Thursday, September 29, 2005
Linda asked me a while ago, why my cat's name is Banana. When I first got him from Kattens Værn (cat shelter) two years ago, he had been named Gustav at the shelter. But a few days later I realizedd that it was just not the right name for him. With some help from my sister I decided that Rasmus would be a better name. Unfortunately that name didn't stick to him either, it just didn't sound right when I called out for him. And then the name Banana came out of nowhere, and it really is the right name for him and his big kitty ears. When I met T a year and a half ago,
he wondered about the name as well. He asked me: Do you call him Banana because he is not yellow? And yes, that is probably why!
No pictures again today. Is this what you get when you don't pay? Blogger-schmogger!
Hanne wanted to know some more about the CC pattern. The pattern is originally called sjælevarmer med stor krave. The pattern number is 14 05 58 05 and it is by HP Garn. I got the pattern from Nicoline Garn on Nørrebrogade, Kbh N, but you can get both pattern and yarn here. I'm using the original yarn Iceland from Løve, and I'm impressed with the yarn. The sleeves I reknitted look absolutely fine even though I didn't wash the yarn after frogging the two first sleeves.
I'm getting closer to finishing CC. I'm ready to pick up stitches around the wrist. Ok, done or done... um...I'm not quite sure that the collar is wide enough. I'd really like the two front corners (is it possible to have corners on something round?) to be able to cover my boobs without flattening them completely. But I'm playing it safe and will knit the two cuffs first, and then if there is yarn left over, I'll try and knit a few more pattern repeats on the collar. I tried it on yesterday, and it will be ok if I don't knit anymore on the collar, it'll just be more of a shrug than a cardigan.
Please let there be enough yarn to knit a wider collar!!!
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Meme
Number of books in the house.
I grew up in a house full of books, and I used to play bookstore or library sitting in front of the bookshelves, actually the bookshelf-picture Linda posted pretty much resembles the bookshelves I grew up with. One time I even discovered some money my dad had hidden in a book 5 to 10 years earlier. He hid the money because we were all going away on vacation and he didn't want the money laying around the house while we were away. When we came back, he had forgotten which book he had hid the money in....He only remembered that the book was about something that smelled bad. I don't know how much time he spent looking for the money, my guess would be quite a lot of time. Years later I found the money in a book about fishing! Guess he was right about the smell.
Anyway... the number of books in my house: not enough. I love books and I love to have books around me, but the prices on books in Denmark has made me a passionate library user. I estimate that we have about 250 books in the house.
Last book I bought.
Do knitting books count? I've bought two recently, Strik og sy til den lille ny and shawls and scarves - both very fine books.
In fiction the most resent buy would have to be Harry Potter 6.. um...I actually bought it twice! But it was an emergency, really! I pre-ordered the book from Play months before the release of the book, then T (the one formerly know as the Boy, now with the new uninspired nickname: T!) and I planned our summer vacation, and it turned out that we would be leaving on the day of the release, meaning that I wouldn't be home when the book was delivered or be able to take the book with me on vacation like I had planed. I decided that I would just buy some other books to take with on vacation, The Time Traveler's Wife and The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, both really good books! At the airport T asked me if I were sure that I didn't want the book, because it was for sale at the airport bookstore, and he wanted to buy it for me. I told him that I was a grown up and that I would be perfectly able to wait until we got home two weeks later....And I probably would have been able to wait, had I not finished the two books I had brought with me a little sooner than I had expected AND seen 117 people (at least!) lying around the pool reading HP 6. I had to get it. I just couldn't stand not reading it. So maybe I'm not a grown up (28 isn't old is it?) at all. I finished the book while we were still away, and I left the book at the hotel, as a kind of Bookcrossing. Er.. well...there really wasn't room in the suitcase.
Last book I read
I spent all of Sunday reading Undtagelsen by Christian Jungersen from front to cover. I meant to blog that day, but I was just really caught up in the story and I couldn't put the book down. The book is about four women who work at a center for information about genocide. They receive some e-mail death threats and then the story takes off. It was interesting, because the books also includes some articles about the psychology of people involved in committing genocide. Pretty scary stuff.
Earlier this month I've read Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, and The Kite Runner, both really good reads.
Five favorites
Børnerim, by Halfdan Rasmussen. "Tyggegummikongen Bobbel, sidder i en ...." Reading these nursery rhymes is really like reliving my entire childhood.
Winnie the Pooh - one of the first books I read. I still read achapterr once in a while. It really helps put things in perspective.
100 years of solitude. Love Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This book was the one that got me turned on to magical realism and South American literature.
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami. Great book, with elements of magical realism, and historic fact.
Kærlighedens kåbe, by Thit Jensen. About a young mans fight with tuberculosissis. I cried and I cried.
Passing it on
I will pass this meme on to Lola. Like me, she is a new blogger, and she has been book shopping TODAY!!
Monday, September 26, 2005
round and round and round and.....
I've circled (ok tried to circle it, it's hard without a mouse!) the problem area. The collar is not knit in the round because it is not round. It's open in the back, like a shirt collar, just in the back of the neck instead of the front.
Huh? Why? What were they thinking?
I honestly hadn't seen this... er... design feature earlier, because I naturally assumed that the collar would be knit in the round like Nanas bolero.
But of course,I couldn't live with that, so I knit it in the round anyway. I fiddled a little with the chart, left some stitches out and knitted away. I have been a little concerned that the collar will be too short, when worn, to go all around the shrug without stretching too much, but I can't be bothered to take the shrug of the needles to check it before it is finished, and now that I'm almost done, I think it will be fine.
Right now it look like this:
Well, you'll have to imagine what CC looks like now - Blogger won't upload the picture!!!!
Ok, I'm done with Blogger for tonight, they must be trying to drive me insane... and it is working! Mwah!
Thursday, September 22, 2005
New person
Er...right now the bear looks more like an alien than a bear, but I hope that will change with some stuffing, a pair of arms and ears, and a face! The bear is also a lot bigger than I had expected, and I am really pleased I didn't knit the original Bobbi Bear, because it would be too big for new born.
It is a pretty quick knit, on 5,5 mm dpns, but the yarn....it is soft... and totally unforgiving of any of my knitting flaws. Everything shows with this yarn, I think that if I were to knit the bear again, I'd use a wool yarn instead.
Look what I got at Netto:
I took out this book from the library the minute I first found out about my friends pregnancy. I knitted a pair of tiny socks for baby, they turned out to be baby's first piece of hand knit (might as well start them early - in the womb isn't too soon!). Well, I fell in love with this book, it is pretty and cute, but not too pretty or too cute, if you know what mean. I could have jumped up and down from sheer joy when I found this book while buying milk, and with a good price too!
CC is sewn togther... still need to pick up stitches...
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Would you like some coffee with that?
He(the one formerly know as the Boy and currently without nick name) brought home some stuff: horrible (he thinks so too) synthetic stuffed animals from Universal Studios (they all went on Wednesday - not a vacation my b...!), the Ipod Nano and American candy. Hersheys chocolate and Pretzel Flips.
Pretzels covered in white fudge! Need I say more? Would you like some coffee to wash that down with? I wonder if these have ever been featured on super eggplant.
I hurried up and finished the fingerless mitts, because I had seen this article about frosty weather on DMI, the Danish Meteorological Institute, and they are always very dependable, especially concerning yesterdays weather. But now they are promising 20+ degrees (Celsius) the next days, and I guess I have to wait a while to try the mitts out on the bike. But I am currently testing their blogging abilities ...
...they work just fine. Keeps the hands nice and warm, but leaves the fingertips free to type. I think they might come in handy in my new cold dark north facing office.
Specs: The pattern (nr 8 from Drops 93) was, if no well written, then easily understandable. I knitted the mitts on 2.75mm DPNs instead of the 3mm DPNs the pattern calls for. The fit is prefect, but I do have very small hands. The yarn is Arwetta, soft and strong, and I used a little less than one skein. I highly recommend these fingerless mitts!
I spend the afternoon speed knitting, and now the third and fourth sleeves of CC are done. Didn't really use a lot more yarn than the first time I knitted them, but they do seem bigger. I'm sure they are bigger. They are bigger. I mean if I knitted them a size larger, they must be larger? That is how it works, right?Bigger size equals bigger sleeves?!
Tonight I will sew the pieces together (again) and by tomorrow I should be ready to pick up the googolplex stitches that will be the large collar. Finally some lace!
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Home alone 2
This afternoons being togetherness will certainly be uneventful, the Boy will sleep, he's still on LA time, and I will be quiet and do my homework, maybe just knit a row or two on my new project
Well, Mette, I decided against a trip to Nicoline Garn. Instead I dove in to the stash (good girl!) and found some yarn to start a new quick project with.
But first I finished these:
The Broadripple Socks.
Mismatching, but I love them still. I think if I were to knit them again I'd use a yarn with just a little more elasticity. That way it would be possible to use the needle size that the pattern calls for, and not the 3mm I used for the cuff and the 2,5mm I used to knit the rest of the sock.
Banana seems to like them too.
The new project is some fingerless mitts, pattern nr. 8 from Drops nr. 93. Their patters aren't terribly well written but this one isn't too bad. I'm knitting them with Arwetta sock yarn, from the stash!! I made pretty good procgress on the first mitt yesterday.
This yarn might be a new favorite of mine. And I really have to hurry up and finish the mitts, it's getting cold riding the bike in the mornings.
Friday, September 16, 2005
The postman always calls thrice
This is how he keps me happy:
Monday he brought me two balls of Blue Sky Organic Cotton from Coolwoolz , I just love their little sheep with the sunglasses! I'm going to use them to knit the Baby Bobi Bear, and the yarn is so soft. Yum!
Tuesday he brought me this:
Kool-Aid! From KoolAidUK. I've got some Berry Blue, Lemonade, Watermelon Cherry and Pink Lemonade, and boy do they stink! But I can not wait to dye some yarn, maybe tomorrow?
And finally today he brought me this:
Shawls and scarves, The Best of Knitter's Magazine. I got it from Play - love that shop. And I love this book, especially the round shawl patterns like the Pi Shawl and the Lace Garland.
Well, wouldn't you love a postman who brought you wonderful things like these? Yup, I thought so.
I'm out of here, the Sister and I are going to have one last summer visit to Tivoli.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
The second first and second
These sad looking little centerpull balls are the result of said ripping. But I'm proud to say that they are almost knitted away again. I've now got two half finished sleeves and just one little centerpull ball left. Knitting these two sleeves for the second time is just not my idea of fun. I felt pretty sure that my second trip to Sleeve Island would make me choke on the second second sleeve (in reality the fourth sleeve!), so I made a plan.
Pay attention now.
My Lazy logic told me that starting with the first half of the second first sleeve, then knitting the first half of the second second sleeve, then finishing the second half of the second first sleeve, would leave me with, when the second first sleeve was done, just one half sleeve to knit! Yay! Did you get it? Does it make sense? Well, it works for me. And if it seems that I'm making no sense at all today, well there is an explanation, I'll get back to that in a bit.
As we speak I'm finishing the first half of the second second sleeve, hoping to quickly move on to the second half of the second first sleeve.
And now you probably want to know if I did the proper thing and washed the ripped out yarn, to get rid of the waviness, before winding it into balls... ? Oh come on, you know I didn't. And, you ask, was that not a tad stupid? Why, yes it was. Do I care? Hmm, not really, I'm probably a knitting optimist, always sure that everything will be just fine, until I'm proven wrong (see post from September 13th.). Please don't prove me wrong this time, I won't survive knitting the sleeves a fifth and sixth time.
I want to knit fun pretty stuff like this, love that color and this, love the alpaca. Must.Knit.Soon. Or perhaps the very pretty lacy Diamond Fantasy Shawl that everyone has been knitting lately?
As for not making any sense today, well, I can't be held responsible. I've been reading this all day! I've read it, but not understood it, and I desperately hope that I will get some things clarified during tomorrows class. If you have read and understood it, I would appreciate a short recap of it?!
This is a hoax no?
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Chocolate frog
I have just been watching Bill Gates' speech at the PDC, mostly to try and see if I could spot the Boy in the audience. I had told him to wave if he was being filmed, but he was nowhere to be seen. The speech was pretty interesting, and there are lots of fun stuff to look forward to with the new Windows Vista and Office 12. I especially liked the brand new RSS features in the upcoming Office 12.*
Last night I sewed the pieces of Chocolate Cover together... Now it is just too bad that I'm not a pygmy. CC is just tiny. It's not that I can't fit into it... I just can't wear anything underneath it. Want proof? It looks like it has been painted on me. But the color is still so pretty!
Although I am a European, in Europe (!) I think it would be considered inappropriate to be nude underneath a shrug, no? So now that the nude option has been discarded, what I am going to do? I thought about giving it a very serious blocking, but have discarded that option as well, it is just not going to do the trick. That leaves me with only one option...frog it, rip it, tear it to threads!
Actually I probably only have to rip out the sleeves... that is not so bad is it? (She asked herself reassuringly with just a hint of desperation in her voice.) The back piece is ok - I guess I must just have really fat arms.
I haven't mustered up the strength to rip out the sleeves yet, not because it would be difficult to knit the two sleeves again, but because it sure is going to be boring. And I was really looking forward to getting started on that lacy collar. Mwah!
I've had an accident, it's not as funny as Stephanie's shampoo incident, but it did have something to do with a type of cleaning product... I'll just give you the short bullet point version.
- Vent to buy groceries.
- Bought milk, tortillas, chili beans, dish washing detergent, a potato peeler (and completely off the record - I did pick up some chocolate as well. Perhaps that is why I've got fat arms?).
- Waited patiently (no, really I did!) in the looong check out line.
- Put my stuff on the conveyer belt
- Accidentally opened the bottle of dish washing detergent - but quickly closed it again.
- While packing my things I realized that I had not actually closed the lid on the detergent.
- Result: very slippery groceries.
- Including a very slippery and sharp potato peeler
- Result: the pealing of my thumb!
I left a trail of detergent and blood all the way (we live 200 m from the store!) from the store to the apartment building. You know, the Lazy version of Hansel and Gretel. The thing I don't understand is how I managed to NOT get any blood on my white jacket, when everything else was covered, the groceries, the keys, the mailbox and the mail. Must have been a freak of nature.
The 'paper towel and elastic band' is not my preferred type of bandage, but I've run out of band aids - and I'm not going shopping again!
There was practically no pain involved in the accident. But now that I've realized that I can't knit, because the huge bandages gets in the way, the pain is practically unbearable. Tut tut, and I was going to finish the second Broadripple sock tonight. But alas, there will be no knitting tonight at Chez Lazy.
I guess I could rip though...
*This is NOT an advertisement for Micosoft - I just liked some of their new features.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Home alone 1
While he is away, I plan to get busy with some knitting. Yesterday I took pictures of most of my old knitting projects, the living room was covered in sweaters, socks and scarves, such a wonderful wooly mess! I actually took so many pictures that I had to stop mid way to recharge the camera battery. Banana found it more than a little odd, that I was standing on a chair in order to take pictures of knitted things laid out on the dining table. The Boy probably would have found it odd too, which, I'm sure, is why I haven't done it while he has been at home. Eventually these pictures will be uploaded to my Flickr page....
The last year I've scribbled a few words about every project I've knitted, some stuff about the pattern, the yarn or about pattern revisions I've made. I meant to type these hand written notes onto the computer and add a picture of the project, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it - until last night. And it really is time consuming, it took me 2 hours to write and print 8 project pages and I have lots more left to do. It really makes me wonder why I haven't done it from the beginning... Well actually I know why, I've just been Lazy!
Now I'm left wondering why I have this need to document every little sock and scarf I knit, is it because of my librarian training, or is it because knitting is such a great important part of my life, and I just can't risk forgetting the even the slightest of my knitting projects? I think it is probably both. The librarian in me craves order and control, and it is relatively simple to achieve this state with old knitting projects, unlike some other aspects of my life that are in utter chaos, and will remain that way for ever. The knitter in me would love to, at the end of a year, have a book filled with every project I've knitted during the year, sorta like knitting diary.
I finally finished the three pieces of Chocolate Cover. Here they are looking weird and rolly. I've pressed the pieces very gently, just to be able to sew them together. I think a regular blocking would have been better, but I was concerned about washing and blocking some parts of the sweater, when I have to add the collar, that for obvious reasons can't be blocked or washed before it has been knitted (the Lazy revelations of a Sunday morning!) . Ergo, the washing will have to wait.
So will the sewing however, I'm spending the rest of the day at the parents house, we were going to have the last barbecue of the summer, but I think the weather is looking rather too cold and autumnal. That is of course a very good reason to wear one of last years warm and wooly creations, for the first time this fall.
I'm bringing the second Broadripple sock, it is the perfect portable and conversation friendly project... Which reminds me, I think I've forgotten to set up a project page for these socks. I better go do that now.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Harry vs. Winne
I had the day planed out perfectly, first work, then do a social thing in the afternoon, and then home to knit all evening. But suddenly my plans were changed by the strongest of forces (the mother!), and to my horror I found myself caught at an all-afternoon-all-evening event at the sisters house without my knitting. It's not that I don't love spending time with the mother and the sister - later in the evening we were joined by both the father and the boy - but I HAD NO KNITTING! Hours and hours of small talk, and no knitting, it's just not right!
Earlier in the day I took a "sorting hat" test, that I came across while surfing to find something extremely work related, just for fun to see witch house at Hogwarts I'd get sorted in. Of course I'd be thrilled to be in Gryffindor, who wouldn't be? But I'd also be proud to be in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, and even Slytherin would have been ok with me. The test had about 1000 questions, that I tried to answer as truthfully as I could. I waited a few seconds while my answers where being computed, ooohh, there comes the result and I'm in..... oh crap, I'm a Squib!?!? Wow, that really is most disappointing to me. I was sure I would have been a pretty sharp wizard, but they'll never know now, will they? And I guess I won't have to knit any Weasley sweaters this winter or ever!
Naturally I had to get som vindication after this, so I stopped by Bagatell and took another test.
Look, it's my all-time literary hero. And apparently I'm loveable and kind, who could ask for more?
The Japanese way
Alaska from Garnstudio. Now I just have to get cracking with the nedlees.
Chockolate Cover is spending the day alone - it is too hot to knit with that type of fussy wool. I might just have to get started on the second Broadripple sock.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Right or left?
Chocolate Cover is coming along nicely. The back is done, and I'm halfway though the first sleeve. No pictures, trust me, it really just looks like the first half of a brown sleeve.
Saturday I was browsing the magazine shop in Magasin, and I spotted this magazine. I've never
seen it before and I naturally had to get it - you know - just to check it out. I really like a lot of the models, but the magazine is in German. I have had lots of German during school but I'm pretty sure we never learned anything at all knitting related. I understand a lot of the words, but I do get confused when they tell me to knit rechts (right) and links (left). Is that German for knit and purl? Does anyone know of a German/English or German/Danish knitting vocabulary?
This lazy lady will greatly appreciate any kind of help, that will keep her from having to do the work herself. Why invent the hot water if it has already been invented?
Friday, September 02, 2005
Chocolate covered
Broadripple sock #1 is done!
By the way, that is Banana leaving the picture. He's not as photogenic as the lovely Lucy of Wendy Knits. Never mind Wendys amazing lace knitting, Lucy is the real star of that blog.
Broadripple sock #2 will have to wait a while...
This is the pretty thing that is going to keep my lazy hands busy the next weeks.
Chocolate Cover is not the original name of this shrug/cardigan/bolero - Sjælevarmer med stor krave (Shrug with large collar!) is.
But I can not possibly knit or wear anything with such a lame name. The color of the yarn is warm and chocolaty, thus, Chocolate Cover is born!
The pattern and yarn is from HP garn, bought from the nice ladys at Nicoline Garn. The yarn is called Iceland, 50% wool, 15% alpaca and 35% acrylic. So far the yarn has been good to work with, even if it still a bit to hot to knit with wool.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
How to spend the last day of summer
The weather here is warm and sunny, but has the crispness of a fall day. I know just the way to spend this last day of summer.
1. A long morning of blog reading.
2. Lunch with the Boy - he's working from home today.
3. A bike ride to the library to pick up books by Paul Auster, Daniel Silva, Jasper Fforde and of course a knitting book by Sarah Dallas. (Vintage Knits! Finally, I've waited forever for this book.)
4. Prepare for first day of school by reading the semesters reading list. (It would be too much work for this lazy lady to actually read the article we were supposed to have read by tomorrows class...)
5. And finally... sit on the balcony in the sun with Banana, books, cool drinks and knit some more on the Broadripple sock.
Some progress has been made on the sock since this picture was taken yesterday, but the battery in the camera is dead... I really like the striping the yarn makes, all though I'm sure it will be impossible to make the second sock look the same. But that really is the joy of self striping yarn, no?
Yesterday I added a new sock pattern to my "to knit soon" collection. The Elfine's sock, designed by the fashionable Anna. Isn't it cool that she's got plants that match the color of her socks? Note to self: Buy more sock yarn!