Tagged!!

Ok, I got tagged by Cami... rules are for the date of your birth search Wikipedia and find 3 events, 2 birthdays and 1 holiday and then tag five "blog" pals. I'm assuming there are no tag-backs.

July 4th. (yes, really)

Holiday: US Independence Day. Yay me!

Birthday 1: 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Birthday 2: 1918, Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby) and her sister, Ann Landers

Event 1: In 1865, "Alice in Wonderland" was published

Event 2: In 1855, In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems titled "Leaves of Grass" is published.

Event 3: 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress approves a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. (The Lee Resolution of independence had been passed on July 2nd.) (Oh, like you didn't guess I would put that one!)


I'm tagging Knitting in the Mojave Sister, Chelsea, Marigold, & Boris . I know that's only four but Cami took the others! (and yes, I'm tagging her hubby since she didn't!)

-DFly

posting to post

my blog feels lonely not being posted to but I've got nothing! As of this point, I've cast on the waste yarn for the Invisibility Shawl and gotten no further. Today's "free time" of an hour was spent doing homework for a class we are taking at work. If only they would accept me knitting at work as a way to get creative juices flowing.

Ok, I have exactly 40 minutes of possible knitting time if I can get son into shower so I'm going to keep the blog short and try to see if I can make a tiny bit of progress. (the problem with starting now, is that I'm a morning person and my brain stops functioning properly about 8:30 and is only good for repetitive tasks, so maybe I'll be good for the garter rows....)

happy knitting or frogging. (I saw poor Mickey's lesson today)

-Dragonfly

Added at 9:30ish since there weren't any comments yet anyway....
got two rows of garter stitch done. How sad is that? Fought with the first one because it seemed tight and stitches didn't want to slide down the needle so I could make more stitches. But next row was better. Unfortunately between "get in the bath" and then later "ok, get out of the bath" (why I have to nag on both sides of that is unknown to me) I ended up with probably 20 minutes and most of that was fighting with the first row. I feel so pathetic!

D-Fly

golf and more sock info

Golf first. To begin with, I don't normally golf. Someone at work decided it woud be a good team building exercise for our new team. Good news... golf was fun, I didn't hurt myself or anyone else. turns out there are only two guys that are good. a couple that can whack really far. a couple really bad ones and two of us that tended to take the "not as far but it's straight down the green" approach. (Thank you to good friend for telling me to work on accuracy and not distance) Once I found a set of three clubs I was comfortable with, those are what I stuck with (one for teeing off, one for the fairway and then the putter) We actually used my ball several times because it tended not to end up in the water or the trees. My goal was pretty much to have the ball go generally where I was aiming and not embarrass myself in the process. At this I feel successful.

Slightly sunburnt where I didn't quite reach the sunblock spray. got color elsewhere but it doesn't look/feel like a burn yet in most places. We'll see tonight.

Drank a ton. 4 propels and 3 water refills of an empty propel bottle. Feeling that a bit now.

Ok on to the sock. Thanks to everyone for helpful hints. Definitely going to follow that heel stitch!!

(1) Not a pizza box,just cardboard. Over time I've discovered that cardboard doesn't bounce the flash back at me or cause the camera to focus on some piece of junk in the background. So several pictures of knitting or castle (I'll have to post castle here at some point) will be on cardboard.
(2) Yarn is Mandarin Petit by SandnesGarn from Norway (http://www.sandnesgarn.no/)
(3) Suggested gauge is 27 stitches to 10cm on size 3 (I don't know if that's US or not)
(4) My expected gauge was 9.3st/in. Now important thing that I just remembered earlier today, my geeky thing and first several rounds were done on bamboo needles. So the 84 stitches I cast on were probably close to the 9 inches which leads to...
(5) When I switched to aluminum because the bamboo had too much drag, gauge moved very slightly to 8.8st/in. Causing the sock to be 9.5 inches. Just enough to be baggy. Plus I probably could have adjusted my sock to be just a tad snugger anyway.

Interestingly my ankle and foot are really close to the same size. Assuming I had been stitching the right size, I would only have decreased another 2 stitches.

Hopefully will have Charmed Knits tomorrow. Oh and if you have "The Knitting Answer Book" by Margaret Radcliffe there is a better explanation of the provincial cast on (she also calls it the crocheted cast on). I'll look later and see if I can find a good online reference.

Doing this from blackberry so no pictures today. Also if this posts funky, that's probably why.

-Dragonfly

The good, the bad, the sock....

I have officially finished my very first sock!

Here's the good:

1. I did it! I really did it!
2. It has a heel, gusset and decreased toe
3. It's a beautiful blue

Here's the bad:

1. It doesn't fit.

Ok... so that's only one bad but it's a pretty big and depressing one. It's baggy around the heel. It's loose all around. Now, I know what I did, I did actual gauge instead of slightly stretched, which is needed for a sock. At least for the general looseness. The heel, I used a k1, s1 (RS), p1, s1 (WS), which actually made a very dense fabric. So dense that it pulls tight and makes the fabric above that area blouse. Not something I want in a heel.

On the plus side, I guess... now I don't really need to feel guilty about immediately casting on the second one because who wants a pair where one of the socks is all floofy. (yes... one of the socks... I really can't see making a second one exactly as bad!). So now, I can cast on for other things (like the Invisibility Shawl) and just take this as a learning experience.

Oh, one more good.... it does look pretty with the daffodils :-)

Happy Knitting! - Dragonfly

loading up on pepsi....

Ok, I had every intention of knitting today. My son is at a friend's house tonight, this seemed perfect time for knitting. However, when I dropped him off, I started getting caught up in conversation with my friend and ended up having an awesome dinner and great company. It was a perfect evening.

But now, I'm planning to suck down some diet pepsi because I really want to knit and watch What Not to Wear. And now that Cami has convinced me to participate in the Invisibility Shawl KAL, I've got to get at least ONE sock done so I can keep my Knitter title! I've got a couple days before my Charmed Knits book gets here. If you want to participate too go to http://invisibilitykal.blogspot.com/

Ok, things I learned today:

1. If you ask a fellow knitter for a pattern they used on something you adore, they'll send it! (Thank you Chelsea!!)
2. knitty.com is a great website, esp if you realize there are links on the top nav bar. (yes, I'm embarassed I didn't realize they were there)
3. That really thin yarn is lace yarn. (*sigh* more embarassed on this one... )

Ok, less typing and more knitting!

-Dragonfly

Cookies....

Ok, we are making cookies right now and I can totally smell them so that's what's on my mind! And I didn't knit today, no time and now I'm tired and will screw up anything I try.

First.... I forgot to mention that the post yesterday was for a contest that LotusKnitter is having. See my link to her on my blog list to the left. Posting on your own blog your first finished item or telling your next (not yet on the needles) item gets you an entry to win THE most beautiful yarn dyed by Lotus. Details are at her site!

Ok on to today. Today I was blog jumping, going from one person's blog to others because I liked the comments they left or someone else thought they were cool enough to have highlighted as a favorite. It was rather fun! I had not really paid much attention to blogs aside from Yarn Harlot until very recently.

So what did I learn today?

1. Other people will come and visit and post comments. Hi Melly, hope the finger is better soon!!
2. In Knitting Daily newsletter there is a preview of what will be in Spin Off magazine (Interweave) and there is going to be a GORGEOUS "water shawl"
3. That there is a reason to have multiple WIP so you have options for in the car, tv watching, detailed work and socks.... I'm not ready to have two things on the needles yet as I'm a little obsessive at the moment but I'm getting there...
4. That Knitters seem to always have cats posted somewhere on their blog.
5. You CAN knit a giant glove. http://www.almostrandom.com/needlesnhooks/2007/04/26/why-hillary-climbed-everest/
6. That I can spend a lot of time reading previous posts and hopping!

In answer to posted question from Cami... erpabeepa = Enterprise Resource Planning Business Process Architect. Too much to write, say or explain ;-)

Because I feel like I must post something knitted related. This was an early item too. Purse for my sister as a Christmas present. She and my mom added the medallion to help keep the flap closed. (pattern was from Klutz book which is how I taught myself the basics of knitting before I started hovering around the knitting section of Borders)

Good evening! I'm off to retrieve cookies! - Dragonfly

Starting out in hopes of yarn.....

Been thinking about starting a blog since getting caught up reading others (you know who you are!) But the final straw to actually taking action is the hope of winning yarn from LotusKnits because it's gorgeous! (even if I have to ogle it from afar and give it to my sister to actually knit)

So now, my knitting story... I just started knitting in November 2006 and the first few things were little. This hat made for my son was the first long-term knitting committment I had. It's a back-n-forth pattern that is just seamed up the side. The top actually has a weird swirl effect because somehow I managed to purl when I was supposed to knit and didn't realize for a few rows. My son, god love him, said "mom, that's really cool looking!" and the swirl stayed.

Along the way I have knitted a couple of bears for Mother Bear Project http://www.motherbearproject.org/index.html The first one was following their instructions to the letter (except for complete confusion on how to pick up stitches) and the yarn was supplied by them in a kit. The second one was when I was smarter and designed more by me. To be honest, I haven't shipped her off yet. I'm kind of attached but I will, I promise!

Also have made pillow, purse, baby blanket, scarf, slippers.... I don't want to post all of them right now, but to continue the story.... most recently were the "cheater" socks. Tube socks with no heel so I could learn how to knit in the round. They are not flourescent no matter what they look like. (and isn't the kitty cute? she loves me knitting cuz I sit still)

While knitting these I met crazy knitting lady in Borders who I adore, and not just cuz she has sent me yarn *grin* With her encouragement and taunting (have to turn a heel to be a capital-K Sock Knitter) I am working on the blue one and hopefully when it is finished soon, I will start the second one so it's not lonely. I have however turned the heel and was rather proud of this!

I believe the next project in the queue will be a present for my sister that I don't want to post because I might actually let her see this blog :)

Another day I will post more about me but you can learn some stuff in the profile! Happy fiber crafting! - Dragonfly