Some funky stuff to knit with

I went to Iris Fine Yarns on Friday to see if they had any size 9 dpn's in yet (they didn't, but they offered to let me borrow their personal needles--how utterly cool is that? THE best service at Iris, hands down). So while I was there getting yarn for my Obama hat (Cascade 220) I spotted this cool yarn in the Noro section (Come on, let's face it: There are LOTS of cool yarns in the Noro section)

OK, so this yarn is called Daria. And it's probably been around for a while, but I am not a big "weird" novelty yarn type person. So I looked at the beautiful colors in this yarn--that is more like cord and feels like thin elastic. I thought "Wow, that must be neat looking when it's knit! But what the hell would you make with it???"

So while I'm waiting for Kassie to wind my yarns into balls (I can't find my ball winder. Did I tell you they have awesome service at Iris???) a woman walks over to get some circular needles to make a little purse--out of that Daria yarn. It was just the cutest little purse. So of course I picked some up. And I made a little purse (the I-cord is not done yet):


And the other side:
Are those colors awesome or what?? And Phyllis was right--it takes about 3 or 4 rows to get used to it, and then you get used to it. It isn't hard on the hands at all.

So anyway, the pattern said to make it to 11", but I was quickly running out of yarn. And I like it a lot, but not enough to buy another hank (It also has Noro prices.) So I only made it 9", but it seems plenty big for a little purse.

Besides, Emily has decided that it will be a bag to put her Dora the Explorer people in.

I learned something new!

I'm still working on Emily's sweater, and I think I have one more "4 rnds then a decrease" left, plus the 6 rnds in the smaller needle size and I will have one sleeve done.



See the striping though?

I'm bummed about that, and I should have realized it and didn't. I could live with the entire raglan sleeves being different width stripes if I had to, but the pattern is from the top down, the top part of the raglan is already knitted into the body of the sweater. So the stripes at the top of the "sleeve"are smaller than the part down near the bottom where the sleeves are joined and done in a round.

It also isn't noticeable on the picture that accompanies that pattern, that is also done in striped yarn. I don't know how they got the stripes on the sleeves the same size as the body of the sweater--or why they didn't say how to do that.

Anyway, Emily isn't going to care, and I learned not to use striping yarn when making a top down Knitting Pure and Simple pattern! I also learned how to knit in a round with 2 circulars. Thora always uses 2 circs instead of dpn's (she sent me a bunch of her dpn's last year even!) I always wanted to learn how to do it, and had my chance because I didn't have a set of size 9 dpn's. Not even a mismatched set! No size 9's whatsoever!

So I talked to Thora and she said I had the right general idea. I don't know if it is my preferred method. It seems kind of putzy and I know it's just me, because Thora is wicked fast! But I am glad I learned to do it and glad I COULD do it.

I also learned to do the top down thing, which I kind of like! It is very efficient (and let's face it...a relief!) to not have to keep track of pieces to seam together. When I am done knitting, I will be done.

We got 10" of snow yesterday. Here is the table now:


And check out the sign across the street (you can scroll down and see it before our big snow) The snow is nearly up to the sign part:


And yes. It's snowing again.

And Emily wanted to knit today. She grabbed some ribbon yarn...I told he to go for it...I'll never use it LOL:

Emily's Sweater, snow and a taxing story

I have been working very hard on Emily's sweater, and I'm nearly finished:

I really like doing the top-down thing. My only problem is that I don't have any size 9 dpn's for the sleeves--and I got to Hobby Lobby yesterday and they didn't have any (seems to be a basic theme lately). So I'm going to see if I can improvise with 2 circs.

Otherwise the story is--snow. Again. We are supposed to go see Barack Obama on Sunday--I am SO excited (and so is Anna.) Unfortunately, we are supposed to get another 6-10+ (Yes, that's a plus sign) inches of snow. Remember my table I've been chronicling all winter? Here it is right now:
Here is the view down the street...you can see how high the snow is piled up the sides:
Other than snowing and knitting, I have been trying to locate the kids' baby books and/or our tax returns from last year or the year before. See, we were very smart and used Turbo Tax the past 6 years. Most of our returns are on our second to last computer (that we just commissioned into service for a short while between our last computer dying and our new computer). We have 2001-2005 on that hard drive. 2006 is on our last computer's hard drive, and we are using the new computer for 2007.

Short story long: We can't get into the hard drive with the 2006 tax return on it. We tried a hard drive enclosure with no success, so we think the drive is screwed. We can't open the 2001-2005 tax returns because the latest software will only open the previous year (2006). And we can't claim the kids as deductions unless we have their social security numbers. That are on the cards in their baby books. That went into boxes SOMEWHERE when we moved.

I managed to find Nicholas'--which is good because that was the one I had NO CLUE where to find. So we went from owing to getting back money. Because, let me tell you, after having the worst possible financial year of our life, I really, truly was ready to move to another country if we ended up OWING money on top of it all. As it is, we don't qualify for the Earned Income Credit because we had "Too much in the sale of stock or pension". Because we had to cash out Brian's stock option and 401K (about $5000 altogether) so we could do fun things like eat and keep the electricity on. Evidently that makes us too independently wealthy to qualify for the poor people credit.

Anyway, enough whining! I am going to go scour a few more places and see if I can't come up with the box with our documents in it....and enjoy the sunshine before it's covered by a bleak snowstorm. Again.

Weapon Ready

I finished my hat for Hat Attack.
It is a very interesting pattern and I'm sure it took a lot of work to come up with! I don't think I am so enamored with it I would make another one, but I am hoping that the one I get from my assassin fits. Or at least fits Anna.

Overall I am glad it is done. It was fun, and I think I will do it again.

Now to move on to other things. Emily has been asking every single time I make something, "Is that for me? Is that my sweater?" Doesn't matter if I am making a scarf or a sock. "Is that my sweater?" So I am making her a sweater next--the knitted pullover (#9730) from Knitting Pure and Simple and some very pretty Encore yarn I got from Iris. It should be fun...I haven't knit a sweater in a while. I also want to work on my SOTM socks (before February is over...) and I am making something for someone special that is going to take a lot of time, so I have to get it done by Christmas I figure (Happy Birthday! Sorry your birthday was in July...) LOL

Master of Illusion

It looks like an ordinary striped scarf...



And abracadabra! POOF!

I feel like a magician. Maybe a magician with Carpal Tunnel soon. I finished the Heart Shadow of Illusion scarf. Now I get to give it away. It's for a good cause: I made it for the I Love My Library silent auction on Sunday. The dinner I don't get to go to, because my husband doesn't want to spend the money. He thought it was a GREAT idea when he thought it would further his career. Then he found out most people don't go--because it's so much money--so now he doesn't want to go.

Of course the only reason I don't want to go is I don't want to see that no one will bid on my scarf! I think it's extremely cool. But probably the people that pay $100 for dinner won't. I guess when I turn it in tomorrow, it isn't my problem anymore. At least I have some cool pictures, and the confidence to know I can do it. And special thanks to Laura the pattern maker for writing out the pattern and once again enabling me to not have to work from a chart! LOL

Of course theknitter.com Sock of the Month is a gorgeous cabled thing, that DOESN'T come with written instructions. So I'd better learn quick.

But up next: resting my tingling hands for a day. THEN Hat Attack is upon us! I know I will die right away, but the whole idea of it was too much fun NOT to join in with. I know I would royally suck if it wasn't a hat (and I still might suck, seeing as the pattern will have cables) but it'll be fun anyway. And who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and the person who has my name will get killed right away by someone who sends Express Mail, and I'll stand at least a fighting chance! (Perchance to dream...)

Oh and Emily might have carpal tunnel later in life from plugging too many tokens into the Spongebob machine at Chuck E. Cheese.
She'd go through a cup of coins like nobody's business (I see slot machines in her future!) Of course she won a whole mess of tickets, so it's all good.