Smooch: May 2004 Archives

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...

So I finally did it. I succumbed to the draw of Colinette. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. The past few LYS visits have always included fondling of the Colinette.

While at Sophie's this weekend I spotted a shawl she had made up in Colinette and Berocco Cotton Twist. I loved the look of it, but shawls are just not for me. Too fussy. So I decided to modify the pattern and make it into a poncho. Take a look:

The colors are more vibrant than what's being picked up on the digicam. Here's a closeup too:

I'm really enjoying knitting this up. And boy is it fast! On 10mm it only took a couple hours to get to the point where I start decreasing.

I'm also considering posting the pattern for it when it's done (assuming I actually like it when it's done!).

Oh, and I had much better luck with Smooch last night. I re-cast on (over 200 stitches!) and the picot edge is measuring up correctly now.

I've just started the first row of yo's, so there's no real design yet to see other than the edge. I love the way the edge knits up though. I can definitely see using this edge on other designs that need that bit of frill.

I was finally able to do a knitting weekend! I spent most of Saturday and Sunday either browsing at a LYS or knitting. The weekends always go so quickly this way!

First off, Maude. She's just about done. I finished the front on Saturday and steeked the sides on Sunday. Here's a pre-steek pin view:

As you can see, it was way too big for me. I took off about a total of 6 inches from the waist down, and about 4 inches at the bust. BTW, the lines do actually go straight across my body. Trying to hold the camera and take a pic while wearing always gives you weird angles.

The steeking went very well and the new and improved Maude is all seamed up on the sides. I took progress pics to show how I steeked the sides and I'll post them later this week. All that's left on Maude is shoulder seaming and edging for the neck and armholes.

Oh, and I should mention that Maude has already been washed and dried once. It did beautifully. I turned it inside out as per the label and washed it in cold water. I dried it til almost completely dry. The colors didn't run at all. It did shrink about 10-15% in the length but I had lengthened the top to take that into account. Since I really wanted to have an easy care top I decided to do the extra few inches. It did almost backfire though -- 3 colors have only a couple of feet remaining!

I also knit up a small sachet for my mom. I ended up using a pattern in Vogue Knitting to Go Pillows book. It came out very cute and I'll post pics later this week. I'm - ahem - a bit late in finishing this. It's all knit up but needs to be seamed and filled.

Then, I cast on for Smooch in a navy blue Cotton Classic. Let me tell ya - thank god for Alison's explanation of the picot edge (scroll down to the May 26th entry). There's no way I would have figured it out based on the directions. However, going with my knittng karma of late it's too big. I had to make an adjustment for gauge and I have about 2 inches extra. However, I'm only 6 rows in so no biggie to rip. Now that I have Maude to size things up against it's pretty easy to tell when I'm off course.

I also cast on for a meshy knitting poncho that I'll tell you more about tomorrow. It's a pretty big departure for me in terms of the type of knitting I do and I'm really enjoying it!