?

In other news I bought some fabric this weekend.

The floral will be for a summer skirt that I hope to settle down and make in the next month. (No, you are NOT allowed to laugh at me for that statement!!) And isn’t the Loteria fabric freakin AWESOME? I’m thinking a needle case or baggie of some sort perhaps? We shall see! I love living three blocks away from Houston’s best fabric store!!!

And one last before I go hit the hay, you HAVE to check this out!!! It’s a very awesome FO and totally brag worthy for her.