Motivation

I am supposed to be working on my thesis. I have a meeting with my advisor this week, and of course I have procrastinated up to the last minute. So now I am going to have to go in with 1/2 of what I was supposed to have written, and it won't be nearly as polished as it should be. I do believe that I am going to have to either meet with her more then once a month, or work out a deadline that I have to e-mail her my progress weekly, even if it's just a rough outline or notes. She won't need to necessarily read what I send, as long as I have the deadline in place.

I finally finished Chevrolace!

They are a little loose around the top of the leg, but I like them enough that I will deal with it. I have also started working on a new project. It's the Carie Cropped Flare-Sleeve Cardigan from Fitted Knits (both ravelry links). I am knitting it with Cascade Jewel, because the required yarn is WAY too thick for someone not built like a waif.

This is my first attempt at knitting math, so wish me luck! I know the picture stinks, but I'm hoping that if I make myself give updates I'll actually finish the project in a respectable amount of time. I'm all about the motivation.

Happy 2008!

I have a lot of stash yarn. One dresser and and two plastic storage towers full. A lot of it is really nice stuff - I have a friend who spins but doesn't knit, so I get a lot of her stuff. For 2008 my goal is to actually use some of this stuff! I'm not going to call it a diet, because then I will just want to buy everything I see. But right now it feels like my hobby is buying yarn, not knitting. This year I want to be able to call myself a knitter again. I want to organize my stash a bit better. Right now my organization relies more on just remembering that I purchased yarn at some part and having a vague remembrance of which bin it got put into. I think organizing the stash will help me rediscover some of the yarn I have.
I am finally finished with all of my Christmas knitting. My poor father was the only one who had to unwrap a ball of yarn on Christmas day! I finished the red scarf from last year, finally, along with a matching hat for my mom. I didn't get any pictures. Christmas at my parents tends to be complete chaos with all of my brothers kids, so I didn't bring my camera home. My dad got to unwrap one sock and the cuff of the second. The finished one fit, which was nice. I thought I had the second one finished on Wednesday, but after sewing in all the ends I realized the second one was a good inch shorter then the first, so I had to rip it back to the toe decreases and add that inch. Everyone loved their gifts. When I visited my brothers house later that day my SIL was wearing her socks. She absolutely loved them!
I am currently working on Juno Regina from the Fall 2007 Knitty issue. This issue had so many fabulous patterns. I attempted to make it with Cashwool, but that felt like knitting with floss. I had trouble working with the yarn because it is soooo thin. I'm not good with lace weight to begin with, and I think this is a little thinner then other lace, so I had to take it out. I am using Bristol Yarn Company's Buckingham (sorry, only link I could find!), which is an alpaca silk blend. It's a sport weight, so the scarf will end up being more of a wrap, which is perfect. It's a pale blue shade that is absolutely gorgeous. If the light and camera cooperate today I will try to get pictures.

Status Report

My sister-in-laws socks are done. The fact that it only took me a week to knit the second sock makes the fact that it took me 6 months all that much more pathetic.

I have turned the hill on the first sock for my dad, hopefully I will finish it this week so I can get the second one done in time for Christmas.

I am watching the most depressing hockey game I have ever seen. The Blues are loosing 9-4 to the Avalanche. It an attempt to cheer myself up, here's a picture of Purl in her reindeer antlers. She kept them on for about 1 second before she decided they were evil.

I think she's stinkin cute in them.

Da Da Da

(It works better if you can imagine the dramatic music along with the da da da)

I finally finished the first sock of doommy doom doom, other wise known as Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks. It took me close to six months to finish this sock. I cast on the first time on June 14. After knitting the cuff the first time I decided it was too big and ripped on with 8 fewer stitches...
which caused the sock to get stuck on my leg when I tried it on after the gusset. So in all fairness, I've knit this sock twice in that time. But now I have one finished, so ...

That's right! I cast on for the second one! This photo was taken after I had completed two repeats on the leg. I now have 4 1/2 repeats out of the 6 I have to do for the leg. Good thing too, because I decided that I am going to give them to my sister-in-law for Christmas. She is taking care of 4 kids right now while my brother is in basic, so she definitely deserves some hand knit love for the holidays. The yarn reminds me of Monet's Water Lillies, which is her favorite painting, so it's perfect.

I also decided to make my dad a pair this year. The only knit item he has from me is the first scarf I made out of cheapo acrylic, so it's time he got something.

The leg is now about 7 inches long now. I am using Austermann Step in a denim colorway (my label says 20-200115, but that's not on the website. I think it's 21.7789-20). I am using size 2 needles, which is nice. Unfortunately I sat on my sock bag, so I broke one. I need to go by my LYS to pick up some new ones.

However, I'm not going anywhere tonight. It is snowing and yucky out. It has given me opportunities to wear my new hat, though. It's only a little bit itchy, right where it touches my forehead. It only covers about 1/2 inch, so it's not bad. Also, I could find merino itchy if it was on my forehead. It's my curse as a knitter - I don't like to wear winter hats. Since this one's so pretty I will make an exception.

Remember my mom, the crafty one? She felt bad for me because I haven't had a Christmas tree in two years. My cat likes to pull off all the ornaments, and Purl just likes to destroy things. So she made me one!

It's hanging right over my couch and is so pretty and festive. I think it's what put me in the mood to knit for other people this year!

Finally, some temptation. These ladies are enablers! I know the list is meant to be given to other people for ideas, but I just want to buy something from every store they listed!

As promised...

I went to the Blues game last night. We won, which was a good thing, because I needed that excitement to get me through the rest of the night. We took the metro-link, St. Louis' version of public transportation. After the game we went to a friends, who lives near the rink. We thought we had until 12:30 to get back to the metro stop, since the sign said the last run west was at 12:45. I assumed that the last train west would go ALL THE WAY west. At 12:45 we hopped on the correct train, only to be told at the next stop that it was the last one and everyone had to get off! So we were stranded at Union Station at 1 am. Luckily (it seemed at the time) one of the people with me got a hold of a relative to come get us. Only after we got picked up did we realize we may have been better off trying to catch a cab. Luckily everyone made it home safely, but it was a stressful night.

In knitting related news, I finally photographed Foliage!

I haven't worn it much yet, since I live in Missouri and we are having some crazy weather. In the last two days we went from 40 degrees to 70, back to 40. I took this photo this morning on my back porch with short sleeves on. It was comfortable out side in said short sleeves. Now, it is freezing out. Hopefully I will get more chances to wear the hat!

All in all, this is a good project. It took me less then a week to knit, used up stash yarn, was well written, and kept me interested.

Here's a shot on the progress on Oblique, as well.

I haven't figured out to lighten images or correct the color on my photo editing software yet, and didn't want to take the time to figure it out now. The top photo shows the true color better, but is just a little too dark. The bottom photo is lighter and shows the detail better, but looks gray as opposed to navy blue.

Well, back to knitting. Christmas is only 23 days away!

Good Times

I am working on two projects right now, both of which may end up being frogged. I think this decision will be one that waits to the last minuet, though. I have turned the heel and finished the gusset on the child's first sock (finally). I'm not sure if I like the way it fits, but since it's still on the needles I can't really tell yet, so I'm going to wait until I finish the toe to decide. I have also cast on for Oblique, which I love. The problem is that I don't know if this sweater really fits in with my wardrobe and style. I tend to wear really plain sweaters. For now I think I am going to keep knitting the back before I decide, because so far it's fun to knit.

I finished the hat, but between needing someone to take pictures and needing new batteries for my camera - no pictures yet.

Also - mainly because I need a picture - this was frogged. It was my first toe up attempt, and I don't think I did it right - there were some major holes by the gusset. It is not fun to undo a sewn cast-off. There was a lot of cutting and cursing.

It's Lorna's Lace Baltic Sea, which is apparently my favorite color way. Any time I find variegated Lorna's that I like it's this color way. I think I am going to knit Thrifty Knitter's Woodlawn Shawl with it, though it may end up being plain jane socks. We'll see.

The Proof

This is where I was on Foliage when I originally posted on Sunday.

This is where I am now. Just one more lace repeat and the ribbing.

After working on the same projects all summer long, it sure is nice to be close to finishing something.

Foliage

Hi! I've been knitting! I have no actual proof of this knitting, since I am at work and the camera batteries are dead, but I promise you I am telling the truth. I cast on for Foliage yesterday using leftover Lamb's Pride worsted in Raspberry. I love love love this yarn (plus I may be over-caffeinated right now, which could explain the enthusiasm). I originally purchased the yarn two years ago to make my mother a pair of Fuzzy Feet for Christmas. The pattern called for two skeins. I only used a little bit of the second skein to finish the toe on the second slipper, so I have most of the skein left. I am a little worried about the itch factor, since there is a little bit of mohair in the yarn and I tend to have problems with hats anyway, but the yarn is so dang soft that I decided to risk it.
I ripped the Little Red Riding Hoodie from Domiknitrix, which really didn't have a lot of progress on it. I decided that I really didn't need a knit hoodie, and since the whole grafting the pockets AND sewing in a zipper seemed a little advanced for me I decided to scrape the project. Now I have 12 skeins of Cascade 220 in navy. I think I am going to cast on for Hourglass from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I cast on last weekend, knit 6 rows, changed my mind on the yarn for the pattern, ripped out the 6 rows, then realized I didn't have enough of the other yarn so changed my mind back. I have yet to recast on. I will though. Eventually. Soon. I have wanted to knit this sweater for a while, because it is the perfect combination of casual-cozy and stylish, so I could wear it to work when I want to be comfy without feeling like I look like a schlump.
Work is still being done on both Orangina and the child's first socks.

Also, the blues lost last night. To the Blackhawks. This does not make me a happy camper.

Let's Go Blues!

One would think that by age 25 I would be a little bit more responsible one it comes to things. Especially money things. Apparently this is not the case. There is always a point in the pay period where I promise myself that from now on I will follow a budget and eat at home more. Then when I get paid I go to the grocery store in order to be more responsible and stay in. As soon as the groceries are put away, though, I end up deciding I'm too tired to cook and go out. *sigh* I am at the point in the pay period where I am promising myself that I will do better next time.

On what was meant to be a more cheerful note, I am a HUGE hockey fan. I 've gone to 1 pre-season game and two regular season games so far, and am hoping to go to a few more (which may be something I need to address in regards to the above paragraph). Since I am from St. Louis, of course I love the Blues. We are doing better this season, so I am REALLY excited.

Unfortunately, we just lost to the Blue Jackets 3-0 (this photo is not from tonight. It's from last Saturday, when we also lost. I swear we are doing great).

I will knit again sometime soon, I promise. It was in the 40's here today, so I am thinking about pulling out some stash yarn and starting a nice cozy sweater.

Catch Up

It was been 98 degrees or hotter for the last two weeks here. It is too hot to knit, too hot to take pictures of the non-existing knitting, and too hot to blog. Heck, it is almost too hot to think. I took Purl for the first walk in three weeks this morning - with all that black fur she overheats easily.
I have gotten some progress on my child's first sock, but due to needle issues I have put the sock down for a while. I normally use bamboo needles for socks but found that mine were warping too much on this sock, so I decided to give metal a shot. I'm finding that the metal is way to hard on my hands - I have arthritis and for whatever reasons my hands seem to hurt much more when I use the metal dpn's then with the bamboo, so much so that the last time I knit on the socks my hands started to go numb (the fact that it was chilly where I was knitting did not help. Cold plus metal dpn's do not equal good things for my hands). I had brought the socks and orangina to work on at my knit night, which just happens to take place in a yarn store. Orangina was misbehaving again, so it needed a time out. Luckily, Knit and Caboodle carries a collection of the cutest kids patterns, so I decided to start a new project. My friends L & K have the cutest little girl - G. She is seven months old now, and since L's favorite color is green, I picked up some Cascade Cotton Rich in color 5800. The yarn is nice to work with - it's not hard on the hands, doesn't split. and stays spun, but only has 88 yards to a skein. I guess for less then $5.00 a skein I really can't expect tons of yardage, but I still haven't finished the skirt (knit bottom up) and am already on my fourth ball.
The Cardinal's participated in Stitch and Pitch, which was a lot of fun. It was 99 degrees out, but we won, so I'm glad I went. We went from loosing with no runs at the beginning of the 5th inning to scoring 10 runs and winning by the time it ended. Plus, it was the first time I had seen my friend Elephunning in several weeks, and she brought presents! (sorry, I couldn't find a better web page or remember the names of the other brands, but she brought back three different micro-brews, two of each kind, for both Deb and myself).
I have also had the pleasure of attending two Muny shows this month, The Pajama Game with my co-workers, and Le Mis with a college friend of mine. Both were very good. Le Mis might be the best show I have seen in a LONG time, if not ever.
Tonight I am attending a River City Rascals game with my parents, as long as it doesn't get too unbearably hot.
I will try and get photos of the WIP's before too much longer.

Practice Makes Perfect

I spent today perfecting my long tail cast on. I know many of you may be thinking that this is a basic skill that most knitters learn when they first pick up needles and yarn. I thought so too. But apparently I needed the practice. I re-cast on for the child's first sock FIVE times today before finally getting the right number of stitches with a length of left over yarn that did not make me feel like I was wasting perfectly good yarn.

BTW if you live in St Louis I highly recommend going to Trail Head brewery and trying their current seasonal - Honey Wheat. It is awesome.

Stuck!

I have a two year old nephew who we call dozer, because he doesn't let things like chairs, or walls get in his way. If something won't move he gets very upset and will inform you that it's stuck. He will walk up to a tree, try to push it and get so upset because it is "stuck." He also has a problem with being "stuck" in his car seat or high chair.

Remember when I thought the sock would be too big? So I ripped it out and started over with one less repeat? I should have left it. Oddly, The sock fits my leg perfectly.

See, there's even extra stretch! But, alas, I could not get it back over my heel. I had to unwind the Child's First Sock while it was on my leg because I was stuck!

I hope everyone is having a great 4th of July!

Take me to the river...

I have made progress on Orangina. I have finished the first skein and have about 12 inches of lace knit.
Unfortunately I dropped a stitch about 2 inches ago. I picked the stitch up, but as you can see, it looks a little bit odd.

I really don't want to rip back, so I'm hoping that I will be able to either block the mistake out or I will learn to live with it. Maybe I will make this the back of the tank so I can't see it. Honestly, I had to be right on top of the pattern with my camera to have the mistake show up in a picture, so that gives me hope.

I ended up ripping the cuff of my Child's First Sock out. I have tiny ankles, so there was no way the cuff was going to fit me. I'm going to re-cast on with 8 fewer stitches so that it will fit.
Purl is at the groomer getting shaved today. She's going to look so funny, but she does not handle the heat well, so it needs to be done. I have to go pick her up in a half hour, then we're going to go play in the river!

Slow Down!

I finished my socks today! Actually, I finished last night, but wasn't capable of grafting the toe at that point, so that part had to wait until today.
Specks:
Plain jane knit socks, using the Yarn Harlot's basic recipie
Yarn: Trekking. Not sure which color way, because the dog ate the color band while helping me organize the ball.
Start time: some time back in early February.
End time: June 12th. Yup, it took me four months to do these babies. That's what I call speed knitting.

Enableing

I have been knitting, I swear. It just that the projects I've been working on aren't really all that exciting to blog about.

See? Orangina is several inches longer in this photo then she was the last time I blogged, but you can't really tell. She looks the same.
And the sock? I'm halfway through the foot, but it's a plain sock. How many pictures of those do you really need to see? Maybe I need to start a few more projects so I can be a better blogger.

Grrrr

Lace does not like me. I know I've said this before, but it really doesn't. Every time I get a row done on Orangeina I have to undo two.

This is frustrating.
I'm also having sock issues. I'm picking up stitches on the gusset. One side looks perfect, but the other sides keeps getting big gaping holes.

Catching up: super picture heavy

Hi. I haven't posted pictures in awhile, mostly because I've been too lazy to even get them off of my camera. So now that I'm finally getting around too it I have about a month's worth of pictures, mostly non-knitting related, to show.
This is my cousin at the zoo. Isn't she cute? She's standing in front of a giant fish tank inside a cave. I love how the fish looks like it's coming up to give her a giant kiss.

This is the baby elephant. I hadn't gotten to see her yet, so this is exciting. The matriarch of the pack died recently, so the pack is with out one right now. The zoo is wondering who will step up now that she's gone.

This is my cousin and I in front of the hippo tank. My cousin is only 17 so I'm thinking about making a shirt for her that says off limits. She kept getting whistled at while she was here.

I took her to my favorite place in St. Louis, Laumeier sculpture park. This is my dad's favorite piece, Ball? Ball! Wall? Wall! (sorry, RAC's website is down, and they have way better info on the sculpture's at Laumeier then Laumeier's website, so I can't link the actual piece. But it's there if you search. It also has all of the public art in St. Louis listed, so you should check it out). This guy in the picture was running across the top of the piece. Apparently Purl knew that this is not allowed, because she barked and growled at the guy. This may not seem odd to most of you, because that's what dogs do, but Purl does not bark, and she almost never acts aggressively. I always joke that as long as an attacker called her pretty and petted her she'd let someone come up and mug me. She's not very protective (most of the time, this is a very good thing. I don't want an aggressive dog. It would be nice if she was a bit more concerned with my well-being though. I mean, seriously. She's big. And while in most cases an 80lb rottweiler is more then enough of a deterrent, she's a big baby. Good thing I didn't get for anything other then a pet).

Still at the park. This is a picture of Chelsea taking a picture of me.

Actual knitting! This is the gauge swatch I did of Orangina. I finally cast on again yesterday, worked two repeats, and already am short a stitch. Lace does not like me.

Today is my birthday! My parents came up with my nephews yesterday to buy me new running shoes! Both of my parents ended up getting a pair, as well. This place really knows its stuff. My mom and I both have messed up feet. Mom's had surgery twice this past year due to hers, and I have arthritis, so we both need special fits. We found them here. My dad's an avid runner, so he was due for a new pair.

When my oldest neph got out of the car he was so excited to see me. The first words out of his mouth were "Aunt Becca, we got you a cake with your name on it!" My mom tried to remind him that that was a surprise, but he proceeded to tell me all about the cake. He's so cute. The youngest just discover smell, so he likes to tell everyone about it. He will come up to me and say "Aunt Becca, I smell!" while sniffing. He just means that he sniffed, but this cracks me up every time. The first time he did it I told him to go find his daddy, because I don't take care of smelly diapers.
After we got the shoes my dad took me to the opera. This was SO.MUCH.FUN! We saw The Mikado, which was so funny. We also did the pre-show picnic, which was a lot of fun. Next time I go I'm going to bring my own food, though. The provided stuff was really good, but the people who brought there own stuff looked like they had more fun. People brought in these really nice baskets with wine and really great looking food. The people sitting next to us had Red Lobster! There were some crazy looking outfits there. The man we sat next to in the show had on orange pants! And there were so many bow ties! I'm trying to get my friends together to just go to the picnic before hand. We can get dressed up and buy our own wine and just sit out and people watch.
Finally, here is a shot of the Cabo Halter in progress.

Apparently I need to clean my mirror. I now have the bottom section attached. All I need to do is attach the zipper and do the hem. Yeah!
And just in case anyone thought I would pay more attention to what I was doing while sewing then I do while knitting, don't worry. I don't.

I didn't have a seam ripper, either. I got to pick that seam out with a pin. I'd even gone over the stitch a few times, due to tension issues with the machine. Shiny. My mom gave me a seam ripper for my birthday. She thinks she's funny.

When the elephants come marching in...

The exes parents have a big dog. She's a St. Burmese Mountain Dog that they got when Purl was 1 because they loved Purl. (Purl's a rottweiler / St. Bernard mix, Burmese are in the same family as both breeds. Supposedly both breeds come from Burmese). Anyway, his parents went out of town for the day and are going to be gone for over 12 hours, so they asked if I could come let Jackie out for a bit. I get to do laundry and bring Purl, so I said sure. Purl and Jackie love each other, because neither dog gets to play with other dogs their size often (his parents also have two small poodles. Jackie's head is bigger then these dogs bodies). Purl is not used to be outside by herself, so she keeps coming to the glass window and looking for me. Getting her here was also a problem - she does not like the PT cruiser. She refused to come near the car once she realized I was going to make her get in it, then slipped out of her collar when I tried to drag her over the the car. I even through treats in! Eventually I just picked her up (she weighs 80 + lbs. this is not easy to do) and put her in the back. I haven't figured out how I will get her home yet.
I am swathing for orangina in the blue king tut while I'm here (and looking at all gorgeous home spun his mom as made in the past few months. I do miss the home spun. I forgot my camera, so no pictures unless I can figure out how to get pictures from cell phone onto my laptop).

Expansion

Wow. It's been a week again. Sorry about that. I have very little progress to show you, but I will make up for this with LOTS of pictures. I am about 6 inches into the l'il red riding hoodie, but I have decided that since it requires 6 stitch markers, and I just ordered these 6 stitch markers, I have to wait for them to come in before working on it any more. Yes, I do have plain ones that will work just fine, but they are plain. And boring. Luckily the new ones were shipped today, so I should have them fairly soon.

The color in the first photo is more accurate.

I turned the heel on my plain vanilla trekking sock (yes, I am still on the first one. Why do you ask?), picked up the stitches for the gusset, knit a few rows, and realized that the heel flap was WAY to short. I keep trying to make 2 inch heel flaps so that it forms a pretty square, but sadly, this does not work. So I ripped back to the heel flap and added an inch(Those who know me are shocked by this. Typically I refuse to rip, no matter how bad the mistake. For something like a short heel, normally I would live with it. I think this is a sign I am growing. Maybe I'll go work on the scarf. On second thought, fixing a sock heel is enough growth for now).

I am also working on a pair of pants for baby G. Last year I had a lapse of judgment and ordered enough knit picks shine to knit a shrug for myself. This was not the lapse. The lapse was ordering it in a bright green shade. I wear browns, and reds, and earthy tones. Not bright apple green. However, baby G's mom loves green, and the pattern calls for 2 skeins of knit picks shine, so I will get to use some of my stash.

I went on a yarn crawl on Friday with Deb and blog-less Sarah to celebrate both of their birthdays. We started and knit and caboodle on main street here in St. Charles. Here is the wall of cascade I gushed about earlier. It still amazes me. I swear I walk into this place and get overtaken by the wool fumes. I need to just get my paycheck direct deposited to their account. I bought yarn to finish the before mentioned sweater and a skein of sock yarn - I showed considerable restraint. Purl likes the sock yarn too, see, she arranged it artistically for me. It's Jitterbug and is beautiful. It has already been re-skeined. Our next stop was Knitorius. Unfortunately, it took us way to long to get there, so it was our last stop. We meant to go to another store after this, but getting lost took over an hour of our time. Here I got enough King Tut's cotton to make a summer sweater, and a skein of Lorna's Lace in black Purl (yes, I admit the name is why I bought it.I'm a sucker for things that make me think of my dog).

I promise to try and be better this week about blogging. I can't promise I actually will, though.

Wip it...

Thanks for the wonderful comments on Something Red. I wore it to work yesterday, and I was right about the coziness. I am going to have to move the button in - it just looks too big when I wear it. No biggy, it will only take a minute to move. I've already started on my next project - L'il Red Riding Hoodie from DomiKnitrix. I'm using two strands of Cascade 220 in a dark navy instead of the yarn it calls for. I had to go down two needle sizes in order to get gauge, which makes it really thick and dense - this will definitely be another really warm sweater! Perfect for the start of summer in St.Louis.