Month: September 2007

No No Bad Sweater

Posted by zyllah – September 27, 2007

Even though I whined like a little bitch over it and shoved thermal in the bad sweater box for a time out, I finally got the sucker fixed. So last week I was gazing at the beauty of it and noticed one wee little mistake WAY WAY back. So I considered the options, did I want to ignore it and hope it went away, did I want to rip back, or did I want to attempt to fix it.  I chose option C, so I dropped the stitch 24 repeats down which makes it actually much worse than the pic I posted before. So I dutifully weave it ALMOST all the way. Now I had been weaving from the wrong side since I find it faster to weave knits rather than purls. So anyway….what do I discover but I had missed a few bars. It was at this point I decided to punish thermal and put it in its box to learn it’s lesson. Now of course I had a problem…one wip and the wip was being punished. So I had to start something else. I wanted easy and pretty and something to work on at knit night. So I started the corugater in Malabrigo Velvet Grape. It’s like knitted buttah. I know it will pill like a mofo. I know it will look so ratty after next winter I’ll stick it in a box and weep but I just don’t care. It’s that amazing. However my initial love soon was broken by my resistance to scarves. I mean sure they’re fun for the first few inches when you get to see how it will work up and then the realization hits that you’re going to be doing the same thing for next 6 feet or so. So I think it will be a knit night knit. Utterly mindless and I have scarves so I’m not really in a rush to finish it.

I haven’t been knitting much because of house stress and because I have company. Yes I always have an excuse on why I don’t get more done. However Justin is going away for most of the next month so I expect to get lots done then. Unless of course we finally pick a damn house and I’m packing. I think packing trumps knitting. At this point I’m so sick of the process I’m just ready to never mention it again. He wants some sort of iron clad guarantee that we’ll make a profit and I can’t give that to him. I’m not freaking psychic nor do I play one for psychic friends.  Anyway… So once I actually sat down and got a system going stitching thermal up really wasn’t that bad. Besides once she was fixed I’d realized I missed her. I missed the soothing long rounds that I could pick up and do when I had a few spare minutes.  So onward thermal I shall go…

Thermal Now with more wounds…

Posted by zyllah – September 24, 2007

Oh to be a ’90′s slacker again…

Posted by zyllah – September 19, 2007

So I woke up Sunday and had some Sheena Easton song stuck in my head. This has propelled me head long in youtube nostalgia. I think I’m just avoiding my life now which at the moment is filled with math and finance over the new house. Or possible new house. I know we *can* buy a house the point is should we. Justin’s dad helpfully provided some math for me to start since my in laws are by far the best/most experienced people I have to ask about this stuff. My mom has bought two houses in her life and kept one for over twenty years. Buying for the long term is so different, then its all about what do I like and what do I need from a home. Buying for the short term that stuff still matters but it’s also like “what will sell” and “will we break even” or even better “will we make any money”. So that’s what I’ve been doing…last week I saw a bunch of homes with my mom when she came to visit and this coming weekend I take Justin to see the five I’ve narrowed it down to. I was all hot to do this until Justin’s dad provided a much needed reality check. Now I’m not so sure. I want the new house, I want the garden tub and an actual guest room and a garage but we’re only going to be here for 26 months more. If we could get a house for the same we pay in rent it might be simpler but the payment will go up about 2-300 a month. Well depending on the house we buy but oddly the profit for the lower priced house (same model we rent) is much lower than the houses I almost like. It’s pretty impossible for me to like low end new construction. Anyway this is the fantasticlyfugly cabinets they put in MANY of the newer homes. Actually these are pretty decent for their type…there are far far far worse.

and this is much more of what I want…

So another day of number crunching commences. I just think it’s funny that two former slackers like Justin and myself are even thinking of buying a house. It’s so weird…part of me still feels like I should be out all night drinking coffee.

Witless Wednesday

Posted by zyllah – September 19, 2007

So not much knitting going on here! Last week my mom came to visit and we spent most of it running around looking at houses and window shopping for her upcoming house update. Much much fun but alas little got done in the way of Thermal. It looks like it did in the previous post just you know longer. I just measured it and it’s at 13″. I hope to get everything done today that I need to and work on it since I know Steve is visiting at some point this week and this weekend has one whole day taken up with more house gunk. I just want to get to where I divide for the arms. The house stuff goes…I narrowed it down to five that I hope we’re going to see this weekend. If we don’t pick one this weekend then we’ll have to wait till November, since Justin will be gone almost all of October. After running some numbers with Justin’s dad I’m not sure we should. Although I very very very much want more house but we’ll see.  I must apologize here to Kraftie and Sarkasmo for yammering endlessly about it. Oh before I talk more about knitting you have to see the horror that is the cabinets they put in these things….

This house is *not* on the list. Horrible cabinets and berber carpet. Berber and cats sounds like a disaster in the making. Anyway….Below is a shot from a brand new house I saw which did make it on the list. At least the model did, I think the lot would be a problem but they could build another.

Anyway yeah knitty is out. I think I’ll make roam but minus the hood. I love Cosmic Pluto’s designs, She really is one of the most interesting of the Indie designers. She’s also sort of built like me so her stuff tends to in theory look good on me. I have some stuff stashed that should work and if not I’ll order some blanks and dye my own. I’m really getting into the idea of dyeing for myself. I think a tonal green or burgundy would be just the thing for me. I also think I have to cast on for something soon before I go into withdrawal. There are so many things I want to knit, just sucks I am such a slow knitter. I shouldn’t be. So I think the goal is more focused knitting. Since speed isn’t the issue so much as how easily the net distracts me.

I am teh suck at taking pictures clearly…

Posted by zyllah – September 9, 2007

So I get to start picking the house that makes me weep least on Monday. At least the pre-approval came in for the mortgage, god that was like the most nerve wracking two minutes of my life. Then immediately I had to take a Valerian when I saw just how much our cost of housing is going to jump.  It depends of course on the final price but maaaaannn I think it will be a yarn pronless blog if we do it. Nah it won’t be quite that bad, at least I hope not. I actually found a bunch more I want to see that are a bit less than my original selections. They are also smaller but one has the oh so important wood floors. I’m not asking for much just one aspect of the house that is something I actually like. It’s funny but I’m actually way more picky about these new construction monstrosities than I would be anything I was looking at in St. Louis. I grew up in older homes and that’s just what I prefer. I’ll put up with a lot to have wood work and charm.  I am so over obsessed with this since its our first home we’re buying. I know we’re not buying the house we’ll stay in. My Dad was getting on my case about it since ‘its a starter home blah blah blah” totally missing the point that I have no objections to the size of the places or the luxuries. In fact if you’re going strictly by that they are bigger and probably more luxurious than many of the homes I was looking at in St. Louis. Also I never wanted to live in a mcmansion, all I want is a bungalow of my very own. Anyway this is a knitting blog not a jen whines about her house hunt blog.  So Thermal plods along, yeah that really is all I have for you on that front. I’m almost to 11 inches. I thought I would get way more knitting down this week but stuff came up. I still love the pattern,  although in some respects I agree with yarn abuse on it. She made a demotivator that said “Monotony why bore only myself when an audience is available?” I’m totally not sick of it yet. I still enjoy the stitch pattern enough that it’s fun. So today I spent a good chunk of the day trying to get my camera to give me that oh so sexy shallow depth of field blur. This is my attempt to not buy a DSLR strictly to take yarn pron shots. Cause that would be oh so ridiculous. When I bought my camera in ’04 it was a well reviewed advanced point and shoot. It has full manual control in its range. Now I am such a photog noob that I wasn’t sure all what I wanted. Justin actually majored in photography in college. So I wanted something he might want to use but a dslr was way out of my range. So I got an Olympus C5000. Anyway I’ve been working through the online course in the ravelry group yarnographers in an attempt to sex up the photos. After MANY attempts that were so awful I just deleted them I got some that had some blur and aren’t the worst offenses to the eye ever. I so totally need WAY more light in some of these but it’s been rain-y and grey all week so…

These are supposed to have teh sexy blur:

No Sexy Blur:

Yeah I don’t see much of a sexy blur either.

Random Updaterie

Posted by zyllah – September 8, 2007

So things are still unsettled, however the good news is he might get an instructor position and thus not have to deploy so we’re cautiously hopeful. Things on the house front are proceeding even though we’ve not a clue if we’re going to actually do it. I am totally mixed up about it. If we do it its a good thing but our cost of living goes drastically up. Also totally depends on how long we’re going to be here. But in better news I’ve been working on this online photography course and I’m improving. I’m oh so glad I bought a camera with a lot of manual settings so I can at least attempt to get the oh so sexy blur of shallow depth of field. I think it’s ridiculous that I desire a dslr strictly so I can take yarn pron shots but eh…everyone needs a hobby.

Supposedly these are the ones with shallow depth of field. I’m waiting to hear back what settings to change…

Deep:

Cause I'm sick of small needles

Posted by zyllah – September 3, 2007

So that’s where thermal is. The color isn’t quite exact but its early evening:P I told you it wasn’t all that exciting a WIP to view.  Anyway having one wip sure makes for faster knitting.  Currently at about 8.65″. So I bought the Corsica pattern today and I found I do have a yarn that gauge wise will work as a sub. I’m just not sure of a 4spi sweater in mostly angora. Its a cabled angora which should keep the shedding to a minimum.  The construction of the sweater is really interesting, you know the middle cable and graft it shut and then pick up stitches for the rest of the body. So I’m incredibly eager to start it. However…if I remain faithful to thermal its not inconceivable that I could finish it this millennium. Justin is taking a work trip starting tomorrow for the next nine days and my mom doesn’t arrive until Sunday so… Lots and Lots of knitting time.  Plus I have about 33 hours left to listen to of The Autobiography of Henry the 8th.  It’s very interesting. I love hearing Henry justify the things he did. It’s just that siren call saying “start me go on…you know you want to.” It’s especially calling me since I am not feeling a soxia call. I went shopping in my stash for sock yarn yesterday and I realized I like it too much to knit with it and ‘waste’ it on a plain sock.  Though why it would be waste I’m not quite sure.  Actually I do have some mountain colors I could use up. It was my first handpaint and I do love the color.

It’s oh so very me.

Just say NO…to Trekking

Posted by zyllah – September 1, 2007

So sorry for the lack of blogging its been a craptastic week here at chez zyllah. Found out we are not able to move to STL this fall and will in fact be stuck here for the next two years or so. Anyway so I’ve been knitting a way on the trekking socks. I hate them. I hate the yarn…I hate how the striping is working up so frogging will commence and the yarn will go into the box of stuff to get rid of at some point. My friend claire also hated both opal and trekking.  So its not just me! I guess I’ve been spoiled. I’m getting much better at giving away yarn I loathe which is a good thing I guess. So now I will have to pick another sock yarn to torture. Thermal is plugging away. I still think it’s a fun knit but it’s a bit slow going since well you know sz 2 needles.  I must say the best part of thermal really is the fact that at a glance I can tell what row I’m on cause of that nifty row counter. So I’m almost done with ball two and I begin to fear I will run out of yarn. I suppose I’ll be going with 3/4 or shorter sleeves if that happens.  Anyway time to knit…

Now there is news…

Posted by zyllah – September 1, 2007

Well on Monday we discovered the two most dreaded words in the army did apply to us. So it appears we’re going to be here for another two years.  I apparently turned dead white in shock.  The best part of the whole situation was that Justin wasn’t with me at the meeting so I had the dubious pleasure of being known forever more as “my wife: killer of hope” (my words not his)  He was rather upset but we both adjusted to the idea. So now we’re making plans for another 2 years here. We’re going to buy a house which I’m rather nervous about because of the housing stuff going on. However it is a good idea. I’ve narrowed it down to 4. Justin is rather picky about his commute so that made it easy to pick a subdivision.  So we’ll see how it goes. He won’t be leaving till the new year at least. However he will be gone almost six weeks out of the next eight. I’m not terribly thrilled by this prospect but at least my mom is coming to visit this month and she can go look at the houses with me. I’m trying to see the bright side of this. I need to be ok with it cause the last thing he needs to deal with is grief from me over something totally beyond his control.