Author: Susan

In a slightly misguided moment at knitting on Wednesday, the conversation devolved into a game of “guess that houseplant.” I have a plant that I got at the grocery store with pink flowers on long stalks. I keep forgetting to water it, and on the next sunny day it wilts and looks dead, and then I water it in a fit of obtuseness and the thing spits out new leaves and flowers — I love it. We’ve been doing this for nearly a year now. The group decided by consensus that it was a geranium. I’m confident it’s not.

Here it is… You can see that it ‘s been through a drought and lost most of its leaves, but there are two more buds in the back so not too much harm done.

So, all-wise knitters… now that you have a visual, what kind of flower is this? 🙂

My sewing machine is contagious. Or maybe I’m just particularly susceptible to the siren song of fabric stores, but I have more sewing projects. Specifically, shirts for work.

In true dive-in spirit, I found fabric for versions B and D, buttons, thread, and fusible interfacing (that I haven’t figured out yet). My only tailoring experience was in fourth grade (third grade?) when I “helped” my mom make me these two one-piece summer outfits that I loved dearly. So, I can’t entirely say that I know what I’m doing. Exhibit A in that regard is the amount of fabric bought… I read the back of the pattern, deduced that I needed 2 1/4 yards of each color, brought it home, washed it, ironed it, hung it over the railing and realized that I’d bought enough to clothe the Von Trapp family.

I guess it’s better that too little though? And it wasn’t exactly an extravagant purchase at $2.50 a yard, so no harm done.

I’ve now made it through cutting out all of the patterns from the tissue paper, and folding the mountains of fabric right side together. Cutting is next, wish me luck. There are four cutting patterns — I think I’m supposed to choose the most appropriate, not use them all, but I can’t say that it’s entirely clear. And I think bias tape is only needed for version E, but I also can’t say *that’s* clear. And there’s a boatload of symbols scattered all over the pattern, which I’m sure are there for a reason (mysterious as they may be) — any offers of websites with tips or tricks would be very helpful and well-received at this point! I’m sure I can’t go too woefully wrong by just jumping in, cutting, and sewing, (I’m a smart girl, right? And I knit!) but I’d really like to understand the finer points of what’s expected — the pattern gives basically no discernible guidance.

P.S. Bonus points/Project motivation: I’ll get to use my sewing machine’s buttonhole-maker! Sweet!!

My brother just came across this gem of a forward from back in the day. Worth a good laugh (*how* exactly do you woo women?).

Though it is interesting: I found this funnier back when I was caught up in (read: hysterical over) the college application process. I’ve always admired people who are utterly capable but take things less seriously.

(Google update: Sad to see, it was for a writing contest?)

Nothing like motivation! Both fronts for the cardigan are done:

Unfortunately, this made completely clear the fact that the insets for the arms on the back were nearly two inches too short. I ripped them this afternoon (only five rows, luckily), and re-knit. No picture, but now the back matches the front. I should have done it earlier, since I knew it was needed, but at least it’s done now. 🙂

P.S. Download “All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers — song of the weekend.

A few weeks ago, I found an iron stand and another 55 gallon tank on micronews for $50. We’ve been looking at setting up a refugium and this seemed too good to pass up, so we bought the two, and I spent a highly noxious few days spraying the stand with assorted pre-sprays, enamels, and coats so that it (fingers crossed) won’t rust. Here’s the new tank atop the stand, 2/3’s full, waiting for the sand to settle.

Ultimate optical illusion, by the way — these two tanks are within a quarter of an inch of each other for the dimensions… who would have thought after seeing this photo? The second (now in-use) tank will go on the bottom of the stand, and will hold the protein skimmer, a pump up to the display tank, and a deep sand bed with assorted macro-algae to further filter the water. We went today to get the baffles cut, so now all that’s waiting is the sand to settle so that we can move all of the rocks, fish and corals from the old tanks to the new, and so that we can clean and dry the old tank to get it ready for siliconing things in place.

The white cabinet in between is another micronews find, and will hold the new pump which will power a closed-loop circulation system, and which can also hold all of the food, etc. Best part: it has a towel bar on the right side. 🙂 There’s a glass panel for the door, currently removed, which I plan to frost so that the pump, etc. isn’t quite so visible.

I found the prettiest color of discontinued kitchen cotton on sale at Fred Meyer last week, and snatched it up for an Eyelet Skirt. (I’m not convinced that this will be the best weight/texture, but the gauge is right, it’s washable, and I love the color. Worse comes to worse, it was a $14 experiment and I can rip it out and make placemats or fishtank towels of it all. And it’s certainly better than that horrible florescent red Cotton-Ease that I ordered online – lesson learned – for the skirt and which quickly found its way to a new home.)

I cast on and made it through a few rows before deciding that it was way too loose, and that I’d have to switch from #7’s to #6’s. Malheureusement, my 6’s are currently engaged with the Bomber jacket (hate that name). So, I have a new wind on that project. I made it through the rest of the right front on Sunday at the beach, and am now working on the last half of the left front. The sleeves are almost all stockinette (yay!), so I think I’m going to try to finish them before starting the skirt… No promises on doing the ribbing for the collar, however – I get all burnt out on K3, P2 after a day or so.

I finished ball 1 of Branching Out — here’s the progress:

Obviously, it’s hurting to be blocked, but you can imagine. I *way* overestimated how much yarn was needed, since I had five balls and this definitely only will need 1¾ max. Any idea what could be done with the extra 500+ yards of lime green All Seasons? Possibly I could be twins with (aka, a vile copycat of) Amanda and try to eke out a honeymoon cami? Or more scarves? If I was a knit swimsuit person, that would be a possibility, but I’m not. Also nix on the boob-holders/one-skein-wonders — not so much my style. Any other ideas? It’s a beautiful yarn and I’d love to make something pretty. If all else fails, I think I’ll get more colors and do some sort of multicolor top?