Wednesday, May 18, 2016

The Stella Pullover is Finished...and Undergoing Renovations...

But first...it's precious when your kids can give each other buzz cuts - so frugal!


And I made Pioneer Woman's meatloaf the other night using my usual combo of hamburger meat and Jimmy Dean Sage sausage, but she uses lots of milk-soaked bread as well...


and covers it with the most delicious diced tomato/brown sugar/cayenne pepper combination - very tasty! Could've used more of that topping...


and had a side of Lemony Green Beans, which Drew thought were too lemony, even though I only used half a lemon instead of 1.5 lemons like she recommends. Everybody else loved it, so we'll keep it.


Are you ready for a sour face and a beautiful sweater? (And that's a white tank top, not a white bra like my family thought.)


I guess it's much better over a full top so you don't worry that you're looking at my bra. And yes, Mom, next time I'll wear a black tank top, but then the lace won't show so nicely.


But maybe we SHOULD hide the lace a bit, since I've made a couple of boo-boos. Remember that I knitted one sleeve inside out? Well I also messed up the lace pattern on both sleeves pretty badly, and I can see it when I look closely, so I decided I was definitely ripping one sleeve out....after I wear it to dinner - heehee!


So I went by my LYS, Mobile Yarn (go shop there!), to see if they had any helpful hints on decreasing in a lace pattern, and they very kindly said they will chart this for me using a computer program they have! They were going to do it for free, but I felt terribly guilty since I actually paid for this pattern, and the designer offered no help on the charting when I asked her through Ravelry. We settled on $10 for the chart, depending on the level of difficulty, and I figured if I'm going to pay for a lace chart, I may as well rip out the other sleeve and do IT correctly too. When I told Dean that, he was flabbergasted, but I reassured him it's just a sleeve. He pointed out that since this took me almost exactly 1 year to complete, it'll probably take 4 months to fix. He may be right.

Oh well, we're planning a big summer trip to the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas, so this may be my knitting project on the road...or should I start something with my sister's yarn? Or a new Alabama Chanin baby-doll top that I've had in mind the past 2 weeks? OH - speaking of Alabama Chanin: I wore my pink AC shirt to work last week - remember the one where I used the selvages as neck and sleeve bindings? A grandmother of a patient stared pointedly at my top the whole time I was in the room, and then I left to get some paperwork for them. When I came back in, she said, "I have a question. Do you mind if I touch the stitching around your sleeve? That is just beautiful, and I'm a seamstress, so I want to see how it's done." You can imagine the sound of my head blowing up with pride! She said she thought I'd bought the shirt, and we proceeded to have a 10-minute conversation about the sewing store she used to own, Alabama Chanin, and the wedding dress she'd offered to sew for her future granddaughter-in-law. It's so fun to run into a fellow sewer in unexpected places!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I better not see a picture of my house from the top of the Hangout ferris wheel, either!

Love the sweater. I think it's cute, so what if it took a year? What else were you going to do?

Don't know if I ever told you. I actually hiked the Grand Canyon from the South rim to the North rim in 1989. Physically grueling, but you are in much better shape than I was. If ya'll decide to walk to the bottom and back take PLENTY of water and keep an eye on the weather. The 3 days it took us, one day down, one day across, one day out, it was literally 120 F, in the shade. (Daddy had made the same hike 5 years earlier on the same weekend and it snowed!) My dad passed out and had to be evacuated on a burro. Fortunately, his cardiologist and wife were hiking with us so we had immediate first aid. The wife is a runner and she dropped her pack and RAN up out of the canyon to get help. (I'm still in awe of that feat.) When I finally got back home to Birmingham, my feet and legs were so swollen and I was so lethargic, I finally went to the doc. My CPK enzymes were over 2000 and I got slapped into the hospital and hooked up to a fast IV. I still don't tolerate extreme heat well. And I have work acquaintances who still ask me which hospital I'm going to for vacation this year.

Robbie

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

Robbie! I am stunned - you never told me that story! Good Lord, woman, how are you alive today? And I had to do a double-take - "evacuated on burro" sounds terribly uncomfortable...and slow. Glad y'all survived it!

Sadly, I'm on call for Hangout Festival - please tell Florence and her Machine I said hello. And good luck this year with the hoodlums.

BeckyW said...

First of all, the look in Lucas' face is priceless.

I have got to give some of the Pioneer Woman's recipes a go. I see lots of them on Pinterest and I'm always looking for something new to cook for supper. That meatloaf and green beans looks so good.

I think your sweater looks perfect. It looks so good like it is. Though, I know that things like that bug me when I know that I have something not quite right. I might just rip it out too if it were mine.

Jessica is out of school before baccalaureate tomorrow and graduation Saturday. She wanted me to teach her to knit. She has been loom knitting for a while. Today I broke out my old knitting needles and she is working on a garter stitch scarf. I had to watch a Youtube video to remember how to cast on. I taught her how to do a knit stitch. I can purl too, but that is the sum total of my knitting expertise. I don't know how to increase or decrease or anything else.

Your trip to the Grand Canyon will be such fun. Bart really wants to do a trip like that soon. Both of our kids really like to hike.

Robbie, you are a warrior. That is wild.

Isn't it neat to run into someone else who sews. Especially when they admire what you've done. That is a huge compliment.

Anonymous said...

Did Jessica decide on a school?

That trip goes on the "crazy things I have done and I"m lucky I survived" list. It was probably worse for the burrow than it was for Daddy. He was a big man even though he wasn't that heavy then. The Phantom Ranch is at the bottom of the canyon and you can spend the night there, either camp or they have dormitory accommodations,and have a meal. At least they used to. You have to book that WAY in advance and you used to have to get a permit to do anything more than a day hike (WAY in advance, too) The burros were nasty and mean. No way I'd get on one of those, unless I didn't know it.

I tried Emeril's Creole sauce last night. Except for too much oregano, we liked it.

Ya'll sewing for yourselves???

Robbie

Anonymous said...

You will have so much fun knitting that sleeve, you will want to knit the whole thing again. Wait til you see how easy it will be with a chart.
Heidi

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

Becky, hope graduation went well - very exciting! Where is she going to college? That's awesome she wants to learn to knit, and yay for you pulling up videos. Maybe we need to have a GCGSW before Jessica leaves for school and do some knitting?

Robbie, what are you sewing on these days? Did the rain put a damper on the Hangoutfest hoodlums?

Heidi, thanks so much for stopping by! Can't wait to see the chart - I'm so glad y'all are open 7 days a week!

BeckyW said...

Graduation did go well. It was earlier tonight actually. She decided on Alabama. Florida did not come through with any scholarship. She is getting really excited about Alabama. She has been chatting through text with her assigned roommate. I think the school did a great job of matching them. They seem to have hit it off. They will be in a two person suite.

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

Hooray for a good roommate and staying in Alabama - the drive will be so much nicer!