Metro Headaches and an FO

I'm sure that there are cities with worse public transportation systems. I just can't think of any right now. When Metro screws up they are second to none. Tonight was a prime example.

I caught my usual train but, just before my usual stop they announced that due to smoke on the tracks they couldn't go any further and demanded that we all get off at the Arlington National Cemetery stop. So close and yet so far.

We were promised that shuttle buses were on their way to take us to Pentagon, where I usually grab a bus. It took forever to get out of the station and when we finally did get to street level we found a chaotic crowd (the picture is dark but I think that the chaos comes thru) and NO Buses Anywhere! Hundreds of people were in the same boat as I was and they were stopping random cars in a desperate plea to get home. It was nuts!

Occasionally, over the hour plus that we were stuck, a bus would come thru but they were usually full or they stopped at some random spot and were mobbed. Neither Metro nor the Police sent anyone to help organize and let people know what was going on. It's not the first time that something like this has happened and you'd think they'd have a plan in place to deal with these situations. Nope! Way to go Metro!

And look! There's the news van - arriving just as the crowds disperse and things start getting back to normal. Timing is everything.

Now let's get back to the regularly scheduled FO.

Just as I promised, I have a fresh finished object to share with you today. This is the A-line Dress for a Little Princess.

This was made from a kit that I picked up at Stitches East last month. As I worked on this project, I noted that the yarn was darker in some places than others. I like the effect in the dress and I think that varied tones tend to give a fabric depth. Solids can't help but be flat.

It wasn't until I started the final ball of yarn that I realized why I was seeing the tonal differences in the yarn. Can you see it? The yarn had faded around the ballband! I should've seen it sooner since the yarn was packed in the kit without ballbands. I'm not sure whether I admire the cleverness of the shop in repurposing the faded yarn or whenther I feel gypped. What do you think?

Although I do like the end result quite a lot, I have had a lot of issues with this project. The yarn was one but the pattern left a lot to be desired. I mentioned in an earlier post that it was unclear on how the increases should be done. I found other little problems along the way. For example, it failed to give any measurements. It tells how to do the increases as you knit the skirt and it tells you to increase in the round where you switch to the fun yarn but it doesn't say anythng at all about length. I had to look at other similar patterns (thank you Berroco website) to determine what the overall length ought to be. I figured that for a 1 to 2 year old I needed about 16 or 17 inches from shoulder to hem and based on that I decided that roughly the last 2 inches should be fun fur.

Speaking of the fun fur... what do you think of that. I really wasn't sure if it was cute or tacky but, in the end, I like it. It's really soft and I suspect that, for a very little girl it will be perfect. I think that when it's controlled and used properly it's not awful. It reminds me of these mittens I made last year for Dulaan and how I want a pair for myself. Not in bright pink though, that's a little bit much.

Back in the Saddle...

As planned I got back to spinning. After so much time away I was a little apprehensive about how successful I'd be. I anticipated a few false starts and frustration but I was pleasantly surprised. What you see here is the continuation of the yarn I was spinning for my Hanami stole. When I started tonight, this bobbin was already partially full but I added quite a bit and I'm happy with it. It looks like it's a good match to the stuff I spun earlier this summer and it's fairly consistent. I am so relieved!

This is the other project that I started last weekend. It's a kit that I got at Stitches East. It's called A-line Dress for a Little Princess and, yes, I do have a particular princess in mind.

This was a total impulse buy. Felicia and I were walking past the booth (I forget the vendor) and they had a bunch of these cute little dresses hanging up and they were irresistable. The yarn in the kit I bought is cotton and fun fur but I don't know any more than that (no details or ball bands in the kit). I've gotta say that this is the first time I've bought a knit kit and it's been a mixed experience. As I mentioned, there are no details given about the yarn. I'm sure it's cotton and the fun fur looks familiar but I wish I had a few hints about what it is.
My wish for a little info on the yarn is a minor complaint compared to my issues with the pattern itself. It's a little, ummm.... vague. For example, I had to cast on twice because the instructions for the first row tell you to knit 1, add 1, knit #, add 1 etc. My usual method for adding stitches is to kfb except where it says something like add or, in the case of my Dragon socks, make 1. In those cases you would pick up the bar between stitches and create a new one. Right? Wrong! For this little number you are supposed to interpret the add as a kfb as I found out when I reached the end of the first round and found 8 extra stitches. Would it kill them to be a little more explicit. It's actually quicker and takes less keyboard strokes to write "kfb" than "add 1". I'm just sayin'. Even a note to tell us how to interpret the "add" would be nice.

By the way, I haven't been much odf a cheerleader lately for Sock Madness but, believe it or not, the patterns for SM2 are due one week from today. I can't believe that we're already approaching November 1. I guess that's what happens when you loose a month or so to the soap opera that has become your life. Thankfully, the Dragon socks seem to have gotten my sock mojo going again for I'm (kind of) ready to dive into the test knitting.

All at Once

As a friend of mine said to me recently, "I should probably be freaking out right now but I'm not." Admittedly the cause of her distress is a little more major than mine. She's sent out invitations to a somewhat important party (less than a month away) for which she has yet to settle on a caterer. Ooops!

I suppose that I'm in a bit of an ooops situation myself. I've got a bunch of stuff that's happening in the next week or so (most of which I've known about for a long time) and I've suddenly realized that I'm ill prepared for most of it. This is really not like me. I arrive at airports way before flights and pack weeks in advance. I like to be ready was before it's necessary.

The shawl for DQ and the blankie for Stinky which I had hoped to be able to send to camp with them are still unfinished and my girls are due at camp in a week. The shawl may happen but the blankie is unlikely. Stink-o may be correct when she says that she hopes it's done by next year. I could easily bind off the blankie now and call it done but I want it to be bigger - about 9 more strips worth. The shawl looks good and it should be done by now but I keep getting lost in the pattern. The handspun looks great, giving the shawl a bit of a rustic feel, but it makes it really hard to read the lace. Every time I think I'm back on track something goes wonky.

There is other knitting that is due or overdue too. A few friends have had or are about to have babies. I put off this knitting until the last minute because I'm a little superstitious. Now one baby has arrived and the other is immenent - and earlier than expected. I finally went shopping last weekend and this is what I got.

Although you can see that something has made it on to the needles already I can't say any more than that without spoiling the surprise.

It's probably fair (kind of) to blame the library for the current state of my knitting. I had put a few books on hold - one of which I was really dying to read - and, after waiting for weeks, they're all available right now. Worse, one of them, a biography of Einstein, is every bit as good as I hoped and very hard to put down. I may have partially solved this problem by giving in and buying a copy of this book. Now I'm not reading under a deadline.

The plate may sound quite full already but wait... there's more. We are renovating 2 bathrooms while my daughters are away. In fact, the guys will begin demolition the day we leave. I have chosen the tile, the fixtures, the cabinetry but it probably won't matter much because I haven't chosen the lighting yet. I'd better get on that super-quick.

Maybe I can run to Home Cheapo between loads of laundry. As I mentioned at the top of this post, my daughters leave for camp next weekend and we still need finish packing. Thankfully, we already shipped 2 very large boxes of bedding, towels etc to the camp and it ought to arrive well before my girls do.

Why is it that with all of this stuff going on all I want to do is knit socks. I don't even feel like knitting fancy ones. I just feel the urge to knit endless boring rows of stockinette. It could be this lovely skein of Colinette Jitterbug that I picked up (on sale!) over the weekend. Should I mention that there was barely any room on the shelf to stash this lovely skein? It would apear that I am currently maxed out on sock yarn or... maybe I just need a new place to hide put it.

Cookie Crumbs

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures I took this weekend to flickr and, as I look at them, I noticed that they’re all flowers and blue skies – no knitting at all. I suppose that says a lot about my weekend. There were several things weighing heavily on my mind to the point where knitting or spinning became impossible. I tried but nothing was really working for me. I just ran from place to place, dropping kids off, picking kids up, and doing errands. Peppered throughout there was Advil – lots and lots of Advil.

Sock Madness was pretty active this weekend and I was trying very hard to keep up with the finishers. It’s funny because we chose easier patterns for the first rounds so that even the relative novices would be able to enjoy themselves and so that everyone could ease into things a bit. I still think that it was the right choice but it has made things a little crazy for me because these early rounds have moved super-fast. It’s a challenge to keep up. I hope that as the patterns get more challenging, it will take a little longer for rounds to finish.

I was single parenting this weekend and, as I told Krista, that always leaves me feeling somewhat empowered. I’m happy that I don’t have to do it often but it’s nice to know that I can. I fed the girls reasonably healthy meals, got them where they had to be (mostly on time) and even managed to straighten up a bit around the house. Amazingly, nothing blew up. Hooray!

The girls and I had a lovely evening on Saturday night. We went out for dinner, ice cream and a movie. We saw Dream Girls at the second run theater right near my house. What a great movie. Jennifer Hudson was amazing. You could see the emotions passing across her face and her singing – OMG! The girls loved the movie and want the soundtrack now. I suspect that 2 things will happen really soon – they’ll get a copy of the soundtrack and they’ll play it ‘till I’m sick of it.

This would’ve been such a great weekend if it weren’t for the stress of finishing the Girl Scout Cookie sale that was at the back of my mind all weekend. It really accounted for the lion's share of the stress. I could’ve been done with it by Friday or early Saturday but one parent was holding me up. This person promised to have their money to me by Thursday but didn’t. They also didn’t have the courtesy to call and give me their truly lame excuse. Because of this person, who didn’t give me their money until yesterday, I am hurrying at the last minute, today, to get all the paperwork finished and wrap this up and hand my paperwork in on time. This is what gave me a migraine last night and what had me so stressed that fiber didn’t even help. I suppose that I’d feel better if I just told her what I think of her but that’s really not my style. I'm very non-confrontational. Instead I’ll hand my paperwork in tonight and finally feel happy, knowing that I’m never, ever doing this again. Hooray!

Just don’t try to get between me and Charlotte tonight. We have a long overdue date with a Magic Carpet.

ECF - Fiber Therapy Edition

I was all set to put up more flowers for my Eye Candy this week and then I came home today and found something even better at my door - fiber!

I was pretty surprised because I just ordered it on Monday. This is Twist & Shout and Magic Carpet Ride from Crown Mountain Farms. I wish you could feel how soft it is. I cannot wait to start spinning it! I'd love to turn it into socks but I'm a little afraid. It's so beautiful and I've been wanting it for such a long time. Now I have it and I really don't want to screw it up.

Have a great weekend!

Wake Me When It's Over

I really wish I had more exciting things to say today but my life right now is consumed with a few things:

• Finishing off the Girl Scout cookie sale for Stinkerbelle’s troop. I’ve already told them that this is the very last year that I do it. You’d think that it would get easier after so many years but there is always one parent who makes you want to throw things. Not to worry – next week at this time it should be mostly over. I can hand over all of the records I’ve kept and breathe a huge sigh of relief.
• Keeping up with Sock Madness. This is, for the most part, a thing that makes me smile. I know that I’ve mentioned it before but it’s so gratifying to see it running exactly the way I hoped it would. You should see the discussion going on. There is such a sense of community and support for one another. Even so, there is a lot of work required to keep it moving along well. I’m still working on test knitting socks (believe it or not) and trying to eliminate any ambiguity in the patterns. There is more prize yarn to dye and, oh yeah, I need to start giving stuff away. Hmmm.
• Planning for Spring Break. We’re not going anywhere this year but we still need to figure out plans for the girls. How can it be this time of year again?
• Preparing for the Passover holiday. I really love holidays but this one makes me a little nuts with the huge amount of planning it involves. There are people to invite, meals to plan, cooking to do, food to buy, dishes to change. Ugh!

Is it any wonder that I accidentally bought a little fiber yesterday? Actually I had been pondering 2 fiber purchases for quite a while. I’d go to the sites, look for a while - considering all the fiber and color choices, decide what to buy, and then stop just short of placing the order.

The other day, after I finished spinning the Finn (plied and hung last night) I looked at my stash - trying to decide what to spin next. It was a hard choice. I’m still doing my pre-MDS&W fiber survey. I already tried Finn and Romney and I didn’t want to do more of that. I have a little Coopworth and Blue Faced Leicester but I want to dye them first. I pulled out a little bit of Merino (which I have spun before) and I think that’s what I’ll go with but I realized that I really ought to try Superwash Merino before MDS&W. Assuming that quite a bit of fiber will follow me home from MDS&W, and that much of it will be superwash – I really ought to try it ahead of time. Right? (see how I can rationalize nearly anything?) Well, ignoring the nasty surprise that is our tax bill this year (let’s not speak of that) I went back to the 2 sites I’ve been stalking and let my fingers do the walking. As soon as it arrives I promise to share it with you.

BTW-I watched Dancing With the Stars last night and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Paulina still looks fab and I think she's very funny. You have to applaud John Ratzenberger too, for stepping in a the the last minute with grace and good humor. I just hope that Heather Mills goes home quickly. I really dislike her quite a lot. I just don't find anything appealing about her.

Relative Romney

When it rains it pours. Isn't that what they say? As if my issues with m new laptop were not enough, today I got a new computer at work. All freaking day long I dealt with problems with stuff that wasn't loaded correctly and stuff that was missing. At the end of the day I'd worked most of it out but I'm still missing one MAJOR thing - my AIM. I cannot tell you how badly work sux without instant messaging. The worst part is that the person who can fix it for me is out of the office right now so I can't get it fixed till next week. Oh woe is me!

By the end of the day I was literally banging my head against things - the desk, the wall, whatever. I really needed to vent so on my way home I listened to a little '80s metal (Def Leppard) really loud. I sang with it (lucky you couldn't hear me) at the top of my voice and banged on the steering wheel as I crawled along with the traffic. I feel better now.

This is the Romney I was working on the other day. The color is really soft and muted now and it reminds me of grapefruits. The feel of the roving was not soft at all - almost coarse or stiff or something. It was not pleasant to spin but the longer staple made it easier in a way and I think that it's more even than other stuff I've spun. Not even - but more even. Everything is relative.

When I was complaining about it last week, a friend suggested that I try plying it with some silk. Silk? OMG, I can barely spin wool! She was so helpful and sent me all kinds of information on spinning silk and suddenly it didn't seem so scary so I pulled out a few hankies and dyed them to match the Romney. Look at how much deeper the colors are on the silk.

Tonight I dove in and spun up the silk but I'm not gonna show it to you yet. It was totally fun spinning the silk. It started out really even but super thin (like laceweight) and I didn't think it would show up against the Romney so I started to draft it less (is that right) and spin it thicker and a little irregular - on purpose. I can't wait to see how it looks all plied together!

Holiday Observance

Today is a holiday - sort of. It's not that I question the worthiness of Martin Luther King because I don't. I think that he is absolutely worthy of an official rememberance. What I wonder about is this business where they declare a federal holiday but most big businesses choose to ignore it. What message does that send? Are we saying that it is of lesser importance than Memorial Day or Labor Day? Maybe we're just saying that those 'days' occur at more opportune time for a celebration. Hmmmm....

If you guessed that I am not off on this holiday, you're right. The very large and well known company that I work for requires my presence today. My daughters' school, on the other hand, is closed. Thankfully hubbo has a more flexible schedule so the girls have someone to watch them - otherwise I'd have a real problem. I cannot imagine that I'm the only person who has noted the disparity in how the holiday is celebrated by various companies and institutions.

Library - closed!
Mail - nope!
School - nobody home
Federal government - lovin' the 3-day weekend of course!
Corporate America - be there or be square

What exactly is the message we're supposed to be getting?

Rant over!

I spent Saturday ironing out issues with my daughter's weaving loom. It's a long drawn out story that would bore you to tears so I'll spare you. What is of note is that I was in 2 yarn stores this weekend and I didn't bring home any new fiber, of any type, at all. None! Are you shocked? I am. This is not to say that I came home emptyhanded. Not a chance!

At Knit Happens I got 2 sets of #1 Addis (not shown'cuz you've seen Addis before) for a project in progress, Soak in the scent of celebration (Yum!) and samples of the other scents. At Springwater I got their last copy of Victorian Lace Today which prompted hubbo to wonder if my stash diet was going to cause rapid growth in my knitting library. Well, duh, of course! The other object in this picture is a little oil bottle for the wheel that should arrive very soon (can you tell that i'm counting the minutes till it arrives?) - but not today because, unlike me, the post office is observing the holiday. Harrumph!

November Fog

I can not believe that it is the end of November. That’s just one of the many things that seem to have snuck up on me. This weekend is the Drama Queen’s birthday and I’m really not ready – the house is a wreck and I have only a vague idea of how it all will work. I’m also not ready to bake the bajillion cupcakes I need to send to school with her tomorrow. Speaking of baking – I have no “plan” for her birthday cake other than the fact that it will be chocolate. I always try to create something marvelous, or at least really cool, for my girls’ birthdays. This year my mind is a blank. Maybe I’m spent. Maybe the baking mojo is gone or on hiatus.

I’m afraid that the knitting may have something to do with it. In past years I was able to multi-task to a much higher degree. These days I just want to knit. It’s not even any one project that I’m dedicated to. Yesterday I worked on the mittens on my commute in and during lunch but I switched to a sock for the ride home. After dinner I worked the mittens until they were nearly done before starting one of the gift scarves I’m making. All the while, I was pondering the colors of beads I’ll use to make the votive sleeves that will coordinate with the red candles in the picture yesterday. See? It’s all good as long as I’m in knitland.

I took a little time out to speak to a few friends about upcoming plans and my brain froze. I’m pretty sure I was completely incoherent. What must they think of me? Better yet, why do they put up with me? Perhaps I’ll be able to get my shit together better after…

Cupcakes and cakes are made;
Holiday shopping is finished…
And wrapped…
And mailed;
Holiday knitting is finished;
Birthday gifts are purchased…
And mailed;
We are packed up for our trip;
Once all the stuff I can’t speak about is behind us.