That darn camera

This is a long story. Skip to the end for knitting content.

We were ready to go my sis's house early Sunday. She has a doin's every summer but that's not the subject of this post. I declared, on Saturday, that we were leaving at 7:00(am). dh thought that was too early and decided in his own mind that we would leave at 7:30. dh decided the car had to be vacuumed. So he's out vacuuming early Sunday and I decided to post my new sock yarn pics. We'll get back to the sock yarn in a minute. So I take out the miniature disc and plug it into the computer the way we always do and nothing. I take it out and plug it back in. And again. Nothing. So I take it out and plug it very carefully and fully... into the wrong hole. The hold for bigger little discs that what I have. And it goes all the way into the computer. It's in there somewhere. Now what kind of a mess have I made. dh comes back into the house and I confess the "problem" I have made. Not quite as bad as the last "problem" I made when I mowed over a too high sprinkler head.

So we drive on up to ds's house. No pics of the relatives because there's no "film" disc for the camera.

Flash forward to 9:30 p.m. We're home and I'm tired but I want that disc out of the computer. Now we've had this computer for a couple of years but I've never opened the "box". But I'm determined. I unplug all those darn cables, slide the cpu out of it's slot, shake it a bit, and think I hear something. It turns out it's no big deal to get it open, just one screw. Pretty soon I've got it open, laying on the floor peering into all of the reaches with a flashlight. It takes a few minutes but somewhere in the dark corner I find that little disc.

Note to self --- put some tape over that hole that is for bigger discs.

Now to get the pics out. Put the disc in the correct slot. Nothing. Go find the fuji software that's supposed to be automatic and start it manually and it says the disc needs to be formatted. What's up with that? I decline the format. I put the disc in the camera and it says the card is not readable. Put the disc back in the computer and with some relunctance, I re-format it. Put it back in the camera and still no worky. With much groaning and grumbling and whining, I shut off the computer and go to bed.

Next morning I go to work. I'm a bit early (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) so I do a little internet research and gather a couple of ideas of how to get the little card working. Then I call CVS and they have my card on sale this week. 256 mb for 24.99. The old card was just 64 mb. I called dh and he says well, that would be nice if we go on vacation. I'm thinking yeah, right, we're going on vacation. We do a big trip now and then but generally no "regular" vacations. (Sweden 1986, Italy and Greece 2003, a couple ski trips between) But I digress. I go get the card at lunch time. I come home this evening and try the in camera format with the old card and vwaalaaa we can take pictures. Break out the new card and it works too. We are back in the digital camera business.

Now if you're still with me, here is the sock yarn pic. Well it's a new pic with the new disc because the old pic is, well, gone. Sock yarn for 3 pairs for under $20.00, including shipping from ebay. The top four are Regia, the bottom is Sipan 50/50 wool and alpaca. The label would seem to indicate the Sipan is machine washable. The seller did not know how to read the label. Some swatching is in order.


And the long drive knitting pics:


My first Mason Dixon ball band warshrag. Well, not the first one I started but the first one I finished.











And for the rest of the drive, and because there's an awful lot of that yarn left:

















More later,
Jeri

Toe-up

As you will see as this blog unfolds, I knit a lot of socks. Sometimes mom says (I call her every Sunday) "you don't need anymore socks" and I say "I wear socks every day". And sometimes she'll say, knit me some socks. I have knit her one pair. She wears short socks and I knit her a short pair. After about 3/4 inch of ribbing, there were two rows of sock top, then the heel turn. Those were some of the fastest socks ever. Now, the woman who never wears socks with long legs wants socks with long legs. Ok, sometime soon.

Here are my newest socks on the needles:


Now I'm normally a top-down, dpn kind of a sock knitter but I decided to try some toe ups using magic loop. And it's going pretty ok. My knit night friend G loaned me one of her size 1 Addis and she and I and S hammered out Judy's magic cast-on from the spring 06 knitty. We worked through it together in our corner of Starbucks. And we all got some socks going.

The yarn is Koigu --my first time.

And I am liking it.

More later, Jeri

Mason Dixon kimono

My first project from Mason Dixon knitting. 2 skeins of light blue sugar and cream. Size 7 needles. The pattern calls for 6s but they're in another project and the yarn liked the 7s. Well, I like the knit fabric created by the 7s so I went with it. I knit the whole thing just a smidge bigger than the pattern but one of my work friends who has a young baby says it's about newborn to 3 month size. But she says the mother may have some trouble getting the little darlin's hand through the sleeve so if, no when, I make another, I'll add a quarter or half inch to the sleeve "width".

I did buttons and button holes instead of ribbons. Since the sweater is blue and may be for a little boy, though I don't know who it's for, I changed up the increases from yarn overs to backwards-e cast-ons 2 stitches in (and knit in the back loops of the back-es on the next row).
I changed the sleeve decreases from 3-3-3-3... to 2-2-3-3-3-4-4-4 (I know, I know, if you add it up the sleeve is one stitch long, it just worked out that way.

If you're following along this blog, you may have noticed I don't follow patterns "too good". Part of my purpose for this blog is selfish on my part. I need to document my pattern departures. If I should decide to knit a project again, I may want to know what I did the first time. You know, when I am "in the knitting", I think I'll remember all of the details, but when time passes, memories fade.

--J

Dulaan sweater

Here's a pic of my sweater for the Dulaan project. I have to get it packed up and mailed off.

The yarn is schaffhauser and is machine washable wool. 68% wool 32% viscose. I think I used about 7 balls so 350 grams but I have two partial balls left over. And 10 more balls. It was a good deal on ebay. What can I say? The yarn has no current plans. Anybody need some? I'll make you a heck of a deal.

The pattern is the child placket neck pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. If you knit it, be sure and see the errata here.

I knit the sweater with the yarn doubled on size 9s so it was a pretty quick knit. 'Course I had to do some recalculating on the pattern because my gauge doubled was not what the pattern called for. Basically, I ended up using the stitch counts for the small and the lengths for the next-to-large. It ended up about a size 6 to 8. I'm sure the Dulaan project will find a child who will like to wear it and will be kept warm by it.

Jeri

p.s. The quilt it from years ago. Three houses ago. Does anybody else measure their life by houses? Back when quilt as you go log cabins were popular.

Jaywalker sock

Leaving the world of the "sadly blogless" with this post. I set up this blog a month or two ago and did the "this is my first post" and deleted it. The harlot is supposed to be in this area soon and I hope to see her and gracious, if I should be pictured, with a sock, of course, I would hate to be described as "sadly blogless".

So let's start this blog with a sock, a pair of socks, that is. These are my jaywalkers. The pattern is from magknits. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Foxy Lady. 100% merino. The yardage is generous, rated at 420 yds/4 oz. I am a yarn weigher; my skein weighed 4 1/8 oz (116 grams). I was sweating it as I knitted and ended up with the smallest amount I've ever had left from a pair o' socks, 16 grams. I knitted on size 0 dpns because of the 76 cast-on. My usual cast-on is abut 56. I knitted this sock top-down, as per the pattern, as I usually do. I did an eye of the partridge heel flap:
















And "my" toe:
It's a new double decrease "stitch" I've invented. I've used it so far for toes and afterthought heels and the jaywalker double decrease and raglan decreases (I'll get a pic of the sweater and post about it another day.) If you've seen this double decrease written up elsewhere, and if it has a name, I'd love to know about it.

Basically, it is a ssk followed by a k2tog where the resulting stitch from the ssk goes back on the left needle and is one of the 2 stitches in the k2tog.

Other departure from the pattern, as written: I decreased the sole of the foot 2 more stitches than specified. And I decreased the pattern at the top of the foot before going into the toe by keeping the decreases but losing the increases for a few rows until the top of the foot stitches matched the sole of the foot stitches.

I like the pattern but I have to be careful and ease it on (and ease it off). dh likes the pattern too but he's a pull the top of the sock guy so he's not getting any jaywalkers.