Sunday, January 25, 2009

This is not an FO parade...

I found the cable for the camera. It was on the bookshelf. I think I unearthed it from the desk and then buried it again on the bookshelf, but I did move all the pictures off of my camera, so I have some stuff to show, instead of just words. Because we all know that pictures are way more fun that words.

First, the gloves for Tim:

Fingerless gloves

These are a revamp of the ones I made almost a year ago (down at the bottom of the post), but with a longer cuff, because I asked if there was anything that he would like to change. I inspected the old ones when we went over for Christmas, and had these ready for his birthday. Elann Superwash Worsted in grey, 75 grams.

Then, a jacket for Tristan.

Clearly not TristanLink
I didn't have a ferry to model for me this time, so I made do with a Kolorkin


Tristan, as I mentioned earlier, is Bubbles' baby, who was born at the end of December. He is getting this nifty Baby Surprise Jacket, which I decided to make in ENTIRELY different yarn than I had originally planned. (The thought was to use some Dream in Color Classy that I got at the Three Bags summer sale. It didn't happen.) Instead, more Elann Superwash Worsted, grey and forest green (same green as my kilt hose), about 40 grams of green and 70 grey. I was using leftovers from a bunch of projects for the grey, so I don't have a really accurate number. Alas, I have no scale. The stripes are two ridges grey, one green, with all shaping done on the inside, because I think the other side looks nicer. I decided to get all crafty and make a tag for the inside, mostly because I could, and I LOVE the buttons.

Jacket tag Stars


Plus, there are those Jaywalker socks, version 2, that I didn't show before.

jaywalker socks

I like the way they look, and the way they fit, though one of them is tighter than the other. It'll be ok, I think. The colourway/stripe pattern still confuses me, and I feel as though it is trying to defeat me when I try to figure out where the repeat is. I'm pretty sure what happened is that all four plies are different colours, and while they usually change uniformly (and consistently), this is not always the case, with the end result being similar but not identical colour progressions. Which is kinda cool.

The stress-relieving/mindless knitting is a new pair of socks for Marksman, which have not yet seen the camera, but they are cabled (simple cables) in Dream in Color Smooshy, in a blue-green-purple-brown shade. I haven't yet decided if it is too girly, but he seems to be ok with it.

In non-knitting news, the van is fixed for now. There's a long story attached to that, but it's not worth telling. Suffice to say we're allowed to put fuel in it again. This is good news. We may or may not do some more work and make it more functional (we've got one tank out of 2 right now) but that might have to wait until we have a little more liquid funding. And that's ok.

Also, does anyone know how I can make it so that my pictures don't get cut off by the sidebar? (Basically, I'm asking if anyone can tell me where the control for the width of the "posts" section is. Because I can't tell...)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Guh

So, maybe I was wrong when I said I was going to knit for myself again. It hasn't happened. I did make gloves for Tim (Marksman's dad) in time for his birthday on the 3rd. And then I found out that Bubbles had her baby, and his name is Tristan, so I'm most of the way through a green and grey Surprise Jacket for him. And there's also some secret knitting, too. Of course. It's more fn that way. Maybe when I find my camera cable (it was rounded up in the Great Living Space Cleanup a couple weeks ago) I will post mystery knitting pictures and leave it to y'all to guess what it is. And I found a scarf project that I started about 6 months ago and then put down... From Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but I can't remember what the name of it is. It's wavy, and made of Kauni EQ, and I'm going to work on it until I get bored, and then (for once!) block it properly just to see what happens. Maybe I will see if I can borrow some of Jemmy's floor tile-things to do so. She has those puzzle-square foam things. So all I'd need is pins.

However, I am currently at a loss for a Mindless Stress-relieving Knitting project. I want something fast that I do not have to think very hard about. Because my (stupid, gorram) van once again needs to go into the shop. It still runs, thank A'Tuin, but we're not sure how long it will continue to do so. Because the bleeder valve on the tank (the van runs on propane) is sticky. We didn't think this was a problem until yesterday, when the attendant at the gas station wasn't able to close it right away when the tank was full. So it spewed propane all over the place, and then the valve froze open, and he had to thaw it with hot water and... Basically we're not allowed to get gas at Superstore (which is on the way to/from work) anymore. So it needs to be fixed. And we aren't driving so that we know we will have enough gas to get to the garage when we have a chance to do so. I do not need this right now. Like, at all. Because it means that we need to take the bus to work tomorrow. It's an hour and a half on the bus.
It's only an hour driving. Plus, when we drive, we have all our tools, and all the random things we didn't expect to need for the day, and... You know how it goes. Why can't things just work? (This is only the most recent in things not going particularly smoothly, but it's the most frustrating right now. I won't regale you with the rest.)