Whoops!

Where did March go? I'm serious, it just flew by and now I'm into crunch time. Weddings, pre-wedding events, friends visiting, going to visit friends, oh! and I should really do my homework. And, of course, the day-to-day grind of going to work and actually getting stuff done. Yikes. There's not enough time in the day.

I'm working on breathing deeply (it's hard to do, I've got a cold) and trying to take things one at a time. I should really quit looking at the big picture. It's overwhelming.

Let's look at something I've gotten done, so I can feel accomplished!

I finally found the wherewithal to complete the sleeves! And the sweater is lovely, but taking a picture of myself wearing it has proven unsuccessful so far. This is why I need a roommate.

Oh, and I also finished some fingerless gloves. The sweater was giving me such a finishing high that I decided to start finishing my other stuff. Like the two (two!) colorwork projects I cast on in a fit of startitis. This pair have been languishing for a month or more since I lost interest after finishing the first glove. They're pretty, but I don't like them very much. No more colorwork fingerless gloves for me!







I wish I had some pictures of the fiber from last time, cuz I finished spinning it and it's lovely, but I was cleaning up my house and had to put things away, and I may have put the spun fiber into the homespun box without taking pictures first. I know, I know, tactical error. Let's talk instead, about the fact that I joined a fiber club despite the fact that it's patently obvious that the last thing I need is new fiber to arrive on a monthly basis. And I've got 2 months worth of fiber hanging out in the fiber stash looking at me in a guilt-inducing manner.

This is the most recent batch, although it's actually only half of the batch, because I'm awesome at taking pictures beforehand, right? Anyway, it's BFL roving, and I'm not doing a very good job with it, but it's very pretty and I think I'm going to navajo ply the singles, so the color changes stay nice.

See? Very pretty singles. I like them, although I wish I'd taken more time while spinning. I think I was really in a rush earlier when I was spinning. I'll take more time on the second half and see if I like the fiber better.









One thing at a time, guys. One thing at a time. I'll work on breathing instead of freaking out on a regular basis about my schedule for the next month.

Impatient to finish

Folks, I got bit by the sweater bug this week. It was cold and snowy last weekend, and I really felt the need for a new sweater. And then I remembered the 2 sweaters I already have in progress... so I bought more sweater yarn, but I didn't cast anything new on. I started the sleeves on the stripy sweater, but it's going slower than I wanted it to. Because I'm impatient, and clearly starting a new sweater would be faster than finishing the sleeves on my current sweater, right?

Sleeves aren't any fun, as anyone knows. They're long, don't have much shaping, and take FOREVER.  So instead of working on sleeves, I'm finishing the Zombie viXen fingerless gloves.

They look nice, right? I gave them a bath in vinegar so that the dye which has been staining my fingers throughout the whole process. But they are done at last and they look lovely!

Also, I did a little bit of spinning this afternoon. Plying of the lovely 8 oz of fiber that I was working on last week. I turned 2 braids of this:

Into 4 little skeins of this:

I'm beginning to think that I need to purchase a larger flyer and a huge bobbin for plying because I really would prefer larger skeins as an end product...

For my next act, I'm still going to avoid the sleeves! I'm going to spin the last braid from Wool Fest last year...

Wish me luck!

Cranky

Guys, I have to tell you. I've been in a PISSY mood lately. I don't know what it was about this week, but I took Thursday as kind of a combination snow day/mental health day so that I didn't rend someone.

I think it all started on Wednesday. It was snowing all afternoon and carried on into the evening. I went to the Stitch and Bitch group I joined because I felt like I should, since there were only 3 other people planning to come and I didn't want to be lame. But guys! This SnB was waaaay down Colfax, and it was rush hour, and it was snowing. It took me like 40 minutes to get there. And I ordered a beer that I'd never tried before and didn't like it, and I screwed up the pattern of my Zombie viXen mitts... I was not in a good mood, so I didn't fix it. They're still residing in my purse, with a screw up 3 rows back.

PLUS! We were talking about stuff at SnB and I said something about how I'm working on finishing some stuff up, because I have like 9 projects on the needles. And everyone at the table looked at me like I'm a lunatic. I mean, 9 really isn't that much. But one of the ladies was a new knitter, one of the ladies knits mostly baby stuff, so it gets finished pretty quickly, and the last lady might be one of those fictional "one at a timers." I know a couple ladies from the group only work on one thing at a time. Which we all know is crazy. I don't have that kind of attention span for anything. Especially when it starts to piss me off. (I'm looking at pretty much all of my projects right now.)

So then on Thursday, I called in and said I was going to freeze to death if I had to come in and work in my cinderblock office. And I spent the day on the couch, doing homework, checking my work email, and knitting a little bit. It wasn't a particularly bad day, but I still felt pretty grouchy. I made the mistake of going to the gym and biking and then coming home and spinning. My calves were pretty unhappy, for some reason. I did finish another braid of wool fest fiber, though!

This was some kind of merino/bamboo in "Plum" from Bonkers fiber. I got a bunch of braids from her last time, some of which were really nice. This braid I wasn't so much a fan of, though. I think the fibers got felted in the intervening months since wool fest, and it's bamboo anyway, which is kind of sticky in the first place. It was NOT a joy to spin.

Actually, the Plum braid was the second braid of wool fest fiber that I finished. I also did some merino/tencel in "Calendula," which is much brighter than I usually purchase. It was kind of fun to spin, though.








And now I have one more braid of fiber from Bonkers, but it's green and blue and I'm trying to keep away from my color rut. And then I have a bag of batts, 8 oz of alpaca, and 2 braids of merino/silk/bamboo in another strange color for me.

You know, now that I list it out, it seems like a lot more than when I was just looking at it in my closet...

I think the real source of crankiness is the fact that I'm only working on things that I feel like I need to finish, and we all know that I don't like to feel forced to do things. I mean, I have a whole lot of new spinning fiber that seems much more exciting than stuff I bought 8 months ago. But I'll feel bad if I don't finish all my fiber from last year before I go to wool fest this year. And I realize wool fest is like 3-4 months away, but let's be realistic; how likely is it that I'll keep up this pace at spinning? Not very likely, that's for sure.

The good news is that I finished the stripy sweater body for the SECOND time. Well, I need to sew up the shoulders, but that won't take long. And then I get to break into new territory and cast on the sleeves! How exciting is that?!

In the meantime, I'm working on these colorwork gloves that I cast on a while ago. I got the kit from Knitpicks because it looked awesome, and it is! But I'm not really in a colorwork mood. Especially not 3-color colorwork. I'm almost done with the first glove, though. Just one more glove and an entire hat before I can kick this kit out of my stash. I really need to feel like I'm making some progress against the stash...







You know another reason I'm so grumpy? I'm not in the mood for anything I have cast on. I'm in the mood for lace. So, theoretically, I could work on the lace edging for the shawl I've been ignoring for MONTHS. Or that other shawl I've been ignoring. But what I really want to do? Is start another one... I'm not going to. Because I'm being well-behaved. But it chafes my soul. Like I said, cranky.

Ideal weekend

I have to tell you, I have had a pretty great weekend. I mean, last week I was kind of cranky. But on Friday night I headed up to Boulder to hang out with a friend and feed my brother dinner (it's the only way I get to see him). Oh, and I bought some fiber, because I was in the area of a yarn shop...

I have to tell you, I'm pretty sure I need to go on a fiber diet. I was doing ok for a while, but I wasn't actually cutting down the spinning stash because, while I wasn't buying any fiber, I wasn't spinning any fiber either. I finished my fiber from last time, though.

Like I said, it's polwarth wool and it's delicious. I really need to start thinking about projects to use up my handspun. I'll think of something.

Want to see some things that I have finished? I knew you did.

These are the Jimmy Beans Downton Abbey KAL mitts. I actually finished them... a couple weeks ago? They're lovely, though. I haven't threaded anything through the eyelets, but they're also not as slouchy as the designer may have intended. Regardless, I think they're marvelous! And the color is awesome too.

I also finished that wretched cowl. It's enormous! But very pretty and I'm sure I'll have a chance to wear it soon, it's been a bit chilly lately.

This isn't knitted, but I'm really excited and proud of it anyway. I made a Bohemian Carpet Bag from a pattern I purchased at the Fancy Tiger. It was more involved than I was expecting, but I really like the finished product. It's got lots of space, too. Holds an entire sweater's worth of yarn. Ask me how I know, haha.

Anyway, today I've spent my time knitting on the stripy sweater I had to rip out, spinning a little bit (the rest of that braid from last time), and baking things. Because who doesn't like fresh baked bread when it's cold?

Warp speed ahead!

Folks, I have to tell you, the holidays were rough. Then, getting back up to speed at work was rough. Then, I got assigned to wrangle 7 different vendors working on the same project during the same week, all on property, in different buildings. It's a little bit out of control, and the stress is giving me heartburn.

But on the crafting front, things are going well. I attended Knit Night at my LYS last week, which was fun in a quiet, old lady kind of way. I cast on some new fingerless gloves (don't judge me), but it took me forever because apparently a) I can't count and b) I can't follow a written pattern. It was a rough night... but the gloves are going to be pretty, even if the yarn did stain my fingers bright pink.

It doesn't look very bright, but it is, in real life. The pattern is Zombie viXen, because I thought the pattern was pretty, not because I'm a fan of zombies... The yarn is apparently Lola-doodle's hand painted yarn. I picked it up at Colorful Yarns in Centennial, because I was overwhelmed by wool fumes and the color was so pretty. I think it'll look nice with this pattern, though.








I got some yarn from the LYS for a chunky lace shawl that I've been eyeing for a little while. I wanted to do a natural color of yarn, and this blend had alpaca in it and it's basically perfect. I'd have a picture of the shawl but it's soaking right now so that I can block it and it'll look pretty for the actual picture.

Then, I attended a Stitch and Bitch in Denver, which was a much rowdier kind of fun. We talked about reusable tampons, why you should never put popcorn kernels down the garbage disposal, and born-again virgins. I think I'll be going back next week. I just worked on this cowl that I've had on the needles for a while, because I didn't have time to go home and get another project, and it needs to get done anyway. It's going to be really long, but that's what I was going for.

The pattern is September cowl, which my sister thinks doesn't really look like much of a pattern. I guess she's not much of a fan, which is fine, because it's for me, not her. The yarn is Galileo, from Knitpicks. It's very shiny, and I like it, in general.








Let's see, then there's the Jimmy Beans Downton Abbey KAL. Which is, you guessed it, another pair of fingerless mitts. Listen, I don't want to hear that you think I have a problem. It's only a problem if it's hurting someone.

I'm a little late joining the KAL, because it took FOREVER for my yarn to come in. It's this month's color of the month from Lorna's Laces, which is "A River Runs Through It" on their Sportmate base. I really dig the color and the yarn both.









Then there's many things to catch up on.

I finished the body of the laceweight sweater to the armpits. It does, as I suspected, take a LOT of time to make any kind of progress. On the other hand, the pattern is quite enchanting. And would be more so, if I could quit crossing the cables the wrong effing way. I don't want to talk about it.

You know what else I don't want to talk about? The fact that I finished the ENTIRE BODY of this sweater, sewed up the shoulders and started getting ready for the sleeves and then tried it on. Turns out it wasn't going to fit the way I wanted it to. So I... Ripped. It. ALL. OUT. That wasn't painful at all. And then I had to order a couple more skeins of yarn so that I'll definitely have enough.

But let's DO talk about these adorable little stitch markers that my parents got me for Christmas. Well, they didn't arrive by Christmas, they arrived several weeks later. But they were shipped from Israel, and they're adorable little vegetables on wheels! I thought they were Cinderella carriages when I saw them on Etsy. I find that I am enamored of the fact that there's a little artichoke on wheels. And a bell pepper on wheels. And an eggplant on wheels. It's just so cute!

OOH! And we can talk about the precious little counting bracelets that I made. They're definitely cute. And I love using them. Even for the stripy horror sweater. I found that the original counting bracelet that I made wasn't... working. The beads had holes that weren't big enough for ribbon or something with a higher coefficient of friction. So I found these slightly more grown up version of pony beads. Well, I think so, anyway.

Oh! And we can talk about how I spun half a braid of polwarth into these fabulous singles! They're very pretty, and the braid has more colors in it than the ones shown here. But I really love polwarth wool. I don't know what it is, but it's got all kind of qualities I enjoy. Like, it's squishy, and easy to spin. It feels nice when it's done, too. I like it.

Ok, well that's a lot of pictures. I hope you like them! I'll try to do this more often than once a month so it doesn't happen again, though

Return of the knitting

Man, I am still exhausted from this weekend. So tired I nearly nodded off at work today. And I needed an energy drink to get through class, because I don't want to embarrass myself by snoring through someone's presentation. I'm not that rude.

I did, however, knit my way through class. I started a hat:

That's the first inch or so of Pasha, in Lorna's Laces Honor in color Poppy. I decided that I needed a new, excitingly colored hat. Which is totally not true, but it makes me happy to lie to myself. It'll be pretty, though, and extra warm because it's wool and silk. Which also means luscious. Yay!

The reason I cast on Pasha is because these are not going the way I want them to:

That's version 2 of those fingerless mitts I was trying to make. I've decided that the wrist is too short, and the thumb is too long, so I'm frogging them. Because they're clearly just not meant to be. I'll just let the yarn sit and stew on its fate for a while.

Also, the Rainbow mitts are not very portable, since they involve changing colors every 3 rows at this point, and they involve 8 colors. Not hard to knit, just hard to keep track of the colors and what is going in class at the same time. However, I did get a fair amount of cuff done last night:

Very exciting!

Want to know what came in the mail today? Of course you do. Who wouldn't? My mailbox is an exciting place

That's the Toboggan Hat and Mitten kit from Knitpicks. They had them last year, and I didn't order in time, so they were sold out by the time I was ready to order. Which made me le sad because I really wanted the blue kit, but they weren't getting any more in and you couldn't get the pattern by itself... anger. Anyway, they have them again this year. I went back and forth between the purple and the green kits, Caitlin told me to get both and make one up for her, but I decided to just go with purple, since I don't own a lot of green winter gear. We'll see how I like it. Now that I have the pattern, I could make all kinds of colors of these little buggers! Not that I need them (see the hat comment), but I could.

Anyway, it's all very exciting on the knitting front, and I'm going to have to exercise self-control (not a lot of that around here these days) in order to keep from being buried in a pile of WIPs. Or being committed to the sanatarium because my parents think I've finally lost it. Wish me luck!

Horns

Well, hello there. It's been a while, hasn't it? Maybe not that long, but it's felt like it. I feel like this was the longest week ever. Maybe because I had so much to do and not much time to get it done in. I got a lot accomplished this week, but none of it is knitting.

I did my management homework (boring), and some accounting homework (even worse). I went shopping for more pieces of present for Shelby's wedding events (T-minus 5 days to the kick off of the wedding weekend extravaganza), called a bunch of people for stuff that had to get done before, or maybe for the wedding. Oh yeah, and I worked. Busy busy week.

And it's not over yet. Oh no, turns out that I'd lost track of what is due when for my accounting class, and I need to complete the second take home assignment sometime before I leave for wedding-palooza. That'll be fun. Especially since I've got the house, and dog, to myself this weekend. My mother, the lucky woman, has a 2 week fall break, and she and my father are taking advantage of the time of by taking a little camping trip for the next 4 days. I don't begrudge her the time off. I just wish I had the same. I'm ready for a break. Anyway, it's just me, the dog, and my homework this weekend. It'll be fun.

I tried knitting some things this week! I really did. On Monday, during my online tutoring stint, I picked up the white chunky tunic. I made some good progress on it, but it involves pattern reading, and it's kind of large, so I can't bring it to work with me.

Then, I worked on the little gray sock when I went with Mom to pick Abby up from the airport. And somehow effed up the pattern. See that little line of crossed stitches? I reworked it like 6 times and couldn't fix it. So I continued knitting through the frustration. Probably not such a good idea, since I'm getting the feeling that I'm gonna have to frog back to try to get that situation under control. And make the heel bigger, since apparently I have body image issues and have no idea how big my feet are.


Can't see the line? How about now:

To avoid the frustration of the sock, and the pattern issue, I cast on a little mitt. It's a cute pattern, not too difficult, and it's made out of a yarn that I love for fingerless mitts. Makes an excellent fabric, pretty colors. Turns out this mitt pattern and this yarn are not well suited. So, I'm gonna have to frog that back too. And pick a different pattern for this yarn, and a different yarn for this pattern.

Which brings me to the point of this post (yes, there really is one). I need something to knit. I've got a busy week coming up, and I'm gonna want something to take the edge off. So it needs to be a project that I won't whip out in an hour. And it can't involve too much pattern reading, cuz that's hard to multi-task with. And it needs to be portable, so nothing too huge or involved.

I know, it's a tough challenge. I've narrowed it down to 3 types of projects: a hat, to go with my cuddly cowl from last weekend; pick a new pattern or a new yarn and try the fingerless mitts again; or a shawl, despite the fact that I have yet to finish the lace shawl from last winter (it's not my fault, the Yarn Harlot put the idea of a shawl in my head!). What do you think I should knit?

Knittin' Weekend

I had a fairly successful weekend. I went to see the lovely Caitlin and do various things. On Saturday, we drove around a lot: two yarn stores, my brother's school to drop off a package, and the cake place that we ordered Shelby's cake from. Let me tell you, cake tastings are awesome. Who doesn't love free cake in lots of different, and delicious, flavors?

With all that driving around in my car, it is unsurprising that I didn't get much finished this weekend. However, I was able to finish Robert's hat.

Lovely, no? I think he'll like it. Although we didn't meet up with him to give him the hat. No worries, Caitlin has strict instructions to take a picture of him in it if she sees him before I do. The hat was pretty quick, considering that I didn't dedicate specific knitting time to it. I mostly just left it in my purse and worked on it when I had a spare minute. Obviously that's the way to be for a project like this, even if the two balls of yarn took up a lot of purse space. The hat is posing on the monster scarf that Caitlin made for him this weekend. It's a good thing those projects are so quick, she'd kind of forgotten that she promised him a scarf.

In addition to the hat, I worked on several other projects. The colorful Cherie Amour, which I kind of lost interest in last night. It's hard to knit lace on very large needles while drinking wine and watching children's movies. So I wound a great deal of yarn instead. I did a few rows on the Runcorn, but I'd forgotten to bring the back so I could match up the armholes and everything, due to a very crazy Friday which I prefer not to discuss. Anyway, not much progress on the Runcorn. I shall rectify that tonight. I also finished up the first of a pair of fingerless mitts, except for the thumb. I prefer to leave the thumbs for last. That way I don't get screwed if I run out of yarn. But none of these projects got much attention, as I was busy spinning.

This is Mary, Mary Quite Contrary on BFL for the Nursery Rhyme spin-a-long from the Storied Yarns shop. I was a little on the fence about the colorway, but this picture is obviously very attractive and may have changed my mind. We shall see what the finished yarn looks like. I'm working very hard on this spinning cuz the deadline for the SAL is the 15th. Here's to hoping I make it!