Knits For Sanity

Why to Knit a Swatch FIRST

I learned a lesson last week.  I have to ask, why do I always have to learn the hard way?  (sigh)

Remember my sockapal-2-za socks?  (sigh)  Of course I continued to break my coveted double points.  I wasn't happy about that and I still need to look into replacing those.  (Thank you for all of the info on that!)  So 3 broken needles later, here is where I was at on sock #1 last week:

I had turned the heel and things were going very well.  Yes things were going well until I realized, GASP, that the sock was TOO SMALL!  All kinds of noises and words came out of my mouth when I realized what I had stupidly done.  I couldn't believe that I had gotten that far without noticing that it was too small.

SO, I had to rip the darn thing out completely and start over using US2 double points instead of the US1.  Now my progress is probably about 3 inches on the first sock, at the most.  I have a TON of knitting to accomplish tonight and in the next 10 days.  I am really cutting this one close.  I better get going if I am ever going to make the September 15th deadline. (sigh) I CANNOT believe that I did that.   

So Nice to be Home

Ah, it has been SO nice to be home.  I've always felt that there is just something so soothing about sleeping in your own bed.  Last night was the best sleep I've had in days.  It felt GREAT!

I'm disappointed to say that I do not have any pictures of my little vacation to share.  Oh yes, I did manage to remember to bring the camera, but the batteries were dead after taking three pictures.  I really wanted to take a picture of the view of the lake from the back of our cabin.  The change of scenery was really nice but it was SO hot the whole weekend that I wasn't able to really get out much.

I was really afraid that the drive was going to be terrible for me.  It was only 2.5 hours which I pretty much slept through.  I was a little sore but it went fairly well for the most part.  It was very surprising and encouraging.  I wasn't able to do a lot of the things the everyone else did but I'm trying to look at the positives from the trip.  I couldn't have traveled three months ago.  That is one major positive!  Now I hope to travel to see family in Topeka, KS. sometime in August or September. 

I did manage to get some knitting and crocheting accomplished.  My bereavement gown set total is now up to 3.

The white one is bigger than the other two and will probably fit a 3lb baby.  It was crocheted out of the Bernat Softee Baby.  The other two are crochet from Plymouth Dreambaby DK.  They much more precious and delicate which is exactly what I was going for.  The purple one will be for a 1lb-2lb baby and the pink one for a baby under 1lb.

As you can see, I have not finished booties for these sets.  I've been trying to crochet 3 pairs of booties, but I'm having a heck of a time.  I've been getting stuck on every bootie pattern I try. 

I enlisted the help of my wonderful Bears and Blankets friends today.  As I've said in the past, they are a wonderful group of charity crafters.  Now with their help, I think that I finally have it figured out.  I'm going to try again this evening and I will hopefully have three pairs of booties to show off by wednesday.  I really hope that is not wishful thinking.

With the help of Linda, my wonderful mama, I have more hat and bootie sets to show:

The booties were knit by me and Linda knitted all of the hats.  She finished three of them while we were on vacation.  I was so jealous that she was able to knit in the car.  It allowed her to accomplish a lot more than I did. 

I have to sit in the back of the van sideways across the seat.  Sitting in the back made me become carsick everytime I tried to knit or crochet.  However. I did get a lot of sleeping accomplished in the car.  That's a plus!  Although it wasn't the most comfortable sleep.

These 8 sets make a total of 26!  Mama, thank you for your help.  You even sewed most of the seams!  You're the best!

Thank you to Cindy for her belated birthday gift.  I would post a pic but my digital camera died again.  Once I get batteries I will post that pic.  Thanks Cindy!  It's so great to have you back.

If I can get ahold of some doubel-A batteries, I will have knitting pics to show tomorrow.  I tried to start my sockapal-2-za socks but decided that I do not like the pattern as much as I thought I would.  It made me angry and insane!  That's definitely not good. 

I was able to find suitable pattern in my new Knittign on the Road book.  Now I will need to get US1 double-points for this new pattern.  Tomorrow will have to include a trip to Hobby Lobby or Beads and Beyond.  Fun fun!

I'm still working on my super secret project and it's coming along  I probably will have mostly Preemie Project knitting and my sockapal-2-za socks until my secret project is finished and gifted.  I apologize if my blog is boring until then.  Sorry!

It's so great to be back!

Aftermath of the Diet Pepsi Fiasco

I have been so lucky to gets tons of great advice on what to do with my Jeager yarn.  I was so frustrated with the situation that I was ready to throw it out.  Thanks to everyone's advice I decided against that.  You all convinced me that I could probably salvage it.  It seems that you were all right and I am very glad.

Thankfully like I said the Geisha was fine.  So I had 5 stained yarn bobbins of different colors of the Jaeger Matchmaker Merino and 3 skeins of different colors too.  Here is all of it soaking in my bathroom sink. 

I didn't know what I was going to use to get the Diet pepsi out.  Then I remembered that I had a small sample of Eucalan woolwash.  I got it from one of my online yarn orders but I can't remember which one. 

I didn't have enough Eucalan to wash the skeins separately.  So, I took a leap of faith and put them in the sink to soak together.  I figured that once the vest is finished it will be hand washed anyway.  So it's better to find out now if the colors will bleed. 

Luckily the hand washing was successful.  The directions on the Eucalan said that rinsing isn't necessary.  I did it anyway just to be sure that I got rid of all the Diet Pepsi.

I took the advice of many of you and wound the balls of yarn into skeins on my arm.  That way I made sure to get all of the stain out and it also helped the drying process.  I was going to unwind all of the yarn bobbins too but decided against.  It takes forever to do wind and unwind them.  Since they're weren't very thick I figured they would be alright.

Here's some of the yarn hanging to dry:

Thankfully I was able to salvage this yarn.  This has never happened to me so I wasn't sure what to do.  It's nice to know that this yarn held up to washing so well.  At least now I know the vest will be able to last many washings. That's piece of mind since I will be putting tons and tons of hours into it.

I would have been too frustrated to know what to do without everyone's help.  Thank you so much!  You saved me...well actually you saved the Jaeger.  Bless you!

I will never leave my yarn in such a dangerous place again.  I really learned my lesson.  It's really impossible to get angry at my monster cats.  Just look at the sight next to my chair right now:

This picture prooves that looks can be deceiving!  They don't look like monsters here.  Precious huh? They're just too cute to get mad at.  They're also too dangerous to leave open containers anywhere near them. 

At least the Diet Pepsi Fiasco turned out okay in the end. 

A Tough Lesson Learned

I learned a difficult lesson on Thursday afternoon.  It's a lesson I wish I hadn't had to learn the way I did.  Yes, this has everything to do with knitting.  Well, almost everything.

I have a monster of a cat.  Actually, I have three monsters named Oliver, Toby and Miller.  The monster I'm speaking of is Oliver, my trouble maker.  Being an intelligent cat, Oliver likes to do little annoying things to get my attention.  The funniest part about that is that he gets loads of attention.  I''m home all day because I can't work or drive.  So, my kitties get as much attention as they want.  They're so loved. 

What does Oliver like to do to get my attention?  He likes to knock things off of furniture etc.  For example he knocked pictures and something breakable off of my parents mantle.  I owe mom big for that becuase the breakable thing, well broke!  Oliver is the king cat.  So he sits everywhere and anywhere he wants.  If there is something in the way he'll knock it out of the way.  I can't put anything breakable out because of this.

Oliver is famous for knocking full cups of liquid onto the floor.  (Do you see where this is going?!) On Thursday afternoon Oliver and I were snuggling on my bed watching TV.  Oliver was laying next to my bedside table on my bed.  My dad brought me a full glass of Diet Pepsi and set it on the bedside table.  The mistake here was that Oliver was sitting right next to it.  I looked away fro one minute and he put his paw in it and pulled. 

I wouldn't have been so upset if I didn't have a bag full of my current knitting projects right next to the bed.  Yep it spilled right into te bag!  Um yeah...I was really upset.  I yelled "Oh OH it's on my yarn!  Oh it's my EXPENSIVE yarn!  Why did it have to be the expensive yarn?!"   The yarn in the bag was the WHITE Geisha and the Jaeger Matchmaker Merino for Tom's vest.

Why did it have to spill on my handwash yarn?  Luckily I was able to salvage all of the GEISHA, because it was on the bottom of the bag.  The Jaeger yarn wasn't so lucky.  I had just wound 2 bobbins for each color the night nefore and they were all completely soaked.  I think they have to be tossed.  It also ruined about a half of two partial skeins.  At least I didn't have all of the yarn for Tom's vest in there.

I haven't been able to pick up the vest since then.  The amount I had completed was soaked with pepsi too.  I don't think I'm going to rip it out.  I think I'll finish it and wash it then.  I don't know.  This has never happened to me.  I'm not sure what to do.  Should I wash all of the Jaeger yarn that was spilled on or should I just throw it away?  I'm too upset to deal with it.  I need advice.

Moral of the story: NEVER put your yarn ANYWHERE near a place that it can be spilled on!! 

In my case: Don't put your yarn anywhere near Oliver and liquid at the same time.  (you think I would have figured that out by now, huh?)

I didn't stay mad at Oliver for long. He's just such a lovable teddy bear:

 

Here's one example of him sitting where he wants.  He's on the computer desk.  He's just too cute to be mad at.  At least he's better behaved than he was as a kitten.  He was very crazy.  My roommate at that time called him Usama.

He does look kind of devilish in this picture. His eyes are slightly red.  He actually has light blue eyes.  What a monster!

I hope to have WIP pics tomorrow.  They probably won't be of the vest.  Now I have to wind new bobbins.  That's not something I enjoy doing.