so i leave this morning for new orleans to run the marathon on sunday and then on to my dad's hometown in mississippi for a week. the weather is looking perfect. i wasn't really training for a pr necessarily, and i've been overwhelmed with getting everything else in order for the rest of my trip, but secretly inside, i'm kinda wanting to go all out for a pr. wish me luck......
remember when i said i was in trouble with the second side of the rebecca. here's the deal. the pattern has an error which, thanks to melissa, i knew about ahead of time. it's just a cable repeat that doesn't match up, so you have to keep track of when to dothe cable. for those of you who've not done cables, it realy isn't allthat hard, and you can pretty much see where you need to swith stitches without needing a row counter or anything. now that's if you're not watching some ridiculous reality show or ice castles or purple rain while your doing it. so when i was almost done with the second side of the sweater, i noticed that these cables just to the outside of the main cable pattern in the center were off by two rows. off enough for me to notice and probably not anyone else, but enough to bug the hell out of me. i had read about melissa having to frog hers to fix the same thing, but i decided to BE CRAZY!!!!! so i frogged just the cables and redid them!!!!!
before
after
now can you see on the right side how the cables look really off compared to the redone ones??? but the problem with the redone ones is that they come out all wonky and uneven. but you just gotta get in there and do what bonne marie says and BOSS YOUR KNITTING AROUND!!!!! i went back with a darning needle and evened out the stitches and wonky areas. all in all, i think it took as much time as it would have to frog the whole thing, but psychologically, i did it my way and it was the better way. here's a detail of the redone cable before and after i bossed it around
now we have both front and back finished. when you look at them side by side, you really can see the difference in the redone cables on the right. but i'm hoping that after blocking, it'll look better. otherwise, i'm just going to use that side as the back, so at least i won't have to be reminded of it.
so it's on to the sleeves which i always like to do at one time on one long circular needle. i'm taking them on the plane with me, and will hopefully have them finished before i come bacj. wooo hooooooo!!!!
You are Novelty Eyelash.
You are very of the moment, hip, and happening. You are often seen wrapped around someone's neck. Some see you as too flashy and ultimately shallow, but you are having too much fun to notice.
i really threw my internal clock off by staying up late last week and knitting to all those cheesy movies. i was thoroughly exhausted throughout the day and then i'd come home and take a "nap" from about 6:30 to 8:30 and then be up all night again and thoroughly exhausted the next day. it got to the point where i was so tired and the more i slept, the more groggy and exhausted i was. so this week, i'm cutting back on the knitting and making sure i'm in bed by 11:00 or 11:30 and then up early the next day. so the second side of the rebecca aran is going a little slower, but still pretty fast on #9 needles. i'd post a pic, but it would be identical to the one i already posted. next are the sleeves which are a boring 2x2 rib, but i'll do them both at once on a long circular needle so that i don't get second sleeve syndrome. it's raining today and colder than usual. i wish i was wearing the aran already!!!!!
last night i finished up the front of the rebecca sweater while watching this.....
i think i'm zooming along because there's been such great cheesy movies on in the past few nights!!!! i also watched "my big fat annoying fiance" and "average joe hawaii" last night, two of my favorite reality shows.
and while we're on the topic of cheesy movies.......
i'm almost done with the front of the rebecca aran. wow, this is going way faster on #9 needles as opposed to kyoto which was on #6's. i love this pattern!!!! cables make me feel like an advanced knitter even though i have so much to learn and improve on. and i'm actually memorizing the pattern pretty quickly. it's the mathematical side of my mind that's figuring out the repeats in the pattern. i've read that the neck comes out all wrong if you follow the pattern. i think i'll still knit it the way it says and see how bad it is and then adjust accordingly.
and in moth news.........
i bought these plastic baggies to put all my yarn in. and my mom bought me these cedar chips to fend off the moths. let's hope this helps. again, i just can't kill anything, but i will be escorting all moths out the door!!!! thanks to everyone who responded with there advice. turns out that it's not actually the big brown moths that eat wool, but rather the miniscule golden ones (which i've also seen around). go figure. maybe the big brown one could eat the golden ones?????? carnivorous moths!!!!!
i'm almost done with kyoto and i've pretty much resigned to the fact that it will be given to someone else as a gift. it's just too small in all the wrong places. who was i kidding making the medium?? i'm not a medium. i went by the chest width, but this isn't a fitted sweater at all. i'm usually more careful about assessing the measurements, but i just wanted to jump into this one. i'll definitely be making a large one for me, but i just can't do another project with size 6 needles right now. and for mine, maybe i'll switch out the black part of the sweater to a brown. this is gonna be one nice gift for someone!!!!
but on the flip side, this came in the mail today.......
to make this....
i'm just making the sweater, not the hat. the picture doesn't represent the color of the yarn at all. they call it spring green, but it's really like a granny apple green. i'm so excited!!! i love that it'll be a not so traditional aran color. and it should knit up pretty fast on size 8 or 9 needles. gotta go swatch!!! and this time i'm makin' the large. wooo hoooo!!!!!
p.s. special thanks to melissa for all her advice on this project. go check out the one she just finished!!!!
and on the cheesy late night movie tip, tonight we're featuring this one.......
ICE CASTLES!!!!
STARRING COLLEEN DEWHURST AND ROBBY BENSON
i can't believe i'm admitting to loving this movie. i think i still even have the soundtrack on vinyl. and i'm totally dating myself by saying i had a mad crush on robby benson!!!! but i liked him way better in ode to billy joe. funny how their cheesy 80's outfits are right back in style right down to robby's funky fresh punas. ooooh gotta go. she's doing her super disco routine to that number with the christmas bells!!!! i'm gonna pull that record out of the archives........
sharlyn and others have said how creeped out they were by the moth, so i'm trying to send him down the page quickly with this entry that i got from jen. the red states are the ones i've visited. wow, i've been to more states than i thought!!!!! most were just passing through or for work, and i still have half of the country to go. i'll get to add alaska in june when i go to run the anchorage marathon!!!!!
this is the second one of these moths i've seen in the last three nights. maybe he's the same one from the other night. now granted, this is a super macro shot and his wingspan is about an inch wide, but THIS IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE HOUSE VARIETY MOTH!!!! i'm totally paranoid now. i just remembered the two bucket-o-chics that i recently threw away because they had holes in them. they were the first projects i knit last year when i picked up knitting again. honestly they were complete failures and a forshadowing of the many projects that i would soon take on even though they are totally inappropriate for me and i'll never wear them. now i'm not knocking the bucket hat, but i have a huge head and even huger (i know that's not a word you grammar avengers) hair that does not fit into even the most xxxl version of miss bonne marie's pattern. but back to the winged creature that is still perched on the wall above the computer as i type. the two buckets have been sitting out in my closet for all this time. in addition my closet has no doors and is exposed wide open into my room. now i thought that the holes were from my bad changing of balls of yarn or seaming, but could this little fucker (sorry for the language) be eating my wool??? has anyone else had moth problems? i am the worst organized knitter. i have balls of stuff flyin' around everywhere and NONE OF IT IN SEALED PLASTIC BAGGIES!!!!! and here's the next dilemma. i hate killing anything and i refuse to use pesticides and foggers unless my doggies are suffering, but i did not invite this guy into my home, and i'll be damned if he's gonna eat through one of my hand-made-
frogged-8-times-took-me-a-year-to-finish-don't-you-want-one? sweaters!!!!! WHAT DO I DO PEOPLE??????
in the meantime, g.i jane is on late tonight which will hopefully inspire me to finish kyoto if it kills me, but i'm not shaving my head for nothin'. this is really gonna do me in for trying to get to that damn masters swim class at 6:30 tomorrow morning!!!!!!
it's pouring rain tonight, and the tv satellite is all whack. it's the last night of american idol auditions, and the picture is coming in and out and all pixelized. DAMN!!!!!! as far as i'm concerned, the auditions are the best part. after that, i could care less who wins. anyone see the asian guy who sang "she bang" by ricky martin? absolutely pee-in-my-pants hilarious!!!!! and then he added that he had absolutely no formal training. NOOOOOO REALLY???????
on another note....
I PR'D YESTERDAY AT THE HALF MARATHON!!!!! took 6 minutes off my time. that may not seem like a lot, but in running, 6 minutes is major time. next up, the mardi gras marathon in new orleans. they say it's super flat, so hopefuly i can pull off another pr!!!! wooo hooooo!!!!
still have the collar to seam onto the rest of kyoto. i'm totally procrastinating on it, but maybe i'll get it done tonight.
monica, 33, single
photographer / running coach
live in los angeles
2 dogs, ella (lab) and ruby (dobi)
learned to knit when i was 7, but recently picked it up again in december 2002
...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
i've thought about this one before. i'd call the restaurant "whateva's cleva" and change the menu every day with all my favorites including, mexican, indian, soul food, veggie friendly, etc.
...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
yarn, duh!!!!!
...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
biographies are my favorite, but i can't imagine that my own would be a top seller. probably a crime story.
...ran a school, what would you teach?
tolerance
...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
oh, again, that's a difficult one. i'm a musical schizophrenic. some punk, some funk, some metal, some rap, and at least one sappy love song
how come this little pixie never looks like me????
