Today's Sweater is a Wrap - "Literally"

Apologies to Brenda Dayne and Saturday Night Live for that title. A while back I wrote about some lovely yarn that I acquired at my LYS. I had my eye on a wrap that one of the girls was wearing and noticed how lovely it was draped across her shoulders. I couldn't stand it so I bought the yarn. I know, I'm weak. Who could resist this? The yarn is Schaefer Laurel in the Susan Sontag colorway. I noted at the time that the colors reminded me of the beach. I also noted that when I got home and started working on the pattern that they wrote out for me, my brain decided that it couldn't be right. My memory kept thinking that the ribs were thicker and there was more substance to it. It kept looking like a shopping bag to me. Actually, this would be a great stitch pattern for a shopping bag. I think the yarn might be overkill for a market bag though. Anyway, it was driving me crazy. I went to the web to look for stitch patterns. I found Lacy Diagonals and that was better, but still not giving me the thicker ribs I was looking for. I modified that and came up with the pattern below. Actually, this is the first pattern that I have written out. I named it Sky Wrap because it reminds me of clouds in the sky.

By the way, I was wrong. I went back to the store and compared my wrap to theirs. Stephanie's wrap was exactly as she had written it. She liked what I did though. My ends slant, hers were straight. My memory thought that her ends were slanted. What a brain fart! Anyway, mine's an original and I love it! I wore it all over Amsterdam in September.

At some point I'm going to post the pattern, but until I remind myself of what I actually did, I'll have to leave it off. Remind me to remind myself to refigure it out.......

Confession Time

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. In church last Sunday the lady in front of me was wearing a sweater that distracted me so much I couldn't concentrate on the sermon. I spent most of the time looking on my Ipod for a fern leaf knitting pattern. She got the sweater at Mervyn's. I want to make one. It was a wrap type sweater with the leaf pattern on the yolk front and back. The bodice was plain stockinette and had a few pleats at the center back. Probably on the front panels too. I don't remember. I spent all day yesterday trying to work out the pattern. I found something here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leaf-bookmark. There were only 4 "leaves" on each stem and it had a clover like pattern in between the leaf. It's driving me nuts!

I just finished Josie's baby blanket.

I bound off using a size 7 needle and the 6th bind off on this page: http://weebleknits.blogspot.com/2003/05/stretchy-bind-offs.html

I want to keep this handy because I keep referring back to it. I hope someday I'll remember how to do this automatically. The easiest thing is to just use larger needles.

My daughter didn't want traditional pink or yellow. She chose purple for her new little girl. This yarn has a pearly white strand running through it that adds a bit of "glitz." I think she'll like it.

I finally got the invitations to the shower mailed.

I had forgotten that Monday was a postman's holiday. Hopefully everyone will forgive me that I asked them to RSVP so quickly. It's ok, in all we have invited about 60 guests. If the laws of invites hold true, 75% of them will come and that leaves us with about 45. Now to figure out the food. Do I make it myself or buy pre-made? I'm being a little Martha Stewart-y about all this. I have to count tables and chairs and tea cups. I'll probably end up buying paper ones. I wish they were shaped like tea cups rather than coffee cups. Other than that I hope it doesn't rain. It would be nice to do this in the backyard. Martha would have a conniption about my back yard though. Maybe she would get up early in the morning to plant petunias!

Update on the Knitting

On the needles right now are Herringbone Rib Socks from IK last issue (Winter I think.) It all started with a plane ride to San Antonio. Here I am casting on and watching a podcast of LetsKnit2gether.

As I was working these I noticed that the color was pooling into diagonal stripes. The cool thing was that I seemed to have cast on in a slightly different spot for each toe and now the stripes look like they are moving from one sock to the other:

After working the heel this didn't happen anymore. To continue the coolness I decided to make the heel out of a complimentary color and WALA!

We're back in business! Dang! I just realized that I probably didn't need to go out and buy another skein. I have virtually the same brown in a different yarn. It's just as well though. The socks I made out of that yarn have since felted. The yarn for these socks is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the colorway Roadside Gerry. I didn't even think of going back to the stash for the heels because I originally wanted a color to match the orange. They didn't have that but they did have the lovely brown in Shepherd Sock, so at least the fabric is consistent. Josie's Blanket

Underneath the socks is a baby blanket I'm working on for my future granddaughter. She's due on April 4. I've got to get crackin' on the invitations for DD's shower. Here's what they look like and where you can get them too:

Gina Jane's "Little Cards" Pansy Garden Tea Cup Card

The cutting is a B-word since I sprained my wrist on our snowboarding trip last week. But I think the card is so cute!

Here's the blanket so far:

I've done this one before in blue. I liked the yarn much better for that one. This one's Bernat Baby Coordinates. I should have used bamboo needles for it because my Knit Picks keep catching on the fiber and snagging it. I'm stubborn though, so I haven't changed yet. Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday was my birthday. Before I whine I should say that I'm too old to whine about a birthday. It was no one's fault, but I can't help but feel, um, whiny. There. Hey, it's my birthday and I can whine if I want to! DH put his back out last weekend and had an impossible deadline for work, so we didn't get to go out like he said we would. I had to take my mom to the doctor and it was pouring down rain. At the parking kiosk, the window wouldn't return to it's full upright and locked position, so I had about an inch open with rain coming in. Thank God it didn't stick all the way down. My attitude was so bad He could have made it do that. When we got back to her place I was able to pull it up manually. DD called to wish me a happy birthday and asked what we were doing for it. Um, nothing. Well, we got Chinese food and that was ok with me. I had actually decided I'd rather do that before DH suggested that it was too late to go out. The killer for me was when this comedian, Andrew Dice Clay came on TV. I don't like him. Now I remember why. DH snickered at some of the jokes and I asked him to turn it off. He went back to work and I went to bed. The end. My mom wanted to buy me a card right there in the store with me standing there since she hadn't had a chance to earlier. (I'm her means of transportation.) I wouldn't let her. Too embarrasing. MIL just called to wish me a happy belated birthday. She said she didn't get a chance to go out and get a card yesterday because it was pouring down rain. I said, "I know." DS 1 & 2 didn't call. Probably overlooked it. Can I get a WHAAAAAAAAA!?!?!?!?!?!? or maybe just some WINE!

I'm A Broody Broad.

Here I am again. I've become inspired to update my blog while reading other's. One post that really rocked my world this morning was Christine Kane's blog. I stumbled on it from Cast-On. I'm new to Brenda's site, but I've been listening to her podcasts for quite a while now. I started with #1 and am finally up to #69. Anyway, now I'm a Christine Kane fan. You've got to watch the videos on her site, especially the one called "There's No Such Thing As A Girl Like That." It just cracked me up. Here, in case you just want to see that one:

The reason Christine's post spoke to me this morning is because I've been feeling really broody lately. More than lately, I'm a broody broad. They used to say that about me when I was 5 or so. I don't suppose it could be that I'm naturally shy and my parents were always fighting and I probably saw and heard more than a small child should. In my 40's I've learned not to be so moody. Dennis Prager helped with that. His Happiness Hour on Fridays is always a must listen for me. I keep digressing. I have been feeling like I don't know what to do with my life. I've been drifting. See, DH and I have had our own business for 25 years. I haven't had a "real" job (meaning corporate) for that long. I've made it up as I went, using the skills a 20 something had learned from Accounting I and working as a clerk in an insurance company. I learned to be good at customer service, (the customer is always.....?) I learned how to do craft services (we had a video company), I'm a real good go-fer, (I really resent that one, but who else would do it?) receptionist, (don't call me if you're a telemarketer!) dabbled in marketing, shipping clerk, and of course CFO. I was a boss once. I wasn't good at it. Not a good delegator. We closed the video-for-hire side of our business probably about 10 years ago and were left with our product line of instructional videos. About 5 years ago, that started to fail. This was also about the time that our children were ready to fly on their own. God is good! He sustained us for all those years, got us through raising 3 kids and then He said it's time for something new. Only we didn't listen right away. We kept slogging along until our lease on the building was up and we decided to move the business home. Now our offices are in the bedrooms our kids used to occupy. There's still an empty room which is becoming a catch all. It has been available for the rebounders, but I think they are finally done with that. The garage is packed with outdated video gear, and tape, remnants of a past life. DH never was that interested in the instructional video stuff we did. We did another couple of videos and then he decided that he needed to get a job. He now works for the company that we did the videos for. The videos are on their software product. He seems to like what he's doing most of the time. It's like production for him again. Me, I'm just dealing with the remnants of this company, shipping orders when they come in and getting depressed when they don't. My days have become less about business and more about wasting time. My thought process is why promote a business that doesn't put out new product? It's not evergreen. The stuff is getting old. We should just stop, but I haven't wanted to let go either. If I get a sale or two why stop? Probably dumb. I guess I like self flaggelation. It really would take the two of us getting our heads together and saying, "This is it. We're done. It's over." Oh, that makes me want to cry. I'm tearing up right now. So I've got to move on. I've been brooding about this for too long. It's time to move. One of the things I learned along the way is how to make a web site. I've been doing that since somewhere around 1994. Unfortunately, I really only know how to hand code stuff. That takes a long time, but I love it. I also know that I need to get up to speed on the newest ways to do stuff. I used to try WYSIWYG programs but they always messed up my shopping cart. I haven't tried one in years. Lately, I,ve been working on a site for R-Ranch, which we are members of. When they ask me to update the pictures it it tedious and painful. The guy who started the site used some template that I am unaware of and I got into it and figured out how to add a few pics. Last time there were 50 or more and I decided that there has got to be a better way. I know that I could learn from the internet or reading books, but I have tried and I'm not very diciplined. I always want to jump ahead. So I decided that I will go back to school. There's some more brooding attached to that. I'm old now. I know some stuff. Will I be wasting my time? Do I really need to get a degree? I'd like one but it's a big time investment. I need to get a job. I need to pay for my knitting habit. On and on and on.... Last week I had a dream about this that said I should sign up for 2 classes, one online and one on campus. So I did. It's only 4 units. Maybe I should sign up for more. The classes are filling up. On and on and on..... Nope, stick to the 2 and see how it goes. Then next semester you will be in and can get the times and classes you want. Ramp it up, girl. Dip your toe in the water and see if you like it. Big sigh. Ok. If anyone is actually reading this I hope you don't mind all the ranting. It's hard to let my underwear show, but I guess I need this. This blog was only supposed to be about knitting, but I need to let off a little steam now and then. I'd love to have a job where I knit all day, but that's not likely to happen. ;)