Finally Friday

There has been knitting! There has been progress! However since you still have two days to leave a comment on this post to enter the contest… well I won’t be giving away any hints as to which knit has pulled ahead.

Please know that if you have already commented, or if you are planning on commenting, that I won’t be answering your comment via email until after a FO as I don’t want my subconscious to see a date and a project and think… “Oh, that’s quite do-able… I should aim for that.”

I do believe that in the future I will try to always have one sock project, and one simple-but-interesting bigger project on the needles. This seems to work well for the knitting mojo. As soon as these two are done I already have the next projects waiting patiently in the wings.

Well, I’m off! We have all sorts of company this weekend with my cousin’s family in town at my parents and husband’s 2nd sister and her husband also in town. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

FO = Baby Blanket for Cousin's Baby

Pattern: Pinwheel Baby Blanket designed by Genia Planck.
Needles: 3.75 mm circulars (I had five on the blanket at the end)
Yarn: Black Lion Brand Baby Soft, and the Yellow, Red and Blue is all Lion Brand Microspun.

Begun sometime in July 2007. Completed November 23, 2007

So far, this is my biggest project to date and I really enjoyed it. It's a simple pattern that would be great for social knitting events (or movie watching). I would definitely knit this again, just not anytime soon as the "deadline knitting" has left my wrists slightly sore.

Bind off begins: 9:41 pm
Bind off ends: 12:00 am

730 sts around.

Ends woven in tomorrow.

Pictures sometime after Thanksgiving, after the gifting.

Five Before

A panic is rising. There are five days between now and when I see my cousin who's baby present I've been working frantically on. There has been no spinning as the panic has erased the enjoyment of spending an hour at the wheel. (However I do have roving to push me on my way through the tedious knitting). As soon as this present is complete, including ends woven in, I will allow myself to spend as much time as I like spinning up the deliciousness that the postman has brought for me.

The only other thing on the needles are socks for my mom (for Christmas). I'm working Wendy's Southwestern Socks the cuff down version. I'm using Dream in Color Smooshy (Wisterious) purchased from The Loopy Ewe.

So far I'm loving the yarn, the pattern, everything! It's simple enough that I don't have to think about and so far an extremely quick knit. And the yarn! I'm definitely going to have to use more of this stuff! I think that it's my new favorite sock yarn. So shiny and the variegation is great. (And it's really squooshy too).

Well, I'm off to try and crank out more of the present. In case you're curious as to what it looks like now, I've added new photos on Ravelry. I'm Gadaboutknitter there too.

If I don't post again until after Thanksgiving assume I'm not finished with the present yet. If so, I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Well dear friends I managed to make it through my whirlwind trip to Tampa and through my meetings without any major mishaps. (The problem with being the planner is if anything goes wrong it's all your fault).

The only thing that allowed me to maintain my sanity was the surprise baby present which was solely knit (I'm about to change colors again! YAY!) and the fact that through the wonderfulness that is Ravelry the "shy" knitters of Tallahassee will be having a knit night this Friday at one of our LYS.

I have to go. There will be no chickening out from me as I promised cookies as incentive to get all the Ravelrers out there. I'm excited/nervous/petrified/giddy all in one.

Also started was Shedir but it's moving very, very slowly as there are lots of cables that I have to triple-check to make sure that I do properly. When it gets a bit bigger I will be sure to post pics.

And in ONE WEEK! I will be headed up to SAFF! Huzzah for vacations!

WIP

First off... my friend A., who my husband can blame fully for introducing me to the wonderful world of knitting, has started her own blog! I would totally love everyone popping over there and saying hello!

Okay, so I have finally uploaded some updated pics of Cousin's baby present on Ravelry. (I'm Gadaboutknitter there too, if you want to add me to your friends). It's now taking me more than an hour to finish one round as there are just over 500 sts per round. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of November... we'll see how that goes. My hands may decide to up and die first.

The second sock for my MiL is past the heel with two more rounds on the gussets until the foot. Maybe by Friday I'll have the pair to show.

Yay for progress!

One down.

Yesterday I called in sick. I had actually made it half way to work before feeling so nauseous that I had to pull over. Fun times.

As soon as I got home I pulled the covers back over my head and slept until 11. After that the day was a blur of napping on the couch with two blankets (even though the AC was set to 80) and knitting while the tv was on in the background.

Oh see the progress that was made!

One wrist warmer down, one to go! The funny stitch on the cables is not noticeable at all once they are stretched so that worked out well. I also managed 2 rounds on the baby present.

All in all the day was fairly productive, especially for never moving off of the couch. :) I'm back at work today because I have a meeting but hopefully it will fly by and I can go home and enjoy this rainy, dreary, Florida weather from the comfort on my home, in my pjs, with my babies.

Yay for Fridays! And hopefully presents in the mail!

Weekend Update

Um. Well. All I worked on was the surprise present for cousin's baby. I did manage to get almost an inch added to overall width (which at almost 50 minutes to complete a round, I thought was pretty impressive).

I did try to work on something(s) that I could post pictures of here. I tend to be more of a visual person and usually read a blog more in-depth if there are pictures and assume that many of you are like me. A small change purse was cast on and after completing half was frogged. Husbands sweater was going to be taken to a movie last night but didn't make it any farther than the car since I noticed that I messed up the last row and will also have to be frogged back. Thankfully I have a lifeline only 3 rows down.

For some reason yesterday, while being an incredibly warm Florida day, had a winter sky. Clear, crisp and cloudless. This made me want to finish all my current projects in preparation of a "cold" (really, Florida doesn't get cold) winter.

I'm hoping this feeling lasts the rest of this week and progress will be made on more than just the baby present.

ZZZzzzzz

It finally caught up to me. Or something else did. This whole week has been a blur of tiredness and early bedtimes. Usually a normal weeknight bedtime around our house is 11 - 12 pm (with husband waking up at 5:30 am and me waking up between 5:30 and 6 am).

Not this week my friends! No matter how strong the will was to work on the surprise for cousin's baby, the body was just not able. This week saw bedtimes (for me) as early as 9 pm as well as three hour naps, followed by one or two hours up and then 10 pm bedtimes.

And the time between work and bedtime was all filled in between! Our church started up the yearly activities after the summer off, which means that Monday - Wednesdays are now no longer my own (even though Tuesday is climbing night which I guess is my own). This schedule will take much getting used to! No complaints though. Just one very tired individual.

Yesterday night was the monthly craft night at A's house. She generously gifted me the table full of yarn in yesterday's "distraction". I believe all of it is acrylic or an acrylic blend, which will be great as I can use it for baby garments for cousin's upcoming baby, that is if I ever finish the first secret project. Or any of the other long term projects on my needles.

I hope to have another good chunk of the surprise present done this weekend as well as a good start on the second Embossed Leaves Sock for MiL. We'll see. Tonight might be a repeat of the early bedtime... or at least a really long nap.

I love Fridays!

Slow and Steady

Again, there was lots and lots of knitting done this weekend however none of it can be shown! I'll have to work on something tonight that I can post pictures of. The baby present is going slowly. It's now taking me over 30 minutes to finish one round and this thing isn't even half finished!

Thankfully I have until the end of November to finish this. Husband had figured that lets say I only knit one round each night, it would take me more than 100 nights to complete.

Disturbing.

Maybe I'll take a break tonight and work on husband's sweater or the second sock for my MiL.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I promise, pictures tomorrow!

100th Post!

There has been lots and lots of knitting this week, however it has all been on the Secret Present for my cousin's upcoming baby. So I can't show you anything here. Horrible I know.

I will be posting more pictures on Ravelry if you get a chance and want to check them out.

I've been using Addi Turbo Lace circs and what a big difference they make! I've only ever used bamboo circs and have hated them because of the rough transition. But now that I've gotten a taste of how smoothly and quickly knitting on the Addis goes... well, I'm sold. (Oh by the way, I only started using the lace needles with this project in order to prevent me from casting on Icarus until the present is done. Figured that since I really want to knit Icarus that I would speed through. And I have been!)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Adding Up

Hmmm... looking through my project list on Ravelry I noticed that there are quite a few things that I'm procrastinating working on.

1. Embossed Leaves for MiL
2. Surprise for cousin's upcoming baby
3. Havana for husband
4. Diamond scarf for dad

And I cast on another project yesterday... well, that I've pretty much been solely knitting (even though most of the other projects have a "deadline"). I'll be sure to post about the new project tomorrow.

*Sigh* There is just never enough time, or willpower, to knit the things that need to be finished!

Slight Ray of Hope

The mojo isn't back completely, but I may have figured out why there is little/no knitting.

You see the projects I have are not happy projects. They are tedious and dull or I have made mistakes that steals the joy from the knitting. Allow me to elaborate.

Daddy's Scarf - there is one row where I must have been drunk or asleep because it's knit when it should have been purled and I didn't notice it till much, much, much later. (I would have to rip out a good four to five inches off this sucka). And it's a scarf. Scarves, unless short seem to be tedious and slow by nature no matter how wonderful and brilliant the pattern.

The Baby Project - While neither tedious or dull I did make quite a few mistakes at the very beginning, so I solved that by casting off my biggest "swatch" (for that is what it shall now be called) ever! Also there may be a slight problem with the fact that I'm using a thinner yarn that will make this project take forever, but I'm probably going to go with it anyway. (Pictures up now on Ravelry incase you're curious as to what it is.... Except you Kari!

Padded Footlets - This one was quite easy to figure out. One I very much dislike the Tofutsies that I chose for the CC. I like the Tofutsies yarn, just not for this sock. I'm thinking it would like to be an airy scarf instead. The other problem is that I've never done this type of heel before (Short Row?) so the directions, to me, are tricksy! But now I've started them (for the third, or is it fourth? time) as a solid color. We shall see how these progress.

Oh and since I can't mention "baby"less blogging to The YoYo and not pull through myself. Here are what my babies look like on a gloomy, about-to-rainny day when husband is outside doing more interesting things.



Man thats a crappy picture! :)

FO! Autumn Embossed Leaves Socks

Pattern: Embossed Leaves Socks by Mona Schmidt from Favorite Socks
Needles: 2.75 mm DPNs
Yarn: Fleece Artist Nova Sock in Mahogany from my SP10 Pal

I loved knitting this pattern! And looking back I have enough yarn to lengthen the leg (which I will be sure to do next time). I'm seriously debating getting another skein of this colorway and knitting them again.

Cast on last night...

Something that I can't post yet!!

Good thing I always write at work, save a draft and post when I get home (once photos are added)! I had written a huge speel about what I'm doing for my cousin's upcoming baby, pictures were to be included and then, sitting here bored at work I check Facebook...

Cousin left me a message that she "Loves my knitting blog"!! GAH! I have to go back and make sure I haven't posted too much information!! Damage control!

All I will say is it took me 3 tries to get it started. It was bit tricky casting on 5 sts and working them in a round on DPNs. Husband was laughing at me because I finally decided to sit indian style and prop the not-in-use DPNs on the couch so they wouldn't slip out of the yarn. (This led me to being horribly hunched over, face right over the needles... good thing he didn't get photos!)

Oh, but if you're really dying to see what I've got on the needles for her (and can't figure it out from the above... thankfully she doesn't knit) I will post pictures on Ravelry as it progresses. Wait! You have to register to see Ravelry right? She can't go snooping for pictures on there? Hmm... I must go investigate!