We Have a Pretty Impressive Group of People Over Here.

  Our little Wednesday group is filled with some awesome people.  I know every group has some awesome people, but I'm going to brag about a few we have at Santini's on Wednesday nights. 

  She is a dive coach and makes one for each of her divers and the swim team got so jealous that the coach now buys them from her for the swim team.

  She plans each one out on graph paper before making them out of yarn.  It also isn't like each one is the same with a different name, each one has a different image on it as well.  She had some pictures of previous ones she had made and they are all super impressive.

  Not to brag too much, but The Fiberists have joined our ranks.  They are fun to be around and make yarn into some really pretty colorways.  You can also buy roving they have dyed if you like to spin your own yarn.  They sometimes have a booth at some yarn events, but they do not have a permanent store currently.

One Hat Down Some Unknown Number To Go.

  I couldn't put it down and finished the hat soon after I finished the last post.  The decreases didn't turn out how I pictured in my head.  The decrease rows where there were also cables on the same side were a lot trickier than I had thought they were going to be.  I think I am going to try again, this time I will use the single purl on each side to do the decreasing so that the cables will still pop out.  I also want to make the breaks between the cables one row taller.  Something more in the middle of the two cables I tried on this.

  This is all that is left of the skein.  I usually make it a challenge to myself to find a use for the whole thing, but I think this one is going to go back to the K&CC pile.  It still has a few parts that are spun a bit thinner, but it had been a while since I had run into my last break.

  This is neither a good nor complete picture of all the things I dropped off on Monday.  Some of you may remember the make-up bags I was putting together around the end of last year.  Since I hadn't heard from my contact as to where to bring everything, it had been put on hold.  I was recently able to get ahold of her and got an address and hours I could drop stuff off during.
  I put it into my GPS and found out that it was only about seven miles from my house.  Super easy!  Before heading over I stopped at Dollar Tree to get the last few things.  I wanted to wait to get the face wipes until the last minute because I didn't want to risk them drying out.  I was going to pick up hand cream while I was there but couldn't find it.  Instead I picked up some lip gloss and deodorant.
  I drove to where my GPS said I could find my destination.  There was a sign when turning in at the end of a dead-end street that said there were buildings with numbers 20-50.  Well, I was looking for a 10.  The building that the GPS took me to, and that the map said was where I could find it, was a 50.  I drove around some more and didn't see anything more useful, so I decided to see what they said.
  I was told that they were not the right location and had no idea where to find them.  One suggestion they had was to check out the 20 building because there were some small businesses in there.  Most of the office areas in there looked empty, but I kept walking to see the rest of the building.
  As I rounded a second corner I saw another building and it was the 10 I was looking for!  I hurried back to my car and drove it to the correct building.  I was also told that they were in suite 305, but turns out they were in 304.  That one was a lot easier to figure out.
  The location is now in my phone so I can easily find it again.  The lady seemed shocked at all the items I was brining in.  What can I say, I like shopping for make-up and don't need any more of it.

  Since I am on a hat kick I decided to see if my Heart and Waves pattern was written correctly.  When I made it the first time I was kind of winging it and not totally paying attention to what I was doing.  The second was also a success and I tried to write it down as I made it.  Now it has been long enough that I won't remember what I did before and will have to rely on the pattern.  I already found one mistake and one thing to modify, but it is easy enough to fix and change as I go.  I'm also pretty sure that the cable portion is divisible by 8 + 6.  This will be helpful if I use yarn in a different weight and won't be able to use the same number of stitches as I'm using now.
  I will also need to figure out how to do decreases if I end on a second cable instead of the first.  So far I've made the few hats work with doing three cables, but I know my luck will run out at some point where it comes to that.
  The picture also doesn't capture how bright and bubblegum pink the yarn is.  It also doesn't show how shiny and slippery the yarn is.  It is Aura by Austermann and is 78% rayon and 22% nylon.  It is so pretty and soft, but I know the stitches would go running off the needle if I don't pay attention, especially once I get to the cables.

  I also sort of saved a puppy the other day at work.  I was driving to buy some ice for the Membership Meeting and saw a puppy on the sidewalk with no leash or person nearby.  I did a u-turn to see if maybe the puppy had run ahead and its person was coming along.  I still didn't see anyone.  I pulled my car over and slowly approached the puppy.  I saw it had tags with an address on it.  I tried to pick up the puppy because I didn't have a leash and he jumped free.  I then followed him as he kept itself about five feet in front of me.  He went into the yard of the one house without a fence and then went up the stairs to the porch.  Hopefully that was his house and he won't get close to the road alone again.

It is All About the Details.

  Sometimes I have the most fun trying to figure out how to do the top part of a hat.  Most of the time I end up just following the pattern with a k2tog slowly eating the stitches.  Sometimes I get struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration and go with something more interesting.

  At one point I saw a picture of a purse that looked like a section of orange.  I then used that and did a few orange themed baby hats.  I wanted the sections of the orange to become smaller but wanted the sections to not curve.  Anyone who has been here a while or went back and read the older posts should remember it.
  I will be using the same idea for the top of my current hat.  I will be decreasing on either side of the cables until they have taken up all the center stitches.  At that point I'm thinking of decreasing on both sides of the odd numbered cables so I will still decrease at the same rate.  Once those have also been taken up I was thinking of doing a double decrease centered around the last stitch left from the cables that had been decreased.

Happy Friday the 13th!

  This is a picture of our poor and ancient heat pump.  We have no idea how long it has been working outside and fulfilling the house's heating and cooling needs.  For all we know it might be original to the house and that was built back in 1978.

  Most of the info on the side plate that has model number and other information has been worn off with time.  We still do have the brand name on it.

  You can see she has been through a lot.  Not sure if  any of the blue is the original coloring, or if it was a base under the green finish.

  When we last got it fixed we noticed that this had happened to the diagram at the top.  While I have never seen the inside of a new heat-pump system, I'm fairly sure they don't come with one of these any more.

  Here is most of what makes it tick.  There are also the other parts that make the air cold and what-have-you, but this is the brain of her.  Very simple and straight forward.  I like her because she feels like she would be easy to fix.

  I went to go look and see if I could find anything more about the color and found this awesome 1977 ad.  The circuit board looks different from mine, but the shape of the model looks the same.
  We are going to be looking to quotes for a new one, but right now she isn't going anywhere.

  Back on the knitting front, there is more hat.  The one problem I have with hats is that I'm never sure how long to make the body of the hat and when to start the decreasing.  I have a chart that tells me about how tall it should be be once done, but unless I've worked a pattern before then I don't know how tall the crown will be once done.
  I've usually gone with something that feels longer because you can always roll the brim up as many times as they need to.  A hat isn't as useful when it is too short and doesn't keep your ears warm.

Sometimes I Wish I Knew What Yarn It Is.

  Usually I want to know what yarn I'm using because I have gotten to use some really nice ones and would love to work with them again.  The varigated yarn I'm using in the Stephen West short row scarf is one of those.  The colors are just so pretty.  The yarn in the Swiss Cheese Cowl I made was also amazing.  I would buy so much more of it because the colors are great and it is so soft.
  This time I want to know so I can warn everyone about this yarn.  I have made at least 3 more knots since I last took a picure and even had a section that wasn't connected when I got to it.  I don't think I've gotten to a section beyond what was on the outside in my purse, but I've had lots of other yarn bounce around in there for longer without anything happening to it.
  Now, I wouldn't tell anyone not to buy or use said yarn.  I have no idea what this little skein went through before I got it.  For all I know it might have already delveloped those spots before I saw it from across the table.

  I had typed that all up before I left for knit-night.  While there for the night I was knitting along and having no problems.  I was even starting to really enjoy knitting with the yarn.  As I picturing myself deleting most of those paragraphs above and thinking of what to write about how this poor skein must have lead such a hard life before I got it, I ran into another very thin spot.  So much for that.  I'm still hoping that I haven't totally used all of the outer yarn and someday I will only have to weave in the tail at the end.  Taking this one stitch at a time at this point.
  I also ran into another problem.  I am basing this hat off of a pair of fingerless mitts that I saw for sale online.  I'm not sure if it is the yarn, the gauge, or some other thing different, but my braid is not looking like their braid.  Since there are so many spots with woven in ends and I don't know how the yarn will take to tinking, I think I will leave what I have and try switching to a tighter braid cable for the rest.  Who knows, I might even switch between the two.

  I actually have another hat planned after this one.  I really do like making hats.  The YarnHarlot made a post about herself and how she doesn't really consider socks a project because she always has a pair on the needles and so many result from it.  I am starting to feel like hats are the same way for me.  I will also admit it might change.  I know I was on a fingerless mitt kick there for a while.  The thing about hats is that I love how there is no second sock/mitt syndrome to worry about.  I have not suffered from it yet, but someday I might.

If I Use It Right Away, Does It Still Count As New?

  I went to Saturday knitting and told myself that I don't need more yarn.  As I was minding my own business the yarn fumes wafted my way.

  This yarn told me that it would be perfect for the hat I have planned.  The color is a bit warmer in person.  I also believe that there might be some wool in it because it likes to stick to itself a little.

  Monday night we had a Poppy Product Line going on.  One of the other ladies has been a machine when it came to the red section of them.  She is knitting them flat, so they go quickly.  As you can see from the picture, we don't mind a bit of child labor as long as you feed them and take them home with you at the end of the night.

  This yarn is causing problems.  I had planned on casting on 96 stitches for it.  What you see here is 160.  You can also see all those ends sticking out.  Those are sections where the yarn had a few strands break and was very thin and weak.  I was worried that those spots were too thin so I just gently pulled on them to break the yarn.  I'm really hoping that this only happened because it has bounced around in my purse and had to deal with keys.  As long as it was something I caused then I won't have to worry about it later, so that's what I'm rooting for.
  I will admit that there are a few thin spots I used.  I didn't worry too much if only one strand broke because there is 2 ply yarn out there that people use all the time.  The picture also shows the color a bit better.  Now to go find a bag to put it in so it won't have to deal with anything else in my purse and we can give it the best shot we can.

I Only Take Notes on the Best Items.

  Yes, that is a napkin that has my decrease notes on it.  The crochet version of the neck warmer is a lot longer since the single crochet doesn't fold in on itself like garter stitch does.  If I do another crochet one I might just increase every row.

  We also had another successful round of yarn chicken on Wednesday.  It probably confuses everyone when all the Knitters cheer at once and nothing worth noting has happened in any of the sports games on the TVs.  I think it is more fun that way, keep them on their toes.

  I feel like I am so obsessed with these things.  I'm also the worst knitter.  I like to claim that I hadn't started this in Ocean City because I would have had to pay a little attention to it while working on the increase rows.  While I had time to get that done at night, that's the story I'm sticking to.
  I then had another awesome knitting opportunity that I didn't take advantage of.  It had been Krissy's birthday and we had made weekend plans to celebrate.  One of our activities was to go to the mall and shop.  She wanted some more hang-out style clothes and I wanted more holographic nail polish.  She took about a million things into the dressing room.  I had all those pauses between reveals to knit.  Instead I just stood around and waited for the next one.  Perfectly wonderful knit opportunity missed!  At least she found a few super cute outfits.

  I'm hoping that if I match my nails to the knitting that it will make it up to everyone.  I actually really like the effect that I made.  I had a dark purple that I used as a base.  Then I tried a silver glitter polish over top of that.  The glitter was fairly dense with one thick coat, but you could still see some of the base.  Over that I put on a sparkly purple crackle polish.  I have had this polish around for so long and never used it.  When you first put it on it becomes matte and doesn't look very nice.  A glossy top coat really brings it to life.

  I got to play my own round of yarn chicken today.  I wanted to use all the yarn and had less than I had used for the last one of these.  I was super nervous so I knit it from the solid end to the split end.  I also worked the first half of the split and left the yarn attached while using the far end to start the second split.
  I'm glad I did that because I had a ton left over the first time I tried it.  I then took it back to the plain neck area and marked how much I needed for each section.  I put a safety pin in where I had stopped the triangle part and a paper clip what I needed for the second half of the split.  I also somehow messed up marking them because I didn't come to the second marker when I was finished with the ribbing.  It made me worried that I would have a bunch left over again.  Since I had already taken it all out once, I was just going to go with it and figure out what to do with the extra later.

  Turns out that wasn't the direction I should have been worried with.  The picture is all I was left with once I got to the end.  I couldn't have planned it any better.
  I think I have a hat planned next in case you are already tired of the neck warmers.  I also don't make any promises that I will actually work on the hat next and not get distracted and make another one of these.  They are just so easy and fun.

Tank Update

  I kept meaning to post more updates on Tank's week, but then I kept getting distracted by other things, so here is how the week went.

Monday
  We went to the vet to get Tank his yearly check up and to let them know he had been a naughty kitty and sprayed.  They did some checks and didn't see any stones in him, but his bladder was too empty to get a sample of anything for further testing.  I was then sent home with a pee-collection kit.
  I left it out until I headed to my mom's house to go to knitting.  No pee then, so I decided to take it off and try again later.  I didn't want it to sit for hours while I was gone.
  When I got home from knitting Tank seemed interested in using his kitty-box.  I told him to wait a moment and put the liner and plastic pellets back.  He then started to walk away like he didn't want to use it any more.  I then picked him up and placed him in the box.  Right after I set him down he started peeing.
  I was told I only needed a few pipets worth of sample, but then I decided to just keep adding because I could.  Since it was 10:40pm, I couldn't take the sample right to them.  The internet told me that I should put the sample in the refrigerator if that is the case.

Tuesday
  I got up and took the sample to the vet's office.  Funny thing was that when I walked in Julie said she had just texted me asking how Tank was doing.  They are so nice there and check on your animal after they visit, even if it is a simple visit.
  They seemed impressed that I knew to chill the sample since I couldn't bring it in right after collecting.  I was then told that the results should be in by the next day.

Wednesday
  It wasn't until the evening that I heard back from them.  The lab had found crystals in the sample and the pH was elevated past where it should be.  She asked when the sample was taken and I explained what had happened.  She wanted to try and take another sample because she wanted to rule out any outside factors.

Thursday
  I dropped Tank off to go hang out in the morning.  I got a call a little after 3pm that he had gone in the box for them and they hadn't needed to extract a new sample.  There were still crystals and an elevated pH in this sample too.  So they decided to switch him over to the Hills c/d food line.  It should help with all the problems.
  It should be interesting to see how he takes to the canned food.  So far he seems to like the dry pellets I have sprinkled on his normal/old food.  Every other time I have tried to give him wet food he has thrown it back up.  Hopefully this will be different.

Saturday
  Krissy came over on Friday evening so we could have some awesome weekend birthday celebrations for her.  For some reason I thought Geraldine was coming back on September 30th.  Turns out I was about a month early, so we made that part of the trip for nothing.  Good thing we wanted to go to Teas'n You to get some fun tea because it was really close and the whole trip wasn't wasted.  We both fell in love and want to go back.  It was super popular and the line was to the door when we got there and for about 10 mins after we got our stuff.  They have the whole system down and it only takes a minute or two to get a single drink ready.  I'm glad they are so popular because it means they will be around for a while, but there is limited parking so timing is also something to consider.
  Tank has also taken to picking off the handful of Hills Diet I have been putting on his old food.  That is a good sign.


  Andrea read the last post and saved the day!  The cute sweater pattern is Front Range, and for anyone who cares, Elaine was the genius person who decided it should be two colored.
  I also got a new copy of that crochet shawl pattern.  I still can't find any record of it, so I typed it up and posted it below.  If anyone can find the official pattern I can go back and update this post to include a link.  I want to be able to give credit out where it is due.

Crochet Spring Shawl - JoAnn Handout

SUPPLIES:

• Lion Brand Wool-Ease (pretty sure they mean the chunky)
• 10 mm crochet hook

GAUGE: 3 rows = about 4 in (10 cm) in shell pattern of Rows 5 and 6.

STITCH EXPLANATION:

Shell: Work 5 dc in indicated st or sp.

NOTES:

1. Shawl is worked back and forth in rows in a shell pattern, beginning in the middle of the top edge.
2. An additional shell is worked on each side of the center ch-sp on every other row to shape the Shawl.
3. An edging is worked all the way around outside edge of the Shawl.

SHAWL

Ch 8; join with sl st in first ch to form a ring.

Row 1: Ch 3 (count as dc), 5 dc in ring (shell made), ch 2, 6 dc in ring (counts as 1 shell and 1 dc) - you will have 1 shell on each side of center ch-2 sp and 1 dc at beg and end of this row.

Row 2: Ch 4 (counts as dc, ch 1), turn, sk first dc, dc in next 4 dc, 2 dc in next dc, ch 3, sk center ch-2 sp, 2 dc in next dc, dc in next 4 dc, ch 1, dc in top of beg ch-3 - 7 dc on each side of center ch-3 sp.

Row 3: Ch 3 (counts as dc), turn, shell in first ch-1 sp, ch 2, sk next 2 dc, sc in next dc, ch 2, sk next 3 dc, (shell, ch 2, shell) in center ch-3 sp, ch 2, sk next 3 dc, sc in next dc, ch 2, sk next 2 dc, shell in beg ch-sp, dc in 3rd ch of beg ch-4 - 2 shells on each side of center ch-2 sp.

Row 4: Ch 4 (counts as dc, ch 1), turn, sk first dc, dc in next 4 dc, 2 dc in next dc, ch 2, sk next sc, 2 dc in next dc, dc in next 3 dc, 2 dc in next dc, ch 3, sk center ch-2 sp, 2 dc in next dc, dc in next 3 dc, 2 dc in next dc, ch 2, sk next sc, 2 dc in next dc, dc in next 4 dc, ch 1, dc in top of beg ch-3 - 14 dc on each side of center ch-3 sp.

Row 5: Ch 3 (counts as dc), turn, shell in first ch-1 sp, ch 2, sk in next 2 dc, sc in next dc, ch 2, sk next 3 dc, *shell in next ch-2 sp, ch 2, sk next 3 dc, sc in next dc, ch 2, sk next 3 dc; rep from * to center ch-3 sp, (shell ch 2, shell) in center ch-3 sp, **ch 2, sk next 3 dc, sc in next dc, ch 2, sk next 3 dc, shell in next ch-2 sp; rep from ** to last shell, ch 2, sk next 3 dc, sc in next dc, ch 2, sk next 2 dc; shell in beg ch-sp, dc in 3rd ch of beg ch-4 - 3 shells on each side of center ch-2 sp.

Row 6: Ch 4 (counts as dc, ch 1), turn, sk first dc, dc in next 4 dc, 2 dc in next dc, *ch 2, sk next sc, 2 dc in next dc, dc in next 3 dc, 2 dc in next dc; rep from * to center ch-2 sp, ch 3, sk center ch-2 sp, **2 dc in next dc, dc in next 3 dc, 2 dc in next dc, ch 2, sk next sc; rep from ** to last shell, 2 dc in next dc, dc in next 4 dc, ch 1, dc in top of beg ch-3 - 21 dc on each side of center ch-3 sp.

Row 7-26: Rep Rows 5 and 6 - you will have 13 shells on each side of center ch-2 sp on Row 25 and 91 dc on each side of your center ch-3 sp on Row 26.

Do not fasten off.

Edging

Ch 1, do not turn, work sc evenly spaced around outside edge of Shawl, working 3 sc in each corner; join with sl st in first sc.

Fasten off.

FINISHING

Weave in ends.

ABBREVIATIONS

beg = begin(ning)

ch = chain

ch-sp(s) = chain space(s) previously made

dc = double crochet

rep = repeat

sc = single crochet

sk = skip

sl st = slip stitch

st(s) = stitch(es)