Call Me Kermit.

Holy lily pad! All I have done this weekend is rip, rip, rip. Nothing is going my way. I was working on the pink bubblegum colored cardi, and realized I had forgotten to bind off 9 sts at the beginning of the armhole on the right side...uh, after I had gotten 4 inches along on the raglan decreases....RIP! So, I decide not to have second sock syndrome, and cast on for the matching sock to Jaywalker #3. Count the sts...everything is fine. Knit the row, doesn't work out. RIP! Repeat process. RIP! Oh yes, I was referring to my handwritten instructions all along....IT DOESN"T MATTER!!! RIP!!! RIP!! RIP!!
Phew! I needed that. Here's a knitting pic for you to enjoy. My girls always bring a smile to my face. (Knitting was done back in the 60's by my mom) Aren't they cute? I have started a doll blog....if you're interested...click on the sidebar. Happy rest of the weekend knitting!

Intarsia and I make strange bedfellows

Up for your perusal...This is what the back of my work looks like when I do intarsia. I love the motifs you can do, but my stranding sucks! I just don't see how everyone keeps it all untangled. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have stranded the pink across the white, but whatever! I'll still love my cardi and wear it...I've always wanted to try my hand at fair isle, but me thinks it ain't gonna happen. Isn't there a yarn out there that I could do a faux fair isle with?

For awhile now I have been lusting for these shoes.... These are my ideal Mary Jane, but I can't find them locally. Oh sure, I tried ebay and the etailers, but with shipping...too much $. After all, we are only talking about polyurethane! Not leather! I also resent the fact that they are considered "goth". I love a platform and I love cutesy shoes. Buying shoes has always been somewhat of a burden to me. I stand on my feet all day, so I'm looking for comfort but with cutsey thrown in. Tonight I stopped at the super budgety $9.99 and up shoe store and found these... Still pu, but at a reasonable price...with tax..$13.90. Sure beats over $50.00...still a platform, still a Mary Jane, and still with a velcro closure! And comfortable....YES! For some reason, expensive shoes never fit right. I usually have better luck with the cheapos! Call me crazy, but I gotta have comfort!


And in other news...it appears I have a lot today...I've thrown over the vintage cable cardi to do this intarsia. My cabling didn't resemble the pattern at all, and it gave me great dissatisfaction. I'm still concerned over the fit, too. I started knitting the sleeves, and then threw in the towel! I will come back to it, but I'm thinking I will frog the back and start over! Egads! Did I just type that out loud?? You read it here first. I've committed to a frogging party! BTW, can you guess what the pink number is going to be? One hint...Mary Maxim. I'm staying vintage!

Bon Jovi Rocked Tampa (and me)

OMG!!! What a night! I can't believe how fantastic they were! Ok, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. First off, I wasn't able to sleep. On Friday morning, I awoke at 5:30 am...yes, peeps..and that is WAY too early for anyone especially me. After all, it was my day off...then, since my sis was here visiting from CA, I went shopping. Red picked me up at 4 pm and we went to Carrabba's for some yummy Italian pasta. Got to the venue about 5:30-6:00 and thank goodness we did. The line at the merchandise booth was big! See, it's happened to me before that when you wait til after the show, all the really big sizes are what's left. So, to the right, you see my haul. Red surprised me with the Hello Kitty computer game (!) and then bought me a BJ Blinkie pin!! Isn't she the bestest??
Now, if Red reads this, I hope she won't kill me, but....I don't think at first she was excited to see the guys. I'm not saying she dislikes their music, but she's no fanatic like I am. That sneaky woman has been looking at their webpage, and she knew something I didn't know. At the start of the concert, Jon comes out and plays in the audience! We had great seats (Thanks, Red!!) and Jon was literally 8 rows away from us!! Let the swooning begin! (Did it ever stop?) And, later in the show, he popped up again in the mezzanine level crooning "Bed of Roses". If he had done that on our side, I would have lost my mind.
The local newspapers reviewed the concert, but not as highly as I would have. This was a standing through the entire show, clapping, singing, screaming event. When it was over, we looked like 2 drowned rats from all the sweat! I swear, you would have thought Red and I were the performers! Ha! I did wear the Bon Jovi half sweater that had to be ripped off as soon as the concert started! One side note, I was surprised when Jon made a statement regarding Ritchie and Heather's "situation". In fact, during "Dead or Alive", I thought Ritchie was crying...my bad! It was sweat!!
I felt like that was THE best concert I had ever been to...Jon is a mega performer who can work the crowd into a frenzy. The acoustics were right on, and the big screen they used behind the stage was mindblowing. Red said that it looked so good that one might think they were watching a dvd since the pic quality was excellent. The last word...phenomenal!!!!

One more night until....

Yep! That's who'll I'll be seeing tomorrow night! It's been a looong wait and I hope I can sleep tonight. Good news, though...Red was finally able to get Friday off so we'll be spending some time together before the show. The bummer is I received no paycheck today...due to the northerly blizzards. I may have to restrain myself at the merchandise booth--Ha!
And yes, I played hooky from work yesterday, too. I had a dental appt, and said to myself...go ahead. Take a paid day off! So, I went shopping and spent some time with my family. Then, if that wasn't enough, I went to knitting group that night! Ah....if only every day could be like that. However, I spent so much time yakking that I didn't do much knitting. Hey! I better go work on that vintage cardi!

Were women in the 1940's anorexic?

Here's where I'm at with the vintage cabled cardigan. Uh...I think there's going to be a problem. Since I rarely gauge swatch, I just cast on and went with it. I've used this yarn before, Cara Mia, and the item actually grew....so, I figured what the heck. But, if you look closely, this is the back and it's not even 13" across. Now, I'm not a big woman, but this looks like it may present a new design challenge for me.
Also, the pattern said to do a double cross cable. Huh? I looked in my VK reference book...nothing that even resembled the photo. I've never done a cable with 9 stitches. Then, I started thinking that maybe it was a European pattern...Drag out the Mon Tricot that I just got at the thrift store and ...voila! Cables are figured out, and I love the look of them. Now, there's one thing I neglected to say in my last post, and it also is happening here....I really don't much care for reverse st st. What about you? But, being the type A personality that I am, I'm going to just settle down and love it if it kills me. Do you think I'll need to go on a diet to fit into this?

Hello. My name is Earl...er Chibisan

Yea! The Bon Jovi half sweater is done!! And none too soon for me. I hate being on a deadline...that's why I could never participate in the Knitting Olympics (a very cool concept, though). Shoot. As slow as I am, I couldn't even be a pre-qualifier! Anyway, the specs are below:

Pattern book: Filatura Di Crosa Zara/Zara Plus
Yarn: Lion Brand cashmere blend-9 balls
Needles: size 7 Plymouth bamboos
Start date-1-29-06 and well, we know when I finished

I definitely recommend this book or any of the Tahki books. The patterns are staight forward, and so far no mistakes in the patterns I've used. Oh yes, and the Earl titled post...remember when I mentioned the knitting gods were working against me? Yeah, I finish the cashmere sweater and the weather for the day of the concert? 80 Degrees. Karma. I tell you it must be karma.

Baby, it's cold outside!

Well, I would say, "Greetings from Sunny Florida", but all we have to look forward to is cold, cold, cold! (Great for knitting, though). That photo you see was taken yesterday morning...that's ICE on the top of my car. This morning was worse....the back and front windshield was iced over....and come Monday...it's gonna get colder. Brrr...

But hey. You came here for knitting. I'm on sleeve island if you haven't guessed. The Lion cashmere is a joy to knit with. I have 2 balls left with the sleeve caps and the 60" I-cord belt to do. Will I have enough? I hope so cause I don't want to have to make an emergency run to Hancock's. (not the close one) You may recall, this is what I'll be wearing Friday night to see Bon Jovi! I also need a new pair of black pants for the event, but it looks like that's not going to happen either.
And yes, I have selected my next project. Originally, I wanted to do another pattern from the Filatura di Crosa booklet I showed on an earlier post. This was going to include me using up stash yarn. Ha! The yarn gods frowned displeasantly on me...I didn't have enough of any one kind of yarn in the 5 containers of stash! I was so frustrated I wanted to scream. I kept saying to myself, what's the sense in having a stash when you don't have enough to make ANYTHING!!! Ok, then I calmed down. I surfed and went to the vintage knitting blog (look on my sidebar) and found a link to a pattern I like. And the clencher...I have enough to make the project! Yea! Ya gotta love it when things come together like that.

I got yer vintage knitting right here, baby!

I'm a pattern ho...I admit it. And if it's vintage, I lose my mind. I went to the thrift store yet again and hit the mother lode! All 6 of these for $3.89...including tax! I practically squealed right there in the store, but quickly regained my composure. I was combing through ebay last night, and saw the Aran Fisherman knits book and was lusting for it...(I'm going through my Aran phase right now)....imagine my delight when I saw it for 44 cents!!! I'm still in a state of shock. I can't wait to make something from any or all of these! (I know. I'll never get to all of them, but a knitter can dream, can't she?)

And speaking of vintage knits, and I am....I can't believe I never posted about this sweater. Oh, the story. Back when I first learned how to knit, I saw this in Vogue Knitting and fell in love. My sister was visiting me in south FL and helped me do a yarn conversion. I immediately cast on with those size 2 Boye needles and began a long arduous journey. The only "yarn shop" available was a craft store called Poston's, and choices were limited. We figured out that I needed 10 skeins to make this, so I scooped up South Maid Cotton 8 in coral. Knitter's nightmare set in when I realized I didn't have enough yarn. I quit knitting completely until 1999. One day, several years later,
I found this old project and thought I'd finish it...uh oh! Not enough yarn. I frantically searched-almost daily- on ebay for 4 years!! Then one day, a seller had 1 skein in coral and I won the auction. This is one of the oldest ufos that actually became a fo.
Here are the specs....Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 1990 pg.53
Yarn: South Maid Cotton 8 in coral 11 skeins (this stuff washes and dries in the dryer quite well. shame that it's discontinued)
Needles: size 2 Boye straights
start to finish-1990 to 3-18-04
Oh yes, and her name is "Coral Castle"......after the edifice located in Coral Gables, FL.

Last, but definitely not least...you must check this out if you love vintage knitting...
http://www.vintageknitting.net/ What beautiful work!

Automatic Aran

Last weekend I hit my favorite thrift store and found this little diamond in the rough...it was rather nastified-pilled. Brought her home, gave her a good spin in the washer and dryer and then proceeded to spend 3 hours cutting off all the pills. Oh yes, and a shave. Love those sweater shavers! Unfortunately, it was made from acrylic-and a bit scratchy to wear-but I love it! Some wonderful knitter spent hours making this...and I HAD to have it...after all, it only cost me 70 cents. But, why I loved it so much was it reminded me of a vintage Coats & Clark ad I saw in my grandma's mags from the 70's..... For whatever reason, that little red haired kid in the sweater intrigued me. --and of course, the idea of passing the sweater down several times also fascinated me. Yeah, I guess I am a weirdo. You may ask where all this is leading...


I have tried in vain to get this booklet...and finally I just spent the extra dough and bought it off of ebay. I think the hoodie is great, and I may do it first after the half sweater.
I've got time to decide....all the patterns in here are what I like to think of as "my style". I've never knit an aran, and I hope I'll be able to concentrate on the pattern. They certainly are works of art, aren't they?