Don't you hate it when.....

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.....you are in a hurry and all traffic lights you hit, are red?

But on the other hand if you just want to skip a song on your iPod and are waiting for a red light to get it done, then all lights are usually green.

Back on Track

I am back on track with the pattern and in the middle of Chart 3. Yeah! I undid the rows exactly as I described in last post. Unravel and then knit backwards for 2 rows. It always works for me. I went back as far as the last row of Chart 2 and then began with Chart 3 again. 

Here is a picture of my Juno on my desk at work this morning. See the stapler? I love carrying around my knitting with me. I rarely have time to knit during lunch, because there never is a real lunch break. But just knowing that the bag is under my desk and ready to be grabbed if there is a moment to sit outside or so, it is so comforting. 

Chart 3? My a$$....

I am not at chart 3 on the Juno Regina shawl. I thought I was. 
I was last night and so happy to make progress, but something did not calculate the way it should. Hmmm.... after re-reading the chart and recounting the stitches and knitting backwards for a row or two, it still did not come together. I had too many stitches at the end. Anyway, to make a long story short, I should have printed the charts in color.......damn it. Because in black & white the pattern repeats did not show clearly. I had added that one knit stitch on the left side in A and on the right side in C to the B repeat. Sorry that sounds confusing, but those were the 2 stitches that were two too many. See, how it clearly shows in the red frame that these two knit stitches belong to the A, or C repeat? 
Now, I do not carry a life line, although it would make sense to do so with any lace pattern. In any of my previous lace projects, if I found an error that needed to be corrected a few rows down, I would just pull out the knitting needles (gasp) and unravel the thing to about two rows above my mistake.Then I will unravel stitch by stitch slowly inserting the needle into the undone stitches again. Then I would knit one row backward which is unraveling, a kind of  stitch by stitch unraveling while keeping the stitches on the needle. 

In Juno's case, not a big deal, because I only need to go back to the last row of Chart 2 and we are only talking about 89 stitches. I brought my knitting to work today and will go for it at lunch time. Wish me luck.

After all this trouble, I will probably still never use a life line - where would all the fun be with lace anyway?

Wearing of Shawls

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My Juno Regina shawl is coming along slowly as this is not a TV project. The pattern is easy to follow, although at first glance I thought it was confusing. I am at Chart 3 and can't wait to get to the easy middle part which I assume will be more of a mindless knitting part until you get to the opposite end of the shawl. That would give me a chance to start another lace project without confusing charts. I saw an interesting scarf, the Traveling Woman, which is designed by Liz Abinante while I was browsing the What Housework blog.  I think this could work with the one skein Regia Tweed.

Decluttering:

Ahh, this weekend was dedicated to three drawers of my dresser.

One is for my underwear, which is now easy to open compared to a stuffed drawer before. I used to own a black bra, but do not know where that went. Clutter Lots of old t-shirts that doubled as nightgowns have been discarded.

Second drawer held all socks, stockings and nylons. Yes, I encountered the infamous sock syndrome. Done, drawer opens now.

And the bottom one held everything from satin and cloth scarves to gloves, hats and bathing suits. Everything that I have not used in the past 10 years was out of there. Which means almost everything is in a Goodwill bag now. How did I ever fit into that pink bathing suit and why do I even own a 2-piece suit? Did I really wear that many scarves or kerchiefs in the 80s? Ouch, that means that I have been hoarding these for 30 years now.... Am I a HOARDER? Have you ever seen that show? It's scary. Well, of course I did not part with all of the scarves, I kept my favorite ones that have memories attached. My new plan is making pillow cases out of some.  I think that is a brilliant idea, just need to find the time to start sewing too. I could sell the satin ones to make pretty quilts. Or I could sell my 80s costume jewelry on eBay. But that would be my next drawer to clean up.

Leaving my comfort zone of knitting rectangles?

I have a subscription to Knitting Daily emails. And today's message contained a free pattern for the Zarabel sweater. It caught my eye immediately. Although I enjoy knitting scarves and shawls and I am not much of a sweater knitter, this does look like a fun knit. Cables and a simple lace pattern interact and somehow make the sweater look light and airy,  not heavy as cable patterns usually tend to look. I could also imagine this whole pattern as a shawl, it could work, I think. Something to ponder about over the weekend, maybe?

Sign up at Knitting Daily, it's the Inverweave Newsletter and you can get lots of interesting information. The current editor is Kathleen Cubley and I like the topics that she chooses. Of course they also want you to subscribe to Interweave Knits in every email, but if you can ignore that message, the content itself is full of helpful hints, tutorials and also patterns.

Oh, I am daring to mention that I have contemplated to undo my Greenjeans cardigan. I never wear it because the shoulders tend to fall down over my arms, so I am constantly pulling them up again. I may have knit it a size too large? I don't know. The pattern was a pleasure to knit, top down raglan sleeves, it went so fast. But I have never had good results with raglan sleeves. They always seem to be too large and wide under the arms, of course it is all my doing, I could come up with a calculation and correct the whole sizing, but do not know how. And have not had the motivation to do it either. There are lots of raglan pattern calculators online, maybe next time a raglan hits me, I will do some research beforehand.

Does this count towards my decluttering goal?

Socks done

I finished the River Rapid Socks Sunday night. They fit, they look nice and I like them.

The pattern was easy to follow and I had it memorized in no time. The stitches on the back of the heel are great. I have seen that kind of pattern on socks before but never knew that it was so easy to reinforce that area a bit by not knitting every other stitch, just picking it up. Well, now I know.

The only change that I made, was the bind-off at the toe. I decreased until I had 12 stitches and then did a 3-needle bind-off. The toe looks a little pointed but does not show when you are wearing the socks. Overall, I am very satisfied.

River Rapid Socks

by Sockbug

Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Color 4-ply

345 yards (1.5 skeins)

2.5 mm double pointed metal needles

November 28 - January 24, 2010

Apfel Dessert

This was an easy dessert that my mom made while I was visiting. It is simple to prepare and does not contain much flour, fat or sugar. And it tastes great:

Apple Dessert

Ingredients:

5                      large tart apples (400 gr)

1                      juice of one lemon

¾ cup               sugar (100gr)

1                      egg

½ tsp                cinnamon

5 tblsp               milk

¼ cup               melted butter (or margarine) (50gr)

1/3 cup             flour (50gr)

1 tblsp               baking powder

1 cup                chopped nuts (walnut, almonds) (100gr)

Pre-heat oven at 345F

Grate apples and mix in lemon juice.

In separate bowl beat sugar, egg and cinnamon and

Add flour, butter and baking powder.

Add grated apples and half of the chopped nuts.

(Optional – add a tblsp of rum raisins to batter)

Pour into a casserole dish or deep pie dish.

Top with rest of chopped nuts.

Bake for 45 minutes at 345 F (175C)

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Diese Suessspeise schmeckt am besten mit etwas Schlagsahne, wie soll es auch anders sein. 

Ein weiterer guter Tip ist es, etwas rumgetraenkte Rosinen unter den Teig zu mischen.

Gebackenes Apfeldessert

Zutaten:

400g                 saure Aepfel

1                      Zitrone, entsaften

100g                 Zucker

1                      Ei

½ TL                 Zimt

5 EL                  Milch

50g                   fluessige Butter

50g                   Mehl

1 gestr TL          Backpulver

100g                 gehackte Walnusse oder Mandeln

Fett fuer die Form

Ofen auf 175C vorheizen

Aepfel raffeln, mit Zitronensaft betraeufeln

Zucker, Ei, Zimt schaumig schlagen

Milch, Fett, Mehl, Backpulver einruehren

Die Haelfte der gehackten Nuesse mit den Aepfeln unter den Teig mischen

In eine Auflaufform fuellen

Mit restliche Nuesse bestreuen

45 Minuten backen

Don't you hate it when.....

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- you wake up one hour before the alarm clock goes off, tossing and turning and the moment you turn off the alarm you fall into a deep sleep.