Thursday, April 30, 2009

What a wonderful kind of day!

Cherry blossums

Today is perhaps the most beautiful day we've had yet. And tomorrow is supposed to be even better! I continue to welcome the reappearance of my freckles. :)

In knitting: The knitting of the Noro Yoke Sweater is complete. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The sleeves are a tad on the tight side, but I'm thinkin' they might loosen up a bit upon blocking. We shall see.

Noro yoke sweater

Yeah, I look kinda crazy in that picture. Maybe it's the sun. Or maybe it's the fact that I knit all that Noro on US 4 needles and it kind of drove me nuts-o. All that's left is to weave in the ends and graft the underarm seams. But maybe I'll love those open...

Noro sweater--now with pit vents!

A wool sweater with pit vents--I could market that idea! No, I'll sew those up. Sometime. Not now. Given how lovely the weather is, I'm not exactly motivated to finish this wool sweater, but I'm sure this dense sweater will be nice come winter.

Once the noro sweater was complete, I went back to the modern lace henley, and I'm plugging along on the front.

modern lace henly front progress

I have 18 more rows to go on the front before I start the sleeves. I'm feeling kinda iffy about the color of this sweater. It's a dark, dullish green. I kinda wish I'd gone with navy or dark purple. Oh well.

In reading: I'm slugging through The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. It's a humorous and informative look at the puritan settlers of the early 1600's. I'm about half way through, and just not sure if I really need to gain whatever information could be presented in the second half. We'll see. To distract myself, I started Persepolis yesterday (and will finish it today). I loved the movie. And the book is great, too.

In movies: I went to a screening of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past on Monday. Meh. The Stranger has a funny "review" of it in this week's issue. You should read it and pretend I wrote it. :)

Look how pretty it is here!

Bigelow St

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

What's that saying?

When life gives you lemons,

Lemons

knit a shawl!

Heart shawl

I'm pretty sure that's how it goes.

I took a break from the sweaters in progress to whip up this little shawl over the weekend for a loved one who's sick. I used sock yarn and US 5 needles and improvised the design. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I think it's just the right size for its designee--about 51 inches across and 26 inches long. I particulary pleased with how the little hearts turned out.

Heart shawl

I wish I'd had enough of the black-pink yarn to complete the border, but I'm not displeased with the solid black border.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

One week

Knitting: Last week, after blogging about my progress on the modern lace henley, I promptly put it down and cast on for the rainbow yoke sweater. I brought this with me to Cara's bachelorette weekend (which was super fun), and made a fair amount of progress. This morning I joined the sleeves with the body and started knitting the yoke.

noro yoke sweater progress

The sleeves and body are Cascade 220 (one of my favorite yarns) and I knit them on US size 6. The noro is slightly larger than the Cascade and the pattern recommended going down 2 needle sizes for this portion. So for the yoke, I'm knitting noro on US 4s, and there are so many stitches that I have to use both my 16 and 24 inch needles just to knit them all. Let's just say, it's not the most efficient knitting. But I think it's going to be really pretty when it's done, on the upside. :)

For the yoke decreases, the knitscene pattern calls for 4 decrease rows, about 2 inches apart. EZ's pattern for a seemless yoke pull over recommends 3 decrease rows, and starting them later than the knitscene pattern. At first, I thought I would do EZ's decreases, but after only 4 rounds of knitting the noro, I'm all for decreasing sooner rather than later, and I think I'll do the knitscene decreases after all. I wish I could do them now. But they're probably another 3 or 4 rows away.

I organized my yarn stash last week.

Yarn stash

Isn't it pretty??? :D Going through all the yarn, I just wanted to go cast on crazy! But I restrained myself.

Speaking of pretty, Monday and Tuesday were the 2 best days of weather since I've been here. Look at the view yesterday when I got home from an outing to downtown.

lovely day 4 21 09

Movies: I saw Adventureland yesterday. It was cute. Some funny parts, a little heart warming, a nice little coming-of-age story. Kinda bummed that Ryan Reynolds played a sleeze-bag, though. I don't like to think of him that way. I went to see this movie at 2:15 in the afternoon on a weekday, something I did in NYC with a good amount of frequency, but never once was I the only one in the theater. Until yesterday. At the beginning of the movie, there was 1 other person in the theater besides me, but he left about 1/2 hour in--I think he may have been an employee of the theater. It was strange.

I have new upstairs neighbors; they moved in yesterday evening. And aparently they have a dog, because I just heard it barking. :) Maybe when I get a dog, our dogs can be doggie friends.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Pretties

Knitting: The great thing about being purposefully unemployed--lots of knitting time. Which is how I managed to cruise through the back of the Modern Lace Henley. Progress shot:

modern lace henley progress

Given my gauge issues, I'm knitting the numbers of the medium size, but getting measurements that should be appropriate for me, but if it ends up being too small, I'll give it away. The yarn is a cotton/acrylic blend, and, as often happens with me knitting cotton, it's a pain in the hands. Cotton just doesn't have the give of wool. If this sweater doesn't end up fitting me, I'll knit it again with some other kind of fiber.

Yarn: I just had to buy this yarn last weekend. Isn't the colorway gorgeous? Perhaps I was inspired by all the blooming daffodils everywhere.

noro taiyo 8

Music: Pretty new tunes from Death Cab For Cutie, courtesy of their little Open Door EP, released yesterday, and hastily downloaded by yours truly from Amazon MP3s (9 times out of 10, Amazon is a better deal than iTunes, and without that pesky 5 computers bit).

Apartment: So clean!

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And my view of the skyline last night during sunset.

sunset view 4 14 09

Funny:



The dogs really wanted to help us make Easter dinner.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Nifty

One of my pics from Paris was used in this online map called Schmap. :)

Oh, and I totally rocked my certification exam today! I am now, Robin, FNP-BC. Yippee!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Annoyance

Despite that forecast I mentioned, yesterday was kind of sunny. I seized this opportunity to get some pictures of the finished Bee Fields Shawl. I blocked the thing a couple of nights ago, using every single T-pin that I have.

Bee Fields Shawl blocking

Despite the fact that I made the "petite" size, this is a sizeable shawl. Still not sure what I'm going to do with it.

Bee Fields Shawl

Bee Fields Shawl

The pattern called for US 5 needle; I used US 4, and mine is still bigger. Which brings me to a realization that's been reaffirmed for me over the past couple of days: I'm a loose knitter. I wouldn't believe this to be true, but I've been trying to do a gauge swatch for my next project, and I had to go down 2 needle sizes, and even then I don't quite get gauge. But any smaller and it hurts my hands too much to knit. The reason I have trouble believing I am a loose knitter is that my knitting doesn't look loose. Of course, my perspective is not impartial. But even if I try, I can't seem to get my knitting much tighter.

And I'm a little bit annoyed by this. It kind of feels like an inadequacy. Though I know I shouldn't think of it this way. I just wish I could get gauge with the prescribed needle size. Oh well.

Tomorrow is my big exam. Then game night to (hopefully) celebrate my success.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Really, it's there!

I can see Mt Rainier this morning. Barely, but it's there. You might have to squint.

4 7 09 view

Just to the left of those tall buildings in downtown (if you click the link, I have it "note"d on flickr). Another beautiful day in Seattle....but apparently the last one for a while.

Bummer.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Some finished stuff

In Knitting: A couple of recently finished objects. First, those brown socks that I started about a month ago, right after I arrived in Seattle, finally done. I used the paraphernalia (link) pattern, but set it up to do the socks toe-up. I used the widdershins (link) heel formula, modified to fit the number of stitches I had, and I’m very pleased with out these turned out. The color is understated but the cable pattern is fun.

Natura Paraphernalia

Natura Paraphernalia

Natura Paraphernalia

Second, the St. Patty’s Day socks, unfortunately not complete by the named day, but oh well (blame the lace). I just love the Noro Kureyon sock yarn. These socks feel very substantial, more like slippers than socks. And the colorway is pleasantly rustic. I did a simple 2x2 garter rib on the leg of these to give them a little bit of texture but nothing so much that it would detract from the beauty of the yarn.

St Patty's Day Socks

St Patty's Day Socks

St Patty's Day Socks

These green socks are part of my thank you gift to Melisa for letting me crash at her place for 3 weeks. Along with a bottle of wine by this company called Middle Sister (link)(which, btw, I totally bought at Target—who would’ve thought that you could buy wine at Target in WA).
With both of these projects complete, I couldn’t be without something to knit, so I’ve started 2 new (italics) pairs of socks (so much for being sick of socks LINK). One pair is using leftovers from 2 previous projects, and the other is with some STR lightweight in an awesome colorway called Lemongrass.

Yesterday was the big move. Thanks to all the helpers, it went fairly smoothly. Now I’m left with the huge task of unpacking and organizing everything.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Guided Tour

This is my new home

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The view the front of the apartment, facing north, straight ahead, and south.

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The living room as viewed from the front door, and from the bedroom

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The view through the living room windows

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Built in bookshelves and fire place in the living room

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The small kitchen (entrance opposite the bookshelves)

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The bedroom (note the whole wall of closet!!)

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The bathroom, entered through the right side of the bedroom (opposite the windows)

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Laundry machines!!!

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I'll post more pics as the place fills up with stuff. :)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

So I won this yarn on ebay...

And it was perfect, just what I wanted!

April Fools... :(

The yarn was not what it was supposed to be. I got 3 skeins of 159 and 2 skeins of 153 (which has this ugly pinkish pucey color in it). Major bummer. The search for Noro Kureyon continues.

But speaking of April Fools, gmail has a pretty funny one with their new CADIE program. You should go check it out. I'm glad they're working hard over there at google (or is it "hardly working"?). Hehe.

I finished up those Noro Kureyon socks a couple of days ago. I tried to also finish those brown cably socks last night so that they'd be done by the end of March, but I still have a ways to go on sock #2.

Grandma and I took a yarn field trip yesterday to the Lamb's Ear yarn shop in ghetto South Tacoma. I was pleasantly surprised by their large selection. They had so much Dream in Color Classy! And it was only $17 a skein. I had trouble restraining myself. I wanted to buy 1 skein of each color. They lady who owns the shop was there. She was super chatty and helpful. She noticed right away that I was wearing a hand-knit (the purple 28thirty sweater) and she asked me all about it. :) I still get thrown off by people being so chatty here. People in yarn stores in NYC were chatty, but this is a whole different level of chattiness.