Friday, May 23, 2014

Friday Mishmash

Fun fact:  After our adventure with keys (or lack thereof) on Tuesday, and hitching a ride in a fancy Mercedes, I remembered that when Amy and I had our yarn store adventure and ended up hitching a ride back to the hotel, we rode in a new Cadillac station wagon.  So apparently the only time I get to ride in a luxury car is when I'm lost, stranded, and/or sweaty.

Oh, and I spotted this car when we were out driving last week - it's a Fisker Karma, which I'd never heard of.  From behind, it made me think of an oversized Corvette:
I think the personalized license plate explains how they could afford this $100,000+ car...

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Yesterday I got to spend some time with my favorite little guy, Davis.  We did it all - played cars, puzzles, drove around in the Little Tykes car, cooked all kinds of things in his mini kitchen, washed some pajamas in the machine that's on one side of the kitchen, plus he made me a smoothie out of a potato, an egg, chips, and pickles.  I got a text while I was there, and as I read it, he ran and got his toy cell phone:
I also showed him my homescreen, which is a picture of me and Paco.  I was quite impressed that after demonstrating just once how to push the big button to turn the phone on, he was able to do that...and kept saying "Hi Paco" every time the picture came up.  He also gave Paco kisses.  And tried to feed him a raisin.  What a sweetheart!!!

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I finished the last hat that I was making for Erica - my Sarah Jessica Parker hat:
 Of course, I renamed this particular one the "Erica Jessica Parker" hat!
All the headwear - Sugar Pine Rasta, EJP, earwarmer headband.

Once I sent off the hats, I picked up my bigger projects.  Because they take so long to slog through, I don't get the (almost) instant gratification from them like I do with hats, which makes it easy for me to set them aside.  I started working on the pink shawl...I'd made it through the body and started on the lace edging, but it got confusing and I was pretty sure what I did wasn't right.  Two months later, I took out the lace and started again.  I met up with my runner/knitter friend Stephanie for moral support, but even she got confused at one part (SSK-SL3 for you knitters).  After looking it up online, and reading eight pages of posts about this particular shawl on Ravelry, it finally made sense.  Huzzah!  I completed two repeats of the lacework and started on another...and somehow it went wonky.  The thing with lace is that it's hard to take out stitch-by-stitch.  I tried and tried, and ended up having to take out EVERYTHING that I just did.  Frustrating, to say the least.  Also, this is why I like hats!!!  

The next afternoon, I started again.  Each repeat has 14 rows, and they are all very different.  It takes me nearly one hour per repeat, and I cannot lose concentration - if the phone rings while I'm in the middle of a row, it has to keep on ringing.  I've now finished three repeats - here's my hard-won progress:
This will only make sense to knitters, but the instructions for one of these rows goes "K3, K2tog, YO twice, SSK, K2tog, YO twice, SSK, K4, YO, K2tog, YO, SSK, K1, SSK, YO, K2" - intense, to say the least!

I have no idea when I'll get this finished.  One lacework shawl per year seems to be my speed, and honestly, it's still so challenging that I need a major break (and the time to forget all the frustration that comes my way with this kind of knitting) before I'm mentally ready to attempt another.  That said, I think this is going to be really pretty when it's finally completed.

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Have a great weekend - I'm taking Memorial Day off from the blog, so I'll see you all next Wednesday!

15 comments:

  1. That little Davis is a good substitute grand child isn't he? So cute!

    Even though I know next to nothing about knitting, that lace shawl looks HARD. You've really upped your game with that.

    Enjoy every minute of your Memorial Day break!

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    1. Funny, Davis' mom said I could be his local grandma. At the rate my kids are going, this will probably be as close as I get to that status for a long time, so I'll take it, gladly. Davis is just plain delightful to hang out with!

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  2. Thank you for confirming that knitting is not for me! I am not overloaded with patience and don't like re-doing things. (Except painting/re-finishing furniture, for some reason.)

    Wishing you and your family a happy holiday weekend, Shelley!

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    1. You definitely have to accept the redo factor with knitting, that is for darn sure!!

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  3. Have a terrific weekend! I hope it isn't too hot down there yet.

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  4. You're not going to post on Monday? How will I ever know what day it is???

    Well, the lace is so pretty. And at least the rows are short, right? Are you using a chart or a written pattern? Either way, I always have a pattern that I can mark on, and just put a mark by each row as I finish it, so I don't have to finish a whole repeat before I stop. And yes, NO PHONE CALLS in the middle of a row! I do like the complexity of a lace pattern. In between the KNIT EVERY STITCH relaxing patterns!

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    1. I almost posted that I'd email you on Monday to let you know what day it was, LOL!!!

      They are shorter rows - 21 stitches each. I'm doing the written pattern because I cannot read a chart to save my life. I think it goes back to my Algebra days, when nothing made sense...

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  5. We'll probably be taking the ferry to Sausalito this weekend, so you can bet I'll probably be wearing one of these goodies!! YAY! <3 <3

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  6. Beautiful projects! I had to enlarge that car pic so I could read the plate. Too funny! Have a great weekend Shelley!

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  7. Love the projects, and I love it that you don't avoid a challenge with the shawl you are knitting right now. Remember back when you started? You have improved your knitting skills so much and I keep enjoying looking at your projects.

    It's memorial day Monday? So that's a long weekend for my US friends, enjoy it. We are having a 3 day workweek next week too. Thursday is Ascension day which is a Christian holiday where we don't have to work. Almost every company closes the Friday after that so does mine and R. so we both have a 4 day weekend. Been having that now too, I definitely can get used to that :)

    Have a great weekend and Memorial day.

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  8. Wow, I am loving that lacework. It's really worth the effort. (Spoken from the perspective of the person who doesn't have to knit it.)

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  9. The lacework looks fantastic! Can't wait to see the finished product..whenever it gets done. :-)

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  10. Oh, another lovely hair day!
    My goodness Davis is so cute! He keeps getting cuter; how is that even possible. And Lordy he's big! I love that he figured it was time to play phones. And your smoothie sounds um, delicious?
    Gorg shawl!
    My interpretation of your directions is: "Ei Ei Yo once. & @!$ YO
    Uh oh YO CRS Oy"
    Hey, I could sell patterns! Haha
    Chrissy

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