Archives for July 2004

For a slice of Real Life.

At work, Monica and I are in the throes of building an intranet for our agency. Coming up with the content and navigation and creating the pages? No problem. We know what we’re doing. Getting it up and running and hosted on the appropriate server? Not so easy. Why? Because we have to deal with other people.

Monica had a discussion with one of our central IT people the other day about this. He very helpfully drew her a chart.

She showed it to me yesterday and we both just started laughing. Oh yeah. That clears everything up.

Okay, maybe you had to have been there.

In spite of that chart, we did figure out how to get it up (as it were) where it’s supposed to be. After much testing and refreshing and running back and forth. Or as the French Taunter in Monty Python and the Holy Grail said: “knees-bent running about advancing behavior.”

Yeah. Welcome to my world.

Lauren Tank

I took some daylight-without-flash photos of my Lauren Tank. Here is a slightly better photo of the awesome-ness that is Alchemy Silk Purse.

But it still ain’t right.

Lisa Sweater

Have I put it together and completed it yet? Why, no, I haven’t. I wanted to last night but I did a lot of real-life stuff last night that cut into my knitting time. Severely.

Like laundry. And grocery shopping. And (gasp) cleaning.

Yes, sometimes I clean. But only when I have trouble telling Lucy apart from the cat hair tumbleweeds.

Stay Tuned . . .

The August contest will be announced Monday!

Lucy Sez . . .

Why yes, my food does taste better when I drag it across the floor first!

I was up past my bedtime last night. That’s what happens when I drink Starbucks at night. Last night was late-open night at Knit Happens. So I came home all wide awake and buzzed and happy and stayed up too late.

I did indeed finish Lisa’s second sleeve at lunchtime yesterday (though I do still need to do the neckband and finishing), so I immediately cast on for my new project — the Lauren Tank, using my Alchemy Silk Purse. And I worked on that at the shop last night.

Oooooh, aaaaah!

The photo so does not do it justice. There was a lot of Silk Purse fondling going on last night and one incident of Silk Purse theft (cough::Carol::cough), though it was done in fun.

This is going to be a simple vee-neck tank. I’m doing a twisted rib at the bottom to give a bit more stability to it, as the silk is very very soft.

By the way, the Alchemy website is here. Peg asked yesterday where I got my yarn. I mailordered it from somewhere, but heck if I can remember. The Alchemy website has a list of vendors that carry their yarn. And Kristine did order some Alchemy yarn for Knit Happens. Yay! 🙂

Prezzies!

Last night the wonderful and ever-so-thoughtful Rossana brought me prezzies! Here is a close-up of the bag:

And inside, a magnet and a pin!

Thanks Rossana! You’re a sweetie!

New Button Alert!

I would like to direct your attention to an adorable new button in my sidebar — scroll down until you find the Kitty Bed Knit-along button. Say it with me:

“Awwwwwwwwwwwww!”

This button was created by Bets, who has a very handy-dandy page o’ knit-along links here.

The Kitty Bed Knit-Along is an unofficial one. The button links you to the kitty bed gallery — photos of beds knitted from my felted kitty bed pattern (the pattern is linked from the gallery page). If you haven’t been there recently, have a look-see — lots of photos of cute felines lounging in their beds!

Klaralund-Along!

I got a number of emails asking how many balls of Silk Garden the Klaralund design takes. So here is the information from the pattern:

34″ — 400 grams
36″ — 450 grams
41″ — 500 grams
44″ — 550 grams

Silk Garden is put up in 50 gram skeins. You do the math.

Okay, I’m thinking you could make this sweater in pretty much any yarn that knits to the correct gauge (4st/inch on US 8 needles). But I think you’d wanna stick with a self-striping yarn. Therein lies the beauty of the piece.

In my eyes, at least.

But I am also pleased to say that I put the official WendyKnits seal of approval on three Klaralund Knit-Along Silk Garden purchases at Knit Happens last night. Kristine has the photographic proof.

Once again, Lucy could not care less.

But hey! I found my Silk Garden stash! I’m a good girl. So now I know what color I’ll be making mine in:

Color 74.

On Monday, Froggy blogged about picking up the Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Book Number Two, same book I blogged about buying last week at Knit Happens. We both love the design Klaralund, which is knitted in Noro Silk Garden and is pictured here:

I’ve already got enough Silk Garden in my stash to knit Klaralund. What’s not to like?

So-o-o-o-o . . . anyone up for a Klaralund-Along?

Miz Froggy and I will be co-hosting the Klaralund-Along, starting in September and we cordially invite you to Klaralund along with us!!!!

Washington DC area knitters — how about we meet up at Knit Happens on the first Wednesday night after Labor Day for late night at the shop and kick off our Klaralund-Along? I’ll be there, Klaralund-Alonging, anyhow. Even if I’m the only Klaralund-Alonger there.

You might have figured out that I really like saying Klaralund-Along.

Bandwidth Theft Update

Last night I spent an hour renaming all the buttons on my blog and editing my template. I took a look at my stats yesterday and yeah, there are a whole lotta people hotlinking to my site. So now those graphics will display as broken links on their sites.

WIP Update

I am now working on the last sleeve of Lisa, so she will be finito soon-o.

And here is the shrug.

Note that it is in a nasty little heap. There is a reason for this. I hate and detest it. It does not deserve a decent photo.

So what’s the problem? I should know by now that modular knitting doesn’t suit me. I don’t like the way this fits — the neck is too wide and the back is too short. It’s not a big deal — I did not spend an inordinate amount of time knitting it. So I’m not overly upset.

Could I do something to make it wearable? No doubt I could. But I’m not going to. I’d rather spend my time on something else.

I’ll try to remember to stick to more structured, tailored, fitted designs from here on out.

Tonight is late night at Knit Happens, so I’ll be there, probably with a new WIP in hand. See, I have something in my stash that is screaming (screaming, I tell you) to be knit. It is Alchemy Silk Purse — 100% silk dk weight yarn in an acid/lime green (are you reading this, Bonne Marie?) and it sends me into transports of delight. So I whipped up a little pattern for a vee-neck tank.

Film at 11.

Here is the yarn.

I sneaked it into the house without SpongeBob noticing. Hee hee! I’m so sneaky.

Lucy is too busy grooming her fluffy tail to care.

Can I Just Say . . .

. . . how totally jazzed I am about Secret Pal 2, being organized by the wonderful Heidi? Cuz I am! I didn’t participate in the first Secret Pal project that went on in Knit-Bloggyland because by the time I figured out it existed, it was in full swing. Yeah, I’m slow like that!

So I’m really really pleased to have gotten in on the ground floor of this one. I love making and giving surprises so this is gonna be great fun!

My Rat Encounter

Re your comments about my brief encounter with Mr. Ratty on Monday:

Atara said:
Aww – rats are cute! ^.^
(I know, I know, I probably would have shrieked in surprise and jumped as well; there’s a big difference between your garden-variety trash rat and the cute rats I had as pets.)

I had mice when I was a kid, and loved them dearly. I think pet rats are cute too.

Mr. Ratty, on the other hand, was almost as big as Lucy, no doubt infested with vermin, and butt-ugly.

Andrea commented:
I seem to recall a previous Rat Encounter mentioned on your blog. Maybe they are ganging up?

Yes indeed, there is a big nasty rat that I’ve seen outside the building where I work. Eeeeeew. Hopefully the Washington DC rat is not in cahoots with the Alexandria, VA rat.

Jaimi said:
I’m trying to picture a rat leaping gazelle-like, and also trying very hard to not laugh out loud here in a public university computer cluster…it wouldn’t be very academic of me 🙂

And Jon said:
As someone who’s seen gazelle in their natural habitat (the African plain) and rats in their natural habitat (the NYC subway filth), I am having a really, really hard time imagining a gazelle-like rat. But I’ll try, since you seem to think it’s possible, Wendy!

Okay, you guys are gonna have to trust me on this one. This huge disgusting filthy rat came flying out of the trash can in an graceful arc. An Olympic high jumper would envy the height and distance of his leap. I kid you not. I’ve never seen a projectile rat before.

And for the record, I did not scream nor did I jump. I just kept on walking. I am SO not awake when I’m staggering into work in the morning, pre-caffeine.

Besides, I don’t recall ever screaming, ever, in my life. I’m Swedish. In times of great emotion we shake hands.

Danger! Non-knitting content ahead!

Bandwidth Theft

The other day, Kerstin posted a most excellent entry about bandwidth theft. I’m linking to it and encouraging anyone who hasn’t seen it to read it.

As Kerstin mentioned, most people who are guilty of bandwidth theft are so because of ignorance. If you have a blog and are not an experienced html-er, I encourage you to read Kerstin’s explanation, as well as the explanation I have linked to in my sidebar from the Bandwidth Theft button. This one is courtesy of Midnight Knitter and is located here. On this page there are instructions for saving graphics and loading them on your own server for use.

Okay, Time For a Rant

This comment I got yesterday saddened me:

I’ve been surprised for awhile that you’ve had no problems with posting your AS completed FOs and now your wonderful Campion acquisition. Isn’t She Who Must Not Be Named still an issue?

This issue has been so blown out of proportion and misrepresented in various places on the internet over the past few years. The commenter was referring to Alice Starmore and some legal issues involved with using her name to sell and resell her old line of yarns and patterns.

I have a long list of completed Starmore garments on my knitting pages, complete with photos and project particulars. No one has ever approached me and asked me to remove any of them. I am not attempting to sell or resell anything.

I’ve gotten a number of emails over time asking me to comment on this “situation.” So here ya go.

I have nothing but respect and admiration for Alice Starmore as a knitwear designer. All other aspects of her life or business dealings, as far as I’m concerned, are her own business. I do not discuss them, nor have any reason to. Full stop.

And Now, Back to Knitting Content

I’m making progress on the shrug. One sleeve is complete and I’m working on the other one.

Lucy agreed to model the sleeve-in-progress to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s unfortunate comparison of the shrug to a toilet seat cover in the comments. Sigh.

I’m doing three-quarter length sleeves. The pattern directs you to make them as long as you like, and because I’ll be using this mostly as a cover-up for summer dresses, I decided against wrist-length sleeves.

And I’m working on a Lisa sleeve. Sleeves go really really fast!

In answer to a comments question, I believe the entire sweater will take 5 skeins of Calmer. With a fair bit left over on the fifth skein.

A Final Eeeeewwww

I was walking from the parking lot to the train station yesterday morning for the trip into work. As I passed a trash receptacle, I heard a rustling noise. When I was right next to it, a large, fat, grey rat leapt (gazelle-like) out of the trash receptable and scurried off.

Say it with me: “Eeeeeeeewwwwwwwww!”

Lucy sez:

“I’ll protect you, Mommy!”

Happy Monday to all. Or not. Your call.

Questions From the Comments!

Marta asked about Spongebob. For those of you outside the U.S. who don’t know who Spongebob is . . .

Spongebob Squarepants is a cartoon shown on the Nickelodeon network. Ostensibly for children, but there’s something oddly compelling about the little guy. The cartoons are silly, quirky, and filled with contradictions.

There’s a Spongebob movie opening here in November. I am SO there!

But there’s something we’ve been wondering: Do you think Sandy Cheeks considers Spongebob to be spongeworthy?

Angie in E. TX (Angie, have you ever been to Timson?) asks:
I have never even seen that AS Campion. Is it vintage? If so, are there any yarn companies making anything remotely similar now? Tell tell tell!

The short story is that Scottish Campion is the same yarn as Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. There are some colors that you can’t get anymore, though. But whenever I see shetland wool, my eyes glaze over and I get a little giddy. I do have a smidgen of Scottish blood running through my veins — that’s my excuse!

Lauren asked:
As a beginning knitter becoming more and more overwhelmed with my stash, how do you budget your fiber purchases? Do you at all?

What’s a budget? Seriously, I have absolutely no self-control AT ALL. Clothes and yarn, yarn and clothes. That’s what it’s all about.

Okay, Lucy is bored.

She wants me to talk about my WIPs.

I got both the front and back of Lisa done.

No the front and back really are the same length. Honest. The front is just smooshed up a bit. Good thing I’m not a stylist for a photographer, eh?

And I started on a sleeve of the shrug. Kinda hard to figure it out from this photo!

But I’m coming down the home stretch. It’ll be completed at some point this week. Yay!

So there you have it.