Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Today I'm wearing the Eyelet Cardi/Bunny Wrap, and my god! The hair, the dander! There's pink bunny fur everywhere, inclduding the back of my throat and underneath my eyelids, and wisps of it floating about my keyboard. This will deter me from using Classic Elite Lush again, even though it's such a nice and soft and delicious yarn.
Filed Under: Rebecca 29 | Eyelet Cardi
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Woo woo woo, cheesy pose
Pattern: #6 Shaped Top from Adrienne Vittadini Spring 2005
Yarn: Adrienne Vittadini Dianne, cotton/microfiber blend
Gauge: 17 sts=4" on US6/4.25 mm needles
OK I don't know how I feel about this piece. The part that gave me the most trouble was of course the lace pattern around the bust, and thus had the potential to look the wonkiest. But I ignored the chart in the book, drew my own (BIG help), and despite a row boo-boo which I now can't even see, the lace turned out pretty decent. No complaints. The picot finishing around the neck and armhole edges look really nice too.
It's everything else that looks off, from the bottom front to the waist shaping to the entire back piece, knitted in plain ole stockinette stitch. It's too big. I used the yarn specified (for the first time ever, ironically), went down a needle size to get a smaller gauge, and still it came out all billowy. Not at all a fan of the drape. I could shave a whole 3 inches off from the width next time. If there is a next time. Most likely there won't be.
Taking a break next to a cemetery in the Boston Commons.
Despite this, Dianne's grand day out included getting passport photos taken, dinner at Parish Cafe downtown, and a movie afterwards (Star Wars Ep. III. Horrible). I figured if I wore the top around for an entire day in public, Dianne would grow on me. That isn't even a choice really. I am determined that she WILL grow on me, I WILL like her. Because you can't just not wear what you've slaved hours and hours and hours on.
I did very much enjoy seaming Dianne. Left side, right side, done!
Filed Under: Adrienne V | Completed Projects
Friday, June 03, 2005
Putting Dianne under 30 lbs of books was a bad idea. So was soaking her thoroughly in a waterbath. That was three days ago. A spin in the dryer seems to make Dianne even wetter. I was actually feeling good about the finished piece before the flattening trauma. Now not so much. All that manhandling has stretched her some more. She's too big, too flappy in the breeze and too limp and boohoo I am too sad. Maybe I will give her away.
I have a hangover.
By the way, I have been getting a lot of mileage out of AJ. In fact I wore AJ twice this week to the office, paired with even the same shirt underneath and the same pants. I was able to get away with such a fashion faux pas because since Tuesday I have seen and spoken to exactly no one (okay maybe I spoke to one person. Two at the most). How is this possible you ask? First, many people were away on conferences. I think. Second, I have this weird corner office in the way back of the floor that gets little traffic and even if there was traffic, the wall directly in front prevents anyone from seeing the office's occupant. If there is one. If a consultant sits in an office and no one knows she's there working, then has she gotten anything done?
And so I wore AJ over and over. AJ's been in the wash too, and although the color faded somewhat, she's holding up extremely well.
Filed Under: Adrienne V | Life
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
The good news is I finished Dianne the other night. The bad news is that in an attempt to uncurl the unruly bottom edges, I subjected Dianne to the force of Webster's Dictionary and two more text books, and any little bit of air has been entirely stamped out. Dianne and all her perky picot bobbles are flat, lifeless and crushed. I tried her on after retrieving her from underneath the pile of books, and hey I was wearing a box. Poor Dianne. Stupid me. I'm going to attempt to plump the stitches back up by soaking the piece and maybe give it a quick run-through in the dryer.
Filed Under: Adrienne V
Monday, May 30, 2005
I could have spent 5 hours in Vegas and seen all I needed to see. Vegas is not the place to go to if you don't care two flips about gambling. Sounds obvious. I was hoping the people watching and the hotel hoping would be enough. And my god was it HOT. I know I was looking forward to the heat, but an entire week of triple-digit highs was hard to keep up with. If you didn't sweat outdoors, you did as soon as you entered an air-conditioned casino - but at that point it was more like you were condensing rapidly. You know it's out of control when the meteorologist calls a high of 99F a "cool down."
"O" was amazing as expected. So was the brunch buffet at the new Wynn. They had congee, and Thai lychees.
 
Left: South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Right: Red sand at Zion.
The best part was the drive to the Grand Canyon and Zion. I didn't plan well for this trip at all, so we didn't have time for hikes, which would have been perfect because the temps there were a good 20 degrees cooler. We drove from Vegas to the South Rim, stopping at Hoover Dam along the way, quick detour along Route 66, and made it to the Canyon in time for sunset.
Zion in fact was a last minute "detour" - I hadn't realized how close it was. Instead of driving back to Vegas we drove East around the GC, through Navajo Country, through the Painted Desert, and into Utah. It was a beautiful drive. Had I planned this through we would have spent less time in Vegas and more time at the national parks.
Duck had a mild case of food poisoning from a suspect hamburger at a restaurant in the Canyon and puked on the side of the highway in Utah. First time that stretch of dry dry desert had seen any precipitation in weeks.
As far as knitting goes, I brought with me the other Adrienne V project, and did a few inches. Lots of cables and yo's to keep things interesting. Pics later. As far as Dianne goes, I will have her finished TODAY, fingers crossed.
Filed Under: Life | Travel | Las Vegas
Saturday, May 21, 2005
We're off to Vegas today for a week, where it's going to be hovering over 100 degrees the entire time. I. Can't. Wait. I say this now as we're mired in yet another crappy week of fall-like weather up here. 50 degrees at the end of May, I'm so sick of it! I can't wait to complain about the heat, sweat like a pig, eat ice cream all day, slather on sunblock, wear shorts. Anyway we have no day-to-day plans in Vegas aside from seeing O at the Bellagio aw yeeeahhh and a side trip to the Grand Canyon.
Haven't been knitting much. Some high school buddies were in town so I've been entertaining. The back of Dianne is nearly finished but I have yet to make it to the armhole. I just can't seem to get there, and I'm on the 5th and last skein.
So see you next week!
Filed Under: Life | Travel | Las Vegas
Monday, May 16, 2005
I might be slipping into a knitting funk. Nothing I've been working so far is distracting me enough to spend hours and hours on. In fact, I've been doing the laundry, mopping the floors, cleaning the house, pulling out weeds, and other various chores that I normally would happily neglect - and have been - in favor of knitting. Clearly something is amiss. Something like my Knitting Groove.
Three start 'n stop projects to talk about:
Dianne
Hey now, a real blocking board!
Can you see the boo-boo in the lace pattern? No? Great.
The front of Dianne has been done for some time now. Nothing but stockinette from here on out and it's so boring, I find it difficult to get myself motivated to finish. Only a few inches completed so far, and it's killing my hands for some reason.
Chevron Rib Tank
 To change things up I started the Chevron Rib Tank, free from interweaveknits.com.
Just a few rows into it and I discovered I didn't like this pattern. The chevron is extremely steep, it practically goes down to the crotch, and plus, it's only on the front, while the back is straight across. Goofy McGoofers. I'm going to rework this pattern to reduce the length of the chevron, or come up with something new entirely. But for now let's just put it aside.
Cotton Tank from Phildar
Once the tank project was nixed, I decided I'd start on something else rather than return to Dianne: a cotton tank from Phildar Tendance Famille, using Cotton Ease in yellow. I like this pattern. It's simple but interesting, which is half of how I would describe Cotton Ease. Simple yarn, uninteresting colors. The price you get for the yardage of Cotton Ease is fantastic, but the color choices are pretty much primary school. Is yellow my color? All feelings revolt, but I'm feeling frisky...We'll see how this goes.
The M1's that make the diamond pattern
in the center are also making small decorative holes.
Filed Under: Adrienne V | Phildar
Friday, May 13, 2005
Thanks to everyone who left such lovely, ego-inflating comments on AJ! I really appreciate it. I put AJ through an unscheduled stress test the other day when I ran a small marathon to catch my train after work, heavy laptop bag in tow. AJ was slipping off my shoulders. I think I stretched that sucker pretty good. But, the buttons stayed sewed on (was worried about that because I did a pretty ad hoc job sewing them on), and sleeves didn't get torn off. Not that that is usually a huge concern, but sometimes I wonder if mattress stitching sleeves isn't strong enough, if I should be using backstitch instead...and now I won't be wondering no mo.
So now I'm focusing back on AV Dianne. For awhile there I was tempted to abandon ship, then decided I couldn't, then sat down and drew my own chart.
My chart's better
I charted only the RS, and color-coded the yarn-overs to better see the diamond pattern. It is soooo much easier this way. Now I'm nearly done with the pattern, thank god. I still made an error, even though I redid the offending row(s) several times it came out the same (wrong). My chart looked ok, so I don't know what happened, and I don't care! You can't tell otherwise.
Filed Under: Adrienne V
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