d'oh: d, apostrophe, o, h

So I have pics: an FO (zippered cardigan--the one that i didn't frog. the good kid, let's call her, not like that disappointment her sister the katia twist zippered cardi turned out to be); pics of a baby sweater in progress - still technically a UFO; as well as pics of ... (dramatic pause) sewing! BUT as you have probably guessed, computer decided to NOT play nice with camera this weekend. The pics have been downloaded (uploaded?) finally but I have not been able to convince computer to let iphoto make usable copies of them. sigh. it's like having 2 year olds, except that in this case I can just unplug computer when it's making me crazy, however, there is no hope that eventually computer will just grow up already and get to a stage that i can have a reasonable conversation with it. If/when i'm able to pry the pics out of iphoto, I'll edit to add them.

(also, I'm writing this rather stealthily at work. computer (at home) has decided that any time i fill in a blank on an on-line form (like, for example, the title field on blogger) it is going to shut down my browser altogether. WHEE. I don't get to sit at my desk and websurf at lunch anymore, so I have to do this, under the radar, so to speak... shh)

**Edit (top secret - eyes only) I finally had a chance to crawl under my desk at work and find the USB port so I could up/down (?) load my pics on the computer here. Yippee (shhh ... keep it down) so I'm gonna load them into flickr and finish this post at home...

I took a knitting break Sunday b/c my wrists were hurting, which was not fun and a bit worrisome. What will I do if my wrists hurt and I can't knit? Honestly, I didn't know what to do with my time. I mean, other than read. Or play guitar, or go for a walk, talk to a friend, sew something... oh. I guess I could probably come up with SOMETHING...

Why were my wrists hurting, you ask? (aw, thanks for your concern.) This is why:

Zippered Cardigan, free pattern from elann.com. It has the odd name of "Panda Ski Jacket". (I realize that "Panda" is the name of the yarn. But still, doesn't it make you picture puffy coats on black and white bears?)
The yarn is a bulky cotton/acrylic that I recycled from a sweater from Value Village. It knit up quickly, but it made me realize why knitters often complain that working with cotton is hard on the wrists/arms. yikes.

To give my wrists/arms a break (and because of the crafting ADD. yeah, you know) i also started another baby sweater for yet-to-be-born/named twin nephews that my sister-in-law is having (I guess technically, I should say "my brother and sister-in-law are having" or vice versa, but since it's her carrying them around right now, I'll let it be her credit). It was a fun knit, but knit with sock yarn on tiny (compared to the bulky sweater) needles. A teeny sweater shouldn't have 114 stitches across... really.

Pattern from Summer 2003 Knitter's magazine (found very on sale in a 2 pack at Chapters a month ago! hoo-ray). Pattern name: (I am NOT making this up... and why would I?) "MexicaliBaby Ole" (imagine the accent on the "e" in Ole). It is knit from cuff to cuff

which was interesting. Can you see what I didn't notice until I bound off? I started over there on the left side of the pic (right sleeve of the sweater) and knit over to the left sleeve. Can you see it? How bout a closeup?

NOW do you see it? I knit this with DGB Confetti sock yarn. What I didn't realize until I BOUND OFF was that the color # was printed in the spot for dye lot and the dye lot, which I didn't even see, is ONE DIGIT DIFFERENT from the first ball to the second.

Say it with me: D'OH.

So, I decided that if anyone says anything about the baby sweater I will just say that I meant to do that. and look smug as if to say "and what hand-knits did YOU bring for the babies?"

So I seamed it

(can you tell I'm just excited that I got the pics off the camera and onto flickr?)

and worked the short-row-ish collar:


See how high the collar is in the back? D'OH. I followed the directions but my collar is really really tall. The one in the picture in the magazine doesn't look like this. hmm....

I'm planning to just rip it out and do a ribbed v-neck, after looking at the pictures, I like the v-neck better than the big honkin' collar.


When I was finishing this up on Saturday, I realized how much my wrists were hurting. This called for drastic measures, namely, taking time off from knitting. So, I decided to do some sewing (sorry. punny. unintentional). I had bought a bunch of remnants at Fanny's Fabrics closing out sale (not the best sale prices I've ever seen, but TONS of stuff).

I have this thing about fabric. Cutting into nice, new fabric freaks me out. Picking out fabric on a bolt and being sure that I will want to make and wear something out of it is so hard for me! Then, I get the fabric home and am scared to start b/c what if I mess it up? I paid for that! And, it required someone in the store helping me to obtain it! With yarn, it's so easy to get a do-over. Fabric, not as easy.

The weird(er) thing though is that I have NO problem cutting into remnants. Same fabric, it's just already cut and rolled up. Why this is such a distinction in my head, I don't know.

Anyway... So I had this fabric from Fanny's and I thought I would try to make something out of it. It's a jersey/knit fabric and I just have a regular old machine with no fancy stretchy stitches, so I figured it was gonna be an experiment all around.

I pulled out a tank top that fit like how I wanted the new one to fit, traced it out and got ready to cut. This was complete figure-it-out-as-you-go sewing. I just cut extra pieces as I needed them, and somehow it worked out.

As I was pinning pieces on my floor (no table big enough) I pulled a pin out of my plastic pin box with the little piece of foam on top. the top decided to come off and all of the pins decided to see what it was like on the floor. D'OH. (or, if you want to imagine what it was really like, think of some more colorful language). So, I started picking them up and putting them back in the plastic box. They did NOT want to lie down and behave. I couldn't close the box. D'OH (or, again, more colorful language) So I started putting the pins into a jam jar that I had from jam my mom gave me. Then, I realized that one of the little balls of yarn (too little yarn to be used for anything, too much to throw out. you know) was exactly the right size to fit in the top of the jar. So, seeing as how necessity is the mother of invention, or whatever, I did this:


I like how it looks, and it works really well. Yippee.

So, back to the sewing. I had everything sewn but the side seams and the hem, when I started on the first side. I got the side sewn up and then this happened:

Can you see that? That, my new internet friends, is the tip of the needle. The ONLY needle I had left.

D'OH (once again, you can safely assume that my language here was slightly more colorful)

So, I started knitting again, cause you know, can't sit still without something to do with my hands, and counted the hours until I could go to the store to buy needles. Cause, you know, this happened after the stores closed. Of course.

Here, finally, is the finished product. I'm really happy with it (see the smile?)


Side view:

See how the side has that vertical bit? That was not part of the plan, originally. I somehow managed to cut it too narrow, so added that as I went. I like it better this way, so I guess it was just one more happy accident in a weekend of them!