Endless swatching ahead

When did I become such a loose knitter? I have pretty new yarn and I want to knit with it, but gauge is elusive. I swatched my Beyond cotton on several needle sizes before settling on 4's for my Shapely Tank (Beyond recommended needle size: US6). I swatched my Jaeger Sienna, aiming for 28 sts per inch. The pattern recommends 3mm so I tried 2.75mm and got 23.5 after washing. 23.5? 28?! I don't think 2.5mm will do it, and the 2.25mm needles are in the doily. So much for that one. Maybe I'm just destined to knit on 0's for the rest of my days.

Swatching just isn't that exciting, and I feel like I just end up with a lot of washed yarn wasted in swatches. And if I start off too loose in the beginning, unraveling the swatch to try again will leave me with too little yarn. (And since it's been washed, I assume it behave differently than if it was "fresh".)

I'm feeling panicked about my knitting prospects. I packed most of the yarn already, and now I'm torn about what I should take with me for the next week vs. what I should ship straight home so that I'll have it when I get there. Wool will be too hot in Colorado, though it would be fine in the rain we have here now. I should have enough tencel wound to finish the front of that sweater and maybe a sleeve. The Segue is close to done -- I just need to choose a neckline -- and will be finished soon. I swatched some new cotton for a baby piece, but I bet it will be too big, too. I haven't put the books away yet; I worry that as soon as I do I'll want something out of them, but maybe I'm safe.

I guess I should start swatching down two sizes. No wonder Johanna is so shocked when she comes over and finds me with a couple projects on 13s (Segue) and 10 3/4 (tencel). I'm starting to wonder myself how I got up to those!

(Pictures next week, I hope? I'm just too shot to try to take them and deal with them lately. And the rain, the singing, and the packing don't help.

packing packing packing

packing packing packing.

Bought yarn at Colorful Stitches. Pictures or details later when I'm not

packing packing packing.

Got some butterfly cotton at Circles. More on that later when I'm not

packing packing packing.

And singing at Tanglewood was fabulous, and this weekend should be fabulous, too.

And packing packing packing.

(Why is this entry so far down the page?!)

Short takes from home

My cat made it home just fine, and didn't need to be tranquilized. She's had words with my parents' cats, but hopefully they'll get along well enough for a few weeks, and mom won't get bitten again. (It was smaller than it looked at first and it's healing quite nicely.)

The wedding was beautiful and the dinner afterwards was fabulous. I took over 100 pictures and they're slowly downloading.

It was great to see knitting friends on an off-week of the "Borders North" group from the DenverKnits list. I'll see you all in three weeks, at the regularly-scheduled meeting. Maybe I'll bike from...

My new apartment, which is reasonable. And very cheap. We have a fireplace, and a decent kitchen (and a dishwasher!), but the bedroom is very small. I might have to put the dresser in the closet, but I really hope not. However, I'll be able to hang up my sweater rack again, and I'm looking forward to that. All of my plans for displaying pretty yarn have been put on hold, because there just won't be enough room.

Fireworks at the CU stadium were pretty good, but the concert would have been better at Chautauqua Park. The CBS broadcast of the Boston Pops concert left much to be desired, including the Chorus!! We didn't get to see them at all, and they were the main reason I tuned in. However, the smiley-face fireworks were pretty darn cool.

I finished my Dale sweater and it's really cute. (Front and back.) I also finished the front of the tencel sweater (High Tide), and...

I started knitting a doily. It seems so pathetic, so dorky, so old-fashined. But it's so cool, and addictive. There are lots of different ones here, and mom has some Dianna booklets with more beautiful ones. Look at the ones by Neibling here. I don't know what I'll do with it when I'm done. It's a little bit of "because I can" and a little bit of "That's just so cool!"

Mom's kitten, Max, has good taste in yarn. He's been stealing her wools and silks. and he took a ball of wool/mohair for my goddess sweater under the table and chewed it. Some pieces are only about 6", but I still got two reasonably-sized balls and an asortment of small balls and long pieces. I can spit-splice it together, after I trim off the bits that the cat spit-chewed apart. (This is the same cat who ate the Lopi mouse I made for him. It came back up and he had a tummy ache, but he's been fine.)

I'm off to Tanglewood for the weekend to sing Winton Marsalis and Maurice Ravel. I'm sure I'll stop by Colorful Stitches, but hopefully won't repeat my performance there last summer. I'll be back on Sunday, and hopefully I'll have time to put up a lot of pictures. I have about three days to finish packing my apartment, then it's back to Tanglewood, home for a little party, and then I'm outta here!

BusyBusyBusy

I'm not lost of missing, just busy! It's time to pack, and time to sing (Where did June go? Why didn't I learn my music?), and even sometimes time to knit.

Yesterday was my last day at work, and it was a little weird to pack up and move out. On Tuesday I got a surprise party, which was great! Two of my good friends decided to throw it since they wouldn't be there my last day and wanted another shebang. And the other party was a whole week ago, so they needed something more! We had frozen margeritas and everything.

Today I've packed for a weekend at home and after a massage (aaaaaaaaaahhhhh), Sundae goes in the cat carrier, we make a stop by Circles, and then we're off to Colorado for my brother's wedding and fireworks. Maybe there will be pictures when I get back.

I'm sorry there's been so little knitting and so few updates. Transition time makes that happen, I guess. Things are progressing nicely, though. I had to re-bind off a too-tight armhole on the Dale sweater. I knit most of the front of my Segue tank while I was at the salon for FOUR HOURS last Saturday to get my hair done, and I chose yarns for my Persephone project (I'll talk more about this soon, I think). Most of my knitting in the next few weeks will probably happen at Tanglewood, and posting may be sporadic, but I promise that I'm still here, packing away and maybe sneaking a few rows between boxes. :)