Baby Got Back!

Yes! My birthday present to myself - a finished Shapely Tank back panel

DH didn’t get me anything knitting related for my birthday. I think mostly because he figures I’ll buy it for myself. Instead, he gave me a DVD and CD and a promise to take me shopping for some clothes. Which, is good, because I will likely use the b-day money I got from his parents, and my grandparents to get a swift, a ball winder and hopefully the Denise Interchangables. Shopping for clothes somewhere other than Target is actually quite exciting. And, I have no shorts that are suitable for wearing in public anymore and as hot as we get here and since we do not have any AC, shorts are a must!

Emma ended up being muzzled at the vet yesterday, but we complimented on her muscle tone and told her food (Eagle Pack’s Lamb and Rice formula) agreed with her very well. The little trooper had blood drawn for her heartworm test (negative) and three vaccinations. Then she decided to be sticky and sat at my feet while I knit yesterday afternoon. In recent months she has taken to sleeping on her bed back in our dark (NE corner of the house) bedroom and not spending any time in the basement with me until the evening when DH is home. DH doesn’t have to be in the basement too though, which has me perplexed. She is definitely my dog and attached to me more than DH, yet she lays all by herself in the bedroom all day. I’m hoping when it really starts getting warm she’ll come back to the cooler basement with me as I got her to be a companion while I spend 10 hours a day by myself at home and I miss her when she sits upstairs.

I think I’ll be casting on for SIL2’s Sigma tank today. I’m going to do it in Lion Brand CottonEase in Sugar Plum and Candy Blue. It sounds like we’ll be celebrating on May 9th, which means we’ll be headed down on the 7th possibly, though likely the 8th. So, I’m setting a DDD of May 6th so there is time to wash and block. But, since it is in the round and about 15 inches small in circumfrence than my own shapely tank I think it should go pretty quickly. I just need to finalize my striping pattern and get the entire pattern written out for her size and my gauge.

I’m contemplating a trip down to Loveland a little later too. There is a new LYS there and I could meet up with DH for lunch (if he doesn’t want the usual pizza they always have on Fridays at work)… I’m not sure if that will stiffle my obsessive need to get out of town or not, but it couldn’t hurt (well, anything other than my pocketbook), right?

Almost there…

The back of my Shapely Tank is almost done. I have about 40 rows left or so, though they are getting smaller and smaller and thus quicker and quicker to complete!

I ended up not getting any knitting done yesterday as I running all day. Between my therapeutic massage, voice lessons, taking the dog to the groomer and a last minute invitation to an “aromatherapy workshop” that ended up being a pyramid scheme thing and not much about essential oils so much as all of this company’s products. But busy was nice since I’ve been couped up in the house writing lessons for the past 7 weeks. There have been sooo many things that needed to be done that haven’t.

Today, my birthday present is taking Emma to the vet… Well, at least the groomers let me in on her little secret of being so scared and such when I’m around, but being fully cooperative when I leave. They told me at the vet it’ll be best to take her into the exam room and step outside. I would have never thought of that. Wish us luck, LOL!

We Have Armhole Shaping!

Okay, prolly boring to those who have knit garments before…

But, I am stoked. The thought that I’m down under 100 stchs per row helps too!

I had knitting tea today at the LYS and I got a ton done. I did 7 or so rows before the shaping, plus the shaping. I still have a few more rows of decreases. I need to take a closer look at the neckline shaping as I’d like the back to go up higher. I often have pain patches and such on my upper back/neck that I’d like to be mostly concealed. I’ll have to see if I can just plain knit for say 3-4 inches before starting the shaping instead of the 2 inches the pattern calls for. We’ll see how adventuresome I get Mom is giving me heck for not following patterns, but so far it has always turned out. And, I already didn’t follow the pattern because I didn’t do as many increases for the bust area as I’m terribly pear shaped and even though this one hits at the high hip, there was still a decent discrepancy. This means I should have 3-inc ease throughout the entire tank (*knocks on wood*).

Unfortunately I probably won’t make anymore progress today. Partially to rest my wrist and also because I have other work that needs doing Nah, it’s okay work though…

Hi to those peaking in from the Knitting Blogs ring, my traffic has more than doubled the average of the past month! I hope you come back!

I really am making progress…

Okay, so my progress is much slower than I would have hoped. With my ample size we’re talking only 4 rows completed in about 30 minutes. And, I can only knit for an hour before I have to take a break. I wish things were going faster! But, I’m only a few inches from starting the arm hold shaping. I’m hoping to be there by bed time tonight.

There it is, a whole lot of st st!

If I hadn’t have been almost done with my increases I think I would have been highly tempted to rip and do it in the round ala Theresa’s directions. I’m pretty sure I’ll end up working a second one. Perhaps with some added patterning in a central band or maybe just some yummy stripes. That one I will definitely do in the round. If for no other reason than my purling rows take me about 20% longer to complete than my knitting rows

Both DH and I have been wiped, partially from allergies so we ended up staying home this weekend so Easter was just like most any other weekend when we decide we want to hang at home. It probably meant less knitting time I would have had 6 hours on the road if we had gone to his parents’ house, plus I tend to knit a lot when I’m visiting them because it is the only way I can stay awake after having to take muscle relaxers to get through the car ride, LOL!

We did get a fair bit of snow between snow until evening on Saturaday and then more snow arrived last night after we had melted Saturday’s offerings. I’m not complaining one bit though as we need the moisture so terribly bad. Yes, it would have been nice if it has been in a non-frozen form, but we’ll take whatever we can get!

Here’s today’s gratuitous puppy pic…

“Mom, would you put down that knitting and that darn camera and give me some attention?? Please??”

Stalled Knitting

I haven’t picked up needles in a couple of days. I thought Wednesday night I’d be able to get a fair bit done because we were having friends over for Chili and Best In Show, but I ended up helping one of our friends with her resume and we all chatted until midnight instead of watching a movie.

Now, I’m in a huge crunch to get my printmaking class lessons done in case we get to head to Monument to the in-laws to celebrate Easter and March and April (including mine, next Thursday) birthdays. That said, it seems I can probably back off a little on the stress as by tomorrow morning when we are to be leaving they are saying Denver will have 4-8 inches of very wet and very heavy snow. My vote will be to not fight the snow. We gave our gifts to SIL3 to take down as she is leaving early this afternoon and should beat the snow.

Did you see Chris’s lovely looking Shapely Tank? That looks so lovely! If I’m not mistaken, I think that is our first completed tank in the KAL! WTG, Chris! Oh, and now the KAL has it’s own blog. Check it out!

Her comments have confirmed that while I’m *very* happy with my short rows I think I’ll make what is on my needles right now be the back because they can only get better right?

So it’s not a complely boring, picture-free post, here is a print I made yesterday as an example for my class. It’s a combination of monotype and drypoint printed on muslin.

Tank Madness…

Well, I finished my first skein of yarn on the Shapely Tank! Whee! I have two more increases to go. Then, according to my calculations I have to squeeze in the short row shaping for my bust right away after so that is all done in time to start the arm hole shaping at 14 inches. That means I have to decide soon whether I should do one or two sets of short rows. I’m on the C-D line cup-wise (I know, more than you ever wanted to know), then yesterday I was meadering through the ample-knitter’s gallery and noticed one gal said she was a DD and she only did 2 sets of short rows… I’m thinking maybe one as I’ll be at 3.5 inches extra circumfrence from my chest measurement anyway… Anyone have words of wisdom for me on 1 or 2 sets of shortrows?

Also while strolling through the gallery I noticed at aleast one gal said she did the shapely tank in the round. Ever since I figured out the short row shaping I was wondering if I could do it when knitting in the round (I’m terribly scared of the seaming process, LOL). Do you just temporarily split it in two like you do once you get to the arm and neck shaping? If you are just doing it for the bust do you just split early to do the short rows and then seam at the top? Inquiring minds want to know (and are not ready to delurke on the ak list *grin*).

What I am noticing is that my hands are tiring of the smallish needles and the 100% cotton yarn. So, my SIL2’s birthday is coming up in early May and she is in tank tops nearly 24-7 in the summer. So, I’m going to make Sigma for her. We normally set the price range for b-day gifts around $20, but I splurged and found yarn to make it for about $40 and on size 10.5 needles and from non-cotton so it’ll be a nice break. If I recall, we skimped a bit on Christmas for her gift so it should all be a wash in the end. As I figure it, with it in the round and her being a medium it shouldn’t take me much longer than it takes me to knit a couple hats so I should have no trouble getting it done in a month. I hope.

Since I’m also tiring of solid color st st, I’m going to make her’s stripey. I’m using Kool Wool (I sure hope they are right about it being good in all seasons) in Grass and Eggplant (her two fav colors, though the web site does not do them justice). I’m not positive if I’m going to do a Fibonacci sequence thing or even striping or random striping. I figure I’ll swatch and get the pattern transcribed for this yarn and her size and then make the big decision. I’m leaning towards the Fibonacci though since she was a math major in college, plus I just *love* the look.

Off to swatch…

Slow and Steady???

Last night DH and an out of town friend jammed upstairs and I just couldn’t resist the knitting any longer. So, with a new wrist brace that provides support but doesn’t totally restrict movement I got up to the decreases for the waist last night. Then, today I went to the LYS knitting tea. I wasn’t there too long, but I now have three of the five decreases completed. I’m hoping to finish that section here before I have to go to choir. Though I have to go through the music from Cabaret and erase any pencil markings so it is ready to turn in tonight so I get the music for the next concert at the end of May…

Now that I’m a ways up from the short rows I’m darned proud! And, I’m not going to apologize from being pleased with myself They look awesome and are very nearly invisible! Now if I only understood where to put the short row shaping for the bust. Though if I continue at this pace I won’t be to that point until next week probably…

A group of the gals from the knitting tea are taking a road trip to Brown Sheep’s factory next Tuesday. I *really* want to go, but am not sure my back will hold up to the nearly 6 hours on the road in one day, plus I’ll still have the last lesson for my classes to write next week. I do feel honored they included me though as it seems that group is always talking about phone calls and such they’ve had and I feel a little too on the outside yet. But, today was good. It is so nice to be included!

Oh, I almost forgot that I finished the Critter Knitter Blanket #1 on Saturday night while watching Lilo and Stitch with aforementioned out of town friend. It’s boring so I probably won’t post a pic of it - at least individually anyway…

Yeah! I Did It!

Last night I cast on and did the garter stitch edging for the tank. I stopped there partially because DH wanted to go to bed and also because I thought I’d try figuring out the short row shaping at the knitting tea at my LYS today where there was a good chance that someone there had done them before and could help if I got stuck. But, I did it all by myself! I’ve now just completed the two rows of picking up the wrapped stitches.

This is where I’m at right now…

Here is a close up of the BEAUTIFUL short rows!

I cannot express how excited I am to have done this! I know it sounds silly. But I was really, really concerned that I was going in over my head on this to have my first garment ever include techniques that many more experienced knitters than I had never done before. I actually raised my arms and announced that I did at the knitting tea, LOL! Everyone is so wonderful there though so they celebrated with me

No more knitting for me today even though I really just want to keep going on the tank. But, my right index finger is thanking me. I have to get work done this afternoon and then DH and I are going to see Rent tonight! I’m also *very* excited about that.

November 1997 (I think that was the year) I drove down from Grand Forks and met up with Mom, Dad and Amber in St. Cloud and the next day we went into Minneapolis where Mom, Amber and Mom’s cousin, Dawn Rae and I went and saw Rent at the Ordway while dad took a nap at the hotel. Then we went to an awesome 4-star restaurant. The next day we went back up to St. Cloud and watched a Vikings vs. Packers game at a great sports bar there and then I made my way back up to Grand Forks. It was like our family Christmas gift for the year and is one of my fondest memories. After that, my sister and I were obsessed with Rent. I have the piano/vocal book and both Amber and I have the CD set. I think I had a t-shirt and hat at some point too. DH doesn’t understand the obsession, so when I heard it was playing here I got tickets. They aren’t great ones. We’re in the opera (but 4th row). But, if the staging is like that at the Ordway it shouldn’t make a big difference to be that far to the side. Even if I had heard earlier, we probably wouldn’t have gotten much better tickets because they have probably at least 3/4 of the seats sold as season tickets already. There are many people who purchase season tickets and don’t go. They are just in the cue for better seats when someone dies…

Amber is kind of jealous as she has tickets to see it again in April and has had them for some time and I’m going to see it again before her, LOL!

Long story short, I won’t be home watching TV tonight, or at Rainbow Chorus whish is the usual Tuesday night activity so there will be no more knitting today. I must crack the whip and get to work, I only have about 3 hours of work time before DH gets home…

Slight Progress…

I ran away from my work for a bit around mid-day and made a purchase for 7 skeins of Bernat Cottontots in Grape Berry from HobLob. That should allow me enough extra to make the sleeves if I decide to. Though, it gets so hot here in the summer, even though my arms are not in tank form I usually toss aside the vanity for comfort so I’m guessing I’ll probably leave it as a tank. A skein will give me a matching bucket hat though…

As much as I feel like grabbing for the knitting needles tonight while I sit at home alone while DH is off having fun with our friends, I should get more work done. Plus, I don’t think I’m in any mood to start tackling the short row shaping tonight and I am going to make myself practice it before casting on for the tank. Plus, I still need to finalize measurements too… I’m awfully short waisted so I’m little concerned it won’t be hitting me at the high hip, but rather at the widest point so I want to double check that… I also want to measure a few of my knit tops that fit the way I want the tank to fit…

Perhaps when I finally shut down the computer for the night I’ll work some more on the drop stitch scarf to match the purse. I did ~20 rows last night and it’s looking pretty good!

In other news, I’m settling in even more! Like the finished project pics??? It took me a while to figure out all of WordPress’s coding to make it my own. I imagine there will continue to be tweaks here and there. For one, I should add a link to my main web site and perhaps my LJ too…

Swatching…

Well, I’m gauging a few options I have in mind for the Shapely Tank I’m doing as part of Rose-Kim’s knit along. Yes, I took a leap and signed up - yikes!

Since this will be my first garment requiring any sort of real fitting I don’t want to spend a lot of money on the yarn. So, I have some Bernat Cottontots lying around that I’m swatching with right now. They have an awesome grape color I’d love to have as a tank. That runs only ~$3 at HobLob and I’d only need 6 skeins so that is totally affordable. I am a little concerned about the halo effect I got with the butcket hat I made from it. So we’ll see what happens when I wash and block. I also have some Reynolds Saucy Mercerized cotton here that I’ll try since I know I can get it at my LYS. But, that one is almost $6. I’ll also need some longer sz 5 and sz 6 needles when I actually start. Though I think I will take Knitty’s Advice and practice a bit with the short row shaping before I actually get started.

Thanks Jessica for posting the designer’s notes on the discrepancy of chest and bust measurements and how to adjust the pattern. I’ll have to remeasure my high hip this evening… I suspect I’ll still need to do some adjusting…

I hope I’m not too far behind everyone. As I’ve never participated in a knit along, what sort of time frame are we looking at here? I know my knitting time will be slightly crunched more than normal until mid-April… *sigh*