Sugar Bunny Boulevard

Finally!

A millon things!  I have at least one million things to tell and my crazy keyboard keys are sticking so badly I can hardly type at all.  If you see freaky little typos please don't send me hate mail.  I'm not a bad speller.

SO.... it's horrible but I've been avoiding blogging because I wasn't feeling so great about how my WLC was going.  But this morning started great when I looked down and saw 210 staring me in the face.  I lost 10 pounds in January!  Awesome way to start the year.  By summer you won't even recognize me!  :)

I've started my first EPS sweater.  EPS is also known as the Elizabeth Zimmerman Percentage System.  I spent quite some time over the past few months thinking HARD and searching far and wide for "just the right pattern" to teach a sweater class.  Nobody will learn to seam up a sweater attending an EPS workshop but they will learn a lot of sweater construction info and several finishing techniques that don't involve mattress stitch.

A few weeks ago I did get yarn and buttons to make myself an EPS cardigan but decided to do a "practice" sweater first in Emeline's size (so Lila Pearl could grow into it, obviously).  Using the big box o' Cascade 220 that MargaretD from Canada gave me, I did just that.  And EZ is correct - even if you're using up stash nobody would guess it if you insert some color work.

I started this small sweater (co 135 stitches for body) and decided to stretch the main color as much as possible.  The hems are all contrasting with a heathered tangerine color.

It's amazing that I still have a hair on my head after trying and tryin to sew down the hem the first time.  I really like doing a provisional caston because it works better for me - don't ask me why because I don't know.  I just like the way the live stitches present themselves a little better than some other ways I tried.  Finally I did find a few very helpful photos and description of this method on the Schoolhouse Press web site where Meg Swanson (Elizabeth Zimmerman's daughter) did a Christmas Stocking knitalong.  Toward the end she tells/shows how she seamed down the cuff/hem and included a tip of knitting the last row on a contrasting hem in the object's main color, then obviously stitching it down with yarn matching the main color.  Oh what a difference that made for me.  And here I am wanting to lead an EPS Workshop?  I hope my students don't read my blog and then think I'm a big phony and don't know what I'm doing.

Reaching the body/sleeve join was an exciting moment but I had been a little concerned about my main color lasting through the whole project.  How to stretch that color without a startling contrast to the very strong color section at the bottom??  I settled on a very simple color section with low contrast colors.  It's supposed to be something like a trellis look to compliment the flowered section at the bottom.  Hopefully it doesn't result in a busy overall look.  The idea is to make it appear that I planned all of this ya know.  ha

I still need to finish all of the hems and graft the underarms, then sew in loose ends in various locations.

OH MY G O D.  As I'm sitting here working on this post Lila Pearl just went over and took my embroidery scissors and CUT A HOLE in the front center main color section.  Of. This. Sweater.

Post Over.  Gotta go destress just a little.

Firsts

Something that I tell people who are about to experience a "First" is that they should live every moment.  Usually it's regarding a first pregnancy.

There are many Firsts in life.  First love, first kiss.  First (and hopefully only) marriage.  First time to buy a home, a car, a computer.  First pregnancy, labor, delivery, child.  Every first should be savored because it will never be your first time again.  Another love, or kiss or car or home or child is always fun and wonderful and exciting and thrilling but it will never ever be your First again.

Emeline and Lila Pearl got a new wagon for Christmas from their Gammy (Jeff's mother).  The first time Lila Pearl layed eyes on that wagon she said "I get in it! I get in it!"  Sweet moment.  That was Christmas day.  Today we're having a beautiful warm day for January in Kansas (it happens) so Daddy took Emeline and Lila Pearl for their maiden voyage in the new wagon.  No, this doesn't mean it has replaced our trusty red stroller.... but they were very excited to try out the wagon for the First Time.  They took a ride to "Squishy Squares Park" as we like to call it - and everyone around here knows which one we mean when they learn what we call it.  The park has recycled rubber tiles as the "floor", which are squishy squares.  So the name.  I didn't go with them to Squishy Squares Park but I did take pictures of them on their way out.

The knitters among you might notice that Emeline is wearing a hand knit sweater/jacket that you haven't seen before.  That would be a First for me.  My First finished object knit from a pattern, that is.  About 13 years ago.  I could knit and purl but wanted a project that would teach me something new.  I picked up a "learn to knit" Leisure Arts booklet and decided I would knit this sweater.  Project cost was a very important factor for me so I used what was available and affordable to me - Red Heart yarn (less than $5 total), book (about $4), needles including cable needles (probably not more than a total of $6).  Low cost for a few weeks of entertainment.  Being a new knitter and just learning to increase, decrease, and cable - I was a concentration maniac.  Nobody could interrupt me for pointless things (except Benny and Katie who were babies) because I was CONCENTRATING!!  Woooo.... my poor ex husband.  Why did he bother me with unimportant questions when I was knitting?  He learned quick after I attacked him like a rabid dog a few times that it was a bad idea to interrupt me when I was knitting after the babies went to bed.  That was MY time!  ha  So I finished this beautiful hooded sweater, sewed in the zipper (I was much more confident with the sewing machine than the knitting needles) and it became my First Finished Object.  There was no fanfare.  No pictures.  No internet.  No Ravelry.  It now has a few pills that I pull off now and then, and the things fits Emeline to a T.  Just perfect.  All of my kids have worn it through the years and I'm sure Lila Pearl will too.  Or maybe I'll make her a new one.  With wool yarn.  I do still have the pattern book and it's even still sold new today.

Everybody have a wonderful rest of your weekend and I'm looking forward to my next few posts - WLC and the Letter A!  :)

Happy Wednesday

Hi everybody!  It's Wednesday. 

I feel like such a little whiner sometimes when I go to use typepad (my blog host) and they're "down".  Down time for typepad was approximately five... maybe ten minutes yesterday.  During a time that I was working on my sidebar content.  "Oh what an inconvenience," I thought.  A few minutes ago I was ready to do a post and... whoops... thirty seconds without typepad.  Maybe a minute.  But seriously.  With all the griping that people do about blogger - I just don't see how I could possibly complain.  I didn't intend to do any free advertising for typepad today but gosh, I can't help it.  I really do love typepad and I'm so thankful that when I started my blog and had no clue what I was getting into, typepad is the host I selected.  Whew.  Thank you typepad people.  I really love you and appreciate the service you provide.  :)

After yesterday's weird little post, I'll add just a *few* more comments.  I'll try not to rant or ramble.  Cause ranting and rambling really is not attractive.

1. I'm thankful that I am not the Yarn Harlot because she would have gotten ripped in a thousand ways about the post that I wrote if she had written it.
2. I'm thankful that my commenters were respectful and kind and didn't rip me in a thousand ways.
3. If I/we expect men to treat women better, maybe we need to do a better job teaching our children how to treat others from the start.  This is big to me.
4. There is no way to displace responsibility for the actions of the lady who tried to hurt another person.  But really all I saw was .... this person was in the space program a year ago.  We don't have the whole story and probably never will but.... you don't go from being in the space program to landing in jail for assault and attempted kidnapping (or whatever her actual charges are) without a LOT of weird stuff happening in between.  It will be very interesting to hear what the media has to say about her recent relationship with her husband.  Jeff said he heard a story that they were already seperated before she did all of this so.... I don't know.  Of course she has to be penalized for the awful thing she did but something drove her to this craziness.
5. A person never knows what they might do under extreme conditions - emotional or physical or financial even.  That's why I said "this could happen to anybody regardless of their social status or educational level."  Crazy behavior isn't reserved for people with known mental health problems.  When you're faced with the reality of your world falling apart for whatever reasons, a person sometimes does things they normally wouldn't do.

Ready for some knitting? 

I'm knitting this for Suzannah:

The pattern calls for Koigu Kersti.  I dyed six skeins of Knitpicks worsted "Bare" yarn and so far it looks like this:

Sometimes it is just impossible to get an accurate photo of yarn colors.  We're having overcast conditions here so the lighting is not good for photos.  The colorway is mostly variegated green with spots of red and pink and occasional blips of blue and golden yellow.  I got a little red-crazy on one skein so I'm aternating it with another skein every two rows to spread out the pinkness.  The other four skeins are much more green.  And overall it's much darker than the above photo.  Here are two more pictures of the colorway:

I'm 12" into the back.  Armhole decreases begin at 14".  I've got stitch gauge but not row gauge.  It might appear to be knit for an Amazon when it's finished but maybe it'll all come out in the blocking. I have very little experience blocking sweaters.  Can I get it to smoosh down in row gauge with blocking?  Should I have used another needle size smaller?  Now that I think about it I guess I've heard (read) people say that you can block bigger but not smaller.  Hm.  When I started I thought "Gauge smauge...  If it's too big she'll grow into it."  I hope I was right cause I'm not turning back now.

Knitting Foes

Whelp.... so much for my sidekick abilities.  The Colts won.  Congratulations to Peyton Manning, congratulations to his coach and his team.  Congratulations to the team owner (as if he has anything to do with them winning) and all that.  And I'm sure the boy in Katie's math class will come up with a new lifetime wish.  Fourteen is a sadly early age to have your greatest dream/wish come true.  Aim higher, hon.  But be careful what you wish for.... we all know what happened to Hurley when he won the Lottery!  heh

LOST will be starting up again on Wednesday.  This is a much bigger event to me than the Super Bowl and it is only one fourth as LONG.  I swear I will probably CRY when this episode is over on Wednesday night because I don't have any more LOST for another WEEK.  I just finished watching the last disk of the first season.  Whew!  I was on the edge of my seat for all six disks.  I'm telling you.... it was HARD TO TURN THE TV OFF when it was getting late at night.  At some point during disk four or five at the end of one show Pregnant CLAIRE popped out of the woods and then the show was over... and my husband jumped off the couch, turned off the TV and said, "Time for bed!"  GAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!  ::calm::calm::calm::  I am looking forward to Wednesday night with great anticipation.  And I want NO INTERRUPTIONS.  Honey, do you think we can get TIVO by then?  If not, I might have to rent a hotel room for an hour.  *smooch*

So we have some knitting foes!  Yes, I feel the need to spell it out.  Because people will be wanting to correct my grammar if I don't.  Really.  When you have a knitted Finished Object you refer to it as a FO.  But do people say that in their mind as FOE or as EFF OH ??

I say FOE.  Gramatically that is .... "I have a FOE to show."

Some say EFF OH.  Gramatically that is "I have an EFF OH to show."

Now that we're on the same page... and you know that I say FOE.... here we have it.

Besotted.  In the category of "Norma said if it's not in the mail, don't send it now - save it for next year."

Next up... a long overdue FOE.... Katie Basic Sweater from LB Homespun - the yarn I will never use again unless I'm being tortured on a deserted island in a dimly lit underground bunker and the only way to get home is to knit with this yarn.  BLEH.  They'd probably require that I also count rows which is pretty much impossible even with good light.  Goodbye dear sweater, I am so glad to be FINISHED WITH YOU.  And Katie loves it.  But she doesn't like how it flares out a bit in the back.  I told her "It's not supposed to be a fitted sweater, dear."  I was on Sleeve Island for EVER with this sweater but I have something new in the wings that I'm just dying to work on so this one had to get finished first cause I'm just that kind of person.  I have very little self control when it comes to finishing stuff and I was feeling AWFUL that I hadn't gotten this done for Katie sooner.  It was finished last night at midnight and she wore it to school today - thus, poorly lit photos.

More randomish stuff:

• I really want to make photo albums for my FOEs.
• The Kansas Knit Bloggers webring is READY!  YAY!!  I need to make a seperate post for this but it's not happening today.  I'm still working on links for the sidebar on the home page but the ringsurf joining page is ready.  The webring is intended for people that actually do live in Kansas or who travel here often and might talk about Kansas yarn shops or something on their blog.  The purpose is to help bring together Kansas knitters as a regional community.  Hopefully anyone with an interest in Kansas or who would like to know about yarn shops and fiber farms in Kansas will find our blogring full of helpful information and friendly people.  But really.... current or future residence in the state of Kansas is pretty much necessary, don't you think?  I'm not a born leader... I'm too wishy washy sometimes... so maybe I'm a terrible person to host the ring!  But I'll try - I'll really TRY to put my foot down about some sensible guidelines about participation in the ring.  With a smile too.  :)

Everybody have a great week!  Knit!  Stay toasty warm!  Enjoy the snow if you have some!  Take down your Christmas tree if you haven't already!  :)