when two worlds merge

I love when this happens.


While surfing the internet at work, reading about Business Intelligence, I spied this



Not just a hobby - a metaphor!

maybe they're an indie band?

Yarn Stores in Italy

Many months ago, I started searching for yarn stores in Italy.

I read about Amy's adventures and noted the stores she found in Florence.

And I just found this list of yarn stores in Italy.

I especially am interested in the store in Siena.

*sigh* I wish could visit them all.

Yesterday I finished the very long cashmere scarf. It had just enough yarn left over to weave in the tail!

Moebius complete

I wish that I had had this book when I was knitting Glee!

The moebius is finished.

And I have a scant amount of yarn left on the cashmere scarf - almost done. It's very long, but since it's so skinny it's a good length to wrap around my neck a few times.

I also purchased yarn yesterday for the ISE4 scarf! It's Atacama 507.

This picture really does it no justice at all. Once wound up in a ball has a lot of red - which surprised me! It's got beautiful light blues and specks of green in places.

READ?!

Why do that?

When I can drive myself bonkers and knit and rip and knit and curse and rip and curse and knit and rip. This picture is from a month ago.

On Monday , when I was perusing all of my magazines for the perfect pattern for the green yarn, I stumbled across a VK pattern for a moebius capelet.

Having a tendency for masochism, I decided to pull out the cashmere yarn again and see if I could get a better result with their cast on technique.

I definitely liked the backwards cast on method. The problem came when I needed to knit into the stitches I had cast on. My working yarn was on the other end of the needle. I sat a minute and wondered if maybe I shouldn't be casting on with working yarn (leaving a small tail that is never touched). So I ripped out the cast on stitches and tried again. This allowed me to knit into the cast on stitches and it began to look as it had in the past with stitches on the needle and stitches on the cable below.

So I began to folllow the pattern again. By this time Dave had come home from work. We went to dinner, came back, and both picked up our knitting. {Never thought I'd write those words in my lifetime.} The moebius was starting to look exactly as it had each time before.

And I began to turn it around and around in circles trying to understand why it didn't look like the one in the picture. I have not been able to understand why half of it is stockinette and half of it is reverse stockinette.

Dave said, as he usually does, "Let me look at the instructions."

He looks at them, and then says, as he usually does, "Did you read this?"

Silly man.

Read?!

"...a diagonal becomes a chevron, and that plain knitting creates a “two-lane road” of stockinette and reverse stockinette."

So the good news is that I'm almost done with the moebius. And I think that through my trials and tribulations (or rather my inability to read) I can now be considered an expert at this project.

I think that the chevron part of the diagonals may be off, but I don't care. I'm not ripping it again. The person I'm making this for won't know the difference.

No, I take that back, I do care that the diagonals are off. But I can't tell from the other pictures in the pattern if they are or not.

I just found this blog which has great pictures of her progress and the diagonals match up for the chevron.

I don't know what's more frustrating - that I didn't find this blog before or that my diagonals aren't matching up.

I'm looking at the pictures of the previous attempt and the diagonals match up.

Well.

I need to stop typing and start ripping.

couldn't resist

I saw this at the fabric store today and had to get it.

It's two sided - it's sort of like a clip on a spring. I think that it's supposed to be painted/decorated or something?

Spirals! On a sheep! C'mon How cute is THAT?!

This is for my ISE4 pal that I will be knitting a scarf for. I hope to hear back from her soon!

I've been contacted by the person who's knitting for me - and she asked me all kinds of good questions! I *heart* questions!!

I went on and on about the kinds of needles I use. Blah blah blah Addis blah blah blah bamboo. Probably WAY more info than she expected. :-)

no vista for knitware

Just a quick obituary for glee. Glee has been sent to the knitting drawer to think about what it did wrong (1. yarn substitution, 2. gauge schmage, 3. improvisational decreasing, 4. boring stockinette, etc.). It's too bad, the yarn is such a pretty color orange. It just can't seem to find its pattern home. This will be the second project from which it will have been ripped.



So I picked up my cashmere scarf and got some satisfaction from knitting on that for awhile.



I am still trying to figure out what scarf I want to make for my ISE4 pal.



And I also picked up my own design project again. When I got to the armholes, I realized I needed to print out information from the pattern that I had created as a guide on Knitware.



After scouring the entire house and garage for about 45 minutes looking for the software to install it on my new laptop, and then my husband coming home and finding it in 2 minutes, I discovered that Vista is not compatible with the Knitware software. I sure hope they fix that soon...

A pleasant surprise awaited me on the main computer, when I opened up the application - I had saved the pattern, so I was able to easily print what I needed without having to re-enter all the data.

Also in the que is this yarn (not a great photo...)






I went thorugh all of my magazines and books out the other night and decided to use it for this pattern





It's from IK Summer 06. I won't be doing any of the embroidery embellishment. There's a better picture of the back of the sweater inside the magazine where the the lace detail can be seen better.

I just noticed the girl in the picture is wearing low rise jeans, and the sweater falls nicely at the top of them - so the length will be great!

boring? or bored?

I am struggling to finish the very boring glee.

Round after round of stockinette - long enough to cover the top of my low rise jeans.

On and on.

I am anxious to get to the ribbing at the bottom, for the sleeves, and the neck - then I can be done.

I finished Wendy's hat in two days and Dave is making great progress on his!

Yesterday VK arrived. I am not impressed.

I skimmed through the articles, glanced at the patterns, so much lace, so little patience.

I finally found a pattern that I thought - "Hmmm, I could see myself possibly knitting and/or wearing this."

I turned the page, and there were no more patterns.

Only one pattern sparked my interest - the last one!

I look at this piece and it looks so boring.

or is it that I am getting bored with my knitting?

the temptress

A.K.A. Argosy Yarn
She calls this Siena.
I call it the yarn I was meant to knit with on my trip to Tuscany next month.

at least someone's knitting

we're both going to do a hat for his sister
she wanted a hat done in black, that wasn't tight like a beanie, that was wavy
she also said that it could look like a sun hat or beret

the yarn for my hat was ordered from elann today

Dave found some soysilk in my stash that he swatched and liked for his hat

yes you read right, we're both going to do a hat

all about the world

Since we're traveling internationally this year, I decided that it was only proper to sign up for the International Scarf Exchange. I read about it on Kristen TenDyke's blog.

Also, this is my first post from my brand new laptop.
The old one was VERY old and slow. The only thing that I miss is the little red nose button that sat in the middle of the keyboard. I am having a challenge with the slidey spot that I am supposed to maneuver.

I'm still working on glee, and have bound off the armholes. I'm transferring onto a long cable so that I can try it on and see if I need to make any decreases for a waist. Also, I didn't continue the 'V' as far down as the pattern states. I decided I wanted it shorter. Because it's knit in cotton, I probably won't wear anything under it, so didn't want everyone staring at my bra through the eyelet closures.

Moebius cowl has been ripped for the fifth time. Sitting in the bag waiting for dear Alice to call and walk me through the MCO.