bad blogger

So it would seem I am just terrible at being a blogger. I can't hold myself to a scheduled time to blog or generate enough things of interest in my life to even talk about. I've just been soo busy. It's work all day, rush home, rush to the gym, work out, back to home, eat shower bed. Day in and day out. And tomorrow I leave for vacation so I doubt I'll blog then. Oh well, maybe I'll figure this thing out at some point, or maybe just aim to post once or twice a week.

slow like spring

My knitting has be lagging, which is part of the reason my blogging has be lagging. I keep knitting on the ribbed socks. They look the same, only bigger. About an inch to go and I can start the toe. I'm still enjoying the sock, and it gets knit on the train, which is close to the only knitting I've been doing lately. Part of the reason for that is my gym schedule, and part is, well I don't know. The winter maybe. We just keep getting hit with snow and cold and snow and ice and it is getting old. Spring needs to be here now. I was looking at my skydiving pictures from last season and my mouth was just watering. I want it to be warm and sunny with blue skies, and I want to be crouched in the door of a plane ready to exit. I seriously miss it and am totally jonesing. My tunnel trip couldn't come at a better time I think. Just 10 more days or so and I'll be in warm and sunny California, visiting with family, soaking up the spring time weather (my parents are there right now and have not been stingy with the details of how nice the weather is) and getting some much needed tunnel time. With the road trip and the lazy days I'm hoping to get quite a bit of knitting done. The branching out scarf is nearing completion. I knit a repeat or two here and there and the yarn is running out. Very encouraging. The baby sweater hasn't gotten any love. I'll finish the branching out scarf first.
Sunday should have been a productive day for me. I got up at a decent time. Went to the gym. Got home showered and ate, and as I was knitting away on branch out I just got so tired I couldn't stay awake. I laid down in bed (about 3 or 4pm) and didn't wake up until Monday morning! I can't imagine what I was so tired out from. I though all this exercise was supposed to give you more energy, but all I seem to do is go to work, come home, go to the gym, come home, shower and go to bed. day in and day out. And I had just the worst time trying to sleep last night and the night before, probably since I slept too much on Sunday, but that doesn't make me feel any less tired. It's getting annoying. Perhaps the lack of sunshine and warmth is causing my fatigue. 9 days and counting to California.

too cold to think

It is 0 degrees outside today.

It's about 50 degrees in my office. Colder with wind chill, because I sit beside big cold leaky windows. I am wearing all of my sweaters, scarves, gloves, and I am still cold. Soon I'll be putting my coat and cap back on. It's nice for all the daylighting and view, but I wish the windows weren't so crappy. I hope our new office space has better windows.

how about that

It's Thursday. This is somehow suprising to me. I wasn't expecting it to be Thursday so soon, but I can't say which day I think it should be. Weeks turn into blurs. Monday and Tuesday last forever, but before I know it, it's Thursday, which means it's almost Friday, and so almost the weekend.
The socks are slowly chugging along. Nothing else is getting knit. I haven't had much knitting time this week other than on the train. Today I think we have a lunch time presentation on something or other, so that may give me some sock knitting time. It should keep me awake too. I have this aweful habit of passing out during presentations. Espically around lunch time. I don't mean to. It could be the most interesting thing I've ever heard but I just can't stay awake. It was like that during lectures in college too. I used to crochet or draw or do something to keep me awake in lectures. It's as if nothing in me is engaged and so my body shuts down. But if my hands are moving it helps keep me engaged and I'll stay awake.

The ex-jaywalker

The socks are coming along. I turned the heel last night and decided they would just be ribbed socks. I really like the way it is turning out, even better when I tried it on.
We're getting swamped with storms out here. I don't even know where they are all coming from. Rain and snow and freezing rain, wind and ice and cold. Crazy weather. I woke up at 5am this morning to the sound of running water thinking my roommate was running late in the shower (he normally leaves the apartment around 5am) and then realized that he had called last night saying he wouldn't be home. I didn't figure out until I had gotten up around 6am that the 'running water' was actually bouts of pouring rain outside. This kind of weather makes me want to curl up with my cat and a warm blanket and some tea and knit all day long, which, see how it's wednesday, isn't happening because I'm at work. I am drinking lots of tea and thinking about knitting though.

Pea Pod Set

 

I got a good start on the baby pea pod set. I knit up one arm on Friday evening and the hat on Saturday. I was a little afraid to start first with the body so that is why I started with the smaller items first. Actually, that is why I've never knitted a sweater before. Large projects intimidate me. I'm all about the instant gratification, so I like small things I can knit up quickly and say 'yay another fo!'.
I know this doesn't make a ton of sense, because I could knit a sweater with the same number of stitches as a pair of socks, but sweaters just seem like such a huge commitment. So I'm starting with a baby sweater. Less of a commitment, and I've been in love with this pattern since I first saw it, and have just been waiting for a baby to come along.
It's knitting up quite nicely, and I am pleased with the yarn as well. I may yet finish it before my trip to california.

snow day

Last night I went to the symphony. Before hand as I ate dinner with a friend her mom called and asked how she was faring in the blizzard. We looked outside and thought blizzard? There's hardly an inch out there... It had been snowing on and off all day and the roads weren't great, so the friend I was supposed to go with couldn't make it into the city, but another friend who works downtown was able to join me. The show was lovely. On leaving the hall we braced ourselves for a trek into the fore-told blizzard, and though it was still snowing and very windy, I wouldn't exactly call it a 'blizzard'. You could see more then 5 feet in front of you.
It's amazing how quiet the world becomes when it snows. Walking the few blocks from the el to my apartment the world was blanketed in a fresh coat of white. The streets were un-plowed with very few cars on them, the side walks un-shoveled. I had a flash back to my child hood, leaving my mark on the pure ground, looking at it in amazement and joy under the moonlight after a fresh snow. And although there is no moon light in the city, no rolling hills and forests coated in white, and I am no longer 8 years old, bundled up, slipping out into a silent night, that walk home was magical.
Waking up this morning to the radio announcing that almost all Illinois schools were on snow day, I wondered if I really had to go to work. If the kids are home, shouldn't I be too? I guess the adult world doesn't work that way. Tromping my way through 10 inches of un-shoveled sidewalk snow, I wished I was 8 again so I could own that magical world for another day.

state street

Our current office looks on to state street. This supplies endless sorts of interest and activities. There are tons of protests happening in the city that I had never known about until I started working here. We hear everything that goes by, from the fire truck sirens to the random crazy person yelling at people, to the endless protesters. Usually the protesters are in a loose group and it's always unclear what they are yelling and what they are protesting.
Just now though, a small group of people, 6 or 7, dressed in bright orange suits went by. I think they were yelling 'stop the torture now'. Two of the people were walking as if they were handcuffed. They had black hoods over their heads, and when waiting for the light to change to cross the street these two people waiting on their knees.
I don't have a tv, and I tend not to listen to the radio news very often, so I'm not certain what torture they are protesting. Is it something happening locally? Or the on-going government torture of alleged terrorists? Maybe something else. Either way, for such a small group of people it was intense, and effective.

I give up

I knit you up. You were beautiful but oh so wrong. Rip rip rip. I knit you again. I added 10 stitches, I knit so loose the stitches were falling off the slippery needles. I knit all the way to the place of the first rip. Still enchanted by your pattern all was looking good. Trying you on you slipped nicely over my foot. And stopped at my heel. I give up. You win. Rip. Rip. Rip. You get a ribbed cuff, and will jaywalk only for the foot.

Annie commented yesterday that her daughter, also a beginning knitter, had the same problem with the pattern. The only thing I can think now is that I need to use a slightly thicker, stretchier yarn for this pattern. I have some left over from another pair of socks and i'll swatch with that to see. I should probably do a search online to see what people say about this. It just makes me so mad because I LOVE the way it looks with this yarn, but I guess it's just not meant to be. It looks fine with the plain ribbing too, but not as awesome as the zig-zags. At least I know the pattern will work on the foot, so I'll get to indulge myself a little, and maybe even finish the socks while I'm at it.

Baby Kimono

Blocked, sewn, adorned and finished. Ready for that July baby to come! Now I just have to knit the peapod set.

Jaywalker, why do you hate me so?

I had to frog it. I hate frogging knitting. It's extremely stressful for me to have all those little loose loops just hanging out, needing to be picked but then before I get the chance to they slip away from me. I was loving this sock, and the pattern, and how the striping yarn was knitting up with the pattern. Enchanting. Then this morning I got the brilliant idea to make sure it fits. After I'm about 2 inches into the pattern. The ribbing was fine but for some reason the pattern was knitting up soo tight with hardly any stretch there was no chance in hell it was going over my hand, let alone my foot. I don't understand. So I snapped a photo and ripped back to the ribbing, only loosing one stitch in the process, I think...
I guess I'll have to increase around to make the larger size, and if that's still too small then I'll have to go up a needle size as well. I just don't understand why it's creating such a tight unyielding fabric. I'll be knitting at lunch time today for sure.

Starts, Finishes, and the Drive Inbetween

Friday night I finished my train socks and cast on a new pair, this one the jaywalker pattern. I also joined a gift-a-long where we will knit 5 items a month for gifts, so when Christmas rolls around there won't be that late-night last-minute rush to get everything knitted in time. I only listed one thing for January since I joined with barely a week left, which is the baby kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting for my future cousin, due in July.
I've recently joined a gym. Since I was young I've always been involved in one sport or another which has kept me in decent shape. Skydiving, though, is not an aerobic activity. You can be young or old, skinny or fat, in great shape or terrible shape and still be a skydiver. The top competitors tend to be in excellent shape because it takes endurance and some muscle to train hard all day long, but if you're not going for the gold in open class it's not exactly a necessity. And so, over the past few years I've slowly fallen out of shape. This past summer living on the dropzone was probably the worst offender on my cardiac health, as I mainly indulged in beer and pizza when I wasn't jumping out of planes. I briefly tried out a gym in the fall, but I find it hard to motivate myself to walk to a gym just to hop on a machine for 30 minutes and be bored. It lasted about a week.
Then one of my friend's sent me a link to the gym she just joined. No cardio machines, no weight machines, the gym only offered work out classes. The classes sounded like a lot of fun too so I went to try out a class and joined. The classes are a lot of fun, and it's easier to get motivated to go, and since I'm not locked into a membership, I'd be wasting my money if I don't go, which is another motivation. Also, the one class I took to try the gym out kick my ass. Kicked my ass in the kind of way that says, 'if you don't start working out you will die of a heart-attack at age 30'.
I had a class Saturday morning and afterwards planned to drive up north to check out a bead store, after which I would then drive south to go to the nearest Michael's to get the yarn I needed to finish the baby kimono.
Energized from an hour of circuit training and equipped with directions to the store I headed out. For some reason the entire north side of Chicago was out and about in their suv's Saturday at noon. I have no idea why. It was snowing and cold and I couldn't see why on earth they would be out at this day and time (my mother has since pointed out to me that most people go shopping on Saturday and noon is about when most of them make it out of their homes). This meant that it took me twice as long to get there, and then when I finally did I simply could not find parking anywhere. For some reason I had it in my head that this bead store had it's own parking lot (i was obviously thinking of another bead store) and confused by the one-way streets, it took me a good 20 minutes just to confirm to my dismay that indeed there was no parking lot for the bead store. At this point I was so fed-up with the streets and the people and the traffic that I said 'screw this' and turned back the way I came. I would get my beads at the craft store. I finally made it to the craft store, walked out with more then I had intended or needed, and headed home. Note to self, no more shopping excursions on Saturday afternoon.
I was able to finish the baby kimono (it's blocking/drying right now) and made myself some stitch markers. So it was a pretty productive weekend.

Lace, Take 1

branching out
Originally uploaded by millsar

Reading through other blogs on the internet and looking at what everyone else is knitting, I was charmed by the lace. I had never tried to knit lace before, but wanted to give it a go, and the branching out pattern from knitty promised to be easy for a beginner. I started it just after Christmas, and I've been working on it sporadically ever since. While not difficult, lace does take some concentration. I've learned a few things while working on this scarf.

1. Lace takes focus. If you get distracted you will loose your place on the chart and mess up.
2. I am distracted very easily.
3. Most of the time I knit, I'm doing other things as well. Watching movie, listening to music or podcasts, talking on the phone, playing with my cat.
4. This does not mix well with lace knitting.
5. Since I do these things most every evening as a way to wind down, I find myself craving something simple like something in plain garter or simple straight stitch socks.
6. That means that the lace knitting gets push to the weekends when I can really sit down and focus and pay attention to what I'm doing.
7. Progress is slow.
8. Sticky notes on the chart to keep my place help, but takes time to move, and if I don't, and get distracted, then I've lost my place anyways.


I'm knitting branching out with knitpicks palette, which is probably thicker then normal, but it's helped with dealing with all the k3tog for the first time. I've since gotten distracted by some kidsilk haze, which I'm finding fiddly to deal with, and wishing my needles were more sharp. The scarf is already riddled with errors, but I refuse to rip and just keep pushing forward. I want the joy of blocking, and can live with errors. Maybe I'll knit it again in the future when I understand lace better and don't have such an aversion to frogging my knitting.

Thursdays are for Transit Tales

It's about a 20 minute train ride for me to work every morning. I used to read a book or magazine or just listen to music to pass the time, but ever since I started knitting socks that is my activity of choice. They are small and convenient and easy to pull our and knit a few rounds on in the morning and afternoon. I carry one in my purse at all time, as it also helps pass the time while waiting in like at the dmv or bank.

Knitting on the train I've had a few unique experiences. Normally people will look at you and then ignore you, watch you out of the corner of their eye, or just plain stare at you. None of this bothers me and I just knit along listening to my music until my stop, and get off. Here is the sock I'm working on now:
















Trekking XXL, I forget the color. Plain sock pattern.


I was riding the train home the other evening sitting in one of the seats next to the door that faces the seats opposite me. I had my sock out as usual and was knitting away. A few stops after I got on a lady and her friend got on and sat across from me. They talked for a stop or two while eyeing me and then one of the lady's took some crocheting out of her bag and started working on it. I noticed and gave it a look and smile and continued knitting.
Now I'm not a very fast knitter with less then a year under my belt, but I go in fast spurts punctuated by slower ones when I look around me or get distracted or miss a beat in my rhythm. The lady across from me was a VERY fast crocheter. I haven't been around many other crocheters and she was just whipping along. I tired sending a smile her way without luck. Then I noticed something. As I knit faster she crocheted faster, and as I slowed down she did a little as well. I swear the woman was racing me. Seriously. It was totally amusing. I tested my theory and sure enough, yep. Race on lady.

The Knitting

So as I had said, I learned to crochet when I was young. Then I did nothing for many years. In high school I took up crocheting again, and each winter I would make a new afghan and a few scarves. Except for the last afghan (still waiting for one last strip which has been half done for about a year now and needs working on) they were all variations of granny squares. All of them done in cheap acrylic.
Then about a year and a half ago I decided I was going to learn how to knit because I had seen this pair of cabled arm warmers I was lusting after, and just couldn't make them happen in crochet. I went out and got myself a learn how to knit kit, figured out the knit and purl stitches, and then set out to make a scarf. On size 6 needles with LionBrand Homespun. This was the wrong way to start in soo many ways, but I had no idea at the time. The homespun is tricky to knit with in the first place, and I was knitting it with needles too small, and knitting too tightly, dropping and making stitches all over the place, and when i was done I has a scarf that waved in and out and curled in on its self and was pretty stiff. I ironed it flat, and wore it a few times, and that was that. I didn't knit again for a year.
In May of last year I graduated college and my aunt gave me a beautiful cabled purse and it re-ignited my interest in knitting. Shortly after I took a trip to Peru, and while there in a little town called Huarmey, I bought a bunch of yarn and some knitting needles and started back up. From there I'm not sure exactly what came next. Either I had found one podcast or one blog abut knitting, and they in turn talked about a lot of blogs and podcasts about knitting. I discovered the Yarn Harlot and set about reading all of her posts from the start of the blog to the current. It took me a while but I've just caught up. I listen to Cast-On, Stash and Burn, The Knitting Cook, Sticks and String, among others, and many many blogs. I discovered good yarn, Ravelry, my local yarn shop (Loopy Yarns), and a huge knitting community that I love.

And now, a few pictures of things I've knit recently.

Some thrummed fingerless mittens adapted from the yarn harlot's pattern.

Also from the yarn harlot, an unoriginal hat.

Recently my dad slipped on some ice while plowing the driveway and fractured his hip. I quickly knit him up a few things to keep him warm and cozy while he recovered. A pair of fuzzy feet (pattern on knitty.com) made from knitpicks wool of the andies, and a simple ribbed house hat out of lionbrand cheneille.

The Skydiving

Here are a few pictures of me skydiving.

Two of my teammates and myself dressed up and the grinch and two elves for a Christmas card picture jump. Here we are exiting the plane.

Me and the grinch.

The team. Here we are training. I'm the one in purple at the bottom of the photo. Loos like fun eh?

Post #1

Welcome!
So I've tried this blogging thing before, but never really stuck with it. Recently I've immersed myself into the online world of knitting, and have had so much fun reading all the knitting blogs it has made me want to start my own!
A little bit about myself: I am an architect living in Chicago. When it's cold outside I spend my weekends and evenings knitting. I learned to crochet when I was young and have done that for many years, and have recently taught myself to knit and love it! When it's nice outside (from about April to October) I spend my weekends skydiving. I started skydiving almost 4 years ago now and it is a great passion in my life. It's not at all crazy or reckless like the general population thinks, and I am on a (4-way) competitive team. Though you may not think that skydiving and knitting would complement each other, they do. Both are relaxing and can lead to intense focus. For such a small community in skydiving, there are a surprising number of knitters and crafters. I personally know 4 people who knit that I jump with.
This blog will basically be about my knitting, and when the skydiving season starts up, about that too. With maybe a little architecture and everything else thrown in. Should make for a good variety!