Knitty Gritty Thoughts

Greenies

Works really getting me down today, bumming me out with a capital "B".  I gave myself a timeout to post up these pictures of ginger I took yesterday just to take a breather and get away from it all.  Work is work, I'm tired all the time, and tired of being tired! =) As a rule I work a minimum of 10 hours a day plus sometimes weekends.  Working as a female, in a male-dominated industry is tough, somedays worse than others.  I find I need to make sure my voice is heard and I often have to take a stand, feeling like I'm trying to walk upstream in a big river, with everyone one telling me to coast along with the group.  *Sigh*.....So...Ginger... Ginger is gorgeous, I love the tweedy yarn, the summery color and the fabulous fit.  This is, as I have said previously one of my oldest Fo's, started a year and a half ago (!) knit on US 7 and US 8 needles.  I did make it in size 36 (what was I thinking), really should have made the 34, and ended up seaming a little extra of the bulk in to make it work.  And work it does!  It's the perfect little top with jeans or capris.  Flip flops for day, maybe a little pair of heels at night.  I love the heels and jeans thing for special occasions.  The yarn is Rowan Summer Tweed in Grass (suprise suprise!) now sadly discontinued and the pattern is from the Rowan Summer Tweed Book.  It used just under 4 skeins for the 36 size, although I added two inches on the length as I have to do with all my knits.  It's the perfect tunicy length (is tunicy even a word?) and the V in the back is a fun little feature perfect for summer and not too decadent.  I had fun taking pics (it's so hard to take photos of yourself) and finally got the husband to take a few.  He was so not into it =)  Overall, easy to knit except for the back shaping, I think it would be a good Beginner + pattern.

I have 6 skeins left over from the original bag plus the pattern book I'm interested in offering up for sale.  Retail on the yarn is 9.50/sk + 14 for the book (I bought it new) equals 71 dollars new.  I'm not interested in making any money off of it, just want to pass the yarn on to someone who would enjoy it so I'm going to offer it up for 28 dollars + shipping, paypal only please.  Leave a comment if you're interested.  If I don't get any interest I may consider a trade, or post it to the yarn-sale blog.

edited to add: Christine purchased it!  Thank you!

Here, there, everywhere

Well, I'm still here in GA.  If things had all worked out I'd be in Az right now but unfortunately things changed (got cancelled) and I'll be staying in georgia for the summer, trying not to melt!  I'm bummed, honestly.  I have a travel bug and like to get out and go places.  We're still going to try to take a few days off and fly back to california to visit the husband's family, he hasn't seen them for a long time.

Getting a wonderful package in the mail yesterday from Catherine really brightened my day.  I had sent her some leftover habu yarn to try out for fun, and sweetheart that she is, she sent me a little something!  I've already dove into the tea and put the postcard on my pinboard by my desk.   Check out her beautiful 'mama llama' stitch markers!  These are the nicest stitch markers I have used, they are so well made, there's no little places to snag on your yarn or needle.  She's a real proprietress now, KPIXIE sells her stuff, you should go check it out!  I feel so lucky to have a wonderful set in my knitting bag now, thank you Cath!

I haven't been knitting much, I've been more in a finishing phase (*gah!* that word!)  I normally hate finishing but I have a bug to finish everything and clean out all my WIP's.  My oldest WIP is "Ginger" from Rowan/Kim Hargreaves knit in Rowan Summer Tweed.  The pattern leaves a lot of direction to the imagination, you're increasing over a certain number of stitches on one side in a set of rows, and on the other decreasing 1, then increasing more over another certain set of rows, not the same as the other side!  PHEW!  It was so confusing I had a mind melt and stuck it in the depths of my closet for almost a year.  I found it the other day and finally forced myself to sit down and chart the neckline, or should I say backline? =)  Once I had it charted, it flew.  I had it done in two evenings and blocking the next.  Now I wonder what I was doing procrastinating that long!  The seams are sewn and I'm waiting to sew in the ends on the shoulder line until I try it on again to make sure they don't look wonky (which I have a feeling they will!)  I really should have grafted rather than sewed them, now I have a big piece of fabric that seems bulky for the drapiness of this top.  I guess we'll see how it goes.