Tuesday, January 31, 2006

What's the opposite of progress?

I've gotten pretty much no knitting done over the past few days. I was really busy over the weekend, but I did manage to get the heel flaps and turns done on my baby cable socks. I have no photo evidence of this. Mondsay I went back to school, which was exhausting. I packed my socks up in the morning, along with my laptop, planning to knit and play internet games in the time between my first and second class. I ended up waking up really late and not getting my goods together, so I found I had to return home after class #1. That killed my three hour kntting/playing break. Today I was thinking that perhaps I could knit between class and work, but then I fell asleep in the parking lot for an hour and a half. The first day of school was alright. This being day two, my body realized that Monday had not been some sort of foul trick I was playing on it. I just couldn't take it today. First of all, my teacher wouldn't allow us to eat or drink in class. That meant no coffee. I just had to leave it sitting there on my desk, staring at me and emitting taunting fumes. Once I drove to work, I just set my phone alarm, threw a sweatshirt and coat over my head to block the sun and slept. I didn't get any knitting done at work, either. I did a few rows, but nothing that really counts. It was slow, but I had a lot of organizational bits to do. Considering my lack of knittong time, my mind naturally jumped to future projects. First, I decided on the yarn to make my flowerbasket shawl for the spring. I'm going to order a slightly varigated purple shade of Bamboo from SWTC. Second, I finally dug out the issue of Interweave with the bag I've been waiting and wanting to make. Turns out that I have the totally wrong yarn for it. For some reason, I thought it was felted bag and got a bunch of bulky wool for it. Upon looking at the pattern again, I came to find that it's acctually made of linen and silk yarn held together at a smaller gauge and not felted at all. I love the yarn I got for it though and I really don't feel like having some weird yarn imported from Japan so I can make the bag as per its specs. That would also turn into a huge expense and how can that be justifies when I have so many other yarns I wish to own? I guess I'll just have to modify the pattern a bit. Oh well. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. I need to head of to the shower now. I have to do as much as possible at night so I stand a fighting chance of getting out the door in the morning.
Cya

Friday, January 27, 2006

Oh, what FUN!!!

As usual, my pictures got all messed up during the publishing process. I don't know what's up with this thing, but it's really starting to grate on me. So, if you'll excuse the total disarray of things, I'll get on with the post. So I finished my jaywalkers sock, which is being modeled in the photo containing a whole sock. To the left of that photo is a progress shot of my baby cable socks.
I'm very happy with them. Making cables without actually having to use a cable needle often makes me happy. Below that pic is a closeup of the cable pattern. I think they'll be extra cool when I'm done with them. I'm going to do the heel flaps and possibly the turn tonight. The foot may take a bit because I have to reorganize all the stitches and knit both together. I'm using a size 2 needle, though, so even being worked together, they're not seeming to take as much time as the jaywalkers on size 1's.

This random picture of wooden reindeer is the main purpose of the post. When I got home from work today my mother informed me that she's decided to leave these Christmas reindeer out all year and she thinks it would be really cute if I knit them all little outfits for the various seasons/holidays. FUN. FUN, FUN!!!!! That'll be a hoot and half. She's already done some wardrobe planning. I'm going to tell her she has to pay me in booze so I can try and get through the whole ordeal. I think it's only reasonable that one drink in excess while creating handknit clothing for a family of wooden reindeer. It would just be weird without at least a few good beers.
On a totally off topic, I'm watching 'Monk' right now and it's just creepy to see the Captain. I just see Buffalo Bill dancing around in his woman-skin suit doing the "pull-thru" for the video camera. Sexy.
~*~ Please disregard all references to phote placement. Once I saw the published form of the post, I saw that the format totally had changed and nothing I said makes sense. I'm sure everyone's smart enough to figure out what photos I'm refering to in the writing. Sorry~*~

Pictures soon to follow

Well, turns out my fear that I was not going to have enough "Ithaca" yarn to finish my jaywalkers was spot on. I drove all over the place trying to find more or it with no luck. I did find the yarn in a different color, but I think that frustrated me more. I dislike that so-close-yet-so-far feeling. I had to break down and do the sensible thing in this situation, which was order it online. Anyhow, I did finish my first sock and took pictures. I just didn't get around to loading them on the computer. To pass the time while waiting for my yarn to arrive, I started some socks with a brown and white Opal yarn. I'm using a Fiber Trends pattern called Angel's Peak. What I'm turning out doesn't really resemble the pattern photo at all, but is an obvious pattern none the less. Interesting. Due to the very, very itchy nature of that yarn, I'm afraid I've already sort of postponed my work on it after only about two inches. To ease my pain, I purchased a crapload of sock yarn and a new sock book from the shop. I worked in a baby cable pattern into socks that I laready had on the needles and I'm loving it bigtime. This also fits in nicely with my plan of new project/ old project rotation. Those socks are coming along quite well. I only have about another inch to go before I do the hell so they won't take too much loinger. I'm doing both at one time, so it'll take a little longer. Well, that's all for now. I need to get some sleep so I'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed for work tomorrow. I'll post the pictures tomorrow.

Monday, January 23, 2006

The never ending "quicky" project

I've decided that my jaywalker socks are never going to be completed. Not that I don't want them to be, or that I won't keep knitting away at them. I've been going and going. Each small section that I completed pleased me greatly. I did then leg. I did the heel flap, that turn, I slowly but surely finished the foot decreases. Now, row after row, I'm trying to tackle the foot. It just never seems to end. Not only that, it doesn't seem to grow! I didn't photograph it because it doesn't really look any different than last time, regardless of the days and work in between. At this point, I'm not even sure that I'm going to have enough yarn lef to do the second one. In a way, that gives me hope because I won't have to start on the second one immediately. That will give me some recoup time. Anyhow, that's about all that's been going on knit-wise.
In other news, I went to the Washington Gift Show today. It was out in Chantilly, VA. Due to lack of intelligent planning on my part, I agreed to meet Carole and the others out in Ellicott City at the shop. It occured to us there that since I live so much closer to VA, it would have been smarter for me to have just met them there. I ended up driving out there with Amy in my car, so I could just go straight home afterwards and Amy could be taken back to the shop by Carole. I walked around so much that I swear I thought my feet were going to be bloddy when I got my boots off. Leave it to me to wear big heels for a day of walking. I should also mention that I was absolutely broke. I didn't get a chance to hit the bank yesterday. I wasn't expecting to have to put gas in my car, so all my cash was eaten up. As I was trying to navigate my way home, my low fuel light came on, even though I had just gotten a little bit of gas before we headed out. It was one of my worst drives home in a long, long time, I was so afraid of running out of gas, I didn't really know where I was going, and I was totally exhausted. I got home okay, and immediately fell asleep, staying in bed until after 9pm. I was zonked out. Now I'll probably be up all night and I have to be up early to help with a meeting in the morning. At least it'll give me an opportunity to work on my socks.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have something to show next time.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

I love them, but COME ON!!

I'm making progress on my jaywalker socks. I finished the leg, heel flap and heel turn last night. I wish they were a little taller, but let's just say that perhaps my legs are a bit too "athletic" for knee socks. "Athletic" is code for too tubby. My legs may not be my best asset, but they are very strong and muscular. I like to keep that muscle safe by coating it in a layer of chub. I swear though, after knitting all those socks for the holidays using size 7 and 9 needles, I'm feeling the pain of using size 1's/ I knit and knit and knit tonight and only did about 1.5 or 2 inches. I'm not even done with the foot decreases yet. While I was at the supermarket, I picked up the new Knit It magazine. It has some cute stuff in it and I like that it's made ut of cheap yarn. The only problem is that of the two patterns that I
really like, one is for small children and the other is made out of a designer yarn that the store doesn't carry. I've heard of it though, so it shouldn't be too hard to track down.
In unrelated project news, I found my lamb's pride fair isle cardigan hiding behind my big chair in the office, I took it to work and made some progress on it. The fair isle part on the bottom is a little tight, but I think that after I block the hell out of it and it's stretched across my body, it'll look okay. I didn't take any pictures of it because it's balled up in my knitting bag. I like it, and I really love the colors, but I'm a bit concerned now about the shape of the thing. I made another sweater from the same book out of some pastaza at the beginning of the summer, which I really like, but the arm hold construction is a little wonky. I'm sure there's a technical name for the shaping that I can't think of at the moment, but it's one of those where you knit the whole thing from the bottom up and connect the arms at the underarm and knit the yolk in one big piece. The shoulders just kind of droop down. I wasn't considering this shaping bit when I knit the first sweater and I oversized it a little. I still really like it though. I'm just being a little over cautios with this cardigan, and that's taking some of the fun away from it.
I'm so tired now and my hands ache from the tiny needles. I need to go to bed. Tomorrow I'd like to get a good deal done on the foot. Who knows, If I get a little over zealous, I may even finish the sock tomorrow. I think that's a long shot, but hey, they're for me so what's the rush?

Monday, January 16, 2006

A lot going on

So much for me doing a ton of knitting for myself over my break! Oh well, stuff happenes I guess. Before the holidays, I was super busy knitting for my family. I followed New Years with getting massively sick. I was totally out of it for over a week, which is far sicker than I've been for a number of years. I really didn't do too much knitting then, mainly because I couln't really breathe and that put a major damper on things. I had to go to Ithaca for a few days right after I started feeling better, and that probably put me straight back to the sickhouse. It was SO COLD. Plus, the city more or less sucked big ones, making the possability of becomming sick again very not worth it. I did manage to knit some on the trip though, and now have a spiffy new pair of arm warmers. I did actually weave in the ends because I needed to wear them. That isn't captured in the photo. I bought some new sock yarn while I was up there. It's really neat looking color and I'm very curious to see what the color pattern looks like when they're knit up. It doesn't show well in the photo, but the yarn is a light blue/white/tan/ lime green mix. Very unusual combination. I'm thinking about doing the jaywalker socks from Magknits. Hmmmm...yes, I think tht's what I'll do.
Before my trip I had to organize my office a little bit, and I had a ton of yarn to deal with. I have yarn EVERYWHERE. I really need to do something about it. Im so disorganized, too. When I was trying to pack knitting for my trip, I couldn't come up with a total package of anything. I'd either be missing needles, a pattern, yarn....just no good at all. Before I go back to school I have to get it all in gear.
Here is an example of my lack of organization. I have several other shots of yarn here and there around the house, but for some reason I can't get them to load correctly. My new goal is to knit one old thing for every new thing I purchase. The arm warmrs cancelled out the sock yarn. I have to finish an old pair of socks though before I can knit the new ones. Speaking of which, I'm going to go back to my little socks now.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

I'm so lazy!

I haven't made an entry for almost a month! I have nothing to show, knit wise, life wise, and have been doing nothing but being a big lazy butt. I have no excuse. Well, I sort of do. I've been nasty sick, which while it may not have caused my spree of laziness has most definitly contributited to it's further existance and depth. I lost my voice a week ago and today is the first day I've had it back. I'm feeling a lot better, but I'm still a bit nasty. To the outside observer, I would still be classified as someone one would dread being sat next to on a flight. Due to this illness, I've missed a whole week of work, so now I'm poor as all get out. On the bright side of everything, I'm going to Ithaca on Thursday morning. I was thinking that would be all good, but now my mom is coming down with the same symptoms that I had last Tuesday. Hooray! There's nothing quite like being stuck in a car for hours with a sick person, especially if you're just getting over something yourself. Well, I gotta run now. I'm trying to straighten up my office so my father can actually move around enough to feed the pigs while I'm gone. As I'm going through my stash, which makes up the majority of mess in here, I'm finding so many terrible things I've knit and so, so, SO mush yarn. I'm going to have to find a wasy to work through this stuff!
Happy New Year Everyone: )