WIP Wednesday 7/25/12

I’ve bound off two shawls since last week!  These are the Wendy Knits Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl and Radiance.  As you can see, I still need to weave in ends and block, but then they’ll be done.   I’m hoping to persuade the boyfriend to do an FO photoshoot this weekend, so look out for these on future FO Fridays (it’s about time I had something to share for one of those!)

I’m still knitting along on Honey Bunches (which, for some reason, I keep wanting to call Honeycomb- not sure why).  This is my travelling knitting.  It’s so very simple, even on the lace sections, that I can easily put it down and figure out where I left off.  I’m on the third garter stitch section, so I’m getting closer to the end.

I’ve also brought the Ubiquitous Kate back out of its short hibernation, and am really enjoying working on it again.  I love knitting lace, but the purl design is a fun change.  With three other shawls also on the needles, I really didn’t have time to work on this one, but now that I’ve bound off two, this one is back in the mix.  I’m in the middle of the final chart repeat, then I will need to pick up about a gazillion stitches for the ruffle.

What is everyone else working on this week?  Head over to Tami’s Amis WIP Wednesday to find out.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Warning: This post contains no knitting content.




Well, it was an exciting weekend, at least.

Maddie and I went to Virginia Beach visit my parents and Mia (the family dog) this weekend.  All was going well, and I was cuddling in bed on Saturday morning with my two favorite fluffballs when all of the sudden- BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!

Then the beeping stopped.  I got up, checked to make sure that the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors weren’t blinking red, climbed back into bed, and tried to calm down the animals.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

*Sigh.*  I got out of bed, and went to go get my father.  He had worked really late the night before, and was trying to sleep in.  I think he figured something was low on batteries, and was trying to ignore it and go back to sleep during the non-beepy periods.  By this point, it had stopped, but Mia and Maddie were getting really agitated, I was getting a headache, and it needed to be taken care of.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

We spent the next several minutes walking around the house, trying to figure out exactly which smoke detectors were going off.  This was pretty difficult to do because they only beeped intermittently, and of course they wouldn’t do so when were standing close enough to an alarm to figure out which one it was coming from!  The alarms had now beeped several more times, Maddie was hiding under the bed to try to get away from the awful noises, and Mia was glued to us like a shadow.

To be honest, I figured that the alarms were malfunctioning.  I didn’t smell or see any smoke.  Neither of the animals were upset by anything besides the beeping, and aren’t animals supposed to sense that sort of thing first?

Finally, my father decided to go check on things in the attic as a last-ditch effort.  The AC unit up there definitely smelled like some sort of electrical burning, and there were burnt pieces of foil on the ground.  Public Service Announcement, in case anyone cares: The average lifespan of an AC unit is 15-20 years.  My parents had been living in that house 20 years, and never replaced the AC unit.

We shut off the AC immediately, of course, and called the repair guys.  To their credit, they got someone out really fast.  The technician declared that it would take $500 to fix the AC unit, and that’s still really only a short-term fix- the unit really does need to be replaced.  Really, it’s not worth it.  However, my poor parents are currently stuck without air conditioning until they can get a new unit, which should take about a week.  To be honest, I’m really kind of glad that I’m back home in my nice, air-conditioned apartment!

We were so very lucky with the way that this turned out.  The smoke alarms went off and alerted us that there was an issue.  We were able to find the issue and neutralize it before it could turn into an actual fire.  Can you imagine what would have happened if no one was home?  The house could have caught on fire, and Mia might have been in it.  

Morals of the Story: 1)Smoke detectors annoy the heck out of me sometimes (especially when they go off when I’m cooking and not even burning anything), but they are really important, too. 2) If your AC unit is getting up there in years, get it checked out!

WIP Wednesday 7/18/12

I’m still working on the same three projects as I was the last two weeks, but I am almost done with two of them!  I am currently in the process of binding off the Radiance Shawl.  This should take quite awhile, because there are a lot of stitches at this point (over 700!).  The pattern gave the option of either doing a plain bind-off or a picot bind-off- I wasn’t too impressed with the way the picots were looking, so I’m working a nice, plain, stretchy bind-off instead.

The last clue for the Wendy Knits Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl was released yesterday.  Here is what my shawl looked like after last week’s clue (chart D):

I expect to be done with this shawl at some point this week, as this chart isn’t much bigger than the last one and I finished that pretty quickly.  At the very latest, it will be done next week (provided that I don’t make some huge mistake and have to frog most of it!)  I’ve really enjoyed working on it, as well as the sense of community in the Wendy Knits group on Ravelry during the knit-a-long, and I am sad that I am almost done.

Last but not least, work is still progressing slowly but surely on the Honey Bunches shawl.  I have finished the second garter stitch section, and am working on the second lace section.  I imagine that my speed on this shawl will pick up immensely once I’ve finished the other two. As you can see, Maddie is immensely proud of my work. And trying to get my attention so that I will give her more treats.

What are you  working on this week?  Head on over to Tami’s Amis’ Work in Progress Wednesdays to see what everyone else is working on.

WIP Wednesday 7/11/12

This week, my knitting has been mainly focused on Radiance, Honey Bunches, and The Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl KAL 2012.  (The same three projects as last week!)

I was so very close to being done with Radiance- I was on the very last knit row before the bindoff, and then disaster struck.  Well, actually, disaster had struck several rows before, but I didn’t notice it until that point.  It appeared that I had dropped a stitch at the end of the last lacey section and it had unravelled several more rows.  I wish I had taken a picture for you, but I was too horrified to think about that, so a verbal description will have to suffice.  There was a huge hole.  In the middle of my shawl.

It seemed too far back to just drop that section’s stitches down, so I made the very painful decision to frog back to the problem.  It really wasn’t that may rows, but they are so long that it was still a ton of stitches.  To make matters worse, Malabrigo Lace does not like to unravel.  It clings to itself and generally makes everything a mess.

I finally got all of my 506 stitches picked back up last night, and am finishing up the last lace section now (for the second time).  Then I just have the increases, garter stitch section and the picot (I think?) bind-off.

 Normally, this doesn’t happen because I am really good about counting stitches while I knit.  If the stitch count is off, then I know there is something wrong almost immediately after I create the problem.  However, with this many stitches, I get distracted and lose count.  I think that once I get done with the lace section and the increases, I’m going to place markers every 50 stitches so that I can count more easily.  I think I can manage to count to 50 without a problem, and if I get interrupted, I only have to start counting at the beginning of that section, not hundreds of stitches back.

My other WIPs are coming along much better, especially in comparison.  The next chart for the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl  came out yesterday, but I haven’t had time to do much with it yet.  I’ve been flying through the past several clues, finishing them up within a couple of days of when they are published (every Tuesday); however, I really want to get my Radiance off the needles so I’m working a bit less on the Summer Solstice.  I still intend to get this chart finished before the next one comes out, however!

I’m really enjoying working on my Honey Bunches shawlette.  I love the colors of the yarn, and the pattern seems to be working well with it.  Would the pattern stand out better in a solid color?  Of course.  However, it’s a simple enough pattern that it works just fine with the variegated yarn, and I like it.

I am in the middle of the second garter-stitch section.  While not on the lace sections, this makes fantastic travel knitting- it’s just knit knit knit for most of the row, with easy-peasy increases on the end.

What are you working on this week?  Want to see everyone else’s WIPs?  Head on over to Tami’s Amis’ WIP Wednesdays.

WIP Wednesday 7/4/12

First of all, happy Fourth of July!  Now onto the knitting:

I'm still working on my Radiance shawl. I'm about 70% of the way through, but my progress feels like it is slowing down a bit.  The rows have 608 stitches, so it feels like each one takes forever to finish!

I've started another KAL- the Honey Bunches with the Irish Girle Knits Designs Group.  I'm knitting it in Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in Peacock.

I love this colorway, and I've been waiting for the perfect project for it.  It's a little bit too variegated for a super-complicated lace shawl, so this simpler project seemed like a perfect way to showcase the colors.  So far, I've finished the first garter stitch section.

Last but certainly not least, I'm still enjoying knitting the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl with the Wendy Knits Group.  This is what it looks like halfway through Chart C:

Maddie wanted to help show off my work:

 What to see what everyone else has been working on this past week?  Head on over to Tami's Ami's WIP Wednesdays.