Just spent 2 hours digging

Just spent 2 hours digging away at grass and giant roots. now have a plot approx 33in x 6 feet. that's probably enough for today.

Trying on Emmaline

Emmaline take 1 - 05.15.2010
Originally uploaded by bareblueskin

I've used up one ball of yarn and started the second. I am 4 repeats in of the K1/Raglan Increase rounds and trying on Emmaline to see where the arms are. Are the markers that divide off the sleeve stitches supposed to meet under my arm? Is that how I know if it's long enough? For the large I need to do 8 rounds. I tried to take better pictures, but it's hard to hold the sleeve markers in place for the picture on my own. I guess that means they're not in the right place yet!

Proceed carefully

~Okay, I wrote this post over two weeks ago (looks like it was means for April 30), and when I posted it the middle bit was chopped out. I've been meaning to fix this post and rewrite it, but at this point I'm just going to fudge it.~

I always thought I was good at following directions and reading everything through clearly. Building bookshelves, a website, doing my taxes, catching important but minimally mentioned plot points, that's me.


Building a knitted garment, however, is not something my mind seems to want to do. Take for instance my early mishap with the Citron shawl. Having gotten through the strange 'knit a sort of square thing' with a lot of help from Amber (who says this cast on for shawls is used quite regularly) I jumped in. Knitting merrily along,


Row 1 [WS]: K3, place marker, p3, place marker, k3.


Row 2 [RS]: K3, slip marker, [m1, k1] three times, m1, slip marker, k3. 13 sts.


I get to the instruction Rows 3-5: Work in pattern as set, maintaining first and last 3 sts in garter st and working sts between markers in stockinette st. No problem. That means keep doing the pattern set up in Rows 1 and 2. I knit Row 6.
 
Row 6 [RS]: K3, slip marker, [m1, k1] seven times, m1, slip marker, k3. 21 sts. That instruction came after the section I had just knitted. Does this apply to the whole pattern? It doesn't seem to...but if I apply that to everything, then yes, the counts do come out properly. I ripped it out, started over, followed the instructions, and now I am much further along. Okay, further along for me. I am now halfway through the second section. Ok, that could have been a misinterpretation of instructions, but how about what happened last Thursday night?


What??? After this increase I am to have 21 stitches? I don't remember now now many I did have, but if I was going along increasing, starting with 13 stitches, plus 4, plus 8?, plus ??, so I had 40 or so stitches instead of 21. But I didn't notice that 21sts and I kept going.


Rows 7-11: Work in pattern.


By now I had WAAAY too many stitches, and I was looking at the counts, trying to figure out what I had done. A little further down in the pattern, it said


SHAWL BODY

Note: In all directions that follow, “work in pattern” means to work in stockinette st, maintaining first and last 3 sts in garter st as set.

~Here's where the bit I wrote disappeared. Crucial right? Anyway, figured it out, thought either the pattern/pattern writer/myself was having a bad day. Ripped it out completely, started again, which gave me practice with the odd casting on for this project, and ta-dah! I am now halfway through the second round of instructions.~

By the way, the white strings are dental floss lifelines so that I can rip back to the beginning of the section if necessary.

I was watching the finale of Project Runway (disappointing) and decided to dig in and make some progress on Emmaline since I had one and a half rows done. I was stuck on the row with RLI - right lifted increase - since I knit lefty and need to reverse the way I do the stitch. The instructions say:


RLI (Right Lifted Increase): Use the right needle to pick up the stitch below the next stitch on the left needle. Place it on the left needle, then knit into it. 1 stitch has been increased. 


Using this increase helps give the bulky yarn structure. I refer to the close up photo of the lovely, tight raglan seam of Emmaline. It looks like two solid lines of stitches drawn diagonally near the shoulder. 


And what did I do? Not that. M1 instead, which leaves a gaping hole beneath the added stitch. R-i-p.


After searching out instruction online, I started again. I now have about 10 rows of Emmaline so far, and I still don't think my RLIs look like the picture, but I have to keep going. It's the perfect weather to wear this now, and if I don't hurry up, it will be too hot. Maybe I should spend the weekend knitting?

knitting mostly

Or should I say, this is about other people's knitting, since mine has completely stalled despite the lack of lovely yarn and patterns covering my couch.

I just wanted to share this story by futuregirl about knitting with a stranger in the park.

I think I first saw mention of this by ElectroGirl, but it might have been mooncalf as she has the banner up now too, but a new-to-me blog I'm following is eskimimiknits.com who has organized the upcoming Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. The main post for the details is here but basically it's encouraging us crafters to blog every day for a week and also to write about unified themes. I hope to take part in this and continue this odd burst of blogging to hopefully continue it as a regular thing.

I've also been tweaking the layout - added a blog list of which ones I read the most lately on the right there, and added a link to my Flickr photostream. I like the boxes and colors of this basic blog template, but I don't like that there is so much empty page space. Maybe it's time to refresh my html skills and write my own templates again.

Oh, and today marks a whole week of tracking eating and working out. Go me!

I'm so out of shape! I just did the first 10 minute workout on the Biggest Loser 30-day Jumpstart dvd and I'm sweating. I guess that's good, but I was doing all the modified moves for the out of shape people! Tara led this one and she's definitely off her count but it was neat. The group was a hot mess though! There's a bunch of Bob's tips on this dvd too. I'm off to do another one!

Head up, young person

Last week was a good week. I am finally feeling better after being knocked out by an intense sinus infection for a week and missing Easter with my family.

Last week I:
-planned a visit home to visit with family and friends, and to say goodbye to my high school, Nazareth Academy, which is closing after 139 years of educating young women. I will get a chance to reconnect with people I haven't seen in almost 20 years. Friends that I wish I had been closer to in high school that I will hopefully forge a better connection with now.
-worked out at the gym. Finally! I have been trying to stay on track with being active, but having that sinus issue put me right off of life, never mind working out.
-cleaned the top of the stove. Doesn't seem like much right? I took the top of the stove OFF and put it in the bathtub, and scrubbed it with all my might using cleanser with bleach and a scrubby sponge. There is still one spot that is a bit stained, but it had built up over time so hopefully now that I have the stove top 99% clean I can remove that stain over time.
-gotten a new kitchen counter set up and picked up the kitchen - BIG project
-cast on for Emmaline, a bulky knit short-sleeve top
-washed 5 loads of laundry. Yes, I live alone, but I hate doing laundry and it builds up, and I had a big pile of towels and rags that I had used to mop up the leaks in my apartment when we had the bad storms a few weeks back, and yes, I'm just getting to them now.
-started back on the whole eat healthy, live healthy thing. Counting calories, counting everything, really, because I don't have a sense anymore of what I eat or what it contains. It's back to basics while I relearn what my body actually needs. I use the tools at SparkPeople, but if anyone has suggestions of other free tracker and community sites, I'm listening.

To-DO this week: (yes, I know it's already Tuesday but I forgot to post this entry Sunday night, so I'm modifying it, alright?)
-repot seedlings
-plant more seeds - lettuce, sage, (first ones seem to have died) tomatoes, and a few other things.
-go to the gym. Yes, AGAIN.
-keep tracking
-go to bed by midnight most nights
-do some yoga
-maybe get around to putting my laundry away
-read The Little Stranger for my book group meeting on Sunday (352 pages to go)
-oh, and knit

Ta-dah!!! 4.17.10

Ta-dah!!! 4.17.10
Originally uploaded by bareblueskin
Here's a picture of the new kitchen countertop! I can't believe how much better this makes the kitchen look. It even covers up the ucky hole in the linoleum. Score! I need to wait for the caulk on the top to dry for 10-12 hours and I can set up the microwave and such. I don't even know what I want to put on the shelves. Guess I'll have to experiment. Yay!

If you're wondering why this is so great, here is a shot of what the kitchen looked like before. It's like a still from Hoarders. This apartment kitchen has no useable storage. The cabinets are metal and hung a bit too high. I think you need to be at least 6 feet tall to see what it on the top shelf. The sink and counter unit is also metal and says "Beauty Queen" on it. On the right side shelves are too deep and short to be of much use, and on the left and under the sink it's just open space, so everything is piled on top of everything else. And I mention counter space? No, because there wasn't any. Until now.

Brows

I've drawn my eyebrows on today. Can you tell? I think my left one (on the right in the pic) is a bit too heavy, but that's the balding one so it was hard to do. I look like I'm wearing full-on makeup don't I? But it's just brows and eyeliner. Hmph.

Well I wasn't planning on...

Well I wasn't planning on blocking it. And it's going to drive me crazy. must be time to rip...iI'm only 8 rows in. better now than later.

Here is the beginning of my Citron shawl. I think I need tl start over. See the column on the right lf stktches that are bigger than the others? That means I have to redo, right?