Knitting and spinning. The fun never stops.

You may have noticed my absence from my tag-board. To say I’m busy at work is a gross understatement. We are in crisis mode for an impossible project that we have to complete by the insane deadline. Oh, and with no resources. So please pardon my silence . . .

The Jogless Jog

A question from my comments yesterday — do I do the jogless jog when I knit fair isle? Nope. Call me lazy, call me slovenly, but I don’t really care if I have a jog on one side. No one has ever noticed it and pointed it out to me, and I don’t have a problem with it. And of course if you’re knitting a cardi, it’s not an issue. The jog is in the front steek.

For a very useful discussion of the jogless jog, check out Judy Gibson’s page on the subject.

So how about you all? To jog or not to jog, that is the question . . .

Thanks!

To everyone who told me yesterday that my blog has not gotten boring! The combination of overwork plus lousy weather has combined to make me a very dull girl indeed, at least in my own mind. And you all are very polite not to agree with me.

Without further ado . . .

Oregon! Ta-da!

It’s done! We’ll have a photo shoot over the weekend so on Monday there’ll be some more photos on the Official Oregon Cardigan Page.

And guess what came in the mail today??

This would be the Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift to knit Henry VIII (by Alice Starmore from her book Tudor Roses). Sent to me in a trade by the wonderful Stéphanie in France. Does she have great timing or what?

I’ll start this in a few days — I’ve got a couple of small projects I want to do first (more about that in tomorrow’s blog).

A couple of the colors needed for Henry VIII are not available in North America — marjoram and the “autumn substitute” that Jamieson’s is now selling in place of autumn. I think that’s it. Anyhow, that’s why I had my wool specially imported from Europe.

And look what Stéphanie thoughtfully enclosed in the package:

Needless to say, these are very welcome items here at Wendyknits.

So . . .

Merci bien, Stéphanie! Tu es trop aimable!

(And I hope I spelled all that correctly!)

Izzy has a touch of Spring Fever, I think. She was rolling around with her catnip mousie, acting silly.

It occurs to me from the questions I’ve been getting that I can clarify some things about my Knitty design, the Baby Norgi.

The sizing shown is S, M, L to adhere to Knitty conventions. This equates roughly to 6, 12, and 18 months, though of course, it depends on the size of the child. Your best bet is to look at the finished size in inches.

When choosing needles, just go with the size that gives you the gauge state in the pattern, and go down a size or two for the smaller needle called for. It was pointed out to me that generally a 3.0mm needle is a size 2, not a size 1. Go by the mm size I’ve stated, as that’s the constant. I’ve got a huge number of needles from quite a few different manufacturers, so I always just look at the actual size of the needle in millemeters rather than the U.S. needle size.

And lastly, some of you have reported having trouble accessing the pdf file for the charts. I can access them at home but not at work, for some reason. If you’re using Internet Explorer, right click on the link for Chart A and select “Save Target As” and you should be able to save the pdf file to your hard drive. If you’re still having trouble, please email me and I’ll email you a copy of the charts.

Oregon

Working! Working! I’m almost done, possibly tomorrow. I’ve slowed down considerably on this due to back pain that prevents me from sitting still too long — it kinda breaks your knitting concentration to have to keep getting up. But it’ll get done. Soon.

And no, I don’t know what’s causing the back pain, but I’ve a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with my limping from the bone spur in my heel (yes, it is all connected, isn’t it?) And no, I haven’t gone back to the doctor for it and yes I know that I ought to.

The above was for my mother’s benefit, just in case she’s reading this.

Izzy

Isn’t she sweet?

By the way, I feel as though my blog has become a bit . . . uh . . . boring lately. Uninspired. I apologize. I am insanely busy at work these days and when I get home at night, I have very little left in the way of creative thought. So you guys suffer.

But it’ll get better again. In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, “I’ll be back . . . “

Thanks for all your nice comments about my Knitty pattern and article. I appreciate your support!

And just in case you missed it . . . this is my design:

There’s nothing like a little shameless self-promotion, eh?

There’s lots of great stuff in this issue of Knitty — if you haven’t yet, head over and take a look! As usual, Amy and the gang did a wonderful job.

Yesterday was a cold and windy day. Does this qualify as March coming in like a lion? Because I am so ready for it to go out like a lamb.

So is Izzy. She spent most of yesterday huddled under the quilt, but came out for a photo op.

Oregon

As you can see, I’m starting the border pattern. I’ve got that and the cuff ribbing to do, then Oregon is done. I was asked in the comments if there was any color I had way too much of (since I reported I ran short of two colors yesterday). The pattern calls for two skeins of Blue Grass. I’ve still got a bit to go, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be touching the second skein. Go figure.

The yarn for Henry VIII is on its way to me so I’ll be able to start that soon. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple of small projects I could be working on . . .

Windows XP Update

Since installing Windows XP last Friday, my computer has not crashed, not even once.

Well I gotta go to work . . . have a great day!

And I love Windows XP.

Last Friday, I successfully upgraded my desktop computer at home from Windows ME (forever after known as the Work of the Devil) to Windows XP Home Edition. No fuss no muss.

Just as the installation process was finishing up, Izzy dramatically hacked up a hairball on the floor next to the computer. I like to think it was a show of her contempt for Windows ME.

And since the install, nothing has crashed, nothing has stopped working, no peripherals have gone wonky-flakey.

Oregon

Thanks all for your input on the buttons for Oregon. I think I’m going to go with the top button (see the photo in Friday’s blog entry).

I’ve gotten quite a bit done on the second sleeve:

Cool, huh? I ought to have this done by the end of the week. Much to my annoyance, I ran short of two colors — Deep Aqua and Pine Forest. But thanks to my buddy Geane, it wasn’t a problem. She dug into her stash and generously sent me a skein of each color. Mmmmmmwha!

Knitty!

Guess what??!! The Spring issue of Knitty is live! Woo-hoo! Check it out — I’ve got an article and a pattern in this issue. Let me know what you think!

I’m off from work today, and I’ll be away from the ‘puter for most of the day. Happy Monday to all!

Who’s got the button?

The time has come to think about buttons for Oregon. Here’s some from which to choose.

The top button is one of the set that Bonne Marie sent me for my birthday, the middle and the bottom buttons were from Lindesy-Brooke.

Which one do you like? Let me know . . .

So . . . Izzy finally came out from under the covers.

When I got home from work last night it had started snowing . . . hard. We got a fair amount overnight and I’m home today. I may upgrade my home PC to Windows XP today, so good luck to me!