gaysknits

after commenting that it looks soooo teeney tiny...

a co-worker who is also a fellow knitter asked me if i got gauge on tulips. are you kidding me? i never get gauge. the truth is i never try to get gauge. if gauge was the pennsylvania lottery or maybe a million dollars or even if gauge was world peace or even just peace for a moment in time i'd be more interested in getting it than i am but as it is i have little use for gauge. i never get it. i just knit the smallest size then make it shorter and make fewer increases and/or more decreases and it all works out in the end and i guess it really doesn't matter because i never ever wear these things i knit anyway.  except as i have said before marilyns not so shrunken cardi. i wear that all the time. i can't figure out why that and not any other knit. it is charcoal grey for one. it is a cotton and  silk and wool blend so it is not too warm and the sleeves aren't long but they aren't cap sleeve either so i can wear it in winter over long sleeved tee and in summer on a cool day over and tank. i expected the same from  juliet but never wore that. the sleeves are too wide to fit comfortably under a coat or jacket and it is green...pretty but not so neutral and bulky so too warm for summer maybe spring i'll wear it as a jacket. i have hopes for tulips since it is a nice neutral shit  err tobacco brown.  the sleeves are wide though so will that be a problem for me? will it deter me or will i over come my issues? it is unlikely that i will or even that i could overcome my issues in this lifetime but we shall see. while i'm on the subject of sleeves let me entertain with stories of my stupidity. or should i say more stories of my stupidity.  after ripping out half of my right side to redo it because i didn't measure correctly one would think i'd be more careful but i'm a slow learner. first of all i'm pissed at rowan. i am using rowan calmer in tobacco and all my yarns balls are the same dye lot but one of them is slightly darker or deeper than the others and it is the one i picked up to finish to  top part of my left side and start the right side.  so the right side of the sweater is darker than the bottom part of the left which i didn't notice until all pieces were done and the top of the left side matches the right but there is a line and on the bottom of the line is a lighter shade which matches the back. please don't tell me you can see it in this picture becasue i am under the happy illusion that it is not noticible so mum's the word.  i considered ripping it out but then i would still have two different colors unless i ripped one side out completely and part of the other besides everyone i asked at work said no it looks fine and now the pieces are all mattress stitched together and this seam will not be coming out.  it is my finest mattress stich ever and is so beautiful i will not remove it for fear i will never be able to do it again so perfectly. maybe a nice brooch..yeah right or maybe i'll grow my hair out agina to cover it up...that sounds about right...by the time that happens i may actually wear this!  so anyway  i started the sleeve at work with the leftover ball from the left side which if you even had a chance of keeping up is the dark side. i got two inches into it and changed balls and what do you know a line between the dark ball and the new light ball. so one and only one ball is the wrong shade and of course it is in the front.  whatever. i ripped out the sleeve and started over with a fresh ball of yarn.  then i decided to be really clever and save a lot of time and also to avoid any chance that one sleeve would be different than the other and i cast on for both sleeves and i am knitting them at the same time.  this is working out great. when one sleeve is done the whole sweater will be done.  woo whooo what could be better? no stripes, both pieces the exact size, great huh?  well another two inches into the sleeves and remember we're talking two sleeves now i decided to check the pattern instructions.  memory issues surface again. i remembered the sleeves had 90 stitches cast on so i cast on 90 stitches for each sleeve and what do you know?  the pattern says cast on 99 stitches.  ok so i'm thnking i'll just add 9 stitches and make the sleeves sort of bell like and by the time i get to the lace i'll have the required 99. so i add one stitch and we are up to 91 and i decide i'm not going to like this idea at all and i don't know why but i'm just not going to like it. so i look at the pattern again and it says the lace is multiples of 8 plus 3 stitches which...by the way...is really nice that the pattern tells you that because all patterns do not and some of us like to make adjustments.  i think i'll just keep my 91 stitches which so happens to be a multiple of 8 plus 3 stitches so my sleeves will be narrower than everyone else's which i think will work out ok. that translates to the sleeves being only about an inch narrower and since my sweater is so teeney tiny anyway the sleeves should be smaller and while i'm at it i think i'll start the lace pattern early...like now.  that'll make the sleeves shorter and then i'll get my wish to be closer to the finsh line!  ahhh...immediate gratification!  later...love   g 

i read some where...

that dogs who freak out in storms do so because of the static electricity they feel in their fur during electrical storms and that if you rub their coats with fabric softener sheets before an anticipated storm it cuts back on the static and cuts down on their anxiety.  hard to imagine anything could eliminate the anxiety the german feels during a storm but anything is worth a try. i haven't had a decent nights sleep all week and looks like these storms will continue until july. the other night i awoke from a deep sleep to find the german standing over my head panting and trying to find somewhere to hide. i covered his head with the bedsheet and he calmed down so two nights ago i got an idea when early in the evening it started to storm.  the storm took me quite by surprise.  it was a wicked storm with long, loud thunder and blindingly bright lightening.  the german was inconsolable but i was as determined to knit peacefully as he was to climb on my chair and sit on my lap. this is a ninety pound doggy we're talking about so a lap dog he has not been for quite some time.  i couldn't believe my good fortune when i found a box of dryer sheets because i never ever use the things but it was too late for the dryer sheet fix.  that has to be done prior to the storm not during the storm...so i hear.  remembering the luck i had covering his head with the sheet i got a an old car drying towel from the rag box and draped it over his head. it was a large enough towel that it covered his back sort of like a horse blanket and in short order it seemed to calm him down. he seemed oblivious to the storm.    it was a storm that was so wicked and scarey that even i was nervous so the fact that he wasn't seemed to be indeed evidence of a miracle. to top it off it was quite entertaining to watch him prancing around like he wasn't wearing a red hat with a purple dress which he wasn't but he looked about as ridiculous.   i tried the towel theory again this morning when it was not storming. it only served to agitate and irritate him with it's placement on his head, on his back or anywhere on his person and he was hell bent to fling it off...so it isn't that he likes to have a towel draped over him though he will tolerate it long enough to get a bisquit out of the deal.  i'd call this a success story. i'd call it a drug free solution to the freaked out dog in a storm syndrome.  i plan to do it again and even go so far as to design a dog garment that is like a cape or a poncho that will slip over his head and be like a cowl so it can be worn like a hood or a collar.  this could be the next big fashion thing for dogs and perhaps it could also be my ticket to fame and fortune!  at the very least it will save me from a lot more sleepless, stormey nights  later...love   g

it's not as bad as i thought it was...

my memory is not as bad as i thought it was...by comparison to others i mean to say. it could be worse. people i know are falling asleep before they talk to their supervisor to call off sick in the morning and then swearing up a blue streak that they did call...only to admit later that perhaps they dreamed it.  people i know are sitting around leisurely enjoying a cup of coffee and a phone consversation with an out of town child and then wondering why everything that usually happens after you have left for work is happening while you are still at home...because you forgot to go to work on time. people i know are taking the house apart, emptying the closets, turning over drawers looking for papers that they have  forgotten where they put them...not so long ago.  i called it a nite early last nite to catch up on some sleep but before i did i packed my knitting to go project up in my little lantern moon silk bag.  it consisted of a ball of yarn and two sets of needles  because i have finished the back and the left front and needed to cast on for the other side.  what i did not pack was the pattern book and to make matters worse my computer was down all morning and all threatened to be down all day long and me without any instructions...it seemed like a very bad scene. never fear...my computer came up for the day crashing again only 45 minutes before go time so i kept myself busy and believe it or not i cast on the correct number of stitches anyway. i knit the first four rows correctly then changed needle size!  it was a memory miracle for me. wouldn't it have been great if the computers had stayed down all day?  if only that had happened tulips would be finished now!  well she is close. but truly i doubt that my memory would have carried me beyond the point where i had to do an eyelet row but still it was mightly impressive.  i have great hopes of having the body knit up by the end of the week if all goes as planned and if i remember to take the instructions along with me when i take my knitting to go. my memory didn't even carry me to the end of the day today though when i went to get my hair trimmed i forgot to tell him a trim was what i was looking for and what i got was a whole haircut. a haircut which was  a bit shorter than i was expecting.  it'll grow and i just may like it this short and in my defense i was distracted by the eskimo spitz i was holding in my lap cooing at and stroking until he fell asleep only to be rudley awakened when the blow dryer came on and then he freaked out and puked on the floor! thank goodness it wasn't on my lap!  my measuring skills aren't as good even as my  memory turned out to be.  six inches one day apparently is not the same as six inches on another day because i had to rip out some of the left side of tulips to make the two sides match. the sweater is seamed at the shoulders now and i am working on a sleeve.   i have basted the sides together for the purposes of blocking it without really blocking it and so that i could try it on. it fits nice and looks good.  i am quite anxious to finish a sleeve so i can sew it on and try it on again.  maybe this weekend maybe later...love   g

i struggled with what to call this post...

whether it should be called necessity is the mother of invention or should it have  called it i am hoping to show you a more beautiful version of this pattern.  this is a pattern published in knitscene spring 2007.  you know the issue...the one with the pattern for the central park hoodie that swept the knitting nation.  i never saw the issue when it came out and never would have but for a trip to bonnie knits on the last day before the store closed. the gal at the register was wearing the most adorable no the cutest sweater i ever saw and i had to have it. friend usha had to have it too.  we had to. i only hoped she didn't invent the pattern herself because then i would have to try to remember it's lines and it's shape and try to make it up myself

but she eased my mind when she said "oh yeah this is from an older issue of knitscene...look online sometimes they offer free patterns." i looked and they did not. i tried to buy the mag on line and it is sold out pretty much everywhere i looked.  without divulging too much more of this long story i scored a copy of the magazine and proceded to make this sweater.  it was interrupted by the birth of my new great nephew who needed a hat and a sweater but i'm back on the job now.  i think...now that i think about it and after talking to a blogging friend who is traveling the wilderness these days on summer holiday i think it would be appropriate talk about both of my proposed titles for this post.  i usually knit top down all in one piece sweaters and try them on a hundred times as i go along.

there are two reasons for this. one...i am anxious and two...i am usually a size or two smaller than the smallest size so i like to make sure i'm not knitting something useless.  this is knit in pieces and so trying it on is a problem.  finished the back piece and started the front piece and decided to pin it to my tee shirt and see what it would look like.   you need a little more imigination for this method of trying it on as you go but i got lots of that and i am pleased as punch with how this is turning out!   i also think i had the advantage of seeing this pattern knit up before i saw in in the magazine. i think it looks a little not so cute as modeled and as pictued in knitscene which is a shame because in person on that cute young lady it looked better than anything i've fallen for in a long time!  you need no imigination to see that.  so i am lucky i found this pattern the way i did. stumbled upon it is more like it.  she had made hers in cotton so i did too because i thought that was the way it was supposed to be knit and it looks so cute and soft and summery and comfortable in cotton.

i chose this tobacco color for two reasons. i had in in my stash and i figured since i won't be wearing it until fall or winter since i don't do sweaters much i will wear this yummy brownish color that i think looks so nice against my skin and looks fab with jeans which is a wardrobe staple of mine in winter.  before i blather on much more as if it isn;t too late for that...this pattern is tulips a pattern written by kat coyle who in case you live under a rock is genius at knitting and writing patterns for beautiful skirts which i hope to knit one of one day as soon as she tells me they won't poof at at the back around my butt when i sit in it all day in an office chair behind a desk looking endlessly at a computer but anyway...i digress.  kat blogs here. if you have this magazine or if you can beg, borrow or steal it from someone like me when i am finished with it and friend usha is also finished with it you should consider making this if you have a couple hundred yards of yarn not quite a thousand that you don't know what to do with.

 

i read this on kat's blog while searching for this pattern that this was planned to be knit in a linen or something drapey but the magazine chose a wool or some such thing and i think it would be beautiful in a drapey fibre but i quite love it in this cotton too.  i can't wait to sew it together and try out my new skill of the applied i cord on the edge and try it on for you posing and hamming it up for the camera which i only do because i take my own pictures while doing said hamming and posing and would feel stupid as hell acting like that in front of another person except maybe the youngladygrandaughter who likes to ham it up and look stupid herself on occasion in front of the lens.  that's it for now.  later...love   g

the second boy...

is not getting a baby blanket or a knitted bear...not yet anyway. i had time to finish this sweater and a couple of caps and that's it for now.  this is ez's surplice baby jacket. pattern from vogue knitting spring/summer 2008.

this was fun and easy to knit and i love the results. it is cute but not too baby it's a baby...it's more like boy oh boy it 's a boy!!!  the yarn is rowan calmer in two shades of blue and trimmed in tobacco. i used two entire skeins of each of the blues and almost one of the tobacco to make the jacket and both hats.  the hats are a pattern from last minute knitted gifts called children's cotton hats.

the blue one is the baby size and the tobacco one is the toddler size.  the jacket is very adjustable and can be made wider as the baby grows so i made two hats just in case the first one doesn't fit.  i left out the eyelet row in the hats and the tie...too girly and instead substituted a stripe in one and a fews rows of garter in the other.  much more boyish.  the buttons are cute but again they don't say i'm a little baby they say i'm a boy!  later...love   g