I left work a bit early yesterday because they were closing the roads and I didn’t want to get stuck.  I’m glad I did because the drive wasn’t great, but I made it.  My new bamboo needles were waiting for me at home, and I had to immediately cast on for the back of the zip cardigan.  I tried a cable cast on - my first attempt, but after a bit of struggle, I figured it out and it looks good.  I am happy to report that the stitches seem to be much more even and uniform.  I’m about half way up the ribbing and the real test will be the reverse stockinette stitch, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed and my brain engaged.  I’ll post some pictures when I get a bit more finished.

I ordered paint for my kitchen yesterday.  It won’t come until some time next week, but maybe I can find some time next weekend to paint my kitchen (between my hair appointment, brother-in-law’s college graduation, and Mother’s Day).  I decided on Zorries #40 from Citron Paint.  It’s a nice medium green that I think will look great with the other colors I have in my house (at least I hope it will).

I finally bought the fabric I need for the needle case in Stitch N Bitch.  Nice blues and greens.  I think I might try to get that made this weekend (if I can tear myself away from the zip cardi).  I bought upholstery fabric and I’m pretty sure I’ll have enough to make 2.  Maybe as a gift for someone.  Hmmm.

Have a great day.  It’s Friday!

Look at the lovely weather I drove through to get to work today.

That is snow, flog, and wind.  Major crap.  The roads were icy, but still drivable (obviously - I’m at work).  My real concern now is getting home tonight.  I’ll probably leave early so I’m sure to make it home.  You just gotta love spring in the Rockies.

I worked on my sock and have noticed a difference in my stitches with the sock yarn too.  I find that very interesting, my technique must have really gotten sloppy.  The needles from Knit Happens should be arriving today so I’m planning to cast on again for the back.  Keep your fingers crossed that things go a bit better on the second try.  Oh, Knit Happens Online Store is finally up and running - check it out - it’s fabulous!  I ordered the Jaeger pattern book for Stacy’s sweater so I should be able to figure out my yardage and get the additional yarn I need for that project.

Have a great day and think warm weather thoughts.

… I frogged the whole thing.  It was fairly painless because I know the new version will look so much better.  I have pictures of the swatch I did yesterday at lunch so you can see my improved stitches.

They are much more uniform and make me much happier.  What do you think?

I worked on my sock for awhile last night after I frogged the sweater and had a good time seeing the progress up the foot.  I’m gonna get that thing done one of these days, I promise.

Here’s a picture of the sign a lady in my office made for me to welcome me back to work after my surgery.  Cute.

We got snow at our house last night.  There was a dusting on the grass and sidewalk this morning when we got up and the drive was terrible because the fog was really thick.  You could hardly see the car right in front of you.  I’m still optimistic that spring will eventually show up around here, but it may be July.  Have a great day.

Oh, I almost forgot again.  Cyndi tagged me with a meme.  You’re supposed to use Google Map Services to show people where you live.  We don’t have great zoom in our neck of the woods, but here’s Laramie, WY.  I guess I’ll tag Jen, Diana, and Rebekah.  Have a great day and don’t forget to watch the good tv shows tonight - Lost and Alias are both new (well, Lost is kind of a recap of the season, but still should be good).

Edited: If you look at the map of Laramie you’ll see a road that runs just about down the middle.  At the very bottom of the map there is a little tiny white line that goes off to the right (east).  If you follow that road until it forks and take the middle fork, my house is the very last little light spot you see on that road (just before the other vertical line, which is the railroad track).  Hope that helps you all a bit. 

But I figured out what I was doing wrong.  I didn’t figure it out by myself, so don’t start thinkin’ I’m a genius, but none the less, I fixed the uneven stitch problem.  I cruised over to Knitter’s Review and did a search on the forums.  There was an excellent discussion on “rowing out”.  I made a swatch over lunch and really concentrated on making the stitches by sliding the stitch to the taper before inserting the right needle and it dawned on me that I’ve been stretching the stitches out, which then don’t bounce back.  My swatch looks fabulous - the stitches are uniform and there is no difference in tension between the knit and purl rows.  Yippee.  I learned an important lesson with this little exercise.  It is important to concentrate on producing quality knitting and think about your technique rather than just completing some mindless exercise (not that I can ever really zone out while I’m knitting, but you get my point).  I think the bamboo needles will be great because they will slow me down a little bit and make me concentrate on my technique.  I’ve decided (after this revelation) that I’m going to start from scratch on this little project (or I might leave the back and just frog the front pieces - I don’t know).  I’ll frog tonight and maybe finish tomorrow night and then I’ll get some quality time with sock #2 before the bamboo needles arrive and I can start back in on the cardigan.  Thanks for all of your help and support during my little crisis.

Here’s how I see it.  There’s something wrong with my Phildar zip cardi.  It just isn’t looking right and I’m trying to figure out what to do.  Frankly, the tension sucks.  It’s too loose or uneven and I’m really not happy with it.

The picture on the left is the blocked back and the picture on the right is the blocked ribbing on the back.  See how the stitches are uneven?  It’s getting worse on the front pieces.  Adele is working on this pattern as well, but using a different yarn.  She’s actually using the recommended yarn, rather than substituting the Rowan 4-ply cotton like I did, she’s using bamboo needles and isn’t having a single problem (but she’s a lot more talented than I).  The gauge is right when the tension is right, but it isn’t consistent.  I think it might be the addi turbos.  Maybe they’re too slick with the cotton.  To test this theory I did a little swatch last night on my size 1 lantern moon dpns.  The wood seemed to help a bit, especially on the ribbing, but it didn’t totally fix the problem.

The rib definitely looks much better, but the stitches still have that weird tension thing going on.  The top 6 or 7 rows I knit with the combined method, which really evened out the tension, but I still think I ought to be able to fix this with my regular continental knitting.  Am I kidding myself?

So, these are my thoughts.  I’m going to call the LYS (if you can call it that) and see what they have for bamboo needles (I think they have skacel).  I’m also going to try to figure out what the f*&$ I’m doing wrong with my stitches.  Any ideas?  I can either leave it as is, which I’m not inclined to do, or frog the whole thing and start over on the bamboo needles and if necessary use the combined knitting method to get the correct, even tension.  I really like this pattern and want to wear it and am afraid that if I don’t make it right, I won’t wear it and the whole thing will be a waste.  What would you do if you were me?  Any suggestions or advise would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for your help.

OMG!  I just called the LYS and you’re not going to believe this, but she doesn’t have any sraight bamboo needles.  None.  No straight needles at all, unless you count dpns, which I don’t.  What kind of yarn store is this??  Not a very good one.  So now I must order them from Knit Happens and pay express shipping because I’m too impatient to wait for them to come regular mail.  Lovely, just lovely.