Yay Friday

So after two days at home with strep throat (waiting for throat culture to confirm it)-
(My throat still hurts but its no longer an agony to drink liquids)I returned to work for the traditional "short friday" at my office. By the time I got there I was ready to go home and back to bed, but I toughed it out the rest of the day.

I originally had plans to go visit a friend of mine this evening, but he has a 2 year old son, and I didn't want to risk infecting him with whatever I have so I decided to reschedule him for another night.

With a few hours to kill after work I went to KnitNY with my friend to work on stuff for a few hours. While there, I got filmed for Italian TV, which was kind of fun. I finished Dunkin Donuts Fuzzy Foot 1 and made some real progress on the back of my Yak/Merino Sweater. I haven't photographed either today but for those who want a pic
how about one of this guy...

Who knew something that looked like this could produce such soft yarn. He's sorta cute , isn't he.? :)

Got home early (7 ish), put my laundry in and decided to learn to do Fair Isle.
I picked an easy practice exercise from the First Knits Book and produced this swatch.

Gorgeous it isn't, but it matches
the picture in the book perfectly
so I"ll call it a win.

I'd imagine it gets easier with time but as
a first timer it felt like I could use a few more hands :)

And the back side of it? Whew.. what a mess.

Still, fun to learn something new.

Oh.. and remember my friend who picked up the alpaca for me? Well another friend, the beader, said she made stitch markers for me! I feel very lucky to have such thoughtful and generous friends.

Have a great weekend all!

Sick - and some mystery solutions..

Hi all,

I'm home with some sort of mystery throat ailment that is thankfully being cleared up by antibiotics. I've slept like 18 of the last 24 hours and i'm finally showing signs of feeling better
I love antibiotics.

Solution to mystery 1 - the Vogue knitting confusion -
Problem? bought a vogue knitting whose cover didn't match that on the website and thought i had the wrong one.
Solution: for some reason the one i have had the subscription cover and not the newsstand cover, but its the right one and i hadn't read it.

Solution to mystery 2 - Can't get gauge

My sweater gauge woes were cleared up by a visit to the store, in which i learned that i had the wrong version of the pattern. The one i had was for a smaller-gauge yarn.
what a relief. I now ahve done a few (ok about 20) rows on the back of the sweater and I Love love love how its knitting up, the yak/merino blend is so soft, yet so sturdy - shows the stitches beautifully

Some pics -
A close up of the stitches - sorta - its curling a little from sitting on the circular

Here we have a pic of the caked yarn and the knitting
hard to see here but its really a pretty yarn.

A shot of the 'now taking forever' "Dunkin Donuts" Fuzzy feet
I hope to knock the other one out tonight, i'm getting a bit tired of these dragging along, but i do love how they are coming out. I plan to do the toe in the aubergine/orange/aubergine pattern that i did on the cuff and the heel.


Oh! and i forgot (nearly) to mention that my wonderful friend A from CT (the one who got me the great stitchmarkers a while back), picked up some Alpaca for me!!! They have a local alpaca farm and she picked some up while meeting the animals. I"m so jealous! And i'm very grateful. I can't wait to see it!

I've been Tagged - and Gauge Woes

So I have good news, and bad news.

The good news is that I finally picked a sweater pattern!
I went to School Products yesterday and picked out a Baby Sweater. A simple Raglan 2x2 Rib Turtleneck, worked in pieces. They had a sample made in a delicious 50% Yak, 50% Merino which as only 24 dollars for this giant ball of "just enough". Its pefect - not too pricy, not too big for a first sweater. I couldn't wait to get it home.

The bad news is that I cannot get gauge with this yarn.
The pattern calls for size 8 needles, and my four inch swatch was 6 inches - no problem .. I'll just go down a size.
the swatch with size 7 was between 7-8 inches.
So was the swatch with size 6.
WTF? It got BIGGER?
I can't really go smaller than 6 with this because the pattern just starts to look wrong.
Feh.

In other news :) I got Tagged ! by Knit-N-Purl Zen

Tagged!

4 Jobs You Have Had in Your Life:

1. Flyer Distributor (15 years old, in Clown face)
   
2. Tech Support and all-around office assistant for a Computer Consulting firm
   
3. Legal Biller
   
4. IT Director (started as assistant, then manager)
   

4 Movies You Could Watch Over & Over:

1. Network
2. Better off Dead
   
3. Blazing Saddles
4. Fiddler on the Roof

4 Places You Have Lived:

1. Brooklyn, NY
   
2. Staten Island, NY
   
3. New York, NY
   
4. Brooklyn, NY (again)
   

4 TV Shows You Love to Watch:

1. West Wing
   
2. Gilmore Girls
   
3. ER
4. Mary Tyler Moore Show
   

4 Places You Have Been on Vacation:

1. Puerto Rico
   
2. Bahamas
3. New Orleans
   
4. California

4 of Your Favourite Foods:

1. Sushi
2. Mexican
3. Thai
4. Southern (these are nearly random choices, I like all food :)

4 websites you visit daily:

1. Knittyboard
2. Weight Watchers (to track food)
3. Bloglines
4. Google

4 places you’d rather be right now:
1. Asleep
2. My boyfriend's
3. In a coffee shop, knitting
4. In a nice hotel, anywhere

I am supposed to tag 4 other bloggers here but I have to go figure out who has already done this, so go ahead if you are so inclined :)

Have a great weekend all!

Happy Friday!

So I happened to see the last copy of Vogue Knitting (the winter 2005/2006 issue) at Barnes and Noble today.

I think its been out for a month or so, and given that the new issue is due out on Jan 17th, it must be.
But I cannot remember if I've read it.
I bought it, read thru the entire thing, and STILL can't remember if I'd already read it.
I mean I assume I must have because its been out a while but nothing looked familiar?
Perhaps I'm not getting some vitamins or something because I shouldn't be forgetting things like this.

I also got the new Bust magazine - so I'm in for some good reading :)

In Knitting News...

I'm still working on the Dunkin Donuts fuzzy feet.
I went to the LYS Closest to work today (The Yarn Connection)
and fondled some Nashua Creative Focus Worsted
I"m really seeing it as a sweater, so it could be my yarn of choice for the first sweater, whenever I figure out what that will be.
Its soft, its high yardage, comes in pretty colors.
Just need to find out how it wears.

I'm off to bed..
more tomorrow.

Well Howdy All

How are you all doin?

I've been awful at this updating business lately - exhaustion mostly.
Coupled with an extreme lack of knitting.
I'm in the midst of finishing a pair of gifts, both of which have encountered problems and Not feeling good about starting anything else until I finish those.

So here, in the name of knitting accountability ;) I present to you some progress pics of
the lengthwise Malabrigo brickwork scarf and the Dunkin Donutsesqe Fuzzy feet (Lambs pride worsted) pictures taken on cameraphone in a flourescently lit office.
The lumpy portions at the joins on the fuzzy feet aren't as prominent in real life as they are here, and they'll felt out anyway.



So....
Today a friend and I are going to knit at one of the nice knitting stores around town, and drink coffee, and play with yarn, and i'm going to finish the damned gifty fuzzy feet that have been stuffed at the bottom of my bag since the year one. (see above)
and I'm going to have lunch, and coffee and go home and knit in front of the TV.
All good things.

I haven't decided on a sweater yet.
I'm considering Samus
or Mariah
But both intimidate me somewhat.

:)