Tonight I had 1 complete fingerless mitt, bound off and ready to go. I unknotted the final stitch and frogged the whole thing.

You ever write a love note to someone, knowing you can never send it?

It's kind of like that.

If You Can Read This, it Must be January

Ah, January. Time for the annual renewal of the blogs. I'm not alone; my Bloglines feed is more full than ever right now.

Life is change. Some things in my life are changing too fast and others not fast enough. I'll be focusing on the changes and the process of renewal.

Will there be crafts? Fear not! There will always be knitting. There may even be FOtos.

We'll see if I stick to it. Let me know what you think!

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French Girl Update

Here are the two projects I had trouble with:

On Louisa (lace tunic, page 129), my gauge was too loose. And apparenty I forgot how to count to 9. I scratched trying to do a gauge swatch and just started the sleeve as per the directions. Guess what? The sleeve fits great on the proper needles, so I'm going with the directions as written and adjust as needed. That's the beauty of knitting in the round from the bottom up - you can adjust as you go. At least I hope so!

On Niobe (lace bell-sleeve pullover, page 85), my gauge was too tight. Haven't figured out a solution to that, but now that Louisa seems to be working, I'll figure this one out later.

Yarn for Louisa - Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in color #127 (dark blue-green).

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I Must Not Be French Enough

I recently bought French Girl Knits, which has beautiful beautiful garments, mostly knit in the round, and not terribly complicated looking. Only one problem:

I can't get gauge!

There are two projects I have the yarn for, and I can't get gauge on either of them! One my gauge is too loose and the other it's too tight. Both by a LOT, like two or three needle sizes.

(Will update with which projects when I have the book in front of me.)

Anyone else having this problem? Suggestions?

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A Whole Wack of FOs! (And it's not even Friday!)

We finally got our innertubes working again at the house, and - wow - do I have a lot to show you!

Some sewing:


This is the quilt I received from blogger Crafty Turtle in the BTRS Swap. She did a great job and I love it!


This is the quilt I made for blogger Mommy's Treasures in the BTRS Swap. Great colors - I had fun playing with all the patterns.


Another variation on Irene's Tote. Love this fabric!

Some knitting:


Bubbly Hand Towel based on "Bubbly Curtain" from Mason-Dixon Knitting: The Curious Knitters' Guide.(The first MDK book.)

And some recent knitting I don't have photos of yet! A February Baby Sweater, four Baby Bibs O'Love, and one of those k1p1 stripey scarves everybody's talking about. Looks like I have more photos to take!

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Conversation With A 7-Year-Old Boy

Me: Honey, put away your clean clothes and then start cleaning your room. I need you to look for white socks. There were only two pairs in your laundry and there should have been about six.

7yob: I did find some.

Me: Great. Did you put them in the dirty clothes?

7yob: Well, I only found two.

Me: Ok. Did you put them in the dirty clothes?

7yob: No, I put them on.

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Another Lap Quilt

I signed up for the current Bend-the-Rules Sewing Swap against my better judgement and consumed with guilt. I knew completing the Lap Quilt would be a stretch, plus my son needs a quilt done for his bed. But I had to sign up - they quoted my suggestion!

So I signed up and am ever-so-close, but alas I will be late. I didn't check the specs and thought flannel was an acceptable batting material. Stop laughing. I know it isn't. (Now I do.)

The reason I didn't figure this out sooner is that after I cut the strips for the binding, I saw how much fabric was left and got obsessed with making an auxiliary and completely optional item for my partner. (Beer may have been involved in reaching this conclusion.) Because - of course - she would rather have a semi-random additional object that she didn't ask for and isn't from the Bend-The Rules book than have her quilt back on time when she's been done with hers for weeks.

So tonight, instead of making the top-batting-backing sandwich and the binding as planned, I'm making the binding only. I'll probably be a couple of days late - not too bad considering the wreckage that is my life.

Oh, and my suggestion to use a bit of your own stash in the quilt you're making for your partner? My suggestion that they quoted which was why I signed up after all? I didn't use it.

Tornado Policy

My MIL sent me this very important notice:

NEW TORNADO POLICY for Detroit and nearby areas:
In case of possible tornadoes sweeping through Detroit and nearby areas, we ask that all residents take shelter at Lion's Ford Field.

We are certain that a touchdown will not occur there.

Thank you for your cooperation,
National Weather Bureau

Why I Love the Geekdad Blog

The Geekdad blog is part of Wired.com. Several geeky dads (and a couple geeky moms) contribute several daily posts to the blog. I currently have 120 of them bookmarked on Bloglines. You read that right - One Hundred And Twenty individual posts bookmarked!

The following little gem gets off to a slow start. They could have cut the first 40 seconds, in my opinion. But I was laughing out loud at a minute & thirty:



Dad or mom, if you tend toward geekiness at all (and if you're a knitter, that's likely), you should check out Geekdad.

New Project OTN

I'm not sure what I want to do for my next pair of socks, and my Tomato is in danger of becoming a UFO, but I felt like doing something quick and easy.

Usually this means a dishcloth, but I didn't feel like a dishcloth. (Some days you feel like a dishcloth, some days you don't.)

So I cast on for a kitchen towel following some of the MDK Bubbly Curtain pattern from page 47. Interesting thing about this pattern is that they say it is a 18-stitch repeat, yet the chart only shows 17. This messed me up until I decided it was a "design feature" and working for me. heh.

The cast on is 60 stitches, work 4 in garter stitch, then follow the Bubbly Curtain chart starting at the red line (Row 71), leave three st at each edge in garter stitch for stability and do three repeats each row. I'm on row 103 and so far so good.

Basic Sugar 'n' Cream on size 8 needles is giving me about 4 spi.