Sick and Tired

What do you do when you're home from work sick? Well, if you're me, you spend the day in bed alternatively napping and searching for new pattern to cure your current case of knitting ambivalence.

I'm not happy with the sweater-of-my-own-design. It's not the concept, it's not the fit (I've been trying it on regularly), it is the yarn. I knew I wanted to knit the sweater in a finer gage, but I didn't hold out for the right yarn for the job. So, RIP, sweater-of-my-own-design, you are about to be replaced with one of the following projects:

Sesame
Wicked
Something Red
Green Gables
Rusted Root
CeCe

First off, though, I'll finish a nagging little UFO that's been hanging around for far too long...

Magnetic

Yeah, it's the Tie Top Tank from the belle epoque tutorial. Very easy, very cute, but also very... billowy. I can't really pull off billowy since I'm not exactly... willowy. However, it will make a lovely pj top (I keep on thinking it would make a great nightie if done a little bit longer or if I wore a nightie and by that I mean that I wear pajamas and not nothing and I should stop this line of typing). It would also be a nice maternity top- pregnant ladies can pull off billowy (NOT that there are any beaglets in the making around here).

There were two cool-ish discoveries during the making of the tank. The first was that bias binding is not all that bad to make. In fact, it's pretty easy, if a little fiddly. Between the example tank and this month's Martha Stewart Living, I was inspired to try and make my own. Now I want to put it on everything. I imagine using it to avoid having to actually hem after shortening jeans. Wouldn't a pair of Levi's look cute with that cherry print around the ankles?

The second discovery was my new magnet trick. I am way to cheap to pay over $10 for a magnetic pin catcher, but I got tired of crawling around on the ground looking for all the pins that I dropped. So, I chucked a magnet on to the lid of my oh-so-stylish pin tin (I'm all about rhyming today) and I had my very own magnetic pin catcher.







But- that is not marvelous innovation (and forgive me if someone has already innovated (?) this before- it's new to me). No, that was just a little background and an explanation of why I have magnets in with my sewing stuff. The pet peeve at hand concerns cutting out patterns. I am very, very bad at cutting out patterns. In addition to my base badness, I'm always annoyed at having to pin the pattern to the fabric thus creating little wrinkles and jogs and compounding the badness of my pattern cutting.



As I was about to start cutting out the tank, I briefly considered just tracing the pattern when I realized that i could pin the pattern absolutely smoothly to the fabric with my neat-o uberstrong magnets. One magnet on each side in a couple of key places and snip, snip, snip. I did my best cutting out ever.







The only downside I found was that the magnets looooooove my pretty fabric scissors, so they have to be set in an inch or so from the cutting edge.



I think I'll be trying the magnets with patterns from now on.

I Got Nothing

Ho hum. No crafty going on here lately. Airplane knitting was superseded by extreme airplane nausea. Lucky this is a holiday weekend. After we plow through Mr. Beagle's (30th!) birthday barbecue tomorrow, the rest of the weekend will be devoted to craftiness. I think it is time to begin the Mystery Quilt of Mysteries (a mystery because I 1. don't know how I'm going to put it all together and 2. I really don't know much of anything about quilting and 3. I have no idea if I have enough fabric). I might also give this tank a shot, since it's so darn cute.

The Post with All the Question Marks

What's a girl to do when she has her work week in by midday Thursday? Cut out early? Um, yeah. Pedicure? Yes. The most perfectest manicure ever? Yup. Cap it all off with Mr. Beagle's penne alla vodka and it almost makes up for the uber-nerve-wracking audit and the looooong work days.



See, the most perfectest.

Oh, and what's this? Could it be?



Pattern: Jaywalker from Magknits
Begun: 4/5/07 Finished: 5/12/07
Size: Calculated two sizes smaller than the smaller size
Yarn: Knitpicks Bare Superwash sock yarn, Kool-Aid dyed
Needles: 2 sets of #1 Knitpicks classic circulars



Mods: I knit them together on the two circulars until I got to the heel flap, at which point I couldn't figure out how to continue both together (and was too lazy to look it up). I finished the socks individually on two needles.
Thoughts: Not so bad. I think I might even like this sock knitting thing. I did have some trouble with the first heel, but no trouble with the second. The pattern is written quite well. I was just a sock moron.

I'm off for a whirlwind weekend trip to the Great Northern Homeland. Bring on the airplane knitting.

Apathy

Sooo, the jaywalkers are all but done. They have been waiting patiently since Tuesday to have their ends taken care of and for their photo session. I just don't seem to care about finishing socks when it's flip flop weather.

Instead, last weekend's deals: After trying on this dress (which I haven't worn in a year, and certainly didn't try on before knitting the capelet) and feeling decidedly sausage-like, I decided I needed something else to wear to next weekend's baby dunking, um, I mean christening. Shopping I went and found:



Graphic print? Check. Duro-ish? Check. Surprisingly flattering? Check. Fully lined? Check. And... wait for it... $13. Then I found:



If I was less lazy I'd take a better photo that shows off what I guess is Sofft's signature heel (not too tall, slightly chunky, and a little vintage looking). I think these are about 2" heels, but very, very comfortable. And, oh, yeah, they were $10. Almost makes me want to shop more. Almost.

Complaints, then on to the Crafty

It's difficult to summon enthusiasm for baby-gift-making when your life has inadvertently acquired the soundtrack of constant crashing, banging, thumping, and screaming that is a one year old living upstairs. Why did they not insulate in the 50's? Why???

But, enthusiasm was summoned, and thanks to inspiration courtesy of Angry Chicken, baby A.J.A. (her older brother is A.A.A.) will be receiving a couple of wee appliqued onesies:





And because both A.'s mom and I grew up in the age of the Care Bear:



Oh, yeah, the booty heart.

Such a nice little project. I followed Amy's (concise) directions and if it hadn't been for the fact that I had to lug out the sewing machine, ironing board, and all the supplies, it would have been done in no time (sigh- apartment living).



Jaywalker the first is all but finished (see long end still hanging out), and the second is coming along with much less ripping than its older sister. Funny how that happens. The sweater-of-my-own-design is slated for ripping. Either I have gotten very bad at math, or my gage swatch lied. Fortunately, it's only an inch or so in, so no big.

I think Baby Upstairs just took his first step. They be celebrating by making a lot of noise.

Making Manipulation Work for You

Look what Mama Beagle is working on:



Mmm... ripplicious. Not only has she been working on the ripple for me, but she's actually working on one for herself as well. I really got her hooked (no pun intended at all). She will be receiving a very nice new coffee maker for Mother's Day.

The extra special added bonus for both of us is that now Mom is getting back into crocheting, we have something to talk about on the phone. Well, that is, something we can talk about without me getting bitchy and snapping 'I don't want to talk about that'.