If at first you don’t succeed…

I haven’t knit since Saturday. And I haven’t read anyone’s blogs either. I’ve been too depressed after the whole Tempting II debacle. I couldn’t face seeing all of the nice, finished, Olympic projects without my frustration getting in the way…. Well today I checked my blog (and if we’re really being honest here I checked it with the intention of staring at the picture of the Tempting II and obsessing a little more) and… well.. .your comments just made my day. Thanks so much for all of your support. Thank you for caring enough to take the time and help me out. Knitters are such wonderful people!!! THANK YOU!

So ok I’m going to stop being depressed about this and I’m going to forget that I swore off knitting for awhile (yeah like that was gonna happen). You’ve inspired me to get back in the game and finish the darn thing. There’s got to be a way to make this work.

But before I do that I’m going to try to catch up on my blog reading…So in the meantime here’s a picture of my new couch! (I might have gotten a tad carried away with the noting … I’ve been adding construction notes to drawings at work for like a week now so I can’t help myself anymore)
Isn’t it fun? We had such issues finding a couch… I’m not a tall person and I didn’t want a couch that was so big it made me feel like a little kid. Plus our living room is not huge – and most furniture out there is. And there was the whole debate… couch and loveseat… couch and two chairs… couch and lounge? Then we found this. It’s exactly what both of us wanted but completely different than either of us pictured. Funny how that works out. I never imagined I would like a sectional… but this works so well with the space and fits perfectly under the window. Plus the lounge is a wonderful spot to sit and knit….

Now we just need a rug, and a chair, and a tv table, and end tables, and shelving, and a dining room table, and curtains, and better lighting, and artwork for the walls, and a new coat of paint, etc. etc. etc. Baby steps, right?

DNF

So I finish connecting the sleeves to the body of my Tempting II… (By the way how cool is that? All of a sudden I have a sweater!) and I knit along – on size 6 needles… with over 250 stitches on each row… happily for 4 inches. That’s a LOT of knitting. I really stepped it up on Saturday…in fact – I stayed up until 3am working on this damn thing and I was feeling pretty good about myself and my chances for finishing. All I had to do was knit 2 more inches on the yoke and then knit the band around the neck and I had almost 24 hours left. No problem right?

So then I read the next step because I wanted to think about how easy it would be to get my gold medal while I fell asleep… plus I was kindof curious as to how the armpit was joined to the body…. And I read this:

Turn work inside out. Remove underarm sts of one sleeve from waste yarn and place on a double-point needle. Remove corresponding underarm sts of body from waste yarn and place on second double-point needle. Join body sts to sleeve sts using three-needle BO and long tail from sleeve.

And my Tempting II looks like this:
Oh Shit. Oh shit. OOOOOOOH Shit.

Remove corresponding underarm sts of body

Um…. I don’t have any of those! Wait they never told me to do that! They told me to join the sleeves to the body but they didn’t say anything about leaving body stitches just hanging there!!!

At the underarms, the sts on waste yarn from the body and from the sleeves will be opposite each other. These sts will be joined later on.

Oh. And just to rub a little salt in the wound the pattern also says this in bold italic:

Join Sleeves to Body
NOTE: Read through this entire step before beginning.

Well shit.

There’s nothing I can do but rip it all back. There are live stitches in my armpits with nothing to attach them to and my yoke is 40 stitches too wide. And I knit like that for over 8 hours.

I feel like Bode Miller. I partied when I should have been diligently working toward my Olympic dream. Then it looked like I was going to medal despite that. I got all excited and the crowd was cheering and the medal was so close I could taste it…. and then I got cocky, lost my concentration, and made a stupid mistake that caused me a DNF. Did Not Finish.

I feel like such an idiot. But like Bode Miller I’m going to pretend that I don’t care.

*Sob.*

Success

Ok so I’m cruising on my Tempting II. I’ve finished both sleeves and am about to join them to the body… I wanted to try it on first to make sure everything was ok…. And well… It fits GREAT!!!! My Math worked!!!! It hugs my curves in the right places and is long enough and well… here’s an awful picture (I would have had my husband take it but he's off playing basketball enjoying the weather)


This is very exciting from a girl who was terrified that the math and the small needles would end badly….

Ok… I need to go join the sleeves to the body now. It’s too nice outside to stay indoors and knit so I’m taking the knitting with me to the dog park with Dexter. I’ll probably post pics when I get back.

I actually have a chance of finishing this!!!!!!

Olympic Update

Thanks for all of the supportive posts! Knitters are really wonderful people…. I unfortunately may have completely screwed my chances for finishing …. last night instead of diligently working on my sweater I went to Jill’s house, watched American Idol, and got drunk. What can I say – we all deal with stress in different ways… and there are some things that are more important than knitting (Blasphemy!) - like friends (and wine.)

Tonight I’m going to a happy hour party… but hopefully tomorrow I can seriously get cranking on this… and perhaps even still meet the deadline (hope never dies)– If I can find the size 6 DPN that I lost last night… It was really hard to keep track of 5 needles after starting with the wine….

And just so that I don't have two posts in a row w/o any pictures here's a shameless shot of my dog.

Talented Husband Update

Ok so… a few posts ago I wrote about how Matt has this rendering up at the airport. And then that post was linked to by Brewed Fresh Daily… which completely freaked me out. Because why would someone care about this? So I added the disclaimer… well I tell Matt about all of this and he just laughed at me. Here’s about what he said: Noone cares about your views on architecture in Cleveland – I’m sure that’s not why they linked there. Don’t worry about it…thousands of people see that add every day while walking through the airport it doesn’t matter if a few more see it on your blog - if anything you’re sending more people to the Avalon Station site which is a good thing… you should put in your blog "if you want to buy a condo click here!" and really, shamelessly promote it!

Ok so fine. I admit I overreacted just a little… but I can’t help but be freaked out when people other than knitters wander into my site. Because the online knitting community is this amazing network of support and general love of craft and goodwill. So I just assume that knitters are good people – and non-knitters… well… people can be mean when they have the internet to hide behind…. and I was afraid of that happening here.

So anyways sorry for the freakout and the unnecessary disclaimer…. I’m going to take it off.

And thanks for the link Brewed Fresh Daily! I do enjoy your site!

And if you are for some strange reason interested in my views on architecture in Cleveland – or on what I think should happen to Scranton Peninsula (A community and recreation facility centered around the WRRF boathouse, and a phytoremediation park that phases the site into housing) email me and I’ll send you a link.

Olympic meltdown

I’m getting close to having an Olympic meltdown. There is no way I’m going to finish this in 3 days. No way. What the hell was I thinking with the "Oh it’ll be so much nicer if I go down a needle size or 3." and the "Oh it’ll be easy to add shaping". Soooo dumb. I feel like back when I was in college during "project week". The deadline looms closer and closer while my chances of finishing get slimmer and slimmer….it’s not that I haven’t been knitting constantly because believe me I have… it’s more that I didn’t read the full pattern before figuring out my timeline for completion. ALWAYS READ THE WHOLE PATTERN FIRST!

Oh well… at least I participated. And it’s not over yet… I might be able to pull this off…

and ps... that is the new couch that my knitting is sitting on! I'll post a pic as soon as our living room is "picture ready" meaning not covered in laundry....

My talented husband

Ok that would be a picture of a huge advertisement that they have in the Cleveland Airport. It’s on the way from all of the gates to the baggage claim so everyone who flies into Cleveland walks past it. And the big picture was completely rendered by (and the building was partially designed by) my husband. He acts like things like this are no big deal but I think this is a clear sign that he is wonderful, talented, a great designer, and clearly an exceptional architect. I might be a tad biased, though.

In case you're interested you can see more of his renderings here.

Team Jeanne

So in my lunchtime blog reading I discovered this really cool button:

Apparantly there is a Team Jeanne for the knitting olympics! How fun is that! There are only 4 members but whatever... we have a team! Here are the members:

Crafty Hijinks

A Bluestocking Knits (the organizer and button maker for Team Jeanne)

K3tog

Ok. back to real work.

Vaca with the old folks.

So this past weekend I spent with my mom in Florida visiting my grandparents. Once you get into the slow, relaxed life that they lead there it’s really hard to get out of. Every day I was there I took a nap by the pool. Every day. You just can’t beat that. And now it’s lunch at work and all I want to do is take a nap in the sun……unfortunately it’s like 10 degrees out and I have work to do.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the flea market. I got random t-shirts for $1 (perfect for painting in) and $4 "designer" sunglasses for both me and Matt…. And fresh strawberries and funnel cake for lunch. Goodstuff. I also bought a hippie skirt (they are supposedly "in" for spring) and a visor to wear rowing. I love the flea market.

My grandmother is the ultimate enabler… while we were there and supposed to be working on Olympic Knitting she showed me how to do this:


Yup. That would be wool dying. Here’s the finished results drying in the sun on their porch:

So fun to play with. I’m going to have to do more dying although perhaps not in such neon colors…

I did manage to knit quite a lot – as did my mom and my grandma…. It was pretty cool – Three generations of Olympic Knitters:



It was a nice trip.

Valentines Surprise

So last night I went around to the side of the house to check something and I saw this:
I have buds! I have plants! I have green! So I call my grandma all freaked out because it seems really early for these to be coming up and she assured me that nature will take care of itself even if it gets cold again and that I don’t need to do anything. I should have flowers soon! I wonder what they are… I’m hoping for hyacinth… those are my favorite spring flowers other than lilacs.

I love having a house – our apartment never surprised us with flowers.

Happy Valentines Day!

So I have the best husband ever. In our 7 plus years together we have never done anything for Valentines Day other than a card. Seriously. It’s just not that big of a thing for us (although I do still have the very first V-day card he ever gave me from back in ‘99). Plus having to give gifts stresses Matt out bigtime… and who needs stress over something as silly as ValentinesDay? And I really wasn’t expecting anything this year since every spare penny is going to either doing things to the house or saving for one of the many trips we have planned…. Well last night he came home with chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered grapes from Malley’s. Oh my gosh. Totally didn’t expect that. Malley’s chocolate strawberries are my favorite food EVER. Actually Malley’s chocolates in general will win my heart every time….what a guy.

I also got this Valentine in the mail yesterday:

It’s a table runner that my grandma randomly made for me. I can’t wait to see her this weekend! Also if you look at the aloe you can see the houseplant gnome Rgill gave me peeking out...

Ok I have to go knit during the rest of lunch if I’m ever going to get this modified Tempting II done for my gold medal…. Here’s where I was as of this morning….



I tried it on last night and it fits great – and I think the shaping is looking really nice…. But what the hell was I thinking when I switched to a much smaller needle? I cast on 260 stitches… which is like twice what it would have been had I stuck to the pattern as written. I’m stooopid. I figure I have to knit about an inch and a half per day to be able to get this bad boy done… so I’ll be knitting at lunch, on the bus, in the car on the way to work, while cooking dinner, while playing with the dog, while doing everything…. I so want that gold medal….

Oh and speaking of medals check out this site: Olympic Medal Winners. It’s the closest thing to an IMDB for the Olympics that LB has found…. Very informative.

no time for blog must knit.

No time to blog… must knit… must knit like the wind or I’m never gonna get a gold medal…So here’s some pictures from this weekend that Matt’s parents sent us:
I unfortunately completely forgot to take pictures of us on the slopes despite my camera being in my pocket the entire time… probably because I was focusing on doing all of the things that Matt keeps telling me to do so that I’m a hella good skiier by the time we get to Vail – things like "attack the hill more" and "jump when you turn because you’re gonna have to when we’re skiing all of that fresh powder!"

I can’t wait for Vail…. I can’t wait.

Ok back to knitting... the halfpipe is back on!

Tired Blogger

Ok so I’m exhausted. I was skiing at Holiday Valley all weekend and it was good but I’m too tired and sore to blog now… or respond to all the comments… or download pictures… or any of that. So I’ll just leave you with this:

Dick Cheney Shot Someone.

Read that sentence out loud to yourself like 3 times.
Holy crap.

Off to knit and watch the olympics!

It's Tempting to do Math

So… good idea or bad idea….

I started to swatch Tempting II in the ribbing that the pattern calls for because I’m that insane… and I don’t think I like how loose the fabric is on this thin of a yarn – especially because as written the gauge for the pattern is pretty stretched out. So I’m going to go down a needle size to 6’s and re-gauge the whole thing with the ribbing not as stretched out… throw in like a half-inch of negative ease to make the pattern close fitting and I should be ok right? Does that sound like an awful idea? I’ve never changed the gauge for a pattern before… it’s just a lot of math right? I can handle math…

Then my other idea… I think I want to add a little shaping. I know that the stretchy yarn combined with the ribbing will make it fit no matter what… but you see I’m REALLY an hourglass… and shirts that are fit to my chest generally look like bags on me. And I’m worried that if I knit this straight then it’s going to look bad b/c it will be stretched within an inch of it’s life across my chest and then baggy across my waist. Neither of which is very flattering. I added shaping to the Ribbon X-back I knit awhile ago and it came out GREAT. (yeah.. that was a whole other story – I knit the whole thing to the pattern and it looked awful… like I was wearing a sack of ribbon yarn. I had to frog and re-knit the whole thing!) It fits me perfectly. Here's a shot of the shaping:



And a picture of it on:

I think I may print this one out and hang it on the 'fridge as motivation to stop with the eating. Holy backfat batman!

One of the huge advantages to knitting clothes is that I can custom fit them to me (as a girl who is shy of 5’3 and curvy it’s rare I find clothes that really fit me well)….I’m nervous about the shaping in the ribbing pattern, though… but I just have to pair the increases and decreases so that on the next row my ribbing is the same…I think….

I can do this right?

I think all of this math may allow me to qualify for this team:

Secret Pal Seven Package

I am a blogging machine! So many posts! But Matt has taken over the tv in order to relive the glory of the superbowl via Madden ’05 so I’m in here with the little dog on my lap bloggin’ away. Life is good.

So I had a very long day at work today…… I won’t go into details but I had a big meeting and there’s this deadline coming up and it’s just getting stressful… so I get home and there is a SECRET PAL PACKAGE waiting for me! I feel like the luckiest girl ever! Here’s what was inside:


It’s a notecard that has a red hat lady on it that I will be sure to show my grandma Bobbie, 2 packages of beads that are so beautiful and may become stitch markers in the near future (by the way hematite is my favorite stone! Good call on that one!), some yummy chocolate which is always good, the pattern for the Ribby Cardy which is something I’ve been thinking about knitting forever but have been too indecisive to buy the pattern. Now that I have the pattern this may have to move to the top of my list of things to knit!… and also…5 balls of Luna Endless Summer in the most lovely shiny pink. I love, love, love shiny pink!!!! I’ve never used this yarn before but it is gorgeous!!! I love it. Here’s a better shot of the color.


I’m sure that the second the Knitting Olympics are over I will be searching for patterns for this yarn… I’m thinking a cute springy tank top? Perhaps with some lacy trim or some other cool detailing? Any suggestions?

Oh and I think my secret pal lives in New York City right now but she said that she is originally from Cleveland and that’s just so cool. She also has a dog and is into the beading thing… whoever made these matches did a really good job.

THANK YOU SECRET PAL!!!

Team Tempting II

I threw together some buttons for my Knitting Olympics event... not sure if there are too many other people participating in Tempting II but perhaps this will help me to find them!

I also posted a few olympic buttons on Knit Ohio although I just found out that there is already a Team Ohio formed...Notice how I like making buttons but only have one on on my sidebar? Perhaps I should fix that....

Citius, Alitius Fortius!

Knitting Olympics Decision

Ack! for some reason this post didn't actually post when I wrote it last night.... oops!

Does anyone remember that line in Friends when Monica and Chandler decide to move in together and she says to Rachel in the whiniest voice possible “I have to live with a boooooy,”? Yeah. That’s me right now. My house is starting to smell like a combo of boy feet and cigars. But whatever… I’ll just keep on bloggin until they leave.

So I finally, finally picked a project for the Knitting Olympics!!!! I’ve bought the yarn and officially signed up so I’m committed. Thank you all so much for all of your help in deciding what to do – all of your comments and votes really helped me out. In the end I decided to do something completely different. Yeah… I’m a little ADD with my knitting. See Rosie (big shout out to Rosie in Portland!) said that I should knit something sexxxy ‘cause that’s just cool. And I agree. I want to knit something sexy. But then Jill talked me down from the hourglass ledge that I was about to jump over by warning me that if I spend all of that money on yarn and try to rush the project “you might fuck it up.” Yup. I probably would. So back to the drawing board of knitty patterns I went and decided on Tempting II. Check out the pic...

According to Rebecca (big shout out to Rgill in the Cbus) it’s a very me shirt… and according to Sarah (Big shout out to Sarah T. hmmm I’m shouting out more than I’m posting. Oh well) it’s girly and therefore perfect for me. Hell even Osam approves of this pattern (although he said something about boobs so I’m not sending a shout out his way.) (shit. I just used the words sexy and boobs in the same post. weirdo searches are going to lead people to my blog now. Ugh… freaks go away no boobs here!!! only knitting!!!) So off I went to the yarn store. They didn’t have the yarn called for in the pattern… but they did have some Cascade Fixation…which is this really cool (aka cheap) cotton and elastic blend. Yup. Elastic. It’s awesomely stretchy… but a little wonky to knit with... And they had the exact amount I needed in only one color – a pretty coral pink that is… well… very very very girly and therefore very very very me. It was meant to be. I finished my “training” aka swatching tonight at SnB and got perfect gauge on 7’s so I’m good to go. I can’t wait to cast on!!! Here's my swatch and my yarn...

Oh and just so you know I’m not the only crazy – there are over 3,000 knitbloggers doing the Knitting Olympics. Which is more participants than actual athletes competing in the games!!! And check out all of the teams! There was even an NPR article on us!!! We’re on NPR!!!!!!!!

So exciting. I'll be sure to obsessively post updates once I get started. Until then I give up... the guys are never leaving... wait... now they are coming to talk to me.... guess their game is over. Lataz.

Superbowl Recap

So the Steelers won! I have a very happy husband right now. We watched the game from Sports Rock in Pittsburgh. We were there for 11 hours. That is a really, really, really long time people. But whatever – we got to riot afterwards and that’s all that counts right? And by riot I mean we went to the Southside and joined the masses of people walking around and screaming…. Check out this article - we saw that guy with the fake trophy! Here's some pics from the weekend (more on the photoblog):


Matt and Joel getting nervous about the game


The game had many ups and downs.


But in the end it was fun to celebrate with the crowd at the bar



And we got to see tons of random fans going nuts, police in riot gear and a police helicopter!


Plus that hat I knit came in real handy!!!

A Cleveland Fan's Superbowl Rant

Ok my husband is in the kitchen with like 10 other guys playin' hold-em. It's their new tuesday tradition... while I'm off knitting Matt wins all of their money. Works for me! Only now I just want to veg and go to sleep... and there's lots of smelly, loud guys in my house. So I'll blog instead....

So we all know the Steelers won the superbowl…. And my husband is thrilled… and I’ll blog about all of that next. First there is something that I need to get off my chest…and I think this cartoon pretty much sums it up:


I spent all day Sunday at a sports bar in Pittsburgh… and it was fun and all but there was one thing that really, really pissed me off. People thinking that Steelers fans and Pittsburgh fans are better than anywhere else. That it means more for the city or that people care more. I can’t tell you how many people asked me if I had ever seen anything like the crowd of people all in Steelers colors…. Or worse yet assumed that oh you’re from Cleveland so you’ve never experienced this, right? Um. YEAH. Cleveland was CRAZY during the ’95 and ’97 series!!! CRAZY! It was the same thing – everyone cared, everyone was so excited, hell even my Catholic school allowed dress down days for people to wear Indians gear on every day of the series. And all anyone talked about was that it was so important for the city and soooo important for our fans. Who by the way are still great fans despite the fact that we don’t have any championships to rest on. It’s a hell of a lot easier to be a fan of a team that is going for "one for the thumb" than a fan of a team that has never even been there. Not to mention the fact that we lost the Browns for a few years…and the fact that we’ve been ranked the most painful place to be a fanby ESPN - and yet still Browns tickets are hard to get. I remember that during the ’97 series (the most recent championship we’ve had) they even opened up Nautica (the amphitheater downtown) to show all of the playoff and series games on the big screen. That’s where I watched in horror as our team lost the series in the 11th inning of game 7 to a team that essentially bought themselves a championship…. that is heartbreak, people. And had we won there would have been the same insane celebrations afterwards. Walking out of Nautica that night a huge crowd of drunken baseball fans was essentially silent – some were even crying. And to say that a city who holds the longest running sellout record in Major League Baseball history at 455 consecutive games – a record that is third in all of professional sports history doesn’t have fans that "care as much" is simply ignorant.

If the Browns ever do get there I guarantee you our fans will be just as crazy as they are in Pittsburgh. It will mean just as much if not more for our city. Especially since it will be our first trip to the big game.

Ok. Off my soapbox now…much better to blog about it today then to get into a fight with some drunk at a bar on game day..... on to blog about more fun things. I think I'll start a new post....

7 days until the Olympics!!!

I am a complete Olympic junkie. I’ll admit it. It’s like crack. I will spend the entirety of the games sitting on my couch completely transfixed by sports that I know nothing about. And with DVR I won't miss a minute of it. I can’t wait. And Tomba la Bomba is rumored to be lighting the flame. God I was so in-love with him back in ’94…. what can I say – dark, curly hair gets me every time!

So…in honor of the Olympic spirit and all I have finally decided to join the Knitting Olympics. Problem is I’m not exactly sure what to knit. I’m going to be out of town both weekends that the Olympics are on so I’m not going to have too much knitting time….but I don’t want to knit something lame…. Ok… here are my options. Tell me what you think….

1. Clapotis – I would finally make the leap into the world of clapotis-addicted knit bloggers! I have some hand-spun, hand-dyed silk that my grandma gave me that I could use for it. I only have enough to make a mini one, though and I’m not sure that is an Olympic-worthy project... then again I've never knit one before and it sounds pretty complicated.
2. Armwarmers – I have some knitpicks yarn leftover and they happen to be in Irish colors…. So I could make these to wear on St. Patrick’s day. I’ve already made 2 pairs, though and I’m a little sick of them… it would be a challenge to get them done that quickly, though.
3. Irish hiking scarf – I’ve been kinda sorta thinking about making this or another cabled scarf for my Grandma Bobbie to wear on St. Patrick’s day – she’s really into it. Downside is the project might get a little boring to knit monogamously.
4. Hourglass Sweater – I’ve been thinking about making this for awhile. I might have to pull all nighters to get it done as an Olympic project, though and I don’t have the yarn for it yet and I keep getting hung up on what yarn to even use. It could be possible, though and if I completed it would most definitely qualify as epic.

Ok… what do you think? All of you lurkers out there please, please, please vote!

Inspiration

So I found my inspiration to keep up the gymming even though "Lance" is no more: That would be a picture of Vail Colorado. Where I’m going in April. I’M GOING SKIING IN COLORADO!!!!! Yup. We decided to go. I’ve never been skiing out west and I just can’t wait! So now I will definitely be keeping up the spinning. I need me some strong legs to withstand 3 or 4 days of skiing on the biggest mountain I’ve ever been on! That and I’ll be seeing some people I haven’t seen since college graduation… and I dunno about youl but when I see people I haven’t seen in awhile I always want to look reeeeal good. Ya know?

Knitting Updates & Some Bad News

Ok so here’s some stuff I’ve been working on but neglected to blog about b/c of the whole sick thing….

Aunt Cathy’s Armwarmers:

I knit these for my husband’s aunt per her request – she saw my Sister-in-law’s Armwarmers at Christmas and wanted her own pair! I used the same pattern – Natalaya’s Gauntlets - with the same modifications only knit in Wool-Ease so they’d be machine washable and a little longer so they’d be nice and warm. She plays the organ needs something to keep her hands warm but her fingers free in the cold church. I sent them to her this week and I’m hoping she likes them!



Matt’s Scarf:



This is the boyfriend scarf in Last Minute Knitted Gifts knit out of two balls of Patons Merino held together. I like it. It’s a little curly but the blocking helped a lot with that….

In other news a horrible thing happened last night. Horrible, I tell you. My spinning instructor who we affectionately call "Lance" (ok by affectionately I mean mockingly but whatever) quit. He QUIT. No warning, nothing. I feel so abandoned. Who is going to scream at us that we’re "his team" and "that’s perfect form don’t fuck it up!"? Who’s going to be all creepy and pat us on the back? So sad. Now we have the super-bitch instructor. She’s insane. She ran two marathons back to back in the same weekend. INSANE. And she takes it all a little too seriously – but not in an amusing and harmless kindof way like Lance did. More like in a "I'm better than you so don't even try" manner. And worst of all… her music sucks. So now Jill and I have to find a new motivation for going to the gym...I'll let you know how that one turns out...