January 25, 2006

Loose ends

Once again I'm stealing from Mamacate and her idea for Random Wednesdays (if indeed it's Wednesday. Things are a little scattered here. The best evidence would suggest that it is Wednesday, but if I'm wrong, then I'm only boosting Mamacate's idea to be random, which I sort of manage on my own most of the time...but she's the one who wrote down the idea.)

1. I finished the Leaf Lace Pullover.

Freezeleaflace

This is the first sweater in a really long time that had a re-knit.
(I'm not as cranky about that as I look, I'm just freezing.) Readers will recall that the first time it was finished, it had arms too tight and shoulders...well. It didn't have shoulders. Now me, I have shoulders. I have (for a smallish woman) sort of unexpectedly square and broad shoulders, so I'm not ruling out my troubles as "problem with the wearer" rather than "problem with the pattern" or (I hate this one) "problem with the knitter".

Leaflacehap1

The lack of shoulders caused the front to stretch most unattractively across the upper chest of this knitter, causing her ordinarily somewhat middle-aged but acceptably placed curves to be forced downwards, suddenly resembling half-swaddled blouse bunnies struggling to be free.
Attractive.

Shoulderdet1

The issue of said tightness was relieved by re-knitting the sleeves using the size large instructions, changing the rate of decrease for the raglan so that it matched up, but purposefully winding up with extra stitches at the grafted shoulder. This dealt with the weird seaming issue that Alison had, and gave me another 4cm of space.

2. Tuesdays are for spinning, and the brigade responsible for keeping me working on the yarn for Joe's gansey will be happy to know that I did spin, one full bobbin and this much

Ganseysing11

of another. I'm still in love with this Corridale, and the investment I'm making in the fiber prep has a huge payoff. The more time I spend on washing and carding, the happier I am with the spinning. It's a lesson my spontaneous nature has to learn over and over and over.

3. I am going to The Madrona Fiber Arts retreat. A bunch of you asked, so there you go. I am very, very excited about this (despite the fact that it goes on during the first days of The Olympics recklessly making me an ex-pat for the opening ceremonies and sucking up sweater knitting time). I'm going to get to meet some knitters I openly worship (please, please give me the strength to keep my cool with Sally Melville and Cat Bordhi and...be still my beating heart, let me not gush stupidly over Nancy Bush.) and I'll be speaking at the Teachers Gallery (free), and hosting "Rescue Roundtables" on Saturday outside the Marketplace. (Yes. Before you ask, it is totally funny to think of me solving other peoples knitting problems. Totally. I am sure that you can guess that if you have a really sincere problem you might want to find Sally Melville or another really useful Teacher.)

4. The yarn for Hardangervidda came. I know that I didn't share with you my deep and twitchy anxiety that I wouldn't get it in time...but I am relieved.

5. I am still updating the Athletes list. Your continued patience is appreciated, if you aren't on the list yet, please don't re-send your stuff, I end up entering you twice and then make S. Kate berzerk trying to take out duplicates and figure out if we are supposed to have 22 or 23 Lisas. If S. Kate cracks there will be no-one who knows how to work the scary excel sheet and this whole thing will tank. I'll let you know when I think everybody is up there...and then you can tell me if you are missing.

6. There is lots of very, very cool stuff going on on other blogs to do with the Olympics. I started writing it all down and putting up all the buttons and....It is too much. If you have something cool, like Team Boston or buttons for teams or such, leave it in todays comments and people can come hunt you up. There's a button for just about everything now....so if you had a hankering, check back with the comments to see what you can get.

7. I'm posting one button, because I can't believe that The Mysterious K. (from Ryan's blog) made a button (she's like a mythic creature to me) and she has no blog of her own.

Tmkusa
Also, TMK is a new spinner, and I have a soft spot for new spinners.

8. I am finishing the renovation in the back room (Have you seen the back of my house?) and this afternoon my brother and I are pouring concrete. As much as I think that having a floor in that room could be sort of cool, mixing and pouring concrete makes me cranky.

9. This is probably because it cuts into knitting time.

10. I think that's normal.

Posted by Stephanie at January 25, 2006 2:23 PM