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.

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.

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

ONWARD!

Peeps! I finished the obnoxious cabled sweater! It would be more exciting if I liked the finished product better. It fits and everything, it's just that the sleeves are less fitted than I like, and the neck is a little wider than I was hoping for. And I'm not ripping back. We are moving on from this sweater. Onward, to bigger and better things!

Well, other things, anyway. I've been pretty anxious to start new things, having forced myself to work tirelessly on that effing sweater for so long. I cast on 2 new projects last night, and I started spinning a new braid of fiber, since I haven't spun lately.

This hat is going to be lovely and colorwork-y. I seem to have mixed up the needles, somehow. But that's a relatively small problem, although it might be symptomatic of my lack of focus currently. Did I tell you that I ended up with different length sleeves on that sweater? It was only 2 rows and the mistake was pretty far back, so I just decided to deal with it. And one of the cables was REALLY off. But I couldn't figure out where that mistake was, so I just improvised. No one but me is going to see it, right? Everyone else will be impressed with my knitting prowess.

I also started a laceweight Sand Tracks Cardigan. I think it's going to be very pretty, but I'm also relatively certain it's going to take me FOREVER to finish. Because I'm just that smart. I'm thinking about starting another sweater out of bigger yarn, but I think we all know that's going to be counter-productive. So I'll hold off for now.

My calves hurt today, from the 2 oz of Frabjous Fibers BFL that I spun last night. The singles look lovely so far, though. So it's totally worth the soreness. I have another 2 oz to spin, but that's not gonna happen tonight. I have to go pick up a bridesmaid dress. It's probably not going to happen this weekend, actually, since it's Thanksgiving and I'll be doing family and drinking related things starting tomorrow night. I love Thanksgiving!






Finalmente, I finished cutting the fringe for Mariah's chuppah. I finally took Caitlin's advice and got a piece of cardboard long enough to wrap the right size pieces, so I didn't have to measure them all, or try to work out some other system. It went a lot faster after that. Now I just need to find some time to tie fringe. Again, won't happen this weekend, for the same reasons mentioned above. Freaking holidays. Messing with my crafting plans.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Starting tomorrow, it doesn't count as "alcoholism" or "day drinking" if you constantly have a drink in your hand. It's just the holiday spirit!

Sweater weather

The weather is getting cooler, my friends. Cool enough that I could wear handknit sweaters, if it weren't for the fact that a) I'm on medication that makes my skin super sensitive and the sweaters I knit last year kind of itch and b) I still don't have any sleeves for the new sweater.

It's really a shame that I don't have any sleeves. I totally would have worn that sweater today, if it were done. But I've been intimidated by the need to blend 2 dye lots. Caitlin finally took charge and ripped the sleeves back to the ribbing and rethreaded them on to the needles. I just re-started them last night. There's going to be lots of untangling, I can already tell.

Let's not focus on the negative, though. Let's focus on the fact that I'm on a roll when it comes to finishing right now!

I finished knitting Mariah's chuppah. I had to go out and purchase more foam floor mats so that I had enough to block the thing, but now it's all stretched out and nearly dry. Next step, fringe. Again, not dwelling on the negative.

Then, I finished Abby's long socks. I have a shorter pair that still need doing, but they're pretty, right? The cable is seriously cute. I just hope they fit her, and that she likes them, and that they aren't too itchy... but they're done! Really done, not waiting for anything else.

Pretty good, right? Let's hope those positive feelings carry over to the sleeves. I really want a new sweater, and I ordered a bunch more kits in the mail... Cute hats and mitts or mittens. They're fun colors too, as opposed to navy blue that has to be blended. But they are not sweaters, and I think we can all agree that it is definitely sweater weather right now.

Setbacks

Hons, I ran into a big problem on the blue, cabled sweater. I ran out of yarn. Then I thought I wasn't going to be able to find the same color, let alone dye lot. Fortunately, the lovely people at Jimmy Beans Wool found me the right color, but not the right colorway. It's Malabrigo, so I figured that would be the case. But it's really a different dye lot. So now I need to rip back a bunch of sleeve, so I can blend in the new skeins unobtrusively. Lame.

Those little stubby things at the top? Sleeves. They're not that stubby in real life, but they're certainly not done. In lieu of working on this doomed sweater, I have started a whole bunch of other projects. Cuz that makes sense, right?

Abby asked me for a couple pairs of socks to wear with her boots, so I started some cabled socks. I got all the way to the heel, started to read the pattern more closely and realized that there were supposed to be cables on both sides of the socks, instead of just one, like I was doing. Since Abby doesn't know this, and they're kind of large socks (she wants them to reach above her knee), I'm not gonna rip back. I'm just going to do the other sock the same way. Except, you know, with the cable on the other side.

Then, I wanted to knit something else for me, something that wasn't a sweater, you know, but would keep me warm as the weather gets colder. So I started a very pink cowl. It's very shiny, because it's made out of the new Knit Picks yarn line "Galileo." The pattern is the September Cowl, which I thought was really pretty, and large, and will keep me nice and toasty. I hope.






I've got a couple more things that could probably stand to be finished (I'm looking at you, mystery mitts and chuppah). But I've had a stressful couple of weeks at work and I don't really think I should overtax myself with knitting, do you? Dealing with all these setbacks has been bad enough.

Feeling uninspired

Hello again, friends. I've been getting accustomed to my job and my new digs, and just generally trying to catch up to life. This doesn't mean that I haven't been creating. I've been knitting the crap out of this sweater that I've been working on. And I tried to start some socks for Abby, but that didn't work out. And I've been picking up work on a shawl that I had going...

None of it is very exciting, though. The sweater back was MILES of stockinette. I've got the sleeves going now, and they're not nearly so bad, because they each have a cable. It's just that the shaping is a pain in the butt, for some reason. Primarily because I lose track of what row I'm on.

In an effort to deal with the tedium of miles of stockinette, and more ribbing than I am usually fond of, I have gotten back on the spinning wheel horse.

In an effort to get away from my apparent obsession with green, I pulled out a braid of Merino/Bamboo in a colorway called "Professor Plum"

The singles look nice, right? Then I triple plied it, so the colors would stay consistent.

Very pretty, yes? Unfortunately, it was only 4 oz of fiber, which didn't go very far. So not much motivation to be gained there. I continued knitting the sweater, but wasn't very pleased with it. Then, last night, I pulled out a different braid of merino/bamboo. In a colorway called "Cullen House."

Also very nice, right? I'm about halfway through it. I'll show you the singles later. When I've finished the other half. And maybe some more sleeve. Effing sleeves.

If you have any other ideas for how I might get motivated, please share. I've got most of 2 sleeves left, and the ribbed edging left. And I can't quit on this sweater again.

Sleeves are the devil

I hate sleeves. They're worse than second sock syndrome, for me. A sock is a finite object, and kinda small, and there's not usually very many pattern repeats needed to make the socks match in size. Sleeves, on the other hand, are pretty much infinite. They feel like they go on forever, anyway. Especially since I have excessively long arms. 

That's the amount of sleeve I've gotten done in the last 3 days. Admittedly, I haven't really made that much of an effort. But you'd think it would be going faster. Especially since I'm doing them one at a time. 

Originally, I had planned to do them two at a time, so that they would definitely be the same length, and I wouldn't have to power through the second one. Unfortunately, it turns out that it's much harder to make sleeves two at a time when they are attached to the sweater, not waiting to be seamed. 

On the bright side, it allows me to use the fancy square double points that I got for the colorwork sweater again. I really dig these needles. They're really pretty, and they're wood, so my stitches don't slide off so easily (let's not talk about how often I try to extricate the fifth needle from the rest of the knitting and it turns out I've pulled out the wrong needle.), and I find the shape just fascinating. It's great. You should try them, they're from Knitter's Pride, so they're not terribly expensive. Definitely super bueno.

Also super bueno: finishing the body of the sweater while getting a pedicure! The guy who was doing the pedicure kept staring at me. He was real cute about it. He and one of the nail ladies were very impressed with how quickly I was knitting, and by the seeming complexity and size of the project.

He also did a very nice job on my toes. I always like to have nice looking toes when it's sandal weather. I can't keep a manicure looking nice, but my toes don't get a whole lot of action, so I like to have those done. Plus, who doesn't love a free leg massage?

In addition to the lovely sweater, and the equally lovely toes, I have some lovely spinning to share with you. It's the alpaca that I started last week. The spinning is still not as simple as I might like it to be, but it's going better. I hope it looks nice when it's plied. We shall see.

Spring Break

Hey Y'all! I hope everyone has been enjoying the warming weather, and maybe some time off? I did. Well, not the warming weather bit, until the end of last week. But I had quite a bit of time off. I went to see Shelby! It was lovely to see her and where she lives. We did some fun stuff, and I had a LOT of knitting time.

I started a February Lady sweater in Berroco Weekend, which I picked up at Jimmy Beans Wool! Yes, that Jimmy Beans. I flew in to Reno, so Shelby and I made Chase take us to the yarn store. He was unamused. And kind of judgy about the fact that I bought an entire sweater's worth of yarn. But he's a boy and doesn't really get it. Anyway, I got a fair amount of sweater done. Which is impressive, considering the lackluster amount I've finished since I returned home.

I can't help it, I've been busy. I helped my mom paint the trim in the living room (turns out the fireplace has been the wrong color for 17 years, who knew?), and then we did yard work, and then I came down with a monster cold and I had to go back to work. Buncha crap. And this cold is kicking my butt.

Since I returned, I have managed to finish a blanket.

 I did most of the work while my parents were out of town 2 weeks ago, but I didn't quite manage to finish before I left for Winnemucca. So I finished on Saturday, after doing yard work. Whew! Just in time for a cold snap, surprisingly.

I also tried spinning a little bit of alpaca roving the other night, but it didn't go well, so I'm not gonna dwell on that. I am, however, going to take some Nyquil and go to bed. In the hopes that tomorrow I will have kicked this cold to the curb. Good night!

Lust

The sweater is done. It's marvelous. It's long enough, it fits, the colors are marvelous... it's really warm. I've been wearing it a lot, cuz it's been kind of cold, and because I want to show it off, and because I'm worried that it may get stolen if I don't wear it.

Some people cannot be trusted around handknits. (I'm looking at you, Caitlin.)

Anyway, yes. I'm very proud of the sweater, and it's wonderful. The only problem is, I'm unenthused about most of my other knitting. I have a thrummed hat which isn't as exciting as it should be, a shawl that I started after I got back from London, which was fun for a while, but now I don't love it. Because I want to start another sweater.

I know that if I start another sweater, I will likely lose enthusiasm for it about halfway through, and therefore I'm trying to be the smart knitter who doesn't complain about second sweater syndrome. In order to not cast on another sweater (I just did the pocket linings, but those don't count, right?), I have started the shawl-along that Caitlin and I agreed to do.

It's a really nice shawl, and I'm mildly excited about it. The pattern is nice, the color is pretty, it's new...

But I really want another sweater.

Progress report

I would like it to be known that I have finished the sweater sleeves! They're marvelous. I mean, as marvelous as sleeves for a sweater can be. Especially ones that took years (figuratively speaking) to make. I have now moved on to the collar edging. It's going to take even longer than the sleeves, because it's basically a long, skinny scarf of 2x2 ribbing that I will eventually need to sew to the inside edge of my sweater. Won't that be fun.

In lieu of sweater pictures, I have pictures of some spinning.

This is "Fairy Lights" on Punta wool. It's a Harry Potter colorway that I bought a while ago, not realizing that I was going to find the colors insipid after not much time spent spinning. It spun very nicely, though, and made a nice 3-ply. And now, it's going in the bag of skeins that I have no idea what to do with.











I believe I posted some pictures of this fiber in progress on the wheel. It's "Tomfoolery" on Lorna's Laces Superwash Merino. Very pretty, very bright, it has a destiny as something gorgeous and bright that will cheer me up, if I need it. I guess that means I should probably measure the yardage I've got...

This, if I ever get finished with this god-forsaken sweater, is destined to be my next spinning project. Funky Carolina "Goth Chick" on merino/silk. I've spun some of this fiber before, and it's luscious. I'm very excited. Or would be, if I thought there were really a chance that I'd ever be done with this sweater.





I know it seems like I've been complaining a lot about the sweater, but I feel that I must point out that I've felt a serious dedication to the completion of the sweater due to the weather. It's been snowing, and very very cold. Sweater weather, for sure. Let it be known that knitting a sweater is not, by any means the fastest way to procure cold-weather clothes. Lesson learned. I think.

These are the sleeves that never end

I've reached the sleeves on my sweater. It's a lovely sweater. And the sleeves are going to be wonderful. I have finished the color work on them, and I've moved them to the same circular needle, so that I can work them 2 at a time, in the round (which is not how the pattern says to do it). I have learned that 2 at a time is the way to do sleeves. That way you don't have to count rows, and the sleeves end up with the same shaping and length and stuff. Pretty great.

They're taking forever.

I swear that every day for the past 3 days I've thought "today I will finish these sleeves." This has turned out not to be true. However, I think that I have finally made some progress on them. I think I just need 2 more inches before I start doing the sleeve cap shaping. Which is really exciting, because I can stop working in the round,  and I think it'll go faster after that.

Of course, then I'll have to do the collar stuff. But I can worry about that once I finish these freaking sleeves.

In the meantime, here is a picture of the yarn for the NEW sweater (which I'm sure will be wonderful, and glorious, and the sleeves won't take nearly as long... probably).

Pretty, yes? The color is like navy blue, kettle dyed, merino wool. It's going to be beautiful.

As soon as I finish these sleeves.

Channeling

So, last time I blogged, I was talking about how I've been channeling my startitis urge into spinning up the pile of fiber that is in my room. I'm sorry to report that I haven't made much of a dent in the pile, because it's so very large, and I've been quite absorbed in the Velvet Morning cardigan (it's pretty fabulous, but miles of stockinette in a rather boring color was kind of a bad call), which is moving right along. The spinning has been getting some attention too, because of the aforementioned miles of stockinette.

This is some yarn that I spun for a spinalong inspired by classic literature. I chose Little Women. The fiber is Shetland, and I quite like the colors. I'm thinking that I maybe should have planned the plying a little bit better, but I'm sure I'll think of something to make this into.

This is what's on the wheel currently. It's some Lorna's Laces roving, in Tomfoolery (incidentally, I really love the goofy names of some of their colors).

I really need to get on the spinning... after the sweater. I'm really excited about the sweater.

What I've been up to

I realize I was going to post several days ago, but I kept putting off taking pictures. Anyway, here's what's been going on at my house:

The only knitting that I took to Europe was a shawl. A lovely pink shawl, made from Lush, an angora and wool mix. I started it around Thanksgiving, and didn't finish it until slightly after I got back, but I got a great deal of it done while I was gone. It still needs to be blocked, but isn't it pretty?

When I got back, and had finished the shawl, I restarted a pair of socks. Remember the pair that I started last semester and messed up? Well, this is the same yarn, different pattern. I love them. They're fabulous.

I made a resolution that I would make socks in my class this semester, but I've already broken it. I blame the package that came in the mail yesterday.

I got sweater yarn! The pattern is Velvet Morning, from the winter Knitty. It's in Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. I'm really excited about it. And I took it to class with me last night, because I apparently have some serious sweater lust.

I must also confess to some startitis... I have started another shawl, which I take to work with me, since it's not terribly attention-consuming, and I have had the yarn for a while. The yarn is Malabrigo lace, in Velvet Grapes, and the pattern is Off for a walk with Charlotte. It's going much more quickly than I thought it would, considering it's lace weight yarn.




I have also been considering casting on other projects, but I've been trying to channel the startitis energy into spinning, to try to get the spinning stash under control. It really needs to be got under control... wish me luck!

And it begins

The wedding event countdown is finally upon us. I am currently ensconced in Caitlin's "cozy" apartment, thinking that I'm gonna have to get up pretty early tomorrow in order to make my manicure appointment with Shelby. But that's ok, because it means that I'm done with work and school for the week! Huzzah! I was totally unenthused for being responsible this week, and now I can be done. Next week isn't going to be any better, but we'll just ignore that for now.

On the knitting front, I finally sewed up the chunky sweater. It's pretty good stuff, and the sleeves fit perfectly! Which I was worried about, but now I can just relax about it. Wanna see it?

Yay! I'm so excited to wear this. I'm gonna need a tank top to go under it, though.

Guess what else happened today? My parents returned from their little mini vacation, so the dog finally has enough human beings to cater to her. And my dad has finally been trained:

He brought me a yarn souvenir from New Mexico! Apparently he scoured Santa Fe for some fiber, since I have the new spinning wheel, but he was unable to find any, so he settled for some lovely yarn. I'm super excited to knit this stuff up. I'm thinking a hat.

Wish me luck on this marathon wedding weekend!

Guess what I did this weekend?

So, I may have mentioned that it's just me and the dog this weekend. As a result, I've had the time and the space to block some of my backlog of knitted-but-unblocked projects. This included my fabulous alpaca cowl:

Which looks a lot better now that it's not all rolled over itself. I also blocked the Haruni that I made over the summer, because I was unsatisfied by my first one:

Lovely, no? And the right size. I love it. It's a great pattern, but I won't be making it again for a while. It's a little monotonous. Which isn't bad, when you have something else to focus on. But I like variety in my projects.

I also blocked the big chunky sweater, but I haven't found the courage to sew it up yet. So it's still hanging around. The body is still a little damp, so I have an excuse. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And now, in direct violation of a self-enforced rule, I'm going to go cast on a new shawl, because I really want to.