Friday, November 28, 2008

adding thread to your bobbin

hey all, perhaps this is useful. loading a bobbin is pretty universal, though your machine might be sort of different than mine, the concepts are the same.

first, put your machine in neutral- on my little engine that could, i have to pull the whole purple wheel out away from the casing.

then un thread your machine so the spool is just sitting on the holder. then, find the turning point. on my machine it's the thing that looks like a screw just to the left of the tension lever. pull the thread around that, and then back toward the spool.


next, you take the thread, and thread it into the bobbin from the inside out, pull enough through so there's a bit to hold on to.


then you put the bobbin on the holder (you might need to slide the holder to one side or the other), and use the food pedal to spin it. you need to hold on to the little bit you threaded through, so it will be tight enough, and you don't want to go too fast, because it might tangle or go all wonky.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

test

to see about the feedback buttons. There are buttons you can click on all the ravelry posts. blogger has incorporated them too. there are lots of neat features here on blogger. some day i'll go through them and have a look at them all. then you'll be bombarded with on-line fripperies!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

a return to football!

yay! you must have been wondering where have all my silly sports gone? well, i've actually just got back on a team. last night was our first game. we smashed them. it was something line 15 or so to just two.

i think dave and dan had the most- but i lost track. next up was probably mick or perhaps jon, i only had one. but that's ok! it was very nice to get back on the field. i haven't played for many weeks, so i am slightly out of shape (100% out of shape) but that's ok, i let the young studs do all the hard work, and i celebrate the win. Just kidding!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

a change of plans

for the buttony sweater! (hey, i'm nothing if not indecisive!)

So i did a bit of a swatch with bobbles over the weekend. Blech! they are a drag to knit. i'll try again when the yarn arrives, but i'm leaning toward no-go. then i considered a cable collar, and cables around the hem, and then more narrow cables along the sleeves. one something like leabhran's Coronet Hat.

but then i learned that cables often curl in, side to side- the crossover of the cable causes the pull. so that's not so appealing either.

so then i thought, perhaps a scallop edge might look neat. This one is
KnitsByRachel's Scallops Pattern Dishcloth (it's about half way down)

I'll have to try them both out.I'm sure i'll go with the scallop edge, or the bobble, as planned, since the cable is WAY more work. not the cabling itself, that's actually pretty easy, once you get your legs under you, but cables run vertically; and collars, hems, and sleeve edges run horizontally, so you have to knit the cables off line, then graft them on to the sweater. blech!

I expect the yarn to arrive today or tomorrow (hurry, kind postman!) so i'll have to give some ideas a try then. More news when it happens!

Actually, while looking for the owners of the pics, i found Coronet Cuffs.


Methinks they look pretty neat, I'm leaning a bit toward that pattern for the colalr and cuffs!

Friday, November 14, 2008

arrrgh! the suspense is killing me!

so yesterday i placed an order with my favorite online yarn shop thus far knitpicks. i got Wool of the Andes Kettle-Dyed



in the colorway soot.




but now the suspense is killing me! i simply cannot wait for the package to arrive! arrrrgh! i'm going to make myself another buttony sweater. I learned some valuable lessons from the last one so this one will be more successful i think.

initially i was going to post a long dissertation about my intended modifications to the buttony sweater. Dear readers fear not. I came to my senses before doing so, lest your eyes glaze right over.

Instead, have a look at this person's great posting Not for the first time i'm embarrassed by my lacking language skills. She did a really great job on hers, and her photos look soooo good. I hope mine turns out half as nice.

so the order is placed, i just need the string. Hurry kind postman, Please don't delay! i need to make that sweater, and i simply can't wait a day!

update:
Your Knit Picks order shipped 11/14/2008! Your order number is 80894.

Items Shipped
Qty Item # Item Description Price
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 24289 Soot Kettle WotA @ $3.49 = $17.45

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Hee. This makes me giggle

Candids are tricky things.


you can see that this sweater is a tiny bit too roomy. That's ok; according to my sisters, too roomy is way better than too tight.


Snaps of children's clothing on hangers is nice and all, but snaps of the children are better! i'm pleased, now i get to have Roo on my blog too!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Mini Minnesota Vikings Fan

my friend molly will have received the package by now so i think i'm ok to post this. so they like their vikings in minnesota, i like that, we like our patriots here in new England, it's like we're all kinfolk. Now, the grape-flavoured vest took far less yarn than i expected. But what to do with the rest? Allow it sit around, taking up space, mocking me for my poor planning and foolish, wasteful spending? No silly! Make it into something!



As a matter of fact, i also had some yellow leftover from kristen's sweater too. It's perfect Vikings yellow! How utterly serendipitous! So. I used the same pattern as kristen's. i'm a bit nervous, because i think the one for Riley Roo is a bit too large. but it's the 2-3 year size, and i followed the destructions exactly! Well, mostly i followed them exactly. i did the sweater top down, on one needle, rather than doing as pieces and seaming. it's really easy to do it that way. send a message if you need advice. I'd like to reemphasize my complete love of the Peace Baby!Pattern
It's well worth the investment of a donation to the worthy cause, and the pattern is really useful.



Perhaps Molly will be able to email a snappy snap of the sweater in action, dear readers, so you won't be stuck with just an ugly maroon hanger.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

separating good carbs from...

better ones!

There is something sublime about tasty baked goods. like spaghetti and meatballs, they are comfort food, at it's most effective.

I love brownies, but i'm moderately particular about their texture. i like them to be dense and fudgey, but i also like them to have a bit of chewiness to them too.

so on sunday i had this inexplicable urge to make chocolaty brownies. I tried to talk myself out of it, but succeeded only in making the craving worse. I searched my cupboards for brownie mix. even an ancient box. nope, nada. Then i remembered an old every day food magazine dedicated to brownies. tada! but alas, it called for 8 oz of chips, and i only had about 4 (strangely, i did have cocoa in the house). no probs, i found a jar of nutella hazelnut spread tada!

so they came out fantastic! my oven runs a bit hot, so next time i'll have to cut back the temp, but these came out so nicely. it's 100% as easy as making them with a box. no more brownie box for me. the only added step is melting the butter and chocolate together.

yummy!