Why not just buy a sweater?

I'm not sure. You see, I came across this sweater pattern online and now I HAVE TO HAVE IT!!!!!



It's the short-sleeved Trapeze Jacket at Stitch Diva.
I thought of a few problems: It would take me so long to finish it that it will be winter and I won't be able to wear it till next summer, and then will I still like it? And the yarn they use has 1/3 wool. I can't have wool directly touch my skin or I'll scratch myself to death.

I was silly to think my problems ended there. OK. First problem is finding a yarn substitution. Even if I felt I could take the wool, if I use the yarn they suggest (this Elsie by Tilly Tomas), I would need about $160 worth. All I can say about that is "!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I wouldn't pay that much for a sweater, and I don't want to pay that much for the yarn for a sweater that I have to spend months making and will probably mess up. But, you see, if you don't get a similar yarn substitution, the sweater won't be the right size.

So I went to Village Wools and asked for help. I showed them the pattern and asked for help finding a yarn. I wanted cotton, and I wanted bright red or cranberry. In the end, I chose this Rowan cotton glace. I bought just one ball so that I could test my gauge.

Test my gauge -- this is the fun part of knitting. I actually meant the not-fun part. This is where you knit a test sample of a certain number of stitches and rows in a certain designated pattern to see if your size matches theirs. Everyone knits differently, so if your SQUARE is bigger or smaller, you go up or down in needle size till you match the pattern. I've never really bothered much with this because specific size hasn't mattered a whole lot for me yet.

So I knit my swatch, and I can't say that it went all that quickly. It was 28 stitches across, plus selvage edge and 32 rows long. This was supposed to equal 4x4 inches. Mine equaled 5x3.5 inches. That's not even a square! So one way it's too big, the other too small. Now I have no idea what to do about changing needles!



I was fearing that this project was beyond my abilities, but holy cow! I can't even get past the swatch. I'm going to Village Wools today for the help session to get advice.

In the meantime, while trying to figure out the yarn for that project, I'm starting on this handbag for the fall. It's called the Brea Bag, and is a free pattern. Click the picture for the pattern.



I'm doing mine in the same yarn they use, the Ultra Alpaca, but in gray. I thought that would be more versatile, and I'm probably going to do some other kind of handle.

I'm off to a great start on that one as well. I was knitting my swatch last night while very tired and yapping on the phone. I got halfway through and realized I was doing the wrong stitch pattern. I started over and then realized my swatch was too small. I then read the instructions again and found I was supposed to be using two strands at the same time, which would make it a bit bigger. So now I have to start over on that.

KNITTING PARTER:
I've wanted someone to knit with for a long time. There are many knitting groups in town, but they always meet in the evenings when I work. I met a person on Duke City Fix and we are meeting tonight to knit. I'm excited at the idea of a knitting friend, and even just a new friend.

Pedaling, pedaling

Today's workout: 7.4 miles on my bike, for one hour. Yay!

A little bundle of energy

No, I'm not talking about those crazy kids at the park. I'm talking about me! Yep, 34-year-old me!

I just wanted to brag because I have been working out a lot, and I'm proud! Today, after the weekend's nasty weather, was nice and sunny and warm. So I hopped on my brand-new bicycle and went for a ride. After last week's discovery of the butt discomfort associated with bikes, I wasn't sure how long I could go. I did have a gel seat cover I didn't have before. I decided to go part of my little-over-3-mile walking route, but in reverse because that wouldn't require me to cross the busy road in order to ride the correct side. Most of the path is residential, but part of it is on Golf Course. If I go in reverse, I just take a right onto Golf Course and another right onto the residential area, and the rest is quiet streets.

When I got near to home, I wanted to keep going, and I did. This, unfortunately, required me to confront the nasty hill that nearly ended my life last week. It's the final part of my ride home. As I approached it, I told myself to "just get to that third tree up there." As I struggled and gasped, I said, "maybe the second tree would be fine." Quickly, I convinced myself that just the first tree would be plenty good. At the same time, I was messing with the gears. But I couldn't remember which way to go if I was on a hill. I then turned something so that the pedals went all crazy and I almost fell off, so I stopped and fixed the settings to somewhere in the middle. At this point I had lost all momentum and would not be able to restart up this mountain. Again, I was walking it.

When I got home from my 30 minute ride, despite gasping for breath and being quite purple from the heat and exertion, I still felt really revved-up and energetic. So I hopped on the treadmill for another 40 minutes. I wanted to go even longer but I had to work and started to realize I may be pushing it on time.

I tracked my path online at this site and found I had gone about 5 miles on my bike and I know I went 3 miles on the treadmill. I'm very proud of my 70 minute, 8-mile workout! What motivates me? Two words: swimsuit, vacation.

Must stay in house the rest of night

It's Friday night, and I'm not going anywhere. No siree, I'm staying right here at home. You see, I got a facial. And apparently my skin is much nastier than I ever notice. Day to day I tend to think, "Well, I'm not wrinkled, like my grandma. And I don't have horrific acne, like a 14-year-old. I wear lots of sunscreen. My skin's OK."

Every now and then I think I could use a little pampering. How about a facial? It's not till I go to get a facial that I realize that my skin needs major work. There's nothing relaxing about it -- as a matter of fact, it feels a bit like the facialist is using a scalpel to clean my skin out. I am not exaggerating that -- it feels like I must be spurting blood all over the room. Meanwhile, with all the thrashing and wriggling I'm doing from the pain, I'm surprised she can even get the job done.

But, folks, here is what I learned: You must clean your pores out. If you are thinking, "that pore is already clogged up, if I clean it it will just do it again," you're not realizing that apparently it will just keep adding more gunk to itself until it's as big as craters on the moon. Therefore, they must undergo the extractions. Quit being a baby.

Also, she used what sounds like a bug zapper to electrocute the zit that cropped up today. It was like lightning on my face. It felt funny, and I had to ask if my face was black and smoking where she did it. She assured me it was not. But you recall my post about the gum-laser incident, right? So I couldn't help but be afraid.

Now, my skin is clean and hydrated and feels smooth as a baby's bum, but it's also red and blotchy. That is why I will be spending my Friday night at home. Anyone up for some Facebook Scrabulous?

I have a little secret box

If you came to my house, you may walk unsuspectingly past this little shelf in the hall, and past the little wooden box on the bottom shelf.



This little box is full of tiny little surprises.



Shhhh. Let's look inside.



It's full of mini-naminals. Or animals, as most people call them. Let's examine them. Let's see, there's a fuzzy pony with wax in it's mane. Don't ask, I can't recall. There are tiny frogs and turtles, little pigs, a bunny,a sharks tooth and I think one of those scary desert creatures from "Star Wars," among other things.



I don't know why I have these things, but I think I always will.

My little foot stool

You know when you have a big, squishy couch and your feet don't touch the ground? Oh, I hate that. So I did something about it. I made a foot stool.

First I shopped around for one, but a) they were rather expensive and b) they were not my style. So then I decided to have a look around the Hobby Lobby. In the wood section, I found an unfinished wooden stool. I also found a small pillow (I suppose I could have made a small pillow, but this one was just the right size). I bought some stain, picked a fabric scrap from my stash and got to work:



I stained the bench and then sprayed it with clear stuff. You probably know what it's called, but I can't remember. Varnish maybe?
Then my dad and I used a staple gun to attach the fabric, with the pillow sandwiched in between. My upholstery technique could use refining. And I had a terrible migraine, so once I got to my dad's house to use the staple gun, I didn't care that much how it came out. It's OK, though. It looks acceptable, and it's easy to put a new piece of fabric on any time I want.



I will say that the problem with this stool is that it tips over easily. So if you're going to try this, I recommend a stool with 4 little legs instead. I found some like that at Michael's and probably should have went with those.

No, I'm not going to commute this way

It's just for fun. I got a bike! I haven't owned a bike since I was a little kid and too small for an adult bike. A few times in my pre-teen years I rode my dad's bike. Once in my adult life I attempted to ride my mom's bike with my brother to the store. I was a bit wobbly and every pebble on the street made me scream like a ninny. When we got to Central, my brother eyed the convenience store across the street, and then the curbs and median, and rolled his eyes. "You just wait here. You'll never make it," he said, before hopping off the curb and riding OVER the median. This is something I will never be able to do.

I wanted a bike to cruise around the neighborhood in the nice summer evenings. It's unfortunate that I work evenings, so I am limited to just two evenings a week for potential bike riding. I have also discovered that the area I live in has lots of hills. Steep hills like Mt. Everest that you don't notice when driving.

Anyway, Mark drove me to Costco where I picked my bike. It's not but a few miles from home, and we have small cars. So I decided I'd just ride it home. There is a back way where I don't have to ride busy streets. I hadn't been on a bike (besides the above incident) in about 20 years, so I was a little wobbly. Another thing about bikes now is that you wear a helmet, which makes you feel like a HUGE dork. But supposedly it's good for your skull when you are hit by a car and go slamming into the pavement. The whole helmet thing makes me want to say, "In my day, we didn't wear no stinkin' helmets. When we fell off our bikes, we cracked our skulls open and our brains slid out. And we didn't cry like no babies. We liked it!"

On to the Costco story: I DID buy a helmet because I'm always reading about bicyclists getting hit by cars and killed in this city. I started riding through an apartment complex to get to the back street. The wind was in my face and I felt like I was flying. It was the most wonderful feeling. Until I got to the hill. And I swear, the street went straight up into the sky. I felt like with every pedal, I was going BACK a yard. I was dizzy. Gasping. ...

... This might be a good time to add that I have been really sick the last few days, first with a long, severe migraine and then with a mini-bout of food poisoning or something that made me barf the morning of my bike excursion. So I was not really up for any excessive exercise after 5 days of headaches and nausea. ...

I get off the bike and start walking it. Now I'm a dork in a helmet biking in flip-flops and I can't even ride it. After a while, I notice a creepy youth walking a ways behind me. I approach the top of the hill and decide to lose that freak. On I go, till I reach another hill. It's close to my house, but it's steep enough that even when walking, you breathe really hard and wonder when it will end -- and I love walking up hills. I can see my street, but it feels like it just keeps getting farther away. I can't breathe, my chest is burning. My head is pounding, and I think I'm going to barf. I keep telling myself I can do it -- not to be a wimp. But I couldn't. I had to walk it again.

When I got home, I really was going to barf. My body had been too sick to handle that level of exertion. My head hurt so badly and I had to lie down awhile.

This morning, I felt healthy. I wanted to ride my bike, but midday in New Mexico is rather toasty. I also had to admit what kind of wimp I was on the bike, so I thought about which way I could go that wouldn't have any steep hills. I thought about taking my 3.5 mile walking route, but once I got riding, I realized my butt felt bruised from the day before. There was no way I could make it that far, so I just took a 20 minute ride, then finished my workout on the treadmill at home. I always thought my butt had excessive padding. What good is it?

That's my story. I can hardly ride a bike. My legs are too wimpy, and so are my lungs. Hills terrify me. Cars terrify me. I hate the nerdy helmet and my butt hurts so much.

Here is my Schwinn 21 speed (not that I know what to do with speeds ...) It's white and claims to have a padded seat.

Something for me

I bought this dress pattern in February, when, for my birthday, I made my friends hang out at JoAnn Fabrics just because I could do what I wanted.

I didn't select a fabric, so it just sat there. Last week, I was looking at this fabric I already had and realized I had a lot of it for some reason. It was just enough to make this dress. I love it! That's the beauty of sewing -- you can use fabrics you'd never find in the stores. Of course, whenever I make something, people always know right away. I am not sure if that's because the things I make actually look awful and homemade.



If you look closely at the tie, it's a similar fabric with a different print. I was supposed to just use a ribbon, but I thought this would be a fun touch.



It was made from Butterick pattern B5024. I had trouble with the sizing. I chose the size based on my measurements, but it was HUGE! I ended up taking it in by about 2 inches around, and it could still be more fitted for my taste, though I think it's fine now. I saw the dress on a mannequin at JoAnn's and loved it, but the picture on the pattern looks pretty lame. I never would have bought it if I hadn't seen the finished project at the store. I also think it made it a totally different dress to use a bold fabric.

Already thinking about October

... and I'm not sure why. I love the summer and I'm glad it's approaching. But I made this yarn that reminds me of October -- or I dyed it, rather. For sale, if you want to get some socks ready for the fall!

I'm dyeing over here

I recently finished my yarn spinning class. I learned to make finer yarns, but I like textured, chunky, uneven yarns, so I made this one. I also dyed it in blues and browns:



For class, I spun this one:



Here are some that I dyed, but didn't spin:



And, I finally finished another apron. It's reversible. Available at Burst of Happiness:

Roady sweetness

Still not sure what is up with Roady's weight loss. Lots of tests proved inconclusive. Still waiting on more, but here are some sweet pictures of her:

New hand-painted yarns

Available at Burst of Happiness.

Hand-painted yarns:

A wittle baby-waby sweater

A few posts back, I posted this. It's about how I'm working on a sweater project for my friend's baby, due in June.

Well, I finished my first sweater -- one of my first complicated knitting projects. Although there are mistakes, I'm pretty excited that I did it! I used a vibrant green cotton -- Bernat cottontots. It's my practice run for the final sweater, which will be using yarn I carefully hand-painted (see other post above).

Nurse Robyn

Monday, Mark had his 5th knee surgery on the same knee, third since I've known him. We've got it down to a science, really. He's doing well.

I took a few days off to care for him. I also had to take my cats for their checkups and shots Tuesday. They are about 15 years old, and I found out little Roady really is little. She's lost a lot of weight since last year, meaning two pounds. She's only seven pounds now. The vet is worried and now she needs a full blood workup to see if we can figure out why. Tomorrow we go to get the blood drawn. Now after the $140 I spent on shots and checkups Tuesday, I have to fork out another $200 for bloodwork. But Roady is like a child to me. I think I love her more than I would a human child, actually.

Here's a picture of her:

I don't got your back

In a life-threatening situation? You better hope you're not with me. Do you ever wonder how you'd react to a dangerous situation? You see those "heroes" on TV who say, "aw, shucks. I ain't no hero. I just did what anyone would have done in this situation." And you think, "yes, I'd be a hero, too!" while deep down inside you wonder if you really would just go running away while children perished in a burning bus.

I've had a few minor tests, and so far I've failed miserably. I'm a pathetic wienie.

Example 1: Day after our wedding, Tamaya resort near Bernalillo, N.M. We had a 2-room suite on the ground level. Mark had left the sliding door open in the bedroom, but the curtains were closed. I was in there changing, and he was in the living room. I thought maybe I should shut the door so some psycho couldn't walk right in. The curtains were closed, so I fumbled through them blindly with my hands while trying to find the door. As I did this, my hands met someone else's hands. They grabbed my arms. It was the psycho I had just been worrying about!! Oh, God. This is it! I was about to meet my maker. I should have screamed so that Mark could come in and rescue me, but all I could do was silently gasp for air. That's it. Lucky for me, it turned out to be Mark playing a practical joke on me. We won't go into whether I thought it was funny. The point here is that I didn't do anything. I was just going to let someone murder me without making a peep.

Example 2: Today, Petroglyphs National Monument in Albuquerque. This place is minutes from our house, but we'd never seen it. We found one entrance where you could park at a park in the middle of a neighborhood and walk into the monument. Basically, it was sand and mesa, with some mini mountains of black rocks. Every square inch of ground was coated in rabbit poop. I wandered off the trail and approached the black rocks. Mark was saying, "What if you got bitten by a rattle snake? I'd be a hero and carry you back to the car." At that moment I spotted a hole next to a rock and pointed at it and said, "a snake house!" Then I noticed that about a foot and a half away was a coiled rattle snake. What should you do when you see a rattle snake? I don't think you're supposed to scream "aaauuughhh!!!! A SNAKE! A SNAKE! RUNNNNNNNNN!" while jumping up and down, and then run away. He was rattling at me as I did so. When we reached the safety of the trail, I was upset at the threat to my life and decided I'd had enough of the wilderness.
Just one more reminder why I don't do the outdoors thing.

If you're trapped in a burning bus and you see me walking away, please understand: it's not in my nature to do the right thing.

My very own gnarliness!

Recently, my friend Amy showed us her gnarly toe. It was so awesome. Well, I wanted to be gnarly, too. Alas, it was hard to find a flaw on my unblemished self. Till now!

OK, how to make this not a long story? Let's talk about canker sores. They are something that seem gross to people who don't get them, and are excruciating misery to those who do. For the record, they are the result of irritants and not like having herpes or something. Let's just get that out of the way. I am not gross for getting canker sores. I'm gross for this other thing, which I'm getting to.

So, the mystery of canker sores, mouth ulcers if you're looking for a more pleasant term, has not been cracked by the medical world. Therefore, the only remedies they have had are the same ones they had when I was a little kid. UNTIL NOW!

I had a canker sore on my gumline, just over my canine tooth. It hurt like hell for days, but 5 days into it I was feeling better. I had a dental cleaning scheduled and the hygienist was very careful not to hurt me. But my dentist said he had a way to make the ulcer go away INSTANTLY. I laughed and thought he was pulling my leg. It took him awhile to convince me that it was true. They now have a laser that actually does something to relieve them. He described it as feeling "warm" (I prefer to describe it as feeling like he was holding a blow torch to my mouth). He said it would be pain-free by the time I left the office.

I'm envisioning my pretty pink gums, free of wounds! Free of pain! Glory be to God!

I asked how much he'd charge. I'm not rich, you know. He said, "For you, free. For your friends, not free." He is my cousin, after all. And I really appreciated it.

As everybody put on goggles and shades, I got a little nervous. As he burned the living hell out of my gums, I remained stoic. When the assistant told me it would be "a little pink" for a while, I thought, "no prob!"

I got to the car and looked in the rearview mirror, and to my horror, it was not a little pink. It was like the color of blood. You could see it from 12 yards away, probably. But, it didn't hurt. It really didn't!

Let's go into more detail, OK? For two days, it has tasted metallic. Several times, slimy, dead tissue has peeled off my gums. This makes me want to vomit. But, it doesn't hurt.

Day 2, I get up and still have a huge purple spot on my gums. Do you want to see?



I realize that I cannot smile for several days. This will be hard, since I'm the kind of person who has been nicknamed "Smiley" by numerous unrelated people in my lifetime. I am the kind of person who has a business named "Burst of Happiness." And another business called "Burstyriffic."

It's not Amy's toe, but it's still gnarly!

What baby deserves such effort? Shannon's baby!

I mentioned in a post below that I'm taking on a new project. And boy has it been a pain. But it's also fun, if that makes any sense. It's just that I won't be dyeing yarn in this exact manner again.

OK, to start:
1. My friend is pregnant.
2. I have been learning to dye yarn.
3. I have been expanding my knitting skills.

I had bought this book:



and fell in love with the yarn on the cover. Inside, it shows you how to dye this exact yarn, plus solids in the same colors. Then it gives a pattern for this cute baby sweater and hat. Here is a picture of the inside of the book and the sweater and hat made out of this yarn:



Sooooooo. I tracked down the exact yarn, which is Henry's Attic Island Cotton IV, a very soft, boucle-like cotton. It's so wonderful. Then I bought the dyes -- Procion MX -- at Langell's art store in Albuquerque. I also needed a thickener called gum tragacanth, which turns out to be a bit hard to come by. It is used in icings, or something, so I found it way across town at The Specialty Shop, a baking store.

I got my yarn, which came in two 1/2 pound skeins. I had to reskein it. One skein was to be split into four equal skeins for the solid colors. The other had to be reskeined into a huge 5 yard long skein. This was not easy to do and required setting up kitchen chairs and walking 'round and 'round while wrapping it around the back. Of course, the yarn kept popping off one chairback or another the whole time.

Eventually, I had this:



the one on the left is the giganto skein, and to the right are the four mini skeins.

All of the preparation took me about a week -- with an errand here, an errand there. Winding skeins, etc. The day I was to dye, it was pretty nasty outside. I needed a 15 foot workspace, but it was too cold out there, and really windy. So I had to set up a bunch of tables in my entry way, which was rather cramped. I prepared my dye mixture and soaked my yarns. Then, after I added the baking soda and activated the dye, I had 2 hours to finish the whole project. I painted and painted, and my back was killing me from hunching over. My head started to hurt. I finally finished the big skein and now had to paint all the little ones in solid colors. I was running out of time, so I had to beg Mark to help me. He kindly did.

After that, the skeins were wrapped in saran wrap and placed in a black garbage bag for 2 days to cure. Then I rinsed them and hung them outside to dry. After they dried came the part where I have to rewind the now-tangled skeins. I wound them into balls, which are ready to be knit into the sweater:



I'm still working on the practice-round sweater in a green cotton yarn, shown in the photo of the book above. After that, I'll get to work on this one.

New bags

Here are a few things I've sewn up in the past week:







Available for sale -- click on photos.

An itty-bitty sweater

I am undertaking a massive project. In the future, I will post details of it. But basically, I bought this yarn dyeing book and fell in love with the confetti cotton yarn on the front. Inside, it shows exactly how to dye the yarn and then gives a pattern for making the cutest baby sweater and hat. I just happen to have a pregnant friend, so I decided to attempt this project from start to finish.

More on the yarn, but I decided I ought to do a practice run on the sweater with cheaper yarn before making a disaster of the yarn I have invested so much into. So I bought this soft, green cotton and started knitting. Here is the beginning of a tiny li'l sweater:

Now that's Burstyriffic!

The other day I opened up a new etsy.com storefront called Burstyriffic where I put my hand-painted yarns. I'm not rushing to fill it up, and I do actually plan to use my yarns, if they don't sell before I get around to it. But at the rate that I make things, I need some sort of outlet for moving it along, right?

Well, for the heck of it, I searched "Burstyriffic" on Google to see if it was coming up with my Web site or if someone else was using this ridiculous name (I know, I know). Imagine my delight when I found this blog item where someone had nice things to say about my brand new little yarn shop!

I'd like to thank the person who did this blog for featuring me! It was a wonderful surprise.