Holy Crap!

Today, I learned my tolerance for traffic that is at a dead stop is roughly two and a half hours. I think this is not bad. I know this because that was my breaking point. That's when the headache came on and when I started cursing at people who were honking when there was clearly no place to go. That was when I nearly broke into tears when Jeff called and I was no further to getting home than I was an hour and half prior to that moment. Okay, I'm exagerating. I was a mile closer. Seriously. It took me an hour and a half to drive a mile east. It took me twenty minutes to drive two hundreths of a mile. I was still in a good mood when I decided to time how much progress I was making. This did include trying to find a better route, but there was standstill traffic everywhere I turned.

The first half of the day was lovely. I went to my knitting group, had lunch with Mary and went to Vroman's, one of the few independent bookstores left in our area. Everything went downhill from there. The freeway was shut down due to an overturned tanker. I think it might have been carrying gasoline. So I had to take the streets home from Pasadena to Claremont. Around 25 miles. Traffic everywhere. In the end, it took me three and a half hours to get home. Jeff's in it now from West LA. He's taking a different freeway, but you know what happens when one freeway shuts down, it creates havoc on the others. He called me at 7:30 pm (2 hours into his drive) and told me he thinks he'll be home by 9pm.

At one point, I was listening to my iPod, I texted Mary because I had to vent and I pulled out my knitting. All things one is not supposed to do while driving, but I would argue with an officer of the law if I would have been pulled over that I wasn't driving. I was sitting in my car. Thankfully, there was no way an officer was going to get anywhere near my car to see that I was doing all of those things. The knitting did calm me down a little.


I worked on Le Slouch. I'm just about ready to start my decreases.

I finished my Tamarind Cowl. I hope to take pictures soon to post.

Today is my boy, Cooper's, first birthday. Here he is in his new favorite napping place. Happy birthday Cooper! We love you!

BTW, thanks for listening. I needed that.

Today I was tempted again by malabrigo. Since I finished my dad's scarf, another skein waiting in front of the line in my stash has been calling out to me. "Pick me, pick me", it pleaded. What was I to do? I missed that buttery fiber running through my fingers.

So, as part of my knitting group's Feel Like a Floozy KAL, I decided to cast-on Gretel. It did not go well. I swatched three times before getting gauge. By then I just wanted to cast-on already. But no. I had to watch the tutorial on the tubular cast-on. Seems pretty straight forward. But then she suggested casting on with a straight needle before transferring the stitches to circulars. I had already pulled out a plethora of circulars and dpns, I didn't want to go digging through my straights.



Plus, I realized I would have to use the Magic Loop method since my dpns aren't long enough for the amount of stitches required. This meant I would have to watch another tutorial because I've never done the Magic Loop before. Forget it. I just wanted to knit. Gretel will have to be for another day. At least I know what size needles to use to get gauge. Maybe a short pair of circulars will work in lieu of the magic loop. I'll have to go needle diving again (another day).

Instead, I cast on Toasty in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.


These look so cozy. We've been having some chilly weather here in SoCal and it seem my hands and arms are always cold when I'm out and about. These should help.

I want to share a great yarn resource with you. Many of you probably already know about it, but for those of you who don't, meet Yarndex. It's an index of yarn information. You can look up a particular yarn and it will give you its weight, fiber content and shades that it comes in. I use it when I want to see if a yarn will work for a specific pattern, get ideas for other yarns I can use, or when I want to see the shade cards. It's a very useful site.

Stay tuned! Will Gretel make it into the Floozy KAL or will she be tossed aside for other enticing knits?

Flooziness - Day 2

Today I cast on the Tamarind Cowl (rav link) for the Feel Like a Floozy KAL.




I'm using leftover Sundara Aran Silky Merino from my Shetland Triangle Shawl, which I now realize that I never posted the finished product. Partly because some of the photos are blurry and I was hoping to get better ones. I never got around to it, so here it is.



Just squint your eyes to adjust the picture. ;)

Project: Shetland Triangle Shawl
Yarn: Sundara Aran Silky Merino in Ruby Port
Neddles: KnitPicks Options US Size 9
Start: August 10, 2008
Finish: August 31, 2008

I'm really happy with how this came out. I wore it around the house all evening after it was done blocking. I added three extra repeats in the pattern. I wanted it to be a little bigger than others I had seen.





I. Love. This. Yarn. It is gorgeous. If you have the opportunity to buy some, do it! You won't be disappointed.

Feelin' Like a Floozy

My knitting group is starting the new year off with reckless abandon. We're doing a Feel Like a Floozy KAL. Everday for the first week in January we're going to cast on a new project. Or two, three, etc. It can be anything and we don't have to finish it. Frogging is allowed.

Today I casted on Le Slouch by Wendy Bernard.


I'm using Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed. I'm loving the nubbiness of this yarn in seed stitch. I'm planning to finish this one after I buy some longer dpns. I'm squeezing 103 stitches on 4 six inch long needles. I finally put those little rubber thingies on the ends of the needles to keep from losing stitches but I only have two (it was getting quite frustrating).

I wonder what I'm going to feel like knitting tomorrow?!

Wanna join in the fun? Grab some needles and yarn and cast on!