135. Go ahead and Gauge

I’m designing a shrug. This might be a little ambitious of me, but I am going to do it. Every once in a while I get ideas into my head, I scratch them down on post it notes (because inevitably I’m at work when these ideas pop into my head) I bring them home and nothing happens with them. They sit on my dresser, and then eventually get thrown into the garbage bin. IT doesn’t make me happy to see my “designs” fall to the wayside, but it does feel good to draw them out. This past week I had an idea for a double breasted shrug with button holes on both sides, it’s a little weird with just words, but in my head it works out great. Remember when I bought that Eco+? Well, it wasn’t bought with the sole purpose of being a shrug, in fact I just bought it because I liked it. (When, as knitters, do we really need an excuse to buy yarn other than “I liked it”.) I took it home and felt it. Then I felt it again and again. It was fairly soft, and I really liked the color. I did a little Ravelry searching, and came up with nothing that struck my fancy. So, I put two and two together, got out my little post-it-note and my knitting note book, and designed a little more.

I grabbed my Boobholder, a tape measure, a pencil and an eraser. I measured the garment, measured myself, looked at the Boobholder pattern (Rav link), did a little math (with my mobile because apparently there are no working calculators in this house other than mom’s big accounting calculator which I don’t like) and wrote notes upon notes and a few more notes. I then realized that I needed to swatch, because I had no idea what my gauge would be like on 7mm needles with this yarn. (Insert groans here.) I swatched with said needles, I measured, I did some math with my mobile phone, I got a cast-on number, I cast on. I then realized that to do what I wanted, I didn’t have enough stitches, so I frogged my set up rows, added a couple stitches to my number, and tried again. I got to working on it, it was coming out a little loose for my liking, but my knitter’s brain said “Don’t worry, just keep knitting.” After some talk with my “dense knitted fabric fan” friend, Michael, I realized I didn’t like it. So I frogged. Again.

This time I decided to swatch with different needles. This time I was adamant that I was going to figure out something good. I used 7mm, 6mm and 5mm needles. The 7mm I already knew I didn’t like, but I did it anyways to have something to compare to. I figured that the 5mm would produce too firm of a fabric that I was looking for, and I was right. The 6mm needles, they were perfect! Except they’re 14” plastic straights that are probably older than I am. They’re heavy, and the shrug is getting bigger, which means more pressure on my hands to hold the needles, where as if I were using circulars (both my 7mm and my 5mm are circs) I wouldn’t have the same problem. I’m trucking on though. I’m a Knitter. I can do anything when I set my mind to it.

I just hope that my swatch doesn’t lie.

-Cheers folks!

PS. Sorry for not getting this out yesterday or earlier today, but there was drinking until 2am, and sleeping on a chair that wasn’t in my house until 9am, then sleeping in my house till 1am, then working on the shrug until… now.

134. Oops

I’m not supposed to buy yarn. I have a sizable stash already. So what did I do today? I bought a skein of Eco+. If you’re not familiar with this yarn, it’s 250 grams of bulky yarn. That’s a lot of yarn. It’s a huge skein. It wont fit in my stash bins. I need to do a destash sooner rather than later. Thing is, I like all my yarn. Well, I like most of it. I guess I know what I’m doing sometime this weekend. Sounds like it’s time for an airing of the stash. Maybe pictures too. Brother will probably be either gone or working, so I’ll have the house to myself. I like my solidarity.

I got my hair cut today. About 4 inches off. I love it. It’s been a while since I had my hair that long, and it was getting heavy and took far too long to dry. I’m happy, we’ll see how it is in the morning after a shower and dry. Pictures tomorrow maybe.

-Cheers folks!

133. Progress

Where do my evenings go? I swear I get nothing done. Well, I’m sure that in hindsight I do actually get a fair bit done, but I never get as much done as I’d like to. I want to get a big white board and just make lists. I make lists in my sleep (baaaaaaaabyyy). I did that for work today because I had about a billion little things to get done, and I know I would have forgotten things if I hadn’t made my list. It’s oddly comforting to make lists and scratch things off of them. Tomorrow I need to take the bag of garbage out of my room and put it outside in the bin. I should make a list. Although… I probably wont. I need a whiteboard. A BIG one. And I’ll color code my lists. It’ll be awesome.

-Cheers folks! Ten points to the first person to find the RENT reference.

132. New Belt

I got a new belt on Friday after about a month of going without one, or with a really bad one if I did need a belt. My old leather and rivets belt pretty much fell apart completely, every time I put it on at least one rivet would pop off, and the leather under the buckle had long fallen apart and was just being held together by the pink vinyl. I like bright belts. Ones that stand out. So I went for this white riveted canvas belt. Hopefully it’ll stand up (and out) better than my old one, though that pink thing did have a long life. I bought it at Penhorn Mall way back when they had the Sunday Market there. That wasn’t yesterday, that’s for darned sure.

Another instance of Battlestar Galactica entering the common vernacular was seen today. I was watching The Hour’s podcast while I was at work (I file all day, I need something, so I work and listen to my ipod or podcasts), and George (my other boyfriend) said Frak. Or Fraking. Some rendition of the non-censored swear word that can be used interchangeably with the other four letter F word, and I’m not talking the Gordon Ramsay show.

-Cheers folks!

131. Morning Prep

Can you say product much? I don’t use all of this when I get ready in the morning, but I do use a fair bit of it. My morning routine usually goes something like this: Towel dry, Got2be Tipsy (hair silkener, it really does work), plug in straightener, blow dry hair, straighten bangs and fly aways, foundation, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, powder, hair spray (or wax depending on look). That’s about it. If I decide to go curly then it’s the Herbal Essences Totally Twisted, scrunch hair, blow dry upside down,  straighten bangs, make up, hair spray. You can tell I live in a humid and wet climate because of the hair spray. To make things worse my hair naturally wants to turn into a fuzz ball. It really pisses me off sometimes. But what can you do, eh?

-Cheers folks!