Another post sans photos . . .

This week has been a real kick in the ass.

Starting with Sunday: wherein an oil change is needed.
We went to Canadian Tire, we bought $50 worth of stuff to get my oil changed. Sunday evening, we settled in to DO the oil change.
It's discovered that the oil plug gasket is ripped. We need a new one, or the oil will leak everywhere. Per Murphy's law, it is past business hours -- drama ensues. Mr. Wonderful seems to have what I can only describe as the common male reaction - yell. I know that there is sweet fuck all we can do until Monday morning, but in I go, on his instructions, to start calling every auto parts place in the phone book. Wal-mart is still open. A 45 minute drive later, we are no further ahead. Aggravating.

Monday morning:
Mr. Wonderful gets up early to go the parts store in town and finish my oil change. He is going to make himself late for work but his employer is much more flexible than mine. I am still sleeping, all cozy in bed.
Suddenly I'm being paged at the top of Mr. Wonderful's lungs. It's 8am. A 4L bottle of motor oil has been upset in the driveway, and we need to mop it up NOW. He sends me in his car for more oil, and something to suck up the spill with. I go to the wrong place. More drama ensues. I go to the right place. Mr. Wonderful is 2 hours late for work, but the oil change is finally completed. We're still trying to get the oil out of the driveway.

Tuesday:
I lose the pattern for the sweater I'm making - Jane. I've never seen this pattern for purchase without the full kit. Groan.

Wednesday:
Mr. Wonderful's car goes into the shop for some brake work. $828 later it comes out.
While I sit at my sewing machine, making a lovely dress, I hear a squeal of tires, and then the impact of two cars. There was an accident right outside our house. No, it didn't involve me or any of our stuff - but drama, nonetheless.

I'm a little worried for the rest of the week. I mean, yesterday was the staff BBQ I planned at work, and it was also my day off. I wonder what horrendous things happened? And then what more is coming my way?

Harry Potter - finished. Not to worry, no spoilers.

So I've just finished reading the final Harry Potter book.

Actually, funny story. I turned down 3 people for plans for today, as I was expecting to be reading all day. I pre-ordered from Amazon, and was expecting delivery this morning. Well, turns out we're in an ineligible postal code - which I discovered this morning. If only I had realized, I would have canceled the order earlier. Alas.
Long story short, I went to Chapters, bought the book ($$) - spent the afternoon with my mother-in-law - and then settled in for a read.

My thoughts post-read:
1- I feel guilty for ignoring Mr. Wonderful all day. Seriously, I feel pretty terrible about it.
2 - The epilogue thingy was . . . icky. I didn't like it. I would have preferred to draw my own conclusions - they may have been identical, but that was laying it on a little thick.
3 - I cried a few times. Lots of sadness going on in this one. The sheer number of deaths was astonishing.
4 - All in all, a very satisfying end to the tale, although some of it felt a little 'cop out' in nature. That's alright, I have to remember it's a kid's book . . . it can't always be the hard answer.
5 - Certain characters impressed the hell out of me. While some of them were barely touched on, there were others that were revealed to a depth we've never seen before. I love Minerva - she's awesome!
6- It's almost too bad it's over. I mean, I'm fine with that, I hope there's not a spin-off series or anything . . . it's just that now I don't get to speculate about the prophecy, or Snape's allegiances anymore. It's all been laid out.

I will soon be in possession of two lovely copies of this book . . . anyone wanna trade for one? ;)

Josephine - Fini!

I spent hours on the couch this morning, plugging away at finishing Josephine - and I think it's safe to say it was worth it!
I also think it's safe to say that taking photos of your own handiwork is fairly difficult. Ignore the blurry.
And perhaps it's safe to say that Mr. Wonderful's camera work is not quite as arty as mine -- but he's not restricted to armslength images. (Hey, look! MS3 chart in the lower left corner)

Details: Josephine from the Summer IK, in Patons Grace, Sky. I bought precisely as much as the pattern said to get, and returned 2 full skeins! WOO! (I was very happy with that).
Decided not to make the tie - I don't think it needs it, and did the neck variation suggested on the IK KAL. Other modifications? Well, I don't think I did the sleeves exactly right, but then I don't think I exactly care. Design feature.

I foresee a lot of wearing in Josephine's future.

Oh Josephine . . .

Why must you be so very difficult? Hm?

After a series of ongoing pattern confusions, I'm up to the neck finshing -- but there's something about the words 'pick up and knit 170 stitches' that makes me feel a little nauseated. Well, that and the whole 'cast on 300 stitches' for the tie.

I just keep telling myself it's going to be beautiful.

MS3

Well, I admit - I'm completely impressed with myself. It may take a lot of time, and a lot of ripping, and a lot of tinking, but I'm doing it! I'm really doing it! I'm knitting lace! I have no idea how to photograph it, since it's unblocked and kind of general mess . . but there it is. I can do it!

I realized a few nights ago that I would knit 10 rows, and rip out 5, knit 10 rows, rip out 5. This was becoming demoralizing and time consuming. I discovered a cure -- obsessive life lines! In fact, yesterday when I attempted 15 rows without life lines, I paid dearly. They all got ripped back. It seems that one is necessary every 4 rows, because invariably, I miss something, and when I go back to fix it, stitches get dropped. Madness.

In other news: Josephine is almost done! I'm knitting the cute little cap sleeves on, and then the neckline finish. I'm really happy with my cast on for this one, so I don't want to do the bottom 'finishing'.
I'm at the heel turning portion of my toe up sock. That's at least a little daunting. I don't think I'm any good at short rows. I suppose I'll get LOTS of practice. (This photo embodies everything I don't like about socks. See how long it looks? That's how long it feels too!)

My Knitty board SP sent me some mail. I find it very, very cool. Check it out:



All in all, it was a very full weekend. We cleaned our basement

I got new wheels for my Longboard

This is my side table right now. As you can see, it's a mess.

The Blue pile is Josephine. The pink is Leda's dream. The tan is MS3. The Bing Christmas album is for added ambiance. It came out of hiding during our cleaning spree.

Lazy hazy days of . . .

I've become lazy . . . oh not with my knitting! But with just about everything else. I blame my formative years. The ones where I had summers off. Sigh. I miss those years. Sometimes.

So here I am, with photos to share. Yes, you heard right, there are photos today! Lots of them.

Let's begin with the Montego Bay scarves. Since they've been done for a long while now . . .
First, I made one in Handmaiden lace silk. It's really light and thin. I feel really tall and thin when I wear this scarf. I'm sure I don't LOOK tall and thin, but there it is.



When that one was done, I liked the pattern so much I made another! Round 2 was done in the called for yarn, Handmaiden Sea Silk in the berry colourway. It's a much more dense scarf, with really different stitch definition.

There are no photos for this one, but let me tell you about the MS3 mis-hap. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now. I was all the way up to row 85 - just 15 rows to go on the clue - when I dropped a stitch. It unraveled three rows. I painstakingly picked it up, convinced myself everything was fine, and moved on to row 86. On row 87, it became apparent that everything was not fine. The whole thing was off. I started tinking. I tinked about 4 rows, when approximately 10 more stitches jumped off the needles. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and started ripping. It only hurt a little. Now I'm back at row 30-something, working with beads I like much better. I can even see them! That was Monday morning.

In further Monday tragedy -- I was almost done Josephine! I even caught the at the same time in the decreases on the pattern, and I was feeling so pleased with myself . . but the stitch count wasn't adding up. Something was wrong. I checked the internet - no help. I posted on Knitty - oddly enough, no help. So I went back to the pattern, and read more closely. I had caught the 'every four rows', I had missed the 'and every other row'. I got lots of ripping practice on Monday.



I don't have the opportunity to focus strictly on Josephine on weekdays, but this is how much I have done now. And it's done correctly.



And to make me feel better, here is the back, completed.



And, even though I haven't touched it in weeks, I photographed my toe up sock . . see? Isn't it lovely?