Knitting in the Shadows

It's 94!!!!

After a scary bit of O2 saturations in the mid 80's during a nap, she's shown 94 for a while now.

We get to go home!!!!

The doc is writing the orders as I type.

Fingers crossed that there's no sudden crashing...

Four Hundred! (and hoping for a steady 94)

This is my four hundredth post on this server.
Holy cow!

I thought, for a minute or three, that I ought to make this a momentous post.  I mean four hundred.  That's a lot of posts.  I ought to say something significant. Something memorable -- or inspiring.

That's what I was thinking this weekend, when all I had was a regular yummy post about Irtfa'a.

Then, I pondered the viability of turning this post into a good Mothers' Day Post. Perhaps that would be a fitting post for my four hundredth.

Then my daughter woke up struggling to breathe....so instead of spending Mothers' Day being pampered and/or writing peaens to mothers generally, and my mothers in particular, I spent it mothering.  I was reminded of the power of mothers' intuition:  I knew when the inhaler would be enough, and how to get a new one.  I knew when to let her nap and just rest.

And I knew before she told me when the inhaler was NOT enough.  I tried to ignore the warning bells that said "no, you can't wait until the doctor's appointment you made for tomorrow (for other reasons)", but soon yielded to the Mother's KNOWLEDGE that this time, we go to the ER.  I confirmed with the Advisory Nurse on call while J got her shoes.

This year, J's lips did not turn blue.  This year she was not crying because it hurt so much to breathe.  But this year, we got to spend the night in the hospital because we could not get her oxygen levels up to the necessary 94 (to be sure they wouldn't plummet again) without oxygen.  At as much as 3 liters per minute at one point.

So. Here we are.  In the lovely new pediatrics unit (where they have wifi!), where some 16 hours and five nebulizer treatments after we arrived, J is maintaining a decent oxygen level at only 1 liter of extra oxygen and .... she's finally eating something!  They tell us that as soon as she can maintain a good oxygen level on zero extra oxygen .... while walking at a measured pace around the ward, she can go home.

I think, in retrospect, that I'd prefer to have had nothing more spectacular to offer than the update on Irtfa'a.  But I'm truly pleased that this report does not include scary complications that make the doctors look tense.

I'm surprised at how little knitting I've actually gotten done, given how long I've done nothing but sit with J while they nebulized and oxygenated and tested her.  I've made some (possibly even visible) progress on Chrysopolis, and Sock de La Mer has gotten about half of a heel flap. But really, all I really have to show you are the pictures of Irtfa'a that Elizabeth and I took last week.

There we are: two lovely growing shawls.  At first blush, you'd think that there's no reason they should be different sizes.  We're both using the same yarn and the very same needles!  And, almost, the same pattern.  Of course, me, being, me .... I had to go and change things.  The lower one (mine) has an extra repeat of the large feathers in it.  So it gets to be bigger.  I don't think I'll add to the smaller feathered section, but then again... who knows.... that's ages away yet. Well, about 60 rows anyway.

Here are some shots to let you see them more closely:
Elizabeth's Irtfa'a:

See all the pretty markers?

and mine:

practically a marker free zone in comparison (and a blurry picture -- sorry).  I do love markers... I just don't use as many as E does when the repeats are short.

Socks .. and sock thoughts ... and Seasons

I seem to have missed a post that I was sure I'd written.  If I did, it's all gone now, consumed by the ether.  But that's okay -- I can do it now.  Better late than never.  And it's fitting, since today, so far, I'm thinking about socks.

My second Sock de la Mer is at that point in top-down socks that I find rather magical.  It's at a cusp -- it could still be something else as long as I don't knit that next row, in which I begin the heel.  I love that feeling...that sense of potential.

Will this be a mitt of some sort? a glove? a mitten? a fingerless thing to keep wrists warm?

Or is it the start of a sleeve?

It's a sock.... a lovely nifty sock....

I don't know if you can see them, but on this sock, I couldn't resist playing with something that Anne said in her description of what she was doing with this sock design.  She sees seaweed waving up the leg, with the inevitable air bubbles escaping out of the top to form the ribbing.  I thought it would be fun to let a few of those air bubbles show up in the leg of the sock, as they work their way up to the ribbing/surface.  I put the bubble cables in randomly around the leg.

I'll use this to distinguish more easily between right and left socks (since I do that right and left toe thing when I knit socks.)

I thought it was fun...

And while we're on socks, here's something I evidently forgot to show you.  Last weekend, I finished DH's Harlequin socks!

The tops are as close to the same as I could get -- but evidently the balls were put up as inverses or something.  The toes clearly do not match.  But.... they match DH's toes, and that's what's important, right?

After all, when he's wearing them (which he has done -- they're already in the laundry), they look more like this:

Another one for the FO pile (and these were in Mission Possible too... w00t)

Knitting With Nora leads to.... -- I've REALLY Done it Now

So, yesterday, being Monday, I was supposed to post about my progress Knitting with Nora.  I was supposed to tell you all about the new Icarus, and Boing!

Ooops.  I got side tracked.  More on that in a minute.

I did not cast on for Icarus.  I'm still dithering over whether to actually knit a straight Icarus, or ... to test Daedelus (my variation on Icarus whose chart really needs tuning so I can share it).  I've asked Joan, who gifted me with the lovely luscious yarn from which I'll be knitting Icaraus (Daedelus?), but she's rather pre-occupied, what with going to Ann Arbor for a clinical trial and all, and hasn't chimed in with her opinion.

I did, however, spend a bit of time with Boing! 

See... its growing!

And I'm liking it.

And best of all, this one is a pattern that I think I'll have all memorized in about one, maybe two more repeats.  That means I won't be chained to the chart anymore. (I'm still chained to the chart/instructions with the second Sock de la Mer).

Obviously, that wee bit (well, okay doubling the previous entry, but still) of lace didn't occupy my whole day Monday.

What did?

Seasons of Lace.  That's what.  It turns out that I'm absolutely stark raving bonkers.  And though Knitting with Nora ought to provide me with plenty of ways to share lace knitting with my bloggerly buddies, it seems I wanted more.  I'm sure someone has told me that more isn't necessarily better, but I don't listen very well.  I wanted more.

I wanted to sign up for a Summer of Lace.  Alas, no one seemed to have been running a Summer of Lace.  So I whined about it to Maria, and discussed it with Alyse.  And now...

Well, now we seem to be organizing Seasons of Lace, which will begin with Summer of Lace 2008 (running from June 1 to September 23).  I set up a Ravelry group -- and it exploded within hours. (Within two minutes of setting it up, there were five members!  And neither Alyse nor Maria were among them.  As of this moment there are 130!).  Maria has set up a flick'r group  and it's ready.  I've discovered an assertive part of myself that I didn't think existed, and actually have some positive responses to my solicitations for prize donors...The website/blog will be up and running very soon (Alyse has done some stunning work here in no time folks).  I need to finish writing up the rules of the road etc, and Alyse needs to finish setting it up so you can all join up... and we'll be LIVE!   I'll let you know as soon as we're really up and running.

I'm scared.

What if it doesn't work?  What if no one donates prizes? (Did I mention that there will be prizes? -- at least I hope there will be prizes.)  Or, more likely, what if administering this baby eats up all my lace knitting time???  It certainly ate Monday.  And I still need to find more prize donors, and some worthy lace judges for the few competitions we'll have..

I think I'd best go spend some time with the Divine Though Blogless Elizabeth and Irtfa'a.

 

 

I've Done it Now ... or Wii're doomed

I've sworn for years... over a decade even, that my kids would not be kids who hung around the house playing video games.  I swore there would be no Play Stations or XBoxes or Nintedos in our house.  My children would be book reading, game playing, outside running around kids.

I held out for a dozen years anyway.  So far, they are book reading, game playing (imaginary games using board game boards for all sorts of other things) and outside running around kids.

But Sunday I caved.  And now.... my kid is playing video games in my living room.

And my arm.... can already feel that I've been playing video games in my living room.

You see, Sunday, I bought a used Wii, and the Sports pack.  At first, I thought I'd have a BIG problem, because it came without an instruction manual.  Luckily, I guess I'm savvy enough with the plug things in world that I was able to set it up even without instructions....

I bowled, I played tennis.  I had fun.  I even toyed with golf and found that to be a bad plan for awhile.  I have to get a better grip on how it works.  Now I have to learn how to do these things left handed too, or I'll have one strong arm, and one limp noodle.

I will not, however, let this eat up too much of my knitting time.  At least until the Wii-Fit comes out. 

I hope I don't live to regret this....

Mission Possible - May Report (April's Progress)

Back in early January (oh so long ago), I accepted a Mission to accomplish 12 knitting related things.  Since then, I've given you monthly reports on my progress.  As we enter the fifth month, I'm proud to report that I'm over half-way through my list.

We will not mention that I got this way by frogging the clearly unfinishable projects.

As I have been doing all along,  I've put the original goal in bold italics, with the commentary that remains in simple italics.  Where I've actually accomplished it, I've stricken out the title and killed the bold (so it looks like this); where I've made any progress, I've put that information in normal type.  However, this time around, I've reorganized things so that the completed stuff is all together.. If you're a glutton for punishment, you can check out the pictures in the Photo Album there on the sidebar - I won't make this a picture heavy post, since all of the pictures are there. So, without further ado --- here's the round up :

1.  Finish the Pre-Columbian Shawl     Mission Accomplished by February 4

3.  Figure out what I did in Willow 2" back so I can resume knitting it. (note: the promise is to resume knitting... not to finish. Therefore, I only have to donate this if I don't get to forward progress).

Mission Accomplished in January

I've also progressed... After a few arguments, that called for a bit of tinking, and a bit of recharting, we've been moving forward at a slow and steady pace.  I'm not going to tempt the knitting gods by suggesting that finishing this within the year is foreseeable... but...

4.  Finish Mermaid Mission Accomplished in March.

7.  Deal with DH's abstract sweater. Mission Accomplished in April (reality testing revealed that he'd never wear this out-dated when begun sweater -- I frogged it).

11. Finish the tee dress I started in that ribbon yarn (Olga?) Frogged in March - Mission Accomplished in March

9.  Finish all socks in progress as of the Start of the Mission:

9a. The Spiraling Up Socks in Fleece Artist's Sea Wool Mission Accomplished in March

9b. Blue Stocking bail out in Fleece Artist merino

Though I'd hoped for a toe-up sock, when Anne Hanson asked me to test knit Sock de Mer, I realized that this was the perfect yarn. I completed the first sock, and cast on right away for the second one.

9c. The experimental (heel out) sock

9d (when you add new socks before the original three are done, are they part of the Mission?-- Harlequin Socks

Bonus Mission Accomplished in April DONE (and DH loves them)

2.   Fix Thistle's sleeves and get her buttons on.  They're too tight.  I have no more yarn.  The dye lot will matter.  I must either find a way to block in a few extra inches (hahaha) or undo the seam, and insert a gusset in black. 

I've found all the yarn.

5. Finish swatching the Bohus fer chrissakes, and start knitting the thing! Oh,... finishing it would be good too... but I do NOT promise to donate this if it's unfinished by year's end.  The promise here is to get it well and truly in progress.

6.  Finish fixing the microfibre ribbon Tee that I'd originally made too large.

Only progress is that I think I've figured out what I need to do.....

8.   Finish or frog the Nalgar

I've at least thought about this.  I think I'll be frogging.  There are no baby boys in sight to wear one should I finish it, and I'm getting better ideas for the yarn.

10.  Finish the sweater I'm knitting sans pattern out of Grignasco Spongy.

I was making killer progress before I lost track of where I was in the whole short rowing thing... And boy is it hard to count rows in this stuff...

12.  Fix the damned Silk Garden Jacket!  (need to pick out the sleeves and re-knit them ... I put them in in the wrong place).

and # 13 (to match the number of full moons in the year, I guess): Reduce the stash -- whether by knitting it or trading it or selling it.  I hope to also make plans for much of what I keep, so that even if it's not on the needles, I've a clue why it's here.

So, four months gone, and five and a half missions accomplished.  Not bad, as long as you ignore the part where several of those missions were accomplished by frogging.  I've got some work cut out for me to finish these other tasks by years' end.  I'd best get focused.

 

April's goals progress:

I said that I'd focus on on fixing the Microfiber Ribbon Tee, finishing one of the sock goals, and working on Spongy; and that I'd go through the stash again to put stuff for sale or swap.

I did work on Spongy, but...

I also said I'd Maintain a yoga schedule -- minimum three times a week.  Work into practicing at home as well as in class.  .. I had actually gotten to practicing in the morning at home before I had that unfortunate week of  pain, during which I all but bailed on yoga.  I'm trying again....

I also said I'd try to Put My Foot (and Pocketbook) Down in April.  The basic premise is that you buy NOTHING but essentials for the whole month. I went for several days without buying a thing.

Then I bought jeans for C and shorts for J.  The jeans were needed.  She'd outgrown all the ones she had.  The shorts were... inevitable if early.  I pretended that this did not knock me out of the running.

But then, I went out for latte and a scone with a friend on tax day.  There is simply no way to call that a necessary expense.  I lasted two weeks.

New and/continuing fibery goals for May:

1.  Continue working on the above listed Mission Goals (focusing on 9, and otherwise focusing on numbers 6 and perhaps 10)(I don't seem to have stuck to these focuses well, but we'll see).

2.   Go through the stash again, and put more stuff up for sale or swap.

Non-Fiber Goal:

Get a good plan laid down for the the Eastward Trek (preferably to include adding one or more stops to the trip.

 

TMI Friday, or why I hate shopping

Today I engaged in one of my least favorite activities.  Bra Shopping.  This post will be pretty much about that, and why I hate it.  So if you're really looking for yarn or lace or something cool about my kid's band... skip this post.  I promise those things will be up soon.  This one is just plain TMI and whining.

Today was supposed to be easy.  Two months ago, after trying on what felt like a gazillion bras that didn't fit, I found one that I thought was going to work.  The band actually touches my body ALL the way around, just like its supposed to.  And there are no gappy places in the cup.  Though I could wish for minor things to be different, this seems about as good as I'm going to get.  I bought one -- at $30.00+ each, it's hard to justify buying several until you're sure it works in life as well as it does in th dressing room.  I took it home for further testing.

It's now been worn for a couple of months... responded appropriately to laundering, and seems to continue to be comfortable and fit well.

So... I returned to the store from which I bought it ... wearing it in fact... to find another one.  I went to the Warners aisle (yep, this store has LOTS of bras... the different brands seem to have their own mini aisles), and selected the very same "model".  I took it into the dressing room because I'm paranoid.

I took off my bra and confirmed that the model and size I was wearing was a Warner 001344 size ##X.  I checked the tag in the bra I'd selected, and confirmed that it was a Warner 001344 in size ##X.  I put on the new one (only difference?  mine was black, the new one beige).  I expected it to fit pretty much the same way as the one I'd brought in from the rack.  I mean c'mon.  It's the same bra, right?

WRONG

It was totally different!  So different that I actually wished for a moment that I'd had my camera so I could blog it. (Then I remembered that would mean me posting my body in a brassiere on the internet, and got a grip).  But seriously.  Shouldn't two bras by the same manufacturer bearing the same model number and in the same size fit the same body the same way??  Shouldn't they???

ARGH.

Clearly, I have to go back to hunting a bra that fits.

I hate bras.  I sure wish I weren't more comfortable with one on than not.

Socks and Lace

I've just joined Summer of Socks 2008.  Last year there was great fuss, and lots of people knit lots of socks, and one person knit FORTY TWO pair between June 21 and Sept 21 to win the grand prize.  I cannot compete there. BUT...

There's a new contest... Socks on Vacation.  I can totally compete there!  My socks and I will be driving half way across the country (well, 1/3 east and then 1/3 west, so close enough), and we'll be crossing the border into Canada again.  Many chances for good socks on Vacation pics.

The trick is ... we need at least 15 people to join Socks on Vacation to make it fly.  So... if you're taking a vacation this summer, and will be knitting a sock... go sign up!

Meanwhile, back in the springtime, there has been more lace knitting going on in Shadowland.

Last night was Knit Night in my house.  Mary brought her Chrysopolis, and we enjoyed the discovery that we're both at pretty much the same place in our slightly altered patterns.  It took a few tries to get you a clear picture, because Zara was intent on being a part of the game.

If it wasn't one shawl it was another

But we finally got one shot of the two shawls in their current glory.

They're mirrors now.  and we were thinking that if we were just a few rows further, we could simply graft them together to have one lovely shawl...  but the sharing of the end product would get complicated, what with negotiating who got to wear it for which function, so we've decided to each finish our own after all.  We'll see if we still feel that way when we get to the actual center of the pieces.

In case you were wondering, hers is knit from Valley Yarns Alpaca Silk, and mine is from HandPainted Yarns... it's very similar to Malabrigo Lace, but not quite as soft.  I'm guessing they wouldn't block the same anyway....

Here's one last shot -- of my Chrysopolis on its own this time.  See if you can find the error that I found (and fixed) later in the evening:

It's a subtle one... and I'm not sure it shows up until you're right up in the face of the knitting. But fixing it involved ripping out about 8 rows of stuff on the left side of the shawl.  Grrr.  How could it have taken me eight freakin' rows to see the error???

Once we'd finished with all the photo frenzy, the Divine Though Blogless Elizabeth arrived, and Chrysopolis snuggled back down into her bag so that Irtfa'a could come out to play.

This was a night full of silly errors.  We took turns saying things like "What is that?" and "Where'd that extra stitch come from" alternating with "Uh,oh, there should be three sitches before that marker and I've only got one".  Turns out, we had the perfect combination of lace-guru juju in the house though.  Every time Elizabeth got befuddled, I was able to find and fix the problem.  When I found a clear oops, Mary was able to identify the problem -- which I was then able to fix. 

Many of the problems were caused by inappropriate stitch marker behavior -- or perhaps it was naughty yo's.... but either way, I'm tellin' ay, when a yo migrates to the other side of a marker,  all havoc breaks out. 

Alas, since we didn't really make a lot of progress (2 whole rows ... oooh ahhh), there are no Irtfa'a pictures for you today.  Next time, though, I promise a progress shot or two.  We've agreed to a wee bit of knitting on our own: By the next time we meet, we've agreed to have finished the second repeat of the small feather pattern.  Thus, even if we only get through two rows in the next session, we'll have some visible progress to show you.

How is it that we got only two rows knit? Well,in addition to the whole fixing the migrating yo thing, I was impaired for a while there

Gabriel  came  up onto my lap and wanted all sorts of attention.  He was slack jawed in the pleasure of just being pet and pet and pet...

Turns out I was building a collection of shed fur the size of a small kitten.  And here I thought he was relishing the attention. That'll teach me.

Now, Willow and Boing!, having been in the room for all this time, are now complaining that they got no attention yesterday.  And the new yummy Jaggerspun Heather is being a tad pissy about having sat before me all evening without me casting on for Icarus II.  (pushy wench that Heather). Sorry gang.  I can't knit EVERYTHING every day...  But it is starting to look like I'll need a schedule of the sort that Lene makes for Stephanie at Christmas time.  I'll see what I can do about devising my own before I admit that intervention is necessary.

Some people's brains....Some people's lace

In the news today, we see that some people's version of reality is vastly different from the rest of us.  The Dallas News reports that a man in his 20's attempted to pass a $360,000,000,000 check.  Yes, that's $360 BILLION!  Like someone would believe that a man in his 20's would have such a check to cash??? I wonder what he was smokin'?

Meanwhile, I'm being naughty again.  I'm mere inches away from finishing DH's socks, I've got three other lace projects on the needles, I've got a gorgeous Sock de la Mer to knit, not to mention Deep Breath or those pesky Mission 2008 projects to work on.  So what did I do?

Duh.

Let me introduce you to Boing!


For the next progress photo, I hope to have four hands, so I can show you some open lace....  and    Yes, I did cast on quite a bit ago.  Then we had a little tiff, and now that I have reopened my brain to the reality of reading simple and well drawn charts...we're off and springing.  Gotta love this color too.  My camera didn't get it quite right, but we'll try again soon.  It's a perfect foil for the gray blustery day that's gusting around outside.

That wind kept me from enjoying the bit of yoga I'd planned to do on my patio today.  The wind thought my yoga mat would make a fine toy.  I can see it now...... only Down Dog or Savasana would ensure that the mat wouldn't flick up and tap me on the head or leg or.....  I yoga'd inside instead.

ETA:

When I got home from fetching the kids today, I found a glorious surprise!  Lookee what Joan (that was you wasn't it Joan??) sent me!

She's totally enabling my Knitting With Nora plans.  There are several of us who will be knitting Icarus (or Icarus on Ravelry) together out of this lovely yarn!

Drive by sharing

Go read this:

wow - I like this person's brain!