Erica’s Blog

Thing Two:  [Thing One], why do you hate Mom so much?

I had some self-induced problems with this one b/c, thinking I was SO smart, I decided to do it in stockinette instead of garter stitch.  Near the end, a wee little voice at the back of my head said, “But stockinette stitches aren’t the same height as garter stitches.  Won’t that throw it off-kilter?”  When I was half-way done with seaming the second shoulder, I realized that the little voice had actually been The Voice of Reason.  OOOooops!  I ever-so-carefully undid the shoulder seams and added sort of a garter stitch shoulder saddle (for lack of anything better to call it), and it worked out.  Whew!  I was cutting it close, though; I ended up with only eight grams of yarn (in this case, 36. yards) left.

My other modification to the pattern was that I extended the length of the sleeves after the body was knit (but before I added the shoulder saddle).

Here ’tis, “Nerd Junior’s” Baby Surprise Jacket:

Hubby decided that I needed a new laptop.  This one seems pretty good, and we got a good deal on it.  The only bummer is that it only came with trial versions of Microsoft Office and didn’t include Outlook.  HellOOOOO?  I’m still copying data over from the old one to this one.  At this point, I’m only copying, not deleting off the old laptop, just in case.  This one has a 30-day, money-back guarantee, so if we don’t like it, we can send it back.

Yes, I do believe Thing Two, like her mother, is multi-craftual…

After surveying my Ravelry project list, I decided that I needed another period of “Finish It Or Frog It.”

Behold the Falling Leaves Bag:

I decided to face the fact that sitting in the WIP bin in the corner was NOT going to make this magically become what I’d wanted it to be.  I hated to rip it out after all that work on the leaf chart, etc., but at least now I have the chart and a good idea of how to make it the way I want it.  BTW, anyone who tells you that frogging four-color intarsia is a breeze is either lying or delusion or has a memory-loss problem.

A portion of the yarn will become a May Baby Sweater for Franklin and Carla’s son-to-be.  Yeah, I know the yarn is handwash only, but they’re grown-ups; they can figure out how to deal with it.

Behold my Tomato:

After some internal wrestling, I decided to frog this and wait till I’m at my goal weight to knit this for myself.  Earlier this week, I gave away my Alisa to my friend Tanya b/c it was so much too big for me, and that was REALLY hard to do.  Thinking about that, I decided I didn’t want to knit Tomato then have to give it away in a few months b/c I had shrunk out of it.  If I’m going to invest the yarn (read:  money) and effort in a pullover for myself, even a simple cap-sleeved one, I want to be able to wear it for a long time.  So, it’s not an insecure “I’m not worth knitting myself a sweater at this weight” thing.  It’s more of a selfish “I don’t want to knit myself a cool sweater then give it away to someone else in a little while” thing.

NOW, this is not to say that I won’t knit for myself.  I’m seriously considering knitting myself a cardigan.  The way I see it, I can get away with wearing an oversized cardigan when I’ve lost weight a lot easier than I can get away with wearing an oversized pullover.  As a matter of fact, I remember this awesome red cotton cardigan I used to have that I purposely shrank after it got too big so that I could keep on wearing it.  (I SOOOO wish I still had it!  That was a most worthwhile $25 Target purchase all those years ago.)  I’m most likely going to knit Jane from Custom Knits b/c it’s designed to be open in the front.  By the time I’m done losing weight, it will probably close, lol.

Onward and upward…I am DETERMINED to finish Bobcat’s birthday scarf from 2007 before I leave for Singapore so that I can give her two birthday gifts this year - one marked “2007″ and one marked “2009″.

A couple of times a year, we have a “Zen Night” at my knitting group.  Everyone brings a bunch of yarn they don’t want and piles it on the table.  Then, we all have at and take whatever we want - there’s no “Only take the same amount you brought”, etc.  Once everyone’s gotten what they want, one of the women in the group takes the remainders for the school where she teaches.  Last night was crazy - three or four Starbucks tables, piled high.  We took up most of one side of the place, and we got some weird looks, but who cares?!

I was VERY happy to get rid of my last ball of Patons Divine - from my first online yarn purchase from Joann’s in January 2005, back before I discovered “the good stuff”, lol.  (Matthew’s probably going to use it for the small intestine for the knitted digestive system he’s making.)  ‘Nette also got rid of the extra yarn from her very first knitting project in December 2004.  I managed to come home with less than I took.  Here’s what followed me home (if the yarn had sat in front of me any longer, even more would have come home with me):

As long as we’re talking about stash reduction and additions, here are some other goodies that joined my stash recently:

The Goshen is slated to become a cardigan for me.  I’m torn between Jane from Custom Knits (sans the ribbon/strap thingy) and Salt Peanuts.  Any opinions?  I’m thinking that Jane would have a longer life b/c I could get away with wearing it when it’s too big for me.  Bueller?  Bueller?  Anyone?