One More Very Important Thing ...

I got an email from Curesearch.org the other day, and they are starting a campaign to use SixDegrees.org to raise funds for the National Childhood Cancer Foundation. So, see that cool badge I've placed on my blog? Over there ... to the right ... up near the top of the sidebar. See???? Now click it!! Go and donate!

You can add my badge to your blog, too, and if this particular badge generates enough donation dollars, SixDegrees.org will donate an additional $10,000 to CureSearch. So, please, steal my badge!!!

Why is all this so important?? Because federal funding is being seriously reduced for cancer research. It is beyond me as to how ANYONE can pull federal funding for a cause that will save the lives of children, but it's happening.

Update 6/25/08 -- I've removed this badge from my blog. It was getting NO hits whatsoever, so I had to make room for something else.

The Chronicles of Emma - Chapter 2

The saga continues, and I'll see if I can accurately chronicle here what has happened since I started dear Emma.

First of all, it's been a bit crazy. Tuesday night we stayed at the Ronald McDonald House near the hospital DS is treated at in preparation for an early, early morning on Wednesday. Why so early? Because Thumbelina, The World's Smallest Horse, came to visit, and we were invited to attend the event which was aired on Fox & Friends. Both DD and DS are in the video clip. They were SO excited to be on TV!

As usual I toted along my knitting bag on this little side trip. I managed to get several inches done on Emma since I started her, and as I work through the pattern, I am finding it slightly easier to figure out, but I guess I won't know if I made the right decisions about when to start and stop increases until I am finished.

I managed to get through the Short Row section, and then I started the increases for the front panels. Part-way through the front panels, I decided it was time to start the shaping for the waist. This was confusing, because given the example in the pattern, it seemed that I should wait to start this shaping until I had about 4" knit. If I had done that, however, I would have ended up with too many inches in the under-arm section. So, I started the shaping after about 2" or so. The shaping goes on for about 4" total.

During the shaping, you don't do any front-panel increases. Now I am back to working on those, and hopefully by the time I get through all 25 of them, I will have the proper measurements. I need to check in with Angelia to see if what I'm doing is remotely similar to what she did, because hers looks beautiful!

All right ... off to nurse this little cold I started out with Tuesday. I spent most of the day yesterday napping off and on. Hopefully, I'll be able to undo the damage that occurred around here yesterday while I was sleeping.

The Chronicles of Emma - Chapter 1

I'm starting the Emma Jacket from Knit Picks. I've been wanting to try steeks, and this looks like a fairly quick knit with a heavy worsted yarn, and it uses the crochet method of steeking. Why do I want crochet? Cause I don't want to haul out the sewing machine. And, it looks FUN!

So, I started the enormous swatch recommended by the pattern on Saturday. I finished it yesterday, determined that I'm pretty close to the gauge they recommend (4 st/in), and sat down to read through the pattern and fill in the blanks for the measurements, etc.

This is one confusing pattern! I'm hoping it makes more sense as I start to knit, but I'm really kinda skeered!

Here is what I learned about this pattern so far:

** The swatch I knit ended up being 2 stitches shy of the actual amount of stitches I'll need to cast on to get started (82).

Why can't I just use my swatch to start? Because there is shaping going on almost immediately after you start the sweater, and of course, my swatch does NOT have shaping.

So, I'll try to rip back to the cast-on row so's that I don't have to re-cast on all those stitches again.

All right ... off to get the kids started on their school day!