Monday, November 26, 2007

more knitting, less photos

So, I had great intentions of posting photos on the weekend. I promise I did. I had taken the pics, adjusted the lighting, retaken the pics. I fiddled a little with them in Lightroom and had exported a few into jpg format and was planning on doing the rest on Saturday night. I promise I did all of this.

Then, I subtly mentioned to my husband that my computer was a little slow, and could he do something to make it faster (i.e. get a faster machine). He proceeded to go out and buy me more RAM, since most of what I do is quite RAM intensive.

That led to the RAM being installed, my computer then consistently rebooting and giving all kinds of errors. The RAM was removed, computer still complained. Now we're (he's) reinstalling Windows for me.

During all of that time, I did finish making a corkscrew scarf with one skein of Sari Silk that Jennifer bought for me as a thank you for pictures I took for her (see I do take pictures!!) - if I didn't know the Lucy Neatby alternative cast off, casting off the 650 stitches would have driven me bonkers!! I like the end result, and it might please me a little more after I give it a good wash. The silk smells a little like barn right now. I also find it's a little heavy, which I hadn't expected.

I also cut up a pullover I'd made a few years ago but never wear, (my first steek), bought a zipper for it, and will soon be installing the zipper. I also was about to sew and cut the dale sweater for my nephew, but when I put the sleeve up against the body, realized that there must have been a mistake in the instructions because I need to do one more row of the little snowflakes. The body always looked a little short to me, now I know why. I frogged the top repeat (which is unique for the top) last night and will be spending the next week or so knitting one more repeat of snowflakes before I can cut it up. I hope to have it ready for Christmas! Looking back at the last post about this sweater (link above), I guess I'd realized earlier that this sweater was a little off-kilter, but hadn't come to the sad realization that I needed a whole row of snowflakes. At least it's not a whole bunch of frogging....


Monday, November 12, 2007

There has been progress

just no pictures...

I have finished my cashmere hat (l.o.v.e. it!)
I finished the pomatomuses (did I say that already) and have cast on a new pair of socks for my daughter. In less than 24 hours I've already turned the heel.

What I have not done is upload pictures of all my WIPs. I have the pics. I have them on the computer I'm on right now. I tried to edit/crop them a little, and Picassa crashed. I don't want to risk it again.

Soon, when I have a little time, I have to take all of the raw photos and treat them properly in Lightroom so I can export them for you to see.

Be warned, a picture-heavy post will be coming soon. (including a picture of me taken by Fiona Ellis herself)

Friday, November 2, 2007

More coming!

As was so elegantly pointed out by Jenn(ifer), I haven't posted in over a month. Why? What's up? Am I still knitting? Am I still buying yarn? Am I still enabling other people to buy yarn and/or other knitting accessories?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes :-)

I haven't posted for a few reasons --

First - my daughter had a pneumonia (albeit mild) so we've been home a lot taking care of her.
Second - This week we had a french drain (weeping tiles for non-Quebec people) installed around our house. The weeks leading up to the french drain was spent getting permits, getting quotes, getting new contractors when the original ones decided not to answer our phone calls and all sorts other fun stuff.
Third - I have no pictures!! Well, that's a lie I have a few pictures of finished objects, but have had little or no time to put them onto the computer. Now that I have an 8 gig card for my camera, I don't need to empty is as often as I used to.
Fourth - with all of the above, there has been little or no time to do anything for myself, and what little time I do have I wanted to knit.

Speaking of knitting, there has indeed been progress. The pomatomuses are done, the Voss sweater that I had started and had put into hibernation for a while is almost done. I've just got half a snowflake pattern to do on the last sleeve. Steeking will happen next week when I help teach a class at my LYS. I started another project which is supposed to be strictly for commuter knitting. It's cashmere though, and I want to keep touching it. I will not knit anything else at home until the Voss is done though. I'm being good.

Photos of all of the above will come soon. Promise. (well....maybe)

On another note, I will be taking a workshop this weekend with Fiona Ellis and was lucky to go for dinner with her tonight. It always amazes me that these knit-goddesses who I've admired for so long are just normal people like you and me. We talked knitting, we talked about tons of other things. It was just like being out with an old friend, but we just met. At one point, there was a lady at a nearby table wearing a beautifully cabled sweater, and we were all trying to figure out if it was handmade. The ribbing and the seams looked like they were done by machine, so we concluded that it must not have been done by hand. Then again, the sweater that Fiona was wearing was one from her book and looked so perfect that it could have been store-bought.