gaysknits

i really did it...

i knit a swatch.  i'll give you a moment to pick yourselves up off the floor before i continue.  after i finished weaving in ends on poppi to be pictured sometime  later in my life i decided to cast on for the next big thing and that would be burnished tunic.

problem is of course i subbed yarn and by subbed i mean i used something entirely different.  different content,  different gauge, different needle size, different everything.  so what else is new huh?   i feared that i needed to at least do some minor calculating before i dove right in and so i swatched on two different needle sizes. pattern says 11 i used a 10 then i used a 9.  the yarn says 5 or 6...9 is fine as far as appearance, stitch  size, openess of the fabric, blah blah blah. this is the biggest needle size that worked with the yarn and the gauge is off of course as one would expect so i did some recalculating and am hoping that by knitting a size medium in a thinner yarn on smaller needles i'll come up with an extra small sized sweater.  so far  seems like an idea that might fly.  so far it looks good..all 3/4 of an inch of it!  this is knit from the bottom up so trying it on will be possible and hopefully i can make it work for me and make it fit.  i just hope i don't run out of yarn.  i ordered the correct yardage but then i messed around with the size and the gauge so it's anyones guess. this color is discontinued but i may just be able to get another ball if i act quickly. if not  and if i do run out of yarn the cowl neck will be eliminated then we'll go from there.  have a lovley weekend.  i have plans to be on the back of a motorcyle most of the time so i'll not get a lot of knitting done.  enjoying the last lazy days of summer is in order.  later...love g

i still have some ends to weave in...

but the knitting is finished and poppi is only moments away from being called done!  long time coming...i know.  i am happy with the fit.  i am also happy with the yarn.  this is arucania nature cotton and it's sister yarn  the multi patagonia and it is one of my all time favorites!  it is a really heavy cotton. thick and thin...hand dyed and colored beautifully and even the solid shades are semi solid and the colors are wonderfully rich and deep.  i love this yarn.  the sweater is heavy but it is as comfortable as a well loved sweatshirt and so totally cozy and really really nicey nice to wear. all these times i have tried it on i felt quite comfortably comfortable in it...not too hot not to cold. i may even get a lot  of wear out of this in the cooler season which is just around the corner.  it is raining tonite so i will not be modeling it now but i will...i will.

at any rate i like the marriage of this yarn and this pattern. it gives it a sort of a rustic casual look in this cotton rather than the more polished look of the original in noro and who on earth doesn't love noro so it's a hard yarn to compete with and even harder to top but this comes pretty close to being just as great and the best part is it is cotton...mmmmm.  later..love   g

i'm coming to the end of the line...

with poppi.  the second sleeve is ready or a sleeve cap and then to be sewn in and all that will be left after that is some crochet edging on the hem and neckline.

 

this took me a little longer than things usually take but somewhere along the way i got very very distracted.  evenings have been a whole lot cooler and much better for yard working and wood cutting but i'm still not finished being tired yet so after just a little work tonite i plan to sit and knit a bit and go to bed early unless there is a new episode of weeds to tempt me to stay up a little later...love   g

i'm not the only one...

who is down. down and out. down in the dumps. down about their knitting. down on blogging. just down. i haven't even been reading blogs. don't know why...can't say for certain. i used to get a lot out of the communities with which i interacted online.

the sexy knitters inspired me to knit and knit and knit some more. the self portrait challange inspired me to take photos and to try to take better ones. ravelry inspired me to organize and gave me a place to research knitting patterns and yarns and look for the perfect project. i cannot find any interest in any of the above these days. summer is usually such a fun time for me. i motorcycle, i kayak, i camp, i go to the beach, i garden a bit, i knit...always i knit.

this summer i have not done any of those things in large quantities. �i don't now what's up with that and i don't know why that is. it has been hot. the economy sucks. everything is more expensive than it used to be. people are desperate and demanding and unpleasant to deal with. employers have become unreasonable to a fault and the expectations placed on their employees are at a new and all time impossible high. the guy and i are exhausted with our lives this year.

our enclosed front porch was slated to be finished this summer but we started a repair job on the motorhome roof instead. the tree was felled and we are now cutting wood and bundling sticks instead of finishing the front porch or working on the motorhome roof repair...which if it doesn't get repaired eliminates a camping trip this summer.

i haven't found much time to knit in the evenings due to exhaustion and a strong desire to veg out. so i follow my best instincts and i do just that. i've perfected vegging out. every night last week rather than knit anything i wound yarn into balls instead. i have all my yarn wound into balls and have yet to start my latest project out of the yarn i wound.

the daughter and son in law built a beautiful pool and i have been in it exactly three times this summer. the daughter is in the hospital again with even more complications than at first revealed from her motorcycle accident and the guy is there with her tonight. he is worried about what is to be her second surgery. the kids are with relatives or friends or here with us and are in good hands but are not where they expected to be this summer and the son in law is running from hospital to work and back home collecting children and puppies and no one is swimming much.

tonite i decided to get up off my ass and take a few pics of my back yard. we thought we should document this whole ordeal so we remember never to do this again and if you say it looks like a wood pile i can only say this...it was a lot worse last week! now we have piles of this type of wood and piles of that type of wood but it used to be a big pile of broken tree. two days ago we decided to take down another damaged tree since we don't have enough to do already and i nearly broke my hand and the fence in the process and we managed to get two chain saws stuck in to different tree trunks and yet we still didn't kill each other

but rather we laughed ourselves silly! on the bright side we work well together. my second sleeve and my balls of yarn...that's all the knitting news i have. later...love g

anything worth anything...

is worth waiting for...and it has been a long wait for poppi i must say!  yay i finally have a sleeve i can live with and i can love!

 i shortened this sleeve by two inches and changed the striping at the top.  it has been sewn in and for good this time. all my loose ends are wrapped up too.  believe me when i tell you  i had a million loose ends and i am sorry to say i did not weave them in like a good little knitter.  this is such a heavy cotton that i didn't want all the bulk that surely would've accompanied any weaving in of all those loose ends so i tied them off.  i cut the ends and i can live with that rather than having them all untangle in the wash.  hey i never said i was perfect...as you can see by this outfit! whooo nice huh? 

 

anyway i am loving this and  i'm ready to start the next sleeve. i took really good notes so it should be the same dimensions. the stripes...well they will do whatever they are  in the mood to do!  today i got the yarn  for the burnished tunic in the mail..it was ordered from ebay and i don't know if you love this color but i love this color.

i couldn't love it more!  this will make a really nice burnished tunic and since it was just raining and everything is wet wet wet i am going to curl up with my needles and my yarn and i'm going to knit!  later...love   g