AAARGH !

Oh, I am SO not impressed !!!

I haven't sewn a stitch since November and have a skirt and a pair of pants underway and waiting patiently.

This morning the mojo showed up out of the blue and before I went out for the afternoon, I got the skirt backs prepped for the invisible zipper. Interfaced the seam allowances and pinned the zip on so that when I came home this evening I would be able to sit right down and sew it in.


I CAN'T FIND THE LITTLE BAG OF FEET AND GOODIES THAT GOES WITH MY SINGER !

You know, the little bag that has the invisible zipper foot in it !!!

Now, the room is not that big, there are only so many place the d**m bag can be and on top of that I've spent the last 1/2 hour searching frantically for it. You can all understand this, I'm sure - the bag is in the room and I can guarantee I've looked straight at it at least once during the search and can't see it...

I am SOOOOOO not impressed :-(



Edit 10 minutes later - Aha, apparently I had to stop searching frantically and search 'Systematically' :-)
How it ended up in the middle of a stack of fabric that I haven't moved in months is beyond me...Bah

Weekend Progress - The 3-month socks

Yes, they're finished. The socks I started way back in October are finally done ! The time frame of course, had nothing to do with the difficulty of the pattern. They were actually quite easy. But, instead of being a main on-the-go project, they became a filler project. No sooner did I get them started than I put them down to do the afghan for my colleague, then I was in the midst of Christmas baking and then December was practically over. Since we were away over Christmas, I got quite a bit done but it took 3 weeks of picking up and putting down to get them off the needles :-)

On the plus side, I finished them Friday and wore them yesterday. They are the favorite pair so far ! They fit perfectly !

I must learn to keep an eye out when DH is wandering around with the camera, pictures of me are not improved by virtue of them being 'candid shots' - I was talking to him but not looking at him LOL ...

And that is how I knit, one furry creature (Skippy) flaked out beside me with his head hanging off the couch and the other (Alex) curled up in the afghan. They just need to be next to Mommy, I guess. Looking at them, you'd think they'd had an exhausting day wouldn't you - they certainly have a hard life !

And...the finished socks. Not on me though, this was a quick pic the minute I finished weaving in the ends. It was late, I went right to bed and the next morning when I put them on, I FORGOT to take another one. Must've been still sleeping.

Once the socks were done, I moved on to the Bristow Cardigan. I needed to split the fronts from the back, add a ball of yarn for each section and it's been waiting since Christmas.

All split now (still on one circular needle) and the armhole decreases are almost done. It's no longer a portable project. With 3 balls on the go, I don't want to deal with tangles so it sits on the coffee table and when I work on it, I turn from front to back VERY carefully. This was the best pic I could get. It wasn't laid out 'just so' so it's looking pretty wonky at the moment.

What else did I do ? I have yarn to make a winter hat. It is January after all and our -30C weather is coming. I even have a pattern picked out and it was scheduled in the queue (sp?) right after the socks were done. Here is the cast on....

Yup - 'nuther pair of socks - I'll get to the hat ... one of these days LOL :-)

My Knitting History

Warning - this turned into quite a long trip down memory lane for me. I enjoyed it, but I won't take offense if you get bored and give up LOL :-)


Since I haven't made much progress on anything, I really didn't have a reason to post.

Thanks, Marjie, for the compliment on my knitting and an idea for something to ramble on about.

While I do consider myself a beginner sewist, I've been knitting for quite some time now. My maternal grandmother was a seamstress and my Mom sewed. She also did a lot of needlework and taught me how to knit, crochet & embroider when I was very young.

As the story was told to me, my absolute favorite present from Santa the year I was 5 was a small, red, plastic basket filled with a couple balls of yarn and those plastic tube thingies with 4 tabs at the top. You know, you wrap the yarn around the tube, loop the wraps over the tabs and a tube of knitted fabric magically appears from the center of the tube.

Apparently, Mom picked the basket off of a sale table for next to nothing at the local five & dime on Christmas Eve - on the chance that I might like it. I have very few childhood memories but I do remember that basket and running in to wake up Mom to show her what Santa brought :-)

When I was 6, Mom showed me how to knit with regular needles & embroidery & crochet came soon after. During the learning process, cast on, bind off, increase, decrease, reading patterns, reading charts, using straights, dpn's and circulars. I guess it covered all the basics. I don't much like embroidery, but knowing how came in handy when I started cross-stitching. All my baby afghans are crochet - much faster than knitting.

In the early 80's the Lopi sweaters were very popular. The schoolkids wore them under puffy vests instead of wearing winter jackets. This link shows a pic of the types we all wore. My first finished project was a Lopi sweater. I was maybe 15 and up to then had not ever finished a project. I really wanted to finish this sweater and show it to Mom all done. Nope, I got stuck when it came time to join the body and the arms. You knit the body in the round to the underarm, put it aside, do each sleeve on dpn's, join them all together and continue the yoke pattern in the round right up to the neck. The only sewing is to graft the underarms when you're done. I just couldn't figure out how to join the sleeves and the body all on one circular needle. Mom showed me how and I finished the project ! I wore that sweater out ! Hmm, wonder if I can find a pic ???

After that, some of my Mom's friends asked if she would make some for their kids but she was busy making them for all the family so she passed them onto me. I think I made over 20 in those 3 years of high school. After the first couple, the parents came directly to me. $20 plus the yarn - good lord, they got them for practically nothing :-)

DH has a couple of sweaters (v-neck cardigans, w/cables, colorwork, etc) I made and he likes and wears them - maybe I should take pics. I've done mitts - but not gloves, scarves - but not hats, afghans - big and small.

This past year I learned quite a few new techniques (Ravelry is pretty awesome !) and made my first tentative attempt at socks. Top down, on dpn's, one at a time - they fit, I love them and wear them all the time. For the second pair (and every pair since) I used Toe-up, 2 at a time on one long circular using magic loop.

I'm still learning, but it's mostly about fitting rather than the actual knitting (for anything new or confusing, you can probably find a demonstration on You Tube). Lopi's are bulky, not much fitting involved. Socks, on the other hand, need to fit the foot and my 'bristow' cardigan has a fitted waist and set in sleeves so I have to pay attention to the fitting on that, too.

My biggest accomplishment lately ? Having enough nerve/confidence to knit on the bus - in public and not worry if someone 'looks' at me !

Now, for those of you who made it this far ... the socks - the leg has about 3" done. there's probably enough yarn to do another 3" of pattern and a 1" cuff.

2010