The Curlicue Crunch

Babette has been hidden.

The door to the loom room has been shut.

I'm tired of blogging about it, you're tired of reading about it. It's crunch time for Curlicue! Can she do it? Can she finish by Saturday?

Checking In

The June Plan has been implemented. I have learned that maintenance is key, along with automatic litter boxes. My warp has been sleyed through the reed, now I just need to tie it to the front beam and start weaving! Could there be a dishtowel or two before the end of June?


Babette is coming along. I'm still loving this project. It's nice to work on something that is so entertaining. Each square is fairly quick to make and each one is different. Love that. I am thinking about adding two more colors. Perhaps an earthy pink and a dirty teal. Hmmm.


Curlicue. It's almost done! Can you believe it? Two more sections to go. The only way it will get finished is if I get knitting.

So I guess I should go knit.

Daddy & His Mini-Me

Same hair, nose, smile, dimple and chin(s).

Happy Father's Day!

Yarn Therapy

I don't have time to go to therapy. I don't want to drink the Tom Cruise Koolaid. I just need a little something, a little fix. Wannabe posted about her favorite indie businesses and I followed the link to The Plucky Knitter.

Emilee's Wallpaper

I feel so much better. The yarn itself is so unique, so soft. It's like Malabrigo as a sock yarn. I've never done a garter stitch short row heel and yet I imagine one with this yarn. This yarn is so beautiful, I even wrote a fan letter to Sarah.

A Thistle

This yarn hasn't made it into the sock yarn stash pile yet. It's so pretty, I leave it out. Hotty Hubby laughed at me yesterday, "Are you petting your yarn?" Silly man.

Me Likey

Have you ever had a project that you enjoyed so much that you actually had to hide it so that the rest of your life could happen?


If I see this yarn out, I can't help but work on a square. I get a little bug eyed and it starts with "but what if I put these colors together..." I have had to hide it so that I can get other things done, like eating, sleeping and feeding the baby. And then one day, after I hid the yarn, I innocently went online to check my email. I just happened upon (eh hem) the Babette Flickr Pool and spent the next hour browsing photos and upgrading my Flickr account to Flickr Pro so that I could document my Babette progress. Because you know, blogging isn't enough.


And I have so many more to go. Yay! Curlicue? Deep into section 13. I swear!

Stacked

Barely bigger than a quarter and quick to finish, I couldn't put my crochet needle down this weekend. If there is a Yarn ADD Paradise, Babette is it. I have 8 color options and get to play with all sorts of combinations. I just....can't...stop....

And despite what you think dear Hotty Hubby, these are not for my ta-ta's.

June Plan

I have decided that June is a time to challenge myself. Similar to the lesson learned with the self striping sock, I have learned that a lot can get done during nap time. So a little focus, some specific goals, and we'll see what happens. First up, I will be a monotonous knitter. I mean monogamous. Curlicue is my only knitting project, though that wasn't part of the original plan. And that's why I need a plan. I still haven't finished that darn thing. So I figure if I focus on one project at a time, I will get it done ala Penelope. Or I will poke my eyes out with my knitting needles from boredom ala Penelope.


The warp on my loom has started to sag and it looks so sad. So I must find time to weave every week in June. Even if it is just 15 minutes. The project is simple dishtowels.


My crochet project is the Babette Blanket. I don't expect this to be finished in July, but I'm worried that if I don't start it now, it will never get done. I will use it as part of my challenge. Let's see how many squares I can get done by next month.

Also part of the plan - everyday I must do something for the betterment of our apartment. Originally this meant overhaul but I have decided that basic maintenance qualifies. Let's face it, after a diaper blowout which manages to soil clothes, back, belly and hair topped by a good pee which results in heading straight to the bath in which more pee joins the bath water.... emptying the dishwasher and refilling it is considered an overhaul towards the betterment of our apartment.

Progress will be documented on the blog. So far I have knit a bit on Curlicue, sleyed a few more threads through the reed on my loom, and tonight I hope to wind some yarn for Babette. I overhauled the Loom Room to help inspire progress on the June Plan and recently did the laundry. I think Mommy needs a celebratory cocktail!

Dr. Annie

This weekend I was determined to finish something. Closest to being finished was the Baby Shrug so I focused on that. Now I realize that you may be asking yourself why it would take so long to finish such a simple project. It comes from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby after all. "Simply" implies that the patterns will be uncomplicated and quick. Well let me tell you, I think the title should be Simply Baby, Easy to Muck Up.

What makes it easy is that the shrug is knit in one piece with the ribbing being knit from picked up stitches. Where it is easy to muck up, well paying attention to the pattern. (Duh.) I accidentally was short in the back by 4 rows. There was no way to alter the front to match with out doing a lot of redesigning. Puh-lease it's a baby SHRUG. Not even a sweater, not worth the effort of all that calculating decreases yadda yadda. My fix was to knit extra ribbing on the back. But lo and behold, the bottom of the shrug has shaping to make it more circular. Extra ribbing would look silly at such a large gauge. Instead I performed surgery. Thanks to Knittypants and her tutorial, I cut off the bottom and knit down reversing the shaping. Yes my darlings, I cut my own knitting and it worked.

I thought about doing short rows for the shaping instead of binding off so that I could pick up live stitches. But no, no, no. Debbie likes to write patterns where there are 52 stitches for the back, but for the ribbing you have to pick up 58 stitches. 18 stitches for the back of the neck, but you have to pick up 26. 45 options for stitches at the cuff, but only need 34. Simply Annoying.


The back turned out quite well despite ripping out the ribbing several times and calculating how to get the correct number of stitches evenly. The funny thing is that in the end, the shaping didn't even matter. It looks pretty straight despite blocking. No Cashew shots because it is still a little big. (Phew!)

I was showing the completed shrug to Hila yesterday and filling her in on my drama with the back shaping. She looked at me and said "Why did you bother?" I paused for a moment, looked back at her and said "What else would I have to blog about?"