Bubble Arms

CelticRaglan.528.4
Originally uploaded by Wordpurler

I have hit a snag. Or rather, a bubble.

I blithely started working down the left sleeve of M's sweater, and have worked, as you can see, an AWFUL LOT of the sleeve. Like, 90% of the sleeve. And, according to the pattern, with my personal gauge, I should work until about 38 sts are left. But I am nearly there and I have over! 60! stitches left. That is 1/3 TOO MANY. 50% too many.

Ugh.

So, before I pop myself out of bubble (sleeve) that is denial, I am going to FINISH the sleeve, having dramatically increased the rate of my decreases. (From 2 sts every 6 rounds to 4 sts every 4 rounds) And I'll see what it looks like on my husband. And I already know that it will look like he's an escapee from a quasi-Elizabethan road show. (But I hope not.)

As my grandpa says, I should have used my head to save my feet and double-checked my guesstimate rate of decreases before I began.

D'oh!!

A meme

Olive tagged HSKS5 members for this meme, so here goes--

(Answers are from Dana, not Hydrangea)

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Spring of 1998 was my senior year of college. I was finishing up classes, was working as an Assistant Resident Director in a residence hall, and was a newlywed. I had recently quit knitting, forever, after several hat mishaps. (Famous last words!) That summer I worked for an educational services company, and that fall I did my student teaching. It was an exciting, stressful year, and one I would not relive for a million dollars.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today: finish grading a set of essays, touch base with a friend of mine who I've been missing at school, take extra clothes for Baby E to daycare, create a handout for the journalism meeting after school, and try to finish sleeve 1 on M's sweater.

3. Snacks I enjoy: potato chips and milk; ice cream; nice, crisp Washington apples; kiwi; fruit-flavored candy like Skittles, Starburst, or Jelly Belly jellybeans; hummus; california rolls; black licorice.

4. Places I’ve lived: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Texas, and Kansas. It looks like a long list; however, all but 6 years (of 32, so far) were in Washington. Hence my love of apples, wheat, salmon, tulips, orcas, evergreen trees, and very tall mountains.

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: fully fund public schools and libraries; endow a building at my alma mater; travel the world; buy any book and any skein of yarn I ever wanted, whenever I wanted to.

6. Who I want to know more about: anyone who'd like to participate

A family of wands

Wood type: ebony Length: 9 inches Core: Phoenix Feather get your own wand!

Mr D's wand (ebony is cool.) He said his personality was fiery, which cracked me up--he's 5!!

Wood type: tulip Length: 13 inches Core: Gryffon Feather get your own wand!

M's wand. Tulip tree = Golden Poplar

Wood type: holly Length: 11½ inches Core: Kelpie Hair get your own wand!

My wand.

Knitting First

M.AnniversarySweater1
Originally uploaded by Wordpurler

I'm picking up on Emma's question, which I saw on Andromache's blog.

A knitting first? Well...my most absorbing current project, the Wedding Band Celtic Raglan, is FULL of firsts.

1. first grown-up sized sweater
2. first cabled sweater (the cables only run down the arms, but it counts, doesn't it??)
3. first cabled sweater where I charted the cable all by my very own self
4. first conglomeration pattern. By this I mean that I didn't COME UP with the pattern myself, but I have conglomerated a bunch of ideas from pattern/unpatterns that I like together in one opus. Sources include:
   
   • Stefanie Japel's Cable-Down Raglan from IK Spring 2007 (for the idea of top-down cables on a raglan sweater)
     
   • the incredible custom-fit top down raglan pattern by Pamela Costello (for the numbers and the construction instructions)
   • Elizabeth Zimmerman's seamless sweaters (for the idea for contrast-color hems and the secret knitted-in message)
   • The Girl from Auntie and Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting (for the basics of charting celtic cables)
   • Marnie MacLean's tutorial for using Excel to chart colorwork
     

I'm always impressed and excited by how willing knitters are to share information, patterns, strategies, and techniques. I have learned so much in the past two years after coming back to knitting; when I first started in 1997 I didn't realize that there were so many non-book resources, and I didn't have any knitters in my family or my friend group--besides my friend Joe who taught me, but he only knew the basics himself--to rely upon. I made mistakes, got frustrated, and put the needles away, for good (I thought) in favor of sewing and quilting. If it hadn't been for an impulse purchase of Mason-Dixon Knitting, I don't think I would have discovered the online knitting community, first blogs, then knit-alongs, now Ravelry, and I wouldn't have had the last two years of sheer enjoyment as I've motored through learning various skills and producing some wonderful, practical projects and gifts.

What is your favorite technique you've ever learned, from the simple to the complex? Why? If you write a post about it, leave a comment and a link!

Musical roommates (by Hydrangea)

My roommates Cecilia and Ingrid are so amazing! I could not have asked for more compatible roomies. We all love and are involved in musical ventures!

[editor's note: Hydrangea uses more exclamation points than I do. -dks]

Cecilia plays the cello and a bunch of other instruments, and Ingrid plays wind instruments. I am ALSO a cello player...lapsed for a few years...and a singer. I suggested to them that we create a Ravenclaw Chamber Ensemble and would love for any other musical 'Claws to join us. If we don't get many members, that's OK, because we can always borrow some Charmed instruments to help with accompaniment. We've been up all hours trying to arrange music for two cellos and a clarinet. It is an unusual combination but quite lovely, I think.

In other news: I think I am finally getting the hang of being at Hogwarts. For homework this week, I made a big boo-boo, though; our Head Girl posted a cryptogram and I didn't have time to get to it, then I was reading some of the other students' postings and I ACCIDENTALLY saw the answer before I had done the work myself. I do not believe in plagiarism, but I also don't want for us to lose points for the House! I was really upset, because of course both of my roommates had done the work, and they said as long as I was honest I should post the answer just in case.

Can you keep a secret?
The headquarters for the order of the phoenix is at no. 12 grimmauld place.

What is the order of the phoenix? is it a group anyone can join?

An animalistic conundrum (by Hydrangea)

So much to write about! This first term at Hogwarts is spinning my head. I am so lucky to have the nicest roommates of all time, Cecilia and Ingrid, who are helping me figure out what it means to be a witch!

First off, I came without an animal. I soon realized, however, that I needed a companion. My roommate Cecilia has a frog that she loves dearly and seeing her with her animal pal made me realize that I needed a companion, too. Cecilia is very thoughtful and analytical about these things, and we stayed up late into the night discussing the pros and cons of various animals.

Finally, though, practicality trumped theory (and when does that ever happen for a 'Claw??). As I mentioned, my da has been communicating with me A LOT about what it's like at Hogwarts. I practically could have set up my bed in the Owlery for the amount of time I was spending each day trudging up and down the stairs with notes to send off to Da or Auntie Coriolis, because they have asked me to help them with their anecdotal data for the paper they're writing on "The Transitional Experiences of a Student from a Non-Magical (Muggle) Family into the Magical (Non-Muggle) Community."

I told them they need to get a better title.

Anyway, it soon became clear to me that I needed an owl. The problem was that I am also concerned about Da's confidentiality. You see, the Ministry agreed to let him continue to do his fieldwork as an undercover Muggle; he's a Squib anyway, my mum and brother are non-magical, so there's no problem with the family staying in London and Da continuing his research and reporting. But there can't very well be an owl flying in and out of the house at all hours, could there? Then Cecilia had a brainwave! What about a raven? They are common birds, found all over Europe and North America, highly intelligent, live quite a long time, and are good fliers. A raven flying in the city would be much less conspicuous than an owl of any sort. I asked my head of House and she said they could surely make an exception in my special case, considering Da's position with the Ministry.

My raven is on order from Diagon Alley and I can't wait! I think I will name her Scylla. In the meantime, I will keep making the trip up and down the stairs, reporting on my experiences. Auntie C said she may want to visit Hogwarts to collect some data in person.

Oh, and my other roommate? Ingrid and I have hit it off so very well! She and I both have interest in becoming Hogwarts professors someday--she in International Magic Cooperation (I think she might like an exchange year at Beauxbatons, because she is already fluent in French!!) and me in Muggle Studies. I also want to do as much writing as I can here--I think the state of the wizarding press is just terrible, especially that horrible Rita Skeeter, and I wonder how one gets a job with the Daily Prophet??

Body, complete!

M.AnniversarySweater2
Originally uploaded by Wordpurler

The Wedding Band Celtic Cable top-down raglan is progressing nicely. This photo is bizarre--the color of the yarn is really a greenish-tobacco-brownish heather, but it keeps coming out as anything but brown OR green when I try to photograph it. (Maybe it was the fact that today was the first true sunny, warm day since EVER in the PNW, and my camera didn't know how to deal with the ACTUAL SUNLIGHT coming in the window???)

I finished up the body on Wednesday or Thursday, then got M. to confirm the length was OK; he also decided that he wanted it hemmed rather than having ribbing. He fears the blousing effect. It took another couple of days for me to figure out what secret message to knit into the hem...stay tuned...