Has it REALLY been 2 1/2 months????

Uh, yeah. It has. My bad.

Now that we are settled into our apartment in Sherman Oaks, life carries on. It is so nice and quiet here. I love it.

I continue to work on the Ripple Blanket. My oldest daughter came down from Seattle for Christmas and sort of claimed it as hers. It is still about 1/3 away from completion so there is a stitch marker holding the live loops.

I managed to nearly complete a few knitted items for Christmas presents this year. My daughter headed back to Seattle before I could snap some pix of the crocheted scarf I made for her. I also made a pair of socks for my friend Ray, but he scurried back to Lancaster with them on foot before a photo-op...However, I did manage to produce a hat for one of the guys in the shop where I work that I still have in my possession. I guess it would photograph better with a head in it, but no spares are available right at this moment. It is made from Vanna's Choice acrylic. As a former yarn snob, I think this yarn has a really nice feel to it. Not scratchy or crunchy like acrylics can be but nice and soft.

I am nearly finished with a scarf for Ray. I am determined to not take this project into the New Year! It may be hard to see but it is 3 stitches garter edge with K5, P5, etc. for 7 rows, then switch and K across the P5 and P across the K5 blah, blah, blah...Patons Merino Wool in dark brown. Note:this is the first project in a loooooooonnnnnnggg time that I have used straight needles. Now I remember why I love circulars.

Now that the holidays are almost over, I feel free to start another project! Woo hoo! Another pair of socks for friend Ray. This yarn is Knit Picks Essential in Terrain Twist. From far away it looks like a solid olive green. Up close, it is 2 plys of green and 2 plys of brown, twisted together. So far, I love this yarn. Soooooo soft and cheap at $3.29 a ball. I think this yarn is very easy to knit with.

While I don't support the war in Iraq, I do support the soldiers. This year I will do a lot more knitting for the soldiers, i.e. scarves, helmet liners, etc. Here is the beginning of a scarf in double crochet. Bernat Berella 4 using a size "H" hook.

My daughters are my 2 favorite people on the planet. For Christmas, my oldest gave to me a copy of the first Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals PLUS a gift card for another volume of my choice! When dinner only takes a half an hour to make, there is more time for knitting! I ran right out and got Rachel Ray's Just In Time
with recipes that take not only 30 minutes, but some in only 15 minutes! Also, there are a few that take 60 minutes for those times when you have more time, say on the weekends.

My youngest daughter gave me this fabulous knitting bag for Christmas. Also from Knit Picks, it holds a lot of projects at one time and has lots of pockets and places to hold scissors, patterns, measuring tape, etc. I love it!

Do I have the most wonderful and intelligent daughters or what???

Finally, please send some positive healing energy to my friend Ray who starts chemotherapy on January 7. Thanks.

Ripplin' On Again

I got an apartment in Sherman Oaks. Much relief.

Now that the weather has cooled, I am making some progress on the Ripple Blanket (afghan is an inappropriate word for something that hangs over a Queen size bed by a foot on each side). The rows seem to take more time than I remember. Maybe is it just the thought of actually getting to the end of it sometime that makes it seem to linger longer. But I will persevere! I really want this finished before the cold sets in around December. I have other projects to make for the holidays. I want this finished before my oldest daughter comes to visit for Christmas.

Facing the inevitable of moving my yarn stash (yet again) I have vowed once more to knit from my stash. All those lovely yarn shops with their fabulous sales will have to tempt someone else. I have more than enough to keep me busy for an entire year!

Ripples of Life

It has been a long time since I posted anything here. I usually post during the weekends because I can't post at work and am too tired of the computer in the evenings! But as of late, I have been *ahem* occupied on the weekends and had no time for blogging. However, this weekend I decided I HAD to do something!

I am slowly making progress on the FruitStrips socks. I took them on vacation to the Washington coast a couple of weeks ago and managed to get both heels turned. Here is the front and profile view.

I haven't made it to the WeHo SNB for a few weeks now. I was out of town and then I have been plagued with car problems. The transmission in my car was replaced in February 2007 with a 2 year warranty. Just shy of 6 months, the "new" transmission went out. Died. Kaput. They towed my car back to the same transmission place and put another one in. After that, it just never felt right so I took it back to them and was able to drive my daughter's car for 2 days. So I get it back now and the temperature gauge is pegged past hot, even without the key in the car. "Oh, it's fine to drive home", they tell me,"but you want to have you mechanic look at it". I did just that and his assessment is that the transmission people have broken something while repairing the "new-new" transmission and they need to own up to it. Of course, they won't.

Why does this stuff always happen on a 3-day weekend?

Tip-toe Through the FruitStripes

I have made some progress on the socks I started under the influence of a margarita. I left the toes as they were and forged ahead. Actually, I couldn't wait to get the toes done so I could end the torture abandon the use of the Addi Turbo needles. I know that there are scores, nay, thousands of you knitters out there who have sworn your allegiance to Addis. I am not one of them. In fact, I hate them. The cable is very stiff so knitting 2 socks at a time, toe-up is constantly wrestling with the outer loops. And another thing. The metal needles smell bad, somewhat like a metal grocery cart. As soon as I had the toes done, I unloaded gave away those circular Addis and all of the other Addis I had. All 4 sets. I feel much better using my bamboo and ebony needles.

Back to the socks.

The pattern is a simple feather and fan that I think shows off the self-striping yarn very well. I have decided to call these socks the "Fruit Stripe" socks after FruitStripe gum we used to buy when I was a kid. I can still hear the little T.V. jingle in my head ("Yikes! Stripes!......) As you have no doubt noticed, the feather and fan pattern is also a ripple pattern. I guess my obsession with rippling continues, albeit subconsciously.

Falling off the wagon and getting pulled under the wheels...

Well, so much for the "Knit From Your Stash" commitment that I made in January. Actually, it lasted longer than I thought it would. I still have aspirations to get back on the wagon, but probably not until Bishop's is over their going-out-of-business sale. At 70% off, that is pretty damn hard to resist! Here is the haul from Tuesday's binge;5 skeins of Bernat Berella "4" in white, 4 balls of OrnaghiFilati Cashmerino, 2 skeins of Sirdar Snuggly DK in a lt. rust and 2 in a lt. grey/blue, a whole bag of Sirdar Snuggly DK in white and 5 hanks of Berroco Glace. The Berella "4" and the Snuggly is destined for baby clothes for an as-yet-to-be-discovered baby. People get pregnant all the time, right? (Not me, of course. I would throw myself into the middle of the 405 at 5pm!) The Cashmerino is going to be a pair of patterned socks for my daughter, Shiloh. The 5 hanks of Glace will be added to the 7 hanks I have of the same color (but I am SURE that it is a different dye lot...that would be too freakin' weird if they were the same!) so that I can actually make something other than a crop top. Nobody wants to see that...I will simply alternate rows of each dye lot and with the amazing color variation in the yarn, it will all be fine.

I have continued to work on the ripple vest. I am almost done with the back, about 1 1/2 inches left to go. After all that epiphany stuff, I decided to frog it back to the f*$#-up and crochet it correctly. It didn't take as long as I thought it would and I am much happier knowing that there are only a few small mistakes rather than one glaring boo-boo and a few small mistakes. Hopefully it will be done in time to start the front and work on that when I go to Seattle in August.

I feel better now. They say confession is good for the soul...

Whatever.

The Same Thing, Just More Of It

With the ripple afghan on hold, I am once again working on the Ripple Vest. I pulled it out at the WeHo SnB on Thursday and started working on it. Probably not the best idea as I need to count a few stitches here and there. Sure enough, I got to a place in the return row where the stitches do not line up. Now I have to rip back to the row before (or worse yet, the row before that!) and figure out what went wrong. Sure, I could just add a stitch here or there to make it all come out right, but it is RIGHT SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE of the vest and would probably show like a beacon on a clear night.

EPIPHANY!!!! While writing this I just had a thought. This is supposed to be the front but I haven't made the back yet and why not make this the back and make the front last when I really have my shit together on this pattern understand the pattern well???? Problem solved. Movin' on.

On Thursday night, we (the WeHo SnB) were displaced from our usual location of the upstairs dining area at the Farmer's Market. We then commandeered an alcove on the main floor for ourselves. Lots of people stopped by to ask what we were doing. (Laurie, we hope to see you at a future SnB!) A group of 4 small children seemed interested (one very interested) in what we were doing. The very interested little girl hung around until her mother made her go with them. I can hear the future interview now, "What made you become a world-famous knitwear designer?" "Well, when I was a child, I was fascinated by a group of ladies crocheting and knitting at the Farmer's Market......".

First one's free.

Hiatus

My ripple is about 1/3 done and this is where it stands. The weather has gotten too hot to work on it (that coupled with the AC not working in our apartment...GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!) so it will have to wait until it cools off here in the Valley. Around November, I suppose. Sasha won't sit on it for a photo. I think she is put off by its brightness! Either that or she hasn't been exposed to acrylic yarn before and doesn't know what to make of it. I think it looks good on an all-white bed, don't you?

In For A Penny, In For A Pound

There's nothing like a friend shaming you into blogging...

Even before I started rippling the brightest afghan known to humankind, this vest appealed to me. Not one to follow the directions entirely, I changed the colors to ones that were more to my liking. The ribbing on the bottom is pretty monotonous, just single crochet in the back loops, back and forth for 385,927 rows. (Well, maybe not that many but it seemed like it.) The rippling part is a lot more fun. The yarn is Lustersheen in the colors Tan, Natural and Spa Blue. I figure if I don't get too bored with it about the time cool weather rolls around in October or November, it should be finished and ready to wear over a light blouse or dress.

No segue to this next random paragraph...

Let's say you are in Las Vegas for a couple of days and you are rolling pretty hot dice at the craps table. Let's also say that at said table there is a very nice man wearing a rather conspicuous red Hawaiian shirt and you have a bit of a moment and he has sparkling eyes and a great smile (not to mention he's about 6'2"). WWMD (What Would Molly Do)? If you are smart, you whip out one of these and hand it to the nice man.

Purely hypothetical, of course, because we are not always smart.damn it

You'll Soon Be One Of Us

I have made some more progress on my Ripple Afghan. So far each color has been used twice with the bit of pink starting the 3rd set of 7 colors. So far, it is about 13 1/2" wide. Although I have never been to the Caribbean, that is what this makes me think of. The colors are so bright and cheery. I took it to the Thursday WeHo SNB and it met with rave reviews! I love this group, always so much fun and very supportive. Some people confessed to having been "secretly rippling" at home but not posting to the Ripple Along.

At first I wasn't really crazy about the acrylic yarn. Truthfully, it does have a few "hiccups" from time to time. Big globs of un-spun fiber or one ply being too long and wrapping around the others. I realized that I had become sort of a fiber snob. That is until I also realized that I love another thing that is made from acrylic! Several years ago my fingernails started splitting on the sides. I don't know if it had to do with age or what. I started getting acrylic nails and have been hooked ever since. Since moving to SoCal I have tried a few nail places but one does an exemplary job. Alice Nails on Ventura in Woodland Hills is great. Lani does the best "pink & white", EVER!

The saga continues

I just can't stop rippling. It is addictive. I have decided to use all 7 colors, randomly. Each one of the 7 will be crocheted before a color repeats. We will see how well I keep this up.

While I am not the biggest fan of acrylic yarn, I do like the fact that the Caron Simply Soft Brights have no dye lots. I can acquire yarn as I go along and not shell out great flipping wads of cash at once. Although, with my luck they will discontinue these colors when I am half done.