Licking My Wounds...

I love to knit.
Really.
It just doesn't always love me..
Abby's sweater...damn...it was moving along well, so I thought!!
That's a picture of it when I connected sleeves to body, I knit about 5 inches into the yoke, had her try it on....and freaking ouch. The damn sleeves are too tight..it's all been yanked back, yarns reballed and two sleeves and the body jammed into a basket until after Christmas. I just can't face it and knitting is supposed to be fun. :)

So I worked on my Mom's jaywalkers on cold meds. Stupid is as stupid does. Yep had to tink back over 6 rows. It's in a baggie on top of the sweater in the basket. :)

I'm licking my wounds with some 'easy' knitting which I can't seem to get my mind around. It's ridiculous, I keep having to look at the pattern. Heh.

Hopefully this crappy sinus stuff will go away and I'll be back on the (knitting) ball again

Missed TurkeyDay..

It's very odd to be sick on Thanksgiving. I managed to get the kids and husband up and dressed and EVEN did that same. We went to his Aunt's house and I thought I was going to die. So after 2 hours of chitchat I did that fade to black thing. I haven't decided if it's allergies or a cold. It started on a day we got a nasty front and it's still up in my sinuses (TMI I'm sure).

I got up today, after being up with my projectile vomiting 3 year old. (TMI again, and she doesn't have allergies...) So it's been a rough holiday weekend here in mi casa. I feel all akilter, kinda like you can't have two if you don't have one first...ie you can't have Christmas if you don't have Thanksgiving first!

Family doesn't seem to agree with me on that, so with dripping nose and achy head we put the Fall decorations away and put the tree up (no ornaments as of yet) along with a spattering of other things. The hubby and eldest put up our yard decorations. I just looked at him and said 'I don't care, just get it done'. Hehe. He could tell I felt like crap. I don't think I'm going to decorate to my normal all..maybe it will just build to a slow peak over the month!

I did some Black Friday shopping despite being sick. I really wanted a new iron since I ruined the last one when I made A's witch costume. It had glitter in the fabric and stuck to the iron bottom, plus I've always wanted a Rowenta. I sucked up and tottered off to JoAnn's and boo his they didn't have one. I'm not too bummed because if they had had one I would have had to join the queue from hell!

I came home, looked on JoAnn's website, ordered for the doorbuster price and no S/H! Whoot. There I feel good.

How were your Turkeydays? Well I hope. I'm really looking forward to this Christmas because our 900 ft addition (attic conversion) will FINALLY be done and my Mom is coming to spend 10 days with us. I'm sort of excited, but won't be until it's alllllll done. I think all the trim is in now and we are just at the paint, carpet, and finish electrical (put the sockets in, the wires are there).
I'm going to have a stroke or a whole bottle of champagne the day that thing is done.!!

Hope all is well with you guys. I did major unknitting this holiday. Abby's yoke sweater was about 1 from being done on the neck and I had her try it on. It just doesn't fit. The sleeves/armpit area are too tight. The only way to make those bigger, it so rip back to the three tubes. Whee. Whee...not. I also screwed up on my mom's Jaywalkers and had to rip out about an 1 of those. I shouldn't try to knit when I'm sick!!

Why am I not surprised??

Grrr.
Hubris, which has been mentioned far more than I'd like in this blog, rears it's head again.
Things were good.
Now they are bad and I'm ignoring it. Literally. It's in a wad 0n the floor next to my chair.

The Yoke sweater was going well. The arms and body were connected, colorwork was planned and begun and knit knit knit. I'm about 2 inches shy of finishing, but I could feel it in my gut the darn things wasn't going to fit right. I put all the stitches onto a cotton strand and had my daughter try it on. The arms in the shoulder area are tight. The area before the colorwork and right after you join body and arms. UGH.

What does that mean? All the colorwork needs to go bye bye and I need to unjoin the body/arms to expand the top of both.

It's doable and I want a sweater my daughter will wear, so I'll get around to it, but DAMN it irks the hell out of me!! :D

So mom's jaywalker for Christmas is chugging along quickly..which is good...right???

Smokin Needles

Ok, so I'm not really smoking needles, but rather my needles are smokin because they are being used so much. I felt that was worthy of clarifying!

I'm finally knitting my first Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater. I've been a long time fan of hers, but just haven't made anything. I've started a Seamless Yoke from the Knitting without Tears book. It uses the EZ percentage system which is painless. The sweater is going to be for my oldest who is 7 so it's is knitting up ridiculously fast. The yarn is the workhorse Cascade 220 on 7's.


I had a couple of skeins of Cascade in my stash and Abby liked them. She helped pick out which would be the main color and added a few to the accent colors. I love knitting this color. It's Quatro in an apple green. I never would have chosen this for the main color, I would have gone with the more sedate periwinkle we have. But this is awesome! And now she's invested in the sweater and excited about it's progress.

I'm not planning on doing the whole 'knit like a maniac' thing for Christmas. If I have time and inclination I might do a few washcloths or dishrags, but I'm not going to stress over it. The only item on the Official Christmas List is another pair of socks for my Mom. I bought the yarn specifically for her at Stitches East. It's Socks That Rock Silkie in Midsummer Night. It's lovely reminding me of denim. I cast on for a pair of Jaywalkers. The pattern goes really well with the Silkie.


I can really tell it's the cooler months of the year. This past summer I feel like I didn't get much done, but now it's the knitting time of the year. :)

Brrrr November

Grey gray whatever..that's what it is outside! It may put a damper on outdoor activities and cause a bunch of chapped lips because the heat is running inside, but damn it seems to put the fire under my knitting!!

Here is the FO of Fetchings. These were what the rest of the Blogsphere has been raving about, fun, easy and rewarding to knit.



Specs:
Pattern:
Fetching from Knitty.com
Yarn: Sublime Ultra Fine Merino DK
Needles: size 7s
Started: November 2007
Finished: November 11, 2007

I was terrified I wasn't going to have enough yarn. This is ALL I had left. Seriously!!


I didn't properly write up the Waffle socks, so here goes!


Specs:
Pattern:
Waffle Pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Trekking XXL
Needles: size 1s
Started: April 1, 2007!!!
Finished: November 7, 2007

I need to take a close up of the arches. My DH's has very high arches so I did a band of slip stitches on the sole of the arch. It helps keep them nice and snug on his foot and give him a feeling of support. He likes them, so all is good! Just need to add a the reinforcing elastic to keep the cuff from sagging.

Onward and upward! I've been wanting to tackle an EZ seamless yoke for awhile now. I also wanted to knit a sweater for my oldest daughter, so I went stash diving and came up with some fun colors in Cascade 220. After my success with my Perfect Sweater I know this will knit up just right. Luckily the daughter loved the colors and helped me lay them out. I went and bought 2 more skeins of the main color, the lime quatro.


I cast on last night and already have 2 inches on the body. Gotta love knitting a kid sweater!!

Hmm I think that's all for now! Gotta go knit on that so I can get to the colorwork. :)

More Volunteers

Yay! My color cards for the Knit Picks Wool of the Andes came. I ordered both the solids and the heathers. It's like insta-crack. All those colors, all the possiblities for projects..and so cheap, wait, I mean economical!

I finally *drumroll* finished the DH's socks! Yay yay!


He wore them to work the other day and they sagged a bit, so I need to go buy some reinforcement elastic. That will hopefully take care of that.

I've finished one of my Fetchings, in the amazing Sublime yarn. I want a bed made out of this, so I can roll around in it. It is so sproingy! And perfect for cables since there really isn't any halo. (By the way I do have normal fingers, not stubby weird ones! My nails are just a mess so I bent my fingers under.)


I need to finish off the other one and cast on for A's seamless yoke sweater as well as my Mom's second pair of socks. I think I'll be doing Jaywalkers again. It is such a great pattern. (Note on the photo. I DO have full fingers, not stubby weird ones ..I just bent my fingers under because my nails are a mess!)

As for the Volunteers that hopped a ride with my Knit Pick colorcards, here they are!
It's two skeins of their Essential in Fawn. I was surprised at the feel of this yarn, I really like it. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but it'll be a textured or cabled pair of socks since it's a solid yarn.

I'm so happy to have the stupid freaking socks done. Whew. I'm a bit between a project knitter and a process knitter. I love to knit. I can't stand to be sitting in my chair without something for my hands to do, but damn it's so nice to finish a project!!

Yarn calls to yarn...

I think most people have heard the saying 'Like calls to like'. Well I'm convinced that yarn has that same type of ability.
I was being so good, trying to destash and whittle down on the UFOs. I honestly didn't want more yarn. Nope, yarn is lovely to visit, but it starts to feel like a burden, just sitting there wanting to be held, caressed and knit. I'm not a fast knitter and I'm not one to have a million things on the needles at once. So my yarn is pretty much in a long line to be used. Now granted two of the following aquisitions are from the Rockin Sock Club so I don't think they count. One, they are sock yarn, and well everyone knows it jut doesn't count against stash. And two, they were paid for last December as a gift for me. But regardless, they are calling to new friends, which just seem to creep into the stash without me being aware.



This was my sole purchase from the Wisconsin Wool and Fiber Festival this past August. I've wanted to try out briar rose for some time. Their colors are breathtaking. This is their superwash sportweight in the grandma's blessing colorway. It's perfect for this time of year. I hope to make it into one of Cat Bordi's new sock pathways.

Next is the Flower Power colorway from the August Rockin Sock Club.


This one makes me sad. I hate it. As in despise beyond all belief. If I look at every color individually I don't mind it. But together..the blue grates on me. So this will be earmarked for selling next year...or maybe for a chevron scarf for a gift.

This was a volunteeer kind of...

I want to make the Equinox Pullover from the Fall 2006 Interweave in one of the Knit Picks yarns so I ordered a Color Card. I can't pay more for shipping than the stupid item costs! Luckily this Alpaca cloud said he'd come home with me. It's earmarked for a lacy scarf one of these days.

Ah the October Shipment of Rockin Sock Club. *drool*



How can this not speak to the inner Goth in us all?? It's so dreary and rich and complex. Yum. You'll pry this one from my cold dead hands ;) I can't wait to see the rest of the Raven Series that is going up on the Blue Moon Fiber Arts site on Monday. Not that I need MORE yarn, nope..I'm just going to look. (famous last words)

I desperately want a pair of Fetchings or some sort of fingerless mitt. I read on Crimson Purl's blog about how much her Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran was piling so I didn't want to use it. What's a girl to do? Go to her LYS of course. I only purchased ONE ball, and with a particular item in mind...so it's really not stash enhancement, no it's a future project. See the distinction? Isn't being able to rationalize such a gift?

I found this Sublime and OMG it's amazing. It's so soft and sproingy. I can't wait to see how it knits up. The reviews on Ravelry for this yarn are very positive, so I'm sure it won't be a trainwreck! Here's a link to a site that sells it.

So here's the whole lovely pile of yarn I wasn't going to buy, didn't need and love all the same!


Tucked under all that fiber is my current project. I'm plugging along on the DH's socks. I'm working on the heel flap on the second sock. I'm can't wait to be done with these. They've sat in the workbasket far too long.


I think the mitts will be next in line. I've also ordered a different colorcard from Knit Picks..and yes it's coming with some volunteers as well. *sigh* I'll snap a picture of that when it comes. :)