garble garble lace problems.

Well. . . I've now cast on and ripped orangina three whole times. Ugh.

Maybe my "how hard can it be" idea wasn't so great. My first problem was that I spazzed and forgot to repeat only what's in the parentheses. The result was a pretty pattern. . . just not the right one. Ooops. Then my yarn overs kept ending up in the wrong places. Finally, the third time around, I've made peace with the pattern--almost.

Last night, as I was knitting away, I had a funny feeling that I should count the number of stitches on the needles. I cast on 103 stitces for the extra small. . . 3 lace repeats in, I had110 stitches! Wrong! Where did those 7 stitches come from?

So I'm now trying to figure out if it was just a few missed k2togs, or if I am unable to actually follow this pattern properly. What if this is a mistake that can't be fixed with a few extra decreases? What if this turns into the ever-widening top? It's going to be so beautiful when I'm done, I just know it. I just have to figure out how to get there.

While this project slowly sucks the life from me, the other exciting projects I have waiting in the wings are calling out to me, "Knit us!". After the orangina (which I WILL finish.), I want to knit Grecian Plait and Fad Classic. Ooh--and the Rebecca Lace Top!

But Grecian Plait will be first, because I have wanted to knit that one for a while. I couldn't understand my intense attraction to it--that is, until my mom saw a photo of it. She told me it reminded her of a tan crocheted top my grandma Roxie had once made for her. The tan top, though it wasn't exactly knitted, had the same feel as this top- plain stitch through the chest, empire waist with a tie, cute lacey pattern on the flowing lower half. I don't know that I've ever seen my mom wear the top, but it was always one of her articles of clothing that I took out to play dress up with. I don't remember what, but there's something about the top. . .maybe poofy sleeves. . .that kept it from being cute on my adult self. So, Grecian Plait will be my cute, Jeanettey answer to Roxie's original.

These are photos of my swatches for the Grecian Plait. It's in the ggh cotton I showed photos of in the last post. The grecian stitch is actually really beautiful and subtle in this cotton. . .I even like it better than the swatch I did of it in mohair (which is the suggested yarn).

my sit bones hurt.

Since the recent demise of my troublesome VW Beetle, I've been biking everywhere. Luckily the Bay Area is much more bike friendly than my native Southern California. For the most part, my vintage road bike, which was custom built for my mom (who has short legs like me!) in the late '70s or early '80s, has been more reliable than my car ever was. Though the frame and mechanical stuff is all in great working condition, the seat was starting to show some serious wear. After a few rainy weeks the thirty-year-old leather began flaking off like crazy, not to mention pulling away from the foam underneath. And it's not like the seat was really comfortable in the first place either; ideas of ergonomics and comfort have come a long way since that seat was designed.

A few especially uncomfortable rides over the past couple of weeks led me to finally bite the bullet and get a new seat from the LCS (local cycling shop, like local yarn shop, eh eh...). The cute salesguy fed me some shpiel about how it's specially designed for female anatomy, with a little cutout down the middle of the seat to direct all your weight to your sit bones and protect your. . . "soft tissues". My ass (literally).

Let's just say the seat might take some getting used to. As of now, my sit bones kinda hurt from the new seat and my soft tissues certainly didn't feel too terribly protected. I'm just going to keep telling myself that a new bike seat just takes some getting used to, because the thought that my anatomy doesn't suit a $60 bike seat is too depressing.

In spite of a sore tail bone, or pelvis or whatever those bones really are, I couldn't resist biking the 7 miles (round trip) to the local yarn haunt to pick up some yarn for upcoming projects. Boy, I must really love knitting; my sore tailbone has now been joined by his friends, sore calves and sore glutes. It's all worth it though, because the yarn I got is beautiful.

I got some black ggh Safari (linen) to knit up Glampyre's Orangina as a Christmas present for my sister (I'm aiming for something like this Orangina in Black). Truth be told, I've never knit any sort of lace before. More truth--I've never really followed a pattern before. Well, I guess I've followed a few hat patterns, but I hardly count those. I think this one should be successful in spite of my inexperience with patterns and lace: the pattern is just two simple rectangles joined in the round at the ribbing... how hard can it be? And stitch patterns aren't that difficult. . . I've done a few in my day.

I also got some gorgeous Classic Elite bamboo yarn in plum to knit up Wendy from Knit & Tonic's "Fad Classic". My fad part is the vibrant purple color of the yarn I chose. Just loud enough to be eye catching, but subtle enough that I think I'll actually wear it. Bamboo is surprisingly soft, and kinda shiny.

And the best part is both yarns were on sale! Got bags of ten balls each, discounted at 45% off. I love being someone who dislikes knitting warm stuff. . . means that when everyone else is hoarding wool and cashmere and alpaca, I get to reap the benefits of the "summer" yarns in the sale pile!

Here are photos of all my gorgeous new yarn. Not just the two listed above, but also this pretty overcast-cloud-color cotton stuff I got last week (ggh Tara, in light grey). The swatch I knit feels like clouds, or dryer lint. Yessssss. Thinking of knitting the Grecian Plait with it. Seems a fittingly simple pattern for a simple yarn.

Off to channel my writing energy into a paper. Would rather be knitting...