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Well, the Federal Government has been closed for a while now, which means I've had "free days" off work. So, some things have gotten finished. First, I got all the beading done on the Skate Pin/Magnet:
And then I finished it.
Wheee! It's great that I finished it before Friday, since, well, I used to be a competitive Ice Skater, and the Olympics are soon to be starting! I think I'll put some felt on the back and a good, solid locking pin, and have it as a pin, instead of a magnet. The magnet that came with the kit has been waaaaay too useful this week as a needle minder!
What I read last week: Death in Daytime, the first of Eileen Davidson's Soap Opera Mysteries. Actually, I re-read it.... Now, if the name "Eileen Davidson" looks familiar to you, then you, like me, probably watched The Young and the Restless or The Bold and the Beautiful at some point in the past, oh, dozen years or so. (Or maybe Days of Our Lives before that.) Yep, it's she-who-plays "Ashley Abbott"! After working on several of The Big Soaps, Ms. Davidson certainly knows her way around the soap-opera world, so writing a mystery set it it? Cake - if she can write.
Luckily, she can (with co-author Robert J. Randisi). Now, I actually found Book #2 in the series, Dial Emmy for Murder, first, and read it. I've since found (and bought) both books, and I'm looking forward to the third, Diva Las Vegas, due out this October (or June?). The books follow the adventures of Alexis Peterson, an actress who has, more or less, grown up and older in the soap-opera world, yet manages to stay incredibly centered. (Something about a wonderful little girl to come home to, contrasted with a lying, theiving ex-husband, will do that.) Alex is likeable, and has one little character flaw: she's always wanted to be a private detective. When she's accused of murder... well, you can guess what happens. But not exactly - which makes reading the first book a lot of fun!
The Back of the Jacket: Alexis Peterson is proud of the work she does on The Yearning Tide, one of the most successful shows in the history of daytime drama. But the new head writer, Marcy Blanchard, blames Alex for stealing the love of her life and is sabotaging her at every turn.
Afraid that her character will end up in an eternalcoma, Alexis cofronts Marcy with an offscreen, off-the-handle catfight. So when her nemesis is found blugeoned to death, Alexis becomes the prime suspect. Now she'll have to act the part of detective, because Alexis knows she only has one life to live... and she's not going to spend it behind bars.
Genre(s): Mystery
Audience: Adult, Young Adult
Online Extras: EileenDavidsonBooks.com!!
Reading Time: 1 day
Recommend: Oh, of course. These are fun!
Coming Soon!I read a lot. Given how much I knit, I really shouldn't have time for eating - but I tend to eat at least two meals a day at work (by myself), and I don't want food on my knitting, so - I read. I'm not reading as much as I usually do, since the Monster Yarn Pattern Project thing is taking over chunks of my evenings (it's going to be a while before there's little enough yarn left for it to be a "portable project"), so I'll share what I've been reading. It's pretty eclectic, and I'm not a critic. Pretty much anything I pick up, I read; I don't tend to pick up things I don't think I'll finish. Don't expect anything in-depth, but you may find something you hadn't heard of that you might want to track down to read yourself.
Yes, For now, a bit of the Scots Santa. As soon as I saw the canvas, I knew I wanted to use velvet for the jacket (see the arm) and something shiny - in this case, the Vineyard Silk Shimmer - for the bag, and - for a really amazing, fun effect - weave a real plaid. So, here's how I started. It actually does involve weaving with the needle - think of it as a sharp, pointy shuttle.
While the sash is at a 45-degree angle (thank you, CC who painted it, wherever you are!), the skirt is horizontal-vertical, so I just went with that. Here's most of the red set up:
More later!
Okay, so, there may have been a little bit of a fall-down on the knitting front. I did do at least one stripe on the SmarTrip scarf, and I finished a square (and a stripe!) of the Monster Stitch Directory Sampler Blanket Thing. But that's about it. I blame my friend JJ, who handed me this on Sunday:
Of course, I knew how I wanted to stitch it, which required a field trip, since I didn't have any red velvet thread lying about. Said field trip required a really, really long bus ride on Tuesday, during which I was able to finish all the cross-stitch on this, started on Sunday:
So pretty! I don't dare do the beading on the bus.
The field trip was to The Point of It All - conveniently located near the Freindship Heights Metro station on the Red Line. This is my favorite store for canvas, although it's a pip to get to since the office moved. (I used to be able to squeak in a trip on my lunch hour; I tried this time, and even though we're only six blocks south, it took an extra 50 minutes!) I got all these pretties:
Including these two, which I hadn't tried before.
Vineyard Silk
Silk & Ivory by Brown Paper Packages
The original idea was to finish up the Scots Santa by Sunday, and surprise JJ with it. While I have no doubts about it being finished in time (canvas is probably the fastest thing I do besides crochet), I have some doubts about seeing her. Something about possibly TWO FEET of snow in DC (or more!) - with at least a foot GUARANTEED! I expect the Federal Government to be closed Monday, and local schools for most of the week!
The project: Knitting all the stitches in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory.
The yarn: Anything you want. I'm using a Phentex "Monster Ball of Yarn" (32 oz. 100% acrylic), which won't block, but will give good stitch definition.
The needles: Again, whatever you want that goes with your yarn. I'm using my beloved Lantern Moon size 7s, because they're pretty.
Why this is happening: Because lots of people want to learn new stitches this year!
This week's stitches: Garter Stitch (#17)
Yes, I know, just one pattern, but it was REALLY busy this week - to the point of "had to stay in a hotel one night in case it snowed so bad the busses got shut down the next morning." So, not a lot of knitting time for the it-stays-at-home-because-I-am-NOT-carrying-around-a-Monster-Ball-of-Yarn project!
I did these patterns slightly out of numerical order - #16, Garter Rib, was supposed to be next. Since I was just a wee bit short of my desired six foot length for Strip #1, I did a stitch that I know doesn't eat up the vertical inches - Garter Stitch. This is officially The Easiest Stitch In The World, since it's knit across, turn over, knit across. I made it slightly more complicated by adding 5 seed stitches before and after the 20 pattern stitches - but only barely.
front
Things I noticed about this pattern: It doesn't get any more reversible than this - except, perhaps, with seed stitch. It does pull in a lot - the mere 24 rows didn't give me quite enough inches to make it to six feet, so there are 31 rows of garter stitch. There were going to be 30, but I liked the look of the k-across at the bottom, and wanted the same effect up top. The seed stitch begins on the wrong side, and goes for six rows. I bound off knitwise, not following the pattern, on the wrong side. In the photo above, you can see that the bind-off looks, more or less, like a continuation of the seed stitch. On the back, below, it's pretty obvious, so the purl side of the bind off is on the right side of the blanket.
back
I measured my completed strip. Remember, since it's all acrylic, I'm not blocking! Using my handy-dandy floor ruler (12" square blocks!), you can see that yep, it's close enough to six feet that I'll be happy with it. I'll be tweaking future strips to be the same length as this first one, for assembly purposes.Oh, and I at least started Strip #2!!
Finally, a different color!!A note on the whole project: Since there are 139 stitch patterns (some are listed under multiple headings), plus 7 different edgings in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory, I'll be trying to do two to three stitches a week, minimum. This should get everyone a goodly number of new stitches by the end of the year, and hopefully get me a blanket. No worries if you "fall behind" or "start late" - this is for fun & education, there isn't *really* a time limit of any sort on it. If you're just discovering this project, this link will take you to the beginning, and this link will pull up all the related entries. Just knit on, and have fun!
