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September 21, 2006

Men in Trees

I feel like I may be the only person who is actually enjoying watching the new ABC show Men in Trees. Am I? Of course, I'm a sucker for romantic comedy type things. It's from one of the headwriters and executive producers of "Sex and the City" so that's probably why I like it so much. You can read about the show here.

This show is set in Alaska but filmed in GORGEOUS Vancouver. The scenery is just beautiful. But what I am really digging on the show is the abundance of awesome knitwear! Here are just a few examples I found online: (click to enlarge them)

    

And in the last episode Anne Heche's character wore a Scribble Lace Scarf! It's sometimes hard to follow the storyline because I'm too busy ogling the knits.

Anyway, I am really enjoying the show and have my TiVo set for it but I'm not hearing good things about its future. I don't think ABC promoted it well at all. Knowing my luck, I'll get sucked into it and it will get cancelled.

You can catch it on ABC on Friday nights at 9. Anyone out there watching it with me? Anyone? Bueller?

Posted by allison at 09:09 PM | Comments (14)

September 14, 2006

Unknitting

Well, I've been knitting! Sorta. First of all it's secret knitting so I can't show it here just yet and second of all, there is nothing to show anyway. After knitting a ton this past weekend, I have nothing to show for it. Nada. Zip. Nothing. My saga...

I had picked out the greatest pattern and went ALL over creation finding a yarn that would work and found something that was a teeny bit heavier than what the pattern called for but got it anyway and decided to swatch. Good knitter! Swatches can be soooooo helpful and can save you so much frustration and prevent you from having to rip out an entire project 75% of the way through it. Swatching. Worth the effort. When done CORRECTLY. When I knit a stockinette swatch, I (like many of you) check to see how many stitches and rows should make a 4" square and cast on 6 more stitches than it calls for. I then knit three rows of garter stitch and keep the first and last 3 stitches of every row in garter stitch to help the swatch lay flat. After the required number of stockinette rows I finish with another three rows of garter stitch! Voila! Pretty swatch! Then I measure the stockinette portion of the swatch to see how close to the 4" square I've come.

So I started swatching at Stitch 'n Bitch last week (I'm going to blame all mistakes on them... and the alcohol) and the gauge on the pattern was 22 stitches and 30 rows = 4 inches. So I went down a couple of needle sizes since my yarn was a teeny bit thicker and started swatching. Good knitter! Before I left that evening I had bound off my swatch and my gauge wasn't too far off! The stitch gauge was spot-on and the row gauge was a wee bit off but in a way that would make the project a wee bit shorter which would be a-ok for this project. Success! I am such a good knitter!

So the next day (Friday) I cast on and by Sunday afternoon I was kickin' ass. At least 75% finished! Wonderful! Then I held it up... measured some things... looked at the schematic... held it up again... measured again... hmmmmm... instead of coming out shorter, it was coming out remarkably longer which was really screwing up the look and layout of it.

How could this be?! I followed the rules of good knitting! I had swatched! So I pulled out my trusty swatch to re-measure and re-count. 22 stitches - check. 22 rows - check. Wait! 22 rows? 22 rows?! It was supposed to be 30 rows! That would explain it! So to the frog pond it went. All that work. And all I have to show for it is a ball of yarn.

So I've given up on using that yarn for the project because going down more needle sizes would make it a really dense fabric and reworking the pattern to accomodate the different gauge is a bit tricky because it includes lace repeats (and that's all I'm sayin' about it! All will be revealed in a couple of weeks!).

So I got on the computer Sunday evening and put in an order for some yarn from Knit Picks. This is my first time ordering from them and they just shipped my order yesterday. I hope it doesn't take too long to get here! I only have a couple of weeks to complete this project! But the fact that I was 75% finished with it in about 2 days makes me think that I'm going to be ok. I'm going to be ok, right?! I'll get it all finished, right?! I hate depending on our (crappy) postal service for yarn. It stresses me out.

Anyway, after that aggravating Sunday I was happy to see a new issue of Knitty out on Monday! But only one pattern really caught my attention. This:

It's the Lizard Ridge afghan. Isn't it gorgeous?! It requires like 21 balls of Noro Kureyon so it's not a cheap project. But what I love about it is that you don't have to invest a lot of money all at once. It's a perfect long-term project! Buy a ball of Kureyon, make a square! You don't have to think about dye lots and all that garbage. I think I may try and make this! Not right now but who knows? Like I said, it would be a long-term project (and yes I know that all of my projects lately seem to be long-term so shut it!). Stacey over at Sheep in the City is going to start a Lizard Ridge knit-a-long and while I probably won't join it, I will look forward to seeing other people make it and hear what they think about the pattern.

Edited to add: Julia of Moon Tea is also hosting a Lizard Ridge Knit-a-long! Wahooooo!! Lots of Lizard Ridges I get to see!!!

Geez, sorry for the long post! That's what happens when I don't post as often as I should!

Pray to the postal gods that my yarn comes lickety-split!

Posted by allison at 04:58 PM | Comments (4)

September 05, 2006

Still here!

Man oh man. What a busy couple of weeks! Lots of house stuff and work stuff has kept me from blogging (but it's given me a lot to blog about!).

First of all, my work stresses are over... for now. The grant application was submitted and my tenure file was turned in for my 3rd year review. I'm sooooo glad to have that damn thing off my shoulders. It's been stressing me out for months. But not anymore! I'm enjoying a celebratory glass of wine!

And we are doing tons of stuff around the house. First of all, remember the new chairs I mentioned in my last post? Well they came and they both fit in our tiny house! So my new favorite knitting spot is this new leather chair... MY chair...

It's so comfortable! I love it!!

And ever since Geoff and I got central heating and air installed back in February, we have been puzzled by what to do with this...

That is a window a/c unit in the wall of our kitchen. Removing it would leave a gaping hole in the wall and patching it would have been difficult because on the interior wall there is wood paneling that's been painted (so a patch made of drywall would have been noticeable) and trying to match the siding on the outside of the house would have been almost impossible. What to do?

I know! Make the hole BIGGER and fill it with something pretty!

As you can see, we are still doing some painting and touch-ups (and are getting ready to paint the kitchen a different color), but I love all of the light that the kitchen gets now! And now while dining we can look out on our side patio. And it has a great ledge for potted plants and herbs! I want to find some cute pots!

We also tore down the screen on our porch and reframed it to replace some rotting wood (you can see a teeny bit of it in the left of the window above). Plans in the coming weeks include painting and rescreening so we can enjoy some nice dinners on it during the fall. And my big strong hubby gave us a new driveway by putting down 6 tons of gravel and he jackhammered and removed the very old ugly sidewalk that led up to our front door. We are planning on replacing it with a nice walkway made of flagstone. Lots of excitement in our little home!

All of this craziness has led to a noticeable lack of knitting the past couple of weeks. I had been cranking out that blanket for my nephew and then hit the brakes HARD. I just finished up that second strip over the weekend and went ahead a seamed up those first two strips. Just two more strips to knit and seam and then add a border! You can see it in the above picture draped over my chair. I'm hoping that now that my life is a bit less stressful, I'll regain that knitting momentum and finish that blanket soon!

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! Geoff and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine Friday night and we LOVED it. Hilarious. Go see it!

Just three more days in my work week! I love long weekends!

Posted by allison at 09:50 PM | Comments (7)