My Tux

As I said prior, I started knitting the "Mina's Tuxedo Vest" last week out of the Custom Knits book, which I absolutely love. I've already finished the back and am knitting the front shoulders. I'm enjoying the pattern, and the techniques.

Oooh! I was also able to bring my camera back to life!!! Yay! So, here you go, some early pics of my "Mina's Tuxedo Vest".



What yarn is that? Remember? It's Sundara Yarn in one of my favorite colors "Spiced".



You see where I picked up the Provisional Cast On? It is noticeable, but it's a nice transition, this cast on is interesting, you cast on using any normal long-tail cast on, but you use your working yarn and scrap yarn. You loop the scrap yarn around your thumb and hold the working yarn on the index finger, and begin looping on your stitches. What you'll see is your working yarn as the live stitches, and the scrap yarn will be the chain on the bottom. It was pretty cool to try, my first time using this method. It's also a trip to unravel and pick up stitches because the stitches pick up a bit differently than other methods. I'm aiming at getting this done this week, and guess what?!? I have a super special friend who is the sweetest thing, she sent me blocking wires as a bday present last week! I'll be soaking some of my knits to block and then I'll share the FO love *-)

Thank you to Cheryl, you rock girl!

I'll be back later this week!

~Rocky

It's that time again...

blackflowercake


Originally uploaded by RockyMoreno

...my birthday. This will be my 2nd year celebrating my birthday where I'm a knitter. It seems like a very long time now that I've been knitting, but really it isn't. I've moved on quite alot from knitting to dyeing to spinning to crocheting to designing.



I truly do love the art of knitting and all the wonderful people that have become my friends through knitting that I might not have met otherwise.



My day will be low key, nothing going on, one day I'll really celebrate.



Tomorrow is my *Happy Day", officially 8-)



p.s.

Oh yah, isn't this cake awesome! I found a pic on the net, and I just fell in love with it.

3 bad things 3 good things

Which do you want know about first? The Good or the Bad?

I'll start with the Bad so you can leave the post with the Good 8-)

I've been offline for awhile because my first issue was that my camera stopped working. I kept messing with it trying to bring it back to life, but no luck. I still have some kind of hope that it will start working *fingers crossed*. I delayed posting because it's sad to post a crappy picture when you put your heart into your knitting.

My second issue, which actually turned out to be a bigger issue than my camera ,my damn wireless router died on me. It is over 4 years old, about the lifespan of your average router. I had to order a new one, and I had requested overnight shipping over the phone about 6 p.m. about a week ago. I opted to pay the extra fee for shipping. Well, Friday came along and guess what, no router still. I contacted the company and come to find that because I ordered after 6 p.m., overnight shipping isn't allowed and I get the standard shipping. I didn't get charged the extra fee, but it meant I would be without internet that much longer.

After I realized I would be without internet longer that I anticipated, I actually tried to use the backup dialup # I have! UGH! So I get the backup dial up phone numbers and connect my modem and setup my connection, I had the nostalgic sense of my early years in IT *sigh*. I was prompted for my username and password, and I input my info, and BAM! Rejected!.. Seems I forgot my passsword for my main account, so no luck. After messing around with different passwords, I just called it quits, and figured I'd have to stick it out. Today I finally received my router, YAY!, and now I'm back, online and happy to be posting.

Onto my 3rd bad issue, so yesterday my husband and I got up early and went to get some coffee, and them came back to make breakfast. I made my usual, over easy eggs for my hubby, scrambled eggs for me and the kids, turkey bacon, and homemade potatoes with fresh tortillas and juice. We about ready to go eat breakfast when I went to check on something in my bedroom, I walked by my bathroom, and glanced at the floor, to my horror, there was water and cruddy overflow of gunk everywhere! It was coming out of the shower drain, and the toilet was empty! I went to the 2 other bathrooms, and sure enough the same damn thing. Well, after the initial shock, we called an emergency plumber who gave us a 45 minute window to be on-site, so we ate breakfast and waited.

Plumber got here and he asked us where's our main line, and we looked everywhere, nothing. We got the landlord on the line, he doesn't know, so he calls the former tenant, who coincidentally lives down the street. She was kind enough to walk over and show us where the main line was. I can't thank her enough, because we would've never found it. It was literally hidden by overgrown grass on the front lawn, smack in the middle! The Plumber was like "That really should be in plain view, if we didn't find it, the work would be way more complicated". Phew! About 30 minutes later, everything was fixed. We finally got to use the bathroom! I had to run to Safeway to use the bathroom during all this, which was a pain. My work wasn't over though, I had to sterilize and clean all 3 bathrooms now. I spent the next 2 hours with bleach, comet, scrubbers, and plastic gloves cleaning the showers and toilets, mopping, you name it. So that's my 3rd!

Enough bad, now onto the good...

I have been getting some knitting done, and I've got these 3 wonderful FO's here:



From left to right, clockwise

1) Swallowtail Shawl in Madeline Tosh Merino "Arabian Nights"


2) Elm Row Scarf in Scout's Swag "Peach Pit"


3) Karma Tank in Sundara Yarn " Brown Sugar Over Buttermilk"


All three are complete, and need blocking, but a blocking kit is one highly needed tool this knitter doesn't have 8-( I'll be investing on one in the next few weeks, until then, these 3 precious garments bring me happy FO eye candy and I can't wait to show off the how they'll transform. I've already tried on the Karma tank so many times, and it fits perfect. I can't wait!

For the pictures I'm using my backup video camera, which doesn't take the best picture but will just have to do until I can get a new camera.

Even though I have these 3 FO's waiting in the wings, I went and started a new project, with more Sundara Yarn. I'm happy to be back online and hope I'm past the "3's", at least the bad ones!

Happy August everyone!

The Wrong Way...

...to share an FO, but hey, I needed to share it. Something seems to be wrong with my camera 8-( I really hope I can get it working to take better pictures. These pics were taken with my Blackberry Curve from work. They don't show off the pretty dress like I'd hoped, but it's not too bad. I haven't added the ribbon for the empire waist yet, I'll do sometime this week, hopefully by then my camera will be working!





I made this as an emergency knit for my family friend's daughter's 1 yr. bday. Size I knitted was the 18month, and the body of the dress was knit with Sundara Aran Silky in Cotton Candy. This yarn is totally luscious to knit with, literally. The darker, contrasting yarn is from a Woolgirl Seven Deadly Sins kit I received for "Lux yarn" colors 3 & 4. The Lux yarn is fingering, so I double stranded the yarn to match the gauge of the Aran Silky. Worked out perfectly. I have a good amount of notes from the pattern, which is in "Easy Baby Knits" book. The pattern is done in 2 pieces, front and back. It is a simple pattern, a wee bit worded funky but after a few re-reads, I got the jist. I have one big pickle with the pattern, both pieces start off with "x" number of stitches, and slowly decrease up the dress body. This doesn't seem like a big deal, right? All decreases are done at the end of the row, last 2 stitches, what happens is when seaming, it's very difficult to neatly seam up straight when you have one side that is straight, no decreases, seaming with a side that isn't straight and has decreases. The seaming was the most frustrating part for me. One side is perfectly seamed, literally invisible, the other side isn't so invisible. I seamed, unseamed, and seamed, and unseamed count it 3x! After the 3rd, I finally said last try, the stress was starting to wear on the material, luckily the last try came out the best. I actually had to sacrifice some of the edge of the body because I decided to seam the straight (non-decrease side) with a column about 2 columns in from the edgy of the uneven side.

After working on this, I think the pattern would've been better in the round, as one piece. The pattern is so simple, knitting in the round would fix the issues with the decreases. Oh well, in the end it turned out fine.

Oooh, and I need to share my Karma tank!!! But that definitely has to wait until the camera ordeal is figured out.....

Happy Tuesday Everyone!
~Rocky

Family Day at SF49ers!

Where the hell have I been?!? Busy, Busy, Busy, is all I can say! Phew! I can say there has definitely been knitting happening, including a last minute baby knit that I need done by this Saturday! I'm practically done with my Karma Tank, only need about 2 more inches and the straps, and voila!, I'll have a gorgeous summer tank! I'll post pics this week, promise! I also have an emergency baby knit that has halted progress on my Karma Tank. It's the cutest little dress I'm knitting with Sundara Yarn Silky Aran in Cotton Candy! OOHHH! This yarn is freakin' luscious!

For now, I'll share a few pics from my day at the San Francisco 49ers Family Day @ Candlestick the other weekend. We had a blast!

My Daughter and I in the 49ers actual locker room


My Daughter and I waiting in line for autographs



All 5 championship trophies


View from the field


My son getting Steve Bono's autograph


Inside the locker room


Steve Young's retired jersey, the gold trip also signifies Hall of Fame