She's Come Undone

... and so has everything else around her!

See this?

Yeah, that would be Koolhaas, husband's sweater, and dad's twoyearsinthemaking scarf.

There may have been a little party and I may have gotten a little crazy, but I am so relieved that these are gone!

Malabrigo has been ordered to make a new (thicker) scarf for dad. The Cashsoft DK that was dad's scarf will probably be turned into hats and fingerless mits. And the sweater... well, that will be reknit in the round someday.

As for my new socks. The yarn is White Oak Studio's tvyarn in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer colorway.
Soon to be Spiral Eyelet Socks.

And now, she's off to spin!

Have a great weekend!

Carrying into the New Year

Since it's a new year and we are all taking stock of our lives and making resolutions and such I figured I'd just lay it all out. Here are all my WiP, even ones that are headed to frog pond.

1. Diamond Scarf for Dad
Right now my oldest UFO, that was supposed to be a Christmas present for 2006 and 2007. Like I said, it would have been done had our luggage not followed us to California two days after our arrival. (Is it sad that I sorta wanted it to get lost because then I wouldn't have to work on it?) After that delay and the undeniable fact that again it would not be finished... well, it hasn't been worked on much. It did grow 3 inches on Christmas day.


2. Havana for Husband
Totally heading to frog pond. The pattern is knit flat, however I'm lazy and hate counting rows and all the flipping of needles every other row drove me nuts. The whole thing will eventually be reknit in the round. (Hopefully).


3. Southwestern Socks for Mom
Almost done with the first sock. Maybe one repeat until the toe? Second one must be completed before my mom's birthday (in Feb).


4. Feather and Fan Shawl for Me
In a really stupid move on my part I cast on for this shawl last night (which I guess would mean that it hasn't actually been carried over into the new year). I blame the cold weather and tile floors in my house. But so far I'm loving it! (And I'm using up handspun stash!! Double points!) I would like to have this finished before the end of January, barring the need to purchase more roving for handspun.

Who am I kidding! I've already started searching for more roving! Just don't tell husband!! :)

Tomorrow... an overdue FO!

Selfish

Erm, so as I was updating links on the sidebar I noticed that there is an awful lot of knitting done for me... Granted I know that the project I'm working the most on isn't (the present for my cousin's baby), but it just seems like all the knitting for me gets finished faster than other projects.

So to remedy that, I'm willing myself to finish the second sock for my MiL and to work on husband's sweater. Maybe I'll have the front done by SAFF.

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!

Rainy with a Good Chance of an Afternoon Nap.

The weekend was wonderfully conducive to knitting. There were thunderstorms both afternoons and most of Sunday was raining, dreary and damp anyway. And luckily our house has a metal roof (which if you love to sit inside and listen to the rain I highly recommend), the pinging of fat raindrops on the roof is a welcome sound.

Saturday was mostly for cleaning but I did get a few rows done of the Autumn Embossed Leaves sock done. I have noticed that I will post a crazy goal for my knitting and never come close to meeting it. Example the previous post hoping that the sock would be finished on Saturday. I should know better! I am a slow knitter. If it took me a week to knit the first half of the sock, and 3 days to turn the heel I should not expect to complete the gussets, foot and toe in one day! I have to laugh at myself looking at some of the outrageous goals I've set for myself in previous posts. At least there is something to aim for!

Oh, and sock progress??... They're done!
(I finished the toe just now, 6.12 pm on Monday will post pictures tomorrow since it's raining and dark.)

Knit pretty much solely on Sunday. Husband, brother and I spent the rainy day with our butts parked on the couch having a random movie marathon. (South Park season 7 in its almost entirety, Blade 1 and 2, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). There was some lulls in the knitting during movies, mostly because after awhile my wrists would be sore.

So far from this list:

-Sister's Birthday Scarf was started and completed. A smashing success!

-I have the first ball of husband's sweater finished.

I'm 62% sure that I will cast on the project for cousin's baby after the socks are completed, you know just to give me a break from socks. There is a 25% chance that the Padded Footlets will be re-cast on. 3% chance that the Diamond Scarf will be worked on, 0% chance that the garter stitch scarf will be worked on and a 10% chance that I will start something brand-spankin-new.

Two in One

So I sat there and contemplated. I could try to fix it so that it wasn't messed up at all, or I could just k2tog twice and call it a day. You have no idea how alluring the second option was. After almost 30 minutes of debating I took action.

My friends, I accomplished what I thought I couldn't do. I studied the extra two stitches and I fixed it!!! That's right, I actually fixed something! Sure it doesn't look exactly perfect, but it definitely looks a lot better than two k2togs would have.

See?


The screwed up portion is at the 5 1/2 inch mark. Sure if you look closely you can see it, but I think I did a pretty decent job at it. Oh yeah I've got almost 7 inches (as you can see in the photo) completed with a slight amount on the first ball left. I don't know if this is good yarn mileage or not, but I did knit a good size swatch out of the same ball. I hope so.

And...



Well, you see... this past week was a fairly slow week knitting-wise. I just didn't want to knit anything at all. So I cast on the second sock, just to get the mojo flowing... well, one thing lead to another and there it is. All the way to the gussets.

And can you see the difference? Maybe this will help.



The second sock is most definitely and assuredly red whereas the first sock is brown. Both knit from the same ball. I love it! I'm hoping that the toe of the second sock ends up brown since the first sock's toe ended up red. *Crosses fingers* Hopefully they will be completed and ready for their photo shoot tomorrow!

Murphy's Law

You sit and carefully knit. You hate to pick back mistakes, so you move slowly, ensuring that the needles and yarn go exactly where they are supposed to.

Then you sneeze

*Sigh* I brought husband's sweater to work today. Things were going well. I stifled a sneeze and when I looked down again I had two extra stitches on the needles. (I have no idea how.)

Now I'm debating. I don't know how to pick this back by myself (Fisherman's rib anyone? Anyone?) it's the K1B that I'm not sure how to work. But the unfortunate coincidence, which is what this will be called henceforth, is on the very beginning of a row which means after the sweater is all seamed up you will hardly see it anyway. As much as I would love for this sweater to be perfect for husband, I am a process knitter and I abhor ripping back if I can wing a quick fix.

Note: If you are not a process knitter or if you are a perfectionist in your knitting, please don't ever look closely at my projects. You may be appalled.

So I'm going to sit here for awhile and mull over what to do. If I can figure out how this attrocity happened and can fix it I will. However, I'm the only one in my office today, with nothing else to do and this was my only knitting project. Once boredom sets in the sweater will continue, mistake or no.

Update on sweater and other projects (and photos) when I get home and upload them!

Home Again

I’m back! I meant to post at least a picture of sweater progress but for some reason when husband is around I don’t do jack. (Well, “jack” in the way of knitting, cleaning, or anything productive).

So here is the promised sweater progress. All knit between Sunday the 9th and Wednesday the 13th.

The stripped shirt was husband’s choice of a best fit that I can measure against. So far, so good. Now here’s the kicker. The recommended length of sts across for the medium (which according to the sizing chart is what husband should be wearing) sweater is 90 sts, the large is 98.

I cast on 110 sts across!

I did swatch. I did wash and dry the swatch as the finished sweater will be. And I even did knitty math! I don’t have the pattern in front of me (because I’m at work) but based on my math I should have cast on 124 – 126 sts to get gauge.

That’s crazy to me because the large should only be 98 sts across. So I took 110 as being a nice number and after an inch of the first cast on, it ended up only slightly larger (think ~1/4 of a inch) than the picture above. I screwed up after about 2 inches because I thought that I was good enough to remove half of my stitchmarkers. Well. I thought wrong.

*Crosses fingers that husband’s sweater turns out okay*

And now, a random photo from this past weekend.



ETA: Sorry the post is so late. I got home and Flickr wouldn't let me on to upload the photos! :(

Discoveries

1. I can not knit on a plane. It makes me feel nauseous. I can knit in a car however. This strikes me as extremely odd.

2. Sometimes shuttle services, although less expensive than a taxi, take more than double the amount of time to reach your destination. (And sometimes you may be willing to pay more to get there quickly, like say at midnight when you want to be in bed).

3. No matter how annoying it is to have to move tons of spare yarn stitchmarkers, if there isn't one at a regular basis I will mess up 110 sts of ribbing.

Number 3 led to husband's sweater being cast on, knit up to an inch and then being frogged and re-cast on. I do not know how to pick back Fisherman's Rib (K1, K1B) so the sweater is moving slowly as any mistake would mean a major ripback to a lifeline.

Husband is on his way to pick me up and we will be heading into DC. Pictures of the sweater progress when he arrives with a camera!

And she's off!

FO Friday! Huzzah! The first Autumn Embossed Leaves sock is finally completed!

Pattern: Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Fleece Artist Nova from my Secret Pal
Needles: 3.75 mm DPNs

The one thing I loved most about this pattern was the way the gussets were constructed. Usually I have a big problem with holey gussets or uneven gussets. Not so with this pattern! And for that I am incredibly overjoyed (which makes husband think I'm crazy).

See the pretties?



About the previous post. Yes my friends. I have taken the step. I am beginning a sweater for husband! My very first sweater! It's "Havana" from Ella Rae book 6, and I'm using the recommended yarn (Ella Rae Amity) for a few reasons.

A) It's my first sweater and it will be just easier on me if my gauge turns out close to the recommended (*Crosses fingers*), and this I hope will be easier with the recommended yarn.
B) Amity is 75% acrylic and 25% wool, true most don't like acrylic but this sweater will be machine washable which is a HUGE thing because husband throws everything in the wash and the dryer.

Once I purchased a 100% Cashmere sweater for him from Banana Republic (for $15!) and within a week I found it in the dryer. When confronted, husband was confused and defensive stating that there was no tag in it as to how to wash/dry. He didn't realize that lots of clothes have a tag with that information on the side of the garment. He was cute in his naivety but that did not stop me from banning him from the laundry room.

Well, I hope this FO, satiates you for the next week because I'm off to Baltimore and Washington DC! (And the other Autumn Leaves sock will not be coming with me... the new sweater will.)

Until then! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

All Growed Up