Continental Combined Purl CO video and pics

Home Position
Move Thumb Behind Index Finger
Ready To Purl
Enter Thumb Loop Purlwise
Prepare to Pick Up Working Strand
Bring Working Strand Up Through Loop
Adjust Tension of New CO Stitch

Long Tail Purl Variations

Sometimes I like to CO in pattern with the long tail CO. Thanks to a knitting buddy, I was recently introduced to the real version of the Long Tail Purl CO (LTPCO). Until now, I thought what I was doing was the only way to purl when doing LTCO. After researching the topic, I discovered that I was doing the purl CO that's used specifically when doing a 2-color or double knitting CO in long tail. It's a reverse LTCO and has sometimes been dubbed Reverse Continental. Yet, many knitters refer to it as The LTPCO. It's not, and I'll explain why.

When doing the 2-color/DK LTCO, the knit stitches are created using the thumb loop while the purl stitches are created using the index finger loop. The working yarns alternate as a result. Alternating back and forth between thumb and index finger is necessary to alternate the colors of the CO sts. But what if you're only using a single color to CO? Sure, you could still use the same method, especially if you're partial to the resulting edge that's created (see my sample below). However, there is a LTPCO that uses the thumb loop, just like the LTKCO.

The LTPCO is worked like a Norwegian Purl st --the method of purling wyib. The only difference is in the way the stitch is wrapped. If you watch the linked video of the Norwegian Purl, imagine the working yarn being wrapped the opposite direction (clockwise, aka Eastern): After going behind the working yarn and entering the thumb loop purlwise, bring the thumb loop back under and then around the working yarn to pick up a stitch. So the LTPCO is an Eastern-wrapped Norwegian Purl. Now that you've seen the Norwegian Purl, here's a video of the LTPCO:


Besides being 100% reversible, using the front thumb loop for both knits and purls, and looking nice, I also like that there's a shortcut way of doing the LTPCO that looks exactly like a Combined Purl stitch (Eastern/clockwise). I happened upon a video of someone doing 1x1 rib CO in long tail who used the shortcut LTPCO for the purls. Here it is (The LTPCO shortcut begins at about 1:50 or so.):


Note: I found that you don't have to bring the working strand so far down below the thumb loop. Just as long as you can pick at it after entering the thumb loop p-wise, you'll be OK. Actually, instead of moving the working yarn in front, I just move my thumb behind the working yarn which automatically causes the working yarn to be in front, ready to purl. With your working yarn in front and your thumb loop behind it, do a Combined Purl stitch (wrapping clockwise). Voila, it's that easy, not to mention fast! It cuts out the first couple of steps of the longer version. The longer version is a Norwegian purl (wrapped clockwise); whereas the shortcut version is a Combined Purl. If you prefer doing your purl stitches the Norwegian way wyib, then the longer method is for you. For Combination knitters who typically knit Continental and wrap their purls clockwise (aka Eastern Uncrossed), you'll prefer the shortcut method. Either way has the exact same construction and resulting stitch mount.


I made three samples of 1x1 ribbing CO that you see here in this collage. (FYI: You can open the samples picture in another window or tab for larger viewing.) The purl variations shown are: Reverse Continental, LTPCO, and German Twisted, respectively. The knits were all done using LTKCO. You can see how different each edging looks. Notice how the LTPCO edging looks a lot more like regular LTCO. The ribbing also snugs up nicely. The best feature of all is that the LTPCO is 100% reversible. The other COs aren't since they produce a line of purl bumps on the other side. Personally, I like the LTPCO because I knit Continental Combined when doing ribbing. It's fast, it's simple, and it looks nice. ...and it was/is, respectively, used by Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen (Supposedly, it's shown in the book and/or video of Knitting Around.).

Despite all my fuss over LTPCO, there's another way to CO in rib I've also recently learned about. You can alternate LTCO and German Twisted, using GT for the purls. The purl stitches have an extra twist and look like purls from the front. The only cons would be that it's not 100% reversible or as fast as LTPCO. But hey, sock knitters wouldn't mind this if they want the extra twist. Many videos I've seen of the German Twisted make it look really fiddly. Lucy Neatby has a video where she shows how to bend your thumb downward to make the CO a lot easier. Here it is:
Lucy Neatby German Twisted Cast On


Show and Tell is now over ;-p Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A Little Math Before Bedtime

Frequently, I'll swap my current novel for an old college math book before bedtime. It calms my mind since, as most of you know, my thoughts typically race from one idea to the next. The latest book I've been re-reading is my Abstract Algebra book which I used for a required three-course series for my B.S. in Mathematics. I've been stuck on a particular problem and felt like journaling about it here. I realize that most readers of this post will be bored to tears. However, this is my blog, and I'm going to write about what I want. :-)

Here's the setup. I'm done reading about functions and permutations. In the homework problems for permutations, I'm on a section that focuses on the properties of permutations of a set A. The symmetric group on A, S_A, is the set of all the permutations of A. In all the problems, G is a subset of S_A, and you have to prove that G is a subgroup of S_A given specific information. I'm stuck on the 4th problem. I'll go through #1-3 first, giving informal proofs along the way.

1. Let A be a set and a be an element of A. Let G be the subset of S_A consisting of all the permutations f of A such that f(a)=a. Prove that G is a subgroup of S_A. To prove this, you have to show closure for operation (composition) and for inverses.

• Let g be an element of G. Then g(a)=a. f(g(a))=f(a)=a, and g(f(a))=g(a)=a. Therefore, G is closed with respect to composition.
• If f(a)=a, then f^-1(a)=a. Therefore, G is closed under inverses.

2. If f is a permutation of A and a is an element of A, we say that f moves a if f(a) doesn't equal a. Let A be an infinite set, and let G be the subset of S_A which consists of all the permutations f of A which move only a finite number of elements of A. Prove that G is a subgroup of S_A.

• When performing fog and gof, the number of elements that get moved are at most the combined total number of finite moveable elements of each permutation. So if {a₁,..., a_m} are the moveable elements of f and {b₁,...,b_n} are the moveable elements of g, and both sets of moveable elements are mutually exclusive; then fog and gof have at most the combined total number from both sets of finite moveable elements. Since this number of elements is finite, composition is closed for G.
• Elements of f and g that don't move are of the form f(x)=x. This keeps the images of the moveable elements within the set of finite moveable elements because f^-1(x)=x and permutations are bijective. Therefore, if a_i and a_j are moveable elements of f, then f(a_i)=a_j and f^-1(a_j)=a_i. The inverse of a f has a finite number of moveable elements. Hence, G is closed under inverses.

3. Let A be a finite set, and B a subset of A. Let G be the subset of S_A consisting of all the permutations f of A such that f(x) is contained in B for every x in B. Prove that G is a subgroup of S_A.

• Let g be a permutation contained in G. If x is in B, then g(x) is in B. Since g(x) is in B, then f(g(x)) is in B as well. Similarly you can prove that [gof](x) is in B. Therefore, G is closed under composition.
• Since the images of all the elements of B are in B and permutations are bijective, then f^-1 carries elements of B to B, too. Therefore, G is closed under inverses.

4. Give an example to show that the conclusion of #3 is not necessarily true if A is infinite. This is where I got stumped. The only ideas I have are these:

B could be infinite which could affect the outcome. If B was infinite, then it might be possible for an element outside of B to have an image in B. Although that wouldn't make any sense since G is bijective. I cannot for the life of me think of a counterexample where either [fog] or f^-1 isn't in B, especially since permutations are bijective. I'm a little muddy on how A being infinite would change anything.

Knitting News? Well, I'll save that for next time since I'm willing to bet that no one is reading this anyway ;-)

Sunshine and Shadows Resurfaces

Sunshine and Shadows. That's the name of this cross stitch design by Barbara & Cheryl. Before knitting (so about 5 years ago) is the last time I worked on this. As with knitting, I used to be really into cross stitch. At that time, knitting took away time from cross stitch because I was making a baby blanket for my daughter. I was also having trouble finding several of the DMC colors for this design and would've had to special order them but forgot. Anyway, I'm hoping to occasionally work on Sunshine and Shadows. There's a cross stitch store in Kenny Center where The Yarn Shop is, and I need to check them out and see if they have the missing colors I need.

BTW my favorite cross stitch designs are landscapes that use every single fabric square. I don't like samplers. If I can remember, I'll have to snap some pics of my framed FOs. I have three in particular that I love: a mountain lake at sunset, the Pacific Ocean shoreline with a crashing wave, and a family of cats with a black backdrop and brocade curtain. The cat design is still boxed up somewhere in the basement from when we moved here. I'll have to find it...

Knitting News? I'll be finishing the first sleeve on Tubey. When I get the second sleeve done, I might go back and add length to the sweater. I'm still debating whether I'll use my leftover Lawn Swish Worsted. Probably not, but it's still on the table.

Next up after Tubey: frogging old projects to make new ones. I'm going to frog my purple DROPS garter stitch tank and my improvised terracotta Cotton-Ease maternity top. With the yarn from each of these, I hope to make one of the more recent patterns I favorited on Ravelry.

Favorite Panini Sandwich and Other Reminiscences

Could they PLEASE build a Jason's Deli here in Columbus! Several months ago after traveling through Raleigh and Atlanta, I saved this picture from a menu because it's my favorite sandwich EVER: the Smokey Jack Panini. A panini sandwich with smoked turkey, pepper-jack cheese, tomatoes, olive oil, French bread, and most importantly, a Russian dressing and guacamole spread. I will be sure to eat this when I go to Raleigh in May. See edit added below!

Other foods or restaurants I wish I could've brought with me back to Ohio? Milton's. Definitely Milton's. They have the best Sunday Italian brunch, best salad bar, best eggplant parmigiano, and the best sweet tea. I'd also bring any of the salad buffet restaurants, too. There are no salad places here in Ohio (as far as I know). I'd gladly welcome Sweet Tomatoes or Souper Salad!

Just sayin' (sigh). I lived in Raleigh long enough to miss parts of it. Hopefully, we'll hit all the old spots near and dear to us while in town for a wedding. I know I'll be hitting my old running trail around Lake Lynn!

ETA: GAH! !!!!!!!!There's a Jason's Deli opening at 225 W. Bridge St in Dublin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's a link with a map and address. Here's the menu. Check it out! :-) Oh boy, I'm SO there this weekend. A small dream fulfilled. Pinch me! Smokey Jack and free ice cream, here I come. BTW, it's a kid-friendly place and offers some healthy and vegan choices.

All Is Quiet

Ah, Silence
As soon as everyone else in my household goes to bed, all is quiet and peaceful. This is the time I finish blogging, go on Ravelry and other sites, and then knit while watching a movie or TV until bedtime. I'm one of those people who needs silence and alone time to keep my sanity. This is probably one of the reasons I'm a night owl. Staying up late is like an escape to me. I get a second wind about 4:00 pm each day, and my energy level rises throughout the evening. Even when I was drop-dead tired from teaching, the late afternoon and evening were my most awake times of day. Even if I got more than 8 hours of sleep, I'd still not be a morning person. It has been and will always be this way.

Inspired by Kristie's recent post, I was thinking about how I like to have alone time to just t-h-i-n-k and be and knit without interruption. I catch up on recorded shows, favorite movies, or late showings of Jon and Kate Plus 8 or Little People Big World. Even after I go to bed, I get my Lightwedge out and read for about 20-30 minutes. Some nights it's a plain old novel, others it's an old math textbook (currently Abstract Math). I sleep very soundly, so I feel pretty refreshed if I get anywhere between 6-7 hours of sleep. Now that I've been working out, I sleep even better if that's possible. I guess I'm lucky this way because I can get a lot of knitting done in one evening! I don't try to knit fast -- that would take the fun out of it. I knit at whatever pace I find enjoyable. Back in 2004 when I first got back into knitting, it took me forever to finish anything. Now, after making my fair share of sweaters and tops, it doesn't take as long. Good thing, too, because I'd go a little nuts if I could only knit one sweater for each season.

My Little Wizard
The last picture in this post makes me laugh. It's Ian wearing a hastily made wizard hat (Oh, how he loves that hat!) holding a princess book. Obviously, I didn't wipe his mouth off well after eating, and he's wearing an old sweater I made Marie. You haven't seen this sweater on Ravelry because it's a total D-U-D dud. I ran out of yarn which resulted in a wonky stand-up shawl collar. This sweater was made a few years ago when I was first trying my hand at improvising tops for Marie. It was one of many good learning experiences in size, gauge, yarn, and basic design, especially since toddler sizes don't require much yarn or money.

The first two pictures bring me full circle to the beginning of my post. I took them when I first sat down at the computer after everyone had gone to bed, and I could enjoy the peaceful silence of night. I was still wearing what I wore out to dinner tonight: Blaze and Tangled Yoke Cardigan. The weather was perfect for wearing this combination. My TYC still smells of tea tree oil from its last Kookaburra wash, mmmm.

Blaze Almost Two Years Later

On Ravelry, there's just one finished project I have listed in my projects that doesn't have an FO picture... until now. The pattern is Blaze from Knitty. I've only worn it once and that was with a turtleneck because the neckline was too wide and loose. Many other people that made this pattern experienced the same thing. Two years ago this July when I began making Blaze, I was just getting comfortable with tweaking minor parts of patterns. I tweaked Blaze, but not exactly to my liking, and so it lay forgotten since September 2007. The yarn I used was so snuggly soft: Peru Luxury DK, an alpaca, silk, and merino blend. When I recently came across Blaze again, the zigzag cables looked so nice. I'd worked hard on those, and it seemed a waste not to try and fix it. It amazed me that it only took 5-10 minutes to figure out what to do. Two years ago, the solution wouldn't have come so fast.

With the weather getting milder, it's the perfect time to wear this! In fact, I wore it tonight to knit night. Some of my knitting buddies must've thought I made this in one week because they suggested I need more sleep. Hee! :-) No, really ladies, all I did was rip out the BO and do a decrease round before BO again. That took, like, 20 minutes tops.

Pattern: Blaze, from Knitty; Size M
Yarn: Peru Luxury DK, khaki
Needles: US5 and US6
Mods: On neck shaping, I followed the directions for the L/XL rather than the M (bringing the stitch count to 165). This wasn't enough, so I followed that by [p1, k2tog, p1, k2], ending with p1, k2tog. This eliminated another 28 stitches, bringing the total down to 137. Then I BO in pattern.

So here's my Tubey progress. I'm so happy to be knitting blue! It's my favorite color, despite all the red and green knitted FOs you see in my picture galleries. It's nice to be past the one stressful part of Tubey (i.e., picking up stitches for the body). Now I can relax the rest of the way. Ah, yes...

Technical notes on Tubey (skip ahead some of you):
I used US5 circs to CO and pick up sts for the body. After a couple of rounds, I switched back to US7's. I tacked down the corners of the neckline and duplicate stitched the body tube border under the arms to reinforce both areas. Next I plan to insert some short rows because, not only is it obvious when you see the differing heights of the front and back of the body tube, but a few people on Ravelry have mentioned that the front is slightly shorter. No problem.


This is my progress on my Firestarter socks. I've only completed one pattern repeat so far. Can you tell that the sts are shifted around to make knitting the cable pattern easier? I'm liking the Felici yarn. BTW Felici, pronounced fuh-LEE-chee, is an Italian plural adjective meaning "happy." I mention this because I'm knitting "happy" Firestarters, or better yet, "happy" feet (If you didn't see the movie Happy Feet or hate knitting socks, this wouldn't mean much to you). If I were knitting just one sock I guess it would be un piede felice (fuh-LEE-chay), a happy foot. Oh, silly me. I'm glad I find little things such as this amusing in life. I wonder who over at Knit Picks knows Italian and/or chose the Felici yarn name...


A recent photo of my kiddos. I love them in these outfits. Marie's wearing an Ariel costume, held together at the sleeves with safety pins no less, and Ian is wearing some monkey pajamas. I like this picture :-)

Down Tubey, Down!

There's a lot to be said for trying things on as you knit! Since the last time I blogged, I put my Tubey sleeves on strings and picked up the body stitches. It looked OK, but I knew I'd better try it on before continuing. Ack! The front neckline was way too high. I think I over compensated for trying to cover bra straps. Although if I lowered the neckline any further, it would be at the sleeve join (i.e., the armpit!). I realized that, due solely to lowering the neckline, I'd have to join for the sleeves later at each end. And so... I ripped out the body I'd started and ripped back the sleeves to the join. 8 rows were added at each end before joining. Now I'm back to picking up body sts. Gotta get this right! I guess I could've made the M rather than the S to begin with. But then again, I'm glad the back is smaller in the hope of preventing any pouchiness.

My Firestarter toes are complete. I didn't realize how much attention it requires to do a short-row toe! I must've re-done the first toe four times. In theory, picking up double wraps is simple. In practice, picking them up and working them together with the wrapped stitch is tricky. It's easy to have accidents happen. After searching the internet, I found a helpful post that suggested working the double-wrapped stitch and then passing the already slipped double wraps from the right needle over the stitch just worked. This seemed to work and look nice. Basically, it was a SKP (or should I say S2KP2?). The next time I do a short-row toe, I might consider doing Japanese short rows, or YOs, or encroachment just to avoid dealing with teeny tiny double wraps. I hear that Cookie A. uses YOs... BTW, the Firestarters are positioned a little differently on the needles. The socks are worked off center with the side cable patterns at the ends of each needle to make doing the cables easier (to avoid splitting the cable pattern down the middle).

Gotta remember to watch Amazing Race tonight! I forgot last week...

Oh, one more thing. I've discovered a new game: Farkle! Have you played it? I loved Yahtzee when I was kid. So, this game is fun for me.

AI Top36 Week 2 and Tubey Fun

Girls: Allison Ireheta, Jesse Langseth, and Megan Joy Corkrey
Guys: Adam Lambert, (maybe) Kris Allen

Wow, the girls did much better overall tonight, but that's not saying much because the performances of most were underwhelming. I think the top 3 should be Allison, Adam, and Jesse. Too bad Matt Giraud fell flat. I really liked him. Then again, they could always bring him back to perform in the wildcard round. Speaking of which, I hope Jamal --who should've made it in the Top 36-- gets to come back!

Tubey is rounds of fun, zen knitting! I finished the opened part of the arm tube and 4 inches of one arm. So far I've only made two mods, and this was after reading several suggestions on Ravelry. First, I'm knitting this with smaller needles and at a tighter tension to prevent a saggy upper back. It's amazing how different Swish looks and feels when knit denser. Me likey, especially knowing that it will loosen up a tad when washed and then be exactly the fabric I want! My second mod: I decided to increase 5 sts at each end of the open tube about 3 inches in (which for me was approximately 19 rows) to accommodate the shoulders better. Since I increased an odd number, I placed a single increase on Row 9, a pair on Row 13, and a second pair on Row 17. Later on, I'll decide whether the front or back gets that extra increase. At the end of Row 19 (RS), I joined in the round for the sleeve.

Now I just need to repeat this 3 inches of increases on the other side before joining ITR the second sleeve. I also considered adding some short rows to round the shoulders and angle the sleeves down more, but nixed that idea. 'Don't wanna mix things up too much. After all, there's always the Snow White pattern by Ysolda to turn to if I want perfect design elements. Oh, I don't remember if I've already mentioned this before, but I might add a contrast color for edging and/or stripes. My leftover Lawn Swish Worsted looks really cool together with the Marine Heather!

Hopefully, I'll finally CO my Firestarter socks soon. My favorite number of projects to knit is two, and this could be that second project. It's nice to fall back on one project after spending a lot of time on the other.

Last night I watched the pilot of Alias, but this time with commentary from J.J. Abrams and Jennifer Garner. Too fun! There were many references to Felicity (some of the first episode was shot on Felicity's set), stunt sequences (which stunts Jennifer did or didn't do), and other cool things. I'll make sure to play the commentary with favorite episodes. I've decided to go back and watch the series (again) because I'm also interested in re-watching La Femme Nikita, one of my favorite shows (1997-2001). Alias and LFN are SO much alike and both lasted 5 years, with LFK ending just before Alias began. What sparked my interest in re-watching LFN is hearing similar music in 24, which is made/produced by the same people as LFN. For those of you who didn't like Alias, La Femme Nikita is a good alternative. Here's a cool blog post, Alias Versus La Femme Nikita that does a compare/contrast.

OK, time to go knit and watch my taped episode of tonight's Biggest Loser! Oh wait, that reminds me that I wanted to mention something else: Phil Khoegan (not sure if I spelled that right) from the Amazing Race is biking across the US and will be stopping in Columbus along the way. I used to watch him way back when he was on NOW (No Opportunity Wasted) and before that even, when he had his own adventure/challenge show on either Discovery Channel, TLC, or the Travel Channel (can't remember which).

Amused FO Pics Part 2

Amused FO Pics Part 1

with flash
without flash
cable detail

Pattern: Amused from Knitty Winter 2008
Yarn: Swish Worsted in Lawn by Knit Picks (9 skeins total; 990 yd)
Needles: US 9 Knit Picks Options
Size: S (with added length, bust short rows, and waist increases)

Comments:
Though I had to do a little frogging here and there, it was worth it! I've discussed in great detail, sometimes too much detail for my own liking, all the trials and tribulations of knitting this pattern. Now that it's done and I can look back, I have some final thoughts.

First and foremost, I'm so thankful to have been given this yarn from Knit Picks! Who knew I'd be so lucky to win a yarn giveaway? It was really wonderful to be acknowledged for my knitting, however any of we winners were selected. Whatever it was that caught someone's eye, I feel honored to have been chosen. :-)

Second, I probably wouldn't have messed with the cable pattern on the collar. It was really more trouble than it was worth. I found that neither my modification nor the pattern are perfect. It just comes down to choosing which way looks better to you, or maybe which imperfection you can live with: shifted cables or a missing column of K2. Can you can tell which imperfection I chose? Hopefully, it's not that obvious.

Third, when I added the waist increases between the panel join and the ribbing, I probably should've started it sooner. Actually, I would've cast on some extra body and sleeve stitches at the base of the raglan seam. My gut told me to, but I didn't listen.

The final thing I would've made different were the slipped stitch selvages along the cable edge. In hindsight, I'd probably slip the knit stitches purlwise rather than knitwise. This would be to achieve a more symmetrical look when folding over the collar. I'm doing this now on Tubey (on the tube/head opening). Slipping purlwise on both sides seems to look the nicest to me.

Mods I made that I would do again? Short rows for the lower bust, adding length to the sweater in the stockinette section, lowering and backstitching the base of the cable panels, decreasing the panel bases before the join, and making symmetric M1's for the raglan seams. Also, though I'd do it differently, this sweater wouldn't possibly have fit had I not made waist increases.

Now I just need to get pics of me modeling it!

Tubey CO

You know what THAT means. I'm done with Amused! It's drying. After finishing last night, I CO for Tubey. The pattern said to use a crochet provisional CO. But in this case I was able to use the Magic CO, which you see here, now ready for knitting. Now I just need to CO my Firestarters socks. :-)

BTW I washed my Amused, made from Swish Worsted, on delicate/cold inside out with only one other item (the cami I plan on wearing with it). How different the yarn looks after washing! With previous items knit with Swish, I think I washed them on regular/cold and with other clothes. They got fuzzy, but otherwise felt the same. This time there was no fuzziness, and a little of the thickness went away. Also, I'm drying it flat, not in the dryer as I've done in the past. Now I'm curious to see what Amused looks like on -- can't wait!

Almost There Update

While finally watching Nights In Rodanthe last night, I worked away on my Amused pullover (Sorry, no pics. I'm waiting to actually finish before I take any more.). Prior to watching the movie, I'd ripped back to the panel join. From there, I added an extra cable repeat while simultaneously adding three sets of short rows for the bust. Both of these additions allowed the panel join to fall at my underbust. The short rows are lower than standard relative to the underarm, yet it somehow worked out in this case. That might be because I nowadays tend to favor roominess on the lower half of my bust. After all, I'm not twenty anymore! :-) This 2nd time in doing the panel join, I made sure to make my decreases in pattern before the join. The other thing I did was to add backstitching at the base of the panel join to reinforce it and also to create a dividing line. I'll be sure that my FO pics show this. After joining, I made 5 paired waist increases at the sides (20 total) every 6 rounds. I'm making my stockinette section 2 inches longer than the pattern, but I will do 6 inches of ribbing as written. My total length from the underarm will be 15 inches. While working on the ribbing I thought I'd better try it on to see how the waist increases appeared with the ribbing pulling in below them. Luckily, everything looks OK. Whew! I was worried that I'd have to rip back a 2nd time and try to figure out a better way to get back the sts lost in the panel decreases.

Getting back to Nights In Rodanthe... I was a little disappointed. Having been to the Outer banks twice now, I was really looking forward to seeing familiar sights other than Serendipity, the house shown in the outdoor shots. All I got was Richard Gere driving along Hwy 12 the wrong direction, a pier, and some questionable accents. The movie shows Paul (Richard Gere's character) driving north as he approaches the beach house on the right. This didn't make sense considering that earlier they showed him on US64 crossing the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge which is north of Rodanthe. You'd have to head south, not north, to get to Rodanthe. Get it right people. The other thing that peeved me was that it was yet another Nicholas Sparks romantic tragedy. Are ALL his books tragic romances?! If so, I'm done with him. I don't mind dramas, but not ones where I can expect someone to die every single time. BTW, for such big-name actors, the storyline was lacking. I felt sorry that they had to be in this movie (HELL-o: Viola Davis, James Franco, and Christopher Meloni were given such substandard supporting roles). Grr...

Back to knitting... If I finish Amused today, I'll CO for Tubey and/or Firestarters. Yeah, new projects! After Tubey, I guess I'll fix Blaze's yoke. Then I might frog my DROPS tank to make a spring/summer top. We'll see :-)

Almost There

Beaufort, NC, August 2004

Last night I finished the second sleeve on Amused. Normally, I'd be done and ready to block. But now I plan on adding length in the stockinette below the panel join. At first I thought I could just disect it, grafting it back on after adding extra length. When I tried the sweater on though, I noticed that I could definitely use a few increases since the ribbing is getting stretched out a bit. So... I think I'll rip back to the panel join (which might include re-doing it slightly) and start from scratch, adding increases when doing the stockinette. I might also do a regular BO in rib since it looks so nice on the collar. I will be finishing this sweater soon! BTW, I have just under two skeins left, so I'll be able to add whatever length and number of increases I want. Yay!

I wore my Pomatomus socks to bed last night -- oh the comfort and warmth! Yet they weren't too warm, surprisingly, maybe because of the almost indiscernable yarnovers. Usually I have to kick off my socks at some point, but these didn't overheat. I highly recommend this yarn (Imagination from Knit Picks). However, next time I'd like to try Knit Picks Essential sock yarn in kettle dyed Spruce. It has a nice yet muted mixture of greens and blues. I think this would show the pattern better and be closer to the colorway of the original pattern yarn.

While feeling a tad bit miffed that I couldn't finish my sweater (yet again) last night, I attempted to CO for my Firestarter socks. I found out that I was too tired though, as I couldn't even count the tiny CO stitches correctly. I'll get to them sometime soon, but there's no hurry like there is with making my next long sleeve sweater, Tubey. It's my last official cold weather sweater on my queue. It should go fast and be fun. I'm excited that I'll be knitting with blue, Swish Worsted in Marine Heather, since I've knit a ton of green lately: CPH and Amused, not to mention that I just wore my olive green Somewhat Cowl yesterday! With all the green, you'd never know that blue is my favorite color ;-)

Woohoo, It Worked

Amused
The Amused collar mods I mentioned in my previous post worked! Yay, now I can breathe a sigh of relief. Before putting my knitting away last night, I tried the sweater on to check the fit and discovered that I'll have to add length with whatever yarn I have leftover. Since I don't want to unravel all that time-consuming ribbing I did, I think I'll cut it somewhere in the stockinette section between the ribbing and panel join. I can add some more stockinette, grafting it back together when I'm done. If it turns out I don't have enough yarn to do that, which depends on the sleeves, then I'll still cut it. But instead of adding length, I'll rip back some of the ribbing and re-knit it as stockinette. Basically, the distance between the panel join and the ribbing is shorter than it should be.

American Idol
As I mentioned before, I like Alexis Grace, the American Idol contestant who kicked butt last night. I think the top spots will go to her, Danny, and Anoop. Rocky Braddy has a good voice, but I don't think he'll beat out Anoop's popularity. We'll see. I didn't like the performances of any of the other girls, except maybe Jackie Tohn's. She doesn't have the vocal chops, but she's somewhat fun to watch. I read that she's had all sorts of small roles on several TV shows.

Thanks to all the gray skies and cold weather returning yet again, I thought I'd post a pic or two from the Outer Banks and Kure Beach :-)

Crappers! The Collar Is Wonky

Last night I got a few cable repeats done on my Amused collar and discovered that the cable centers had shifted over 2 sts. Checking the pattern, I hadn't misread it. The center shifts because the collar is worked in the opposite direction from the panels. In other words, k2 p2 upside down becomes p2 k2. So instead of encountering k2 p2 at the cable start, you see p2 k2. To keep it simple I think, the designer shifted the cable starting point so that it would begin with k2 by inserting p2: sl1 k2 p2 C8R C8L. However, the work presents itself as sl1 k2 C8R C8L. At first I thought the shift was unavoidable because maybe the cables really did have to begin with k2. But, since the purl sts don't show anyway, I'm thinking I can begin the C8R on the p2. I've only done a couple of cable repeats. So, I think I'll frog back and find out. Hopefully this will work! It wouldn't matter so much if you couldn't see the shift. But you can, and so I will try to fix it.

There's a sneek peek of the new yarns and colorways on the last page (p.48) of the March Knit Picks catalog! Check it out online!

Pomatomus FO Pics

Pattern: Pomatomus
Yarn: Knit Picks Imagination, Lost Boys colorway
Needles: KP Options US1 (2.5mm) fixed circulars
Comments: As I said on my project page on Ravelry: love the pattern, love the yarn, do NOT like the combination of the two. It was a pleasure (and an addiction) to knit these socks. This is only the second time I've done 2-at-a-time socks the magic loop method, only this time I did cuff-down. I enjoyed the little snags along the way that challenged me to adapt the DPN pattern to 2xML. While working on these, I've been inspired to try, like many others on Ravelry, to take any pattern and convert it to either cuff-down or toe-up. This is true especially after skimming through the Charlene Schurch book More Sensational Socks. I'll be wearing these to knit night Thursday!

Amused 2x2 Tubular BO

Using Interweave Knits' Fall 2008 instructions on 2x2 tubular BO, I finally finished the body of Amused. Like the 2x2 tubular CO, one of the knits is slanted, but at least the look is consistent. It wasn't as hard as I thought. The mantra is still K P P K; the knits are done in front (K P), and the purls are done in back (P K). After about a dozen sts, I had it down. Whether the two knits are side by side or separated, you always work two knits for the K P in front. Similarly, you always work P K for two purls from behind regardless of where the purls are located. Upon finishing the BO, I flipped the ribbing over and noticed that the BO looked nicer on the inside. Interesting. I might try working 2x2 tubular BO on the WS the next time I use it.

On to the collar! I currently have 4.5 skeins left. I got a little worried when I was doing the ribbing because I began to wonder if I'd have enough yarn. The last thing to mention is that I'll be able to try out my new KP Harmony cable needles for the collar. :-)

Non-Knitting News
I've added some new links to my blog's sidebar, all LOTR and Harry Potter related. It's nice to have those in one easily accessible location. BTW now that I've finished the last Harry Potter book, I'm yearning to read Tolkien again. But, I'll have to wait until I finish my current book, The Terror by Dan Simmons. I've also been, and I admit this with a red face, getting addicted to the PacMan game widget I added to my blog sidebar! Marie loves to watch while I play -- her favorite things are the music and whenever I eat the ghosts or the ghosts eat me.

Is anyone else watching Mark and Olly's adventures on the Travel Channel? They journey to remote indigenous communities and ask to live and learn the ways of the people. It's really interesting! Their latest quest, shown Sunday nights, is a remote Amazon community in Peru called the Machigenga. Poor Olly always gets little respect from the men for his lack of hunting prowess and from the women for his "lack" of sex appeal. It's addictive watching that show. I watched the whole marathon of the older journey (in West Papua with the Kombai and Mek tribes) two weeks ago which led up to the new Amazon journey!

Speaking of world travel, did anyone see The Amazing Race premiere last night? It was cool to see how well the Columbus team did! They breezed through the cheese challenge. I loved watching the train travels in Switzerland and Italy. Gotta go someday :-)

Pomatomus Soaking and A Baby Shrug Revisited

Pomatomus
They're finally done. Loved the pattern, loved the yarn, should NOT have used them together! That about sums it up. Also, the legs are very long. The next time I make this pattern, I won't be doing all the repeats on the legs, that's for sure. Right now, said socks are indulging in a Kookaburra bath. I would've worn them right away and taken pics, but I thought I'd better let the lace and stitches even out with blocking.


Lacy Baby Shrug Revisited
I made this shrug a few years ago using Shine Sport in Hydrangea. At the moment, I can't remember the knitting magazine it's from, but I'm sure it's on my projects page on Ravelry. It always was a little big on Marie. But now it fits great! She wore it to Grandma and Grandpa's on Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day
Speaking of Valentine's Day, we dropped the kids off at my parents and went to dinner. There's a little Mexican restaurant that's been around for nearly twenty years at Carriage Place called Chile Verde Cafe. Jared and I had no idea when we got into the car at my parents' where we'd eat dinner. But somehow I remembered that this place was one I'd always wanted to try. It's won numerous awards over the years. As we neared Bethel and Sawmill Roads, I spontaneously said, "Let's go to Chile Verde Cafe!"

We only had to wait twenty minutes even though it was packed. The salsa was great, lots of cilantro, onion, and garlic. BTW the tomatoes in the salsa were fresh, not canned. Jared ordered a spicy beef burrito with the medium Rojo sauce. The waiter told him, "It's really spicy, just so you know." Jared certainly found that out: he had to excuse himself to go take care of his runny nose midway through his burrito :-) I ordered a duo dinner with spicy crab cake and a chicken burrito. Since their salsa was spicier than the norm, I chose to go with the Ranchero sauce, which was similar to the salsa. The small crab cake, which had corn and other things in it, was served with a spicy dipping sauce. My dinner came with seasoned pinto beans, again fresh, and rice. To sum my experience at Chile Verde Cafe: fresh, spicy, and nice cozy little place.

Oh gosh, I forgot to mention that I ordered a strawberry margarita, which was the special because it came with a chocolate covered strawberry! Anyway, this little best kept secret (oops the secret's out!), which BTW is expanding and will be finished with construction by springtime, is a definite keeper. I don't plan on bringing my kids here, though. It's not really a kid place. It's too cozy for highchairs and booster seats, not to mention the slightly higher prices. Jared was really happy I picked this place, and he's a picky eater. So, I'm sure we'll be coming here for future birthdays and such. I should also mention that it was really nice to wear jeans and sneakers for dinner. Maybe when the kids get old enough not to annoy me, I'll enjoy dressing up again. Right now, it's too much stress to try to look nice when they're hovering around me.

Books
After dinner, we went to Barnes & Noble since we don't get to go there much (kids). I stacked as many books in my arms as I could and sat down at a table in the cafe. Sorting them into two piles, I had knitting books in one pile and health/fitness books in the other. I was impressed that Barnes & Noble had many new titles of knitting books. They had the a la carte socks book, the French Girl Knits book, and a recent (I think) handpainted socks book. The two sock books that I spent the most time skimming were the Melissa Morgan-Oakes book, 2-at-a-time SOCKS, and Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks. I was curious to see the particular magic loop method because it differs from my method. She also doesn't do toe-up socks. I think I prefer my method because it's less confusing IMO.

I was super impressed with the Schurch book! Instead of sticking to only one method for needles, heels, toes, and direction, she gives you everything. It's SO well organized. The patterns are divided by number of stitches, and she even includes a section of mosaic patterns. There are stitch dictionaries, sizing charts, and information on how to customize to your foot. Love it, love it, love it! I'm definitely going to put this on my wishlist. I'd been considering converting top-down socks to toe-up as my next venture in sock knitting. But now I think I'll get some practice first with this book... although, toe-up Jaywalkers are calling my name :-)

OTN
Now that I'm done with Pomatomus, I'm going to work on just one project: Amused. I know for some of you, that's hard to believe, and you're probably right if you think I'll crack and cast on for something else before finishing Amused! That's how it goes, though, doesn't it?! I get too excited to begin something else :-)

AI Favs and Harry Potter Stuff

Season 8 of American Idol has finally reached the point where we get down to business. The first 12 of the Top 36 (dance video and Time of My Life video montage) who perform next week are packed with talent, and I hope that my favorites make it! Of the guys, I like Danny Gokey and Matt Giraud the best. Danny has soul and looks related to Robert Downey, Jr., while Matt has impressive piano playing skills and reminds me of Justin Timberlake. There are others, like Anoop Desai for example, but I thought I'd pare my favorites down to just a few names. Of the girls, there aren't as many standouts like the guys. I like Alexis Grace, Jessica Langseth, and Lil Rounds. Jackie Tohn seems interesting, too. BTW Jessica Langseth is Johnny Lang's sister, if you're familiar with blues music or play guitar.

I thought I'd include my favorite video clips of Danny Gokey and Matt Giraud.
Danny:
Audition For AI
Hollywood Week: Kiss From A Rose (my favorite clip!)
Hollywood Week: I Hope You Dance
Hollywood Week: Group Number
Matt Giraud:
Audition For AI
Hollywood Week: Georgia
Hollywood Week: Group Number

Oh, yes...I found a Harry Potter website that I have to share:
http://www.hplex.info/index-2.html
I found it when Googling "Potter family tree." After viewing the Potters, I checked out the Weasleys and the Malfoys. JK Rowling's handwritten family tree of the Weasleys, post-DH, has George marrying Angelina Johnson (the Quidditch player who went to the Yule Ball with Fred), and Victoire Weasley (girl from DH Epilogue who kissed Teddy Lupin at King's Cross) is listed as Bill and Fleur's daughter. As for the Malfoys, Draco married Astoria Greengrass and had a son named Scorpius Hyperion. This page is also a fun read -- it contains post-DH info from interviews with JK Rowling. She clearly explains the events in the last chapters of Deathy Hallows. I love how she has all this extra information about characters that wasn't included in the books!

Almost done with my Pomatomus socks -- woohoo!

Blog Updates and Such

If you follow this blog, you'll notice I added the followers widget under my profile picture on the right. For you Eighties fans like myself, I added the PacMan widget, too (see bottom right). I warn you, though, it's pretty hard using only the arrow buttons!

What blog readers do y'all use? Since there's a link on my dashboard, I just tried out Google Reader today. I'll have to look more into it. Until now I've ignored using readers. But, there are some blogs on Ravelry that won't show up under my Friends' Blogs tab. So, I thought I'd try Google reader. Hmm, I better add the reader as a link on my sidebar...

I took Marie and Ian to the zoo on Monday! It's the first time since that balmy Sunday when we went to see Wildlights. Many animal exhibits were closed until spring. But, we did get to see elephants, a rhino, penguins, and all the indoor animals. Marie made it her mission to stamp through every muddy puddle of water, leaving her shoes and pantlegs soaked. Ian's favorite part of our trip was the aquarium. He kicked his feet while "talking" to the fish. Marie loved manning the boat in the manatee building. She didn't even watch the 3-screen video that played in front of her. I did, though. It relaxed me and made me sleepy because it's like you're actually riding in a boat in Florida where manatees live. I can't wait to visit the zoo again, now that the cold weather is lessening its grip.

American Idol looks like it's going to be good again this year. Last night, I saw a guy perform who they've never shown before who was really, really good. I don't recall his name, but he and Danny, the guy who's wife died, are my early favorites. I'm curious to see how they do tonight.

For followers of The Amazing Race, I think there's a middle-aged Columbus couple on this season. Not sure when the season starts, but I'll be sure not to forget about it like I did last fall. Anyway, the woman from the Columbus couple was doing pull-ups in the promo clip I saw! I can't even do one pull-up, so I was impressed. Good for her!

DWTS will be starting in the next month. Right now I'm watching The Biggest Loser and enjoying it this time. Last fall was all about crazy drama. They still play the over-the-top dramatic music, but the contestants are so much more likeable and are there for the right reasons. The show has been reminding me to get off my butt. On the most recent episode, Bob (the trainer) had his team walk to Subway, only to make them walk another 2 miles to another Subway to eat lunch. In all, they walked 10 miles from the ranch and back. That had to have taken forever. Sometimes I'd like to go away and stay on an exercise ranch and not be able to leave until I got back to an acceptable size. To have 24-hr access to trails, pools, exercise equipment, and nutritionists with few outside distractions would be a dream. Yeah, I could handle going to one of those health spas out in Sedona. Um-hmm, yep. Ooh, add some knitting to that while I'm resting my weary muscles... even better!

Amused and Pomatomus Update

Amused
Got a LOT done today! I started 7 rnds below the join and did about 4-5 inches of ribbing. Many times I've used tubular BO, but not for 2x2 rib. Since the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits has an article that shows how, I plan on using that for the BO, except I won't be doing any tubular prep rows. (So, I guess I should really call it invisible BO like IK does.) Here's a progress pic:

My usual method of ribbing using the combined method is slow going as usual. But, it's worth it. The yarn has been wonderful to work with. I've only come across one felted join, which happened tonight. All I had to do was go back later to the affected stitch and snip it, replacing it with a new stitch from a spare strand of yarn. I can't wait to finish the ribbing and move on to the final parts. I think I'll do the collar first, just in case I run low on yarn. I can always make the sleeves shorter, especially on my short arms.

One more thing. I did decreases on the last row before the panels get joined together. In hindsight, I'd suggest following the ribbing pattern when decreasing, using k2tog and p2tog. So on the right front panel WS: slip 1 p-wise, then use k2tog and p2tog (according to st pattern) across the remaining 24 sts decreasing the panel sts to a total of 13. Use the same decs for the left front panel, purling the last stitch. On the next row (RS), join the front panels as written.

Pomatomus
Got a lot done on these, too. Well, I ran into a problem along the way, though. Last night I began the foot while watching 24. Oopsie -- must've been completely engrossed because I lost a few sts on the instep. I was like, "Heyyyyy, how'd I go from 36 sts to 33?!" I grabbed some dental floss and a needle to thread a lifeline through the last good rnd, which ended up being the last rnd of the gusset. It took a while to do that plus knit back to where I was before! Everything's hunkie dorie now, so I'm happy. I just have to figure out where to begin the toe decreases since 2 inches seems long for my shorter than average toes ;-)

Techno Tidbit: Finally Got My Animated Button To Work

Thanks to someone on Ravelry, I found out that Flickr doesn't support animated .gif Ravelry buttons, just the static ones. So, I joined photobucket to upload the button I wanted. All I had to do on Blogger was to change the URL to point to my Ravelry profile page. The animation works! Yay, problem solved.

Now back to knitting! I dropped a selvage stitch and had to rip back a few rows (grr!) on Amused. So, I'll be fixing that asap. Can't wait to try my new Harmony wood cable needles on Amused -- should get them tomorrow. Pomatomus progress? I'm at the heel :-) TAFN

Queue Thoughts

I just mentioned on my Knit Picks blog what's next for me in sweater knitting after I finish Amused:
1. Tubey
2. Blaze
and now adding a new one here
3. Fifi

Yes, Fifi! You heard me right. If you've followed my knitting, you'll remember this is the sweater that I frogged MULTIPLE times after which I finally changed the neckline CO to my liking. Not only did I change the neckline, but I added long sleeves and lowered the yoke pattern. Looking back, I would keep my version of the neckline, but not lower the yoke pattern or make longer sleeves. There also needs to be more attention paid to the fit around the armhole in front. The raglan seam needs to end in a place where the sleeve depth won't be too large this time. The last time I made the raglan seam short and CO the same number of sts for the sleeve and body. The number of CO sts was too high because I had to decrease rapidly on the sleeve, which didn't sit well with me. The challenge is factoring the alternating cable-rib pattern (an odd multiple of 5) into my decisions. Anyway, I'm looking forward to knitting Fifi again, this time as a spring/summer/fall sweater. Hmm... Comfy, Shine Worsted? I liked elann.com's Sonata, but I'd like to use a different cotton yarn for this. I'm thinking Comfy!

Before Fifi, I'm going to fix my Blaze sweater. It's a nice and cozy zigzag cable sweater with elbow-length sleeves made in Euro Yarns Peru DK Luxury. Too big, though. Oh man, I'll really hate frogging it. Although, I might not have to start completely over -- we'll see.

One more thing. My Harmony wood cable needles are on their way! I ordered those back on January 9th to help with the reversible cables on my Amused sweater. Though I've almost finished the front panels already, I'll still be able to use them on the collar :-)

Non-Knitting News:
I'm almost back into regularly working out. I've gone from once a week to twice a week. Since the Biggest Loser Cardio Max dvd is so hard, I wanted to ease back into it rather than taking on too much from the start. I'll be SO relieved when I can get outside and run again. That will be much easier to stick with, and I won't have to worry about injuring someone who gets too close. I do plan on keeping one or both of the Biggest Loser dvds as part of my weekly routine so that I have some strength training.

Time to knit!

TYC FO Pics and Amused WIP

Pattern: Tangled Yoke Cardigan, Interweave Knits Fall 2007 (great issue!); Size 38
Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark, Persimmon Heather, 14 skeins (1442 yd)
Needles: US5 and US 4 circulars
Notions: buttons from JoAnns
Pattern Notes: I changed one thing: the collar attachment. Instead of doing the 3-needle BO, I ripped that out and sewed it down instead. This eliminated puckering and the annoying ridge created on the WS that would've cut into my neck. Otherwise, I followed the pattern as written.
Additional Notes: To avoid wasting any Kookaburra scent, I'm not going to wear this until knit night! The tea tree oil in Kookaburra is so pleasing.
Note: More pictures can be found on my project page on Ravelry.

Now I have two cardigans, my casual CPH and now one that's a little more dressy. Speaking of CPH, I'm wearing that hoodie OUT. It gets worn almost every day and requires almost daily pilling removal. The WOTA yarn has begun to appear overall slightly felted from all the wear and tear. Eventually, I'll have to think about making another everyday cardigan, maybe next time in a cotton blend for warmer weather.

OTN:
Last night I got to the sleeve separation on my Amused. Yesterday afternoon, I took a picture of my progress, which you can see here :-)

TYC Blocking!

Yay! Except for sewing on the buttons, my Tangled Yoke Cardigan is finally done. Woohoo! It's currently soaking in Kookaburra -- Mmm, can't wait until it's dry! I found some small brown circular buttons that have an orange-brown center. I think they'll be a good match.

There are two more repeats to go and I'll have the yoke done on my Amused pullover. This sweater is going so much faster than TYC since I've jumped from using sport to worsted. It's nice to work with Swish again -- so soft. I haven't worked with merino since Marie's peekabo playground mittens.

In non-knitting news, our DVD player died. All this cold weather has resulted in excessive use. I think we ran it into the ground playing a million kid movies! We're lucky that it lasted this long because it's the first and only DVD player we've ever had. Until we get a new one, we'll be watching movies on the laptop or main computer. OHHH NOOOO, I hope I can do my DVD Biggest Loser workout by laptop! I didn't think of that until now...

Some good news: it might be warm enough to venture outside later this week :-)