Jaywalking

Yeah, I did a little bit of that today, on my morning constitutional in downtown Seattle. The down side was that we didn't stay in the funky little hotel where we normally stay. Up-side is that I was able to walk to So Much Yarn! in downtown. It was fun!

I got a little bit of yarn (spent under $40) and will have photos later. I cut it a little close with my walk back through the market, so I didn't have time for a hotel photo shoot.

SJ had warned me about making sure the cuff on my Jaywalkers possibly being too small to get over my heel. I remembered this warning while on the airplane last night, but just kept knitting away while watching the end of Stranger than Fiction and most of The Prestige. (I watched the Prestige in three chunks. Gotta watch it again all in one sitting before I send it back to Netflix). Liked the 2nd movie better, but there's a lot of detail and I missed chunks of it because of how I watched it.

Anyhoo, once I got to the hotel, I tried on the sock. And couldn't get the damn thing over my heel. Freaked out a little bit. Then decided that my kick-ass KnitPicks DPNs were the problem.

So I got out my darning needle and threw those live stitches onto a strand of dental floss and tried it on. A little snug, but definitely do-able.


No interesting photo ops for RT in seattle, so the Jaywalker photo is it. Gotta keep the instructions handy. Hoping to turn that heel on the trip home tonight. Have a great Wednesday!

RT visits 'Furd

Lots of work, not a ton of knitting. Please bear with me!


Last Friday, Roaming Tigger (RT) and I took a two-hour walk around Stanford's campus. Wasn't it nice for them to welcome us?

Well, it was also Admissions Weekend, so the sign wasn't specifically for us ... but still :)


We entered campus off of the "main drag" onto the formal entrance of campus. It's very impressive. Stanford has an amazing amount of open space in and around campus. It's very quiet, and relaxing and it truly feels like a college campus. Still. Academic. Beautiful.

RT's head is hiding an admissions tour group in front of Memorial Church, which is on Stanford's main quad. This is my favorite part of campus, and I believe it is the original part.


Herbert Hoover was a member of one of the first classes at Stanford. Hoover Tower not only has an observation deck, but it houses a library and research center. It's a neat building with lots of history to it, and it's a landmark that you can see from just about anywhere on Stanford's campus. RT and I didn't go to the top (I did that on my own last year), but enjoyed our trip around campus regardless.


Just to prove that there has been some knitting, I cast this on last Friday (April 20) in the hotel at Stanford. I did K2P2 ribbing the whole way up to Cal after Friday's game and have been doing the two pattern rows ever since. This photo was taken just before I got on a plane to Seattle this afternoon. The sock in question is now about 5" along. My secret goal is to get the heel turned tomorrow so I can get it mostly finished on the trip home. Wish me luck! (Oh, and a little luck with the weather tomorrow would be appreciated as well!)

I Spy a Finished Object!

Hey! It's a pair of socks!


Yep. I finished Sock #2 last night. Around getting packed for the latest in work travel adventures. Project stats are as follows:

Pattern: From Sock Wizard, with numbers inputted and printed by Charlo, the Beach Knitting sock guru.
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
Needles: US 2.5 Bryspun DPNs. I hated these needles. I got used to the bendy-ness, but I never liked it.
Started/Completed: Well, not totally sure when I started. I know I had to do the provisional cast on about three times before I got it right. I think that was in January. Finished April 18.


See? They even fit my feet!


And, as an added bonus, my wound has healed enough that it is no longer gross or damp 24/7, so I was able to model these socks bandage-free! (wound is under the right sock cuff. I'm officially on the mend!)

I wound up having to stay home all day on Wednesday because we're getting tile installed in our master bathroom. There are lots of details that I'd love to change if this was going to be a long-term abode, but it isn't. So I'm letting stuff go.

Here's what the bathroom looked like on Monday night. This photo doesn't truly do justice to the nastiness of the carpet.


Yes, carpet in a bathroom. I don't get it. To me, that's like saying "Hey! Let's leave a damp sponge sitting on the subfloor for ... 20 years or so!"

So we got tile:


Much nicer.

And please! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! toilet in the shower. That's tomorrow's adventure, to be supervised by the hubster!



Off to the Bay Area. We're a Westin tonight. Gotta love that! Big plans to walk around on Stanford's campus tomorrow morning.

Jaywalkers, here I come! :)

RT Does Eugene

Roaming Tigger and I had fun in Oregon last weekend. We stayed in my very favorite hotel. Why is it my favorite? Let me count the ways.


Let's start in the lobby. Now really. How many hotels have an 84" saw blade in the lobby? How freakin cool is that? Remember, this is Oregon and the lumber industry is a big deal.


So this is the other reason I love the VRI. There's a kick-ass paved trail along the Willamette river just a few feet outside the door of the hotel.


RT and I tried to take a walk after Saturday's game, but we got about 400 feet away from where these shots were taken and the skies just ... opened. A super cold rain. We wussed out and went back to the hotel room, waited for it to slow down a bit, then went over to the mall across the parking lot. No sales tax in Oregon. Woo-Hoo!


On Sunday, RT and I took a walk just before the game. The bathrooms for UO's softball field are in "Mac Court" one of the amazing old gyms still in use. Wood flooring. Wood seats. Balconies that are right on top of the court. Really cool.


From what I understand, when they get a full house for a men's basketball game, the gym literally MOVES. It was built in 1926. They are gonna replace it soon, and that will really be a shame.


After we got our pre-game duties completed, we took a walk around the block. First, we walked down to Hayward Field, which is the coolest place you could see a track meet. I went to the 1996 NCAA Championships at this venue and it just blew me away. If you are a fan of sports in general, put a meet at Hayward on your life's to-do list. Stay for the distance races. You won't be sorry.

The 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials will be at Hayward. So will the 2010 NCAA Championsips. Go.


Across the street from Hayward is UO's School of Law. Cool looking building, and since it was the only academic location on the route, we took a photo op.


But the coolest thing was just out in front of the law school.

We had fun in Eugene. Bay Area this weekend. Almost done with the 2nd sock. Woo-Hoo! :)

wound care
Lisa asked about my wound. Two weeks ago, I was shagging for the early hitters at practice (they hit, I collect all of the balls in the outfield so that when they've hit their three buckets of balls, the next kid can get started faster) when a ball glanced off of my glove and nailed my right shin.

It started out as just two very small softball seam-sized cuts. About two days later, it became obvious that the darn thing just wasn't healing. Over the weekend, I started reacting to the glue on the band-aids I'd been using for 10 days, 24/7. Now the entire "red area" is about 1.75" wide and 1" high. It's not infected, so it's just gross, not scary and gross. I have my marching orders on how to take care of this thing, and have an appointment with a wound care specialist early on Monday morning. I'll be fine. I promise! (and it isn't affecting my knitting at all!)

Curses! Foiled Again!

This shot was taken on Friday night at my favorite hotel after my first of three attempts to turn the heel of toe-up sock #2. I was on about row 37 of the 40-row turn when I got it totally screwed up. I can tink and fix lots of things. Short-row patterns are not in my repertoire. Yet.

I screwed it up again on Saturday night, buried Roaming Tigger in frogged yarn again, then got it right on the third try. I have holes at the end of the short-row heels same as I did on sock #1. Any suggestions? At this point, nothing is going to change on this pair of socks since I'm almost 3" into the ribbing, which is good. I'm itching to get started on the koigu jaywalkers.

Sorry for the long absence. It was a long busy weekend at my favorite hotel in Oregon. Roaming Tigger had a fantastic field trip with lots of photos. I'll do a longer post tomorrow when I have (hopefully) slept off my headache. It was also a short day in the office today ... left early to see a doc about a cut on my shin.

I don't want to gross anyone out, but two weeks after the injury it's still pretty icky, hence the trip to a doc. The good news? It's not infected, just having trouble healing since there isn't a lot of extra skin right on the shin bone. FYI: that's not a good place to get a cut, and if you do get a cut there, go straight to a band-aid with neosporin or something of that ilk. Get that thing healing fast!

New Toys

Baxter's "leg warmers" are done. No new photo, because they look exactly the same as they did in the last post, just without needles in the 2nd cuff.

Anyone want to place a guess on when I might do the felting? *sigh*

I also picked up my traveling sock yesterday for the first time in a few weeks. No new picture of that either, since it looks exactly the same as it did in its previous photo-op (here).

My latest KnitPicks order arrived yesterday. Woo-Hoo!

It was half needles and half sock yarn.


I bought the two colors of Memories that I had seriously considered, then discarded, for the slipper socks projects. On the left is "Cape Cod" (more impressive in person) and on the right is "Fly Fishing" (way more disappointing in person). In the middle is 2 skeins of Gloss in dusk. I like that one. About as much as Cape Cod. The Fly Fishing? Not so much.

But the really fun part of the order was needles.


Knit Picks 6" DPNs in US 0, US 1 and US 2. Two pairs of 16" circs in a US 2. I did a Koigu swatch last night on the 1 and 2 DPNs. WOW. I LOVE THESE NEEDLES! They are exactly what my sock knitting mojo has been missing. I hope to zip through the remaining sock on the icky bendy Bryspuns I'm currently working on (I'd switch needles, but I don't have any other needles in this size) and cast on in the light blue Koigu for a pair of Jaywalkers.


Here's the back of the V-neck sweater, finished and awaiting the front for a three-needle bind off. Love the patterning on the top and bottom. Not over the moon with the pooling in the center, but I can live with it. I'm mildly nervous that it's a little too narrow, but I'm just gonna go with it.

That's it from chez DPUTiger tonight. Gotta get packed for a work trip. Three work trips in the next 12 days as a matter of fact. *sigh*

Making Progress

After a quiet Sunday that was highlighted by the fact that I never changed out of my pajamas, I have survived the bulk of the first two weekdays.

In between, I have finished some pieces of projects.


The first sleeve for the brown cable sweater is done. One more sleeve to go, plus front neck decreases and various other stages of finishing.

Then, I moved along to the "stretchy cuffs" of my slipper socks.


Modeled by Baxter. If the slippers never get felted, these could be legwarmers for him. The cuff still on the needles is at about 3.25" and finishes at 4.5" so it will probably be done tonight.

Yes, this is the famous KnitPicks Memories in Yukon colorway. I have enjoyed this yarn ... enough so that the other colorways I was picking from for this project are now winging their way across the US along with some sock needles. *sigh* yes, it's a sickness!

I still need to get my V-neck on a holder. Forgot to take a picture of that one. sorry! The back is done and when I get back from my weekend road trip, I'll probably cast on for the front of said V-neck sweater. I also want to get Sleeve #2 for the brown cable going since I'm mildly concerned that my stash is a skein short of this color to finish the sweater. Egads!

Well, I have one or two small things to take care of before I can leave for home, so I'd better get to that. Have a great evening!

Cute? Baby Ducks are Cute! I HATE Cute!

Extra points for whomever can name the movie that the post of this title came from :)

Yeah. Baby Ducks are cute. Especially on a great Moda flannel on the back of a finished baby quilt!


OK, so the binding isn't sewn down yet. Gimme a break, I just sandwiched, quilted and sewed on the binding last night!


Besides, I have to wait for the new schmoo to make his appearance at the end of May before I can present, anyway! ;-)


The softball background is particularly appropriate for this particular quilt, since Mom has her picture on the outfield wall! The banner is blurry in the background, but it's No. 9 and mom-to-be is on the left-hand side of that 1999 banner. Arrow provided for your viewing pleasure since the focus is on the quilt, not the outfield. :)

Of course, I also owe that mom-to-be a T-shirt quilt, so I might have to suck it up and finish that damn thing. I hate the process of making those things, but the finished product rocks.

We have kick-ass new faucets installed, but I'm not up for that saga today. Tomorrow is a "true" day off, and I can't wait. I'll be watching the Masters, fusing t-shirts and plan to embroider three baby quilt logos. Wish me luck!

I’ve Got a Fever and the Only Prescription is More Cowbell Sock Yarn!

Edited Saturday night to add the Yarn Pr0n photos. Better late than never, I hope! Especially since I got LOTS of strange looks from my coaches when I was taking these photos over by third base post-game yesterday. :)

OK, so I went a little nuts yesterday. I jerry-rigged my afternoon responsibilities and got to the Cotton Shop in plenty of time. Got two fabric options for the back of the X-block quilt, and I’ll get my friends to help me pick tonight.

Then, I went over to Beach Knitting. Where they are having a store-wide 25% off sale through tomorrow. I came home with this.


Two skeins Trekking XXL. One of Sockotta. Two of Cherry Tree Hill. One of Jitterbug. Plus a skein of chocolate brown Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (not pictured) that will eventually be another pair of Fetchings.

I’m going to take some better Pr0n shots shortly and will edit them in tomorrow. I appreciate your patience (and once again, this is why I’m not on Turtlegirl’s Yarn Pr0n blog ring!)


Fun with Photoshop!


Pretty!


Mmmm ... me likey!


Possible socks for the Hubster


This colorway is just too fun. Had to bring a hank home!

I also got a copy of Vogue Knitting.


Your lovely models are Derf on the left, Baxter on the right.

Remember, everything listed above was 25% off!

Then I went to Borders. Ugh.


Well. I went a little overboard there too. *sigh* Four knitting books, including the new one from the Harlot. I checked the computer and it said that it was in stock in the store but I couldn’t find it on the shelf. So I found a human, who checked the computer. That said they had 14 copies in the store. She wound up going in and finding it in the back in about 2 seconds. They didn’t have it out on the shelves at all!

Tomorrow I will have pics from “Adventures in Home Improvement.” All I have to say is ICK!

Oh, and by the way, SJ is such the Queen of Socks that she even ID’d the yarn in my slipper socks correctly! Yikes! ;-)

This, That and the Other

I got home early on Tuesday afternoon. I was sure that the Cotton Shop was open until 7, so I hung out with the hubster for a little bit until he went to get in his workout, then went on my merry way to go get the flannel for the X-Block baby quilt that I want to sandwich and quilt tomorrow (Friday) night at Bearly. Apparently, they close at 6, not 7. Shazbot!

Yesterday went slower than I wanted/needed it to, and I couldn't get back down to Redondo before everything closed up at 6. So I planned for today. I came in early, plan to get all of my work done and leave early afternoon so I could check out the big sale at Beach Knitting and get my flannel for said baby quilt.

Now I have to go to the end of practice. SHAZBOT! I have a jerry-rigged backup plan. If that doesn't work, I won't be able to leave campus before 4:45 if everything works perfectly. With our lovely LA traffic, I have a snowball's chance in hell of getting the 16 miles to the Cotton Shop before it closes at 6.

Not quite sure what I'll do if I can't get to the Cotton Shop tonight. Maybe I'll hope that the traffic gods will smile on me once again, so I can hit Quilters Dream (their website seems to be down at the moment) on my way to Bearly tomorrow night. Why not just get the flannel back at Bearly? They don't carry flannel! Can't go to Cotton Shop tomorrow morning b/c I have a game tomorrow and have to be at the field by 11 am.

Meanwhile, I picked up my traveling sock yesterday for the first time in weeks. I even got about 1.5" knitted on it! I'm thinking with my travels over the next few weeks, I can get this done in a decently timely fashion. Then, helped on by the advice of sock guru SJ in Pittsburgh (a great new--to me--blog I found via The Harlot) , I plan to cast on Jaywalker in the light blue Koigu:


Whaddaya think? Sound like a good idea?

Meanwhile, back in reality, I finally finished the second KnitPicks Slipper Sock. Pictured with the first 1/6th of the I-cord. Need another 30" of I-cord, then can have a BIG felting party. I have three pairs of Fuzzy Feet to attack (felt) along with these slipper socks. Also need to knit the non-felted cuffs for these puppies. Favorite tape measure included for scale.


Love the yarn. Pattern is fun. I always get stuck trying to find the time/energy to actually do the felting. *sigh*

After I-cording for a little while, when the hubster got home (he worked mens' volleyball last night), I figured I should go ahead and join the second ball of yarn for my Alpaca V-neck


I was quite pleased that although the patterned pooling seems to be continuing, It doesn't scream "HEY! HERE'S WHERE AMY JOINED THE NEW BALL OF YARN!" that was probably my biggest fear.

If you can't figure out where I joined the new ball of yarn, 1. YAY, and 2. I photoshopped in a little blue arrow on the right to help you out.

Please cross your fingers that the re-worked afternoon schedule in my head winds up being feasible, and that nobody decides to have a Car-b-que on the 405 this afternoon.

Faucets

Yep, faucets. The kind you find in your bathroom and kitchen. That's what the hubster and I were doing last night during the game. Went to Lowe's, where we sat around for a lifetime about an hour to get the work order done since neither of us has the time/interest/tools to install said faucets by ourselves.

If I wanted to stay in this house for any length of time, I'd be pushing for either a full master bath remodel or a kitchen remodel. Instead, we're replacing the fixtures for both upstairs bathroom sinks and putting tile on the bathroom floor, plus a new kitchen sink fixture. Major improvements for minimal cash output that will help with resale. Let's just all cross our fingers that we'll be trying to sell the place before too much longer, OK?

After splitting an entree at Claim Jumper (yum!), we got home at about 8:45, just as the hoopage was coming to an end.

I knitted a very little bit, we watched Dancing with the Stars, I started reading back entries on a new Pittsburgh knitting blog I found via the Harlot, and that was that.

I do have some progress shots, though, and one needs an opinion!


This is the first sleeve for the brown cable sweater. Exciting, huh?


This is the back to the misti alpaca v-neck. I'm not sure I'm in love with the "X pattern" that it's making. It's obviously releated to my gage, which has been pretty consistent since I got about an inch off of the 1x1 ribbing.

Do I frog it? Do I live with it? I really don't want to do the "alternate balls of yarn" thing. Since this is the back, I may just live with it and hope the front doesn't stripe the same way.

HELP! What would you do?

Fabric vs. Fiber

I've been itching to quilt lately, but my inner sloth has vehemently resisted the effort required to set up for sewing at home. This leaves me with way more knitting time than quilting time.

But, the home conference softball season is here. We play a single day game on Friday, and as soon as that's over, I can high-tail it out to Pasadena for the last few Friday Nights at Bearly Stitchin.

When I got in my car post-game on Friday, I was pretty concerned about the Hollywood Fire, but in one of those traffic anomalies that can only be found in Los Angeles, I sailed from Westwood to Pasadena in an hour. AN HOUR. On a normal Friday, it takes at least 90 minutes.

Once I got out to Pasadena and procured my sandwich from Whole Foods, I zipped on over to Bearly and got cranking on my project for the evening, a baby quilt for a kiddo who is scheduled to make his appearance in about two months.


I bought a few patterns and the X-Block tool at the Road to California show. Then, that Saturday, the hubster and I field tripped out to the Fabric Patch and I bought the kit for this quilt.

I have the "scrap" pieces sewn together for the pieced border, but when I had the blocks and small border sewn together at about 9:45 on Friday night, I looked over and saw this fabric from the Moda Sunshine line sitting on the shelf. I immediately ripped through the train of thought saying "This is a baby quilt. It is going to get dragged in the dirt and puked on. If I do the pieced border, I probably won't be able to finish the top tonight. If I do a plan fabric border, I'll be done tonight!"

Easy decision. 3/4 of a yard later, I had the top done by 11:30 (including snack time) and it's now sitting in my crate waiting to be taken to the Cotton Shop to choose backing flannel. The binding is even cut out, pieced and pressed. I'm hoping to sandwich and quilt next Friday.

The most fun thing that was finished on Friday night was this quilt:


Anne had been working on this for a while and got the quilting finished and binding on that night. It's the Lucky Stars pattern from Atkinson Designs. I have this quilt started in purples and greens. This inspires me both to finish that quilt and possibly start a new one with my batiks stash and either a white or black background. Awesome, eh?

I have a dentist appointment this afternoon. I was up at 5:40 to start my week early, so I'm hoping I don't fall asleep with a hygienist's hands in my mouth. Wish me luck! Otherwise, I'm hoping to cruise the Beach Knitting sale this week, get that backing at the Cotton Shop and be ready for my two home games this week.

Best part of the whole week? No game on Sunday. Three cheers for Easter, my last day off until the season is over!