JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

Posts Tagged ‘hands’

…instead of crossed.

On Saturday, I picked up my Knotty Gloves for the first time in quite a while.  I’m at the point on the first glove where you’re done with the thumb gusset and are about to start the fingers.  I slipped it on to admire my lovely cabling and noticed a slight problem.

The cable that’s at the very tippy top of the knot?  Is going over when it’s supposed to go under.  Crap.  I know that it’s not something that will jump out at the average person and I know that it’s not even something a knitter would notice (or even a Knitter, for that matter) but now that *I* have noticed it, it’s STARING. at. me.  *sigh*

So, for most of that row, I tried to talk myself into ignoring it.  I made it most of the way around, then when I flipped the glove over to finish the row, the knot was facing me.  Guess what?  The over-instead-of-under was glaring at me like a ginormous zit on a prom queen’s forehead. *sigh* again.

Major surgery was in order.  I gathered all my tools, my crochet hook, my size 1 dpn’s, my row counter (since I was dropping down to a charted part of the glove, I wanted to keep track of what row I was on) and I poured myself a cosmo.

Then I dropped. stitches.  Six of them, and I went down 36 rows. When I got down to where I needed to be, I put the stitches on a dpn, then put whole mess down and stared at it for a minute.  Then I took a picture.  Because I wanted to share my pain jubilation.

Then, with shaking hands, I picked it up and fixed the cable.  I knit up about six rows and noticed another problem.

I had knitted through the back loop on one of the stitches ON TOP OF THE DAMNED CABLE.  GAH!

So…I dropped down the six rows I had just knit, and fixed it AGAIN.  Making sure I didn’t screw up AGAIN.  Then proceeded to knit up 36 rows to the current row.  When I got up to the current row, I put the glove down again and gazed at what I had done:

…then I drank the cosmo.  ;o)

p.s. For those who are interested,  there’s another CSM on the market! Risa has decided she doesn’t want her NZAK anymore.  :o(

…is what I needed after working on the CPH for a lifetime. With that in mind, on Saturday I turned this:

into this:

I had to give it a bath and a thwacking to make it behave so I had to wait for it to dry (in front of a fan and then on the flat thingy in the dryer when it STILL wasn’t dry enough). Then on Sunday morning I cast on a pair of Fetching and by the end of Sense & Sensibility last night, I had this:

I even spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the yard (hence the band-aid on my thumb – thank God I blister easily or I would have been out there longer!) If that’s not almost instant gratification, I don’t know what is. ;o)

Specs:

So, speaking of S&S, how did you all like it?

…happened over this past long weekend.

Thanksgiving…happened. Everyone told me it was fine and I know I sound pretty annoying when I talk about it but I was beyond disappointed with my dry turkey and burned stuffing. I’ve been doing this for at least 12 years now, you’d think I’d have it down. I’m consoling myself with the knowledge that RR’s deep-fried turkey was moist and delicious so our guests were able to combine his with my bone-dry offering so it was hardly noticeable. What did I learn from this experience? I won’t be in such a hurry to put the thing in the oven next year and I’m done with 20+lb birds. Done.

On the plus side, it made great soup (I started with this recipe – and then messed with it):

In my defense, I was jarred out of a lovely dreamless sleep in the pre-dawn hours by the freaking fire pager. The dispatcher announced that there was a car accident and where – I put two and two together immediately, RR was a bit slower. Someone lost control of their car on the way to work at the end of our driveway:

See the car 2nd from the right in the picture? That’s my Jeep. I told you RR was a bit slow in figuring out where the accident was. ;o) This lovely wake up call messed me up for the rest of the day – I was not prepared to be up at 6 (I didn’t go to sleep the night before until about 3ish).

Okay, whining is over.

Next, the spinning!

Remember this (on the left)?

After spinning all 8oz for (what felt like) 100 years, it became 750+ yards of Navajo plied fingering weight:

Two skeins since I couldn’t fit it all onto the Sonata plying head. One skein is 200+ and the other 550+ yards. Just as I was finishing up with the plying, Kelli aka Knitter Bunny brought these to my attention. She said they knit up quickly so I thought I’d give them a try – guess what, she’s right! Even with Thanksgiving, I finished these up in a couple of nights of knitting while watching TV:

Pattern: Serpentine Mitts by Miriam Felton (free pattern).

You can see my Ravelry project page here.

Yarn: My handspun – Crown Mountain Farms pencil roving in Amethyst spun to a 3-ply fingering weight. (I’m pretty sure I still have enough left for matching socks)

Needle: Knitpicks classic circular size 2.5mm

Thoughts: I like this pattern, it was fun and quick to knit. You think they’ll be too tight, but if you follow the directions and measure (and trust the designer) they fit like a glove. (no pun intended…) This was also my first thumb gusset – it was easy! Go knit a pair! ;o)