Gold Medal in Knitting Olympics

It is DONE!

I have completed my Knitting Olympics with a Gold Medal win! Yes, i know i'm insane...so what? Yes, at times it was trying, tedious and i wanted to stab myself with my aluminum knitting needle...who cares? I DID IT!!! I'm so proud of myself and of all the other Knitting Olympians whether they completed their projects or not! Just the fact that we were all willing to challenge ourselves, were willing to strive for greatness in something we'd never done before, were willing to ignore our families, showering, eating, sleeping and feeding the cat until she came and nearly clawed our delicate "Branching Out" - Lace Scarf from off of our laps...oh wait, that was just me! I digress...

Here are photos as i almost lost it, errr...neared the Finish Line late last night...


I donned war paint around midnight to boast my resolve or freshen my face - however you want to look at it...(this is one of the mud masks sent in the "Green Canyon Spa" Face Care Kit from Michelle.)


I'm feeling the stress...


Strung out on knitting and coffee after midnight...


The support team ignores me and plays "Zeus", errr...looks on in excitement and provides coffee and Twizzlers! (Deb and her niece, Katie)


Look at a closeup of that work, whew!! I did good!!


Line Judge Luna makes sure there is no Offsides or Icing...


It takes up the whole length of my side, hope it dries fast! Yeah, i know it looks wonky, but hey, it's my first time blocking anything, EVER!!

Things i've learned along this journey...

~Lace weight yarn is really tiny (read: a pain in the arse!)
~The people around me are very supportive of things i try to do
~Sleep is overrated
~Cats will lay on ANY knitting if left alone for more than 3 minutes
~Lace knitting is NOT conducive to car travel, or social events
~I do not own enough T-pins
~Lace looks like crap until it's blocked, then it's absolutely gorgeous!
~There are at least 4,000 very talented (read:crazy) knitters out there in the world!
~Being involved in an event with others, even though working on it as a solitary participant, still brings a sense of community. This is a Good Thing!!
~The Yarn Harlot and all of her readers, ROCK!

Ok, on to a new project that involves LOTs of Stockinette Stitch!! LOL!!

~Suz~

Goodies from Michelle!!

I am so excited!! I received a package today. I'm such a lucky girl!!

A HUGE THANK YOU to MICHELLE

over at Plush Knits !!! Michelle ran a little contest a couple of weeks ago and i was fortunate enough to be one of her winners. I was so thrilled, and have been anticipating the arrival of a package, but i had no clue it was going to be this fabulous!! Here, let me show you what i mean...



...i was expecting that gorgeous sock yarn, the rest was a complete surprise!! There's a "Green Canyon Spa" Face Care Kit, Ghirardelli Chocolates, two hanks of Artyarns - Super Merino sock yarn(color 101), my very first fancy stitch markers, and a sweet card of friendship all in a pretty butterfly bag! WOW!!



Here's a closeup of the yarn, Ooooooohh, Aaahhhhhh!!!



And a closer picture of the fancy stitch markers, very pretty!!



I tried taking a pic in the sunlight of the window to see if the colors would come through better, but my camera must suck because the pic does not do it any justice at all! I LOVE the colors!!

I've really met some of the most generous Knit Bloggers online. I'm so glad to virtually know you all and wish we lived closer so we could visit and knit a while together. Maybe someday.

~Suz~

A Public Apology to Canada

First, and most importantly, i'd like to make a public apology to the entire Country of Canada...

CANADA, i'm sorry!!

I should have never started cheering for your Olympians once our talented American athletes started biting the dust.

I was all set for today to be a good Olympic viewing day and a fabulous Olympic Knitting day. Hrmph! With the US Women's Curling Team out of the running, i woke up at 8amEST in order to watch and cheer for the Canadian Women's Curling Team...they lost. :(

CANADA, i'm sorry!!

Sigh.

Well, with that event over with, i was thrilled to await the US Men's Hockey Team vs. Finland...they lost. :(

Sigh.

A while later, i caught sight of the Canadian Men's Hockey Team vs. Sweden and so i cheered for my neighbors to the North. Oh Canada, (not) my home and native land, true patriot love...they lost. :(

CANADA, i'm sorry!!

5pm rolled around and the match i was totally looking forward to, really jazzed about, all worked up over - arrived, finally! US Men's Curling Team vs. Canada. I cheered, i yelled...."hard, Hard, HAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaard!!!" We lost. :(

WTG Canada!!

It serves me right since i jinxed the rest of your teams today. Well done!!


Sigh.

~Suz~


P.S. It was indeed a much better knitting day! 24 repeats done on "Branching Out". I'm actually quite impressed with it, even if i did have a few moments of panic today...let me take you there with me!

The original "Branching Out" pattern on Knitty suggests two different yarns for the project. One yarn is 190 yards, the other is 225, i did not choose to use either of these yarns. I decided to use KnitPicks - Shadow , ok no problem. I also decided to make the pattern double wide. Following me? In the original, if one yarn is used, you should end up with 27 repeats to the end...if the other yarn is used, 36 repeats. So here's the moment...i'm about 20 repeats into it today and i realize, "holy shit! i'm never going to finish this on time!! i've only used about 160 yards of yarn and this hank started out with 440 yards!!!!!" ...and then it dawned on me...i doubled the pattern. Ahaaaaaaa!!! I'm all good. WHEW!!

So, in reality, i only have about 6-ish repeats left to do before the 5 rows of garter stitch border. The pattern says to knit until yarn is almost gone...so that's what i'll do. I'm on target to finish before the Flame goes out! YAY!!

Ok, i'm done rambling!

~Me Again~

Domestic Partnership Benefits & Olympic Progress

It's been a productive day. I was up at 7:30am in order to go get blood drawn for the tests the new Dr wants to run. I HATE hypodermic needles (wanted to distinguish them from knitting needles!). I'm a big needle wuss so i made Deb go into the lab with me just in case i wanted her to hold my hand, but in the end i left her out in the waiting room. LOL!! I let the Vampiress know that i have floating veins and she thanked me for the warning. Yeah, she didn't like my veins any better than the last person who stuck me! Owie!! I must admit though, it did only take her two times and she did use a pediatric needle as i suggested. Whew! So off the blood goes to check all the good stuff: sugar levels, cholesterol, lipids, thyroid...whatever all that stuff is?? then we'll see what the results are and go from there! I'm just so glad to have medical coverage through my Partner's job, even if i do "hate" doctors. I happen to like this one, so that's good.

Medical coverage is just one of those small little details that we Gay American's would like to have as a result of our relationships being acknowledged. I'm very thankful to Random House for offering "Domestic Partner Benefits", thank you, Thank You!! More employers should be like you!!

Personally, i'm one of those Gay Americans who doesn't need the word "marriage" to define my relationship, because i know that's what it is to us and that's how we live our lives. I certainly don't need anyone telling me who or how to love and i certainly don't need a stinkin' piece of paper proclaiming our love. Sure, it would be nice...i won't lie, but the important part is that we are afforded the same rights as every other person in this country...and at this point, we are NOT!

All of that being said, let's get on to my Knitting Olympics progress. I fear that i am behind! Before today i was in fear that i would not finish! YIKES! After today so far, i am feeling more positive that i will finish, but it's going to come down to the wire. Hopefully i won't trip or fall like any Ice Dancers, nor will i get all giddy and start hot dogging like that one Snowboarder. I will just keep taking my time and not try to rush and i should sail along nicely without many more dropped stitches, but just in case, i am still stringing life-lines twice in each repeat and then moving them up as i move further along. I know, i know...complete wuss ass. That's me!

Here's a photo of Branching Out as it sits right now!

DRAT!! Here's what has happened to my knitting while i've been posting...

...i guess that's what i get for leaving my knitting laying out all cozy looking on the bed, huh?!!!

~Suz~

Project Runway, You're OUT!!

Yes, i do realize that this is non-knitting AND :::gasp!::: non-Olympic content, but just hang in here with me a while....

Sure, the Olympics has been cutting into my normal TV viewing, however, it's given me more focused knitting time so the trade off has it's benefits, right? Right!! The shows i've been keeping up with are General Hospital (for the most part even though the story line is really boring right now!), NCIS, Project Runway, Survivor, CSI, Numbers and Celebrity Fit Club.

This season of Project Runway has, in the words of Michael Kors, "...been very underwhelming...". I'm really bothered by the fact that Heidi Klum has worn black on all but two episodes of this season...what boring fashion, who is she to judge an up and coming new designer??!?! I'm also bothered by the three designers that were just chosen as the final three! Holy crappy designer batman, Santino, you suck!! I've not liked anything other than the first item this man made, and i think that's one of the two challenges he may have won...yay rah....who cares? This last challenge was to design a lovely evening gown that would be worn by modeling icon, Iman, at some red carpet event. None of the four remaining designers made anything even remotely as lovely as Andrae created in Episode 8. I was totally bored with the fact that none of the remaining designers used any type of color in their gowns...one was black, one was navy, one was a silver/gray and one was a hideous bunch of giant sequins that looked like a belly dancer on crack. So pathetic and booooring!

Poor Andrae was ousted in Episode 9 - The Garden Party Episode, which was a shame because even though his design didn't look all that comfortable, it was cute, inventive and creatively thought out...i liked it Andrae, even if those evil, dumb judges didn't! I am super vexed that Santino has made it to the final three, especially since the judges (one of which usually varied from week to week) always had something negative to say about Santino's designs. During the course of the show these are some of the things said about Santino's designs, "...he really doesn't think about a women's body when he designs...", "...the back of that looks like a baboon's ass exploded!...", "...it's aesthetically not pleasing...", "...he just doesn't know when to stop adding to it...", etc. And yet they kept his ass - week after week. How very annoying!! I really much preferred both Andrae and Nick's designs over Santino's, consistently. It's such a shame, but i'm sure they will go on to great things!!

Ok, i think i'm done spouting off about Project Runway. We will return to our normal knitting content later today.

~Suz~

Olympics, Day 6 or is it 7 now?

I was finally able to shove Deb off of the cooler in front of the computer so that i could have a turn (note that i'm posting this after 3am, sheesh!). I wanted to check in and post an updated photo of my "Knitting Olympics" project. So, without further ado, here's "Branching Out" as it sits right this very moment...



...keep in mind that i made the pattern double-wide from the original because i'm using lace weight yarn and wanted it wider to use as a table runner. If i were to do this again, i would ditch 3 K's in the center. The pattern has K3 on each edge so when i doubled it i left one set of those in and i think i'd like it better with a narrower center line. All in all i'm loving the look of it. I'm very into leafy things and anything that reminds me of Autumn or my spiritual draw to Earth and Nature. I have to admit to stringing two life lines, which seems a bit wussy...it was the only way to minimalize the need for Excedrin or large doses of Rum & Coke. I've been moving the life lines mostly after rows 4 and 8 as rows 3 and 7 seem to be the most difficult for me and where i tend to drop or add stitches, so when the stitch count is correct i certainly don't want to have to frog back past that point!

On Valentine's Day, Deb and i watched the kids next door so that their parents could go out to a movie and dinner, wasn't that nice of us? I thought so! Since we have no money right now due to Deb's hip injury... (we're hoping the Dr. releases her for work tomorrow - the Physical Terrorist says she's good to go!) and weren't going to do anything anyway, it felt like a good Valentine's Day knowing we were helping out some other people to make their day special.

While we were over there, i took the baby cardi and hat to try on Carly who just turned One. It fits her perfectly...sooo i'm thinking i need to knit a smaller version for my step-sister's baby, with the yarn i have left and just give this one to Carly...here's a picture of me and my mini-model...



We went out and about town for a bit today and i happened to see this on a corner...



...see the little tree?? At first i thought it was a decoration that the home owner must've put out in their yard but then i realized that i was seeing them all over downtown Westminster. Too cute!! I'm glad i caught sight of them before they were taken down.

That's all for tonight, i'm getting sleepy and i'm sure my spelling is probably horrible, sorry if there are any typos, i'll fix them tomorrow when i'm awake!!

Nighty Nite!

~Suz~

Olympic Knitting Day Three

I wasn't intending to post when i signed on tonight but then i joined a Flickr group for the Knitting Olympics and ended up uploading some pics for that so i figured, why not, eh?!

Here's what i found outside my bedroom window when i woke up this morning after supposedly 13-17 inches of snow...



And here is the updated photo of what "Branching Out" looks like so far.



Nighty nite! I'm off to knit more!!

~Suz~

Go US Women's Hockey!!

Well, i'm glad to see that the US Women's Hockey Team is doing much better than me in their Olympic endeavor so far.

Here's one of my tries, i think the 2nd, maybe?



And here's try number 8...notice that i've scrapped both the size 10 1/2 and size 10 sparkly needles. :( I've moved on to my good ole size 8 aluminums, i'm hoping they will work out better!!



In other news...yesterday we were threatened with snow for only the 2nd time this winter. Here's what it looked like before the storm...



...and as it started to snow just before 1pm today...



...and a bit later...



....and later still. It's dark now and i've not looked out in a while. Can't wait to see what it looks like in the morning - they're calling for 8-12 inches, we'll see?!!



HUGE SIGH!!

Well, i'm going to go back to my lace knitting torture. What was i thinking?!!!

~Suz~

35 minutes into it...

...and i'm already having problems. UGH!!

Oh sure, the 5 rows of garter stitch is no big deal but somewhere on row 1 of the pattern i'm supposed to end up with 31 stitches by the end and i've only got 29? HUH?!?!?! So i'm off to Knitty to read through their stitches to make sure i am performing them properly and then i'll try and decide if i want to make Branching Out into a double wide because this seems so narrow??

Out!

~Suz~

The Olympics

It's finally here!! I am so stoked. Not only do i get to spend the next sixteen days watching my favorite sport, Hockey, but i also get to watch Curling, which for some reason makes me want to grab a beer...

The beer might be a good thing considering that i'm also a registered knitlete, (that would be a knitting athlete, of course!!) in The Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics. Nothing could make this girl happier than Hockey, Curling and Knitting and maybe a beer or two! Coffee will certainly be around with a Chai thrown in here or there for good measure and to keep the hands warm and able to knit at high speeds.

I've been in trianing for this day. Well, ok, i trained yesterday. Here are the training photos as promised late last night...





And also a photo of my newly acquired, sparkly-goodness knitting needles from Joann's for $10.



Ok, i have my alarm set for 1:50pm at which time i will put on a fresh pot of coffee and make myself snuggly comfy with my new dark blue sparkly size 10 1/2 needles, my "Branching Out" pattern that i printed out with enlarged font to prevent the need to squint, and my KnitPicks - Shadow yarn in "Oregon Coast". This yarn is so pretty...unfortunately my digi-cam seeems to be lame at picking up the detail of color in the yarn, there are flecks of reds, blues and purples in the yarn even though it seems to be only tan...it's heathered. I'm loving it!

Ok, that's the pre-Olympic update with promised photos. I think i'm off to shower in preparation for the official cast-on and then maybe some stretching exercises to limber up!!

Happy Knitting!!

~Suz~

Olympic Training

Normally i am a very bad knitter. I hardly ever swatch...i know, i know!

About twenty-five rows into a little baby-girl dress, i realized today that my pattern had gone wonky and i needed to frog about 10 rows, but once i did that i couldn't figure out which row of the pattern i was on, so i frogged the whole doggon thing and decided not to restart it until after the Olympics are over.

Not wanting to start anything new today, knowing that i would be casting on my new project for my Knitting Olympics challenge at 2pm on Friday, i decided to actually do some swatching, errrr i mean training.

Why did i decide to finally swatch for a project?? Well, because the baby sweater and hat are too large due to non-swatching, that's why!! I was supposed to use size 4 needles on them but used size 7 instead because that's what the yarn said to use on it, sigh! See, that's where you can tell i've not yet been knitting a whole year...i get confused by stuff like that. UGH!

So, i swatched for "Branching Out". The pattern lists two different yarn types and says that gauge is not important, but i did it anyway. I got out my size 8's like the pattern said to use and cast on 16 stitches and went about doing 26 rows...it did not come out to 4 inches, and i was glad...giddy, even!

Why??

Because i finally broke down and bought the glittery knitting needle set that i had been oooh-ing over since about a month before Xmas and no one had gotten the hint that they should go and get those for me for $10 at Joann's...nor did they go when they were on sale for $5!!! So i finally just bought them for myself at their regular price. It was worth the price. There are six pair of needles in the container and some of the sizes i didn't have among all of my straight aluminum needles or one pair of bamboo's...but i digress...

....i swatched with the smallest size of sparkly needles and the swatch was still too small so i'm opting for a size 10 1/2 blue-sparkly set of needles to knit with since the size 10's didn't quite cut it.

In the morning i will post swatch and needle pics, it's too late in the night to do it now, i need to get my rest so that i can do all sorts of athletic knitting tomorrow!!

Go Team Lace!! Go Team USA!!!

~Suz~

Word Cloud

I've seen this on a few blogs and thought it was cool.

If you'd like one of your very own you can go here and make one. Just a silly little something to keep us amused.

Have a good one!

~Suz~

Baby Sweater

As promised, here are pictures of the finished Baby Sweater and Hat that are companions to the already completed Baby Blanket.



If you click to get the larger image you can see the color a bit better.



I have to post these pictures of our silly cat, Luna. She hardly ever plays and Deb was able to get her to play for a long time today with a silly little cat toy that Revia bought for Luna when we were leaving Indiana. Thanks Auntie Kelé!!

Luna, minding her own business, soaking up the sun on my legs...



...when all of a sudden she was attacked by some strange - bouncing, flying object! She played and played for at least twenty minutes...



Finally, having played so long, the kitty finally grew tired and curled up for a little nap...



...and stirred a bit when her Mama's knitting needles began to click and clack too loudly.



THE END!!

~Suz~

Houston, we have a problem!

Look at this! Go on, you know you wanna...



...my poor size 6 dpn had a run in with Deb's behind! Apparently Deb attempted to sit down on a rolling office type chair yesterday and it rolled out from under her hiney and she fell- partially on top of her Mom's sewing basket and the rest of her landed on the floor. I missed the whole incident, i only heard it from our room. Deb's Mom said that Chris, Deb's 18 year old special needs nephew, watched the whole thing with this horrified look on his face and his hands out like he wanted to catch her but he didn't quite know how, poor guy. And then he just giggled and pointed to her. LOL!! At any rate; Deb is fine- she didn't get poked, my needle got bent and i was able to reshape it a bit but Deb said she'll get me a new set, but you should see the sad sewing box, it's dead!

I'll post more later, the baby hat should be finished and maybe i'll go out and get the buttons i need for the baby-cardi too?? Who knows!!

~Suz~

Blog Button?

See it? Over there to the right?? Just above the VERY cool "Knitting Olympics" button???

It's my first sad attempt at making a button for my blog. I used some websight to make it and the button wasn't long enough to put "ScatteredGemini" on it, so that's what i was able to do for now. I'll figure something better out some time, but for now i'm sure that should amuse any of my readers who might be button happy like me.

~Suz~

A Silly Little Something

I decided to go ahead and grab this idea off of "Molly's" blog, it's different and sounded interesting...

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

~ " If i were to tell you who he is, every woman in this country would be trying to lure him away from us, and we intend to keep this one all to ourselves forever." From page 123 of "The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love" - by Jill Conner Browne

Hmm, interesting quote. They can have him, whoever he is!! LOL!!

~Suz~