will knit for food

2003-11-08T11:11:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's not done but I'm sick of going back and forth so it's good enough. If you're nice enough to link to me (or have me bookmarked), please change the URL for my page to: http://suspiciouslynice.typepad.com/wkff
In the next few weeks I'll be working on getting my free pattern and gallery pages up, they'll be linked to on the sidebar as I finish them.

2003-11-08T08:11:00.000-05:00

Hopefully Bill and I will work on my typepad page tomorrow so I can be completely moved over there on Monday. It really sucks bouncing all over the place like this. I'm trying to decide whether my aggravation with rogers is worth the additional aggravation that would occur were I to switch ISP's (on principle, no one else offers more for the same or less $) over this. Because I'm lazy, I'll very likely just keep things the way they are...
I moved the fuzzy feet gallery over yesterday. I took out all the 'before' shots so if you never got around to sending in an after picture you're not in the gallery any more. You're still welcome to send a pic to be added but you'll have to include your personal info again (ie; name, location, URL if applicable). The fuzzy feet page is here now. I really wish typepad would allow the thumbnails on the side to be in a few columns or let us put the thumbnails below the main pic in rows - there are 93 ff pics right now so the thumbnail view of the pics down the one side of the page is very loooong (yes, I'm going to take initiative and email them with the suggestion).
I cast on for a new sweater last night (based on one of Jenna's sweaters, in black Pingouin 'soft'hair' mohair from elann - very nice and less than $3C/ball and about 9 balls for a med/large sweater). I'm also planning to make this:

which means I'm wanting to begin it right away as well.
This means, of course, that I need to get organized and prioritize again. I was doing really good just before my rogers pages went down. I'd created lists that let me see what I needed to work on in what order (only important because we don't have money to buy xmas gifts this year so I need to keep on track with the gift making) and which 4 (my 'projects in active progress' limit for the rush) I was 'allowed' to be working on currently. Now, I keep forgetting (I have mentioned how forgetful I am, no? I can't remember, really.) what I need to get done before I can work on many projects for myself.... Really, I'm hardly going to get any 'work' done if I'm knitting 2-3 sweaters for me that I don't want to put down.
Looks like I'll be making lists this morning (not to mention figuring out how to add them to typepad...). This afternoon I'm taking the kids to my mom's to rake up and jump in leaves (then rake again, of course, bleh) then my brother and sister-in-law are coming over for supper (I make wonderful pizza). So tomorrow I'll get back to xmas knitting... hey, looks like that means I might as well work on a me sweater today whenever I have a moment, right?

2003-11-07T09:04:00.002-05:00

The cheesy christmas advertising has begun already and, if that weren't annoying enough, it appears there is also a new 'holiday' to buy for. Last night I saw a Bell commercial for Remembrance Day - no, really - (cue snappy jingle) 'Remembrance Day is coming so buy a cell phone and call your favorite veteran', basically. Is anyone really okay with this? Am I the only one appalled at the gall of the phone company (and/or any other company doing the same) for milking the general public's reverence of this day for profit? Yes, they wrap it pretty in the guise of educating the young about the meaning of the day but it doesn't change the fact that they're obviously only looking out for the bottom line. Wankers.
Anyway, enough of that...
I started the sleeves for mom's sweater last night. I'm doing both at the same time (which usually annoys me but they're plain st st so I'd rather just get them done) and am about 1/3 through them. I was able to order two more balls of the Skyline in the correct dyelot (Did you know that elann lists both the colour and the dyelot number in the drop down colour list of each yarn? Now I do too. I always wondered why some colours were listed more than once but, since my Elann purchases are almost always impulsive I've never taken the time to really pay enough attention to realize why.) so I don't have to worry about that anymore which makes the work move along much quicker.
I swatched my 'natural' Nature Wool last night on a 7US only to find out that it's thinner than the coloured NW I swatched with initially so I'll have to downsize needles and adjust the Paton's pattern (cabled hoodie from the street smarts booklet) for the new gauge. Not a big deal, it's only off by 1/2 st per inch, but I'm still a smidge disappointed.
I used up my Elann credit last night, bought some of the Peruvian Highland Wool they have (in Oxford Grey - soooo pretty). Have any of you felt this yarn? When I googled it, I couldn't find any references to this specific yarn but found out that Cascade 220 is '100% Highland Wool'. I've felt the Cascade and love it so I'm hoping the stuff I have on the way is similar, or even the same. I'm either going to make the 'must have' cardi that Steph was/is working on or I'll just write up a pattern for a cabled sweater of my own....
I should be completely moved over to Typepad by Monday but check in here first to make sure...
Again, no comments so email or guestbook at will (see below entry for links).

2003-11-06T09:37:00.000-05:00

I finally finished the back of Mom's xmas sweater. It's weird, when I'm working on it and looking at the fabic close up, I think it's going to look horrible but, when I step back and look at it as a whole, it looks wonderful. I'm worried about running out of yarn as the back took 4 of the 14 balls I have so I've emailed Elann in the hopes that they have more in the same dyelot (and are willing to go to the trouble of making sure said dyelot gets into my shipment).
I'm making the 'braided beauty' from the Fall 02 VK minus a few inches in length because my mom is 4'11" and I firmly believe that when a sweater covers a woman's butt it gives the illusion of said butt being akin to the size of an entire country (exceptions being when the sweater is VERY loose or the fabric very firm so as to not 'hug' the contours).
The pic (a pop up so my mom won't see it if she comes here, which is doubtful but I want to make sure) isn't the best - cables are difficult to photograph and the top is all bunchy from being on the holder. The colour is pretty true but the fabric is matte, not shiny as it looks there. When I have more pieces done I'll take a pic in daylight (if we ever see the sun again, that is) that will hopefully come out better.
The typepad stuff is taking longer than I expected because I'm not yet sure how I want it to look. I'm working on starting a small business with the 'will knit for food' name so I'm thinking I should make a logo and graphic and such that I might as well carry over into the rest of my pages so I want to work all that out before I move the blog over there....
No comments but if you want to leave a message, you can sign the guestbook or email me.

2003-11-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

Looks like we're going to use TypePad but it's going to take a while to set up so I'll just keep updating here until it's all ready. Julie generously sent me a discount for the service and I can't wait to try out some of the features it has. It does things like automatically make thumbnails for every pic you upload (less coding is always a good thing) and it looks like a gallery will be really easy to set up. The bandwidth won't be a problem (5G) and the storage is nearly 3x what we were using so it's not hard to be sold on it. I never expected to pay for blog hosting but, esp. with both Bill and I blogging, it's something that has come to be important to us so it'll be our xmas gift to each other.
I had to work on Caro's hair last night (and was playing with TypePad all afternoon) so I haven't worked much on any of my projects so at least, while I can't post pics anyway, you're not missing anything!

2003-11-04T10:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, here I am. Not too happy about it but it's better than nothing for now. Don't bother updating links, I'll be moving soon. I think we'll be going with sympatico high speed - who would have thought the 5MB they offer for webspace would be better than the 70MB with rogers? It's all about the bandwidth, baby. I have no clue why we were able to go for nearly 2 years without a problem but now 4-5 days is enough to use up the 300MB of bandwidth they allow.

Oh, yeah, knitting. Not that it matters, since you can't see it, but I made an xmas scarf last night (while watching the LOTR movies - didn't think I'd like them, I was pleasantly surprised) and finished the back of mom's sweater as well. Tomorrow I'll take pics if our space isn't down yet - I may be able to get by with showing one or two if the rest is hosted here.....

ps - it seems that blogger is MUCH better than when I was using it (and hating it) 2 years ago - how handy...