WIP: Baby Romper for New Grandson

January 17, 2010| Lindy| 0 Comment | 5:30 pm

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My first grandson is due January 30. I have already knit a couple of items for this coming grandchild – but I want to knit a romper and matching cardigan for him as well. I’ve posted about the swatches for the cardigan, but not about the romper.

BabyRomper_Legs1

I am about 50% done with the romper. I am using Baby Ull (Dale of Norway) in a navy blue colorway. The legs were knit using size US 0 (2.00 mm) needles and then once joined together for the hip section, knit using US 1 (2.50 mm) needles. Tiny needles, lots of stitches. The pattern is #203 from Dale of Norway.

I doubt I will get this done before the baby arrives – but since I am knitting the 12 months size, it shouldn’t matter if I finish it after he comes home from the hospital.

Finished Chevron Scarf and Matching HatFinished Chevron Scarf and Matching Hat

December 12, 2009| Lindy| 0 Comment| 9:30 am

I finished the hat to match the Chevron scarf during our snowstorm. I washed and blocked both the scarf and the hat. Since the hat is supposed to be a tam — I dried it over a large round platter:

ChevronHat2

However — once dried, the tam was too loose and too big!. So I dunked it in some water and threw it in the dryer — it’s made of superwash sock yarn. And I ended up with:

ChevronHat1

Which — when placed on the head, looks like a basic beanie hat with two-color chevron stripes. Not what I envisioned — but still a nice result. Now I need to wrap the scarf and hat and get it mailed off.

Book Review: Knitting Plus by Lisa ShroyerBook Review: Knitting Plus by Lisa Shroyer

May 13, 2012| LindyBeir| 0 Comment| 8:00 am

The subtitle for this book is “mastering fit + plus-size style + 15 projects”. The first two chapters of this book cover the basics of how to knit garments that fit. While the focus is on plus-size, the information is applicable to any knitted garment. The information in these two chapters is worth the price of the book if you are wanting to learn more about how to modify patterns so that they actually fit your body. Chapter One discusses the common elements of a sweater and “what they mean to you” and Chapter Two covers the use of measurements and how to redesign patterns for a custom fit.

The remaining five chapters cover different types of sweater styles: The Drop-Shoulder, the Set-In Sleeve, The Raglan, The Seamless Yoke, and The Dolman. There are three projects for each type and these are really lovely designs for us plus-size gals. Each project also has helpful notes for the knitter. So this book is both a “how-to” guide and a set of 15 plus-size patterns. And some of those patterns are the sort that makes a knitter’s fingers itch to pull out some yarn and needles and get started. The “Poppy Cardigan” on page 67 is on my list of future projects for sure.

If you are interested in this book, click on the picture at the top of this post. It will take you to the book on Amazon.com.

Lack of New PostsLack of New Posts

June 4, 2011| LindyBeir| 0 Comment| 9:45 pm

I apologize to those who read my little blog — I have not posted for some time due to computer issues.

About a month ago, my DH and I both got new HP Desktops with Windows 7 as the operating system. After making all the necessary file transfers, I got up and running and thought things were just dandy. The new desktop was much faster and I loved my much larger monitor (great for these old eyes!). Then, about two weeks ago, funky random things started happening as I was using my new PC. Things like the screen just freezing up — which caused me to go to Task Manager and force the “not responding” program to close. Over the next several days, this went to happening at weird random and unpredictable intervals to happening almost every time I went on to the Internet. And then, it also started happening when I was in other programs — including the game Solitare and even Word. And — it was getting so that Task Manager couldn’t shut down the “not responding” program — now, when it happened the entire PC locked up — and I do mean LOCKED UP! The only way out was to hold down the Power Button until the machine shut down….yep, a hard shut down.

So, last weekend I started researching this little problem. I had to use my iPad — ’cause my HP certainly wasn’t going to let me do any surfing on it. And I discovered that this is a KNOWN problem with Windows 7. I found lots of threads about this little issue — one of which had been going on in a forum for over two years. From this research, I gleaned a few helpful suggestions that I thought I might try. Now this surfing took me most of Saturday afternoon over the Memorial Day holiday. So Sunday, I decided to check out HP Technical Support and see if there was anything new or helpful about this problem. And you know what? HP had a technical article on this problem — along with a whole series of steps to follow to determine how best to fix this little issue.

Now — before anybody goes there — the first thing I did when this little problem popped up was to run my virus scanning software — I did a full scan of my hard drive. As we all know, a virus is the most likely cause of problems with your computer. My computer scan came up clean. No viruses.

So, what was the cause? It was most likely either a program I had recently installed or an update to Windows that had been automatically installed. The solution? Well, HP has a utility called “System Restore” that allows you to go back and “restore” your system to a point before that update — i.e. a time before the problem started happening. Full instructions for how to do this were given in the article. BUT — before I went forward with this, I decided to back up my files — and this took me most of Sunday afternoon. Then Monday I was able to go ahead and do the System Restore. I discovered that there had been an update to Windows just before I started experiencing my issue. So I took my system back to the point just before that update. Viola! No more freezing or locking up! Whew! problem solved.

Not sure what conclusion to draw from all of this. Clearly it is a known issue that can randomly occur with Windows 7 — but it doesn’t appear to be something that Microsoft has addressed at this point — even though it apparently has been happening to Windows 7 users since 2009. I find it interesting that HP has a solution for the problem in the form of a utility that allows you to restore the system back to a point before the problem started to happen.

Anyway — that’s my tale of woe. Now that I have a working PC, I can get to work and actually write a new post about my new vintage crochet pattern. Stop back in a couple of days — I should have the pattern ready and available.