FO!

but I am afraid it must remain a mystery until June... I finally finished my submission to Magknits which I have named "Lemonade". Well, the knitting portion of my submission...I still have to block and weave in many loose ends, but I am saving that tedious chore for the ride to the beach tomorrow. My son went last week with his grandparents (The Gaming One's M&P) and the Girl Wonder and I are leaving tomorrow to join them for the next week. It has been so quiet around here with just the older one here. She was at her Dad's house Friday, Saturday and Sunday so I had the entire quiet house to myself- a mama's dream, no kids and no husband for a few sweet days. The Girl Wonder has really spoiled me while she was here by letting me sleep late and making me coffee before she wakes me and generally being easy to please.

One thing I have noticed about myself where finishing knits are concerned- I suffer from a period of sadness after the knit is complete. I delayed this feeling with "Lemonade" by finding reasons not to finish it. I made a little crafty item for a swap I am doing with Steph but I will have to blog about that after she has received. I read blogs, surfed the web... I took over 6 hours to knit one row of the collar and bind off. As soon as I was finished, I found the long ago abandoned Icarus Shawl and started knitting away. I have about 10 more rows of the stockinette section before I can start the next chart. I am so ready to move on to a more challenging section. I will not subject you to another shrunken lace picture...lace is so pitiful before blocking.

The Girl Wonder and I took a walk yesterday and I came to an almost sickening conclusion- to passersby we do not look like mother and daughter... While this is great for my own ego, it scares the hell out of the Mama in me. She and I are the same height and weight, she has long blond hair and mine is dark brown. She is very mature for her age so she comes across as much older than she is. To make matters worse we live near a college campus and walk there often. Where there is a college campus there are dirty men yelling crude things out the window to the girls walking by. A carload of such dirty men passed us yesterday...after they slowed down the car to check us out and yell 'hey ladies' my blood started to boil. I turned to my daughter and said, "Sweetie, don't be surprised if you hear me yell "SHE IS ONLY 11 YOU PERVERT!" I told her I may even buy her a tee-shirt that says, "Quit staring. I'm 11" or "look at me again and BOTH my daddies will kick your ass". ack...I really am not ready for this...at least she is not interested in boys yet... God help the poor guy that checks her out within view of her dad or step-dad...that will be a very bad day indeed.

I don't know if I will be able to post during my time at the beach, but I will be back by next Friday!

fiddling with the template

As (I hope) ya'll can see I have been updating my blog and trying to get used to the new blogger. I asked The Girl Wonder to draw me something for my blog header and and the above image is what she came up with! It is so awesome to get a custom header for free! Thanks sweetie!

If anything looks strange please leave me a comment so I can try to correct it. Thanks much!

The past few days I have been working on afghan squares for a quilt for a friend of Lara (Yarn It) that is coping with the loss of a child. Please stop by Lara's blog and help out if you have a hour and a bit of yarn...

I have also dusted off the Lovely Lacy Shawl that has been in time out since September and resumed work on it. I was trying to knit this shawl without a chart and the line by line directions were killing me, so I broke down and bought the book it was published in. After taking a look at the charts I was dismayed that they were so small. I was pissed and shoved the entire thing into my closet. Thank the patron saint of knitting I carefully took note of the row and stitch I was on as I abandoned it mid row. Full of myself and my recent knitting successes, I decided to not let it get the best of me and took it out of seclusion. I think something happened it the closet because those charts do not look so impossibly small to read anymore. I must say the knitting is going a lot quicker with the charts and it is much easier to keep my place and spot my mistakes!

Look for me in Magknits!

That's right, the design I have been working on has been accepted to be published in Magknits most likely in June! Here is a peek of what is to come! I think I am having great luck with yellow. First there was Sunshine, now this. Thanks again for all the encouragment!

Too late for Knitty...

But since I am determined and ya'll have been so supportive I decided to submit to Magknits for consideration. Thanks Andrea for the idea, I don't know why I did not think of it myself. I will have to wait another week to see if they will publish it or not, so any details have to remain secret until then.... As for waiting to submit to Knitty, if I waited to submit to them until next time my design will no longer be relevant to their theme... my submission is really a summer knit and the next Knitty submission is a call for cool weather knits.

good news/bad news

First the good news (two parts!)
part one: The Gaming One bought me/us a new digital camera so my knitting pics are going to kick ass! (if I can figure out how to work the camera *wink*)
part two: The sixth attempt at set-in sleeve construction actually fit the armhole!

Now for the bad news:
After sewing in the sixth attempted set-in sleeve I realized that the armhole is just a bit too snug for comfortable wear. When I say just a bit I mean less than an inch. Since there is neither time, money or extra arm padding to justify liposuction, I had to take out the sleeve seaming, undo the shoulder seams and add some length to both the front and the back. After all that (you guessed it- I have to reknit the sleeve...again).

I refuse to let this get the best of me. Even though I will not be able to submit this to Knitty, I refuse to leave it unfinished. I really love this design (although I might be a bit biased) and think I will wear it often.

Last night I asked The Girl Wonder if she thought I should just abandon the entire thing since there is no way I can actually meet my goal. Her response, "Wouldn't it just be a big waste of time if you gave up now?" That's my girl! It is hard to believe she is only ten (although she will be 11 in just a few short weeks).

Y'all can look forward to some awesome pics tomorrow (camera batteries have to charge) of my attempted Knitty submission.

Thanks for all the encouragement over the past few weeks- it is true that knitters are the best folks on earth! Y'all really have kept me focused and helped me at my lowest times!

Poor neglected blog...

I am really in denial about not being able to finish my knit for my intended submission to Knitty. The deadline is the 15th and I still have most of one sleeve, all of another and the collar to knit. Oh yeah, not to mention I have to type the pattern, calculate for larger sizes and take pictures. I have knit the first sleeve a total of 6 times now, tweaking each time to achieve the look I envision. I always do my best work when I wait until the last minute (I guess I work best under pressure), but as always, I am kicking myself for wasting so much time...I blame the internet and all y'all out there that have such interesting knitting blogs! Since I have last updated my sidebar I have found 17 blogs that I have saved to my favorites that I read every day or so. I am hoping to do a big blog update sometime soon as my sidebar is in need of major update. So if you happen to stop by my blog and would like me to stop by yours leave me a comment and I will be more than happy to add you to my list! I love all the new techniques and projects that I seem to come across on your blogs-not to mention the glimpse into your personal lives.

speaking of personal lives, I have decided that I do not want to cloud this blog with bitching and complaining arising from everyday life, so I have started a blog for all that. Check out Amanda had a bad day whenever you think you have it bad...

Support our troops!

If you have the time check out this great Craft auction to benefit our injured troops.

knit wear design...what your mama didn't tell ya

1. Calculating the circumference of an armscye to knit a sleeve cap to match requires much math...that I last attempted well over 10 years ago.

2. Attempting to design a sweater knit on size 3 needles with yarn that was previously used in another sweater knit on size 8 needles will result in a new sweater that is missing a sleeve and a collar.

3. Attempting to knit a sweater within 3 weeks with cotton yarn on size 3 needles results in shooting pains in the hands and wrists.

4. If you get the crazy idea that you would like to be a knitwear designer (but have no experience) and would like to submit a pattern to be published you should give yourself more than 6 weeks- especially if by 'you' I mean 'me' and I do.

I am learning a lot throughout this process, although I hit a major bump in the road when I realized today that there was no way in hell I would have enough yarn to finish this as imagined. I am going to see what I can do to change my design without re knitting the body of the garment. I guess this is the one thing that sucks about designing...how in the world do they (knitwear designers) figure out yardage needed? This is probably something learned in Design 101 but I am clueless.