The never-ending cold

I seem to have lost a week somewhere. I remember coming home from our trip but then it's been a haze of tissues, stuffed sinuses, coughing, and feeling just yucky while still managing to work (from home), get the laundry done, take the cat to the vet, cook some meals, and keep on top of the dishes (thank goodness for dishwashers!). My husband has caught the cold too so there's no one but the cats to take care of us and they only seem interested in their own food bowls getting filled. We are better but I seem to be suffering a relapse or else I've caught another cold. Bleh.

When I'm healthy I sometimes hope for a sick day to do a bit of knitting or whittle away at the stack of magazines I haven't read yet. But the reality is that when you're sick you feel like doing nothing at all. I watched a lot of TV but did manage to read a magazine. I also finished the mate to the socks I was knitting. This pair came out a bit bigger than the first pair - same yarn but different sock patterns - but I still like them. Unfortunately I couldn't spend my days knitting or reading magazines. My vacation and sick days come from the same pool of time off so if we hope to take more trips this year I can't use up my days being sick. Last week I took one day off from work and then worked from home for two days and went into the office on Friday when I felt well enough and figured I was not contagious anymore. I suppose I could have given up 3 more days of vacation but I'd rather have those 3 days to spend touring museums, visiting historical sites, or relaxing at a sidewalk cafe.

And speaking of vacations, I had good intentions of posting some pictures from the trip but we only yesterday viewed them ourselves. Our DVD player also accepts memory cards so we just popped the 2Gb card in and sat back with a box of tissues, numerous blankets and a cat or two and watched the slide show of our trip on our TV. Digital cameras are a wondrous invention. No more film to deal with. No more rationing of photo opportunities. No more lead bags at airport security. No more developing costs. No more blurry pictures you hesitate to throw away because you paid to have them developed and printed. The downside to digital is that you can take so many photos. It took a few hours just to view our pictures so I know it's not going to be a quick job to select ones to post. And of course I'll want to do a bit of touching up. I don't do much. Sometimes I do a bit of cropping or see what Photoshop Elements recommends to enhance the color or lighting. Often I like the original photo and stick with it.

Now that my socks are done I can turn my attention to new projects. I cast on and began knitting socks for my husband but after four inches it became clear that they were going to be much, much too big in diameter. The sock was looking more like a sleeve. I wanted to just do a simple stockinette stitch sock with a short row heel and thought I'd just use the pattern in the Sensation Knitted Socks book for the Fair Isle socks. This did not work. The gauge was correct but perhaps the Fair Isle sock pattern takes into account the double thickness of working in Fair Isle because it just was not compatible with the Regia yarn in stockinette. I'm still learning! I picked a different pattern from the book but this one is "toe up", which I've never done before and it's slow-going. I gave up on their directions for the short-row toe. I couldn't wrap my sinus-headachey-head around it right now and decided to use their "easy toe" method instead. We'll see how it goes.

I also want to start a second knitting project but there are many possibilities. Will it be a Clapotis? How about something out of my ArtFibers yarn (I have enough for 3 sweaters)? Or perhaps I will make a sweater as a gift for someone. Decisions, decisions.

And of course there's still the Burda jacket sitting on my dress form.

Roman Holiday

We're back from European Trip #2 of 2006. Such jet-setters we are! We spent the week of Christmas in Rome with stop overs in London on either end. I've been nursing a cold for the last few days so I haven't felt up to sifting through the 1000 or so photos we took (digital, of course). But I'll give you a good/bad summary of random thoughts until I do.

The good

• The late afternoon sun on the Colosseum
• Roman streets carved with grooves from horse-drawn carts
  
• The vastness of treasures in the Vatican museum
• The Sistine Chapel
• Joining thousands of people in St Peter's square to hear and see the Pope deliver his Christmas message
• Italian pizza
• The Christmas lights on Oxford and Regent Streets in London
• Fish and chips in a London pub
• British Airways managing to get us rebooked on our flight to Rome after it was canceled due to the intense fog. We got on an earlier flight and managed to get there around the time we originally planned.
  
• Not having to spend our holiday at Heathrow like other travelers did
• Spending the holiday with my husband
• Breakfast included (it would have been £ 16 each, or about $32 a person at our London hotel)
• Big Ben and Westminster Abbey lit up at night
• Beautiful weather in Rome
• Nice hotels in both cities: Victoria Park Plaza in London and Victoria Hotel in Rome (coincidence they were both named "Victoria"). Thanks hotels.com and travelzoo!
• The tube. The prices have gone up but when it's rainy and cold, it's great to have it to get around the city.
• Learning my room number in Italian
• La Mia Boutique - I found the January issue in Rome and the December issue in London. I also picked up the Italian version of Diana Moda.
  
• Seeing a thick stack of Burdas at the newstand in London - I don't know why, it just made me smile to see so many in one place.
  
• Italian coffee
• Getting a laugh out of "Versace-Man" and not falling for his con. I'll have to tell the story later. It deserves its own blog entry.
• Viewing the nativity scenes or "Il Presepe" in Rome.
• Having knitting to keep me occupied on the long flights.
• A quick tour around a fabric store in Rome. I had firmly decided not to buy any so I just took in the sights, smell and touch of the fabric.
• Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners in the hotel restaurant in Rome. They had pre-planned menus that looked very good and they were, so we decided to eat there. The service was wonderful too.
  

The bad

• Arriving at Heathrow to hear our flight to Rome had been canceled even though we had the concierge check twice on the internet before we checked out of the hotel.
• British Airways not being able to get our bags to Rome along with us - they showed up at our hotel 30 and 36 hours later (mine and my husband's, respectively)
• My suitcase is now missing a "foot" - but at least the wheels work and it's not among the tens of thousands of "lost" luggage at Heathrow that will take weeks to get sorted out.
  
• Getting an urgent message from our cat sitter about a problem with her alarm code and stressing about it until I could find a way to send an email message (it was 2:00 in the morning PST when we got the message). For some reason our alarm system wiped out the visitor codes. Lesson learned: check them periodically and definitely before we go on vacation.
• One morning in London, the fire alarm went off at our hotel shortly after I got out of the shower. I pulled on clothes, grabbed my coat and a towel for my wet hair and we filed outside into the freezing cold. The staff were pretty useless and made no effort to instruct the hotel guests. The fire department responded quickly and fortunately there was no fire. Apparently a guest had "accidentally" broken the glass on a fire alarm.
  
• Lack of wireless - we found lots of free wireless last summer during our trip to Iceland and our moderately-priced hotel in Paris had free wireless. But on this trip our luxury London hotel wanted $12/hour and the Rome hotel was still on wired internet.
  
• Coming down with a cold on our last day - at least it was the end of the trip but an 11-hour flight with a sore throat was not fun.
  
• Not able to get seats when we booked our flight, we were assigned the "butt seats" - the last row next to the lavatory and galley. Not a pleasant way to spend 11 hours on an airplane. We ponied up the $200 extortion upgrade fee to Economy Plus and snagged the last remaining aisle seat and the one next to it. On our return flight we had separate, middle seats assigned. We again ponied up the bucks and upgraded to Economy Plus to get the last two seats together (aisle and adjacent - yay!).
• Cold, cold, cold in London
• Annoying street vendors in Rome. No, I don't want to buy your fake Gucci bag or Dolce and Gabbana belt. No!
• Beggars in Rome. There were quite a few dressed up like fake statues to "entertain" the tourists. The non-entertaining ones sat hunched over on the ground with an empty Pringles can before them, covered with layers of clothing so they appeared old, but their hands gave them away. Then there were the gypsies with pieces of cardboard they use to shield their hands as they slice open your bag. Fortunately we knew what they were up to and stood clear of them.
• Piazza Navona, at least the Christmas market version of it, was a disappointment.
• Starbucks has invaded London. They are everywhere.
  
• The Americanization of London is alarmingly evident: Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, TK Maxx (instead of TJ Maxx), Borders Books, Sunglass Hut, The Gap, and of course Coke and McDonalds. They have Coke and McDonalds in Rome and ads for an "American Diet System" on the TV.
  
• They don't sell Patrones in London or Rome. Or at least not at the 356 newstands we checked (it seemed like that many at least!).
• The exchange rate for the pound. Ouch.
  

Lists - updated with pictures

I have many projects in the work. I just haven't taken the time to share them with you. But I finally added some pictures. Click on them to make them larger.

1. Neck Down Hooded Tunic by Knitting Pure and Simple - done except for weaving in the ends
   
2. Karaoke Cable Scarf in Malabrigo - done except for weaving in the ends The color is called "Stonechat"














3. Hat to match scarf - done except for weaving in the ends I used the Coronet pattern from Knitty.com but I modified the cable part to match my scarf.








4. Christmas gift scarf for the cat sitter, in Malabrigo - done except for weaving in ends...hmmm, I seem to have a problem finishing things, particularly the weaving part. This is my own pattern. I found the stitch pattern for the twisty parts and made it into a ribbed scarf. I'll post the instructions for it someday soon.













5. I made 4 pincushion sewing baskets to give as gifts. Yes, I know. A picture would be nice! I'll be posting a tutorial on how to make these in a few weeks - I'm just too busy right now!



6. Burda jacket - all thirty-something pieces are cut out! The bodice is sewn and sits on my dress form waiting for some time to work on it.





7. Socks for me - working on sock #2 of a Katia yarn


8. Socks for DH - yarn is picked out and awaiting the 20+ hours of airplane travel I'll be doing in the next two weeks.

Wool, wool, and more wool.

Thanks for your comments on the Burda patterns. I also like 8018 and it was actually the one I set out to purchase until I started browsing the catalog and found the others. But I'm not making that one...yet. I want a jacket with a lining and feel that I don't have the time or experience to make a lining without having the pattern pieces and instructions to guide me, so I chose to make 8020. I found the perfect wool in my stash - 3 yards of a mid- to light-weight Pendleton wool I purchased from Fabric.com about 5 years ago. It was only $2.95/yard. Can you believe it?

And while browsing my stash I found another wool that will be great for Burda 8030. It's 60% wool, 40% alpaca and is both plush and soft. It also looks good on both sides, so it would work well for this coat. I'd also like to make this pattern in a sweater knit, but just think it would be a great use for this wool too.

And that's not all. I'd like to make Burda 8018 in this lovely Pendleton wool I also bought at Fabric.com - not at the same bargain price as the other Pendleton but still pretty good at $9/yard. It's been "aging" about 4 years in my stash.

But do I need all these coats/jackets? I already have the wool and it's better to be out and enjoyed and put to use as opposed to packed away in a plastic bin (hopefully not being eaten by moths - that would be SO awful!).

Last night I moved on to stage 2 of the jacket project: preparing the pattern. I chose to trace all twenty-something (!!) pieces instead of cutting them out. I didn't want to risk choosing the wrong size. These patterns aren't 99 cent McCalls or Simplicity patterns. I've started to cut out the muslin so hopefully I'll be able to check the size and get going on the real thing. In Burda I fall between a 42 and 44. I've made some tops in 44 and thought they came out too big so I started making 42 instead. But something told me to go with a 44 for this one. I want to be able to wear this over more than a thin shirt and measurement-wise I really should be a 44. So a 44 is what I cut. We'll see.

How do you use those feet?

Not the ones you walk on, but the ones you sew with?

I keep my presser feet in a small plastic box next to my sewing machine and find the ones I most often use are the edge-joining foot, the zipper foot and the regular foot. I have many others - pin tuck, fell foot, ruffler, hem stitch... but I hardly ever use them. Mostly because I don't know how they work or haven't taken the time to experiment with them. Still, I feel like I should buy every specialty foot there is.

I just recently heard about this website that has a video* for every type of Pfaff foot. I just happen to have Pfaff so that's ideal for me, but I think all sewing machine manufacturers have pretty much the same type of feet. Now maybe I'll actually try a few more presser feet from my box. And judging from the list of videos, there are a few feet I don't have. Of course, do I really need those other feet?

*not sure if there's supposed to be sound. There wasn't for me, but my computer might be a bit messed up and the videos might not be playing correctly.

In search of a coat

Why is it that despite having over 300 patterns (yikes!) and at least five years of Burda World of Fashion magazines (double yikes!) I do not have a coat or jacket pattern that I like? But the new Burda Fall 2006 styles contained some that I do like and a few other patterns that caught my eye. Here are the new additions to my pattern stash (click picture for larger):

Burda 8015:

Burda 8018:

Burda 8020:

Burda 8026:

Burda 8030:

I especially like 8030 in the knit...and I have plenty of knits in my stash from which to make this and also 8026.

And speaking of knits, I have just about finished my top-down sweater. I need to seam the hood, make a cord and weave in loose ends. Yippee! First adult-sized, sleeved sweater that I'll be able to wear (because the first adult-sized, sleeved sweater I knit is still in pieces waiting to be blocked and seamed). I've already started on another project and it's coming along well. This one's a scarf out of Malabrigo merino yarn (colorway is Stonechat) using this scarf pattern. I've already gotten lots of compliments on it at my knitting meetup and also at my sewing guild meeting on Saturday.

I had a busy sewing weekend but I didn't get any sewing done. I had my sewing guild meeting and then yesterday I met up with some internet friends for an afternoon of chatting, fabric and pattern swapping, and eating. The pumpkins I've been working on are still sitting unfinished at my sewing machine and I'm anxious to start a coat. I'm leaning towards 8015 but haven't decided whether to make the long coat or the short jacket. I'm pretty sure I have some long lengths of wool in my stash. But 8015 is so cute and I like the lines of 8020 (view B).

The lazy way to clean

We bought a Roomba. We had thought about getting one and paused by a Roomba display at Costco the other night when a guy started telling us how great they were. I thought maybe he was a sales rep but no, he was a customer there buying a second one for his 2-story house. So we bought one. After all, we have 4 cats, 2 full-time jobs, hardwood floors that show off the dust and dirt really well, and a lot of other things we'd rather do than vacuum. I found that overall the reviews for this little robot are positive, but some people report having duds and others say it doesn't do what they want or they don't like how it bumps around or makes noise. The best review I read summed it up nicely by saying not to give up your primary vacuum. What this will do is sweep the floors daily... and provide entertainment for the cats at the same time. It doesn't do thorough cleaning of carpets and won't get into tight corners and of course it has to vacuum around your shoes, the laundry basket, and the toys strewn about (in our case, cat toys).

This machine is also not a "set it and forget it" type of tool. It requires frequent cleaning so that the sensors don't get too dirty (and cause it to miss seeing the steps and take a fall). You also need to keep the wheels clean so they don't get bogged down with hair and string - a very possible scenario with 4 cats, my long hair and fringe on our rugs. So we'll see how good we are at keeping up the maintenance. I still think that will be easier than vacuuming the whole house.

So last night in between going to the door for the few trick or treaters we had, we played with our new toy. The model we bought has a docking station, remote control, and virtual walls - devices that emit infrared while the Roomba is on and keep it from entering places you don't want it to go. We have hardwood floors in our house but in the living room and dining room we have large oriental rugs with fringe. Roombas "eat" fringe, just like other vacuums - and they'll also get hung up on cords and drag them...and the object attached to the cord, so you do have to Roomba-proof a bit. The Roombas do much better on hardwood and tile than on carpet and since our carpets quickly get covered with cat hair, we're better off using our Miele in those rooms. Our main use of the Roomba will be to sweep the floors of the kitchen, hallway, family room, and our bedroom. We'll keep it out of the sewing room/office because of the oriental rug in there and the plethora of threads and pins it might encounter. Besides, it's small room and the Roomba would spend a lot of time bumping around and I worry it might not get out of there and find its home base when it's done.

The Roomba does do a lot of bumping - it's kind of funny to watch it and guess where it will go next. When it finds a straight path it does a tiny wiggle from side to side as it goes, kind of like wiggling its hips if it had them. When it finds a lot of dirt, a blue light comes on and it goes around in circles, almost as if it's gleefully doing a dance. The cats do not know what to make of it. It is a bit noisy and beeps when it turns on, beeps when it's time to go home to its base (after an hour of cleaning) and it also beeps an "uh oh" and shuts off when you pick it up. So far we haven't seen it get stuck. It's gone over small rugs and the transitions between tile and wood without too much trouble. It did try to "mate" with the base of our fan but it finally got itself back on level ground and went about cleaning. It does pick up quite a bit. The dust bin is small but that's probably both to keep the size down and also to make you tend to the device regularly.

It'll be nice to have the rooms swept of cat hair, cat litter (ugh!), crumbs, and other grit and dust bunnies while we're away at work. Hopefully this little guy will keep working away for a good long time because I think we need him!