Ilona Andrews » Knitting

Omg, y’all!

Ilona — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:11:57 +0000

Dear Devon,

You, me, and possibly Laura if we can talk her into it. ————-> Knitting party! We can embarrass our children/husbands and flaunt our embarrassing ways on the interwebs. It will be glorious.

***

I got 2,102 words yesterday. I have made a certain deal with a couple of friends, where we all are trying to meet our writing goals for November, and the one who fails the most will have to buy tea for the rest of the people from Tea Forte.

I am still in the running for that tea. It was touch and go for a bit, but I am determined to kick butt today. Must get tea! I have two weeks to catch up.

***

We finally found a doctor. She was very nice and all of us really likes her. I feel a smidgeon less nuts.

***

Yesterday as we pulled up to the house, there were packages by the door. Large packages. (He also broke my camera by dropping it, so there are no actual pictures.) First I opened the small package and there was a book in it.

Hmmm. Small problem – I don’t own the bread machine.

Then I opened the medium sized package.

Bread saver. Again, no bread machine.

Then I opened the third package.

It has a built in dry yeast dispenser. It makes bread in two hours. Two! Hours! Can you believe that? It’s like a space bread machine.

I made bread last night and it was awesome. Even the kids ate a little bit.

Yarn Dillemma and Monster battle

Ilona — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 17:29:37 +0000

To prevent the male readers from running for the hills, here is a monster battle. Pay no attention to ramblings about yarn below.

Fierce monsters!

(bought at Jo Ann’s craft store, of all places)

But what’s this?

It’s the guy from the Fist of the North Star!

Boom, Pow, Crash!

Exploding heads!

All is right with the world.

On to yarn.

At Jo Ann’s, where I went completely by accidents on account of it being next to Vietnamese Fish Market, I bought this yarn. It is a beautiful yarn, so pretty I bought three different colors. All yarn has a number indicating yarn weight. The higher the number, the thicker and heavier is the yarn.

This Rainbow Boucle is graded as 4, meaning it is similar to worsted yarn in weight. Suggested needle size falls around 7-9.

Here is the problem: this yarn may weigh at number 4, but it knits at about number 2. I’ve tried to make a sample hat out of it yesterday.

a) it does NOT show pattern well. Doing a rib on it was torture, because every time I’d get interrupted, I had to try to remember if I ended on purl or knit. The fuzzies make it impossible to figured out which stitch you are on by just eyeballing it.

b) On #9 needles it knits into a mesh. Even on number 7 needles it knits into a mesh, and the hat is paper thin.

This is the sample hat held up by Kid 2.

This is the same hat, when held to the light.

So what to do. Do I treat it as fine and go down to tiny needles? I really like the yarn color. I just have no clue what to make out of it.

Also, question number two. I really want to make the shawl. But I am short and plump. So

a) Are shawls too old lady?

b) Since shawls look best on tall thin people, would it make me look like a barrel wrapped in pretty yarn?

Dear Ilona

Ilona — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:16:15 +0000

Dear Ilona,

See us on TV! Lion Brand will be featured on the ION Television show, The World’s Greatest!… airing April 26 at 6 a.m. EST (with reruns April 27 at 7 a.m. and April 28 at 11 a.m., both EST).

No! Stay away, vile yarn beast! I have enough yarn and no time!

Catch Spring Fever with the backyard garden kits, which include ten balls of Palette yarn…

Nooooo!

Oh Laaaaura?

Ilona — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:33:34 +0000

Muahahahahahahaha! (Click to enlarge)

I R the Queen of Monkey socks. The ball is in your court.

These things actually are much less complicated than they look.

Monkey socks

Ilona — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:35:57 +0000

First and foremost: Dear Claire, OMG the sock book was awesome. Our mailing place misplaced and we just now got it. Thank you thank you thank you!

Also thank you to the awesome person who sent the poodle mug! Sorry, I had the name written down, but somehow I can’t find it.

A few days ago I’ve got an email from Laura in which she pretty much challenged me to make the Monkey Socks. I said that they looked too scary and that there was a big gulf between socks with holes and whatever this complicated thing is. She said, and I quote,

Not complicated or skeery! I promise!

You already know how to knit and purl and yarn over and k2tog.. you can do this. It’s just putting it in the right order.

Aha.

Well, once the challenge is issued and accepted, there is nothing left to do but to go for it. (Click on Images for larger version.)

Imagination hand-painted yarn from Knit Picks

My girly feet with yarn on them

Gordon's manly feet with the yarn wound and stuck into a plastic bag with corners cut and yarn ends threaded through. Doesn't tangle that way.

Reading the instructions:

Oh Dear God in Heaven, what is this? Why is this?

This will never work.

Six days later:

Four repeats done.

It wasn’t that hard once I knew what I was doing. The issue that I have with them is that on ssk, my stitches twist. It has to do with the way I was taught to knit (it’s a south-Russia variation of the Eastern), so I have to remember to untwist them after decrease. This, of course, didn’t dawn on me until the third repeat, sigh.

So there we go – Monkey socks in progress.

You know what today is?

Ilona — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:47:18 +0000

Today is the new sock starting day. The purple striped socks are finished and I’m wearing them. This is the first time I’ve ever tried to make socks that were more than just knit and purl. These have little holes in them and I’m unreasonably proud of this monumental knitting achievement. I can knit with holes. Yay.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Despite much boasting and explaining of the great difficulty of adding holes to socks, Gordon is seriously underwhelmed.

Knitting Crisis

Ilona — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:25:15 +0000

I am allowed to order one magazine for myself this year. (Everybody gets one.)

I want a knitting magazine. I don’t know which one to order. Vogue, Knit N Style, Interweave?

What are your favorites?

So Much Awesome!

Ilona — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:17:09 +0000

Rise,

Soapthulhu,

rise!

News 11/09/2009

Ilona — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:50:39 +0000

The internets seem to be back, whee!

:hates on Comcast: We bought a new router, because they said the problem was in the router. The problem was on their end, but now we have a new router that looks something out of Star Trek. I keep expecting it to split open, sprout metal spider legs, and skitter off the desk.

Happy Veteran Day to Gordon.

EDGE 2 now has a title: BAYOU MOON.

The hat with cat ears has to be remade. Kid 1 wore it non-stop. She even slept in it, unless I managed to snatch it off her head before bed. Eventually it had to be washed. I knew the yarn had angora in it, but I figured the bamboo would balance it out. Nope. Even with a gentle handwashing, the hat developed a very typical angora fuzz. It also stretched a lot and no amount of blocking would fix it.

Just for the record, angora and bamboo is a terrible combination. The yarn in skein is heavy, shiny, and slick. Any kind of wear or contact with water and angora goes fuzzy, so the resulting product does not look like the finished product.

Much mourning of the hat occurred. New hat will be made with different yarn. Results will be posted.

Gasp! Oh Noes!

Ilona — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:38:15 +0000

Releases from friends:

Devon Monk’s MAGIC TO THE BONE

Nalini Singh’s BLAZE OF MEMORY

Steven Boyett’s ELEGY BEACH

Am working hard. Please talk amongst yourselves. What sort of dessert are you planning for Thanksgiving?

Also funny:

Traitor Panda Kid #1, looking through KnitPicks catalogue: Look, mom. Knitted fruit. Loooook!

Me: That doesn’t really appeal to me. I would rather make something someone can wear or play with.

Traitor Panda Kid #1, sighing: If you knitted fruit, I would think it would be old ladyish.

Me: Then why are you trying to get me to knit fruit?

Traitor Panda Kid #1: Hehehehehe.

Apparentlly, I am an old lady.