Marco...Marco...

*listening to the echoing silence*

MAAAAAAAAAARCOOOO!

What am I doing? Well, my Olympic Knitting project seems to have gone AWOL. Maybe it defected. Maybe it ran away with the British judge. Maybe it was tired of being ignored and ran off with the unmated sock it was fraternizing with, I don't know. All I know is I have completely reorganized my stash (yes, mom...with RUBBERMAID!!!) and it is nowhere to be found.

So if you should find a lonely, sad, almost finished cable scarf wandering the streets and trying to pick up some funfur, please send it home. I wanted to get it finished this week, but IF I CAN'T FIND IT it makes it a bit hard to actually WORK on it.

Marco...

Marco...

Maaaaaaarcoooo.....

The Guppy
aka The Fish With sticks

She's on Probation...

I took Eleanor out in public for the first time in a number of weeks. And after a shaky start and a little gentle scolding, she started behaving quite nicely. So she can now come out and play, but she's on probation for a bit. I'll see how she does at this Wednesday SnB.

In the meantime I've started another sock. I'm using Lorna's Laces sock yarn for the first time. How yummy is THAT? Mmm. LOVE the feel of it while knitting and love the feel of the sock itself. I'm using the color "Jeans." I also bought some Koigu sock yarn in a really pretty kelly green. I haven't used Koigu yet, but I'm loving the LL so much, I think it's going to have to wait for a bit.

I'm a bit puzzled. I saw a sock that you could wear with flip-flops. And I thought that would be PERFECT if I end up going to India next year with my family. But I can't remember where I saw the pattern! IT seems to me it was a sock done in colors similar to LL's "Sherbet" a kind of pale yellow and peachy orange, etc. I remember thinking it would be good to try, and I KNEW I'd remember where I saw it. (Stop laughing!) And now I can't find anything I like quite as much.

So that's all for now. Pictures soon, hopefully. I have a number of them from the Stitch 'N Pitch and I want to take some progress pics.

The Guppy

aka The Fish with Sticks

Grandparents...

I was reading Will Pillage for Yarn and she told us she'd post a picture of anything in her life (within reason, I would assume. :D). So I asked for a favorite picture of one of her grandparents.

Grandparents have been on my mind quite a bit as my grandmother died last month after a long illness and just a few weeks later it was the anniversary of my grandfather's death. It's been 26 years and I still miss him a lot. I was driving along a few years ago and all of a sudden I could FEEL him. I could smell him. I could feel how his cheek used to feel on mine when I'd hug him.

My grandmother was my last remaining living grandparent and it seems like an era has passed. She was the last of her brothers and sisters to die and It's weird to all of a sudden realize your mother's generation is the oldest generation on that side of the family these days. With my dad, his mom died when I was little, so it's always been that way.

Since the Pirate Lady was kind enough to post her favorite pics, here's one of my favorite pictures of my grandmother. I'll have to see if I can find a digital copy of my favorite of my grandad and post that later.



So to my Grandmom R and Grandmom F and Grandad J, I miss you all.

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

She's Grounded!

I've discovered something...I can't knit my Lady Eleanor in public. Really. I just can't. Every time I try, disaster strikes.

Two weeks ago I was sitting with my Saturday Night Crafty group over at my mother's house (they were her friends first. *grin*) when what do I see? A HOLE in my ELEANOR!!! It's ok, I think. I should be able to fix it, I say. it seems when joining one rectangle to the next I dropped the stitch.

Now, y'all know I'm not afraid in any way shape or form of ripping back, but just the thought of trying to rip back Silk Garden without it felting to itself or breaking made me ill. And in looking at it I realized that to get back to the mistake I'd have to rip back the row I started and the two rows of entrelac already done. I can't. Really. It's just too painful.

So I made a mad dash to A Mano Yarn and threw myself on the mercy of Shannita. She had the same instinctive response to ripping back. No. Way. So she took the dropped stitch, worked it up to where it should have been and then tacked it down in the back. And I went home to keep working.

Well, I had to rip out the same two rectangles FIVE TIMES. At that point I realized that the Gods were telling me that in order to move forward I needed to go back and fix. And it was at that point I realized (no laughing now, promise?) that since I had only just started a row of entrelac that I had to rip the two rectangles (for the 6th time), the turning triangle, and two rectangles on the previous row in order to fix that dropped stitch. Half an hour and I was done.

Ok. Obviously Eleanor was a little peeved, but I've patched her wounds. I've been spending quality time with her every day. She's been going with me just about everywhere. We're good, right?

Wrong.

Once again, I'm at a friend's house knitting. Once again, I find a gap. This time it was because on one of the previous rows I forgot to drop the first stitch of the rectangle row so I don't have a good edge to pick up the stitches. That's ok. I can fake it! Takes me three tries, but I get it.

And once again...the next rectangle I'm doing...I've ripped it out three times so far.

Eleanor looks beautiful and everything seems fine now, so I'm not sure what her current issues are with me. Maybe she's jealous of the time I've been spending with Mr. Sock. But really, it was for her own good! I've only been spending time with Mr. Sock because I've been at places that were too dirty or crowded for me to let Eleanor out to play.

So I think she's just pouting.

And because of that she gets a time out. She needs to sit there for a bit and think about what she's done. When she decides to adjust her attitude and behave, then she can come out and play with people again. Until then...she stays home.

The Guppy

aka The Fish with Sticks

My How You've Grown!

I'm pretty much working on Eleanor to the exclusion of all else. I did about an inch of a toe-up sock last week, as I had some family stuff going on and portability was key.

First up, here's the Lady...



Shameless Plug: And let me just say 100% of the credit for me getting this far goes to Shannita at A Mano Yarn Center. I took her Lady Eleanor class and she talked us through this pattern literally step by step and stitch by stitch. By the end of the class I felt like an Entrelac pro! I love this shop. It's fun, and the people are so incredibly nice and helpful (and did I mention fun?). /Plug

And here are some "old" pictures of my toe-up sock from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I'm using the pattern for the short-row toe and the beaded rib for the body of the sock.



The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

All Eleanor, All The Time!

That's pretty much it. LOL. I've been working on nothing else BUT my Lady Eleanor and it's coming along quite nicely. I'm well into the third ball and it's gorgeous. In fact, I'm already making plans for a scarf version. And maybe a purse.

As a bit of a treat, here's a comic a friend of mine forwarded. Click on the image for a full-sized view...



And for those interested, Little Dee can be found daily at Comics.com.

The Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

The Lady So Far...

This picture was taken when I was about 1 1/2 balls into my Lady Eleanor. I'm LOVING this pattern, and the colors are gorgeous and perfect. I've just started my third ball of Noro. I'll have to take some more pictures this weekend in the sun, because here the colors are off.



Isn't she pretty? Or am I just biased? LOL.

And in the meantime, I also FINALLY casting on my Amazing Lace project. About time, too. LOL. I'm 8 rows into a 10 row repeat and I can't see the pattern. LOL. I'm sure it's because I haven't gone far enough in yet, and also that it's not blocked, but still...now I'm wondering if I'm doing it right. I'll probably take it to class tomorrow if I can get my tired butt up in the morning.

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Catching up...Again

I know. I know. I am a bad knit blogger. Here I posted those dramatic pictures and the abridged version of the story and then disappeared. How rude of me! LOL.

To be fair, between the new car (LOVE it), my co-worker being a Twinkie, and a number of large, involved projects at work as well as some family stuff, I have had NO time to post.

One of the reasons I was dragging my feet just a bit was I had taken some new photos and wanted to post them, but I haven't had a chance to resize and upload them. So this will have to just be picture free! Sorry!

What I'm working on...

I have a secret project I'm working on for a friend's birthday. It was last week, so I'm late, but I was informed that if it is handmade, then it's good for several "events." So I'm taking her at her word. LOL.

I'm taking a 3-week class at A Mano Yarn on the Lady Eleanor wrap from the Scarf Style book. I'm using Noro's Silk Garden in 226. I. Love. It. Entrelac is SOOOOO much simpler than it looks! Once I figured out what it was doing, that was it! I'm hooked! I'm about 1 1/2 skeins in and it looks AMAZING. Of course, I wouldn't be me if I hadn't started it and then ripped it back. LOL. I got about 1 skein in using a 10 needle and decided I thought it was too tight. So I cast on again using a 10.5 and am liking it a lot better.

Still working on a new pair of socks...

Still trying to perfect an iPod sock...

Still working on last year's "Christmas" shawl...

And remind me next time to tell you all about the Alpaca farm in Oregon I went to.

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

I(t) Got Better...

So if you scroll down, you'll see what my Thursday was like. I was sitting in my car, legally parked, and just relaxing on my lunch break. I had the seat back because I wanted to stretch out a bit, and even though it was cloudy, I decided to put my sun shade up for a little extra privacy.

1:00 rolls around and I'm starting to gather my stuff to go back to work.

*crack*

*pop*

And I scream. I knew INSTANTLY what that sound was. It was a large portion of the tree coming down ON TOP OF MY CAR!!!! WITH ME IN IT!!!!!

Thankfully, my seat was still back so I didn't get conked on the head. And my sun shade was up so there was no flying glass. In fact, I walked away without so much as a bruise.

But my car? My poor little car? Totaled. As you can see from the pictures from the previous post.

So...A friend of a friend called a guy and now...I have THIS...
...a 2006 Ford Focus in Liquid Gray. It's so pretttttty!

So the moral of the story...DON'T EVER PARK UNDER ANY TREES!!!!! They WILL come after you!

A Happier Guppy
aka a Fish with Sticks

Wanna Hear About My Day?

It went something like this...(click for the full image)






'nuff said.

A Sad Guppy
aka A Fish With Sticks

Must...be...strong...

I've done it again. I've spent the night shopping for sock yarn. I have finished exactly ONE sock (not a pair. ONE) and I'm shopping for Lorna's Laces and Cherry Tree Hill.

So far tonight I've shopped for about $150 worth of sock yarn. I've drooled over the Supersock in Winterberries and Moody Blues. And we won't discuss what I did when I found the Lorna's Laces (you're welcome). The LL had Purple Club and Lakeview and Tahoe... and... and...

And then there was Knitpicks. With it's Dancing and Shimmer and Alpaca Cloud. I started to look at Koigu, but I thought that way led to the dark side.

I love it all. Every skein. Every color. Self-stripes, solids, pooling...all of it. And yet...I didn't buy a single skein. Not a bit. I'm proud of myself.

But maybe I'll just pop on back for that Purple Club...

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

I'm Fruity...Are You?

What color of sock yarn do you prefer?

You like fruity sock yarn. You love pink and being childish is inspiring you.
Take this quiz!








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The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Fellow Knitsters...

I HAVE A SOCK!!!!

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Is there such a thing...

...as loving socks TOO much? LOL. I had heard about this phenomenon where knitters work on lots and lots of socks, but I just couldn't figure it out.

Now I know.

I LOVE my sock. It's fun (pink and blue and green) and easy (I'm at the stage where it's just round after round of knit) and really portable (I carry mine in a "Quarter Cube" from Eagle Creek's "Pack It" system).

I also started this really pretty sky-blue ribbon scarf, but more on that and other WIPs and pictures later.

The Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

Socks-1, Guppy-1

HA! Take THAT you evil sock!

My sock yarn arrived from Knitpicks finally and I couldn't WAIT to cast on! I went home and like a good little knitter, knitted my gauge swatch on size 5s. It was about the same gauge as my last sock, but it looked a little holey to me. But I thought it was ok, so I cast on the rib on size 4s and figured I'd do the sock in 5s. After a couple of rounds of rib, I changed my mind. I went to Wildfiber and bought sizes 3 and 4s and cast on again using the 3s for the rib and planning to use the 4s for the sock. About 10 rows in it hits me.

New needle size... New stitch gauge... Stitches cast on will not be enough...

So for the second time in as many days, I frogged. And I did another gauge swatch (is it just me or are swatches not the most boring thing in the world to knit?). But now... Oh, now...

I'm only about 6-7 rows in, but did you know self-striping sock yarn stripes?! By itself?! It's MAGIC!!!! LOL. Ok, maybe not, but it IS pretty cool.

The Guppy
AKA The Fish With Sticks

Guppy vs. Socks...SOCKS WIN!

Usually when I utter the phrase "SOCKS WIN" I'm referring to the White Sox. Unfortunately the Pink Sock is more ruthless and cunning and, frankly, the better player. Hey, I love the Sox, but I'm realistic.

So...I've been working diligently on my first sock. I was enjoying the challenge of it. It took me a while to get going on it though, but I was going to muscle through it! I was not going to let this sock beat me! It's small. It can't do that much to me!

*waving white flag of surrender*

Grab a Snickers and have a seat. Allow me to tell you a Fish tale...

Saturday: Went to knitting class at my LYS and figured the basics for starting it.

Sunday: I measured my foot wrong, so I had cast on way too many stitches. Frogged it. Found a pattern chart online and spent two hours trying to wrap my head around the numbers and calculate the math for my sock.

Monday: I wasn't actually knitting in a circle. I had somehow managed to turn the cast on as if I was knitting on straights, so it didn't join. Frogged it.

Tuesday: Working with 5 dpns was too much. So I went to four. And managed to drop enough stitches doing it that I needed to frog it.

Wednesday: I somehow twisted one of the needles. Frogged it.

Thursday: I accidentally flipped my work over, so instead of working the sock counterclockwise in a circle, I actually went down the left side, across the bottom, flipped the sock and went back across the bottom and UP (what turned out to be) left side again, then flipped the work and went back DOWN the left side...You can see it coming, can't you? Yup. Frogged it.

Friday: Hallelujah! NO FROGGING! I got it started! Finally! Stayed up until about 2 a.m. trying to get as much done as I could because I had class the next morning and wanted to at least have the leg portion done.

Saturday: Talked to Anita at class and found out how to at least start the heel flap. By that time my arm and wrist were in agony from all the tight knitting on itsy-bitsy needles with skinny yarn, so I switched to the ribbon scarf for my mom. Ahhh...Blessed size 13s.

For a few days I didn't work on it because I was giving my arm a break. Picked it up again last night...

Found out in all the frogging and recasting, I somehow managed to cast on 8 too many stitches. After contemplating which would be quicker: head in the oven or knife to the wrists...I took it off my needles using some waste yarn. I decided that I was having enough problems with this particular sock that I just was done with it. I may go back to it at some point and just do it anyway, but at this point...no.

I wasn't particularly happy with the yarn. It was a pretty color, and the stitches looked nice and tight, but if you stretched it at all, it would sag. I also found out most people like to use a size smaller needle for the rib, and that makes a lot of sense to me, so I want to try that, too. So I'm going to return the yarn I bought, and look for something a little nicer.

See? I was so proud of myself for finishing mom's scarf that the Hubris Gods decided to smite me. What's that quote? The best way to make the gods laugh is to tell them your plans. Well, there you go. Living proof.

A Humble Guppy
AKA The Fish With Sticks

One More Off The Needles...

Ahhh...After all the unfinished projects and the knitting on teeny tiny needles, it's nice to work on something that doesn't make my hand cramp, AND I've actually finished it, too! YAY! Of course I stayed up a wee bit too late last night in order to cast off, but that's ok. I had Jack O'Neill and the SG-1 as well as Elliot Stabler to keep me company. Yummy on all counts.

Now if I could just get my mom to tell me how long she wants the fringe, it could really be FINISHED and not just off the needles. And now I'm really excited to start the bright blue version for myself.

No more progress on any of my other WIPs just yet. I've been giving my arm a break after 2 weeks of cabling followed by a week of size 4s. I'm hoping to get the heel flap of my sock finished by the time I go to class on Saturday. We'll see...

As a side note, RIP, Dana Reeve. You were a fabulous example to us all.

The Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

What Do You Do...

...When you have a number of unfinished projects going? Why, go shopping for more yarn! And then cast on more projects!

I went to one of my local LYS's and they were having a gumball gamble sale and I got 40% off. So of course that means I can buy 40% more yarn, right? That's how it works, right????

At another store I was able to find two more skeins of the Noro my mom bought me a few weeks ago, and it was even the same lot number! So I'm thinking of making a Clapotis. Or something similar.

I also picked up this great mohair yarn in this beautiful varigated red/pink/purple color way. I've been thinking about making something really lacy, but haven't found the right pattern yet. Anyone have any ideas? I have just under 800 yards.

Next, I cast on a ribbon scarf for my mom. While she knows about the scarf, and she saw the first two pattern repeats, I'll hold off posting the pics until after I give it to her.

And finally...

I've lost my mind...

I started knitting my first pair of socks. So far, I'm enjoying it. I like the fact that the project is so small and fits into my bag for work.

And after all that, I'm still working on my shawl, my olympic scarf, and my Harry Potter scarf.

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Alas, No Gold for Guppies

I had high hopes. I was excited. I could do this! Unfortunately, it was not to be. Because of various familial and work related obligations, most of my time that could have been spent knitting has been spent in other ways, and I haven't had as much knitting time as I would like. But while I would have loved to have been able to say I finished, I knew chances were good it wouldn't happen. But I did what I set out to do. I learned cables. I started something personally challenging in knitting, and to me it was the participation in this fabulous group of knitters that was important to me.

It would have been nice to have finished, but I enjoyed the experience regardless.

So while there was no gold for me, I'll keep plugging away and finish my "Olympic" scarf. Congrats to all who finished! And Congrats to all who tried!

See you at the summer games in Bejing in 2008...

The Guppy
2006 Knitting Olympics Silver Medalist
aka The Fish With Sticks

Movin' right along...

So far...44 inches with 33 cable repeats.

This guppy is pleased.

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks