Sweatergirl's remedy for the celtic dreams
Which were not to be: Turn the yarn into June
Do you think it needs waist shaping added? I fear that it would never fall at the right place.
Angst update
Excuse the angst! I finally got to sit down and get my job sorted out, so as of October 1, my life gets much, much better. And I will get to see at least one kid for a lot more hours of the day. I'll be in the office two half-days, and working as needed from home. This is what I had hoped for - I don't want to leave the office in a lurch, as we are near to completing several projects, and I think I just got a new one funded. But I want to spend most of my time raising Baby E. I was reading an old Piecework last night, and there is an excerpt from "How to Make an American Quilt", which I should probably read.
"I used to be a young scholar", she muses, "I am now an engaged woman. Not that you cannot be both - even I understand that - yet I cannot fathom who I think I am at this time."
I just have to get my self-identity re-aligned. And, by the way, I took Baby E to the bar last night for the car club meeting. And also took my knitting. So there.
And now for some knitting!
Anyway - I am going to be an aunt for the first time - very exciting. Strangely enough, this baby's due date is the same as Baby E's due date, but a year later (of course). This baby will be born in NYC, so I cranked this little fulled number out:
I am not a very good counted cross-stitcher, so the embroidery took about as much time to put together as the hat itself. But, at the same time, I was feeling Joe-Pa's pain, watching Penn State lose to Boston College (so sad!), so I may not have been stitching most efficiently.
In other knitting news, Marcia C. is hosting a Fair Isling group at ThreadBear, which inspired me to pull out Aberlemno.
This is not a new image, but I only added 3 or 4 rows. But it is now back on the "projects I'm working on" mental list. Thanks, Marcia! Thanks, boys! It is great to have a place to meet for this kind of thing.
And, for all you local knitters, I am leading a gansey study group at ThreadBear. Fourth Saturday of every month (starting September 25), 10:30AM-12:30ish. We'll be working through Beth Brown Reinsel's book "Knitting Ganseys", and making the sampler gansey. It's free, but you have to have the book - Beth's quite reasonable request! The boys will have copies soon, but if you already have a copy, you can use that. So, come, make a gansey! And learn all sorts of things, from wacky cast-ons to neck gussets.
Just me again
Well, just me and the Sweaterbaby. She is still quite portable, so she pretty much goes everywhere I go, except work (see Sarah's blog - she even goes places I can't go - though olive green is sooo not her color!). Now, sometimes I wonder if I should take her everywhere or not. Where is it inappropriate to take a baby? She's been to Weight Watchers and ThreadBear and various knitting groups. In fact, the one time I didn't take her to book club, the ladies all grumped at me. I assume as she gets more mobile, this'll peter out a bit, but then, I might choose not to go certain places? Will people tell me when it's time to leave her home? Perhaps in the future I might be glad to have a night off, but I'm not sure. We shall see.
I am realizing how odd it is that I rarely see children in everyday life. Mostly only when I go out for ice cream or head to the supermarket mid-day. Well, and now at the kiddie corral/day care when I go to play with Baby E. I just think it is strange that we can espouse that "it takes a village", and then create policies and practices that sequester kids away in centers/schools, totally separate from most of "adult" life. I will not be working full-time for much longer, and I am really looking forward to getting to spend even more time with Baby E.
Tune in tomorrow for - gasp! - knitting pictures...really!
Sweatergirl surrenders
A pitched battle waged all weekend, as I tried with all my might to coerce the Cashmerino Aran into something resembling the recommended gauge (18/24). On 8s, too tight. On 9s, too loose. And yet - I sorta thought it was too drapey on the 8s to start with. What's a girl to do? I think I am giving up the dream of making Celtic Dreams from this lovely yarn...although somehow CarolineF did a great job with this combo!
So I searched the basement (the stash confinement zone) for a likely candidate for the sweater I would so dearly like to have. Aha! A nice brown tweed that I had been saving for something wonderful. And right on gauge. Whew! But then...I just decided that I don't want another tweedy aran right now (cf the Old Friend Aran, which was completed just last fall, just in time to be temporarily grown out of). Nor another brown sweater right now. Booooring. Hmm.
So, for now, I surrender. Shall I ever achieve these Celtic Dreams? Not in the near future...but someday, perhaps.
Sweatergirl asks: Are we there yet?
Is there a knitblog record for the number of times an item has been declared finished, or "finished, except"? I may be close with Anjuli! I had finished it, and worn it (in March), but decided it was too long. So, with Sarah's help and guidance, I cut off the bottom and reknit the bottom band. I bound that off last Tuesday, EXCEPT - I still needed to pick up and knit the front bands, which I had ripped off to redo the length. Now those are done, and it is finished, EXCEPT for sewing on one more button, which I had to remove for the length-shortening thing, and then put in a very safe place, and now can't find. But I did sew in the few ends generated by the rebanding. So it is finished EXCEPT for one button on the bottom - and perhaps that is as finished as it shall ever be. SO perhaps it is time to wash/block.
Also disappointingly unfinshed - the little lavender sweater for Baby E - one sleeve is attached, but not seamed, and the other remains unattached. Buttons are also not attached. Remind me that there are many, many steps before declaring something "finished"!
Anyway - I wanted to finish all these not-quite-finsihed projects to clear the deck for Celtic Dreams, a Beth Brown-reinsel sweater, for Sarah's knitalong (she's the host, since she's got the button coming!). Maybe you could just tell me it's ok to start Dreaming anyway?
On top of that, I am going to be leading a Gansey Study Group at ThreadBear. It's based on Beth Brown-Reinsel's book Knitting Ganseys, and I need to get working on that as well. I've made the little sampler gansey, but need to find it, and want to go back and do some of the alternate cast-ons, etc...So that's a "need-to-start" thing that I need room in my knitting bag for (for which I need room in my knitting bag?). But just a little room - it's a tiny little sampler!
But I really just want to start Dreaming...that's ok, right?
