At Last!

The knitting portion of Something Red is complete! It is soaking right now, and needs to be blocked. I still have to sew the button on, but the knitting is finished! My first sweater!

So long

Sorry for the lack of blogging again. The car is completely dead, so I have been looking at buying a new car. In the mean time I am driving a mini van. It came in handy on Sunday. I went to the Zoo with several of my neighbors and we all fit in my car.

Progress on the sweater has come to an almost complete halt. For some reason I just don't feel like working on a heavy alpaca sweater in the 70 degree weather.

I had finished and bound off the button band, but it really needs a few more rows. I have the yarn, so I am taking out the bound of edge so I can add another row or two. In the meantime I am working on cotton dishcloths. They don't make me break out into a sweat every time I look at them.

A day at the park

I've gotten a lot done on my sweater. After a little bit of confusion over how I was supposed to do a make 1 increase (there are seriously 3 completely different ways to do this. I eventually gave up and asked the author for clarification. She got back to me within 1/2 hour - I love the internet), I am down to the last bit of ribbing on the body. I still have several inches left to go, but it's getting close.

Something Red by Wendy Bernard

I just started ball number 6 of 10. This leaves me with at least 2 for the body, 2 for the sleeves, and 1 for the button band. I think I will be ok. (Now watch me run out of yarn completely with only one sleeve done. This yarn has been in my stash for so long there's no way I will find more. I really should know better then to say things like this).
I took Purl to a dog park on Friday (and managed to talk Deb into coming with me - what a good friend). It was a lot of fun, although it rained. Purl was covered in mud. She spent the entire time tackling other dogs and rolling around in the mud.

Before

See how dirty she is? Because I know how my dog rolls, I knew she would head strait for my bed as soon as we got home, so I took her to get a bath.

After - look how tired!

Doesn't she look so pretty now? (That nasty looking green plaid thing next to her? It's her blanky. It used to be one big piece of fleece, now it's several small pieces)

Something Fun

I am supposed to be working on homework. I have a major project due on Monday, and a small paper due on Tuesday. Instead, I can't put down Something Red. Maybe it's because this is my first sweater, maybe it's the simple stockinette stitch, and maybe it's just the extremely soft yarn, but I love this project.

Is this to eat?

I am on the fourth ball of yarn, and am almost finished with the bust. According to the pattern, I am finished, but apparently I'm a little longer in the top part of my torso then the pattern expected. I knit the 12 1/2 inches the pattern calls for, and like the good little knitter I am, I put a safety line in and tried the sweater on. Instead of hitting below the bust or high on the waist, it stopped half way down my chest. It fits well going around, so that's good.

Off to do homework now...sigh.

Scarf? What scarf?

Nope, still haven't gathered the courage to finish grafting the seaman's scarf. I'm pretty sure that will have to wait until Thursday night stitch and bitch. If I attempt to do it while I'm at home I'll just end up yelling at Purl, or drinking, and neither one accomplishes anything. I have, however made a bit of progress on Something Red. This yarn is determined to not be photographed accurately. Out of 10 photos, this is the best one. I am loving it, though. Sooooo soft.

I finally made it to the doctor. I figured I might as well use the insurance while I have it, right? Turns out I have an ear infection, which explains the never-ending headache.

These have nothing what so ever to do with yarn, but they are cute. My cat looks a little concerned, doesn't she?

Murcury

One would think that since I was so close to finishing the red scarf the last time I posted, 3 days ago, that surely it would be finished by now. One would be wrong. I can now add grafting to the list of techniques that I not only don't do well, but also drive me completely nuts. I am ripping out the progress that I have made on the 2 rows of 32 stitches (I included that so you would know how silly it is that I have not finished yet).

Instead of finishing the scarf I did the only practical thing I could think of. I cast on for the Something Red . So far I really like the pattern, but has you can see, I really don't have that much done.

Yes, I do think purple on purple makes for great contrast. Don't you?

I really haven't been walking much. First there was all the snow, and you may remember how well Purl does in the snow, and then I caught the plague, so we havn't gotten out much.

Aren't I pathetic? Please take me out!

She's not taking it well.

Almost Done!

I have finished the knitting portion of my Seaman's Scarf. I meant to get the two ends grafted together and have it off the needles today, but, well, life got in the way. I went grocery shopping first, then went to the Crooked Tree with Deb.

I should probably lay off the caffeine for a while. At least until I get a job to pay for the coffee. By the time I got home I was too wound up (I had 3 cups altogether today) to even try and figure out how to graft ribbing. I think I have it figured out, but thinking it and doing it are two completely different things. And yes, the corner of the coffee table is chewed. No, Purl did not do it. I got the table from some friends when they moved out of the building. It is pretty solid (I can stand on it), so I chose to just ignore the chewed on corners. I figured it would only be a matter of time before Purl got to it anyway, so for now I might as well not have a really nice one. This way I can't get too mad at her when she mistakes the table for her bone.

Now that I am mostly done with the scarf I started swatching for my first sweater! Not only did I swatch, I soaked the yarn and remeasured! The sweater is Something Red by Knit and Tonic, and I am using Debbie Bliss silk alpaca in burgundy. I was a little unsure of the yarn, but after a nice soak

it lost a lot of the fuzziness that had developed from sitting in my knitting bag for a long time. This picture shows the color best, kind of a nice eggplanty color. I love it! Now I just have to go buy some circulars so I can cast on.