It may not be such a great idea

...to put down a project for which there is no pattern, because you're making up the pattern as you go along, for several weeks. It's easy to forget what you were doing, where you were in the pattern, and what the plan for the thing was.


All is not lost, though! Luckily, I've been carefully drafting a post for the pattern - for the lace alpaca stockings - on Blogger, so I was able to figure out where I was, and what my plan was to be.

I am not posting what I have done so far, because I am pretty sure the directions are strange and difficult to understand. Once I've started the second stocking, and have tweaked the pattern to be sure it makes sense to more people than just *me*, I'll post it. Assuming this works. And that it looks half-way decent. And fits.

Little else to report on the knitting front. I've started and restarted the ends to The Man's Birthday Scarf (which, as you may recall, was far too short. This is the risk one runs when knitting it lengthwise) and so far...I'm not sure. The problem seems to be that when I pick up what seems like the right number of stitches and start doubleknitting (as I did for the body of the scarf) the newly knitted portion pulls in and is narrower than the rest of the scarf. Meaning, it looks stupid. All homemade and badly done and stupid. I DO NOT want to frog the whole thing. NO. So I'll have to find a way to fix this. Blocking like mad? Or pick up too many stitches so that it almost flares outward, only to be snugged in by the doubleknitting? Haven't decided yet. I'll let you know.

In other news, it is warming up here. Nice mid-March weather, which means, of course, that it is gross and slushy and muddy. I discovered yesterday that the sidewalk plow has destroyed a significant portion of the front lawn. Not that the condo-corp will reseed. Oh, no, that's not their issue. Good grief, I want to move.

And, *hint hint*, that may happen someday in the not totally inconceivable future! I would need to have a job....but that might not be a problem, either.....Keep your fingers crossed for me, and for my sleep! Insomnia and office work do not work well together.

And why are there pictures of Wembley with this post? Because she's adorable, and I just love her to little puppy-pieces, that's why! Look at her little face....precious.

Knittin' through a fever

Ewww.

I'm si-i-i-i-i-i-ck.


I've been in bed all day, every day, since Sunday night. Blegh. This is pretty much the scene with Wembley around naptime, which is most of the time, I'm afraid.

The good news is that all this prone-ness has given me time to knit (between the frequent naps, mugs and bowls of hot things, and general lying around in misery).

I had this tweedy-green superwash wool in about a sport weight that was originally a scarf and part of a hat. The hat was never finished, the scarf was reinvented at least once, and I was never happy with the yarn in its incarnations. But the yarn is beautiful! It became Christmas knucks for my father (pics still to come, some day), but there was still a lot hanging around, waiting to become something fun. Not enough for a real project for me.....but enough for Wembley!

It's a teeny aran-style sweater. A pretty cable braid up the spine, a little ribbing on each side, a 1x1 ribbed split-collar (with a snazzy paprika stripe) and: bobbles on the bum! It's a snug fit, and covers her all the way to her skinny hairless belly. It's a bit of a challenge to get on her if she doesn't feel like being cooperative, but it keeps her warmer than anything else we have for her, and that's important given the weather we've been having here lately.

And the stockings are on three needles! It took forever. I had to frog that toe at least three times (maybe more) but it seems to be working out so far. I'm keeping careful notes, so I'm hoping to post an accurate recipe for my little creation. Here's hoping all goes well, and here's a pic of our progress to date:

So much to say!

Some changes have been made. Some are good, some are perhaps less good, but at least I know that I CAN alter my template. This makes me very happy, even if my header is still, well, that (look up. Yeeees, isn't it lovely....blah). I'm going to have hubs with his $27 000 IT education take a look at this. Surely to goodness he can make sense of the mess of HTML.

On to better and funner things! I won something!! I went and had the yearly poke-and-prod, sent of dear Bez' and email, and the result was yarn win-age! She has this marvelous and yarny contest on her blog. The Kootchie Awareness Yarn Extravaganza is an effort to increase the number of women going for their annual Pap. Fun, no. Necessary, absolutely. The prize is awarded monthly, and it is yarn. So beautiful blue sock yarn is winging its way from San Antonio, Texas, to my home, here in very cold, and very snowy, Ottawa, Ontario. Fabulous. Thanks so much, Bezzie! I'll certainly blog the yarn from arrival to final sockage, and as soon as I figure out what the hey-oh I'm doing with this template, I'll have your button up top in my sidebar. I encourage all ladies to go get probed, and enter your name! Then knit socks. They are fun and rewarding. And comfy.

Speaking of socks, I knit some! Ok, I knit one and a half, then ran out of yarn. And such a feeling of accomplishment! Such immediate satisfaction at so quickly having a knit garment on my body! Here it is, in it's partly completed form:

Buuuuuut (because there's a but): I'm frogging them. I used the toe-up Universal Sock Calculator from Knitty, and the result was a sock that is a little on the big side. I have total confidence in the formula: I think I just made the sock too long. Also, the pattern I used was an 8 st repeat, so I may have had to alter the numbers generated by the calculator a little too much to make the stitch pattern work. Regardless, I'm happy with my first attempt, and plan to get more yarn and knit more socks.

Which brings us to the Alpaca. I have this deep desire to knit the deep-v pullie from the Fall-Winter Vogue Knitting. It's beatiful. It has lace detailing. The v is so deep it wears like a cardigan (a shirt under this sweater is a necessity). I found yarn in a colour I liked but an entirely different gauge. I thought "maybe I can do some fancy math and make it work".

I hate doing fancy math. So now I have a ball of this beautiful fingering-weight, heathered-wine, Drops 100% Alpaca. This yarn is lovely. It is soft and delightful. It looooongs to be knit into something spectacular (which that pullie is and will be, soon as I find the perfect yarn). But what to knit? Socks didn't seem to suffice. Why knit something lovely and effectively hide it in shoes and under trouser-legs? This yarn doesn't want to be socks...it wants to be STOCKINGS! Wonderful, long, over-the-knee, held-up-with-garters, STOCKINGS! Lacey and striking, these stockings need to be fabulous. But I could find no such pattern, nothing I loved enough for which to dedicate my yarn. And really, what is a stocking but a sock with a very long leg, perhaps with a little shaping to accomodate the shape of the calf and knee. And who was it that received that big Vogue Knitting encyclopedia for Christmas? Oh, yes, that was me! Full of stitch patterns, including lace. So I swatched, and now I have:
this. It knits as a bottom-up pattern, so I'm adapting the toe-up calculator to create a more shallow toe and to make the lace fit. I'm hopeful. And I'm really looking forward to wearing these things. With any luck, by the time they're finished, I'll have a pair of boots to wear with them (I'm envisioning these stockings covering my knees as they rise from a pair of knee-high black leather boots and vanish under a skirt). I think they'll be cool rock-star-wife wear for Hubs' gigs.

But how fair would it be for me to neglect the rest of my household? Hubs will be getting something shortly, but Wembley got a sweater! It's been very cold up here, lately, and dear Wembles has been shivering. She has a hoodie she wears on her trips to the backyard, but she hasn't had an indoor sweater to wear when she's chilly from being outside. She got this:
The ribbing at the bottom of the sweater ended up flaring out more than I'd expected, so it's really a ruffle, which is far girlier than I had planned, but still pretty cute. I threw some short rows on the ribbing at the neck, so it has a shawl collar. !! Hilarious!

And I've been planning ahead.
I am currently cardi-less. I have one old cardi that never leaves the house because it's just not up to public viewing anymore. So I'm planning out a new button-up cardi. I'm thinking sapphire-blue, to hit just below or at the hip. In the pic, you can see my plan for some interesting ribbing almost under the arm and at the cuff of the sleeve. Should be cool. Now I just need to find some yarn and start swatching.

And prom's coming up!! Which means prom dresses. Heather, of the pompom kitty hat, here is your dress:

She wants it in red. I'm thinking if we can find a nice red, maybe sort of marbled, chiffon, it'll be beautiful. Ruched body - very flattering, not that Heather needs the help, you doll, you! - with a flamenco-inspired hemline and a key-hole back. I'm sure it will be lovely, and Heather will look stunning!!