Fiber Fool

Despite the lack of posts on the topic of knitting, there has been some knitting going on around here. Early last week I learned that some college friends of mine had their first baby, a girl, recently. While we haven’t been keeping in touch real well they were very good friends of mine so I decided to knit a baby blanket. I had been contemplating a way to mix up a log cabin blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting for a while. I was thinking about ways to incorporate fibonacci sequences or that when I read about Cara’s random number version. So, I chose 6 colors of Lion Brand MicoSpun in bright colors and had Random.org generate 50 numbers between 1-21 with repeats. So far I’m about 2/3 of the way through the 11th random number and I’m liking it. It has a distict oblong format which I may end up needing to fiddle with as I near the final dimensions (I’m hoping for 36 X 36 inches roughly) but I’ll hold out until then because it is indeed random so you never know!

Microspun is not my ideal yarn. It is very splitty so you have to keep tabs on it much more frequently than a better yarn, however, it seems the only economical, washable yarn that feels nice and soft and isn’t an overdone baby pastel. I’m not a pastel person in most instances and I can only assume that mothers get sick of all the pastel colors so I opted for this color combination. To make these bright colors pop even more I chose my order for the colors to progress in complementary color pairs - red, green, yellow, purple (the darker blue in that color is really a grape color), orange, and turquoise. I think it has turned out well. It does mean that all warm colors are knit horizontally (in the above picture) and all cool colors are knit vertically. It’ll be interesting to see what effect that has on the final product. It is hard to tell now with not quite two repeats of every color.

I did tire of turning the blanket when it was small because it was so few stitches and then you turned and now because each turn requires adjustment of how the blanket lies in your lap so I taught myself to purl backwards so I can do the garter stitch without having to turn my work around. It only took a few rows of that and I was very nearly as fast as my regular purling so only slightly slower than knitting the row from the wrong side. I’m not doing it on every wrong side row as sometimes I just want to crank out the rows, but it is nice to be able to mix it up a bit. And as a bonus I’ve found I am less likely to split yarn when purling backwards!

My first pair of man-sized trekking socks are growing too, although rather slowly. With the baby blanket project and my recent obsession with sewing and cooking lately this sock probably hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves. The last two weeks I think it has only been pulled out at SnB. But, I’m about half way through DH’s feel flap (eye of partidge, I’ve been on a kick for my more recent socks). I’m really liking the socks and think this colorway does a great job of bridging men’s need for understated colors and the knitter’s need for interesting knitting.

My post is quite late today because at about 1:30 am or so when we had some thunder rolling through (I don’t think we got any measureable precip, unfortunately) Emma decided it was time to be up and playing. She didn’t act scared, but she was prancing all over the house and sticking her nose in DH’s face so I got up about 2 am and took her downstairs with me so DH could get some sleep. I finally got around to watching the first three episodes of Psych I had on the NOT-TiVo as well as this week’s The Closer. But, it meant I got about 2 hours of sleep and then didn’t get back to bed until 6am when DH got up. I’m exhausted! *yawn*

On Friday night we celebrated my SIL3’s 26th birthday by heading up to Old Town Fort Collins (the historic downtown area) and enjoying a couple rounds of martini’s at this great martini bar on Lyden Street called Elliot’s. A good time was had by all.

SIL3 had recently returned from opera study in Italy and bounced through the roof when her new friends who were still in Italy called and sang happy birthday to her in Italian, LOL! We had fun teasing her with the aid of our great server, Sydney. DH and I aren’t real regulars but we seem to get her quite frequently and I believe SIL3 and her BF and friends are probably semi-regulars over there.

I also had a blast taking photos… You’re surprised, right? LOL!

Firstly, there was an errata in the Balance sock pattern. It has been fixed and those who had ordered it have been e-mailed with the new revised version. If you have purchased the pattern and did not recieve it, please let me know. Any future sales of the Balance sock pattern will have the corrected version (indicated by a “ver 1.1″ in the footer of each page). Now onto the main topic of today’s post…

As those of you who have ordered knitting patterns or fiber art labels or other downloadable products from me know, my shopping cart doesn’t make the download links very obvious. It has been a thorn in my side since I first started selling downloadable files and as the popularity of my knitting patterns and fiber art labels has grown the technical support for these downloadable items has eaten a ton of time that I would rather spend in designing new items. So, I will be moving away from the current shopping cart system and will be starting with all the downloadable products. I will be using a service for overseeing the secure download of the files which means I will have more out of pocket cost and thus will need to raise the prices of my downloadable products.

As of right now, I’m hoping to integrate the shop with the blog here and I plan to launch next Monday, July 31st. So, you have one week to get in on the cheaper prices before I raise them!

Here’s a look at the sock patterns…

For the Fiber Art Labels (not customizable due to March’s hard drive crash, but the one-of-a-kind ones are) head to http://designedlykristi.com/shoppingcart/index.php?cPath=31

Well, for some odd reason I’ve been bit by the sewing bug recently. Perhaps it is all the sewing going on for the KSKS going on around blogland. I’m not a seamstress. I can do okay with a sewing machine and I’m not afraid of it by any means, but I really haven’t had any formal training with one other than 8th grade home ec. But, I decided I really wanted a portable sock project bag to make Trek-a-Longs a bit easier but the budget is *very* tight so ordering one was out of the question. Well, what is a girl to do? Go stash diving of course!

Now, I don’t have a very large stash of fabric and the vast majority of what I have is fat quarters because I mostly use fabric for mixed media collages or bookbinding. So, I needed to devise a plan that used fat quarters. I had three fabrics that I thought were kind of fun together and as a bonus fit into this month’s Project Spectrum and stitched up this 5-inch diameter and 8-inch tall drawstring bag. I kind of used the details of a commercially available bag for inspiration. I made a roughly 8 inch loop with a snap closure on the outside so it could be worn around my wrist, through a belt loop, through the strap of my day pack etc. I put this loop opposite of the drawstring opening so the two would balance each other and could be carried by both loops if so desired.

Inside, there is a large pocket that was split into three sections. The first section holds a Chibi case *very* nicely. The middle section is just the right size for the smaller retractable tape measures (and my thera gloves if I’m needing them). The final section will hold a set of 5 DPNs so if you do two circs and do the heel and gusset on DPNs you are set or you can carry extra needles in case you are like me and drop them or loose them. Oh, and there is a snap-close loop on the inside for a yarn guide. I’m not sure I need that. We’ll see how it goes. I like the fact that it snaps though so you can fully remove or put in a project in progress. It seems like many of the bags on the market with yarn guides require the project be started in the bag (or at least at a change of balls of yarn) and stay in the bag until completion.

There were problems with this bag. Definitely problems. I had no idea how to sew a coulmn of fabric to a circle. It was a good thing I started with the lining! I knew about snipping fabric for the curves, but didn’t think about needing to do so *before* sewing around that circular bottom! But, after the lining went so poorly I Googled and came up with this great video. I do wish that video included how to sew shut the column because while the bottom of the outside of this bag is much improved over the lining there is a gather where the vertical and horizontal seams came together. Anyone have some tips for me??
It was a great learning experience and I’m ready to dive in on a few more. I’m going to try lengthen it to be a spindle bag too and change some of the dimensions a bit! Once I’ve ironed out some of my issues I’ll be sure to put up a pattern and/or tutorial!

Sunday was the BIG day, the whole reason we spent 30 hours on the road and was only in Minneapolis for about 30 hours. Mom, needing audio description for plays can only see the plays on one day in the entire run so she gets a little lead time to get tickets. So, as sort of a way to celebrate her birthday (at the end of this month) got 7 tickets to Wicked at the Orpeum on Sunday afternoon. That was three for she, my dad, and my sister, and we paid her back for the other four for DH and I, and his parents who live only three hours from Minneapolis. We decided it was a good Birthdaymotherfathereasteranniversary gift seeing as how they just got done downsizing for retirement and that. We figure it is better to give memories than “stuff.”

The show was amazing! The costumes were ornate and gorgeous and crazy all at once. The music was fun (though not as catchy as other shows I think). I adored the Galinda charater and I was in awe in how they were able to change your perceptions of these characters you grew up “knowing.”

I have to confess that I still haven’t read the book that inspired the musical. I bought it last summer and tried reading it, but it took me a couple weeks to get about 50-75 pages in so I set it aside. I thought while I was watching the play that I’d jump right into the book when we got home since I’d have some momentum but then mom crushed it for me… She said the book and the play have the same characters and a similar premise, but that is where the similarity ends! I think I’ll let the book wait until the fall.

The show did however cause me to expand my amazon wishlist with a few things - a-hem :-) Though last night in looking for inspiration for SIL3’s birthday gift for tonight we went to Best Buy and DH bought me the soundtrack! Guess what I’ll be listening to today??? LOL!

If you like musicals I don’t think you would be disappointed with this one. My dad isn’t a big musical fan and he enjoyed it. I think it can help to have a familiar story, that and mom made him get a set of headphones for the audio description as well so he might have caught on a bit better :-)

Before we went to the matinee though, my parents came and picked us up at Rob’s and we brunched at this great restaurant in Eden Prairie called Red Stone Grill. I’m not quite sure how to explain their cuisine… Kind of nouveau homestyle cooking perhaps? Anyway, the food was awesome. If you go, don’t miss their Lodge Cornbread! Yum! The AC was up a little high though, so my shot of the building is a bit mysterious because my lens fogged up when I tried to take it. It had just finished raining. The service was also top notch. I’d really like to go back sometime and try their regular menu. Chances are I’ll get to sometime as it is pretty much on the way to the farm from the airport! :-)

After the play all seven of us were going out to dine. Upon a recommendation (whom I won’t credit and you’ll understand why in a moment) we went to Bar Abilene in uptown Minneapolis. It was just a few miles from the theater, so not too hard for the in-laws to find, but far enough away to kind of avoid the post-theater crowd. It did still end up being a bit interesting getting there. DH’s parents do not know the metro area at all and we were not parked in the same location so we couldn’t quite get into a proper caravan. So, they were a few blocks behind us and MIL was on their cell and I was on mine and were dictating directions to them as we went. It was quite an experience, LOL!

Bar Abilene is a nouveau TexMex place (the menu on the web site is very out of date). They have an interesting menu that made it quite difficult to decide. They also had a very extensive margarita menu with some interesting concoctions. Mom ordered a Mango Mariachi that was mango with a bit of adobo sauce in it. It was *yummy* and I would have ordered one myself if we hadn’t decided to drive down to DH’s parents’ house that night to cut a few hours off of Monday’s drive. We also tried to make our own last night. What we made was good, but it wasn’t the same. We’ll have to try it again soon.

Our end of the table (FIL, MIL, DH, and I) decided to go the taco route. They have a taco menu that has small soft-shell tacos and you buy them onesie twosie so you can mix and match. DH and I decided to split a gruyere artichock quesadilla and then each get two tacos. My tacos and the quesedilla were great. I ordered a chicken and apple taco and then a more pedestrian steak fajita taco. DH ordered a three cheese and roasted peper one, but when it came out it had bacon in it. But, because he hadn’t asked them to hold bacon or any meat products because they weren’t indicated to be in the taco he hadn’t checked the taco and ended up eating almost half of it before discovering the problem. Since he’s been vegetarian for so long we were quite afraid he’d be sick for our drive home on Monday, but it was okay. The other taco he got was an avacado and grilled tomato taco which he said was really good. My parents end of the table all got monster burgers that every one declared great. The fries were thin home-style skin on fries with a touch of season and the onion rings were really thin with a season batter that was quite delicious.

Now, if the only screw up was DH’s taco I’d wouldn’t be so negative. That said, the taco he ordered didn’t even have bacon in it and what he got wasn’t one of the other tacos on the menu either so I still don’t understand. However, upon our arrival, they had our reservation down as 4 rather than 7 so they were not ready to seat us. Then, once we were seated the waiter came quite promptly to take our drink order, most of which was for water. Well, he didn’t bring the waters out for 15 minutes and he forgot a water for my sister and she didn’t get it for 30 minutes! Keep in mind that we got there at 4pm, the place was empty except for some bar flies. Then, he only refilled FIL’s soda and never my dad or I’s. When dessert rolled around MIL & FIL ordered the same mudslide dessert to share that DH and I did. It took a looong time to come out and when it did only one was brought out. The waiter gave us some line about how only one can be made at a time and ours was coming. Well, after the first one had been eaten he finally came near enough to our table to ask about ours. It took over 30 minutes to come after they had gotten thiers! That was completely inexcusable! Needless to say there was no tipping involved.

There was obviously some mix up in the kitchen staff, but I think 95% of our problem was our waiter. The food was great and the service the worst I’ve ever had. They were getting busy by 6:30 pm (2.5 hours it took to eat there, I’m not kidding) so I suspect we just got a shitty server who should be seeking employment in some other field. So, while I cannot in good conscience say with enthusiasm that one should go there, I trust the person who recommended them and I am sure we were just very unlucky that day.