sweetgeorgia

2 by 2 for everybody

That’s all I’m knitting now… 2×2 ribbed scarves. Now that I’ve finished the ‘mistake’ rib scarf for my dad, I’m knitting 2×2 ribbed scarves for my brothers. Here’s the first one…finished in about 3 days.

I’ve got 9 days left and I’ll be casting on for the other scarf tonight. Everything else is on hold until then: Ribby Cardi zipper re-installation, Manly Sweater, socks… everything. However, after seeing Annie’s lovely Fluted Bannister socks, I did join the Six Sox Knitalong. They are already partway through their fourth sock, so I’m a little late.

Also, I finally broke down and picked up 3 skeins of Cashmerino Aran in dusty/baby pink to work my TKGA swatches. I think this is overkill. I know it is. But cashmerino knits up so nice and even, it’s convinced me that it will make my swatches look better!

Return of the Stitch Ripper

Ugh. Out comes the stitch ripper. Ripping is even less fun than frogging.

Yesterday was a bad bad day. Not only did I manage to soak the entire inside of my purse (it fell in a sink that had a motion activated tap) and the outside of my purse (spilled green tea while walking back to the office), I also forgot to buy thread for the cardi. So, out to the Cloth Shop we go. Once home and about to wind a new bobbin, I realize, I don’t have anymore bobbins. Great, so, I walk myself out to the Safeway to see if they have any. Nope, they don’t. So, I walk back home and get in the car to go back to the Cloth Shop. The storekeeper thinks it’s funny that I ran out of bobbins. Not so for me. I buy two packs of bobbins, thinking I’ll stock up. Get home. The bobbins are the wrong size and made for Singer machines. The Pfaff store is but ten minutes away, but ugh, it’s raining. So I proceed to unwind one of the full bobbins that I have, wasting a ton of thread — but there was no way I was leaving the house yet again.

In a grumpy, frumpy kind of mood, I set about basting the front bands together, pinning the zipper to the front, basting the zipper to the front bands, unpicking the yarn basting, and finally machine sewing the zipper to the fronts. Guess what? It really was my bad day — the zipper sides came out lop-sided…and, I think the collar is (heh heh) 1/2″ too short. PLUS, there’s a funny lumpy bit on the upper back where the collar meets the back piece. SO, I think I will need to rip the zipper off the front, frog back the collar, pick up a new collar (making sure to dip lower down the back piece), and re-do re-do re-do.

Here are my photos of what could have been a finishing experience:

Yesterday, Carole asked me if I was hand-sewing the zipper in… Today, that seems like a better idea.

Sunday SnB

I’ve taught a second person to knit! Exciting, exciting! She learned to cast on, knit, purl and bind off and made herself the start of the Feline Wonton!

Seaming Ribby

The Ribby Cardi is finally seamed up. I also picked up the collar and decided to make the Mock Turtleneck version… My collar is only about 2″ high rather than the 2.5″ that Bonne Marie recommended. But now, since I’d like the cardi to zip up the entire collar, I’ll have to go and buy another zipper (oh, and thread to match!). That is why there are no FO photos…just a mattress seaming photo:

Successful Saturday afternoon stash enhancement

My wallet is almost $300 lighter after this weekend. How could I resist the temptation of perfect merino wool? In Chocolate Brown, no less? We were at Yaohan and Aberdeen this Saturday and I picked up a pack of Filatura di Crosa Zara for myself (at the AlphaGift/Craft shop upstairs) — no pattern in mind yet but the yarn is DK weight so I’m sure I’ll find something I like! I also picked up a 10 skeins of Zara Plus (the aran weight version of Zara) for a couple of scarves for my brothers… Oh the Christmas knitting that I wasn’t going to get involved in! But happily, it knits up fast on my new bamboo needles…

Yes, that’s right! I discovered that Daiso now carries knitting needles! Lovely Japanese bamboo needles in regular and mini lengths for $2 a pair! Ok, their selection is quite limited and unfortunately there aren’t any DPNs but the needles that they do have a quite nice! You’ll have to bring some sort of a Japanese needle size conversion chart with you though since Japanese sizes are completely different from US sizes. The larger sized needles are in mm sizes.

And finally, across from AlphaCraft is the Iwase bookstore, full of Japanese books and magazines. I bought a knitting mag for me and one with patterns for the DH. He flipped through and said, “Hmm, yeah, I could wear that” and that was that. For me, my magazine is mostly cabled sweaters very much like Rowan’s Vintage Style and Yorkshire Fable. I might just find something to knit with the Jaeger Luxury Tweed that’s coming.

Also in cheap knit thrills, knitters in the Lower Mainland can also head over to Dress-Sew (Hastings and Homer Streets) for aluminum needles priced at $0.99 a pair! I almost bought myself a set of size 1 DPNs there…