It's Official. I'm Old

You may have noticed that I haven't posted anything for a few days (well, more like a week), and it's because of being sick. I was diagnosed with sinusitis at the emergency room which had affected my inner ears, thus rendering me officially dizzy. Actually, beyond dizzy and into my own, private amusement park ride that I couldn't turn off.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who would respond to that by tilling me I've been dizzy for years, but that's a whole other thing.

I'm still taking the antibiotics, and will be for a while, so the bathroom has become my friend, but I'm starting to get away from some of the awful symptoms I was having. I'm off the meds for dizziness and nausea, and if I sit still and close my eyes, I still feel like the room has been moved to a decent size boat, and is gently moving just a little bit, but it's not rendering me in imminent danger of falling, as it was earlier.

The thing that makes me feel old is that I went out and bought a cane so that when I walked, if I got dizzy, I could stop and have something stable to hold onto. It's got four little feet on the bottom, and can stand on it's own, which is more than could be said for me during most of the last week.

When I saw the doctor on Thursday to check on my progress, there was a woman there with a walker that had a nice, padded seat, so she could sit down and relax if she was dizzy, and it had a compartment (bag) under the seat with space between the seat and bag that allowed her to put her yarn in it and have it feed out through the space while she crocheted. I know this dizziness will be gone soon, and I don't need a walker, but I really envied her that day.

One of the next worst things has been that my mind is just not working. I'm thankful to TiVo because I could record Stargate Universe. I watched the first half of the episode from earlier in the week at least four times so far and each time realized that I still didn't have a clue what was happening. That's probably linked to the fact that within 10 minutes of waking up, I've felt like I was ready for a nap all last week.

I'm guessing it will be about another week before I'm really up to speed as far as blogging goes, so bear with me. I have a lot of stuff that I wanted to do this past week that I need to catch up on.

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I have been working on the cabled mobius hat and stuff to go with it.

I got the yarn for it a while back (last week?) and a copy of Power Cables by Lily Chin, which I thought would help. It's a fabulous book for anyone who wants to knit cables, and especially design cables, but did not really have the information in it that I wanted. I'm still glad I bought it because it has a lot of really neat stuff, and some of it isn't things that I had thought of as cables, but it's wonderful!

After some preliminary trials, I determined that I needed a larger size needle than I originally thought, and sent for a size 9 Addi lace needle from Jimmy Beans Wool, and they got it to me very quickly, and I started swatching in earnest. A needle (or needles) with a good, sharp point is really a necessity for this project.

I did more trials than I usually do, but I haven't done something quite like this before, and considering the brain fog engendered by the combination of sinus infection and meds, I think I did quite well.

Every time I knitted a swatch, I looked at it and saw something I could improve. Then I ripped it out and did it again, but different.

Here's the next-to-the-last trial:

That's a cable needle stuck in the swatch, and my penciled chart under it. The other side looks the same except that you can't see that part of the cable needle.

But that's already been ripped out, and I've eliminated some of the space on either side of the cable, between it and the applied I-cord on the side. It looks better and is more the width I actually wanted it to be. I'll be continuing the new swatch, and it'll be the cuff of the hat.

So, being sick slowed me down, but most of the delays on both versions of the mobius hat and it's accessories has been with getting the supplies and tools to work with.

So, at this point, the hat and cowl are started, and I still have to design a scarf that carries forward the mobius theme. I have ideas going around in my head for that, but so far, I don't think that any of them are actually practical in the real knitting world that involves yarn and needles. I'm also thinking about designing mitts to go with all this, but haven't decided if I will do it. The mitts that are in my head look awfully good, though, so maybe I'll do it.

As far as the plainer mobius hat and cowl are concerned, I've finished knitting them, and have the instructions for the hat mostly written. I haven't gotten back to editing and proofing the directions, and haven't done most of the instructions for the cowl yet. I need more yarn before I can do the scarf (I think--I'll have to check what's left over, but I don't think I haven enough). I'm also trying to decide if I want to write a separate pattern for mitts to go with this, or if I'll recommend that you use the mitts pattern that I've already written and will be converting to PDF.

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In more knitting news, or, more accurately, spinning news, Spin Off Magazine has a free trial offer for their magazine. If you've let your subscription lapse, you can get a free issue. I just got my personal copy in the mail, and it really brightened up being sick. I haven't read the article about spinning paper yet, but it looks interesting.

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Firefly is on The Science Channel again tonight. You can catch The Train Job if you missed it last week, and it's followed by Bushwhacked, which is not a fun episode because it's about the reivers. My brain is still not working, and I can't figure out how to spell that.

I hope you enjoyed the two hour return of The Event last Monday, and it'll be back tomorrow night right after the return of Chuck.

I'm about to fall over asleep at this point, and Firefly is coming on, so that's it for today.

I hope you had a great weekend, and will have a wonderful week coming up!

Friday the Thirteenth Came on Tuesday the Fourteenth this Month!

I've been having a bad day today. Actually, it started yesterday, although I wasn't aware of it beginning at the time.

I found out about a new fiberarts store in the area, and yesterday I went to see it.  It's called Nature's Yarns Inc, and it's in Fairfax, almost directly across Route 29 from where my friend, Nancy lives.

What prompted all this was the realization Sunday night that I was working on the sleeve for the Celtic sweater, and it wasn't going to get any narrower than 16 inches at any point, and the two 24 inch needles I was using were giving me ladders.

I know.

It shouldn't be happening.

I've knitted hats, socks and much more with the two needle method and never had a problem, but here I was having a big problem. And I hadn't even gotten to the Celtic knot that I plan to put on the sleeve the way I did for the second version of the sweater.

The cross will be like this one with a cross that has the cables come right off the knot and provides a way to tie the sleeve (which will be straighter, but still full) and add a ruffle abound the wrist. So, I'm already going to be coping with an extra cable needle (yes, I know you can do it without a cable needle, but I always drop most of the stitches when I do that), and I don't need an extra needle to cope with while I'm doing all this.

So, all of a sudden, I really needed a size 7 needle in a 16 inch length! I called Nancy, and she met me over there, and I was talking to her and the nice lady that sold me the needle, and feeling really happy that they had Addi lace needles in the right size and length. With all the talking to everybody, I didn't really read the packaging with the needle, and I should have. Although the needle looked awfully short, the package said it was 24 inches long, and when I got home, I discovered the packaging was correct. It's really 24 inches long.

Well, an Addi lace needle is a thing of beauty and a joy forever, even if it did cost $17, and I kept pulling it out and admiring it last night. Here's a review of Addi lace needles when they first came out. Since then, there are more sizes available, down to 000, and also a 16 inch length, not to mention that the cords are now a pale blue. Very pretty. They copied the points from the old Baleen needles. The people at Boye really got the points perfect on those needles. Even though the Baleen needles aren't available anymore, you can also get that point on Bryspun needles.

Early today (for me), I went back on over to the store and discovered that if you buy a knitting needle from Nature's Yarns, you need to be very careful and make sure it's exactly the right needle because they not only won't let you return one, the won't even let you exchange one you made a mistake on! As it turns out, they didn't have a 16 inch needle in the store in size 7 (except for bamboo ones, which I hate). I was so convinced that I'd seen one there yesterday, but then again, I thought I'd bought one.

Nature's Yarns also has stuff to spin, and some of it's drop-dead-gorgeous, plus all the beautiful yarn and miscellaneous stuff. I also bought some nice, plastic yarn bobbins while I was there yesterday. One of the best knitting tips I've come across is to put the yarn tale left after a long-tail cast on in a butterfly or on a bobbin as soon as you finish casting on. That way, you don't get to the end, or halfway through the first row and discover that you've been knitting with the tail instead of the working yarn. Putting it on a bobbin also keeps it from dragging everywhere and getting dirty and unspun. The bobbins I bought look like this:

So, that's money down the drain. I'll use the needle, of course, but I didn't need it at the moment.

But I need a 16 inch one.

So, I'm trying to decide how to handle the problem. I could try to find a 16 inch needle at another store, but after the expense of this one, I really can't afford one until next month. The day after I get my money for the month, though, I'll be going to the Fall Fiber Fest (on the second of October), so maybe I'll find the needle I need there.

In the meantime, I bought the yarn for my version of the wrap with wings in Vogue's Fall issue.

I wanted to do it in mohair, as they did in the magazine, but although I've looked everywhere, I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that Classic Elite has discontinued the particular mohair yarn that was used in the magazine. The few places I've been able to find it at all, what they have is obviously clearance yarn with only a color or two left, and nobody seems to have all the colors needed to make it. I tried substituting a similar mohair, but nobody makes all the colors needed.

So, I'm going to make it with some brushed acrylic yarn (Jiffy) in black, dark grey, light grey, and off white for the wings (one shade more than was in the original) and a different brushed acrylic/nylon (Dazzleaire) for the background instead of the white mohair. The color I chose for the background is Thistle.

I'd rather use mohair, but I think it's going to be one of my favorites!

I picked up the last of the yarn I need for the wrap today, so I have the choice of abandoning the sleeves of the Celtic sweater for now and working on the body for a while, or abandoning the whole thing for a while and working on the wrap. And let's not even mention how many UFOs are floating around here that I can work on.

Oh, and while I'm at it, I've gotten to about 12 inches of length in the body (past the armholes) and a little bit of the left sleeve done on the Celtic sweater. The whole Saint John's cross on the back is done, I've got the start of the cable that goes down the sides and starts under the arm done, and I've finished the cable on the strap at the top of the shoulder on the left side with a loop that makes it look finished. More photos soon!

I didn't mention all the other little annoying things that have been driving me crazy today, just the one.

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Seeing Nancy yesterday was so much fun! I've known here since about 1980, and she's always been one of my favorite people ever! We got to talk and have dinner together, and I got to see her trailer. It's very small, but luxurious, and it's smallness makes everything right at hand so she doesn't have to get up to get anything. Her family recently gave her a nice, big high definition TV, too, and I'm very impressed! I've got a TiVo like hers, but she has the terabyte hard drive that I want to get.

We had so much fun!

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Tonight, the two hour season finale of Covert Affairs will be on USA. I'm really looking forward to that, but I'll be sad when it's over, although I'm sure that USA will be rerunning the whole season.

The season finale of Warehouse 13 will also be on Syfy, so there's that to look forward to, also.

In the meantime, I'm going to heat up a personal size pizza for dinner and stay home and veg out in front of the TV and knit. I don't know what I'm going to knit, but I'll knit something!

And I'll think about what I can sell to make some money. If anybody out there is interested in a Canon camera body (film), a TiVo or a 2001 Buick Century, let me know.

In the meantime, have as nice an evening as I plan to have!