Morning
It never stops raining here lately. The weather map today resembles the paisley fabric I just bought for my couch.
Mom got to go home from the rehab center last night! She's doing well. Basically the surgery she had messes in some way with the balance center in your brain that lets you know where all your limbs are at any given moment. She had to relearn a lot of stuff, but now she's able to walk for 10 minutes at a time without assistance. She feels very upbeat and positive. She'll be considered homebound until June 6th when her IV antibiotic is through. (Phew.) (That IV antibiotic is fascinating - it works by preventing cell walls on the bacteria from forming. Also the molecule is too big to pass through the intestinal wall, hence IV.)
Thanks for all your happy comments on the yarn. I need to work some contrast into it - the next step for me will be ordering some Henry's Attic Kona fingering superwash from Catnip Yarns and some Jacquard acid dyes. Also I'm going to have another piece of PVC cut to 18" and put the screw threads on the ends so I can just screw on whatever handle I want to use. I'm thinking 4 yards may be a little too huge.
It's embarrassing to admit what a princess I am, that I do not own a single power tool (is a hair dryer a power tool?) and that even the idea of borrowing tools from Guitar Boy makes me start to look shiny. I asked him to help me make a warping board, but he said it was too much work and told me to buy one (isn't that the opposite of the typical male!). Well, then I was talking to a friend at work whose husband is very handy. I gave him Scout's schematics and we talked it over yesterday - mostly some questions he had about the design - and he's going to make one for me for around $40. (Maybe less, I don't want to assume that yet.) Anyway, it's going to be a five-stripe number with plastic bushings instead of washers (so no potential for rust) and we made a few other modifications.
One of Guitar Boy's Thujas-with-afterthought-heel finally fits him. I had to rip out three pattern repeats and reknit the toe (again), work the heel twice (the second time with decreases only every 4 rounds and going to 13 stitches on each side for grafting) AND block the snot out of it. (I did this while LOST was on, that's dedication!) I steam-blocked it with a squirt bottle; it's Wool-Ease, but it worked great. Now it's comfy and fits.
Speaking of ripping, I knitted about 11 stripes worth of Vesper sock yesterday and decided it was too darn big. Apologies to Sensational Knitted Socks but my Koigu socks - 72 stitches at 8spi - are not quite snuggy enough (but great for house socks). So I took Wendy's advice and went with 64. They are much better. I made up what I ripped out. Negative ease on my size 10 foot means this: my foot is 9 inches around, and subtracting 10% gives me 8 1/4" as a target diameter.
I would like to try this heel - she did some kind of interesting toe-up-gusset-short-row heel that looks like it will solve the problem of my big heels (the diagonal measurement from bottom/back of heel to front of instep), but I'm not quite getting why it works. (She increased from 68 to 88 stitches, then did short-row decreases only.) If you have ever seen/knit a heel like this, please leave a comment!
Mom got to go home from the rehab center last night! She's doing well. Basically the surgery she had messes in some way with the balance center in your brain that lets you know where all your limbs are at any given moment. She had to relearn a lot of stuff, but now she's able to walk for 10 minutes at a time without assistance. She feels very upbeat and positive. She'll be considered homebound until June 6th when her IV antibiotic is through. (Phew.) (That IV antibiotic is fascinating - it works by preventing cell walls on the bacteria from forming. Also the molecule is too big to pass through the intestinal wall, hence IV.)
Thanks for all your happy comments on the yarn. I need to work some contrast into it - the next step for me will be ordering some Henry's Attic Kona fingering superwash from Catnip Yarns and some Jacquard acid dyes. Also I'm going to have another piece of PVC cut to 18" and put the screw threads on the ends so I can just screw on whatever handle I want to use. I'm thinking 4 yards may be a little too huge.
It's embarrassing to admit what a princess I am, that I do not own a single power tool (is a hair dryer a power tool?) and that even the idea of borrowing tools from Guitar Boy makes me start to look shiny. I asked him to help me make a warping board, but he said it was too much work and told me to buy one (isn't that the opposite of the typical male!). Well, then I was talking to a friend at work whose husband is very handy. I gave him Scout's schematics and we talked it over yesterday - mostly some questions he had about the design - and he's going to make one for me for around $40. (Maybe less, I don't want to assume that yet.) Anyway, it's going to be a five-stripe number with plastic bushings instead of washers (so no potential for rust) and we made a few other modifications.
One of Guitar Boy's Thujas-with-afterthought-heel finally fits him. I had to rip out three pattern repeats and reknit the toe (again), work the heel twice (the second time with decreases only every 4 rounds and going to 13 stitches on each side for grafting) AND block the snot out of it. (I did this while LOST was on, that's dedication!) I steam-blocked it with a squirt bottle; it's Wool-Ease, but it worked great. Now it's comfy and fits.
Speaking of ripping, I knitted about 11 stripes worth of Vesper sock yesterday and decided it was too darn big. Apologies to Sensational Knitted Socks but my Koigu socks - 72 stitches at 8spi - are not quite snuggy enough (but great for house socks). So I took Wendy's advice and went with 64. They are much better. I made up what I ripped out. Negative ease on my size 10 foot means this: my foot is 9 inches around, and subtracting 10% gives me 8 1/4" as a target diameter.
I would like to try this heel - she did some kind of interesting toe-up-gusset-short-row heel that looks like it will solve the problem of my big heels (the diagonal measurement from bottom/back of heel to front of instep), but I'm not quite getting why it works. (She increased from 68 to 88 stitches, then did short-row decreases only.) If you have ever seen/knit a heel like this, please leave a comment!
posted by Jen at 7:07 AM
9 Comments:
Wow, thanks for the link to Catnip!
Yay for your mom, that's great news!!
That's great news, congrats!
To spare you the disappointment I had, Kona is not even close to fingering weight. I'd call it DK, and I think Blue Moon Fiber Arts sells it as "light worsted."
Jen,
It's Laura. the phone number is 1-877-HANSORG. I am too chichken shit to call to Emily is going to call it. Let you know what happens.
Bye!
I may end up with some Louet yarn anyway, but HA just released some Kona superwash in fingering weight - catnip has it.
But yeah, the regular Kona superwash is DK for sure. Or did you order the fingering?
So glad to hear your Mom is doing well! That's great!
How could you do any knitting durig Lost this week?!?! My son and I were literally in opened mouth shock at the end!
Great news about your mom.
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8mnnp/amyssocks.html has the heel, I think. I have used it several times and have played around with it. Had some problems in the beginning figuring out the number of stitches and where to start the decreases, but I LOVE the heel. I do eye of partridge stitch on both the "bottom" and the "back" of the heel and on the back I continue it up for an inch or so. I also make eye of partridge toes on my socks, love the extra padding.
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