Month: March 2007

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I tried to find a place to block Icarus (completely soak the shawl and pin it out so that the pattern opens up), but I have no large, flat areas in the house. A large bed is ideal, but both candidates are in frequent use.

I’m also just nervous placing something in the house that shouldn’t be touched for a few days. That is pretty much an impossibility in our house. There is a lot of destruction that goes on in this house, I’m lucky that most of my knitting needles aren’t lost or bent out of shape.

I did faithfully swatch Picovoli. It’s the first fitted garment I’m making for myself, so I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t too far off the published gauge. I knit myself a little square and then put it in the washer and dryer, something I would do to a cotton sweater.

Boy, did the fabric tighten up! And I’m pretty close to gauge! I got 22.5 stitches/4 inches and the published gauge is 22 stitches/4 inches. I’m not too worried about being off on the stitch gauge because the sweater is knit with negative ease (snug) so I’m hoping it won’t matter too much. I didn’t do the row gauge because I’m just lazy about it and because I can try on the sweater as I knit it and modify it from there.

I always have trouble at the very beginning of a project. This time was no different. After 2 rows, I determined that the stitches were indeed twisted even though I double-checked before I joined the ends. Crap-o-la!

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Scientific name: Podocarpus polystachyus
Common name: Sea Teak
Location: Singapore

We spent a stuffy, sweltering morning running around the Japanese School’s gym. It was Sports Day at Edda’s school. On the way to the event, Edda was enjoying the weekend, smiling in the car, in a good mood even as we walked down the driveway of the unfamiliar building. As soon as she spied the staff and realized that school stuff was going to happen, she burst into tears. She wanted to be at home watching Blue’s Clues.

So as soon as the Olympic torch was lit, Edda was out like a light. Twice she woke up looked around and saw that she was still in the middle of an un-air-conditioned room without a TV and promptly fell back asleep.

Vince had fun too. He loves his medal. Look at the big trophies on the table in the photo. Vince totally thought he was going to be able to take one of ’em home.

Yellow team victory! (I know, they are all wearing blue shirts, but really, they were the yellow team.)

(A side note: Jeremy is ill. From my data, it take about a week for this particular virus to transmit from one person to another.)

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I knit Pomatomus while I was sitting in the audience of Sports Day. Of course, I’m intensely interested in Vince and Edda doing their thing and I’m also interested in the kids who are in Edda’s class, but I hardly recognize some of the older kids, so I turned to knitting while they played hockey.

I also knit a swatch for Picovoli, a cotton sweater designed by one of my favorite knit bloggers, Grumperina. She happens to be a grad student in neurobiology at Harvard. Pretty cool.

Since the infamous camera drop, my camera has struggled with low light macro focusing. The little red light that it uses to focus has been knocked out of alignment, so it doesn’t shine on the center of the frame. So it tries and tries and usually fails.

Apparently, I still don’t know how to use this white balance, because the sweater isn’t going to be orange. It’s a more coral-ly color.

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Scientific name: Mussaenda erythrophylla
Location: Singapore

Yes. I am a closet American Idol fan. I found this moment to be a bit funny, but you have to know a little about the show’s format. Basically, every week, contestants pick whatever song they want to sing. Right now the guys sing on Tuesdays and the girls sing on Wednesdays. America votes after the shows (they are all live) and then on Thursdays, four people with the lowest # of votes get booted – 2 guys, 2 girls. And when people get booted, they sing the same song that they did that week – which allows for some humor. 🙂 So this is Leslie Hunt singing after she’s been told that she’s been booted off. The pay off is at the end…

What makes it even funnier, the person that got boot of just 10 minutes earlier, in the same show, sang the exact same song – “Feeling Good”. Apparently America really don’t care for jazz. 🙂

Red Octane rules! I had scratched up my beloved Guitar Hero Playstation disc, and They were nice enough to cover it under warranty. Very good. The disc is on the way back, and I’m ready to rock out.

Here’s the hardest song in Guitar Hero for you all…

Remember I mentioned that Edda stopped mouthing? It really did happen, a tiny little miraculous wish that somehow was granted, a 20 minute car ride – no mouthing! Eating without needing an arm brace! Napping with 2 arms, each resting peacefully at her side. For 3 days I watched as her compulsion seem to disappear. How could this be?!

I got my hopes up, maybe she’s going to stop – I’ve read stories where one day the person is mouthing and the next day, nothing! But I’ve also read stories about people mouthing for 47 years. Ugh. I know in the grand scheme of things, mouthing is a relatively harmless thing – but it really is just so disgusting.

I should have known (because it has happened before), that my little miracle was just a harbinger of Edda being sick for a whole week and now that she’s feeling chipper again, well…

there you go.

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Ta da! Icarus is off the needles.

It’s done! I almost can’t believe it myself, it’s taken so long and so much effort. My hands were shaking during the last half of the bind-off row, but that was probably due to the diet Coke I had earlier. I usually don’t drink caffeine, so when I do, I get extra twitchy.

After I knit the last stitch and pulled out all 10 lifelines, I wrapped it around me a twirled around and around. It’s so nice to have a shawl even though it’s not blocked yet.

I did manage to stain my Inox needles red.

In general, these needles were fine in the beginning of the project, but towards the end, the way that they “clicked” together started giving me the heebie-jeebies. Kind of like fingernails on a chalkboard. I’m not sure what happened at the end, the tips did wear a little, but maybe I was just itching to finish. The join on the needles was also annoying, getting caught on the loops all the time..

So now she sits, waiting to be blocked.

I’ve never blocked a thing in my life – I avoid it like I avoid swatching, but there is no getting around blocking on this project. My main concern is not staining everything I own with the red dye. I will leave this for this weekend.

Meanwhile:

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Scientific name: Anthurium andraeanum
Common name: Anthurium
Location: Singapore

I’ve been reading some food blogs and I salivate over their food photography. Someday I will learn how to photo food beautifully. I think the first step might be to remember to take the picture before eating the food.

My one-eyed giant that Jeremy made me for breakfast:

My lunch from Annalakshmi, a veggie Indian place. I have a lot to learn about food photography, this looks downright unappealing even though it was tasty.

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Hooray for finding out my secret pal! Thank you for the goodies! I’m still hoping that last package will make it here before I leave the island…

Down to the edging on Icarus.

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Scientific name: Belamcanda chinensis
Common name: Blackberry lily
Location: Singapore