KFK is back from the dead

Hsiaokuo62 · July 31, 2006, 2:20pm

Angelia, I saw from Babydill’s blog that it is 107* (or equiv w/humidity) where you are!

My sincere sympathy! :crying:

It was just a fluke to be able to wear that sweater this morning to walk the dog… 62* then, but now its 71*. Still pretty cool, we are very lucky. It was unusually hot last week though, so no telling.

I finished the hat, but have decided to wait til Kathy gets home from her vacation with her mom and siblings, to see if she wants me to leave it square (it’s very cute like that) or sew the corners together to make it a more conventional shaped hat. The pom-pom(s) will depend on which she chooses.

This will be the first FO since I have had this blog :shock:

LOL as soon as I got home from JoAnn’s with the new tapestry needles I found my old ones out in plain sight on the table next to the couch!
:rofling:

Hsiaokuo62 · August 1, 2006, 7:57pm

Today Jim and I went to Phoenix (2 and a half hours drive from here) for a doctor appt. I got some knitting done in the car, on the blanket. While we were there we went to BookStar and I ran into a young clerk who told me that her favorite knitting book was on sale for $1! So ofcourse I bought it! Its called Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns and it was originally published in Italy. This is an English translation. It has beautiful color pictures and instructions for the most beautiful stitch designs! The paperback version still sells for the higher price, this is the hardback. So if anyone has a BookStar in their town, it might be on the sale rack there too.

Also got a copy of Knitsimple magazine - fall issue. I love the cable cardigan on the cover and it reminded me of a cardigan that caught my eye in the Sept issue of creative knitting, on p.36. When I looked again at the creative knitting cardigan, I saw that it does not have cables, but is knit in a very interesting and easy pebble rib of 1st row knit across, 2nd row k1 p2, k1
and repeated. It gives it lots of texture but wouldn’t require near the work of the Knitsimple cardigan. However, it is knit longer, whereas the knitsimple one is cropped. They are both really cute. Maybe one of these will be my 3rd sweater from now! Next of course is the fern/asparagus one, and after that a pattern that the owner of our now defunct LYS helped me build from an online pattern generator, to closely resemble my alltime favorite pullover from Old Navy. I bought the alpaca yarn there before it closed. It is in a wonderful chestnut brown color.

Having a bit of problem with this computer, better sign off for now.

Hildegard_von_Knitti · August 1, 2006, 8:20pm

:waving: I haven’t visited your blog in a while!!!

I love the cardigan on the new KnitSimple, too! That’s one of my favorite mags. I wish I had more arms with which to knit!

Hsiaokuo62 · August 1, 2006, 8:32pm

Hi Hildie!

I’ve just been looking to at the yarn used for that cardigan on the Blue Sky Alpaca site - its called Russet, but there is no color called that on the site!
hmmm I think I found a not very LYS down in Scottsdale I can call to see if they know about the russet color…

Nice to see you here, I need to check out your blog too, its been awhile!

Hildegard_von_Knitti · August 1, 2006, 8:34pm

Is there a color number in the pattern? They may have changes names.

Hsiaokuo62 · August 2, 2006, 2:25pm

Here is the finished hat and matching scarf for Kathy. The hat looks kinda like a pillow here, but it DOES actually look like a hat on! Kind of like those Kitty hats.

This is my first FO since I started this blog!

:happydance:

Also, check out the yarn I made it out of - I got it in Japan, and it is classic ENGRISH! Not sure if you can see, but the label says:

High Touch Craft Yarn for Joyful Fancy Works !!!

I That!

Hsiaokuo62 · August 3, 2006, 5:20pm

I’m having problems with my computer :hiding:

I started a post and it just disappeared! Other things wrong with it too …
I guess I have to call my friends in India again! :??

Heres the news:

I got an interview for the job and its a week from tomorrow! :shock:

I started Becky’s hat with input from my knitting circle friends last night! It has elastic in the band and a brim - got help visualizing the way the brim gets made.

I have only ONE ball left on the blanket!! :happydance:

I’m still pondering whether to keep the pattern for Mitra’s afghan or start over with another pattern. My goal is to have it ready by Christmas so I am looking for speed :XX: I think I will ask the knitting friends for their guesses on which pattern would go faster.

My new sock yarn came in the mail, along with the 47" circ for magic loop method! Maybe I’ll take a pic later.

:waving: for now before the pc spazzes out again!

Hsiaokuo62 · August 3, 2006, 9:13pm

PS One of the ladies from the knitting circle said she would teach me to crochet next Monday! Yay! :cheering:

system · August 4, 2006, 7:00am

I love the Engrish label!!! :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard:

K’s present is beautiful!!! I lurv cables!

What job are you interviewing for? Did I miss this somewhere?

Yay for crochet! It comes in really handy! And it’s fairly easy to learn. (Unlike knitting! :rofling: )

Hsiaokuo62 · August 4, 2006, 2:57pm

Hi Angelia! The job is a health educator/dietitian job at NAU - Northern Arizona University - which is where DH works teaching geology. The only thing is that its 40 hrs a week, which is a more than I’m used to. But I think I can handle it

It’s raining here, has been all day - and its 55*! I hope you guys are getting some relief too.

Hsiaokuo62 · August 5, 2006, 9:21pm

Hello Knitties,

This morning I went all over town and located 3 pounds of love in antique white, that actually match, for Mitra’s afghan. I decided to scrap the one I started in March that I’ve only knitted one ball into. That yarn can be used for something else… it was too limp and the pattern was too complicated.

Pinkroses and Ekgheiy from the whatcha knittin thread steered me in the right direction for the pattern and yarn. I ordered the pattern book from Amazon yesterday so it should be here in a few days.

It was weird that when I went to buy yarn the dye lots were SO different. It was just lucky that I could get 3 that matched - there were 3 other versions of that color number that varied from bright cream to taupe.

So I’ve decided to put the socks on hold, and start a pair on dpns using the Silver tutorial. That’s because I need to practice different ways of doing them for sock wars, and this pair on 2 circs is a repeat of the one I did before - and also I believe that the reason its going so slow is that its made with yarn that has elastic in it, and it stretches and I’m knitting it tight. I don’t usually knit tight but I guess the stretchiness brings it out.

The BB blanket is now 31"X39". The instructions called for it being 30"X36" - so I guess I could stop now. It seems a waste to stop with less than one ball to go, and the proportions might be nicer if I make it a bit longer. I’ve noticed my concentration going though and making a few mistakes since I’m really ready to be done with it.

I called my sister and got the address for my nephew and his wife - they just moved this month and are staying with her parents until they can find a new house. My nephew has a new job doing biochemistry research in northern Calif. Anyway the blanket is for their baby boy Noah, who is now
6 mos old! I should have started it sooner!!

Becky’s hat is coming along nicely. Now I remember how much I love the feel of that yarn! Its Oxford, made in Italy, wool and acrylic. It’s one ply which makes it a pain in some ways - its very fuzzy and it tends to tear and split. But the feel of it is wondeful and the colors are beautiful. Its the blue multi, with shots of turquoise that make it a pleasure to knit. Thats the same yarn I made my orange-multi sweater with.

Anyway, I’m pleased that the blanket is almost done and soon I will be on all new projects. The afghan pattern is supposed to knit quickly so I’m hoping to get most of it done this month, just in case I do get that job. If I don’t get it, I will be really ahead for Christmas, and I’ll be able to work on a sweater for myself!!

Time for beddy-bye :waving:

system · August 6, 2006, 6:43am

:waving:

I’m glad you’re trying Silver’s tutorial! I’ve only tried magic loop once for a sock, and I didn’t like it at all. I really love working with dpns–I hope you do, too!

That job sounds really cool! 40-hours a week will cut into your knitting time, but then there’s more money to buy yarn…hmm…

Yay on the finished baby blankie! Can we see it?!

I’m jealous that it’s so cool where you are. It’s still in the high 90s here with no relief in sight. My mother visited yesterday (she lives an hour south) and said it’s much drier here than at her place. She can’t believe our lawn is dead. (And our azaleas, and two dogwoods…sigh)

Hsiaokuo62 · August 6, 2006, 8:24pm

Well, I have not QUITE finished the BB blanket yet but I will post a pic as soon as its done

For awhile now I have been wondering if there is anything I can do to try to buy yarn that is FAIR TRADE and has a good and positive effect on the people who produce it and their environment. So today I spent a bunch of time googling fair trade yarn. Well you know I didn’t get away without spending $ But I found some really neat sites. You all probably already know about them.

One was Artspun.com - they had a bunch of very cool yarns and they told what particularly made them good for the people who make them. One is a neat double whammy program that came about because the herdspeople in Mongolia were so poor that they were forced to poach snow leopards just to support their families. So this program was set up in order to give them income - they spin the hair from their camels into beautiful yarn (ever heard of a camel hair coat? Very spiffy) It comes in a natural undyed color that looks really lush, and a hand-dyed maroon. I would like to feel and see it up close - it’s homespun so would not be appropriate for some things.

They also have some other yarns that come in more colors, including hemp and hemp/wool blends. They have bamboo too. Has anybody knitted with bamboo yarn, and if so, did you like it?

Another site was Etsy, where a seller called VivaYarnista has awesome 10 skein bags of alpaca for $30. If you read carefully there is a very good description of the place where it is spun and how the local people benefit. I bought 2 bags and am thinking of doing an afghan from that … it could be a natural alternative to the one I had planned for Mitra. However, the alpaca I have seen has been FUZZY and Mitra wears contact lenses, so fuzzy is out. Also the acrylic will wash easily, and even though she just turned 24 I think she is enough of a kid to appreciate easy-wash. She also has a very rambunctious Jack Russel who sheds.

We actually have a couple of small alpaca farms near Flagstaff, and sometimes they have yarn to sell. Last time I went they didn’t, but i will keep checking. I like the things I have made in alpaca so far, however it does come out kind of limp compared to wool. It might be interesting to hold 2 strands together, one alpaca and one wool. The Artspun site had 2 kinds of wool, one hand-ded and one of natural sheep colors. They also had a neat mohair I’d be interested in using to strand with something else. Its supposed to be a bit difficult to work with, they said so on the site! So that actually gave them more credibility as far as I’m concerned.

I can’t wait for the afghan book to get here! It shipped yesterday!

Going to watch the Tracy Ullman DVD we just got from amazon and KNIT!
:waving:

Hsiaokuo62 · August 7, 2006, 9:02pm

The blanket is finished! It is laid out drying on a towel -hopefully blocking since the bottom edge was practically straight - supposed to be scalloped like the top. Its acrylic, and I hear that acrylic does NOT block - we’ll see! Now that it is bound off I realize I could have made the last row more scalloped by knitting the SSK and knit 2 together part of the decorative row, and making stitches instead of YOs. The directions said to end on garter stitch. If it had been wool it would have been no problem to get the scalloping by blocking.

The hat is a bit of a problem. First I can see that the elastic I used does show, and will show in the final product. I will have to take it out, which will be a pain since this yarn is fuzzy and grabs. Then I think if I CAN find blue elastic, I should try to weave it in. I think the best bet around here is a bead shop, no place else has colored elastic.

Besides that, the cables are a big pain. They are held in back, which I realize I have never done, always hold them in front. It’s pretty awkward with this fuzzy, multi-colored yarn, hard to see where the stitches are. On the next cable row I think I can switch them without it looking weird. Can’t undo the ones already done. AND the whole thing is too hard to see to knit at night! We have an average amount of light but this needs more.

So I just knitted a bit on the 2 circ socks tonight while DH and I watched TV. Tomorrow I take pics of the blanket

Jan_in_CA · August 7, 2006, 10:48pm

I also found that you can buy yarn to support Breast Cancer and various other charities here. The link goes to the Breast Cancer site, but you can click the others on the tabs as well. Kinda cool, but they don’t have much selection and I haven’t tried it yet.

Please show us your FO’s when you get a chance!

system · August 8, 2006, 4:57am

I can’t wait to see!!! :cheering: :cheering:

Sorry the elastic shows! That stinks. I hope you can find some in blue, and that it isn’t a PITA to weave in!

Hsiaokuo62 · August 8, 2006, 7:16am

Here is the blanket! Sending it off today :cheering:

Hsiaokuo62 · August 9, 2006, 9:26pm

Boo Hoo - no one has seen my blanket yet! :shrug: You guys must all be knitting!!!

I like our new emoticons!

Today we drove down the hill to the chicken farm a couple hours south of here, and I needed something to knit in the car so I pulled out a hat I had started making from this weird boucle’ alpaca that I got from the Hunger Site. It sheds like crazy, is really hard to see because its so curly, and generally might just as well be shorn from somebody’s poodle!!! (no offense to poodle yarn!) Despite all this, I had fun with it today, and I have revised what its going to be: A COWL!
Its perfect for a cowl. Its so stretchy that as a hat it would have fallen down over my face. As a cowl I can make it snuggle down or pull up. The only thing I wonder is when I take it off, will it leave white fuzz all over my hair??? :roflhard: I will have to wear it on an arctic expedition where warm matters but fuzz does not.

Yesterday I turned the heel on one of the socks that I had said was on hold - so maybe they will get themselves made after all !!
:??

Tomorrow I’d like to go to the bead store to try to find blue elastic, and if I do then I will be back working mainly on the newsboy cap.

Tonight was my first REAL kung fu class - the first was a private class just to see what the basics were. It was so fun, I loved it! :blooby:

I was :hot: my head off!!! I think I will be sore tomorrow!!

system · August 10, 2006, 4:37am

OMG, that blanket is beautiful!!!

I hope you’re not sore today!!

brownishcoat · August 10, 2006, 5:25am

Your blankie is gorgeous!

They have stretchy beading cord at Hobby Lobby and Wal-mart called Bead Magic and it comes in clear. I’m not sure that would work, but I’d look into it!