Recently in Smooch Category

I'm retiring a few projects:

• Smooch - Summer knitting just isn't doing anything for me. Even though I'm 75% done I'm putting it away until next year.
• Lost Points Shawl - Let this be my lesson. I *hate* knitting with novelty yarn. Particularly that ladder stuff.
• Tricot - This is more of a trade in than a retirement. I've tried a few sets of Lion Brand colors and just don't care for them. I still want to make this pattern though so I'll be on the lookout for colors that are more me

And now, for the new. I picked up Regia 32 a month or two ago. It's chock full of knee high socks. A couple nights ago I decided to do #4332. It's covered with cables, travelling stitches, and twisted knit stitches. A funny thing though about these Regia booklets. They give each pattern in one size. Usually it's not a big deal to change up a size in a sock, but when it's covered in stitch patterns it's not a simple thing. Of course, the sock I've picked out is in a man's super-huge size. I estimated what I'd need to cast-on instead but I was off. After about 10 rows I can tell I've made it too tight. Rip and restart it is! Too bad, I even did the picot edge and knitted in the hem and everything. It's the fancy schmancy edge is that's causing the problem though. Without any ribbing it makes it difficult to stretch across my calf to get it to the knee. Difficult? No - impossible. So unless I want to make the first pair of zip-up knee high socks I'll be having a small frogging party this evening.

Dumb Knitter. Dumb dumb knitter.

Who doesn't love a 3 day weekend? We got some house work done. Mostly landscaping and painting. Oh, the fun of walking around on the roof so I could scrape sun dried paint off the siding! But the front of the house is almost done and every time I pull in the driveway I feel a sense of accomplishment. Or at least progress.

Knitting

I got the back of smooch done.

I love the way the armhole decreases and edges were done. At the end of each row you pick up the loop between the last stitch and the next to last stitch (like a M1 but you don't twist it). The you slip the last stich in whichever way the row is knit (on a knit row, you slip it knitwise; on a purl row, purlwise). Then at the start of the next row you p2tog/k2togtbl those 2 stitches together. It makes a very firm edge that curls under slightly.

I cast on for the front and I've just begun the eyelets. I wanted to get that picot edge out of the way quickly because I knew I'd procrastinate it otherwise.

Sizing - I think Smooch will fit or possibly even be a bit snug - which is great. Maude has already become too big and because of that I don't think I'll ever do the next edge. I can't frog it because I steaked the edges so the yarn will come out in little bits. I'm not that sad though. If I had to choose between the top fitting or my shrinking, I'll choose myself shrinking any day :)

Smooch is progressing nicely. I'm almost done with the decreases leading to the waist. I have only 2 more rows to go, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Have you ever fallen asleep while knitting? It's OK to lie and say yes to make me feel better.

I'm almost through 1 hank of the Cotton Classic. And guess what this means? I won't have enough to finish! I had to approximate because of the gauge change. I was REALLY off. I think I'll need 3 more hanks. I forgot to bring the label with me to work today though, so I won't be able to find out until tomorrow if the LYS has more. If not, I think I might do the front in one dye lot and the back in the other. At least, that's what I'm thinking now.

I was over reading Amy's blog and noticed that she's going to be doing a Smooch too! We'll both be shortening that plunging V neck though. The way the pattern is written it would be downright obscene for me to wear that in public. I think the split for the neck happens BEFORE the armhole decreases start! So yeah, that's not happening.

Rant

OK, I have to write about this. I take the turnpike to work every day. At a certain point it splits into two sections and at the same time goes from 3 lanes to 5. Why oh why must traffic slow down at this point? People - you've got 2 EXTRA LANES to pick from. And you've been warned for the previous 2 miles that it's going to happen. And you take that damned highway 5 times a week like me so really, how does this come as a surprise to you? If you're so stupid that you can't remember your daily commuting roads - stay home. Seriously. I'm sick of the 5 mile backup you cause.

And that goes double for the woman in the minivan today with the bobble head dog and heart sachet hanging from her mirror. If you didn't block your view of the road with random chachka on your dashboard you might have noticed one of the 3 signs telling you to pick your side so you didn't have to cross 3 lanes of traffic to get into the truck lanes.

Music

I'm in a music rut lately. I haven't bought any new CDs in about a month. I think the long commute exhausts my music library alot quicker. I go through at least a whole CD on each drive. What're you all listening to?

My taste is pretty varied - pop, country, blue grass, southern rock, blues. I need something upbeat or angry (refer to Rant above) to keep me sane. So as much as I like Norah she's been relegated to Sunday morning knitting for now. In the past week I broke out the Puddle of Mudd, Tracy Bonham, and 4 Non Blondes. Yup, 4 Non Blondes. I love Linda Perry's voice, and it reminds me of a really fun summer between my Junior and Senior years in college...

At the beach every weekend

No debt

Fun car

Nice tan

No responsibilities

Damn, what a waste. Imagine all the knitting I could get done...