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Showing posts from June, 2006

Dog Days of Summer

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Yes, it's officially Summer! While some of us get to take Summer Siesta power naps....... Some of us don't -- we spend out time knitting - seems perfectly sane to me! I'm glad to see that Daisy keeps some yarn close to her at all times -- at least I've taught her that! I've been doing the button bands on Erin -- and they came out spectacularly well (if I do say so myself)! I have to encourage myself here, because button bands are another of my contentious issues with fair isle knitting (another one you say? Well yes, I do have pretty strong opinions when it comes to fair isle knitting - in case you haven't noticed) LOL! This time I did what the designer asked me to -- I picked up the outside leg of the edge stitch V, or \ / as it looks like when it's in with all of the other stitches. I knit into this leg, and picked up stitches right up the front. Because I hadn't followed the pattern exactly (as usual) and didn't have the same amount of rows that I

Erin Neckline

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Thank you for all of the comments encouraging me along and telling me not to worry about the Erin shoulder line -- things like this sometimes put me in a "tizzy" -- that's when you can't get going because you're sort of turning around in circles? That's what happens sometimes with my knitting, something bothers me, and instead of doing something about it, I get in a "tizzy" LOL! In the rest of my life I over compensate by being VERY decisive -- but we won't get into that here! So I decided to get on with the neckline -- You really can't see the shape of your neckline until you cut open the front and back neckline steeks -- but when you do cut them, your sweater suddenly starts to look like a sweater -- and you're ready to pick up stitches around the neckline for the neckline band. I learned in a class that I took on finishing that you MUST take great care to ensure that your neckline is perfect -- watch the line you pick up on, don't

Erin - shoulder quandary

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I've finished Erin up to the shoulders -- I'm very pleased. But I'd failed to notice that the way I'd worked it out -- yes, I'd end at the half way point of the Celtic knotwork motif -- so that when I did my 3-needle bind off it would make a full 13 row motif......yes, except that this motif isn't a mirror image of itself, it has a distinct top and bottom half of the motif -- so my shoulder line is only half of the motif butted up against itself. (Of course I adjusted the pattern to suit me -- the pattern calls for the checkerboards to be at the shoulder line. This has been annoying me all day -- and I've been looking at it, trying to decide whether it's worth ripping out, cutting the armhole steeks, ripping out the offending 7 rows on the back and reversing the pattern so that it would match up to the front 6 rows to give a perfect motif. Thanks to a conversation with Lorraine, I've decided to just "let it go". After all, it looks pret

Dirty Daisy

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Daisy, my wonderful Westie, has one major bad habit -- it's so bad, that I have to think twice.......about letting her run around our yard. While planting in my front door urns, I let Daisy wander about -- and she was quite content to stay with me -- for about 10 seconds -- then it was off to explore. I don't worry, because our yard is Daisy proof (hopefully) and she hasn't escaped this year (yet). When I finished with the urns, I went to find the missing Daisy. Through the house, out the back door (always go the easiest way) -- and I see her in the back flower bed -- I open the door and give her a call, in she comes (she's so good right?). You're probably wondering what's the problem -- after all, she comes when she's called. But she also rolls in just about any kind of muck she can find. I think this might have been raccoon muck -- it sure smelt awful! It was all around her mouth and down her neck and chest. And then she thinks she should just come in, get

Woe is me......

Why does it happen? Why, when everything is working great, no error messages, no "low memory" messages, just when you're really confident that you've got things tweaked to perfection....... one of your basic, must have programs for some reason starts acting up????? I have a Nikon Coolpix 995, and to get the photos from it, I have a cable from my USB port to the camera -- and all I'm supposed to have to do is turn the camera on view the photos, it connects to my computer, automatically launches NikonView, and with one click downloads the photos and that's that...... Last night, it wouldn't work - I kept getting a message that the card wasn't formatted, or some other such technical drivel that just meant to me that my NikonView wasn't working. I'm on dial up right? So to download a new version of NikonView is no easy task for me -- but I set up the computer to download through the night, and when I got up this morning - it hadn't finished - i

Sunday, Sunday.....

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I think the song actually said "Monday, Monday"..... Well, Sunday was great! First we had some fabulous weather, and with it, some great outdoor knitting! I did have to come in eventually because the pesky black flies came visiting (and they bite). Check out Lorraine's great outdoor knitting spots! I think I'll have to have some Orange Adirondack chairs to compete with Lorraine's purple ones. You can tell that I like orange (as well as yellow) can't you? Then we had leftover Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings! I have to admit, these were pretty spectacular Yorkshire Puddings! As DH says, "How many balls of yarn would you need to knit a sweater for them?" This is an inside joke - someone might know what I'm talking about LOL! Erin is progressing -- my row gauge is slightly off, so I'm recalculating my armholes and I think it's going to be just perfect for what I want to do. I'm falling slightly behind on my schedule for this sweater, b