Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Off topic stuff...or I get bored with sleeves quickly

Annie is in sleeve purgatory at the moment. Now that I have the 16" size 3, it's moving along a little quicker, but my attention tends to wane a bit. So, I got a little busy.

I had the ceiling fan, but the light wasn't there. Thanks to Home Depot and a little elbow grease on my part, the light's there now! I feel so incredibly testosteronized at the moment. If I don't watch myself, I may just replace my toilet.

Nah. Maybe next month.

Speaking of testosterone, I have been chatting a lot with a gentleman that I met in Chicago on one of the internet golf board's little outings a few years ago. We both had nothing to do on New Years Eve, so we did a lot of emailing. He thought that it would be nice to actually use the phone, so I gave him my number. He said he would call on New Years Day. He did.

Stop the presses. A guy who calls when he says he will? I thought those went the way of the dodo.

Anyhow, we have chatted a lot online and on the phone for several months now. Nothing too serious, but definitely a bit flirty on both of our parts. He's been threatening to come visit, but with custody of two teenagers, it is a bit challenging for him to make the trek from Grand Rapids, Michigan to here. Today, he posted on the golf board that he wanted to play golf this weekend. I, being a dingaling, posted back that he should get his sorry butt down here, and I would play.

I was kidding a bit. I haven't swung a club since October. At this moment, I probably look less like Tiger Woods and more like someone shooing away gnats.

He called my bluff. We're playing golf on Sunday afternoon. Here. I'm already fretting about my hair and makeup.

The swing? I may be fretting about that the least. I hope I don't kill him.

Is that a light I see at the end of the tunnel?

Perhaps. Here's said tunnel:

Thanks to my NCAA Pool going up in smoke, I didn't need to really watch the games too diligently this weekend. Thankfully, after all of my mathematical adjustments to make up for my gauge discretion, the tube is of the proper dimensions. So, before I get all stuck in sleeve purgatory, there will be a little bit more math to assure me sleeves that don't reach to my ankles.

Finally, my major comes in handy. Good thing, since I made an order with Virtual Yarns yesterday.

But which item was ordered??? Stay tuned.

Row gauge...it really does matter

I have never been a big carer about row gauge. I mean, how often does a pattern tell you to knit x number of rows before you do sleeve decreases?? It's always "knit x inches, or until desired length." Right?

Am I wrong, people?

Now, I seem to remember something about the importance of row gauge in fair isle knitting when I was sitting in Melissa Leapman's pattern drafting class, but it was 8 AM, I hadn't had nearly enough caffeine, and did I mention it was 8 AM?

I should have remembered just a smidge earlier. Like about four inches earlier. As I was blissfully fair isling along on Annie, I was getting a bit concerned that the length of the thing was getting a bit troublesome.

Like I needed to be 7 foot tall troublesome.

Turns out that I knit 7 rows to the inch instead of 8. Just a little bit of a problem when the inches start adding up. So, I had to rip out four inches of the sweater, recalculate my rows to keep the length reasonable,

(yeah, like I really was going to rip everything out and switch to size 2's....uh huh...)

and recalculate my neck decreases given the new number of rows. Thanks to Melissa's class, I did this with only the assistance of this:

Note the Lindt Chocolate Ball wrappers to the right of the vino. This was serious frogging, which required serious medication.

So, we're now back in business on Annie, and I've reached the point where the frogging began:

I feel much better now.

The "No Lookie" (Thanks, Kris!) pullover is also in full swing, thanks to Mike Rowe and Dirty Jobs last night. The steeks have been begun:

There will be more done on this tonight; "Lost" is not a rerun for a change.

So, how crazy am I with this fair isle addiction? You make the call:

This arrived from Two Swans Yarn today. I wanted to check out a few shades of the Jamieson's Spindrift (yummy, yummy, yummy) by the skein, but I really needed to see every freakin' color, so it was time to purchase the color card.

I am planning something...stay tuned.

Just don't wake Grady.

All this frogging has worn him out.

March Madness and Alice Starmore don't mix

This has been my life for the past three days:

I'm a NCAA Tournament Junkie. Have been for years. It goes back to my college days when Miami actually made the tournament when I was a senior (OK, so they lost by 13 in the first round...big deal). Anyhow, I'm in a couple of pools, so these games actually mean something to me (I'm Wichita State's newest fan).

Sadly, with the way these games have been going (they don't call it March Madness for nothing), my ability to concentrate on Annie has not been exactly there. So, what does one do when one can't do color work? One starts a new project, of course!

This is just a simple no-seam pullover using the bargain bin yarn I got at Stitches. The stripes have absolutely no rhyme or reason--I like that. What I like even more is that I don't have to look at the thing to knit it. I'm planning on altering the pattern a bit, though. In order to keep the stripes doing their thing, I will be steeking the armholes.

Yep. This fair isle addiction has me bad.

Annie has had some serious progress made, though.

I'm about four or five rows from the armhole steeks, which is pretty darn cool.

Don't tell Grady, though.

He has money on UCLA.

I think the Olympics may have created a monster

I'm still plugging along on Annie--a weekend of watching nothing but basketball has its benefits. Here's the latest:

I would have another inch done if I hadn't been stupid and knitted with the wrong color for five rows last night during the WAC Championship game. It took a good hour to repair the mistake and get a row knitted in the correct shade. Up close, you have this:

I know the headless birds in the top big stripe are supposed to be falcons, but I'm not certain what the prancing mammals are in the other are supposed to be. Lemurs, perhaps?

Anyhow, the knit is plodding along nicely. Of course, I'm already starting to plan out a new fair isle. My own design, mind you. Yep, those classes at Stitches West may pay off after all. I do have a quandry, however. Does anyone out there know a good figure-outer when it comes to calculating the amount of yarn you need for this sort of thing?

I probably can figure something out once Annie is done given the amount of yarn left over, but I'm having a lazy moment. Anyone?

Novocaine as a diet aid...I may be on to something

This afternoon saw me getting a filling replaced at the dentist. Not a terrible experience for the most part (the tooth wasn't bothering me to begin with; it was just in need of repair), especially after that shot of novocaine. I'm now here about two hours after getting home, and I'm beginning to feel my right nostril and right upper lip again.

My Mom always said that I couldn't eat while under the influence of novocaine. She claimed I would eat the inside of my mouth without knowing it. Now, after being a doc for 15 years, I realize that the copious amounts of blood that such an incident would produce would kind of give away the fact that I had journeyed into self-cannibalism, but I do give Mom credit. There is no way one could feasibly eat or drink anything in this condition without a very large bib and a tarp.

I'm working on an infomercial as I speak. I'm thinking Cher would be the perfect spokeswoman--I don't think she has felt her upper lip in about 10 years (or 20 surgeries ago).

Well, I did finish the sleeve on the Cathay Pullover. The second is about where the first was when the yarn for Annie made it here since I decided I was too brain dead to start up the project on Saturday.

You guessed it. Annie got started on Sunday. Many of you guessed right that I couldn't keep my hands off of that stuff. Here's the progress thus far:

I have a long way to go, but that's OK. It's addictive, actually.

As for the Olympic Fair Isle, it was worn to work yesterday. One of my employees made the comment, "It looks store bought."

I take that as a compliment. As long as that store isn't WalMart.

Kato is just happy Grady is napping elsewhere.

Clearly, Washington is part of the US of A

Just sitting here on a lazy Saturday minding my own business when my friendly mailman drove into my driveway. I have a golf club on the way, so I figured that was it.

Clearly, we're not looking at a golf club. At least not one in one piece. No, it's my order from Two Swans Yarn in Kent, Washington!

Woo hooooooooooo!!!!!

If you recall, this was ordered two days ago. Let's have a little geography lesson today, shall we?

Red means two days; blue means one week. Yellow dotted means you win an overnight stay in the Atlanta airport without one single bar open to try to assist you in sleeping.

Go figure. The take home message here is "Always go with Priority Mail."

So, without further ado, I give you Anne Boleyn:

Are these colors gorgeous or what?? Please excuse any drool you may see on the skeins; I tried to maintain some sense of composure, but it was really hard. I may just have to dig into this stuff and put the Cathay Pullover on ice. Cathay's in Sleeve Purgatory at the moment:

Given the weather forecast (and the fact I still have snow on my doorstep), I may just sit the cotton yarn aside. It would be nice to finish it, though. Decisions, decisions...

Cue the tympani

It's all done except the buttons:

I'm spent.

My own personal Olympic dream continues

Yes, it did arrive.

Sorry little thing, isn't it? What's even sorrier is that I'm done with that skein. It was used for a grand total of eight pattern rows.

Eight.

That would be one more than seven.

Yep. Money well spent.

However, the sweater is now knit, steeked (piss poorly, I might add. Thank God for Fray Chek), and chopped. Here's where I am:

I have two and a half more rows for that front band, then it's cast off time. Two arm bands, six buttons, and a little cleaning up of the front edges, and I am done! Yahooooooooo!!!

I have enjoyed this little project, I must say, so I have to send out mad props to Stephanie for organizing this insanity.

I mean, without her, I wouldn't have put in an order for 30 more skeins of Jamieson's Spindrift to knit up Anne Boleyn.

Yep, I changed my mind (like that should surprise anyone anymore?). I have the Tudor Roses book, so I figured I'd finally try out one of those designs. Love the falcons on that cardigan.

Grady, of course, can't wait.