In Hiding

In Hiding

My Uncle is coming to town today and I am going into hiding. I don't get along with the men in my family so I'll be spending some time with "My Giant" and "The Hobbit," which will be a great change of pace. We will be finishing turning the garage into a game room. It's already been carpeted, sectioned off/draped off, ping pong table purchased, and half a bar built. "The Hobbit" wants to throw a bar stocking party next Saturday, the 6th, so there is a ton of work to be done before we can have people over. So much work, so little time. I'll update you more with details of what's going on when they happen.

Conclusions

Conclusions

This sweater situation has gotten way out of hand and needs to be reeled back in. I think I’ve found a solution.

I’m going to buy 10-13 more balls of yarn for my Weasley Sweater (pictured left). That way it will be nice and light and I can wear it in the spring and autumn. I also plan on making a slight adjustment to the pattern. Instead of one single initial in the middle on the front I’ll put all three of mine. Since all three of my names begin with the same letter it’s not that big of a problem. I’ll end up flanking two identical smaller “A’s” around a centrally larger one. I imagine it to be similar to a college initialed sweatshirt. I’m sure I’ll wear it around like one. The only problems are that I need to swatch it out and make sure the sizing is correct for the lettering and I understand the principles behind color work. But then I could switch the placement of the “A’s” to go over my heart or on the back. It has limitless possibilities. I’ll get to that road once I sit down and start knitting the fucker.

I am also going to push back knitting the Weasley in favor of knitting another Harry Potter replication. Ron Weasley (played by Rupert Grint, pictured right) wears a burgundy and grey marl long sleeve partially split down the middle of the neck sweater in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie. I like the style of it and can wear a t-shirt underneath it like he did in case I’m too cold or get too hot and take it off. Although I’m going to have to find a new color of marl since I don’t’ care for the burgundy which is a very popular and classic marl color. I like the idea of a green on green marl to match my eyes, but I have way too much green in my wardrobe, at least people have told me so. Maybe grey, black, or brown marls would suit me best given that they are neutrals and I can punch in color behind it with bright t-shirts.

Props need to go out to Gabriel who reminded me of a website that I had forgotten about. I did find a selection of yarn I want to use to make the PoA sweater and at a very affordable price; $30 (American Dollar). Now all I have to do is choose a color and I can have it in my hands in about two weeks time if I’m lucky.

Thank goodness this new project will be more simple and straight forward; making it a quicker knit. I hope I can get it done in time for Hallow’een. By then it will definitely be cool enough outside for me to wear. Cheers mates.

Knitting Dilemma

Knitting Dilemma

Now that I’ve told you I want to get back into my knitting I’ve come across a problem. It arose a few months ago at an annual yarn sale I attended. All week long in anticipation for the sale I staked out the store making sure I knew where my favorite yarns were so I could get there early and grab them before someone else did. Sadly when I showed up five or ten minutes before the store would open I was shocked to see that it had opened early and was packed with women grabbing up all my good yarn.

Damn, I couldn’t get in the door fast enough! Only having three projects in mind to knit I looked for all the yarn I would need for them. I was able to get enough yarn for two of the projects; sock yarn for two pairs and yarn for a hat. The other project in mind was a sweater that almost all the yarn I wanted had been bought by someone already. Once a fellow male knitter arrived he gave me an idea to make a Weasley Sweater instead.

So I went around the displays to find my favorite brand of yarn, Rowan. I made a pair of Knucks (fingerless gloves) in burnt orange out of the Felted Tweed by Rowan. It was that project that made me fall in love with their band and tweed yarns. Anyways I digress, I found the bin that held my yarn and discovered that half of the yarn was already under siege by other customers. My heart skipped a beat or two or six. I politely moved in and started grabbing at as much of it as I could; throwing it into my shopping bag. They got the hint right away and backed off.

When I had a moment I stopped and started going through the different colors I had managed to capture. This was war and every ball counts as a victory. I found I had an even amount of hunter green and royal blue. So I had my friend decide for me. Now thinking back I wish I had gone with the blue since there was more of it. But I ended up getting away with 4 balls of green and a 5^th one a day latter that had been found and saved for me. I was so pissed there had been a total of 15 balls in every color that I had counted the day before, even my favorite sales assistant confirmed it.

So depending on my gauge I had 1/3 or 1/2 the number of balls needed for my sweater. The store owner who I was getting on good terms with told me she had a ton of my yarn being shipped that fall and all I would have to do is wait to get it. Argh, that meant I wasn’t going to get to finish a sweater then. So I decided to wait on the project till I could get the rest of the yarn. I even went to other yarn shops looking for my yarn but were sold out of my color or didn’t carry the style.

Since summer is almost at its end in Texas my thoughts turn once again to knitting a sweater, considering anything below scalding hot is too cold for me to be comfortable and I need something to keep me warm. Every now and then I sit down and swatch things out to see how they would look rather than actual gauge size. I’m working on a design for a sweater which the neck is giving me trouble with, but eventually I’ll get there.

Each time I get bored I keep going back to a swatch I made from my left over Knucks yarn. I doubled up the yarn and knit a very small 2”x3”rectangle to see how it would look and feel. I should have never made that swatch because I love it. Its stitch size and thickness is wonderful, but to make a project out of that yarn double stranded could be expensive. For a small ball of Rowan Felted Tweed yarn it will set you back $10 (American Dollar). And considering I’m in a sweater phase, that’s really bad news to think about when most adult sweaters will require around 15-20 balls to make, more or less depending on the size. And here I want to go and double the amount needed. Ouch, that will set me back a pretty penny.

So you finally are about to hear my dilemma if you already haven’t figured it out for yourself at this point. I know, I drone on too much; tell me about it in the comments section. This sweater I want to knit that I already have partial the amount of yarn to make; should I knit it single or double stranded? That is where I have come to a standstill. Do I spend $100 on yarn for 10 balls or $250 for 25 balls?

I’ve been trying to make a pros and cons list to help me decide. So far it’s just left me even more confused. Damn logic! I’ve been going around in circles every time I think about the project. So I’m leaving a bit of my list here for you as background information to think over and see what your conclusions are. I would like feed back as soon as possible given that I need to purchase the yarn either in person or via internet (if sold out in the stores already).

This is an all-purpose sweater more closely related to a college sweatshirt that you would wear around to keep warm in; meaning it’s for casual day to day wear. (I know what you’re thinking; all this fuss over a silly simplistic sweater. But I’m the one who has to wear it and be seen in it. I want it to look and feel nice.) If I use one strand of yarn to knit it, I will be making a very light fall/spring sweater (Oct-Nov and Mar-Apr). If I use two stands of the yarn I’ll have a very nice cozy winter sweater (Nov-Feb/Mar). Single strand means I use smaller needles, which mean smaller stitches, creating more time put into the garment. Where as double strands, I can use bigger needles to make bigger stitches and crank it out in less time than the single strand. Cost is another factor which I’ve already gone over. Depending on the thickness of the sweater, the need to have it done in time for fall or winter plays in on time restraints. (It will most likely take a month to a month and a half to knit up depending on how much free time I get to work on it.)

Crap I forgot another point or two that I can’t think of off the top of my head. But if I think of them I’ll add them on as a PS factor. Cheers Mates.

An Overdue Blog

An Overdue Blog

So it seems I stopped writing in the month of August. I became preoccupied over the end of summer with an old obsession which I painstakingly have had to start over from the very beginning.

Some time the beginning of June I bought the expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, to the computer game World of Warcraft. It took me a month to get a friend over to look at my computer and set it up so I could play. I got about two weeks into the game having to start again new at the very bottom, level 1, before my computer had some major problems. It took an entire month to work out the computer problems before the thing was usable again let alone play my game.

Once things were back up and running properly I dove head first into my character; a female Blood Elf Paladin. She is currently Retribution spec’d with some Protection; which could change depending on the need for a different spec in the guild when I hit level 70 for raiding purposes.

It took me two weeks to hit level 20 in the game. Boy, was that some easy leveling! Then there was the month of not having a computer to play on. At the end of July I was able to log back on and continue. I played off and on during the month of August due to the fact that one weekend was my birthday which I didn’t’ play for a week. I also took off two half weeks from playing to get things done.

All in all, it took me two weeks of solid playing like crazy to hit 40. At level 35 I stopped doing quests and started running instances; and have been ever since. It was at some point around 40 that people in the guild took notice of me going instance run crazy. Always hounding anyone and every in and out of the guild for a run. Thank goodness they like me enough to put up with all that.

At 58 I finally was high enough to go through the portal to Outland, the expansion pack area. Our guild master’s wife, who plays more than him, was waiting for me to team up and kick some Outland ass. She has been there for every major event in the game for me. She really does care a lot to help me out so much when she should be doing other things for her and other payers.

On 13 September 2007 I finally reached level 60. Six weeks of solid playing in the afternoons and evenings (or whenever I had a spare moment) got me to the new area content I had once almost had the chance to explore. What a euphoric feeling it was to finally be in the home stretch. Although now, once I’m 70 it will be all about running instances and quests to get the reputation I need for the level 70 end game content. Ugh, it never ends!

The only reason for the insane playing I’ve been doing is to catch up to my fellow guild mates and not get left behind. Thankfully they have barely mastered the first of a series of three dungeons needed for Tier 4 gear before moving on to even harder dungeons. While they continue to farm it for gear needed for everyone I’ll have time to level up, rep up, and gear up so I can quickly get in on some action.

However, I’m at a standstill at the moment. I have found that I suck at questing alone. Depending on the level and number of monsters I can usually take on one and two if I’m lucky. I’m not sure if that’s decent or bad for the type of character I am. So until I can get people to help me out on quests I’m stuck farming items and gold for my character and low level alts that I want to play whenever I can find the time from my Main.

I can’t wait for guild bank storage in the second expansion, Wrath of the Litch King. It will free up so much space I have taken up by items which I intend on using later for various characters. I hear they are coming out with a wardrobe closet also. All those Tier gear sets that you either have sold off or keep in the bank filling up much needed space will then be able to be stored away and used again for fun. All that hard work for sets of armor and you end up selling for space is really sad to think about.

Because of all that game playing I have stopped writing for a while. I now intend to pick back up blogging about my life. I have seen that a very few number of people have actually taken my poll on what I should write about. The majority last I checked wanted to hear about my knitting, which is a very good topic to talk about. Sadly nothing is happening in my knitting world. When I started playing WoW again I stopped hanging out at the yarn shop as well as stopped going to my knitting group meetings. Very bad of me, I know.

I hope to change that now I’ve gotten to a point I can ease up on the game playing. Summer is almost over in Texas, just about another month of very hot weather left then autumn should approach with cooler temperatures making it actually nice out. Last spring I finished my first sweater before it became too hot which I need to put up the pictures I already have of it and take new ones of the finished product. I hope to crank out a new sweater this fall and two if I’m lucky.

Well I guess that’s all for now, I’ll have to write some more when something inspires me or happens to me. I hope you continue to read my blogs and give me feed back. Cheers mates!